About Us: Laura A. Lord

Laura Lord is a graduate of Chesapeake College, and attends Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She is the author of Wake Up a Woman. Her work has been published in The Beacon and The Collegian. She lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her fiance` and her two children. She is the author of WAKE UP A WOMAN , published in 2012 by Chester River Press.
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Book Reviews: A Song of Fire and Ice Series or A Game of Waiting

By Laura A. Lords

A Song of Fire and Ice Series by George R.R. Martin

I find I am almost ashamed to say that I hopped aboard the Game of Thrones  bandwagon a few years later than I should have. In my defense, I grabbed the first novel when it came out in 1996, and promptly stuck it on my gigantic bookshelf, where I hate to say it sat until last year. Then, in a fit of desperation to find something, anything , besides my science textbook to read, I pulled out George R.R. Martin’s masterpiece.

But can I call it that? Even now, when I’ve plowed through to the fourth novel and am not-so-patiently waiting for my copy of A Dance with Dragons  to sail through the postal highways and plant itself in my mailbox? Game of Thrones,  itself, is not the only masterpiece; the collection as a whole is a stunning success.

In a way, I believe I’m lucky. A Feast for Crows  was released in 2005, a long five year wait for most after the third book, A Storm of Swords. Of course, that means that readers are four (or perhaps five if you are ahead of me) books into this imaginative, deep, intricate world created in the brilliant mind of Martin. It means that you have come to know, love, and possibly hate the highly developed, realistic characters. You have struggled along with them, praised aloud their victories, and mourned their losses. If you are anything like myself, you have had strong pangs of jealousy at Martin’s work of genius, and at the same time wanted nothing more than to throw his book across the room when out of the blue you find a character you’ve held such a relationship with…killed. Cut out. Slain. Destroyed. Slaughtered. Executed. Eradicated, even. If a book is to be judged on nothing more than the emotional pull it holds over you, Martin has perfected the art of plucking every possible heart-string.

A Feast for Crows  will give you more of the same warm, fuzzy, hateful, heartbreaking feelings. The problem occurs when you reach the end of the book. Martin included a wonderful end chapter to explain the issues he encountered. I believe he said it best when he wrote,
“I was still writing when it dawned on me that the book had become too big to publish in a single volume…and I wasn’t close to finished yet.”

That’s right. He split the book in half. Now, it wasn’t as if I didn’t notice throughout the book that there wasn’t a single chapter titled “Daenerys” or “Tyrion”. Or that remarkable characters, such as Jon Snow, barely received a few words from the author. No, I spotted all of this. Yet still, I devoted myself to it. I plunged into the depths of Westeros and let Martin take me on a ride at least 10 plot lines thick and over 600 pages long, something that can be daunting to some readers.

You can only imagine my response when I got to Martin’s end chapter, when he explained that he had to split the book, when I read that bonus chapter from A Dance with Dragons  and I received a glimpse of what had been happening with Daenerys. At least, I thought to myself, she’s alive. Which as far as Martin’s characters are concerned, is a feat of immeasurable triumph.

Martin has created a world so elaborate and complex, full of characters that are just as highly developed, that it was only a matter of time before the intense story lines began entwining and weaving together to a point that he would have to separate out the books. However, the wait for the next piece of the puzzle is always well worth it.

If you haven’t begun the series yet, hurry. You can easily get a set containing the first four books in the series. (Trust me; once you get started you will want to have the next one handy.)  Martin has reshaped the fantasy genre, and has created a world one can get happily lost in. Go now, pick up your copy, and become enchanted for, as Maester Aemon said, “Starks are always right eventually: winter is coming. This one will be long, and dark things will come with it.”

Fiction Features: There's a Nook Gase in my Bookcase

By Laura A. Lords

It’s 2012; our world revolves around the computer, our phone, tablets, or
whatever other handheld electronic equipment we are using to stay plugged in. So in this
world of the quick connection and the immediate response, where do actual, hold-in-
your-hand books come in?

