Another Round of Not-So-Comprehensive Reviews

Dear Ogling Lemurs,

I watched Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes recently and I have to say, it was a great time. Robert Downey Jr. adds another new franchise under his belt along with the awesome Iron Man and
Jude Law does a great turn as Watson. This isn't the Sherlock Holmes you've known. He kicks ass. He's funny. It's basically a buddy cop movie with action and comedy in a Sherlock Holmes shroud. Don't be mistaken though. There are definite moments that separate this movie from others in its genre. It is a mystery and Holmes flexes his brain muscle quite a bit. Watch this one.

I probably shouldn't give my opinion on a book before I've finished it, but then again, I've disliked books enough in the first chapter to put them down. So, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is a wild ride. It's a well written, fun, and action-filled steampunk adventure feature zombies and airships. It takes place around the turn of the century in the late 1880s in Seattle. Briar Wilkes lives with her teenage son in Seattle on the outskirts of what used to be Seattle. It's infested with rotters, the undead born from a underground gas leak years ago before her son was born. The catch? Her late husband built the drilling machine that doomed the city. Seattle is now behind a wall, cordoned off from the world. But Briar's son enters the dangerous city one day, and Briar must follow. And they find that there is more to this city than just the Rotters. There are people. I've never read any of Priest's books before, but if this novel is any indication of the others, sign me up!

Up next, two more Stephen King books:

The Shining - I wanted to like this one, truly. But it's slow. Some might argue that the length is required for us to really understand Jack Torrance's descent into madness, but there must be a better way of doing it. All the first two thirds of the book did was make me hate Jack. As a character, he's fleshed out and unique and even intriguing. But as a person that I might relate to and sympathize with, he fails completely. For those who don't know the general story, The Shining tells the story of a family of three that travel to an out-of-the-way hotel for the winter, where the father acts as the custodian of the grand hotel until it reopens in the spring. Cut off by snow and distance, the hotel starts affecting them all. The boy has special powers of cognition and the hotel wants him. The father goes crazy. Shit hits the fan. My favorite character was the cook, Halloran, though he only appears momentarily in the beginning and then ever so slightly near the end. This one I struggled a little bit getting through.
the shining - hate jack torrance and slow moving

The Running Man - I really enjoyed this Bachman book. Ben Richards live in a dystopian version of 2020s America. Apparently, by then, the separation of class has become extreme and one of the only recourses for the poor to make money is to enter state sanctioned reality TV shows where they are potentially maimed or killed. Ben is married and has a baby with the flu but no money to pay for it. His wife is forced to turn tricks and he's unemployable after being black listed. In a last ditch effort, he applies for the games. After a multitude of intelligence and medical tests, he is sent to The Running Man, the most highly rated game of all where only the best applicants get sent. Ben is released into the real world with a few thousand dollars. He will be hunted by a specialized team that will kill him. His family gets $100 every hour he stays alive and if he can manage to stick it out for thirty days, he gets a million dollars. Also: every law enforcement member he kills is an extra $100. Members of the viewing public are awarded for calling in with information about his whereabouts. No one has lasted past just a few days. So begins the newest installment of The Running Man. This books was fast-paced, exciting, and at times--incredibly violent. Highly recommended. (Although there is a part at the end that is not for the weak-stomached.)

-Matt

Onward Ho! (Or something equally inspirational)

Dear Querulous Muskrats,

I think I'm hitting that metaphorical wall. If not now, then very very soon.

What wall? I am speaking of that wall that most writers know to well—the one that divides your progress from one of the enthusiastic clickety-clack of keyboard keys to utterly desperate inertia.

I feel like I'm very close to being there. For me, the wall comes early. Most of the time it's because I fall out of love with the idea. What was once the best thing EVER, is now…meh. The euphoria at the beginning is like no other. Everything seems to fall in place and your initial seedlings of a plot germinates, and you have an almost entirely mapped out novel in your head, complete with fun characters, memorable scenes, and a kickass ending.

The WIP (work-in-progress) now has lost some of its luster. I've changed some things over the course of the first 12000 words. I've added elements and took some out. But the surprise is that I still like it, unlike some of the other projects that never got past the first couple thousand words (or have just been left in an ideas file to be undertaken on a rainy day). So, I still like it, but I know I'm near that point of the novel where it will feel like real WORK to continue.

