Interview with Lory S. Kaufman

Greetings time travelers! Today, author Lory S. Kaufman has agreed to stop by Oktopus Ink to talk about the first book in the Verona History Camp series, The Lens and the Looker, as part of the The Lens and the Looker blog tour. Thanks for joining us today, Lory! Let's get to it.

What inspired The History Camp series?

Since I’ve been 14 and read Lord of the Flies I wanted to write futuristic novels that included young people. (I’m 60 now, so it took me awhile, but that’s another story) What further influenced what’s in my books was my deep involvement in the Green Party movement across North America. Then there’s all the science fiction I’ve read and watched over the years. Put them all together and you’ve got the underlying philosophy of my writing. Of course, the philosophy is the undercurrent. Above that is the most colorful and strong characters I could come up with, all mixed together in an exciting adventure.

The Lens and the Looker is just as much as a historical fiction novel as it is science fiction. Did you initially intent to make the book as educational as it was?

Yes, of course. As a young man I studied art and one of the first lessons I remember was the teacher talking about how an artist has to stretch his or herself, not repeating what they or others have done. While history has been the backdrop to many stories in the past, I wanted to make it more than that. I let the story go where it wanted to, so even more genres got mixed in. History, Science Fiction, dystopian worlds, fantasy and more. As an example of pushing the envelope, instead of just creating another dystopian world, where society has fallen apart, I set part of the series in a time after the bad times, to when the world was finally in harmony. I therefore called my new genre, “post-dystopian” fiction. As far as educational, I’ve been very pleased that reviewers have said that the historical accuracy and descriptions of ancient technologies was not overbearing and they got a history lesson without the lesson.

Lens crafting is the trade that Hansum and his friends learn. have you ever worked with glass or ever crafted glasses?

I can’t remember how lens making came into my mind as the ancient technology represented in the book. I do remember I chose it because it was a great example of a craft that turned into an early science, the science of optics. When I did choose it I then joined my local lapidary club and spent several months learning how to grind and polish lenses by hand. I used an electric lathe, of course, whereas, in the books, they characters use human-powered machines. To research the lathes and the techniques, I corresponded with many researchers, university libraries and museums all over the globe.

Would you ever want to travel back in time, and if so, when and where would you like to travel to?

Wow, wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to time travel? Well, there’s so many places I’d love to go. Of course, Verona in the 14^th century, where my first novel takes place, would be fantastic. Another place would be ancient Mesopotamia, during the reign of King Sargon the Great, the first know king to rule more than a city state or two. He ruled a whole region. That would be interesting because many of the myths and historical happenings of that time are the basis for our old testament that came over 1,500 years later. As well, this is a time that hasn’t been that well explored or written about. Not surprisingly, after I finish the third book of my present Verona trilogy, my next History Camp stories will happen in King Sargon’s time.

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing since I was in grade three. I wrote plays. That continued throughout my teens, where I became a young professional writer and director of children’s plays . . . till I was about 21. Then I went into business, writing on and off throughout my adulthood, through marriage, kids, business failures, successes, marriage breakdowns, etc. I wrote my first book, unpublished, when I was in my 40s, and actually got the idea for History Camp away back in the late 1980s. It wasn’t until I was about 55 that I could afford to work almost full time, to get my skills up and fulfill my life-long dream.

What are some of your favorite books?

Well, this could be a very long list, but I’ll keep it short. As well, let me break this list down by category;

YOUNG ADULT DYSTOPIAN, SF/F

• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (If it was written now, it would include gene manipulation, but this was written away before that. It set the pattern for so much that came after it.)
• Unwind, Scott Westerfield (Not for a young, young adult. Mr. Westerfield creeped me out several times in this book. Well done, sir.)
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Again, not for a young, young adult. The movie was good, the book was friggin’ fantastic. A great example of story arc and keeping the tension tight.)
• The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (the biggest, current phenom, and well deserved)
• Lord of the Flies, William Golding (The book that made me know I wanted to be a writer.)
• The Percy Jackson Series, Rick Riordan (Middle grade but I love it and you can tell.)
• Ender’s Game (and the series) by Orson Scott Card (It’s got little kids as heroes, and it works.)
• Ringworld, Larry Niven (Mr. Niven thinks big and out of the box. In a circle, really. I loved his kooky characters.)
  

