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| marantzo |
 Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:44 pm |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:57 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| There's a really delightful challenge in trying to think up outrageous ideas - a world of polygamous sorcerers regularly engaging in titanic battles without anyone in the real world noticing - and then trying to infuse it with a depth of character and emotion, to try and make as real-feeling as possible whilst indulging all your most freaked-out fantasies. I suppose I've really taken a cue from tales like The Scarlet Pimpernell where the tension of the tale really comes as much from the hero's troubled marriage and private deceits as it does from the swashbuckling. There's a real thrill in trying to pull off that sort of thing. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:24 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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Donald E. Westlake has died. He was a prodigiously creative author of about 100 books that I've read and reread for more than 40 years.
I met him a few times and wrote him a few fan latters. He was unfailingly friendly and good-natured-- one of the most naturally funny men on God's green earth. And as Richard Stark, he created Parker, the toughest son-of-a-bitch ever.
RIP and thanks for all the joy you gave me, Donald. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:13 am |
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Yeah I just read about his passing in the paper. Apparently he used those other pen names because he thought people wouldn't believe that he could write those books so fast.
Rod, that first (and only completed) book I wrote was made up as I went along. I had no idea where it was going. The only thing that I had planned ahead, was the pirate attack and that was only after he ended up on the yacht. It was a ball writing that story, but I haven't been able to recover that spontaneity since. Oh well. Here's hoping.
Have you ever considered flying by the seat of your pants when writing a book? Or do you do that already? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:23 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Two women I was in high school with have published books. My feeling about that is, Arrrgh. The one who was a friend of mine has her fourth paperback "cozy" mystery out now; the one I didn't know so well has written an "autobiographical novel" that my mother has read but I haven't, and Mom says it's awful. Probably a vanity publication, she thinks, and there's been no sign of it outside South Carolina.
If I lived in Canada and didn't have to work full-time to get health insurance, I'd be a best-selling author by now. At least that's what I like to think... |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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| I come from a fairly well published family on my step-father’s side, but my father was a different story. He was a writer as well, but not nearly so successful. I remember one sad day, I was at his NYC apartment waiting for him to get back from an errand (likely a liquor store). I opened his desk drawer and found hundreds of rejection letters from publishing companies all over the globe. One after another saying the same thing….'Interesting concept, but not the right time or Not our type of novel'. On and on and over many, many years. I was in tears by the time he got home. I still smile at his reaction to seeing me sobbing over his failures - he said “Don’t worry Katie, one day the right letter will come.” That was it. His fortitude was really admirable. Eventually one day it did come and he published a novel and some non-fiction work – nothing like my step-father, but his day did come. |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: my computer
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I have a friend working on a book. I'm hoping she has a reeeeeeallly good editor because when she wrote email to everyone telling us of her entrance to the creative writing program at (college name left blank), she wrote, "I've been excepted!"
Maybe she should have been... |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:28 pm |
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| I can just see her first rejection. "We have excepted you work so we didn't accept it." |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| You've no idea how much mincemeat I've made of her email. Not to her face, though. Yours was one of the incarnations! |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:32 pm |
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| Another rejection, "We could have accepted your work, except we didn't." |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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| I am reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth and it is really a wonder. I have never been a fan of short stories, but these are just marvelous. Her characters are rich, intense, and compelling. I highly recommend this book. |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: my computer
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Kate, that book got a nod as best of 2008 in one of the reviews of the year that I read this week. I'll check it out!
Gary - having too much fun with it, aren't you...I did the same. It's just too easy! |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:19 pm |
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| Did you get my email, Lissa? |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| I did - I'll let you know when I've done reading. Thanks for it! |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:30 pm |
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| Good. Sometimes emails that are too long don't get through so I was wondering. |
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