A Perhaps Weekly Pandemic Periodical, #13

Smooth fringecup

It's been over a month since my last post and what a month and more it has been. The baby is not a baby anymore even though we still call him "the baby"—he be full-blown toddler now. He runs, jumps, slides, swings, throws little tantrums, asks for what he wants, screams for what he wants, knows colors, colors with crayons and chalk, has preferences of what he likes to watch on TV. I don't think I even watch TV anymore, I just watch kid's shows. 

A Perhaps Weekly Pandemic Periodical, #6

A lot has happened in the past month any which way you measure it. The same is true, here, at J.G.P. MacAdam Online.

The past week has been especially eventful. I've completed a final structural edit of my science fiction novel, The Way Across, which is based on and taken from The Vallen, an earlier work, but completely reimagined and rewritten. I've also had two more short story publications added to my name, The Pickers, as Passengers Journal, and A Road Not Taken, at Apeiron Review. And what more the baby's toddling all over the house at this point and it's like having a little babbling penguin follow you around room to room.

But even more has happened in the past month—hasn't it?

Chapter breaks and how I used them in THE VALLEN

From this amazing site showing a variety of past-present photos

Welp, I'm at the halfway point of proofreading THE VALLEN (like p. 185 in my double-spaced manuscript) and I'm pausing to reflect on why I've organized the chapters in the way that I have.

Essentially:

• Odd-numbered chapters: Essa's past
• Even-numbered chapters: Essa's present

Past and Present Concerns on Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

https://dinanaim.wordpress.com/

I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and it was a quick read. It took me all of two sittings on two separate days. I saw the film first, years ago, and just happened to pick up the book out of a stack in a thrift store. Many people absolutely love McCarthy and his works, so I decided to read it and...

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...

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…

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!"

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.

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.