Could Be My Last

Wildfire (here) could very well be the last novel I read by by Nelson DeMille, I'm at that crossroads where you have given an author the chance a couple of times and he's just not coming through for you.

I remember well how much I enjoyed that opening sequence in The Lion's Game (here) about the airliner filled with dead folks landing in New York and how the antagonist, The Lion, escapes despite all of the police presence. It's a great opening. I was rapt with attention.

Sadly I also remember how poorly that book ended. Beginning, great. Middle, meh. End, horrid.

I read the review for Wildfire before buying it I saw that one reviewer had written something about how it seemed like Nelson DeMille had given up by the end of the book and just wrapped up the damn thing to be done with it. It all came to and end too abruptly and too succinctly. I wrote about this as a good thing a couple of posts ago (here) saying that if a reader thinks it ends too soon, it could be that they just want the book and the story to continue. Still true. Sadly, it could also mean that the story just stinks. I think that Wildfire falls into this second category.

It's one thing if the author starts the novel with a spectacular opening sequence as The Lion's Game did. It's another if the opening sequence is boring, plodding and silly with the villain explaining his plan to take over the world while sitting around a dinner table as he did in Wild Fire.

Lastly, it was way too James Bond movie silly, with secret, underground, hidden layers, a ruthless villain and his silent body guard, an army of mercenaries and a plan to nuke the entire world. It left me dumbfounded that the person who wrote it could still be taken seriously by anyone after they had read it.

I liked The Lion's Game, enjoyed Nightfall, but so found everything about Wild Fire so reppellant as a reader and author that I doubt I'll try another DeMille book.

First Line from and Old Friend is a Dan Browner

I like Nelson DeMille novels (here). I especially like John Corey novels. I don't know why. John Corey and I would definitely not get along in real life. I don't like Yankee jackasses, . . . nope, not even Donald Trump. Still I like Nelson DeMille's John Corey so I'm looking forward to reading Wild Fire (here) despite the first line which seems lacking in verve.

I’m John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective, wounded in the line of duty, retired on three-quarter disability (which is just a number for pay purposes; about 98 percent of me still functions), and now working as a special contract agent for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force. 

The guy in the cubicle facing me, Harry Muller, asked, “You ever hear of the Custer Hill Club?” 

“No. Why?” 

“That’s where I’m going this weekend.” 

“Have a good time,” I said. 

“They’re a bunch of rich, right-wing loonies who have this hunting lodge upstate.” 

“Don’t bring me any venison, Harry. No dead birds, either.”

DeMille, Nelson - Wild Fire

It's not just a lame opening, it's also a tad of a "Dan Browner" (see here). What's a Dan Browner? Go look at the link. It means he opens like having a guy look in a mirror and describe himself for the reader. "I'm John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective . . . ." That's a Dan Browner.

Fifty pages in and it hasn't gotten much better. Come on DeMille, pull it out of this nose dive soon!

NaNo Info Graphic

There is a great link (here) and shown below from Pinterest. Having been in many NaNoWriMo events over the years (see here), I can relate to much of what is shown in the little info graphic.

I agree with the 76% who say not to edit as you go. NaNo works best as a "brain dump." I just write as much and as fast as I can. Sure the final product is completely different, but the final product is also twice as long, so it's naturally never going to look like the first draft.

I was surprised to find that 67% of the surveyed folks found that the time of day they wrote was crucial. For me, whenever I could find time to write was a blessing. Maybe that will change as my kiddos age.

Who the hell are these 12% who wrote on the toilet, or 9% who wrote in the car? I hope they weren't driving.

Review: The God's Eye View . . . Not as Good as the "Rain View"

I've read quite a few books by Barry Eisler (see here), most of them as a part of the John Rain series. I thought they were fun because they were outside the norm. First, it used a first person point of view for the protagonist. Secondly, John Rain was a bit of an anti-hero; former CIA assassin now a freelancer, half western, half oriental. Lastly, all of the books were filled with what I thought were some wonderfully poetic writing. Good to find that Barry Eisler's non- John Rain books are as good. Not better, but as good.

