Sick and Solitary

Yeesh, I am sick as ... well ... sick as heck. Yech. But now I'm so very happy. I took my daughter to the library to borrow her huge allotment of YA and other novels. She's on spring break, so it's uber important that she has loads to read, otherwise she'll whine about boredom. More so than usual, anyway. I'm introducing her to Christopher Golden, starting with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But that's beside the point. When we were checking her books out, it turned out my copy of Alexander Gordon Smith's, Solitary was waiting for me.

YES!!!! The entire Lockdown series has been out for quite some time in the U.K., but it has taken its sweet time crossing the Atlantic. At least I have book two in my clutches now. Of course, I'll have to wait until August for the final novel, Death Sentence.

I was in the midst of reading one of those Frankenstein novels on the Nook, but that's officially set aside in favor of this puppy. Plus I'll owe the library overdue fees for the audio book copy of Clockwork Angel, because I've been in and out of the car so often.

Maybe I can't breathe particularly well right now and my head wants to implode from a sinus infection, and the various horse pills I'm taking require some time to work, but having a novel that I've been itching to read makes it almost all better.

Why did it have to be a series?

Last night, I finished reading Alexander Gordon Smith's dark and harrowing Escape From Furnace. And maybe I should have known, especially since it's right there in the YA section, but as I closed in on the last few pages and came to the realization this was a TO BE CONTINUED deal, I was less than thrilled. It was a good less than thrilled, because I'll be right there when the second book, Solitary, comes out later this year in the U.S. By the way, check out the unbelievably cool Furnace web site.

Actually, this was like James Dashner's, The Maze Runner all over again. I must be a moron, but I had no idea when I picked up that book that it would be a series. I only wish I had an effing clue when I started reading.

Man, am I dense. It's always the same thing. As I reach the final couple chapters, I start to wonder how on earth (or under earth in the case of Furnace) the author is going to resolve everything. Then, I hit the last chapter and with each page, I get that sinking feeling, until.... WHAT???? You're leaving me here? No no no no NO! Harumph. Arms crossed, feet stomping, I solemnly swear to never let it happen again.

But it does. I guess some of these series books stand alone better than others. Hunger Games and Catching Fire had complex, major plot-lines to resolve, and did so in each case. Sure, there is still a major story arc and character conflicts to deal with, but I know that's part of the series and will be resolved in the end. I came away from each of these two books satisfied. The same can be said for each of the Percy Jackson books. So far so good on the Bartimaeus trilogy. Christopher Golden's Veil trilogy worked well, too, almost like the Lord of the Rings, actually.

But these two. Maze Runner and Escape From Furnace. I love these books and the authors, but they are Lucy Van Pelt and I am Charlie Brown trying to kick the darn football. ARGH!!!!!

I can't wait for both sequels!

The Wonder of Audio Books

I'm always reading two books. Well, okay, technically, I'm reading one  book, and listening to somebody read another book to me while I'm in the car. There is so much out there to read, so this is a relatively efficient way of keeping up.

I'm a big proponent of audio books as a means of augmenting my reading list. I do have a book by my nightstand, and I read a little of it every night. That book right now, by the way, is Spellbinder by Helen Stringer. Between writing, blogging, tweeting, working, parenting, husbanding (that sounds weird), sleeping, and some TV watching, I don't always breeze through the books I read. Plus I'm a slow reader.

My commute to work is around 30 minutes each way, and I do it five days a week. That's a minimum of five hours a week of unadulterated "reading". It's a slow pace, but consistent.

The funny thing about audio books is that they can really highlight how well written the book really is. You might run into a terrible audio production from time to time, but it's so rare nowadays. You get to listen to talented voice (or movie or theater or tv) actors or actresses and even the author themselves at times. Listening to Stephen King read one of his own books is pretty sweet. If the book sounds funny to you, there's probably a reason, and it's not likely the person coming through your speakers. Here are some examples.

Bad dialog - Unrealistic or just plain lousy dialog sticks out like a dead hamster on a wedding cake. 


