Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Level Grind
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Baines, Anne
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://anniebellet.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://anniebellet.com/ * https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4606262.Annie_Bellet
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:Holds two bachelor’s degrees.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, playing video and board games, rock climbing, horseback riding.
AWARDS:Alfie Award.
WRITINGS
Also, author of e-book series, including “Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division, Remy Pigeon,” and “Gryphonpike Chronicles,” and of other novels and novellas, including A Heart in Sun and Shadow, The Light of the Earth as Seen from Tartarus, Souvenirs from Other Worlds, Broken Moon, Delivering Yaehala, Of Bone and Steel and Other Soft Materials, The Scent of Sunlight, and Winter’s Bite. Contributor of stories to anthologies.
SIDELIGHTS
Annie Bellet is an author of fantasy novels and novellas. She has written series, including “Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division, Remy Pigeon,” and “Gryphonpike Chronicles.” Bellet is also a contributor to anthologies.
In 2016, Bellet released Level Grind: Books I through IV, which is part of her “Twenty-Sided Sorceress” series. This collection includes the first four novellas in the series, Justice Calling, Murder of Crows, Pack of Lies, and Hunting Season. The collection tells the story of Jade, the sorceress, who must learn to deal with her supernatural powers and resist her enemies. In an interview with a contributor to the SFFWorld Web site, Bellet discussed the plot of the series, stating: “It’s about a sorceress who is hiding out from her crazy ex-boyfriend in a town that has a lot of latent magic and plenty of other supernatural creatures around. Of course, hiding out doesn’t work for long, and the series is about her coming to terms with what she is and figuring out how to defeat her ex and keep her friends safe.” Bellet told Carl Slaughter, writer on the SF Signal Web site: “Jade wants family, at her core, and she wants to be loved and safe and to feel like everyone around her is loved and safe. She’s found that at times and had it taken away from her a lot. At the moment, she might have it again, but the world is full of danger and I doubt she’ll ever rest easy.” Bellet added: “At the start she’s hiding, not using her magic, and lying to everyone about what she is. She’s full of fear and used to running from her problems. She definitely isn’t the same person in many ways by the end of the seven books, but she’s still sarcastic and nerdy and deeply moral even if her life is more shades of grey than she’d like.” In the same interview with Slaughter, Bellet commented on the title of the series, stating: “Jade learned to cope with her powers by playing AD&D, Dungeons and Dragons second edition, basically. She’s a nerd and gamer to the core and so when I was coming up with series titles, I figured this one fit. It gets across the idea in a single phrase, which is about all you can ask of a good series title, no?”
“Fans of urban fantasy will be drawn to this intriguing series,” asserted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Rob H. Bedfordo, critic on the SFFWorld Web site, noted: “Annie Bellet clearly has a plan for this series and through four books, it seems the ingredients are coming together very nicely. As these books have already sold very well in their short eBook form, there’s clearly a large readership for the books. Fans of Carrie Vaughn’s ‘Kitty Norville’ series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files among many other urban fantasy series will find much to enjoy in Level Grind.” A contributor to the Speculative Herald Web site suggested: “Level Grind is a fast paced urban fantasy with a gamer sorceress who lives amongst shifters. There are plenty of gaming/geeky references that make this a fun read and make the characters seem that much more relatable.” The same contributor added: “Jade Crow is a great protagonist.” A writer on the Bibliosanctum Web site called the book “a very witty, vibrant, and entertaining urban fantasy. Collecting the first four novellas in the “Twenty-Sided Sorcerer” series, this omnibus admittedly offers pretty standard fare when it comes to the genre. Still, it manages to be a very entertaining read thanks to the stories’ vigorous pacing, the characters’ irresistible charms, and the author’s fun take on the usual tropes.” Samantha Holloway, reviewer on the New York Journal of Books Online remarked: “It’s an exciting and clever story.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of Level Grind: Books I through IV, p. 58.
ONLINE
Annie Bellet Home Page, http://anniebellet.com/ (May 30, 2017).
Bibliosanctum, https://bibliosanctum.com/ (May 3, 2017), review of Level Grind.
New York Journal of Books Online, http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (May 3, 2017), Samantha Holloway, review of Level Grind.
SFFWorld, http://www.sffworld.com/ (October 16, 2016), author interview; (October 17, 2016), Rob H. Bedfordo, review of Level Grind.
SF Signal, http://www.sfsignal.com/ (April 21, 2016), Carl Slaughter, author interview.
