Monday Miscellany: Romance, Stress, and Why I Love Greta van der Rol

Tomorrow is Valentine's, in case you forgot. I have already gotten my sweetheart his present and card; "he" has already gotten my gift, too. (I bought some dishes for the house and told him that's what he got me--yes, I really am that romantic.) The funny thing is that my husband is actually quite wonderful at romance and remembering special occasions and he puts up with my surly attitude toward those things.

Yes, it's true. I read romance novels and write romantic stories, but I am quite possibly the least romantic person I know. Shh. Don't tell anyone.

I try for him. I really do. It's just easier for me to be loving in little ways throughout the year. I leave notes for him on Post-Its in his wallet or on the car steering wheel, I try to make sure we never run out of his favorite drinks in the refrigerator, I learned to properly use spices in my cooking for him, I don't pitch a fit when he wants to have boys' nights out, I take care of things he doesn't like or doesn't have time to do. Like right now, I'm working on a spreadsheet for him that he needs for work. I have to input roughly 1500 pages of data, then email it to him. I do not miss my days of spreadsheet maintenance. But if I don't do it, he'd be stuck at the office until God-knows-when all week. He'd be grumpy, the kid would be grumpy (she likes him or something--I don't get it, either), and I'd rather have both of them happy. To me, this is true love. It's the daily grind, the bad days and the low points that melt away in the memories of the great days and the high points. It's hearing him walk through the door at the end of the day and feeling like everything is okay because we're together. It's knowing that I'm better off with him than without him.

Okay, so maybe I am a tiny bit romantic. Please don't tell.

I've been under a great deal of stress over the last few months and late last week, I had a "screw everything" moment. I'm clearly not going to finish One Good Cowboy if I keep pushing myself. I can make slow and steady progress, but if progress is what I want, I need to find it in other places, too. Places like drafting other stories, getting my books formatted for AllRomance, outlining my website redesign, revisiting The Guest, reading, taking on household projects I've been putting off. So when I sit down at night, I still open up One Good Cowboy and I still work on it. I got a page done last night and I'm hoping for another page tonight. But I'm trying not to stress out about it.

One thing that is stressing me out, in the best possible way, is Morgan's Choice. Ugh, it's so action-packed. But I'm going to take a moment here (again) to flail my arms and deteriorate into asdjfk. Archaeology. Archaeology in science fiction. Real archaeology done by a real academic. I keep having to take moments in order to flail my hands around for real. I mean, let's just completely ignore Ravindra and Morgan, let's ignore the politics and the technology. Let's just for a moment look at the fact that archaeology as a practice plays a significant role in this science fiction novel and let's for a moment completely geek out about that fact.

As if I needed another reason to love Ms. van der Rol. I cannot wait for her next book.

I have to go flail again.

Book Review: The Iron Admiral: Deception by Greta van der Rol

cover image copyright Greta van der Rol

Listen carefully. Hear that? That's the sound of my professionalism flying straight out of the window. Why? Because my fangirl hat is very firmly on my head and we're going to talk about Greta van der Rol's The Iron Admiral: Deception.

First of all, you should know that this is the sequel to The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy. If you haven't read that one yet, read it first, because while just enough of the first part is explained in this one to get you through it, you need to read both to appreciate the full awesomeness that is the story of Allysha Marten and Chaka Saahren. I reviewed the first one here.

Second of all, the book has been out for a month and I only finished it in the last week because it was so good I just didn't want it to end. I did not want to click the last page and be all ~angsty~ that it was over and I had to read something else. I didn't want to read something else.

Let's discuss Allysha Marten, our heroine. A lot of sci-fi heroines--hell, a lot of romance heroines--tend to fall into the Mary Sue category. Allysha has a slightly unusual backstory, is astonishingly talented, attracts some seriously eligible bachelors, ends up in the middle of a galactic plot, and still is probably--Sorry, Chaka!--my favorite character. I love her. She is nowhere even close to a Mary Sue. Allysha has a very realistic, nearly fatal flaw: she's hopeful. I absolutely love that she just doesn't believe people are as horrible as they prove themselves to be time and time again. She trusts, and she loves, and she gives people the benefit of the doubt, but she isn't stupid about it. When she makes mistakes, she owns up to them and she fixes them. She is a complete, full, three-dimensional character and if we had gone through the whole story without even a hint of romance, I still would have read and loved these books because she is just. that. awesome.


Then we have Chaka Saahren, the Iron Admiral himself. In these modern times of feminized men and soft, yielding heroes, his unwavering, unflinching, unapologetic manliness is swoon-worthy. He is every micromillimeter a military officer. He's authoritative. He's cunning. He's respected and respectful. He knows exactly what he wants and he acts to acquire that which he desires. Chaka isn't without his softer side, which makes him the sort of man a woman can fall in love with, but his softer side is something he shows only when the timing is appropriate. In Deception, we learn more about him as Chaka, not as Brad Stone or as the Iron Admiral, and, like Allysha, he is a complete, full, three-dimensional character. He has his flaws, and one of them is so dangerous it's terrifying. Like Allysha, if we had gone through the whole story without even a hint of romance, I still would have read and loved these books because Chaka is exactly the kind of lead man I love in my sci-fi.

But we don't go through the whole story with one or the other. We, lucky readers, get them both.

Deception picks up shortly after where Conspiracy leaves off. We're thrown immediately into the story, into the conflict between Allysha and Chaka and into the mess Sean has made. The whole book is one breathless riot of action, scene after scene, with lulls only when it is necessary. (As in, when Ms. van der Rol takes pity on us and allows us to breathe.) There were times when I actually had to sop reading because I was too tense to keep going.

