Archive for May, 2010

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes


13 May

I need someone else to read The Somnambulist. It’s full of lovely lyrical prose that begs to be read aloud. The writing style is so charming that I wanted to love the book.

But I didn’t, or, by the end I didn’t. I cared about the characters; I found the story believable even in its purposely unbelievable bits. But the epilogue killed me. I got the feeling that that author was trying to give the reader a deeply satisfying ending, but instead he did a disservice to all that had come before. Have you read it? What did you think?

Mowing the Lawn


13 May

Mowing the lawn has always been one of my least favorite chores. I didn’t even like it as a kid when we had a riding lawn mower. I think the last time I looked forward to lawn mowing was when I was really little and my dad would pull me in my wagon behind the mower.

And yet, as a homeowner, one of the chores that gives me the biggest sense of accomplishment is mowing the lawn. I’m not really sure why. But looking at a newly mown lawn, especially if I’m the one who mowed it, makes me happy.

My Favorite Authors – Gene Wolfe


10 May

I first experienced Gene Wolfe during my writing courses. In his Book of the New Sun trilogy, Wolfe broke every rule my writing teacher gave us. She had told us that we needed to know the rules before we could break them with purpose. Gene Wolfe had a purpose.

His books are so well thought out, that it doesn’t matter if you’re following the web of flashbacks in the Book of the New Sun or immersed in the world of the unreliable narrator Latro, even if the reader doesn’t know what is going on, they are certain the author does.

Sunday Morning Critique


08 May

I have been part of a writing critique group that meets every other Sunday morning for about 5 years now. It is made up of some of the most amazing people I have ever met. It has exposed me to styles and genres of writing that I would normally shy away as not my thing.

The only problem with the group is that it meets at 9am, and I get up at 7am in order to go write before the group meets. Once I’m there, I’m glad I am, but oh how I hate thinking about it on Saturday night.

New Jersey Devils


07 May

It’s Stanley Cup playoff time, and I love it. I am a New Jersey Devils fan because of Martin Brodeur, well, actually because of what a sports writer wrote about Brodeur. It was during the Patrick Roy era, and I was being introduced to hockey. A friend of mine, who played goalie, was helping me pick a team to cheer for in that year’s playoffs, and we came across an article that began “If Roy had a cousin, an identical cousin…” and was about Brodeur. I wish I knew who wrote it, because I owe that person a thank you.

Excel


06 May

I love Excel. If I have an option between doing something in Word and doing it in Excel, I’ll do it in Excel, even if Word is technically easier. I enjoy manipulating data, using it to tell a story. (I am a geek.)

I spent most of this morning playing in Excel, and I learned some new things. First, the lookup function is only capable of searching the first 15,000 lines of data. When you’re searching 30,000 lines, that’s an issue. Also searching 15,000 lines of data (at a time) to fill in 10,000 blanks makes your computer run slow.

My Favorite Authors – John M Ford


05 May

Ford was not the most prolific of authors. He wrote 12 books. I’ve read 5 of them and am constantly on the lookout for the others. Each of those books left a distinct and lasting impression.

Ford did two things amazingly well – write characters and write in the moment. In The Princes of the Air, years pass in between sections, and yet Ford never gives in to the temptation use flashbacks. In The Last Hot Time, you only learn the main character’s background when he tells others. In neither case does the reader care, because the moment is so engaging.

My Favorite Books – Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust


04 May

Cowboy Feng’s is not the best Steven Brust book. It’s not the best non-Vlad Brust book. It may not even be (by the author’s own admission) a good book. But it was the first Brust book I ever read, and I still love it.

The book does have some editing problems that can cause confusion, but they aren’t deal breakers.

Cowboy Feng’s is a restaurant that is a time machine, only its time travel can only be triggered by a nuclear blast. The characters are real and easy to care about. You want them to survive, to outlive nuclear war.

My favorite books and authors


04 May

I love to read, so I will do a number of entries around my favorite books and authors. You may see an author mentioned several times– there will be multiple entries for Steven Brust books, and probably one for him in general– or you may see a number of books lumped all together- like the Dante Valentine books by Lillith  Saintcrow. It will mostly depend on whether my love is for a book, a series, or anything and everything ever written by the author.

If you loved or hated the book, if you want to recommend a book- tell me.

AVATAR


02 May

So glad we did not pay to see Avatar in the theater. I know the movie is pretty and that there were supposedly ground breaking special effects, but really how did this movie get nominated for best picture? The plot came from a random modern pulp generator and the script… I’m not certain I have (good) words for the script. But then, the script did not seem to have (good) words either.

And now I am extra annoyed that James Cameron would not let them use Avatar in the title of “The Last Airbender” movie – which I want to see.

100 Words On

topics explored in exactly 100 words