Wit & Travesty

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Book Review: The Earl and the Artificer

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the earl and artificer kara jorgensenHey, Leute!

It’s not a good month without an indie novel or two. Today I’ll be reviewing The Earl and the Artificer by Kara Jorgensen. If you’re intrigued by a few characters that break the Victorian English mold, than you’re in for a treat. Check out the review below and make sure to give your two cents in the comments section if you’ve already read the book, too!

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

After focusing on Immanuel Winter’s adventures, it’s a joy to return the focus on Hadley and Eilian Sorrell. Both misfits in their own right, they continue to face their fears as they move into Brasshurst Hall, property that Eilian now owns as an earl. Their hopes are to keep up the facade that they are normal people of high society, but the citizens of Folkesbury—including Eilian’s nosy and pretentious second cousin, Randall Nash—see right through them. As the newlyweds try to develop a strong marriage and shield themselves against societal demands, they also have to deal with brewing drama surrounding an ancient plant found on their property.

What I enjoyed:

Jorgensen’s bread and butter is top-notch and complex characters. They’re the main reason why I love the series to begin with. Specifically within this novel, we get to meet new characters that fall in the gray area between nice and naughty. For example, we meet the writer, Nadir Talbot, who uses his charm to woo his romance novel fans, but knows half the charm lies in his exotic Egyptian heritage. We first meet him as a rather misogynistic man that doesn’t take Hadley seriously, since he makes money from writing about silly and lovesick women. Hadley sure sets him straight, and they become allies and dear friends through the drama to come.

The novel revisits themes surrounding gender roles in society, but also touches on relatively taboo subjects such as male insecurities surrounding intimacy. Since Eilian has this rather masculine role of earl and husband jointly thrust on him, we watch him struggle through these issues, but also struggle to be open about them with his own wife. It’s by far one of the most realistic and healthy examples of marital openness and unity. Both characters struggle through difficult and realistic challenges, but teach each other that communication (a general taboo in their society) will help them be better spouses for each other. As the couple grew closer and closer together I was mentally screaming, “Yes! Break the mold! Amen to talking and not assuming the other person can’t deal with your emotions!”

What I didn’t enjoy:

To avoid giving too many spoilers, I’ll have to tread carefully through this section. The main characters have to spring into action to clear their friend of murder charges by finding the real killer. The only part I found confusing was how they found out who the true murderer was, when the character doesn’t actually confess; their falsely accused friend just says they know who really did the killing, and they go from there to prosecute the individual. It seemed like an unnatural jump in logic, and I wonder if that will carry consequences in future novels. Well, that might be confusing to navigate, so I suppose that could give you further incentive to read the novel so we can further discuss and debate the matter.

My Final Thoughts

After so much action and danger, The Earl and the Artificer is a bit more sedate and laid back, which can be a good thing depending on the type of Victorian steampunk thrills you’re into. The novel surrounds more societal pressures, rather than action elements, but Hadley and Eilian don’t take the subtle quips and jabs without a fight. It’s a subtle deviation from standard “us versus society” plots that I really appreciate and admire.

I’m really lucky that the next book, Dead Magic, is already out, so I could jump from one novel to the next. Thanksgiving weekend is all about catching up on good novels, right? Most of my praise will always go towards the social themes that are discussed and displayed in this novel. Rather than acting as moral lessons, they are picked up naturally by the reader in delightful ways.

If you’d like to learn more about Kara Jorgensen and her work, you can catch up with her via social media:

Have you read this novel? Do you have your own thoughts about it? Share with me in the comments!

Tips on Writing Believable Military Characters

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wit & travesty provides tips on writing believable military characters

It’s probably not news to you that one of the biggest challenges in writing is creating authentic scenes, settings, and interactions to make the words on the page feel real. Sometimes, particularly with fantasy, this challenge is made smoother because of how alien the situation is to the reader. After all, they’ve never met a real dragon, so how would they know how they should behave?

In contrast, the obstacles mount higher when you’re dealing with very realistic settings and characters, ones that your audience will be familiar with. One of the toughest things to write authentically portraying the military.

Many service members are voracious readers, and they are keenly aware of misrepresentations that happen in literature. Hopefully if you’re writing military fiction you’ve done some thorough research, but if the military only has light involvement in your story, here are a few of the major things to be aware of so your work doesn’t get called out.

Serious business

1. “Don’t get misty, Francine.”

One of the biggest cringe-inducing tropes encountered in fictitious military scenes is the accuracy of soldier interactions. We’ll sometimes see a group of soldier, trapped behind enemy lines, huddled around their campfire in the night and then begin to wax philosophical about things. Maybe the conversation is about their situation, the horrors of war, or the meaning of life.
But the truth is actually that most soldiers are spending their time trying to maintain their sanity, rather than lose it in existential ponderings. So, more appropriate than your soldiers delivering morals would probably be some fast paced banter and low-brow jokes. If you desperately need to deliver some exposition, try to be precise, and if at all possible, tie it off with a dirty pun.

FUBAR

2. Don’t Misuse Acronyms

That’s DMA, or “Dima” if you’re in the military. This is a common problem for mediums that use audio, like films is the use of acronyms. The military uses a lot of them. It’s as much a joke to them as it is to us.

