I picked this up and I’m excited!
Shadows Beneath by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette-Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler
books
I’m still alive and writing!
The workshop which started in January has been a surprising amount of effort (In a good way!) and between that and my own writing efforts, I haven’t been updating this blog as much as I’d like. I will miss it (and the folks in it) when it ends.
Thankfully I’m up at Stupid O’ Clock this morning and the munchkin is fast asleep and I’m in a procrastinating mood (I should be working on either my outline or my assignment). It’s a perfect time to write an update!
So what’s going on?
Read on!
I like to blog about writing. I like to read about writing. In general, I like writing.
This isn’t about writing.
Well, not directly.
It’s about something writers have to do. Writers should read.
I’ve been pretty out of it because of work and various other things going on. Today I resolved to get back into the flow, and I see this (stolen from John Scalzi).
I’ll post more later but right now I wanted to mark the passing of a master. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern was the very first world I delved into when I was a child.
My parents, perhaps realizing I was a big reader, signed me up for the Science Fiction book club and I still remember the day they surprised me with the (to my child eyes) HUGE box of books! All Sci-fi and fantasy and all for me to read. Thus began a lifelong love affair with science fiction, reading and books that has led all the way to today where I want to write, own too many (yet not enough) books (readers will know what I mean).
In that box, one of the books (among MANY classics, I have no idea how my parents chose those books but their selection could not have been better) was Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern Omnibus edition and while my memory is a little sketchy, I believe it may have been the first book out of that box that I read (by virtue of being the biggest). I was instantly in love with Pern’s dragons and the adventures of F’lar, F’nor and Lessa both against the threat of thread and other things. I never really continued the series but I’ve always had a soft spot for Pern and dragons since then.
RIP Ms McCaffrey and thank you for the great stories.
Gotta love XKCD
I’m overdue on re-reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I wanted to write a little update on everything.
Things are progressing apace. I’m almost done my second pass through Revenant. I’m hoping to get to some writing on that soon. I really want to be able to send it out this year.
Outside of editting, I was hit by a great idea for a short story that I’m calling “The Hunter”. I’ve started working on that a bit. In my head, as I play with it, I’m enjoying the fact that it can work equally well as a fantasy or as science fiction. I might write both for giggles and bits.
The big news is that I’ve signed up for a Writer’s Workshop at The Thomas More Institute here in town. It’s a small group, led by published authors and it turns out I already have one of the class book assignments on my Kindle app (I don’t know if they’ll insist I buy a physical copy, we’ll see). The price isn’t too expensive and from the curriculum I think I will get a lot out of it.
The only thing not really working right now is that I’m not keeping up my word count. I’m still writing daily, but there’s been more than a few 300 word days. This will change.
Reading wise, I’ve been rather voracious. I’ve gone through Southern Gods by John Horner Jacods, the Matt Richter novels by Tim Waggoner (just finished Dark War) and On Writing (which I start over and over and never finish, this time I finished it).
I’m not much for reviews, but for what it’s worth, I highly recommend the Matt Richter novels (Nekropolis, Dead Streets and Dark War). They are light, well written and well paced and the setting is well thought out and interesting. Southern Gods was also very well written and I liked the idea of a story set in the post WWII south, but it was “sold” to me as an exploration of blues legends, kind of a delta blues fantasy/horror story which I thought would be neat. It turns out it really isn’t like that and while it was still good, I was slightly disappointed and the ending scenes were a little too gory for my tastes.
Last night I hit the 40K mark (woohoo!) and I also finished reading “Full Share” from Nathan Lowell. What a great series! I highly recommend it.
Now I’m a bit at a loss as to what I want to read next. I have a lengthy pile of new books as well as old favorites on deck (both on my Kindle app and in paperback). I’m just wondering what’s more conducive to writing? Is it better to re-read an old favorite that inspired you to write, a classic that dazzles with brilliant prose or would it be better to take a chance on something you haven’t read before?
What do you guys out there think?
Some of what’s on the “to read” pile below.
I was listening to a great interview with one of my favorite authors: Guy Gavriel Kay on the Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast and one topic of discussion was the artistic differences between writing a trilogy and writing a stand alone novel. The commercial differences were also covered.
Kay stated (and this is NOT an exact quote, I’m paraphrasing) that readers as a whole tend to be conservative and not seek change therefore commercially trilogies do well but writing is an art and that means change. Stories change, people change.
I kind of lost track at this point since some moron in a Honda Odyssey started driving erratically, but it did get me thinking (once traffic was smooth again) about the art of writing.
Is writing an art or Art?
I just finished Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy on Sunday and I wanted to write a short impression of it. I’m new and not very good at book reviews, but I’m working to improve that.
As always, I welcome comments and suggestions.
Read on for my thoughts on The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.
I know in this post I said I wasn’t interested in audiobooks.
I’m not saying they are bad, just that I, personally, and I alone, am not really interested right now. They can be wonderful ways of getting a story across, especially in this age of endless commute.
But.
STOP SAYING YOU ARE READING A BOOK IF YOU ARE JUST PLAYING THE AUDIO!
You are NOT reading! You are listening to someone reading TO YOU. If “reading” was the correct word to use, then my daughter is now a prodigy who is able to “read” at 13 months!
It’s a pet peeve.
Discuss if you wish.
The Basement Office 