The Confabulator Cafe

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  • NaNoWriMo #6 part one

    2013-Participant-Square-Button[Looks around.]

    Um, hi. It’s nice to be back. Been a while. How are you all doing?

    So yesterday I started my sixth NaNoWriMo story in six years. I’ve won every year I’ve played but twice I didn’t actually ‘finish’ the novels I was writing. The first one (my third novel) just kind of petered out because I was pantsing too much, had no idea where it was going to go or how it would get there. I’ve thought about it often ever since because I love the story (it’s a first contact tale) and the characters. I’ll get back to it eventually.

    The other NaNovel I didn’t finish was the one from last year. At 56,000 words I gave up. There were too many issues with it and I was focused on the book from the previous year (my fourth if you’re trying to keep track). That story was so good and the feedback that came back was excellent and I spent time editing it and polishing and revising and re-writing and everything one is supposed to do to a novel. This year it’s spent time out on submission (where it currently is) and I’m collecting rejections.

    Last year’s book was a sequel to that one. It’s also the story I’m re-writing from page one this year. I changed the POV and added some really sinister villains and figured out HOW to tell the story that I wanted to tell. It simply took me longer than I thought because I wasn’t totally finished with the first one in the series. (Well, I’m not sure it’s a series yet. As of this writing it’s a book with one sequel. We’ll see.) Anyway.

    Because of circumstances, I didn’t get to start writing until Friday evening November 1st. And it was a bit of a struggle. Normally I’m a morning writer so that probably contributed but I think it was really just nerves. Once I got past the first thousand words things seemed to go better. Today (Saturday) I knocked out 2600+ words really quickly and most of them were all right, a few were really good and some will definitely be edited out.

    But the point is that the flow came back. And it came back strong, like a Colorado river in springtime. Lots of whitewater. This year will be different for me because I’m going to have to spend more time writing in the evenings rather than the morning because of my job. I’m okay with that but I’m hoping it’s not going to be a real struggle. I suspect not because I’ve got a lot of practice writing. Once upon a time I could tell you how many words I’ve written but not any more. It’s gotta be near a million, but I don’t know.

    As I write this, I’m anxious to get back to writing on the novel (it’s called The Silent Well if I didn’t mention that earlier) and I’m hoping to get another 500 or 1,000 words down before I go to bed. So I’m going to sign off here to eat some dinner and try to dig back in.

  • The “Flavia de Luce” mystery series, by Alan Bradley (book review)

    Imagine, if you will, an eleven-year-old girl who loves chemistry and Gladys, her battered bicycle, and always seems to be the first to find dead bodies in a series of novels with such titles as The Sweetness At the Bottom Of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-sick Of Shadows, and Speaking from Among the Bones; an author who first started writing serious fiction in his mid-fifties and started to achieve fame for them in his sixties; and the extremely detailed setting of the novels was in a country he’d never visited.

    If your imagination is still trying to assemble all that, here are the missing pieces to this award-winning series of mystery novels: Flavia de Luce, the young heroine; Alan Bradley, the Canadian author; 1951 England, the setting. And if you haven’t read any of these stories, why not? They’re the best fiction to come down the pike in a long time. (more…)

  • Gravity (Movie Review)

    How do you survive the worst-possible scenario in space and make it back to Earth alive? Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is an engineer on special assignment to fix a prototype component her team built for the Hubble Telescope. Leading the crew is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), who is field-testing a new Manned Maneuvering Unit on his last mission out.

    In the opening scene, they get news that a planned detonation of a Russian satellite has misfired, leaving them just minutes to abort mission before they get bombarded by shrapnel. However, they can’t even get back into the shuttle before thousands of metal shards rip through them. By the time the field passes, only Stone and Kowalski are left alive and the shuttle has been destroyed. Their only hope is to get to the escape pods on the International Space Station before the shrapnel field can complete another orbit and hit them again.

    (more…)

  • Mono-Life

    Scott waved hello to Greg as he walked past his cubicle on the way to the break room, as he did every morning before his shift started.  Despite the fact that Greg and Simon had cubicles facing each other, Scott never bothered to wave at Simon.  Why would he, after all?

    “Good morning to you, too,” Geoff said, as Scott approached the vending machines.  “So what’s new with you?”

    “Oh, nothing much,” Scott replied, as he pulled out his wallet.  “Feeding my coffee habit.  I stayed up late last night for no good reason.  Mostly I spent the night watching TV.  Discovery, History, EPSN, and some local sit-coms.  Whatever floats my boats, you know.”  He retrieved the cup from the vending machine, and held it up to his face to breathe in the fumes.

    “You do have a lot of boats,” Geoff said, nodding in agreement.  “Myself, I was split evenly between reading and workout out at the gym.  Lately, I’ve been- hang on, I’ve got to get this.”  Geoff silenced his phone and walked over into a secluded corner of the room.

    “Sorry about that,” Greg said, spinning around in his chair to talk to Simon.  “Anyway, I thought the doctor said you weren’t allowed to have coffee anymore?”

