I love a good crossover novel . . . or in this case, series of novels. An author who can successfully blend the tropes and themes of two kinds of worlds can perform that magical feat of pulling you outside your own world and showing you the things that bind people together, no matter what world they’re inhabiting.
The Glass Bottles series by J. Dark will give you that. Here, J Dark blends the noir detective story with urban fantasy. What makes it work is that the features of both worlds are both given their full due. Don’t think of this as a mashup–it’s more than that, it’s an overlay that draws on compelling elements of each type of story to bring fans of either just what they need. I’ve just finished the first one, Best Intentions, and I think you’ll agree that this is a dark, engaging tale that draws you in … and maybe kicks you a few times in the gut before it lets you go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ll get yours, you demanding film noir fan: the grim, gritty streets of The City, the denizens of the underworld–some better than they seem, some worse, the wiseacre Private Eye with the dingy little office, the mysterious crime that the police can’t handle, the stranger at the doorâŚa stranger who may need her helpâŚor may be about to kill her. Yeah, the PI is a dame, OK, a hot dame, no less, you got a problem with that?
Oh, and you, you urban fantasy addict, you get: a fully-worked out magic system that’s unique in its own way, but that you can pick up on as the story progresses, demons, pentagrams, spells, and rituals. These are all set against a backdrop of a seemingly ordinary city that’s fallen on tough times and normal complications of families, friends, and law versus order. All of these are contained within an ordered universe with an explanation for why-things-are-this-wayâŚan explanation that ties directly to the deepest peril that the hero of the story must face.
While I don’t do spoilers, I will share a tiny content warning–this is not a story for children–got that?–not any more than the Maltese Falcon is a lighthearted romp for the kiddies. And while there are interesting magical–make that magickal–animals that play important roles, this is nothing like a Harry Potter story.
Here’s your setup. No Spoilers.
Fern Fatelli and her sister Fawn work on either side of the private-public law-enforcement line, in the city of Dayning (a fictionalized urban enclave of Halifax, Nova Scotia). Fern’s got her PI business to tend to, with equal parts moxie, magick, and good old-fashioned gumshoe footwork. When she needs a bodyguard, her old buddy–who also happens to be a troll–stands by her. There’s some baaaad stuff going down in the cityâŚthere are these strange little bottles that seem to suck something essential right out of a person, but no one knows what they are, where they came from, who is using them ⌠let alone, why.
Our Fern is comfortable in the lower echelons of her city, using her limited magick on the old PI standards–scrounging up evidence on adultery for a disgruntled spouse. But this time, a seemingly typical case lands her in the role of hero, the one who has to solve an enormous puzzle to save her friends, her family, and her worldâŚto save them all from an ancient evil that was set loose long ago, with the very best of intentions.
J Dark has a way with creating twists that will catch you off balance. Just when you think you sort of know what the solution to the mystery is going to be, something comes in out of left field–something that was there, all along, that you weren’t paying attention to–and everything changes again. You’ll enjoy the ride, but it’s like a roller coaster in the dark, so hang on tight.
At this point, there are three Glass Bottles books released, plus a short story, a prequel actually, A Last Good Day, that’s available for a free download at the publisher’s website. The books are on Barnes & Noble,Amazon, and several digital-books sites. J Dark has a blog, too, where you can read about writing or try to catch up with a serialized sci-fi work-in-progress.
If, like me, you’re kind of curious about this re-imagining of life in Nova Scotia–or, as it’s been renamed in these books, New Scotland–there’s a trove of imagery on Google’s map images–check out this awesome shot by Mark Lamontagne that captures the blend of old and new echoed in J Dark’s vision.
One thought on “Review: Best Intentions, by J Dark”
Nowadays, everyone says a writer needs a newsletter. I’m beginning to lose count of the number of things I’m supposed to produce that isn’t my stories. But what about all those goodies that don’t make it into the stories?
That chapter I deleted. The one that’s now just a couple of sentences buried in a conversation. Well, more like, how that works, how you decide to kill off 3000 words in exchange for 50, for the sake of the story.
The interview between me and my MC, you know, the one that went over so well at that open mic.
My research on the folk sayings that spark each of the chapters in Wind and Smoke. The ones that prove that Ireland and South Korea are pretty much the same.
