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Messages - fireflyz

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16
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: July 12, 2011, 12:24:07 PM »
My reading took a hit this past week.  (For good reasons, which might come with some exciting news in the next week or so)  I was able to read Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton and No Better Place to Die.

I picked up Just a Geek because I read Pat Rothfuss's review on his blog.  Also, I'm a huge Trekkie fan.  Let me clarify that.  I absolutely loved TNG and Voyager, thought DS9 was alright, the original was good, and Enterprise was terrible.  I can quote lines from the shows, love specific episodes, but I can't remember the names of every episode and I've never, never been to a Star Trek Convention.

Alright, bona fides out of the way, onto the review.  Just a Geek was well written.  It's not a terribly long book and a lot of it appears to be taken from Wil's blog.  Having said that, Wil goes into detail to tell the reader what was going on behind the scenes when he wrote each entry.  The book starts off with a young, 16 year old Wil Wheaton watching members of the original Star Trek cast come out of their hotel to get on a Trekkie Cruise.  It takes a sixteen year old to be able to judge them so harshly and so completely.  We've all been there.  In Wil's case it resulted in him leaving Star Trek and spending the next 10+ years regretting it.

This is a story about fame and success turning into ruin.  But more than that it's a story about recovery and acceptance.  It's a story about hope.  And I think those stories are worth reading every now and again to remind us that there's always a ray of sunshine at the end of the tunnel.  This will appeal to any reader, but especially those who followed the show as there's a lot of behind the scenes looks from Patrick Stewart and co.

No Better Place to Die is a memoir of an 82nd Airborne Pathfinder's days in Normandy.  It follows the action of Saint-Mere Eglise which had some of the most brutal close combat of the war.  It's an alright book.  The author's prose isn't bad, but he jumps all over the place and innundates the reader with a ton of names, details, etc.  It would appeal to the amateur historian looking for an in depth look at the conflict, but the average reader, meh.  Also, when I read memoirs I'm hoping to get a look inside of the writer's head.  In this case the author takes the rare approach of pulling himself out of the story.  There are a lot of harrowing tales and several Medal of Honor moments.  Definitely worth reading for that alone.  The second half of the book is filled with letters from the soldiers involved.  Really you could read the second half of the book and find out the same information, but as they are letters you're expecting disjointed, haphazard organization.  The first half is the same thing told by the author, but much more jarring.

Next up? GRRM of course  :-)

17
Writing Group / Re: publishing abroad
« on: July 10, 2011, 01:35:23 PM »
Yes, unfortunately there's quite a bit more to it than that.  Most publishers, as I said above, won't look at unsolicited manuscripts.  So you need an agent.  There are a lot of them out there.  So you need to do your research and find out which ones represent the genre of your novel.  Then you need to make sure they are looking for new authors.  In order to submit to an agent you have to follow certain guidelines.  Agents receive anywhere from 50-500+ queries a week and can't read every persons manuscript.  Usually, you'll have to submit at least a one page query letter (think blurb on back jacket of books).  Often you'll also be asked to include a 1-5 page synopsis of the book (in present tense) and if you're lucky the first couple pages of your novel.  If they like it, you'll get a request for a partial (generally first 3 chapters or 50 pages).  If they still want more then you'll receive a request for the full manuscript.

All of this takes time.  I've found that journey from query to full request was about a month and feedback on the full was an additional month.  I'd suggest checking out writingexcuses.com for awesome podcasts concerning writing and the industry and annemini.com has one of the most comprehensive sites on all the steps involved to getting an agent.  She's a bit verbose, but definitely worth the time. 

Hope that helps!  Yes, it's daunting, but it (generally) ensures that only good writers get published.  IMHO, self publishing via ebooks threaten to undermine that.  A lot of people get frustrated when their book garners zero interest so they delude themselves into thinking that if only it were out there, waiting for someone to read, they'd be a star.  But who reads self published ebooks?  No one.  It's a long, hard road, but Stephen King wrote for years before making it, J.K. Rowling did the same, Tolkien shopped his work around for years with no interest, and even Brandon will happily tell you about the many novels he wrote before finally breaking in.  That's why rule one of writing is to write for yourself.  Because for a long time it's only going to be you and your creation.  Definitely a rewarding experience though, and I'm glad you're looking to move forward on your work.  Good luck!

18
Writing Group / Re: publishing abroad
« on: July 09, 2011, 11:56:11 PM »
Most publisher's don't accept unsolicited manuscripts.  Some do, but there can be issues with that unless you're well versed in contracts.  If you mean agents, then yes you can query an agent even if you don't live in that country.  I would just make sure to be up front with them in your query that you don't reside in their country.  I know that a debut author from Australia recently signed with Pat Rothfuss's agent.  I believe it was Jay Kristoff, but I can't remember the name offhand.  Anyway, to answer your question:  generally, yes.

19
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: July 01, 2011, 01:21:08 AM »
Read Everything's Eventual by Stephen King, The Talisman by Peter Straub and Stephen King, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.


Everything's Eventual was a short story collection King wrote while still recovering from the hit and run incident he had.  It was very, very good.  Even though I liked Night Shift, it's insane the difference between that and this one.  Granted over twenty years had past, but it's nice to see how improved his writing has become.  King has a good intro concerning ebooks (this is 2001) and how when he wrote and released Riding the Bullet via electronically it caused a huge frenzy.  He said he did it to try new media, to keep his edge, but he was disappointed because in interviews no one asked him about the story, they just cared about the numbers of people who checked out a book in electronic format.  Ironically, the audio rights went for over 100k.  The stories in here are good, including Everything's Eventual (the title) and 1408.  I like the book better than the movie, though to be fair th book version is much, much shorter.  All in all, a good read.

The Talisman by Peter Straub and King was a lengthy read.  Fans of King's Dark Tower series will feel a lot of similarities between Roland's world and the Territories (the alternate world that is part of the setting for the book, our world being the other).  It's the story of a twelve year old boy who must travel from New Hampshire to California to find the Talisman.  His mother is dying of cancer, his father's been murdered by his friend and business partner, so she's all his has left.   In the Territories, his mother's double or Twinner is also dying and if she dies, the fate of the Territories will lie in the hands of his father's business partner's Twinner.  There is some good writing here.  The book gets off to a slow start (like most of King's lengthy works) but is running down hill at a breakneck pace by the time you reach 70%.  Especially touching is the Wolf character.  I get the feeling when I read this that this is a cross between an American take on Tolkien, fairy tales, and King's own Dark Tower universe.  It's worth the read.

Fight Club...I've loved the movie for years.  It spawned an era of anti-establishment, anti-work movies where the protagonist hates their job and goes to crazy lengths to change it.  I finally read the book.  I was surprised by how good it was.  The story is basically just free thought from the protagonist.  Most of the time when he's speaking to other characters there isn't even proper punctuation (though the other characters do have dialogue tags).  There was some really good writing in here.  It's definitely a style I personally could not hope to emulate.  It's just a little too foreign for me.  I like the visceral mental diatribes, they add weight to the character's mental state.  Anyone who has seen the movie won't be surprised by the ending.  I would like to be able to read it blissfully unaware of the duality of the protagonist, but I couldn't.  In some ways the book handles it better than the movie, but in many ways the movie passes it on that end of things.  Then again, it's much easier to do that in the format of cinema as opposed to the written word.  The movie doesn't follow the book exactly, so there are some nice twists and turns.  I think Chuck has some interesting, thought provoking things to say about society...the rest I think he's talking out of his ass.  It's alright though, because he remains true to the character.  You can't ask for more than that and at the end of the day you can take it or leave it when you turn the last page.There's an afterward written after the movie made it so famous.  It's really funny how he got his idea and just ran with it, not expecting much.  His advance was 6k.  I liked that he was cognizant of the fact that what he was doing structure wise in his novel went against the norm.  The whole point of the "rules" was to anchor the reader in while we whipped from scene to scene and character to character.  He did a good job.  It's sad how many people out there believed everything he wrote and chose to emulate it.  The first five pages of the afterward are describing all of the crazy things people did in the wake of its popularity.  All in all, good stuff.

