The Happy Benefits of #Rereading Old Favorites. #WritingLife #WritingTips

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Welcome back my fellow creatives! In the midst of surviving Midwestern snow, rain, more snow, more rain, and a single epic sledding trip–

–my family and I find warm solace in rereading old favorites.

Bo explores his biographies of the Marx Brothers. Bash marches to battle in his Transformer books. Biff dissects the data of every Federation ship in his Star Trek encyclopedia. Blondie explores the Wings of Fire series yet again, pausing at various pages to create her own illustrations of the story.

Blondie won a blue ribbon for this at the local Art Fair!

Me? I returned to Longbourn.

“Why there, Jean?” you may ask. “Why not a Poirot or Howl or some other such series?”

Good question! First, Bo and I are already enjoying Poirot mysteries via the boxed set of television adaptations he got me for Christmas. It’s as much fun to watch David Suchet and Company bring these stories to life as it is to watch Bo enjoy them. Even my three B’s have started to pay attention. “Why hasn’t anyone died yet? Hastings is silly. Woah, the police are using phones. Wait, that’s radio? WHAT?”

As for Diana Wynne Jones, I’ve a goal to finish a series I started looooong ago for some critical reading here: The Dalemark Quartet. This actually also ties to rereading Pride and Prejudice, for both are influences of my lost-in-development-hell Shield Maidens series.

Lastly, I had come across a really cool YouTuber named Dr. Octavia Cox who does close reading of classic literature, and her analyses of Pride and Prejudice made me realize just much one can uncover when one sloooowly moves through the words.

So, let’s focus today on why rereading those old favorites can do a writer–and reader–some good.

Comfort food for the imagination. When reality is cold and bleak, why not escape to a time and place we love? Of course, trying new things is important, but just as we enjoy those warm, delectable comfort foods, so does our imagination enjoy a return to the familiar. We experience those favorite lines, interactions, and settings with fresh appreciation each time, even to the point where we must read them aloud to others. Bash is an avid fan of this–if a Transformer has made him laugh yet again, he’ll read through the whole scene to Biff and Blondie who then, of course, must read the entire story for themselves. When one person loves a story, one never seeks to hide it! As a writer, those returns can be a marvelous benefit to us as we develop our storytelling skills, too.

Worldbuilding. Because we “know what’s coming” in the story, we can pay more attention to all the periphery details and how those enrich the overall setting. Rereading Howl’s Moving Castle, for instance, helps a reader better see how everyday magic utilized by sailors, bakers, and even hatters in Sophie’s life. Rereading the lives of the Marx Brothers–or rewatching Poirot–reveals the surprising pieces of 1930s life that can easily be forgotten. Rereading Wings of Fire helps Blondie catch specific aspects of dragon culture depending on where those dragons come from. In this reread of Pride and Prejudice, I paid closer attention to second and third-string characters, like the Lucas family, so I could better understand life in the Regency period.

The more we study those social gatherings, the more we understand how important they were for folks to meet anyone potentially suitable for marriage; how a female’s talents in entertainment could lift her up in the eyes of the community, and how many dance steps you had to memorize (oh my GOODNESS I would have failed miserably in that period). One may gasp with Elizabeth when Charlotte accepts the simpering Mr. Collins’ proposal, but when one reads closely, one catches that Charlotte is 27 years old–on the far end of the spectrum when folks were expected to marry. Add the size of Charlotte’s large family and small fortune to the mix, and readers have a clearer understanding of the period’s pressures upon a single young woman.

[Charlotte’s] reflections were satisfactory. Mr. Collins to be sure was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. –Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.

Is it any wonder Mrs. Bennet was cheesed off at Elizabeth turning Mr. Collins down? In that time and place, such a life was a young woman’s best option. We as modern readers may not understand that at first, but the more we reread and revisit the setting of the story, the more we learn.

Foreshadowing. It can be so, so hard to catch the clues dropped early, can’t it? We are caught up in the current moment, eagerly anticipating the next exchange or event that alters the storyline’s progression. That was me with a lot of tales, whether they were mysteries like The ABC Murders or fantasy epics like the Harry Potter series. We can even use Harry Potter as an example here: in the first story, Harry talks to a snake he unwittingly releases from its zoo enclosure. At the moment, it’s a lighthearted moment, but in the second book, we learn that talking to snakes is not common at all; plus, it was a trait usually only seen in witches and wizards who preferred the Dark Arts. So is Harry actually a Dark Arts master in the making? Dunh dunh DUNH!

