Jo Boone Reads and Writes

Newsletter #4

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: YOU GUYS I’M SO EXCITED! BOOK THREE IS OUT! YOU CAN BUY ALL THREE BOOKS NOW!

Jo Boone Reads:

When I’m actively writing, it’s hard for me to read fiction. I don’t know if all writers have this problem, but my head can only really hold one story at a time. So, when I’m actively writing, I tend to read non-narrative non-fiction (say that ten times fast). I have a similar issue with music. I can listen to music while I’m writing, but not music with lyrics. My head can only hold one set of words at a time. So I have a playlist of instrumental stuff for writing, and a playlist of stuff to sing along to when I’m driving. Sometimes, when I’m writing a lot, my music app decides I only want to listen to instrumental stuff and mixes it in while I’m driving, which is pretty irritating. But anyway.

My current read is a nonfiction book about moral philosophy based on a sitcom.

No, really.

How to be Perfect by Michael Schur is a distillation of the research into moral philosophy that he did for his sitcom, The Good Place. I know a sitcom about moral philosophy sounds painful, but holy forking shirtballs! It is not! You should watch it. The show’s main character, Eleanor, is a morally bankrupt woman who ends up by mistake in “the good place” (where you cannot swear, so when you try, it comes out “forking shirtballs” or similar). When Eleanor realizes she is in the wrong place, but she wants to stay, she decides she’d better become good, so that she doesn’t get kicked out and end up in “the bad place,” where she thought she was going all along. Eleanor’s journey, starting from a baseline of having no understanding how to be a good person and trying to figure it out under pressure, is worth your time.

The book is, too. Even writing about the deathly turgid topic of moral philosophy, Schur is funny, and even though I already knew about Jeremy Bentham’s skeleton (no longer in a closet!), I have learned a lot about Aristotelian ethics, utilitarianism, Kant, contractualism, and more. I’m sure Schur would agree with me that it just feels wrong somehow to give an introductory text on moral philosophy five stars and recommend it without reservation, but here we are. Next time you’re up for some non-narrative non-fiction (say that ten times fast), pick this one up.

Jo Boone Writes:

YOU GUYS I’M SO EXCITED! BOOK THREE IS OUT! YOU CAN BUY ALL THREE BOOKS NOW!

Listen. When I was a kid, sequels were often ill-considered things designed to milk an unexpected cash cow until it went dry (kind of like reboots are, these days*). The stories in sequels were often progressively weaker, more clichéd, and less interesting, slowly shedding all but the hardest-core fans.

I’m sure some sequels are still like that. But I always promised myself that if I should ever write a sequel, I would do it differently. Each story would be strong, and self-sustaining. The same setting and mostly the same characters, but a fresh plot, a fresh objective, fresh obstacles, fresh solutions. So, I make the same promise to you, dear reader: If I write a new Combined Service story, it will be delightful and jampacked with all the fun stuff I can possibly cram into it, and it will take you on an entirely new ride.

Book one, if you haven’t yet read it, introduced the Combined Service universe with its gu’ul, avians, octopods and humans; and Charlie Cooke, Our Main Character, who finds herself (classic Main Character fashion) thrust into the middle of everybody else’s problem, accused of being part of the cause, and then called upon to solve it. Book two sees Charlie trapped in no-man’s-land on an alien world, with a shooting war about to begin. In typical main character fashion, Charlie can’t catch a break, and ultimately has to do more stupid heroic things.

Now we come to book 3, The Celestial Sea: When the Magnetar goes in search of a missing Combined Service ship, their best lead is the local pirates. Captain Chalk decides to capture some pirates and question them. But the pirates have a weapon no one anticipated, and the battle is costly for the Magnetar’s crew. It’s costly for Charlie Cooke, too: she saves one life, but loses someone she cares about.

The Magnetar limps into the gu’ul world of Garoar for repair. Charlie, grieving and plagued by nightmares, doesn’t want to take shore leave. Her gu’ul friend Breccia has family on the surface, though, and she insists that Charlie come. It seems as if this trip to the surface might heal Charlie’s wounds: Breccia’s brother, Coltan, has brought Charlie a gift from Fortuna. But Charlie’s own encounter with the pirates creates danger for Breccia’s family—and bears unexpected fruit in the search for the Askja.

With the repairs still incomplete, the Magnetar leaves Garoar, determined to find the Askja. That unfortunate ship may have been lost in a mysterious—and dangerous—region of space known as the Celestial Sea. The Sea, it is said, devours ships, after driving their crews to madness and ruin. In the Celestial Sea, Charlie and the rest of the crew will have to face their own haunted pasts. They went to save the Askja… but can they save themselves?

Get The Celestial Sea on Amazon today!

Until next time, happy reading and writing!

Jo

*Nobody wants a remake of The Princess Bride. Seriously, just don’t! Unless it’s the Muppet Princess Bride, in which case I will stand in line for tickets, old-school style.