Leah Petersen

Hapax by K.T. Bryski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There was so much to love about this fantasy by debut author K.T. Bryski. The unique setting, the beautiful writing, and the thrill of knowing this is a young writer with so much potential.

I don’t do the “this is what the back of the book cover” says stuff in my reviews. If you want to know what it’s about, you know where to find it. I like to tell you the things I loved and the things I didn’t and maybe even the things I absolutely hated about a book.

And it was easy to find things to love. So often, a fantasy in which the world’s religion plays a large part goes wrong for the reader. Either it’s so far from the typical experience it takes a long time to explain and even longer for the reader to figure out, or it feels like one of Earth’s major religions with the serial numbers filed off.

The fascinating thing Bryski managed was to essentially do the later, while making it feel fresh and new. You could see it all so clearly because it was very much like what even non-religious people have experienced or at least seen on TV. But the core doctrine was so different, so fascinatingly NOT like anything you’ve ever heard in church before, that it ended up being the perfect balance of ‘I get this’ and ‘wow!’

The writing itself was beautifully executed. I had the privilege of meeting Ms. Bryski the weekend of the book launch, so I know that this is a relatively young writer in age not just experience, that she was even younger when she wrote it. And that’s really exciting when you see such well written prose, when she creates full, rich characters, evokes deep and authentic emotions, knowing that this is her freshman effort and that she’s likely to blow you away down the road.

I imagine if I dug down hard enough, I could find things to criticize, but frankly, I don’t want to. Why ruin the experience when, whatever weaknesses might have been there were completely overshadowed by the good stuff? I don’t usually trust gushing reviews that don’t at least note where the author could improve, or where another reader might be disappointed, but I can’t be bothered with this one to look for the bad among the good.

I’m thrilled I found this author now, with her debut, and can’t wait to see what she does next.

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Doesn’t everyone do a ‘thank God the week’s over here’s my I’m Getting Ready For the Weekend, Baby!‘ post?

So going into the Memorial Day weekend I bet most of you are looking forward to an extra day off. I am too. Only I’ve taken it by force today since I live and work in a vacation area and we don’t get the holidays off because you do.As we speak I’m headed up to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to get some much needed quiet time and, oh, write my ass off.

But since you’re probably working today and sneaking Twitter and blog time between tasks, here’s my Friday round up of things that happened recently.

Steve Umstead, @SteveUmstead posted a review of Fighting Gravity on Monday.

Jules, @bookwormjules reviewed Fighting Gravity on Jules Book Reviews.

I was interviewed by Michelle Ristuccia, @mrsmica on the #sffwrtcht blog.

Jeff Pfaller posted a review of Fighting Gravity on his blog.

Some things unrelated to me (because, frankly, I’m not that interesting):

My fantastic editor, Gabrielle Harbowy, announced that she’s got a new column over at Lambda Literary:

I will be answering all sorts of questions about the publishing industry, not limited to: being out in publishing, queries, books, awards, publishers, agents, editors, and how many spaces go after a period. I’m even looking forward to questions that stump me — if I don’t know the answer, I’ll find you someone who does.

The address for questions is publishing @ lambdaliterary.org, and the post with more information is here, on Lambda’s website. Please spread the word!

That’s all I can think of right now, which is a pretty good sign that I’ve forgotten something. But check these people out! And have a great weekend!

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Sorry it took me so long to get to this part. Let me assure you, it had nothing to do with a lack of appreciation for those who stopped by and said hi or participated in the conversation on the blog tour. You guys rock my world.

I promised the following prizes for two lucky commenters:

A hat knit by me. (Color will vary.)

Also knit by me, a sort of random (let’s call it a coaster) knit piece where I tried to knit the symbol of the IIC, the school Jacob is taken to early in the book. Opinions vary as to whether it looks like what I intended it to. (OK, by that I mean that no one but me thinks it looks like what I intended it to.) So if you were wondering, it’s a galaxy cupped in a hand. This piece is less useful than ridiculous. But, hey, the winners will be two of exactly three people who have one. So, if I ever become famous, there you go, it’s something weird, but special.

So, who did random.org pick as the winners?

Catherine Lee: Comments all over the place but the one that got the win was on Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews.)

Debby: Comment on Beyond Romance.)

Congrats, ladies! I’ll be in touch about sending out your prizes. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by, to the fabulous hosts, to those who reviewed the book, those who bought it, to Goddess Fish Promotions  and in general to anyone and everyone.

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Well that’s it, folks. Show’s over. Well, the official blog tour, at least.

One (semi) unexpected stop this week was my success story over on Miss Snark’s First Victim. If you’ve never been over there, WHY NOT? It’s an amazing support network for aspiring authors and a place where readers can weigh in and help new authors reach their dreams. I’m only one of dozens of people who give credit to Authoress for helping them get where they are now, and there will no doubt be many more. She’s a wonderful person, and I have on good authority that she’s really cute too, behind that red hat.

Also a new review went up yesterday:

Michelle Ristuccia: Review on #sffwrtcht

Then there were the official blog tour stops:

Interview on Welcome to My World of Dreams

Interview & Review on The Reader’s Roundtable – Infinity and Beyond

Interview on It’s Raining Books

Guest post on Beyond Romance: The Challenges of Writing Science Fiction

Interview on Wendi Zwaduk

Interview at Kacey’s Konnections

Drawing for the winners of the blog tour PRIZES is coming soon, so hurry over to one of the stops and leave a comment so you’ll be entered too!

And that’s it! There will be a few more things popping up here and there, including a live interview on the popular #sffwrtcht June 27, 2012, at 9:00pm Eastern which I’m very nervous and excited about.

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The blog tour’s been going great and I want to make sure you know about these great blogs that have hosted me this past week(ish.)

Guest post at Wake Up Your Wild Side: Creating New Worlds for Science Fiction Stories

Guest post at Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess: How Do You Make Science-Fiction Relatable to the Average Reader

Guest post at LASR: SFF Guest Blog: The Things I’ve Learned from the Voices in My Head

Interview at Realmantic Moments

In addition to the official blog tour stops:

This lovely friend and librarian, Jessica Olin, @olinj, let me guest post on her blog: Where Would We Be Without Libraries, Or an Open Letter to Publishers

Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess also reviewed Fighting Gravity.

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