The Broken Earth Trilogy - Jemisin

Disregard the superb narrative techniques. Disregard the excellent plotting and characterization—particularly between a mother and a daughter—that throttles the both of them to a climactic showdown where, literally, the fallout of their relationship determines the fate of the world. Disregard the fact this is the first time an author has won three Hugos in a row and disregard all of the other milestones of this series.

What most came through Jemisin's masterwork, for me, is this...

Me on r/literature...why do I do this?

So...yeah...long day at work, and what do I do? Post stupid things on the internet...

Here's what I put on Reddit, in response to a post about: Is Literary Glory Worth Chasing? Which is in response to an New York Review of Books article.

Taking (and Giving) Criticism

Joy...Criticism Time...


Love it, hate it, don't-leave-home-without-it, it's Criticism Time for the writer—I mean, **cough, cough**—the writer's work.

The Subtle Knife & The Amber Spyglass

In my last post on Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, I look at conglomeration in world-building: How many seemingly disparate elements are brought together by an author to create a whole new sci-fi-fantasy world.


In this post, I'll continue with Pullman's His Dark Materials series by looking at the last two books in the trilogy: The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, and—oh, how the conglomeration became just too much…

What Makes Harry Potter So Good? 3 of 3

Mary GrandPre'

In my most recent post we looked at plot outlines in Harry Potter. Now, we look at the endings. Because the endings of each HP book are part of the allure. The part that keeps you wanting more. The part that leaves you with that warm, sad, lovey dovey fuzzy feeling and...well, you get the idea.

Here, I'll dive into the ending of the 3rd Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Azkaban:

"You are truly your father's son, Harry," says Sirius Black.

Right as he's taking off—flying, escaping—on the hippogriff.

But the action hasn't stopped.

What Makes Harry Potter So Good? 2 of 3

Mary GrandPre'

It's all in the story, says just about everyone. "Where (for authors) does success lie?" In the story, they say.


But what makes the story? And what makes a story good?

What makes Harry Potter so good? 1 of 3

Mary GrandPre'

It's the 20th anniversary of the publication of the 1st Harry Potter book! And in celebration, I am writing 3 blogposts devoted to Harry Potter.

To be sure, there is no one thing which makes Harry Potter what it is. Just take a look at this Quora article that lists ten or more elements which, they say, contribute to Harry Potter's unbelievable success. But I'm not going to focus just on the success of Harry Potter.

Polar Bears and Zeppelins and Auroras, Oh My!

Let's talk conglomeration. Let's talk about why authors conglomerate multiple, varied —seemingly unrelated— elements into a single story.


In other words, what's the meat and potatoes of your story? What's the subject matter? What's the substance readers will sink their teeth into? What's the world you're building and why?


In Pullman's The Golden Compass, there are multiple worlds.

Finished the 1st of the 4th

Yes, ladies and gentlehearts, I have completed the first draft of my fourth novel, The Vallen.


Gosh, I'm just glad I can count that high.


I marked the occasion with a chin nip. My raggedy beard came off in tatters. "Good riddens, old fellow! You were worth the combing. I'll grow a replacement fellow here shortly, like a clone-you grown in a test tube, except out of my face..."

The Ending of a Book

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/

At last, we've come to it. The final pages. The point when we say: This is it. There's no more. Add a few blank pages, some acknowledgments, and there's the back cover. Staring you in the face. You're done.


Welcome, to the end of the book.

N. K. Jemisin: SFF's New Standard Bearer

Science fiction has a new standard bearer and her name is N. K. Jemisin. I read The Fifth Season, the first in a series of three books (The Broken Earth Trilogy) and egad. As in: "Egad! This book is a whopper of literary might and sff brilliance!"

Regret and its Apparitions

https://www.deviantart.com/ladykenora

Ah yes, the stench, the brewing disgust, the singeing alloy of regret. And the healing power of it.


Many authors write things they regret—books, sentences, misplaced words, whole bodies of work. Some authors even regret the success of their books. But I'd like to focus on characters and their own regrets, or lack of regrets.


