Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed*
Reggie wrote: "Susinok wrote: "Here is a more download friendly version from manybooks.net..."Thanks for the link. I did a search under genre/mystery and got some fun classics too! http://manybooks.net/statist..."
Manybooks is an awesome website. I have a weakness for penny dreadful Westerns that I can find on that site.
According to that reviewer, I'm sappy and sentimental, yep. I read that review and at first thought somebody's trying to jerk my chain just because. But then I realised the reviewer *means* it.
Aleksandr wrote: "According to that reviewer, I'm sappy and sentimental, yep. I read that review and at first thought somebody's trying to jerk my chain just because. But then I realised the reviewer *means* it."Bah.
Thanks for listening to me whine. I'm going to grab another vodka and my Xbox now. Killing shit.
Aleksandr wrote: "Killed my desire to write anything today - and I was so buzzed up after The Hobbit for the next part of Scorpion (epic fantasy movies do that to me)...."Sounds like you enjoyed The Hobbit, though. I need to go out to see it, but these days I hate going to the movie theatre. I may wait for the expanded version on DVD. We have a ginormous flat screen, so it will be like the movies, but with cats and dogs to cuddle.
I have no idea why we have such a huge tv. I don't watch much, and hubby watches C-Span and political shows like it was professional sports...
Aleksandr wrote: "One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writing" - and sin..."People around here are just readers, not language or writing experts. It is just stream of consciousness on the page without re-writes or edits. Just the 'post' button. It is truly an absurdity and the inherit contradictions in this reader review platform are so ironic as to be mind boggling. It is fun for us readers, but torturous for people who really know language and history.
(((Hugs))) Now go have fun and blow sh## up!
Aleksandr wrote: "According to that reviewer, I'm sappy and sentimental, yep. I read that review and at first thought somebody's trying to jerk my chain just because. But then I realised the reviewer *means* it."That is not my impression from the books I have read so far, all of them good. But I have to admit, Country Mouse was super cute. But sentimental, no.
Aleksandr wrote: "Thanks for listening to me whine. I'm going to grab another vodka and my Xbox now. Killing shit."For a minute your post made me sit up straight. You're drinking vodka on a Saturday morning? Then I remembered we're on opposite sides of the pond. :)
My sympathies on the review. Hope the gaming is cathartic.
Anne wrote: "That is the version I grew up with too, and my kids, in Norwegian translation. The stories are dark and punishments are harsh. I believe kids love them because they allow you to feel strongly, the evildoer are getting their due in a way that creates no doubt the punishment is real, the good get their reward, usually wealth and HEA."The other thing is that small children don't have experience or memories to relate to in connection to the violence described in Grimm's fairy tales. They tend to block this out, not because it's cruel just because they don't know what it is. The brain or psyche is built that way that they only have to deal with what they know.
When my mom read me the fairy tales when I was three or four or five I enjoyed them immensely. I love the memory of that. But nowadays, when I pick up the old books and read one of the tales I'm startled by the violence and brutality in there.
There are some books and essays written by professors of criminal law that analyse all the crimes committed in certain fairy tales (like Little Red Riding Hood). It's a morbid kind of fun to read them (especially if you're a little familiar with jurisprudence) and a very eye opening approach for everybody. :)
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lol, if you can write Special Forces, yeah, I can see that the two loves go hand in hand. ;-)
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See? Reading really is a survival mechanism! I love the fact that these are real stories they wrote down. Somehow, that makes them even more interesting and enchanting!
Hmmm... I'm wondering what a fairy tale sounds like too, but what a nice compliment to get!
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One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writing" - and sin..."
Oh dear. Well, I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but the new author pic I put up on my blog last fall, or late summer, whenever, someone commented that I look like a sentimental biker chick. Baffling, and yet, kind of an interesting comment.
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Wait... sappy? um, that's even further from the truth than sentimental. Hmmmm...
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Sounds like you enjoyed ..."
