Angela Benedetti

[I'm in New Orleans! More about that later.]

Kenra over at Grave Tells reviewed A Hidden Magic today. She gave it 3.5/5.0, and declared it Worth A Look.

Ms. Benedetti gives an intriguing glimpse into a world where people are either “normal” or mages, and magical creatures slip back and forth from their own realm into ours, carrying out all sorts of mischief. She gives enough physical detail to allow the reader to see her world quite well, without the description being intrusive or over-done.

Click through for more. Thanks to Kenra for the review; I’ll be doing a Q&A session at Grave Tells next week; watch for a link then.

Angie

Val Kovalin is the M/M reviewer for ARe, an e-book retailer, and does a review column for their newsletter once a month. This month, she chose my story Hell Is in the Details as the Top Pick of the month (scroll a little more than halfway down) which is pretty darned awesome. “Hell” is my story about the Demon of Laziness, who has a very short deadline to corrupt a soul, which he didn’t know about because he never reads his memos.

Val said, in part:

This 8K-word story should delight fans of m/m romance who enjoy witty fantasy fiction, specifically stories centered upon demons. It had me chuckling throughout at the observations of the stressed-out demon Benioth. Meanwhile, its subtle literary allusions to Paradise Lost and historical references add an intriguing layer of depth to the satire.

The story’s suspense centers on its ending. A romance story needs a romantic and happy ending. At the same time, Benioth feels extreme pressure to corrupt his young lover’s soul, which would doom poor Andy to the eternal flames of Hell. All this would seem mutually incompatible, but the story makes it work with a clever resolution. Find out how in this comical gem that is my Top Pick for the month.

It’s always hard to know in advance whether humor is going to work for anyone but me, so I love hearing that someone else actually found a funny story I wrote to be funny.

In the same column, she named PD Singer’s story Storm on the Mountain as a Recommended Read, which it well deserves. Pam Singer has become one of my favorite m/m writers, and not just because she’s also become a friend. Her Mountain series, which includes both novels and short stories, is excellent, and only gets better as you read through. In “Storm,” a blizzard at a ski resort where the POV character works is the setting for some great character and relationship development. In many cases, a short story sequel to a novel is just an excuse for a sex scene. In “Storm,” we see Mark working on reining in his instinct to take care of his lover Allan, who doesn’t at all appreciate being fussed over, and made that clear in their novel, Fall Down the Mountain.

One of my common complaints about romances of all kinds is that too often one character will have a habit or view or tendency that aggravates the other character, often to the point of being a make/break issue in their relationship. In the end, the first character will say, “Okay, I won’t do that anymore,” and they kiss and that’s the end — we’re just supposed to assume that the first character will successfully do a one-eighty on some habit or opinion that’s been a major component of their personality for however many years or decades. I’ve never really bought that, and it makes it hard to believe in the HEA. In this case, though, Pam shows us that Mark really is working on his impulse to protect Allan in ways that are insulting or belittling, whether he means it that way or not. He knows it’s a fault, and we get to see him controlling it, and his relationship with Allan growing stronger in consequence. This short story is a significant addition to the series, not at all fluffy or trivial. Great stuff.

Val also reviews on Jessewave’s blog, where she posted a similar but not quite identical review of “Hell Is in the Details” there including:

This short story is flawlessly written and has a droll, mischievous tone that should delight fans of comic fantasy, specifically fiction centered upon demons, which plays with historical and literary references. Benioth is a good character, an appealing mix of stressed-out and resourceful. Andy is a sweet kid, a wide-eyed innocent eager to be corrupted, and their sex scenes are hot. The story had me turning pages in the sheer entertainment of wondering how the author would manage a classic HEA ending while not stepping outside the logic of the plot, and I found her resolution very clever. Highly recommended!

She gave it 4.75/5.0, which is pretty awesome. Thanks to Val for all her kind words in both venues; I’m glad she enjoyed the story.

Angie

Tam at Brief Encounters — a review blog that focuses on short stories — posted a great review of my story Hell Is In the Details and gave it a B+, which is very cool. She said:

As a rule I enjoy demon and/or angel stories, and I especially enjoy them when they don’t take themselves too seriously. That is definitely the case here. Hell is pretty much like earth. Crappy jobs with bosses who ride you, forgotten deadlines, a loss of the passion for your work, an inbox full of unread e-mails … life can be as dull in Hell as anywhere else, despite all the fun of torture and mayhem. When Benioth’s boss lets him have it for not bringing the Big Boss his quota of souls, he is finally forced out of his apathy and decides that since he only has a few hours, debauching a young man into the ways of gay sex would be perfect. It’s fairly easy and bingo, he’s got his soul for the quota and can not think about it for another decade or two.

