Selina Rosen

My third book by this author. And I was actually surprised when I saw that. I thought I'd read a lot more by Rosen. Hmms. Not sure what happened there.

Not exactly sure when the book was set, but seemed to be early 2000s, at the very least after 9/11, and before the explosion of ebooks (and, to a certain extent, during).

So, two authors were slowly rising up the book charts. Doing everything 'correctly'. They got a publisher and the publisher is publishing their work. Then shake-up in the publishing world. Consolidation of the big players. Some success, some failure of the small press. 9/11 happened. Economy tanks. 'Luxury' items like books got put aside. And the two authors went down two different pathways.

One, the first point of view in the book, went the ghost writer route. His books had stalled, and he got an offer to ghost write someone else's book. So, needing money, he did. Now he makes $50,000 - $60,000 a year ghost writing but hates himself. And most people around him.

Second point of view is a woman who stuck to her own books. Publishing one or two a year. Has a small but eager fan base of roughly 8000 people (I don't recall why that number is in my head). And is popular at conventions. Probably spends more than receives from her writing, though. Has to work many odd jobs to barely make ends meet. Is happy has own books and own name on books. Has rearranged her goals and desires to 'able to make a living writing'.

First point of view man is named Tom Parker and is best friends of Sherry Hays, the second point of view. There are at least three point of views. If not more. A third point of view would be Diane, a convention goer, though she only 'comes alive' as a point of view a lot later in the process.

It's one of those short books that feels longer than it actually is, though I don't mean that, necessarily in a bad way. Just that a lot is packed into a small package.

The book description on GoodReads is probably good enough. I probably should have just pointed at that and gone on my merry way. Certain issues, though 'Meanwhile, he barely ekes by.' He makes $50,000 to $60,000 a year while living in a location where he was able to buy a house for $20,000. He is not barely eking by. He might not always have much in the way of money, but that's on him - he spends his money stupidly. It's not that he barely ekes by, it's that he gets paid peanuts compared to the other people in the process. His agent, the guy who gets him the ghost writing gigs, gets paid a fortune. The person whose name is on the cover also gets paid a fortune. While he gets a very tiny amount. Still, 'barely ekes by' isn't the way to convey that information.

'Yet she constantly refuses Tom’s offers to get her work ghost writing.' - I believe there was once, maybe twice when Tom actually mentioned ghost writing work. If that. There might not have even been once. There were times when Tom thought about the situation - both how he had asked in the past, and how she might be able to better able to make ends meet through ghost writing, but there isn't a constant stream of him offering ghost writing work, and constant refusal.

Right, so. I'm not sure how to label this one. It's a book about book writing/selling/etc. Stars a straight man, and a lesbian woman (two different people, in case anyone gets confused). Certain amount of romance, though that's intermixed with other stuff. A lot of political ranting. It's not slice of life because a ton of time goes by. Well, at least 4 or 5 years. Book wasn't as interesting or fun as the two other books I'd read by this author.

Hmms. I do not really know what to say about this book. I'd been putting it up for possible next reads and pulling it for a longish while now. So I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It was good for what it was, whatever that might be. I could have lived without the male masturbation scene(s) (I distinctly recall one, I just don't recall if there were more).

December 21 2015… (altro)

My second book by Rosen, and just like the first one I read, I was initially reluctant to give the book a try. I had this one on my possibilities list for a longish while, and had tried the sample a few times.

Beginning kept putting me off. Mostly because the book is set up with, what I assume are transcripts from pod-casts which have tips on how to survive an apocalyptic situation. Then story stuff. So there I was trying to see if I wanted to try a book and kept running into this survival tip thingie. And that kept tripping me up. I kept not wanting to read that, not wanting to skip to story without having tried podcast, etc. Eventually I just got the book and read it. I admit that I did so directly because of the other book I have read from this author. Completely different genre and subject matter, but I also had a tough time trying to convince myself to try the book but ended up loving it, so . . . I just plucked up my courage and read this one.

It was an interesting enough book, I suppose. A woman has made a nice living through subscribers to podcats in which she gives tips on how to survive stuff. Like the apocalypse. She isn't doing those podcasts for the money, though, but because she deeply believes that the world is about to end. And has believed this to be the case since she was a small child (her parents love of disaster movies, she notes, might have played a part). The money, though, has helped make her own arrangements for survival that much more . . . (insert word here I can't think of). Basically she would have lived in a certain area, with supplies, and in strongly defensivesable (against the weather and like) dwelling. The money just helps her add a few things.

Right. So, if all goes right with the world, and to a certain extent she would have much preferred this outcome, she would have been the crazy paranoid woman doing these podcasts until she fell over dead from old age. Without an Apocalypse occurring, I mean. Well, that isn't what happened.

What happened was, and here's one of my problems of the book, horrible humans existed. Well, I tried to figure a way to make that sentence work, didn't. Point is that the author has the same rant over and over again in the book about how everyone are so damn much materalistic, and if we just hadn't been involved in the middle east for oil, and stuff, the world would have been a much better place. Also, religion kills. And is stupid. It's not that the ranting doesn't have a certain amount of sense to it, it's that it comes up non-stop constantly. Throughout the book. I mean, I get it. The world went 'pfft, humans disease, must get rid of them' *the planet thinks then wiggles really really hard*. And it did so because humans dumb. Just stop telling me over and over again, okay?

Right, well, I meant to say "what happened was that Pakistan and India traded some nuclear missiles, causing the dominoes to fall over and the world went all apocalyptic and stuff, with earthquakes and volcanoes being set off by the nuclear exchange and massive waves of dust crowded the skies, and caused issues". Right after those missiles flew through the air, Katy (the 'crazy' one) had proclaimed, through her podcasts, that the world was about to end now. So, take your survival kits and hole up. Probably too late, now, to flee.

While readying her area for the coming storms, as in pulling her windmill down into the ground and shielding it, and covering her solar panels, a reporter and camera man turn up. The same two who always come out to interview the crazy woman. Katy is somewhat willing to talk to them because 1) their constant observation and cracks about her being crazy actually boosted her own subscriber base; 2) the reporter woman is hot; 3) this one is more one that unfolded as events occurred - talking to them for a few minutes allowed her to tell CNN's viewers to hunker down and expect the worst.

Then the worst occurs. Katy's all safe and snug in her hidey-hole. Annoyed, though, because her idiot sons didn't follow her advice and hightail it to her place before the storms started. So, all safe and secure, when she hears a knocking on her door. It was not a raven saying Lenore, but a woman, the reporter from before. Somewhat changed in appearance, it must be noted, since the wind and storm has blown, and or torn most of her clothing to shreds. She's whimpering. And wishing help. Mostly, entrance. While babbling about how she had run from where her car, and camera man, just got picked up by the wind, to be lost somewhere up there.

So, Katy breaks one of her own rules and allows this reporter to enter. I've a strong suspicion that this reporters name is Lucy, but I'm do not have 100% recall these many days after having read the book. And everywhere Katy goes, walking through her place, she turns and there's Lucy, stuck to her like a frightened woman needing reassurance that other humans still exist.

So. The apocalypse occurs. Lucy and Katy are in Katy's place. Massive waves of snow blanket the area. Long long winter. Other people turn up to inhabit the small bunker Katy built. Tensions built. The longish winter continues.

An interesting book. I felt slightly disconnected from the story, though, for unknown reasons. There were some funny moments. Some moments of 'please stop ranting already, or, if you must rant, change to a different rant, please', some moments of love, and affection in the post-apocalyptic world.… (altro)