One of Dr. Cox’s analyses of Pride and Prejudice really got me thinking about this, too, in regards to Lydia Bennet. The youngest and wildest of the sisters, she is on the constant search for entertainment and isn’t shy about demanding it from her family and friends. She’ll flirt with a number of officers, demand balls, play betting games with cards–the girl loves risks in all shapes and sizes. It’s a sly bit of foreshadowing about Lydia’s character arc and the choices she’s capable of making. Jane Austen’s slyness continues when Lydia starts talking about Wickham more frequently; it’s timed just so that it comes after Elizabeth refuses Mr. Darcy and reads his letter of Mr. Wickham’s attempted seduction of Georgiana, Mr. Darcy’s little sister. Elizabeth has no desire in hell to listen any references of Wickham, but what happens?

With such kind of histories of their parties and good jokes, did Lydia, assisted by Kitty’s hints and additions, endeavour to amuse her companions all the way to Longbourn. Elizabeth listened as little as she could, but there was no escaping the frequent mention of Wickham’s name.

Because we’re focused on Elizabeth in our initial read, we don’t wonder why Elizabeth ignores Lydia’s ramblings. In the rereads, though, we better understand that all of Lydia’s choices fit her temperament and character, and when Wickham bolts his militia, it really isn’t a wonder for Lydia to bolt with him for a lark.

Not to mention the hardcore foreshadowing of Wickham!

Character Arc (one way or another). Let’s stick with Pride and Prejudice‘s Wickham here. In our first read, we share in Meryton’s positive first impressions of Mr. Wickham:

But the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man, whom they had never seen before, of most gentlemanlike appearance.

That is, the dude’s hot.

Lydia’s making a point to flat-out run into this guy and his friend. Elizabeth’s aunt is hollering at the guy from her window. He’s got eeeveryone’s attention with his manners and looks. After a brief run-in with Mr. Darcy, Mr. Wickham starts probing Elizabeth as to what’s known about Mr. Darcy, and through the coming pages we find out that Mr. Wickham is pretty cool with bemoaning his fate at the hands of the prideful Darcy. Once Elizabeth reads Mr. Darcy’s letter, however, she comes to realize how “gentlemanlike” Mr. Wickham often broke rules of decorum by bashing Darcy at every opportunity. Mr. Darcy’s letter also foreshadows an important aspect of Mr. Wickham’s character–his womanizing. He’s not afraid of ruining a young lady’s reputation for his own interests, and while he failed with Georgiana, he succeeds with Lydia Bennet. Everything that was his character is revealed for an arc from “hot guy” to “womanizing jerk.”

Elizabeth Bennet is also a fine study for the character arc. Oh, she remains playfully witty from start to finish, but in the opening chapters of the ball where Lizzy and Mr. Darcy meet, she is just as prideful as he. She laughs it off, sure, but from that moment on she “willfully misunderstands him,” as Mr. Darcy himself put it during their time together in Netherfield. She refuses to believe such an observation, though, and continues feeling herself best and right regarding Mr. Collins’ simpering, Miss Bingley’s interference with Jane Bennet’s happiness, and more. While Elizabeth is right in some of her observations, she has to face her own mistakes later in the story when it comes to Wickham and Darcy. She has misread people, and she has to own up to it. It actually reminds me of Howl’s Moving Castle when Sophie realizes just how much she cares about Howl. She can’t even admit to herself that she’s capable of loving someone until a fire demon lures Howl into a trap. Readers love seeing characters grow into themselves, so having these rereads helps writers better catch when and how such moments happen.

Two People Finding Each Other.

Blondie: What are you reading?

Me: Pride and Prejudice.

Blondie: Who gets murdered?

Me: Nobody.

Blondie: Does anyone die or get blown up?

Me: Nope.

Blondie: Is there magical stuff in it?

Me: Nope.

Blondie: That sounds really boring.

Now when I was Blondie’s age, I would have agreed. I was immersed in fantasy and mystery at that point, so if someone wasn’t getting murdered, then something better be getting blown up. Now, though, as I reread Pride and Prejudice, I am reminded of something many of us seek in stories of any genre. Even the most violent thing I’ve ever studied on this site, Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys, understood this important element of storytelling.

Boys members Butcher and Hughie are both transformed by love: Hughie struggles with a broken heart not once but twice, and Butcher’s descent into revenge begins with the rape and murder of his wife by a super “hero.” Early in their time together, they help two witnesses of a murder rekindle their relationship. Looking on, Hughie says:

What is it about love stories, you know?

BUTCHER: Two people findin’ each other.

Many of us yearn for that other soul that connects with us in a way no other can. There’s a reason romance alone can sell a story and that many genres include a romantic interest. Is it demanded? No. It doesn’t even have to be a love thing. It could be something as equally powerful as finding a friend or a family member. There is a unique joy as a reader in watching two characters come together, “finding” each other in spite of all story-world obstacles–even the barriers they themselves created.

