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The Kat Daughtry

~ Author. Lover. Main Character.

The Kat Daughtry

Tag Archives: literature

A ranting review about a flaw of an excellent book.,

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by thekatdaughtry in Uncategorized

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author, book, literature, love, novel, series, writing

If you know me at all, you know that above writing, I am an avid reader. The indie wave has been a blessing to my mind and a curse to my poor warped bookshelf as it sets overloaded. I love the classics- many of my favorites I have read twenty times or more. Some of the indie authors are grabbing me the same way.. In that same breath, some classics I consider to be overrated rubbish that someone proclaimed to be a literary diamond and people nodded and agreed instead of opening the cover to see. I think the same thing happens in the indie world. There are some authors that have serious indie street cred, and I try- at least three times to find this ahhhhh-ha moment within the pages of their books and it is like a bad joke I do not get. I am not an official reviewer and amazon does not seem to think authors should read and review- I guess we just write blindly without looking outside of our own words. I am going to start blogging my own reviews and showing some author love but before I do this- I am going to talk about a nameless book.

It has a name, but I will leave it out. it is a great book- but I have some issues as a reader, writer and a woman….. First off, I do want to say that this author is one of my favorite indie authors and he is making a great name for himself. He is multi-genre and has a couple of wonderful series out. One series, I adore because the main female role does what I would love to do for a living. She is a M.E. She is darker, sarcastic, smart, sexy doesn’t deal with b.s. and a single mom…I can relate to all of these. LOL. 😉 This is not a romance book- the romance is back story- a side note- but it comes into play often. I highly enjoy that. A crossbred genre almost. What I don’t like is this MC, the male- is brilliant, sarcastic, and over thinker- an overall hell of a guy you want to be pals with. But…. It is like his penis leads him around dinging like a metal detector on the beach. You can tell this is not the core of this MC, come on, I write erotica, I am a firm believer that everyone thinks about sex more than they admit.. Except me. I am an A.D.I.D.A.S. chick all the way. Proud of it. It doesn’t mean I want to ride ever pogo stick in town. It means I don’t settle and I want the biggest fastest most bad ass pogo stick around and I wanna ride it all day and night. This MC, throughout the series, boings with every smart ass dominant woman in a skirt. Giggity Giggity. These recent release in the series, I am even more drawn to, as my Native American roots were thrilled to see leading roles in a novel. But this M.E., who is Native as well- another reason I love her- she is emotionally put through hell by the MC and is almost just a shadow of the book.

Basically, you know the MC adores her. You know it is where he finds his comfort, but he previously hurt her- so what does he do? He goes off her radar. Instead of swallowing his pride, he simply throws her into the realm of an ignoring silence.

Now this M.E. is sexy, strong, independent- she doesn’t NEED a man, but as hard as she tried to not,she did feel for this guy and was there for him in the first of the series- and in this book he states going four months without speaking to her- silence- because he hurt her- and honestly, used her daughter. Not something any single mom takes lightly, especially not one with a backbone and self esteem like this chick.

The MC thinks in the book of how well, he excuses himself for the silence of four months because he hurt her. He was scared, not of her, just scared. He hoped she understood that. He hoped she understood that. He hoped she understood that? How is she supposed to understand that? Not only is she the sweetest thing he ever knew, damned sexy, independent, a great mom, brilliant- but OH, she should read minds as well? 

He thinks of picking up the phone to call her- but doesn’t. Just silence. Oh yeah, she gets it. How does that possibly NOT make sense? She has to feel it every time he thinks about calling her and smiles even though she is not worth just doing it.

In his defense, he does come back around. He woos her. He is smooth and sexy, as we covered so when he comes back, all is well- but…but…. he comes back because he needs her. Not her smiles or her friendship but her professional opinion. Help on a case. Is that it? He just needed to reach out her to use after so many months? So what if he did not need her? Month five- month six- forever silent?

Unlike the first in the series where he has another woman and is hot for another as well, beyond her- at least in this book, he gives other men from her past a role. One happens to be a fun loving super sweet ex….Women tend to think of that sort and may be a possible reconnect. The other is super fine. Hotter than the MC. Oh, is he sexy and strong and sigh……. but oh yeah, one of them gets killed and the other turns out to be the bad guy. This poor female…. This romance…. and she is mad, she does ignore his call, but of course gives in. He only calls when the one guy with common sense, a mutual friend verbally high-fives his face, letting him know how dumb he is being and how unworthy of such an amazing woman he really is. This middle man, a cop….. a guy that sees her worth and tells his buddy how dumb he is being. Isn’t that man talk for, “If you don’t hit that, I so will.”?????

The book ends with them together. Happy. He knows he adores her, and bless her heart, she adores his self consumed ass. She even wants to go to a coffee shop with him just because he went there with another woman that gave him one of his instant hard ons.

Awwwww.

(Gag)

Don’t get me wrong. This is a GREAT series for the genre- the romance is just a background- a heavy background- but still not the main story. Maybe I am just bitter because I can relate to the character. I know what the silence feels like and I know women cannot mind read. I know with every day, this poor fictional character thinks of this ass. She knows he is cocky and self consumed, but she isn’t mad to the point of being done- she just wants to be done right. Here this guy is, knows her daughter, been a part of her life- someone to look up to- and he just goes about life like neither exist until HE gets ready? No nice gifts, no poetry- Just here I am, lady- You’re welcome.