I'm going to read the sequel to the Talisman and depending on how that goes, hopefully be tackling some new Butcher and GRRM shortly.

20
Writing Group / Re: Advice on Moving Forward
« on: June 25, 2011, 03:34:56 PM »
I think that ultimately, self publishing is not the way to go for a first time author.  If you want to try to sell a 12 book series, then make sure the first book could be a stand alone.  Mention in your query that it's a stand alone but you envision it broadening out into a series.  I truthfully don't believe that most people can start off with a 12 book series and do it justice.  THat doesn't mean you're one of those people, but it's something to consider.  Worse case scenario is there's no interest in it...you write other books, hone your craft, and one day when you get a sale you can go back to that series if you're still interested.  As someone who has written a few books that I envisioned as series' I have to admit a lot of times when you're done you realize it's not the ONE, haha.

Just to give you an idea, the agency I've been communicating with and getting some solid feedback from looked at over 15,000 queries last year, out of those they requested less than 100 full manuscripts and signed (I think) 6 authors.  I believe self publishing an unknown author would involve even longer odds.  So my question to you would be, have you tried to make it into that 100 full manuscripts.  Set aside being signed for the moment.  But if your work isn't able to attract that sort of attention, I don't believe it will do well self publishing.  And that's fine.  Writing is a lot of work over a lot of years for very little chance of being a commercial success.  Which is why you have to love writing for the sake of writing.  Pleasing yourself and no one else.

However you decide, I wish you luck.  Stephen King says writing a novel is like crossing the Atlantic alone in a bathtub, and he's right.  No matter what, just know that you only get better over time.

21
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: June 21, 2011, 12:05:04 PM »
Finished the Night Shift by Stephen King.  Read Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Night Shift was good.  About 25 short stories with some really good ones like Children of the Corn.  There were a few that were so-so, but definitely good for aspiring novelists to read or anyone who is interested in the evolution of an author as a lot of these came right around the time he started being published.

Shades of Milk and Honey was interesting.  I saw Mary at a con, but didn't want to approach because I hadn't read any of her works yet and only knew of her through Writing Excuses.  I've always liked Pride and Prejudice, but if I'm being honest, Wuthering Heights is more my cup of tea.  I really enjoyed this book.  The prose was well done.  For the most part, short, concise sentences.  The magic (glamours) were well done.  The description was lacking in parts, but this actually worked in this book because it so closely mirrored Jane Austen that my mind immediately filled in the blanks.  Ever since I saw the movie version with Keira Knightley that's what I picutre when I read anything similar so that helped with this.  For a first time author (which I believe she was with this book) Mary was a good first read.  Unfortunately, many first time authors suffer occassionally from prose that pulls the reader out.  I didn't have that issue here.

My only real complaint is with the ending.  There was some very brief foreshadowing concerning one of the characters and there was a late mention of dueling by another character.  It wasn't nearly enough.  The book is almost completely about conversations and unspoken desires, but the ending is the classic Hollywood blow out in which the main character (always proper, always right no matter how much it hurts her) acts completely out of character.  The ending following this Hollywood confrontation is completely Deus ex Machina.  The tragedy is that I think this could have been easily avoided with more foreshadowing early on and perhaps more conversation and less physical confrontation at the end. 

The ending isn't terrible, it's just not up to par with the rest of the ending.  I was surprised by the romantic turn of events at the end and I thought she did a credible job with knocking one of the potential suitors out of the picture.  Unfortunately, this was a surprise more for the lack of foreshadowing than being a well set up change in direction.


All in all, a very enjoyable read and I can see why Mary has earned such attention for her work.  I would read her again because her prose is so readable.  So long as there isn't more Deus ex Machina, I think I've found another author to read.

