I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 22. The first part of my report on the festival can be found at this link.

And now onto Part 2.

Anne Rice in Conversation with Scott Timberg

After the mornings panels described in part 1 of my report, we stopped at the food trucks for lunch, which took longer than we expected due to long lines. We ended up hoofing it to the darkened Bovard Auditorium where Anne Rice and Scott Timberg sat on stage discussing various aspects of her writing and her career.

Rice needs no introduction but I will include her festival guide bio anyway:

Anne Rice is the author of 31 books, including “Interview with the Vampire” “The Witching Hour” and “The Wolf Gift,” her latest. She lives in Palm Desert.

As for Scott Timberg:

Timberg is a former L.A. Times arts and culture writer, sometime New York Times and GQ contributor, the coeditor of “The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles” and an enthusiast of film, wine, indie rock, retro culture, arctop guitars and California history.

As we walked in, Rice was finishing up talking about her latest novel, The Wolf Gift. We missed much of that topic but came in time to hear Timberg ask her about why she was drawn to writing about the supernatural.

Rice replied that she was not interested in characters unless they have a conscience and moral concerns. She said she tried to write realism and it was only when she started writing about vampires that she was able to connect with that mattered to her. Themes like the Catholic Church and fear of death were subjects she could approach with vampire characters. A lot of genre and speculative writers say they had a similar experience, Rice said.

Timberg asked Rice if she had a difficult time with selling or marketing Interview with a Vampire due to its supernatural aspect. Rice said that Knopf put a lot of stock in originality and a fresh voice so Interview sold for publication easily but the bigger problem was going against the bias of reviewers. The book got bad reviews in the major media outlets and good reviews in other places.

Interview with a Vampire was originally a flop as a hardcover and what saved it was the commitment on the part of its paperback publisher to print many copies. The number of copies printed kept it alive and it became an underground hit. The good reviews in smaller outlets helped save it as well, and so did the gay community, who saw the book as a gay allegory.

Rice said she was stunned when Interview with a Vampire didn’t get taken seriously. Now it’s easier to get original fiction with fantasy elements taken seriously than it was back then.

Timberg asked about Rice’s childhood in New Orleans and Rice said her mother would make up stories when she was a child (she described an eerie, imaginative story her mother told her as a child). Her mother was also familiar with the life stories of real people which she told to Rice, and she would tell her the plots of movies like The Count of Monte Cristo blow by blow. She told her the stories of the Bronte sisters, and they had books by Dickens at their house.

She also grew up listening to the radio and in those days, the radio was full of stories and soap operas, as well as radio shows like The Lone Ranger, Superman, and storytelling shows. There was so much on the radio.

Rice said that in New Orleans you couldn’t grow up without meeting people who were Catholic and/or had gone to Catholic school. Catholicism and its rituals, music, and art such as stained glass windows had a profound effect on her.

Her love of history also came from church, from stories about saints from earlier centuries, and there were priests and nuns at her church who came from Europe, so she learned about other times and places and became fascinated with them in this way.

Timberg asked why Rice’s erotica had to be written under a different name, and Rice replied that “Putting a fake name on it just freed me to write total pornography.” This got some laughs from the audience.

“I saw myself as writing authentic pornography,” Rice said. She was tired of flipping through books to find the sexy parts and wanted a book where these were on every page. “I thought people wanted to read stories of dominance and submission and if I could just write the Disneyland of S&M they’d be happy.”

Rice’s editor at Knopf was not interested in the project and her agent also thought it would not sell well and tried to encourage her to write something else. But her editor recommended the editor at another publishing house who was interested and did publish it.

Rice eventually claimed the Sleeping Beauty books but first, she told her father she had written them so that he wouldn’t hear about it from someone else, and asked him not to read her erotica.

Timberg asked her about her Facebook page and her contact with readers. Rice said that contact with readers is very good for her – she loves hearing from readers even if their responses to the books are mixed.

As the signings for her books got bigger and bigger, she got to meet a lot of her readers in person and she enjoyed it. For a while she had a phone line readers could call to leave messages for her. She would reply to those messages on her website. She had a website early on thanks to her tech savvy cousins.

Her current Facebook page has 600,000 people on it and she asks her fans for recommendations of movies, books, television and music. When something is troubling her, she asks them about it and gets a thousand comments within a few days which she prints out and reads, or sometimes reads on the screen.

Timberg asked Rice about her political views which she frequently discusses on her Facebook page. “What is going on in the world of politics that interests you or troubles you?” Rice said that she posts links to Nick Kristof’s columns at The New York Times — he is a hero of hers because he goes into famine stricken countries to report. She also likes Maureen Dowd and Fareed Zakaria.

Rice said she wants to see health care reform happen in this country. Early on she worked as a health insurance examiner and she never forgot the way insurance works – how they try to get out of paying people for claims. It troubles her.

