Kevin Cannon Author Interview + Giveaway

     Kevin Cannon Author Interview      

Kevin Cannon is the March Author in the Spotlight here at BookSnob.  Both Kevin and I had a crazy, busy month of March, so I've extended his feature a bit to make sure you all could read this interview and have more time to get to know Kevin.  In this interview, Kevin talks about his writing process, his favorite cartoonists and he includes links and websites for further investigation.  Read on.

Welcome Kevin,
                                      
Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born and raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and learned how to draw cartoon characters by copying the art in the Star Tribune comics section. In college I drew a strip for the school paper and only after a year or two of that did I think that this might be a realistic career move. Since then I've made a living drawing educational comics and doing illustrations for everything from newspapers to movie studios. Mostly I like drawing comics because I can set my own hours and can listen to hockey games while I work.


Why did you decide to write Crater XV?

After my first graphic novel Far Arden came out in 2009 I was motivated to create a sequel, so I tried to think about how best to follow up that book. A lot of readers felt unsettled by the tragic ending of the first book (sorry, spoiler alert) and so I thought it would be a good idea to have the sequel deal with the main character's sudden loss. So when Crater XV opens, we find Army Shanks so consumed with grief that he decides to travel to the most remote place on earth, and that sparks a sequence of events that finds him getting tangled up in a secret race to get a Canadian rocket to the moon. The whole space race plot was inspired by my work on an educational graphic novel called "T-Minus: The Race to the Moon" which chronicled the actual space race between the US and the Soviets. Anyone who's familiar with that story will see that I've dropped a lot of easter eggs into Crater XV -- fun little references to the real moon race.
WEBSITE: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6333754-t-minus

Can you share with us your writing and drawing process while you created Crater XV?

Crater XV is nearly 500 pages long, so putting the book together was a huge undertaking. I spent over a year just thinking about the story and writing down little scene or plot ideas in a notebook and then eventually put these "anchors" on scraps of paper and arranged them on my bed and tried to put them in some kind of order. The book has many subplots and side character arcs, so the toughest part of the writing process was just making sense of all these narrative strings. What helped was dividing the book into sixteen chapters and then thinking about each chapter live a TV
show: each chapter has its own focus, its own beginning, middle, and end, and as it's basically a pulp adventure story I always try to end each chapter with a cliffhanger.

Eventually I had rough plot outlines for each chapter, and for the better part of a month I sat down every night and wrote the final script for one chapter per night until the whole book was done. It was good to concentrate the writing like that so that my brain could connect or tie up any loose strings in the overall story. Then I spent a good deal of time editing the script, adding jokes, simplifying lines, cutting out the fat, etc.

After that, the drawing was the easy part. With my script in hand I knocked out an average of one chapter per month until the whole thing was done, and then sent it to my publisher for their notes. In all, the process took close to three years.

Another challenge is that most graphic novel advances at this level are only a few hundred dollars (if that) so I was basically creating this book on spec, which meant doing the whole thing over nights and weekends. I think that actually worked in my favor, because I really had to love every page of this mammoth story in order to justify working on it in my free time.


How did you go about becoming a syndicated comic artist or cartoonist?

Before publishing Far Arden I started a cartooning studio with a guy named Zander Cannon (no relation) who was already an established cartoonist, and he was great about taking me to comic conventions and introducing me to various publishers. At one of these conventions I met the guys behind indie comics publishing powerhouse Top Shelf Productions, and from then on always wanted to have a book published with them because they really focused on putting out fun, thoughtful graphic novels, and weren't afraid to publish an inexperienced writer like myself. So I sent them my first book Far Arden and -- after a few exchanges and some suggestions on their part -- I polished up the book and they agreed to publish it.
WEBSITE: http://www.bigtimeattic.com

Can you tell us about some of your other comics and the maps you draw?

Over the past decade Zander and I have illustrated several educational comics, on subjects like evolution, genetics, and paleontology. Right now we're trying something new by doing both the writing and drawing of an introduction to Western Philosophy -- don't worry, it's going to be heavily vetted by an actual philosophy professor. That book should be coming out next year. In my spare time I love drawing cartoon maps, and I've recently become a kind of resident cartographer for the history magazine The Appendix. For each Appendix map I take an explorer and map out one of their adventures. So far I've illustrated Peter Freuchen's 1912 trek across northern Greenland, Gertrude Bell's 1905 adventure into the Hauran desert region of southern Syria, and I just finished drawing a map of Hiram Bingham's 1911 discovery of Machu Picchu.
WEBSITE: http://theappendix.net/issues/2013/10/the-appendix-appendixed
WEBSITE: http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/1/the-appendix-guide-to-gertrude-bell-in-the-hauran

Do you plan to write more graphic novels?