What happens a lot in movies is character spelling out acronyms, when in reality, acronyms are spoken phonetically as often as possible. This is for the simple reason that Fob (as goofy as it sounds) is faster to say than F.O.B.—and when lives are on the line, you say what’s faster to say.

In my experience, military scenes in writing tend to have kind of the opposite problem, where acronyms are completely absent from places where they would normally be used. It’s understandable, because generally we as writers outside the military aren’t going to be acquainted with the second language that is military acronyms.

It’s worth looking up some common ones, though, and if your character is using acronyms in dialogue, do your best to translate them to a phonetic equivalent.

Pretty sure this is the

3. “Don’t get cocky!”

The last issue we’ll talk about isn’t limited to military characters by any means, but they’re often the ones who bear the burden of this cliché: the Mary Sue. Very often, in every form of media in which there’s some sort of token military character, they become a juggernaut of talent and ability, able to shoot the wings off a fly at five hundred feet while flying a helicopter upside down in space.

Don’t fall into this trap. In real life “having military training” means the same thing as any other profession in the world; they’re trained as specialists in one particular role (which hopefully they do well) and have little to no experience in other roles, so consider what role your military character is meant to fill and apply their due weaknesses everywhere else—or be sure to prepare a reason for their skill in other fields.

Keeping these things in mind will help you deliver authentic feeling military characters and scenes, enough to satisfy both military readers and your civilian fans!

Thanks for reading, and if you have additional suggestions for making military writing feel real, don’t hesitate to share in the comments.

Who Should Have More Sway: Writers or Readers?

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who should have more sway writers or readers via wit and travesty

A harsh reality hit me the other day once I was finished with my first manuscript of Destiny Seeker. Travis and I were light-heartedly discussing how people would react to our characters once we’re rich and famous. A couple can dream, right?

Then Travis mentioned the possibility that readers would ship my main characters—Ilsi and Reshma—as a bisexual couple. These two young women spend almost the whole novel traveling together as a tight-knit team. But that’s what I had in mind: a kick-ass relationship of two powerful women who help each other get what they want. But what if people are convinced that they’re really more than friends? That’s not the design I had in mind, but should I just accept that or even encourage it?

This is an increasing issue that many writers/creators will face as consumers become more insatiable. How will you handle these types of issues when your work gets attention?

Who Really Owns the Characters?

It is frustrating that consumers think creators owe them something. It’s one thing to ask for diversity—and I am behind that—but it feels unfair to outright demand and critique creators on social media when consumers ask for something and then feel disappointed in the outcome. It’s as if the consumer thinks they know what’s better for the characters or the story than the original creator. If you need further illustration, read up on the debate on the reaction of Joss Whedon’s portrayal of Black Widow in Age of Ultron.

Who should have the power of character interpretation? As with my personal example, I’ll have to accept the fact that I share that power with my readers. Readers will always have their own personal attachment to characters that we can’t and shouldn’t take away. In a sense, how a person feels about a character (think Cumberbatch’s Sherlock) is something that belongs to the reader; fans even give this the term “feels.”

An author can’t demand to take that away. However, a reader shouldn’t be overly upset if their view of the character is different from the author’s canon. As in, I hope people aren’t mad that Ilsi and Reshma are heterosexual, but just share a deep, sisterly bond.

As writers/creators, we will face a larger issue of catering to a demanding audience. As in, when the fans says they want a certain character, genre, or whatever, we should still create the things we want to create. If consumers want these things so badly, they can become creators, too. They can fill the gaps they see, just like creators do.

How Can We Find Compromise?

We want readers to like our stuff, of course. Here are some things I’ve noticed other writers/creators do that keep good vibes between writers and readers.

1. Be neutral about the fandoms’ reactions. I personally think it’s great when a book, TV show, movie, or song can create discussion and debate. It means that it moves beyond entertainment to inspiration. People are thinking about your work. It’s every high school literature teacher’s dream.

Sometimes fandoms get too weird with their theories, character pairings and further plot analysis. But why pull the plug on it? It’s an unyielding beast that can’t be tamed anyway, so might as well let it hype up the interest factor of your content. It will make others curious and curiouser.

2. Don’t listen to haters/trolls. they wouldn’t know good content if it punched them in the face. I don’t know why, but some people just really enjoy using the Internet to make others miserable. Don’t focus on them because they aren’t buying your stuff and therefore are not worth your time.

3. Attempt diversity. If you feel so inspired, take some steps out of your comfort zone—for the good of the plot, of course. Someone will appreciate your point of view and what you’re trying to add to the story. It always helps to do some research and ask for beta reader critiques to avoid as much contention or misrepresentation as possible.

4. Write what you know. You shouldn’t have to feel the pressure to write about something that doesn’t interest you or isn’t a particular strength. For example, I might not depict homosexual characters in my novels—not because I hate them, but I wouldn’t know the first thing about portraying them correctly or justly. But I am aware of lots of indie authors who have that taken care of and will do a better job.

As for my strengths, I want to create strong male and female characters—I want to appeal to other feminists because that’s what I want to see in my own works.

What are your thoughts on this debate? How do you balance out writer and reader relationships and stay true to your initial designs?

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