Roger Eschbacher's Blog, page 37
July 2, 2010
Beta Reader -- Activate!
Just a quick update --
Spent the week doing a fairly rigorous edit of Caden before sending the manuscript off to trusted beta reader JZ tonight. I'm pleased with how things are going so far. To me, it comes across as a fun and easy read that I think kids will enjoy. Hope it comes across that way to him, too.
I'm kind of amazed at how quickly I got through the first edit, averaging about five chapters a day. I'm choosing to tell myself it went that fast because there are no errors and the story ...
Spent the week doing a fairly rigorous edit of Caden before sending the manuscript off to trusted beta reader JZ tonight. I'm pleased with how things are going so far. To me, it comes across as a fun and easy read that I think kids will enjoy. Hope it comes across that way to him, too.
I'm kind of amazed at how quickly I got through the first edit, averaging about five chapters a day. I'm choosing to tell myself it went that fast because there are no errors and the story ...
June 28, 2010
So Far, So Good
Began the rewrite on Caden Brave, my new (2009 NaNo) middle grade novel. To quote the great Mel Brooks, I'm finding it to be "surprisingly not bad". I'm only a few chapters in, so hopefully that trend will continue.
Back at the end of the first draft, I'd had just about enough of Caden, and pretty much hated it. But I also know how these things go for me -- I get really sick of the manuscript, set it aside for a month or so, and then breathe a sigh of relief upon discovering that (amazingly) t...
Back at the end of the first draft, I'd had just about enough of Caden, and pretty much hated it. But I also know how these things go for me -- I get really sick of the manuscript, set it aside for a month or so, and then breathe a sigh of relief upon discovering that (amazingly) t...
May 16, 2010
FINALLY!!!
How I currently feelIf any of you were wondering where I've been for the last month or so, I've been writing and writing and writing (and writing) -- slogging my way through the last few chapters of my 2009 NaNo effort, "Caden Brave". Well, today, I did it. I typed the closing words of my first draft. FINALLY!Mind you, this is only the first draft, but now the hard part is over. I'm going to file it away for a month or so and get caught up on the skillions of other things I'm working on to ge...
March 26, 2010
"Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman - Mini Review
This chapter book is much more sparse in style than the usual fare from Neil Gaiman. Absent is the expected meticulous development and overall cleverness that make his other works such a delight to read. It is for younger kids so maybe he didn't feel the need to work out the story and character the way he usually does. "Odd and the Frost Giants" is a simple tale about an unlucky boy back in the days of the Vikings who comes to the aid of Odin, Thor, and Loki as they try to take back...
March 16, 2010
Awesome Screenplay Now Available for Bidding War!
Uh, yeah. Sure. We'll get back to you on that.Anyway... just completed an exhaustive rewrite of last April's Script Frenzy project "Nick of Time" and sent it off to the agent. I put a lot of work into getting it as close to "just right" as I could and in general, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. As I've mentioned before, I think it would make a fun flick -- either as effects-laden live action or as an animated flick in the style of "Howl's Moving Castle". It's kid-centric sci fi. An...
March 15, 2010
Novel News
Got a nice bit of good news the other day. My novel "Leonard the Great" has moved to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award thanks to this pitch:"If you think it was all good deeds and fancy ideals back in the days of Camelot, think again. Most people don't know this, but for a time things went seriously bad; Arthur was imprisoned, Merlin had vanished, and a vile demon had taken over the throne.
Young Leonard Albacore would have been shocked to learn any of this but...
March 12, 2010
Oh, So This is What He Looks Like!
I asked my very talented resident artist Molly to come up with a visualization for the title character of "Leonard the Great". Happily, she agreed. Pretty cool, huh?
March 9, 2010
"Stardust" by Neil Gaiman - Mini Review
Textbook example of the book being MUCH better than the movie -- not for the usual reason of "imagination versus visual reality" but because of superior storytelling ability."Stardust", the book, is a great tale told in Gaiman's signature style. Full of wry, sometimes dark humor, fun characters (drawn much deeper than their cartoonish film counterparts), and a more subtle and satisfying plot. All of this adds up to unquestioned literary supremacy over the weaker silverscreen...
February 15, 2010
"Without Warning" by John Birmingham - Mini Review
Described as a work of "alternate fiction", John Birmingham's "Without Warning" falls just inside the realm of science fiction, barely meeting that category description because of a deadly and unknown phenomenon that has scientists baffled.A techno/political/military thriller in the best tradition of authors like Michael Crichton and John Clancy, it's a grand "what if" mash up that asks, "What would happen if the United States and much of North America was essentially wiped clean by some...
February 12, 2010
"The Hostile Takeover Trilogy" by S. Andrew Swann - Mini Review
This whopper of a trilogy ("Profiteer", "Partisan", "Revolutionary") follows two brothers as they battle over Bakunin - an outlaw planet of congenital individualists located in the heart of the vast Confederacy. As the title hints, Bakunin is crawling with various corporations, each of which is a power unto itself, right down to having their own security forces which more closely resemble national armies.Dominic Magnus, a Bakunin CEO, and his brother Klaus, an agent of the Confederacy's cover...