The things I want to tell agents. Not mean things. Just advice. Would you sign with an agency if their website takes 20 seconds to load a page?
I could blurt out some of the things I wanted to say at book club, because other people sure have a lot to say. Or is it not OK to reveal that writers are readers, too?
Dangit.
I have all that stuff.
So now I have a new work-in-progress.
I won’t be sending a newsletter more often than monthly, because that’s what I like in a newsletter. Maybe the occasional special edition, like when I sign with an agent or get that next book deal.
Target date for first issue: Let’s make it Valentine’s Day.
Penny Cards–last century’s newsletter (Public Domain, from Newberry Library via Wikimedia Commons)
There are fewer options on the final day, and the available time is short, so opportunities for plans to stray from reality are fewer. We’d expect less divergence…here are the results of our field test:
Time Frame
What the Plan was
What really happened
Monday morning
Sleep in a bit, then go to session on James Bond vs Dr Who, and finally pick up art if I win any auctions.
One of Patricia McCracken’s Little Dragons came home with me! Find your own here .
Did sleep in. Fed horses & scooped manure, too. Didn’t arrive until close to noon.Trekked to the Art Show first to pick up the two pieces I’d bought, but then also discovered my single bid on the dragon-butterfly print was the winning bid. So paid and went to look for that panel talk. JB vs DW still ongoing, but after a half-hour I figured Iâd had about all I needed on the topic. So no regrets about turning up so late.
My next move was to get my art safely into the car, though I did make a detour to make sure there was no boffering available today. Dang. Just another panel talk going on in what had been Boffer Central.
So I betook myself down to the Gaming Room to buy a coke and eat lunch. Two older teenagers who had joined in on the dancing last night were there playing some form of D&D. The one thing I havenât done at this convention is play games, and it looks like that will have to be another time. For now, I just have to settle for having spent some time hanging out in the Gaming Room.
Monday afternoon
Go to session on “how to build a spaceship.” Go home!
First firing of the Falcon 9-R advanced prototype rocket. Via Elon Musk on Twitter.  At least there is a good place to read about the topic I skipped: starthere.
MKB’s latest novel in the Star Wars universe
California Autism Foundation
It was easier to walk to the media tie-in panel from the Gaming Room, so thatâs where I went.  I hadnât actually looked at the list of panelist, so it was a pleasing surprise to see Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff there, in her capacity as a leading author in Star Wars novels. Her panel partner, Kevin Andrew Murphy, works also in gaming tie-ins and had a much more positive spin on the quality of that literature than the board-game guy in yesterday’s panel. Overall, I gained a much better picture of life as a tie-in fiction author. And an appreciation for authors who can face intense fans in the middle of a panel.   Btw, about half the people in the audience are people I recognize.So things were winding down, including the dealerâs room. So I went on up to the closing ceremonies. In between that and the “hiss and purr” session, there was some dead time. I poked my head into the Art Room to see how the art auction had wrapped up. One of the women I remember from dancing last night was clutching the steampunk flamingo. Turns out it hadnât had any bids, so the artist had offered it to her at a lesser price in order to avoid hauling it home. Good for her!
Next stop:Â the Gaming Room, for one last donation to the California Autism Foundation (the beneficiary of the Charity Vending machine) from which I gained a Coke for myself and an accidentally-vended ginger ale which I could donate to one of the nearby volunteers.
I was determined to stay for the critique session because I wanted to praise the DIY idea. The downside was having to sit through a huge laundry list of facility complaints and an equally lengthy recitation of praises for hotel staff. However, managed to retain my nerve enough to actually participate in the “programming” discussion.
After that subject was concluded, I took off for Nob Hill. Not the SF landmark, the grocery store. Got home before the guys and even fixed dinner for everyone. Does tacos count as dinner?
This isn’t so much a blog post as a paper. There are footnotes and citations. Bear with me.
Have you had this experience? Someone in a group discussion notes that April is Autism Awareness Month. Then someone else says, âOh, remember Rain Man? I watched it again recently! Isnât that a great movie?â And then everyone has a lovely chat about movies. Unfortunately, this kind of response is what gamers call an Epic Fail. Letâs walk into April with some better awareness.[1]
So, what is autism? What isn’t it?
