book reviews |
book reviews |
Multi-volume, horror-and-science-fiction author Craig Crawford introduces us to the first volume in his genre-mashup series, Project Threshold, “Team Berger: Division 1”: In a multiverse where the walls are thin between our world and others, Project Threshold stands between humanity and monsters crossing over to threaten us. Harris Berger and his team intervenes on our behalf. Death waits around every corner but dying isn’t the worst thing they have to endure. Berger wades in with his team: Sam, Billy, Jacks, Jessie, and their new recruit, Pendelhaven. Team Berger faces an unknown advanced civilization, mimics loose on the streets of Chicago killing homeless people, dealing with the aftermath of witnessing awful things, mermaids in the Midwest and an apartment where people start committing suicide for no apparent reason. These short stories are connected by an overarching mission to keep the public safe and ignorant of serious, paranormal threats to humanity. They share different characters within the same secret agency and there is a joint history for some and a short history for others. The extraterrestrial bend is unmistakable and there are definite elements of horror. Mermaids in the American mid-west might be considered part of the urban fantasy genre. I am not a fan of large amounts of gore but I enjoyed all of these stories and got chills in a number of places. I can't say anymore because I am committed to not spoiling a story for others. I award 4.8 stars to “Project Threshold: Team Berger: Division 1”. You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Project-Threshold-Team-Berger-Division-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/-pt-team-berger-craig-crawford https://www.barnesandnoble.com/project-threshold-team-berger-craig-crawford https://www.thriftbooks.com/project-threshold-team-berger-craig-crawford You can connect with the author: https://twitter.com/CRAIGLCrawford https://www.facebook.com/CraigLCrawfordWriter https://craiglcrawfordbooks.com https://projectthreshold.com I reviewed the second book in the series here: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/p-t-team-talise I reviewed the third book in the series here: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/team-riker-by-craig-crawford I reviewed the fourth book in the series: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/project-threshold-finale Tags: alien, demon, paranormal, supernatural, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror Copyright © 2023 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction
77 Comments
10/15/2023 06:39:22 pm
Hi Mark,
Reply
Mark
10/15/2023 07:03:02 pm
Thanks for joining me on the Word Refiner channel. We are going to talk about your writing processes and bits and pieces of your publishing and marketing adventures.
Reply
10/15/2023 07:14:21 pm
I started writing at 14. It was a complicated time for me. My parents divorced the previous year and going into middle school I ended up meeting a new set of friends who were into science fiction and fantasy. I jumped in with both feet, having previously only really read mysteries and some horror. I met my best friend and from that experience I tend to believe things are meant to happen. He wrote and I got curious and started trying to write too. And I've been at it ever since.
Reply
DA Wysong
10/17/2023 10:01:28 am
Curious if either of your parents or other adults ever encouraged your writing?
Reply
10/17/2023 10:13:14 am
Yeah, being a teen during that--you've got enough crap going on as is...but my mom definitely encouraged my writing. Dad wasn't around much after. My grandparents lived a few blocks away and my grandfather loved sci-fi and fantasy and he and I shared the love of reading as I found those genres--we'd read the same stuff and talk about the books. He was supportive of my writing too.
Mark
10/15/2023 07:47:44 pm
Parental divorce has a profound effect on children of all ages. I was about five years old when my parents were divorced though they had separated a year before that. The divorce has influenced my entire life.
Reply
10/15/2023 08:03:47 pm
Agreed on the divorce. You learn to live with it, but it has a huge impact.
Reply
Mark
10/15/2023 08:16:14 pm
Few authors write fulltime unless they have retired from a career in the working world. For those relatively few writers who are fulltime they are actually running a small business with writing books as their primary product. For an indie author it can be a fulltime job.
Reply
10/15/2023 08:19:00 pm
In the beginning it was to see if I could create a story. It progressed to the next level when I wrote my first novel. After I finished, I just started to get ideas for stories coming out of almost nowhere and they wouldn't leave me alone until I got them on paper.
