Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "jk-rowling"
The last adult to read Harry Potter
Recently I listened to the first book of the Harry Potter series. I feel like I’m the last adult on earth to have not read a Harry Potter book, or watched a movie or otherwise have been touched by the series. I’ve read and loved all three of JK Rowling’s mystery writer (penname -Robert Galbraith’s) books. I like the detective she created Cormoran Strike as a character. He has many layers and oddities, but yet is still believable and the mysteries are good.
I also add that I don’t as a rule read fantasy, vampires, or young adult books. There are so many good mystery, thriller, and frankly romance books, that I haven’t run out of the genre yet. I purchased the Sorcerer’s Stone as an audiobook and sat back awaiting to be amazed by a master storyteller. After listening to the first line and the first page, I wasn’t gripped by the story. It’s wasn’t bad, just mildly entertaining for me. In the mystery genre there is great pressure to open with an amazing first sentence and page.
Perhaps an hour into the seven hour audiobook, Harry arrived at the Hogwarts School, and then I begin to appreciate the foundation of the story. An eleven year old boy attending a magic school that sounded like one of those stiff upper lip British preparatory schools. The material the author had to create a rich story and indeed a series that could carry on exploded into my imagination. The icing on the cake for me was the game of Quidditch. I so admired the literary talent that it took to create that game and know that the story needed the game. To think that they would play a different game than mere mortals, but to then make it similar enough that you could grasp the game was brilliant on the part of Rowling. I want to see the movie just to watch that game come to life. In fact I’ve already watched a film clip on You Tube.
In an age of Disney and other children’s roles wherein children are separated from their parents, then reunited with family toward the end of the story, this was a story less about the traditional family and more about coming of age with one friends while being mentored by a larger family of witches and warlocks. The story gives Harry and his immediate friends a moral code from the start. They don’t use the invisible coat and the broomstick for greed, rather in Harry’s case at the end of this first story, he now had a means to fairly fight his bully cousin - not to beat him with magic, but rather to contain the damage the kid had done in the past.
I’ve never used my blog to review a book and that is not what this post is about. Rather I am admiring JK Rowling’s imagination and writing skills as the force behind what has now become the Harry Potter Empire. I know she discussed on Twitter in recent days the naming of Harry Potter’s child, so I’m looking forward to reading the next installation to enjoy the journey as Harry transforms from an eleven year old to a father and what adventures he’ll have along the way.
I know I have seven or eight more books to read to get to the end of the series and I’m looking forward to examining how Rowling expands her characters with the next book and perhaps have a glimpse as to why she ended the series. In my current series Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist, one of the things I’m thinking about is when is it time to end a series. I have six books complete and another in my head, so maybe Rowling as the Master writer, will help me understand when it’s time for a series to end.
I also add that I don’t as a rule read fantasy, vampires, or young adult books. There are so many good mystery, thriller, and frankly romance books, that I haven’t run out of the genre yet. I purchased the Sorcerer’s Stone as an audiobook and sat back awaiting to be amazed by a master storyteller. After listening to the first line and the first page, I wasn’t gripped by the story. It’s wasn’t bad, just mildly entertaining for me. In the mystery genre there is great pressure to open with an amazing first sentence and page.
Perhaps an hour into the seven hour audiobook, Harry arrived at the Hogwarts School, and then I begin to appreciate the foundation of the story. An eleven year old boy attending a magic school that sounded like one of those stiff upper lip British preparatory schools. The material the author had to create a rich story and indeed a series that could carry on exploded into my imagination. The icing on the cake for me was the game of Quidditch. I so admired the literary talent that it took to create that game and know that the story needed the game. To think that they would play a different game than mere mortals, but to then make it similar enough that you could grasp the game was brilliant on the part of Rowling. I want to see the movie just to watch that game come to life. In fact I’ve already watched a film clip on You Tube.
In an age of Disney and other children’s roles wherein children are separated from their parents, then reunited with family toward the end of the story, this was a story less about the traditional family and more about coming of age with one friends while being mentored by a larger family of witches and warlocks. The story gives Harry and his immediate friends a moral code from the start. They don’t use the invisible coat and the broomstick for greed, rather in Harry’s case at the end of this first story, he now had a means to fairly fight his bully cousin - not to beat him with magic, but rather to contain the damage the kid had done in the past.
