A bit of self indulgence before we get going

Greetings!

I figured for the first post to my new blog, I'd make it all about me, mostly because I think having some background about who I am will set context and whatnot. A portion of this will go in my author bio, of course. Mostly I just feel weird about just diving into doing reviews when people who might read them have no idea who I am.

...At least, I'm hoping that people will read this who don't already know me.

Anyway, so here goes.

I live just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia (that would be the one in Canada) and I'm currently finishing up a law degree at the University of British Columbia. I graduate in May of this year and start my actual legal career from that point.

I have an undergraduate degree in Life Science from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario. That's basically an obscure way of saying that I took pre-med, but didn't do anything with that degree. By the time I got to third year I realized that the last thing I wanted to do was work in a lab all day long, but I was too stubborn to change degrees, so I pushed through and scraped past.

After graduating, I worked for a pharmaceutical company for four years, which was really a writing job. I wrote the documents that told other people how to operate the machines in the plant and how to perform certain tests. It was also sort of a legal job, since I participated in any regulatory audits and made sure that everyone kept in compliance with the law - at least, that was what I was supposed to be doing. That whole experience is worth several posts of its own.

I moved to Vancouver basically to get away from that job, and after a short stint at a human resources consulting firm I started working for my mother, a family lawyer, as a legal assistant. After two years of that I started law school and will shortly be joining my mother as an associate, eventually to take over the practice as she retires.

I've been writing semi-seriously since about grade nine, when I sat down and wrote a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel. It was horrible, and has since been lost in a computer hard drive crash along with all of the other unfinished novels, mediocre short stories and poems that my high school and early-twenties-self came up with. I don't really mourn the loss, though it was devastating at the time. I spent about five years in a serious writing slump, completely paralyzed, and wrote almost nothing until NaNoWriMo 2007, when I finally figured out and broke down my mental blocks and started ramping up again.

I live with my fiancee of 12 years, Miko Bronstein, who is a costume stitcher. She's been working in the theatre industry for several years now, and is now starting her own business building custom costumes, mostly for fans who want to cosplay at conventions. If you don't know what that means...go ahead and ask me. I'll probably screw up and call Miko my wife quite often, since I've been in the habit for a decade, but we're not legally married yet.

We have two cats, and will start planning our wedding basically as soon as we get ourselves situated with a house and full time jobs. We've been together and engaged since long before gay marriage was legal, so we're in no big rush either. We've always figured that if we're going to do a wedding, we're going to get it right.

Okay, if you're still with me after all that, I'm impressed. Now on to the point of this blog, why I'm doing this and why now.

Now that I'm drawing close to the end of my incredibly demanding time at school and have my legal career organized, I want to turn serious attention to the other part of my intended professional career - my writing. During the time that I was in law school, I've completed two manuscripts that I think have a pretty good shot of getting published once I polish them up. I've started working seriously at polishing one of them, and I've also started a third novel, and am planning a series.

If that sounds like a lot of work - it is! I haven't had the time to devote to it that I would like while I was at school, but I want to turn things up a notch once I finish the bar exams at the end of July. It is my intention to get published while the law takes care of the bills. Maybe it won't happen this year, maybe not next, but I'm determined that it will happen.

On top of that I have an hour and a half long commute to school. Often I study or write on the train, but I also listen to podcasts and audiobooks. I have been learning as much as I can from those sources, and I will continue to listen to them during my 45-minute commute to the office after I graduate.

Not only do I love the law, and love writing, but I love teaching and recommending things that I think are worthwhile. I decided to start this blog to talk about the things I'm listening to and reading, as well as the writing courses I take.

I also want to talk about my journey towards getting published, which may or may not be all that interesting right now. Even if it seems a bit premature at the moment, I hope will be of use to someone in the future, when they're thinking of taking the next step and trying to become published writers themselves.

So you'll see a few things here. Mostly it'll be me reviewing the things I listen to, books and podcasts and that sort of thing, especially in the short term. I'll also talk about the law and politics, discussing some current issues that are on my mind and inviting discussion about those topics. I'll be talking about my writing process, including snippets here and there of my work, and you can witness me working through the roadblocks I encounter as I go.

So that's it! I'm looking forward to taking the next steps of my journey into my new professional life, and I hope that you enjoy taking those steps with me.

