Midnight Lines: Reaching for a Simple Stopping Point

I can just imagine it. Hundreds and hundreads of people staying up past midnight, searching for a dull spot to place a bookmark until tomorrow. Finding stopping spots is hard to do with a Lee Child Reacher novel, and the newest, The Midnight Line, is no exception.

Child's minimilist writing style is fascinating. You read one line sentence after one line sentence. Yet, he creates images that stick in your mind for days afterwards. He also doesn't loose you as the plot twists in and out, and round about. Oh, Child writes paragraphs too, but all his writing is as spare as a long-distance runner. He gets from the starting blocks to the finish line with few or any loose-ends dangling.

Complicated things can happen by doing simple things. In this case, Reacher finds a West Pointer's ring in a pawn shop and decides to return it to the officer. He soon gets a target on his back for being a "complication". He also lands in the middle of our opiod crisis and the lousy treatment our wounded veterans all too often get. The reader gets a lovely roller coaster ride along some back country roads.

Remember the Shadow who was always asking: "What evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

Well, Child keeps asking what evil can Reacher find along US highways and roads. This time he explores back-country, dirt roads, not the highways. That the setting was over the mountains from me was a added bonus. I always wondered what might happen up in the hills away from the firewords emporium. Used to hike in the mountains on the other side of the ridge, and Child's descriptions felt real.

Child made his name dishing out action and more action. If you're an action junkie, this may not be the book for you. As Reacher grows older, he's thinking more and more, even philosophizing. Read a sample and more reviews:

Amazon          Barnes & Noble          Rankuten kobo

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Other Interesting Reading

The local writing group, Northern Colorado Writers, has an interesting blog, The Writing Bug. I like it because writing usually bugs me. Besides, I know many of the writers. Any way, David Sharp recently wrote of blog on the importance of a writer's voice. You can check it out here: In search of Voice.

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My Writing Rut

Rendezvous with Demons is finally lurching forward. Have be writing around 750 new words a day, an improvement on the old 500 words a day if I was lucky. Another plus, is I haven't yet reached the episodic descriptions I wrote during NaNoWriMo. Am guessing that's a good thing.

Here's a sample--my tentative opening:

            A party. A party? You're going to a stupid party?
            An invitation to a post-exam party from a future Kingscourt flunky had goaded Britt Kelly to visit the posh northern neighborhood where she now stood, hands on her narrow hips and shaking her head in disbelief.  The dark morning silence the suburban river-bend park rang in her ears. Empty swings drifted back and forth on the early morning breeze as mist rose from the river that flowed through Trebridge.

            The banks of the river in her neighborhood were more likely to be filled with warehouses or garbage strewn lots than groomed grass and trees. That's where she belonged. Not among the neat rows of single houses, separated by groomed yards, that surrounded the park.

            But she had been invited, and she was curious. Mostly, about how her life might have been if her father hadn't abandoned his family for another woman when she was a teen.

            Not that I'm unhappy about how my life turned out. Wish Cahal had stayed in Trebridge, but you can't have everything you wish for.

There Be Demons is still getting decent Amazon and GoodReads reviews, but I'm rewriting and rewriting the book blurb. Effort so far: [Any body have any comments?]

Britt Kelly doesn't have time to be a demon fighter. After her parents' divorce, Britt Kelly's posh suburban life turns upside down. Not only must she cope with a new high school. But she learns she's an Angeli Chosen--picked to fight invading demons at the side Trebridge's four Gargoyle Guardians. Her family's main babysitter, Britt just wants to get grades good enough to escape the projects. Dreaming about her new crush, Cahal, takes even more of her time.

.

Gillen, the leader of the gargoyles, races to teach the four teens under his command enough magic to survive the coming demon battles. But he soon learns that teaching the four teens is like herding cats.

 Britt must learn to follow orders if her loved ones are to survive the coming fight between good vs evil.

You can see the old stuff at Amazon and Rakuten kobo. 

What the Heck Is Fantasy Anyway? A Book Review of A Wanted Man & More

While goofing off the last month or so re-reading fantasy books I'd saved, I got caught in some existential questions about what fantasy is. Frankly I don't even care what the SFWA thinks. I'll fall back on the infamous "porn" definition. I know fantasy when I see it.