I loved Benioth and Andy. Benioth is kind of apathetic about life and Andy is all youthful exuberance and wide-eyed excitement. The contrast was nice to read and I felt it kind of woke Benny up again. He’d forgotten what that was like, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was the Demon of Laziness or was it something more. He was really well drawn and his apathy came through loud and clear. What Andy was thinking and feeling was less clear as this is told from Benioth’s point of view, but his enthusiasm for life was evident. The sex had a nice mix of Benioth’s centuries of experience, combined with Andy’s uncertainty and eagerness, sweet and yet steamy too. This is a great light read, perfect as a pick-you-up between more serious fare or just something fun for a quick read before bed or at lunch time.

It sounds like she enjoyed it quite a lot, which is awesome.

Note before you click through that the middle part of the review is kind of spoilery; proceed at your own risk if you haven’t read this yet and don’t want the ending given away. OTOH if you’re a reader who likes to know pretty much exactly what you’re getting before you dive in, this write-up is perfect.

Thanks to Tam for the great review!

Angie

And another review by Cole at Jessewave’s, this time of my short Candy Courage. He gave it 3.75 stars and said:

There were a lot of things I loved about this story — namely the idea the story is based on. I thought it was a pretty great idea and it was showcased rather well, not only in how Glenn changes after he eats the candy and goes after what he really wants, but in the couple of little vingettes at the start of the story, which show random children and how the candy affects them. I thought the story of little Graciella, who was afraid of her big, scary dog, really cute.

The problem that I had with the story was that the two main characters, Glenn and Neal, didn’t really fit together. I have no doubt that they could if we were given more than a five or six pages of them together. The story is really about Glenn going for what he wants and ending up with a hookup, which is about all that can be told in 14 pages.

Cole’s exactly right there — I’ve never believed stories where the characters are all, “Oh, I love you!” after ten minutes of conversation and one roll in the sheets. I mean, seriously? o_O This isn’t a romance; it’s a story about how Glenn overcame his fear of making a move with Neal. I think they’ll probably work out, but showing that would be a different story. Maybe I’ll write it some day.

Thanks to Cole, and I’m glad he enjoyed it even if it wasn’t a romance.

Angie

Cryselle did a great review of Hell Is in the Details, and gave it four out of five marbles.

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Benioth, the Demon of Laziness, is behind on his memos and has just found out he needs to corrupt a soul by midnight to make quota. Luckily the Demon of Sodomy doesn’t mind sharing the fun, and Benioth runs into Andy, who’s still innocent but eager to have someone fix that for him. It sounds like a perfect situation, but somehow things never go right for poor Benioth.
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I always suspected that corporate America got some of it’s less attractive features from the Infernal regions — Angela Benedetti makes that point very strongly, with memos and quotas, job reviews and last minute hustles to get it all right. Benioth needs to scurry — corrupting someone beyond redemption using sloth takes a while and he — really! — doesn’t have all night.

Now, in order for this all to work, you have to reserve judgment on one notion that had me going uhhhhhhhh but you know what? Hell really is in the details.

This was fun, and it gave the devil his don’t.

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This was a fun story to write, too, and I’m glad she enjoyed it.

Angie

Cole at Jessewave’s Blog is going through all my Hidden Magic universe stories, and this week he reviewed Reach Out and Touch, another Cal and Aubrey short story. He gave it 3.5 stars and said:

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Though Cal has been Aubrey’s apprentice for over ten years (and also his lover), he is still a “baby mage” compared to Aubrey, who is 220 something years old and has been a practicing mage for two centuries. Aubrey never lets Cal forget this — and to remind him, he is always setting little traps for Cal or finding some way to show his dominance. Yet, Aubrey really is the best master and no matter how much of a rascal he seems at times, he does know what is best for Cal. But whether Cal has a natural propensity for arrogance, or being Aubrey’s lover makes him feel the need to meet his lover as an equal in their craft, he sometimes does very foolish things against Aubrey’s advice.

…

I was a bit disappointed by this story. That sounds harsh, but it really is because I love the other stories and the novel these characters are from so much, so I have very high expectations. Cal and Aubrey have a really amazing, nuanced relationship that always shines through their witty banter. Here, though, most of the story is told by Cal when Aubrey is gone. It is only towards the end of the story, when a contrite Cal is seriously in danger does Aubrey come home to find the disastrous situation Cal has created. Also, this story had a couple of passages that I thought weren’t necessary to the story. They were pretty technical about the magic that Cal was doing that I thought went a little too far in trying to explain what was happening. Ultimately, they took away from the story.

