It’s October. Going to be a busy month for me personally, but I’ve always loved October. Whether you celebrate Halloween or not, it just seems to kick off the holiday season and fall is bursting out everywhere (even if you live in the land of relatively little change like I do). I’ve decided to try and do a month’s worth of horror/monster reviews here at VFV, and to kick it off, we have a vampire tale!

So, on to the review.

Synopsis: Raine Black draws comics about the San Francisco Tenderloin, granting wishes to the down-and-out in ten panels or less. The weird thing? Her comics come true. But money is running out and waiting tables isn’t cutting it, so it looks like Raine is headed back to the upstanding, Southern, adoptive family that hates her. Typical.

That’s when, Joshua, Raine’s secret childhood friend, shows up to save her, just like old times. Only something is wrong. He’s dying, she’s sure of it. His weird black scar has spread, and he’s saying hello just so he can say good-bye. Again. She’d like to be tough enough, mean enough, to blow him off, dying or no.  But he’s the only one who knows where she came from. And she loves him, the bastard.  If only she could draw him a comic with a happy ending.

Joshua, on the other hand, just wants to get out of town so he can kill himself properly. An abolitionist for over a century, a vampire for a bit more than that, he’s ready to face the sun in order to kill the revenge demon a conjure doctor accidentally put inside him. The demon is growing too powerful, taking Joshua over for minutes at a time. And the practices of Joshua’s vampire religion aren’t working to contain it. If he can just get Raine safe from the blood-sucking human trafficker who hates him, Joshua would have his house in order.  But things are never simple with Raine. She’s trying to save him. Again.

And the demon wants to strike a bargain. With Raine. (Stolen from the author’s website, and possibly too much for a synopsis? What do you think?)

Production: While not the worst production I’ve ever heard, Conjuring Raine is far from the best. There are many artifacts that make their way into the final edit. The author seems constrained to a 30 minute episode and chapters are cut or run together in an ep to make that happen. Most of the time there is a natural cut place, but occasionally an ep would end and I would be left scratching my head in wonder.

Cast: Ms. Lassiter performs Conjuring Raine as a straight read and does an adequate job. Barely. There are many instances where I was left wondering who was speaking as she tends to read the story a bit quickly and without a lot of character distinction. The story would benefit from a “remaster” in order to correct some of the production errors and to simply breath life into the narrative with her truly wonderful voice. Oh, did I forget to mention? She really does have a lovely voice perfectly suited to her story.

Story: I freaking hate Anne Rice. Why did this woman decide it was necessary to take my favorite childhood monster and make some sort of unrequited love object from him? I remember being truly terrified the first time I read Dracula (of course, having a concussion made it even more surreal) and the old “evil” vampire flicks were a staple of my childhood. Now, between Anne Rice, Joss Whedon (who gets a pass, just because I said so) and Stephanie Meyer, you can’t have a vampire story without the vampires being represented by at least one good, gentle vamp. Bleh. I hate it.

If Meyer’s abominations do this to my werewolf favorite, and they become the tame lapdogs they are in her books, I’m going to be soooo angry (yes, I know, but I’ll blame whom I choose). And no, Underworld does not fall into this category. Why? Again, because I said so.

And why do so many writers fall into the pattern set up by Stoker of alternating points of view between characters in a vampire story? Yes, this story is written this way. I really don’t enjoy this style. I feel it keeps me from getting to know either character as well as I would like.

Verdict: Well, you might think after that last paragraph that I didn’t enjoy this story. I might have thought that myself if I had read the synopsis provided here and on Ms. Lassiter’s site. In fact, I might not have listened. Luckily, I heard about this story via a suggestion by Thomas Reed (@trreed). Surprisingly, with all the elements listed above still annoying me, I enjoyed it. I really did. I do recommend this book for an adult audience, and if you’re looking for a vampire romance to start you October with, feel free to forget Meyer’s abominations and start with Ms. Lassiter instead.

Disclosure: I do not follow Ms. Lassiter on Twitter. I don’t believe I’ve ever even heard her name mentioned on Twitter. That being said, it should be no surprise that I don’t believe she follows me either. (Don’t you love how Twitter makes us all sound like stalkers?) I was asked by Katharina if I received a vile of blood for this review. What do I look like? Some psychotic Billy Bob or Angelina?? No nothing was tendered or accepted in return for this review.

Title:

As I’ve mentioned before, I quite often am looking for new podcasts. It isn’t that I have nothing to listen to, I do. However, most of the things I listen to are currently in production, and I need to broaden my listening horizons. I also have listened to many podcasts that I’ve never reviewed. However, if I’m going to review a “legacy” podcast, I often like to listen to something that is out of my regular routine. A week or so ago, I asked Twitter for suggestions and I’ve got a whole slate full of podcasts now. One of the suggestions I got was from Laura “GreenGlam” Church, and that suggestion was Clear Heart by Joe Cottonwood.

So, on to the review.

Synopsis: Carpenters and craft, friendship and rivalry: Wally is building a mansion for a dot-com multimillionaire in the Silicon Valley of California. As the dot-com’s stock keeps rising, the size of the house – and the owner’s ego – keep growing. Wally and his colorful crew may be into something that’s over their heads. When little guys work for bigshots, who gets nailed?

From bungling to burglary, from demolishing concrete to racing beltsanders, from love of tools to falling in love, everyone will encounter Wally’s Laws of Construction – or are they Laws of Life? Each house, it seems, is a miracle.

Production: The production of Clear Heart is clean and simple, like a well built house. I love clean and simple, and I can honestly say the production of Clear Heart is easy to enjoy. Song at the beginning. Same song at the end. Clean audio. No TSSF (it is hosted on Podiobooks and through Podiobooks on iTunes).

Cast: The cast is simply Joe Cottonwood doing all of the male voices and Susan Walker doing all of the female voices. The voicework duo is not like The Gearheart duo. Mr. Cottonwood does an admirable job of voicing a wide variety of characters, but for the most part, you can always recognize the voices as belonging to the same man. Ms. Walker’s female voices aren’t even intoned differently. However, it doesn’t matter at all. The story is easily told and flows naturally.

Story: This is a rare listen for me. I tend to be a reader and listener of speculative fiction. I am drawn to it for some reason. I do, occasionally stray from this pattern and read some nonfiction or general fiction, but not often. I guess I have enough “real life” to not need to read about other peoples. Clear Heart, however, is done well in the fact that the characters really come to life. Good or bad (and there are both).

Verdict: Let’s talk about those characters. I can’t say I liked any of them to be truthful. They all have major character defects. Just like I do.

Yes.

To be honest, these characters are very life like. Often, to their detriment. The upside is that they are interesting. That is what kept me listening all the way to the end.

In the end this is a story of people living. Changing. Growing. Life. It has plenty of profanity, and way too much rated r sexual content (I now know about things I didn’t know before, and would have NEVER been unhappy to know about — yes, I’ve lived a sheltered life, LOL).

This is a hard story for me to provide a verdict for. I didn’t like it in many ways. In other ways it was very interesting and drew me in. So, I’ll do the best I can. If you like fiction, non-speculative fiction, with well developed characters and an ability to describe construction in a way to make the art come through, while at the same time you aren’t put off by the aforementioned sexual content, you will probably like Clear Heart.

Disclosure: To my knowledge, Mr. Cottonwood isn’t on Twitter. If he is, I’ve never seen his name, or at least am unaware if I did. I was neither offered nor did I receive anything for writing this review.