I always have new ideas for graphic novels, but they take such a huge amount of time and energy that I don't have any plans right now to do another one. Instead I'm more focused on doing smaller projects, especially The Appendix maps. When you're working for free (or for next to free) you've really got to do what moves you, what excites you, and right now what excites me is cartoon cartography. However, if someone wants to give me a 5- or 6-figure advance on a new book, I'll happily talk with you!

Do you like to read?  What authors or books influence you?

I've always loved to read, and try to read for pleasure every day. I grew up reading fiction but lately have moved more into nonfiction. I just finished a great book on the history of hockey from Canada's perspective, called "Hockey: A People's History" by Michael McKinley, and a few nights ago I started reading Livy's "The History of Early Rome," which sounds dry but reads like an adventure novel.

Who are your favorite cartoonists?  (websites, please)

There are so many great cartoonists out there working today -- many more, it seems, than when I entered the field over a decade ago. I've always been a big fan of Tim Sievert, whose "That Salty Air" is really a wonderful meditation on loss. I've also really enjoyed Noah van Sciver's alternative comics work. His series "Blammo" is a great throw-back to the underground comics of the last century. Stylistically I've always loved the work of Britt Sabo, who is a fantastic illustrator as well as cartoonist. I've known her forever and and it's been great to watch her style improve and grow because you always think, "she couldn't possibly get better than this" and then she does.
WEBSITE: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/that-salty-air/575
WEBSITE: http://noahvansciver.tumblr.com
WEBSITE: http://bsabo.tumblr.com

What is your favorite graphic novel??

Zander Cannons' recent book "Heck" is one of the best graphic novels I've ever read. Seriously, this thing is going to sweep all of the industry awards this summer, just watch.
WEBSITE: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/heck/834

Tell us in one sentence why we should read Crater XV?

Anyone who thinks that Arctic Canada is just a wasteland of ice and rock should read Crater XV to see what kinds of hijinks really go on up there.

Thanks Kevin!!

If you would like to win a copy of Kevin's book, Crater XV please enter here:  Crater XV Giveaway

National Poetry Month Tour

National Poetry Month Tour

Hi Everyone,

This is a post to celebrate the love of poetry and National Poetry Month.  Thanks to Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit for creating and organizing the Reach for Horizon Blog Tour.

Currently, I am taking a 7 week poetry workshop.  I'm learning a lot about poetry and writing a bit of poetry myself.  This class is taught by Lee Kisling and I'm enjoying it immensely.

I try to read one poem every day and currently the poetry book I am reading is called, The Heart of All That Is:  Reflections on Home.  Edited by Jim Perlman, Deborah Cooper, Mara Hart, Pamela Mittefehldt.

So the poem I will share with you today comes from The Heart of All That Is and since I am taking a poetry class, I thought this poem would be fitting.  It is poignant and powerful.

In Poetry Class at the Jail
Derek Talks About the Moon
by: Deborah Cooper

The moon he can see
through the window of his cell

for seven lucky minutes
every night it's clear.

Then Justin talks about the moon
that rose above the barn

on the farm of his seventh
foster family

the way it soothed
his loneliness.

Bart writes a poem about the memory
of moonlight upon snow

when he was only nine,
first time he ran away.

Josh recalls a winter
on the streets, fifteen...

the coldest night, spent
huddled in a dumpster.

We write in silence then.

When they're led back to their blocks
for lockdown, I head home.

A pale moon sails
the darkening canopy of sky

from wide horizon
to horizon.

Announcing April Author in the Spotlight

Announcing the April Author in the Spotlight

Happy April!!  Today Mother Nature is playing a mean joke on the people of Minnesota.  It is snowy with blustering winds.  Not funny, Lady!
This week I am on Spring Break and busy catching up with appointments and grading.  The work of a teacher is never done.

The author in the Spotlight for the month of April is Young Adult author, Geoff Herbach.  This is not a joke!  He is an awesome writer and has come to speak at South High, where I teach, twice and his son, was in my class last year.

