Angela VanWell

Author | Reader | Traveler | Tea and Coffee Drinker

Urban Fantasy Author

Inspiring Author of the Week: Angela Roquet

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As you know from the previously shared authors, I like a little snark. Action and a brief romance are great, but I need a character I can connect with, which means sarcasm, snark, banter, deadpan humour, etc. I want to smile and laugh while reading a story I am fully engaged in.

Angela Roquet, author of the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. Series provides loads of snark while her protagonist, Lana Harvey meets the minimum requirements as her position as a reaper. Why not? She’d rather hang out with her friends—though really she only has one outside of work, the archangel Gabriel.

Lana is a reaper, created by the Grim Reaper, along with other generations of reapers, to disperse souls to the collective afterlife. Leaving the Grim Reaper more time for management and paperwork. It sounds good on paper, but really the reapers are indentured servants with limited rights. Lana does not see any reason for her to work hard and take extra courses at the Reaper Academy, they have no souls and therefore no afterlife to work towards. All she has to look forward to is more work. I know God will not give me anything

Despite Lana actively working towards mediocrity, she receives a promotion to reap a special soul. A soul capable of solving the overflowing Sea of Eternity issue. Lana, her co-captain and friend Jose, the overachieving Coreen, and their new reaper Kevin collect Mickey’s soul when usually one reaper is more than enough for the job. The stakes increase as dog-faced demons, the same demons Lana has seen with Caim, are also after Mickey’s soul.

A friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Seeing the collective afterlives of multiple religions and the organized chaos of all the souls reaching their afterlives is an interesting idea. A council of deities attempts to work together to ensure souls reach their appropriate destination while dealing with the overflowing Sea of Eternity and the non-believers contained within it. The idea is unique from anything I read before. A little religious philosophy, a tongue-in-cheek bureaucracy in the afterlife, and a reaper they force to deal with it all.

Angela Roquet fills the novel with creative world-building for Limbo and the Sea of Eternity. It does not slow down the pace and provides insight into what might happen to deities who no longer have followers. There are a lot of characters in the cast, but in a book series, that is to be expected. The pace is fast, so it was an easy read. Something to enjoy on a day like today where the power is out in much of Houston and the lack of insulation froze our water lines. Why not enjoy the warmth of the afterlife?

Happy Reading

Inspiring Author of the Week: Ben Aaronovitch

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To be clear, I have not read a single book in the Rivers of London Series, instead they were my introduction to audio books. And once I heard Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s voice, there was no looking back. His voice brought the characters to life and took me into the magical dark underworld of London.

I read Book 1, Midnight Riot, under the title Rivers of London for the version on Audible. My husband prefers to listen to books as he spends so much time in transit, and he urged me to try the series. I gave the audio version a go since he said it was so good. He was RIGHT. It was only the second book I enjoyed as an audiobook. No matter how many books I sampled, I couldn’t get into the story. The narrator’s voice and tone was so different to what my imagination came up with, I couldn’t get into the stories. Maybe it was because I did not read the books, but I think Kobna made the stories his own and I loved the characters voiced by him. Even the villains.

The author, Ben Aaronovitch, clearly spent much of his life in London. His knowledge of the city, the feeling of each of the streets, read true throughout the story. I wish I had listened to the books before visiting London, I would have felt more connected with the city. He also filled the book with British slang, so I learnt so much more about British expectations and idioms. Some were eye opening, he filled the book with adult content. But it fits. It was not excessive, and it made sense in a city filled with dark secrets and a young, single cop who was learning his way around magical London.

“Being a seasoned Londoner, Martin gave the body the “London once-over” – a quick glance to determine whether this was a drunk, a crazy or a human being in distress. The fact that it was entirely possible for someone to be all three simultaneously is why good-Samaritanism in London is considered an extreme sport – like BASE jumping or crocodile wrestling.”

Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

Constable Peter Grant’s goal is to be a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. It does not look like his dreams will ever come true, when a strange case, with a puzzling murder, provides Peter with exclusive information from a witness who only Peter can see. His witness is a ghost. His ability to interact with the dead brings him attention from Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates magical crimes.

The rivers of London are deities, goddesses who interact with their modern world. It was a refreshing take on urban fantasy, a gritty, dark, magical detective procedural. The magical detective story brought two of my favourite genres together while exposing me to the dark underbelly of London as shown by Ben Aaronovitch. Peter is a complex character with an interesting family and upbringing that affects how he sees his world. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the books as much without the narration, but I enjoyed so much, I don’t care. Happy Reading.

“The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn’t set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.”

Ben Aaronovtich, Midnight Riot

My Writing Journey: Pillar 6 Deepening the Plot

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Pillar 6 is all about revising the outline. Just like with a first draft of a book, Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt, authors of Plot Development Step by Step, believe the outline requires revision. Looking at the outline as a whole provides the opportunity to look at pacing, balance of Point of View (POV), as well as ensuring both the internal and external plot lines are clear.

The Revision Chapter, or Pillar 6, is a set of questions to ask yourself while working through the outline. They suggest you go through the manuscript outline chapter by chapter. I do not write or outline in chapters, I write in scenes. So the first thing I need to do is to combine my scenes into chapters and cut a part of the last scene so it can end in a cliffhanger and start the next chapter. It was not too difficult for me to do so because this novella is written from one character’s point of view.

A few of the questions to consider when going through your outline are:

  • Will both the “E” (external) and “I” (internal) plotlines be clear to the reader?
  • Are the subplots paced well and merged with the overall plot? Refer to Pillar 3 for the subplot development.
  • Do all of the POV (Point of View) characters have complete character arcs incorporated in the outline? Refer to Pillar 1 for the Character Arc. Check for a clear positive, negative, or neutral character arc.
  • Has your protagonist(s) struggled enough?
  • Is there a balance of humour and darkness in the story?
  • Are the relationships given the attention needed for the story?

My outline was almost 9,000 words in length by the time I had completed it. I have written to the midpoint at this time, (November 14th, NaNoWriMo is almost half over!) It was a nice buffer to have the outline made and input in my document. I was able to shape many of the statements into scenes, dialogue, settings, so many of the original words are still in place. When writing my outline I am telling the story to myself. So changing it into a manuscript is partially changing the telling into showing. Adding description, reactions, thoughts, dialogue, and action to each of the scenes.

The final Pillar of the book is Pillar 7, revising opening and closing chapters. I have written my opening chapter so I think the exercise will make it a stronger opening, it will be interesting to see how it impacts the closing chapter. I should be 3/4 of the way through writing the book, so I should be writing Act 3 at that time. I look forward to both!

Just get it down on paper, and then we’ll see what to do with it.

Maxwell Perkins

Happy Writing!