Help Me Flist! Part the Third

[mmerriam]

We will be using four of these summaries on the back cover. Vote for your favorite(s), and if you think one could me made stronger by rewording it, please feel free to say so in the comments!


[Poll #1204253]
ETA: I accidentally included "…a grizzled war veteran wrestles with a dark government cover-up" twice in the poll and I have no idea how to edit the poll once it's up. Just ignore one of them when you vote.

Comments

[mylefteye.livejournal.com]

Perhaps '…freedom fighters and their captives find the battle-lines between them blurred' could be rephrased as:'…freedom fighters and their captives find their battle-lines blurred'?

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Good suggestion!

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Ditto that, with another suggested rephrase: "the battle lines between freedom fighters and their captives (or hostages?) become blurred"

[careswen.livejournal.com]

You've got "grizzled war vet" on there twice.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just saw that.

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

I voted for the spirits, the Muddy River and science or magic because they sound different. I voted for the space transport because I love this kind of stuff. I didn't vote for the others, because I find dark past, hapless heroines, war veterans, government cover-ups, blurred battle-lines rather cliche. Then again, you might be able to re-word to get rid of the cliches and still stay true to the story.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the votes and the good comments!

[jrelkins.livejournal.com]

I accidentally included "…a grizzled war veteran wrestles with a dark government cover-up" twice in the poll and I have no idea how to edit the poll once it's up. Just ignore one of them when you vote.

I just assumed it was a government conspiracy. :)

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

I really don't like the "hapless heroine" one. Makes her sound really dumb. Maybe "a hapless heroine running from the law must count on luck to survive"...

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Good idea!

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

At first I thought it was fine, but I've been persuaded about the connotation of hapless. And now that I think on it, heroine might be weaker than something more descriptive, ie "orphan girl", "scullery maid", "single mother" or whatever this woman is.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I wonder if it would be more popular if we reworded it?

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

Maybe. To me it meant she was too dumb to rely on her wits for survival... Which is not what I want to read about, and definitely not what Michael writes! Plus it will possibly rub some feminist sensibilities the wrong way...

That said, I know someone wrote about liking space transport kind of stories; I like stories that explore the bonds between people, and I'm a sucker for anything urban fantasy :-P So the shopping mall one particularly appeals to me!

[songwind.livejournal.com]

"two very different spirits find sanctuary in a historic shopping mall"

... together, they fight crime!

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes, as long as it is crime inside the mall.

[fsf-rapier.livejournal.com]

As a big fan of Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks" and Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files", the blurb about the Seelie champion and his unusual mortal friends immediately caught my attention.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Basically, the more unusual they are (especially the more unusual for SFF) the more curious they make me.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Good to know!