I hope the next book in the series she bucks up- I hope she is like, “Sure, I loved and missed you but we are in the same circles- I know you went on with your everyday- so why would I be alone and waiting by the phone?” I hope it comes out that this strong awesome chick did break down, maybe she needed him and he was not there- but the mutual friend was – and she cried on him over how badly she missed this self consumed man and I hope this mutual friend took in her smell and before he knew it, he was in her, making her forget, if even for a night that this jerk was off getting rock hard over anything in a skirt while she ached for him. I hope mutual friend makes this chick scream. I hope she marks him so badly with scratches he claims it was from a rough housing drunk arrest. Above all, I hope it comes out that she put one hell of a tension release hurting on this mutual friend, like the MC would know she could and I hope from that point the MC has his own awkward moments around them and I hope he knows he best swallow that pill he created and then his stomach turns with the thought of the word swallow because he wonders if she did that as well. And yeah. She did. Like a boss.

Okay- there is my rant on a book I truly did enjoy. I would give it 4 stars if Amazon allowed me- but only take one for the crappy way this dude handles his heart because his writing is simply wonderful. Maybe it should be 5 stars for the reality aspect of a fucked up romance, but no- it is just proof of how easy things could be if people communicated. This MC has how much education and life experience and he cannot properly communicate… Yeah. that takes a star away. Now I am ready for the next in the series and my girl better get treated properly before I take another star from my review of the un-named book. LOL.

scorned24.jpg

Writing with a partner…not writing with a partner. Pros & Cons

10 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by thekatdaughtry in Uncategorized

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aviation, best friend, book, broken, erotica, Kat Daughtry, literature, love, Michael Hillcrest, muse, novel, partner, passion, steamfate, steampunk, transportation, writing

Have you ever co-written something with someone? I am a huge fan of leaving solo projects now and then and working with a partner. If you are lucky enough to find yourself tangled around that perfect writing partner, what you write will reflect such. The fictional character formally known as author Michael Hillcrest (as in the Master Bait series) was the best writing experience I’ve ever had.

I love locking myself away and escaping inside the realms of my own twisted imagination, but to find that missing piece and never have any form of writer’s block because before you tiptoe into the land of ‘what next?’, that partner already knows and you are there to do the same for your partner. To have someone to talk with about these characters and to watch them evolve in their own literary existence is a connection few people ever know. It is almost like creating life without nine months of misery and weight gain and hours of pain and stitches. Adam, Zona- Shu…. These were our babies. We gave them a life, from birth and beyond. We gave them a purpose, a personality- we designed their genetics and their weaknesses.

It may sound silly to someone that has never co-written a novel- but we were so close to finished with this story- truly, a story unlike any other. We broke all the rules and something beautiful formed from it. Life does imitate art.  I could have been done well by now but there is this bitterness of abandonment. This aching. I start to write a sentence and wonder what he would say or edit about it. It hurts.

Steamfate was supposed to be the literary fairy tale of modern times- just like us. The struggle, the path to happiness, the understanding and connection from two different worlds-and the sacrifice for love- for fate.

Taking the end of this book and wrapping only my own mind around it- even though it was fully plotted, it does not feel right to use “our” ending. There is no “our” or “we”. There is nothing but aching memories. It feels almost dirty to take “our” perfectly unique and shockingly rare ending and continue with the ghost of him twisted to the core of this ending. Like walking into a fire, it seems like I am asking to feel the burn.

I am, yes, slower with this ending than anticipated. I knew we were personally connected to this book, to these main characters- right down to naming a cat that, who knows what happened to, Shu. I was Zona- unafraid and so willing to save him and release him into a new world of freedom, admiration and passion- But Adam was strong. He came back for her. I suppose Adam is more fictional that I ever thought.

I have plotted the new ending. I have plotted two new endings, actually. One, true to the name- close to the original co-written ending- one that screams, “In the name of love & fate, we did it. We sacrificed with no regret into an explosive love.” and then the new possible ending- To give them happiness or spineless, speechless reality? I am not sure I will know until I write. “The End.” Maybe once I write those words, I can live those words. I doubt it. I’ve already been dwelling on the next project we had lined up together. My daughter is asking for it. I wish I were more of a bitch so I could let it slide and write my baby girl the book she is begging for, but I can’t even wrap up the first melding of our minds.

SO YEAH, I fully suggest the experience of taking on a full novel with a co-writer. Be picky. Click with them. But, for all the sweetness in the world, build  a special wall. Do not, by any means, fall in love with your co-writer. You never know how it or the book will end.

Another taste of Steamfate:

 “Don’t reply,” she locked into his stare, “I have to say it. You can’t leave me again without me saying it. I don’t want you to say a thing.”

Adam knew what she was going to say. He smiled. Silence came easy for him. He waited for her to say what she already told him with her eyes.

“I love you, Adam,” she grabbed him tightly, “I do. I’m in love with you.”

Her fear swelled inside the fire rimmed rings of her eyes. He remained silent. He brushed her breasts with his lips without breaking his stare and smiled. He pulled her closer and gave her his deepest love without a spoken word. She beamed with the response his eyes had given her and held on tightly as they finished perfectly together.

 

I do thank him for releasing full rights to me- not letting this beautiful story die- but that feeling- writing and creating together and then left alone, no talk about it, doing nothing wrong- Just reverting back into the Adam that existed before Zona came along. So sad… This is what it feels like- right down to the burning books-

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