Fantasy is by definition unrealistic.  My prime example, even though bookstores don't shelves the books in the Fantasy section, is Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Just finished A Wanted Man as a break in all the oldies I was reading. [And still itch to read]

Why do I think Reacher is a fantasy hero. How ofter do you think someone reaches into a moving car and not only grabs the the cell phone but the driver too? And, survives with their arm intact? Yet the New York Times Book Reviews will give Child and other mystery writers regular mentions but only it only reviews fantasy when it's Young Adult or written by the likes of Margaret Atwood.

In case you haven't heard, Jack Reacher is a 6'6", muscle bound, former military MP hitchhiker who gets in all sorts of trouble while he's travels around the country with his trusty toothbrush. A Wanted Man has Reacher getting involved in an FBI operation when he is picked up by some bad guys on the interstate. 

Child writes a terse style which makes the action in his plots seem faster than it is. His character development shines with an ability to make the same-old, "stock" law enforcement people into individuals. His villains are well drawn too, but often sink into cliche territory. 

Most enjoyable for me is Child's dead pan humor. An example, in A Wanted Man, he has an FBI agent copying Reacher's pattern of buying new clothes when the old ones get dirty. Only she saves her old blouse to wash later.

Again, how realistic is it for a guy to maintain basketball-sized biceps by throwing bad guys around rather than working out in a gym for hours. For me, every Jack Reacher novel is a must read ... at least until they become cliches of themselves. May that be many books from now.

An Addition

Re-discovered a gem: Katherine Neville's The Eight.  While it's been sleeping behind a bunch of other books, it's become something of a thriller classic. I reviewed it for Goodreads. [I think.] If you like cross-genre fiction with a strong fantasy element you might look at it. Warning: The plot structure is more complex than most novels written today, and it's slow to start since there's a lot of back story about a mysterious, magical incident from Charlemagne's time involving a chess set.

Updates

While I'm supposed to be a writer, I've been mainly fussing with my websites. Hope all the stubborn broken links are fixed now, and I haven't seen any typos the last couple of times I looked. 
You might take a look at the Far Isles Half-Elven site. 

I've put up the opening chapter of The Pig Wars ... though I may change the title to The Black Tail War. Must give the pet pig her proper due.

And a little gift for all your writer's out there if you don't follow Janet Reid, Literary Agent. Watch this video.

Gotta Love the Villain

The Read ...

Love the way Lee Child constructs his villains.  Take a couple common traits, and then he twists them into something evil.  The twisting gets tighter and tighter through the some 400+ pages of the book until Reacher, the hero, finds a way to defeat them.  61 Hours presents an excellent example.  This time it's a super-short guy who over compensates, and Child gives a running commentary of the villain's actions/POV during the course of the book.  You'll never look at short people the same again.  

Child never ceases to amaze me with the way he weaves seemingly unconnected facts together to make a reasonable sub-plot when he ties them together.  Most authors do well with one or two.  [It's one of the reasons they get published by "traditional" publishers.]  Child scatters sub-plots like seeds ... manages to tie the results neatly at the end.  In this case, he manages to create a plausible defeat the human villain and his assortment of bad guys.

One possible loose end.  When the snow near the bunker was melted for two miles around at the end, it left the question that Reacher might not have survive his race up the stairs to the surface.  Here the internet is a spoiler since his official site publicizes the next book in the series ... where Reacher is very much alive.

This book may be a pivot point in the series.  Reacher, the supreme loner, is showing some need for attachments ... however much he denies the need of them.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Writer groups are an invaluable new set of eyes to review your manuscript.  They can catch the craft mistakes you make and then gloss over.  They can tell you when your plot and characters don't make sense.  They can tell you when you say the same thing twice in the same paragraph [aka telling, then showing].  I you lack a group, the Galleycat's recent blog gave its readers some good pointers on keeping a group going if you find a couple writers to work with.

1st Turning Point contributor, Jeri Westerson, gives an interesting case study on being a mid-list author ... and needing to promote your own work since your publisher won't pay much attention to you:  Promo Idea Number 25.  She nails my feelings in the first sentence:  "Promotion is the bane of authors."  Only problem is that it's also the bane of writer's too.  [Since some of the agent blogs I've read, my mind separates the part of seriously writing (writer) and getting published by someone other than yourself (author).]

