Month: August 2012

Review – iFeel by Marissa Carmel

A review of the novel iFeel by Marissa Carmel – Part of her book’s blog tour!


Hi all,
I’m doing my first blog tour here and featuring Marissa Carmel’s novel iFeel. I know what many of you are thinking – Daniel, you write historical alternate history with a decidedly non-magical flair, what are you thinking? – Well first, I wanted to review something different, and two, just because I write that now doesn’t mean I always write that. Plus, I enjoy reading a variety of novels, so this one was a good pick for me.

Alivyanna Christianni is one of those people with too much emotion and too little control. As she slides between one near-breakdown to the next, fate throws a new wrench into her otherwise isolated and lonely life. As though she needs a new problem. Liv is being hunted by a spirit walker, a big-old-nasty thing that enjoys sucking souls out of people for food and fun. After a terrifyingly near-death attack, she meets her savior and protector, Justinian, or Justice. As Justice tries to get Liv to realize who and what she really is, she fights her own battles on the inside, waging between love, hatred, disgust, and acceptance, leading up to an excellent stopping point for the next novel in the series.

The Good: The novel was quick and had little downtime, the scenes were well described and the world was both involved and believable. The characters are realistic, even if the story behind them is somewhat supernatural. I’ll admit, I figured, for a while, that vampires would feature prominently into this story. But they don’t, barely being a blip on the radar screen. I really liked the Seraphs, semi-angelic humans who are supernatural and have gifts, as well as the involvement of other types of supernaturals. Too often we focus on one type in a story, when mythology and history are full of many, many different types of supernatural entities.

The Bad: There are times when you go “what just happened?” and you go back to reread and it still doesn’t make sense. The flow throws you out and you get confused. Also, some of the sayings the author uses are just… Here’s a good example “It was like an A/B conversation she could C into.” Liv’s mind is sarcastic, but it’s a tad bit overdone in this aspect. Oh, I admit I also didn’t really like how some words were emphasized like THIS but in completely different font. Maybe I’m a finicky reader, but little things like that detract from a story’s experience. Liv is never really the master of her emotions and lets them lead her around by the nose, but that’s what happens when you are an Empath and that’s your skill, so I can’t fault her for it.

Overall: Good story, engaging. Definitely for the fans of supernatural books and shows. People Who enjoyed Vampire Diaries or Twilight will enjoy this book, but don’t read it expecting vampires, and Liv at least has some capacity to think for herself when she isn’t overwhelmed by emotions. 3 1/2 stars in my book.

You can purchase her book, iFeel (The Vis Vires Trilogy) for $4.99 and check out her website here.

Where and How I Write

In case you were wondering how a full time teacher manages to write, here’s a quick look inside my writing time.


Greetings all, and thanks for checking back in. I know it’s been a rather warm summer, and I just got back from a two week vacation/moving out party for my brother, who has been studying abroad in Tokyo for the last year.

English: Meiji Shrine Tokyo, JapanNeedless to say, two weeks in a country where you don’t speak the language can be both terrifying and enlightening. Just depends on whether you ordered the right food or not! (s’cuse me, I did not order the live squid with red bean paste filling, I ordered that eggy looking thing over there…. oh, that’s sea urchin ovaries? no thanks, I’ll have the rice.) Anyways, I thought that the ‘where and how I like to write’ post would be best done right now, as it’s a wonderfully quick and easy posting. Simply put, I write everywhere when I can and as much as I can – being a full time teacher during the school year, you can’t be picky, although I do tend to prefer weekends. I don’t normally set a word count per day, but a general ‘be at this many pages by such and such date’ instead.

Not specific enough for you?

Okay, I start by outlining my book in a journal/notebook that I picked up from Barnes and Noble. I find it slightly funny that something from B&N gave birth to something that is now carried in their online store. Usually I do a ‘whole book in one page’ type thing, then I go chapter by chapter. I know some authors do a lot of outlining. Outline this story arch or that. I can’t do that, nor do I have the patience to do that. I’ve done much of it in my head already. Did I mention that I tend to like writing late at night, with some dramatic music on? Personal favorites are from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack or other classical musical masterpieces. Although a few modern hits do show up from time to time. Hopefully my neighbors don’t think I’m slightly insane!

ShinkansenOnce I’ve outlined the chapters, I type them up. Sometimes I’ll refer back to my notes and sometimes I won’t. I’m fortunate enough to own both a mega desktop mac and a smaller laptop, so I took the laptop on my vacation and discovered that train rides are an AWESOME time to get stuff done. Between five airline flights, and probably a dozen train trips, I added around 10,000 words to Copper Centurion. I also sketched out the entire book in my notebook. You see, sometimes I’ll only outline the first half, then wait until I reach that point to continue the rest. I’m constantly tweaking and changing my story arcs. While the trains and planes may be loud, its loud white noise, not talking and cell phones, so I can concentrate. Otherwise, I need the music or silence to really focus on whats going onto the page.

After I finish writing this time, it’s off to the beta testers. I’ve been a lot busier this summer (even without a full time job) so I’m still only about halfway through CC, whereas last year I had finished Brass Legionnaire by this time. Goal is to finish it by end of October, and then let my beta readers have at it all of November. If you’re interested, PLEASE let me know, the more the merrier!

Oh, and I’ll be posting some lovely photos of the new digs later on for your voyeuristic enjoyment. But only if you are nice!