GENERAL FICTION

• 1000 Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini (I love this guy’s written voice.)
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway (One of my top five.)
• For Whom the Bell Toles, Ernest Hemingway (My favorite book of all time. He’s the only writer I’m putting in twice. This book informs all my high adventure sequences.)
• City of Thieves, David Benioff (One of my top five in the last 3 years.)
• The Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman (One of my top five in the last 3 years. I love the way he writes his characters in this book. You really know what they’re thinking. This is one of the most perfectly written books of a living writer that I’ve read.)
  

Great list! What were some of the challenges you faced when working on your book?

In the last five years the challenge really wasn’t to keep going, as I’m a person who, once they start a project, feels compelled to finish it. But finding the right editor and publisher was the really tough part. I sent out over 150 queries to agents, publishers and editors and got over 75 rejections. The others didn’t bother to answer. But it only takes one person to “get you”, and that man was Lou Aronica, one of the most experienced SF editors and publishers in the business.

What kind of research did you do to make the world of The History Camp series possible?

I spent over a year doing heavy research, while I was noodling with the story. Hours at the library, online, following up leads by emailing university libraries and researchers. Books and books and more books. And then . . . after the first draft was about done, I went and spent four days in Verona, Italy. What an amazing, small city. What I experienced there put me in the boots of my characters, as I walked through the streets, by the buildings and in the churches that they would have. It clarified so much of the research, and I think, in a large part, is why I’m getting good reviews on recreating ancient Verona.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on the third book in the Verona Series, entitled The Love and the Lost. It’s the last story in this part of the series, but I’ve already started working on the next series . . . and I think some of the young characters in this series are going to be mid-20s in the next. We’ll see.

Sounds exciting! Now, before we wrap up this interview, is there a specific message you wanted readers to take away from your books?

There’s an old North American Native saying that “Every decision made should be good for society for the next seven generations. That was a stone age philosophy. They knew that they had to live within nature, that they were part of nature. Well, the message I really want to be seen in these books is that, modern humans, with our invasive technologies, must make sure every decision we make is a decision whose repercussions must be neutral for the next 10,000 years. After all, if we don’t plan to last a long, long time, we won’t.

Great answers, Lory! Thank you so much for stopping by to chat about The Lens and the Looker and your writing experience. It's been lots of fun!

For those of you interested in learning more about The Lens and the Looker and the History Camp series, please visit Lory's website, http://www.history-camp.com/ or visit http://www.pumpupyourbook.com, the site that arranged the tour.

The Lens and the Looker by Lory S. Kaufman

Title: The Lens and the Looker
Author: Lory Kaufman
Series: The Verona Trilogy #1 (aka A History Camp novel)
Published: Mar. 16, 2011
Publisher: The Fiction Studio
Pages: 336 (paperback)
I received this book as part of the The Lens and the Looker blog tour, in exchange for an honest review.

It’s the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences (A.I.s) have finally created the perfect post-dystopian society. To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan.

In this first of a trilogy, we meet three spoiled teens in the year 2347. Hansum almost 17, is good looking and athletic. Shamira, 15, is sassy, independent and an artistic genius. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck. But you don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to find his insecurities.

These three “hard cases” refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach. But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices; adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die. The dangers are many, their enemies are powerful, and safety is a long way away. It’s hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but that’s exactly what happens. In an attempt to survive, the trio risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history. --Goodreads

The Lens and the Looker is unique in the sense that it’s difficult to label as belonging to a single genre. On one hand, it’s sci-fi. You begin in the 24^th century, where you spend a brief time learning just enough to know that all the kids in a three hundred million populated world are sent back in time as part of their education. Learn from hardships of the past to change the future and all that. But on the other hand, once the main characters are transported and trapped back in time, the book is just as much historical fiction as it is science fiction. Hansum and his friends are exposed to a world without plumbing, hearthcare, and easy transportation in 14th century Italy. The detail put into creating the past was by far the greatest strength of the book, and watching the characters mature to deal with the difficulties of that time period in order to survive was the most rewarding aspect of the plot. The historical fact blended well with the fantasy of the entire novel, and I felt like I was being given a focused lesson in history without actually having to attend class. I especially loved the detail put into explaining the art of lens making. You never see that kind of focus in YA fiction, and the craftsman in me loved it.

