TrackerNeil Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 I wanted to make everyone aware that Pauline Ross, of this board and Fantasy Review Barn, has just made available her own novel, "The Plains of Kallanash." I had the honor of beta-reading, and I was pleased with what I experienced: clean, crisp prose, a distinctive setting, and a focus on characters that is too seldom seen in fantasy fiction. It's worth a read, for sure. You can find it on Amazon, and Pauline has also posted free chapters and supplementary materials on her writing blog. Give it a try; you'll be glad you did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Well, at $0.99 I suppose there's no reason not to give it a try. I purchased a copy, but I don't know when I'll be able to get around to reading it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Neil, thanks so much for the shout-out and the kind words. The price will be low until the end of September, and it's also in the Kindle Unlimited scheme so you can borrow for free. Myshkin, thanks for the purchase! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinrei Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Congratulations, Pauline! It's always exciting if someone you "know" publishes a book. I always try to give books by forum members a look.A question: I have visited your homepage and you have some material on your world...but no map. Can we expect a map? Or is this not planned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Congratulations, Pauline! It's always exciting if someone you "know" publishes a book. I always try to give books by forum members a look. A question: I have visited your homepage and you have some material on your world...but no map. Can we expect a map? Or is this not planned? Thanks! There's no map at present, or at least nothing more than some scribbles on the back of an envelope. With this book, there isn't really much need for a map. With future books, set in other parts of the same world, it will be nice for readers to know how each part connects with the rest, so I might perhaps get a map drawn up. Since I'm severely artistically challenged, it would have to be by a professional artist (read: expensive). So, not yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 Thanks! There's no map at present, or at least nothing more than some scribbles on the back of an envelope. With this book, there isn't really much need for a map. With future books, set in other parts of the same world, it will be nice for readers to know how each part connects with the rest, so I might perhaps get a map drawn up. Since I'm severely artistically challenged, it would have to be by a professional artist (read: expensive). So, not yet! Speaking as someone whose own book have maps, I sometimes cringe when I open a fantasy novel and am confronted with a map. (I'm a hypocrite in that way.) So no worries on that score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Speaking as someone whose own book have maps, I sometimes cringe when I open a fantasy novel and am confronted with a map. (I'm a hypocrite in that way.) So no worries on that score. And sometimes the map gives away significant parts of the plot (as is the case with 'The Plains of Kallanash'). So - no map yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 And sometimes the map gives away significant parts of the plot (as is the case with 'The Plains of Kallanash'). So - no map yet. I'm now envisioning the Game of Thrones map with a "Red Wedding happens here" arrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 I'm now envisioning the Game of Thrones map with a "Red Wedding happens here" arrow. Lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehol Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 Congrats to Ross.Any reviews up ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 No reviews yet, although a few people have said they would write one. But hey, it's a long book, it takes a while to read. ETA: There's a 4* review up now at UK Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Gilfellon Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 I'm not a fan of books with strong romantic elements....But only because I'm single at the moment......I don't have kindle either, but from what I read of the excerpt it seems pretty good. Better than most self published works and it hasn't been introduced by a sock puppet which is nice :) So how much did it cost you to edit it and make a paperback edition optional as well as kindle? If you don't mind me asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 So how much did it cost you to edit it and make a paperback edition optional as well as kindle? If you don't mind me asking. Thanks for the kind words. I didn't have a structural editor (I relied on my critique group and beta readers for that), so I only paid for proofreading, which cost me £880 (about $1400). The other big expense was the cover art, which cost $400, of which $300 was for the ebook cover, and $100 for the print version cover. I did the formatting myself. Total cost, including ISBNs, proof copies and odds and ends, was around $2,200. To add the paperback version, the extra cost was around $200 (cover art, proof copies and gift copies). Worth it, I think, because you look a lot more professional with both versions. Mind you, I don't expect to sell any paperbacks. The book is stupidly big (must write more succinctly!), and therefore stupidly expensive in print. I should add that it's not necessary to spend anything at all to self-publish. If you have or can learn the necessary skills, or you trade with someone more expert, you can do everything for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 Congrats to Ross. Any reviews up ? I will be reviewing it in due course, and that review will be positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagilki Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 