So yes, there is much to enjoy and learn in a good re-read. What are you rereading during these dreary days? I’d love to hear. x

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

#WriterProblems: The Absent Protagonist (or, a Quick Rant about a #MissMarple #Mystery)

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Happy New Year, my fellow creatives! I hope 2023 is a kind one to us all. I’m eager to work with my university to develop strong goals as an educator, an advocate, and as a writer. That includes chatting with you here, and (fingers crossed) getting something published before 2023 ends.

To start the year off right, I picked up a cozy mystery my husband Bo had given me for Christmas…in 2021, but better late than never. Miss Marple has really grown on me over the past couple of years, and since I’ve not read all her books, I wanted to see if I could cover the rest in 2023. So, here we are with her third mystery, The Moving Finger.

One of the creepier covers.

And I’m peeved.

Not deeply peeved, mind you. The mystery itself is rather good. A brother-sister pair settle in to the countryside for a few months while the brother recovers from a back injury. With the peaceful setting situated, the “harmless” crime of poison pen letters begins with a flurry of notes to different members of the community–Jill’s a floozie, Tim’s not your husband’s child, etc. Even the urban siblings receive a letter that they’re not really siblings. The town gossip burns bright, but no one really takes the letters seriously.

That is, until a woman apparently commits suicide. When her maid is later found murdered, the letters suddenly feel like ticking time bombs. When will the next letter lead to the next death? Cue Miss Marple….

…a few dozen pages before the end.

That’s what brings me here for a brief rant/chat with you all. I know my blogging was rather sporadic last year as I continue to find my place academically and creatively, but one thing that I hope will help is to keep my blog posts shorter than the 5k essays I’d been writing. The short story collection I began in November reminded me just how much fun creative writing can be when we give ourselves time to actually write. We must still take a moment to learn from others, though, and that’s why we’re here.

No Pevensie to be found here!

When one writes a series, one cannot just use the same group of characters over and over and over again. A story-world is usually populated by more than a dozen folks, yes? So, there must always be someone new to the mix. Perhaps that new person is a side character, or perhaps that new person is a real first-stringer, a protagonist in their own right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this in an established series so long as we establish why the, well, “established” protagonists are on the sidelines. For a big example, see the Chronicles of Narnia. The four Pevensies are only protagonists in two of the books; two Pevensies are protagonists in a third with their cousin, and then that cousin is a protagonist with a schoolmate in another book. Two books have nothing to do with the Pevensies at all, yet they’re still in the series because the series is focused on the world, not those characters.

Okay, let’s look at a series based on a character–James Bond. Bo, who chides me for not having read the Bond books yet (shall I remedy that this year?) explained that The Spy Who Loved Me, Fleming’s ninth Bond novel, doesn’t bother introducing Bond into the story until around the halfway point. Because the story is told from a civilian woman’s point of view, we can’t just pop over to wherever Bond is, even though this is technically a James Bond novel. We’ve just got to wait for him to show up.

I assume a moped is involved in the story somewhere…

Diana Wynne Jones also has some stories like this in her Chrestomanci series. Technically, technically, Witch Week is a Chrestomanci novel because he has to get involved to make things right in the chaos of a world where burning witches is the law and schoolchildren are on the run for their lives. But like Marple, Chrestomanci does not show up until Act III of the story.

Yet I’m not peeved about Chrestomanci’s late arrival like I am with Miss Marple’s in The Moving Finger. Why?

It has to do with agency. Chrestomanci may have been late to the Witch Week party, but he took action. He dealt with the witch-burners and saved the children. He DID SOMETHING.

Includes The Magicians of Caprona, which also fits my concerns with the absent hero, too.

I’m not going to spoil the resolution of The Moving Finger, but I will say that Marple’s interactions with others can be counted on one hand. Readers don’t see her talking to police or many townspeople. She’s with the vicar’s wife, and she talks to the urban siblings. That’s it. Yet she gets the pages of explaining the mystery at the end? What did she DO???

For the record, I think the mystery’s plot is fine. The characters are a little cheesy with the romance, but not to the point of irritation. What bothers me is that Marple’s absence from the story would not alter the story’s outcome. A little tweaking of interactions with the regular cast here would lead to someone realizing the truth and catching the culprit. Miss Marple had no real agency in her own story, and that just leaves me confused as a reader: why is this a Marple story at all?

There’s nothing wrong with a different cast shining inside an established protagonist’s universe. The key is to make sure that established protagonist still has a moment to shine themselves. So long as readers know their favorite hero(ine) is still ACTIVE in the story-world, they will be happy to see others take action, too.

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

#writerproblems: #writing awesome #characterdesign in three sentences or less.

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Yes, I know that hashtag #characterdesign is more of an art-related thing, but it fits with this little lesson learned, believe you me.