Review: The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings, the latest novel by Brandon Sanderson, is the first book in a series called the Stormlight Archive. The audio version is read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer.

I downloaded The Way of Kings from Audible.com. The first thing that should hit pretty much anyone who picks it up is that this is a big sucker - a solid 45 hours in length. Those who have Audible memberships know that each month of a regular membership gives you one credit you can spend on a free book (as a student I've taken advantage of this a lot!) and The Way of Kings takes two credits. If you don't have that many credits, it's retailing for about $45, which is a sale price.

That might sound like a lot, and frankly it is. But on the flip side, for the price of dinner and a movie for two, I was listening to this book back and forth to school for a good month.

The Way of Kings is definitely an epic story with several intertwined storylines. Here's the publisher's copy:

Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the 10 consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Wars were fought for them, and won by them. One such war rages on the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where 10 armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

Having finished the book, I'd say that's a pretty good summary. I'd also add that there are tantalizing hints of other storylines, told in Interludes between the main parts of the book. One of these storylines promises to be very important in the next book, which is the story of the Assassin in White, Szeth. He is probably my favourite character in the book, though Kaladin and Dalinar are tied for second, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of him.

I understand from listening to Brandon's podcast, Writing Excuses, that there are some pretty extensive maps and illustrations in the book. It's the nature of audiobooks that you don't get the benefit of those pictures. To be honest, I do intend to pick up the hard copy of the book, partly so I can see them. But not having those pictures definitely didn't reduce my enjoyment of the book and I had no trouble understanding anything.

The only real beef I have with the audiobook is the fact that there are two readers. Kate Reading reads the Shallan chapters, and any other scenes that are from the point of view of a woman, which is a nice idea, but it's probably roughly a third of the book or less. Every time it switched from Michael Kramer to Kate Reading, it was a bit jarring to me. And it wasn't like Michael Kramer didn't have to read female voices in his chapters, so I'm not sure why audiobook recorders do this so often.

Even more annoying, there was one scene - just one scene! - where characters that were normally read by Michael Kramer appeared, but it was from the point of view of a woman. Kate Reading did a good job with the reading, but she pronounced some characters' names very differently then Michael Kramer had done. I honestly wish Michael Kramer had read the whole book, because it tossed me out of the story a bit, especially when suddenly SAHDius was being pronounced SedEEus. orz

Despite the two-voice-mispronunciation shenanigans, I thought The Way of Kings was a brilliant, gripping book. It certainly didn't feel like I was listening to it for a solid work week. It just flew by, and while normally I'll give priority to shorter things and mix it up with podcasts as they update before going back to novels, I couldn't wait to pick up The Way of Kings again each day and continue listening.

One of the things I thought was of particular note in this book: Brandon Sanderson handled his worldbuilding like a master. There is a hell of a lot packed into this book, from magical storms, to weird gravity-defying magic systems, to weird spirits called spren that are attracted to pain, rot, intense emotion, and other things. There are thousands of years of history, a dozen different humanoid races, and a host of bizarre plants and animals.

But Brandon doles out the information you need just when you need it, and leaves explanation for later when it's really not necessary. There are many times he mentions something - like shardblades or spren - and doesn't bother to explain what it is right then and there. Over time, the picture is built, and at no time was I confused because he left an explanation of some niggly detail for later.

He builds the world in a really subtle, organic way, until it seems completely real and vibrant, and without a single boring infodump. And in a book this long, with this much packed into it, it's a damn good thing.

I actually got so into it that when it was done, all I wanted to do was just flip right to the beginning and start listening again - which I actually did do for a bit, though I subsequently forced myself to put it down and leave it for later, because I have other things to listen to.

And those other things would actually be Robert Jordan's works. I've never really had interest in them, but now that Brandon Sanderson is writing the books, I'm willing to give them a try. Congratulations, Brandon - you've added a reader to Robert Jordan's epic instead of vice versa. I hope you're proud.

You can get the audiobook version of The Way of Kings by searching for it on audible.com or if that sounds too hard, just click the link here.

If you have a writing-related podcast that you think might interest me and which you'd like me to listen to and review, please drop me a line. You can leave a comment here, or email me at jessicabronstein@gmail.com