Is There A Certain Type Of Character You Like To Write About?

By Jonathan Joseph Bondhus, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Or read about?

You see, I was thinking about the protagonists of the novels I've written.

A majority of them are introverted, very intelligent (either academically or socially or both), and are capable fighters. Those are also the types of characters I like to read about, though my reading tastes are wider than my writing tastes and I tend to branch out more in books than in my own fiction.

Do you have a favorite sort of character? Do you write about the same characters you enjoy reading about the most?


-----The Golden Eagle

Announcing: Terry Pratchett Month

Yes, you read that right!

Here on The Eagle's Aerial Perspective, for the entire month of September, things will be centered on Terry Pratchett and his books. The co-host of this event is Deepali at Evolving Books, who runs a great book blog.

Of course, there will be other posts for blogfests, the Third Writer's Platform-Building Campaign, other events, and I am part of the Upgrader: Re-Engineered blog tour (see sidebar button--I post on the sixth with an interview with the awesome Terry Tibke).

But for the rest of the month? Pratchett.

(SOURCE)

Here's the plan:

Date: September 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25, and 28 (Sundays and Wednesdays): Book Reviews

These will be of not just Discworld, but include his YA books, along with other non-Discworld novels and a movie they made of his books. Of course, I will start with a review The Color of Magic, the first in the Discworld series. Since I have only read six of his books currently, some of reviews will be coming fresh after I read them in sequence this month.

Date: September 8, 15, 22, and 29 (Thursdays): Discussion Posts

For the writerly, or just non-Pratchett readers of this blog, these posts will be like the usual posts I publish on Thursdays. What will I be covering? Posts will be up on personification of the abstract (DEATH, anyone?), world-building, humor, writing style, and other such subjects.

And, of course, Teaser Tuesdays will continue on, well, Tuesdays.

There will also be a poll on the sidebar, once the current one closes, where you will be able to vote for your favorite book(s) in the Discworld Series, along with a separate poll for his other novels.

(SOURCE)

Feel free to jump onboard with your own Terry Pratchett thoughts! This is the month for everything to do with his books, after all.

Deepali has also set up a challenge for readers: for old fans, read 4-5 of his books in September, and for new ones, 2-3. Find out more HERE.

**********

Are you ready?


-----The Golden Eagle

Do You Have To Like The Writing To Enjoy A Book?

There are characters, there's the setting, and there's plot--but what about writing?

Is it necessary, as a reader, to like the writing of a book? There are all different styles, each writer has their own, and it's a rather important aspect to a novel.

(SOURCE)

I find there are three major types of writing when I'm reading a book:

There are unique, surprising styles. Books written in the second POV come to mind, ones that break the fourth wall, or ones that have a distinctive voice to them, both outside of and including the dialogue. This can be hit-or-miss: one person might adore books with a sharp, snarky tone and another person might view them with much dislike.

Then there's writing that doesn't have much that sticks out about it. Description, dialogue, characters, they're all there, but the writing itself is unobtrusive. That can be a negative or a positive, depending on the story itself; whether or not the plot and characters are enough to keep the attention, or whether the writing is just bland.

And then there's some writing that is . . . er, "unedited". In need of spell-check, an editor, perhaps a good overhaul. We've all seen it somewhere, I suspect. This can be more easily overlooked if there's something interesting about the story, but coming across errors repeatedly can jar the reading experience.

These are, of course, generalizations. Every person's style is different, and each has their own pluses and minuses.

What do you think? What kind of writing do you like--ones that focus on the story itself, or ones that use clever tricks that draw attention to themselves? Are there any books whose writing style you love?


-----The Golden Eagle

Thank You For Your Feedback! I Have Now Decided Which Stephen King Book I'm Going To Try First

49 comments (!) later, and after rounding up all the titles you bloggers mentioned, I have decided to pick up Pet Sematary by Stephen King. It didn't get the most recommendations (The Stand and The Shining did, with 11 and 9 people saying it was good, respectively) but it's the one with the highest number that the library has. :P If I decide I like his writing, I'll try some of the others mentioned.

