It Snowed ...

Lectures from my Reading:  Have gotten all the way into Jane Haddam's Cheating at Solitaire to page 120-something.  As I said before, it's a dense read.  Not only are her paragraphs long, but the sentences too.  I didn't do a readibility analysis on the text (Too lazy, and I don't think it's important enough for the effort.), but I'm betting it's way up in the upper high school grades.  --  (I naturally write about the sixth-seventh grade level with short paragraphs.)

Example from when Haddam is describing a media feeding-frenzy (which I found funny):  "And Al Jazeera," Stewart said blandly.  "Great story about the decadence of the West with a great excuse to run pictures of girls in their underwear."  --  (That was a quote from dialog.  Note she got away with the dreaded adverb.)

Haddam must of had great fun poking (skewering ?) the celebrity scene complete with legitimate news and the paparazzi chasing the same non-story.  No chihuahuas as yet, but I think they've all been exported to Colorado to find normal homes.  (Local readers know that Denver shelters have been getting shipments of unwanted chihuahuas from LA for adoption.)

As always, the writing is for savoring as Haddam puts her characters on a POV carousel, each commentary inching the action forward.  I know the clues are embedded in each character's soliloquy, but they're rather difficult to find.  So far, I've caught only one dissatisfied loner who might meet the culprit profile.

Progress:  Emma.  Am up to chapter 10 and should get more done today.  No TV programs I want to watch tonight, outside the news.  Did get critiquers comments transferred too.  *ducks head in embarrassment at the mistakes*  (Honest, I did proof the stuff before I submitted.)

Critiquing... Got caught out doing a bunch of stupid mistakes.  Maybe not stupid, but things I know I shouldn't do ... or know better ways of doing.  --   I wonder if anyone has ever written a marketable book making every craft error imaginable.

Maren ... I've given up on actually trying to draft the first chapter.  My brain can't handle the two projects at once.

Trivia:  Chickened out of driving fifteen miles in the snow to have breakfast with a friend.  We rescheduled for lunch tomorrow.  The old man is amusing himself chasing a persistent squirrel out of our linden tress.

Seeking An Launching Pad

Lectures from My Reading:  I hear over and over how people hate prologues.  Then,  Jane Haddam has a 48-page one in Cheating at Solitaire -- describing possible suspects wandering through an afternoon until she ends with the discovery of the murder victim.  

Next, she "starts" chapter one back on Cavanaugh Street (in a former Armenian ghetto in Philadelpha) with Gregor Demarkian, her detective, wondering how he can avoid the preparations for  his wedding to Bennis Hannaford, with whom he's been living and solving murders with for years.  The fussiest of his wedding preppers is tired of his fidgeting and suggests he go find a police department that has a murder they can't solve.  The book is off and running.

(I'm looking forward to a lovely read.  But, Haddam's writing is dense so it'll take me longer than most books.  We're talking page long paragraphs here.)

Still, Haddam has given me a possible idea for starting Maren with multiple viewpoints as a way to fill in a lot of backstory since her being shoved through a portal to earth starts the story.  I don't think I'm going to set up a series with Maren as the mystery solver,  but it may help me launch the chapters in my first draft.  Wonder how many people I can turn off by that.  --  Oh.  It's all in the execution, AWer's say.  Now I have to wonder about writing it right or executing my chances of getting the finished project published.

Progress:  Emma.  Revised chapter 6.  Wishing I wrote faster.

Maren.  Thinking more than anything else, but taking some notes.  Have to go back and try to clean my second card table so I have more room to spread out my notes...

Critiquing.  Am behind for the local group which meets Wednesday night ... in a predicted snow storm.  Waiting for a new chapter from my on line critiquer.  Decided I'm too busy and not ready for a beta reader.

Trivia:  Enjoying the same old rut.  Chiropractor on Tuesdays so I can sit at my computer and still unbend when I get up.  More important.  I'm meeting with a website person to polish my blog.

In My Comfortable Rut

What My Reading's Telling Me:  Finished Victoria Hanley's Violet Wings.  Must say I liked it better than other books of hers I read.  And, not only because of the short chapters.  Hanley has an interesting take on faery and a neat, non-conforming main character, Zaria, who ends up endowed with the highest level of magic to the consternation of the fairy establishment.  (Sounds like a cliche, but it isn't.)

Though she doesn't go into much over-explanation/description in the story line,  I'm assuming her fairies are human sized from Zaria's experiences in the human world.  Also, liked the way the back story was handled by quotes from a "history" text.

