Do Your Stories Still Need Action Even If You Don't Write Paranormal Thrillers?

To me, nothing is more boring than a book that plods along with extraneous information about characters, setting, and anything else. Lack of action's sure not one of Jim Butcher's faults, and his book, Skin Game,A Novel of the Dresden Files, he lives up to his reputation. What else can be expected from a first sentence that says Dresden has a "ticking time bomb" in his head?

Before you run away -- because you don't want to read another 5***** review -- have you ever considered why Butcher enjoys such a tremendous success? Let me count a few ways why.

His Chapters? First, they're always short and to the point. More important, something always happens in Butcher's chapters ... and he's not afraid to break up his chapters in the middle of the action scene, like when one enemy goes down. Success! Then, either the enemy comes up with a sneaky trick to clobber Dresden again ... or something new comes out of the woodwork to attack or complicate things.

His Characters? After 16 books, Butcher has a thick Rolodex of things paranormal he hasn't yet killed off in Dresden's world. In all the action in this book, it's surprising how few named characters Butcher kills, even if redemption is a sub-plot in the story. Yeah, it's no secret Harry's fighting for his soul now that he's The Winter Knight, trying to physically survive among the Fae. To me that makes his character more than a standard-bearer for the plot. Harry's still growing as a person. [I say this without even mentioning how Dresden got pregnant. Such inventiveness is what makes Butcher so great.]

Oh, got sidetracked. I was going to make a point about the Rolodex of characters--the primary people through to the walk-ons. Look at his descriptive tags and how Butcher handles back story when he introduces a new preternatural. That's a master at work.

His Settings. All well-described? Check? But my, the variety. Skin Game starts on Dresden's Demon Island and leaps feet first into his old stomping grounds, Chicago, which is changing without his shepherding. The the adventure part in this book has a mis-matched crew trying to break into the vault of Hades to steal a religious object and untold wealth ... with the potential of a big double-double-cross.

The structuring of the double-crosses and how Dresden wins is worth the price of the book -- in hard back. No I don't think it's a spoiler to say Harry Dresden wins on several fronts ... with plenty of potential danger lurking in his future.

Oh, did I mention Parkour? ... Read the book and find out for yourself. This review is long enough, already.

After all this adulation, you might be happy to know that Skin Game isn't in the top 100 Kindle books; it's 104 as I write. Butcher still gets 5***** for Skin Game

~~#~~

PS On Amazon Rankings.

I'm always amazed by how few sales it takes to jump in the ratings --

down at the bottom, that is.Frankly, I'd be happy to sell a 100 epubs in a month. I give away more than that,but sales are slow in coming .... and reviews even slower.

Grumble. Grumble.

My Writing?

Do you really want to hear me whine? I've doubled up on projects .. or at least, I'm trying to work on two projects at once while still doing the social marketing.

First, I've decided to grit my teeth and query a publisher for Dark Solstice Turning Point. Now, I'm reading through the rest of the chapters in addition to the first three I reworked. One surprise. I'm deleted very little ... though I have been editing passive sentences.

Crossings? Continues to progress. I'm doing paper edits. My critique group hasn't seen the ending yet. It got cancelled due to unexpected circumstances, Maybe next time, or I'll just send it off to my beta-readers.

Stuffing Action in Your Story

The Read:  Lee Child keeps winding up the action to his plot for Gone Tommorow ...  or maybe his plots move fast because Jack Reacher is a synonym for action.  Example:  Setting up the suicide that starts the book moving takes twenty seven pages and six chapters.  Reacher must then connect the pieces after some freelance goons give Reacher two names that connect the suicide to a senate candidate and a Ukraine reporter.

It all feels like tumbling rocks:  all those bits and pieces of plot moving from one scene to another, changing color and nuance as they go.  I'm now in the middle of the book, and the puzzle pieces are tumbling at a greater place.  Big surprise: our governmental agents (people connected to the US Defense Department and down the chain of command of the presidency)  sudden turn into the goons Reacher and allies must escape from because they want Reacher to stop poking the hornets raised by the suicide.  The goons try to swat him, but he escapes and we know Reacher will come back and annoy them ... and the senate candidate whose aide was on the train when the suicide occurred.  (Reacher recognized the aide in the publicity photos when he visited the candidates office.)

Oh, the minor goons, who gave Reacher the senate candidate's name, who got a medal for service in a secret operation, and the ex-Soviet piece, who claimed to be a friend of the suicide and who claims she wants and explanation from the senate candidate for offenses committed, have been offed with possible identifiers removed rather messily.  At least, some of the possible villains have been removed.  But, Reacher is still in action over his head.

(If you think the above sentence was complicated, that was a simplified version of what is happening in the book.  Like I said, action uber alles.) 

Web Notes:  An example of why social media are important.  I'd have never learned about 1st Turning Point without the silly computer and one of the blogs I read. 

To the point:  Lillian Cauldwell has a much needed blog on writer business cards and what to put on them:

ttp://1stturningpoint.com/?p=3513

You haven't published anything, you say?  Well, put your pitch on the back, she says ... along with a lot of other good advice. 

[ My cards now have my blog info on the front and blank backs.  When I replace them, they'll have pitches for whatever books I have ready at the time. ]

Another Note:  You should subscribe to Kristen Nelsen's newsletter?  You don't?  You should.  Sara Megibow gives three items all good queries should have in their March issue.  Go the the blog and get on the list.  A link is in my Useful Places. 

Progress:  Maren is finally coming to the fore ... and learning English.  Fortunately, she's smart and was gifted with magic.  According to the critiquer #1, the chapters move too slow.  Just what I was worrying about.  So I'll be combining chapters ... when I get around to it ... someday.

Trivia:  The sun is shining before the storm ... probably rain this time around.  At this point, it's raining a lot of pennies on Susan Weschler.  The cheapskate here decided to commission one of her mosaics after I found some bare wall space.  

Mentioned that a rose was the center piece, and the kid thought I was commemorating their Tata.