Speculative Herald, http://www.speculativeherald.com/ (November 29, 2016), review of Level Grind.*
Series
Cymru That Was
1. A Heart in Sun and Shadow (2011)
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Gryphonpike Chronicles
1. Witch Hunt (2012)
2. Twice Drowned Dragon (2012)
3. A Stone's Throw (2012)
4. Dead of Knight (2013)
The Barrows (omnibus) (2013)
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Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division
1. Avarice (2012)
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Remy Pigeon
Dusk and Shiver (2012)
Flashover (2014)
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Twenty-Sided Sorceress
1. Justice Calling (2014)
2. Murder of Crows (2014)
3. Pack of Lies (2014)
4. Hunting Season (2014)
5. Heartache (2015)
6. Thicker Than Blood (2015)
7. Magic to the Bone (2016)
8. Dungeon Crawl (2017)
The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Series (omnibus) (2015)
The Twenty-Sided Sorceress (omnibus) (2016)
Boss Fight (2017)
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Omnibus
Seven Against the Dark (2016) (with Deanna Chase, Kate Danley, Colleen Gleason, Helen Harper, Christine Pope and Anthea Sharp)
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Collections
Till Human Voices Wake Us (2012)
Blood Iris 2012 (2012) (with Elle Casey, Ada Hoffman, Maurice Lawless, Joshua Grover-David Patterson, Chelsea Pitcher, S M Reine, Edward W Robertson, A Merc Rustad and Anna Sanders)
Forgotten Tigers (2014)
Dark Beyond the Stars (2015) (with Blair C Babylon, Elle Casey, Ann Christy, Patrice Fitzgerald, Autumn Kalquist, Theresa Kay, Susan Kaye Quinn, Sara Reine, Rysa Walker and Jennifer Foehner Wells)
Once Upon A Curse (2016) (with Donna Augustine, Jennifer Blackstream, Audrey Faye, Yasmine Galenorn, C Gockel, Alethea Kontis, Christine Pope, Anthea Sharp and Phaedra M Weldon)
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Novellas
The Light of the Earth As Seen from Tartarus (2011)
Souvenirs from Other Worlds (2012)
Broken Moon (2014)
Delivering Yaehala (2014)
Of Bone and Steel and Other Soft Materials (2014)
The Scent of Sunlight (2014)
Winter's Bite (2014)
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This the website of USA Today bestselling and Alfie award winning writer Annie Bellet. I am the author of multiple ongoing novel and novella series and my short fiction has appeared in over two dozen magazines and anthologies.
When I’m not writing, I am either reading or playing video games. I’m a giant nerd and love everything from Magic the Gathering to Dungeons and Dragons (or these days, Pathfinder) to Skyrim, Final Fantasy, and Borderlands. I’m also a tattoo addict and just added a Witchblade gauntlet to my collection. Like I said, giant nerd. My books tend to reflect my love of gaming, fantasy, space ships, and epic battles, because I believe in only writing the kinds of books I would want to read.
My super-not-so-sekrit thriller pen name is Anne Baines. Find that book by clicking the shiny cover:
Here is my standard bio if needed:
Annie Bellet is the USA Today bestselling author of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division, and the Gryphonpike Chronicles series. She holds a BA in English and a BA in Medieval Studies and thus can speak a smattering of useful languages such as Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Welsh.
Her interests besides writing include rock climbing, reading, horse-back riding, video games, comic books, table-top RPGs and many other nerdy pursuits. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a very demanding Bengal cat.
Science Fiction and Fantasy for gamers and nerds!
USA Today bestselling and Alfie Award winning author Annie Bellet holds a BA in English and a BA in Medieval Studies and thus can speak a smattering of useful languages such as Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Welsh. Her other interests include rock climbing, reading, horse-back riding, video games, comic books, table-top RPGs and many other nerdy pursuits. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a very demanding Bengal cat.
Series with suggested reading order:
The Twenty-sided Sorceress-
Justice Calling (Free!)
Murder of Crows
Pack of Lies
Hunting Season
Heartache
Thicker Than Blood
Magic to the Bone
Dungeon Crawl
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The Gryphonpike Chronicles-
Witch Hunt (Free!)
Twice Drowned Dragon
A Stone's Throw
Dead of Knight
Brood Mother (coming 2017)
---------------------------------
Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division-
Avarice
Wrath (coming 2017)
Find out more about her and her books by going to her website at http://www.anniebellet.com
Want to be notified about new releases? Sign up for the new release mailing list and get occasional free books, bonus stories, and other goodies!
http://tinyurl.com/anniebellet
Annie Bellet is the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division, and Gryphonpike Chronicles series. She holds a BA in English and a BA in Medieval Studies and thus can speak a smattering of useful languages such as Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Welsh. Her interests besides writing include rock climbing, reading, horseback riding, video games, comic books, table-top RPGs, and many other nerdy pursuits. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a very demanding Bengal cat.
QUOTED: "It’s about a sorceress who is hiding out from her crazy ex-boyfriend in a town that has a lot of latent magic and plenty of other supernatural creatures around. Of course, hiding out doesn’t work for long, and the series is about her coming to terms with what she is and figuring out how to defeat her ex and keep her friends safe."
Interview with Annie Bellet, author of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress series
Dag R. October 16, 2016 0 Comment
anniebelletHi Annie, thanks for giving us some time here at SFFWorld. The four first books in your The Twenty-Sided Sorceress series is now being released as an omnibus edition in Level Grind. Can you tell us a bit about the series?
It’s about a sorceress who is hiding out from her crazy ex-boyfriend in a town that has a lot of latent magic and plenty of other supernatural creatures around. Of course, hiding out doesn’t work for long, and the series is about her coming to terms with what she is and figuring out how to defeat her ex and keep her friends safe.
How do you feel Jade Crow as a character has evolved throughout the series?
At first she’s hiding, and used to running away since she believes that facing her problems just gets people she cares about killed. She also really doesn’t want to accept how sorcerers gain power and she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but over the course of the series she realizes that people get hurt no matter what you do or don’t do and she learns to take more control over her life and her power. She also learns to let people in and to accept help. At her core though, she keeps who she is, which is someone who cares about others and wants to do the right thing.
Do you try to set yourself new challenges for every new book you write?
Always. I think as a writer you always have to be growing and looking forward. I’m always thinking of stuff I want to try out and how to make each book the best thing I’ve ever written. That’s what I aim for. If I finish a scene and don’t feel like it’s the best yet, I throw it out and rewrite it. So that’s one pretty big challenge I give myself with every book.
levelgrindWhat is it with urban fantasy you find so fascinating?