Waiting for movies to come out on DVD is so much cheaper and easier all the way around. I mean, heck, there's netflix for those who like that, the library, friends who can loan or invite over for a party. Yep, you can cuddle with your dog, not spend a fortune on overpriced junk food, but buy your own and not have to sneak it in. You can get cozy on the couch under a blanket in your PJs. You can eat breakfast or dinner at the same time. Heck, lunch too... ummm... what more could one ask for?
On the other hand, there are a few movies it's sometimes best to see on the big screen at least once before the DVD arrives. Since I saw LOTR in theaters, I decided to continue that with The Hobbit, and I loved it. But yeah, I rarely go to the theaters these days. Before The Hobbit, I hadn't been in over a year. Great way to save money!
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If "sentimental" is a derogatory way to criticize that you allow your MCs to arrive at an HEA or HFN, I feel sorry for the reader who is likely still bound by the idea that "real" or "serious" writing has to end badly or sadly. You know, and we know, how gutsy and substantial your writing is. I've often taken personal criticism too much to heart, but in this case, just please don't.
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That's a nice wide spectrum!
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What helped me to relax enough to fall asleep while listening to an audio bo..."
I do that too! I always have the volume set as low as it can go and still be audible.
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I'm going to. In fact, I'm looking forward to it! I do love audio books.
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My father read aloud to my sister and me. My mother took us to the library and purchased any of the books we received, but I can't remember her reading to us. Perhaps it was because she’s always stumbled with pronunciation some words (she over-thinks them and gets flustered). As adults, my sister, mom, and I passed around favorite mystery series from the library or bought each other copies of the latest Tony Hillerman or Elizabeth Peters.
My dad was a coal miner's son who grew up in a tiny town, but had a lovely voice and a love for classic literature. I had these odd memories of him reading Dr. Seuss to us. I think those were the first books I “read,” having memorized the text on each page. More significantly, he read Greek myths and ballads from my long missing poetry anthology. There must have been some Grimm in there as well. Disney imagery was a part of all this, but the Disney of my childhood was less tame (Snow White, Bambi, etc.) Some of the grimmer Grimm was strongly embedded, along with Arabian Nights. I vividly recall a framed card on one grandmother’s wall of Hansel and Gretel (my interpretation?) crossing a bridge, watched over by an angel, with the frightening prayer, “… if I should die before I wake.” So with the exception of Seuss, who has his own version of sometimes harsh reality, few of these were HEA tales. The highway man comes riding, an' the Gobble-uns 'll git you. Ah, the seeds of the dark reading I still enjoy.
The books I read to my daughters included a lot of Grimm and a lot of sweeter tales. Parenting certainly brought out the fierce protective mother-bear in me, but the darker, more archetypical themes were introduced as well, with as many multicultural (major buzzword in my days of young motherhood) as I could find — sometimes with good judgment and others with enthusiastic misjudgment. Both daughters still think the Jean Cocteau version of Beauty and the Beast is scary. My youngest grew up with Harry Potter and the Philip Pullman trilogy, first as read-alouds, than read-togethers. My oldest and I shared Jane Eyre, Dickens, then Heller and her longtime favorite, Vonnegut.
Yes, I did edit at times. I think my daughters were young teens before they found out that the last lines in the beautifully illustrated Jarrell/Burkert version of Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs, describing the wicked queen's demise, are: “But they already put iron slippers over a fire of coals, and they brought them in tongs and set them before her. Then she had to put on the red-hot slippers and dance till she dropped down dead.”
It wasn't easy to find this link and several of the reviews are not even for this book, but at least you can see the cover: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...
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Yes! And rain. The surf and the rain. Very soothing.
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One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writing" - and sin..."
Sentimental!? But then who knows what native language the reviewer speaks? It's all so global now.
I don't think of sentimental as fake or emotionally dishonest. I think of it is old fashioned and nostalgic. Emotion as viewed in soft focus.
Granted, that doesn't reflect the work of yours that I've read! ;-)
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For a minute your post made me sit up straight. You're drinking vodka on a Satur..."
Of course. You mean you call yourself a writer and you're NOT drinking vodka on a Saturday morning!?