Reply
Mark
10/15/2023 09:25:21 pm
Stories are an important part of who we are as humans, family members and family creators. Stories offer a unique method to share the difficult in an easier way as well as entertain.
Reply
10/15/2023 09:45:25 pm
Back to ideas--I do write some down but I keep important ones in my head. The 2nd story in Berger's book, that monster was something I thought of back in college and just never had a use for it until now. I never wrote it down but it was cool enough it just stuck with me waiting for it's time.
Reply
Mark
10/16/2023 06:26:38 pm
That idea is quite original! I was very surprised at the revelation.
Reply
10/16/2023 07:18:18 pm
It started as a single story--The Cave. I wrote that and had this vague idea of Project Threshold but after I started writing a novel on it focusing on my Kurt and Cass characters. However, I sold the story really quickly to a small press and their editor asked if I'd consider writing a few more stories and they'd publish a short serial. It inspired me and I started writing two more stories. However, finishing those, I thought of another team and then a third. I sold the first story in September 2020 and between October and January I wrote another 18. Along the way, as I fleshed out these teams and characters I realized I needed something to bring them altogether and the finale came into being. Then I went back and finished five stories for each team. The one idea exploded and here we are.
Reply
Mark
10/17/2023 10:24:20 am
I love how that worked out. Getting a request for more stories had to be a very exciting moment. Congratulations!
Reply
10/17/2023 11:07:39 am
Yes actually. Project Threshold is the second incarnation of what I was going to call these stories. I consulted and have a lawyer in my court who helped me hunt down the original name which I found out someone else was loosely using and so had to come up with Project Threshold--it's in the process of being trademarked as we speak.
Reply
Mark
10/17/2023 01:34:39 pm
That is quite a convoluted path! Being persistent makes a lot of difference much of the time. Your fans thank you.
Reply
10/17/2023 01:59:34 pm
It was an exercise in patience and letting things happen. The parameters kept changing on me and I had to keep the end goal firmly in mind to get where we are.
Reply
Mark
10/17/2023 04:05:16 pm
Rather tortuous! I am not surprised that Amazon has many different rules for things like that. In the early years, they tried hard to be accommodating for publishers of all sizes. But now, Amazon is so big when it sneezes another large publisher winds up in ICU.
Reply
10/17/2023 04:22:48 pm
At first it seemed very cool to have multiple presses teaming up to put out these stories but it got more complicated as time went on and I'm happy the way it ended up too.
Reply
Mark
10/17/2023 06:43:47 pm
The cover for Don't Mess With Bunnies appears quite benign, and I am sure it was planned that way.
Reply
10/17/2023 06:57:49 pm
I'm planning a similar format for the second set of stories. It will pick up a few weeks after the first ends. I already have all of Team Talise's stories written and one for for Riker's team. I have started the finale and know the direction for both Berger and Riker's teams.
Reply
Mark
10/17/2023 08:32:18 pm
That sounds good. That will keep your fans happy for a while.
Reply
10/17/2023 11:38:12 pm
For good or ill and not matter what people want, AI is here to stay.
Reply
Anna Casamento Arrigo
10/18/2023 08:28:21 am
Excellent!!
Reply
Mark
10/18/2023 10:00:18 am
Hi Anna, thanks for dropping in. You and I will talk more down the road.
Reply
Mark
10/18/2023 10:23:16 am
What was that thing someone said about great minds? ;-)
Reply
10/18/2023 11:47:41 am
Great minds indeed. For my day job, I work in the IT department in a college, though I am a buyer and not in depth into IT. However, AI is becoming part of our department's research and my supervisor is getting heavily into VR/AR with headsets and he's been experimenting with AI. Because he also teaches classes, he played around with creating presentations using AI. He had to do a lot of editing to get it to fit his needs, but once completed, he was able to upload his avatar and translate his presentation into multiple languages and it looked pretty good.
Reply
Mark
10/18/2023 03:50:37 pm
When I open a new browser window to search for something some kind of AI enhancement appears to assist me in my search. Sometimes I use it.
