Terrific Review for A Certain Slant of Light

Few things warm a writer's heart (apart from a hefty check) like a great review. One where the reviewer knows the conventions of the genre you're writing in, knows the school of authors you pay homage to and points that out, and appreciates how it is handled. So much more than just "I liked it, and it was good."

So yesterday this awesome review for A Certain Slant of Light appeared on this website:
https://www.wingd.ca/book-review-certain-slant-light/


Just have to quote from it:

"Zack Taylor is as subtle as the horn on a Kenworth.

The hero’s persona is deliberate on the part of the author, and it works. A blurb at the back of the book says that Zack Taylor is: “…a hero in the mold of Travis McGee, Doc Ford and John Cain, a moral man at heart who finds himself faced with difficult choices in a dangerous world…”.  As you find yourself being pulled through this book by the combination of a compelling story and good strong writing, you realize that this is not an exaggeration."


And  it goes into good detail. A thoughtful review of a book that was read and appreciated.

Some days, it's worth chewing through the straps...   :-)

And the review is also up on Amazon.

So in case you feel like having a look at this book, here it is:

How to Write a Best Seller

For years now, people have sought the magic formula for a best-seller, trying to divine the elements that make up what will hit, and trying to reproduce it. Here's another shot at it.

It is alchemy, trying to turn baser metals into gold.

No one knows what will hit, and many best-sellers are unlikely.
Bridges of Madison County? Head-scratchingly puzzling.
Harry Potter? Turned down many times.
Da Vinci Code? A thousand just like it, with far better writing and plotting, went nowhere.
Twilight? Almost everything similar was written far better. This one hit.
50 Shades of Gray? Someone please explain why women like this!

When I was taking writing classes from Stephen King, he told us of someone who'd tried to analyze best-sellers and write a book with their elements, in hopes of making it big. The result was God's High Table. Yeah, you've never heard of it.

These efforts don't usually hit, because someone conciously trying to write a best-seller is doing it for the money and the ego, not for the story itself. Even these awful hack writers who hit with one were writing what they liked, and their hearts were into it. The fact that dumb stuff occasionally gets popular and goes viral is just a facet of how it is. With over a hundred thousand books a year coming out, a few of them will get a great buzz. And not all of them will be good, so you could say they don't "deserve" it.

Someone asked me why I don't write something like "50 Shades of Gray" to make a lot of money. I said that although rolling around in stable muck might be popular, it wasn't my style. And imitation does not guarantee similar sales.
It ain't a fair game. Ah, well. That's just how it is.

The Sneaky Way of Making Fans

In response to a previous posting of IE Lester's excellent article in New Myths (10 Science Fiction Novels to Give to Your Father-in-Law): http://63.64.44.120/index.pacq
I mentioned that the general populace cannot think of science fiction beyond Star Trek or Star Wars, and thus, they dismiss the field as not worthy of serious consideration or study, either literally or cinematically.

Styrofoam Dog leapt to the defense of Star Wars, correctly citing that it is an excellent representation of the mythic hero's journey, so brilliantly expounded by Joseph Campbell. The poster asked, in essence, “What's wrong with Star Wars?”

Well, nothing (aside from Jar-Jar Binks, and that's VERY wrong). I wasn't dissing it, but pointing out that for the masses, it isn't very serious, and it is what they think of when they think Science Fiction. They haven't progressed beyond viewing the entire field as rayguns, spaceships, and bug-eyed monsters.

(There is an alternate view, among the truly enlightened, that an appreciation of these examples is a necessary component of modern culture, specifically geek culture, and indicates a technological mastery of the computer age, which has brought the future at an ever-accelerating pace. See http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1609 where the author posits that an ability to discuss the merits and differences of these stellar examples defines the most hireable computer masters)

The prejudice of the masses for science fiction and its followers is reinforced when they see television coverage of science fiction conventions. They see adults dressed up in costumes, and think it's all a childish waste of time, something not for grownups. They may have seen a piece on the woman who showed up for jury duty in a Starfleet outfit, and extrapolated from that that anyone who likes science fiction is a nutjob.

When someone starts with that viewpoint, it is futile to begin a discussion with the merits of the thing they dismiss, in this case the two most well loved examples of sci-fi fandom. We'll leave that for another time (or perhaps a guest posting- Styrofoam Dog, are you up for the challenge?)
Rather, we get sneaky- give them the gateway books that will hook them. Bit-by-bit, you add ideas to their mindset, expanding their consciousness, making them a science fiction fan without them realizing it, until it's too late.

Then explain how Kurt Vonnegut, 1984, and Brave New World are all science fiction. Whoa- ideas and literature? Show them how the best examples of good science fiction is indeed serious and good. It's a long path before you can convert them to Star Trek and Star Wars, but it can be done. Just pity them, because they weren't inclined to start that way, and don't know what they're missing.

Nastiest Taste Ever

Here's something to put on your life list of never to try: bacon-flavored jellybeans.

Yeah, somebody said, "Hey, bacon is good, jellybeans are good, why don't we put them together?" And so the folks at ThinkGeek did. They actually charge people money for these abominations. But since the sample was out, I had to ask: "How awful could it possibly be?"

Two good things put together sometimes produce something wretched, and so it is with this. The taste was an assault, something like eating cancer. Nasty, and the flavor lasted, despite numerous attempts to expunge it from my palate. Gah! It reminded me of the nasty-flavored jellybeans in the Harry Potter world.

So your intrepid reporter tries things so you don't have to. If you really want the flavor, go to an old outdoor grill and nibble the black charcoal bits at the bottom, and you'll get an idea of what it was like.