David G. Cookson's Blog, page 22
January 2, 2018
Your New Year's Resolution...
Read Pain Center: the Novel. In return, I promise to write something else this year, 'k?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
December 28, 2017
Virtually Perfect
Virtually Perfect by Paige RobertsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the 30th book I've read and rated this year. I don't think I'm going to finish any more books before Sunday, so this should be it. 30 is a nice round number...
Lizzie Glass, a former reality TV chef who has fallen on hard times, takes a job as a personal chef to a rich family in their summer home by the beach. While dealing with this dysfunctional group and their individual food needs (Paleo, gluten free and whatever diet is trendy this year) as well as their quirks, (including the overly talkative matriarch of the family and the hard to reach and even harder to please Zoe, as well as their oversexed and ultimately bored friends) Lizzie discovers a secret about the family and Zoe’s health food website that threatens to shake their empire to the core.
I am only mildly conflicted about this book, since for the most part I really enjoyed it, but found it maybe a little predictable. I partly blame the summary at the back of the book, which clued me into several things that happened before they happened. I can’t really blame the author for that, but much like doing a puzzle, just a few clues here and there pretty much unlocked where she was going with this. The big secret in the book didn’t come as much of a secret, if you were really paying attention. I also thought it wound up being so tight and tidy and interconnected that all the parts fit and added to this element of predictability. As an example of story organization, it definitely gets an “A.” Maybe I’m just jealous.
But that said, I don’t think it bothered me so much. I got through it in about 3 days and it held my interest. It is good, and I am easy to please.
View all my reviews
December 18, 2017
Pain Center: thank you.
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to thank anyone who took the time this year to read my little book, Pain Center: the Novel. I think it has gotten a pretty fair shake from a cross-section of readers across the country. I have had mostly positive reviews, a few stellar reviews, and a few who didn't like it or just didn't get into it. I'm learning to not take it too personally. I don't try to influence anyone's opinion. I just enjoy hearing what you think. As a writer, the only thing I ever want is to be read.
I don't want to single anyone out. I just want to offer a general thank you. As I continue my journey as a writer, I hope those of you who enjoy what I do will come along.
---David G. Cookson
If you still haven't read it....
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
I just wanted to thank anyone who took the time this year to read my little book, Pain Center: the Novel. I think it has gotten a pretty fair shake from a cross-section of readers across the country. I have had mostly positive reviews, a few stellar reviews, and a few who didn't like it or just didn't get into it. I'm learning to not take it too personally. I don't try to influence anyone's opinion. I just enjoy hearing what you think. As a writer, the only thing I ever want is to be read.
I don't want to single anyone out. I just want to offer a general thank you. As I continue my journey as a writer, I hope those of you who enjoy what I do will come along.
---David G. Cookson
If you still haven't read it....
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
December 14, 2017
The Dinner Party
The Dinner Party and Other Stories by Joshua FerrisMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read and enjoyed Then We Came to the End (a great novel about life in an office), enough to read Joshua Ferris' second novel, The Unnamed (about a man who can't stop walking, a very difficult concept to pull off and not make depressing), which I didn't like, and then there is the third book To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, which I didn't read. So you might say that The Dinner Party , a collection of 11 short stories, could be somewhat of a tiebreaker in my Joshua Ferris assessment.
To that end, we'll have to call it a push.
These slice of life stories are usually set in big cities and feature various people at some degree of loneliness or desperation (see: More Abandon, or Whatever Happened to Joe Pope.) They seem to hit the note he is going for, and most of these stories wind up leaving the reader uneasy.
While I am not really a reader of short stories, overall I did find this book enjoyable. If you want to dive in to Ferris' work this is probably a good place to start.
View all my reviews
November 30, 2017
Notes on doing my Tenth National Novel Writing Month Novel.
This is the tenth time I have attacked the problem of writing a 50 thousand word novel in 30 days. And I am once again a novel writing winner, as one of these words in this sentence is my fifty thousandth word….
They can’t all be winners. I’ve had some stinkers in the past 10 years. Some don’t work because the idea was crap, or it got too complicated, or maybe it just wasn’t enough to get through the whole month. Some didn’t work because even though I had fun writing them, there is just too much work to do for it to make sense.