These are his books and their descriptions from Good Reads:

Stupid Fast:
I, Felton Reinstein, am Stupid Fast. Seriously. The upper classmen used to call me Squirrel Nut, because I was little and jumpy. Then, during sophomore year, I got tall and huge and so fast the gym teachers in their tight shorts fell all over themselves. During summer, three things happened all at once. First, the pee-smelling jocks in my grade got me to work out for football, even though I had no intention of playing. Second, on my paper route the most beautiful girl I have ever seen moved in and played piano at 6 a.m. Third, my mom, who never drinks, had some wine, slept in her car, stopped weeding the garden, then took my TV and put it in her room and decided she wouldn’t get out of bed.

Listen, I have not had much success in my life. But suddenly I’m riding around in a jock’s pick-up truck? Suddenly I’m invited to go on walks with beautiful girls? So, it’s understandable that when my little brother stopped playing piano and began to dress like a pirate I didn’t pay much attention. That I didn’t want to deal with my mom coming apart.

Nothing Special:

Hey Aleah,
I miss you. Because there's some serious donkey crap going on right now. I'm supposed to be at football camp, but noooo ... Andrew had to go missing! So because of my stupid little brother, I'll probably lose my chance at a scholarship and end up being nothing special.

I'm pretty sure Andrew ran away to Florida, and now Gus and I have to drive cross-country to get him. Did you know Gus used to think
Miss Piggy was hot? Anyway, Andrew once told me I needed to get my head out of my butt. So that's what I'm trying to do. How about a kiss for luck?
Felton

"Readers looking for a genuinely memorable first-person narrator--in the vein of Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian or Pete Hautman's Godless-- should really catch up to Stupid Fast."--StarTribune

I'm With Stupid:

Felton Reinstein has never been good with stress. Which is why he's seriously freaking out. Revealing his college choice on national TV? It's a heart attack waiting to happen. Deciding on a major for the next four years of his life? Ridiculous. He barely even knows who he is outside of football. And so...he embarks on The Epic Quest to Be Meaningful.

Which leads to:

1. Mentoring a freshman called Pig Boy.

2. The state of Wisconsin hating him.

3. His track coach suspending him.

4. The funniest viral video the world has ever seen.

5. A whole new appreciation for his family, his friends, and what's really important in life.

The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg:

“Believe the hype. I killed myself.”

Having destroyed his life, the suicidal T. Rimberg strikes out on a journey through history and geography. From Minneapolis to Europe to a fiery accident near Green Bay, he searches for a father who is likely dead, digs for meaning where he’s sure there is none, fires off suicide letters to family, celebrities, presidents, and football stars, and lands in a hospital bed across from a priest who believes that Rimberg has caused a miracle. This funny, moving novel asks us to consider the nature of second chances and the unexpected form that grace sometimes takes.

And Geoff's latest book, soon to be released in May is:

Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleader:

From "one of the most real, honest, and still funny male voices to come around in a while" (YALSA) comes a brand-new cast of quirky characters, pitting fat boy Gabe against the high school cheerleading team in a battle over control of the school's soda machine.

The war is ON! Never have the stakes been so high. Never have the trenches been so deep. Never has one soda vending machine been so vital. When the high school cheerleading team takes over the machine's funds previously collected by the pep band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.

This month you can expect two book reviews, an author interview, a contest, and hopefully a guest post.  Geoff is busy promoting his new book and teaching college writing at Mankato state.  Check him out at his website:  www.geoffherbach.com

Happy Reading!!

Far Arden by Kevin Cannon

Far Arden by Kevin Cannon

Far Arden is an island off the grid and missing from the world map and people are in a race to find it.  Its mythical, its tropical and it is somewhere in the Arctic circle.

Army Shanks, ex Royal Canadian Arctic Navy man, has the gumption and the will to find Far Arden but many obstacles stand in his way.  First he has to find his ship, help a orphan, fight a polar bear, (OK he doesn't fight the polar bear, someone else does), then he does battle with RCAN, meets a couple of weird college kids and so much more.

Far Arden is an adventure story, a graphic novel and 100 percent fun.  I loved all the clever plot twists and turns and how all the characters connect with each other in the end.  Far Arden is a page turning, karate kicking, stomach punching, thought provoking, kick ass graphic novel that will keep you guessing.  There are plenty of surprises thrown in that will make you laugh and pull your heart strings.

Far Arden is skillfully drawn in black and white with intricate detail.  Kevin is a well known cartoonist and cartographer and is artwork is drawn with heart and humor and will keep the reader coming back for more.


