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Tag Archives: Reading

Watching the Watchmen

While following the argle-bargle over rights to the Watchmen movie (I might have made sure I had the rights before spending millions to make a film, but that’s me), I finally caved in and read the alternate-apocalyptic 12-issue graphic series. After all, it’s had a place of honor on the shelves of every man I’ve [...]

Posted 10 January 2009 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Romance still sells

Had fun at the New Jersey Romance Writers Put Your Heart in a Book Conference this past Friday and Saturday. Lots of workshops, less candy (which is a good thing) and more good conversations than last year. I didn’t pitch a story to agents or editors this year; feels too soon for the new story [...]

Posted 26 October 2008 † nickyp § Marketing § Reading § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Old romantics

Reading Lord Jim this week for book club, I was reminded again of the many readings of the word “romantic.” Jim’s trouble (boiling way down) is that he wants to see himself as the hero in some adventure story but does not (always/ever) act the hero. Another character describes Jim repeatedly as romantic. The word [...]

Posted 20 October 2008 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Characters vs. types

Talking about David Copperfield today at book club, we wondered which character in the book we’d most like to be. Not any of the women, although Peggotty was one of my faves. A few said they’d want to be David who, though he suffers, does grow (and ‘learn discipline’) and ends up well.
 
Today I think [...]

Posted 28 September 2008 † nickyp § Reading § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

‘I fall into captivity’

That’s the chapter title from which this excerpt from David Copperfield comes. Though Dickens writes hecka long stories, the basic characterizations are tight and—wow!—effective. Peggoty, Uriah Heep, on and on. I cut away lots of secondary characters in my last manuscript because they took too much space in the story. Copperfield is a textbook in [...]

Posted 17 September 2008 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

“Procrastination is the thief of time”

Due to my Sharpe fixation in August, I now have only four weeks to read the entirety of David Copperfield before we meet up for book club. From “I am born” through “A last retrospect” is 715 pages in my Barnes & Noble Classics edition. Turns out, though, this is a perfect time for Dickens’s [...]

Posted 31 August 2008 † nickyp § Reading ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Long live Sharpe

In the past six weeks, I’ve blown through more than 20 of the Richard Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell (holding off on the 1820-set one to use as incentive to meet my page goals this month). 
Wow. Rollicking adventure, tight serial plotting and continuing characters who grow (somewhat). I read them in historical order, marveling that [...]

Posted 30 August 2008 † nickyp § Reading § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , ,