Search found 49 matches

by PaulWoodlin
August 16th, 2010, 10:03 am
Forum: Queries
Topic: FAIRY BLOOD - Fresh out of the oven!
Replies: 7
Views: 3019

Re: FAIRY BLOOD - Fresh out of the oven!

A young adult novel generally has some connection with young adult life, and neither of your main characters do. You didn't give us a reason to care about your main character. Your use of verbs such as "feast" imply that he is evil, which further distances me from him. And an evil vampire ...
by PaulWoodlin
August 16th, 2010, 9:47 am
Forum: Books
Topic: Series Novels: Why should the first one have to stand alone?
Replies: 19
Views: 6842

Re: Series Novels: Why should the first one have to stand alone?

I recently finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and at the end of the novel he had resolved the plot's conflict, but not the emotional relationship between the hero and the heroine, thereby having a book that is a stand alone in one sense, but gives you a reason to read the second. I...
by PaulWoodlin
August 16th, 2010, 9:42 am
Forum: Books
Topic: Dead And Alive: Who Are Your Favorite Writers?
Replies: 22
Views: 7674

Re: Dead And Alive: Who Are Your Favorite Writers?

Determined by how often I reread them:

Dead: Jane Austen, Cervantes, Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Tolkien, Lewis.

Alive: Stephen Donaldson, Lane Robins, Joss Whedon, Dan Simmons, Jeanette Winterson
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:44 am
Forum: Procrastination
Topic: What superpower would you want?
Replies: 36
Views: 16822

Re: What superpower would you want?

Most of the mistakes I've made in my life came from an inability to tell what people are thinking (even when they are talking) so telepathy has a certain appeal to me. But Wolverine's healing factor or Bruce Willis' "Unbreakable' would be pretty high on the list, too.
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:37 am
Forum: Books
Topic: Funniest book you've read?
Replies: 36
Views: 18312

Re: Funniest book you've read?

Oh, sorry, third place goes to the Princess Dairies and Princess Bride. I had the embaressing experience of reading Princess Dairies in public and laughing my ass off. I'm not sure if this made better or worse by reading it in a cafe that catered to banned word, anarchists, and eco-feminists or not.
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:34 am
Forum: Books
Topic: Funniest book you've read?
Replies: 36
Views: 18312

Re: Funniest book you've read?

Terry Pratchett's Small Gods is my favorite funny novel. It appeals to the irreligious in me. It's a stand alone without his regular cast of characters. Runner up is Don Quixote , but it's also a rather cruel, sad book if you think about it too much. I've read a series of lectures by Nabokov about D...
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:26 am
Forum: Writing
Topic: Does your writing smell?
Replies: 10
Views: 3384

Re: Does your writing smell?

I enjoyed "Perfume" too, and another novel called "Chocolate" which was obviously more about taste. I don't think people should feel bad about not understanding wine. I read an article about a critic who had a nose almost as accurate as a dog's and he made a lot of enemies saying...
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:19 am
Forum: Writing
Topic: Who has read your WIP?
Replies: 22
Views: 7922

Re: Who has read your WIP?

After I went to the Odyssey Writer's Workshop, I went back to three of the workshop reunions, which is a week long writing workshop they have for graduates of the main workshop, mostly critiquing each others' work. When I lived in Portland, OR, I went to writers' groups, one occasionally with Jay La...
by PaulWoodlin
July 18th, 2010, 8:09 am
Forum: Writing
Topic: How do you cope with too many ideas?
Replies: 6
Views: 2455

Re: How do you cope with too many ideas?

Make sure novel one is completely finished and start the submission process. That buys your subconscious some time to think about what it really wants to do next. Then I suggest that you rotate writing them until you realize which one excites you the most. You should be glad to have five projects yo...
by PaulWoodlin
July 16th, 2010, 2:07 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: VAMPIRE WRITERS
Replies: 19
Views: 6441

Re: VAMPIRE WRITERS

I have vampires in some of the novels I'm writing, but I've always written them as villains (of varying degrees of complexity, depending upon their importance to the story). A writer really has to work it to convince me of a vampire as a hero, but I have fun figuring out what the life of a vampire v...
by PaulWoodlin
July 16th, 2010, 1:47 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: Sci-Fi Writers
Replies: 9
Views: 3165

Re: Sci-Fi Writers

The SF that impresses me most is SF I could not write myself. Sometimes this is because the writer is a better artist than I am (Ursula K. LeGuin) or because they have tied science to imagination in a mind blowing way (Alastair Reynolds). I enjoy lots of other SF, but as I get older it gets harder a...
by PaulWoodlin
July 16th, 2010, 1:32 pm
Forum: Finding An Agent
Topic: To compare or not to compare?
Replies: 7
Views: 2903

Re: To compare or not to compare?

I think it would be a mighty rare thing if there was no book like any other. I think comparing your book to other authors' helps orient the agent or editor, but I've read on another agent's blog that saying you are better than another author makes one look egoistical (even if it might be true), so t...
by PaulWoodlin
July 16th, 2010, 1:18 pm
Forum: Self-Publishing
Topic: competition may negatively affect creativity
Replies: 23
Views: 11521

Re: competition may negatively affect creativity

What's throwing me off as I become more concerned about getting published is that I start thinking -rush, rush, rush - and guilt trip myself on days I don't write. And I find myself thinking, wow, I've got a cool idea, but who would publish it? Or, wow, what a cool idea, how can I dress it up as som...
by PaulWoodlin
March 26th, 2010, 6:53 pm
Forum: Books
Topic: Which book have you read the most number of times?
Replies: 90
Views: 31289

Re: Which book have you read the most number of times?

Don Quixote, Gone With the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls, LA Confidential, and everything I found by Jeanette Winterson, twice each. Cabal (a Clive Barker collection), The Hobbit, Lord of the Things, Narnia series, first two Thomas Covenant trilogies, Jaws, Starship Troopers, and Maledicte, I'm gues...
by PaulWoodlin
March 23rd, 2010, 8:04 pm
Forum: Procrastination
Topic: Best TV show of all time?
Replies: 47
Views: 17081

Re: Best TV show of all time?

Let me see, that's a tough one. Once upon a time, it was "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Bob Newhart Show" (the Chicago based one). I watched them as reruns, of course. I have a soft spot for nice, intelligent people befuddled by the cruelty and foolishness of the real world...