Reply
10/18/2023 04:13:33 pm
Back to your statements--yes, I could see AI working into audio books and being able to render stories. The tech will get better and better over time. There will be a lot of great uses for AI and also abuses--humanity seems to love using everything at its disposal to con someone out of cash sooner or later.
Reply
Mark
10/18/2023 06:50:44 pm
Almost all authors are pretty solitary individuals. The first draft of a book is a solitary process. After the first draft is complete, others are slowly brought into the circle, alpha readers, beta readers, perhaps a critique group, then an editor and proofreader. Almost every author is deathly afraid of public speaking. Indeed, public speaking is one of the top 5 fears for most people.
Reply
10/18/2023 07:03:54 pm
I agree with your statement and I think it's why I wasn't all that nervous. I love talking about the writing process and I got to share some of my stories.
Reply
Mark
10/18/2023 08:16:44 pm
I have heard it said that short stories are good practice for writers. Many readers like short books and gravitate away from long novels.
Reply
10/18/2023 08:54:55 pm
I agree. Lots of "contests" I look into cost enough to enter it's a great moneymaker for the places that put them out there and the prizes they offer leave them plenty of profit margin.
Reply
Mark
10/19/2023 09:10:56 am
You are on top of a lot of possible scams if you are connected to Writer Beware. Victoria Strauss has been exposing scams for years with the help of a lot of people. I have links to quite a few of her blogs on my website.
Reply
10/19/2023 10:16:19 am
Thanks--I am always looking for different avenues to market. Being new to this side of things I think it's worthwhile to explore every possible path--even some of the scammers I've talked to on Twitter. It has helped me refine what I should expect out of a legit group/company/promoter. I will find and scour through your other links.
Reply
Mark
10/19/2023 12:19:17 pm
You're right on all of those conclusions. Traditional publishers are running scared. Thanks to Amazon, the traditional publishing industry has been contracting for over two decades, from the big 12 we are down to the big 4 or 5. This situation is not going to turn around anytime soon also. The industry has avoided and pilloried eBooks for so long that they will never recover. Their profit margins are so slim now they have quit taking chances on unknown authors and advances have shrunk like crazy also. They are mostly only one failed book away from bankruptcy. That is also why they do so little to promote books that may not make it. Running. Scared.
Reply
10/19/2023 12:35:17 pm
Agreed. The big publishers are sketchy at best right now and even if one approached me, I'd have to really see the fine details before I would consider publishing with one, and I'd run everything through an intellectual property rights lawyer I have access too. It's really too bad because the traditional route is quickly becoming so narrow it's almost impossible to sign with them...and I'm not sure I want to anymore.
Reply
Mark
10/19/2023 03:13:18 pm
It sounds like you have a good system going and you are more organized than many other authors. Visitors to this interview can learn quite a bit from you.
Reply
10/19/2023 03:36:40 pm
Back to guidelines--agreed. I have seen some crazy, almost silly guidelines for submission and I know this is a weed-out for people who don't take the time to read all of the guidelines.
Reply
Mark
10/19/2023 05:20:10 pm
That professional approach is a winner. It is about finding the right fit for the market a publisher works in and the right audience for your books. Many new authors find it hard to keep their emotions in check. It is one thing to be excited about your book, it is a completely different thing to reply to a rejection with insults or threats. That kind of unprofessional behavior will get a writer exactly nowhere.
Reply
10/19/2023 08:00:27 pm
Agreed. I also realized (after a long bout of rejections and time) that there really is still subjectivity involved. Sure, you have to write a good story and add all the little things everyone says are needed, but you still have to make a connection with your reader, and in this case, the gatekeepers to publication. Which means if an editor or press connects with what you create, your publishing chances go way up. I think about movies or books I love. Others may shrug or roll their eyes at them but I connected. And vice versa, so, to a certain extent there is still a subjective quality to a submission.
Reply
Mark
10/19/2023 08:22:43 pm
Subjectivity! you nailed it. There is a lot of subjectivity involved because a publisher isn't going to put out something they don't like unless it is a vanity press. The only thing a vanity press likes is the money in your wallet.