Do have a complaint about the article.  I've read other blogs of Westerson which mentioned her sleuth.  This time for some reason Crispin Guest -- disgraced knight turned "private eye" with a thief side-kick -- poke my curiosity enough to go looking for the books.  And, I thought my to-read pile was down to 3 1/2 feet.

I've mentioned the Northern Colorado Writers before.  On Wednesday, Kerrie Flanagan wrote a right on blog about writing queries.  As I said in the comments, I wonder why I was able to write accepted queries [most of the time] for non-fiction, but can't seem to find my footing for fiction.

Most writers should know Nathan Bransford has one of the best publishing blogs around, but he also often features guest  bloggers. On Thursday it was author Hannah Moskowitz, who I think I should know.  Whatever, she discusses professionalism and writing.  I include the link here because of the info, but also because I flunked most of the activities, especially remembering book titles and authors.  

Example?  At the moment, I can't remember who wrote the Hunger Games trilogy even though the books wrung me out emotionally.  Yeah, I know I could look it up on the web and appear more insightful than I am.

Then, Stephen Tremp gives shares a great idea on using Twitter [and Facebook] for promoting your book.  Check out "Blowout Sale".

Now to forget the serious stuff.  Followed some Tweet to Tabby's Nocturnal Nights.  Now I know why I don't shop at Wal-Mart ... if only I'd have to fight with too many train crossings [in our town].  If you want the full gallery, check this out.  Actually, this is pretty gross -- just to warn you.

Progress ...

None.  Unless you consider the rejection of Dark Solstice progress.

Trivia ...

The old man's prowling ... waiting for me to get off the computer to do the important stuff.  Going to the bank, out to lunch, and buying groceries.

Wrapping Up the Ending

The Read: [2 April 10] Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child's Jack Reacher is sprinting towards its ending.  Taking Friday night to just finish it.  My book isn't going anywhere ... and I hear there's a holiday on, a big enough one to make the stock market shut up.

Saturday Update:  Finished Gone Tomorrow.  As always, when I finish a Child novel, I feel like burying my head in the sand.  Reading him is like watching a master magician.  You have some idea about how he creates his impressions, but you haven't an idea about copying his expertise.  --  Hey, I can admire without emotionally putting myself down.  I should hope he'd have learned something after over ten novels hitting it big time.

Half way through and it's time for the potential villains to reveal themselves through their actions and lies.  I started the read with about 40% of the book to go with all the plot elements twisting and turning.  Child begins to line his cast of characters where they belong in scenes complete with chases by foot and subway around the middle part of Manhattan.  Best yet, Child has three categories:  good guys, bad guys, and general bureaucratic pains-in-the-arse, giving them all many opportunities to change sides in the equation of good vs evil.  [My opinion.  Human dignity should make evisceration while still alive a crime against humanity -- among other possibilities.  Too bad so many people get away with committing them.]   

Now to talk about the ending without lobbing a spoiler -- because the ending is masterful.  Page 517 [of a 543 page book], the miscalculation in Reacher's reasoning pops out of the bathroom, armed and with Reacher down to his last bullet.  Reacher uses his last bullet to off the henchman -- leaving him to the mercies of two knife-wielding fans of evisceration.  

There, I don't think I told the ending.  Of course, Reacher survives for the next book.  It's already published, I think, but you'll have to read the book to see how Child ends it.

Note:  The New York Times today had a set of lovely maps of Manhatten showing the various districts of the island with a big blanks spot where Central Park is.  The maps were made to show where it's easy or difficult to find cabs during different parts of the day.  Hey, I pick up research tools wherever I find useful ones.

I wish I had it when reading the book.  Though I have visited the town since I have two New Yorkie kids, there were some districts on the maps I had never heard of.  --  [Hey, what do you expect from someone who had never got east of Pine Ridge, South Dakota until 1973, and that was only because we hopped planes on our way to Britain.]


Web Notes:  Nancy Drew on steroids!  Innovators create things that sometimes make your jaws drop, but aren't necessarily for you ... or me.  James Patterson, the writing machine, is a case in point.  The New York Times did a Sunday magazine article on him a couple weeks back.  Jim Thomsen, of  the 1st Turning Point blog, published a great summary and some comments on Patterson's significance. [  http://1stturningpoint.com/?p=3638 ]

Work for hire arrangements -- where writer's give up all rights to what they write and are paid a fee instead -- have always existed in writing and the business world.  I've done it.  Millions have done it ... over time, at least.  The question is whether you want put your fingers/head on the block.