I love that it’s our world, but not quite. There’s all the familiar stuff, but also all the stories humans have told themselves over the millennia can be real, too. So it’s a good blend of fantastic and familiar that I think allows characters and settings to resonate with readers like myself.
Dungeon Crawl, book number eight in The Twenty-Sided Sorceress series is being released later this year. What can your fans expect, anything you can reveal?
The title kind of gives a lot of the book away, but let’s just say there’s gonna be a lot of undead problems. Because that’s what a good Game Master throws at characters when they get powerful, right?
What sort of challenges, as a writer, might you have faced over the years? Any insights you would be able to share for those aspiring writers seeking advice?
Poverty? Ok, only half joking. I don’t know that I can share insights that aspiring writers haven’t heard a million times. There’s so much advice out there, and a lot of the most cliched stuff is true. Don’t give up. Don’t stop learning and growing your craft. Rejection is normal and happens to everyone. That kind of thing. I guess if I could emphasize anything, it’s to focus on telling a great story. Everything in building a writing career begins with that. Also, I’ll go against the usual advice and say that if your goal is to quit your day job, it’s possible, though you aren’t really quitting your day job. You are trading one day job for another when you write full time. But if that’s what you want, go after it. Learn to write books people can’t put down. Have fun. Make money. Art and commerce aren’t opposite each other. Always choose “and” instead of “or” if you can in life.
Have you ever struggled between what you would like to happen to a character and what you considered more sensible to occur? Can you tell us when and what did you do at last?
Not really. I write fantasy, so sensible doesn’t have to factor in too much, haha. I always try to go big if I want to. One of my favorite things to read about and thus to write about is larger than life characters and I think you can’t shy away from ridiculous if it has to happen when you are writing those. I think if you make enough of it feel “real” then readers will follow your characters through some crazy stuff.
I do really hate killing characters off, but sometimes it has to happen, so there’s that. I always figure if I’m crying during the really tough scenes while I’m writing them, I’m doing something right, so I just do it and let myself feel it all the whole way through.
How do you feel you have evolved as a writer throughout your career?
When I started writing seriously, I wasn’t very good. I had a good grasp of pretty prose from my years of writing poetry, but I didn’t really understand how to make character and plot work within my prose. After writing a few novels nobody will ever see and getting a lot of rejections, I started to figure stuff out. Took a couple years of heavy practice. Now, I feel like I have a lot still left to learn, but I also feel like I don’t make too many beginner mistakes anymore and that I don’t make a ton of the “big” mistakes in general, the kind of stuff that breaks a story etc.
I started out writing short fiction, too, and one big evolution is moving into longer and longer works. I’m still happiest under 50,000 words, but I’m working on keeping the things I love about fast-paced, tightly written books and expanding them properly to be closer to the 80k-100k novels that people seem to prefer to read.
What kind of books do you read, any favorite authors?
I read everything. I counted a few years back, writing down every book I read and after 400 I had to stop. I think I read about 450 that year. Favorite authors would be Elizabeth Moon, Jim Butcher, Richard Stark, Elizabeth Hoyt, Nnedi Okorafor, Lee Child, Patrick O’Brian, Robin McKinley, Kit Rocha etc…
Your website says, AUTHOR, GAMER, NERD. Does that somehow sum up who you are?
I’d be pretty simple human if three things summed me up, no? They are definitely aspects of myself. I’m really nerdy, I love gaming, and being an author is my job.
What’s next, do you have more new and exciting projects you are working on at the moment?
Finishing up the next books in the series and getting ready for the launch of Boss Fight in January (that’s the second half of the paper omnibus editions and completes the Samir storyline). Book 8 and the coming omnibus launch are pretty much my life right now, though I also have a side novel coming out soon about Harper.
QUOTED: "Jade wants family, at her core, and she wants to be loved and safe and to feel like everyone around her is loved and safe. She’s found that at times and had it taken away from her a lot. At the moment, she might have it again, but the world is full of danger and I doubt she’ll ever rest easy."
"At the start she’s hiding, not using her magic, and lying to everyone about what she is. She’s full of fear and used to running from her problems. She definitely isn’t the same person in many ways by the end of the seven books, but she’s still sarcastic and nerdy and deeply moral even if her life is more shades of grey than she’d like."
"Jade learned to cope with her powers by playing AD&D, Dungeons and Dragons second edition, basically. She’s a nerd and gamer to the core and so when I was coming up with series titles, I figured this one fit. It gets across the idea in a single phrase, which is about all you can ask of a good series title, no?"
[INTERVIEW] How Bestselling Author Annie Bellet Juggles Multiple Book Series
Posted on April 21, 2016 by Carl Slaughter in Interviews // 0 Comments
In addition to being a nerd and a gamer, Annie Bellet is the prolific author of half a dozen fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal mystery series. She has outlines for 113 stories. The ones available now include Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Gryphonpike, Pyrrh, Lorian Archive, Cymru, Remy Pigeon. Book #7 in the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series came out last month.
In this interview, Annie sorts out the who, what, when, where, how, why for us.
CARL SLAUGHTER: At one point in your career, you had multiple series and multiple sequels released the same year. Plus anthologies. How do you crank out that kind of volume? An army of clones? Thought-to-text neurotech?