Conflict for conflict's sake - It's like cutting to a car chase in the middle of the movie Titanic. Okay, yes, I'm tense, but how does this related? It hadn't occurred to me before, but PJ Hoover makes a case for it in her recent post on the Spectacle.

Whiny characters - I'm listening to the second book in a fantasy series about Nicholas Flamel, by Michael Scott. One of the main characters, Josh, is a total whiny bitch and he pisses me off half the time. It's because I hear his voice instead of see it on the page.

Pandering to the reader - This is when one character asks the other character what she means simply so she can explain it all for the reader. It's incredibly obvious on an audio book, and is even worse when you as the reader kind of know the answer already.

None of the above characteristics are unique to an audio book. The problems clearly exist on the page. They're simply more obvious when you listen.

A word about the voice actors.
Continuity among actors through an audio book series is important to me. Change is a distraction. It didn't work when they replaces the Duke boys in the Dukes of Hazzard. Sure, it can work all right. I was able to withstand when Michael Gambon took over the role of Albus Dumbledore in the third movie (after Richard Harris died). Yet, it would be an entirely different matter if Harry, Ron and Hermione were suddenly portrayed by different people. In an audio book as in a movie or television show, you get used to the style and voice with which the actor portrays the character(s). When a new person comes along and does it their way, it takes some getting used to. When it's a main character or a whole mess of characters, it's an even bigger deal.

For the record, and with the exception of the Half Blood Prince, I think Richard Harris portrayed Albus Dumbledore closer to the spirit of the character in the book. That's not to say I had a problem with how Michael Gambon carried Dumbledore. I don't.

It's Thursday and I fell off the writing chair

Today was one of those days that just sucked the ever-lovin' creative juices from my heart and soul. I stayed up late last night writing and reading, then got home from work today and read some more. I just finished The Boy Who Dared, which my son pointed out he read in eight grade. It's really a good book - historical fiction of a kid growing up in Nazi Germany. I'll post my review on goodreads in the next day or so. For some reason I like these kinds of book. Milkweed was also excellent, and not just because Jerry Spinelli autographed my copy.

Thursday night's are busy. I posted my blog entry for Frankie's blog, which you won't see until Friday morning. It's about setting: when you write it and how much you write. Mireyah posted a really interesting entry there today about whether certain slang is considered "okay". Frankie and I have both posted our comments. I'm interested to see everyone's thoughts. The other entree on the Thursday night menu is scheduling out my FollowFriday tweets, because I don't "tweet" while at work. Apart from the fact that they block twitter and other social networking sites at work, I'm not getting paid to mess about on twitter. What else? Oh, yes. Fringe!!!

And I haven't written a darn thing on Mythos today, although yesterday was super-dee-duper productive. Hey, speaking of super-dee-duper, is Barney still alive?

Okay, time to watch Fringe.

When you CAN put a book down

I read a lot of books - relatively speaking, I mean. I'm a slow reader, because I take in every word and can often recall entire passages. Sadly, my son has inherited my pace, which makes getting through all his Advanced Lit reading in high school a bit painful. My daughter has no such problems. In fifth grade, she cranks through books, having inherited this ability from her mom. She'd read every Harry Potter book on her own by the age of nine. She finished Deathly Hallows in less time than it took me.

So reading is an investment for me. Between working, writing, the occasional TV show, sports, family, etc., a book has to engage me fairly quickly. It has to make me want to know what's going to happen early on. This may be one of the reasons I read a lot of YA nowadays, apart from the fact that it's also what I write. These books often grab right away.

Some of my favorite recent non-YA books were either "immediate grabbers" or offered up familiar characters. Sandman Slim -- not exactly YA -- is a great example of the former. This book grabbed me by my earlobes and dragged me along. The Lost Symbol is a solid example of the latter. Robert Langdon is a braniac/everyman sort of hero.

