Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 188
June 7, 2012
Book Review: Getting Dunn
by Tom Schreck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read Tom Schreck’s prior novel, Vegas Knockout and loved it, so I eagerly anticipated another action-filled, somewhat humorous, life with a grain-of-salt-and-two-grains-of-aspirin sort of escapade in his newest novel, Getting Dunn (Thomas & Mercer 2012). The title even sounds that way, doesn’t it? Like a fast-moving action novel interlaced with enough humor to keep it from being frightening.
And that’s how it was for the first 2/3rds. An ex-military MP-turned stripper–TJ Dunn–and suicide hotline host struggles to come to grips with the death of her fiancee. Despite being two years in her rear view mirror and weekly therapy, she can’t move on. It haunts her days and dreams. When she finds out he might have been murdered, she reluctantly joins his ex-best friend to uncover the truth.
Schreck does his usual superb job of sketching out TJ’s character, with riveting details about her experience in Afghanistan, the dance hall she performs at several times a week, and her day job as a suicide hotline counselor. He spends much time (maybe more than necessary, but I kept reading) detailing the motivations and emotions that drive her, enough so that I find myself believing she could be real. Why not? Those two jobs aren’t that contrary, are they? He does equally well with the other central figures. I’d say character development is one of his strengths, one many authors struggle to achieve.
Just as the pace begins to drag (because I’m already convinced of TJ’s motivations and don’t need another example to drive the point home) and I start wishing there was more action than stripping, talking suicidal victims down from the ledge and TJ crying over the depth of emotion she continues to carry over the disasters of her past life, the action begins. Duffy (the lovable boxer from Vegas Knockout) appears as a potential love interest. He’s always fun, especially with his sidekick, Al. I like authors who tie together characters developed in other books with new ones. It makes the whole fictional world so much more real. And then Forbus appears–an emotionless killer who I can almost empathize with through Schreck’s writer’s lens:
Forbus found Dunn a fascinating quarry. First of all, having an opponent who was a woman was different and presented Forbus with different variables. Second, and maybe this was related to being a woman, Dunn was fired with emotion. It made it difficult to predict her behavior or call her next move. Third, she seemed to have this outdated Hollywood version of honor.
Doesn’t that make you want to get to know Forbus better. Certainly, I’d never want to be in her cross hairs, but reading about her–that feels safe. I wriggled into my reading chair and ignored the clock’s call to bed.
About 3/4ths of the way into the story, the plot took a dangerous turn from willing suspension of disbelief to, well, skepticism. A plot twist (which I won’t reveal because I don’t want to spoil the story) turned the story’s entire theme on end, so significantly it now required a different sort of reader to enjoy the new direction. I consider Schreck’s audience to be thriller/action readers–kind of like TJ, with a sense of honor, belief in country, a bias for action. The change required a conspiracy theory believer–someone who was willing to believe concepts like the American government actively caused 9/11. Yes, that’s a valid audience, but not the one who picked up this book. I liked the book greatly up to this point, and now it seems ridiculous, like I was tricked.
The odd part is, what that twist accomplished could have been done with any number of other devices that were true to the theme of the story. I don’t understand why Schreck selected this one, unless he has some political point he wants subtly to make.
I was prepared to award 4/5 stars (Schreck is still developing his plotting techniques as a writer which cost him a star. I expect each book, he’ll be stronger in that area), but now I’m struggling to give 3/5. And, I’m not sure I’ll read any more of his books. I feel sad about that. I’ll miss Duffy.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews, thrillers Tagged: action, book review, thriller
June 6, 2012
Check out my Article Over at Write Anything
I have an interesting article over on Write Anything. If you can’t make it–no worries. I’ll post it here soon.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: blogs, writers Tagged: guest post
June 5, 2012
Tech Tip for Writers #59: Shortkey for the Copyright Symbol
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: How do you create the copyright symbol in Word?
A: It’s easier than you’d think. Hold down the Alt key and press 0169. Use the keypad with the num lock on–don’t use the number row. I could not get this to work until someone pointed out that you must use the keypad. Duh.
This not only works in Office, but lots of other places, ©–like WordPress. Cool, huh?
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: copyright symbol, shortkeys, tech tips, writers tips
June 4, 2012
Writer’s Tips #9: Add Sensory Detail
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. I’ll point them out. They’ll come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments. Please add comments with your favorite editing fixes.
You experience the world with your senses–
tactile
smell
sight
taste
auditory
Allow your readers to do the same. There are lots of descriptors that will make them swear they are smack dab in the middle of your plot:
the rich herbal smell of ***
the sticky feel, like sap from a tree
the dogs’ baying announced their success.
the splash of red amidst the drab browns
the light taste of cayenne reminded her of Robert’s cooking
Here are some that provide a slightly different take on our traditional senses (from books I’ve read, so tweak them before using):
anger steamed behind him like smoke from a power plant
predatory eyes
he could see the weight in her walk
Sensory detail always inspires my creativity. Not only is it the spice that makes a novel memorable, it’s also fun to include as the author. I have a lot of posts about descriptors, many of them including the senses. Browse through them and see if any spark your imagination.
Do you have some favorite details to share?
