First Review for Dinah...and it's good. :)

[Corrina]

http://copperbadge.livejournal.com/3059580.html

From the review:
"Part of the appeal of the book is that the characters are quite compelling. Dinah and her commander Tabor are both ballsy about politics; a couple of times they're faced with an enemy who has a seemingly undefeatable upper-hand, and they tend to turn around and be even more badass than the foe. Dinah is a smart, strong woman who spends the entire book refusing to allow other people to make her choices for her and taking a major role in the action of the story. Both of the lead male characters, Tabor and Gerhard, are subtly drawn, and Tabor in particular gets some really nice subplots. The whole supporting cast is pretty rich; when one of the supporting characters died I was actually upset, which doesn't happen to me too often in literature."

Copperbadge has also been doing some awesome reviews of early Dr. Who lately and is heavily involved in some fanfic community, so checking out the rest of the livejournal is definitely worth it too.

[Bo Bo]

YAY! Congrats :D

[Major Comma]

Congratulations Corrina !
Are you hard at work on that follow up?
From the way you described it ,I hesitate to call it a sequel, at least not a direct sequel.
Although it does take place in the same universe.
I Hope I got that right.
Oh, and the two most important questions of all .
Have you sold the movie rights yet and will they be in 3D?:biggrin:
Sorry ,
I couldnt resist that last one!
Seriously,I wish you continued success for many years to come.

[Corrina]

Yes, just about done with a good truck draft of the follow-up.

*Called a truck draft because if I get hit by a truck, then it is probably still okay to publish. :)

It is the same universe, and some of the cast of the first book shows up but the focus this time is on the Lenape heroine and the Roman engineer and I've moved the setting to ancient Manhattan.

Found some cool stuff in research. Such as...the original name of the Passaic River is...well, same word, different spelling. Weehawken is also a Lenape word.

And I'm mad at Cameron, given he stole my plot of the follow-up for his Avatar movie. Except my plot resolution is less predictable. :)

[Gryphon]

wonderful to hear

congratulations!:smile:

[scandalsavage]

Congratulations!

[Major Comma]

Maybe you could use your version of the follow-up to Avatar using different characters.
I sure would like to see an unpredictable ending to Avatar or a similar story thereof!

[Nick Soapdish]

Congrats, Corrina!

Hope that it keeps getting more good word-of-mouth.

[Corrina]

The problem with Avatar is that it's all black and white. The natives are perfect and the Earthlings are completely evil. There's no nuance.

I don't know about you, but there's no society I ever encountered that doesn't have it's good and bad points. I mean Romans were tough to deal with if you're opposed but, on the other hand, indoor plumbing. And the roads. And the safe to walk the streets at night...heh.

So the trick to the unpredictable ending is figuring out where the nuances come into play. What if the evil company needed that mineral so it would save lives on Earth? What if instead of a completely evil military guy, it was a dedicated man who'd seen how that mineral helped and healed people back home and justified it that way?

So, then, what do you do? Whose lives are more important?

That's where, as a writer, I like to find my conflict, particularly when I'm juggling characters from three different societies with completely different mindsets. The fun is finding out where they intersect.

[KevinTBrown]

The problem with Avatar is that it's all black and white. The natives are perfect and the Earthlings are completely evil. There's no nuance.

I don't know about you, but there's no society I ever encountered that doesn't have it's good and bad points. I mean Romans were tough to deal with if you're opposed but, on the other hand, indoor plumbing. And the roads. And the safe to walk the streets at night...heh.

So the trick to the unpredictable ending is figuring out where the nuances come into play. What if the evil company needed that mineral so it would save lives on Earth? What if instead of a completely evil military guy, it was a dedicated man who'd seen how that mineral helped and healed people back home and justified it that way?

So, then, what do you do? Whose lives are more important?

That's where, as a writer, I like to find my conflict.

Re: the bolded part.

You're incorrect on both counts. The natives were shown to be far from perfect, even prone to prejudice & jealousy. And the Earthlings were not "completely" evil, not where there's a group of them fighting to save the planet and natives against other Earthlings. The story may have been very predictable, despite trying not to be, but it wasn't just a black and white situation in the movie.

[Corrina]

Re: the bolded part.

You're incorrect on both counts. The natives were shown to be far from perfect, even prone to prejudice & jealousy. And the Earthlings were not "completely" evil, not where there's a group of them fighting to save the planet and natives against other Earthlings. The story may have been very predictable, despite trying not to be, but it wasn't just a black and white situation in the movie.

The Earthling who respected the native way were good guys because they accepted the native way was good. :)

But, yes, I should give props to Trudi (Damn you, Cameron! She should have lived!) who actually is the one military member who does see past following her contract.

As far as I could tell, the native society had no inherent problems w/jealousy & prejudice that wasn't brought to them by the Earthlings.

I love the movie, don't get me wrong, but nuanced it wasn't.

[KevinTBrown]

The Earthling who respected the native way were good guys because they accepted the native way was good. :)

But, yes, I should give props to Trudi (Damn you, Cameron! She should have lived!) who actually is the one military member who does see past following her contract.

As far as I could tell, the native society had no inherent problems w/jealousy & prejudice that wasn't brought to them by the Earthlings.

I love the movie, don't get me wrong, but nuanced it wasn't.

Agreed about it not being nuanced. It was pretty much a 2 by 4 across the head storytelling. :wink:



By the way, I cannot wait to get to your book.

[CutterMike]

(...)
It is the same universe, and some of the cast of the first book shows up but the focus this time is on the Lenape heroine and the Roman engineer and I've moved the setting to ancient Manhattan.
(...)What's the title? "I'll Take Novum Eboracum"?

(Sorry... couldn't resist!)

Congrats on the good review!

[Corrina]

Hah! And thanks.

You know, I did realize I did something I didn't realize with the follow-up book.

I have a skilled engineer/pilot crash land and literally fall at the feet of my Lenape woman who's basically a princess.

The princess then protects the pilot and decides to follow him because she's curious about his world and peaceful co-existence with the Romans is becoming a necessity.

Oh, yeah, that's never happened before in fiction. :)

Alas, she has no lasso or tattoo but does have a formidable mother.

[Major Comma]

hmm sounds like a lot of subconscious coincidences going on there!

[Charles RB]

Nice one!
.