Book Miner - The Shapeshifters' Library: Released by Amber Polo - Chapter 3

Time to discuss Chapter 3 in The Shapeshifters’ Library: Released by Amber Polo.

Synopsis

We meet Sybilla Dinzelbacher, the wife of Harold Dinzelbacher just prior to her weekly spa treatment. However, just before her massage, she begins to transform into a werewolf. She cancels her appointment and finds her husband at their new restaurant, built where the library once stood.

Meanwhile, Cutter is amazed at the transformation that occurred in the library practically overnight. The new architect, Max Levelin, is enthralled by the plans she supposedly sent him; Cutter has no clue what he’s talking about, but plays along. They survey the recently discovered art gallery together, filled with priceless works of art, mostly featuring dogs.

After the visit, Cutter discusses magic and fantasy stories with Lite, recently revealed to be a psychic.

In the basement of the library, we discover who’s been fixing up the library, as well as who wrote the plans out to send to the architect: the dogs. Well, the shapeshifters. They discuss whether or not this plan is a smart one, but all doubts are cast aside by Chronos, who has an important announcement to make.

Analysis

This chapter laid it on heavy with the exposition. Especially in the scene with the dogs in the basement. Not only did it answer every single question you might have had as to why the academy-cum-library looks so nice, but also where the report came from (as if you couldn’t figure it out on your own), but it also drilled this point home, in case you missed it the first time.

Also, at times, I imagine Cutter became a Mary Sue for Polo, what with favorite movies (such as Cutter having watched The Shaggy Dog five times, this year!). I had a feeling that Cutter’s amazing things to say about fantasy may reflect Polo’s opinion exactly.

Lite make a mention of enjoying anthropomorphic fiction, which I suppose is a healthy thing to enjoy in an anthropomorphic fiction book.

There was an interesting dichotomy between the transformation of werewolves and the transformation of dogs. Wolves seemed to treat it as an ugly burden, while dogs treated it with a sense of dignity.

In addition, there was some foreshadowing with respect to the art collection: the works will be given to the city if the owner does not return. Dun dun dunnnnn.

Three things in this chapter particularly grated my nerves. One was the fact that Levelin’s nephews/assistants always prefixed their statements to him with “Uncle.” Now, I have five uncles, not including ones that are married to my aunts or uncles to my wife, and I have never, not once, called them “Uncle” in place of their name. It’s always been “Uncle X” (where X is their name). This made it seem awkwardly formal.

The second was the part in the basement where we are introduced to all the dogs in their human forms. It felt like I was brisked through a room, introduced to a new person every second and told an interesting but otherwise useless fact about them, and then was expected to remember their names and how they’re related to everybody else. It was a major infodump in a small area of space.

The third was the fact that a restaurant in a small city on the border of Ohio could attract the uppity-ups from all over Ohio. I live in Cleveland and not once have I heard any of the uppity-ups I know talk about driving 4 hours for some chaw. I don’t believe it.

All in all, the book is showing a lack of polish most professionally published books tend to have. Aside from its valleys, it still seems readable and coherent, yet ultimately predictable.

Community, For The Win

The article isn’t about the popular TV show, but rather about actual, or at least, digital, community.

I am a very big fan of a certain British fantasy author by the name of Michael Moorcock. When I first read The Eternal Champion, I was hooked, and have read everything I could get my hands on written by him, about him, or inspired by him. I’ll save the reason why I enjoy his writing to another post so I don’t distract from the point of this post.

My point is: My roof sucks. We (my wife and I) are finalists to get a free room from C&C Roofing as part of their Roofing it Forward competition.

I mentioned this on the forum of Moorcock’s official website, and the next thing I know, the admin sends out an email to pretty much all members explaining my predicament. Wow.

So, I’d just like to take this time to say: Thank you members of multiverse.org. You’ve been great. So great, I decided that my next NaNoWriMo novel will be total Moorcock pastiche.

But will it be CC0? I guess we’ll see...

I Love the Ternary Operator

I am a software developer by trade, and true to Larry Wall’s three great virtues of a programmer I am full of laziness.

Laziness is defined as:

The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer. Also hence, this book. See also impatience and hubris. (p.609)^[1]

It’s things like these that drive me towards finding more optimal solutions to my programming problems. One of these solutions I find myself using over and over again is the ternary operator.

