[Book Review] Crooked Fang

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I've featured a lot of Crooked Fang on my blog over the past few months, including a guest post from the very delicious Carrie Clevenger about turning blog serials into novels. It's now my very good honour to feature a review of the book itself! Enjoy...

Oh yay, another vampire, I hear you cry. Stop right there. Forget for a moment that Twilight ever existed, and give Crooked Fang a go. Why? Because sometimes you can almost forget that CF's hero, Xan Marcelles, is even a vampire. I prefer to think of him as a grumpy, whisky-drinking, chain-smoking bassist who's going to live for a really, really long time.

Basically, Xan lives in a bar named Pale Rider in Pinecliffe, Colorado. He does odd jobs and plays bass in his band, Crooked Fang. It's pretty clear he'd be happy with his quiet existence, not bothering anyone as long as they don't bother him, except real life has a way of intruding into his private world. If he's not dealing with abusive boyfriends or singers prone to tantrums, he's being dragged back to his old stamping ground, New Mexico, to track down an errant vampire. Yes, Xan hunts other vampires, and he's very good at it. This is not just any vampire, but rather a Nesferata, and it's an inventive touch that almost raises the possibility of racism among the vampires themselves. It's not just "humans" vs "vampires" - oh no, it's every bloodsucker for him/herself.

I followed Crooked Fang back when it was a blog serial, and I was excited to finally have a paperback copy in my hands. The gorgeous presentation aside, it's just one of those novels that you can actually describe as 'gripping'. I've never been a big fan of vampires so it stands testament to Carrie Clevenger's storytelling skills that I am a HUGE fan of Xan Marcelles. He's an incredibly likeable and plausible hero, carrying with him that 'reluctant hero' air that makes the likes of Snake Plisskin so cool. Xan also has an incredibly strong voice, so the book often feels like you're sat at the back of Pale Rider, and he's telling it to you over a drink. Clevenger pulls off the difficult task of making it feel like Xan's simply dictated the story to her, and I couldn't NOT fall for him a tiny bit. The secondary characters are also incredibly strong as Clevenger creates plausible characters that you either love or loathe, and I particularly love the banter with his friend, Scott.

I actually can't recommend Crooked Fang enough and I can't wait for the sequel to drop!

Five blunt pencils out of five!

You can buy Crooked Fang for the Kindle from Amazon, or buy the paperback from Createspace.

[Guest Post] Carrie Clevenger on Blog Serials

Tweet At the start of August, you might have seen me madly tweeting about the fact I finally had a paperback copy of Crooked Fang by my very good friend Carrie Clevenger. Now, I'm not one for vampires, but I've been rather keen on Carrie's take since I first read the serial she ran on her blog. Times change and Xan Marcelles has taken his turn in the spotlight, and that very awesome serial is now a book. A proper, honest-to-God book I can (and do) wave in people's faces. Carrie's doing a blog tour to promote it, and here she is, talking about how to turn a blog serial into a book.

Over to you Carrie!

* * *

Xan Marcelles in Crooked Fang began life as a concept that’d occurred to me years before in some pitiful ninety-page story I wrote in a frenzy to purge my grief. I put Xan aside at that time because I wrote a different sort of vampire, much closer to Anne Rice’s style. Things happened. Time passed. Xan played a secondary character to the ancient vampire I was so enamored with, yet his own story scratched at the base of my brain.

I started a blog (that no longer exists) for fun in order to capture some of his story in 2008. I wrote posts whenever I felt like it and they were somewhat dark; how he lived, died, and came back as a vampire. Then I started a new blog called simply Crooked Fang. Crooked Fang is the name of Xan Marcelles’ band and it seemed catchy enough, very rock star in nature. In that blog, I wrote Xan’s life at a tavern he settled at, called Pale Rider, after leaving the vampire lifestyle behind. About the same time, I had him on Twitter along with my own account and discovered the power of social networking. I still only posted whenever a story would occur to me, but I started to get readers. They followed the blog and commented on each post and encouraged me. Xan’s silly adventures seemed to draw in people from all sorts of backgrounds due to his ordinary dude character and I realized that I had something there that was more than just screwing around. He was finally telling the story trapped in those horrid ninety pages I wrote in 2001.

