Book Review: GONE by Michael Grant

WARNING: This week’s book is actually edgy YA and it is filled with adult content. It is absolutely not appropriate for younger readers and adults should view it as the equivalent of an ‘R’ rated movie, which makes it awesome. If the reader in question can handle Ashfall by Mike Mullin, they'll be at home with Gone.

First Paragraph(s): ONE MINUTE THE teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. 
There. 
Gone. 
No “poof.” No flash of light. No explosion. 
Sam Temple was sitting in third-period history class staring blankly at the blackboard, but far away in his head. In his head he was down at the beach, he and Quinn. Down at the beach with their boards, yelling, bracing for that first plunge into cold Pacific water. 
For a moment he thought he had imagined it, the teacher disappearing. For a moment he thought he’d slipped into a daydream. 
Sam turned to Mary Terrafino, who sat just to his left. “You saw that, right?”

This will be our last book of the year, Esteemed Reader, as we'll have Michael Grant here on Wednesday to face the 7 Questions, and that's a heck of a way to close out 2017. After that, the blog will be quiet through the holidays and I'll holler at you on January 1st with my usual year-in-review post and we'll keep this middle grade blog going into 2018 and beyond as long as y'all keep showing up every week.

So this week's book is my newest obsession. Esteemed Reader, if you haven't read Gone, skip this review and just read it, and then it will be your obsession as well. I'm already tearing my way through its second sequel, Lies, and the seventh in the series, Monster, was just released in October. Part of the reason I'm not writing any more reviews in December is because I'm going to finish this series and I don't want other books getting in the way:)

I'm kicking myself for not reading Gone sooner, but in a way I'm grateful I didn't because now I get to binge read the whole series at once instead of having to wait like the suckers did:) I've read Mr. Grant's middle grade work previous, such as The Magnificent 12, which I reviewed here, and The Animorphs, which he wrote with friend of the blog (and his wife) Katherine Applegate. I was expecting more of the same with Gone, which would've been great, but what I got was something that caught me totally by surprise by how deeply Michael Grant instantly hooked me and has kept me reading.

It's so amazing that Stephen King blurbed this series because I would've classified it as Stephen King for the YA crowd (although, technically speaking, The Body and arguably It—depending on how cool the librarian recommending teen reads is—are Stephen King for the YA crowd). And you regular Esteemed Readers know how much I love my Stephen King (I've also written Stephen King-ish for the YA crowd). There's even a national park in the fictional universe of Gone called Stefano Rey, which is Spanish for Stephen King.

The language employed in Gone is nowhere near as foul as in a King novel, but otherwise this is a long story (581 pages depending on your edition) with an over-the-top Twilight Zone premise that's periodically very dark and inhabited by fully realized characters. Also, like King, Grant is playing for keeps:

She smelled something foul. Sickly sweet and foul. 
She looked at her shattered right arm. The flesh, especially the taut, stretched flesh that barely contained her shattered arm bones, was dark, black edging toward green. The smell was awful. 
Lana took several deep breaths, shaky, fighting the upsurge of terror. She’d heard of gangrene. It was what happened when flesh died or circulation was cut off. Her arm was dying. The smell was the odor of rotting human flesh. 
A vulture fluttered to a landing just a few feet away. It stared at her with beady eyes and bobbed its featherless neck. The vulture knew that smell, too.

To fully describe the plot of Gone would probably take up the entire review, but the short short version is that it's Under the Dome meets The Stand meets Desperation with some X-men and a whole lot of Lord of the Flies and just a dash of Saints Row IV. All of those are favorites of mine, so Gone had me from that first paragraph up above. If the short short version isn't quite clear, let me give the slightly longer version.

Don't let the length of this book intimidate you. As the opening paragraph above makes clear, this is a book that moves quickly and you'll be done with it long before you want to be. Grant starts with a sort-of/kind-of rapture in that everyone 15 and older disappears for a 20-mile radius from Perdido Beach in California. Soon, the remaining children discover that they disappear the moment they age out. That's plenty of conflict to sustain a novel:

This school was dangerous now. Scared people did scary things sometimes, even kids. Sam knew that from personal experience. Fear could be dangerous. Fear could get people hurt. And there was nothing but fear running crazy through the school.

Sam flashed on news videos he’d seen of school shootings. It had that kind of feel to it. Kids were bewildered, scared, hysterical, or hiding hysteria beneath laughter and bold displays of rowdiness.

But apparently that's just not enough conflict for Michael Grant, so he adds another layer. And what I want to draw your attention to is the way he adds it:

Astrid and Quinn thought today was the beginning, but Sam knew better. Normal life had started coming apart eight months ago. 

Rather than come right out and state his additional conflict, which is that the teens left behind in Perdido Beach, including Sam, are developing super powers and have been for some time, Grants lets the reader get there ahead of him by suggesting evidence of this before confirming it. This is a technique for suspension of disbelief I have discussed elsewhere at length, but it's ever effective to give the reader tantalizing hints that allow the reader to form a conclusion of something impossible before the writer openly states it.

And the fact that the super powers emerged prior to the disappearance of the adults deepens the mystery about just what situation our heroes have found themselves in. So are the powers related to the disappearance of the adults and the placing of the barrier? And what's the deal in Perdido Beach?