There is something about the feelings that sweep through you, fellow book
junkies will get it, the second you walk into a library. The smell of the paper and ink
around you, the feel of the book in your hands, flipping the page and transporting
yourself into a different time or place…it really is a magical moment. If I’ve lost you
already, you’re not one of the library fanatics I’m talking about, but keep reading. This
book junkie is about to get all technical on you.

It’s a whole new technologically advanced world, a world that I fail in repeatedly.
I’m 26 years old and within the last month got my first touch screen cell phone. I can
only imagine the look of disbelief on your faces right now. That’s right. In this holy
land of Angry Birds (something else I fail at), downloadable books, and Google search
engines available at any time with the tap of a finger…I am only now becoming involved.

Naturally, I did the only thing I could think of to help improve my complete lack
of technological skill. I bought a Nook. To be specific, I bought the Nook Simple Touch
(the cheapo of the bunch). I sat, not-so-patiently, waiting for two days until the little box
showed up in the mail. It was an amazing experience. Take it from someone who still
looks at her boyfriend’s smart phone and goes, “Wow, it can do that?”

Within three hours it was completely charged and I was online happily
downloading all of the free books I could (fair warning: most of the free books available
are smut. Good smut, bad smut, but 99% of it is all smut). Now I know I said I bought the
cheap version of the Nook, but that wasn’t the reason for the free books. I didn’t want to
spend a ton of money on books yet when I wasn’t sure how I was going to like the reader.

Begin testing phase. Let me explain my room to you. I have an entire wall that my
wonderful father covered in shelves for all my books. It’s full. In the same manner, under
my bed is also full, the space by the wall under the window is loaded, the Man’s Xbox
sits on a pile of books…I have a slight problem. Needless to say, I downloaded a lot to
the Nook in those first few moments as well, totaling out at about 20 free books (with
a smut-smut here and a smut-smut there, but also a bit of free poetry I found and H.G.
Well’s The Time Machine).

The nitty-gritty of it, it really is a great product. With the Nook Simple Touch
the screen isn’t lit, but it is very easy to read, and you can purchase a Nook light pretty
cheap. The words are sharp and clear and I never found myself getting that headache
that seeps into the back of my brain after too many hours reading off the computer. It’s
easy to change the text size and font, something that comes in handy to make reading
even easier for different users. Pages are turned with the simple push of a button or the
tap of the screen, whichever you prefer. I’m a button person myself, but hey, we already
discussed my touch screen experience, or lack-there-of.

I think the biggest bonus though is the battery life. I left it unplugged, on, and
read it every evening for ten days before I was down to 25% battery life. To say I was
wow-ed is the understatement of the century. I fully expected this thing to konk out on me after a few days.
I’m relatively positive now that the Energizer Bunny has been
squished flat and shoved inside this light-weight little machine. Poor thing.

Everything’s not all peachy with the Nook though. Checking out the prices, I
really didn’t find a lot of difference between the prices of buying the book out of the
store and getting it for my Nook. Barnes and Nobles does offer some great sales and it’s
entirely possible to find some awesome classics on the freebie list, or at least the cheap
list of books. However, I ordered George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: Clash of
Kings and paid $8.99 for it. Not much a steal when I can get the paperback at Wal-Mart
for $7.99.

All that aside, there really is something about the feel of a book in your hands.
Imagine your dream house, a nice library with the fireplace going, and a bunch of empty
shelves because your library is a bunch of pixilated words floating around in cyber space.
That is so sad, I can’t even think about it anymore. So I’m old school, I want my books.
If you think the only chance you’ll ever pick up a good book is if you can get it through
an awesome product like this, then go for the Nook Simple Touch. It doesn’t have all the
fancy gadgets that the others include (like the tablet applications or the backlight), but it’s
a lot of bang for your buck. As for me…I’ll be the chick in the library with the paperback
in her hands, curled up in the corner of the couch.

