I must share this web comic with you!

Yale Stewart has developed the most amazing, heart-warming, hilarious comic I have ever seen: Little League. It follows the Justice League (Batman, Superman, etc)…in elementary school.

My favourite moment? When Batman and Superman pretend they are Spiderman, just like nearly every little boy in the First World has done

Go check it out. I promise you – even if you don’t know the lore of the Justice League, you will be able to follow it. I just love it.

Start with the post at the bottom of THIS PAGE and just keep on reading, and falling in love.

Lovely review of “On the Labrador Shore, She Waits”

A really great review came in for the latest anthology I’m in, RIDE THE MOON. My short story, On The Labrador Shore, She Waits, is set on the Southern Coast of Labrador, 7500 years ago.

The L’Anse Amour site fascinates me, as it represents a world foreign to any that I’ve studied. Why was this boy buried face down, with a large rock on him? What were they afraid the boy would do? Was he buried alive? Was the rock to keep his spirits from awaking?

We have no answers for those questions. So, taking what I know of other cultures, I tried to spin a tale around answering some of those questions. I’m lucky in that I’m from the West Coast of Newfoundland, where (at certain places) you can look out across the water and see Labrador on a clear day. I was fortune to be at a dig site in Port aux Choix (pronounced Port-a-Shwa and said fast), and was even able to handle one of the artifacts dug that morning! There’s nothing like touching a 2000 year old child’s toy with your bare hands, let me tell you!

Here is the review of my story!

On the Labrador Shore, She Waits by Krista D. Ball is a piece of historical fiction based on archaeological finds near L’Anse Amour in Labrador, Canada. The burial site contained the body of an adolescent, obviously buried with great care 7,500 years ago. One theory is that it was a sacrifice made to ensure the survival of the people in times of hardship. Ball spins a tale of pride, sacrifice and love around the archaeological evidence. It brings the hardships of living in such a challenging environment very close. It is always hard to make the reader feel why a character would see human sacrifice as the only way out in such a situation but in this story Ball pulls it off. It combines an emotionally powerful story with enough historical detail to make me do a search on the actual burial site. – Val’s Random Comments

Global Paranormal?

I enjoy a good urban fantasy. They are a nice break from the intense epic fantasy worlds, or the expansive science fiction adventures. There’s one thing that bugs me about paranormal novels, though: they are almost always set in US cities.

It isn’t that I don’t appreciate Harry Dresden’s Chicago because I do. However, I want to read about ghosts, spirits, demons, and vampires in different places – Toronto, London (both Ontario and England), Sydney, Johannesburg, and plenty of other places.

It’s the reason I chose to set SPIRITS RISING in Newfoundland. I grew up there, and while I set the story a few hours north of where I grew up, it’s somewhere different. I had a few readers confess they needed to look Newfoundland up on a map to even see where it’s set. That makes me endless happy.

Have a favourite book set outside of the US? Recommend it!

This blog post is part of the Proudly Paranormal hop. Tomorrow, visit Wren’s site.

What’s in my February Mailbox?

Here’s what I’m reading!

When I was in my teens, there was a book of Heinlein’s that made me snap and never read another one of this again. I can’t remember which it is (though I think it might have been Starship Troopers).

My good friend Marie Dees said this was probably not this book, so I’m going to give it a try. Wish me luck!

What I read last month:

Now, don’t judge. :p

First, David Mack is a stellar, under-appreciated author and everyone needs to go out and buy everything he’s ever written. Second, Star Trek books are actually well-written and really interesting for those of us who enjoy the franchise. These are about the origins of the Borg and kept me reading well into the wee hours. You can read blurbs and reviews on Goodreads.

Recommended Reading List – 2011

One of my New Years resolutions is to let people know what I’ve been reading and enjoying. Here is a list of the books, short stories, and novellas I’ve enjoyed in 2011. I’m hoping to make this a monthly post in 2012!

