Mah brainz froze last night and I forgot to put up a post. Good Monday, All!
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Let's talk about the pleasures and puzzles of the smaller mystery--mystery novels and other fiction--and the bigger one--life.
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2008
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December
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- What a year!
- Eye witness
- Who goes there?
- Perfect
- Wha' cha readin'?
- "Finish that book yet?"
- Icy silk scarf
- Kansas City Christmas
- Happy Birthday, Nicola!
- You called?
- 10,000 hours
- Deer sighting
- Andi makes soup
- Bonjour
- Photo by Andif
- Need beach
- Book Signing Tonight!
- Need more melting
- That kind of day
- illuminata
- Paw paw and maw maw were sittin' in a tree
- From bugs to beauty
- Help, help!
- Freeze right there, Mister!
- Feels like a good day for a Tigger
- The unyellow unbrick road
- Purple paradise
- Fall falls
- Ice grass
- What does an editor do?
- Warm breakfast for a snowy day
- Days like this
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December
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About Me
Where in the world are we from?
Quote for the week
. . .here is a smoke signal, unmistakable but unobtrusive--we are following what comes, going through the world, knowing each other, building our little fires.
William Stafford
William Stafford
19 comments:
katiebird, does this day--cold, icy--make you happy to be retired?
Snow? Ice? Just rain here this week. Hey Nancy, how do get that fire going so well in the snow?
After the Christmas cantata last light, I ended up going bowling (for real) with Daughter Dearest and her boyfriend. Busy weekend, nothing too onerous.
Hey put out that fire or it'll melt the Monday Picture Post because it's the You
You Pick 'Em [LINK]
Frost Flower [LINK]
Bouquet [LINK]
6.5 below here with an 18 below windchill. Brrr. Head still full of goo. I'm no longer feeling like a zombie, but I'm not really human yet...a ghoul perhaps?
P.S. Andi, that third one is especially lovely.
I posted this question last night. Would like input from others.
Suggestions for writers that have:
Chapter endings that keep the reader wanting to turn the page.
I can identify good places, but I worry about doing it too much and feeling too episodic or melodramatic.
My YA audience isn't willing to hang on for a leisurely pace. Want to give them a good roller coaster ride.
Who writes a good page turner?
This is not a genre specific question either. I've read all types that make me look forward to getting in bed for my evening's read.
That' as close to ice as I want to get, andi! Someday I'll see those flowers in real life.
Sorry you're still sick, Kelly - stay inside and warm!
That's one thing about living in FL - I would miss snuggling by the fire with cocoa and a good book.
Hope your Monday is as warm as Nancy's fire, everyone! Back to packing...
Farfetched, I have watched too much Survivor, which means I can start a fire in any conditions.
Andi, gorgeous. I especially flove the first one.
Oh, Kelly, your head could turn to frozen goo. Wrap it in scarves, or cats.
Lisa, at our group on Saturday, Porch Sally pointed out that the author of that book is really good at planting tiny mysteries in every chapter, just some little thing that makes you curious and keeps you reading--along with other reasons to keep going. Maybe you could look at that and see how she does it? That's one possibility.
I was just talking to somebody about an author who does that end-of-chapter thing really well. I'll try to remember who it is.
____
Be warm for all of us cold ones, Beth!
Lisa,
I took a quick look at a dozen or so page turners on my shelves. The three that really popped for using chapter structure that way were:
Roger Zelazney's first Amber series beginning with Nine Princes in Amber.
Glen Cook's Garret books, beginning with Sweet Silver Blues.
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files beginning with Storm Front
Terry Pratchett is also brilliant at it, but he doesn't use chapters. And Martha Wells and Tim Power both do it in other ways, though you couldn't go wrong to read Tim's Anubis Gates and Martha's Element of Fire (the latter of which is available for free download these days, or at least it used to be).
Andi, that second frost flower looks like a kitten climbing the stalk…
Kelly, -6.5? When it's that cold, who cares about the stuff to the right of the decimal? Get a mug of spicy chili to break up that congestion. You & Beth, both of you need to get better.
Lisa, I think you have to strike a balance between wrapping up the current chapter's doings while laying the foundation for the next chapter. Remember even a roller coaster has a mid-ride break, where it gets pulled up to the next high spot.
Rainy soupy but sort of mild for mid-December on Planet Georgia. Sitting in front of a warm firebox.
Quick note to say hi all. Going to snuggle by that fire!
Morning all. Ice here too.
Terry Pratchett doesn't use chapters? See? Yet another example of an author not using chapters and doing it so well that I don't even notice.
Good afternoon, everyone. That fire sure looks cozy, 'cuz it's mighty chilly here.
Lisa-
For page-turning pacing in suspense I like Michael Connelly's The Poet and Thomas Harris's Hannibal. (Though the last hundred or so pages of Hannibal was oddly literary, didn't match the rest of the book's writing, and had a crazy conclusion that I didn't like. But the majority of the book was incredibly compelling.)
I like Connelly because I didn't feel like it was gimmicky. Sometimes I'll read a thriller that has a hook at the end of every chapter where it feels really forced and some of them are faux hooks. (Character hears a noise. Chapter ends. Turns out to be a cat. That kind of trick gets old fast.)
Shuffling off to edit,
Kimber
Dropping in for a moment b/c it certainly HAS been that kind of day.
Weather is insane here - 67F, dropping a little over the week, then back up into springlike temps. I don't get it.
For authors that keep you turning pages:
-- Jim Butcher
-- Jan Burke
(although I see Kelly beat me to Jim).
Must run b/c I'm @ work...
Andif, I love your frost flowers especially the first one. Was that taken at night? Is there a secret to finding frost flowers? I've never seen one. I will be walking in my sister's woods over the holidays and would love to see one in person. Does time of day matter? Does it occur anytime there are freezing temps? Are some places/plants more likely to produce frost flowers than others? Thanks for any input.
Lisa, I'm still in the "looking" stage of camera buying. Will have to see how much Santa can help out.
It was 56 degrees when I went to work this morning and 31 degrees coming home with a brutal wind. :-p
Stay warm everyone.
bono,
Frost flowers are a morning only event. Usually they're gone by 9 a.m. I find them along or near the edges of paths in the woods or in small open areas -- you need a place where small plans can grow.
The first picture was done by carefully choosing my background and then using the shutter priority to make it even darker.
To get frost flowers, you need some water in the ground, temps below freezing but unfrozen ground, and plants with hollow stems. The cold temperature expands and freezes water in the stems which makes it extrude through the stems as thin layers of ice.
Around here frost flowers happen between late November and mid-December.
Errata: "small plants can grow"
But I thought that you only get brainfreeze from eating ice cream. ;-)
Good evening all!
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