Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
K.Z. wrote: "Anne wrote: "But sheep look and seem stupider than goats. :) I am probably being very unfair to sheep."Nope. Sheep are stupid. Gentle but stupid. I always thought of the one we had as the goats' ..."
Actually, I think that's all a front. When I went hiking in Scotland, I came to believe that the sheep are the true masters there. I really think Douglas Adams had it wrong: it's not the mice that rule the world, it's sheep. They wear this mask of outwards stupidity, when in truth they're the most devious and sly of creatures. I think I heard them laughing at me sometimes, especially when I stepped once again in their droppings.
... Scottish sheep are so cute, though. I totally fell in love with them. Devious, devious creatures.
Johanna wrote: "Anyway, I have the The Complete Brandstetter And a magnifying lens, I hope ;-).
Susinok wrote: "I am reading Shira Anthony's latest, Prelude (grr it won't link!), fourth book in the Blue Notes series. I really like these books. They are centered around the world of classical music, musicians,..."I enjoyed the first book, Blue Notes. It made me want to visit Paris lol. I got the second book as a DSP freebie so I'm going to start that soon. Is Prelude the 3rd or fourth book in the series?
Charlinda wrote: "I enjoyed the first book, Blue Notes. It made me want to visit Paris lol. I got the second book as a DSP freebie so I'm going to start that soon. Is Prelude the 3rd or fourth book in the series? ..."Prelude is the 4th book written, but it takes place before the first book. It's about David the conductor.
Karen wrote: "I almost never do this, but today I've reached a genuine DNF with TJ Klune's Into This River I Drown. I'm 56% through 8665 and can't take anymore. It's poetic, brilliant, haunting, excessive, indul..."I could not take his style in Bear, Otter, and the Kid. Overly wordy & too much in the characters' heads. I ended up skimming through that one to finish it. So no matter what raves I hear about his subsequent books, I steer clear.
I loved BOTK and Who We Are. I enjoyed Burn. But I didn't love Tell Me It's Real. It was just too much but I loved the characters though.
Jax wrote: "Karen wrote: "I almost never do this, but today I've reached a genuine DNF with TJ Klune's Into This River I Drown. I'm 56% through 8665 and can't take anymore. It's poetic, brilliant, haunting, ex..."I had the same problem, i tried three times to read it, but I actually gave up. I usually do not do that, because I like to give the story a chance to develop. My mind just kept wandering all the time, till I gave up on it.
LR wrote: "Anne wrote: "KC wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "Reggie wrote: "Do you have the digital versions of Joseph Hansen? There are rumors that they have problems in their formatting. I don't know if it is grumblin..."Great! :-) thanks!
Anne wrote: "Johanna wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Annabelle (who stomped a raccoon that had attacked one of our nesting ducks). They're very friendly, intelligent, inquisitive, and playful."How wonderful!!! :-)"
The..."
I like mountain goats. There's a park here where you can drive around and feed carrots to deer and goats among others, and i always thought their demon eyes at odds with their smiles and general friendliness. :-)
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Wow. That is some description! :-D "Brilliant" and "interminable" showing up in the same sentence is always going to be a worrisome thing.
OK, I probably caught a bit of the "excess" virus from two days of reading the book. :-)
Sad thing was that I really enjoyed some of the characters and the setting, but after realizing that I was forcing myself to finish a chapter that detailed step-by-step, thought-by-thought, word-by-word the MC's cringe-worthy persistence to view/identify his dead father's body, I finally lost it and skipped to the last chapter to see who survived.
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But the comic books... oh! The comic books! YAY! hehehe.
Jordan wrote: "Sometimes I really love my job. Especially when I return from a lunch break to find the two latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books on my desk because my coworker knows I want to read them before they go out on the shelves...."Awww, that's nice :)
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That's a great original background in this genre. I like the sound of it.
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:-D
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I had this idea the other night that I think would be really cool. By the end of my book they will both be ex-police detectives and one is blind. I was thinking they could read a mystery out loud and discuss it, chapter by chapter, as we've been doing with CUTYS, except they'd be more looking at who dun it, rather than sentence structure and other things like that.
Can anyone recommend a good mystery, that would work really well for that kind of reading?
Thanks!