:-D
Karen wrote: "My youngest grew up with Harry Potter and the Philip Pullman trilogy, first as read-alouds, than read-togethers."I'm finishing The Subtle Knife and luckily I found in the post The Amber Spyglass today!
"Aleksandr wrote: "One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writin..."Hope you're feeling more cheerful now. Sentimental struck me as so wide of the mark...
Caroline wrote: " "Aleksandr wrote: "One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writ..."Hope you're feeling more cheerful now. Sentimental struck me as so wide of the mark...
I keep wracking my brains figuring out which book might earn that title and coming up totally blank. Now I have not read everything of Aleks's yet but still I have a good idea of what they are about.
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We went to a college hockey game (OK, two college hockey games) tonight, at the Civic Center. Lighting was good, so I read. All those cute college boys playing... I felt vaguely guilty (but not too much) to be reading RPF hockey slash.
Susinok wrote: "I am annoyed at a book I recently read. It is part of a series and the characters are finally together. They each have a kid, and the third book seems to have morphed these two characters into an m..."I think I might be able to guess which one this is...
... and I was right. (Re-read your comment, Susinok, and saw that you'd reviewed it, so checked your reviews.)
Jordan wrote: "I love how Grimm is so dark, compared to Disney. ..."I have to admit that I'm reading all these comments admiring Grimm and feeling a real wimp - I hate how dark they are, disliked them intensely as a child and would never give them to a child myself! Surely they weren't written for children originally? Or was/am I just odd in being so squeamish?
Tracy wrote: "We went to a college hockey game (OK, two college hockey games) tonight, at the Civic Center. Lighting was good, so I read. All those cute college boys playing... I felt vaguely guilty (but not too much) to be reading RPF hockey slash"I've read Heart in Hand, but I couldn't feel guilty at the time: I found out only *after* I've read the story that it was RPF ;-). I didn't change my rating because of that.
Hj wrote: "Jordan wrote: "I love how Grimm is so dark, compared to Disney. ..."I have to admit that I'm reading all these comments admiring Grimm and feeling a real wimp - I hate how dark they are, disliked..."
I believe fairytales originally weren't meant as children's stories at all, more like general tales to learn from, told in the evening when it was too dark too work, for the whole household, not just the children. I can see them, all together in a dark room, just the fire and one candle for light, adults and children huddled together for warmth and protection against the danger outside both real and imagined, listen to the storyteller and learning about the dangers and the glories out there. :)
Some of our stories, now told for children actually were quite erotic and often brutal, but in modern times they have been sanitized and romanticised.
Hj wrote: "Susinok wrote: "I am annoyed at a book I recently read. It is part of a series and the characters are finally together. They each have a kid, and the third book seems to have morphed these two char..."I believe I know which book you mean too, and had some of the same reaction. On the other hand, it seems pretty realistic, when two people have kids and one has a job that takes a lot of time, there will be more work for the other. That must be a general problem for all couples with kids to work through.
Hj wrote: "... and I was right. (Re-read your comment, Susinok, and saw that you'd reviewed it, so checked your reviews.)"Well I'm not going to go pointing fingers here. :) I am still aggravated over it though. I was really looking forward to it.
And I realize that someone has to to the caretaking, cooking, etc. But that is ALL he did. Previously he would also help in the cases.
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:-D
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If "sentimental" is a derogatory way to criticize that you allow your MCs to arr..."
Agreed. There's nothing wrong with a little sentiment. Life is inherently sad. I mean, it's joyful too, which is why it's so sad. Everyone we love is going to die. The best we can hope for is most of them will die after us -- and that we'll all have a good long run.
The happiest of endings can only be temporal, so all endings are, in effect, HFN. But it's far healthier -- in my opinion -- to embrace that here and now rather than focus on the fragility of happiness.
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My father read aloud to my sister and me. My mother..."
There is also the great pleasure of reading aloud to someone else. It's nearly as relaxing as being read to.