Make no mistake about it though, writing is work. You can't expect to finish anything close to this length without putting some sweat and tears into it. I just wish there was something that could read my mind and write my novel for me. Life would be so much better. But then again, I guess the sense of accomplishment would be diminished and everybody and their mother would have a manuscript floating around.

This will be the second piece of long fiction that has a decent chance of completion. The previous one fell a little short than my target word count and still needs several revisions. Here's hoping this new one will make it at least that far.

Now to stop procrastinating.

-Matt

Tackling a Few More Books off the Reading List

Dear Harrumphing Bunny Wabbits,

Some more books I read recently:

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Darling jim
An abundance of katherines beat the reaper
katherines is great-- really fun fast paced YA read.. looking to others.

First, we have Darling Jim. I wasn't too sure if I was going to like this book going in and it turns out that my doubts were well-founded. The story in the novel is told well, and it's rather short in length, but it felt long to me. The interest was high in the beginning but didn't hold for me. The story itself is a mashup for different genres (fantasy, mystery, fairytale) and it felt forced, especially near the end. In the end, it was somewhat forgettable. I found myself skipping ahead at certain points, skimming through pages at a time. When I skim, don't just speed read, I scan. I take probably 15-20 seconds going over a page to glean the important stuff, then move on. In short, the story was interesting enough for me to find out what happened, but I didn't feel bad about not reading every word in order to do so. One thing that bothered me is that this story is about three sisters who are trapped in a house by a deranged aunt and most of the story is told from diaries. We'er supposed to feel for these women, but when they kept referring to an Asian character in the story as Chinaman (he was Korean, in fact), it just bothered me. Keep in mind that this story takes place in modern times, so there is no excuse really to say that it was just a word that was being used during that period. Even if the "Chinaman" was a villain in the story, using that term just did not sit well with me. Also, I was much more interested in the story of Niall, the postman who finds the sisters' diaries, than of the sisters' diaries themselves and I wish more of the story was about his adventure and not their plight. Christian Moerk, however, does deliver a solid debut and the novel is well written, even if I didn't fall in love with it.

On to An Abundance of Katherines. This YA novel by John Green is in a word--awesome. I first found John Green when I stumbled upon his hilarious dissection of the Twilight series on Youtube. His novel is about Colin, a recent high school graduate who is also a certified prodigy. He has just been dumped by his latest girlfriend Katherine, number nineteen. In turns out that all of them have been named Katherine and over the summer, he and his friend Hassan, go on a road trip while he tries to figure out what has gone wrong with his love life. The story is funny and poignant. Don't let the young adult label scare you off. This book is great. I look forward to reading his other novels: Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns.

Beating the Reaper is the debut novel of Josh Bazell, who is not only a novelist but a doctor as well. It's a rip-roaring story of a mob assassin who joined the witness protection program and is now a first year intern at the hospital. Unfortunately the mob finds out where he is, and then the trouble begins. Beating the Reaper has a great protagonist with a funny and fast-paced voice. The end felt slightly abrupt and a lot like a cliffhanger for a sequel. If Bazell does turn this into a series, I'd definitely take a look at the next one.

Until next time,

Matt

I Can't See Myself Coming In Today

Dear Swan-Diving Gypsies,

I wrote this one a while ago based on a writing prompt in a workshop. The idea was to have someone be caught where they weren't supposed to be. Here's my take on it.

-Matt


"Cough, Cough" By Matt Mok

The familiar shorn head from five tables away reflects the bright sun in my direction. I quickly duck my head, and reposition myself so that Lucy is blocking the line of sight. She gives me a funny look, to which I smile and straighten back up, but still unseen by the man with the shaved head. She takes the final bite of her sandwich, some mustard squirting out its bottom and onto her puffy down vest.

"Damn," she says. She shifts in her seat and reaches for a napkin from the holder. I mirror her motions with precision, unwilling to lose her as my shield, my ski pants swishing as I shift in my seat.

"Don't move," I hiss.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Just don't move."

"You're acting nuts," she says, swipes at the crumbs on her lap, and starts to get up.