22
Writing Group / Re: Advice on Moving Forward
« on: June 20, 2011, 11:42:12 AM »
I would ask why you want the book to be published.  Is it because you want to be able to say that you've published a book?  Is it because you hope it turns into an internet sensation and you become a big name?  Is it to make money?  Is it because you feel you absolutely must share this story with the world?

The reason I ask is because first time authors in general, rarely become published.  Secondly, self publishing is a lot of hard work and often times for very little gain.  So if you want to publish it just to say that you have a published book or if you just feel you need to share it...then that's fine as you're not likely to be disappointed.  If, on the other hand, you are hoping for all of those other things, I wouldn't reccomend self publishing.

Writing Excuses has several great podcasts on selfpublishing, including one with Larry Carreira (Pretty sure I mangled the spelling of his last name).  He self published something like 6k copies of his book.  BUT, and this is important.  He had a successful blog tailored towards a small, specific group (gun enthusiasts) and so he wrote a book for that group.  Also, once Baen Books offerred him a deal, he took it.

Another caveat is that many agents will not handle a new author who has self published.  I've read this on several agents blogs and had a few tell me so in person.  Others will still handle a new author, but not that particular work.

Finally, I think it's awesome you wrote a novel.  That's not something a lot of people can say.  Unfortunately, there are still many that can say that, but can't say they have a deal with a publishing company.  My question is:  how many people can say they've written 3 books, or 5 books, or 10?  The few that can say yes to that are likely published authors.  It's my belief, that rare instances aside, published authors are published because they love to write.  THey'd be writing even if the manuscript was destined to be put in a drawer and never seen because no one liked their work.  And you have to have that mentality to get published.  Because there's a lot involved.

Definitely research self publishing if you're interested in that route.  My suggestion would be to write some query letters for your work and a synopsis.  Those aren't nearly as easy as they sound and it will force you into some new disciplines.  Then send them out and while you're waiting, begin writing another book.  It will be infinitely better than the first and when you go to write those query letters it will come easier.  Repeat this process until one day you're getting requests for more...then it's just a matter of time.

23
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: June 17, 2011, 11:55:42 PM »
This week's fare was mostly pirates.  Pirates?  Yep, Pirates.  The first two were non fiction works.  The Republic of Pirates:  Being the True and Surprising Story of the Carribean Pirates by Colin Woodard is a fantastically well researched look at some of most well known pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy.  Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and Henry Avery.  The author uses literally hundreds of primary sources and tells a good tale.  Very, very different from what most people believe.  Pirates rarely killed anyone, rarely had to do more than fire a warning shot, and rarely took all of the cargo of the ships they captured.  The second non fiction was If a Pirate I Must Be.. by Richard Sanders.  This follows Black Bart who was forced into piracy after the slaving ship he was on was captured.  After a few months he realized being a pirate was a lot better than being little better than a slave aboard a merchant ship.  Black Bart was one of the last successful pirates and actually captured more prizes than any other pirate in history.  Over 400 ships in less than three years.  Another very good read, although the author goes to great lengths to discuss every prize and 400 of them is a bit much.

I read Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.  This novel was published posthumously after it was found on his computer.  Now I know why authors have a burn order on unpublished works.  I've read Crichton before (Jurassic Park, Lost World, Timeline which I especially liked) and found him a good storyteller.  Not a great author, but entertaining, and some of his ideas are definitely interesting.  This novel was set a little before the Golden Age of Piracy when the pirates were actually privateers.  I won't go into much detail, but this was obviously a work that was either in need of revision or (as I think most likely) a work that was never meant to see the light of day.  There are entire segments that simply aren't believable.  It's all plot with very little character.  Even the plot at points makes no sense.  We just lumber on and on from one part to another until finally, blissfully, it's over.  There is some good writing in here, but for the most part I think one should only read this book if they are a successful author so they know what to do to any works they don't want resurfacing after they pass on.

