Visiting Thoughts In Progress Today
Hi all, I’m over on Mason’s blog, Thoughts In Progress today. Hop on over and have a look. If you’ve missed any of the stops on the tour the links are below.
September Tour So Far:
September 1st – Working my Muse
September 2nd – Misanthropolgy 101
September 4th – Like a Bowl of Oranges
September 7th – Sonya Clark
September 9th – The Rhapsodist
September 12th – Diamond – Yup, Like the Stone
September 13th – Alex J Cavanaugh
September 14th – Thoughts in Progress
And now that you are all caught up, remember I’ll be over on Carol’s blog tomorrow and she’ll be popping in here.
Still a lot of stops to go.
What Began As A Rant
I actually did have a post planned for today just before I jump into a fairly extended stretch on my blog tour. Incidentally the next five days I will be bouncing all around the place and I hope you will come with me to some amazing blogs (links below). However, I re-read my post and realised that what had begun as a discussion about why I had been disappointed by a trilogy I recently gave up reading had actually degenerated into a rant and I decided to scrap it and try again.
Here is my second attempt.
I recently began reading a trilogy of YA fantasy books and was instantly hooked by the first book. There was this interesting (if a little generic) female protagonist who did some reasonably unexpected things and over the course of the first book I came to really want her to succeed in her goals. The villains were a bit on the melodramatic side and their scheme was clearly delusional and set to fail before it began but you can forgive that in YA because overblown villains are the norm and when stupid people reach for the moon, of course they fail. The story was enjoyable and the side characters well fleshed out.
Enter book two and we see our heroine in a new location only now she’s less interesting because she has nothing left to reveal and this time the actual complication of the story isn’t introduced until half-way through because they are so busy trying to get us to see the protagonist in the new location. Instead of some dark past haunting her every step, we now have petty annoyances and domestic squabbles that fill in time until somehow there just happens to be a serial killer stalking around in her new home and somehow she just happens to be the one who is going to solve everyone’s troubles. Not that she isn’t out of her depth and completely lost and with no actual reason to involve herself at all. In point of fact, the author spends a bit of time trying to convince us that she becomes emotionally attached to one of the almost victims, but this doesn’t really sit right with the protagonists character and ends up just being a plot pointer.
By book three, I was more or less over the protagonist. However, in the grand tradition of trilogies, the danger is now upped to the point where it is so overblown and melodramatic that you fully expect the sky to darken at any minute. And yet, I just didn’t care. The characters of the first book were now mostly too far removed because they had all but been completely absent (other than a tokenistic appearance) in the second. The characters of the second book hadn’t endeared themselves to me at all. And the third book seemed determined to rush us into a complication that made very little sense as fast as possible.
I’m going to point out at this stage that I didn’t finish reading the trilogy. I made it half-way through the third book and then realised I was hoping that mysterious, overblown, master-mind villain guy would just wipe them all out and call it a day. At that point I realised that I’d completely disengaged from the story and there was no point in my finishing it.
The point of this was my wondering where it all went wrong. The first book won me over. I loved it. I was totally hooked into this world and these characters. In all honesty, I think it was the big shift in scenery that lost me. I loved the world that was created in the first book, but in the second we were in an entirely different setting and I didn’t really feel it. I missed too much of the first setting. Perhaps that is a petty quibble but as a reader it threw me.
So my question to the readers out there is this: How long will you read when you know you have disengaged? Do you give up straight away, or do you plow on and hope for a big finish?
Tomorrow Laura Diamond is sharing a post here on the realm and I am off to her blog to talk about females in fantasy writing.
After that I am visiting Alex J Cavanaugh on the 13th, Mason Canyon on the 14th, Carol Kilgore on the 15th and Susan Whitfield on the 16th. Hope to see you on the tour.
Two Visits Done
The blog tour started well with my visit to Eric’s blog. I want to thank Eric once again for his brilliant post and for kicking off the tour. I then dropped in to Geoffrey’s blog for day two. Thanks so much Geoffrey for your excellent post here in the realm.
But there are many days to come in September.
Tomorrow I am visiting Lua Fowles blog where I discuss excuses for not writing, while Lua brings her own brand of wisdom here to the realm.
After that there is a bit of a break before I visit Sonya Clark on the 7th for an interview.
Thanks to everyone who has already started following the tour and I hope to see you on my ‘travels’.
Between now and the 7th, I have received an award that I am going to share.
Before I’m done though, here are the 5 things I’ve learned from planning this blog tour:
1. There are many, many helpful people out there, so when you ask if anyone would mind hosting you, be prepared for an inundation of offers.
2. It helps if you do a blog swap rather than just a visit and that way you don’t have to worry about writing two posts on a given day and it lets the people hosting you have a chance to visit another blog.
3. Make sure you have a bucket load of free time because you will spend twenty times longer writing the posts for the tour than any of your other blogs.
4. The time difference between Australia and America becomes really noticeable when trying to coordinate with people on the other side of the world.
5. Despite the work, this has been really fun and I can’t wait to plan another one next year.
Thanks all and see you around.