Does the idea of being a writing machine appeal to you, ie: producing 3-4 books a year?  Here's a telling quote with a brief map:
The Times piece says that Patterson “avoids description, back story and scene setting whenever possible, preferring to hurl readers into the action and establish his characters with a minimum of telegraphic details. … They are light on atmospherics and heavy on action, conveyed by simple, colloquial sentences.”

Personally, I think I'll plod along with one draft a year.  Think of it as resisting temptation -- like not trying to be a real estate millionaire when the bubble's ready to pop.

Progress:  Maren is creaking along -- something I find annoying after the way she kept intruding in my thoughts when I was trying to wrap-up Emma.

Trivia:  The silly apricot's blooming.  Now, I'm waiting for a freeze to knock its blossoms off.

Pacing and Conflict and Reasons

The Read:  Okay.  I think everyone can learn writing tips from Lee Child's newest novel:  Gone Tomorrow.  I mentioned I started to squirm at his NYC subway doors opening and closing as he traveled uptown, then realized how Child was wrapping the tension tight as Reacher kept comparing the Israeli suicide bomber profile with one on the passengers, an older woman.

Well, by about a third of the way into the book, the cliche has been turned on its head.  The woman worked for the pentagon and committed suicide with a gun within reach of Reacher.  After the NYC police investigate, Reacher had made contact with the the suicide's brother, a New Jersey cop, and learned her son was missing and may or may not be in danger.  Reacher is contacted by some goons who are working for a "principle" who wants to know if the suicide gave Reacher anything and dropped two names.  Some federal investigative goons, warned Reacher to forget what he saw.  He learns the suicide was delayed on the Interstate traveling from DC to NYC.  Reacher decides to investigate the names to discover one of them (a retired officer running for Congress) has some secret tucked into his military past.  So, Reacher goes to DC where the same federal goons tell him he's too old to mess with them and to go away.  --  I've enjoyed books that have less action in 300 pages than the 150 I just mention.  Best, Child is just starting to roll.

Then, there's the pacing.  I was just getting to noticing Child was using enormous amounts of dialogue with very little setting [which I assumed I was filling in by my own NYC experiences].  This at about 11 PM.  When I next looked at the clock, it was midnight.  Whatever, magic Child was weaving sucked me down the dark hole into his world.

Progress:   On my own stuff, none.  Hopefully, I learned something at the Northern Colorado's Writer's conference that will perculate through my fingers.

Trivia:  Don't ask my why, but the old man and I were discussing Madame Bovary.  I hated the book when I read it in high school.  I had figured out the many (most ?) adults were stupid long ago, but Madame Bovary was the most inane and stupid someone I ever wasted time on.  To read and to write.  By that time, I was a "published" author and had two "novels" under my belt [unpublished].  I knew how long it took to write a book ... by hand and by the typewriter I had somehow managed to pick up.

What no one told me at the time -- the problems caused by frivolous goals where the whole point of the book.  Maybe I can still dislike the book because it takes so long for her world to blow up in her face?

Nuggets of Wisdom

No read today -- though I started reading Lee Child's new mass paperback, Gone Tomorrow.   At first, glance you think the opening description is lo-o-o-o-ng, but before I was ready to skip pages, I could feel the tension building -- all with the subway doors opening and closing with Reacher contemplating the Israeli terrorist screening list.

How fast was slow?  I thought I just barely scraped the beginning.  When I went back and looked, I was almost at page 100.  This even though I still had a headache from the bright lights at the NCW conference last night.

The Northern Colorado Writer's Conference

The following occurred in no particular order, so be warned I'm being my normal incoherent self.

First, I want to praise Kerri Flanagan, the director of the Northern Colorado Writers.  She's been doing the conference for five years, and each year some new useful new tool appears.  This year's gem was a spiral bound notebook with presenter info, session handouts, and lined pages to write on scattered through out -- all in alphabetical order.

Veteran conference goers said repeatedly that this was one of the best they've attended.  Summary opinion.  It's small enough to talk to a good share of the writers, and the presenters were all stellar.  I agree, but it's nice to know others agree with me.