And then we have the books that I grab with every intention of reading cover to cover, but for one reason or another, I bail. The worst example is a high fantasy novel I picked up at the local library a couple years ago. Honestly, I don't remember what it was called. At the time I was reading a lot of high fantasy because, technically, I was writing high fantasy. (That's debatable, but it's where my story landed). The book seemed interesting enough - it took place in a completely fictional world, and I fully expected to be immersed in a whole mess of world building.

I made it through two chapters before I returned it to the library.

It was here I discovered my lack of passion for "true" high fantasy. Lord of the Rings is the primary exception, but generally I need a little grounding in "our world". I want to experience the journey into fantasy with the characters. If I'm going to invest in learning all the intricacies of an entirely new world, then I need to like the characters a whole lot. I didn't like them. Not soon enough anyway. And so I didn't experience the fantasy because I'd checked out.

Then we have Stephen King. I love his collected works. But it's kind of like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel in that, as many of their fans have said over the years, "I prefer their old stuff." The man writes tomes. Going back to The Stand, It, The Talisman (my 3 favs) - these are long and I adore them. His later work is a bit more literary, which is cool and I quite liked Duma Key and the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. One of his most well-received books of a few years ago -- Lisey's Story -- is still sitting on my night stand. I'm a little less than halfway through it. It's good, but it's kind of my rebound date. When I don't have another book to read, I go back to it and read some more. But it doesn't hold me like the others do. I suppose if I spend enough time with it, we'll go all the way.

AWKWARD!

Oh, and I can't wait to read The Dome.

My final example is Douglas Coupland's, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. I couldn't put down his book, Microserfs. It's really one of my all time favorite novels, because of the characters and the setting (I'm a techie, geek writer, after all). Since I'm a gen-X'er, I decided I had to read this book, and so I began. I read about fifty pages before putting it down for good. Up until that point, it was three characters telling a variety of little stories, while revealing bits of character detail and back-story. It didn't grab me and was taking me too long to get through. It just wasn't for me. I've become crotchety and impatient.

I feel bad when I put a book down for good (or cheat on one book with another, only to return later, tail between legs). Do I give everything a fair shake? Yeah, I think I do. Fifty pages, minimum. All bets are off after fifty pages, though.

Writer's Blah and Catching Fire so far

Why is this taking so long? This Mythos chapter feels like the gestation period of an African elephant. *sighs* I'm able to get out 300-500 words at a clip, and sadly, I've hit that most hideous of writing walls. No, it's not the writers' block thing. It's called writer's blah, and it stems from being pooped from work every night. I want to lie in bed with the TV on in the background, while reading until my eyes threaten to leap from their sockets. Perhaps I just need to catch up on some sleep, or maybe brew some strong coffee? We suffer for our art, do we not? Okay, okay... What are you doing with your fingers? The worlds smallest violin, you say? Yeah, yeah. How original. *sticks out tongue*

On a separate note, I've got the unabridged CD set of Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, and listen every moment of my mobile life - a.k.a. driving to and from work.  I usually have one book by my bedside and another playing in the car. Y'know, I was really looking forward to this book, but was worried about how I'd feel about revisiting Katniss and Peeta after the end of the last book. I'd read about Catching Fire and the forthcoming third book in the series, and I had this nagging feeling that I wasn't going to like what I read.

I'm happy to say I'm enjoying it so far. It is a bit slower - more like a slow boil compared to the rolling pace of the Hunger Games. But there's more about Katniss learning about herself so far - more character development here. I've got an opinion on her inability to choose right now between Peeta and Gale, but I'll reserve judgment until I get to the end. When I've finished reading/listening, you can be sure I'll post my mini-review of it right here. I'll also be sure to check out the Catching Fire discussion on The Spectacle.

I'm off to post a comment on Tamara's excellent Chasing Dreams blog, because she's commented on a few Catching Fire items I've noticed right away.

The Lost Symbol - Yeah, I liked it. So what?