Readers who are easily triggered by discussion of rape, or readers disturbed by it, should be warned.

Chaka's backstory is heartbreaking and explains a lot about why he is as hard and authoritative as he is. It also explains the dangerous-and-terrifying aspect of his personality that is part of what keeps Allysha away and, I'll be honest, scared me, too. Grand Admiral Saahren is not a man to mess with. His single-minded determination to be married to Allysha is overwhelming. He loves her. That's clear in every interaction he has with her and in every conversation he has about her. Toward the end of the book, though, he proves that he is a man of duty and a believer in "what's best for the most," which I actually thought made him an even better character. It would have been too easy for the author to let Chaka slip into the "my wants and my woman before all else" mindset, but he didn't. It was perfect.

Allysha is still recovering from the hurt her husband caused and from the lies Chaka told her. She works through that as the story progresses and she does it in a completely reasonably, real way... but there were still times I wanted to shout at her to just admit to herself that she loved him already.

Things look especially dire near the end, but each conflict--the Chaka/Allysha romance, the politics, and the mess with Sean--is resolved absolutely beautifully. Each conflict is resolved in ways that could easily happen in the real world.

Basically, this whole story is handled masterfully. Common science fiction pitfalls--plot holes, unrealistic conflicts/resolutions, incomprehensible technology, one-dimensional alien species, one-dimensional support characters--are completely avoided. In fact, I would love to see an entire series of books based in this universe. I'd love to read about Butcher. (Okay, I confess that I've developed a bit of a crush on Butcher.) Or Admiral Leonov. Or Chief Werensa. I'd love to read about Xanthor. That, to me, is the mark of excellent science fiction. I care about the "minor" characters. I care about the world they inhabited. I care about the ships, the technology, the planets, the politics, the history, the culture, the customs.

Best of all, the end of the story is so perfect.

Buy this book. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and OmniLit. If you like science fiction, if you like good stories, if you like your heroines just as strong as your heroes, read this book. You won't be sorry.

Then come back here and be a fanperson with me.

Not-So-Monday Miscellany: Tim Armstrong

Yesterday, I spent the whole day working to finish the first draft of the new romance novelette. I succeeded! It needs three to five thousand more words, though, so I still have quite a bit of work to do, but the second stage of the writing process is complete.

For this week's miscellany post, I thought I'd share some fangirl-worthy work from Tim Armstrong. Tim is the frontman for California-based punk band Rancid (they're amazing, you should check them out) (but if you're not into punk, he also co-wrote most of the songs on P!nk's Try This and he is involved with/has been involved with Operation Ivy, the Transplants, solo work, and a film) and I love him. The summer my husband was deployed, I saw Rancid four times. I have three Rancid-inspired tattoos with plans for a fourth. And I wore an Operation Ivy t-shirt to my wedding reception. Tim is a fantastically talented musician and artist. I'm a fan, is what I'm saying. 

Recently, he rolled out Tim Timebomb's ROCKNROLL THEATER. There's music. There's dancing. There's scantily-clad girls, a timeless story, and a terrifyingly-mustachioed Davey Havok. You can watch the trailer here. Unfortunately, it's not available in my country. There are ways around that (an IP masker, for example; or an online bootleg) so if it isn't available in your country and you want to see it, some Google searching should set you up. 

If none of that interests you, there's always this: 

Unfortunately, I have no idea who took this picture. I wish I did, I'd like to bake him/her some cupcakes.

The man belongs on a romance novel cover.

Book Review: The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy by Greta van der Rol

Today, I finished reading Greta van der Rol's The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and I have to admit that I am seriously displeased that I finished it because I wanted to jump straight from it into the next one (which comes out October 4th!). Yes, it is that good.

The quick version: If you're a Star Wars/Star Trek/Battlestar Gallactica/science-fiction fan in general, this book is for you. If you've ever read a sci-fi book and thought, "Man, I really wish the Hero and the Heroine would get it on," this book is for you. If you like really good stories with lots of danger, twists, action, and politics, this book is for you.

I. Loved. It. 

I loved Allysha, who is smart and strong and capable and has the very believable flaw of falling for shady men. I loved her mad computer skills and her humanity and her compassion and her stubbornness and her practicality. I loved her special skills (I'm not giving it away, but it is super cool) and I loved her morality. 

I loved Saahren. I loved him in his Brad Stone guise and I loved him as an Admiral. He's hot. He's smart. He's practical. He's thoughtful and he's good at thinking on his feet. He's a bit of a caveman--he has decided that Allysha will be his wife and he can get bossy at times--but it totally works for him. I may or may not have a huge just a wee bit of a crush on him and want to see him naked. 

I loved the plot. I loved all the supporting characters--Allysha's husband, his problems, the gangsters. I loved the ptorix. Okay, I really loved the ptorix. The anthropologist in me wants an entire book on ptorix culture, art, society, history, and myth. I am absolutely fascinated by them. I loved the politics and the political tension. In my opinion, good sci-fi requires good political tension. Ms. van der Rol delivers. 

The only thing about the book that I didn't like is that it cuts off right when things are picking up again! I understand that the author made that choice deliberately, but it still gave me the same feeling I had at the end of A Tale of Two Cities the first time I read it. (Namely, "Where is the rest?!"). But it's okay, because the next book comes out in just a few days. 

I guess I can survive until then. 

If you're looking for some good science fiction, go get this book. It's available at Amazon as an ebook and as a print book. It's at Smashwords. It's at OmniLit. And it's at B&N for the NOOK and paperback.