Saw Down With Love. It was fun, but nothing to write home about. Also watched Dracula 2000 on DVD last night. Again, fun but nothing overwhelming. Except the actor they got to play Dracula was yummylicious.
Last Wednesday (the 28th) was the first anniversary of Hobkin’s adoption. The little fuzzwit has been with us for a whole year now. Goodness but he’s changed our life! This week has been somewhat hectic so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate it properly, so we’re going to get a cake this weekend. Something non-chocolate so he can have a (small!) sliver of it and maybe even a little (very little) bit of ice cream. Yes, we’re going to feed our pet sugar because what he really needs is a sugar high. Heh. Well, it’s only once a year . . .
Finished re-reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan. I like his glib, off-the-cuff style, but I think I’m going to stop my Vonnegut kick here. I think his storylines are too fragmented to be a good influence on my own. As is, plotting is my mega weakness. I don’t need encouragement to just end a story in some odd place and go “finis!” Although to be fair, Sirens ended much better than Slaughterhouse-Five.
I need to read more Harlan Ellison. Again, not great with the plots, but the man nails emotions like none other. On the plotting front, I keep thinking I should read some mysteries, but I just don’t know where to start.
In other writing-related news, I’ve only received four crits so far of the story I have up for review at Critters this week. Sigh. Longer works just do not get the same lovin that shorter ones do. (Edit: a minute after I made this entry, Critters sent me three more crits. MPC karma, woo!) But to make up for it I’m going for another MPC. In the process of doing shotgun critiques, I read the most amazing story that I think I’ve ever seen in the queue. (It’s #8058 for any Critters who might want to crit it this week.) It was a fusion of old mythologies and magic with a fresh twist and a modern setting. Very nice. It’s exactly the sort of fantasy I go ga-ga over. I’m quite jealous of this author’s technique, style, and imagination. She didn’t have a Critters bio so I don’t know what else she’s published, but I can’t imagine that someone who writes as well as she does isn’t.
Back to critiquing . . .
Long works
I’m on the OWW ( http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com ), and you’re right–long works are harder to attract critters to, although I find going trawling through the longer works posted and looking for people who write novels and novelets and return crits is a pretty good technique. Dunno if Critters is set up so you can do that, though….
If you want to develop your plotting skills, I recommend, let’s see… John D. MacDonald (mystery), Peter Watts (sf), Neil Gaiman (interstitial), Dave Duncan (fantasy), Elizabeth George (mystery), *early* Patricia Cornwell (mystery), Tom Clancy (thrillers), Michael Crichton (thrillers), Barbara Hambly (anything that will stand still long enough for her to write it), J.K. Rowling (children’s fantasy, but I bet you knew that *hg*).
Not all of them are brilliant sentence-level writers, or wonderful at characterization, but they can all plot.
Clancy–in particular in his earlier work (Cardinal of the Kremlin, Hunt for Red October)–does a wonderful job of throwing out fishing lines and establishing threads that all lead into the same spiderweb and pull taut at the very end.
hope that helps
Re: Long works
“Dunno if Critters is set up so you can do that, though“
I’ve got a lot of “regulars” who usually critique my stuff when it hits the queue and I do theirs in return. That’s sort of like what you’re talking about, I think.
“If you want to develop your plotting skills, I recommend, let’s see… John D. MacDonald (mystery), Peter Watts (sf), Neil Gaiman (interstitial), Dave Duncan (fantasy), Elizabeth George (mystery), *early* Patricia Cornwell (mystery), Tom Clancy (thrillers), Michael Crichton (thrillers), Barbara Hambly (anything that will stand still long enough for her to write it), J.K. Rowling (children’s fantasy, but I bet you knew that *hg*).“
Thanks for the suggestions! I’m familiar with Crichton, Hambly, and Gaiman (and, of course, Rowling) but I think I’ll make a trip down to the local library today and see if I can’t rustle up some John D. MacDonald and/or Elizabeth George.
Hey there! I tend to be a weekend critiquer, so look for my feedback very soon. I’m reviewing three stories this week (at least), and yours is a the top of the pile.
For the first time, I will have something in the Q that’s just above the full-credit word count at 2,400. I’m looking forward to being inundated with critiques… though that’s not always a good thing, as you know.
“so look for my feedback very soon“
Hurray! I’ll be looking forward to it.
“For the first time, I will have something in the Q that’s just above the full-credit word count at 2,400“
That’s coming up next week, right? Your revision of “Flight,” unless I’m mistaken. I’ve got it on my “to-do” list for next week.
Hey, we should compare calendars and see when the stars align for all four of us to get together and gab again!
Our dog keeps drooling whenever my mom takes a ham out of the oven (yes, I know you don’t approve of ham, but Flossy’s a dog, so anyway). She acts like she expects one day we’re going to just set it down on the floor and let her have at it.
So my mom decided that if Flossy was ever sick, or she reached her fifteenth birthday (two years and a few months from now) we’d give her a ham, since she’d been waiting so patiently, and she’s a good dog.
My brother’s comment was, “That’ll finish her off.”
Hee. Well I can’t imagine a bit of ham would hurt her, although a whole ham sounds like a rather large meal for any size dog. What kind of dog is she?
So we gave Hobkin cake, yup. He was happy about it, although there was a sticky factor . . .