The God's Eye View (here) is a pretty fun book. The cast of characters are all quite diverse and fun to know more about. One of the main characters, Marvin Manus, is like John Rain in that he is a unique assassin, in this case he's deaf. The main female character too is an interesting character. I think he spends a bit too much time going into the back ground and depth of character of the villain who I found to be the least engaging of the bunch, but still, it was all worthwhile.

What I didn't find? Those poetic lines that I like so much. In Hard Rain (here) Eisler wrote:

I moved deeper into the comforting gloom, along a stone walkway covered in cherry blossoms that lay like tenebrous snow in the glow of lamplights to either side. Just days earlier, these same blossoms had been celebrated by living Tokyoites, who came here in their drunken thousands to see reflected in the blossom's brief and vital beauty the inherent pathos of their own lives. But now the blossoms were fallen, the revelers departed, even the garbage disgorged by their parties efficiently removed and discarded, and the area was once again given over only to the dead.

The prose in The God's Eye View as a tad more pedantic and less flowery. I've come to expect a bit more from Eisler. In the past he has reminded me of James Dickey (Deliverance) and Pat Conroy (The Lords of Discipline) who I felt also have more poetic quality to their writing. The God's Eye View offered none of that.

All in all, it was a good thriller. Fun to read and worth the short time it takes to consume. Still, I'm looking forward to getting back to the John Rain series.

This First Line Gets a Big Fat "Meh"

Not an idicator of the roller coaster that is the rest of the book, Barry Eisler's The God's Eye View (here) starts off with a whimper by discussing an old man dreaming of fishing waking up to his secure phone.

General Theodore Anders was dreaming of marlin fishing when the secure phone rang on the bed stand next to him. He sat up immediately, concerned but not unduly so. He’d been awakened plenty of times over the course of his career, and by much worse than a telephone. 

He blinked and reflexively scanned the room by the dim light of the bedside digital alarm clock. His wife, Debbie, continued snoring softly beside him. She’d learned to tune out NSA’s intrusions almost immediately after he’d been appointed director. If it were an internal problem, he wouldn’t be able to tell her. If the problem were external, she’d see it on the news soon enough. Either way, she didn’t want to know, or at least not before she had to. She was a good woman. 

He cleared his throat and picked up the handset before the unit could ring a second time. In the army, he’d learned to impress his superiors with an image of constant readiness. The habit had stayed with him long since his superiors had become his subordinates.

Eisler, Barry - The God's Eye View

Don't be fooled though or put off. Well worth the time to read the rest of the lines, even if the first aint that great.

Am I Really Going to Read a Cat Mystery?

Upon just reading the title I poo-pooed it immediately (see here). The article is In the World of Cat Fiction, Fur Flies Over Whether Stars Get Speaking Roles Cat Mystery! by Jennifer Maloney and at first I thought Pshaw! How silly. But then I read this:

Ms. Murphy’s talking Joe Grey leaves evidence in squad cars. He also has the police chief on speed dial. In Ms. Fry’s series, a thieving tomcat named Rags silently collects business cards, photographs and a pouch of diamonds—clues to murders, kidnappings and a jewelry heist.

Now I'm intrigued! It sounds like fun to build a mystery with a non-talking protagonist. 

For a long while I had an idea for a mystery that included a young kiddo and an old guy shut in. He would sit in his wheelchair at home and hear the mystery from the young kids perspective. Hearing about this about cats solving mysteries makes me wonder if I didn't take it far enough. Maybe the wheelchair bound sleuth should be a victim of stroke and although he retains all the faculties of his mind he can't relate them to anyone easily.

Sadly, as all this was swirling around in my head I read this:

Once, during a mystery conference panel, “I got up there and said, ‘Cats that speak, they’re an abomination.’ ” Then she turned tail and wrote a book about a talking ghost cat.

After reading that, I'm beginning to think these folks are just a bunch of wackos.

I went to a writing class/editing class for one of my first novels. Surreal doesn't begin to describe the experience. It was in an old dilapidated home in the middle of nowhere. When I went in I met the editor. He was a huge, seventy year old man, obese really, and he waddled around his home, barefoot, in a pair of ratty old boxer shorts and a grey wife beater t-shirt throughout the entire time I was there. I was immediately mad at myself for buying five sessions up front.

I would have thought this was some sort of strange "come on" except there were three of us there and the other two writers found nothing strange about this attire from their mentor. We all sat down, and were offered "Lean Cuisines" by the editor (I have no idea why) and started reviewing our writing. One writer there, who was quite proud of his work and went first, was writing about a mystery/thriller about a missing girl from the point of view of the blood hound who was tracking her.

I have read Watership Down and many other books of fantasy and sci-fi were there is something other than a human providing the context and being the main character. I have to tell you, it takes a lot more talent than I thought to pull it off and be taken seriously. Sadly, my writing partner did not have that talent. Secondly, the boxer shorted editor did not have the talent to help him either.

Meeting this editor, sitting around that kitchen table with the flap of his boxers falling open at inopportune times, the dusky, dirty bare feet and the Lean Cuisines, and the book about the kidnapping being told from the POV of Hank the Bloodhound, I'm surprised I stayed with this witting thing.

Still there is obviously a market out there for this kind of thing, so who knows. I plan on looking to see if there is a free one on the Kindle just so I can get some idea of what a cat might say.

First Novel but NOT the Last (I hope)

I’m going to adding Matthew FitzSimmons to my list. What list? The list that includes Dick Francis, Lawrence Sanders, Frederick Forsythe and just a few others. My list of favorite authors for thrillers. This book I just finished by FitzSimmons was well worth the read and well worth looking for and waiting for a next one.

The characters in The Short Drop (here), were fun to read about. The story was twisty and turney and fun and thrilling . . . just what you want from a thriller. Had me guessing quite a bit (and actually, due to one or two holes still in the story, I’m still guessing), and it was fun to read from the beginning.

I even liked the last line! And that's a rarity (see here)

Out in the dark, he heard the creak and slam of a screen door.

FitzSimmons, Matthew -  The Short Drop

Just like with my books I like the idea of educating readers into facets of life that they may not know much about. In my case I chose adventure racing (On the Edge - here) and triathlons (Toe the Line - here). Dick Francis of course uses horse racing. I liked finding out about computer hacking. It wasn’t too heavy on the technical language, and FitzSimmons didn’t get too wrapped up into the nuance. Instead he used it to move the story along.

If I have one critique of this story it would be the end. It came quite abruptly. But what can I say . . . a reviewer has said the same thing about my own book (see here). I have decided to take that critique as a compliment. It wasn’t that the reader was upset by the abrupt ending, they were upset by the end itself. They wanted my story to keep going on and on and on. That’s how I felt about this book. 

Another First Line

I have a running list of first lines that I come across (see here). Some are labeled as "good first lines" (see here) other's get the label "bad" (see here). This list came about because of the heavy emphasis that publishers and readers place on first lines. As an aside . . . I also was compiling a list of "last lines" (see here), but the value of that list petered out due to just how rotten so many last lines are, so I kinda stopped that list a while back.

Today's first line comes from a novel called The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons (see here).

Gibson Vaughn sat alone at the bustling counter of the Nighthawk Diner. The breakfast rush was in full swing as customers milled about, waiting for a seat. Gibson barely registered the crescendo of knives and forks on plates or the waitress who set his food down. His eyes were fixed on the television mounted behind the counter. The news was playing the video again. It was ubiquitous, part of the American zeitgeist— dissected and analyzed over the years, referenced in film, television shows, and songs. Like most Americans, Gibson had seen it countless times, and like most Americans he couldn’t look away no matter how often it aired. How could he? It was all he had left of Suzanne. 

The beginning of the video was grainy and washed out. The picture stuttered and frames dropped; distorted lines rolled up the screen like waves pounding an undiscovered shore. By-products of the store manager having recorded over the same videotape again and again and again. 