Oh, I just had an important thought here:  Army Shanks kinda of reminds me of an older and wiser Scott Pilgrim.  So Scott Pilgrim fans, this should be your next read.

Now I'm off to read the next installment of Army Shanks adventures and to see how he recovers from the ending of Far Arden.  Crater XV here I come!

Book Riot Quarterly Box

                                                   Book Riot Quarterly Box

Guess what I did for the first time?  I subscribed to the Quarterly Company subscription service and I chose the Book Riot subscription for obvious reasons, hint:  I'm a book lover.  So I have been patiently waiting for a little bit of heaven to arrive on my doorstep.  My Book Riot Quarterly box arrived last weekend and here is what I found inside,  squeeeeeeee!!!!!

First up:  I got a super cool letter which I loved.  It made the whole thing so personal.

Inside my little box of book heaven was a Banned Books mug.  It is my new favorite and I love it.  Tea and books go together well.

Next there was a poster that said Read Every Where.  I am hanging this up in my classroom.

Inside the box were three books:
1.  Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
2.  Judging a Book by Its Lover.  A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers Everywhere by Lauren Leto
3. (ARC) Delancey. A Memoir. A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage by Molly Wizenberg

Also included:  I found a magnet for my fridge that says:  Yay Books!
A Book Riot jump drive loaded with Short Stories
And a container of book darts to mark your place.  The container says Read Harder!

All in All, I love my Quarterly Box from Book Riot and I can't wait till I get the next one.  Finally someone out there knows what I love and buys the perfect gifts for a avid reader and book lover.
Now I'm going to go enjoy my little bit of book heaven.

If you would like to subscribe you can do so here:  Book Riot Quarterly Box

If you want to check out Book Riot website and podcast you can do so here:  http://bookriot.com/

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake Winner!

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake Winner!

Anna Quindlen is one of my favorite authors so I am super excited to giveaway a copy of this book of essays to a BookSnob follower in honor on my 4th years of being a book blogger!

The winner of Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is......

Julia H from Excelsior, Minnesota!

Congrats Julia.
Enjoy your new book, it is in the mail.

Happy Spring!

The Moon Sisters Giveaway

The Moon Sisters Giveaway

I am proud to announce that BookSnob's blog is giving away one copy of The Moon Sisters in conjunction with TLC book tours and Crown publishing to a reader living in United States.  The Moon Sisters is destined to become a book club favorite and treasured book on your shelf.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

A beautiful coming-of-age novel about two sisters on a journey to forgive their troubled mother, with a sheen of almost-magical realism that overlays a story about the love of a family, and especially between sisters.

Therese Walsh's poignant and mesmerizing novel is a moving tale of family, love, and the power of stories. After their mother's probable suicide, sisters Olivia and Jazz are figuring out how to move on with their lives. Jazz, logical and forward-thinking, decides to get a new job, but spirited, strong-willed Olivia, who can see sounds, taste words, and smell sights, is determined to travel to the remote setting of their mother's unfinished novel to say her final goodbyes and lay their mother's spirit to rest.

Though they see things very differently, Jazz is forced by her sense of duty to help Olivia reach her goal. Bitter and frustrated by the attention heaped on her sunny sister whose world is so unique, Jazz is even more upset when they run into trouble along the way and Olivia latches to a worldly train-hopper. Though Hobbs warns Olivia that he's a thief who shouldn't be trusted, he agrees to help with their journey. As they near their destination, the tension builds between the two sisters, each hiding something from the other, and they will finally be forced to face everything between them and decide what is really important.

Contest Rules:
Fill out the form
U.S. residents Only
Ends April 2nd at midnight
Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

Meet Jazz and Olivia Moon.  Two sisters, polar opposites, on a odyssey to find the end of their mother's story.  They leave home shortly after their mother dies, a mother who may or may not have committed suicide.  Jazz finds a stack of letters, unopened, written by her mother to the father who abandoned her years before and brings them along to read.  A secret to her mother's past.  Olivia has her own secret, the last letter her mother wrote, on the day she died.

Jazz is the oldest, headstrong and smart.  When her mother got pregnant with her, her father cut her out of his life.  Jazz feels partly responsible for this and doesn't feel as well loved as the youngest sister, Olivia.  Jazz also feels like her mother has pinned her dreams of going to college on her and Jazz is never going to college.

Olivia has synesthesia, a neurological condition where she sees sounds, smells words and associates sights with people.  For example, her mother smells like the sun and Hobbs tastes like tomorrow.  Olivia is home schooled, strong willed and determined to try everything.  She doesn't have too many fears.  She is partially blind from staring too long at the sun.

Olivia has decided she is going on a journey to take her mother's ashes to the setting of the story her mother was writing when she died.  Jazz is forced to go with her and tries to talk her out of this quest every step of the way.  But when Olivia hops a train to god knows where, Jazz gets seriously worried about Olivia's safety and things begin to change.

The Moon Sisters is a sweet, endearing story of love and magic and coming to terms with the family you have been blessed with.  Walsh has created a cast of interesting characters that you will come to love and grieve over their pain.  I would describe this book as magical and endearing and full of heart.

I loved the adventure of The Moon Sisters where these two girls are thrust out of their small town life, into the life of a train hopper and wilderness trekker.  They meet an interesting cast of characters, all on a different path in life.  There is danger and kissing and secrets and a future unknown.  Through it all these two sisters must work through their differences, the loss of their mother, the past and it's pain to come to a place of love and forgiveness.

I predict The Moon Sisters will become a favorite book among book clubs.  It is that good.

Kevin Cannon Guest Post + Giveaway

                                           Kevin Cannon Guest Post + Giveaway

Kevin Cannon is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on BookSnob for the fabulous month of March.  The snow is melting and the temps are rising here in Minnesota.  Kevin is a cartoonist and a graphic novelist and he has written a guest post about how he creates and envisions his books.  This is super interesting guest post and I think you will agree.  Read on to learn more about the process of creating a graphic novel.

                                           CRATER XV PROCESS POST

There is no right way to produce a graphic novel. Some cartoonists will begin by drawing directly on the page and watching the story flow from that, while others methodically script every panel out before putting pen to paper. I'm more of the latter. For Crater XV -- my latest graphic novel, which follows the misadventures of aging Arctic pirate Army Shanks -- I planned the entire book out beforehand, a process that began with writing out fragments of scenes on scraps of paper and arranging them in order on my bed, and culminated with me sitting down and writing one full chapter per night for seventeen straight nights.

Once the script was out of the way, then I could focus on the fun part -- the actual drawing -- which is what I want to describe during this post. I didn't keep good photos or scans of my actual process working on Crater XV, so I'm going to invent a brand new panel just for Book Snob.

STEP 1: Rough sketch

I'll begin by doodling directly on the script until I have a rough idea of what each panel will look like. I might go through a few different sketches at this stage until I find the right shot. Better to experiment now when each drawing takes only a handful of seconds than to have to redraw a whole panel later and risk wasting an hour or more.

STEP 2: Rule the border

Cartoonists usually work at 150-200% the size of the printed artwork because then their art looks crisper and cleaner when shrunk down. This also means that we need to draw our lines a little thicker than usual because they'll eventually be cut down in width. My standard panel size is 8.2 cm wide by 7.3 cm high.

STEP 3: Lettering (Part One)

The sad truth about modern comic books is that most artists simply leave room for word balloons and then have some outside firm drop the text in, almost as an afterthought. This creates stilted, inorganic artwork, and often the lettering doesn't reflect the tone of the art; it just floats on top of the artwork like some strange garnish. Indie cartoonists, however, know that lettering is part of the artwork itself, and so we prefer to letter directly on the page.

When text and art are incorporated onto the same drawing surface, not only does this allow the lettering to feel like it's living in the same plane as the art, but playful interactions may occur as well. Words and balloons may hide behind a character, for instance, or a balloon may spill off into the next panel if what's being said is simply too much for the borders to handle.

There's a danger, though, in getting too bizarre with lettering. For simple dialogue I like to stick with simple lettering. In these cases I want the reader to be focusing on the art and the characters, and ignore the lettering as much as possible. Only when the narrative calls for it do I draw attention to the lettering.

For this basic lettering I use a ruler to mark out 4 mm for each line and 2 mm for the space between each line. I pencil lightly using a hard lead to block out the balloon, then go in with a softer lead to put in tighter letters. If I get to the end of the line and find that I don't have enough space, I'll usually just make a little star at the beginning of the line, which is a signal to ink the letters narrower than how they're pencilled. If I have room, I may also make a vertical line to signal where to begin each line. These marks save me from having to erase a faulty line and write the whole thing over again.

Normally I'll jump into inking using a Micron 08 for the roman letters and a Micron 1 for the bold letters. If a word is especially large I'll outline it using a Micron 005, which allows me to get nice, crisp corners. But with this sample image some of the artwork is going to cross in front of the lettering, so I'm going to wait to ink the lettering until the last step.

STEP 4: Penciling

 Now that the lettering is on the page I can begin to draw the art around it. I'll start with my hard lead again and block out the basic shapes, using my thumbnails as a guide. During this stage I may make last-minute decisions about adding or deleting elements from the panel. At this stage, for example, I have a better sense of how much information I can fit in the background without it distracting too much from the foreground.

When everything feels like it fits, then I grab a softer lead and do the tight pencils. These are the lines I'll be inking over so I want to make them as close to the final product as possible. At this stage I'll make some changes on the fly, as well as doing some detail work (like in the faces) that I didn't bother with during the loose pencil stage.

STEP 5: Inking

Like a lot of cartoonists I started out my career by using a brush. Brushes are nice because you can easily get different line weights depending on how you much pressure you put on the brush or at what angle you hold it. But lately I've moved to using pens exclusively because they're more predictable and you don't have deal with washing them like you do with brushes (I'm lazy). But I still like to have that varied line weight in my art, so as a compromise I use several different pens, each with a different nib size. 

I'll normally start with the outlines of characters and shapes, which are the thickest lines. Here I'm using a micron 08 for the balloon border and a micron 05 for the character outlines.

Next I'll fill in basic interior lines using a micron 01.

And finally I'll take a micron 005 -- the thinnest nib I can get my hands on -- to add the intricate detail work like the fibers on Army Shanks' sweater or the chain on the walrus' monocle.

STEP 6: Lettering (Part Two)

With the foreground inked, I can now safely go in and ink over the lettering. Like I said earlier, I'll use a micron 08 for the roman letters but then outline the bigger letters with a .005 (and then fill them in later).

STEP 7: Erase

Then I'll erase and scan the image and do any last minute clean-up or changes using Photoshop. And that's it, the whole process from script to ink. Now just repeat this process 3000 times and you've got yourself a graphic novel!

Thanks Kevin.  This was awesome!!

If you would like to buy a copy of Kevin's graphic novels please go to:  www.topshelfcomix.com
I linked to his page where you can find all of his comics and graphic novels.  Go check it out.

You can view all of these images and more at Kevin's website:  http://kevincannon.org/

If you would like to try and win a copy of Crater XV please click here:  Crater XV giveaway

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

                                                 
                                             The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Have you ever read a book you couldn't wait to tell everyone about it? Well if you have, you know how I feel as I say to you; You. Have. To Read. The Ghost Bride.  I want to shout from the rooftop or at least all over the internet:  Read The Ghost Bride.  It is AWESOME!

The Ghost Bride takes place in colonial Malaya in 1893.  Li Lan is 18, beautiful and the daughter of a bankrupt opium addict.  She has zero marriage prospects until her father is approached by the wealthy Lim family with a proposal.  A proposal to marry their dead son and to become his ghost bride.  Li Lan must consider her future and visits the Lim mansion where she learns that Lim and the Lan families are connected.  She meets the Lim heir and finds herself attracted to him.

In her heart Li Lan does not want to be a ghost bride.  But nightly she is visited by the dead son of the Lim family.  He invades her dreams and weakens her spirit, stealing bits and pieces of her strength and resolve.  She seeks help from her Amah as her body gets sicker and sicker.  Eventually her body is caught between the realm of the living and the dead and her spirit breaks free to enter a parellel spirit world.  The Chinese afterlife.

Choo has created a sensational, creative, and fascinating Chinese afterlife, complete with the creation of the Plains of the Dead.  The Plains of the Dead is the most interesting place.  It is parellel to our world and you must travel far to get there.  Ghosts stay there until they are up for reincarnation and live their afterlife in a way similar to the life they just left.  No one knows that Li Lan is not dead and still a living spirit caught between worlds.

Choo is an amazing storyteller.  I can't wait until she writes her next book because I will be first in line to buy it.  In many ways I hope she writes a sequel to The Ghost Bride.  The plot is so darn cool and original.  And the characters are so real and imaginative and full of mystery and myth.

The Ghost Bride is a mix of Chinese culture, history, religion, and folk beliefs.  You will be drawn into another world, another place and time and will take great pleasure in a sensory filled reading experience.  All of these elements are woven into a superb story that will keep me raving about this book for a long time to come.

The Ghost Bride is my favorite read of the 2014 so far!