In programming, we have things called “operators.” True to their name, they operate upon their input. There are unary operators, such as a minus sign before a number:

-2

There are binary operators, such as a plus sign between two numbers:

2 + 2

And then there is the ternary operator, or ?:, which is used in place of if-else:

obj != null     ? obj.Foo()     : throw new CannotFooException()     ;

This is the same as writing:

if (obj != null) {     obj.Foo(); } else {     throw new CannotFooException(); }

Now, you may be wondering, “Why do I need to use this Perlish syntax to do something I’m doing fine already?” Well, let’s me show you where the true power is…

Have you ever written something like this?

string x = "Your answer is … "; if (y == 1) {     x += "one"; } else {     x += "not one"; } x += "."; Console.WriteLine(x);

With the magic of ternary operators, you could have instead written:

string x = "Your answer is … "     + (y == 1) ? "one"                : "not one"     + "."     ; Console.WriteLine(x);

(I broke it onto multiple lines. This could all be done one one, but I think this way is more readable)

If you’re dealing with a more complex example, like this:

string x = "Your answer is … "; if (y == 1) {     x += "one"; } else if (y == 2) {     x += "two"; } else if (y == 3) {     x += "three"; } else if (y == 4) {     x += "four"; } else {     x += "hrair"; } x += "."; Console.WriteLine(x);

(yeah, I could have used a switch here, but I’m trying to keep the concept focused; also we’re assuming that y > 0)

You could use the ternary to make it look like this:

string x = "Your answer is … "     + (y == 1) ? "one"     : (y == 2) ? "two"     : (y == 3) ? "three"     : (y == 4) ? "four"                : "hrair"     + "."     ; Console.WriteLine(x);

Doesn’t that just make everything a whole lot cleaner?

The best part is, you can use the ternary where you can’t use if-else. So, if you want to not declare a new variable to hold a variable, you could just drop the ternary into the thing building the string and not have the (albeit miniscule) overhead of declaring a variable. I found this to be of great use when writing some Razor code that would have otherwise depended on a declared variable.

Check out the Wikipedia article on ?: to see what languages support it. You’ll soon find that the languages that are not on this list are ones you’re less and less likely to program in.

So, what are your feelings on the ternary? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? I want to know!

---

[1] Wall, Larry. Jon Orwant. Tom Christiansen. Programming Perl, Third Edition. July 2000.

Book Miner - The Shapeshifters' Library: Released by Amber Polo - Chapter 2

Let’s talk about Chapter 2 in The Shapeshifters’ Library: Released by Amber Polo.

Synopsis

Prior to a meeting with an architect, Cutter decides to investigate the academy. Here she finds a distinct dog motif and briefly reflects on the lack of dogs and the surplus of dog catchers in Shipsfeather.

The academy seems to be an ideal candidate for the new library, having a pleasant mixture of knowledge and character.

In her investigation of the school, she encounters an Old English Sheepdog in the basement. Their meeting is cut short, though, by the honking of a horn outside, signaling Cutter to meet with the chairperson of library commission, Harold Dinzelbacher.

Outside, Dinzelbacher and Foly O’Hurley, the architect, discuss their desire to demolish the academy, including several lupine references (e.g., huffing and puffing and blowing the academy down) in their discussion. It is revealed that they are werewolves and that they are at war with the dogs who are apparently trapped in the academy by a curse. This same curse keeps the wolves out, which they discover first hand when they are prevented from setting foot onto the library grounds. They signal with the car horn for Cutter to come meet them outside.

Meanwhile, the sheepdog, named Chronus, holds a discussion with some other dogs about enlisting the librarians to their cause. In they end, they decide that an alliance with the librarians would be the best way to overcome the werewolf curse.

Analysis

Again, this is not a book I would probably have picked up on my own. I’m one of those people who’s weirded out by most fiction regarding shapeshifters. I think it has to do with the fact that, like in this book, they seem more comfortable in their animal forms, but at the same time, hold human discussions while in this form. It’s a little too Animal Farm-y for me.

Nevertheless, Polo’s writing is very readable. It does have a few rough patches from time to time, but fortunately, the exposition here was minimal. Aside from the fact that some characters were discussing their inability to enter the academy because of the curse, when by all rights, they should have already been aware of this long before they ran into it’s segregating force field.