"Stop!" I grab her hand and she delivers a look that could freeze all the slush on the slopes. "See that guy over there? The one with the green scarf? No! Don't look!"

She rolls her eyes and yanks her arm back. "You can keep your crazy to yourself. I'm going for another run." She bends down to lace up her snowboard boots, completely giving away my position, so I dive under the table, upending my chair and spilling my soda.

Lucy peers down at me huddling beneath the gum-cemented table. "What has gotten into you?"

"That guy, he works for me."

"Oh...and he has cooties? What?"

"No, I called in sick to come out here today. He can't see me. Do you think he saw me?"

"No, your neon blue jacket provides the perfect camouflage. Who cares? He's here too, isn't he? What's his excuse?"

"He's supposed to be here. He told me about his last week he was using a vacation day, I just didn't know he was coming here."

"Oh. Still, you're his boss. Not the other way around."

"If he sees me, he might tell others. And then what? I'm their supervisor. How would that look?"

The look on Lucy's face says that she doesn't understand or doesn't care. It might be both. "Do you think he saw me?" I say.

My phone's ring startles me. The caller ID says it's him. He saw me.

"It's him," I whisper.

"Answer it."

I consider my options, but there is no scenario where I shouldn't be answering. I'm supposed to be sick, not deaf.

"Hello?" My voice is soft.

"Tom, it's Jason." His voice sounds hoarse, terrible.

"Hi Jason."

"Sorry, Tom, but I don't think I'll be able to come in tomorrow." It is somewhat surreal to hear the coughs coming through the phone and echoed from a few tables away at the same time. "I'm wicked sick. Doctor says it might be flu and told me to stay home for a couple of days."

I'm speechless.

"Tom?"

"Right," I say. "Sorry to hear about that, Jason. See you Wednesday."

Lucy looks at me expectantly. "Well?"

I get up from my hiding place and look over at Jason. He's sitting at the table talking with friends, his back to me. I grab Lucy's bottle of water off the table. "Are you done with this?" I ask with a grin.

Jason is preoccupied with joke-telling when I arrive. I give him a hearty pat on the back that makes him cough. He looks up at me, bewildered.

"Wow," I say. "That is a bad cough." I put the bottle of water on the table. "Remember to drink plenty of fluids."

My Writing Process

Dear Price-Haggling Ocelots,

Here's an introduction into my self-destructive, unproductive writing process:


1. Great awesome idea pops into your head. You rush to a pen and a piece of paper to scribble it down.

2. The creative floodgates are open and you can't stop scribbling. You add backstories, subplots, lists of characters, memorable scenes, lines of dialog, and a mishmash of additional ideas that form a rudimentary plot.

3. After a few weeks, there's a gnawing feeling that you really need to actually WRITE this story. So begins the laborious process.

4. Oh God, you think, how you hate writing. This is HARD! It was so much easier when you were just writing down ideas in your chicken scratch.

5. You come up with a title. You agonize over it even though it doesn't really matter yet. You settle on one you think is pretty good. It's not too direct, not too abstract. It's even sort of funny.

6. That title really sucks.

7. You run in a plot hole the size of Spain. But you muster some optimism and soldier on. You can fix it later.

8. Around fifteen or twenty thousand words, you still think you have a nice idea. You're surprised it's lasted this long. You even find an interesting side story to investigate. You come with a few more bits of good dialog. You're on a friggin' roll.

9. You're blocked. Not creatively. You've known what the story was supposed to be from the very beginning. No, you just can't WRITE anymore. It's driving you insane and you find every opportunity to procrastinate. You even write an outline, tricking yourself into thinking that it is just as productive as writing the novel itself.

10. You realize that you have a major problem. This story isn't long enough for a novel. You also begin to think that the whimsical original idea you had is neither whimsical nor original.

11. Oh God, this plot is hideous. It blows the big one.

12. You're about halfway done and start rereading what you've written, which is lifeless and dull. You realize—for the fifty second time—that you are an irredeemable failure as a writer.

13. You give up.

14. Repeat Steps 1 to 13.



Once in a while, I'll get past step 12 and have the will not to give up. But this happens very infrequently.

Happy New Year!

-Matt