But I’ve learned some tricks in the last ten years that I can share with you, some of which came from the No Plot? No Problem book by National Novel Writing Founder Chris Baty (if the idea came from the book, I will note it in parenthesis).
• I extend the crap out of sequences by adding words that won’t be necessary in any rewrite. In a way, it is the exact opposite of the way I would normally write, as I tend to be pithy and to the point. But for quickly writing a lot of words in this 30 day period, grit and experience help me to get past the finish line.
• I make long names work for me. (tip from the book)
• I repeat a lot of things for emphasis.
• I head up my chapters with quotes relating to the subject, which I delete in the rewrite. These are just to keep me on task and focused…
• I keep a running table of contents with a quick summary of the action in the chapter. This both helps to add words and to aid in the eventual rewrite.
• I try to get the book to the 49 thousand part before I do the dirty trick of adding an intro (like this one!).
• I use words to talk through scenes. Better to have something there than to have nothing. You can always rewrite (this is sort of from the book, I’m just adapting it for my own purposes.)
Remember: all the words count. They are yours.
Other things I do, or at least try to:
• Keep a notebook. Funny ideas occur to me all the time, all throughout the year. I can’t just expect to only have ideas in November. But if I take ideas that I have collected throughout the year, the writing experience tends to be much better.
• Take breaks. I like to write to the minimum, and write every day. For one secret about the month long novel writing: a month is actually a pretty long time. Putting in an hour and a half a day is not that hard, but it does take some effort and concentration and you really can’t get behind. Because my approach does not include “Word Sprints” or word wars (challenging yourself and others to write for a certain period of time) I simply can’t fall too far behind.
• Know yourself. At this point, I know what I need to do to get this done. Will it be good? Who knows? But know how you are as a writer. DO you thrive by grinding it out? Or are you a thinker? I’m a bit of a thinker. I like to take my time and get phrasing right. Other people just plow ahead and write with reckless abandon. There is no wrong approach.
• Above all else, just write. YOU are not going to hurt anyone by writing. You can definitely do it.
So how does The Three Hour Nap Clause look?
Eh...I have ideas for the rewrite. Plenty of time for that.
They can’t all be winners. I’ve had some stinkers in the past 10 years. Some don’t work because the idea was crap, or it got too complicated, or maybe it just wasn’t enough to get through the whole month. Some didn’t work because even though I had fun writing them, there is just too much work to do for it to make sense.
But I’ve learned some tricks in the last ten years that I can share with you, some of which came from the No Plot? No Problem book by National Novel Writing Founder Chris Baty (if the idea came from the book, I will note it in parenthesis).
• I extend the crap out of sequences by adding words that won’t be necessary in any rewrite. In a way, it is the exact opposite of the way I would normally write, as I tend to be pithy and to the point. But for quickly writing a lot of words in this 30 day period, grit and experience help me to get past the finish line.
• I make long names work for me. (tip from the book)
• I repeat a lot of things for emphasis.
• I head up my chapters with quotes relating to the subject, which I delete in the rewrite. These are just to keep me on task and focused…
• I keep a running table of contents with a quick summary of the action in the chapter. This both helps to add words and to aid in the eventual rewrite.
• I try to get the book to the 49 thousand part before I do the dirty trick of adding an intro (like this one!).
• I use words to talk through scenes. Better to have something there than to have nothing. You can always rewrite (this is sort of from the book, I’m just adapting it for my own purposes.)
Remember: all the words count. They are yours.
Other things I do, or at least try to:
• Keep a notebook. Funny ideas occur to me all the time, all throughout the year. I can’t just expect to only have ideas in November. But if I take ideas that I have collected throughout the year, the writing experience tends to be much better.
• Take breaks. I like to write to the minimum, and write every day. For one secret about the month long novel writing: a month is actually a pretty long time. Putting in an hour and a half a day is not that hard, but it does take some effort and concentration and you really can’t get behind. Because my approach does not include “Word Sprints” or word wars (challenging yourself and others to write for a certain period of time) I simply can’t fall too far behind.