I'm not telling you what I know, but keep in mind that Grant's got more books to come, so don't expect every answer in this first story. Remember, a good mystery is created not by withholding things from the reader, but by selectively revealing things. And the mystery is a big part of what drives the story:

Maybe it was aliens and right now some creepy monsters were chasing her mother and father through the streets of Las Vegas, like in that movie, War of the Worlds. Maybe. 
Lana found that thought strangely comforting. After all, at least she wasn’t being chased by aliens in giant tripods. Maybe the wall was some kind of defense put up against the aliens. Maybe she was safe on this side of the wall.

“Maybe it was God,” Quinn said, looking up, suddenly hopeful. His eyes were red and he stared with sudden, manic energy. “It was God.” 
“Maybe,” Sam said. 
“What else could it be, right? S-so—so—so—” Quinn caught himself, choked down the panicked stutter. “So it’ll be okay.” The thought of some explanation, any explanation, no matter how weak, seemed to help. 

But even that STILL isn't enough conflict for Michael Grant. As I was trying to explain the plot to Mrs. Ninja, she was with me until I got to the part about the talking coyotes and flying snakes. Also, there's a mysterious darkness out in the woods communing with the animals, but I think some of these things are better discovered by the reader.

So that's where we'll leave the review. If you haven't read Gone, read it. It's amazing and it will keep you glued to your seat until it's done.

But you regular Esteemed Readers know that the point of these reviews is really for us to discuss the techniques a writer employs so that we can adapt them for our own stories. So let's do that now. For starters, that talk about God in the previous quote isn't an isolated incident:

“What did we do?” Quinn asked. “That’s what I don’t get. What did we do to piss God off?” 
Sam opened the refrigerator. He stared at the food there. Milk. A couple of sodas. Half of a small watermelon placed cut side down on a plate. Eggs. Apples. And lemons for his mom’s tea. The usual.
“I mean, we did something to deserve this, right?” Quinn said. “God doesn’t do things like this for no reason.” 
“I don’t think it was God,” Sam said. 
“Dude. Had to be.”

“She’s with God now,” Mary said. 
“I’m not sure there is a God in the FAYZ,” Dahra said.

That's an awful lot of God talk in Gone (said the author of The Book of David), and if you're looking to deduce the thematic concerns of the story, I'd recommend starting there. It's not heavy handed. Grant is far more concerned with terrifying the reader and driving the suspense than discussing thematic concerns at length, as he should be. But for no one to discuss religion in this rapture-like situation would be a glaring omission. And as the teens lose their faith and/or become motivated by an assumed belief, we get a metaphor for how our own beliefs both motivate and put us in conflict with each other.

Of more practical use for employment in most stories, let us examine how Grant introduces us to our main protagonist:

Sam Temple kept a lower profile. He stuck to jeans and understated T-shirts, nothing that drew attention to himself. He had spent most of his life in Perdido Beach, attending this school, and everybody knew who he was, but few people were quite sure what he was. He was a surfer who didn’t hang out with surfers. He was bright, but not a brain. He was good-looking, but not so that girls thought of him as a hottie. 
The one thing most kids knew about Sam Temple was that he was School Bus Sam. He’d earned the nickname when he was in seventh grade. The class had been on the way to a field trip when the bus driver had suffered a heart attack. They’d been driving down Highway 1. Sam had pulled the man out of his seat, steered the bus onto the shoulder of the road, brought it safely to a stop, and calmly dialed 911 on the driver’s cell phone. 
If he had hesitated for even a second, the bus would have plunged off a cliff and into the ocean. 
His picture had been in the paper.

One thing I've been stressing to the students in my fiction classes is that hero characters should be heroic. Grant right away gives us every reason to identify with Sam and to root for him. He feels out of place, belonging to no particular group and uncertain of his identity, just like, say, for example, every teenager ever. Sam is unassuming and humble, especially considering we're about to learn he can shoot light energy from his hands (which will definitely come in handy). Also, and this is very important, he has engaged in heroic activity.

Please note, however, that Grant doesn't leave Sam's characterization with this flashback incident. No sooner do things start to fall apart than Sam is in action doing heroic things that are shown, including his rushing into a burning building to save a little girl and defending another one from bullies. Both attempts end with the little girls in question dead because this is a darker story, but it's the attempts that counts:) This incident with the school bus that happened off screen is also important as it establishes Sam's credibility as a possibly heroic leader in the minds of other characters in the story.

As for this being a darker story, that's part of its appeal. Just as our old friend Mike Mullin did in Ashfall, Grant establishes credibility for his world through including grisly details. Multiple children die, and not in clean, painless ways. The world of Gone is cold and harsh, but not unrelentingly so. Grant doesn't want to bum us out completely as this isn't a historical tomb. Rather, the worst aspects of this story make the unbelievable situation seem more believable. So, in the interest of helping readers suspend disbelief, Grant shows us one of the probable consequences of everyone over the age of 15 suddenly departing the world:

Quinn hefted the hammer and swung it against the door, just below the doorknob. The wood splintered, and Quinn pushed the door back. 
The smell hit them hard. 
“Oh, man, what died in here?” Quinn said, like it was a joke. 
The joke fell flat. 
Just inside the door, on the hardwood floor lay a baby’s pacifier. The three of them stared at it. 
“No, no, no. I can’t do this,” Brooke said.

