My first Kindle book, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, is one recommended in a class I took on descriptions of setting in novels, Setting as Character. Very interesting class, and the instructor, Devon Ellington, recommended this book as one with great descriptions of the setting. She's right. The descriptions are brief--they don't slow down the story--and very evocative. It's also quite obvious that either a lot of research or experience went into this book. I've never been to Oxford (though I'd give my eye teeth to go) but I think I'd feel at home there via Harkness's descriptions.
I'm not done with the book yet, so I'm not giving out any spoilers because I can't, though thanks to my handy new Kindle I can probably polish it off today. Harkness also uses quite a few of Maass's techniques, with several unexpected twists in the novel. The heroine ( a witch) just went to a yoga class with the vampire/hero. Never in a hundred years would I have imagined a vampire in a yoga class, but she made it seem, if a bit unusual, highly logical. Loved that scene, even though I know less than nothing about yoga.
Anyone else read this book? What are your thoughts? What techniques of Maass did you see in there?
Louisa May Alcott
An American writer
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Kindle Plunge
Okay, I did it. This morning I ordered a new Kindle DX from Amazon.com. While I still lust after an iPad, the fact that it doesn't handle text as well as a Kindle and that they haven't come out with the e-ink/LCD version that can handle both types of content--and the fact that the rec room remodel will soon be done--forced me to take action.
When the rec room is finally finished, it will not have nearly the bookcase capacity that it did pre-remodel. All those books have to fit into much less space than they did before. Hence, the Kindle.
Of course, for the next few gift-giving occasions, I'll be putting Amazon gift cards on my wish list. What are your suggestions for content for my new device? Free books? Research books? Anne Stuart has a new book out. So does Maggie Shayne.
Make me a list of your favorites and I'll start the hunt!
When the rec room is finally finished, it will not have nearly the bookcase capacity that it did pre-remodel. All those books have to fit into much less space than they did before. Hence, the Kindle.
Of course, for the next few gift-giving occasions, I'll be putting Amazon gift cards on my wish list. What are your suggestions for content for my new device? Free books? Research books? Anne Stuart has a new book out. So does Maggie Shayne.
Make me a list of your favorites and I'll start the hunt!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Thanks to a Facebook conversation with my friend and critque partner DeeAnna Galbraith, I'm going to ask today's question: Can you have too much of a good thing?
We've tossed ideas about conflict around here--external, internal, and various permutations of All Of The Above. But DeeAnna is reading a book where pretty much everything that can happen does--yet from her description, not a lot of it relates to a conflict between the hero and heroine. Which, I would argue, should be the crux of any good romance novel. Oh, sure, people have physical disabilities. And they lose their job. Then someone in the family gets sick or dies. And their car dies. . . You get the idea. It's a whole huge bunch of bad luck, but to me, that doesn't necessarily equate to conflict. It's something that could be fixed with an oil change and a good counseling session.
To me, conflict that's big enough to sustain an entire book doesn't have to be anything with guns blazing or cars dying or even people dying. It does, however, have to be a conflict that speaks to a fundamental difference between two characters who maybe WANT to like/love each other, but because of that fundamental difference, can't. At least, not at the beginning of the book. He thinks people should make their own end-of-life decisions; she thinks that's morally reprehensible. There's your conflict, and not a bit of shouting or exploding cars is involved.
OR, there has to be something each of them wants that's mutually exclusive. In VALENTINA, it was the hero desperately needing to make a business deal with the Bad Guy, whom Valentina wanted to kill. In the end, neither of them got their original goal, but they got something bigger and better.
So have you read books like this, where the author threw everything but the kitchen sink at the characters? Did it work? Pick it apart for us.
We've tossed ideas about conflict around here--external, internal, and various permutations of All Of The Above. But DeeAnna is reading a book where pretty much everything that can happen does--yet from her description, not a lot of it relates to a conflict between the hero and heroine. Which, I would argue, should be the crux of any good romance novel. Oh, sure, people have physical disabilities. And they lose their job. Then someone in the family gets sick or dies. And their car dies. . . You get the idea. It's a whole huge bunch of bad luck, but to me, that doesn't necessarily equate to conflict. It's something that could be fixed with an oil change and a good counseling session.
To me, conflict that's big enough to sustain an entire book doesn't have to be anything with guns blazing or cars dying or even people dying. It does, however, have to be a conflict that speaks to a fundamental difference between two characters who maybe WANT to like/love each other, but because of that fundamental difference, can't. At least, not at the beginning of the book. He thinks people should make their own end-of-life decisions; she thinks that's morally reprehensible. There's your conflict, and not a bit of shouting or exploding cars is involved.
OR, there has to be something each of them wants that's mutually exclusive. In VALENTINA, it was the hero desperately needing to make a business deal with the Bad Guy, whom Valentina wanted to kill. In the end, neither of them got their original goal, but they got something bigger and better.
So have you read books like this, where the author threw everything but the kitchen sink at the characters? Did it work? Pick it apart for us.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Raising the Stakes in the Middle
In Chapter 3 of the book and 7 of the workbook, we're dealing all about the personal stakes for the protagonist. What are they, and how do you raise them? How do you get the reader to care about what is happening to your characters, and how do you make it matter more?
His idea is raising the stakes--BUT--these new plot twists must be organic. Something that comes seemingly out of nowhere is not going to pull the reader deeper into the story. It has to come from the story, and from the characters.
I think the key is tiny little hints layered very early on in the story, so small that they lie unnoticed by the reader until the background of the character, the reason why someting matters to that character, is revealed or partially revealed. A character's reaction to something as noteworthy as a mother spanking her child in the grocery store parking lot, or as innocuous as passing by a stand at the farmer's market can ultimately reveal something about the character, and that then raises the stakes later on in the book. The trick, I think, is doing it so that it doesn't seem like deus ex machina or flying aliens or something that doesn't fit. It needs to be seamless.
Anyone have any good examples of this? I'm struggling with this as I near the halfway point in my ms, but this may be more a function of editing than first draft creation. Thoughts?
His idea is raising the stakes--BUT--these new plot twists must be organic. Something that comes seemingly out of nowhere is not going to pull the reader deeper into the story. It has to come from the story, and from the characters.
I think the key is tiny little hints layered very early on in the story, so small that they lie unnoticed by the reader until the background of the character, the reason why someting matters to that character, is revealed or partially revealed. A character's reaction to something as noteworthy as a mother spanking her child in the grocery store parking lot, or as innocuous as passing by a stand at the farmer's market can ultimately reveal something about the character, and that then raises the stakes later on in the book. The trick, I think, is doing it so that it doesn't seem like deus ex machina or flying aliens or something that doesn't fit. It needs to be seamless.
Anyone have any good examples of this? I'm struggling with this as I near the halfway point in my ms, but this may be more a function of editing than first draft creation. Thoughts?
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