And here's the rest of the tally, in case you were wondering:

Salem's Lot: 5 (almost everyone who mentioned it said it was scary)
Night Shift: 2 (I'll have to look into his short stories)
The Green Mile: 3 (I'm curious. They made a movie out of this one?)
The Long Walk: 1 (I didn't know he'd written anything under a pen name . . .)
The Gunslinger: 2 (Fantasy--I didn't know he wrote Fantasy, either)
Carrie: 4 (I want to read this one, actually; I like the sound of it)
Needful: 1
The Regulators: 1 (another one written under the pen name Bachmann)
Dead Zone: 1
Misery: 5
Children of the Corn: 1
The Dark Tower Series: 5 (I've never read dark fantasy, you know)
It: 3
Rose Madder: 1
Bag of Bones: 1
Dreamcatcher: 1
On Writing: 5 (I need to get around to reading a book on writing)
Under the Dome: 2
Tommyknockers: 1
Firestarter: 1
The Running Man: 1
Thinner: 1
Christine: 1 (this is the one about the car, right?)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: 3
The Eye of the Dragon: 2
The Darker Half: 1
Insomnia: 1
The Body: 1

Thanks to everyone who came by and answered my question! And in case any of you are also looking for information on his books, I hope this list and the comment thread comes in handy.


-----The Golden Eagle

I Want To Read Something By Stephen King. Got Any Suggestions?

I've never read a book by Stephen King and I want to find out what his writing is like. All I know for sure about his books is that a.) Full Dark, No Stars was published recently because I read posts on it b.) Carrie got a bunch of rejection letters when he first submitted it and c.) It is supposed to be rather scary.

(SOURCE)

Other than those three details, I have no idea. And since I know you bloggers are much more knowledgeable than I am:

If I want to read a book by him, where should I start? Have you ever read anything by Stephen King? If so, do you have a favorite novel? What do you think is his best work? Are there any books I should stay away from?


-----The Golden Eagle

Challenge: How Many Of These Have You Read?

When I noticed this over on a lot of blogs, I just had to do it. For one thing, it's a book tag! For another thing, it's also a literary tag! 


And I want to show the BBC that there are, in fact, quite a few people--like my fellow bloggers here who did this--who are well-read and have consumed more than 6 of these titles!


Rules for the challenge:


• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.


And as a bonus, I'm going to underline those I'm thinking about reading next year.


Commentary is in aqua.



Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
(Blah. I didn't like Pride and Prejudice)
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
(One of my favorite books.)
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
(Favorite again.)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
(Interesting . . .)
The King James Bible
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
(Ideas/opinions made me think. I know this book is controversial.)
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
(Read it in one day. Liked it then, not particularly interested now . . .)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
(I've read a collection--but not every single play.)
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
(My mom read this to me.)
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch – George Eliot
(I got around 150 pages in, and then it just flopped for me. It was too boring.)
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
(BOO, Scarlett! Rhett Butler--hmph.)
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
(The translation was odd--they put the French parts in footnotes, but put the Russian where it would be if it was being read normally. I should try reading it again, though.)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
(Love.)
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(I'm interested in this one.)
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
(Hate Alice in Wonderland, most of the time--I like the recent movie, though.)
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
(Started, never finished. We have to copy, so I should read it . . .)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
(Interested. It's a pretty famous book, and I can't forget Lemony Snicket's comment from Horseradish. :D)
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
(Enjoy this series.)
Emma -Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
(Um, you just listed the Chronicles of Narnia, BBC.)
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
(I have an upcoming review of this--enjoyed it a lot.)
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
(We have a collection of stories . . . does that count?)
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
(Apparently I write like this guy . . . )
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
(Never appealed to me.)
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
(Reminds me of Robert Cormier's novels. This sort of book gets me into the mood to write evil, scheming, psychologically twisted characters. I do have some of that sort in my writing.)
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men – John SteinbeckLolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
(I reviewed this . . . it's in the archives. Kind of dull, but at least I can say I read it!)
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
(There's an electronic copy somewhere . . . or I could just get it out of the library to read the rest. :P)
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
(I like the movie better. Ever seen it?)
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
(I want to read this book! A Short History of Nearly Everything--one of my favorite nonfic books.)
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
(This was one of the first long-ish chapter books I read.)
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
(I read Tuesdays With Morrie recently for school. Wrote an essay.)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(Go, Sherlock!)
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
(Interesting story.)
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
(The story, not the play. It's a strange story. I saw the PBS recent version of it, with David Tennant.)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
(Wacky . . . never watched the movie.)
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
(Cosette is an airhead. That's what I thought after I read it. Jean Valjean--interesting enough.)


So, to tally:


21 read.
5 started, never finished.
7 to (possibly) read next year.



----The Golden Eagle

In Which I Receive An Award and Deliver a Satisfied Rant on The Atlantis Complex

First, the award! Len at Conversations with Self awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award--thank you so much, Len!

The rules for this award are to thank the person who gave you this award, *thanks and hugs for Len* and pass it on to 15 other Lovely Bloggers.

15! There are too many lovely people out there for that to be any kind of decision! But okay. I'll bite the bullet and here are the 15 people I award in a random order:

Renae Mercado

Brave Chickens

Ishta Mercurio

Misha Gericke

N. R. Williams

Clarissa Draper

Cruella Collett

Tere Kirkland

Elena Solodow

Lisa Potts

Caroline

Icewolf

Peaceful Reader

Talei

Lola Sharp

Thank you once more, Len!

*****

Cover via Amazon

***Minor spoilers, but not much plot. Nothing big, but if you want to keep the book totally new and fresh for yourself, then don't read this. But it's not like I laid out the whole thing.***

I FINALLY managed to secure a copy of Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer from my library. (In case you've never heard of this book, it's the newest book in the Artemis Fowl series.) I didn't say "review" because I have trouble reviewing books that aren't the first in a series, or ones I haven't reviewed the other books in--it just seems awkward to me. So I'm going to rant on it a little instead.

I've been wanting to take this book out ever since it came out, and I finished The Atlantis Complex the evening I took it out. Artemis Fowl is one of my favorite series, (if not THE favorite) and it's even better than The Looking Glass Wars, Maximum Ride, and The Five Ancestors.

I didn't know what the make of The Atlantis Complex at first, because it's not the typical good-guy-beats-bad-guy plot that the other books are based on. Opal Koboi, much to my surprise, doesn't make a big entrance, and instead it's Turnball Root from The Artemis Fowl Files. (Thank goodness I managed to take that book out of a different library.)

Because I'm not trying to be totally exact or professional here as I am in reviews, I'm going to say this: Holly, dear elf, why. On Earth (and in Haven). Did you date. CAPTAIN TROUBLE KELP? Okay, it was only one date here, but STILL. Trouble KELP. That dude is . . . . . well, okay, I suppose Holly and Trouble might go well together. They're both LEPRecon and officers and all that.

This book was funny, as usual. Eoin Colfer has a distinctive humor/sarcasm that I love, and the characters are genuine in this series. Artemis Fowl wasn't himself for all of it of course, but, as always, he manages to pull through if without as much sanity as other times.

I'm going to say READ IT READ IT READ IT because this book is really, really good. I still think that The Arctic Incident and The Opal Deception are the best books out of this series, but The Atlantis Complex is well done.

*end rant*

*****

I have completed Day 2 of NaBloWriMo!


That is all for today.

Ciao. 再见. Adios.

(Don't ask me why, but "toodles" is beginning to get on my nerves.)

-----The Golden Eagle

300th Post

Fascinating . . .


Kidding. I'm not doing anything this time, just writing a normal post.

If normal is what my posts are.

I'm here to talk about . . . eh, well, I'm not exactly sure. I could mention my writing. Like the fact that I'm in the middle of editing Part Two and more editing in Part Three while I still need to edit Part Four and Part Five is sitting patiently (or impatiently) while I try to get caught up with it. (I usually edit my posts right after I write them, since I write my books in parts . . .) I've almost finished rewriting a chapter, and then I can move on to Part Three and give it my whole attention.

Or I could chat about the weather. Like the fact that it's getting colder, (although it was rather warm yesterday) and there are bare trees already. BARE TREES. C'mon, leaves, hold on to the those branches a little longer. Snow's not in the forecast quite yet. It's not even October.

Or I could yammer about the fact I like this orchard place maybe 40 minutes away where they sell fruit for a lot less than Wal-Mart. We (my mom and I) got half a bushel of apples there . . . which means there is a lot of apple to eat in the next few weeks. :) They also had some vegetable for a really good price, but we bypassed that because we already had a lot of produce.

Or I could mention the fact that NaBloWriMo is just around the corner and that I still have not written up and scheduled posts for the month. Darn it. I really need to get going on that or else I'll fail this challenge which would not be pleasant . . . for me, anyway. I planned some things and I could type out at least a few titles, but I need to do something else right now.