The world of Gone feels real enough while the story is progressing, which is all that matters, and it feels metaphorically real after the fact. A dead baby alone is not enough to convince the reader to suspend disbelief, though it's a good start.

One of the reasons the page count is higher is because Grant goes into so much detail about the world, all with the goal of overcoming the reader's natural suspicion of a world with talking animals and superpowers. To quote myself from a post on horror writing, "those seemingly mundane details add up, like the passes of a hypnotist's golden watch, to convince the reader the story is real and that they should be terrified."

Grant doesn't just sell us on the main characters. He takes the time to build up secondary characters and below. For example, see how he not only flushes out the third tier character of Mary (at least in this first book in the series) so that we believe in her, but how he also further convinces us of the reality of Gone's improbable situation through Mary's reaction to it. Her demonstrable belief in her reality lends some of her belief to the reader.

Mary had suffered from bulimia since she was ten. Binge eating followed by purging, again and again in a quickening cycle of diminishing returns that had left her forty pounds overweight at one point, and her teeth rough and discolored from the stomach acid.
She’d been clever enough to conceal it for a long time, but her parents had found out eventually. Then had come therapists and a special camp and when none of that really helped, medication. Speaking of which, Mary reminded herself, she needed to get the bottle from her medicine cabinet.
She was better now with the Prozac. Her eating was under control. She didn’t purge anymore. She had lost some of the extra weight. 
But why not eat now? Why not? 
The cold air of the freezer wafted over her. The ice cream, the chocolate, there it was. It wouldn’t hurt. Not just once. Not now when she was scared to death and alone and so tired. 
Just one DoveBar. 
She pulled it out of the box and with fumbling, anxious fingers tore open the wrapper. It was in her mouth in a flash, so good, so cold, the chocolate slick and greasy as it melted on her tongue. The crunch of the shell as she bit into it, the soft luscious vanilla ice cream inside. 
She ate it all. She ate like a wolf.

There are a lot of other passages I want to share with you and so much to more to discuss, but this post is long and needs to end. I'd love to talk more about Quinn and how he serves as an excellent foil to Sam. I'd also love to talk about his casual racism with Edilio, but we'll skip it, except to say that casual racism is a detail that further convinces the reader that these are real characters from our reality and not blank book heroes. I'd also like to talk more about Astrid and her relationship to Pete, her autistic brother.

Oh heck, there's time enough for that one. Astrid is a brilliant and beautiful girl who Sam has a thing for and because he's a hero and this is a fantasy story, she might just be into him as well. It's standard issue YA and it's fine. What I found more interesting about Astrid is that she is made more heroic through her shortcomings. Her little brother Pete is a lot to deal with, but she does it, not because she's a perfect person, but in spite of her desire not to have to deal with him. It's a far more realistic sibling relationship which pays off before the end of the book.

There were kid-proof knobs on the stove. 
Astrid noticed him noticing. “It’s not for me,” she said snippily. “It’s for Little Pete.” 
“I know. He’s . . .” He didn’t know the right word. 
“He’s autistic,” Astrid said, very breezy, like it was no big thing.

After he's lost for a time, our heroes find Pete once again. The following might be my favorite character beat in the whole book because it's the most effective detail at making Astrid fully three dimensional:

There, sitting on the control room floor, rocking slightly back and forth, playing a muted handheld video game, was Little Pete. 
Astrid did not run to him. She stared with what looked to Sam like something close to disappointment. She seemed almost to shrink down a little. 
But then she forced a smile and went to him.

Okay, for real, let's wrap this up. The last point I want to make is that none of this character detail or situation makes a difference without Grant's first laying a basic groundwork for his story. He gets the basics done before worrying about the awesome action sequences and monster attacks that come with the territory. We're given a main hero, a main villain  (read some one else's review to learn about Caine, I guess), they're put at odds with each other in such a way that they must do battle before the story is done, and because this is suspense, we're given a ticking clock to keep those pages turning because Sam is 14 going on 15:

“I have five days,” Sam fretted. “Five. Days. Not even a week.” 
“You don’t know that for sure.” 
“Don’t, okay? Just don’t. Don’t tell me some story about how it’s all going to be fine. It’s not going to be fine.” 
“Okay,” Astrid said. “You’re right. Somehow, age fifteen is this line, and when you reach it, you poof out.”

And that's it. Gone is fantastic novel to be enjoyed by readers of all ages without pandering to any of them. In fact, I encountered a a new word in this story I had to look up: insouciantly. If you have any desire to write YA, particularly horror or dystopian, you absolutely must read this novel. Really, if you like a good story well told, you have to read this novel.

As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Gone:

It was Astrid Ellison, known as Astrid the Genius, because she was . . . well, she was a genius.

Impossible things don’t happen. That’s what impossible means.

