I am sitting on the back porch of a horse farm in East Granby, Connecticut called Wild Fire Farms. I moved into my Providence apartment this weekend, and I'll write more about that later, but for now, I had to post to announce that for the first time since I was a very little kid, I rode a horse! Woohoo! I was terrified, since my first experience was a bad one, but Lori and her daughter Cheryl are awesome! It's been an awesome experience hanging out here... too bad they are two hours away from Providence. I've had some cool Providence experiences, and I now have two jobs, and on August 3rd, I'll be officially living in Rhode Island for the next five months. Wish me luck!
A few weeks back, I wrote that I was frustrated with David Maine's Fallen. Well, I finished the book, and I have to tell you: it didn't get any better.
I really hated that the story was told backward. I mentioned in my previous post that this was disconcerting to adjust to, but it was even stranger when it went past the conception of the protagonist to the pre-child years of Adam and Eve. It's kind of like the tenet that a writer should never kill off his or her protagonist, only worse since it's done in such a gimmicky way. I decided to check out the amazon reviews to see if I was alone in my hate, and while many people actually liked the book, several did not.
One reviewer writes: "This is a pretty silly little book. Maine tries to unfold a story from the end to the beginning and thereby shed some new light on the Biblical story of Abel and Caine. Unfortunately, the story is just fluff. There is nothing new here. Maine proves what others before him have demonstrated: it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make these stories appealing by merely retelling them."
(I should reiterate that for some unknown reason I was under the impression that this was to be a humorous retelling of the story of Eden. Damn babies.)
Another reviewer writes, "Eve appears to be the one person in the story who has native intelligence, drive, and has more than a two dimensional mind. Abel is extreme in his innocence to the point that one has to wonder if he isn't mentally deficient. .... Where did all the other people come from? How did the boys learn the word "metaphor" and where did they develop their knowledge of husbandry ... This book is a hodgepodge of answered and unanswered questions. "
Exactly. The characterization could have been so much better. As I mentioned in my previous post, Eve's dialogue was bad and some of the word choice really pulled me out of the story. I think the story was told backward because telling it forward would have been so boring no one would have read it, and at least the gimmick got Maine some press.
Next time, I think Maine should do what all novelists should do: be creative. Writing a novel isn't just about telling a series of events, at least I hope not, and, preferably, novels should have something in them that shows the spark of creativity. There was a lot of potential in this story, as there is in any retelling (I disagree with the above-quoted reviewer), but this book just fell flat. Ick.
I'm excited to post that I haven't even moved to Providence yet (leaving Friday night, wish me luck!), but I got a fantastic job that that pays actual money for my writing skills! I'm very pumped and wanted to share my good news. Since I'll be in New England by the weekend, I should say "wicked" good news.
I'll be writing a monthly arts & theater feature for Campus Connection magazine. The magazine is a freebie distributed at the five different colleges in Providence, which I figure offers great potential for me to gain an audience (which might help me sell my novel-in-progress? I'm crossing my fingers on that one). I'll be paid 5 cents a word, on average, and (this is my favorite part) I'll have a great reason to check out all the art and theater events in the area, which I'm way into anyway, and I'll get tickets for some of the events. Plus, I'm bound to meet great new people, too. Rock!
My first article, which will be out in September, covers the Henry Horenstein exhibit at the Rhode Island School of Design, a black&white photographic exploration of the Honky Tonk scene.
How did I get the job? I found a posting on Rhode Island's Craigslist and sent in my resume, as well as a link to this blog. My new editor (who I can't wait to meet!) said she was impressed with my blog writing, and, lucky for me, took a chance hiring someone she hasn't yet met. How wicked awesome is that?
In addition, I have an interview on Monday with a new tutoring company in Rhode Island called McElroy Tutoring. They are San Diego-based, but are opening a new branch in, of all places, Providence. Wicked. I'll keep you* posted about that.
* In Pittsburghese, the plural of you is youns, or yinz. Down South, it's y'all. What is it in New England? Guess I'll have to let you know about that one as well.
Finally, a friend emailed me a link to the Providence Open Market. It's for arts and crafts vendors, every Saturday, and I'm hoping to check it out and apply to be a vendor, if I think my jewelry and other art projects will be a good fit. I'm looking forward to it! Cross your fingers for me, eh?
Orson Scott Card is a great writer. I loved Ender's Game and cried at the end. I read a Russian fairytale book by him, which may or may not have been called The Rose. I also read Sarai, which is a biblical story, which was not so bad, as far as those types of stories go. When I heard that Orson Scott Card was the author of Characters and Viewpoint, I knew I had to read it.
I enjoyed this book. i was familiar with the "MICE" Quotient, having taken classes with Timons Esaias, who introduced it in his lectures, but most of the information was new and presented in an effective and enjoyable to read manner. I particularly enjoyed Part III: The Performing Characters.
This is something I'm struggling with in my novel: who's story is this and who's voice best tells the story? I've been experiments with different takes, seem to have settled on the viewpoint of my protagonist Daniel, told in first person past, but I seem to slip into first person present sometimes, which gets confusing for me, the writer, and for the audience.