Currently I'm alternating between Night Shift by Stephen King (a collection of 25 short stories published in the 70s) and a book on quantum physics, string theory, and alternate/parallel universes by Brian Greene.  Amazing book, but very heavy reading.  I've always been fascinated by quantum theory, but only from the layman's perspective.  I never wanted to wager my GPA in college by taking a course in it, haha.  I'll post those reviews up in a few days.

24
Writing Group / Re: WAR!!! (or: What are some good depictions of it?)
« on: June 16, 2011, 12:09:25 PM »
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, Killer Angels (can't remembe author name...trilogy following Civil War in the East.

25
Writing Group / Re: WAR!!! (or: What are some good depictions of it?)
« on: June 16, 2011, 01:25:25 AM »
Reading works of fiction about war are only going to be as good as the author that wrote them.  In many cases those who've never experienced war/combat dont' write all that well about it in my opinion. The good news is that most readers don't know what's real and what isn't and so you can get away with a surprising amount of things.  I'd reccomend nonfiction first hand accounts.


Good Soldiers by David Finkell is a great one about the Iraq War and an infantry unit trying to win the hearts and minds while defeating the insurgency.  Crack and Thump! With a Combat Infantry Officer in WWII by Barry Basden is another good one.  Honestly, look for memoirs on amazon with good reviews and you can find just about any period from the Revolutionary War to the current day.  It all depends on how true you want to be to reality.  I like to believe that those that do know what they are talking about add a subtle, intangible layer of reality that elevates their work above others.  It could also just be that having experienced what they're talking about I can recognize the truth from the dross.

Just my two cents.

26
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: June 12, 2011, 03:07:35 PM »
Finished Bag of Bones, read Duma Key both by Stephen King.  Read the Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennet.  Read Strunk and White's Elements of Style.  Currently reading Rose Madder by King.

Bag of Bones was awesome.  King wrapped things up nicely.  His endings either tend to be bleh or great and this one was great.  It definitely had the same feel as Lissey's Story as I mentioned before, but definitely a good read.

Duma Key was a very good read.  I started off not really liking the protagonist.  I mean, he's an amputee with brain damage which causes him to be angry and violent.  That's not the best selling point.  The next thing I knew I was 15% in and actually invested/interested in where he was going in rebuilding his life.  And that's what good storytelling does.  I wouldn't reccomend it for the beginning author, but it's always nice to see an author tug on the right chords at the right moment to pull the reader in.  The protagonist in Duma Key begins painting, something he was good at as a child, to try to get himself back in a better mental state.  Or as his pyschiatrist tells him, "you need to build hedges against the night."   I don't want to spoil anything, but the horror does appear and the ending is another good one for King.  There's always a sense of continuity in his work.  Of course from the Dark Tower, but also in that a lot of his supernatural elements follow similar patterns.  Sometimes this makes it feel slightly predictable, but more and more I'm coming to find it's similar to Sanderson's universe.  This is King's universe, a half step away from our own, where the impossible is possible.  Frighteningly so.

I read the Company Man based off of Elitist Book Reviews comparison to Deadwood.  I love me some Deadwood.  I can see where they were coming from with that as far as unlikeable characters portraying different sides of themselves.  Unfortunately, I didn't feel the prose was anywhere as good as Deadwoods prose was (which I'd secretly been hoping for).  I will say that Bennet has good, punchy prose.  The kind that is mainly short, concise sentences.  I like that style of writing (perhaps because it's similar to my own beliefs in what good writing is).  The prose wasn't bad, I just wasn't blown away by it.  I felt that while it was serviceable, the author could have made better choices here and there to elevate it above simple mechanics. 

The story was good, but I'm not a huge detective fan and this was that in spades.  Including the alcoholic who manages to save the day and the soul-weary police officer trying to do the right thing.  We even had the innocent damsel in distress.  It felt cliched.  A pet peeve of mine is people that live one lifestyle but then act in another.  What I mean is that if you're never sober you're going to be worse than useless when you need to react, but in stories the drunks always manage to rise above themselves.  I'd like the author to go on a three week bender and see how productive they are.  Alright, alright, enough complaining.  It wasn't a bad book, just not my cup of tea.  But much like Country music, skiing, and scrapbooking aren't my cup of tea, I know that some people will absolutely love this book.