ANNIE BELLET: I wish I had thought-to-text neurotech. That would be amazing. Alas, I just have butt-in-chair. Also insomnia and an incurable desire to never go back to work for anyone else ever. Also a fear of being broke again.
CS: I count at least 6 series — all of them with sequels, side stories, and debuts in the works — and at least 3 standalones. How do you keep track of all the characters and give them the development, interaction, plot importance, and screen time they warrant without an army of story editors?
AB: Are there that many? I think only two series have sequels since I went through a sequel-free phase (also known as building no readership and being broke phase). One of those series is novellas really (Gryphonpike is 15k-20k words each) and the other are short novels (novels by SFWA standards for the most part but not doorstoppers even remotely). I keep track of everything in notebooks, on note paper, in random files here and there, and mostly in my head. I have over 113 novels outlined, most in series, that I could write, spanning genres from cyberpunk to crime to regency romance. It’s all a matter of time and focus, but mainly time. Also that little thing called paying rent which means writing things that people want to read. Going forward I want to make sure each book is over 60k, so we’ll see how that plays out. I came from writing short fiction and I like cramming in as much as possible into as few words as possible (except apparently in interviews bwahaha) so I don’t know if I’ll ever commit giant novel book. 90k-100k has been the longest I’ve written and I did that six times and chucked all but one of those, so maybe I’m just not a lengthy writer at heart.
CS: Before we go any further, which stories just came out, which come out soon, and which are projected for next year?
AB: Just came out would be books 6 and 7 of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, my urban fantasy series. Book 6 came out in November and book 7 came out in March. Next up is the fifth Gryphonpike Chronicles novella and after that I’m going to follow up Avarice, the first Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division novel, with two sequels before I return to 20-Sided for book 7.5 and book 8 at the end of the year.
CS: Do you have any definite idea how long each series will continue?
AB: For most of them, yes, I have a rough idea. Some, like Pyrrh, are stand-alone stories more or less, so they could continue until I or my readers get bored or die (though I’m going to run out of titles after seven, because I’m using deadly sin titles). Twenty-Sided I know the final story bits, how it all ends, but I don’t know how many books away that is. I have at least five more I want to write between side-character novels and main novels for that series before I even think about beginning the endgame, and that’s going to take a couple years, so who knows what adventures might come into my head in the meantime. I’ll write stories about Jade and her friends as long as I have good ideas I think are worth writing about.
CS: The 7th story in the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series wraps up the storyline but not the series. What will Jade do next?
AB: Book 8 is titled Dungeon Crawl, which is kind of a plot giveaway I think, right? It’s going to be a fairly stand-alone adventure where they might (SPOILERS!) end up in a dungeon or something. There might be undead. You never know. Pretty sure Jade and friends are going to kick ass and take screenshots, as always. A teacher at Clarion told me I write competence porn, and I aim to live up to that high “praise” forever and always.
CS: What exactly has Jade always wanted for her life and has she ever gotten it or will she ever get it? If her desires have yet to be fulfilled, who is helping her and who is hinder her and how does she respond to them?
AB: Jade wants family, at her core, and she wants to be loved and safe and to feel like everyone around her is loved and safe. She’s found that at times and had it taken away from her a lot. At the moment, she might have it again, but the world is full of danger and I doubt she’ll ever rest easy.
CS: Does Jade evolve over the series?
AB: Definitely. At the start she’s hiding, not using her magic, and lying to everyone about what she is. She’s full of fear and used to running from her problems. She definitely isn’t the same person in many ways by the end of the seven books, but she’s still sarcastic and nerdy and deeply moral even if her life is more shades of grey than she’d like. (“Shades of grey” as a phrase is never going to be the same again, is it? Damnit.)
CS: BTW, what exactly is a 20-sided sorceress, as opposed to a 19-sided sorceress or 21-sided sorceress?
AB: Jade learned to cope with her powers by playing AD&D, Dungeons and Dragons second edition, basically. She’s a nerd and gamer to the core and so when I was coming up with series titles, I figured this one fit. It gets across the idea in a single phrase, which is about all you can ask of a good series title, no?
CS: Don’t stone me, but I’m not into video games. Do you have to be up on game terminology to understand the 20-sided series?
AB: Well, the good news is, it is never too late to start gaming. I had a non-gamer friend read the first book and she assured me that while the references went right over her head for the most part, the story still hung together. The book isn’t just nerdy, it’s got plot and character and all that story stuff in it, too. However, I’d say that for the maximum enjoyment of this series, being a gamer and/or into SFF television, comics, etc helps a lot. It seems more clever if you get the jokes, I would imagine.
CS: Pyrrh is fantasy, police procedural, and buddy cop. In what order?
AB : Police Procedural, buddy cop, fantasy? It’s a fairly low magic setting compared to my other fantasy works, but it definitely isn’t Earth.
CS: Do these cops have magical powers? Are they assigned only cases that involve magic?
AB: It’s sort of spoilers to say. However, no, they aren’t assigned cases with magic. Magic in the world is generally either clerical or considered demonic and evil. The Cordonates don’t handle cases involving magic (except when they accidentally have to), that is left to the inquisitors who are specially trained to handle those kinds of things.
CS: What kind of dynamic do the detective partners develop and does it help or hinder their assignment to track down the perp?
AB: Par and Zhivana, the two partners in the first novel, initially (of course!) don’t get along so well as they each are bringing their own personal issues to things. They don’t let that hinder the case too much, however, because at their core they are both good at their jobs. Their personal conflicts are part of the story and they both have a lot of secrets that both help and hinder their case and their relationship at various times. Other books in the series will have other partners as main characters, though Par and Zhivana will be back of course, but all those relationships are different depending on the characters and the cases.