Polo definitely is a fan of puns without being too annoying about it, thankfully (I’m looking at you, Piers Anthony). In a building inhabited by shapeshifting dogs, the predominant foliage are dogwood trees.

So far, it has not become a chore to read, for which I'm glad.

Roofing It Forward - Last Week To Vote!

I woke up this morning, and my allergies were killing me. That’s because I have a hole in my roof. Well, I actually have several holes in my roof. All of these holes were supposedly repaired by the person who sold me the house back in December. All of these holes were present since before I bought the house.

Why were my allergies killing me? Because of these holes, and the rain. And the mold. My walls are full of mold. Some of that mold was there before I bought the house. Some of it is new. Mold grows fast, so that’s not surprising. But the condition that created the mold was present before I purchased this house, and hidden by the seller, mostly by painting over the stains. The rest of the stains and other signs of neglect were hidden by the loads of junk they left in the house.

Every time we would open a closet, it would be filled with billowy curtains hanging on hangers. Moving these aside revealed brown stains on the walls.

Nevertheless, we got screwed. We got scammed. We were fleeced. And this was our first house. This is the house that we bought after living in apartments for 7.5 years, and then being homeless and living with family for 8 months. This was meant to be our paradise, and it’s been nothing but hell for since after 2 weeks in.

We can’t afford to fix it on our own. We need help. Fortunately, C&C Roofing has selected us as finalists to receive a new roof. If you’ve been following my blog, you probably also saw how I recently raised the stakes.

Now, it’s the last week to vote. I need your votes. To get you to vote, I included some sad pictures of my roof (reposted from my Google+). Please, please, please, please go to http://www.roofingitforward.com and vote for Amber Silvia. Please, please, please tell all your friends, family, and such. Please, please, please let’s put the Roof on the House, and #HelpAmberOut.

I promise that if I win, I will make more time for working on some awesome projects ranging from writing to software development.

I need every last vote (but please only vote once). Thank you so very much.

-Jacob

Only one layer of shingles.

"We fixed the leak in 2012."

See those white patches? Kilz Ceiling Stain-Sealing paint courtesy of the seller!

Book Miner - The Shapeshifters' Library: Released by Amber Polo - Chapter 1

In this post, I’ll cover the first chapter in Amber Polo’s The Shapeshifters’ Library: Released.

Synopsis

In the first chapter, we are introduced to Liberty Cutter, the young library director of Shipsfeather, Ohio. She is about to deliver her resignation for her post, but her plans are deferred when she arrives at the Shipsfeather Public Library only to find it ablaze.

Most of the books are ruined by the fire or the water used to extinguish it, and the city’s politicians aren’t too keen on building a new library. They provide Cutter and staff a warehouse in which to house the library pro tem, until the mysterious and dilapidated “Academy” can be outfitted to house the new library.

However, this Academy gives Cutter a weird vibe, as often she believes that she sees something, or someone, watching her from the windows. And she’s right. Somebody is watching her with keen interest.

While the community gets together to bootstrap their new library by contributing books and baked goods, Cutter takes some liberties with her position and has the Shipsfeather Public Library join the county library chain.

Once things start looking steady in the warehouse, one of the town firefighters reveals something the city bigwigs didn’t want anybody to know: The fire had all the signs of arson.

Analysis

First impressions with books, and just about everything else, are very important. The story started out as readable, and then took a brief (thankfully) detour for some exposition. Once that was out of the way, the story started up again just as readable. The story is written as third person limited, mostly, with Cutter being the POV character.

One thing that I was constantly jostled with in my reading was the town’s name. After seeing the cover for several days, seeing the word “Shipsfeather” just looks like “Shapeshifter” to my trained mind. No wonder, though, as they’re anagrams, and they both start and end with the same phoneme. I think that, added to the fact that “shipsfeather” is not a common word, or possibly even a real word (I’ll have to defer to the linguists and nautical experts on this one), my mind forces it to shift its shape into a more readily understood word.

One must commend Polo on that clever usage of an anagram in a book about creatures who can change their shape.

Another thing I noticed were the names of the characters. Many of the people in the book have names that sound like they’re James Bond characters. With names like Bliss D. Lite and Elsie Dustbunnie, I’m sure you can see. There are also names that might only be funny to literary nerds, like Webster Bartlett, the reference librarian.

