Guns & Magic

 

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud.

 

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling Tuesday afternoon. I started reading The Fixer the same day (because that’s how I tend to do things; finish a book, pick up the next one on the pile). Wednesday, though, I found myself almost missing the “wizarding world”. Not so much Harry Potter, of course. After 7 books of angst, I’m well rid of him. But Hermione, and the Weasley twins, and Luna, and Neville. Those are the characters I miss, and wish could’ve had their stories told in more detail.

 

And, yeah, I was really hoping that Moaning Myrtle would get a last chance to help out. Ron & Hermione even used her bathroom to retrieve a Horcrux-destroying item, but no Moaning Myrtle. Too bad.

 

-David

 

…posthumous apologies and explanations from both Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore.

 

Really?

 

This is how you want to do it, J. K.? Stop everything–twice!–and insert entire chapters of Still More Backstory?

 

Okay…it’s your book…

 

-David

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling.

 

I gave up on Ask a Dead Man by Robert S. Levinson just past halfway through the book. The book never clicked with me, and the faults kept stacking up until I decided, “Life is too short to waste it reading bad books.”

 

I’m hoping that Deathly Hallows won’t fall into the “bad book/waste of life” category. So far, it’s been OK. I’m about 20% of the way in.

 

As I’ve been reading the book, I’ve been reflecting, and wondering how much Rowling might have improved her writing craft by now if, by the third book, she hadn’t already been well on her way to become the first billionaire author. Because you can see the evolution of Rowling as a writer from book 1 to book 2, and then in book 3. Book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban, is arguably the best book of the series both in craft and in storytelling.

 

After book 3–when her situation shifted from bestselling author to filthy rich–it’s like she plateaued and stopped worrying about craft–and about the suggestions of editors. Books 4, 5 and 6 all suffered from dreadfully dull (and dreadfully long) sections of backstory and wizarding-world-exposition. When Harry wasn’t whining about the tough life of a celebrity hero, he had his head up his own–I mean, in Dumbledore’s … uh … Pensieve.

 

Don’t get me (too) wrong. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the stories. Mostly, the world-within-a-world created by Rowling is a lot of fun and entertaining to read about. But by Book 4 I was damn tired of seeing it all through Harry’s angst-ridden spectacles. Maybe there’s a limit to how long a single viewpoint character can sustain a narrative. It might’ve been good if Hermione had been allowed the viewpoint from time to time. Harry could remain the main character, of course. But Hermione is, after all, another muggle-raised character. So none of the sense of mystery and wonder would’ve been lost, and the male-female counterpoints could’ve been nice, as well.

 

That Rowling has continued to write the books, even after her financial situation no longer required her to do so, proves that she really is a writer at heart. She retains the compulsion to write, to finish telling the story she started so long ago. But with success coming so early, relative to her publishing career, maybe it stunted her growth as a writer some. Because there has been very little change in how she tells her story since Book 4.

 

Pointless speculation, I know. But what else are blogs for???

 

-David

 

Ask a Dead Man by Robert S. Levinson.

 

I enjoyed most of the stories in Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus. A couple were really good. One was damn near incomprehensible (and, I think, that’s what it was supposed to be). And another bored me stupid so I didn’t finish it. A friend has loaned me Camus’s The Plague, so I’ll be reading that soon.

 

So far, Ask a Dead Man, which I started reading 3-4 days ago, has been only just not-boring enough that I keep reading. Characterization: weak. Dialogue: rings false. Interaction between characters: trying too hard. And the book has another one of those pointless prologues. Pointless because it could just as easily have been chapter 1. Pointless because it’s a dream sequence (in the “present day” of the story) and starts out with the dreadfully dull “Always the same dream.” The most interesting action in the book so far, and it was delivered as a dream sequence. A wasted opportunity.

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – 1065 words (chapter 10 total: 1065)

 

Chapter 10 finally gets started. With a splash and a splatter of red paint.

 

-David

 

by David Michael

 

 

On Monday, Dr. Weaver looked back and forth from the x-ray of Stevie’s wrist taken a week before, and at the x-ray he had just done. He shook his head. “Amazing,” he said. “Maybe I’ve underestimated the benefits of country living.”

 

Stevie didn’t know about country living being all that great, except as it related to horses. So she cut to the important part. “Does that mean I can ride?” she asked.

 

“Hmm?” The doctor looked at her, as if he had forgotten she was there. “Oh, yes, I can’t see any reason why not.” He looked back at the x-rays and said something else Stevie didn’t catch. Because she wasn’t listening.

 

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Horse Girl – 645 words (chapter 9 total: 5636)

 

Today didn’t go quite as I expected. But it didn’t go badly. Don’t let the reduced word count fool you.

 

I started out editing the outline, updating it to reflect what had really happened in chapter 9. And moving the various parts of the old chapter 10 between chapter 9 and the old chapter 11. That was more work than I expected, and it pointed out that I needed to add something to chapter 9. So I did that: I added another couple story points to chapter 9, and then edited it for posting.

 

And the end result is another long-ish chapter, at just over 5600 words. The book total is 58500, so far. Which is just a bit below what I expected the entire book to be (60000).

 

Unless I miss my guess, the new chapter 10 will be long-ish, as well. 80,000 words, here I come! <sigh>

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – 921 words (chapter 9 total: 4991)

 

Chapter 9 is finished. I think. It’ll probably grow a bit when I edit it for posting.

 

And I think that my outline for chapter 10 just got hammered. That is, I think that chapter 10 really did get folded into the end of chapter 9. Whatever story content chapter 10 might retain is going to be put into chapter 11–which will be the new chapter 10. So, if I hadn’t mentioned it, you’d probably never know anything was missing…

 

-David

 

Exile and The Kingdom by Albert Camus.

 

I didn’t finish The First Man by Albert Camus. I read about 2/3′s of it. I mostly enjoyed the book, but knowing that it didn’t actually have an ending made it hard to keep going.

 

AfterThe First Man, I read Delores Claiborne by Stephen King. I really enjoyed that one. The concept of a novel written all as a single block of text, as the transcript of a woman telling her story to the police, appealed to me (after I figured it out; had no idea that’s how it was “structured” before I was well into it).

 

Delores Claiborne is easily the best King I’ve read in a while. The Regulators and From a Buick Eight, which were the last King books I’d read, both seemed about 100 pages too long. Each. Delores Claiborne, on the other hand, seemed just about the perfect length for the story and was quite readable all the way through. This even though a) I had seen the movie so I knew the gist of the plot and b) the Yankee-speak “ayuh”, “wa’ant” and worse did get a bit tiresome from repitition.

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – 1018 words (chapter 9 total: 4070)

 

Chapter 9 is almost finished. I expect to wrap it up tomorrow, and barge into chapter 10.

 

I sent chapters 7 & 8 to my niece last week. The first new chapters she had received in 3 months. I have no idea if she even likes the story. I’m not even sure if I will like the story when I’m finished. But I’m gonna finish it. If for no other reason than so I can start planning what I’m going to write in November, for NaNoWriMo.

 

Because, yes, it’s getting on towards time to start planning for NaNoWriMo 2007. It’s July already.

 

-David