Depicted in some beautiful fan-art above, is Severus Snape

Reading a Movie: Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi

So, I'll start off by admitting that I didn't finish this one.

It's sad really.

I wanted to enjoy Tomi Adeyemi's debut, but as I was flipping past page after page of wham-pow hits and somersaults and narrow escapes, of differing points of view, of this new kind of fantasy world sorta kinda based on Yoruba mythology, I kinda felt like I was reading Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, the films. Just in book form.

Walter Mosley's Use of the Inner Voice

In Mosley's arguably most popular work, Devil In a Blue Dress, with a film of the same name under its belt, we are introduced to the detective Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins. As Easy endeavors to save his house (the one thing in the world he loves) by unraveling the mystery of one Daphne Monet (the one character wearing a blue dress, hmm...), he is afflicted by one act of violence after another. Some he commits himself. But most are committed by a range of love-to-hate-'em supporting characters and antagonists.

Developing Fan Loyalty - A Look at Catherine Coulter's Thrillers

I've recently dived into Blindside, one of many FBI Thrillers penned by Catherine Coulter. Her customers gave her 4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon for Blindside, Book 8 of her FBI Thrillers. Did I mention there are 22 of these books?

I wanted to know how these books worked, what kept people coming back again and again to them, what kept people turning the pages and laying down their hard-earned money—and to hopefully find a satisfying fast read in the process!

Well, I didn't finish even one book...

What's In Your Character's Pocketses?

Riddle Game by Tim Kirk

Ever watch The Dark Knight? When they bring the Joker in, there's a quick scene where Commissioner Gordon checks the notorious villain's pockets. What does he find?

"Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint."

Also, what about The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? What does Frodo carry in his pocket, on a chain, from the Shire to Mordor? And why is Gollum so infatuated with what Bilbo has "in its nasty little pocketses?"

What our characters carry in their pockets

Hearing Voices: Authors and the Imagination



Yevgenia Nayberg

Here is an article on Virginia Woolf which inspired me to think about the imaginary voices we all hear, whether we're an author, or some other creative-type, or none of the above.


When I say imaginary voices, here're some examples (from the article) of what I mean:

[Imaginary voices] might include a bereaved person comforted by the voice of the departed; a mountain climber who intuits a felt presence; a child talking to imaginary friends; an athlete whose attentional focus tunes in to self-talk; the inner voice of a coach or trainer.

Effective & Efficient Writing — Binti, by Dr. Nnedi Okorafor

I'm late. This novella came out in 2015 but I'm just getting to it. In any case, this Nebula and Hugo award-winning novella packs a punch for its short length and that's why I consider it a prime example of both effective and efficient writing.

Effective:

Effective writing can be summed up as writing that simply gets its job done. For fiction writing, in particular, effectiveness can have many different facets to it. But I'll focus on just two:

1. The writing gets plot and character across, i.e. the reader understands what's happening, who the character is, and so on. And...
2. ...the writing flows. Drawing the reader forward, not requiring them to stop and reread sentences.

Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, and the Secret of Sentence Structure

Her diction is simple.


Her story is simple.


Her protagonist is a simple man trying to get rich, though we learn how complex even the lives of simple farmers in pre-revolutionary China can be.


Her sentences also appear simple, but they are not. They are elegant. Other online analyses of this novel (here and here) explain the sagalike, biblical quality of Buck's sentences. As Nasrullah Mambrol pointed out in his article on literariness.org:

Most of Buck’s sentences are long and serpentine, relying on balance, parallelism, and repetition for strength.

The Good Ol' The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Anyone remember reading this in middle school? While still figuring out whether to love or to condemn this brief, quickly-read, little jewel of a novel, I have figured out what it is about The Giver written by Lois Lowry which fascinates readers so much.


It's the old guy on the cover. That dude's face, whoever he is, will haunt me to the day I die. Kudos to whoever designed that book cover! I can feel him standing behind me pressing his hands into my back and transmitting memories...creepazoidal.

The Ideas Behind The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin

I am impressed and I am depressed, but I am not dispossessed.

