IRONHAVEN by Misa Buckley

June 29th, 2011 Decadent Publishing
novella length e-book
ARC copy (PDF)

Important Stats
Genre Sci-Fi Romance
Re-Readable yes
Recommend to a Friend yes
If This Book Were a Movie it would be the big budget end-of-the-world movie with soaring music scores, dark setting, and possibly Liv Tyler. Possibly Michael Bay or J.J. Abrams would direct, although Jos Whedon would make it even better.


The Blurb
The Earth is dying, and Lucian Hoyt is going to die with it thanks to his parents cancelling his pass aboard the last shuttle off the planet. There is hope, though – a brilliant inventor has come up with a plan to build a ship to evacuate those who’ve been left behind.

That inventor turns out to be Genevieve Scott, Lucian’s bitter ex-fiancée. If they’re going to work together to get off this planet, they need to put their past aside, but even melting the ice between them can’t erase all the scars.


The Author Interview

IRONHAVEN is your first major work to be published. How does it feel to have this in print?

Misa: Awesome, and slightly surreal

1 - Can you tell us, briefly, what IRONHAVEN is about?

Misa: Second chances at the end of the world, lol

2- And why did you decide to write this story? What was the inspiration for a story that's part steampunk and part science fiction?

Misa: Originally it was supposed to be on an alien planet that was cut off from Earth, hence the Steampunk. It was still in the planning stages when I saw the sub call from Samhain. There was less than a month until the call closed, but I decided to write it anyway.

3 - IRONHAVEN (which I have read and love!) is about the humans left behind when the last spaceships leave. Those abandoned by technology know their planet is dying, they've all but given up hope. What did you originally plan for the story?

Misa: Pretty much the same thing, except the humans were supposed to escape BACK to Earth, rather than away from it. I think the most interesting difference is the relationship between Lucian and Gen - originally they were supposed to be together, but in the published version they've been separated for 5 years.

4 - Do you like that twist?

Misa: I do, yes, because it reveals more about Lucian's past and his relationship with his parents.

5- Did it change the dynamics of the story to give those characters so much history?

Misa: Changing the story changed the relationship dynamics, rather than the other way around. I had to come up with a reason for Lucian leaving Gen.

6 - Interesting. On to the personal questions. What's your favorite part of this book?

Misa: Wow. Um. I think Gen's reveal of her scars and Lucian's reaction. It was one of the very first scenes that I wrote, and I really loved him by the end of it.

7 - Are you planning a sequel for IRONHAVEN?

Misa: I'm not, no.

8 - Could we bribe you to write a sequel? I make excellent cookies? :o)

Misa: Well, I never say never (because that's a surefire way of poking the muse) but I've no sequel planned. I do have a lot of OTHER stuff to write, though. *eyes WIP list*

9 - What's the next big thing readers can except to see from you?

Misa: Well, if I don't finish my paranormal Western before the year's out, I have an erotic Steampunk novella out early 2012.

We looks forward to seeing them both!


Author's Favorite Excerpt

The run-down laboratory on Fifth Avenue didn’t so much sit next to the building beside it as lean against it for support.

Lucian stared at the corrugated iron roof and the boarded-up windows in some disgust. He’d not expected this when Drew had explained about the female inventor who, with the government gone and her usual work dried up, now repaired heaters in between designing a starship that ran on alternative fuels. He couldn’t imagine how she did anything in the hovel in front of him.

I wouldn’t house a dog in such a place. He walked over to the ill-fitting door. His knock echoed hollowly. He waited…and waited.

Did he have the right address, or was the woman just was not awake? It was early morning, but not so much that anyone should still be in bed. At least, not in his opinion, but he supposed the inventor might have a different one. He knocked again with as little result. He sighed and glanced around. A passing couple spared him a quick look but didn’t say anything. Still he felt oddly conspicuous, as if he was doing something he shouldn’t be.

He tried the handle. It turned easily. Okay, then. Pulling it open, and wincing at the screech of the hinges, Lucian poked his head through the gap. “Hello? Is anyone home?”