“You seem like a nice girl, Astrid,” Diana said. “I’ll bet you’re one of those brainy, Lisa Simpson types, all full of great ideas and worried about saving the planet or whatever. But things have changed. This isn’t your old life anymore. It’s like . . . you know what it’s like? It’s like you used to live in a really nice neighborhood, and now you live in a really tough neighborhood. You don’t look tough, Astrid.”

The sound of his own name snapped Jack out of his trance. “Yes.” 
“Come.” 
Jack fell into step behind Diana, ashamed of his instant, doglike obedience.

Lana lay in the dark in the cabin listening to the mysterious sounds of the desert outside. Something made a soft, slithery sound like a hand stroking silk.

“Sadism,” Diana said. “The enjoyment of another person’s pain.” 
Drake stretched his shark grin. “Words don’t scare me.” 
“You wouldn’t be a psychopath if they did, Drake.”

His narrow lizard eyes narrowed further.

“Where are we going?”
“How about not here?”

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

Sucker Literary Magazine Bloghop: The Writing Process

Hello there, Esteemed Reader! I'm hoping this finds you well. I know I've been away too long again, but I promise to make up what I lack in new blog posts with new books soon to be available. We've got some great books in the pipeline for review, some fantastic writer interviews, and even some upcoming literary agent interviews.

Today, however, I promised my friend and fellow YA Cannibal Shannon Lee Alexander (that's her debut novel to the left due out this fall) that I would do this blog hop thing to promote Sucker Literary. This means I had to find 3 other  authors to also go along with this and she already asked fellow cannibals Mike Mullin (read his post here) and Julia Karr (read her post here).

Well, one of the authors I asked had to drop out, but next Monday look forward to posts from our old friends Linda Benson and Ally Malinenko. We're all answering four questions about our writing process, which is fun as I love reading about other writer's processes--much easier than writing something myself:)

So, without further adeau, here we go:

1. What am I working on?

This blog post. Duh.

Also, All Right Now: A Short Zombie Story. I'm about 3-4 chapters from the end and I hope to be finished this week. I'm also polishing a final version of The And Then Story, my first MG book (actual title and cover reveal coming soon). When that's done, I'll be spending the rest of the year on The And Then Story 2.


2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My work is better. Naturally:)

My zombies are nastier and more violent than is typical for YA and I flatter myself in saying my characters are more fully realized than some. There are also a lot of laughs, though I'm not writing comedies, and a few tears. If you'd like to read more about my character development process, check out this interview I did with Jessica Lawson (read her blog hop post here). 

What set All Together Now apart was my zombie apocalypse was written from a teen's perspective. What I think will set All Right Now apart is that it's, to my knowledge, the first time someone has written Ernest Hemingway fan fiction set among zombies (how has no one else done this?).


3. Why do I write what I do?

I don't really have a good answer here, not even of the smart aleck variety. I'm quite convinced the stories I write pick me as much as I pick them. In the case of All Together Now, I became obsessed with zombies for a time (getting a little tired of them now) and I had a compulsion to write about the dead roaming a small Indiana town. 

In the case of All Right Now, I was wishing I'd left room for a sequel to ATN since readers had been kind enough to request one. The day my son was born, an idea for a second story seized me and I couldn't shake it, so I had to write it. ARN, in particular, existed already in that other place where stories come from and was just waiting for me to be ready to write it. 

I know this because ATN was structured to perfectly accommodate it even though I never planned to write a second zombie book. Without any pre-planning, the two stories (which take place concurrently) fit together intricately like pieces of a puzzle. They were meant to coexist even before I knew there was a second story.

If  this sounds kooky to you, Esteemed Reader, all I can say is that I've been writing long enough that the weird, other-worldliness of the craft writers occasionally bump into doesn't phase me much anymore. It's just part of it. I've been living in the haunted house long enough to be used to the ghost at the top of the stairs.


4. How does my writing process work?

Extremely slowly. Seriously, it's embarrassing. Every year I watch NaNoWriMo writers finish their rough draft in a month or less and curse them:) A full novel takes me 6-10 months. I'm slow and deliberate with my first drafts and I often revise before I finish. The upside is I don't have to do a great deal of rewriting my second time through.

Usually, I have an idea, I work up a "grocery list," which is what I call my very vague initial outline in which I list the major events of the story. From there I decide who my characters will be and start page one, knowing I'm likely to rewrite my first 10 pages more than any other section in the novel. I obsess over the story as I go to tease out themes and symbolism and other deep thoughts only I and my high school English teacher will ever care about.

If it's a longer work, I submit the first act to the YA Cannibals to make sure I'm on the right track, and slowly grind it out until I have the book I wanted. When it's done, I set the book aside long enough to forget it while I write something else, then I come back with fresh eyes and make my changes. From there, it goes to the cannibals again, and then my editors, and then to you, Esteemed Reader. Some meaningful changes occur after the first draft, but usually draft one is pretty close to the final draft. 

Of course, every story is different and I adjust my process accordingly.


And now, here's some bios of writers who aren't me:

Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife, mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. Math makes her break out in a sweat. Love and Other Unknown Variables is her debut novel.  She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family. You can follow her at www.wanderthewords.blogspot.com or on Twitter @shanlalexander.

