Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Ava Lock’s Demons Also Dream: Summoned is not the first time that I have reviewed a How to Writer’s Guide disguised as a novel. That honor would go to D-L Nelson’s Lexington: Anatomy of a Novel which features author Nelson’s Historical Fiction novel about a British soldier during the Revolutionary War while giving us the process in which she created, researched, wrote, and edited said novel. Technically, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series flirts with that concept as well, especially in the books, First Among Sequels and One of Our Thursdays Are Missing when Thursday’s adventures are put in book form and she has to contend with an even more fictionalized version of herself. Jen Finelli's Becoming Hero gives us a graphic novel in which characters argue with each other and the authors about the directions in which the graphic novel is going. 

But Lock’s book Demons Also Dream, takes that step even further. She wrote an effective sharp witty satirical Fantasy but also offers advice how a Dark Fantasy novel should or shouldn’t be written by having the protagonists talk and argue about it during the action. 

Our Literary Deadpools are Jocelyn B. “Joss” Wild, best selling Horror and Fantasy author, and Azazel, AKA Fury, a demonic genie, former lover of Lucifer, and Joss’s muse. Joss shares a psychic connection with Fury and Hell’s denizens so she can see what’s going on down there and this in turn gives her inspiration for her works. Joss however wants to write her final Fury novel and move onto other works. This does not sit well with her favorite subject as Fury questions Joss’ novel and what this untimely end would mean. While this is going on, Fury bids to collect a bounty on Roger Ford Garrison, the escaped soul of a news anchor who in life kidnapped, tortured, and murdered members of the LGBT+ community. Joss encounters April S. Showers, a fan and aspiring author who is not exactly the picture of perfect sanity. 

Demons Also Dream is a Hell of a fun time, particularly because of its two leads. Joss is a cerebral sardonic character who probably would have preferred to experience Hell, demons, psychopaths, and psychic energy through the pages of the books that she writes. She would rather be an author of best selling novels and go to the bar to cruise for an attractive woman to sleep with. What she gets instead is Fury, an aggressive sexually charged denizen of Hell who lives up to her name. She reacts with passion and fury inspiring Joss with her experiences and her energy. It's a difficult life one of demonic encounters , kidnappings, torture, and frightening psychic visions but Joss endures it, reports on it, and even makes money off of it. The two bounce off each other really well in these insane situations in which they find themselves. 

The book is ripe with deliciously juicy bits that add to the overall tone of the story. Lucifer is described as looking and sounding like George Clooney. Roger works for, what else, Fox News. Hell is less a place of torture than a place of ineffective bureaucracy. When April holds Joss captive she submits her to the worst torture imagined: she makes her read her unfinished sappy Princess Fantasy novel! This book is a hilarious and savage delight.

The best parts are the meta commentary which reveals that this is a smart novel about how to write a Dark Fantasy novel. Characters call attention to various plot points that happen particularly Fury. It's one thing to kill off a lead character as Joss was planning to do in her novel. But when said lead character sits up and argues with you about it is something else entirely. It's particularly good when in the end Joss changes the name of her intended book from Demons Also Die to Demons Also Dream implying that the book that we just read is the one that she wrote. It makes one wonder how Lock’s actual creative process went in putting together her book.

The most brilliant and savage commentary is when Joss reads April's manuscript which, let's just say, makes the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Mentor’s William Lansing look like misunderstood literary geniuses. Rather than outright attack the banal work, Joss gives her captor smart advice. She tells her to make her Mary Sue protagonist more real by giving her flaws. Put her into a conflict that raises the stakes and changes her outlook. Happy endings are fine but make them well earned by having her struggle. This is all good advice that any author needs to hear and the fact that it is written inside a novel that plays with and illustrates these conversations is really telling

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned is an amazing and effective Master Class on writing a novel that is Trojan Horse disguised as a fun and exciting novel.

Weekly Reader: The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Author-Editor Conflict Becomes Suspenseful, Bloodier, and Deadlier Than Usual

 Weekly Reader: The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Author-Editor Conflict Becomes Suspenseful, Bloodier, and Deadlier Than Usual

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One thing that I will say as an Editor and Book Reviewer, no matter how often I disagree with authors, I am glad that our disagreements don't go the way of William Lansing and Kyle Broder in Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Mentor. This psychological thriller takes the never ending struggle between authors and editors and twists it to violent and deadly means.

Professor William Lansing is delighted to learn that his former student, Kyle Broder, has attained superstar status in the publishing world. The young editor gets the credit for discovering and editing the debut novel of rising star author, Sierra Raven. William thinks that Kyle would be the perfect editor to pitch his magnum opus, Devil's Hopyard, to. After all, William had been working on the book for ten years and he helped Kyle out when he was a troubled addicted college student so…favors?