Jordan - m/m only, or any mystery? I'm thinking maybe one of the classics, which any reader of mysteries might already know. and so be able to follow the discussion.
Any of Michael Nava's Henry Rios mysteries, beginning with The Little Death. Rios, is an openly gay Latino criminal defense lawyer who worked in Los Angeles. Nava is an attorney himself who at one time was with the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, where he was a deputy attorney and prosecutor. He knows what he's writing about.
Susinok wrote: "I am reading Shira Anthony's latest, Prelude (grr it won't link!), fourth book in the Blue Notes series. I really like these books. They are centered around the world of classical music, musicians,..."Oh yeah, I really liked these stories. I read two of them when they were still free reads on fictionpress - I don't know how much was changed afterwards, but back then I was really surprised by how good they were. You can read a lot of mediocre stuff on sites like fictionpress; stories like the Blue Notes novels stand out all the more for it!
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I'll check out Neva, that sounds like a real possibility. Thanks for the rec!
Jordan wrote: "I need a book recommendation. Not for me (well, yes, if I can find the time!) but for my characters! I had this idea the other night that I think would be really cool. By the end of my book they ..."
Have you thought about the copyright issue? It might be safer to go with an older work that's out of copyright, that way there's no worry about getting permission.
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But yeah, copyright is always a concern. I suppose I could just make up a book, but I'm not sure I want to do that.
Either way, Nava looks fantastic, and paperbacks are super cheap used. Might have to get them anyway. Can't beat 7 books for ten bucks.
Katharina wrote: "Oh yeah, I really liked these stories. I read two of them when they were still free reads on fictionpress - "*lol* They had them everywhere it seems. ;-)
I read "The Trust" and "Symphony" (which is now "Prelude") as Bleach fan fiction om famfiction.net with Byakuya/Renji-pairing. I liked them a lot and even got "The Trust" when it was published but couldn't get into the new names... I wanted back my Bya/Ren. Too bad I didn't save the stories back then...
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As for saving fanfic, yup, I've done that. Only one I didn't save and regret now even though it never got finished. I wanted to print them all out, but with two, they were several hundred pages so I decided not to.
Jordan wrote: "I'm not planning to go nuts with this. It'll be one scene without direct quotes or anything. But the guys will likely drop a few character names or minor plot points from the first chapter only. ..."You won't violate any copyright by throwing in a few quotes or talking about a book. It's copying the plot or large (chapters and chapters) worth of text that would get you into trouble.
Katharina wrote: Actually, I think that's all a front. When I went hiking in Scotland, I came to believe that the sheep are the true masters there. I really think Douglas Adams had it wrong: it's not the mice that rule the world, it's sheep. They wear this mask of outwards stupidity, when in truth they're the most devious and sly of creatures."Ach y fi. Did I not say we shouldn’t trust the Scots. There we were, sheep of the Celtic nations poised on the brink of world domination and the Scots go and give the game away to a hiker. I knew it was a mistake to join forces with them. Wales may be a small nation but are we not huge in our ambitions?
Last time this happened dear Douglas Adams came to the rescue with that story about the mice but bless him he’s gone on to that great meadow in the sky now. Then there was the media coverage that the fall out from Chernobyl had turned us all radio-active. Baa. What? Course it wasn’t true. Well yes I know Blodwyn does still glow in the dark but she used to go clubbing in her youth.
Quick, somebody, think of something.
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I had this idea the other night that I think would be really cool. By the end of my book they ..."
I'd go for something classic and kind of artificial so they have lots to discuss -- and there would be room for humor. Look at Christie or Marsh or Mitchell -- any of the golden oldies.
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..."
I wouldn't pick Nava, actually. He's too good and it brings comparisons that, frankly, none of us can live up to. No Hansen, no Nava, no Stevenson -- go for mystery classics with high recognition factor. You want there to be a good chance your readers will recognize and smile over the references.
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Yeah, I'm definitely thinking a classic would be best. Better chance the library has it and I can grab it asap. I wish I'd thought of this little idea ages ago. Oh well.
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Thanks Josh!
Caroline wrote: "Ach y fi. Did I not say we shouldn’t trust the Scots. There we were, sheep of the Celtic nations poised on the brink of world domination and the Scots go and give the game away to a hiker. I knew it was a mistake to join forces with them. Wales may be a small nation but are we not huge in our ambitions? .."Brilliant! My own view is that it's viruses which rule the world. They're very good at multiplying using us (and all sorts of other living things) as hosts, causing discomfort but generally stopping short of killing. And if there's a threat, they mutate enough to avoid it. Who knows their master plan, but they've certainly conquered the world.