As far as action goes, there’s really not much of it. Instead, the book draws you in through the character relationships and everyday drama of life in the 14^th century. There are no real villains, just characters in a position to act out of the need to survive (well, with the exception of one, but to say anymore would mean I'd spoil some stuff for you). But, to be honest, though I liked the characters of the book, I didn’t feel like they stood out. We’re not given much back story about our three heroes, and the chapters sort of bounce around from character to character as needed . It was difficult to seperate Hansum as the main character from a minor character like Ugilino when the emotions of all of the characters were sort of light and didn't go far beyond the surface level, even when dealing with big emotions like love and heartache. It was clear by the end of part one that this was very much a plot driven story. Hopefully we’ll get to know the other main characters (specifically Shamira--who was sort of pushed to the side after she was introduced) in the sequel.

So, if you’re looking for something a very different compared to the other dystopia/post apocalyptic novels out there or in the mood to read the equivalent of watching a History Channel special, I highly recommend you pick up The Lens and the Looker. It was an interesting way to start what looks like will be an awesome series, and I can guarantee that you’ll learn a thing or two as you read through it’s pages. I know I did, and I can't wait to read the sequel!

White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Series: The Curse Workers #1
Published: May 4th, 2010
Publisher: McElderry
Pages: 310 (hardcover)
I purchased this book.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen. --Goodreads

Ok, so my first thought after I finished this book was, “Da-yum, Holly Black wrote this?” Not that I have anything against Holly or anything, but White Cat wasn’t like any of her other work. Though it was dark and charming, it lacked the sort of gritty, under your skin PNR plot that she’s most well known for (think of the Modern Faerie series). But honestly, this feels like her best series yet. Black has created a completely unique magic system that fits into a slightly altered version of our world, with characters that simply thrive in the deception that accompanies it. As a result, most of this book is shrouded in mystery. Awesome, original mystery, like Mafia meets wizarding world kind of mystery. But don’t let the Sopranos vibe scare you off—White Cat is really a story about uncovering the secrets in one’s own family, and having the strength to define yourself even when you don’t fit in.

What I enjoyed the most about the book was Cassel's character. It was a really nice change of pace to read a PNR book (if you would even categorize White Cat as such) with a male main character. Cassel is thoughtful, dark, lonely, loyal, caring, strong—but not in the macho, bad-boy kind of way. I know many authors these days choose to create male leads who have pectorals made of flawless marble with eyes that change color every time they blink, and as a result, we’ve come to expect the bad boy with a heart of gold sort of character in this kind of fiction…which is why I’m happy Holly decided to keep Cassel the way that she did. He felt very real to me. He’s flawed yet likable at the same time, and it made his struggles much more emotionally gripping. It was fun watching him discover what was really happening behind closed doors.

Even though I really enjoyed the book, I wasn't entirely invested in Cassel's story until page 120 or so. There’s lots of back story and explanation about the status of the country with relation to how they deal with Workers. But I can deal, since it all paid off: all of the information that gets fed to the reader paints a very sad backdrop for Cassel (being the only member of his family that isn’t a worker) and the result is you immediately begin to suspect that things aren’t exactly as they seem. Anyway, if you haven’t had a chance to pick up the book, do so. The Curse Workers series is off to an awesome start!

The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway

Title: The Sea of Storms
Author: Mark Whiteway
Series: Lodestone #1
Published: April 12, 2010
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com
Pages: 290 (paperback)
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Alli-Kar, a white-hole portal from another universe, rains meteoroids onto the surface of the planet Kelanni. But the so-called "lodestones" behave according to different physical laws, transforming Kelanni's society.

With the aid of the fearsome Keltar in their flying cloaks, the Kelanni are being put to forced labor to mine the lodestones.

Shann, an orphan with a fiery disposition, witnesses a battle between a Keltar and a stranger bearing a similar flying cloak. She tracks down the stranger, learning of the technology behind the Keltars' power and joining him on a mission to free the slaves and cut off their supply of lodestones.

Meanwhile Keris, a Keltar, is sent on a mission to track down the rebels. She is attacked by a flying creature and saved by the enigmatic Chandara. At their Great Tree, she learns that a mysterious "Prophet" is out to destroy the Kelanni people. Their only hope is a powerful instrument hidden in the distant past.