She said sometimes people try to shut down her Facebook page because they don’t agree with her political views.

Timberg then said, “You’re interested in women’s issues like reproductive rights and human trafficking, I don’t know what you call that–” and Rice said, “Social justice.” The audience applauded.

Rice then said that she understands the passion on both sides of the abortion issue but she is very disturbed by the attacks on those she sees as the most vulnerable people in the debate – pregnant women. There has recently been a lot of low level legislation that makes it hard for women to get information about contraception, and she feels the attacks on Planned Parenthood are “unconscionable.”

She added that she hasn’t been able to write about this in her novels so she posts about it a lot on her Facebook page. Another issue that worries her is the kids who are abused in religious camps.

Timberg asked Rice about the sense of place in her novels and she said that she thrives on change, moving and trying new places – things like flowers, yards, and trees mean a lot to her. She finds Palm Desert, where she now lives, very beautiful.

Where she is always creeps into her fiction. Interview with a Vampire started in San Francisco where she was living at the time. The opening scene is set on Divisadero Street and she still remembers how she got the idea for the book. She had just been to a radio interview – her husband had been interviewed – and she saw an old Victorian house on Divisadero Street and started thinking “What if a radio interviewer was interviewing a vampire here?”

She added that she loves writing lush books where place is almost a character.

Timberg said that unlike the era of writing realism in which Rice was first published, today’s era is the era of Harry Potter, Twilight, Young Adult fantasy and dystopian novels, and Deborah Harkness. He asked Rice if she feels she played a role in bringing about this change.

“I don’t know if I played a role,” Rice said. “I think a time came when people were just hungry for it.” She related her first experience of seeing Star Wars at a convention in the seventies before the movie came out, and how wonderful the movie was. She said that Star Wars had been turned down by every studio but the people who worked on it made the movie they wanted to see and people loved it.

Superman with Christopher Reeve was made soon afterward and it got into Superman’s backstory. People wanted that, and they wanted the vampire’s backstory.

Rice: “I don’t know how much of a role I played. I think I was responding like everyone else.”

Timberg: “You had the same hunger readers had?”

Rice: “Yes.”

Timberg asked “What’s next for Anne Rice?” and Rice replied “I want to write more supernatural monsters and write more classic horror. I keep coming back to classic horror.”

She added that she wants to develop The Wolf Gift into a series. She loved writing the vampires but the problem is that she’s writing in a world she developed twenty years ago. She wants a new playground now.

Next up in Part 3 of my report on the festival, “Fiction: Love, Actually” (a romance panel!) and “Young Adult: Future Tense” (dystopian and futuristic YA).

No related posts.

I passed this book over several times on NetGalley because the blurb seemed to imply a two girl one guy menage.  I am not usually a fan of those but curiosity got the better of me. I figured that access to a free copy should be utilized to try books that I might not otherwise take a chance on if I had to spend the money.  This book, however, isn’t a romance.  If anything it is a horror book with sex and since I have never reviewed a horror book and read even fewer, I don’t know whether this is a good horror book or a bad one.  From a romance reader’s point of view, it was a bizarre story with a cliffhanger ending and a sad depiction of women.  Perhaps the next book, the women rise up? I don’t know.

It’s hard to review this book because much of the details are surprise so I’m going to be intentionally vague.  There are three main characters in this story with two important secondary characters.  Anna Rice falls for a charming and wealthy man, John Stone.  She becomes completely under his control. She quits her job. She acquiesces to his sexual demands but she is very happy.  She is even happier when she becomes pregnant.  In some ways, I wondered if this was supposed to be a satire of Harlequin Presents or, at least, a pointed jab.

Mimi Leblanc is billed as Anna’s best friend but she doesn’t really act like it.  While she questions Anna’s near instant devotion to John, particularly when John makes noises that he’d like to add Mimi to his harem of women, Mimi succumbs to John’s advances as well.

I think the problem that I had was the quickness in which everything took place. Anna falls for John immediately and is swiftly captured by him, moving in with him and then marrying him.  Mimi puts up only a token resistance and perhaps her weak resistance can be blamed on something out of her control; yet, because the women were so weak in this story, such easy prey, it lacked power in the telling.  Perhaps if there was more time between Mimi trying to protect Anna and Mimi wrestling her clothes off, I would have sympathized more.

John is no hero.  If anything he is villainous. (Is this a spoiler? I don’t even know!)  He intends to use both women for a nefarious purpose yet, even knowing this, they both seem to love him.  Mimi’s is a reluctant love, however.

I don’t know much more to say other than I don’t really understand the point of the story.  Was it that all really hot, rich men are evil?  Was it that women are nothing but vessels?  I felt sad and confused by the story but I wasn’t really scared. I was horrified at the women and perhaps that was the point? That women in harlequin presents romances are nothing more than spineless wimps whose sole purpose is to be the fruit bearing wombs for men?