Impressed: Whether it is Le Guin's use of words, her parse, straightforward style, or her sheer insight, there were many times while reading The Dispossessed when I felt the gnawing of self-doubt. Many times when I said to myself: "I could never write that good."

Hence, depressed, after being impressed.

But I’m not dispossessed and I'll tell you why.

Your Novel is a Failure...

What to do when you realize: "Holy crap, my novel that I have worked so hard on is a failure!"


The plot has too many holes in it, or the protagonist isn't engaging enough, or it's just plain poorly written. What do you do now?


First, take a deep breath. Cry a little. Then get back to work.

Characters and Dilemmas

In ground warfare terms, per the US Army’s FM 3-21.8, Infantry Rifle and Platoon, Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Tactics, it is not only essential to create a problem for your enemy—namely by shooting at them—but to create a dilemma. Namely, shooting at your enemy, cutting off routes of egress, and dropping artillery, bombs, mortars and whatever else you can on them in order to defeat your enemy or force them into a choice you (the author) want them to go in.

So too in fiction.

Why Write?

To explore the soul, the will, the heart. To exercise the courage to continue on.

In our era, there are very few places left to explore. The edges of the map were filled in a long time ago.

Nowadays, it seems there are only a few—a talented, qualified, or wealthy few—who can obtain the permission necessary to board a rocket ship, pilot a rover, jet off or sink into the unknown. Maybe it's always been that way...

11 Lessons Learned from The Hunger Games

I read The Hunger Games a few months ago and jotted down some notes on what lessons I could pull from Suzanne Collins work. Here they are:

Authors and their agendas

Ever get to that point in a book where you feel like the author never truly intended to write just an entertaining story? Like the author has ulterior motives and they're just using the story to sell some of their own ideas?


We see much of this in allegories (though perhaps, depending on how you define an allegory, they can be either good or bad, righteous or evil, or simply the use of symbolism). But what I'm talking about is that itch along the back of your spine, while you're reading, which says, 'Oh, this author's up to something here...'

Hemingway's Big War Novel

Hiya! Today, I share some thoughts from when I read Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Spoiler: Despite being a combat veteran myself, I'm not that into it...


Issue 1: For all of Hemingway's simplicity of language, for which he is much renowned and idolized, For Whom the Bell Tolls is convoluted with side conversations, explorations of Spanish culture, and with people talking and talking and talking. As enlightening as all of this is, it does not move the story along very quickly by our modern tastes nor does it, I think, truly enlighten us, the readers, in a manner that action, reaction and consequence can (active elements of a story). Not to say these active elements aren't in Hemingway's novel, but it seems he is forcing a lot of subject matter and themes (such as death, Christianity and other ideas of war) through his character's dialogue. Thus requiring a lot of dialogue lines and a lot of extra reading and, I'm daring to say it in a piece about Hemingway, extraneous words.

Kudos 1: For all of Hemingway's absence of active elements in his plot, the absence of the actual conflict (the war) throughout the beginning of the story actually does strike me as somewhat real.

Purpose of this blog

Thanks for joining me and welcome to my blog.


I started this blog because I don't really have anyone to talk to about reading, writing and literature. I talk to my spouse about it but there's just so much territory to cover that I have a tendency to drive her batty. Plus, we've got a real life going on and only so much time to spend together at the end of the day.


And, like most people, I've got a pretty boring day job that has nothing to do with literature whatsoever. I start talking books with my colleagues and they start looking around for an escape route...


So I started this blog!


The purpose of this blog is: Sharing. Discussion. Elucidating ideas.


My blog site is a place where both budding new authors and experienced literary pros can come, meet and discuss anything related to reading, writing or literature. There are other blog posts on "how to become a bestselling author" or "how to write a novel in 7 easy steps"...


That is not J.G.P. MacAdam Online.


Here, we get at the meat of storytelling and craft (and, honestly, isn't that the only way to become successful as an author—to tell just a damn good story?)


I'm trying to connect with people from all ranges of the spectrum, so feel free to sign-up for my email list or you can jump right in and send me a message with an idea or a topic about what you would like to see posted or discussed on my blog. Or send me a message about anything really. I'm prompt, responsive, and always professional.


Thanks!