This week started with its usual chaos: calls at 5am for a substitute teacher in 5th grade–no wait, Kindergarten. No wait, art, just art for aaaaaall the grades, can you do that? Bash wakes up with a swollen eye from Lord knows what (don’t worry, it left just as mysteriously as it came), university students re-submit work I had already flagged as inappropriate for the assignment requirements. On top of all this, another university contacts me to schedule an interview for a full-time gig. (insert excitement and anxiety here.)

Meanwhile, I did my best to stay in the writing community loop, reading about the racial controversy over American Dirt and learning from fellow indie author Michael Dellert that The Arcanist is calling for western speculative flash fiction:

Click here if you’re interested, too!
You can check out my novella for free on Kindle Unlimited, or nab the e-book for 99cents.

Is there another short story inside me for the bounty hunter Sumac? I asked myself as the twelve-year-olds tried to stab each other with colored pencils. 1000 words didn’t feel like a lot of wiggle room. Night’s Tooth was meant to be a short story, after all, but writing a fantasy western inspired by Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name trilogy meant a LOT of slow-but-tense moments. Thus, the novella instead of the short story. (Click here if you’d like to read one of those moments.)

As magical showdowns percolated in my mind, I continued planning my excursion into the “dark, impulsive, whiny villainy” of Disney’s Star Wars. I had my collection of Robert McKee Story quotes at the ready for studying the bizarre mix of Hux and Kylo interactions in The Force Awakens and shift from there into the smothering subversions of The Last Jedi.

That is, until my perusal through Agatha Christie’s short fiction sparked a little something that I just had to share.

So we all know that when it comes to short fiction, you gotta pack a lot into a tiny space. Plot, character, setting–aaaaall that jazz has gotta be played at a heightened, almost truncated speed. There’s no time for meandering interludes or long drum solos.

(RIP Neil Pert. I know he wasn’t a jazz player, but Bo’s a HUGE Rush fan, so he’s been showing concerts to the kids and now I’m stuck in a land of music metaphor that doesn’t jive and we’re just going to move on because I clearly have no sense of what decade I’m in.)

David Suchet reading Hercule Poirot is
as awesome as Edward Hardwicke reading Sherlock Holmes.

Agatha Christie wrote over a hundred short stories. If ANYone knew the importance of keeping the story elements thrumming along, it was her. This is especially clear when she describes her characters. Like any good musician, Christie’s style moves sweet’n’slick with just the right amount of flourish.

Miss Lemon was forty-eight and of unprepossessing appearance. Her general effect was that of a lot of bones flung together at random. She had a passion for order almost equalling that of Poirot himself; and though capable of thinking, she never thought unless told to do so.

“How Does Your Garden Grow?”

In just three sentences, we’ve got a sense of this character’s physical appearance, interests, and mindset. Christie doesn’t dwell on the minutiae, like what Miss Lemon wears or how she does her hair. That all falls under “unpreposessing appearance.” But some readers whine when they can’t “see” a character without more precise detail. What if we picture different things? What if we don’t see the character the same way the writer did? THAT CHANGES THE READING EXPERIENCE, DOESN’T IT?!

Honestly, folks, does Miss Lemon’s outfit affect the story? No. Does it matter if each of us picture “a lot of bones flung together” (damn, I really like that bit) in different ways? No.

More importantly, a short story doesn’t have space to waste on that kind of detail. When a writer’s looking into contests like The Arcanist‘s, he/she can’t afford to spend a hundred words on description when forty will do the trick. Heck, even twenty’s enough for Christie in some cases. Take these character descriptions of two parents.

Mrs. Waverly’s emotion was obviously genuine, but it assorted strangely with her shrewd, rather hard type of countenance.

Mr. Waverly was a big, florid, jovial-looking man. He stood with his legs straddled wide apart and looked the type of the country squire.

“The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly”

Again, the colorful details are skipped in favor for body language and behavior. We get senses of these people–the hard, heart-broken mother, the upper-class, happy sort of father. We may not know what these two look like, but we know their body language, and in this we get impressions of their attitudes and behaviors, which are far more important than hair color.

Six months ago she had married a fifth time–a commander in the Navy. He it was who came striding down the beach behind her. Silent, dark–with a pugnacious jaw and a sullen manner. A touch of the primeval ape about him.

“Triangle at Rhodes”

Those third and fourth sentences say it ALL. “Silent, dark”–readers can already get a sense of a nasty face, but since this man’s “a commander in the Navy” then we know he’s going to carry himself like a man of authority and power. Words like “pugnacious” and “sullen” tell readers how he’s going to interact with the other characters: always negatively, aggressively, and without any sort of kindness. The fact he’s “primeval” practically forces readers to picture this character as a sort of sub-human, incapable of empathy or feeling.

And aaaaaall that characterization is given in just eighteen words.

