Monday, November 1, 2010

Excuse the Mess...

Doing some construction around the blog, so it will be a mildly cluttered, changing mess for a while. I've been wanting to try Blogger's improved layout and implement some better graphics. Couldn't find a dedicated slot of time, so I decided I should stop waiting and just make some.

Some upcoming notes:
-I plan to finish and post soon to SF Signal a book review for Ninth Avatar, by Todd Newton and Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson. One was a hit and one was a miss. You'll see which was which if you can't already guess.
-I'm also in the midst of reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi, which I've heard much of and am enjoying thoroughly. His style in this book is interesting in that it gives very little description of the world, playing out the visuals through mostly dialogue. So far it works, though I do pine (somewhat) for more detail. It does read very fast though, which can be nice.

Are you writers out there partaking of NaNoWriMo? I want to and I think I know what story to tackle, but there's another project I promised myself to do first. Plus there's a little nephew on the way. Should be a busy month...

5 comments:

  1. I would have done NaNo, but I'm right smack in the middle of editing another pair of manuscripts and trying to finish some drafts of short stories too. Maybe next year...

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  2. Skipping NaNo again this year; it never seems to coincide with when I'm starting a new project and I don't want to shelve what I'm doing at this point.

    Very excited for your review, even if mine is the miss (which, based on what I've heard about Sanderson, could actually go either way lol). Time to put that whole "bad reviews" thing to the test, perhaps? :D

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  3. @AstonWest: It is hard to schedule, that's for sure. But if you're already busy writing then...meh.

    @Todd: Yeah, really. Nobody wants to delay something that's important to them, just to work on something else that may just be a throwaway learning experiment--probably important nonetheless, but...

    Way of Kings is surprisingly good (to totally kill the sense of suspense I was creating). It does drag at times. Sanderson's biggest issue I think is he tries to show off--too much--how large and varied his world and races of man are. These elements are just fluff and distract from the important stuff/characters. That probably added a good number of pages I didn't need to lug around too--Ow! My shoulders...

    Writing your review was the toughest yet, I must say. So yes, I guess it will be a test of your "bad reviews" concept. Hopefully I managed to find some points of use to you. I did find the experience helpful in identifying problematic elements in my own writing. That in itself will probably keep me doing them.

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  4. NaNo NaNo… not me. I do hope to finish White Pickups this month, though. The first book, that is.

    As for reading, I have Once Upon a Fastball up on my Kindle. It's starting to get interesting.

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  5. Cool. Hope you manage.

    Once Upon a Fastball? I just finished Old Man's War by Scalzi. Wowser, that was good.

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Thanks for reading, now tell me what you think.