A faint shout came from somewhere within the tangle of machinery and littered benches. Taking it as an invitation, Lucian stepped in out of the cold and wandered around the laboratory. Most of the benches groaned under the weight of a variety of heaters, all in various stages of assembly or disassembly—Lucian wasn’t sure which—but there was one given over to an intricate, clockwork-driven device that he could not make head nor tail of. He picked up a roll of paper and unwound it to find a blueprint. That made no sense either.

He shook his head: he’d been to university and had education in every science and theory going, but the level of intelligence indicated by the blueprint was still far beyond him.

Putting the roll down, he called again. “Hello?”

“One moment.”

Her voice was husky; mid-range feminine with a hint of smoke. It also carried a note that Lucian thought he recognised yet couldn’t quite place. A shadow shifted on the opposite wall, shortening as she came into the laboratory, nose buried in a thick book.

She wore leather trousers spotted with burn marks and grease, and a tightly-fitted blouse under a heavy apron. Her hair was swept up and gathered into a loose bun atop of her head, and the hands that held the book wore gauntlets. She looked up and her mouth dropped open, her eyes widening in shocked recognition.

“Lucian?” she said in barely more than a whisper.

He could only stare. It had been so very long since he’d last seen this woman. Long enough that it had taken seeing her face to identify her fully. Five years too long.

AUTHOR BIO

Misa Buckley is a sci fi geek who escapes the crazy of raising five children by creating imaginary worlds. She loves character-driven stories that have romance, adventure and really hot sex.

When she's not writing, you'll find her watching Stargate SG1 and lusting over Ba'al. She has a thing for bad boys in black leather.

Website: misabuckley.com
Twitter: twitter.com/MisaBuckley
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/misa.buckley

DUTY AND DEVOTION Winner!

There were only four people who entered. I was worried until I learned Edwin was bribing people not to enter. He desperately wants this book!

I don't think he can rig the Random.org random number generator. Really, he can't. I called them to check. But A.R. Norris and I don't count as entries that means our winner is....

EDWIN!!!

ETA: We did have two late entrants, and I apologize I didn't see you in time. Thank you for commenting!

Ripping Your Book and Shredding Your Cover

This is the tale of two covers, of my fear of self-published work, of loss, of love, but ultimately of finding a great author by a long and confusing route.

FACT 1: I love Lindsay Buroker's writing style and her books. I am over-the-moon excited about the new book coming out later this year. I think she's a super person, and I'm still picking on her. She gave me permission, so if this sounds snarky, understand it's written with love and you should all go buy her books Right Now!

*waits for you to finish buying*

Ready?

All right.

This tragic tale starts with the Kindle App on my smartphone, a really bad experience with a few self-published novels, and a fear of getting burned again.

I'd just finished a ho-hum book and I was perusing the Kindle "You Might Like..." list for a new title when a cover didn't load.

Usually, a cover sells a book for me. If I see naked bodies, I tend to skip. If I see spaceships and explosions, I'm already reaching for my wallet. Rippling pectorals sell (of course!), but they won't always sell to me. The other thing that doesn't sell is a cover that looks like it was cooked up in the basement by your teenage brother.

I read the first three sentences of the blurb for ENCRYPTED -the book with the unseen cover - and downloaded the sample.

WHAT LINDSAY DID RIGHT: She had good sample chapters. Three whole chapters that hooked me into the story.

WHAT I SAW: When I read I have three things I look for. 1) Character 2) Setting 3) Voice or Tone - I stumbled over the character names, but I liked the setting, and I liked the Voice. The FMC was a cute semi-awkward prodigy who fit the Ugly Duckling Outcast archeotype to a T. She was someone I could relate to, and someone I was willing to read about.

I bought the book.

The cover showed up.



Like I said, I adore Lindsay, but I really don't get what the guy is doing here. He doesn't look anything like I pictured any of the male characters. I can guess who he's meant to be, but what's with the expression? Weird.

Then I read the blurb... I won't put it here because it ruins the story. I wish I could have scrubbed the blurb from my mind!

Three-quarters of the book is spent with the FMC trying to figure out the true identity of Prisoner Number Five. Why read the book if the major source of tension is taken away before you buy?