I used to read to my dad, my sisters, and my nieces and nephews. When I first began getting my teaching degree I taught pre-K and kindergarten and I used to love reading to them. I'd make up all these voices and totally get into it. Pretty soon the parents were showing up for reading time too! ;-D
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I figured I probably knew what book you were talking about and yes, I am correct. And I will restrain myself right there.
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I have to admit that I'm reading all these comments admiring Grimm and feeling a real wimp - I hate how dark they are, disliked..."
I'm another one whose parents censored Grimm in the reading. But I could tell from their expressions when they were cutting content and I used to find the book and read the deleted bits. Usually to my horror. :-D The fact that I found these deleted sections horrifying, but couldn't -- at that age -- keep from readng them is one of the interesting things about human nature, I think.
In fact, I think one of the signs of...well, I think it's mental health but maybe it's something less positive? is when I learned to stop reading hostile exchanges and emails in online wars. Because those things have the fascination of a traffic accident. But at some point I learned to let go. To think, Who cares what they say? and simply stop reading.
Once you get over that panicked feeling of...but what are they saying??!! And accept that you can't control what anyone says -- nor does it ultimately *matter* what anyone says -- it's the most freeing feeling in the universe.
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Well I'm not going to go pointing fingers here. :) I am still aggravated..."
Fiction is not real life. Fiction that bores -- based on the excuse that real life is dull -- is fiction that is failing to deliver on the promise.
It's like writers who do lousy dialog and then try to excuse the lousy dialog based on the fact that real life dialog meanders and is often dull and pointless and repetitive. We already HAVE real life. We don't need someone else's made up version of real life. Fiction has the burden of being better -- more entertaining and more significant -- than real life.
Especially given that the view of Real Life in most writer's fiction is anything but realistic.
What does it say about me that I didn't think Grimm was all that horrifying at the tender age of 3 to around 12 (or thereabouts?) I didn't really revel in it, but didn't think it was unusual either.Now as a kid I really hated Hans Christian Andersen stories. They were all horribly depressing. The Littlest Mermaid dies and doesn't get her prince (or just briefly), the Little Matchgirl freezes to death in the snow.
Josh said: "In fact, I think one of the signs of...well, I think it's mental health but maybe it's something less positive? is when I learned to stop reading hostile exchanges and emails in online wars. Because those things have the fascination of a traffic accident. But at some point I learned to let go. To think, Who cares what they say? and simply stop reading.
Once you get over that panicked feeling of...but what are they saying??!! And accept that you can't control what anyone says -- nor does it ultimately *matter* what anyone says -- it's the most freeing feeling in the universe. "..
I agree 100% with this. I have been online in some form since 1989. Those arguments go around and come around and are so stupid. I avoid a lot on Facebook, and hide or unfriend folks who's messages piss me off, or just don't log on in the first place. I'll go months without logging on. I really don't like that place much at all.
And the m/m romance group many of you have left. I only go in on challenges if they interest me and read the "what are you reading" book thread and the upcoming releases book thread. I ignore the rest of it since most of the time somewhere there's an argument happening.
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Good point, Anne. Stories may be entertainment; they are also lessons. There are messages about cultural expectations for behavior (Native American coyote stories, the Bible, etc.) There are messages that life can be unfair. Actions of the Greek gods and goddesses, of evil queens/stepmothers or crafty genies, may be arbitrary, indifferent, or malicious. There are unheeded warnings and consequences. Don't walk alone in the dark woods, don't eat other's houses, and don't go into the basement.
My nightmares as a child weren't seeded by myths, ballads, and fairy tales. They were Cold War anxieties. In a dream world where the "good adults" (parents, etc.) were absent, I was responsible for saving my sister, cousins, and pets from a totalitarian regime. I would suddenly need to be able to do adult things, like drive a car!
What I do think was seeded by hearing or reading some of those darker tales, was mental practice in problem-solving — the what-would-I-do that a child's mind rehearses while listening to or recalling a story, perhaps one in which the good adults are also absent.