Ally Malinenko, a self-proclaimed Bardolator, took her first pilgrimage to Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2009 and hasn’t been the same since. Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb is her first children's book. Her poetry book, The Wanting Bone, was published by Six Gallery Press. She blogs at allymalinenko.com. Ally lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Linda Benson is the author of the middle grade novels Finding Chance and The Horse Jar. Click here to read my review of Finding Chance, which I absolutely loved. I’m thrilled to have such a talented writer here today. In her own words, Linda Benson’s “writing tends to focus on the importance of nature and animals in the lives of children. I've realized how enriching the human-animal bond is to children (as well as adults). This is why I often write about young people and their connection to animals.” In addition to being a writer, Linda Benson has worked at a zoo feeding raw meat to lions and jaguars, written lots of country songs, worked at a race-track grooming thoroughbred racehorses, owned a saddle shop, worked as a realtor, raised spotted donkeys, and been a children’s librarian. 

Introducing The Middle Grade Ninja Newsletter

Hello there, Esteemed Reader. The blog has slowed down a bit at the moment. Sorry about that. I'm typing this with Little Ninja on my chest in the midst of revising one project, writing another, and planning a third. It would be work if I didn't love it so much. As is, writing and planning books is now what I do during the time I used to play video games.

I'm learning publishing as I go and as promised I'll share my lessons with you. Every source I've consulted assures me that to make it as an indie author I need to have a mailing list. That sounds like fun to me, so I've got one going and you can sign up right now.

The Middle Grade Ninja Newsletter will be an update about going-ons at this blog. When I secure my next big author or agent interview, I may share it through the newsletter before posting it here and I'll also send occasional information about book sales and free ebooks. I promise never to bug my subscribers more than twice a month and probably not that often. The newsletter is free if you want to sign up. I think it's going to be a good time.

My critique group the YA Cannibals has got some big things coming your way as well, including a possible podcast (still in the planning stages). Wouldn't you like to listen to Mike Mullin and I debate the proper use of the word "that?" Of course you would! Who wouldn't? And check out this amazing cover reveal for Love and Other Unknown Variables by one of my besties, YA Cannibal Shannon Lee Alexander. Isn't that a swell looking cover? It's an even better book, so you should pre-order it immediately. 

Speaking of cover reveals, I've got a new adult horror novella coming your way next week. Steven Novak's incredible cover is on display over at one of my favorite book blogs, The Bookie Monster. Head there for more details about the book and to enter her contest to win a free copy of both my newest and All Together Now. I'll be posting an afterword here next week.

Since I'm not posting Mr. Novak's cover here (yet), I wanted to share this sweet logo he made for the YA Cannibals. It looks to me like it was meant to be worn on the back of a leather jacket and next time the cannibals head to a conference, expect to see us wearing our insignia like the rough, tough gang of young adult writers we are:)  

I can't say enough about the artwork of Steven Novak. My biggest regret is that I can't write more books fast enough for him to design covers for. But he's working on a new kid-friendly cover now to be revealed sometime next month for The And Then Story. I promise, this summer, you'll know why I call myself the MIDDLE GRADE Ninja instead of the Adult Horror Ninja:)

Until then, I have so much to do and all of it is fun, fun, fun!

Book Review: SUNRISE by Mike Mullin

WARNING: This week’s book is actually edgy YA and is filled with adult content. It's absolutely not appropriate for younger readers and adults should view it as the equivalent of an ‘R’ rated movie.

First Paragraph(s): I left the farmhouse in the darkest hour of the night to make a weapon. The light from my oil lamp drew a pitiful circle of gray against the snow around my feet. Other lamps and torches shone here and there amid the ramshackle refugee encampment surrounding Uncle Paul’s farm, fading pockets of humanity in the chaotic dark. People huddled within the lights, cleaning guns and sharpening knives.
By sunrise I’d reached the dead forest behind the farm and cut a jahng bong. A staff was a ridiculous weapon for the coming fight, but it was the best I could do.

Hello there, Esteemed Reader. I know the blog has been slow and it's going to stay that way for the rest of the year. In addition to Little Ninja duties including a two-hour drive for daycare, I now have author duties. I have more books to get to readers by the end of the year and they take priority over blog posts. And every time I review a book here, I get requests to review ten more books and I hate turning writers down.

But of course I'm going to make time to review Sunrise, the final installment of Mike Mullin's Ashfall trilogy. I spent Saturday at Kids Inc bookstore here in Indianapolis and at Mike Mullin's house for the Sunrise launch party. If you read this blog, you know Mike Mullin and I are good friends and fellow members of the YA Cannibals critique group. Many of the readers of my book All Together Now were first attracted to it because of Mike Mullin's blurb. He's thanked in the back and there's a character in the story named after him (and characters named after the other Cannibals and Courtney Summers). I'm thanked in the back of Sunrise and Ashen Winter and I hope to be thanked in the back of Mullin's upcoming release as well as thanking him in the back of all my books. 

