Readthrough panic!

Had a really useful beta read of the opening of Abendau's Child, which brings back some age old problems around character motivation. So have been playing with where to start the story and hoping I might have cracked it. Let's hope so. Lots of editing of inish to do before the end of dec. need to crack on!

Inspiration

Getting ready to start thinking out a new idea, and I am wanting to make the wonder of space accessible to non lovers. It is what I am thinking more and more about, that in sci fi we are so focused on the tech and the worlds, that we don't consider the people a lot. Anyway 1500 down today, and we will see what occurs tomorrow!

Family matters

I have two gorgeous girls and a husband, and one thing I didn't anticipate (one of many, really) was that writing the book I dreamed of would take more than twelve weeks - i know, planet earth, hellooo...- and that, having written it, I would have no option to keep writing, that it was the thing I must do.

That in writing, for the first time, with my messy house, and crazy juggling act, it was self- actualization for the first time. Nothing else came close to fulfilling me; that all the fads over the years were the search for this discipline, this miracle when a story unfolded....

And that is where my kids come in. They know when they get home I will be writing. I can be distracted, that is cool, I have hugs on tap, but I am writing. 

And do you know what? They are proud of it, they want to write themselves, they can see a blessing is given and a happy, busy mum is worth celebrating. Aren't they great?

Another blog to look at

http://annadickinson.wordpress.com/

This is the blog of my writery friend Anna, who in between writing exciting, breathless, brilliant YA fantasy, is a bit like me and juggles kids, work and all sorts of other stuff we refer to as life...

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett

Dark Eden introduces us to a group of ancestors from a space crash 163 years previously. Clinging to legends of Earth, remaining in the valley the first survivors, Angela and Tommy, settled, life is hard: limited food; cold threatening any attempt to expand their horizons, and an inability to innovate all stifle the community.

John Redlantern not only questions the social norms, he disrupts and challenges them, until he breaks an unforgiveable taboo and is made outcast. He finds himself leader of a small breakaway Family, taking them across the frontier of Snowy Dark to the promised land beyond.

Written in very close third pov, it is the strength of the characters which pull the book along. It isn't afraid to take its own pace, believing in the characters and their interaction to propel the story.

The central character, John, is both frustratingly aware of his role as a leader - possibly too much so, at times sounding a little like a textbook on leadership traits - and endearingly unable to connect with those he needs to. As a foil to his reservedness we have Tina Spiketree, a feisty partner with a clear understnding of her own, and others, motives.

The world is well realised, the language - both prose and dialogue - adhering well to this world with its effective doubling and emphasising. The adherence to myths about Earth, its descendants and the effect of mythology on an isolated people is well realised. The casual sexual relationships in a world where procreation is central, and birth defects a shadow, is both believble and disturbing.

I found the timescales a little difficult to follow, both in terms of jumps, and changes wrought within. I also ound some of the description a little lean.

However, when the breakaway group make a devasting discovery at the end it is, whilst not unexpected, moving and effective.

Well realised, smoothly written, with engaging characters, I enjoyed it very much.

Prince of thorns

Picked this up after a thread on the sci fi chronicles, www.sffchronicles.co.uk. I was pretty uncertain about it but thought I should make my own mind up.

On the plus side: very easy to read, smooth prose, close in to the character thoughts which I like. The story pulled me along nicely and was easy to pick up on the run, essential with a busy life and two kid who aren't respecters of cliffhangers. And Jorg is so atrociously pyschopathic it makes fascinating reading.

On the minus side: description is pretty light, even for me. The portrayal of most charcters is unremittingly dark, although Jorg's black humour does lift it. Women characters are thin on the ground and poorly drawn. The attraction to the one woman who is less than a cut out is lightly drawn and lacks realism.

Would I recommend it? Hard not to, it's a good read for what it is. Will I read the sequel? No, I think I have had my fill of Jorg.

New website

Somewhere for me to fill with general ramblings about books, writing, growing veg in muddy fields and coping with a life that is just too full sometimes. Long may it continue!