Shot down at an angle from behind the cash register, the footage showed the interior of the infamous service station in Breezewood, Pennsylvania. The power of the video was that it could have been anywhere. Your hometown. Your daughter. Viewed in its entirety, the silent security camera footage was a melancholic homage to America’s most prominent missing girl— Suzanne Lombard. The time stamp read 10: 47 p.m. 

FitzSimmons, Matthew - The Short Drop

Not the best first lines, but not bad either. The story actually becomes quite compelling quite quickly.

Since It's Ground Hog Day I Offer This

In honor of Groundhog Day I found this article from the Daily Beast called How to Write Groundhog Day: 10 Rules for Screenwriters by Danny Rubin (see here), author of one of my favorite movies, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

I actually contacted Danny Rubin several years ago to see if I could read his original script. I failed. He was very nice about it all, and it might have been my first contact with a true, professional writer. I think it had to do with the story regarding how long Bill Murray's character was stuck in that one day in the movie (see here). Then I read a great article by Jonah Goldberg in National Review about the script (see here . . . well worth the moment it takes to read it). That lead me to go try and find the original script. No joy.

I do like Rubin's article on writing. He offers some great thoughts including this one under the heading "Writers write. And rewrite."

"...most ideas tend to look fully formed and perfect until you actually try to write them down."

Each of my novels started in my head fully fleshed out. Then, as I began to write them, I realized there wasn't much meat on the bone. It took over a year of writing (and worse, rewriting) to get them even to the state they're in now. Funny how the brain can decieve a fellow in to believing its all done but the writing.

"You don’t have to put a gun to person’s head in order to make the stakes life and death. It can be a spiritual death." 

Rubin writes this when talking about Raising the Stakes. This is a common piece of advice. No one cares if the main character fails and he doesn't get the cheese that he wanted on his cheeseburger. But, if the world is about to explode, if the Pope is about to be assassinated, if an election is about to be stolen or a young girl is about to be murdered, well then all of a sudden the reader gives a damn.

This is actually something I struggle with and have been told as much by my beta readers. I need to stop some time during my writing and think to myself, "how can I make this all a bigger deal."

"When encountering a story issue that is keeping you from moving forward, the tendency is to look to plot for your solutions. How can he have a crowbar with him when he gets to the warehouse? How could she know about the baby at this point in the story? How did the car get from the impound lot to the airport? This kind of logistical thinking can drive you crazy and will often lead to some very convoluted plotting in order to get the result you want."

"Or you could tinker with your character. What skills do they have?  What happened in their background that might make them prepared for the challenge you’ve given them? What are they willing to do?"

This one I really struggle with. Allowing the character to drive the action is super tough. I have a plot and several sub-plots and I force the characters through that plot as if they were cars on a roller coaster track. I don't let the characters determine their own fate and what will happen. Not sure how to go about doing it, but having seen Groundhog Day I can certainly see what Rubin means.

It's great advice, and I love his work. Sure wish I had gotten a chance to see that original screen play. Maybe one day.

They Made a Movie of THIS?

I've read a half dozen or more Donald Westlake novels (some of which can be found here), and I have to say that I'm the least impressed by this one, Why Me (see here). So unimpressed in fact that yesterday's discovery that they had made a movie of it is not just surprising, it's utterly shocking.

Although funny and light and witty in the manner of Catch 22 and so many of Donald Westlake's other novels this one had absolutely no depth. It was one note. There was one plot and the story followed that plot along doggedly and without much verve or imagination.

There was one Donald Westlake I read (it was from the library which means I didn't blog about it, so I can't type "here") where he had a try and salvage a treasure from the bottom of a lake in upstate New York. Drowned Hopes (see here). That one was movie worthy. There was another one where he had to try and steal a jewel from a guy's house and the guy wanted him to do it. The Hot Rock (here). That was worth making a movie about. There was another where Dortmunder had to pretend to be a chauffeur in order to get to a painting. The Road to Ruin (here). That was worth a movie. This one was not.

Don't get me wrong, it was good. Like I said in my previous post (here) it is a good Donald Westlake novel. This one was just not as good as so many of the others.