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Stuart Ayris - The Truth About Trees
message 1201:
by
Stuart
(new)
Jun 08, 2014 10:53AM
Thank you Sarah and Guy - very good of you both. I personally think Edward Jarvis Huggins is my best yet - really looking forward to seeing what people make of it!
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Stuart wrote: "that's good! Cheers!!! Any good?"Nah - it's terrible! ;)
Just kiddin. I love Oaken. Definitely my favourite character.
Thank you! He's not bad as far as mules go!
Stuart wrote: "Thank you! He's not bad as far as mules go!"And they go very, very far!
The Magical Tragical Life of Edward Jarvis HugginsThis is just delicious, Stu. I have the urge to read quickly to find out what happens, but I'm forcing myself to take it slowly and enjoy wallowing in it. Loving the names - Dickens-like, but with a wicked twist of modern humour. I've promised myself that I'll re-read it as soon as I've got to the end.
Thank you BJ! Really appreciate it! Delicious is such a wonderful word!
Just received this lovely review for The Magical Tragical Life of Edward Jarvis Huggins...5.0 out of 5 stars More Ayris magic...
4 July 2014
By
B J Burton (UK)
Here we have a fine collection of characters: some heroes, some villains, but mainly people doing what we all do – getting through life as best we can. A supernatural element runs through it and we are led to a finish that is signposted at various stages in the book. When the expected end duly arrives there was no sense of anti-climax; instead I nodded with approval and thought, ‘Yes, that’s how it had to be.’
If you haven’t yet read a Stuart Ayris book then I urge you to do so. But you need to set aside any preconceptions about what a novel ought to be, then relax and let the author take you on an adventure where you will laugh, cry and sing – possibly all at the same time.
Both the author’s exuberance and his concern for his fellow man shine through. If the precise word that he needs doesn’t exist, either for meaning or to simply sound right in the context, then he creates a new one – and we know instinctively just what it means. He breaks away from the storyline to have personal chats with the reader. Although this tale is set in 18th century England, lines from 20th century songs appear. This may sound like chaotic literary anarchy, but it’s hugely entertaining. In amongst the humour and pathos are very perceptive comments on what is generally referred to as the human condition.
It’s a unique style and one that really works for this reader.
http://amzn.to/TTXGeZ
Just received this lovely review for The Magical Tragical Life of Edward Jarvis Huggins...5.0 out of 5 stars More Ayris magic...
4 July 2014
By
B J Burton (UK)
Here we have a fine collection of characters: some heroes, some villains, but mainly people doing what we all do – getting through life as best we can. A supernatural element runs through it and we are led to a finish that is signposted at various stages in the book. When the expected end duly arrives there was no sense of anti-climax; instead I nodded with approval and thought, ‘Yes, that’s how it had to be.’
If you haven’t yet read a Stuart Ayris book then I urge you to do so. But you need to set aside any preconceptions about what a novel ought to be, then relax and let the author take you on an adventure where you will laugh, cry and sing – possibly all at the same time.
Both the author’s exuberance and his concern for his fellow man shine through. If the precise word that he needs doesn’t exist, either for meaning or to simply sound right in the context, then he creates a new one – and we know instinctively just what it means. He breaks away from the storyline to have personal chats with the reader. Although this tale is set in 18th century England, lines from 20th century songs appear. This may sound like chaotic literary anarchy, but it’s hugely entertaining. In amongst the humour and pathos are very perceptive comments on what is generally referred to as the human condition.
It’s a unique style and one that really works for this reader.
http://amzn.to/TTXGeZ
Well done on the SPASPA awards!
Fancy calling our Patti Massive Surprise. She'll get you back for that!
With my novella - Basel Days - about a quarter done, I have begun writing my next full length novel. It is called "This Naked Earth" - looking to have it completed by January 2015, with Basel Days being available for November 2014.
Hah! Now here's an interesting review of The Magical Tragical Life of Edward Jarvis Huggins4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant or Enjoyable Rubbish - Still Not Sure!,
22 July 2014
By JJ
This is the first book I have read by this author. I was drawn to it by the wonderful title and the very good reviews. I read it within hours as I wanted to know what happened to all the characters I met, especially Edward Jarvis Huggins.
So why my review heading? Why my star rating?
I enjoyed the book so that must count for something. It drew me in and captured me but was that the magical bit? Is it Stuart Ayris who is actually magical and was it him who cast a spell for those few hours? I am still not sure.
In parts his writing reminded me of Stephen King at his most whimsical. To me, there are echoes of his Dark Tower series where now and then bleed into each other.
My star rating is based on 5 for brilliant writing and 3 for enjoyable rubbish, so 4 overall.
Do I feel I wasted my time reading it - no, definitely not, but I think it will be up to you to decide which of the two, brilliant or enjoyable rubbish, it will be. All I can say is, take a magical tragical chance.
http://amzn.to/WvBN7p
That's great - you should have that as your tagline: Brilliant or Enjoyable Rubbish?
They'll have to buy another one of yours to help make up their minds.
I don't see why a book can't be both. :)
That's what I think! I do believe I may become, one fine day, the king of that genre! ;-)
it's all in the eye of the beerholder!
I think you just need to lose the "or" :)
and maybe replace 'rubbish' with 'nonsense'
It's not rubbish or nonsense! It always makes sense...eventually! ;)
It certainly does in a wonderful sort of way! Cheers Katie!