• Know yourself. At this point, I know what I need to do to get this done. Will it be good? Who knows? But know how you are as a writer. DO you thrive by grinding it out? Or are you a thinker? I’m a bit of a thinker. I like to take my time and get phrasing right. Other people just plow ahead and write with reckless abandon. There is no wrong approach.
• Above all else, just write. YOU are not going to hurt anyone by writing. You can definitely do it.
So how does The Three Hour Nap Clause look?
Eh...I have ideas for the rewrite. Plenty of time for that.
November 29, 2017
Other books by David G. Cookson
In Case you were wondering...
These are my books...
The Best of Thunder Johnson (2008)
The Self Affirmator (2009)
The Crush a Dream Foundation (2010)
Beer Club, Book One: the Elephant Mascot. (2011)
The Unemployed Weatherman (2012)
The Council of Failed Public Figures (2013)
The Moderation Project (2014)
Beer Club: Legacy (2015)
Pain Center: the Novel! (2016)
David G. Cookson is also the author of a short novel written over the summer of 2017:
Beer Club 3: It’s Not as bad as You might Think!
But you can buy this one now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
These are my books...
The Best of Thunder Johnson (2008)
The Self Affirmator (2009)
The Crush a Dream Foundation (2010)
Beer Club, Book One: the Elephant Mascot. (2011)
The Unemployed Weatherman (2012)
The Council of Failed Public Figures (2013)
The Moderation Project (2014)
Beer Club: Legacy (2015)
Pain Center: the Novel! (2016)
David G. Cookson is also the author of a short novel written over the summer of 2017:
Beer Club 3: It’s Not as bad as You might Think!
But you can buy this one now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
November 26, 2017
A Big Old Sensitivity Party.
NaNoWriMo Novel rounding the far turn, headed into the stretch...
I slid open the glass door that led to the outside. “It’s 127 floors, Ralph…what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going after Reena. I’m going to do what I should have done before.”
“And what’s that?”
“We’re gonna have some dinner. And then we’re gonna talk. And maybe talk about our feelings. And my feelings. And how they relate to her feelings. A big old sensitivity party. Because it’s like you said: we’re special. We’re snowflakes. We need each other. We need to be told that we’re special. We need to be able to nap wherever and whenever we want. Because do you know what I realized? It’s not all about you, or me. It’s about everyone. We can all take better care of each other. We can all look out for one another. It all starts with someone taking a stand, or a knee, or whatever you have to do. It starts with one, then it goes the all of us… All of us. Everyone…every one of us..,”
I climbed out on to the ledge…and took a step up…summoning all my strengths that played right into my new skill set…
“I will go down the way I want to go down. Fast asleep and oblivious to my fate."
Read Pain Center: the Novel if you want to read more stuff like this, in a paper book assembled like a zine.. http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
I slid open the glass door that led to the outside. “It’s 127 floors, Ralph…what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going after Reena. I’m going to do what I should have done before.”
“And what’s that?”
“We’re gonna have some dinner. And then we’re gonna talk. And maybe talk about our feelings. And my feelings. And how they relate to her feelings. A big old sensitivity party. Because it’s like you said: we’re special. We’re snowflakes. We need each other. We need to be told that we’re special. We need to be able to nap wherever and whenever we want. Because do you know what I realized? It’s not all about you, or me. It’s about everyone. We can all take better care of each other. We can all look out for one another. It all starts with someone taking a stand, or a knee, or whatever you have to do. It starts with one, then it goes the all of us… All of us. Everyone…every one of us..,”
I climbed out on to the ledge…and took a step up…summoning all my strengths that played right into my new skill set…
“I will go down the way I want to go down. Fast asleep and oblivious to my fate."
Read Pain Center: the Novel if you want to read more stuff like this, in a paper book assembled like a zine.. http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
November 25, 2017
BRO!!!
Rounding the corner in my National Novel Writing Novel: No NAP! SO CRANKY!!!....