Being me, I might quibble about the food -- but Kerrie didn't cook it.  (The Hilton people did.)   I'm lucky to live where I do -- even if I was ready to move from the place two days in coming here -- back in 1966.

Granted I couldn't go to all the sessions that looked useful,

but here are some nuggets of wisdom

from my notes.

Stephen Cannell (A-Team, The Rockford Files, and the Shane Scully mystery series) just happened to be doing a promotional tour through Colorado, and Kerrie snagged him for our keynote speaker.  I just listened without taking many notes.  Most important thing he said, in my opinion:  Don't take yourself too seriously. .

Mike Befeler, a mystery writer of "geezer-lit" (Paul Jacobson, "It's Murder ..." mysteries) won a medal of bravery for competing with the session:  Agents Read the Slush Pile.  His comment about mysteries -- that the murder has to occur in the first 20 pages -- applies to all books, I think.  Only one might say: something significant that changes your main character's world.

If you're feeling down, you might consider John Calderazzo (a multi-published writer who teaches at Colorado State University) words:  Writers seek the wonders of the world.  I think this is true regardless of genre.

Then, there's Trai Cartwright, a former screenwriter trying to convert to novels, who always blows my mind away.   Some of the things she said:

Focus on the hero (MC) and what s/he wants.

Something must happen in each scene to move the story.  

(characters facing conflict, a partial solution, and a reversal that makes things worse.)

Then, a whole quote from Trai:  "You know what your strengths are.  If you love writing dialogue but scene description isn't your forte, don't sweat it.  Write the scene to your strengths, knowing that after you get out the initial burst of inspiration, you'll go back and work on the other components in another pass."  This applies to scenes in screenwriting and chapters in novels.

Page Lambert, a mostly literary writer from the examples she read during her session on "Creating a Sense of Place",  gave the all important advise that writer's should use all the senses in creating descriptions.  More important, I thought she gave a neat device to eliminate back story:  Use an artifact to bring memory into the scene you're writing.  I think that'd also apply to something in the surrounding.  [A tip:  This is very similar to including action as your dialog tags.]

Todd Mitchell, a YA author (The Traitor King) and CSU professor, gave lots of many pointers:

Be sure your dialog is feasible.  Read aloud.

Subtext of dialog gives more info about characters than what's said.

You need to know what each character wants to have happen in each scene.

Joe Monti, of the Barry Goldblatt Agency, talked about why there are few books written for boys.  The circular reationship:  publishers don't think boys over 11 read, so they published few books for YA boys other than spy stuff, so boys don't read.  Who says marketing people know everything.

Monti did make one thing clear:  Your book cover is the most critical thing for your book's success.  So, if your cover sucks, make this the turf where you insist on something better, even if it's your first sale.

Those were the sessions I attended.  All were worth while -- even if I had to spend money to attend.   

My most fun moment at the conference:    

  

Got into line for food and discovered Rachelle Gardner, agent extraordinaire, in front of me.  I just had to mention the picture of the pristine desk she put on her blog.  She admitted the picture didn't show the over-stuffed bookcases in her office.

Coming Up for Air ...

As far as I'm concerned ... 

Christmas is over (except for the easy part --
eating, and talking ... and revising???).  

Now, it's on to Los Reyos and more seasonal excess.
Happy Solstice, by the way.

Lessons from My Reading:  I'm slogging through Kim Harrison's White Witch, Black Curse, as a part of my best seller read-a-thon.  It's as dense as chewing taffy with dentures.  Of course, I'm jumping into book seven in a series, but I get a little annoyed when Harrison mentions a bunch of characters and proceeds with the action without giving me an idea of where she's going.  I started the first chapter at least three times.  I'm now 200 pages into the book.  It's a nice complicated story with several plot threads twining around each other.  --  But I think the editors should be on alert that not all readers of a single book ... have read all the other books in the series.

Guess I should define "dense".  Like on page one, Harrison mentions three characters -- Kisten, Ford, and Edden plus the narrator/MC Rachel Morgan.  You get an idea of who Ford is by the action in the next two pages.  You get an idea of who Rachel is by her first person viewpoint of the events.  Kisten's murder is mentioned, but not who he? or she? was.  Edden is just a name in the middle of a sentence.  Having reached the middle of the book, I now know that all these people were/are important continuing characters.  A simple tag (like what she used to describe "... Ivy, my roomate and business partner," on page 2) would have made following the text much easier.