When Poirot’s friend Captain Hastings narrates the story, Christie is also able to take advantage of her ever-lovable unreliable narrator, which allows her to misdirect readers when she so chooses.

An awesome collection if you dig short fic!

The sixth Viscount Cronshaw was a man of about fifty, suave in manner, with a handsome, dissolute face. Evidently an elerly roué, with the languid manner of a poseur. I took an instant dislike to him.

Mrs. Davidson came to us almost immediately, a small, fair creature whose fragility would have seemed pathetic and appealing had it not been for the rather shrewd and calculating gleam in her light blue eyes.

“The Affair at the Victory Ball”

Oh, Hastings, you do love a pretty face. Poirot’s partner loves to let readers know when he’s a fan of a woman or not, consistently keen to describe her appearance and whether or not she’s attractive.Once in a while, though, he’ll catch something genuine, such as Mrs. Davidson’s shrewdness. Likewise, if Hastings doesn’t like a man, he’s obvious about that, too, and these opinions from Hastings always alter how he interacts with the characters as well as how he interprets their words and body language. This in turn affects the information readers receive, and so by the end of “The Affair at the Victory Ball” we’re just as surprised as Hastings to discover how wrong we are about these people.

Once in a while, though, Christie does allow a little drum solo when a minor character takes the stage. It seems to happen when it’s a character type Poirot, Hastings, or the omniscient narrator ignores in favor of more interesting goings-on: a mere citizen, a member of the populace where the mystery occurs. Sometimes it’s this common-ness that plays its part in getting Poirot to the mystery, such as in “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding”:

Everything about Mr. Jesmond was discreet. His well-cut but inconspicuous clothes, his pleasant, well-bred voice which rarely soared out of an agreeable monotone, his light-brown hair just thinning a little at the temples, his pale serious face. It seemed to Hercule Poirot that he had known not one Mr. Jesmond but a dozen Mr. Jesmonds in his time, all using sooner or later the same phrase–“a position of the utmost delicacy.”

“The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding”

And this bit from “A Cornish Mystery” is a lovely reminder to readers and writers alike that every setting’s character, no matter how bland and un-unusual, is still a person with problems, fear, and feeling.

Many unlikely people came to consult Poirot, but to my mind, the woman who stood nervously just inside the door, fingering her feather neck-piece, was the most unlikely of all. She was so extraordinarily commonplace–a thin, faded woman of about fifty, dressed in a braided coat and skirt, some gold jewellery at her neck, and with her grey hair surmounted by a singularly unbecoming hat. In a country town you pass a hundred Mrs. Pengelleys in the street every day.

“The Cornish Mystery”

It seems Hastings spends an awful long time introducing us to a character that’s just one of a hundred one would pass in the street–81 words, in fact. Why so much time on a single, ordinary character in a short story? Hasting’s description creates an expectation of ordinary-ness, regularity, typicality. But of course, Christie being Christie, this time spent on an ordinary character comes with reason: this ordinary character, this one of one hundred, is murdered. Why would someone murder this one Mrs. Pengelley out of a hundred one would pass on a country town street?

Ah. That is why the reader reads on.

So when you work on your own character designs, writers, always ask yourself what matters more: the character’s appearance, or behavior? The character’s look, or feelings? A character’s choices are often the influence of action and pacing, but there’s no denying that sometimes, a character’s appearance alone may twist the narrative into surprising directions. What matters is that you share character traits important to the story. Picturing a character’s apparel means little when readers cannot see a character’s attitude.

~STAY TUNED NEXT WEEK!~

Back to The Young and the Restless of Disney’s Star Wars villains!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

#Writing #Music: Peter Gabriel

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gabriel_scratchmb_header2Rarely do I allow myself to write with lyrical music on in the background. The words don’t always jive with what I picture in my head, and tend to distract me from the goal of the scene.

And yet, there are some songs that work on a level where the music and the words are intrinsic to each other, like a vine that climbs the old iron fence and flowers before your eyes. You can’t remove the fence, and you can’t remove the vine, for together they create a single unique image. The individual components are now in union, and for the better.

That’s one of the reasons I enjoy Peter Gabriel’s rendition of “Heroes” so much. Set apart, the strings are just. Breathtaking. The build is dramatically, almost painfully slow, but you know they’re building, so you’re willing to stay, and well up with them. Touch the stars with them. Return to earth with them.

Set apart, Gabriel himself is just. Heartbreaking. The song itself shares a deep hope, yet when Gabriel sings it, there’s this sense of fate–for all the crying out to the heavens, the singer will continue to be alone, for his hope can never be truly fulfilled.

United, this song transcends to a Shakespearean height in longing, love, and imagination.

The first time I heard this song, a scene formed in my head, bright and complete. It’s a rare experience for me, to see a piece of story in such detail–usually I can only hear the dialogue, or see something important, and have to clean up the fuzzy bits over the course of multiple revisions.