C-

Best regards,

Jane

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo

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When I looked ahead on the October calendar and saw that this last Friday would be the day before Halloween, I realized I needed some kind of horror film or monster film or, well you get the picture, to tie in with it. But since that genre isn’t something I normally watch and I wanted some romance in the film, I was a bit panicked. “What can I watch?” I muttered as I chewed a fingernail. A quick check of my Netflix queue and the day is saved. I’ll watch “Shaun of the Dead!” I said.

The plot is fairly simple. Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a 29 year old appliance salesman who’s having problems with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) who is dissatisfied with their relationship, primarily because it revolves around going to “The Winchester,” Shaun’s favorite pub, every night. She wants something different, a nice dinner at a nice restaurant somewhere other than the pub. But Shaun screws even that up and tops it off by giving her flowers, complete with card, that he’d bought for his mother. She dumps him and Shaun and one of his flatmates, Ed (Nick Frost), head to the pub to drown Shaun’s sorrows.

The next day, something weird seems to be going on in the streets of London. At first they’re almost deserted, though Shaun barely notices anything different until he and Ed see a young woman in their small flat garden. They eventually realize she’s a zombie then retreat inside where the telly news announcer informs London that zombies are taking over the country and the only way to kill them is to remove their heads or destroy their brains. Armed with this knowledge and some weapons improvised from the garden shed, they dispatch her and another zombie. Worried about Shaun’s mother (Penelope Wilton), Liz and whether or not they’ll have to kill Phillip (Bill Nighy), Shaun’s stepfather who’s apparently been bitten by one of the undead, the two devise a plan to pick everyone up and drive to the Winchester where they think they’ll be safe.

But with the numbers of the undead flesh eating zombies growing, is there anywhere in London that’s safe?

As I said, I don’t watch horror films beyond the occasional “Hammer” film so a lot of the delicious homages to the film genre passed right over my head. But don’t worry, you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy this film. Pegg and his co-writer Edgar Wright, who also directed the film, also include a number of other homages to British TV shows and video games. Again, if you catch these it’s great but you certainly don’t need to know all the references to have fun with the movie. I had a great time picking out various actors and trying to remember where I’d seen them (It’s “Dawn” from “The Office!”).

The gore is fairly low key and generally consists of face paint and off screen deaths until the final scenes at the Winchester. Here, with Shaun and the others using the namesake rifle from over the pub bar, things get bloodier. The death of one of their number who gets dragged outside by the zombies is fairly graphic but it’s over quickly. In the storyboard “Plot Holes,” which are part of the DVD extras, we learn that another person actually survives being hauled amongst the undead.

We never actually learn how the zombie apocalypse begins and the ending features a major deus ex machina, but the film is so funny and enjoyable that I don’t care. At times, such as when Shaun is battling his way to Liz’s flat, I was literally holding my sides laughing as I screamed, “It’s like whack-a-mole!” The scene in the Winchester when several of their hearty band bludgeon the zombie pub owner to the beat of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” is hilarious.

Recently, DA has received offers of a number of zombie books for review and Jane mentioned that zombies seem to be the new vampires of UF. Hopefully they’re not like these zombies or I’d have to ask, as an aghast talk show host character does in the film, “You sleep with that?!” But if you’re looking for a great film for Halloween, do check this one out. I’m off to watch it for a second time now.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – I rented this from a movie rental service though I plan to buy my own copy.

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Tremors
2. Friday Film Review: Cluny Brown
3. Friday Film Review: My Best Friend’s Wedding

No, this isn’t about Gabaldon’s opening to her epic – and then some – TT series. It’s, as many people have said, Beowulf crossed with outer space. But wait, there’s more for romance fans. It’s also got a Rothgar! I kept thinking of JB’s “waiting for Rothgar” and laughing as I watched the Viking edition. Moth recommended this film as one that “initially wouldn’t be thought of as a romance.” So true. It’s another mishmash genre film that at first doesn’t make too much sense – outer space alien crossed with Iron Age Vikings – but somehow it all works out in the end.

I’ll just present the notes I jotted down after I watched it.

I just finished this and – I’ll be honest – I’m still not sure exactly what I just watched. A cross between SF and some Iron age Viking saga. SF guy (Jim Caviezel) crash lands on Earth. SF guy crawls out of his wrecked space ship before it sinks in a lake then passes out and awakes to find his friend dead. SF guy heads off and discovers a ravaged village then gets captured and beaten up while being questioned. Lots of getting beaten up in this movie. Viking babe (Sophia Myles) helps wash up SF guy after “questioning.” He escapes. Village where SF guy is being held gets attacked. SF guy is caught (again) and blamed all over the place but gets the King (John Hurt) to listen to him when he says that he didn’t do this. They all head off after the “bear” that Vikings now think did this. And guess what? They kill a bear. A bear of bears but…SF guy knows the real ravager is still out there. SF guy and Viking babe exchange lots of looks. The survivors (Ron Perlman) of the first ravaged village show up looking for revenge and are attacked by a beastie. All witness this and realize, hey, SF guy is right. It’s not a bear…it’s a … well, WTF is that?