I tell you all of this upfront so we can agree I'm not an objective, impartial reviewer (not that I ever am). And it's a shame, because Sunrise really is the best book in the Ashfall trilogy. If I'd never met Mike Mullin, I'd tell you that. I spent an hour or so chatting with Mike Mullin's number one fan Saturday and he convinced me that Mike's an even better author than I thought he was. This young boy read Sunrise on a trip from Illinois to Indianapolis specifically to attend the Ashfall launch party and he was more excited about Mike's book than I've ever seen any reader for any book. If he were writing this review, he'd tell you to immediately go out and purchase your copy of Sunrise and if you haven't read Ashfall or Ashen Winter or Darla's Story yet, then both of us envy the hours of wonderful reading you have ahead of you.

But seeing as how my review can't be trusted, why don't we do this instead: I'll talk a little about the book, then we'll talk mostly about the critique process and a little about publishing. Sound like a plan? Ready, break!

It's one year after the events in Ashfall in which the Yellowstone supervolcanoe erupted and wiped out a whole lot of people as well as covered the countryside in great piles of ash. The survivors wage war on each other, naturally, and engage in all manner of nasty behaviors such as rampant cannibalism, rape, robbery, and senseless murder. Good times. And of course, like Ashfall and Ashen Winter, Sunrise is a love story. 

Since Tanglewood rolled out the revised cover for Ashfall in which two hands clasp each other, and then the cover for Ashen Winter in which the hands are separated and reaching for each other, I've been teasing Mike that the cover for Ashfall 3 should just be two bloody stumps. But the cover of Alex and Darla holding hands in front of a sunrise is also nice and quite brilliant in its own way. 

Alex and Darla have been through hell in the two books previous and things only get worse for them in Sunrise, which is what keeps those pages turning themselves, yet their very real love for each other is palpable in every paragraph. It's inspiring in the face of so much bleakness and their relationship is what invests readers in Mullin's world. The lesson for writers: you can get away with a whole lot of nasty business if you keep a warm and fuzzy center:)

So do Alex and Darla come out at the end of Sunrise happy and together, or does one of them die tragically but poignantly? Me, I'd have killed them both:) But readers will have to buy the book to find out as I'm not going to spoil Mike's incredibly satisfying conclusion to the three-and-a-half-ology fans have been waiting for. But I will say this: I got a little teary-eyed toward the end of Sunrise and so will you. 

By way of a plot summary, let us marvel at what a fine job Mike does of delivering exposition in chapter one and catching up return readers as well as giving newcomers a hope of following the story (why would you start with book three?):

The eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano had plunged Iowa and Illinois into chaos. Communications went down. Air travel ended. Roads became impassable due to the ashfall and brutal winter it triggered. Towns were on their own. And now, eleven months after the eruption, the towns of northwest Illinois had begun waging war on each other.
Almost two weeks before, a few hundred men from Stockton had attacked Warren. A short, sad battle ensued. The Warrenites lost their stored food and their homes. Many lost their lives. The survivors fled to my Uncle Paul’s farm. Mom, Darla, Alyssa, Ben, and I had arrived yesterday, finding the farm transformed into a rough refugee camp.
Today Warren’s mayor, Bob Petty, planned to lead a counterattack. The adult refugees would attempt to retake Warren and reclaim their food. Everyone was hungry. Replacing the stockpile of frozen pork stolen by the Stocktonites would be impossible. All the slaughterhouses and nearly all the farms had been shut down for months. If the counterattack failed, most of us would starve to death.
Apparently the term adults didn’t include me, despite the fact that I was sixteen.

Alex has really come into his own in Sunrise and in some ways I'm sad this is the end as I'd like to read more about him. One of my biggest notes for Mike when I wrote my critique for Ashen Winter was that Alex was frequently too passive and some of his poor choices annoyed me (the version I'm referring to isn't available as Mike sorted those and other cannibalized issues by the final draft pre-publication). In this third volume Alex is anything but passive:

Would Ed even do it? I lifted my gaze to Ed’s face. The flat look in his eyes told me yes, he would. He shrugged as if to say get on with it.
I nodded. “Do it,” I said. “Cut his throat.”
Ed’s grip tightened on the knife handle.
“W-wait,” Cliff stammered. Ed checked his cut. A thin line of blood, dark and viscous, appeared along Cliff’s neck. Two black runnels parted from the line, trickling toward Cliff’s collarbone.

Now there's an Alex I can get behind! I don't want to give away too much of the plot because if you're reading this and you haven't read Sunrise, odds are good you're going to. But Alex has come a long way in a year and in this book, he's a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully, he's the good guy.  

The way you know you're in a good critique group is you get honest feedback. The YA Cannibals can sometimes be too honest, perhaps, and it's not uncommon for one or two of our sessions per year to end in tears. I've never let them see me cry (though it's been hard a couple times) and I've never seen Mike cry, but I wouldn't have wanted to be him on the day we cannibalized the first draft of Sunrise.

Bear in mind, at the time of that critique, Mike was the only published member in the group. His first two Ashfall books sell so well he no longer has a day job and he's won multiple awards. Not for nothing, but he's kind of a big deal. It's a good critique group and more publications are forthcoming (I'll review them here, of course) and there's not a slacker among us. But Mike Mullin has been the big man on campus.

I tell you this not just because I know Mike is reading and blushing, but because I think it's worth noting that on the day we tore apart his baby, his final culmination of years of work, he took it like a professional. Mike is neither arrogant nor foolish and he knows that no matter how successful he is, the process is the process. We raked him over the coals, convinced him to drop an entire subplot (trust me, you'll never miss it), and rewrite entire long sections of the book. I wrote "boring" all over certain sections--I'm helpful that way.