Not that scene, though. This song brought it to me, whole and beautiful, and it’s stayed as it was first drafted. Perhaps this song will help you uncover that precious, bittersweet something hidden beneath the starlight.

Click here for more on SCRATCH MY BACK.

Click here for more on Peter Gabriel.

 

 

 

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TressoftheEmeraldSea by #BrandonSanderson, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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We’ve got another delight here, my friends!

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Now I know Sanderson’s a big name in fantasy writing, but I wasn’t expecting a Jane Austen-style cover for one of his books. Apparently, ⁠Tress of the Emerald Sea ⁠was to be something for his wife, so its voice, characters, world, etc. are not meant to be connected to anything else he’s written. This is fine, as I’m one of those heathens who’s never read Sanderson. 🙂

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

I do hope his other books have such a playful narrative voice! That’s what hooks you in these first few pages, honestly. The first chapter is almost entirely exposition about where protagonist Tress lives: a putrid island where nothing can grow and only salt can save you from the cosmic spores raining from the sky. I was keenly reminded of Tolkien’s asides to readers as I went, though this narrator’s tongue is a bit more, shall we say, barbed: “Ships sailed that dust like ships sail water here, and you should not find that so unusual. How many other planets have you visited? Perhaps they all sail oceans of pollen, and your home is the freakish one.”

We learn more about the world than we do about Tress in this opening chapter, but it’s enough to keep us going. For a girl who insists she’s happy on an island where the government orders the residents to remain until death, she still collects cups decorated with things that can’t survive where she lives. For a girl who does her best to tame her hair and be socially presentable, she never seems to succeed. For a girl with a family name like Glorf (“don’t judge,” says the narrator), she deserves a chance to be more. And hopefully, we’ll read on to see just that.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TheFerryman by #JustinCronin, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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Renew yourself, my fellow creatives!

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

Ever hear of the sci-fi cult classic ⁠Logan’s Run⁠? It’s a 1976 film about a world where everyone is young and perfect, and life will always give you just what you want. Once your hand’s computer light starts flashing, you have to go be “renewed”–or as one quickly finds out, you die.

This immediately came to mind when I picked up Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman, so I was a little wary of how this deceiving utopia would compare with the likes of Logan’s Run.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

Happily, my concern was unnecessary. The prologue (yes, a prologue) introduces readers to the “mother” of the book’s protagonist. She is preparing to leave all that she knows; since the dust jacket says that folks of a certain age in this utopia are taken away to be “renewed,” we can safely assume she’s preparing herself for that journey. Unlike Logan’s Run, it appears this renewal is almost like a reincarnation: the aged or taken away, bodies de-aged and minds erased, to come back to the island as teenagers to start life again as wards to selected adults of the city. Yes, this prologue is a lot of exposition, but the prose fits the moment, for the woman is describing all that she says as she says farewell to her life. She then recalls meeting her ward, the protagonist Proctor, and is surprised by the maternal feelings she holds. She doesn’t understand them.

And frankly, the alienness of family feeling is what I find so compelling here. As a writer, we can create whatever kind of world we want, and I see Cronin’s done precisely that. Yet something must be relatable for the reader, or they won’t feel the story is accessible. Most people have their own sense of family, whether by birth or friendship, but the fact that this society has turned that sense of family into an alien feeling leads readers to question what else has been essentially removed from the human experience–perhaps the soul itself?

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #VeraWongsUnsolicitedAdviceforMurderers by #JesseQSutanto, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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7

Oh, this is a fun one, my fellow creatives.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

 Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto 

Seriously, this first chapter was a delight to read. I mean, with an opener like this, how could it not be?

Vera Wong Zhuzhu, age sixty, is a pig, but she really should have been born a rooster. We are, of course, referring to Chinese horoscopes. Vera Wong is a human woman, thank you very much, but roosters have nothing on her.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

Even though this chapter is exposition, we as readers can still see the unfussable Vera Wong launch herself into her morning routine. While this may not sound very interesting for a hook, the narrator’s lighthearted, playful tone mixed with Vera’s eccentric personality hook readers into loving this old lady very quickly. Plus, using the exposition helps us realize that this morning routine isn’t unique or special to the narrative–rather, this is how she always is, from texting her son at 4:31am to tell him he should be awake, to counting every one of her 3,112 steps on her morning walk.