“He got himself into that shit. He always had some kind of crusade. Chose to live out in the middle of the woods like a crazy old man…Making people feel like full grown adult napping was a legitimate activity. Can you imagine that going mainstream? Alpha male assholes all high fiving each other calling each other ‘Bro’ and power napping? Bro! I’m totally gonna POWER NAP! Bro!!! That was the world he was making up there. I wanted no part of it. I only sent you up there because it seemed like something that would benefit you, would be a place where you could hide for a while. I wasn’t working for him...I don’t care what he told you…”
looking for that little gift this Holiday Season? Buy one of my books! Pain Center: the Novel, on sale!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
“He got himself into that shit. He always had some kind of crusade. Chose to live out in the middle of the woods like a crazy old man…Making people feel like full grown adult napping was a legitimate activity. Can you imagine that going mainstream? Alpha male assholes all high fiving each other calling each other ‘Bro’ and power napping? Bro! I’m totally gonna POWER NAP! Bro!!! That was the world he was making up there. I wanted no part of it. I only sent you up there because it seemed like something that would benefit you, would be a place where you could hide for a while. I wasn’t working for him...I don’t care what he told you…”
looking for that little gift this Holiday Season? Buy one of my books! Pain Center: the Novel, on sale!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
November 24, 2017
The Biggest Nap of my Life.
This blurb makes it sound like I'm writing something dramatic and important. I'll go ahead and let you believe that. #NaNoWriMo2017
“Ate a little too much turkey. I feel like you.”
“That’s not very fucking funny. You have some explaining to do.”
“We talk on the way…”
She pulled away from the Colony, driving fast down these country roads.
“The Founder told me about you."
"He and I have a complicated relationship that stretches back for years."
“What about Reena?”
“They found her. I came by…the door was smashed in. Apartment tossed around. I knew they were looking for you, they’d make them tell where she brought you…That’s why I raced up here to get you. It was only a matter of time before they connected the dots and came to me next. And then find you…”
“Everywhere I go, people suffer…”
“You still haven’t grasped how important you are…”
I have to do this to prove to myself that I still have a shred of humanity left in me. I have to take my shot. And I have to make it count.
But first, I need to take the biggest nap of my life.
“Ate a little too much turkey. I feel like you.”
“That’s not very fucking funny. You have some explaining to do.”
“We talk on the way…”
She pulled away from the Colony, driving fast down these country roads.
“The Founder told me about you."
"He and I have a complicated relationship that stretches back for years."
“What about Reena?”
“They found her. I came by…the door was smashed in. Apartment tossed around. I knew they were looking for you, they’d make them tell where she brought you…That’s why I raced up here to get you. It was only a matter of time before they connected the dots and came to me next. And then find you…”
“Everywhere I go, people suffer…”
“You still haven’t grasped how important you are…”
I have to do this to prove to myself that I still have a shred of humanity left in me. I have to take my shot. And I have to make it count.
But first, I need to take the biggest nap of my life.
November 23, 2017
OFF THE RAILS>>>
My novel might have gone off the rails around chapter 37...
He hit PLAY.
Underground trains carrying bodies.
Supply vehicles driving up and supplies being lowered into the hole.
Domiciles, apartments…people living in the hole.
Scientists doing experiments.
Aliens held prisoner.
Bad things…
Stock footage of apes and chimpanzees.
Bad people.
Submarines.
Then somehow, the conspiracy got out…
And interest was revived in the site…
That’s when the Foundation stepped in to try to revive the project of the 60’s. To finish the job. To find the evidence that was left in the hole under the Nap Colony…that happy fun land for the never Do wells for whom napping is a way of life that few rarely get to enjoy…
He hit PLAY.
Underground trains carrying bodies.
Supply vehicles driving up and supplies being lowered into the hole.
Domiciles, apartments…people living in the hole.
Scientists doing experiments.
Aliens held prisoner.
Bad things…
Stock footage of apes and chimpanzees.
Bad people.
Submarines.
Then somehow, the conspiracy got out…
And interest was revived in the site…
That’s when the Foundation stepped in to try to revive the project of the 60’s. To finish the job. To find the evidence that was left in the hole under the Nap Colony…that happy fun land for the never Do wells for whom napping is a way of life that few rarely get to enjoy…
