Writer's Blog: Lirael and Abhorsen

Lirael and Abhorsen are not really two books. That is to say that the story continues from one to the next.

Together they are both excellent books. Though I will admit that they were not as enjoyable as the first time I read them. (The first time they were read to me when I was much younger.) They are aimed at children but I think that adults can enjoy them.

Lireal begins with the eponymous character contemplating suicide. Naturally this is a dark opening of a children's book. However I think that NiX handles the subject matter very well. We follow Lireal and the other characters through two worlds.

Abhorsen continues right from where Lireal finishes. Lireal is joined by Sam as they travel across the Old Kingdom to prevent the release of a deadly power.

I realise that this isn't going to win any awards for reviews. I just want you to read these books. I hope you enjoy reading them. If you have any questions about these books let me know.

Writer's Blog: I Was Wrong

A while back, when talking about the Kindle, I mention not being able to click to a specific park of a book. Well it turns out I was wrong about that.

I've looked again at 'Writer Good or Die' and it does let you jump to specific sections. So, what can I say, my bad.

I've just looked at another of the titles I've got and this one doesn't allow for that ease of navigation.

It seems that the kindle is quite an interesting thing. How things are formatted seems to vary dramatically. I downloaded a sample of Star Trek Titan: Orion's Hounds. These books, at the beginning of chapters, have a bold capital letter. Unfortunately it doesn't format properly so we get...

W
e...

Instead of We... As with any news technology there is a ways to go before it is perfect. Given the price difference I'll probably still be buying this books in paper form.

Addendum

I'm still reading Abhorsen and I hope to be able to post a short review soon. However it might have to wait until after I get back from holiday.

Writer's Blog: Books so Easy.

The Kindle has many free and not too expensive books. I am slowly going through the free books and downloading them. There are thousands of these free books so this down loading could take a very long time. Also each book will take me at least a week to read.

I will also buy books for the kindle. Somehow buying on a kindle feels less real than on the main Amazon website - maybe because you have to wait for that book to arrive. So it could be very easy to spend a silly amount of money on books.

I have only bought the one book and that was a '1,001 Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Creative Spark.'

I've skimmed this book and will be looking at it in a later post.

Writer's Blog: Tired and Random Thoughs

Yawn. It's 11:25 as I write this and I haven't long been up. It was Torchwood yesterday and I always go to my parent's house to see it. I left late. I planned to leave as soon as the episode came to a close. It never works like that.

This series of Torchwood has been very good. The last episode had Nana Visitor in it and John de Lancie is in it next week. Yes I'm a nerd - I don't care any more. I'm hoping that Nana Visitor has more of a role next week.

During the day yesterday I when on, what might have been described as a wild goose chase except I found what I was looking for, trip to find the location of a restaurant where I'll be doing a work placement. Yes, the job centre actually came through and arranged a placement. The restaurant is in the middle of nowhere and is a bit of a pig to get to but I'm hoping the job itself will be worth it.

After Torchwood my mother and I had a look for bus routes. There is a bus that goes all the way to the restaurant but it's hourly. So it'll be two buses. The good thing is that I'll have about forty minutes to read on my kindle.

Yes the kindle again. I admit that I probably couldn't read a 'real' book on a bus. So technology is winning.

There is a possibility that this placement will lead to a real job with money and everything. Before that though I have a family holiday. I will hope to be scheduling several posts to appear while I'm away.

Writer's Blog: Write Good or Die

Write Good or Die is a collection of short... articles, I suppose you'd call them, from various authors. It was the first book I downloaded to my Kindle. It was free when I downloaded it but now, for some reason, the price had increased to £0.86. For aspiring writers it is a great read. I haven't finished reading it yet but let me give you a flavour of the work.

In the words of Heather Graham - '...don't make yourself sick of a story before you've told it.'

This has a particular resonance with me. My novel has got to the stage where I am sick of it! Nevertheless I'm plodding along.

I must thank my brother for his help. He put together a time line for me and helped me to realise that I was actually telling more than one story. I now have a bit more of a handle on exactly what the story is.

My brother's web site is Kiml42.

Writer's Blog: What's in a Name?

Writing a Novel

Names are perhaps one of the most complexed things when writing fiction. I find this quite difficult as it often seems like I need a new name every other page. The reason for this is that I'm writing a science fiction story with many jobs on the starship. I don't want to say 'The Communications Officer' all the time.