Reply
10/19/2023 08:32:47 pm
I think my Project Threshold stories are edgier and definitely appeal to the horror crowd. I also think the format is good--it's novel length in its entirety yet told in short stories leading to a finale like a regular novel. The way it's partitioned out, you could read a story here and there in short increments. In today's age of short attention spans, I think it's perfect for reading a bit here and there, but still getting the novel feel.
Reply
Mark
10/20/2023 07:38:23 am
Scary and edgier, definitely; we are afraid of things that go bump in the night. I love novels, getting to know characters and relish a good plot twist. I had questions in my mind about your short story format. I was afraid character development might suffer. Your skill as a writer of short stories knocked that fear right out of my mind.
Reply
10/20/2023 08:31:57 am
Thanks. I suppose all writers have some imposter syndrome going and I'm no different. I write these stories and I "think" they're good, but just am never quite sure if they hit people like they hit me.
Reply
Mark
10/20/2023 10:10:08 am
Thank you for that candid assessment, I completely agree. I follow a lot of book reviewer and promoters on Twitter. I don't follow those who make extravagant claims and guarantee to sell x-number of books. That is when it sounds too good to be true in my mind. When I have pressed them for details, like you, it becomes smoke and mirrors.
Reply
10/20/2023 10:21:26 am
There's an author I love for this and his name is John Steakley. To my knowledge he's only written a couple of novels but they pack punch. The first is Armor. It's a standard scifi about being at war with alien bugs. Soldiers use high powered suits to fight and the main character is a man named Felix who seems built to use these suits but he keeps surviving battles when everyone else around him dies and it gets into the psychology of that. Emotionally powerful. And Steakley's other novel, which has been made into movies (James Woods) is Vampires Incorporated. It's about a team of vampire hunters backed by the Vatican and it's about Jack Crow and the emotional and mental toll it takes on him killing vampires, who in the book, are more like gods than just blood suckers. He and those books definitely influenced me on the type of stories I like to tell.
Reply
10/20/2023 11:12:38 am
I guess I never directly answered the 2nd question but yes I read both of those books every couple of years.
Reply
Mark
10/20/2023 12:06:20 pm
Mechanized warriors are sub-genre of science fiction. I have read one or two and enjoyed them. I think I have read Armor except I don't recall the author's name and the cover is different from what I recall. Some authors refresh their covers at least once a year.
Reply
10/20/2023 12:44:25 pm
Being interested in a lot of folklore and mythology, it is one of my non-fiction reading topics. Related to this is the field of cryptozoology and the paranormal. It is one of those arenas where I draw from for my horror stories.
Reply
Mark
10/20/2023 06:10:27 pm
Cryptozoology is a fascinating subject. I have read a few books and articles in the past. The occasional Nessie sighting or Bigfoot trail makes the news sometimes. While there are proven frauds there are also unresolved evidences that need an explanation for many of these creatures.
Reply
10/20/2023 06:46:12 pm
Yes the cryptozoology world is a hobby of mine and I love reading about that stuff. And it definitely plays a role in the Project Threshold world. And the Missing 411 is newer. It's fascinating because Paulides only deals with cases where people are never found or don't fit the parameters of normal disappearances.
Reply
Mark
10/20/2023 07:50:34 pm
They all sound like good books. I just want to read all of the books. I would settle for science fiction and fantasy books, but I doubt if I will live long enough.
Reply
Mark
10/21/2023 08:20:01 am
That is a good question. It brings to mind how subjective writing and reading are. I have heard it said that no book is complete until someone other than the author reads it. Since every person has a different set of filters they experience life through the reading experience will be different for them also.
Reply
10/21/2023 10:30:54 am
I agree with that. I subscribe to a daily quote in my email and I copied down one. It's from a guy named Brian Ashcroft and for the life of me, now I can't seem to find him on the net, but his quote stuck with me:
Reply
Mark
10/21/2023 01:27:49 pm
I love that story about Robert Frost. Old fox, indeed!