Yet even this first chapter is not without its emotional weight, for that same morning walk takes her by the tai chi group her husband, long passed, used to attend. In fact, the chapter ends with Vera, while resolute and determined to continue her day as normal, cannot completely silence her sadness over the dwindling relationship with her son since her husband passed. It’s an artfully done first chapter, full of humor and uniqueness with an emotional tug at the end…all disguised in an elderly lady’s morning routine.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #BirnamWood by #EleanorCatton, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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7

Welp, we had a good run, folks.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

For the first time, I have to say that this novel may very well need an engaging prologue to hook readers.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

Granted, at the outset, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood isn’t bad. The prose is dense but vivid, its opening paragraphs dedicated to establishing the setting of a landslide in New Zealand and the aftermath of a small town in isolation. We meet Mira in the third paragraph: she is described to us as well as how she is willfully using an alias and misleading real estate agents of that isolated small town because…we don’t know.

So, we as readers have a compelling reason to read on. We want to know why our main character is not being honest about her identity and motivations.

Yet the more I read the first chapter, the more exposition I got. Paragraph after paragraph details what Mira reads in her research of one person in that town. That’s it. The curiosity I had for Mira’s motivations dwindled with every paragraph of exposition. Perhaps I was spoiled by Janice Hallet’s The Appeal, which also gave us such research, but in its original format of emails and newspaper clippings vs. an omniscient narrator telling us the protagonist is reading these things. The middle man, in a sense, was cut out in The Appeal; plus, reading the original messages from characters gave us a sense of different characters and their voices. Five pages into Birnam Wood, I only know that “Mira read on.” Now, chances are this story is a slow burn with the action coming later on, and that’s fine for those content to wait. For the picky, impatient reader such as myself, however, I think I’ll go back to the New Release Shelf.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TheCraneHusband by #KellyBarnhill, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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2

Ooo, folks, this is a neat one.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill*

The atmosphere of a dark fairy tale hangs heavy in the old farmhouse where ⁠Kelly Barnhill’s The Crane Husband⁠ takes place. Our narrator is a fifteen-year-old girl who’s become the caregiver to both her little brother and mother–a mother who, on this day, brings home a large crane and calls him their father.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

We as readers are as agog as the little brother, while the teen is doing her best to maintain a cynical sanity to her mother’s artistic whims. The fact we as readers do not know about the crane being dressed in human clothing until the second page irked me at first, but as a writer I respect Barnhill’s choice to show the reactions to the initial shock of a crane in the kitchen before the next shock of the crane in clothes. The third shock comes when the mother shows intimate displays of affection to the crane–and the crane reciprocates. The chapter ends with the teen blowing this off, eager for the crane’s departure like her mother’s other lovers, but the chapter ends with yet another masterful twist by Barnhill:

My mother wasn’t one to keep anything around, save for me and Michael. So I wasn’t particularly worried about the crane.

I should have been worried about the crane.

With such a bizarre start, I can only imagine where Barnhill’s tale can go from here.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

*If I refer to Kelly Barnhill as Kate at some point, I humbly apologize. I goofed!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TheWritingRetreat by #JuliaBartz, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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3

Do urban adults often use similes such as “like a shipman searching the horizon”? Methinks not.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Well, what do you know? Here the author from last week’s episode left a positive blurb on the book for this week–⁠The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz⁠.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

The opening pages introduce us to Alex, a woman who is hung up on a broken friendship with Wren while attending a book release party for a mutual friend. At times the voice really shines in this prose–a bit immature, a bit creative, but overall unique. Other times the word choices do not jive with that personality–who on earth says “unselfconsciously affable”?

But it was the last paragraph I read that promised redeeming qualities to the voice, for that last paragraph gave us a very clear, colorful picture of just how badly Alex latched herself to Wren. Alex describes all sorts of glittery, beautiful dreams of a friendship with Wren mere moments after meeting her at a job. This not only explains why Alex keeps lamenting the loss of Wren and why she can’t stop thinking about her; it makes us wonder what Wren really thinks of Alex. We could very well be dealing with one character obsessing over another, fantasizing about the scale of that relationship while the truth is quite different. If so, then this suspenseful read just got more…suspensefuler.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TheAppeal by #JaniceHallett, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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7

Unconventional narrative, unconventional fun!

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

This review, I’m afraid, is going to be rather short, as this novel is not quite like other novels.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

Rather than a traditional narrative and/or paragraph structure, Janice Hallett’s The Appeal is created with emails, text messages, and other media snippets compiled for two lawyers to study in preparation for tackling a murder case. On the one hand, this means we’re not getting any details regarding setting or character appearance. On the other hand, we’re getting a wealth of first-person perspectives over a period of time that *should* guide us readers to the ultimate solution of the mystery.

As a reader, I’m definitely intrigued. As a writer, I admire Hallett taking on this risk. It’s a dangerous thing to essentially tell readers, “You don’t have all the materials. Hopefully, it’s in the right order. Good luck!” It’d be all too easy to just withhold all sorts of things so you can just dump it all in the resolution later. Hopefully, Hallett does not do this. The extra challenge is also to make sure the writing voices for all these characters is consistently different. So far, I couldn’t help but chuckle that one character only writes in two-word responses compared to the gushing emails from another character. It’s an interesting dynamic, and I’ve got to continue at least a bit more into the tale to see where these emails take me.