Novels

Two of my most loved novels this year has been Pock’s World, by Dave Duncan. It’s a wonderful science fiction novel where the hourglass ticks against time. Even the chapters countdown to the Event. Strange and wonderful, and awe-inspiring. On the other extreme end is J.W. Schnarr’s Alice and Dorothy, a gritty horror that haunted my thoughts for weeks. Yet, I could not put the book down.

The latest Harry Dresden book, Ghost Story, came out this summer. I took a vacation day so that I could buy the ebook at midnight and stayed up all night reading it. It wasn’t my favourite of the Dresden series, but it was a necessary book that changed the series. It was about the consequences of one’s actions. I’m a huge fan of the Dresden series so I can’t wait for the next one.

Short Fiction

Douglas Smith’s Chimerascope remains my favourite short fiction collection of the year. It was a collection of speculative fiction shorts, most having been nominated for awards and some having even won some. In reading the collection, it was clear why. They were outstanding. I’d also recommend the collection for authors looking to write science fiction and fantasy short fiction. This is a great group of stories to study.

Brent Knowles’ Digital Rights remains a favourite for the year. There are books that make a reader think, “I could have written that.” Then, there are books like these that make a reader sigh and say, “I wish I’d written that.” This is the latter. Very smart and intelligent, but accessible for those of us who sometimes struggle with hard science fiction.

Beyond Reach by Rebecca Senese brings some darkness to the space opera, which is a nice change of pace.  No surprise, since Rebecca is known for her horror. I’m looking forward to more science fiction from her, though

Stuff my friends wrote

I don’t often review my friends’ books because I’ve often beta reader the stories back when it lacked a plot or before it completely rewritten. It’s hard for me to look at the current versions and forget the previous ones. However, here are a couple suggestions that I think you might like:

Princess for Hire by Jamie Grey. Seriously, this is the best title ever. It’s a shorter story, and great for when you’re sick to death of the doom and gloom.

Chrystalla Thoma moved into science fiction this year with Rex Rising, the first of a series.

Happy reading!

RETRIBUTION by Steve Stanton

> In a post-cyberpunk future, Mia and Zakariah Davis risk their lives to secure an activated sample of the life-prolonging “eternal virus” for their son Rix. Afterwards, Mia is murdered in retribution and the family is overcome by grief. Zakariah goes on a quest to contact her spirit in the afterlife while Rix wants revenge, no matter the cost. Niko, the teenage clone of Zakariah’s dead sister, has received the eternal virus and has been captured by vampires who drain her blood nightly for its rejuvenating effects. After Rix helps Niko escape, they team up in a quest to track down Mia’s murderer. An engaging and compelling story, this work of science fiction delves into questions of religion, God, family, and the source of life in our universe.

SF novel, 263 pages

Cyberpunk is alive and well, thanks to Steve Stanton’s new series, THE BLOODLIGHT CHRONICLES.

The second book, Retribution, is a testament to the fact that cyberpunk as a genre is not dead, nor is it unattainable for the average reader. The characters acted like people, and acted their age. Adults were adults, teenagers were teenagers. Too often, adults act like spoiled brats and there is none of that in Stanton’s novel. It’s brisk, mature, and masterfully put together.

I loved the character Niko, from her motorbike in the first chapter, to her encounter with the “vampires,” to her relationship with Rix. Poor Rix. God, he made me cringe at the thought of how my sixteen-year-old self treated those computer geeks who flirted with me.

Even though this is second in a series, I had no trouble following the story line. By chapter 4, I went out and purchased the first book, Reconciliation. It isn’t often that I back-pedal in a series, but I needed, not wanted, to know what brought all of these characters to where they were.

If you can understand your sixteen your old talking about the internet and follow a Star Trek episode, I think most people can follow the science of this book. Even if you can’t do either, I recommend reading the first chapter all the same and seeing…the story is so good, you might just opt to accept you won’t understand it all and just keep on going. For me, that’s the beauty of this novel.