About Books

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    ‘Tis done … for now …

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    In between reading and watching the Olympics this weekend, I actually got some book stuff done and finished my second draft of Assassin 2.

    And it’s a really good second draft. Much better than my normal craptastic second draft. Around 100,000 words, and it probably only needs some minor polishing and tweaking before I send it to my agent for her perusal.

    After the long, painful, writing quagmire Assassin 1 has been, this book went really quickly. (I started it around the first of July.) It was one of the easiest books I’ve written in a while. Wheezley claims it’s because I already built the world/characters in Assassin 1. He might be right. I also think it’s because I got all excited and fired up after the revisions I did for Assassin 1 and wanted to keep going.

    And because I’m completely anal and always like to go ahead and write the second book in a series, even if the first one hasn’t sold yet. Seriously, folks. I’m that deepy disturbed. 😎

    Anyway, I’m going to play hooky the rest of the week. Read. Watch the Olympics. And do some lighter stuff like clean off my desk and update the Web site a bit. In the meantime, I thought I’d share the first few paragraphs from Assassin 2. Hope you enjoy!

    “Freeze! Nobody move! This is a robbery!”

    Wow. Three cliches in a row. Somebody was seriously lacking in the imagination department.

    But the shouted cliches scared someone, who squeaked out a small scream. I sighed. Screams were always bad for business. Which meant I couldn’t ingore the trouble that had just walked into my restaurant — or deal with it the quick, violent way I would have preferred to. A silverstone knife through the heart is enough to stop most trouble in its tracks. Permanently.

    So I pulled my gray gaze up from the oversized paperback copy of “The Odyssey” that I’d been reading to see what all the fuss was about.

    Like it? Loathe it? Share in the comments.

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    Best intentions …

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    Somehow, despite my vow to whittle down my TBR pile, it remains at around 15 books. My own fault, really, since I took some books to the used bookstore to trade in and came home with three more. Sigh.

    Although in my defense two of the books are really short — The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore and one of the Atlantis books by Alyssa Day. They’re both under 300 pages.

    Ah, well. I’m planning on doing some reading this weekend, as well as working on Assassin 2 — in between watching the Olympics, of course. 😎

    What about you guys? Anyone got big plans for the weekend?

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    It’s scary out there …

    8 Comments

    So the big story in the book world this week is the release of Breaking Dawn, the last book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga, which folks have been anticipating almost as much as the last Harry Potter book.

    People seem to either love or hate the book. Those who love it, really love it. Those who don’t, well, you can read their reviews on Amazon. Dear Author also posted an interesting, thoughtful review yesterday.

    Why do I find this interesting? Well, as a reader, I’m always curious as to what other people think about books. Reviews help me decide what to spend my money on.

    For the record, yes, I did read Twilight. I really enjoyed the book — until Bella found out Edward was a vampire and became obsessed with him about halfway through. I’m not a huge fan of obsessive love stories, and I thought the book became a Romeo and Juliet with fangs at that point. Still, there were things I liked about it, and it certainly wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, though.

    Bad reviews are part of being an author. Everybody gets them. One of the worst reviews I ever got was one word — insipid (for Hot Mama, I believe). But lots of people seem so angry in their reviews. Like Meyer has personally betrayed them. They’re calling her book poorly written fan fiction and worse. Much, much worse.

    As a writer, this sort of scares me. Would I like to have Meyer’s success? Sure. But I don’t think I’d want to be in her shoes right now. Passion and popularity can be double-edged swords, especially when it comes to books. Maybe it’s because people have to use their imaginations more than they do at the movies. But I don’t ever recall seeing a movie or television show with the sort of vicious reviews that Breaking Dawn has gotten.

    It’s happened to other writers too. Some folks didn’t like the final Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling. Others don’t like the direction J.R. Ward is taking her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Ditto for Laurell K. Hamilton and her series.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that I always respect an author’s achievement of finishing a book. Of writing, editing, and polishing it. Even if I don’t like the finished product itself.

    It’s an accomplihsment that should still be celebrated. People seem to have forgotten that. And that’s a shame.

    What do you think? Will you read Breaking Dawn? How far is too far in a review? Share in the comments.