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Tag Archives: harry potter

My Top Ten Favorite Books

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in About Me

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Books, ebooks, harry potter, Harry Turtledove, Jim Butcher, top ten, top ten favorite books


Good evening everyone!

As an author, it is important to learn about your own likes and dislikes in literature so that you can create a product that you and your readers will enjoy. My own novel (soon to be published!) is actually fairly unique in the ‘world’ of the book category, but I believe that every author was, first, a reader. Here are my top ten favorite books.

10. In the Balance by Harry Turtledove – I love the entire series, but it blends together realistic characters and components of WWII with a distinct sci-fi alien invasion. Sounds unbelievable, but done so magnificently that you wonder if you should root for the nazis or the aliens.

9. Storm Front By Jim Butcher – Another beginning of a series type of book, but Mr. Butcher’s style and cynicism really bring urban fantasy into the forefront. It’s gritty, down to earth, not your teenage daughter’s type of zombie, vampire, and wizard novel. Mr. Butcher’s style of writing is one I admire and enjoy.

8. Conquerors’ Pride by Timothy Zahn – is an older novel that threw humanity against an alien force. An entire war breaks out because of a simple misunderstanding. Great read, realistic characters and plausible situations mean that you wonder if it could happen when/if we are faced with a first contact occurrence.

7. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – You know it, you’ve seen it, if you haven’t, I highly recommend checking the book out before the series. The series is awesome, but the book has way too many subplots to be included in the television show. He definitely rocked my world with his willingness to kill every single character I started to like!

6. Guns, Germs, and SteelBy Jared Diamond – It was required reading for me in my high school AP World History class, and became one of my favorite reference and support books. A great background book that describes why the world developed as it did, and why the Aztecs weren’t running around wielding muskets when the Spaniards landed.

5. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – Iconic, lovable, our childhood in a neat little box. What more can be said?

4. Off Armageddon Reef By David Weber – An excellent series that melds 17th century technology with futuristic human-know how. Nearly made the top three, but the other one edged it out because of a week book number 3.

3. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless By Jack Campbell – Yes, another sci-fi space opera – bear with me here, it’s the last one I swear! And definitely one of the best.

2. Wheel of Time Saga by Robert Jordan – This was my first epic fantasy novel, and boy did I have to persevere. But the story has stuck with me, and I’ve reread all (now 12) books of the series again… and again.

1. Percy Jackson By Rick Riordan – Young adult totally claims the top spot against the field. Mixing mythology, growing up, and lots of action, this series and the Lost Hero ‘secondary’ series are truly my favorite books (at this time in my life, who knows where I’ll be in a year!)

There you have it folks. What are your top ten books?

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The Illustration Conundrum

04 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Advertising, Alternate History, Illustrations, Questions, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Self-Publishing, Young Adult

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

arts, harry potter, illustration, illustrations, money, new authors, Novel, page illustrations, Reading, roman, Scott Westerfeld, steampunk, writing


To Illustrate or not to Illustrate, that is the (expensive) question!

To begin, I’ve always loved chapter books with illustrations. They breathe life and culture and feeling into a story. Sometimes, I wish to high heavens that Harry Potter books had come with full page illustrations every couple of pages. Not every page mind you, even just one per chapter would have been awesome. Obviously, the style of your book has to lend itself to illustrations. Personally, I think all books could use them in one form or another.

But Wait! You cry. “I have my own created image of what this world looks like, why should someone else make it for me?”

Someone else already has, if the book you are reading has cover art. From the moment you open a book, your mind is building the world that you are reading. The cover (to me) is like the section in a library – Does it have dragons on the cover? Trigger the fantasy imagination component of your mind. Man waving a french flag with a musket? Activate the Three Musketeers and Napoleon memory centers! Illustrations in a book are a way of guiding the reader’s imagination, like mileposts or markers on an old trail. The trail is laid out for you, but you are making the journey. The markers guide you, even shape some of the world for you. But illustrations are expensive, and only the most well paid authors or those with a great amount of extra money to use, those who have won the family/friend lottery (Hey, wanna illustrate my book? I’ll pay you in pizza!) can truly fill a novel book with illustrations. Even Scott Westerfeld of steampunk fame doesn’t have illustrations on every page.

 

So what is a new/upcoming author to do if they want illustrations. There are a few options.

1.) Sell your firstborn (Just kidding!)

2.) Compromise – Have only a few illustrations that are super critical.

3.) Never have any illustrations and pour that extra money into cover art or extra promotional things.

Of these, option two is the best, and really the only option, that makes the best sense if you have the money for illustrations. As a visual person myself, I love having maps in my book. If your story is going somewhere, have a map! They make great interior covers, and can break up a story neatly into chunks if that is what you need. In my book, I have plans for two maps – one of the entire continent of Europe, and the other of my semi-fictional city of Brittenburg.

My plan for Brass Legionnaire is to have two illustrations that are critical to the story and really tie into the theme and idea of my world. Not only can I have them in the book, but I can get enlarged ones as posters and other things to use as freebies and contest prizes. Theoretically I could sell them eventually too, but I like the idea of having control of a limited number of them in really nice form. Those in the book would be black and white, while the promo ones would be full color.

I suppose I could lay down a pretty penny for one illustration per chapter, but maybe I’ll save that for the omnibus (in the far, far future!) Of course, if you want to make it happen, check out my Kickstarter project and donate. I don’t have much time left on it, and I’m sort of sad that it won’t likely happen, but I’m excited to still have the chance to share the book with you guys regardless!

Ciao!

 

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