Photo Credit: Nina from Australia, Rain, Rain, Go Away (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons
What it is
Autism is a set of neurological characteristics found in as many as 1 in 50 people [2,3] that can lead to difficulties with social interactions, repetitive behaviors, or intense engagement in special interests. Not necessarily all these things. (So, you know 100 people? Well, you likely know a couple of autistic people.)
Nobody knows what âcausesâ [4] autism, although probably there are combinations of genes that are more likely to yield autistic characteristics. (It may run in families, like other polygenic characteristics, such as height.) Autism presents on a spectrum, so its current designation is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)âŚthough many autistic people will counter, âthereâs nothing disordered about me!â
What it isnât
Autism has absolutely nothing to do with vaccinesâthat absurd idea was generated by publication of fraudulent research, a real-world hoax that has harmed untold numbers of people [5,6,7]
Autism is not Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman did his best, and the film made a positive difference at the time, but that was over thirty years ago. The movie is now woefully out of date, and most autistic people find it discomfiting, stereotyping autism, families of autistics, and the way the world perceives them.
Autism is not sociopathy/psychopathy/other-mispercepathy. The number of mysteries or thrillers or police procedurals in which the murderer/terrorist/stalker is a shifty-eyed, unempathetic, twitchy weirdo whose speech patterns and movements and sometimes specific labelling code them as âautisticâ make my hair curl. No, the autistic people of the world are not spying on you, plotting the perfect murder, or designing weapons of terror. Instead, as a class, they are the kindest people you know.
Autism is not the strange child. The vast majority of autistics are adults. Autism doesnât go away when you grow up. Why donât you notice? Those whose difficulties with the world are great still live in relative isolation. As for the rest, theyâre âmasking.â This isnât a lighthearted improv exercise. It is a progressive modification of behaviorâoften unconscious, in ways learned over many yearsâto appear more like you, because theyâre pretty sure you wonât accept them otherwise. (So, maybe this should be Autism Acceptance Month.)
Masking isnât perfect; you probably think of your autistic friends as âthe little-bit odd oneâ or the âcute, quirky one.â You may not see them around as much as your other friendsâbecause keeping up masking is hard work. The older an autistic person is, the better they can be at maskingâbut then, itâs harder for them to change that. Also, be aware that if you realize a friend is autistic, it doesnât help to tell them to stop masking. Itâs a difficult process, and theyâll let you know when theyâre ready.
Photo Credit: Dietmar Rabbich (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Unfortunately, old movies like Rain Man leave the impression that all autistic people are weird geniuses, canât take care of themselves, and suffer extreme difficulties with life. Yes, some are in that boat (and a rare few are even geniuses). Itâs important to be sure everyoneâs properly supported in lifeâcan we simply agree to support autistic people with needs just as we support neurotypical (NT) people with serious life issues?
A few thoughts to keep in mind, no matter what type of neurons youâre thinking with:
Autistic people are, as a group, extremely honest. This presents complicationsâbecause most autistic people donât react in conversation in quite the exact way that neurotypicals expect. For instance, if someone doesnât look you in the eye all the timeâa favorite behavior of NTâsâtheyâre perceived as âdishonestâ. Thatâs unfortunateâŚwhich is why ambitious autistic adults work hard to make eye contact, even though it may be enormously stressful to do so.
Autistic people are empatheticâand have all the same emotions you do. They may express their emotions a little differently, but that doesnât mean they donât have the exact same feelings you experience. Your autistic friends may even be more likely to notice how youâre feeling and to empathize with you, because they are observing you and working to figure you out, all the time. So theyâre not just in possession of that deep, humanizing characteristic, theyâre actively working at it, every day.
This doesn’t mean that autistic people are all perfect, wonderful, nice, diligent, hardworking, or what-have-you and are somehow better than neurotypical people. Everyone has shortcomingsâand autistics don’t need to become the next perfectionist minority. It’s just that the stereotypes (weird, twitchy, untrustworthy) are contradictory.
If youâre reading this, youâre probably part of the reading/writing community.Here’s another thought for you.
