Fulfilling a Promise

A very close friend of one of my sons has published a book titled The Rest is Silence. It can not be purchased online, but if you read this post and are interested in purchasing a copy I can broker that deal. And by Broker I mean figure out a way to put you in touch with the author, Shannon, so that she can sell you a copy. Or some such thing.

The story is wonderful, twisty and gritty and written from the heart. Yes, from the heart; and as we know that can cause a few problems, issues that will be solved over time for this young author, because she is going to keep writing. I promised her I would be honest, so I am going to be.

I loved the story. I figured out one of the twists, but not the other (no spoilers). I was drawn to the main characters but wished they had been allowed to get to know one another better so that we could have as well. Keeping one or two characters in the dark is a fine literary device, but we needed just a little more depth. The settings were well developed, each stop on the journey was clear in my mind, from the Hospital to the lake to the apartment to the first 'home'. Distances were a touch tricky, but it didn't take away from the premise or the story.

My one problem was (and this might just be an old guy thing) was the glaring lack of firearms. Right at the start, any weapon will do, but at some point someone needed to break into a Kmart for more than granola bars and oatmeal. I know it would have changed the dynamic of several scenes, but would have helped with the realism. 

Back to the 'from the heart' comment. I only say this because when we write from the heart, we send our 'children' out into the world too quick. We don't edit with the blind determination that is needed to present a polished product.

So, Shannon, keep writing (and you are right, she is dead)(not a spoiler), so she's not an avenue for your creativity. I would like to be on your 'first reader' list for your future stories, I know there will be more, and I am looking forward to what ever comes next!

Contact me to grab your copy of The Rest Is Silence by Shannon Hayes. 

Tired, busy, but not cranky

Have had a whirlwind week that will not end for another ten days. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense. But I promise to get back to it today or tomorrow. So much to touch on, so much to discuss. Politics of course, and the incredibly successful launch of Exiled.  This weekend is the Chester County Balloon Festival, so I will be crazy busy with that.
Come on out and see us, it is a great time, you can even buy a copy of the aforementioned book and talk to the author.
I just finished another book, The Rest is Silence by Shannon Hays, very enjoyable read, but not available on line, until I figure it out, if you are interested in reading a dystopian novel written by a young author let me know, I'll figure out how to get you a copy; review to follow.
And I am going to go way out on a limb and opine about the 50 shades nonsense. I have to. I just have to.

Love-Hate

Mutually Assured Destruction. From the mind of the Land. Really. And I am not buying it. The Land wouldn’t use terms associated with Earth, no matter the contact with the Clearing. Of course I am talking about the book Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. His Chaos Walking trilogy is great, and I am happy that I stole the first one from J.R. Wagner after a Toastmasters International meeting a few weeks ago. Immediately hooked, energized actually, enough to want to write, to want to create.

Patrick created characters I liked, that made sense, in a way. Then the envelope began to stretch, right at the end of Book 1. Book 2 had the envelope bursting at the seams, but I still love the story, the characters (the two main characters), but Ness began to weave his political world view into the story. I know, I am to ignore that, to put it out of my head, like I did when reading The Dome by Stephen King (also stolen from Josh). And for the most part, I managed.

Book Three made this difficult, especially when he began to tell the story from 1017’s point of view. This, in and of itself, wasn’t a bad thing. I wanted to learn about the natives of the New World, but it (so far, I began this post as soon as I read MAD) just confuses things. Maybe this is because feelings are confusing, but I tend to think Mr. Ness is trying to justify the violent nature of the Land by making the Clearing worse than they really are. 1017 should have by now forgiven Todd, not held the grudge this long. It just makes the coming epiphany that much more predictable.

All Clearing did not enslave the Land…

Okay. I am going back in, trying hard to remove 2012 political ideals out of it, but if he makes one more good character ‘kill’ based on erroneous emotions, then filling that character with guilt, I might not be able to finish.

Launch Party Announced

As my three readers know, J.R. Wagner is publishing a book. His launch party is scheduled for June 5, 2012 at the Chester County Book and Music Company in West Chester, should be a fun night! J.R. Wagner will be there, signing books and answering all your questions, every one of them, no matter how intimate...no, really, he will.

Okay, that last bit might be over the top, but I have never known him to not answer a question, so you might want to be careful with the intimate ones!  You can pre-order the book here, even though they don't have the cover image yet...hmmm, I wonder if I can get it for my blog, might bring traffic!

Or, you can click on the ISSUU link in the entry below this one to get a taste of Wagner's writing in The Searcher and the Sentinel.

The Searcher and the Sentinel

This is another chapter/part/installment of a collaboration with the soon-to-be-renowned author J.R. Wagner . His parts, the odd numbered chapters can also be found at the link. More on his forthcoming book Exiled, book one of The Never Chronicles, can be found here. My parts are going to be mostly raw and unedited, unless I find a little extra time. Enjoy:

Open publication - Free publishing - More dystopian

Chapter 13

This is another chapter/part/installment of a collaboration with the soon-to-be-renowned author J.R. Wagner . His parts, found below mine can also be found at the link. More on his forthcoming book Exiled, book one of The Never Chronicles, can be found here. My parts are going to be mostly raw and unedited, unless I find a little extra time.

Shameless promotion

I am going to have to start really frequenting other blogs so people will come here and then go to J.R. Wagner's site. From there, of course, one will have to continue on to the real website of the soon to be published novel Exiled. From there, one would of course have to hit up his store because all the proceeds go to a really good cause, getting teens to read! Then, don't forget to pre-order the book at Barnes and Noble.

I am going to be featuring quotes from J.R. Wagner over the next 110 days as we approach the publication date. These quotes may or may not have anything to do with writing, and they may actually mean nothing to anyone, but, no one reads here, I am doing this for the Exiled and J.R. Wagner Google searchers. The more mentions J.R. Wagner gets, the better chance those looking for YA lit. will find him!

Random J.R. Wagner quote:
"How do you move these effing things?" When working on a virtual cork-board with me for our serial The Searcher and the Sentinel.

wow

This platform is driving me nuts tonight, this week, actually. Couldn't post my chapter of The Searcher and The Sentinel so it is over at J.R. Wagner's blog.  (can we say link whoring?) LOL, no worries, that blog is much better than this one, he actually writes stuff, interviews people and loads pictures and things!

I do pictures too, they are coming in about ten minutes. For now, go to his blog and read chapter 10, that way he has to write chapter 11 and I can send him chapter 12 that I wrote today instead of sleeping.

Writing Contests

Hey, if you are a writer who stumbled on this blog because I used the title "Writing Contest", go to this other site and submit an entry! While there, looking at the submission guidelines, don't forget to favorite the site, navigate out to the blog, and leave a comment for the author.
Of course, if you are one of the 4 regular readers of this blog you have already been to The Never Chronicles web site.
Oh, well, that's all I have tonight!