William Amerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "sky1-foundation"
Descriptions of Nick's world
Writing a blurb for a book is one of the hardest things I face. It's tough enough to write openings, make characters likeable or at least relate-able, because every word counts and the best writing makes the words do double or triple duty for description and meaning. Why make readers slog through a thousand words when you can, to use the cliche, paint a mental picture using only a hundred?
So back to the blurb. In writing to the reviewers I've solicited to read then review Sky1 - Foundation, I've had to expand upon the simple blurb. The funny thing is, the more I do it, the easier it becomes. It helps that I find the premise of the book--the way that a population decided to wall itself off from the rest of humanity--to be compelling. Ah, yes, that is a rather self-aggrandizing claim to make! But trust me, as an author, you want to be interested in the stuff you're wrighting about. Heck, more than interested, passionate.
Here's a sample of the latest description I used. Unfortunately, I didn't edit it before I submitted to the guy's "I review books!" blog, but it's something I can work with. Would love to hear what you think of it:
In a post-apocalyptic world, Nick Burke has been allotted 389 square feet of living space by the government. Disease spreads quickly when people are packed together so tightly. Quarantines have been imposed in an effort to contain the spread of infection.
When a quarantine is imposed on Nick's Ground, he and his family are trapped. The only way out is to break laws that carry a penalty of death.
Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, Nick joins forces with a local group to move to another Ground. But can he trust his new friends?
***
I thought of this series while recovering from a hangover in bed in Holland in 1997, looking up at the (late) morning sky through a skylight in the bedroom. The premise was simple; what would happen if Holland's population continued to boom but there was no land left to expand? The conclusion I reached was that they would have to expand upward, connecting their cities.
The world I have crafted exists seven hundred years in the future, where generations have grown up in this self-contained enormous building that houses over eighty million people. Over these centuries, the history of how and why the world was built has been lost to the citizens. Eventually, the series will deal with these questions, including what (and who) lives outside their world and what environmental changes are about to bring a very nasty surprise. This book is a pretty straight-forward thriller, a page-turner that allows me to set-up the rest of the series.
*********
That was it. What do you think? There are an incredible number of book review sites out there so I have plenty of time to tweak this description for maximum effect.
So back to the blurb. In writing to the reviewers I've solicited to read then review Sky1 - Foundation, I've had to expand upon the simple blurb. The funny thing is, the more I do it, the easier it becomes. It helps that I find the premise of the book--the way that a population decided to wall itself off from the rest of humanity--to be compelling. Ah, yes, that is a rather self-aggrandizing claim to make! But trust me, as an author, you want to be interested in the stuff you're wrighting about. Heck, more than interested, passionate.
Here's a sample of the latest description I used. Unfortunately, I didn't edit it before I submitted to the guy's "I review books!" blog, but it's something I can work with. Would love to hear what you think of it:
In a post-apocalyptic world, Nick Burke has been allotted 389 square feet of living space by the government. Disease spreads quickly when people are packed together so tightly. Quarantines have been imposed in an effort to contain the spread of infection.
When a quarantine is imposed on Nick's Ground, he and his family are trapped. The only way out is to break laws that carry a penalty of death.
Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, Nick joins forces with a local group to move to another Ground. But can he trust his new friends?
***
I thought of this series while recovering from a hangover in bed in Holland in 1997, looking up at the (late) morning sky through a skylight in the bedroom. The premise was simple; what would happen if Holland's population continued to boom but there was no land left to expand? The conclusion I reached was that they would have to expand upward, connecting their cities.
The world I have crafted exists seven hundred years in the future, where generations have grown up in this self-contained enormous building that houses over eighty million people. Over these centuries, the history of how and why the world was built has been lost to the citizens. Eventually, the series will deal with these questions, including what (and who) lives outside their world and what environmental changes are about to bring a very nasty surprise. This book is a pretty straight-forward thriller, a page-turner that allows me to set-up the rest of the series.
*********
That was it. What do you think? There are an incredible number of book review sites out there so I have plenty of time to tweak this description for maximum effect.
