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Books Updates

Books I read in 2016

In 2016, I only read 31 books.

Sadly, for a second year in a row, I missed my mark of reading 40+ books.

Of that 32, many were for research and study. For the rest, well I gotta be honest, I went for a lot of novellas to pad in the numbers when I noticed I was dipping behind.

In light of having just read four books this past week, it looks particularly bad. Maybe I was trying to overcompensate.

Oh well, here’s the list:

Crichton – Jurassic Park
Crichton – Rising Sun
Crichton – Lost World
Benchley – Jaws
Wolf – Envisioning Power
Manciejko – The Mixed Multitude
Hoover – Does God make the Man?
Guy – Becket: Warrior, Rebel, Martyr
Martin – Feast for Crows
Martin – Unsound Variations
Martin – A song for Lya
Martin – Game of Thrones
Hess – Magister Ludi
Orsi – History and Presence
Mankell – Return of the Dancing Master
Bishop – Beneath the Shattered Moons
Brunner – Give Warning to the World
Brunner – The Super Barbarians
Brunner – The Squares of the City
Heinlein – All you Zombies
Druon – The Strangled Queen
Druon – The Poisoned Crown
Dubuc – Frere Andre
Masterton – Tengu
Patanaik – Jaya
Mercer – Alexander the Great
Campbell – Who Goes There?
Plate – Key Terms in Material religion
McGrath – Christianity’s Dangerous Idea
Mitchell – Cloning Terror
Craig – The Fall of Japan
Hill – The Fireman

Some observations:
I rediscovered how easy it is to burn through a Michael Cricton novel on the bus / metro. More than once.

Joe Hill’s prose is roughly as addictive as the early work of his father (Steven King).

Amazon lets publishers charge WAY too much for some Kindle releases ($14.99 for an Ebook vs $4.99 for a Paperback… really Harper-Collins?)

Some confessions:
I reread a number of Martin’s crack-addictions that pass for novels, which I always seem to end up doing in the downtime between seasons of the show and the eventual (hopeful) release of his books.

John Brunner’s pulpy-science-fiction novels never disappoint. Fast-paced, imaginative and resolutely tacky yet awesome.

Some highs and lows (mostly lows):
Tengu was undeniably the trashiest book I read all year – but not without some enjoyment.

The premise: A possibly psychic, bed-ridden Japanese evil mastermind creates and army of demonic supersoldiers to invade the USA in retribution for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yup.

Crichton’s Rising Sun really comes in a distant second thanks to that one.

Magister Ludi was, in spite of all its ambitions, probably the most disappointing read of the year.

Yes, I know it won a Nobel Prize for literature, and it was masterfully written as a prose piece. I honestly can’t shame it for being beautifully told.

BUT in terms of story — of weaving together a meaningful narrative and characters — well…

I suppose there’s only so much time I want to spend with listless characters who bloviate for pages on end. This is not how humans speak to one another.

Perhaps at the time it was released, the premise and setup would have come across as more innovative and meaningful. However, it’s not my first time at the speculative lit-fic rodeo.

Within the first forty pages of a somewhat meandering setup I realized there was only one trajectory the novel could follow and one way it could end.

And then I spent the next couple hundred pages following that exact trajectory to that exact ending.

Anyways, enough shitting on the classics. Time for highlights.

Apart from the consistently excellent Henning Mankell mysteries, returning to Druon’s Cursed Kings series was a delight.

I’ve always been a buff for history and well-written non-fiction, and these generally fact-based historical fictions are addictive and engaging even if we know where they are leading us. Down the gutter for France.

Categories
Books Updates

I read four books this week.

I read four books in a week.
 
I suppose there’s a first for everything.
 
In a way, I wonder if I could have done more. I was slowed down thanks to my regular part-time work, lecturing and course preparation, and the publication slate for the JRC, and all that jazz. Could I have gone through another 4 with those 40 hours reclaimed?
 
I’m not so sure. Being pressed for time — that is, knowing you don’t have enough time — can really do wonders for keeping you focused.
 
Part of me suspects I would have read less if I had more time, and spend the difference putzing about.
 
Anyways, before I go off sounding like some speed-reading hero, the devil is in the details.
 
