Miscellanea
Are the Seven Essences of Man even a thing? I can't google it because I don't know what it's really called. The seven [something]. It's the seven... liquids that make a spell/ceremony/something more powerful in fantasy novels/stories/something: bile, blood, saliva, semen, sweat, tears, and urine. Has anyone heard of it before? I can't have come up with it.
I'm reading (listening) to a book written as a journal/case file. (W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton). The story is pretty long winded and the POV goes off on tangents (explaining all the cars she's ever owned as the current car slowly goes through a car wash, taking five minutes of listening time to fill out a form, taking a while of driving to get to a library, then asking someone where to find something, going to that room, finding the room locked, finding someone else to ask about the room, waiting in line to talk to the person with the key, and then finally being let into the room). I find this distracting, especially when I'm trying to get into a story. I'm interested in what is happening now, not the car she drove twenty books ago. These stories are hard enough to get into as it is, and at 17 hours of listening time, the author wasn't trying to hit a minimum of words. But people must like it because she sells really well and is the only author a young woman at work will read (I fell sorry for her that she's not stuck on someone who writes a little better, but at least the lady is prolific).
My biggest problem though is that a story that's written as if it's a woman's detective file/journal should not have anyone else's POV in it. How does that work? She did this before in the S book (the last one I read) and it drove me nuts, but I could excuse it because all these POVs were dead (the mystery happen fifty years before) and because I thought she'd get hold of diaries or something, but she never did. This time it's worse because as soon as I'm getting interested in the story, the author sends me off to some POV who I believe is dead and I don't care one whit about. I didn't even care about the main story until I found out the dead guy was related to the main character.
My not as big problem is that a character will contract themselves (in thoughts) not long after thinking something. One PI can't pay his bills because cheated-on wives are too distressed to think about money after he's done all the legwork, but He's also a guy who requires cash up front. Or a woman is angry that her mother's family have never been to see her in all the years since her parents died, but a moment later concedes that they might have just been being friendly when they butted into her life.
But I don't hate the story and I'll continue to listen it it. Only books like this make me feel that I can do so much better.
I have too many days off next week (five). This would be the perfect time to rewrite Gestures for the purpose of publishing it. My mother tells me that my older sister got all the drive in the family. I need some of it if I'm ever going to take the next step.
I got seven books for Christmas. Books 4-6 (three volumes to a book) in the Skip Beat (manga) series. They are so much fun to read. I stayed up way too later reading these. I also got the third and final volume of Soulless. Finished that too. The other two books are the second and third books from the Rifter trilogy. I got the first one for Christmas last year. I want to read them, but I don't want to use up all my Christmas gifts too quickly. Of course a good book can be read and reread.
I read a book (The Hundred Thousand City) when I had just finished writing my lasted story ( I'll post it as soon as I'm done with this post). It had three original gods called the Three two male and one female, just like my story did. I felt kind of upset that I'd been so unoriginal. But our Threes are very different. My gods are much nicer.
I'm reading (listening) to a book written as a journal/case file. (W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton). The story is pretty long winded and the POV goes off on tangents (explaining all the cars she's ever owned as the current car slowly goes through a car wash, taking five minutes of listening time to fill out a form, taking a while of driving to get to a library, then asking someone where to find something, going to that room, finding the room locked, finding someone else to ask about the room, waiting in line to talk to the person with the key, and then finally being let into the room). I find this distracting, especially when I'm trying to get into a story. I'm interested in what is happening now, not the car she drove twenty books ago. These stories are hard enough to get into as it is, and at 17 hours of listening time, the author wasn't trying to hit a minimum of words. But people must like it because she sells really well and is the only author a young woman at work will read (I fell sorry for her that she's not stuck on someone who writes a little better, but at least the lady is prolific).
My biggest problem though is that a story that's written as if it's a woman's detective file/journal should not have anyone else's POV in it. How does that work? She did this before in the S book (the last one I read) and it drove me nuts, but I could excuse it because all these POVs were dead (the mystery happen fifty years before) and because I thought she'd get hold of diaries or something, but she never did. This time it's worse because as soon as I'm getting interested in the story, the author sends me off to some POV who I believe is dead and I don't care one whit about. I didn't even care about the main story until I found out the dead guy was related to the main character.
My not as big problem is that a character will contract themselves (in thoughts) not long after thinking something. One PI can't pay his bills because cheated-on wives are too distressed to think about money after he's done all the legwork, but He's also a guy who requires cash up front. Or a woman is angry that her mother's family have never been to see her in all the years since her parents died, but a moment later concedes that they might have just been being friendly when they butted into her life.
But I don't hate the story and I'll continue to listen it it. Only books like this make me feel that I can do so much better.
I have too many days off next week (five). This would be the perfect time to rewrite Gestures for the purpose of publishing it. My mother tells me that my older sister got all the drive in the family. I need some of it if I'm ever going to take the next step.
I got seven books for Christmas. Books 4-6 (three volumes to a book) in the Skip Beat (manga) series. They are so much fun to read. I stayed up way too later reading these. I also got the third and final volume of Soulless. Finished that too. The other two books are the second and third books from the Rifter trilogy. I got the first one for Christmas last year. I want to read them, but I don't want to use up all my Christmas gifts too quickly. Of course a good book can be read and reread.
I read a book (The Hundred Thousand City) when I had just finished writing my lasted story ( I'll post it as soon as I'm done with this post). It had three original gods called the Three two male and one female, just like my story did. I felt kind of upset that I'd been so unoriginal. But our Threes are very different. My gods are much nicer.