Several years ago I was asked to take on the chore of helping to judge the novels of many of the members of the Houston Writer's Guild. It's not a tough task and worthwhile. It's also illustrative in terms of that favorite series of mine (see HERE) on the first lines. The contestants only have that first chapter or so to get the judge's interest. I can usually tell within the first few paragraphs how things are going to go.
I read two military thrillers the other day, and boy they just about killed me.
Why?
The first one was about Marines and an older gay man who would pick them up from a video porn store and take them back to his place for the night. It was more of a penthouse forum style novel, and truth . . . I graded it harshly. Because of the content? Nope. We all have our kinks right? To each his or her own. As long as it's between consenting adults, who am I to say boo.
The problem was the writing was atrocious. I mean a stream of consciousness, no editing, atrocious. I can't let that pass no matter the shock value of the content.
The second one was more of a Navy techno-thriller. WAY too much jargon. Go read a Tom Clancy and you'll see lots of jargon, but it's used to help build believability, and it's not overused. Not in this one. It was so filled with jargon, and most of it was improperly used, that I gave it a bad grade too.
Always strikes me as funny that I am a judge for these things. But someone has to do it right?
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