Bud has a list of peeves with things such as “Novelists who can’t think of something more creative than to have novelists as characters” and “Publishing people who use the word ‘best’ and other silly superlatives to describe things they know are not.”
You know, I think political polling is becoming a pet peeve for me. It’s addictive but pointless. It’s the same as carefully unwrapping a gift so that you can peek at a corner of the box. Can’t wait for Christmas. Can’t focus on making cookies. No, you have to count, shake, and peek at your gifts under the tree. Course, my guy isn’t doing great in the polls right now, so that encourages my irritation, but still the national and state polling for the last several months has gotten oppressive. Please stop.
Speaking of political peeves, I don’t understand what internal party politics has to do with honest voters in various state primaries. How is it just for a party to declare the votes in Michigan worthless? Is the same thing happening in Florida? That’s not right. Those people should be able to vote in their primaries just like the rest of us.
Getting back to literary peeves, I think my only real peeve is hearing that a book deals honestly with hard subjects from the author or marketer and finding that it does not. I don’t guess that’s a big deal though. You see that kind of thing all the time in different ways.
One of the nightmares of writing novels, for me, is trying come up with jobs for main characters. If it’s a job I have no experience with, I might have to do research, or (shudder) ask someone questions! A writer’s life is a living purgatory!
Dean Koontz seems to have taken to making his main characters manual workers. This is a good trend, speaking objectively.
I thought the oddest thing I read about Michigan voters was that the turnout Tuesday was low due to snowy, frigid conditions.
We LIVE here. This is not news. We still manage to leave the house from time to time. Sometimes, we even venture out on purpose just to experience the weather we dreamed of in August.
The turnout was rather sad, to say the least.
It’s not really a pet peeve, but I am continually mystified by the quotes movie people put on the backs of films. For example, the original edition of The Fellowship of the Rings says something like:
One of the Best Fantasy Films of the Year.
In a world full of hype, such quotes defy comprehension.
Well, what other fantasy movies came out in 2001 along with The Fellowship?
Cowboy Bebop
Final Fantasy
Spirited Away
Monsters, Inc.
Shrek
Millennium Actress
Jonathan 2001
And how many of those are blockbuster movies? I mean, really!! 🙂 So clearly The Fellowship is one of the best fantasy movies of 2001. Ha!