Elizabeth Lang's Blog: Random Musings
July 6, 2011
Review: Die Laughing
What do you get when you cross a stand-up comic and aliens who look like they stepped out from your TV screen, of the fifties?
You get a delightful tale that begins with laughs galore, courtesy of resident funny man, Sam E, and brings you on a roller-coaster adventure ride of the sublime and the ridiculous, expertly weaved into a tale of heroism and finding peace with the past.
Die Laughing is a brilliant first novel that will have you clamoring for more. It is scheduled for eBook release in July, 2011 and in print version in August.
If you want to know how to capture an audience in the first chapter, this is it. It certainly drew me in with its effortless humor and period details that sticks you in the seat of a smoky lounge while the stage lights focus on Sam. And the moment he tells his first joke and gives his first zing, you're hooked.
For the first quarter of the book, as Lowy deftly unfolds his vision of a nostalgic world and slowly turns it upside down, it's a fun and engaging ride. I could not put it down.
Just when you think you have things figured out and know how it's going down, Howdy Doody appears and things get even more interesting. Comics become heroes, villains become even more villainous... This is why minions should always be kept in their place, and with the lid firmly on.
The heroine with the monicker of Cricket, and a skeptical comic-book artist join Sam on his quest to save the world from aliens who could really use a better agent.
After the fantastic start, the middle of the book does drag a bit as our heroes flounder around before finding their mojo, and a plan. But it's only slow in comparison to the face-paced punch lines and action of the rest of the novel. It is cleverly done and the characters acquire additional layers of complexity that make them more real before the adventurous charge to the end, and rush it does, as Sam and Co. race to save the world, and Sam's career.
The book does much better when it doesn't forget its humor, and there is a lot of mirth here, from Sam's desperate off-the-cuff jokes, which is the hero at his most human and best, through it's homage to old Sci-Fi tropes and B-movies, turned a bit side-ways.
I didn't expect the ending until we got there, a touching, fitting ending, but I won't give it away. In a way, the final scene was what the book was really about beyond the zany adventure, it's about being human and finding peace at last as the curtain draws aside.
Die Laughing is an excellent debut novel and I look forward to more from this author.
You get a delightful tale that begins with laughs galore, courtesy of resident funny man, Sam E, and brings you on a roller-coaster adventure ride of the sublime and the ridiculous, expertly weaved into a tale of heroism and finding peace with the past.
Die Laughing is a brilliant first novel that will have you clamoring for more. It is scheduled for eBook release in July, 2011 and in print version in August.
If you want to know how to capture an audience in the first chapter, this is it. It certainly drew me in with its effortless humor and period details that sticks you in the seat of a smoky lounge while the stage lights focus on Sam. And the moment he tells his first joke and gives his first zing, you're hooked.
For the first quarter of the book, as Lowy deftly unfolds his vision of a nostalgic world and slowly turns it upside down, it's a fun and engaging ride. I could not put it down.
Just when you think you have things figured out and know how it's going down, Howdy Doody appears and things get even more interesting. Comics become heroes, villains become even more villainous... This is why minions should always be kept in their place, and with the lid firmly on.
The heroine with the monicker of Cricket, and a skeptical comic-book artist join Sam on his quest to save the world from aliens who could really use a better agent.
After the fantastic start, the middle of the book does drag a bit as our heroes flounder around before finding their mojo, and a plan. But it's only slow in comparison to the face-paced punch lines and action of the rest of the novel. It is cleverly done and the characters acquire additional layers of complexity that make them more real before the adventurous charge to the end, and rush it does, as Sam and Co. race to save the world, and Sam's career.
The book does much better when it doesn't forget its humor, and there is a lot of mirth here, from Sam's desperate off-the-cuff jokes, which is the hero at his most human and best, through it's homage to old Sci-Fi tropes and B-movies, turned a bit side-ways.
I didn't expect the ending until we got there, a touching, fitting ending, but I won't give it away. In a way, the final scene was what the book was really about beyond the zany adventure, it's about being human and finding peace at last as the curtain draws aside.
Die Laughing is an excellent debut novel and I look forward to more from this author.
March 6, 2011
The Rebels: The Heart of the Story
The writing has been going well, if slowly with The Rebels. On track with the growing relationships and dialogue. The descriptive passages are really improving. Plot-wise, I was still working out the modifications to the plotlines and sub-plotlines because I removed Tucker, but I knew where the story was supposed to go.
The cutting of scenes to produce increased tension, mystery and action is working better than I hoped.
All in all, not bad. Progressing steadily.
Argus and Adrian were geling in terms of snarky humor and tension. Kali and Bryce didn't have any problems going it alone and playing hero to rescue Adrian. Sester's storyline became more major with the inclusion of the machinations of the Guild.
But I knew there was still something missing. Some energy, umph, that drive that makes me write like a mad woman because the story and characters have me in their grip.
It's very possible to write a technically exact story with all the right elements, with gorgeous and vividly drawn details on every page, and wonderfully creative words and perfect grammar, but not actually have a great story that will make people want to read it.
Yes, all these elements are important. It's like the bricks and mortar, wires and breakers, and joints and pipes. Jumbling them all together in good draftsmanlike form, or even in the semblance of a perfectly functional house doesn't guarantee that someone will like it enough, fall in love with it enough to want to buy it or to move in and make it their home.
It takes more than that to make a good story people will want to read. And a miracle to write a great story that people can't put down.
It takes something called heart. I'm not talking about emotions, though more often than not, emotions are involved. What I am talking about is the emotional core, that connection with the reader that makes them feel that they want to be part of your world.
And that's what I've finally found.
Bryce and Sester may be the most popular characters of The Empire but Adrian, despite being unemotional and cold, provided the heart. It was his journey that drove the centre of the story.
And of course, part of the problem has been Adrian. He resists emotions. He prefers being left alone. He doesn't find any point in being forced into situations where he has to relate to people. For a writer, it couldn't be the worst situation. But Adrian has great potential to drive the story, even from a passive role as in the last story.
I feel like I've been playing psychologist, trying to understand what Adrian's problem was. The key was in learning to ask the right questions, ones that made him need to understand himself. And in doing so, I finally found the heart. Adrian's emotional connection to the story.
I wrote it as part of a scene, but the funny thing is that I had to throw it out because it didn't fit with the direction of the scene. But it didn't matter. Now that I understand where Adrian's head and heart are in the story, I didn't have to include it in the story. It became instinctive and informed his POV and his voice.
And, for me at least, that's the key to writing a story. Finding the core. And in finding that core, discovering his voice, his POV, his heart.
The cutting of scenes to produce increased tension, mystery and action is working better than I hoped.
All in all, not bad. Progressing steadily.
Argus and Adrian were geling in terms of snarky humor and tension. Kali and Bryce didn't have any problems going it alone and playing hero to rescue Adrian. Sester's storyline became more major with the inclusion of the machinations of the Guild.
But I knew there was still something missing. Some energy, umph, that drive that makes me write like a mad woman because the story and characters have me in their grip.
It's very possible to write a technically exact story with all the right elements, with gorgeous and vividly drawn details on every page, and wonderfully creative words and perfect grammar, but not actually have a great story that will make people want to read it.
Yes, all these elements are important. It's like the bricks and mortar, wires and breakers, and joints and pipes. Jumbling them all together in good draftsmanlike form, or even in the semblance of a perfectly functional house doesn't guarantee that someone will like it enough, fall in love with it enough to want to buy it or to move in and make it their home.
It takes more than that to make a good story people will want to read. And a miracle to write a great story that people can't put down.
It takes something called heart. I'm not talking about emotions, though more often than not, emotions are involved. What I am talking about is the emotional core, that connection with the reader that makes them feel that they want to be part of your world.
And that's what I've finally found.
Bryce and Sester may be the most popular characters of The Empire but Adrian, despite being unemotional and cold, provided the heart. It was his journey that drove the centre of the story.
And of course, part of the problem has been Adrian. He resists emotions. He prefers being left alone. He doesn't find any point in being forced into situations where he has to relate to people. For a writer, it couldn't be the worst situation. But Adrian has great potential to drive the story, even from a passive role as in the last story.
I feel like I've been playing psychologist, trying to understand what Adrian's problem was. The key was in learning to ask the right questions, ones that made him need to understand himself. And in doing so, I finally found the heart. Adrian's emotional connection to the story.