The longest book was 210 pages, and the briefest 80 — making the whole ordeal roughly as long as a decent length Steven King book; albeit, decidedly more difficult to read (non-fiction, academic publications inevitably require more concentration).
 
Still, it’s a bit of a wonder that preparing for a composite exam can do so much to your free time — especially in light of a deadline.
 
Read 20 books in three months and then write an exam? Still daunting, but at least I’m off to a promising start.
 

Categories
Updates Writing

Creative Writing: Year One

At the start of the year I challenged myself to write more; not just to slam more words onto paper, but to get my writing out there and evaluated. This would involve not just working on pieces, but completing them (which was a big issue for me); and then once complete, sending them off to publications, contests and festivals.

Ultimately, the goal of all this would be to get at least one piece of mine published.

I suppose I could say that I inspired in large part by Stephen King and Robert A. Heinlein’s rules on writing.

For King, I recalled in On Writing his struggles with getting work accepted – King, the bestselling author of, well, ever. From him, I learned that rejection notices are just part of the craft. You get some, you do better, and then you write some more. Nobody is born as some kind of “hero” author with the perfect tale. To be a good writer, you have to get there by writing a lot.

From Heinlein, his philosophy is that one should finish everything they start, and then try to sell everything they complete. Don’t judge yourself, just keep working. Seemed to me like the perfect mantra for a challenging year to come.

And so I set out, in the final days of December 2015 (I cheated in that sense, by starting early), to write as much as I could in my spare time, complete as many of the pieces I began, and submitted everything that I completed to some place somewhere.

What a year it’s been.

I was definitely able to maintain a stronger pace during the first half of the year. My creative juices were flowing, I was unhindered by style and structure, and was writing roughly one story every 2-3 weeks.

Of course, the work I produced during that time was not exactly my strongest – definitely ambitious, with some enjoyable sections, but structurally a complete mess. Still, I kept myself to my word, and submitted everything I cranked out. If anything I was happy to have those ideas complete, fleshed out and on paper, as it opened the door to moving onto the next.

My rhythm slowed down during the summer (as it always does in the dog days), and then just about bottomed out in the Fall – which I was thinking would be my best month in terms of productivity, but in fact turned out to be my better months in terms of quality.

I don’t feel ashamed to admit that everything I’ve written in the second half of the year turned out better than everything in the first half. A craft is something that takes time and requires effort. Failure makes us stronger, and lets us learn from our mistakes.

So, as of this week, I have sent a total of 27 pieces for consideration to various publications and festivals. I should note that several pieces were submitted multiple times (consecutively, not simultaneously – always wait for an answer before putting it back into circulation) so that inflates the number of total pieces slightly.

Out of 26 submissions, I received 17 rejections as of today. 6 are pending and 3 came back with acceptance notes.

The rejection notices, at first, were difficult to read. Nobody wants to know that they were rejected for anything. Especially, in my case, since I began with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder thinking it would be easy if I put my mind to it. Rejection notices act to ground us and remind us that no, just because we want something to succeed, doesn’t mean that it should.

It was a good reminder of fallibility and a charge to do better and try harder.

Interestingly, all my early rejection notices came with the usual copy-pasted text with token words of encouragement. However, more recently I have been receiving personalized remarks along with the notices:

Twice, I was informed that my piece made it to the final round of consideration. Positive feedback followed with some constructive criticism for refining the piece.

Two other times, I was informed that my piece was rejected (no mention of how far it got) but feedback and other remarks were included.

I should note that one of the publications that sent out the cold rejections to my early attempts, was one that sent me the feedback when I finally submitted a stronger piece.

If anything, I feel that this is what has filled me with the most adrenaline, and joy at my craft. The realization, that I have been improving steadily and my work is being more positively reviewed than it was 12 months ago.

Returning to my initial goal, I did, however, partially succeed with the following good news I received during the year:

One flash fiction piece accepted for publication (Paid too! but yet to see print. Backlogs, I hear, can be from six months to a year or more).

One 1st place festival win for an original Horror screenplay.

One 2nd place festival finish for an original Thriller screenplay.

I suppose it won’t really feel real until I see that piece in print, but combined with the festival progress and better and better feedback, I’d say it’s been a decent year all around.

Here’s to the next, and a busy holiday season behind the keyboard.