Libraries, Lattes and Art

Okay, I know the title might seem a bit of a mixture, but it WILL make sense...eventually. And there's some valid points. Anyway...

First, a confession. I very rarely go to the library. <ducks hail of sharp objects> This despite the fact that not only does Colchester have a large main library, but also several smaller branches, one just a ten minute walk from my home. You see, I'd rather OWN the books I like to read than borrow them. My groaning book shelves bear witness to this sin of hoarding paperbacks. With my newly discovered love for my Kindle, that problem has been alleviated by my latest books all being digital now (yes, I'm aware there is some debate over whether you actually 'own' a digital copy of a book. I've heard about Amazon deleting titles from Kindle accounts. But that's diverting from my main topic today). In all honesty the last three times I've been to my local library has been to make use of their computers or their free Wi-Fi. Ironically, my last but one visit was to use the free Wi-Fi to register my Kindle, the device now most responsible for my lack of library visits. Other than that, my visits have been for research - to see what speculative fiction titles are around and whether my own works fit in with anything else currently available.

But today is the last day before a week's half term school holiday, so I made a trip into town to enjoy my last morning of freedom. Yes, I should be writing/editing. I will....later. I had errands to run, and two reasons to visit the main library. Firstly, a local artist called Claire Heaton has a small exhibition there. I'm a huge fan of Brian Froud's fairies - the man responsible for the Goblins in Labyrinth and the Gelflings in The Dark Crystal, two of my all-time favourite films. I prefer his version of fairies compared to the Disney variety. They're more elemental in feel. And Claire Heaton's work runs on a similar vein. 

I loved them! Now if only I can sell enough copies of my book to buy one. If you'd like to see some (and Colchester library is outside your range) you can find her at www.claireheatonart.com. 

The second reason I went there was for some research - again.Colchester main library is a large, two storey building, but an awful lot of it is no longer taken up by books. It has a reasonable sized music and DVD selection, a huge childrens' library with play area where they hold story time, a cafe, a heck of a lot more computers than I remember from my last visit, a large room devoted to the history of Colchester (it IS a historic town after all), a small area given over to the display of Claire Heaton's artwork...and the rest is books. Not a huge amount of books, to be honest.


I can understand that to a degree - the library is trying to adapt to changing trends, hence the large number of computers and additions like the cafe. More and more people are doing their research on computers. Ereaders are becoming more popular. The library has got to offer more or sink.


But the speculative fiction section depressed me. Science fiction and fantasy share one entire shelving unit, one side each. Horror also has a side to itself, but a third of that is taken up by urban fantasy/paranormal works. Looking at the science fiction alone, I became even more depressed. Most is hard scifi - dark, techy stuff. Don't have a problem with that - I have and still do read that. There were six Neal Asher books, five of which I already own. One entire shelf was Doctor Who. Star Trek and Star Wars also had a shelf each. Various incarnations of Stargate and Primeval novels shared a fourth shelf. There were no Jaine Fenn books (sob!). No Linnea Sinclair. There were a dozen Anne McCaffrey books, some co-written with her son or another author and none of which I've read - I stopped reading them after the last book in the Crystal Singer trilogy. I could be wrong, but after picking up a few I found the blurbs all read as more Young Adult stories than the adult sfr I'd always associated with her. None of the authors I have gotten to know, read and love since I began the whole publication process were anywhere to be seen. Not so surprising I guess when most of them are published through predominantly digital small press publishers, and in the States too, but it left me feeling a little lost. Maybe I'm too out of touch, at least with the scifi scene in the UK. Maybe because while science fiction romance is fighting for recognition in the US, it's still unheard of here. I couldn't see anywhere on that shelf that I felt my own work would fit in. Not that I have any illusions that I'll be big enough to warrant making a shelf in the library. (Yet. I add the 'yet' as I'm ever optimistic, yet still try to be realistic. That's a balancing act in itself).

The romance section was no better. It had an entire shelving unit to itself, but mostly for a ton of identical looking Mills and Boon style books. Mostly contemporary, a handful of historical. But again, my book wouldn't fit in there.

Out of curiosity (a morbid one at that) I visited my local branch on the way home. Here, all the speculative fiction shares one side of a shelving unit. Doctor Who rated half a shelf (I think the children's library upstairs also has DW titles). Only two Neal Asher books, one of which I own. One Jaine Fenn book (Yay! Although I own all of her titles already). Most of the horror section was again paranormal/urban fantasy. Probably a fair selection for a small local branch, but it left me sighing. So this is one reason I don't go to the library. Now I have a Kindle, I can go to Amazon, check out the blurb and the first few pages if something catches my eye, and have the entire book to devour in a couple of minutes. I just don't have a reason to go to the library. And I feel bad about that, when I've always loved books so much. So much so that I write them too. I just hope the libraries can keep coming up with ways to pull people in. Like the art exhibition and story time for children. Because I would hate to see them go.