I wrote it as part of a scene, but the funny thing is that I had to throw it out because it didn't fit with the direction of the scene. But it didn't matter. Now that I understand where Adrian's head and heart are in the story, I didn't have to include it in the story. It became instinctive and informed his POV and his voice.
And, for me at least, that's the key to writing a story. Finding the core. And in finding that core, discovering his voice, his POV, his heart.
January 12, 2011
Books vs EBooks
In a statement, Amazon says, “over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”
This was announced back in July 2010. The first turn was when Amazon celebrated Kindle books outselling the real thing on Christmas Day of 2009.
Then in October 2010, Kindle books were outselling print greater than 2 to 1 for Amazon's top 10 bestsellers.
Sales of Kindle devices have tripled since the price was dropped to $189.
Some impressive numbers there. Now if only Amazon would explain what their bestseller rankings really mean in terms of sales. It appears to be one of the great mysteries, right up there with crop circles.
I was curious, how many many people out there own an eBook reader now or received one over the holidays?
This was announced back in July 2010. The first turn was when Amazon celebrated Kindle books outselling the real thing on Christmas Day of 2009.
Then in October 2010, Kindle books were outselling print greater than 2 to 1 for Amazon's top 10 bestsellers.
Sales of Kindle devices have tripled since the price was dropped to $189.
Some impressive numbers there. Now if only Amazon would explain what their bestseller rankings really mean in terms of sales. It appears to be one of the great mysteries, right up there with crop circles.
I was curious, how many many people out there own an eBook reader now or received one over the holidays?
December 18, 2010
The top 10 most searched words on Mirriam-Webster Online
#1: Pretentious
#2: Ubiquitous
#3: Love
#4: Cynical
#5: Apathetic
#6: Conundrum
#7: Albeit
#8: Ambiguous
#9: Integrity
#10: Affect/Effect
#2: Ubiquitous
#3: Love
#4: Cynical
#5: Apathetic
#6: Conundrum
#7: Albeit
#8: Ambiguous
#9: Integrity
#10: Affect/Effect
December 13, 2010
The 10% Solution
I've been rewriting and rewriting the first couple of chapters of The Rebels. It's set a record for me. I rarely have to rewrite something more than once, if at all. I'm usually fairly comfortable with what I put down on a page, but not this story.
I finally had a version I was fairly happy with. Well, 90% happy. It was a much better effort with a bang at the beginning and good character interaction between the mains, but I knew there was something missing. That last little niggling 10%. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was there.
In The Empire, it was the 2nd chapter that really lifted the story. It made the reader 'feel' what the character was experiencing. While it was an uncomfortable feeling, it showed the strength of the writing. Without it, it was just an ordinary story, at least for me.
Well, I finally realize what it is. The greatest lesson I've learned in rewriting these few chapters over and over, is that a writer shouldn't hang onto favorite ideas. It can be detrimental to the health of a story.
Spoiler
On to the solution. Originally I introduced Sester as a mysterious character in a cell. It had a detached feel and the potential for something extremely engaging was missed. Now that I'm introducing Argus as a mysterious character, it made it redundant to do it with Sester too. Plus there is an element of excitement involved with Sester during the escape that was bypassed in the writing, so I am going to change this part of his story line, bring him in much earlier and make his experience much more dynamic and intense.
I finally had a version I was fairly happy with. Well, 90% happy. It was a much better effort with a bang at the beginning and good character interaction between the mains, but I knew there was something missing. That last little niggling 10%. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was there.
In The Empire, it was the 2nd chapter that really lifted the story. It made the reader 'feel' what the character was experiencing. While it was an uncomfortable feeling, it showed the strength of the writing. Without it, it was just an ordinary story, at least for me.
Well, I finally realize what it is. The greatest lesson I've learned in rewriting these few chapters over and over, is that a writer shouldn't hang onto favorite ideas. It can be detrimental to the health of a story.
Spoiler
On to the solution. Originally I introduced Sester as a mysterious character in a cell. It had a detached feel and the potential for something extremely engaging was missed. Now that I'm introducing Argus as a mysterious character, it made it redundant to do it with Sester too. Plus there is an element of excitement involved with Sester during the escape that was bypassed in the writing, so I am going to change this part of his story line, bring him in much earlier and make his experience much more dynamic and intense.