CS: Gryphonpike has a host of fantasy creatures. What are the inspiration for these creatures and how do you decide which creatures fight and win/lose against which creatures with which powers and weapons?
AB: A lot of the creatures are *ahem* borrowed from other sources. Like D&D or mythology. Some are just made up by my weird brain. I let the story and the setting dictate what they are fighting for the most part. Each character in the party has their own fighting style, so how they fight and what they end up facing is a part of that. It’s just good party dynamics to have the archer shoot the things that need shooting and the mage polymorph the things that need to be turned into harmless pink rabbits. As with pretty much anything I write, everything is in service to and dictated by the characters themselves and their story. I will admit that every now and again while I’m writing GPC, I roll a d20 and let the dice dictate what happens in a fight. Just a little. It’s more fun that way!
CS: Is Gryphonpike just for the adventure or is there a message in the adventure?
AB: It’s pretty much pure adventure. I like fireballs and archery and apparently playing D&D alone in my office while pretending it’s work.
CS: Until now, your science fiction, space opera, and paranormal mystery stories have been consigned to short fiction. But with Lorian Archive, your science fiction is not only graduating to novels, but a trilogy, and hard science that. Why the leap?
AB : Lorian Archive isn’t hard science fiction. It’s sf thriller meets cyberpunk. So it won’t be that big a leap (fight scenes and fast pacing are sort of my thing). However, I have no idea when I’ll get back to it. I’ve re-drafted Casimir Hypogean four times from scratch now and I’m still figuring out exactly what I want to do with it. It’s a complex story with about eleven PoV characters in a genre I haven’t written long-form (well, I’ve written it four times now, so I guess I have, but not to my satisfaction). So I’m still thinking that one over. I don’t call a book done until I’m as happy with it as I can be. I was serializing draft #4, but I realized I wanted to change the ending and then I didn’t like the opening as much anymore, so once again it’s on the back-burner. That poor trilogy. The first book was the first novel I ever finished. Someone bet me 20 bucks I couldn’t do it in a month, so I did it in 19 days. It was awful in its first incarnation, but there were some great ideas and the bones were okay, I just had no writing chops at all to do what I wanted. The scope of that story is crazy. If I ever finish it, I bet it’ll rock socks. So many good ideas and characters in there. Someday, when I have the chops and have it in my head the way I want, I’ll tackle it again. Not this year or likely the next, though. Maybe 2018?
CS: There’s going to be a sequel to the first Cymru story. Will fans be able to forgive you for having the main character murder innocent creatures to save her lovers? Will her actions come back to haunt her in the next book?
AB: Some readers forgive me, some don’t, but most people who read the book seem to have a strong opinion. I believe the nice term for that is “polarizing” right? Book 2 actually takes place 20 years later and deals with the fallout of her decision, but it falls to her daughter to fix things. In the world of my fey, everything comes back to haunt people and there is always a price to pay one way or another. That’s another book that I’ve drafted already and didn’t like exactly how it came out, so I’m scrapping it and starting over. It probably needs another six months to a year of thinking about in the back of my mind before I take a (hopefully) final run at it. At the least it was an excuse to use some of my college degree finally, and I got to break Word’s spellcheck (and my copy editor’s brain) with all the Welsh names.
CS: What about Remy Pigeon? Will he be doing any more gumshoeing?
AB: Most likely. Remy’s stories are urban fantasy, and he’s the protag of the most popular short stories I think I’ve written. I have four novels outlined with him as the star, but again, he’s going to have to wait while I work on the series I’ve already started. I’m trying not to over-commit to projects since I suffer from chronic illness and stress/anxiety/depression stuffs. Which I realize sounds crazy given everything I just wrote here, but, uh, I promise, this isn’t over-committing. I haven’t even mentioned the other things I have in the works. It’s probably best I don’t or you’ll give me a Turing test and start talking about neurotech or clones again.
QUOTED: "Fans of urban fantasy will be drawn to this intriguing series."
Level Grind: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Vol. 1
263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Level Grind: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Vol. 1
Annie Bellet. Saga, $15.99 trade paper (480p) ISBN 978-1-4814-7939-4
This omnibus collects the first four novellas of Bellet's series featuring Jade Crow, a comic and gaming shop owner and sorceress, into a lighthearted paranormal romance story that gradually becomes more serious. Jade once belonged to a group of crow shape-shifters drawn from various Native American tribes, but she's been exiled. She hides from a dangerous former mentor, Samir, in a small Idaho college town that's home to shape-shifters, witches, and a leprechaun. Threats mount as a warlock tries to draw power from captive shifters, a malignant spirit seeks vengeance on Jade's grandfather, and the werewolves fight among themselves to name a new Alpha of Alphas. Meanwhile, Jade tries to define her relationship with Alek, a weretiger sworn to uphold shifter justice. Bellet infuses her prose with multiple shout-outs to geek and gamer culture, and the tone of her ensemble resembles Buffy the Vampire Slayer's gung-ho Scooby Gang. But Jade gains power to face Samir by eating the hearts of sorcerers she defeats (with jarring references to the Catholic liturgy around Communion) and Alek is the one who must choose between duty and love. Fans of urban fantasy will be drawn to this intriguing series. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Level Grind: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress, Vol. 1." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 58. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513549&it=r&asid=5af666054da36d062ad53dd7dbc377eb. Accessed 3 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463513549
QUOTED: "Annie Bellet clearly has a plan for this series and through four books, it seems the ingredients are coming together very nicely. As these books have already sold very well in their short eBook form, there’s clearly a large readership for the books. Fans of Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files among many other urban fantasy series will find much to enjoy in Level Grind."