Back on Twitter
Midway through last week my internet was back and so I resumed posting some of my favourite blog reads on Twitter. Here are some of the posts I found this week:
My recommendation for this week:
Elspeth Antonelli – 10 tips for characters: http://elspeth-itsamystery.blogspot.com/2010/08/10-tips-for-non-perfection.html
Other great reads:
- Carol Kilgore shares ten ways to not start your story: http://underthetikihut.blogspot.com/2010/08/fridays-top-ten.html
- Alex J Cavanaugh – on description and exposition: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2010/08/writing-exposition-and-description.html
- Cat Woods discusses the demands of keeping a blog: http://catwoods.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/on-a-blogroll-do-you-have-what-it-takes/
- Agatha asks whatever happened to conversation: http://agatha82.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/whatever-happened-to-two-way-conversations/
- Larry Brooks – discusses some writing cliches: http://storyfix.com/13-writing-cliches-that-will-kick-your-ass
- Plot Whisperer on the role of the antagonist: http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/2010/07/beyond-character-action-and-theme.html
- Terry Odell on POV: http://terryodell.blogspot.com/2010/08/and-even-more-on-pov.html
- Katie Ganshert on scenes that sizzle: http://katieganshert.blogspot.com/2010/08/scenes-that-sizzle.html
- Southern Authors – library: the writer’s best friend: http://southernauthors.blogspot.com/2010/08/14-reasons-why-libraries-are-writers.html
- Paul Greci on micro-level revisions for manuscripts: http://paulgreci.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/micro-level-revision/
- Cat Woods on pre-submission editors: http://catwoods.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/professional-editor-luxury-or-necessity/
- Blog post on creating tension: https://cassandrajade.wordpress.com
- Margot Kinberg on red-herrings in mystery stories: http://margotkinberg.blogspot.com/2010/08/muddying-waters.html
- Steven Griffin – on revising a scene: http://stevengriffin.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/revising-a-scene-list/
- Talli Roland explores English usage: http://talliroland.blogspot.com/2010/08/ten-for-tuesday-my-favourite-british.html
- LBDiamond – blog post on characters experiencing panic: http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/mental-health-monday-fight-or-flight/
- Mason Canyon interviews Elizabeth Hoyt about her new book series: http://masoncanyon.blogspot.com/2010/08/guest-blogger-elizabeth-hoyt.html
- Blog post about the sycophant: https://cassandrajade.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/the-sycophant/
- B Miller – pitch versus synopsis: http://bmillerfiction.blogspot.com/2010/08/pitch-vs-synopsis.html
- Barb – why writers write what they write: http://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/why-i-write-what-i-write-guests-answers/
- Carol Kilgore – the blinking cursor: http://underthetikihut.blogspot.com/2010/08/blink-blink-blink.html
- Miss Rosemary shares an excerpt from Damn Brits: http://disgruntledwriterscircle.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/and-the-winner-is/
- Thoughts in Progress – guest post with Sally Koslow on “With Friends Like These” http://bit.ly/22utfy
And a reminder that the blog tour schedule is up for september. I have to add acouple of late entries to the schedule but otherwise the tour is set.
Have a great week and I look forward to reading your blog posts this week.
Blog Tour
This schedule might move a bit yet but here is the tour schedule for September. I’m asking the owners of the blogs I am visiting to check the links (I’ll have checked them but mistakes happen) before the tour and let me know if there is anything wrong (date, topic, link).
September 1: Guest post on Eric’s blog (Working my Muse) about character.
September 2: Guest post on Geoffrey’s blog (Misanthropology101) about the writing life.
September 4: Guest post on Lua Fowles blog (Like a Bowl of Oranges) about the need for quiet confidence.
September 7: interview on Sonia Clark’s blog (Sonya Clark).
September 9: Guest post on Alex Willging’s blog (The Rhapsodist) about writing fantasy.
September 12: Guest post on Laura Diamond’s blog (Diamond – Yup, Like the Stone) about females in fantasy.
September 13: Guest post on Alex J Cavanugh’s blog (Alex J Cavanaugh) about visuals that help the writing process.
September 14: Guest post on Mason Canyon’s blog (Thoughts in Progress) about the origin of an idea.
September 15: Interview on Carol Kilgore’s blog (Under the Tiki Hut).
September 16: Interview on Susan Whitfield’s blog (Susan Whitfield’s blog).
September 18: Guest post on Jemi Faser’s blog (Jemi Fraser) about making fantasy unique.
September 20: Guest post on Nancy Allen’s blog (Nancy Kelly Allen – Writing Workshop) about reading.
September 22: Interview on Lee Robertson’s blog (Only Time Will Tell).
September 25: Guest post on Barb’s blog (The Creative Barbwire) about Death’s Daughter.
September 30: Guest post on Rosemary’s blog (Miss Rosemary’s Novel Ideas) about what happens after the manuscript is accepted.
And this one is not strictly in September but is definitely part of the tour:
October 3: Interview on Little Scribbler’s blog (Little Scribbler).
As you can see it is a busy month but there are still dates free if you would like to take part in the tour and host me for a day. Otherwise, I hope you come along on the tour.