 

Hanley uses total desperation to free Zaria from the climatic confrontation.  The villain has Zaria confined in a Troll-magiked robe unable to use her wand's magic and all her friends give testimony against her as the villain manipulates the crowds and council.  In short, everything evil is Zaria's fault, and it is assumed the villain wants Zaria's magic.  More important, Hanley neatly foreshadowed the crucial pieces of information that free Zaria in the historian's discussions of food and the symbiosis of human and fairy worlds.

The wrap-up leaves a huge gateway open for a sequel.  I hope it's the book Hanley's been revising.  Though I'm cringing at the thought of buying another hardcover book.

Progress:  Emma.  Still revising.  At Chapter 4 still.  But I find I'm going over each chapter at least three times.  

Also, cleaning my "desk" (two card tables set together).  Only one of them is piled with print-outs and notes now.  I have a waste basket full of recycling the next time we go.  

Trivia:  Didn't do any work last night.  Watched a re-run of Castle.

Find I'm reading Jane Haddam's Cheating at Solitaire, with all it's rich characterization.  One down from the to-read pile.  Some day I should read all her Demarkian mysteries in sequence.  Won't be soon since they are scattered all over my disorganized book shelves.

In the Groove???

What My Reading Tells Me:  I forgot to mention something in my last post.  I took a YA fiction class from Victoria Hanley last year (2009).  I learned almost enough to know what I don't know ... if that makes any sense.

Anyway, on to the structure of Violet Wings.  The book has my favorite kind of protagonist/main character -- a non-conforming achiever.  All three of my kids fit the slot.  My friends' kids did too.  (Some of my favorite memories are of coffees where we dissected the public schools lack of support and understanding of our darling weirdos.)  

In Violet Wings, Zaria, the main character, ends up with an extraordinary amount of magic as does her self-centered friend.  More important, the friend is set up to complicate the story arc in several ways at the beginning, including contacts with forbidden humans.  You just know the kid's going to be up to her violet wings in hot water, -- or is that iron?  The first third of the book sets up most of the characters (I think.), and the action hints at a number of coming problems.  

In the middle of the book, the problems come crashing down on Zaria.  Also, the real antagonist appears from among the annoying authority figures.  The villain seems to have something to do with the disappearance of Zaria's family in spite of being a fairy council member.  More important she tries to control Zaria's learning how to use her magic.  

Only, sneaky sneaky Zaria has a hidden talent -- the ability to work spells independent of the archaic language formulas which only the villain is supposed to teach her.  (Wouldn't Harry Dresden love that!  No correspondence course Latin.)

The last third?  I'm still reading, but I'm looking forward to an interesting confrontation with Zaria, humans and the villain.  (Unwanted bills sucked up my time, but I still got the minimum revisions done.  I'm just sitting here wondering why I can see the structure in Hanley's book but am having problems seeing it in Emma. )

Progress:  Emma.  Have stumbled over the block presented by Chapter 3 without landing on my face, I think.  Problem?  It's the transition chapter from Grandmama's to new town.  Also have to convey a feeling of menace while introducing Hardscrabble. -- One consolation: a critique partner did see at least a hint of  foreboding.

I can just hear everyone screaming:  start the book with chapter three.  Only Chaps 1 and 2 set up Emma's antagonism for her grandmother, and the reason why she takes off into the hills with possible enemies later on.  ... So, what is a novice writer to do?  I'm leaving Chaps 1 and 2, like they are.

Demons:  Haven't heard a squeek.  As if I expected to over the holidays.  Hopefully, I'll slip in at the beginning of the line and get read before the agents get too yawny.

Maren:  Setting up my characters with their auras.  I'm going to try writing a fantasy thriller.

Have the first chapter in process ... with the protagonist in the hospital with main helper/interpreter watching with her knitting needles slithering away.  Madame LaFarge, anyone?  Only Faithful Alice Sweet is one of the good guys.  Also, I think waking up in a hospital bed is a cliche.

Short Stories.  Don't think I mentioned them, but I wrote several short and flash fiction pieces last year.  (One of which was the chopped prologue of Dark Solstice.)  All were gather mold at publishers.  Sent some of status queries, one of which hadn't any record of receiving  my story.  So, I resent.

Trivia:  New Year's Organizing.  New Year's Eve:  We did the recycling and took stuff to Goodwill, but didn't clean the linen/towels closet.  Got rid of some books to the Friends of the Library too.

Think we'll go out to eat for New Year's day.  I'm tired of eating leftovers.  Only we'll end up with leftovers if we eat out since the old man and I can never agree on what we want to eat.