Mike Mullin isn't driven by ego. He takes his success in stride and sometimes it catches me off guard when readers approach him with a sense of awe because to me he's just my friend Mike. But to readers he's a great deal more and the Ashfall books have meant a lot to a lot of people, myself included. He's taught me more about writing and the business of being a successful author by his example than just about any other one source I could name.

What he taught me in the case of Sunrise is what it means to be a professional writer. Mike didn't protest during his critique session. He took notes and put them to good use. It's not that Sunrise wasn't great from the first draft (it packs a second act surprise I love more than anything and I won't spoil it), but it wasn't perfect. Even with all the awards and success, Mike Mullin still puts his pants on one leg at a time, and he still writes a first draft, revises, gets feedback, revises again, and again, and again. He takes his medicine no different from the other cannibals and even appreciates it. I know because he said so in the acknowledgements:

I have a whole round table of literary knights in my corner: my wife, Margaret, slayer of unnecessary dialogue and prepositional phrases; Robert Kent, champion of the action scene; Lisa Fipps, warrior of word choice; Shannon Lee Alexander, chevalier of characterization; Jody Sparks, the emotional knight; and Josh Prokopy, the squire. Thank you all.

Well, check that out. I'm thanked first after the author's wife (**cabbage patches, raises the roof**). Sunrise is a family book. It feels like someone else's kid I used to babysit all grown up. I didn't raise the child, but I'm still proud, the way I feel about all the cannibal's books and the way they may feel about mine.

That's pretty much the end of the "review." I'm going to hit you with some of my favorite passages from Sunrise and of course encourage to buy your copy immediately, preferably using the link below:) And if you get a chance to see Mike Mullin in person, and as he's always on the road, you might--do it! Not only will you get to see him break a brick with his bare hand, you'll witness how an author can also be an entertainer and one-man spokesperson for his book.

But before we call it a post, I'd like to point out Sunrise's dedication:

To Peggy Tierney, for believing

Why it's our old friend, the managing editor and founder of Tanglewood Publishing. You know I'm a Peggy Tierney fan and I very much enjoyed chatting with her Saturday about publishing and rumors surrounding a possible Ashfall movie (fingers crossed). If I were going to risk being published traditionally, I'd want an advocate like Peggy in my corner.

You regular Esteemed Readers know I don't bash editors or even the traditional publishing model. I love literary agents and editors and I believe there are a lot of really smart, talented people working in publishing with a love of authors and books, which makes us natural allies.

Unfortunately, there's also a lot of sharks in suits, unfair practices, and unseemly behavior that goes on in modern publishing. I don't chronicle such things at this blog because frankly I don't have time or even that much interest. But I know a lot of writers and I've heard enough sad stories to be convinced that indie publishing is the safest route for my own work until the big five collapse into the big one. If you're interested in the sordid details of publishing, I highly recommend reading JA Konrath's remarkable (though often controversial) blog, The Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

Writers should be wary of publishers. No small number of agents have told me they spend large amounts of their days just trying to get publishers to pay their writers royalties owed. I considered linking to some recent stories of publishers behaving badly, but I don't want to confuse the point, which is this:

Whatever you may hear of other publishers, Tanglewood has done right by my friend Mike Mullin. Peggy Tierney has been there for all three books of the Ashfall trilogy and has given Mike the support all authors should expect but often don't receive from their publishers. Mike is the hardest working author I know and he's done plenty of promotion on his own, but Tanglewood has helped him build his career in a way most writers could only pray for.

When's the last time you saw an author dedicate a book, let alone the final book in a series, to their publisher? To me that's impressive and if you're a writer seeking a traditional contract, that ought to give you hope.

As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Sunrise:

As I stepped into the tiny foyer adjoining the living room, I noticed the smell. Sweat and a fecal stink blended with the stomach-turning stench of rotting wounds.

“Don’t go,” [Redacted] pleaded. “I love you.”
“I’ll never leave you,” [Redacted] said. “I love you too.”
Three hours later, she was dead.

A dark figure rose from behind a monument, and suddenly there were dozens of people popping up from every hollow, tree stump, and stone marker on the hill above us. I screamed a warning, but my voice was drowned out by the roar of incoming gunfire.

In the dark, we raced through the main floor of the house, crashing blindly into unseen furniture, looking for a staircase. Finally I spotted a dim ray of light. I ran toward it, my empty gun held at shoulder level in front of me, commando style—at least I thought it was from what I’d seen in video games.

Darla choked back a sob, and I stood, wrapping her in my arms. Pretty soon I was crying too, crying for my dead father, for my estranged mother, for the whole disaster the world had become. Somehow it felt right to let it out there, in that greenhouse, our tears watering the kale that kept us alive. Only survivors are allowed the luxury of sadness.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

Book Review: WRITING CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR DUMMIES by Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy

First Paragraph: For many, dreams of writing or illustrating a children’s book remain just that—dreams—because they soon find out that writing a really good children’s book is hard. Not only that, but actually getting a children’s book published is even harder. If you don’t know the conventions and styles, if you don’t speak the lingo, if you don’t have someone to advocate for your work, or if you or your manuscript don’t come across as professional, you’ll be hard pressed to get your manuscript read and considered, much less published. 