WHAT LINDSAY DID WRONG: The cover needs a touch up. In fact, last time we chatted she was already looking for an artist. Her later books (FLASH GOLD and ICE CRACKER II) have much better cover art. The second bungle here is the blurb. It gives too much of the book away and if I'd read it in full and see the cover I never would have bought the book.

BUT IT'S A REALLY GOOD BOOK: ENCRYPTED is exactly the sort of sweet romance I love to read. The FMC, Tikaya, is kidnapped by an enemy nation and falls in love with the enigmatic Prisoner Number Five. There is treason, deception, funny lines, and plenty of explosions. It's a perfect fantasy/steampunk novel.

SO I BOUGHT BOOK 2: And the cover was quite pretty.


And I read the first two pages and screamed, "What was that???"

I'd read those pages before. The horrible, awful. no-good, very-bad, impossible-to-pronounce-might-be-a-girl name in a confusing winter setting where nothing was happening.

This was not new reading. This was, "I already threw you against a wall!" reading.

So I checked the cover again and lo, and behold, the older cover shimmered into existence on my Kindle.


I HATE THIS COVER: More to the point, I'd already downloaded the sample chapters onto my Kindle three times. I liked the blurb, but the cover and opening pages had three strikes against it. I couldn't even pronounce the main character's name (still can't - I call her Am). I couldn't picture the setting from the cover or the first page. And I wasn't sold on the Voice or Tone.

I bought the book anyway.

I'd liked ENCRYPTED. I like Lindsay's style. I was willing to give her another shot.

And, you know what?

I LOVE EMPEROR'S EDGE!

Clever characters, intriguing situations, scary monsters, and a complex villain. This isn't just a good book, it's a book I wind up thinking about while I'm running at the gym. I stop to reread this book on a bad day because I love the world Lindsay created.

It's so good I hunted her down and demanded answers about the ending question. And she promised me the answer is coming in Book 2. I bought all the short stories that go with EMPEROR'S EDGE just so I could glean a clue or two.

SO WHAT WENT WRONG?: The original cover for EMPEROR'S EDGE screams SELF-PUBLISHED in big, blinking, neon letters. I've read self-pub books with beautiful sample chapters that fall apart on chapter five. They have a special name: CONTEST BOOK.

Too many of the self-pubbed slush out there isn't ready for prime time. I cringe when I see the reviews that say, "Pretty good if you ignore the grammar and spelling errors. Five stars!"

It doesn't matter if you are self-published, you never want to look like you threw your book together in five minutes or less. Always make the cover professional. Always make the copy inside professional.

I don't care if you are selling the book for 99 cents. If you're selling you owe it to yourself to make the book good.

THE NEW COVER SOLVES THE PROBLEM: Personally, I think the new cover is beautiful. It works well for the story. But even more important, the work inside the cover is professional.

Lindsay didn't cut corners. She didn't rush to self-pub to make millions overnight, or because every agent on the face of the planet told her she should never write again. Steampunk is still stumbling into mainstream acceptance. It's not a huge genre, and it's not widely published by traditional or Indie presses.

In this case, I think Lindsay's work is good enough that she could have been picked up by a traditional publisher if that's what she wanted, but I see her reasons for going the self-pub route.


CONCLUSION: I love this series. I'm anxiously awaiting the new book. I hope Lindsay keeps writing. And I've learned not to judge a book by its cover!

-- You can find Lindsay at her blog E-Book Endeavors and on Twitter as @GoblinWriter --

How hot do you like it?

Since Jamie DeBree, the guest-blogger on Monday, is a romance writer, and since several of the people reading are from the SFR Brigade, I thought I'd ask:

How hot do you like it?

Sweet? Spicy? Mild? Wild? What heat level turns your hard-earned cash into a nice hot book?

Where Did All the Hardy Boys Go?

Back when my friends were reading Nancy Drew I picked up a copy of the Hardy Boys (from a friend's older brother). I recall reading a Tom Swift novel once, when I was about seven.