Compare this to my current gold standard (along with Lee Child), Carol O'Connell.  On page 1 of Bone by Bone, she sets up one character the M/C Oren Hobbs.  On the second page, O'Connell introduces the secondary M/C, Hannah, around which the two related mysteries in the book intertwine.  She also begins defining the structure of the relationship between the two people mentioned.  --  In comparison, Harrison was still confusing me on page 3.

In plain English, I'm complaining about Harrison's handling the back story of the series.

Progress:  Emma.  The revision progresses.  Actually, I've almost finished going through it once.  But ... I'm thinking after I transfer my corrections to the confuser, I need to reprint it and revise again.  I may get a friend to read it to see if its a bunch of  *^#%*^@*.  Only, I don't have friends who read fantasy.  Or, I may see if I can find someone willing to read a full novel at the AW Water Cooler.   First, I have to decide whether I want to read a full novel in exchange.  Decisions.  (Or, is that just more work?)

Critiquing.  Finally got my obligations done.  Must say I like seeing stories getting fleshed out chapter by chapter.

Demons/Gargoyles.  Haven't heard a peep or seen an ejection. 

Trivia:  I'm baking pies for Christmas dinner ... for which we have to drive down to Brighton (CO).  We'll be picking up the NYC son ... so I probably won't be blogging much until the New Year.  Hopefully, I'll soon be able to get this thing whipped into shape.

Have a safe and comfortable Christmas.

I Made It

Progress:  I kept this thing going for a month.  Now, I have to figure out how to make this pertinent to something or other.  Don't ask me what.  Am making a few changes though.

Got Emma through another chapter.  Have some ideas about making words appear faster on the page ... that I can follow through on ... but it remains to be seen if they'll work.  I'd have to start a whole new WIP to test them.  (Actually, I've got notes on file.  Like the characters, but have no idea what they are going to do besides fight something.)  

Bottom line here:  I must devise a way to outline that'll work with the way my brain doesn't work.


Tangled continues on its introspective way.  The tone won't change -- which will probably end up with it and its siblings never getting published.  It is so 70s, and maybe too literary for genre fiction.   -- Whoever said I was a conformist?

Trivia:  Pickings are getting slim at the farmer's market:  apples and squash.  I did buy a green pepper and probably the last corn-on-the-cob (for us).  Of course, there are other vegies there, but we get most of those from our own garden.  Today is tomato sauce day since we had to pick the vines before the big frost.  (I'll sneak one of the zucchini in there so I only have the two smaller ones left on the counter.)

Critical Reading:  (For me, that is.  Like trying to figure out how published writers make it work.  Maybe I should call this:  How They Done It.)

Finished the second of Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series (Grave Surprise) with way too many corpses showing up in the same grave and the suspects camouflaged within a sympathetic dysfunctional family.  This is a recently written series so maybe she's continuing it.  Still, haven't looked at the third book yet so I don't know if Harris capped it as a trilogy.  -- This is a mystery ... but it does have supernatural elements so I consider it fantasy.  Paranormal mystery, anyone?


One of the things I've noticed in both of the Harper Connelly books is that Harris gives a hint at the topic of her next book in the series.  In Grave Sight, she mentioned Tabitha Morgenstern as Harper's one failure.  In Grave Surprise, I think she gave some indication the relationship between Harper and Tolliver is changing.  At least, they seem to be reconciling with their estranged family.  I'll find out in the next book.  -- An interesting way to hook a reader outside of the usual pitch.



Guess this qualifies as a "cozy" since the gruesome details occur off-stage.  I'm not too sure what constitutes a cozy mystery, outside the murderous English village settings.  In my mind, I use two classifictions -- soft and hard-boiled.  Charlaine Harris is soft-boiled.  Lee Child is hard-boiled.

Writing:  I'm going to have a hard time concentrating on writing next week.  Fantasy-reading son  sent the DVD of the Harry Dresden TV show.  What a temptation, even though I understand not all the episodes aren't up to the standards of the weaker books.  Who knows, I might hate the episodes, but they should prove an interesting illustration on how a book (s) gets adapted into another medium.