LEVEL GRIND: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Volume 1 by Annie Bellet
Rob B October 17, 2016 1 Comment
Jade Crow is a great protagonist
Annie Bellet is a self-publishing sensation, who has achieved USA Today bestseller status while garnering a strong fanbase. Annie jumps from eBook to print book with her Twenty-Sided Sorceress urban fantasy series. In a smart, proven publishing move, the fine folks at Saga Press (led by the indomitable Joe Monti) have issued the first four novellas in a lovely print omnibus, wrapped in an excellent cover by Chris McGrath.
That’s enough about the external things surrounding Level Grind, here’s the publisher description, followed by my review/thoughts:
An omnibus of the first seven [sic]* books in the USA TODAY bestselling fantasy series—collected together for the first time in one volume. Jade Crow is a sorceress hiding from the most powerful sorcerer in the world: her ex-boyfriend.
Gamer. Nerd. Sorceress.
Jade Crow lives a quiet life running her comic book and game store in Wylde, Idaho, hiding from a powerful sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and take her powers—her ex-boyfriend Samir. Yet when dark powers threaten her friends’ lives, Jade must save them by using magic. But as soon as she does, her nemesis will find her and she won’t be able to stand up against him when he comes.
This is the collection of the first four volumes of the Hugo Award nominated series: Justice Calling; Murder of Crows; Pack of Lies; and Hunting Season.
The first short novel, Justice Calling, introduces Jade and her world, which is thrown asunder when Alek, a Justice [basically, a supernatural cop] comes into Jade’s comic and gaming shop in Idaho. In the second installment, Murder of Crows, another visitor throws Jade’s life into chaos, just as she was settling down a little from the events of the first volume. In this case; however, the visitor is her estranged father, who invites Jade back to the ranch (some would say cult) where she spent much of her youth until her tribe banished her. In Pack of Lies, as the title implies, werewolves are the focus because it appears wolves are killing each other. When another Justice, a colleague of Alek’s comes through Wylde investigating, Jade immediately distrusts the new woman. The last full story in the omnibus is book four, Hunting Season, which does a nice job of building on Jade’s character arc through the first three stories/novellas.
Cover Art by Chris McGrath
Cover Art by Chris McGrath
Through these four novellas, Bellet weaves a fun story and applies a relatively logical take on magic. Her protagonist Jade uses a Dungeons and Dragons Players’ Handbook to better focus her magic. The Handbook essentially describes the spells and what is needed to cast them which makes an almost elegant sort of sense. I’m not overly well read in Urban Fantasy (though I’ve read some) and I don’t recall seeing an author use this approach. I also think the shorter length of each story provides for nice consumable chunks that build well together.
As much of Urban Fantasy is told in first person narrative, through the protagonist’s voice, the success or a reader’s enjoyment will rely heavily on that voice. Here, in my opinion, Bellett succeeds quite well, Jade is a fun, empathetic, and engaging character. I found myself rooting for her and wanting to hang out with her at her game shop. The only real drawback for me was the continual geeky references. Whilst I appreciated most of them, their rapid fire appearances started to wear a bit thin for me. The only other issue I had with the four books was that Jade’s ex-boyfriend Samir, who is being carved out as ‘the Big Bad,’ pulling the strings against Jade in the series, is not really seen in the narrative. He’s referred to enough as a threat, the bad things he’s done to Jade are brought up often enough, but having him make at least a minor appearance would have made the threat he posed feel more immediate and dire.
Annie Bellet clearly has a plan for this series and through four books, it seems the ingredients are coming together very nicely. As these books have already sold very well in their short eBook form, there’s clearly a large readership for the books. Fans of Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files among many other urban fantasy series will find much to enjoy in Level Grind.
© 2016 Rob H. Bedfordo
*The book contains the first 4, not 7, novellas
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Saga Press
Trade Paperback | 480 Pages
Published by Saga Press | October 2016
QUOTED: "Level Grind is a fast paced urban fantasy with a gamer sorceress who lives amongst shifters. There are plenty of gaming/geeky references that make this a fun read and make the characters seem that much more relatable."
"Jade Crow is a great protagonist."
Review: Level Grind by Annie Bellet
November 29, 2016
Review: Level Grind by Annie BelletLevel Grind (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #1-4) by Annie Bellet
Series: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Volumes #1
Published by Saga Press on October 4th 2016
Genres: Urban/Contemporary Fantasy
Pages: 480
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
Thanks to Saga Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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three-half-stars
Level Grind is a fast paced urban fantasy with a gamer sorceress who lives amongst shifters. There are plenty of gaming/geeky references that make this a fun read and make the characters seem that much more relatable (assuming you’re a geek, which I hope you are).
Jade Crow is a great protagonist that kept me entertained. A gamer nerd who has been trying to pass as just an ordinary hedge witch, running a comic book and game shop, she is actually a powerful sorceress. In this world, that is not something you want to advertise because sorcerers are feared, seeing as they have a reputation of being cruel as well as eating people’s hearts. Not exactly a friendly conversation starter to drop on your new neighbors. Oh yeah, and she has an obsessive ex-boyfriend who is an incredibly powerful sorcerer and is trying to track her down. This is another reason Jade is trying to lay low as she makes a new life for herself in a small shifter town.
