Where Crime, Horror, and Science Fiction Meet – Discussing new discoveries, old mysteries, creepy tales, and dark storytelling
I was just reviewing the books that I’ve read this year in preparation for a future post, and it occurred to me that there were a lot of great reads. Action, adventure, etc. The build to the climax was generally good in all the books I’ve read (I’m excluding the non-fiction pieces at the moment,…
Tonight I had a conversation with my mother about westerns (movies specifically). Westerns are a very traditional structure, story-wise. Hero falls into great calamity, everything looks dark, then the cowboy gets up off his duff and does the hard work/killing/etc. Sometimes it’s a happy ending, sometimes it’s a sad ending, but dammit, the cowboy did…
Here’s something that’ll get to the friendly-neighborhood-demon (hey, she said it)… I finished reading the gigantic book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell these last couple days. First, let me say that I was very impressed by Clarke’s use of language. She captured the feel of Lord Byron/Jane Austen’s world very well. I felt like I…
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Somewhere I read that the last 20% of a novel is the hardest part to write. I’m believing that I concur. Part of it is because you say goodbye to the freshness of your characters–after this it’s all editting and revising. Doesn’t seem like there’s any new surprises. (Unless you want to keep writing the…
I just handed of FJR to Shane so that he would be so sweet as to print out the copies I need for tomorrow. It occurred to me that I have been playing negative Nellie on myself. I’ve been so hard on myself for ‘not finishing’ that I’ve overlooked the fact that I more than…
I’ll be short on two fronts:1. There’s no way I can finish FJR by Monday. I’ll be two chapters shy. But–before the demons come out! I will give what I have to my first readers (yes, Ali, that’s you!) and e-mail the final two chapters later in the month. –So far I’m only making copies…
Other Worlds, and This 