The author's description was good and it had to be.  This is 1920's Pacific Northwest in a way you've never imagined.  It was an interesting work and while I don't think the author is at the top of their game, they are getting there.  Someone to keep an eye on in the future.

I read Strunk and White's Elements of Style this past week.  I know it probably seems a travesty having not read it yet.  Especially with me having the temerity to call myself an author.  In my defense, I did read King's On Writing which does pay a lot of lip service to the aforementioned authors.  Anyway, the center where I work hands them out to all of their research investigators/assistants.  (Any place that gives you a free copy of such a cool book isn't all that bad IMHO)  I settled down to read it and was pleasantly surprised.  I was prepared for boring, dry, dusty English professors who had never written a day in their life.  The type of Professors who pick the most mundane syntax text books and make you pick out the participal phrases from the sentences in the exercises.  Man, was I wrong.  This is a book written by men with a clear love for the English language.  They are authors themselves and it shows.  As they say, "the reader is in trouble more than half the time" and its the authors job to rescue them.   I loved it.  Highly reccomend for anyone who is interested in becoming an author or even if your job requires you to write reports, etc.

I'm on a King kick and am currently working my way through Rose Madder.  So far it's alright, but not his best.  After this one I'm gonna back off from King for awhile.  Not sure which direction I'm headed in.  I know next month will be good as I believe another Dresden book is coming out as well as GRRM.  Maybe I'll pick up some non fiction to tide me over.  We'll see.

27
I think writing groups are good for beginning writers and for established writers looking to hone the first chapters of their novels.  Honestly, if you've written anything over 120k then the process will be too slow.  A chapter a week will take a year.  Alternately, if you're only writing a chapter a week, that might work, but as I alluded to, it will take a year to write the book. 

It sounds to me like you might be more interested in finding a few alpha readers or even beta readers.  I have three individuals who read my revised first draft when I finish it.  This has the added benefit in that I know the individuals likes/dislikes and their reading background which helps me see where they are coming from in their feedback.  Also, getting feedback on an entire book in a week or two is very helpful as opposed to waiting a year.

I definitely think writing groups have thier place, but I think alpha and beta readers play a more important role in refining a novel.

28
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: June 03, 2011, 02:26:52 AM »
Finished UR, Riding the Bullet, and The Long Walk, all by Stephen King.

UR was good, about a english professor that receieves a pink Kindle.  (Pink? you say)  Turns out that this particular Kindle is from an alternate reality that has access to all 10.4 million realities.  This means that there are plenty of works by Hemingway, Shakespeare that have never been seen in our reality.  THe story progresses from there, along with some nice references to the Tower.  Great story, semi decent ending.

Riding the Bullet is a short story about a young man making a deal with the devil.  Really it's about death and fate.  Pretty good story with a good ending, very short.

The Long Walk is King writing as Bachman.  This was a really good read.  It's about one boy who has signed up for the Long Walk.  He's one of a 100 kids under the age of 18 who have enlisted to walk until only one is left.  When they stop walking or drop below 4mph  they are given a warning by soldiers shadowing them.  Three warnings and they are shot.  This is reminiscent of the Hunger Games (although it was written well before that).  The fact that this is a semi-long read and it's essentially inside the head of a sixteen year old the entire time, yet never gets boring, is amazing.  This is a deeply psychological, philosophical work.  By the time the end drew near I was emotionally invested and holding my breath.  The ending wasn't perfect, but I'm not sure there is ever such a thing with a piece like this.  I definitely reccomend it.

Currently I'm working my way through Bag of Bones.  It has a feel that's very similar to Lissey's Story which I loved.  Reading King's prose is like making love to the written word.  Bag of Bones is about an author (surprise, surprise) and I get the feeling that King is using the main character (1st person POV) to get across a lot of what he believes regarding the writing process, ideas, and his thoughts on life.  I can't wait to finish it and then I'm onto the Company Man.