Unfortunately, William's manuscript is an incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. Worst of all, it's a badly written incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. It's about the rape, murder, and cannibalism of a young woman and hits too close to home for Kyle's liking.

Kyle has no intention of publishing it and let's just say William does not take constructive criticism well. His desire for literary fame becomes an obsession and his means to achieve it become violent. Soon, Kyle begins to wonder how much of William's work is the product of a writer's imagination and how much of it is based on true events.

Just like with Goldberg's previous books, Slow Down, Orange City, and The Desire Card series, The Mentor shows the dangers of unbridled ambition and what happens when one's ambitions overpower their sense of ethics, morality, legality, and basic humanity. They become someone to be feared, someone who believes that the end justifies the means, any means, no matter who suffers.

William has that kind of ambition. He is definitely someone who we can't separate the art from the artist. Everyone around him and everything that he does is just material for his book. It's hard to tell whether he had these graphically violent thoughts before he wrote them or being a writer came first and he found gruesome inspiration. Either way, he sees everyone as characters in his novel that he could do the most horrific things or make them do the worst things and they act according to the orders of him, the author.

Kyle is a more sympathetic character since he is the one getting stalked and gaslit, but he also has an unchecked ambitious side. He rejects William's manuscript because he finds it disturbing, but at first he is less concerned about the content than about what it would mean for his reputation. He is a rising star attached to a couple of potential bestsellers, a coming of age novel and a crime thriller, surefire hits. Kyle does not want his star to be hitched to a poorly written and potentially controversial work. He is not concerned about the potential loss of life and confession of an actual crime rather than what it would mean if his name was attached to it. It's only when William's desire for fame and violent tendencies affect Kyle personally that he realizes just how deadly William's desires are.

Some of the other characters in The Mentor aren't as clearly defined. A rival of Kyle's sucks up to William until it becomes feasible not to. Kyle's girlfriend, Jamie, plays the usual love interest character who at first doesn't believe that the protagonist is being stalked until they too become a victim. Sierra becomes a pawn in Kyle's chance for stardom and ultimately William's chance for notoriety. Everyone is collateral in this one-on-one battle.

The final chapters of The Mentor are drenched in irony as things turn on its head and the drive for ambition becomes one of infamy. William gets his stardom in the worst way possible and Kyle has to live with the consequences. 

New Book Alert: Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton; A Fascinating and Brilliant True Story About The Life and Mysterious Death of A Talented But Now Forgotten Entertainer

 New Book Alert: Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton; A Fascinating and Brilliant True Story About The Life and Mysterious Death of A Talented But Now Forgotten Entertainer

SoBy Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are probably not many people today who are familiar with the name of Dorothy Hale (1905-1938). If they are admirers of the artwork of Frida Kahlo, they may recognize her as the subject of Kahlo's painting of The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, which depicts Hale as a beautiful woman falling from a building to her death. So in other words she is similar to Peg Entwhistle, the stage actress who tried to find success in Hollywood only to jump off the 13th letter of the Hollywood sign to her death. Like Entwhistle, if Hale is known at all, it is by the way that she left this world rather than her contribution within it. However, former NBC News Producer, Pamela Hamilton aims to change all of that with her fascinating and brilliant fictional biography Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale.

Hale, nee Dorothy Donovan, was from an affluent Catholic family with Victorian values. Hale rebelled against her upbringing by pursuing a career. She eventually became a dancer and Ziegfeld Follies girl and was part of the chorus of the Broadway production of Lady Be Good. Hale also starred with her friend, Rosamond Pinchot in Abide With Me, a play written by another friend, Clare Boothe Luce. She also had small roles in the movies, Cynara and Catherine the Great.

Hale was married twice. Her first marriage to millionaire stockbroker, Gaillard Thomas ended in divorce. Her second to muralist, fresco artist, and portrait painter, Garland Hale ended with his death in 1931. She had many love affairs including with Constantin Alajalov, a cover artist, Russell Davenport, a writer for Time Magazine, Isamu Noguchi, a sculptor, artist, and designer, and Harry Hopkins, a WPA administrator and Roosevelt's top advisor. She was also a regular member of New York's Cafe Society having friends such as Kahlo, Luce, Cole Porter, Frank Crowninshield, Buckminster Fuller,and many of the best and brightest of New York society in the 1920's and '30's.

Her death was the subject of much speculation at the time which Kahlo's painting was a part of it. What is known is that the day before her death, she hosted a party inviting many of her close friends as a farewell party explaining that she was soon going on a long trip. The next day she fell sixteen floors to her death from her Central Park South apartment.