It’s one mean muthafucka, glow in the dark, agile, armor plated beastie, that’s what. SF guy knows what it’s capable of and basically tells villagers that “we need a bigger boat.” SF guy and Viking babe share quiet, introspective moment when he tells her about how his people took over the beastie’s planet and it all ended horribly when his people were killed. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the beastie? Dunno but the action moves back to hunting it. Villagers rig trap, lure beastie to it, set it on fire and – whoa, party time! We killed it. Whoo-hoo! Only… they merely flame broiled it because…..it ain’t dead and it’s brought along a friend. Now where’d that come from? Dunno that either but now it’s double your fun.

SF guy dives for his crashed ship, loses Viking babe then heads back to village with Viking guy (Jack Huston). They build a bigger boa – um, I mean forge better swords and head out hunting. Only they dive down the village well into…caverns, or something. Lots of dead people down there. Or body parts of dead people. Only are they all dead? Hell no. Viking babe is being terrorized by beastie then…. violent stuff happens. And people die. And beasties are killed. Okay so that’s a spoiler but what did you think would happen? So…does SF guy stay with Vikings or phone home for pick up? The movie does have some romance so you decide if you haven’t seen it.

Did I like it? Actually, somewhat.

Did I understand it? Um, sorta. I got lost in the cavern part – no pun intended.

Caviezel and the main Viking dude, Jack Huston, are some serious eye candy. The other Viking guys aren’t bad either but most of ‘em end up dead.

Sophia Myles is cute and feisty and starts off wearing a darling little leather skirted number as she and her father sword fight. Thankfully she loses that – um – interesting getup fairly quickly and spends the rest of the movie in a period dress.

For a man from an advanced civilization, Caviezel doesn’t seem to have many special powers or anything to help keep him from being slapped around. Even his method of learning the local lingo looked painful – and nauseating. Good thing he learns a swear word straight off the bat. It’s a funny moment too.

Was it gory? Yes, but not as bad as I was thinking it might be. At first the killing is at night and we don’t see much. Later on things get more grisly but I still didn’t close my eyes or ff through it. I wouldn’t let any children see it though.

Am I glad I watched it? Sure, it was entertaining even if it was hard to follow exactly what was going on.

Is there sex or mental lusting? No sex and a little eye contact/yearning between SF dude and Viking babe.

But WTH is with the lighting? During the night scenes, you can’t see a damn thing. Was this on purpose to cover exactly what the Morwen is until later in the film? Was it to cover the lack of special effects money? Was it to simulate the fact that this is the Iron Age and no one had electricity? Did someone on the production staff just forget to turn the lights on? I don’t know but it bugged me because the creature seemed pretty cool and I wanted to see more.

There’s still lots of sword fighting and old fashioned killing. I do find it hard to believe that this beastie could have been on the SF space ship and no-freakin-one knew it. How’s that work? And I’m also not sure about the reason for telling us about how the beastie’s planet was taken over by land greedy SF people.

Caviezel does a good job underplaying his role. He doesn’t go all freaked out “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE PEOPLE! WHY WON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?!?” on them. He presents the facts of the matter, he demands to go along on the initial hunt and when the Vikings think they’ve got the beast, he lets them celebrate knowing the beast will appear again and THEN they’ll be convinced. And the convincing shot – you have to see it – when the torch is thrown towards the beast and it rears up and roars, is coolio.

Overall, it’s not a bad little movie. Interesting concept, cool creature that I wish I could have seen more of even in the early scenes when we’re still not supposed to know/see exactly what they’re up against, good actors, pretty good set/costumes and it’s not overly overdramatic/played-up. Thanks, Moth, for the rec.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Tremors
2. Friday Film Review: Near Dark (1987)
3. Friday Film Review: I Know Where I’m Going!

Hey, if Jaili can do “Slither,” I can do one too. And my entry for comedy B grade monster movie is “Tremors.” I haven’t watched any of the three sequels, and from the reviews of them I’ve read, I think the reviewers wished they hadn’t either, so my advice is stick with the original.

I first saw it shortly after its original release in 1990. A friend and I used to alternate picking movies to watch and one night her choice was “Tremors.” I have to be honest and admit that as I began to watch it my initial thoughts were, “WTF?” But my friend said “trust me” and I did. And I ended up being glad I did then purchasing the DVD a year ago.

