Book Reviews for Writers: Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg

When I was in college, my roommate came home one day with a CD. She said her boss's wife was a writer, and had offered to let my roommate read an ecopy of the book she was working on. When I found out it was sci fi, I immediately wanted to read it too. I popped the CD in my computer...and read half the night.

I loved the story so much, my roommate gave me the CD. For the next few years, I would pull it up every once in a while and read it again. One day, I decided to find out if the book had ever been published. And lo and behold, it was! I was thrilled, and immediately bought it for my Nook. I even finally met the author at the LTUE conference and got to tell her how much I loved it.

So now, for your reading pleasure, I give you Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg!

Dace's wants are simple - a trading ship and the freedom to fly where she chooses. But on her first trip, her crew betrays her, her ship explodes, and she finds herself stranded on Dadilan, a planet locked in a feudal age.

Survival is hard enough when you have no technology or resources. It's even harder when you have drug smugglers hunting you. Dadilan is the source of shara, a drug that enhances psychic abilities, a commodity so rare and precious people will kill for it.

Trapped between rival smugglers and the Patrol undercover investigation, Dace has one hope of rescue: convincing Tayvis, the undercover agent, she's an innocent bystander. But those don't exist on Dadilan. No one lands without authorization, unless they are smuggling.

Her ignorance may cost her life.

This is a wonderful, adventurous space opera. I loved Dace's character, and sort of developed a crush of my own on Tayvis. There were other fascinating characters-- including a hilarious delusional guy who thinks he's Robin Hood. The plot was complicated enough to keep me guessing, but not so complicated I couldn't follow it. And the best part was the adventure. The pacing was perfect, and there was constantly something fun/dangerous happening.

And that's where I'm taking the review for writers today: adventure. Sometimes, I think we get so caught up in the rules and the shoulds and the shouldn'ts that we forget to just have FUN with the book.

One thing I've found is that the first draft is the best place to let all the creativity flow so the fun comes out. I try not to worry as much about the details here-- I just want to tell a story that's fun to write. Of course, all those "details" are important to the fun. Character development and pacing and sentence structure are all key; if those things aren't there, they get in the way of the fun. But sometimes, it's good to just stop and let the plot be an adventure.

If you're looking for a good example of a well-written adventure, read Nexus Point! And keep an eye out for the next books in the series-- I've read a few of them on those early CDs, and they're just as fun!