Yesterday I read the interesting article Sell the Girls. This morning I read about six-year-old girls being forced into a hyper-sexualized situations by media and advertisements.

Color me annoyed.

On one hand we have Disney pushing super-sexy Tinkerbell in her ever-shrinking-skirt to little girls in the hopes that this Halloween some pedophile will be very happy to give your daughter candy.

Looked at from the perspective of a mother of two girls, I love Maureen's article! Give me strong female protagonists! Give me fiction for girls! Show my daughters that they can be more than automaton boot polishers!

I do agree with Maureen here:

Perhaps we still need to consider the fact that female stories are consistently undervalued, labeled as “commercial,” “light,” “fluffy,” and “breezy,” even if they are about the very same topics that a man might write about. If we sell more, it is simply because we produce candy—and who doesn’t like candy? We’re the high fructose corn syrup of literature, even when our products are the same. It’s okay to sell the girls as long as we have some men to provide protein.

I have exhausted the nutritional metaphor.

I’ve benefited from some of these strange misapprehensions, even if they drive me insane. I’m not claiming I’m starving. I’m awfully lucky to make a living doing what I do. But as a lover of books and someone who supports readers and writers of both sexes, I object to the idea that there is a crisis in terms of boy books. And maybe we should do boys the favor we girls received—a reading diet featuring books by and about the opposite sex. Clearly, it must work.

She's right. I grew up on a variety of male-written stories. I survived.

But I have son now. And I look at the bookshelves and I see... what? His choices are between Twilight and The Hulk?

Should I want my son to grow up to be a sparklepire like Edward?

Maybe I could get him to read some Ally Carter. Zac Goode and W.W. Hale the Fifth are nice boys, but they're pretty two-dimensional stock characters. No drama. No real emotion. No real arc. Just Hot Boys Here To Rescue You.

I've read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles to me girls. Princess Cimorene is intelligent, brave, clever, and adventurous. The perfect role-model for my girls.

But there's a void for boys.

We've taken the 1990's Grrl Power! to such an extreme that there aren't good role models left for the boys.

A quick scan of the leading boy-oriented stories give you this list of role-models: misogynistic man-whore, alcoholic psychotic, socially inept neurotic, orphan with authority issues, angsty emo-kid, future wetwork artist, a thief, a known assassin, and the brainless wonder (Iron Man, Wolverine, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Edward Cullen, Zac Goode, Hale, Jason Bourne, Jacob the Werewolf and five billion other cardboard characters just like him).

Gosh. What's a mother to say?

Maybe: Over My Dead Body.

When the best role-models for boys are an ogre and Jimmy Neutron, there is a problem.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong stores. Maybe I'm the one who can't see past the advertising for boys that pushes them toward aggressive neanderthal behavior.

All I want is an updated version of the Hardy Boys.

I want books about Boy Scouts, not Bad Boys. Give me a book about Prince Charming that my son can relate to. Give me some good YA sci-fi where the boys aren't shown as either brutal killers (Ender's Game) or mindless peons meant to be trashed by the girls.

You tell me: Where are the good books for growing boys? What do I need on my shelf for my son?

No, I didn't like your book. Here's why...

I consider myself a pretty tolerant reader. I like samplings of most genres. I enjoy everything from non-fiction to pure comedy. I'm willing to give new authors a chance. But in the past month or so a few authors have stretched the limits of my generous nature and forced me to walk away from their books.

If you recognize a favorite book in this list of sins, I'm sorry, we have different tastes.

Problem 1: You horribly, and graphically, torture someone and it has no affect on the plot.
True, sometimes torture is a good plot device. A character is horribly wronged, and now the other characters are galvanized (or shamed) into action. If you horribly torture a character in three-chapter detail and it changes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, you need therapy.


Problem 2: You spent the first two chapters of the book telling us how much the main character needs to get laid. You spent pages detailing how beautiful they are. But the book has zero romance for anyone.
You've just wasted whole minutes of my time telling me this person is fantastic, but the book is about their cool computer? Maybe you shouldn't have fired your editor.