I finished reading Dan Brown's, The Lost Symbol yesterday, and I have to say, I liked it more than I thought I would. Once I started, I couldn't stop, and given that I'm among the slowest of readers, this kept me up nights. It's got good old Robert Langdon from both Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Once again, there's a secret society -- the Masons this time. And there are historic locations to visit, although this time said locations are much newer than the aforementioned novels.  The story takes place in Washington D.C. You also have a well-funded and thoroughly cracked bad guy as well as the interesting science of Noetics.

There's a lot to like. The pacing was excellent. The whole thing takes place in a span of about 24 hours. And, despite Dan Brown's propensity to get into the minutia of history and locations, it's not over the top. The story takes place in the U.S. Capitol, and sheds an entirely new light (for me, at least) on familiar and less familiar landmarks.

Character-wise, it's hard not to root for Robert Langdon, although he plays quite the skeptic at different times in the book. He's a noble guy, thoroughly human, and mostly tries to do the right thing. There's one scene featuring Langdon later in the novel (no spoilers here) that had me biting my nails and debating if I needed to flip to the back of the book, something I never ever do.

Bad guy wise, it worked for me, in a Dan Brown kind of way. You have the, as I said, well funded whack-job bad guy, and it's clear he's ruthless enough to ... nah, no spoilers. But as in his other books, there are government agents involved, and you begin to wonder who is on whose side. The bad guy's interesting backstory is revealed over time right through the big twist near the end.  There are a few major supporting characters, and their sub plots are equally interesting. I cared about them, and wished all sorts of harm on Mr. Evil.

Dan Brown shifts point-of-view constantly in the book, and just about every character, no matter how major or minor, gets their say. Each point-of-view change either gets its own chapter -- there are a lot of small chapters, including a few one-pagers -- or a specific scene in a given chapter. None of this got in the way for me. Each person had something important to say to me, and provided "information" I might have not picked up from another character.

This isn't as good as The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons - it packed less of a punch for me - but it's way better than Digital Fortress and Deception Point. Of course they're making a movie out of it, but I find the books far more engaging. These books are so densely packed with interesting "stuff" that I don't think translates to a "pops-off-the-screen" film. But, I'm sure I'll go see it anyway.

Now for the official disclaimer. Nobody asked me to write this fairly lame review. I bought the book myself, but don't have the receipt. I'm not receiving any compensation or reward for doing so. Frankly, Dan Brown doesn't need my help. However, I've been tweeting every now and then while I read the book that I am in fact doing my part to help Dan Brown save the publishing industry ... again.

Now I'm off to listen to Suzanne Collins', Catching Fire on unabridged CD while driving to and from work. I also picked up a sci-fi book - The Quiet War, by Paul McAuley.

Writing and Reading

News on Creatures, a.k.a. Creatures of Knucklehead City. I have a new name - Mythos. The Mythological Creatures refer to themselves by that name, and I think it's slicker than Creatures. It was while reading Sandman Slim that I realized my characters needed to refer to themselves in a much niftier way than, "Creatures". Know why? My mythological creatures are all seriously cool.

Also, I have come to the realization that the chapters are too short, and that, fortunately, chapters 1 and 2 belong together, and the same for 3 & 4, and 5 & 6. So, on my next Birth of a Novel post, I'm going to have to rejigger the chapter numbering for those of you who've been following along.

Speaking of Sandman Slim, it is one of those books that keeps you turning the page. There are no chapters, only scenes. And the pace is frantic - it just keeps going and going and driving and driving and you can't put it down because just when you think you're about to hit a moment of calm, BANG!

Okay, okay. So now the last few books I've read were not YA. I need to jump back into some YA, lest I lose my YA voice. I suppose I could watch and listen to me son, but he mostly complains about all the homework in high school. That wouldn't make for a super interesting character, eh?

I've got some ideas, but if anyone reading this has any recommendations, please pass them along. They don't have to be fantasy or sci-fi, although I'm almost ready to read Ender's Game again. Please, no vampire books. I've read Dracula and that is the bible. Okay, if there's a truly unique YA vampire book that isn't the same as everything else, then by all means. Oh, I've already read the Graveyard Book... which I also loved. Of course, that's middle grade, but still, great book.