    (more…)

  • Reunion

    The girls trickle in one at a time, congregating for their customary visitation. My friends keep their distance even though I’d gladly have them close. The sullen expressions and awkward silence feel wrong.

    Words come slowly: first regrets, then jokes and memories of better times. I love their laughter but prefer their silence. I’m still the glue that holds them together. Now I’m also the inevitable.

    I’d happily join in on their banter, but I can’t speak their language. When they leave with the sun in their eyes and the wind on their faces, here I will lie, going to pieces.

  • The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Book Review)

    So I read The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson and thought the story-telling was brilliant. I loved the book. The pages turned rapidly and I’ve already picked up the second book in the series to read. I want to reiterate. I loved the book. I hate myself a little bit for that and this is why.

    From the first few pages, I could tell that something about Elisa, the main character, wasn’t quite what I was used to reading. She was a princess. She had a destiny. Both of these things are commonplace in YA literature. That wasn’t it. Things started clicking into place as she describes herself as looking like a “sausage roll” in the corset required for her wedding dress. When the seams rip on the dress I wondered if the author has ever worn a corset before or seen anyone wearing one. A “sausage roll” is not the way I would describe the effect of a corset. (more…)

  • Circuit Rider

    The revolver hung heavy against Allan’s side, tucked beneath his faded duster. He tried to ignore it, but with every stride the gun would poke him like a dog begging attention.  Just ahead, Jim was guiding them up an overgrown trail running alongside the edge of a small ravine.

    He did not much abide guns, being a preacher, but he saw the need for them. As the frontier grew, the church had needed to push the preaching circuits further and further west. He had nearly lost his way this time out; stumbling upon Jim’s farm had been God’s own blessing.

    (more…)

  • Narration in The Hunger Games

    First person narration is a style that has its pluses and minuses. While restricting the reader’s perspective to one person lets us get to know that one individual better, it usually limits our view of the wider world and leaves other characters flat and uninteresting. When comparing the book and movie version of The Hunger Games, the central theme is how each media uses Katniss as the narrator.

    A quick confession, I saw the movie before I read the book. I know, I know, a shame onto my family. While the book confines itself to Katniss’ point of view the entire time, one of the advantages of the movie is the ability to follow other characters around. The time spent in The Capital is particularly enhanced by not being stuck in Katniss’ head. The behind-the-scenes look at The Hunger Games give us a different look at what the Games really are about. While reading it’s easy to become focused on surviving, because that is what Katniss is focused on. The movie never lets the viewer forget that it is just a game to most the people.
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  • Music Review: SUPERMEGAFANTASTIC

    This summer was the opposite of hectic, in that nothing big went on — but emotionally, it was busy. As such, I didn’t do a ton of writing. I would start something new, then the excitement (or catharsis) would fizzle and I’d find myself disinterested again. What I did was listen to a lot of music. I rekindled my love affair with owning CDs and whole albums. Music is a fairly big part of the way I write, and as much as I love The Glitch Mob, it’s not right for every situation.

    With that in mind, let’s talk about IAMDYNAMITE. Specifically, the album SUPERMEGAFANTASTIC. (Can I just say that the all caps names just make my day every time?)

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  • Alan Ryker’s Nightmare Man (Book Review)

    18297261In Alan Ryker’s Nightmare Man, Jessie, a young collections agent and would-be artist deals with his night terrors, in which he is haunted by dreams of the shadowy Nightmare Man. Jessie’s disorder has become dangerous to his family, as it sends him on sleeping rampages throughout the house as he attempts physical battle with his dream monster.

    His marriage and job in jeopardy, Jessie seeks medical help and finds himself in experimental trials for a new drug to combat his night terrors, and eliminate the Nightmare Man. But when his son begins his own night terrors, Jessie is forced to ask if the Nightmare Man is only in his head, or is something much worse.

    I really like Alan Ryker’s writing style. He has a conversational tone that puts you at ease, which makes the escalating tension all the greater. In this case, I also felt a personal connection with Jessie, the protagonist. Jessie was an aspiring comic book artist until the birth of his son forced him to take a job that would pay the bills rather than pursue the art he loved. A little known fact is that I was an initially an art major in college and spent most of my childhood drawing comic books. While I have mentioned that in passing on various blogs, it’s not well known that I have issues with parasomnia, the family of sleep disorders that includes night terrors.

    I don’t have the issue quite to the level of Jessie, and I wouldn’t consider myself dangerous, but people sleeping in the same bed have been punched, choked, kicked, or groped. In one particular incident, I apparently attempted to bite my ex-wife. I’ve always said that the best horror takes your fears and turns the volume up to eleven.  As such, I found myself relating well to Jessie. But even without my personal attachment, it is easy to connect to Ryker’s protagonist. Notice, I didn’t say “like.” There are things not to like about Jessie, as he is a fully drawn character with some definite flaws. I won’t get into them here, because some of them are important to the story, as Ryker explores the relationship between our personal identities and our life choices.

    The horror in this novella is not overdone or over-complicated; it is fairly simple and is done very well. At under 100 pages, it is a quick read with a lot going for it. If you like horror novellas, DarkFuse is a good place to start, and Ryker is one of their best.