Met Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward), two handymen in the small, isolated Nevada town of Perfection. They’re just getting by and as the film opens, we see their daily grind of mindless jobs including garbage pickup for the town and pumping out the septic tank. With escape to the big(ger) nearby town of Bixby in mind, they finally decide to head out. Only to run into the evidence of a killer on the loose. Or what they think is a killer.

Only it’s not human, or rather they’re not human. They’re what the terrified townspeople name graboids and they live underground, tracking their prey by vibrations. And as Val yells in frustration, to them the valley is just one long smorgasbord. But as the graboids get smarter about hunting and the options to flee dwindle, do the Perfectionites have a chance? Why yes, if they have a plan.

“Tremors” is sort of an homage to the B grade monster movies of the 1950s. It’s also a great buddy film with wonderful one liners and chemistry between Bacon and Ward. But wait! There’s more, as SB Sarah likes to say. There’s a romance as well between Bacon and “girl next door” Rhonda (Finn Carter) who plays a college PhD student who’s in the valley for the summer to study seismology.

We also get Michael Gross (the father in the old TV series “Family Ties” which launched Michael J. Fox to stardom) and country music star Reba McEntire, in her first acting role, who play a survivalist couple with a rec room that’s loaded for bear, or graboid as the case turns out.

Just stick with the film past the first 10 minutes during which we have the obligatory introduction of the secondary characters. By minute 15 the bodies, or what’s left of them, are piling up in Perfection. The squeamish need not worry as most of the graboid killing is done off screen or underground. What is seen is more like “Jaws,” with implied danger and terror but little actual blood beyond that of the graboids as the townspeople ingeniously come up with ways to off them.

It’s a horror film, it’s a comedy, it’s a romance. It’s everything! And, if you don’t go into it expecting a cinematic masterpiece, it’s a lot of fun too.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Cluny Brown
2. Friday Film Review: Near Dark (1987)
3. Friday Film Review: Starter for 10

Genre: Vampire (US)

Dear Kathryn Bigelow,

Not long ago, friends and I had a discussion about romantic vampire films including two current DVD releases, Twilight and Let the Right One In. I passed around my list of the most enjoyable romantic vampire films: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Let the Right One In (2008), Vampyr (1932), Love at First Bite (1979) and your film, Near Dark.

The mention of this film-and whether it could be classified as a romantic vampire film-sparked a debate among us, and it’s still raging. I’m throwing this one out here to see which side the romance readers would take.

As the story goes: our nice-guy hero Caleb Colton, a mid-western farm boy on a night out, spots and romances an attractive, coy and maddeningly mysterious blonde. He says, “I sure haven’t met any girls like you.” Mae replies, “No, you sure haven’t.”

After a drive under the starlit night sky, Caleb moves in for a sensual kiss from Mae, and receives a rather vampy bite instead. The dawn is approaching, Mae runs off leaving Caleb disoriented and confused. That’s when strange things begin.

He quickly learns Mae is meant to kill him with that vampy bite, but couldn’t go through with it. Thanks to her, instead of being truly dead, he’s part of the undead.

Mae’s gang isn’t happy, either. Jesse Hooker, a former Confederate-era war soldier and the quiet leader of his family that consists his beloved woman Diamondback, who was once a Wild West whore, and their “children”: Severen, a former Southern gentleman with a psychotic streak and Homer, a child with an even more psychotic streak. And there’s Mae, a seemingly sweet and innocuous blonde waif.

They are a family of vampires that spend decades roaming across the country in stolen vehicles, living off victims at night and sleeping in sealed motel rooms by day. Being a family is essential to their survival and they aren’t prepared to let a stranger like Caleb in. Before the gang could move in to kill Caleb, Mae protects him by saying she’ll be responsible for him. Sensing her loneliness, Jesse decides to let her have Caleb as her companion.

Meanwhile, Caleb’s widowed father, convinced that Caleb has been abducted, sets out to find him, with his young daughter Sarah in tow.

Caleb eventually loses his battle against the intensifying blood hunger and his emotional tie to his old way of life, which helps him to adapt to his new life and new family. But then one night, his real family accidentally meets his new family. Which side will he take? And what about Mae whom he’s truly fallen in love with?

When I named Near Dark as one of most enjoyable romantic vampire films, a friend said, “Near Dark? Near Dark? It’s a hybrid of horror, action, and western. It’s not romantic. None whatsoever.”

I’m sure you agree with me here, Ms. Bigelow; the main theme of Near Dark is love. Not just between our hero Caleb and his girl Mae, but also between father and son, between two villains, between a centuries-old boy vampire and a young human girl, and between the sun-baked lands of the American West and the dark romance of the European vampire lore.