I started out with eight readers. Thirty followers on Twitter for him. Their encouragement compelled me to become more regular with the posts, upping them to once every two weeks, then finally one a week. When #TuesdaySerial came about on Twitter, I listed his posts every week. My readership grew slowly but steadily. I was asked, “When’s the novel coming out?” Novel? I thought. I can’t write a novel. That’s a whole lot of words. I don’t have time to write ninety-thousand words besides what would I write about? Crooked Fang was just for fun; it was a release from everyday life. I liked to entertain and Xan was easy to love.

At second glance, I was kind of writing a novel somewhat, because when I put all the blog posts together, it equaled about fifty-three thousand words. Wow, I thought. Well, if I could do that, surely I could up it to sixty-thousand? I had it in my mind to self-publish it and was rather attached to the idea until I ran across someone on a doom metal band’s forum named Nerine Dorman.

Nerine and I hit it off almost immediately, due to our shared passion for the music of Type O Negative. She also happened to be an editor for a publishing company, Lyrical Press. Her curiosity was piqued when I mentioned Crooked Fang. Somehow, I ended up showing her the story and she made editing suggestions. Eventually she managed to convince me to try to publish through a company rather than on my own.

But here’s what you came for: How a serial on a blog is turned into a novel. Short answer is: Lots and lots of work. The long answer is the same but by layering: Adding deeper description, character insight, additional scenes, time consistency (mine was completely hosed at first) and motivation for each and every movement in the story. Eight versions of Crooked Fang reside on my hard drive because of the revision and editing process. Each time, I added a layer, trimmed a scene that didn’t fit, or changed a character and learned in general how to pace the story.

It’s a hands-on training sort of position when you take a rough draft and polish it to a finished novel and you gain a deep respect for those who’ve gone before you, especially for the more-epic-style writers. It is a huge investment perhaps not financially, but certainly lifestyle and time-wise.

I was stumped when it came time to end the novel. How to close off the plot in Crooked Fang after I resolved the main obstacle without fully resolving everything about Xan? Because when you resolve all of the character’s issues, the story is over. I left off and sent the story to Nerine, explaining that I still hadn’t thought of a proper ending. Turns out, the ending I just left off on was the final result.

Because a story never ends really, just like real life. I suppose one day Xan can ride off on some dark highway for the last time but for now, he’s not done. Neither am I. So how does Crooked Fang end? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Sometimes a vampire's past can bite him in the ass.

Xan Marcelles--bassist for Crooked Fang, vampire and full-time asshole, is content with his quiet existence in the backwoods of Pinecliffe, Colorado. But life at the Pale Rider tavern is set to become a little more complicated when he gets entangled with a feisty, blue-haired damsel and her abusive soon-to-be ex boyfriend.

To add to his woes, he's gone from hunter to hunted, and his past returns to haunt him when a phone call draws him back to New Mexico. With the help of friends from his living past, he must get to the bottom of a murder, and figure out where he stands with his lover and his band, all while keeping one step ahead of his enemies. Hiding won't be easy for him, especially with a mysterious woman dogging him every step of the way.

WARNING: Cussing, smoking, drinking and hot sex.

Main site: crookedfang.com and sales link is here.

Lyrical Press, ebook format (all formats) to be published August 20.

Katarr Kanticles also, print version released August 1.

Also on Goodreads and Facebook.

Carrie Clevenger landed in the urban fantasy genre when she couldn't decide between horror and humor. When not writing she enjoys listening to music, hanging out with musicians, attending local venues, catching her favorite bands on tour, and obsessing over The Next Big Album release. Main influences include Maynard James Keenan, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and the late Peter Steele. Follow Carrie on Twitter as @CarrieClevenger.