 It was unknown whether she fell, jumped, or was pushed. However, second hand accounts at the time reported of "financial troubles" and "disappointments about her age and unhappy love affairs." The press portrayed Hale as a fragile vulnerable woman who took her own life. Despite Kahlo's genuine grief over the death of her friend, her painting did much to add to that unverified assumption that Hale committed suicide.

Hamilton's book does a lot to discredit the speculation of Hale's death and instead focuses on her life. Far from the fragile depressed lonely woman that the press portrayed her after death, Hale is written by Hamilton as a vibrant and bright woman full of life and excited to be surrounded by a talented and eccentric group of friends and lovers.

Lady Be Good is practically a whirlwind of color, art, entertainment, glamor, and excitement. One that Hale is glad to be a part of even though she does not achieve as much personal success as she would like. She is surrounded by bright and talented people and for the most part, she is happy to be with them. The famous names that come in and out of the book and appear throughout Hale's life include Clare Boothe Luce, Frida Kahlo, Fred Astaire, Frank Crowninshield, Dorothy Parker, Rosamond Pinchot, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, Eugene O'Neill, Isamu Noguchi, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, Samuel Goldwyn, King Vidor, John Barrymore, Buckminster Fuller, and many many others. It is a brilliant cast of the intelligentsia and literati of New York's Cafe Society and The Golden Age of Hollywood. 

Dorothy enjoys the life that she is in and the freedom that being a part of that group implies.This is the main reason why her first marriage doesn't work out.

 Hale is an exciteable and enthusiastic woman who enjoys going to clubs, theater performances, salons, and art shows. Gaillard is stiff and dull and is only interested in making money. Hale marred him mostly out of fear when a serious injury ended her dancing days. After the fear subsides, their differences becomes insurmountable and Hale heads for Reno to file for divorce.

Hale finds a happier life with Gardner Hale who because of his artistic talent and connections is also a welcome member of Hale's wide social circle. His death causes Hale to fall into a deep depression which takes her a long time to get through. Hamilton's writing suggests that her romances with Isamu Noguchi and Harry Hopkins were because of loneliness and to fill an empty void in her life.

After Gardner's death, Hale attempts a Hollywood career. She films a screen test that is widely received and she is even described as a "beautiful up and coming star." Unfortunately, she is unable to receive success with so many other stars in Hollywood's galaxy. 

She also stars in Abide With Me which even though critics brutally panned it, she had a good time performing in because of her friendship with Luce and Pinchot.

The point that Hamilton is trying to make with this fictional biography is to celebrate Hale's life rather than focus on her death. In fact when it does happen, the circumstances are rather aribtrary and are given short shrift. To Hamilton, Hale's life was more important and she was a woman who lived it to the fullest.

Classics Corner: I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith; A Sweet Book About Writing About Eccentric Family Members

Classics Corner: I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith; A Sweet Book About Writing About Eccentric Family Members
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Every beginning writer is told, "Write what you know." The cliche suggests that people capture the people and situations around them, recall their own childhood memories, or describe the setting around them. One of those writers who took that message to heart is Cassandra Mortmain, the protagonist of Dodie Smith's novel, I Capture The Castle. True to it's name this sweet novel captures the writing spirit within Cassandra and her eccentric family.

Cassandra writes shorthand in a journal with her feet resting in the kitchen sink. She plans on following in the footsteps of her author father who is a one=book wonder with Jacob Wrestling, a stream-of-consciousness work (similar to Joyce's Ulysses). Sebastian Mortmain was once a wealthy intellectual coasting on the popularity of his magnum opus. He frequently lectured at American colleges and universities and was the darling of the intelligentsia. Unfortunately, his streak ended. He suffers from writer's block, dwindling finances, and a violent unstable temperament.

Mortmain bought a dilapidated castle where he lives with his family, including his second wife former artists' model, Topaz, his young son, Thomas, and two daughters, the creative Cassandra and the mercenary, Rose. Topaz tolerates Mortmain's rages believing him to be a tortured genius who just needs space and inspiration to continue writing again. The girls see their father in less rosy terms.

Rose is tired of living in genteel poverty and longs to find a rich husband and to escape from her dowdy life. Cassandra however inherited her father's writing ability and creative spirit, using it to fascinating ends such as participating in elaborate rituals for May Day and creating Mrs. Blossom, a surrogate fairy godmother from an old mannequin. The Mortmain family would be stuck in the perpetual inertia of little financial rewards and wanting more, if not for the arrival of the Cottons.

Simon and Neil Cotton are two American brothers who are the descendants of the castle's owners and get to know the renting Mortmains. At first both families have their own misconceptions and suspicions towards each other, but in a series of misadventures including in one humorous episode when a fur draped Rose is mistaken for a bear, the two families become friends.