Near Dark didn’t get much attention when it was theatrically released because it was the year the much hyped teen vampire film, The Lost Boys, released. The difference between Near Dark and The Lost Boys is their representations of vampirism.

Vampirism in The Lost Boys is viewed as something glamorous and a dangerous thrill ride. David the vampire gang leader (Kiefer Sutherland) from The Lost Boys is the kind our parents would warn us to stay away from, but we still won’t resist going after him and his pretty-boy vampy friends. When Michael became one of them, we could imagine him becoming like David, but only the good kind.

Near Dark, on the other hand, represents vampirism as a dirty disease that can turn you into a serial killer. None of us could spend five minutes with Severen (Bill Paxton) without wondering if we’d live or die. When Caleb became one of them, we could imagine him becoming like Severen, but could he still retain his good-guy traits? Unlikely.

And yet, in spite of the dark nature of vampirism and grittiness in Near Dark, the romance between Caleb and Mae was much more romantic and poignant than the one between Michael and Star in The Lost Boys. As I explained to friends, we sensed Caleb and Mae’s growing desperation, protectiveness and deepening feelings for each other. We didn’t get that sense from Michael and Star in The Lost Boys.

Not only that, we had some glimpses of the feelings between Jesse and Diamondback. At a glance they seemed to be a cold, ruthless couple without regard for life, but as the film progressed, we were able to see their deep feelings for their "family" and towards each other.

And there is Caleb’s father whose love and fierce protectiveness of his family that almost outweighed those of Jesse, the father of Caleb’s dark side. We don’t see this with The Lost Boys, even with that final scene of David and his "father".

There were other subtle relationship developments elsewhere, too. Homer, a psychotic boy vampire, had unexpectedly and clumsily experienced love for the first time when he met Caleb’s younger sister, Sarah. Although he obviously had plans to take her life, it eventually became clear he’d changed his mind and wanted her to be his companion. When she broke away, his reaction was rather heartbreaking. Friends thought I imagined it, which I can understand as you didn’t focus much on clarifying this unexpected turn. I felt you did try by showing the depth of Homer’s attachment to Sarah when she broke away, but it still wasn’t enough because every time I mentioned the Homer and Sarah sub-plot, I was laughed out of the room. One even said I read too many romantic novels. Feh.

Near Dark does have a rather gory long scene that takes place in an isolated bar and a couple of eye-opening scenes of how they survive, which understandably categorises the film as Horror. It’s not for anyone who can’t stand the sight of blood and violence. However, although it’s categorised as Horror Film, it’s not fast-paced nor scary. The pace and the build-up are almost leisurely. Almost character-driven, even. Actually, it’s quite hard to categorise the film, genre-wise. It’s part-Western, part-Romance, part-Action, part-Horror and part-tribute.

Near Dark might be genre defying, but I see it as a gritty romantic film that happens to have a contemporary western setting with vampirism chucked in. I’m sure a lot of romance readers would disagree with me on this. I’m willing to hear them out. Until then, Near Dark beats The Lost Boys.

I must say, how the issue of Caleb’s vampirism was resolved is a shocking cop-out. That’s one thing I didn’t like about Near Dark. Frankly, it sucks. So sucky that it could easily make a decent living as a vacuum cleaner. Hence grade B for Near Dark.

Be good, be bad & be safe,

Jaili

Near Dark trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5K-wosw0i4

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While I haven’t finished your Dante Valentine series, I enjoyed enough of what I read to seek out the first book in your new Jill Kismet series. I’ve said in the past that I do like reading about unsympathetic characters provided they’re compelling and the text doesn’t want me to believe the character’s destructive behaviors are healthy and idealized. It’s when these things diverge that I often have the more violent reactions to books, like flinging them across the room. When a character is unlikeable, I want them to face the results of their flaws. I don’t want to read about them getting pats on the head for a job well done because chances are the job was not well done and they should be facing repercussions. So having read your Dante Valentine books, I knew what to expect in this regard. Unfortunately, I also learned I have my limits.

Jill Kismet works as a hunter, taking down demons and bringing in the possessed to be exorcised. Six months ago, her mentor was betrayed and killed by his lover. She’s been trying to live up to his memory ever since, and those are big shoes to fill. Before her mentor died, Jill struck a deal with the ruling demon of the city. In exchange for letting him mark her wrist, she gets increased strength and speed. The downside is now she’s part demon, and she has to spend time with the demon once a month and expose herself to his corrupting influence.

But the past six months have left their toll. Jill is sleep-deprived, overworked, and overextended. Matters are made worse when a series of murders tear through the city. The murders are strange; they reek of demon but look like the work of a rogue shapeshifter. This is problematic because demons and shapeshifters don’t mix, so Jill has to figure out what exactly is going on because it’s nothing good.