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: writers tips Tagged: sensory detail, writers tips
June 1, 2012
Check out my Article over at Cisco
Cisco CLUE
…on the status of teaching. You might find it interesting. If you can’t get over there, no worries. I’ll post it on my Ask a Tech Teacher blog in a few weeks.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: blogs, teaching Tagged: cisco, teaching
May 30, 2012
Book Review: The Third Gate
The Third Gate: A Novel by Lincoln Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sci Fi meets historic fiction in Lincoln Child’s newest novel, The Third Gate (Doubleday 2012) as world-renowned treasurer hunter Porter Stone sets his sites on what is considered the Holy Grail of Egyptology–a pharaoh’s grave. This one is the resting place of none other than Narmer, the pharaoh who united Lower and Upper Egypt thousands of years ago. When odd–read that ‘unnatural’–events begin to pepper the dig site, he calls in self-proclaimed enigmatologist (a specialist in enigmas) Jeremy Logan. What adds to the drama is that the site is located in the Sudd, a god-foresaken bogland south of the Egyptian border that the dig organizer calls Hell on Earth. Logan not only has made a career of studying oddities, but is an empath–a person who feels a person’s emotional history by simply touching them. It doesn’t take Logan long to realize the excavation is cursed and only withdrawing–which Stone refuses to do–can they end their problems.
This is an interesting tale with enough historic details to make readers of that genre deliriously happy. Despite what has become in action novels an ubiquitous reference to Occam’s Razor–that sometimes the simplest explanation is the best–this tale is smart and challenging with lots of detail on ancient Egypt, the treacherous Sudd setting, and enough discussion on near-death experiences to get me interested in that topic. The plot–pitting a committed treasurer hunter against a deadly curse that seems more alive every day–is riveting, but not well told through the eyes of the main character, Jeremy Logan. He spends the first three-fourths of the book observing the action around him rather than being involved in it. True, he was hired to observe, but it puts the reader at arms length from the crises that pepper the plot–the mystical figures that appear on the treacherous Sudd landscape, the unexplained injuries to workers, the fact that the expedition’s wife seems possessed by the dead pharaoh. Where these should strike fear in our heart and keep us turning pages, I found myself unaffected, because Logan was unaffected. This slowed the pace and stripped the terror that would otherwise imbue the plot.
Overall, a good read, challenging to those who enjoy an intellectual romp.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book review, child, sci-fi
May 29, 2012
Tech Tip for Writers #57: How to Create a Chart Really Fast
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: What’s the easiest way to create Excel charts from data?
A: Writing is your love, but if you earn money doing it, you collect data, and if you have data, you likely need to turn it into easily-read charts every now and then.
Excel makes that easy. Collect all of your data onto an Excel spreadsheet, categories labeled as columns and rows. Highlight the labels and data and push F11.
That’s it–a simple chart.
For more detail, here’s a link to a lesson plan I use with grades 3-5 on creating quick charts from data.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: charts, Excel, tech tips, writers tips
May 28, 2012
Happy Memorial Day
I’m taking the day to honor our soldiers. Without their sacrifice, where would we be?
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMStech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: I love the USA, politics, writers tips Tagged: American soldier, memorial day, toby keith
May 25, 2012
Book Review: The Last Refuge
The Last Refuge
by Ben Coes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ben Coes–you get better every time.
If you read either of the first two Dewey Andreas novels–or both of them–don’t miss the next in the series, The Last Refuge (St. Martin’s Press 2012). Coes has always been a good-to-great writer, but here, he’s on a par with the best (I won’t name names). Dewey is vintage Good Guy with the loyalty, strength, common man characteristics we Andreas fans have come to expect from our hero. There are lots of Great Dewey moments like this one:
Dewey sprinted through the terrace door, onto shattered glass, then jumped, right foot first, to the railing, then out into the open air. As he leapt, he turned, rotating, and fired back up at the terrace.
Can you see him running full-tilt, leaping into thin air while maintaining the presence of mind to pivot and fire at his enemy? God, I love Dewey.
The supporting characters are fully fleshed and likeable. The plot is non-stop action that tingles with twists and tricks. Coes uses the questionable device of multiple point of views to bury the reader in the action. In the hands of Coes, it works brilliantly, infusing the story with rich, full emotion and drama. From the beginning, Coes leaves us wondering how Andreas can accomplish his assigned task. Over and over, we see no way, yet Dewey has a plan and works it, built on nothing but his cleverness and belief in success.
I found it surprising that Coes characterized Andreas as NOT a planner. Dewey is always a step ahead of me in his problem-solving. I spent much of the book trying to figure out why he did some of the creative stuff he did, only to see it all wrapped up nicely in the end.
What a great read. Don’t–really, I mean it–don’t miss this.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews, thrillers Tagged: andreas, book review, coes, thriller
May 23, 2012
50 Ways to Tell a Story (and Each is Unique)
I was exploring the internet–part of the requirement of staying on top of my writer’s craft–and came across Alan Levine’s fascinating presentation of fifty ways to tell the same story. Watch this video. You’ll find yourself motivated, inspired, persuaded to try at least half of them.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: authors, writers resources Tagged: online tools, storytelling, Web 2.0