29
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: May 28, 2011, 10:42:08 PM »
I just finished my read through of GRRM's ASOIF.  This was my fourth read through, but it's been about two years since I read them last.  I'll bite my tongue as to Martin's tardiness with this novel.  For any who are interested, he did post a lengthy entry on his NotABlog about some of the reasons why he's taken so long.  Also, I watched his interview with Joe Abercrombie and he talked about writing the opening scenes back when he first started.  I was struck by his mentioning that the chapter was really flowing for him and he ran through it very quickly over the course of three days.  It's hard for me to understand a slow writer.  I write very quickly.  Usually I knock out 3-6k words at a time over the course of several hours.  I also read incredibly fast.  I know a good friend of mine who reads at a fraction of the pace that I do and writes much slower.  So I think there is definitely a coorelation there, but I'm just not a slow writer.  Clearly Martin is.  His prose is gorgeous though and while mine is starting to gather interest in the right circles, I'm nowhere near Martin.  So while I've been upset with his seeming lack of progress, I have to acknowledge that if it takes 3 days to finish a single chapter when the writing is going extremely well...it could take awhile to finish a novel that's 1000 pages.  End Rant.

Spoiler Warning for those who haven't read the books..don't read on.

I've been following the HBO series as well and I think it's a true mark of a writer that most of the lines have been word for word from the book and they are even more powerful when spoken.  That's good prose, my friends.  It's always hard for me to read the first book.  Eddard Stark is eerily similar to my father.  He won't lie, won't hide his feelings, and does whatever he feels is right no matter the cost.  That the cost is his head and ultimately the downfall of his house is truly tragic.  Honestly, I find it hard to let my breathe out until after the Red Wedding.  I like Martin's realism, but dammit, I really want the Starks to triumph.  It's a bit like reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  You know the Empire fails, but you can't help yourself from hoping it won't happen.

A Feast for Crows was a good read.  I love Jamie and Arya's viewpoints.  I also like how well Martin gets inside the head of his characters.  Reading Cersei's POV, it reads like she's a genius.  Because she believes she is a genius and everyone around her is stupid.  Obviously, the external ramifications that Martin shows us from other POV's demonstrates that she is the real idiot.  A lesser writer wouldn't allow her POV to feel as authentic.  Feast does a good job of introducing new characters with new threads that hint at things we've yet to glimpse.  It really makes one wonder how he's going to wrap this up in 3 books.  It makes me wonder if this isn't something that he's been struggling with and a large reason for why he's taking so long.  I know that Martin originally envisioned writing the last half of the series five years after the Red Wedding (I think it was the Red Wedding).  I think he's got his work cut out for him. 

All in all, this was a fun reread.  I especially enjoyed the events leading up to the Red Wedding.  Roose Bolton talks about how his army got cut off and some of it was lost to the Lannisters.  The first time through I didn't notice that it was all of Robb's most loyal subjects.  Then he gives Robb a reasonable explanation for only bringing his own men and the Karstarks who are on the verge of mutiny.  In hindsight, it's obvious that this is all part of the grander plan to end the King in the North.  Again, a lesser writer probably wouldn't have included that, but that Martin did just adds another dimension to his work.  Some highlights that I enjoyed:  the duel between Dorne and Ser Gregor Clegane and Tyrion and his father/Shae.

Definitely looking forward to Dance.

Currently I'm reading UR, a novella by Stephen King.  I'll post that up probably sometime early next week.

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Writing Group / Re: non-battle scenes
« on: May 28, 2011, 10:19:38 PM »
Every scene should do something.  Move the story forward, develop characters, develop interaction, thicken the plot, etc.  If you're characters are moving from point a to b and it's boring then either they need to discuss something that moves the plot and is interesting or we need to see vibrantly through a character's eyes what is going on around them (that also gives us insight into who they are).  Or something could happen to them a long the way.  If you just need them to move from one point to another, why not skip that and start the next chapter with them arriving?

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