Pursued by Keltar, the party will encounter bizarre creatures, ancient technologies and terrifying dangers. Finally, they must seek to cross a massive storm barrier in order to reach the other side of their world, where a world-shaking revelation awaits. --Goodreads

One of my favorite things about books is that they have the power to transport the reader anywhere in the world, even if that means transporting them to a different world. Whiteway capitalizes on this power, and uses it to his advantage to bring the reader a creative story filled with crazy animals, gliding cloaks, and star-crossed destiny.

At first, the the book appears to be strictly science fiction. The story takes place in the world of Kelanni--a planet devoid of human life, yet incredibly human at the same time. Its inhabitants are being oppressed by the Keltar, guardians of the Prophet who have abused their power in the name of their savior. But when one of the characters receives an important message from the past, an epic journey begins and the characters embark on a quest to travel beyond the Sea of Storms. In the tradition of J.R.R’s Lord of the Rings, after the quest is received, the plot becomes fast paced and action filed. There is little down time to become bored, especially in between events like escaping a slave camp or rescuing a comrade from a giant lava snake’s den. The world was rich with its own customs, natural laws, crazy creatures and landscapes that, when combined, had me wishing that my jacket was filled with lodestones.

However, despite the exciting pacing of the plot and the amazing amount of easy-to-understand detail that Whiteway puts into the more alien aspects of his novel, reading the first 100 pages or so was difficult for me. Not because I didn’t like was I was reading, but because I couldn’t connect to the characters. There wasn’t enough background information given about most of the main characters to make me identify what drove them to embark on the dangerous quest, other than the reason that the world depended on it. I needed that emotional connection, the one that makes me go, “Aww…she has no other choice,” or “Oh snap, he’s going for revenge!” and really believe it. Regardless, Shann, Alando, Lyall, and Keris provided an even balance of skills to the group, and their personalities played well off of each other--especially towards the end. It was hard to choose a favorite, but if I had to, it would probably be Alando. His light-hearted comments relieved some of the tension of the story, and I enjoyed listening to his well placed words of wisdom.

Overall, the novel was very well done, and the end had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Even though the beginning was a little slow, once the edges of the plot were outlined it became a roller coaster of action and adventure. If you're into books that blend science fiction and fantasy (and blend it extremely well), then I highly recommend you pick up the first book in the Lodestone series. A fair warning, though: The end is a cliffhanger, and a seriously painful one! I know I’ll have to get my hands on the sequel as soon as I get the chance.

Am I A Wuss?

Am I a wuss for getting all misty-eyed whenever I see this?

*wipes a tear away* Ah, it gets me every time, especially when they reach the, "When everyone is happy, and there's nothing more to say" part.

What are your thoughts about the new Barnes & Noble "Read Forever" campaign? Do you like it? Hate it? Prefer Borders or Amazon to Barnes & Nobel? I'm just curious to hear what you think. Personally, I love the new campaign, and feel like it really captures the essence of reading. :) Share your thoughts in the comments!

(lol, random post is random, I know)

GIVEAWAY WINNER: Hex, a Witch and Angel Tale

And the winner is...

JINKY

The winner* has been notified and will receive their copy of Hex, a Witch and Angel Tale from Ramona. :) Thanks to everybody who participated!

*Jinky was chosen using Random.org

April 29th Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my tenth week participating. This week's question:

Keeping with the dystopian and apocalypse theme that seems to be running rampant on parajunkee.com, I have one very hard question for you: If you were stocking your bomb shelter, what books would you HAVE to include if you only had space for ten?

OH MY GOD HOW WILL I CHOOSE? Can a series count as one book? Cause if it did, that would be swell. No? It doesn't count? *grumbles* Fine...here's my list (in no particular order of importance):

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Eragon
3. Wild Magic
4. Wolf Speaker
5. Emperor Mage
6. The Realms of the Gods
7. Before I Fall
8. Paranormalcy
9. Little Brother
10. The Red Pyramid

I could totally tack on another 10 or 20 or 30 or you know, 100 books to this list, but these are the first that came to mind. I wouldn't mind rereading these ones over and over and over and over and over...

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This is my tenth Book Blogger Hop. This week's question:

Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you most looking forward to?

Supernaturally by Kiersten White. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping that an ARC will magically appear in my mailbox, but alas, I'm still waiting. *gazes out at mailbox, lovingly* At least July isn't TOO far away.

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday! Also, be sure to enter my Hex, a Witch and Angel Tale giveaway. The deadline to enter is tomorrow. :)