Today, we're discussing our first ever nonfiction book, Esteemed Reader, but it's one I think you might find useful. I certainly did and I wish this book had been available when I started writing books for children and was far closer to being a dummy than a Ninja:)

Truth be told, I put this review off a bit as I'm not quite sure how to go about it. First, the book took me a time to read. A reference book is not easily plowed through like a fiction novel (I'll be lucky if Doctor Sleep, released Tuesday, lasts me to the weekend, and I'm reading two other books simultaneously for this blog). Also, there's no narrative to discuss and picking out favorite descriptions seems to me to be missing the point:)

The book is wonderfully organized and indexed. I've been a big fan of the For Dummies books for years and I've got six of them already in my home on topics I've been interested in. Among my favorites are English Grammar For Dummies (not that you'd know it if you read this blog) and Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies, both equally useful in their own ways. I've even taken a shot at editing them as Wiley Publishing has a hub I pass every morning on my way to my day job.

If you've read a For Dummies book previously, you have a pretty good idea what to expect already and Writing Children's Books For Dummies doesn't disappoint. It gives us a concise overview of both writing a book and publishing it and features an interview with our old friend Peggy Tierney as well as cover shots of Ashfall and Ashen Winter, which made Mike Mullin happy when I told him. 

Between the interviews and the advice sprinkled throughout, this book is valuable to a hardened Ninja as well as a newbie. But much of the book is dedicated to the basics, which is as it should be. These portions may not be of interest to you, Esteemed Reader. As you're reading a blog called Middle Grade Ninja, you presumably know what middle grade is. But everyone has to start somewhere and this book is great for a new-comer. Still, whether veteran or newbie, you have to love this definition of middle grade:

Middle-grade fiction and nonfiction books are what many of us remember reading from our childhoods. These are the first books we read that were long and detailed and complex and dealt with subject matter that was much more intriguing (and potentially much more divisive) than most children’s picture books.

And if you're curious how that differs from young adult, this book's got you covered:

Young adult books fall into two main age groups: YA appropriate for children ages 12 and up, and YA for children 14 and up. While each YA novel differs from the next, we can attribute the split in age ranges most of the time to five issues: sexual intercourse, foul language, drug use, extreme physical violence, and graphic abuse. Those YA novels that overtly and unashamedly deal with these topics are usually saved for the older kids. 

If you lack the funds to attend a writer's conference, pick up a copy of this book. Better yet, read this book, then go to a conference. If you've been writing for years, you might not expect there to be anything in this book for you, but you'd be wrong. There are plenty of fresh ideas sprinkled in among the basics:

If you haven’t recently spent any time around children, why not head back to school? You could be there in an official capacity, perhaps as the coach at a community center or a nearby school, or even as a teacher at your local church or synagogue. Many volunteers give their time and expertise for altruistic reasons, and you can say you do, too, while secretly gathering material from children by hanging out with them in a way benefiting both of you.  They get an adult to oversee and guide activities, and you get to observe them on the sly, mercilessly using them for the material and ideas they contribute to your idea notebook.

If the ideas won't do it for you, surely the advice of experts will. I love this quote from an interview with book buyer Jennifer Christopher Randle: 

Middle-grade fiction has little to no illustration to support it. I always ask myself, “Can I see it?” If I can’t picture my protagonist in the story he’s starring in, then I would pass. I have a very active imagination, so if I can’t picture your world, what chance does a ten-year-old have?

I'd recommend Writing Children's Books For Dummies to anyone and I'm glad to have a copy on my shelf. Do yourself a favor, Esteemed Reader, and get your own copy. As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Writing Children's Books For Dummies:

Although we wish the world of literary agents was all fluffy bunnies, sweetness, and light, we’re here to tell you that it can sometimes be ugly. Although many children’s book agents and agencies are completely reputable, ethical, and honest, there are some whose primary goal is to devise efficient and effective ways to separate you from your hard-earned cash.

Of the many grown-ups who stand between you and your audience (children), agents and acquisitions editors or publishers are the first ones you must impress. An agent serves as the eyes and ears for the publishers and acquisitions editors—and all three are looking for the same qualities: a unique, well written, absolutely worth-the-effort, gotcha! manuscript. 

A great way to understand how children in your target age group think is to read them and then have a question-and-answer session. You can do this with children who are as young as three or four years of age, depending on how verbal they are and how accustomed they are to speaking in front of other kids (preschoolers are ideal for this kind of exercise because they love to raise their hands , give their opinions—often in great and meandering detail—and listen to themselves speak to an adult who actually cares what they have to say).

Don’t overuse the passive voice (“to be” verbs). If you want to keep your characters interesting, your plots active, and your writing strong, avoid overusing the passive voice.

According to the Association of American Publishers, children’s and young adult e-book titles surged 475.1 percent from January 2011 to January 2012, to a total of $22.6 million. Long story short, if you’ve been thinking of self publishing your own e-book, we would say that you are at the right place at just the right time.

  

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.