~*~*~

I just have to add that I actually completed this novel in less than 24 hours. It’s a highly enjoyable read where EVERYONE is an unreliable narrator. You’re trying to piece everything together alongside two young lawyers who are trying to connect details, commissions, and timelines shared within this peculiar little theater group. If you’re keen for a different take on a cozy, then I highly recommend this book.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #Homecoming by #KateMorton, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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4

Well, we had a good run. The prologue has returned, and a rambling prologue, at that.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s Homecoming opens with a woman named Isabel. Isabel is pondering various things while hanging up some bunting for a New Year’s Day family celebration.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

The prose itself is well-crafted, and there are certainly some interesting lines that help us feel the weight of natural Australian dangers on Isabel as she’s out and alone. Actually, Morton’s quite good at dropping hints of danger and trouble within Isabel without Isabel actually saying these are troubles–moments relating to her depression, her marriage problems, her desire to do away with her own kids, her “guilty conscience” and her determination to “make things right”–it’s all quite good foreshadowing for SOMEthing to happen. And the prologue does end with the promise of something bad about to happen. The downside, at least to me, comes with how long it takes to reach that moment. We spend the entire prologue with Isabel thinking. That’s it. Now a few pages of thoughts can be well done, for as I mentioned, Morton’s cleverly hiding hints of danger within Isabel’s psyche. But it’s a slow, slow process through all of Isabel’s thoughts, and by prologue’s end I’m saying, “Thank goodness THAT’S over.” That’s not what a writer wants a reader to feel. As writers, we’ve got to make every line count. We shouldn’t need to hide a hint of foreshadowing beneath a mountain of exposition. A little goes a long way, whether one’s writing a short story, a novel, or anything in between.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #TheWhaleboneTheatre by #JoannaQuinn, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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3

The voice of a toddler is compelling, indeed.

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

We return to historical drama in Joanna Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre, and know what? I don’t mind.

If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.

The story is geared to follow Cristabel Seagrave from toddlerhood to adulthood spying on Nazis in France, so our first impression of the protagonist is her impish, defiant nature. Oh, this kid is great fun, and I wouldn’t mind following the toddler Cristabel around for a whole novel. Quinn does marvelous work as a writer in keeping the prose vivid and active, while also throwing in the occasional childish term like “nothingy.” It’s a lovely balance for adult readers who may not appreciate the quirky language of a child, while also sounding true as a voice for a young character. We watch Cristabel meet her stepmother for the first time, and this occasion clearly marks a strained relationship for the future–any stepmother who refers to a child as “it” is not all that keen on children, to be sure! So while we didn’t see the whalebones just yet, I enjoyed seeing much of Cristabel’s personality and imagination shine through so much in this opening scene. Those are the character traits an author wants to establish early so that the protagonist’s later choices not only propel the story forward, but also ring true to the character we’re happy to know.

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!

You’ve Got Five Pages, #Babel by #RFKuang, to Tell Me You’re Good. #FirstChapter #BookReview #Podcast

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4

At last, my library got a new fantasy novel!

As writers, we hear all the time that we’ve got to hook readers in just the first few pages or else. We’ve got to hook agents in the first few pages or else.

Whether you’re looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor’s attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

JEFF GERKE, THE FIRST FIFTY PAGES

Well then, let’s study those first few pages in other people’s stories, shall we?

Today I snagged from the New Release shelf:

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Goodness, ANOTHER happy find! I don’t know if I’ve ever had such a run with great books on this podcast. 🙂

Babel by R.F. Kuang not only has a fascinating book cover, but an intriguing premise as well: the world’s magic is manipulated through words and silver, and in the early 1800s, England is the master of that magic. The opening is not set in England, though, but in China, where a young boy awaits his death from cholera, the same illness that had already taken his family. A mysterious British professor knows where he lives and magically heals him before taking him to the English Factory. Where this factory actually is I’ve no idea, as this would take us past five pages, but I can safely say the first five pages do a wonderful job of hooking us as readers. Kuang’s use of descriptive language wastes no time ensnaring us with her description of the boy’s mother dying of cholera and his acceptance of his fate. On the second page, we’re already shown a magic healing; while it doesn’t tell us how the boy is healed, it’s enough worldbuilding for us to know that some have magic, and others do not. As a writer, I’m also intrigued by the details dropped about the mysterious professor and English woman who helped raise the boy. What is it about this particular child that has drawn distinctively different English people to him, thousands of miles away in China? I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out. 🙂

No matter what the season brings, keep reading!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!