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I wish that was a joke!
I'm starting to enjoy readers' status updates here on GR more than a lot of the books I've read lately. Have you noticed how hilarious some of them are? I swear, there's material for a collection here. Chris (of the Stumbling Over Chaos blog) always seems to find the good ones -- like this, which made me chuckle: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... And shame on me, but the subsequent review cracked me up: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
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Alas, no more justifiable procrastination, now I need to head out to pack up my classroom. : (
Hj wrote: "Caroline wrote: "Ach y fi. Did I not say we shouldn’t trust the Scots. There we were, sheep of the Celtic nations poised on the brink of world domination and the Scots go and give the game away to ..."But then we come back to the matrix quote that humans are really the virus of the world, settling and using everything until nothing is left and then moving on to the next place without any sort of natural balance. Which together with your premise would mean that humans rule the world. Which is obviously not true. No, I can't really support that line of thought :-D
Caroline wrote: "Katharina wrote: Actually, I think that's all a front. When I went hiking in Scotland, I came to believe that the sheep are the true masters there. I really think Douglas Adams had it wrong: it's n..."LOL, I wanted to give the information on to WikiLeaks, but so far they haven't responded to my enquiry. Instead the police presence has strangely increased in my neighbourhood. Weird...
K.Z. wrote: "I'm starting to enjoy readers' status updates here on GR more than a lot of the books I've read lately. Have you noticed how hilarious some of them are? I swear, there's material for a collection ..."Oh Gods, that's HILARIOUS!
Katharina wrote: "Oh Gods, that's HILARIOUS!"Isn't it? I don't think the reviewer was being malicious, though, which is why I was able to laugh. She's given out a range of ratings. But I got the impression she was so frustrated and/or puzzled by the book's excesses, she couldn't help highlighting them in her review.
I was a bit flabbergasted to see who the author was. I've read some of her other work and know she's a very good writer.
K.Z. wrote: "I was a bit flabbergasted to see who the author was. I've read some of her other work and know she's a very good writer. ..."I had to check the author after this comment. I am also surprised. Though she's not my favorite, she's normally better than what that review alluded to.
Susinok wrote: "I had to check the author after this comment. I am also surprised. Though she's not my favorite, she's normally better than what that review alluded to."Exactly. But maybe she decided to throw caution to the wind, or test the sales waters, and concoct an over-the-top shifter tale with loads *ahem* of sex. Plenty of erotica readers do like that kind of story.
K.Z. wrote: "Katharina wrote: "Oh Gods, that's HILARIOUS!"Isn't it? I don't think the reviewer was being malicious, though, which is why I was able to laugh. She's given out a range of ratings. But I got the ..."
Yep, it really didn't sound malicious, just intensely frustrated and trying to take it with good humour. If the book is only half as bad as it sounds, I can't fault her for it ;-D
It's the sheer accumulation of so many WTF elements! Even one or two of them might have been enough for some readers to DNF, but all of them together? But I do have to admit that I don't read shifters, so don't know how unusual it all is.
Hj wrote: "It's the sheer accumulation of so many WTF elements! Even one or two of them might have been enough for some readers to DNF, but all of them together? But I do have to admit that I don't read shi..."After a while it becomes, the horror, the horror and some people have to read it to see just how bad it is...
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But there are some good ones out there.
Susinok wrote: "Hj wrote: "It's the sheer accumulation of so many WTF elements! Even one or two of them might have been enough for some readers to DNF, but all of them together? But I do have to admit that I don...":-)
these are just... Well, the review and comments were hilarious! It was enough, lol.
I finished Downtime yesterday. It is such a shame it seems there won't be more of her books, at least for now.
Yesterday I read Chase the Storm I think this is the author's first publication and I really enjoyed it. There were times I felt the main character was a bit like a heroine from a mills and boon novel, but overall it was beautifully romantic. At the moment I am reading the final Adrien English book The Dark Tide and I am also intending to read one of the spin off books from the TV series Spartacus Spartacus: Swords and Ashes
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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