As with the Dante Valentine books, this has a very cinematic, neo-goth noir feel to it. There are entire scenes and sequences which could have come out of a movie. Even Jill’s get-up — the leather coats, charms braided into her hair, and bullwhip — could easily have come out of a post-Crow movie. This sort of thing doesn’t bother me but I can see how people with lower tolerances would find Jill’s ability to remain silent despite the amount of jewelry braided into her hair (and I got the impression there was a lot) borderline preposterous.

While I enjoyed the plot, I had difficulty warming up to Jill as a narrator. Like I said, I’m perfectly fine with unsympathetic characters provided they’re done well. But Jill is such a broken character, and I had a hard time dredging up the energy to remain interested in her character growth. Part of me feels that her damage made her character swing so far out into unsympathetic land, I simply could not grasp her motivations. My inability to really connect with Jill’s character might also explain why this book struck me as cinematic. It was almost like I was watching someone else’s actions instead of experiencing them.

One thing I did especially like was how the gender roles in the Jill and Saul relationship were flipped. Their relationship reminds me of those movies where the jaded, world-weary killer finds a gentle, kind woman to take care of him: tending his wounds, cooking his meals, cleaning his house. That said, I really would have liked to see more of why Saul decided to settle on Jill. As a shapeshifter, there are some definite complications in his choosing her and since I had a difficult time grasping Jill, I could not understand why he’d bother. It felt like he went from snarling at her to treating her like a mate in the blink of an eye. Even though the story is told from Jill’s point of view, I needed a few more clues to fully buy the romantic subplot.

Another thing I missed was more substantial worldbuilding. I loved the worldbuilding in the Dante Valentine series and expected to see those skills at play here. Instead I got a setting I didn’t get much of a feel for and truthfully, seemed rather generic in the darker fantasy landscape. This really disappointed me. I have no idea if this is a brand new world, in which case I feel like the worldbuilding needed a little something extra to set it apart, or if it was set in the Dante Valentine world, in which case I wish there’d been more hints pointing to it.

Despite my problems with the book, I don’t regret reading it. I just wish it’d been a little more substantial and that Jill Kismet hadn’t put me off so much. C

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

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I just finished your new book Servant: The Awakening and before I expound on its virtues first let me tell you how excited I was to find out that one of my favorite erotic authors, Lori Foster, had a darker side, L.L. Foster. I even joined the Dark Muse Society – does that make me a Lori Foster addict? Maybe.

As I am a huge fan of strong male leads butting up against stronger female leads, especially one as complex as Gabrielle Cody, this book drew me in and kept me hooked. Normally a fast reader I took my time on this book making sure I understood the many facets to this woman’s personality and what past experiences have shaped her. We find out fairly quickly that the paranormal is normal for her, that her perception of herself is definitely not how others (who really look) see her, and that despite all the good she’s done she believes she is unworthy of friendship or love. Yet she wants them with the same enthusiasm as she fights them off and that makes for an interesting tug of war between Gaby and the two male characters she interacts with.

First Morty, because who doesn’t love an awestruck, if somewhat spineless, man who finds that there is a little hero inside him after all? He is friendship personified, no matter how many times Gaby physically and verbally pushes him away he dogs her every step in an effort to bask in her presence, prove himself a worthy sidekick and be there should she ever need his not so graceful heroics. Normally weak characters don’t strike me, but his was a facade that I was happy to see beneath.

Now Luther on the other hand was too hot to handle from the first touch, Gaby knew it even if she didn’t understand the nuances of the male/female dichotomy that is sexual attraction. I could feel his pain when she asked innocently for more clarification on sexual acts she witnessed and over her angry admission that the awareness of her own sexuality that he’d awakened was not a welcome addition to her already complex emotions. The way he throws her off balance is clear in how she reacts to every move he makes, every word he speaks. Her brand of antagonism is laced with attraction, worry and her strong determination not to let anyone get to close.

Add in the plot which is in no way secondary to the relationships, in fact the plot and the relationships build together in a harmonious dance that I know Gaby hasn’t quite figured out yet. Taught from early in life that her purpose as God’s henchman is a solitary job she fights against evil and personal entanglement with the same fervor. But I interpreted this book to be the foundation of a new beginning in Gaby’s life where she no longer has to shoulder that gruesome responsibility alone on her own slim shoulders.

It may take the full series of books to convince her that she just might need these two men as her support system and that three is definitely better than one when fighting evil (normal or otherwise) and I for one look forward to watching it all unfold. Write fast, please :) -Gina

Paperbacks available at Amazon and Barnes & Nobile – eBook also available.

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Here are some suggestions for slightly spooky romantic manga for Halloween.

Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino: I enjoy this one even though in many ways it’s a very typical shoujo (girls) romance series. The very polished artwork raises it a notch above many series, and there’s something about the main characters’ love triangle that won’t let me stop reading: The pureblood vampire prince manipulating everyone within reach to bring a peace between vampires and humans for the sake of the young woman he loves; the vampire hunter, bitten and in the process of turning into a mad vampire, who can only control it by drinking the blood of his rival or his love; the young girl with the missing past, family killed by one vampire even while she was saved by another, loving both the one who saved her, and the one she has to save. There are many typical things about it, but because of the characters I cannot stop reading it. B, 15+

Beyond My Touch by Tomo Maeda: OK, this one isn’t spooky at all, but it’s the sweetest ghost romance between two boys, one who is very cold and the other who is very much in love with him. Unfortunately the one in love dies before being able to get the one thing he wanted in life, a kiss from the other, and he won’t let go of this world until he does. I can’t describe in words how sweet this story is except to say it kept making me go “Awwww.” It is, by the way, a single volume story and the only complete one on this list. B+, 13+

Blood Alone by Masayuki Takano: This is a story about love but not really a romance. Kurou is a writer whose eyes were injured when he attacked the vampire killing his sister, so that now he can see things hidden from humans. Misaki is a girl whose father was killed by that same vampire, and she was turned into a vampire at the same time, though that side of her is mostly dormant for now. Kurou and Misaki now live together, occasionally getting involved in supernatural cases, which gradually reveal that Kurou is more than meets the eye. This is an unusual English language manga for several reasons: The artwork is very subdued but beautiful (a look at the cover shows the lovely style), and appears quite Western with its block panels. It is seinen, aimed at young men, yet about love at heart. It has horror episodes, but also “slice of life” chapters, in which the only thing that develops is character. These types of manga are common in Japan, but rarely do we get to see them licensed in the US and translated to English.

Some people will be disturbed by the fact that Misaki is a young teenage girl living with an older unrelated man. She seems to have been a vampire for several years though, and Kurou obviously sees her as a substitute for his sister. Their relationship is not sexual, but Misaki does have a crush on him, and they sleep in the same bed (because she has terrifying nightmares of the vampire that only he can stop). The story is very much about her love for him, and her coming to terms with being a vampire while preserving as much of her humanity as possible through her relationship with him. And it’s a love that is allowing him to regain his humanity as well. It’s a lovely story. Also, this book from Infinity Studios is a quality presentation, and a joy to hold. A, unless the ages would bother you. 15+

Ghost Hunt by Fuyumi Ono, art by Shiho Inada: This is a strange series that can be surface read for those looking for light to medium scares, or it can be read for what is eventually found to be an intricate plot. Everything that looks like a plot hole or loose thread or gaffe, or even just catches your eye as seeming odd, is later found to be a clue as to what is really happening in this story. The story on the surface is a basic form, a group of ghost hunters with various talents go from case to case solving supernatural problems, some pretty scary, some sad, some silly, and can be read simply for that too if the reader wishes. But it’s fairly average if read that way. Note: This series is not so romantic, though there is an odd sort of romance in it; I’m just not sure if they’re going to handle it the way they did in the novels. I’ve really enjoyed this one though. It’s a personal A, though to be honest most people would find it to be a B/B+ or so (as can be seen on Amazon); it all depends on how you read it, and if you like the puzzle it presents (or are even aware of them… ). 13+

And finally, a spooky (OK downright frightening) mangaka (manga creator) to look for if you really want the pants scared off you:

Junji Ito: Ito-sensei writes in the tradition of psychological horror masters like Shirley Jackson and HP Lovecraft. His books use the fantastic and terrible to show that the real horror is within mankind. He is responsible for stories like: Tomie (within the Museum of Terror collection), in which a young woman causes every man she encounters to become obsessed with her and dismember her, but because she’s not human she keeps coming back to life; and Uzumaki, in which a town slowly goes mad in the presence of strange spirals which start appearing everywhere. I have to be honest and say I couldn’t finish either of these two because they disturbed me so much, I mean they seriously creeped me out. He’s a master (and these books are not for kids, except maybe teens 16 and up).

There are many other series out there you might enjoy, from the really disturbing Parasyte, to the ultraviolent vampires in Hellsing and Blood+, to the supernatural thriller Death Note, to the Gothic Victorian horror of the Cain Saga/Godchild, to the incredibly eerie yet beautiful Mushishi, to the snarky horror of a pissed off Chinese nature god, Petshop of Horrors, to the downright silly romantic comedy about a guy who’s a werewoman, Full Moon Ni Sasayaite. I could go on about each one of those, but then this would take up the entire page and the Ja(y)nes might throw me down a well, and the next thing you know I’d be crawling out of your televisions, and none of us really wants that especially since I can barely fit my jeans much less a 13 inch screen (and if that double dose of horror doesn’t sound familiar, you may want to try The Ring).

Have a spooky Halloween!

Sincerely,

ジェーン

(Jān)

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