[Book Review] Blood and Fire

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I've long been a fan of Carrie Clevenger's Xan Marcelles, and in this novella, the bassist vampire is marched out of Pale Rider, in Pinecliffe, Colorado, and into a hellish house of mysteries. He's not the only one - Ashton Kennedy, written by Nerine Dorman, is a being known as an Inkarna (essentially a body thief) and he's charged with the task of breaking into the same mystery house to retrieve an ancient artifact. The unlikely pair team up in order to bust some heads and get the hell out of there.

I'll be honest upfront - I loved this. I started with the intention of savouring each chapter and taking my time, but I ended up absolutely whizzing through it. Carrie's Xan chapters are written in his inimitable style, and contrast nicely with Ash's more esoteric and worldweary ways. I always enjoy reading Xan's chapters but it's been a real pleasure getting to know Nerine's Ash. The pacing is excellent, taking us from Xan's Ordinary World of Pinecliffe, and into the hidden mysteries of Luxor House. The house was so well-described I felt like I'd actually been there, and the dual observations make it really pop from the page. The action never lets up, and I would love to see a paranormal thriller from these two.

I can't actually recommend it enough, and as an extra incentive, the book will be free on February 10, 11, and 12! If you can't wait until tomorrow, you can download it from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Five blunt pencils out of five!

Xan Marcelles on being a character

Tweet On Tuesday, I reviewed a rather nifty short story, Just My Blood Type, by Nerine Dorman and Carrie Clevenger. Yesterday I let the ladies take over the Blunt Pencil to take us behind the scenes of their collaboration. Today, I let one of the story's stars, Xan Marcelles, do the talking. Xan, my sweet, over to you...

There’s a ton of blog posts talking about how to connect with your character these days. But there aren’t very many on what it’s like to be us. Characters. You know, the individuals you have fall in love, torment, even kill. Some of us last for years and pop up in book after book, others of us just kind of walk across the stage straight into a manhole.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Xan Marcelles and I am a character. Not really unusual is it? To have one of us talk back? Because we do all the time. You can’t deny that you’ve heard us laugh, cry, or felt that poke when we’ve got something good to tell you. And sometimes we play with you. You, the writer. The author. Whatever you want to call yourselves. Puppet masters. Slave drivers. Yeah, I’m talking to you.

So how is it I came about? I guess I came along when my writer needed me most. A tragedy forced her to withdraw from the real world and, besides that, she wasn’t in a good place anyway. She doesn’t like to talk about it much, so I’ll give that respect and say I was there when she needed to escape. Did I pop out of thin air fully formed? Nah. I wasn’t sure who I was at first. You try being dropped off on another planet to survive. You first have to figure everything out. Remember who you are. So I did. Slowly.

I was a quiet sort of guy at first, thrown in a tiny beginner’s novel and given a sketch of a past, a sliver of a future and I even died at first. Yeah, she killed me. But I came back. Because the good die young but the best come back, isn’t that how it goes? No? Oh well.

So, who is this mouthy bastard who decided to come forth and start pointing fingers, you might ask. Or not. I’m going to tell you anyway. I’m a bassist in a band I named Crooked Fang. I live in a tavern that used to be a lodge. Oh, and there’s one more thing: I’m a vampire. Yeah. Stop rolling your eyes at me. I’m not exactly a fuzzy-sparkly-lovey-dovey thing. For one thing, I’m not a little guy. I’m six-five and weigh around two-twenty. My mom was a Navajo and a small quiet woman. My dad was a big happy, outgoing type. Italian. Ladies’ man. Ran a restaurant. This was before I was a vampire, mind you. Pay attention. I was born in 1958, dropped in 1985, and life has never been the same. You ever wake up dead? Yeah. It sucks.

