Read the book you review. I don’t have this problem because I rarely actually read in real life–which reminds me, I wanted to write a rambling post of musings today. Maybe I will tomorrow.
The Friday Fight: Fantasy
I doubt history plays much into this storyline, and since no character will really die if he gets stabs, the animated violence is pretty thick. Skarin is the hero’s name. That’s Swedish, I believe, but is it Norse?
Horton Foote
Horton Foote, whom Terry Teachout called one of our greatest playwrights, died this week at age 92.
Watching an idea become incarnate
It occurs to me that you might be interested to know the inside story on the glamorous, high-energy process of getting a book published. So I’ll tell you where I am as of today with West Oversea (available soon wherever fine books are sold. Ask for it by name).
A couple days back I got e-mails from my publisher and my editor, asking for input on the actual production of the physical book.
I got a .pdf of the manuscript as it’s been laid out, and the editor wanted my opinions on some issues. Would I mind if they moved the List of Characters from the back to the front? (Not at all.) What did I think of the “Kells” font? (I love it with a love that is more than love, but I think the body of the back cover copy should be in something more immediately readable.) Can I get some kind of blurb for this book, to supplement the reviews of older books? (Yes, I can. In fact I was amazed at the enthusiasm with which a couple fairly prominent personages, whom I know only by e-mail, agreed to read the galleys and write something for us. One guy I’d really hoped for isn’t answering my e-mails, but you can’t have everything.)
I mailed her a sheaf of copies of my old reviews yesterday, along with a copy of The Year of the Warrior, because she’d like this volume to resemble that earlier volume a little. (Which is nice.)
She notes that I’ll have to make some changes in the Afterword, where I thank people. That’s more true than she knows. I wrote the Afterword back in 2002, and at least one (very likely two; I’m not sure yet) of the people I thanked have passed away in the intervening Seven Lean Years. And I suspect I’ll want to thank her too, before I’m done.
This is one of the best parts of the process. I can’t wait to see the cover art. And looking forward to holding the actual, bound book in my hands is—well, I won’t say it’s like waiting for your child to be born. The two things aren’t even in the same ballpark (from all I hear). Let’s say it’s like waiting for the puppies to be born.
Praise for Graham Swift
They always say, “Write what you know”
Master thriller writer Frederick Forsyth stumbled into a genuine political coup on a recent research trip to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.
From the Associated Press:
Hours before he touched down in the West African nation, a bomb hidden under a staircase blew apart the armed forces chief. Hours later the president was gunned down, and according to Forsyth, hacked to pieces.
He said he has stopped inventing fictional places “because the world is so weird and so scary, you might as well use the real ones.”
Read the rest here.
Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais
Robert Crais, in my opinion, is getting to be a better and deeper novelist with each book.
Chasing Darkness is a departure from his recent novels in that he tones down the violence a bit. He’s been prone lately to having his main characters (private eye Elvis Cole and his associate Joe Pike) end up seriously wounded and hospitalized after a harrowing life-or-death battle, but this time it’s all about the mystery and the characters, with the final bloodletting somewhat less comprehensive. And I don’t think he loses anything by that.
The story begins in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, during a wildfire evacuation. Policemen sent in to evacuate residents discover a dead man, an apparent suicide, sitting over a photo album containing photographs of female murder victims—photographs that could only have been taken before the police got to the scenes.
Suddenly Elvis Cole is the target of investigation by the police, and threats from one of the victims’ families. Because he worked for the dead man’s lawyer and helped get him acquitted on one of these murders.
Elvis doesn’t like being pushed, and he knows for a fact that the guy couldn’t have committed the murder. So he reopens his investigation. In this he is assisted (off the record) by his police detective friend Carol Starkey, and of course Joe Pike, the best guy in the world to have watching your back.
What he discovers is corruption, depravity and cover-up at the highest levels of city government. And then he gets a surprise, and the whole game changes.
I liked Chasing Darkness a lot. It’s a cerebral, tragic, character-driven story, concentrating on the costs of crime to those who care about the victims.
Recommended for grownups.
Best Superhero Scenes
I think about this kind of thing too much. I can’t think of favorite moments from superhero movies or even the comics I used to read. I do love the part where Larryboy is careening toward the city water tower, out of control, and shouts accenting each word, “I am going to die!” And I like the scene where Darkwing Duck tells Megavolt he is not a well person, to which Megavolt responds, “What? And you’re normal? ‘I am the cold sore that stings your lips!’ We are definitely talking demented.”
But I can’t think of much else. Here are two lists of best scenes from superhero movies.
National Grammar Day
Roy Jacobsen, of Writing Clear and Simple, alerts us that tomorrow is National Grammar Day.
Update: On closer examination, I note that National Grammar Day is actually today.
Unless you’re reading this tomorrow, of course, in which case it’s yesterday.