Level Grind is actually an omnibus of 4 novellas. While I do prefer novel length books, I think these were enjoyable quick stories that I found myself appreciating more the more I read. The nice thing with a compilation of novellas, is it makes for good breaking points if you want to read something else. Each novella featured a mystery that Jade was trying to solve, often with the help of her group of friends. She also finds herself a sexy ally that brings a bit of romance For me, reading them all back to back, there was a little bit of recap at the start of each novella which equated to pages that I personally didn’t need, but at the same time, the recaps were very quick and could serve to be useful for those who opt to not read them all straight through.
As you would expect, the novellas are each contained stories that work reading them on their own, but as a set you can see how the characters progress in both magical development and their relationships, you get a better sense of the history that led to this point as well as setup for future potential conflict. Although, even by the end of the fourth novella, I don’t know that I felt like the characters were deeply developed, but I think that is something that is hard to do in a novella format. Novellas do not have the luxury of page space to devote to complex characters and world building. They are short and need to keep the story going with as little extraneous information as possible. It’s all about keeping the pace going, which Level Grind does nicely. However, with that same page space issue in mind, I also felt some of the resolutions came incredibly quick and easy. This is one of those books where you are better off just going with the flow, enjoying the journey and not trying to theorize how realistic anything may or may not be.
The last two novellas, I felt were stronger. This may be due to both becoming more familiar with the world and characters as well as the fact the last two novellas were longer in length. The stories felt a bit more developed, likely because they were. I also felt that the second novella was probably the weakest of the lot. In the first one, everything is fresh and new, we meet the characters and magic, but the second one has to build on that and rely on the story itself to bring something new for the reader, and the second novella was one of the shorter ones and felt a bit underdeveloped to me. So, if you pick this one up and feel let down by the second novella, but enjoyed the first, I would encourage you to keep reading as the last two have more to offer.
For me, these were straight up fun escapist reads, something I really needed this past month. Especially as I found myself enjoying these more as I read, I do plan on reading the next volume when it releases and I’m curious what is in store next for Jade and her friends.
QUOTED: "a very witty, vibrant, and entertaining urban fantasy. Collecting the first four novellas in the Twenty-Sided Sorcerer series, this omnibus admittedly offers pretty standard fare when it comes to the genre. Still, it manages to be a very entertaining read thanks to the stories’ vigorous pacing, the characters’ irresistible charms, and the author’s fun take on the usual tropes."
Book Review: Level Grind by Annie Bellet
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Level GrindLevel Grind by Annie Bellet
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Books 1-4 of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress
Publisher: Saga Press (October 4, 2016)
Length: 480 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
In gaming lingo, the term “level grind” often has negative connotations, typically used to describe having to engage in mind-numbingly tedious or repetitive tasks to gain experience or complete an achievement. Happily, this is not at all how I would describe my experience with Level Grind by Annie Bellet, which is in fact a very witty, vibrant, and entertaining urban fantasy. Collecting the first four novellas in the Twenty-Sided Sorcerer series, this omnibus admittedly offers pretty standard fare when it comes to the genre. Still, it manages to be a very entertaining read thanks to the stories’ vigorous pacing, the characters’ irresistible charms, and the author’s fun take on the usual tropes.
Meet Jade Crow, a sorceress on the run. After twenty-five years of hiding from her ex-lover and fellow sorcerer Samir who wants to eat her heart (gross, yes, but that happens to be the only way to kill a sorcerer and steal their powers) she has ended up settling in Wylde, Idaho, home to a thriving paranormal community that includes shapeshifters, witches, and leprechauns. A lifelong gamer and nerd, Jade is content enough to lie low and live a quiet life among friends, running her comic book and game store.
JUSTICE CALLING
Justice Calling is the first novella of the collection, introducing us our main characters and setting. It was just another day at Pwned Comics and Games when a tall and handsome stranger breezes through the door and accuses Jade of murder. Alek is a Justice, an enforcer for the Shifter community, and he has arrived in Wylde after receiving a vision that someone or something may be harming the lives of those he has sworn to protect, and he believes Jade is to blame.
This first story also sets the tone for the rest of the series: lots of gaming and pop culture references, unashamedly geared towards the gamer and geek demographics. That said, any general fan of urban fantasy can definitely enjoy these books as well. As the opening novella and also the shortest of the bunch, Justice Calling is unfortunately rather light on character development and world-building (imagine a full-length novel by Patricia Briggs or Ilona Andrews compressed into a little more than 100 pages, and that’s how I would describe this), but it does solidly establish more to come. This is when reading the omnibus comes in handy; with the next book conveniently waiting on the next page, there was no excuse not to satisfy my curiosity and hankering for more.
MURDER OF CROWS
This second story starts with Jade’s estranged father showing up at her doorstep, imploring her for help. Our protagonist has never forgiven her family for kicking her out of Three Feathers crow shifter ranch where she grew up, but she ultimately agrees to help after learning someone was out there brutally killing innocent people. As always, Jade suspects Samir, her evil sorcerer ex who could be murdering members of the Crow clan to get to her.