Book Reviews: 50 Shades Series by E.L. James or Oh My (Insert Dramatic Ellipsis Here)

By Laura A. Lords

Oh my…where to begin? Fifty Shades of Grey  is a sensation that has swept women across the country away into a hedonistic gallery of sexual romance. Alas, I am perplexed. E L James has taken it to mind to tackle an entire community of people (the BDSM community) and get it devastatingly wrong. She slapped an erotic romance label on the front of it, attached a wonderful ‘Mature Content’ warning, and it became a New York Times Best Seller.  Perhaps perplexed is not the right word. I shall take a page from James’ own writing technique and resort to my thesaurus… I’m bewildered, confused, confounded, baffled, stumped, stymied, bamboozled, and stupefied. Well, that wasn’t nearly as exciting. James must have a much more extended version than I do, for the novel is full of odd, out-of-place words that never  show up in normal conversation, nevertheless, the snarky comments Anastasia and Christian favor.

What’s more, I’m convinced that while I’m envious of James’ comprehensive thesaurus, I can’t imagine she bothers to use it much. It has come to my attention that Kate should simply be named Tenacious Kate. For the first half of the book, it is really the only way that character is ever described. I can feel that poor inanimate being, screaming inside James’ head, “There is more to me than this! I’m not this flat…and boring!”

Perhaps it isn’t an extensive thesaurus, but simply a weird word of the day calendar that James has propped up on her desk. It is probably sitting atop her BDSM for Dummies book. This book, she obviously never cracked. I won’t even get started with yet another young female lead character who proves to be such a terrible role model for today’s young women. Let’s simply say that the concept of Anastasia “fixing” Christian’s sexual preferences is abhorrent, ridiculous, and offensive. This is a lifestyle choice, and it is consensual. It is not some kind of disease to be treated or worked through in therapy. I would think by 2013 our society would be more capable of understanding that everyone’s “Inner Goddess” doesn’t exactly want the same things.

As far as Christian is concerned, no self-respecting Dominant, or one worth his salt at least, would take a virgin in as his submissive. The idea that by sleeping with her before hand and participating in “vanilla” sex (along with a detailed contract of terms and items that young Anastasia wasn’t even familiar with) makes this kind of relationship okay… is detestable. This is abuse of power. It is emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. James dedicates pages to the contract itself, tosses in Anastasia’s claims at love, and suddenly makes it seem like this is perfectly acceptable. Of course, Anastasia is simply attempting to “cure” Christian of his screwed up ways, so hey, what’s the harm?

Oh my… I seem to have gotten off on my own little rampage here. Let’s put the counterfeit BDSM issues back into its closet and simply talk about the writing. Aside from boring, flat characters who receive little in the way of descriptive qualities and conversation that is meant to be snappy, yet is full of intense language even a “bookie” like myself has to look up and refresh herself with…the novel is full of three things: “Oh my”, “Wow”, and the ellipsis. I barely can recall a paragraph that went by without one of these terms or pieces of punctuation being used.

Then you have sentences like these,
“Saturday at the store is a nightmare. We are besieged by do-it-yourselfers wanting to spruce up their homes. Mr. and Mrs. Clayton and John and Patrick – the two part-timers – and I are besieged by customers.”

I get it. The store is full. I understand. However, “besieged”? Really? And obviously so much so that James felt the need to use the word twice in the course of two sentences. I read that and immediately an image of strong Viking raiders came to mind, banging their battle axes and hammers against the door of a small town hardware store. Hey, they need their paint swatches too. It was, certainly, the most vivid image the book was able to draw for me; which is sad considering it had absolutely nothing to do with anything actually happening in the book.

I could go on and on about the issues I have with this book. As I said before, I haven’t even tackled the wonderful role model these characters give us. No, I will leave that as it is. There’s little to be done for it in a world where characters like Bella from Twilight  are revered so highly already. Female role models have headed downhill at a rate faster than my opinion of these over-sexed Harlequin romances.

I’ll leave you with this. No one has an “Inner Goddess”. If you’d like to test that theory, hang a few mirrors up and check out your next ‘O’ face. There is nothing God-like about it. Secondly, the childlike renaming of genitalia simply makes it seem like ‘vagina’ is a dirty word. It isn’t, so renaming is as “ there ” (and in italics at that) is just juvenile. And finally, take it from the internet. There is better smut online. Better written smut and it’s free. Go forth and find good smut.