Well. Ummmm. YOU might be autistic. Nobody wants to think of themselves as âdifferent,â but writersâwhether theyâve gone the publishing route or notâdraw heavily from a well of âdifference.â Lots of us grew up feeling like we were âon the fringeâ or âthe odd one out.â We dive deep into the special interests that drive our work. We can go on and on and on about a character or a situation or a plot pointâwhether in a story we wrote or in one of our favorites. Heck, some of us can sit down and hammer out 50,000, 100,000, a million words. Thatâs hardly what nonwriters would call âtypical.â
If youâve secretly, quietly wondered if thereâs something you donât know about yourself that maybe you should, here is one easily-accessible book to read: Cynthia Kimâs Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriateis a clever, affecting story of one woman’s journey of self-discovery. Some terminology it uses, unfortunately, became outdated the year after publication, with the elimination (for very good reasons) of the problematic term Aspergerâs [8,9], but the self-realization content still holds up.
A cautionary note: take with gigantic doses of salt anything coming from the group Autism Speaks. They will be rather shouty during April and their old puzzle-piece logo will be cropping up all over, but this group is widely derided by autistic people as not speaking for them and, worse, actively spreading misperceptions about autism [10] and promoting [11] the application of abusive âtherapyâ [12]. Many autistic people therefore consider Autism Speaks to be a hate group [13], but even without that label, their role in the politics of disability is subject to serious question [14].
Ready to raise awareness a little (or a lot) more?
Below are a couple of helpful, easy-to-access resources. You can find deeper reading by continuing to the Notes and Citations section.
Ask Autistic Adults is my current favorite website for quickly-accessed on-point information on what grown-up autistic people feel you should know: labels, appropriate language, effective support, fake/abusive âtherapies,â and more.
The Thinking Personâs Guide to Autismis a web-based organization that provides a broad array of resources and connections to useful information for autistic people and their allies.
To catch up on the current zeitgeist in the autistic community, try the hashtag #actuallyautistic. To some extent, outsiders have tried to co-opt it, but the hashtag has withstood that pretty well so far.
Now, have a very happy Autism Awareness Month, everybody!
Below the blue umbrella: Notes and Citations
Photo Credit: Tom Mrazek, An Umbrella In the Dark, (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Yes, lots of notes and cites. Because a blog post needs to be brief, but the topic is complex!
No one person speaks for all people in any marginalized group. I make no claims that my perspective, or those of the autistic individuals Iâve cited here, is more worthy than that of any other member of the broadly-defined autism community. This essay cannot be perfect, but I will update it as necessary, and I welcome honest, fact-based critique.
âRising ratesâ of autism do not reflect changes in the incidence of autism; rather, reports like the Johns Hopkins article reflect how wider application of diagnosis reveals that more people are autistic than was thought previously. This article in particular highlights a progression over time, as researchers began attending to this data and improving their diagnostic techniques. I linked to this article because it is quite readable and provides links to the academic papers and data, for those who are interested. The choice of a headline in a public-facing news presentation can be misleadingâremember to read more than headlines.
Autistic people, by and large, dislike using âcauseâ to describe the mechanisms underlying autism. It makes it sound like a disease, something you can âcure,â and that detracts from attending to what can truly help autistic people thrive in a largely non-autistic society, understanding what âtherapiesâ are harmful bunk, and listening to what autistics think. However, itâs the term thatâs easiest for a casual reader follow in the context of a (supposedly) brief article like this one. As a reminder, this is a note to a sentence stating clearly that the mechanics are still unknown.
âWakefieldâs article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulentâ British Medical Journal (BMJ). 6 January 2011. BMJ 2011;342:c7452. https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452
Wakefieldâs horrific piece of hoaxery was published in the Lancet in January of 1998, and its awful effects have flowed into every corner of our medical landscapeâeven influencing vaccine resistance during the current pandemic. By the time the journal retracted the piece, the damage was done and the evil thought-virus of ‘vaccines are scary’ had spread too far to eradicate it.
Eggerston, Laura. âLancet retracts 12-year-old article linking autism to MMR vaccinesâ Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). 9 March 2010. Accessed via National Institutes of Health, 29 March 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831678/
Hans Asperger, the man after whom the so-called âhigh-functioningâ side of the autism spectrum was (temporarily) named, is now known to have been a eugenicist, Nazi-assisting child-hurter, and all-around guy-you-wouldnât-invite-round-to-dinner. The article below [9] is an accessible read and includes references.
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