If book one was about laying down the groundwork and hooking readers in, then Murder of Crows is where things start to get a little deeper. Bellet fleshes out her world-building, exploring the various shapeshifting communities in her series and also incorporating Native American history, culture, and lore into her story. But it is character development that gets a huge boost. We learn a lot more about Jade and where she came from, and by the end of the book she is changed by the many difficult decisions she had to make. There’s also a strong vibe of mysticism in this one as Jade comes to terms with being a sorceress and what it’ll take to control her magic. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was her romance with Alek; I mean, come on, it ends before it even begins!
PACK OF LIES
The next story begins as Alek suddenly comes back into Jade’s life, showing up at her door asking her for help (yes, there’s a clear pattern emerging here with regards to the way these books begin). The Wylde community is again threatened as news comes that wolves are killing other wolves, but things take an even worse turn when an innocent family is found slaughtered, seemingly caught in the middle of a shifter conflict. Even though Alek broke her heart, for the sake of her town Jade decides to lend him a hand in his investigation.
I didn’t get a chance to feel invested in Jade and Alek’s relationship in the previous two books, so quite a few of their interactions felt empty. These plots are also starting to become very predictable, especially when read back-to-back; someone always comes to Jade for help with a gruesome terrible crime, and as always, Jade thinks it must be Samir, the big bad who has been a constant threat in the back of her mind and yet he is still nowhere to be seen. To be fair, this is a rather common feeling for me when it comes to novellas, with there being so few pages to really develop a deeper story. Still, these books are meant to be short and sweet, and when all is said and done, Pack of Lies was another fast, entertaining read. Jade also reveals herself to be a sorceress at the end of this book which causes no small amount of tensions in her small town (even the other paranormals are kind of creeped out by sorcerers, with them being known to eat hearts and everything) which adds another interesting source of conflict to the series.
HUNTING SEASON
Yep, this one also starts with someone showing up at Jade’s door for help, and again we are led to believe that these dastardly acts (in this case, the grisly mass killings of unicorns) might be attributed to Samir. But this time, we actually get the sense that a greater story is emerging. Finally! A mysterious sorceress also turns up in Wylde, claiming to be running away from Samir and needs protection, and Jade is torn between wanting to help and not wanting to put her friends at risk.
I’ll be honest, this being the fourth installment, I thought we would have a lot more answers by now. But this is also a story with some great developments and nice twists. Hunting Season was perhaps the best of the novellas, and a great story to end this first collection.
Closing thoughts: So far, I’m really enjoying The Twenty-Sided Sorceress and I would highly recommend the omnibus format of Level Grind for an easy, convenient way to enjoy the first four novellas one after another. While it’s true that UF fans may find it a little derivative and too similar to many of the popular paranormal series out there, I think it aims for being light and fun rather than groundbreaking. And it worked! The stories’ short lengths also definitely had some impact on the depth of world-building, character, and story development, but the good news is, these areas continue to expand with each installment. It’s probably not a stretch to say if you love Mercy Thompson or Kate Daniels, you will do get a kick out of this series as well. Geeks and gamers will especially have a blast! I look forward to seeing what’s next.
QUOTED: "It's an exciting and clever story."
Level Grind: Justice Calling; Murder of Crows; Pack of Lies; Hunting Season (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress)
Image of Level Grind: Justice Calling; Murder of Crows; Pack of Lies; Hunting Season (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress)
Author(s):
Annie Bellet
Release Date:
October 3, 2016
Publisher/Imprint:
Saga Press
Pages:
480
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Samantha Holloway
Level Grind is a compilation of the first four short novels of the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series, an urban fantasy collection about Native American sorceress-in-hiding Jade Crow and her mostly-shapeshifter friends solving supernatural crimes. It's also about, in these four episodes at least, her training to take on her murderous and manipulative ex, a stronger sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and steal her powers.
The feel of these stories is more Dresden Files than female-led UF usually leans; she's less tough-girl sexpot and more wisecracking nerd in over her head. The book as a whole walks the line between what's expected of the genre and some neat new twists, creating stories that are fresh without being too different from their fellow urban fantasies. It also walks the line between fun and horror that the best UF does, endearing the characters and then throwing them into creepy and dangerous situations where they have no idea what's happening but it's their job to figure it out.
Jade is not a professional; she's just someone who keeps winding up in the middle of crimes having to do with magic and shapeshifters, and she's scared and ill-prepared, but too moral in the end to ignore when people need help. It's that fact that keeps her from coming across as too cynical and keeps her soft enough to root for. Seeing her power grow from story to story is exciting, and watching her struggle with what that power means is humanizing—important when the characters technically aren't human at all. It's also fun having honest geek characters who aren't stereotypes or jokes; they're just her friends.
These four collected stories are more examples of how novellas are polishing up and running with the old form lately; each of the four stories is self-contained enough to read alone, as they were originally published, but also fit together tightly enough to read as one volume. It's an exciting and clever story that is aware of how cool some of the details are, and reads like it was fun to write, which in turn makes it more fun to read. It's got nerd enthusiasm down, even when the story veers into mythology or horror, and it returns to that enthusiasm more than it dwells on the darker parts. Because of that, the whole set of these stories is entertaining and charming.
If you're looking for female-led UF that doesn't spend too much time in the bedroom but does bring in lots of cool ideas and builds a fascinating world and neat characters, these are the stories for you.
Samantha Holloway is a freelance writer, editor, and novelist. Her epic fantasy novels Wisewoman's Daughter and Sister to the Sun are now available at Amazon, with Goddess's Hand coming in September 2015. Her academic work has appeared in the Essential Science Fiction Television Reader as well as at various conferences.