Card's chapter on first person narration gives me some pointers that I will need to keep in mind as I write: First, there's no "fourth wall" - everything is open to the reader, in otherwords, the narrator must have a reason for telling the story and an audience in mind. I am attempting to tell with this by having the story told from the perspective of Daniel as an old man and Daniel as a thirteen year old, but this isn't working for a variety of reasons. I'm still working on figuring all this out.
Next, if the narrator is unreliable, this must be establshed early. I like the idea of this, and have experimented with it in short stories, but I am not yet brave enough to attempt this with a book. My narrator tells what he believes to be true, and a big part of the book is Daniel's discovery that not everyone is that same as him in this respect.
Card notes a technical problem with first-person stories, and that is the withholding of information. The reader gets frustrated with the narrator who knows something and keeps it intentionally hidden, and yet it is essential for the story that the narrator allow some of the discovery to occur on the part of the reader.
In other words, if the narrator says: "and then they all died" or something right at the beginning, there's nothing to compell the reader to continue throughout the rest of the story. Also, having the narrator's life in jeopardy won't be as suspenseful, since obviously the narrator lived to tell the tale. The trick then is to keep this issues in mind and work with them, instead of struggling against them. Duly noted, Mr. Card.
The most useful tidbit I gleaned from this book came in the section "Levels of Penetration," which sounds naughty, but is not. Instead, Card provides illustrations to help the writer visualize camera angles for the different POVs (i.e. omniscent sees all, first-person sees through one person's eyes while limited third person focuses on one character, etc.) These pictures helped me gain a better sense of POV, which is often confusing to the beginning writer (i.e. me).
Anyway, I borrowed this book from the library, but I've added it to the list of books I want to buy, which is saying a lot, believe me. Any writer who hasn't read this book should check it out.
Anyone know anything about Seton Hill's newest Pipe Band? Evan, my dad, and I caught the band as they were practising in the Admin lawn today, and they sound excellent! Apparently, the band has been together for a while and competes in a variety of piping events, but they've recenlty received a sponsorship from Seton Hill and will be playing for homecoming.
I won't be around for the event, but I definitely recommend checking them out. They sound great!
There are drummers and bagpipes. They'll be wearing kilts, though it's not the Seton tartan, not yet anyway, and the drummers do cool dance-y type motions as they play. I enjoyed hanging out and listening, and got to chat a little with one of their adults about their upcoming events (Ligonier for the Highland Games is one) and their planned trip to Scotland in two years for the Edinburgh festival for the world championships in piping.
How exciting for Seton Hill to be able to enjoy their great music! I'm totally jealous.
I’m in the middle of David Maine’s Fallen. This is the retelling of Adam and Eve from the perspective of their sons Cain & Abel, and it’s not very good. I’ve been plodding along for a few days now, but today, I don’t know why, this line pulled me right out of the story:
Eve says to Abel: “You’re a good boy but a trifle naïve.”
Gag.
Is it the word choice? I looked up trifle. It’s from approximately 1150, but the word the way Eve used it doesn’t occur in print until the 1500s. Anachronistic language, thought I, that’s why it pulled me out. Only that idea doesn’t really make sense since Adam and Eve likely spoke some proto-language, not English, so all of the words are anachronistic. Even the word naïve, also in that sentence, dates in the 1600s.
So why does trifle stick out to me? Is it because the word seems so very British? Maybe it’s because the dialogue is so incredibly stick-up-your-arse formal? (If you can really call it dialogue since quotation marks seem to be against Maine’s religion.) The problem with the formality argument is that everything Eve says is formal beyond belief. Then again, I’m not entirely sure it’s dialogue.
If I didn’t have to finish this book since I selected it as one of my novels this term, I would have put it down ages ago. While there are points of interest – the little sister Lya who tells stories even when no one is listening to her is a realistic portrayal of a girl that age – it’s a rehash of an old story with little of interest added to make it shine.
The structure’s both interesting and annoying – the story is told backward from the moment of Cain’s death to, presumably, his birth or thereabouts. The first few chapters were confusing, but I soon adapted to the structure. Only when I’ve put the book down for a day or two, there’s a moment of disorientation while I try to remember what I haven’t learned yet – since the timeline is backwards.
The problem, I’m afraid, is that someone, and I won’t name any names, is trying to be Clever with a capital C. This book is clearly meant to be “literary” – which is in part why I selected it (that and the naked babies wrestling on the cover somehow gave me this impression that this was to be a humorous read). Instead, this book has a Very Important Message, an agenda not-so-hidden behind the words, and if I had realized that the babies on the front were Very Serious Babies, I would never have given this book another glance.
Funny how deceptive covers can be, eh?
That’s why I like popular fiction. A genre writer would have done this so much better. Someone in SF would have taken this tired storyline and vitalized it by populating the stories with archangel robots and a new planet as home. A fantasy writer would have added a dragon or two and moved it to the forest. A romance writer would have told it from the perspective of Cain’s wife, who, sick and tired of her husband’s wanderin’ ways, would have set him straight years ago. A young adult author would have told the story through jabbering Lya’s eyes who would have resolved the Cain & Abel conflict before it escalated to murder. Anything would be better than this.
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moon phases |