The first paragraph from 'This Naked Earth' - the novel I'm currently writing -"Once there was a forest that covered the whole of England from the west to the east, from the north to the south, across undulations and into valleys, striding rivers and ravines, cool, green, lush and magnificent. It stretched from the churches unbuilt to the jails yet to be thought of, from the caves of early man to the very edges of what could ever be conceived. The forest had no name but England. What was not forest was pure air to breathe. And whatever was left was just the dreamy dreams of the likes of you and I in our unconscious, unborn wild, wild wonderland wonderings."
thank you. More where that came from. Rolling at present...
got great faith in this one - kind of back to the tollesbury wonder and beginnings of it all
I like the sound of that. How are your EJH sales going on Kindle?
good stuff. 406 at last count. If it stops now it will still have been one hell of a grin!
That's all right, innit? :) Not so grand on the paperbacks, but it's no problem (from my POV, I mean) - they're there if people want them. Most seem to go for Kindle these days - got to be better for the environment.
Just thought I'd share this from my work in progress..."Stripped naked.
Do you understand?
Once there was a forest that covered the whole of England from the west to the east, from the north to the south, across undulations and into valleys, striding rivers and ravines, cool, green, lush and magnificent. It stretched from the churches unbuilt to the jails yet to be considered, from the caves of early man to the very edges of what could ever be conceived. The forest had no name but England. What was not forest was just pure air to breathe. And whatever was left was nothing but the dreamy dreams of the likes of me and you in our unconscious, unborn, wild wonderland wonderings.
As time wore on and man became man, the forest grew wise to what was to come. It gave air to the birds and freedom to the animals and the insects that depended upon it for sustenance. It closed its borders where it needed to and it allowed entry for those whom it deemed appropriate. For many years the forest lived alongside man in peace, the fields that grew from the earth giving due deliverance to the beings who wandered the land in ever increasing numbers.
The rivers flowed and the stars remained set in the skies. The mountains shed themselves of all but the most gentle of flowers and did their utmost to hold back the tears that had wrought rock over centuries.
The forest, in sympathy, offered up to man its timber and its trunks, its branches and its twigs for fire and for construction. It stood tall, all gleeful, as warmth was drawn from its innards and the laughter of children came from the huts and the shacks and the cabins that man eventually learned to build.
Years rolled by.
Stars shone on.
Streams begat rivers and rivers entered seas that were both momentous and unfathomable. The only tunnels were those created by animal geniuses and the only bridges those spun in the dewy dawn all sparkling and undeniable by spiders that held dominion over every gap and every shadowy arc.
There came a smell of the rain on the wind - then religion and war and subjugation and bewilderment. There came a darkness during which the stars shone not and there came a fracturing of nations that would become, in time, irreparable.
The incessant religion and war and subjugation and bewilderment deprived the forest of all that was necessary for it to thrive and, slowly at first, but then with increasing rapidity, it contracted until it was nothing more than an afterthought to those that sped by it in their motor cars, flew over it in their planes and blinked it out of vision during their disputes and their arguments.
Though it had become small, the forest had not lost its magic, no not at all. If anything, the glory of its archaic and wondrous nature had been intensified during the thousand years of progress to which it had been subjected.
For it’s boom, not doomladen, this narrowing of wonder. As glass doth magnify the sun, so the fruits of the earth do become more juicy, ever more tangy, the greater is the wonder with which they are beheld. Let your tongue softsquelch upon the bitterest of fruit with lust and love and I guarantee that turgid fruit will turn to honey in your yearning throat. Let it sploosh its gifts into your very being and let it become you.
This forest may appear to be just a gathering of trees from a distance, but within there is but beauty, magnificence and shear dream illusion.
Come on.
Get in.
And roll around in the dirt.
This was going to be a normal book.
But who wants normal?"
From This Naked Earth:"But right then Matthew was hit by pure Brooooce joy, dancing at The Ricoh Arena in Coventry in 2013, alone amongst thousands yet one with all and jumping, singing and ROARING in ecstasy to the beat and the jive and the blam of the blam yeah baby yeah baby and the welling welled and the tears came and the heart thud thudded and the smile would just not be quelled and he was crying and grinning all at the same time whilst rock rocked 'n roll rolled within the parts of him he no longer understood.
“Did you bring your tablets?” Angelina asked.
She may have been his wife but she was no Clarence Clemons and that’s a cold hard fact."
From This Naked Earth:"Normal was gone now. Gone, I tell thee. No going back for any of us. There’s blood on them there tracks and that’s the truth. Sometimes you have to stop to start, break it up to shake it up and shake it up to break it up - fizz right out of the bottle into madness and beyond.
The sky was a greyish blue, non-descript and maudlin. It neither inspired nor did it disappoint. It was just there was all, biding its time until its next great shine."
Well I've almost completed the first three chapters of This Naked Earth. I have almost the entire story in my head like a film and have spent many more hours visualising it than writing it. I know already that it is a step up from anything I have done before. I'm taking my time with it, sometimes just writing a single paragraph in a day - very different to how I have previously approached a book. Here's another little snippet:"“Sounds horrendous,” replied Angelina softly, wondering what she was doing in the middle of all this dirt and unregulated decay. And then she remembered that she and her husband were attempting to re-ignite something that had been extinguished over the years. Not that they’d discussed it or anything for that was part of the problem. Whilst he saw faces in gravel and woodgrain and clouds and imperfection, she was ever regaled with the flow of water washing over her, visions of tides and bubbles and a heartstopping fear of chaos. He was right from his side and she was right from hers. She was the glare of the morning and he a desperate cave painting. Marriage is at times the strangest of impositions."
Sounds very organised, Stu!This is really deep and emotional stuff. Very good, yes. :)
It's good fun too - I promise! Not marriage of course but the book!More contemplative than organised I have to say!
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