So let’s go back to your world. The real world. How do I fit in there? Can’t say I do really, but that’s the point. We characters are like actors on the stage of your ever-reading brains. We say things that are scripted and perform actions that move a plot. Ever talked to one of your characters? Sure you have, haven’t you? Really? Let me tell you a little secret: we’re picky. That’s right. In fact, we’re so picky, out of all the people in the world, we choose one special writer to tell our story. You.

Yes, you. You who only think you can shut us up. Because we won’t be silenced. We’ll nag you at every godforsaken hour until you get your ass up and go to your computer, your notepad, or even your dinner napkin and start scribbling down points like you’re crazy. Because we rely on you to live. To survive. To love. To lose. And we understand when you choose for us to die.

Don’t feel bad. We’re here to use as you want, provided you work with us, and not against us. Let us be who we’re gonna be and just tell the damn story. Because the truth is, without you…we’re nothing.

Lates,

-X.

You can find out more about Xan over at Crooked Fang - you can even 'like' him on Facebook, and I highly recommend following him on Twitter. His handler, Carrie Clevenger, hangs out here. You can also download Just My Blood Type FOR FREE from Smashwords, and go check out the reviews on Goodreads. Be sure to post one if you read it yourself.


Be sure to give Xan a lot of love, and tell him Icy sent you...

Behind the Scenes with Carrie and Nerine

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Yesterday I posted my review of Just My Blood Type, the collaborative piece by Carrie Clevenger and Nerine Dorman. Today I let them take over the Blunt Pencil to take us behind the scenes of the creation of JMBT. Nerine, over to you...

Behind the Scenes with Carrie and me

By Nerine Dorman

Nerine Dorman

There’s no doubt that when a writing partnership works, it’s a definitive case of “two heads are better than one”. This was underscored for me yet again in interviews I’ve conducted with South African author Sarah Lotz when discussing two of the writing partnerships in which she’s involved (SL Grey and Lily Herne).

My first attempt at a writing partnership happened about two years ago and, while the end result was great--we both took turns writing each other’s characters with a high degree of authenticity--it never amounted to much more than a short story.

In my mind there’s an X-factor that results in a mutual explosion of creativity, where one feeds off the other.

To be honest, this year I wasn’t looking to collaborate but perhaps why this situation is so special is that it happened of its own accord. A few musings about shared ideas resulted in a proposed “short story” turning into a not-so-short story of more than 8 000 words. This has obviously led me to consider the most important aspects about forging a collaborative writing partnership.

In my mind, common ground is vital. Some shared literary interests as well as background. Carrie and I found each other on the A Pale Horse Named Death forum, and our love for this band, as well as Type O Negative, and vampires, gave us a lot to discuss at first. I pretty much fell head over heels for Xan, Carrie’s creation, and was totally blown away when she allowed me to take a peek at his world.

Carrie Clevenger

Carrie adds, “To be honest, most of my writing partnerships have been forged by mutual adoration and respect with another person for one another’s work. Not to mean entirely accidental. I don’t go out trolling the internet to look for someone to write with. I have to start a relationship with the person before I even consider going any further. To me a writing partnership is very much like a marriage: there’s give and take. I think the biggest indicator of a good choice is when the other person excels in different areas of writing mastery. Take you and me for example. You’re good at extended plots, technicalities and description. I feel my strengths lie in sharp narrative, realistic dialogue and crafting unique twists for plotlines.”

Okay, so this brings us to mutual respect. I listen to Carrie’s vision and see where I can fit mine around it. Likewise, she considers my ideas. I can only compare it to playing with building blocks. If stuff doesn’t work, tear it down. But yeah, Carrie sees stuff I don’t, and vice versa. She’s good at plot points, characterization and witty observations whereas I’m more of the grammar Nazi who looks at overarching structure and content layering.

Another point I reckon is vital is to know where you’re going, to have an outline so that you don’t end up trying to pull a story in opposite directions.