Reply
10/21/2023 06:29:24 pm
It does. I tend to love writing about broken characters and trying to help them find some kind of peace or solace. Read into that what you will.
Reply
Mark
10/21/2023 08:20:39 pm
Writing does take energy! I have no doubt about that. So does proofreading. Many authors have mentioned that writing gives them a tired yet satisfied feeling.
Reply
10/21/2023 08:24:02 pm
Yep. I have an intellectual property rights lawyer in my pocket and keep this in mind as I publish and keep my stories going ;)
Reply
Mark
10/22/2023 07:45:00 am
Excellent. You are one of the few I have talked with that have taken appropriate steps.
Reply
10/22/2023 11:20:39 am
Maybe because of my age, but I try to look at the long game and not just the immediate of everything I'm doing.
Reply
Mark
10/22/2023 01:39:23 pm
You are right about emotions. That is a primary pathway for writers to help readers connect with and care about the characters in the story. The lack of emotional connection makes a story seem flat and the characters shallow.
Reply
10/22/2023 02:04:13 pm
My muse shows up often and also often when I'm not thinking about writing. It "often" happens when I'm doing mundane things like house projects/work, going for a walk or doing non-writing related things. I've gotten lots of great story ideas on walks.
Reply
Mark
10/22/2023 03:26:56 pm
I have recommended to those that struggle connecting with their muse to do activities such as what you describe. Leaf raking and lawn mowing worked for me when I was a homeowner. For some others house cleaning, ironing or gardening were effective.
Reply
10/22/2023 04:00:25 pm
I do keep a notebook by my bed. Had one novel coming to me at that time between wakefulness and sleep over several nights and I wrote things down. And I do get epiphanies in the shower frequently but I don't forget these things. They stay put until I can write them down. Not sure why, but it works that way for me.
Reply
Mark
10/22/2023 05:36:34 pm
You are quite fortunate to not lose ideas while showering.
Reply
10/22/2023 05:56:46 pm
I think the action sequences for me. I "see" the story playing out as I'm writing but it's easy to get lost trying to describe everything without it feeling clunky or overly descriptive. Sometimes I'll throw everything down on the page and then go back later and decide what the central focus is and on whom and then whittle it down to what's necessary for the reader and how much.
Reply
Mark
10/22/2023 07:41:34 pm
That sounds pretty good. In fact, it sounds just like the advice I have been sharing with authors for a number of years. Get the first draft down on paper and edit later. There is no way to edit a blank page.
Reply
10/22/2023 08:36:01 pm
I agree with you--Write the story and then you can clean it up later. Get the bones and skeleton in place and then fill in with flesh ;)
Reply
Mark
10/23/2023 08:29:21 am
That is excellent! I was worried that you knew people who were special force operators. ;-)
Reply
10/23/2023 09:00:55 am
That could be a danger--never thought of that, but you're right. I think it could hem the author in.
Reply
Mark
10/23/2023 09:19:38 am
I think every person has a good side and a bad side. I know I do. There is a man-child within me that is very selfish and mean-spirited in a passive-aggressive way. I sit on him all the time.
Reply
10/23/2023 09:37:01 am
I agree--I'm always amazed at the actors who pull off really despicable characters because more often than not, they're nothing like those characters. And when I watch movies, IF it's a good movie, I'm not trying to guess the endings or the twists. I'm along for the ride to be amazed, scared and wowed.
Reply
Mark
10/23/2023 09:51:38 am
Flow is very important. The smallest detail can sometimes knock a reader right out of the author's magic spell.
Reply
10/23/2023 10:40:53 am
Thanks to you too! This back and forth questioning was fun but also great for me as an author to think about all these different aspects of being an author. -Craig
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
May 2024
Categories |
|
"I'm very pleased with all your efforts. Twitter promotion and proofreading were beyond what I expected with a book review. Your suggestions throughout the process of refining both books helped me immensely. I look forward to working with you again." A.E.H Veenman “Dial QR for Murder” and “Prepped for the Kill”
|