only on Amazon, or is there an alternative e-book store it's available on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 only on Amazon, or is there an alternative e-book store it's available on? It's only on Amazon for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edda van Heefmstra Ruston Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 It's a big book, but a quick read -- I downloaded and read it yesterday, and got other stuff done as well. I'd say it's definitely worth the introductory price, and odds are good that it'll be worth the regular price once that's up. Congratulations to Pauline on publishing, and thanks to you and to Tracker for sharing it. I enjoyed it just fine, and will keep an eye out for the next book. My initial thoughts, covering spoiler points. I don't mean this to sound as negative as it probably does, but somehow I find it easier to describe what I didn't like than what I did. It's not perfect, but I don't think anyone expects it to be. I do think it might have been helped with a structural editor as well, but maybe that's just me. I felt that the entire first section was out of balance, and I never quite bought all of the ease with which characters accepted major changes in lifestyle & society. (But only some of the changes -- I noticed that some of the outcasts were able to reclaim their original names, but not the women in general and not the Companions in particular. They weren't even asked, that I recall. The impression I got is that they're chosen as Companions late enough that they should have grown up with their first name. Some might want to keep their Companion name, but some might like the option to revert to their birth name. It's not like everyone gets a new name upon reaching adulthood, where I could understand a change is a change is a change.) Also, Jonnor sounds like he ought to wear jorts and Hurst starts off as the Nicest Nice Guy to ever Nice, while Mia is a mouse in a way that doesn't really (IMO) develop smoothly into her total-warrior-badass self later on. I like the bones of the story, I like that there are "non-traditional" relationships, I like that there's a reason for a lot of what happens and how characters react. I don't like that nobody seems to question why some hours-dead bodies stay at a constant living-body-temperature, or that Mia seems to invent the threesome and voyeurism and everyone's okay with it, or that the rebellion seems to go off as quickly and easily as it does (especially in such a long book). Presumably this is only the start of it all, so there will be repercussions, but still. Also, the sex scenes just struck me as really awkward. They weren't quite enough to fit into a romance novel / erotica atmosphere, and were a little too explicit to be general fantasy atmosphere. (Not that scenes need to be explicit to make it into romance, just that there should be a little more to prove that the participants are all enjoying it than just "Yeah, that's hot, dude! My turn!") I like that people in the book have sex -- though I wish it were a little more okay for women aside from Mia to also want sex, or okay for people to not want sex, even given that we're among (basically) sex traffickers / sex slavers -- but the actual scenes just felt off-balance as well. The references to how we're in the southern hemisphere felt a little heavy-handed to me as well, but that could be because I only really started noticing them toward the latter part of the book, so they all seemed to come at once. Great, we're not doing post-apocalyptic Europe, barring a total planet flip, but every time fruit gets mentioned, there seems to be a tag-along line about how it only grows in the northern, warmer regions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 It's a big book, but a quick read -- I downloaded and read it yesterday, and got other stuff done as well. I'd say it's definitely worth the introductory price, and odds are good that it'll be worth the regular price once that's up.Congratulations to Pauline on publishing, and thanks to you and to Tracker for sharing it. I enjoyed it just fine, and will keep an eye out for the next book.My initial thoughts, covering spoiler points. I don't mean this to sound as negative as it probably does, but somehow I find it easier to describe what I didn't like than what I did. Thank you so much for the kind words, and also the criticism (all of which I agree with, by the way). I regard this as my wonky first effort. I know the pacing's off at times, I know it doesn't fit into any conventional fantasy style, I know it's not perfect. But I made the decision not to rewrite it, for good or ill. I didn't want to spend years and years working on just one book. I have too many other stories in my head, and it was time to move on. There won't be a sequel, and this isn't part of a trilogy. Subsequent books will be set in the same world, but different parts of it, stand-alone stories with some occasional cross-over characters or artifacts. The next book in the sequence is quite different from Kallanash, much more conventional and (I think) better structured. That will be out early in 2015. Thank you again for reading, and for expressing your thoughts so clearly. Would it be very cheeky of me to ask you to post a review on Amazon? Knowing about both good and bad points is very helpful for potential readers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 This took longer than I intended (I'm working on my own book!) but I finally read and reviewed the published version of The Plains of Kallanash. Hope it's helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulineMRoss Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Neil, thanks very much for your fair and thorough review. Much appreciated. And now back to work on the third Duchess book; can't wait to read it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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