Having said that the names of secondary characters probably don't mater too much but the main character makes a big difference. The name may effect how your character is seen by the reader.

Mr Watts tells us: 'No names are neural in fiction - they all carry the weight of their predecessors.' (Writing a Novel p 44)

Watts gives the example of a name such as 'Juliet' - It carries such weight that the question has to be asked - 'Does the resonance suit your intention?' (p44)

Its not just character names that are discussed. The title of our work and the job of our characters are also important. I will be discussing this in a future post.

Writer's Blog: Lirael

Finished Lirael today. It is an excellent story but can't really be separated from Abhorsen as the story ends on a cliffhanger. I'll be looking over the two together in about a fortnight or so.

Unfortunately Abhorsen is not available on Kindle. My parents have the hard back though!

Writer's Blog: I Gave In

Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a - it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It's-it's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly.

Rupert Giles - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I, Robot... You Jane.

I had always said that a Kindle didn't interest me. I agree with the above quote. There is something wonderful about actually holding a book in your hands. So although I now have a kindle I don't think I'll ever stop reading books.

There is still something wonderful about a book shop. Seeing all the stories in neat rows. You can just pick up a book and flick through it - you can't do with a kindle. Like anything this device has good and bad points.

The obvious best thing about a kindle is the huge amount of free books available. As I write this post I am periodically checking the free book list and downloading them.

The Green Fairy Book.

The slightly annoying thing is that some books that should be their, i.e. they're out of copyright, aren't. Also I was very surprised to find that Harry Potter does not have a kindle edition!

The Grey Fairy Book.

Nevertheless this is an excellent purchase. Now onto what could be improved. As I mentioned you can't flick through, like you can with a book, there is of course the option to search which is almost as good. However some of the books I've down loaded are short story collections and, unless its just me being silly, it seems that you can't just jump to a story and have to instead navigate to it. This to me seems like a bit of an oversight.

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories.

Finally the geek in me is laughing. I now have a 'padd' and can pretend I'm aboard the USS Enterprise!

Writer's Blog: Sabriel

Sabriel by Garth Nix is a fantasy novel and part of The Old Kingdom series.

The story is quite complicated and I can't really do it justice here. It is the story of two worlds, one magical and one technological, these worlds are separated by a wall.

The most interesting thing in this book, and I think most original, is that magic and technology only work in their respective worlds. So a Charter Mage, this term is used in place of Witch or Wizard, can do spells in the Old Kingdom but if they cross the wall, into Ancelstierre their spells may not work. Magic can sometimes work in Ancelstierre but only in the areas close to the wall and it is dependant on which way the wind is blowing. Similarly technology is ineffective in the Old Kingdom.

These two words, neither of which is ours, make for a very interesting story. We as readers get to lean about two exciting new places.

The story is about Sabriel who leaves the technological world of Ancelstierre to go in search of her missing father. This is a novel about necromancy and magic and is an excellent read. Though it is supposed to be a children's book I believe that adults will enjoy it too. However an adult reader may find it a little simplistic in places.

I give this book ****

Writer's Blog: Asylum

Asylum is a strange book. I haven't actually seen the film but as I'm lacking a picture it seemed like a good illustration for this post.

Naturally Asylum tells the story of an Asylum. It's main character is Stella Raphael who is the wife of one of the psychiatries and becomes involved with one of the patients. As you can probably tell from the trailer it isn't the happiest of stories. However I did find the novel a good read. I can't really say, given the subject matter, that it was enjoyable but Patrick McGrath has written a good story. The question is why?

What I mean by that is a little difficult to explain. J.K Rowling for instance was compelled to write Harry Potter. The story I heard was that she wrote the first paragraph on a napkin on a train.Now I'm not saying that every writer has this feeling of needing to write. I myself find it to be an uphill struggle - yet I still want to write. The point about Patrick McGrath I'm trying to make is that I can't see him compelled to write this story or struggling through the up hill battle of writing this novel.

Of course everybody is different, There are no doubt an infinity of reasons why someone chooses to put hours and hours in to creating a new world from their fingertips. I would certainly recommend Asylum. It is always good to fine new books to read so let me know if you have any recommendations.

I have now (from the 28th July) started reading Sabriel by Garth Nix. I'll probably be reviewing this is a little over a week.