Or I could tell you that I have four books to read before the 1st, otherwise I'm not going to finish by TBR pile before it has to go back the library, and I DESPISE doing that because I usually read fast. But seeing as I have over 30 (40?) books out (mostly YA, some Adult) I suppose I have an excuse. I'm reading She Thief  by Daniel Finn right now. Good book so far.

Or I could say that I still have no idea what to post about. ;)

-----The Golden Eagle

Eh. {What Else Is There To Say?}

DARN IT.

I wrote a nice, long, miscellaneous post and BLOGGER DELETED IT. It said "Conflicting Edits" and said "Please hit the back button on you browser."

So I did.

AND I FOUND OUT IT DELETED THE WHOLE DARN THING.

*sighs*

Okay then. Well, I'll just try writing it again, although it's not going to be as great as the first one.

*****

Right.

How is your Labor Day going?

Good? So-so? Not on holiday? Irritated the the banks are getting another free day to make some profit?

I've been mowing the lawn, writing, reading Foundation (very interesting and complicated; except: no women! GAH!), blogging, and generally whiling away the day.

*****

You know that swamp I mentioned yesterday? Well, it's there because they couldn't build on the wetlands. Also, there's an issue with some toxic waste that they say doesn't harm anything, but they still can't build on it--I don't get that. I'm assuming it's doing damage somewhere.

But anyway. There's this set of stairs that go up high and you can look over the swamp and basically have a good time watching green gloop move with the breeze and the occasional duck dip its head into the green gloop.

Very fun.

Actually, I just liked getting an aerial view (Hello! Eagle here!) and climbing. I love climbing things, and have been since I was little. (I used to crawl out of cribs and bang my head against the bars if I couldn't get out. I also used to jump a lot. In fact, I still jump a lot.)

*****

Has it been cold recently? It has been here. 40-50s at night, 60s during the day. In the beginning of September! Sheesh. It's not fall yet, folks.

But I don't really mind all that much. I like cooler temperatures, and fall is my favorite season. Did you know that the foliage is changing quicker and earlier than in normal years? Yup, it's true. It's not quite that obvious here, but apparently farther north (Northeast, Canada, etc.) the leaves are changing.

I've spotted a few dark-orange trees . . . but nothing like the color explosion that occurs later in the year. It's very vibrant when that happens.

*****

I'd better go write that review of Prophecy of the Sisters. I said I'd post that today . . .

-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: Elsewhere

Title: Elsewhere
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Paranormal
Page Count: 275
Rating: 3 out of 4
Cover Rating: 4 out of 5. It's clean and attractive, and I love the colors!

Back cover:

Dear Dr. Fujiyama,

   By now you have probably heard that I'm dead. This means I won't be attending this year's regional science fair, which is a great disappointment to me as I'm sure it also is for oyu. At the time I died, I felt I was starting to make read progress with those earthworms.
   I really enjoyed your class and continue to follow along from the place where I'm now living I now find myself. Dissecting the pig looked pretty interesting, and I thought I might try it. Unfortunately, there aren't any dead pigs here for me to dissect.
   I was disappointed not to see you at the funeral as you were my favorite teacher, even including middle and elementary school. Not to give you a hard time or anything, Dr. F.
   Yours,

        Elizabeth Marie Hall, 5th Period Biology

How can fifteen-year-old Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is ist possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

The good: The narrative was orginal, the plot was very different from what you normally see, and the setting was intriguing. The characters had their quirks and attitudes, which put in more depth to the story. I enjoyed reading about living life backwards, and the "getting younger as you live longer" idea, which I'd never read about before. Some parts were amusing, and others sad. Some were a bit startling, and others were just strange, but in a pretty good way. I loved the dog part of it. :)

The bad: Even though it was interesting, Elsewhere is a very strange place. The whole Owen thing was also a little strange, but I suppose it worked out alright in the end.

*Note: It's not really serious, but there is a dead heroin OD-ing singer who is a bit strange. And there is one case where one of the characters half-says a bad word, but if you don't know the rest of it, it's not too bad.*

Do I recommend this book? I'm kind of indifferent. There were parts I liked, and parts I didn't like, but I suppose I would suggest it if it's one of the few interesting-looking books at the library. (which is what happened in my case.)

Another note: Don't forget to follow ~With Love and Kisses~ and get awarded for it! See post for June 5th to get the rest of the story.

-----The Golden Eagle