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I can see where he’s coming from, actually. This is more Cal’s story than a relationship story. Aubrey doesn’t come home until more than halfway through, and they don’t start directly interacting until more than three-quarters in. If you’re reading for the relationship and dialogue, there’s not as much of that here as there usually is.

More Cole: “And I did like the story. I loved the ending in particular, which showed one of the rare moments between Aubrey and Cal that I love, when they’re finally on the same level and Aubrey shows his tender side to Cal. They are two of my favorite characters in this genre and I was very happy to revisit them.”

I’ll take that.

Angie

Cole over at Jessewave’s blog did a great review of Unfinished Business, and gave it a a 4.5/5.0 rating. (And he’s going to be reviewing the other three stories in the Hidden Magic verse too, which is awesome. )

In part:

Aubrey is a master mage and over two hundred years old, while Cal is his apprentice in his thirties. They are also lovers and it is very easy to see how much they love each other — in their looks, little touches, and the banter they throw back and forth like old lovers who have been together a lifetime. It is an extreme May-December relationship in terms of age, yet the issues that usually come to light in such a relationship, especially an inbalance of power, are dealt with humor between the two of them. In short, Aubrey likes to brag about his grandiose power and Cal loves to poke the beast.

This story was such a delight. Not only did I get to revisit a world that I love and two characters who make me laugh, but for the first time, we get to see Aubrey and Cal in private. We see them from Cal’s POV and we get a pure voyueristic treat: magical sex between the two men. The story stayed true to their characters as humor and the little games they play shone throughout the dialogue. Also, though not as proficient, Cal is a mage as well, and as highly magical mortals, I knew that their sex had to be interesting. It didn’t dissapoint.

I love that Cole focused on Cal and Aubrey’s relationship, because that’s what makes these characters so much fun for me to write. They love each other deeply, but it’s all plastered over with joking and teasing. There’s something about them that makes me smile, and I never have to wonder how they’d respond to one another.

The age difference is definitely a key factor, along with the huge power imbalance on a magical level. In some urban fantasy or paranormal romances, one character is hundreds or even thousands of years older than the other, and vastly more powerful, and how they fall in love or even relate to one another is just sort of hand-waved. I can’t imagine having enough in common with a guy even 20 years younger than I am to want to get into a relationship, much less a few centuries younger. With Cal and Aubrey, I’m focusing on making the age/power difference work here in a realistic way, and the shared sense of humor is definitely a big part of it. I’m glad that’s working.

Thanks to Cole for his great comments.

Angie

Cole over at Jessewave’s blog did an excellent review of A Hidden Magic, with a 4.75/5.0 rating.

Angela Benedetti’s A Hidden Magic was a breath of fresh air for me. I love paranormals and fantasy, but usually they seem to be pieces of a few famous fantasy worlds cobbled together — not very original. Not here. This story took me by surprise and I found myself happily immersed in this unique universe that seemed to flow naturally from one page to the next. Before I started reading M/M, I used to read popular YA paranormals and many of them were about the Fey, in all different manifestations. I remember now why, although I loved the premise of these books, they always turned me off. I always felt like I was supposed to like the fey.

It’s great that Cole appreciated this aspect of the book, because that was one of my goals in writing A Hidden Magic — making the fey alien and dangerous, not just gorgeous people with pointed ears and a long lifespan. Not that I mind that kind of fantasy, but I wanted to do something different. Even when one of the fey seems to be on your side (like Willowen, or Azzy) they’re doing it for their own reasons, and their motives are based on an alien point of view. I love that Cole caught that and enjoyed it.

There was also a particular device employed by Ms. Benedetti that I rarely see in M/M and really value if well written into the story. The prose changes very subtly with each characters emotions. The story is written in third person close, so if we’re viewing the action through Rory and he gets excited the prose will speed faster and the syntax will reflect his excitement. Conversely if Rory (or any character who has the lens) gets sleepy and is still trying to describe the scene, the prose will slow, the syntax disjointed, until it seems the prose falls asleep right alonside the character. This is done very subtley and when it is done will like it is here, it is a very effective tool in taking the reader along with the emotions of the character or the speed of the action. I was very impressed by this.

Cole’s picking up on that made me beam, like, massively. There are times when I have to fight to keep some of my run-on sentences while going through edits. Yes, I go long at times [cough] but it’s always for a reason, and Cole gets a hug and chocolate for picking up on how it works and how it enhances the reader’s immersion into the POV character’s head.

Read the whole thing here.

Angie