Problem 3: You derailed a conversation/fight scene to detail the history of an interesting point in three pages of loving detail.
The sentence you wanted was: For the past [x-number] of years the [cool thing] had allowed [species] to [do cool things].

See? ONE SENTENCE!!! I really don't need to know the who or why behind the cool invention. I just need to know it works. Let's move on...


Problem 4: I need a flow chart to keep track of your minor characters and their alliances.
Double-crossing is awesome. Minor characters are great. There is no excuse for introducing seventeen new names as minor characters in chapter thirty. I should not ask why this person shot that person after chapter ten. I should know the characters well enough to understand their motivations. Don't leave me guessing.


Problem 5: Your phenomenally intelligent and astute main character is also stunningly beautiful but complete unaware that s/he is making heads turn everywhere they go.
It's called the Mary Sue test. Know it. Use it. Love it. If you fail, rewrite.

Honestly, if your MC is an Ugly Duckling, I really don't care. I don't care if they have three heads and orange snot dripping from their nose unless it's relevant to the plot. If you mention your character's physical traits more than once a chapter, there better be a very good reason.


Problem 6: You kill all suspense by force feeding the plot to the reader.
If I can guess the ending by chapter three, you haven't done your job right. I don't care if this is a romance, a murder mystery, or the latest space opera, I don't want to know how it ends until I read the last page. Don't have your villain detail his/her dastardly plot in the prologue. Don't give me the last chapter as a teaser in chapter one (unless you have the most amazing twist ever up your sleeve). Just.... don't!

I'm reading this book to explore the world and meet new people. Let me enjoy the exploration.

Good, Better, Best Why I Read the Books I Do

Why do I read?

Truth be told, I'm a word addict. Anything that looks like a language I might be able to decipher I will read. If it's lying there, uncovered, it's as tempting as a huge slice of chocolate cake dumped on my plate after dinner. How am I supposed to say no?

There might be words I avoid reading. Like any good dieter I know my weakness, and I don't allow certain reading material in my home because I know that, if it's there, I will read.

From time to time I stumble upon brand new books. Gifts, prizes, or random orphans from family trips and charity events I bring these books home, give into temptation, and read with wanton abandon. You'll see me post about various titles through the year. I have my own code, so to speak. My own way of rating every book. Here it is:


Forgettable: The worst thing that can be said about a book is that it is forgettable. This is the book that I start reading with every good intention, put down because RL interferes, and I forget to pick it up again. The book was so uninspiring that I simply forget I'm reading it. Ouch.



Okay: These are the books that I can read, enjoy while I read, but I walk away from. They aren't bad books, they just aren't special. I can probably remember the main plot points, possibly the main characters name, but this isn't a book I'll reread or give to friends.
Example: Siddhartha



Pretty good: When I finish a book and say, "That was pretty good," it's really a high compliment. It means I might reread this book if I'm in the right mood. I might recommend this book to a friend who I think will enjoy the plot.
Example: Most of Shakespeare


Really Great: This is a fantastic book that I can pick up and enjoy at any time. I don't have to be in the right mood or hunting for a certain flavor of book, this piece satisfies every time I open it.
Example: Coredlia's Honor by Louis McMaster Bujold


The Best: These are the books that seduce me from across the room. If I see them lying around I'll stop what I'm doing to read. I probably have most of this book memorized. I know every detail of the main character's life and know the birthdays of all the minor characters. Walking away from the book, I can remember details. I think about the book. I laugh at the book's jokes even if I haven't read the line in months. I will try to force this book on innocent passers-by because they need to love it too.
Example: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

How do you rate books?

To Be Read

My TBR pile grew by three yesterday, Clone Republic, Orphange, and Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover.

This saves me from trying to finish a treatise on the Founding Fathers of America that was a last resort because I couldn't find Dresden #4.

Yes, my reading is a bit eclectic. This happens. Especially when I have kids home from school sick and I wind up buried under a pile of children wanting to use Mom for a pillow.

Fortunately, the couch is comfy and I can read for hours on end. I can't blog for more than five minutes though. :P Weekly posts will arrive on schedule next week.


What's your TBR pile look like?