Harking back to Harris.  (Or, is that 'harping', like nagging?).  In Grave Surprise, I could almost see the incident board, as in a police procedural.  The second time the perp (No spoilers here.) was mentioned, my suspicious were raised.  Each further mention of family members dropped clues and few red herrings.  Liked the twisted motive.  Harris puts sugar on southern gothic.  -- Guess, if I add a mystery element (since I flunked at thriller), I'll have to add an incident board to my outline. 

(Nothing like more balls when you can't even juggle three.)

Another Day

Trivia:  Yesterday, we were going to look at the leaves, only the forecast said rain on the flats.  It's too early to drive in snow, even possible snow, so we went to Loveland instead.  Schmidts for a krautburger lunch.  Yumm.  You can't get a good krautburger in our town.  [My Russian German background sneaks in in odd places.]


Then, on to the Loveland museum for their ofrenda exhibit -- Memento Mori.  While interesting and worth the drive, I'm not into rococo.  Too ornate for my taste.  You can't see anything for the clutter.  Bottom line:  I'm glad I didn't have to set up the exhibit.  Maybe the pieces were glued together.  I hope so.


Comment:   The papers and magazines are saying that the "people" don't think the Obama administration is solving our economic problems quick enough.  Do they really expect instant results?


The problems took over a decade to develop.  The Republicans turned the "free market" loose during the Clinton administration by reversing the bank regulation put in place during the Depression.  Their reason:  the market experts, not government, knew how to regulate best.  Their Greed reigned and eventually exploded in our faces -- and wallets.  Logic says, it'd take a while to clean up the systemic mess thus created.  But what do I know?  Maybe someone has a direct line to a miracle worker?  I haven't seen any sign of it.  Only hot air.


So far, one good result: no one is talking about privatizing retirement accounts.


Reading:  I'm reading less.  The new television series have arrived.  Castle.  The Forgotten.  I even watched Eastwick last night, but don't know if I'll continue.  I could always rent the movie or read the book ... if I wanted to visit that world.  Maybe, it's because Cher isn't there.  (She was in that movie, wasn't she?)


Picked up a Barbara Hambly book, Traveling with Vampires which ended up being a disappointment.  Right off, the first chapter didn't clue me into the time period.  I waited until the second chapter to learn it was set in Edwardian times, just before WWI.  The vampires are the gothic kind with a helpful faction and an evil one plus the academic heros.  Why are smart female characters in historical novels always wearing spectacles?  [Of course, I don't read books where vampires are the primary characters ... except for the Anita Blake series and ??...]

How disappointing was Traveling?  Let's just say, I got to page 66 in the week.  I'm on page 52 of Charlaine Harris' A Secret Rage in one day.  In between, I read two sections of Edward Rutherfurd's The Forest.  [I reread the sections like short stories.]


Writing:  Back to the Rococo thing.  One of my faults when drafting a WIP is saying the same thing twice, maybe more times.  It doesn't bother me that much because I figure I can always take the best description and eliminate the rest.  It helps reduce the word count.



But in working through Tangled, my second writing effort, I find there is another way I repeat.  I show the action, then tell the reader what's happening.  I wonder how many other beginning writers do the same thing.  Of course, I'm deleting some and my critique partners are finding others I missed.  More words on the chopping block.  [Am in chapter 8, almost ready to start 9.]  -- We won't talk about backstory.



Whatever, I find I'm trying to imitate Lee Child's style ... which may not be such a good thing with YA fantasy.  But, then, Tangled isn't YA.  It's a multi-character driven adult political fantasy.  I think I got off to the wrong foot by emphasizing the kid character in the book, something I did because I needed a vulnerable character.  Adult elves aren't much vulnerable except to boredom.


Progress:  Tangled.  I'm thinking of getting rid of the "Austel's Idiot" angle in the title, queries, etc.  Am about a fourth through the chopping an eliminated 10,000 words.  It may actually get down to a reasonable size when I get to the print editing phase.


Emma?  Finished chapter 13 and found out why Fritha lured her into Faery. [Not the reason I thought.]  I even know how she's going to escape in 14.  I'm getting to the end of this WIP because of the water constraints.  You can only go so long without drinking water and you can't carry much in a knapsack.