I’ve never used my blog to review a book and that is not what this post is about. Rather I am admiring JK Rowling’s imagination and writing skills as the force behind what has now become the Harry Potter Empire. I know she discussed on Twitter in recent days the naming of Harry Potter’s child, so I’m looking forward to reading the next installation to enjoy the journey as Harry transforms from an eleven year old to a father and what adventures he’ll have along the way.
I know I have seven or eight more books to read to get to the end of the series and I’m looking forward to examining how Rowling expands her characters with the next book and perhaps have a glimpse as to why she ended the series. In my current series Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist, one of the things I’m thinking about is when is it time to end a series. I have six books complete and another in my head, so maybe Rowling as the Master writer, will help me understand when it’s time for a series to end.
Layering of a story
My current work in progress, Red Rock Island, which will be published mid-July is an interesting case study in pantser writing. Pantsers are writers who write by the seat of their pants. They sit down at the keyboard and begin a story with no idea of where it’s going. Compare that to J.K. Rowling who appears to be an outliner based on the storyboard that I’ve seen regarding her Harry Potter series. There are pros and cons to each style of writing and most writing instructors end with the advice to go with what works for you, the writer.
When I began my second series I started with a single premise. I’d put a guy who lives on the only private island inside San Francisco bay and he would solve crimes based on an engineering background combined with computer skills. That was all I started with. Today I’m sitting with the book 75% finished at over 60,000 words and I know I’ve got to solve my two cold cases, but I still don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I know it will come to me. The reason I can’t outline, is I don’t know the story ending without knowing the details I’ve come upon along the way.
Since the story began I’ve added eighteen characters, two cold case victims, a dog and two cats. Some of the characters will be specific to this book only and other will continue as the series goes forward.
I had a teenager pop into the storyline out of nowhere and I’m fairly sure I won’t solve her mystery for a few books yet.
My main character, Damian Green, I thought would remain static throughout the story. He’d start alone and end alone, but he wouldn’t stay in the box I had planned, and so a woman along with a teenager appear in the story. Again I had no predilection that this was going to happen from the start rather it fit the story as it unfolded.
I understand that Lee Child writes his Jack Reacher series much the same way. He starts each story with Jack arriving somewhere and when he begins he doesn’t know what kind of trouble is going to find Jack in this new town, only that he will.
It’s both the agony and the ecstasy of each new story. I’m excited to see where a story takes me, but I can get stuck if I occasionally write myself into a dead end or when I don’t hear the story’s characters calling out to me.
Weird huh?
When I began my second series I started with a single premise. I’d put a guy who lives on the only private island inside San Francisco bay and he would solve crimes based on an engineering background combined with computer skills. That was all I started with. Today I’m sitting with the book 75% finished at over 60,000 words and I know I’ve got to solve my two cold cases, but I still don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I know it will come to me. The reason I can’t outline, is I don’t know the story ending without knowing the details I’ve come upon along the way.
Since the story began I’ve added eighteen characters, two cold case victims, a dog and two cats. Some of the characters will be specific to this book only and other will continue as the series goes forward.
I had a teenager pop into the storyline out of nowhere and I’m fairly sure I won’t solve her mystery for a few books yet.
My main character, Damian Green, I thought would remain static throughout the story. He’d start alone and end alone, but he wouldn’t stay in the box I had planned, and so a woman along with a teenager appear in the story. Again I had no predilection that this was going to happen from the start rather it fit the story as it unfolded.
I understand that Lee Child writes his Jack Reacher series much the same way. He starts each story with Jack arriving somewhere and when he begins he doesn’t know what kind of trouble is going to find Jack in this new town, only that he will.
It’s both the agony and the ecstasy of each new story. I’m excited to see where a story takes me, but I can get stuck if I occasionally write myself into a dead end or when I don’t hear the story’s characters calling out to me.
Weird huh?