Oh, and the latte? My treat for walking into town and back again (a good hour's fast-paced walk) is a coffee at Slice who make a decent cup without charging Starbuck size prices, and with homemade soups to die for. Told you it would all make sense. :-P

Fairies in February Blog Tour - Frances Pauli

Please welcome author Frances Pauli to my blog. :)


If We Shadows Have Offended

I love that monologue. Puck is by far one of my all time favorite fairies, and the speech is doubly appropriate for The Changeling Race. The series features fairies, yes, but there is also an underlying theme about shadows throughout the books. Not so much Peter Pan type shadows, as in those we cast, but more Jungian shadows, as in the things we bury deep inside.
Like most secrets, our shadows have a great deal of power—both for good and ill. But it is the ones that we deny the loudest, that we bury and forget that have the most potential to cause havoc when eventually they sneak out…and they do sneak out. No matter what, they always leak a little.
So in the trilogy, I found my elves really needing a dose of shadow therapy. The whole bloody race needed serious counseling, in fact. I’m not sure where the idea came from. Maybe I had left over angst from old school RPG’s (you know the ones with paper and dice that don’t plug into anything.) I never did like how special the elves were, how much better than humans, how everyone wanted to play the elf. Whatever it was, when I translated my version of “elfishness” onto paper, they came off a bit, shall we say, arrogant?
Conceited? Haughty? Stuck-up? Pick an adjective. The elves that showed up to play in The Changeling Race had a major superiority complex, and I took great pleasure in showing them their shadow.
I’m mean that way.
Still, once the shadow is out and looking you in the face, you can deal with it, right? So I opened up my Elvin past and showed the perfect little buggers just how many flaws they actually had. I enjoyed it a great deal more than they did, you can imagine. A few of them took it better than I’d expected, but the majority pretty much went to pieces. That’s good in a novel. Chaos like that makes for some great plot.
It really was for their own good. I mean, who could live with that kind of pressure? Maybe a great deal of their stiff, Elvin arrogance came from having to live up to our expectations of perfection. I like to think that they’ll be happier in the future, that their attitudes will adjust and the elves of tomorrow—at least in the world of The Changeling Race--might have a softer side.
I can think of a few that will. Those were my favorites, the ones that stood up, dusted off and got over themselves. So maybe, while I was doling out the therapy, some of it leaked over onto me as well. Maybe I got over my elf discrimination as much as they got over their humans are beneath us attitude. That works for me. Because, after all is said and done, I really love them—stuck up or not—and I think we managed to end the series as friends.
Or as Puck would say… “Think but this, and all is mended.”

Thank you so much for hosting a stop on the tour. I am offering a free pdf of any book from my backlist to one commenter today, and for each stop on the tour that you comment on, you will earn one entry into the final drawing for print copies of all three books. Follow along and enter to win!

Bio:

Frances Pauli writes speculative fiction with romantic touches. Her books are published through Mundania Press LLC, Awe-Struck, and Devine Destinies, and her short stories are featured in various anthologies. More information on her worlds and writing can be found on her website and blog, and she offers free online stories, web serials, podcasts there as well.

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Book Blurbs:

A Moth in Darkness

 The boundaries between the worlds have fallen. Forced to integrate the creatures of fantasy into real life, humanity struggles against its disillusionment, prejudice and an inevitable feeling of inadequacy.

Once an agent for the embassy that mediates between the worlds, Elizabeth Larson has abandoned her past and slipped into a world of nostalgic addiction to fairy revels, dancing, and the dark lure of her own memories. But when Lockland Sheen, her former partner and lover, goes missing, she is pulled reluctantly back into service. She must venture once more across the borders, into the land that haunts her, facing a string of gruesome murders, the imposing Sidhe rulers and her own addiction in the process.

While the Embassy’s agents attempt to soothe tensions between the races, Liz and her new partner search the fairy realm for Lockland. Fighting the constant temptation of the revels, they piece together the trail of an unknown enemy. But the longer they follow it, the more it appears that the man they came to rescue is more villain than victim. And the more they rely on Elizabeth’s ties to the fairies, the closer she inches toward the madness that lurks behind her fantasies.

The Fly in Paradise

 Something’s rotten in the Fey lands. While Marcus Bramble tracks the lunatic who started it all, Elizabeth and the crew at the Embassy sort through the evidence he left behind. With Lockland back, and the revels behind her, Liz’s world is slowly returning to normal. But on both sides of the borders, shadow creatures spring out of nowhere, and the dark legends surrounding the fey take on a whole new meaning.

Now time is against them.  On the mortal side of things, protesters rally to close the borders, politicians descend on the Embassy, and something that shouldn’t exist stalks Elizabeth through the city.

Spiders From Memory

 The Seelie court is gone, and the Tower has fallen into darker hands. Now nightmare creatures terrorize the Fey races, and the whole Fey world turns to frost and shadow.

Liz Larson holds the last remnant of the Seelie Sidhe's power. The elves look to her for guidance, but all she has to offer them is the disturbing story of their origin, the final truth that will turn many of them against her. With her dwindling number of allies, Liz needs to reopen the borders, to find the missing Marcus Bramble, and to avoid the sudden, terrifiying attention of the new Fey ruler, the Unseelie Speaker and new master of the Sidhe Tower.

While her friends in Mundanity race to pry open the gates, and Marcus searches for the answer to a puzzle that could save or damn them all, the Unseelie Speaker marches north, bringing his army and his wrath to focus on Elizabeth. What can one, fairy-touched human do in the face of the Unseelie court's full fury? How can she fight when the enemy's anger is only partly blind, when she can see all too clearly the traces of justice behind it?