A Girl Can Never have Too Many Book Tokens

Whoo-hoo, my Christmas presents arrived today. I spent the book tokens my Mum gave me.

And now I'm torn... I'm working well at the moment and I don't want to get sidetracked... besides which I've got Demon and the City by mevennen on my bedside table and though I've barely started it I've read enough to know I'm really looking forward to reading the rest.

But these new books are so tempting... and I have been known to read books simultaneously...

So what did I get? Well the big one was 'Miles in Love' the most recent Miles Vorkosigan omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm catching up with all her Miles books very belatedly via the omnibus editions, reading in chronological order, and thoroughly enjoying the antics of the little admiral. I didn't expect to like Miles, but it's impossible not to. He sometimes reminds me of my son. If something's impossible, get someone else to do it for you.

And then... True Colors by Karen Traviss, a Star Wars Republic Commando book. Why get so excited about a media tie-in? They're all potboilers aren't they? No they are blooming well not! I admit I might never have bought the first Republic Commando book if I hadn't known Karen from Milford and already trusted her writing, but I'm enormously glad I did. The series was designed to back up the computer game, Hard Contact, set in Lucas' Star Wars Universe around the time of Geonosis (dealt with in the middle one of the new trilogy of movies which goes without saying wasn't a patch on the original trilogy). The protagonists are an elite troop of clone warriors, all with the same face and same voice. Within the first page of the first novel, Karen turns these Star Wars Extruded Products into real characters and makes them entirely her own. Set within the SW framework, but about as far removed from the Luke, Han, Leia story arc as you can get, Karen takes a series of books designed to be read by twelve year old boys and upwards and starts asking hard questions about the ethics of cloning, human rights, and self-determination. And into all that she weaves a cracking good story which has ongoing consequences for all the clone soldiers, destined to age and die quickly when their usefulness as fighting machines is over. It looks like the new book might begin to address that last little problem.

And the third? I confess shameless self interest. It's an anthology which I have a story in, bought and paid for at the end of 2006 but only just published. Mystery Date, edited by Denise Little and published by DAW contains The Urbane Fox, by Jacey Bedford - that's me. It's a story of sewing, romance and shapeshifting. I actually got an invite to submit a story for this. The brief was: a story about a first date where something magical, mysterious or strange happens; word limit: 6,000. While it might not have been my first choice of story matter when the idea was presented, once I got the urban fox/urbane fox idea it just grew. And they say write what you know... I might never have gone running with the foxes but I did used to design and sew for a living. Anyway, it's always great to see yourself on on amazon, even as part of an anthology.

A Girl Can Never have Too Many Book Tokens

Whoo-hoo, my Christmas presents arrived today. I spent the book tokens my Mum gave me.

And now I'm torn... I'm working well at the moment and I don't want to get sidetracked... besides which I've got Demon and the City by mevennen on my bedside table and though I've barely started it I've read enough to know I'm really looking forward to reading the rest.

But these new books are so tempting... and I have been known to read books simultaneously...

So what did I get? Well the big one was 'Miles in Love' the most recent Miles Vorkosigan omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm catching up with all her Miles books very belatedly via the omnibus editions, reading in chronological order, and thoroughly enjoying the antics of the little admiral. I didn't expect to like Miles, but it's impossible not to. He sometimes reminds me of my son. If something's impossible, get someone else to do it for you.

And then... True Colors by Karen Traviss, a Star Wars Republic Commando book. Why get so excited about a media tie-in? They're all potboilers aren't they? No they are blooming well not! I admit I might never have bought the first Republic Commando book if I hadn't known Karen from Milford and already trusted her writing, but I'm enormously glad I did. The series was designed to back up the computer game, Hard Contact, set in Lucas' Star Wars Universe around the time of Geonosis (dealt with in the middle one of the new trilogy of movies which goes without saying wasn't a patch on the original trilogy). The protagonists are an elite troop of clone warriors, all with the same face and same voice. Within the first page of the first novel, Karen turns these Star Wars Extruded Products into real characters and makes them entirely her own. Set within the SW framework, but about as far removed from the Luke, Han, Leia story arc as you can get, Karen takes a series of books designed to be read by twelve year old boys and upwards and starts asking hard questions about the ethics of cloning, human rights, and self-determination. And into all that she weaves a cracking good story which has ongoing consequences for all the clone soldiers, destined to age and die quickly when their usefulness as fighting machines is over. It looks like the new book might begin to address that last little problem.

And the third? I confess shameless self interest. It's an anthology which I have a story in, bought and paid for at the end of 2006 but only just published. Mystery Date, edited by Denise Little and published by DAW contains The Urbane Fox, by Jacey Bedford - that's me. It's a story of sewing, romance and shapeshifting. I actually got an invite to submit a story for this. The brief was: a story about a first date where something magical, mysterious or strange happens; word limit: 6,000. While it might not have been my first choice of story matter when the idea was presented, once I got the urban fox/urbane fox idea it just grew. And they say write what you know... I might never have gone running with the foxes but I did used to design and sew for a living. Anyway, it's always great to see yourself on on amazon, even as part of an anthology.