Now the thing is, Carrie’s in the States and I’m in South Africa. Time zones can be interesting. We spend a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing on ideas so it helps that sometimes we’re on Skype or email in “real time”. I prefer “talking” in text so it gives me a chance to mull over a response, if need be. But ja, I don’t think either of us sleeps much. I get about five to six hours a night, which suits me fine. My body clock is so messed up I find it very hard to sleep for longer than that.

Carrie says, “Geographical distances and time zone differences mean nothing to me anymore—I just never sleep on a regular schedule! But seriously, I work for a European division so I’m up while most of my American neighbors are sleeping, and I rest while they work the daylight hours. When I worked with another publishing company before, the only real difficulty was synchronizing with the Australian counterparts because they are so far to the other extreme as far as the clock is concerned.”

For me the nuts and bolts of a writing partnership have always been how well I know the character my partner is writing. I’ve found it helps to have a list of facts that I add to, that cover everything from favorite music through to when their birthday is. I add to the list as I work and share it with Carrie. Also, plotting dialogue ahead of time in factoids, if I’m not sure what her character’s response will be. Sometimes we’ll layer a scene three or four times before the dialogue and action runs smoothly. I like to know where I’m headed in a story so I generally create an outline, even if it’s just point-form information that shows a logical progression.

Carrie says, “I only outline when I’m writing a longer piece, and by that I’d say over five thousand words or so. If I happen to be planning a novel my outlines look more like organized synopsis points. It helps fool me into thinking it’s not work, because outlines are work but entirely essential for many people to get a plotline straight. In narrative, I play off the other person, just as I do with dialogue. It’s entirely dynamically tuned to a balance between me and the other person. In a collaboration where there are two distinct voices, I like to give each author equal amount of time at the mic, so to speak. With revisions, one of the best things I’ve learned from you is that you might have one another but it’s still wise to reach out and seek a second, unbiased review on what you two have produced. Beta readers are invaluable in this process to ensure that each author has stayed true to their own voice and that neither one is drowned out by the other.”

I’ll close by saying it’s important to keep up the energy, to not let a document sit for too long. Writing a collaboration is a little bit like playing tennis. Right now Carrie and me are having a great time lobbing ideas at each other and, judging by some of the readers’ responses to Just My Blood Type, we’re providing a very entertaining match of wits.

Download Just My Blood Type here.

Follow us on Twitter @CarrieClevenger, @nerinedorman and @crookedfang.

Or see the Crooked Fang website or Nerine Dorman's Facebook page.

[Review] Just My Blood Type

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Anyone who has been reading my blog (or following me on Twitter) will know that I'm rather partial to a certain Xan Marcelles, the vampiric creation of my good friend, Carrie Clevenger. I'm getting impatient to read the finished Crooked Fang book, so when I heard Xan would be starring in a short story, I couldn't download it fast enough.

Just My Blood Type tells the story of an encounter between the moody Mr Marcelles and romance author Therése von Willegen, the creation of South African writer Nerine Dorman. The story takes it in turns to leap back and forth between Nerine's Therese, and Carrie's Xan, giving us a unique insight into our dual protagonists. The steady banter ups the sexual tension between the pair as they trade innuendo at the Pale Rider bar, in Pinecliffe, Colorado.

Just My Blood Type rattles along at a good pace, letting both characters (and their creators) share the limelight. Therése just takes Xan at face value, something I think our favourite vampire secretly enjoys, while Xan seems genuinely fascinated by this new woman in his life. It's a quick yet highly enjoyable read, and I've always been a fan of Xan so nice to see him in a new piece. At the same time, this is the first piece I've read by Nerine Dorman and based on this, I want to read more. A lot more.

Perfect for fans of Gothic romance, or hard rock vampire fiction, Just My Blood Type is a highly recommended read that serves as both a stellar introduction to two incredibly talented lady writers, and as a lesson in just how good collaborative writing can be. Download it for FREE here.

Five blunt pencils from me!