All in all the chapter was a pleasant read with little to no challenges to reaching the end. My attention did drift a little in the middle, but it often does that. While the genre is not normally one I read (shapeshifters), so far, so good.

Book Miner - The Shapeshifters Library: Released by Amber Polo

I received the first book in Amber Polo’s The Shapeshifters Library series. It is entitled Released. I use the website LibraryThing to catalog my books. Through LibraryThing, users may request books offered by other users of the site. Years ago, I was set to receive a book from Polo. However, it never arrived.

Then, when I had all but forgotten about this unreceived book, I received this book in the mail. It was a pleasant surprise (free books always are).

While I haven’t yet cracked the book, my first impression is that it involves a library, a librarian, and some sort of shapeshifter magic, mostly involving dogs. As I read this book, I’ll break it down chapter by chapter for your reading enjoyment.

The Roof Is On the House - Raising the Stakes

In one of my previous posts, I discussed our exciting roof situation with our house. As of June 17, there were over 300 votes. Now, I’m hoping that most of those are for my wife, Amber, but I can’t rely on hope alone. That’s why I’ve decided to (cue some fanfare horns)..

Raise the Stakes

July is a celebrated month in our household. It marks my birthday as well as Amber’s. It’s during the summer, so it’s warm. We also have Independence Day, so there’s a holiday in the mix as well.

If we are selected for the new roof from C&C Roofing, it will also give us another reason to celebrate: The Roof Is On the House!

So, I’ll try to give you guys a reason to celebrate July too.

Since I don’t have a lot of financial capital, I’ll have to make do with what I have.

If Amber Silvia gets the most votes, I will do the following things during July:

1. My NaNoWriMo? Yours!

To kick off the celebration, I will dedicate every single NaNoWriMo book I have written to the Public Domain. That means that their respective Creative Commons licenses will all be replaced with CC0.

To raise the stakes, I will also dedicate all future NaNoWriMo books I write to the public domain AS I WRITE THEM.

And as an act of good faith, come July I will dedicate my first NaNoWriMo book, Cabbages and Kings to the Public Domain, no matter what.

Here’s a list of all the books you, the public, could own:

• Cabbages and Kings (2005)
• These Aren’t the Druids You’re Looking For (2006)
• Three Counts of Copyright Infringement (2007)
• The Aether Cowboy (2008)
• Qhoenix (2009)
• In a Cabin, In the Woods (2010)
• Island (2011)
• It’s Just a Game! (2012)

Wow! Links to their full texts may be found here.

2. On Spec Assignations

I am a writer as a pastime (in case you didn’t realize it by the previous item). So, I can provide another great prize. If Amber Silvia gets the most votes, I will write, on-spec, one short work of fiction (2,000 to 10,000 words), for a lucky recipient. Not only that, but once I’ve written it, I will assign the copyright to that person. I will do this for every 10 percentage points of the total votes Amber gets (I will round up, so 51% => 6). If I don’t have the result data available to me, I will just assume 50%, unless you want to try to convince me that a higher number is more reasonable.

As an act of good faith, no matter what, I'll do one.

The only stipulations on this are:

1. I won’t write “adult-themed” fiction
2. No fan fiction, please
3. Local laws and regulations apply

3. Audiobook Giveaway

If Amber gets the most votes, I will hold a series sweepstakes to give away some audiobooks I have in my collection.

These books will be:

• Torn by David Massey, read by Saskia Maarleveld (MSRP $77.75)
• Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George, read by Suzy Jackson (MSRP $66.75)

These are physical audiobooks on CD. Local sweepstakes rules/laws will apply, but I’ll cover shipping costs. There may be a third book in the mix, but that is to be determined.

How You Can Help

First, if you haven’t yet voted, vote (for Amber Silvia). Second, if you have friends, family, and loved ones who can vote too, tell them. Please hurry, as the deadline is June 30, 2014.

If you use social media, let’s use the hashtags #helpamberout and #roofingitforward.

And if you have any other amazing July “The Roof Is On the House” pledges for things you’ll do if we get the new roof. Please feel free to post them here or e-mail me.

Every little vote counts. Thank you for your support.