The novel is filled with various subplots that are fueled by the various relationships within the families. Topaz at first is relieved when Mortmain begins to socialize with the Cottons but then becomes suspicious when he starts doing things with Mrs. Cotton that he never had before like laughing and visiting people. She worries that her husband is having an affair but is also worried that he is using his new relationship to avoid writing. His writer's block is finally ended by a desperate moment of tough love from Cassandra and Thomas, resulting in a book that begins in a free association wring style imitating a child's first sentences.

Rose and Cassandra also have their relationship woes as well. Rose, forever dreaming of a rich life, becomes romantically involved and gets engaged to Simon. However she and Neil continue to take snipes at each other. She thinks he's a boor, he thinks she's a gold-digger. But anyone who has read any Jane Austen book ever knows that fighting couples disguise romantic feelings for each other. Rose and Neil act on those romantic feelings in a way that changes their families forever.

Standing at the center of all of this turmoil is Cassandra. While she practices her writing, she is dealing with her own complicated love life. She fends off the advances of Stephen, a servant boy and wannabe-poet but too successfully. She ends up inadvertently putting Stephen in the arms of a cougar who uses the young man for her personal interests. Cassandra develops an infatuation for Simon but keeps her emotions suppressed for Rose's benefit. Unfortunately, this proves for naught when Rose and Neil's secret affair is revealed.

Cassandra begins the book as a starry-eyed romantic idealist but after she captures the castle, its inhabitants, she gains maturity and realizes how little she can change things with her choices. She not only captures the castle. She captures herself.

Forgotten Favorites: The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith; A Sharply Funny Brilliant Look Inside The Publishing Industry

Forgotten Favorites: The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith; A Sharply Funny Look Inside The Publishing Industry
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Many hands are involved before a book gets read by the public: authors, editors, publishers, critics, and many others so the book is read, sold, packaged, and hopefully makes it to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List.
 Olivia Goldsmith's follow up to her best-selling novel, The First Wives' Club, The Bestseller gives the Reader an inside look to those hands that make a book sell.

The plot focuses on several authors who would sell their mothers, friends, lovers and souls, for a chance to see their names in Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and  in the hands of every library patron and Barnes and Noble customer.

 They are: Opal O'Neil, who is peddling her late daughter, Terry's literary 2,000 page magnum opus, The Duplicity of Man from one publisher to another. Camilla Clapfish, an Englishwoman who pens A Week in Firenze, a sweet story about five middle-aged women on vacation in Italy.
Susann Baker Edmonds, a once-famous romance novelist who is on a grueling book tour (42 cities in six week) to promote her latest floundering work. Judith Gross writes a thriller about infanticide, In Full Knowledge, which her husband, Daniel takes full credit for.

Each of the authors has their stories about the extremes they go through to get their works published which feature equal parts persistence and equal parts having the luck to have an understanding ear.

 Opal waits in one waiting room after another hoping to pass Terry's work to a sympathetic editor which she finally does to Emma Ashton, a young idealistic editor. While working as a tour guide in Florence, Camilla is fortunate enough to have a romance with a handsome tourist who turns out to be Emma's brother.
 Susann has to deal with promoting her latest to an uninterested fickle public and her daughter who also decides to write a book....about her relationship with Susann. Judith is irate about her husband's deception, infidelity, building ego, and theft of her royalties which she gets revenge in a satisfying epic manner. The authors are creative, bright, ambitious, and likable in their persistence in getting their works published.

Besides the authors, we also get an inside look at the publishers inside the fictional Davis & Dash which is the recipient of these works.

 There is the aforementioned Emma who is the heart and soul of the book and is the only one who genuinely cares about the new authors like Opal (and Terry), Judith, and Camilla. Pam Mantiss, the self-absorbed and alcoholic Editor-in-Chief who has the insufferable task of ghost writing a tacky sexy thriller for Peet Traynor, their recently deceased top selling male author. Finally there's Gerald Ochs Davis AKA GOD, the second generation publisher who always wanted to write and write he does: a trashy novel based on a family scandal. With the neuroses and peccadilloes of the Davis & Dash staff, it's a miracle that decisions get made let alone books get published.

Since this book was published in 1997, it's definitely a book of it's time. Amazon.com only gets a scant mention. Many of the smaller companies panic about getting swallowed by bigger companies. (A very real situation in '90's publishing.) Famous names are dropped who were giants in the late 20th century writing world such as Danielle Steel, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King. (Even Goldsmith herself and her book, First Wives' Club get as shout-out.)

It would be interesting to wonder what a 21st century version of this book would be like. Authors would be swindled by self-publishing sites. Editors would stress about social media platforms and how many downloads the E-Books are getting. You just know one of the authors would be a British single mum beginning a fantasy series about a boy wizard.

But The Bestseller is a great novel that takes the Reader behind the scenes of their favorite books and learn about what it takes to put them in their hands.