There's a thin line between envy and admiration

[Mira]

So, I've been reading one of Terry Pratchett's most recent books. This man is such an unbelievable writer. He has lines that he just throws away that I would kill to be able to craft. It KILLS ME.

Here are some examples:

"...threw himself into a huge armchair...with such force it nearly threw him out again".

"By his own admission, he would rather run ten miles, leap a five-bar gate and climb a big hill than engage in any athletic activity."

"She did not look surprised; surprise is an instant thing, and by the time Juliet could register surprise, she generally wasn't. Glenda, on the other hand, was the kind of person who instantly whacks surprise on the meat slab of indignation and hammers it into fury."

"The unofficial motto of the Lady Sybil Free Hospital was 'Not everyone dies."


These are out of context, I don't know if you can get just how wonderful they are without the surrounding story - but OMG - ARRGGHHHHHH.

I CAN'T TAKE IT!!

And

I LOVE IT!!! Sigh.

Does anyone else feel this way when they read someone really, really good at what you hope to do someday?

[Quill]

Yep. In two words: Cormac McCarthy.

[Sommer Leigh]

Yes, Scott Westerfeld. I feel sick sometimes with how awesome a writer he is. The man makes up entire histories of our own world and writes them as if they were true and there's no info dumping anywhere because somehow you walk into the first page of his book and he's like, "These things are true," and you're all, "Yes, yes they are. I remember it happening just that way."

It's like he has a direct link to my brain.

Also for both the Uglies series and Leviathan series he made up whole languages of slang and dialects and there is no point in the book where he defines these words but by the way he works them into context and tone the premordial part of your gut already knows what the words mean. I was once walking in Target and I heard a girl, probably 13 years old, say, "This color is totally pretty-making!" I gave myself whiplash right there in the nailpolish aisle. "Pretty-making" is a slang term from the Uglies series, completely made up for the very specific world and conditions it lives in, and there it was in the nailpolish aisle of Target in Omaha, Nebraska being used as if it belonged here.

There are two main characters in the Leviathan series, one is an aristocrat Austrian and the other a British commoner of the air navy. Somehow he gives them both perfectly unique voices and languages. I am so jealous of this skill.

Exerpt from Leviathan: Alek-
"But then the air began to crinkle around the zeppelin. The dazzling flash of the machine gun was spreading, shimmering down the airship's flanks. Too late, the German airmen realized what was happening. The gun fell silent.

But the flame was a living thing now, dancing in the hydrogen spilled from the torn skin. The Kondor dropped, its gondola thudding against the snow. The gasbag crumpled, squeezing more hydrogen from the holes, and a hundred fiery geysers erupted.

Alek squinted and covered his face. The whole airship glowed from within as it rose up, carried back into the sky by its own heat. The aluminum skeleton isnide was melting. The Kondor twisted, then broke in the middle, a huge mushroom of fire bellowing from the split."

And then from Deryn-
"But Dr. Barlow was already leading her thylacine toward the airship, trailed by the other boffins and their mysterious box.

Deryn sighed. At least she'd earned her place aboard the Leviathan. And after his blunder with the ropes, that bum-rag Fitzroy might finally get what he deserved. Not bad for one day's work.

Of course, now there was a fresh worry to ponder.

As another female, Dr. Barlow might notice a few odd things the other crewmen hadn't. And she was a clever-boots, with all that science under her bowler. If anyone was going to guess Deryn's little secret, it would be this lady boffin."

[Mira]

Sommer: Yes, Scott Westerfeld. I feel sick sometimes with how awesome a writer he is.

I know! I adore it, I feast on it as a reader, but it...what's the phrase? It hurts so good. Ha! :)
I still need to read those books Sommer - they are on my list. I have to. You love them so.

Quill - yes, I've heard great things about that McCarthy fellow. Heard he can write a book.