Very dark things happen in our times. We have our very dark thoughts. Certainly we share plenty of these in the news, in books, television, and movies. Past storytellers seem to have been more matter-of-fact about this, or at least had fewer age restrictions for knowledge of the darker side of our world. And the children's direct experience of harsh realities was also less buffered than that of many (sadly, not all) children today.
Karen wrote: "Past storytellers seem to have been more matter-of-fact about this, or at least had fewer age restrictions for knowledge of the darker side of our world."In The March of the Penguins there's a part of the documentary where a young penguin gets lost and it's clear that it will die without the other penguins. When I think of the documentary, I always think of the little child behind me that cried his heart out because he suddenly realized that there would be no happy ending for that penguin. I remember the father trying to console him: don't worry, it will reach them. Even if I have always been a believer in the fact that you should always tell kids the truth, because they'll find out sooner or later, I don't know what I would do when confronted with a child crying. I don't know, I would have probably told him: "It will fall asleep and go to heaven." Coward way out :)
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I love reading aloud to my students, love reading expressively, watching their faces, catching laughs, giggles, gasps. Here's the picture book I read last week, giving distinct voices to Coyote and Horned Toad, doing my best with the Navajo phrases and songs. Their follow-up was to journal describing the story, then come up with an idea for their own story, one with a moral lesson and an explanation of some natural phenomenon. This week they'll write them.
Ma'ii and Cousin Horned Toad: A Traditional Navajo Story
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I love reading aloud to my students, love reading expressively, watc..."
Wonderful!
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In The March of the Penguins..."
A beautiful, heart-tugging film. My daughters were in their later teens when we watched this. I think we all cried. Well, maybe my biologist daughter was a bit restrained. ;-) As a child, my younger daughter used to pull a blanket over her head during scary (for her) parts of movies or even when characters spoke to each other with "mean voices."
Aleksandr wrote: "Oswald's reading is spectacular. Thanks for pointing me that way."If you do get the chance to hear her read in person Aleks then seize it. I went to the Royal Festival Hall early last year for Memorial. It was one of those evenings I will never forget - not a spare seat in the house and she held us all in the palm of her hand. And for those of you not in the UK you can find her on poetry archive
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryar...
"Karen wrote: "I'm waxing sentimental and nostalgic (in the best possible senses) over everyone's postings about childhood reading, being read to, and Grimm...Josh wrote: My father read aloud to my sister and..."
Being read to is so important although it was probably my parents deciding I was too old for that which turned me into a life-long reader and writer. I still haven't given up reading to my kids who are now thirteen and ten or rather they haven't given up on bedtimes stories.
And you've reminded me that I used to be able to find time one day a week to go into the local school to hear Year 4 (that's the eight year olds - grade ?) do reading. Mostly I was given the ones who struggled with reading and who needed the practice. I was so determined that they should see reading as a pleasure instead of a chore and I probably learned as much in that year as they did.
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During parent-teacher conferences, I urged all of the adults to re-initiate reading aloud with their children if they'd stopped. I encourage reading aloud together, choosing something of interest to the child, but perhaps a bit more challenging than their independent choices. The adult reads a paragraph/page, then the child. The parent models expression, pronunciation, and the idea that even adults may not know everything and need to look it up.
My students are 9-11 year olds (U.S. 4th/5th-graders). As children become independent readers, many tend to become lazier readers, skipping over words and ideas they don't know or understand, because they can still get the gist of the story. Then they take a standardized test and score lower on vocabulary and comprehension. So I sell this idea as a way to improve test scores, but also as a way to encourage discussion, build higher level thinking skills, and perhaps most importantly a way to strengthen parent-child relationships. "Imagine your sullen teen still sharing a discussion of a favorite series or new book by a favorite author, and continuing to do this when they're adults."
I also have my first-hand experience to cite as evidence.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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One thing I should not read: Reviews. I just stumbled across one where I was repeatedly called "sentimental" (which to me translates to "fake emotion, emotionally dishonest writing" - and sin..."
Sentimental? Do they know the meaning of the word? Have they read your stuff? It's about as far from sentimental as anything can come.