How many of these books have you read?

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

I found this over at Fabianspace, Karina Fabian's blog. Read her post here: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-many-of-these-classics-have-i-read.html

Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

TAG! YOU'RE IT!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 1984--George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - boring, then I found out it was written to teach kids atheism. Still boring.

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch-22 --Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - I like Titus Andronicus the best.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - one of the first grown-up books I read as a child.

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - I read the first paragraph or so in Russian when I was learning Russian.

25 The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - I thought the ending was really, really funny....

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (All 7 of them!)

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - very dull, at least if you've already read the book Brown used as his source for the wild theories.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - liked it in spite of the hysterical anti-Christianism

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (and Seamonsters?)

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - is that the one about the kid with Asperger's Syndrome? if so it's on my must-read list.....

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - I only read it for the smutty bits.

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - I keep thinking of it as the Count of Monte Crisco....

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - my mom made me watch the movie because Colin Firth was in it and she has a crush on him.....

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - did you know Melville is believed to have Asperger's Syndrome?

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - must have read it a hundred times in school (if I had admitted I was finished with it, I'd have had to write a book report.)

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - I like the Doctor Who version better....

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazu Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Nearly as funny as Anna Karenina.

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom  - I'm betting one of them won't be Mitch Albom.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - I want to have a lackey just like D'Artagnon does.

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 


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My new writing partner....

Warning: Catholic content!
I cleared out some space on my usually cluttered writing desk and made a new home for my Infant Jesus of Prague statue. Just as a reminder of Who I am working for.

The Catholic custom is to dress the Infant of Prague in various colored vestments for the different seasons of the church year. In 1961 McCall's patterns even came out with a pattern for Infant of Prague vestments.

The white vestments in the picture I bought on eBay, which is where my statue came from. But I'm making another set following the directions here: Vestments for the Infant of Prague. This page has good instructions for making vestments,
and loads of pictures of new and vintage Infant garments. (I will be posting pics of the pattern I'm going to make for the vestments as well as pictures of the Infant in them, in case anyone else is doing Infant of Prague related crafts.)

The site also has a page full of pictures of the original Infant of Prague statue, which is housed, surprisingly, in Prague. In Sept. of '09, the Pope made a pilgrimage to Prague and gave the Infant a new crown. The Infant has loads of beautiful handmade vestments donated by people from all over the world.





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Your Online Presence: Creating A Haven for the People You Want to Know | Pocket Full of Words

Your Online Presence: Creating A Haven for the People You Want to Know | Pocket Full of Words: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Holly Lisle, the noted fantasy writer, has written a substantial and informative blog post on how to create a positive online presence. This knowledge is absolutely essential for writers these days, so if you are a writer with a blog, go thou and check out the post.

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Being Human on SyFy--- It's Not the Same

As it turns out, the Being Human show being promoed on SyFy is not the same series as the BBC Being Human. For info on the SyFy show, here are two links:
SyFy: Being Human
Wikipedia: Being Human (US TV series)

I don't know how I feel about this. Can you imagine a British version of Star Trek, or an American version of Doctor Who? It would be hard for me to adjust to either one. But I guess I can give this new show a chance. It's scheduled to begin on Jan. 17, 2011 in the US.

For those wanting to see the proper Being Human series from the BBC, it's available on DVD (Being Human: Season Two) or as 'video on demand' --- downloads of episodes (Being Human, Episode 1)

Shirt-tail relatives of this blog post:
BBC's Being Human
AA for Vampires in BBC's Being Human


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Fabianspace: Questions about Neeta Lyffe, not asked in intervie...

Fabianspace: Questions about Neeta Lyffe, not asked in intervie...: "How do you pronounce Lyffe? Is it a pun? Yes, it's pronounced Life, as in Need A Life. (Honestly, don't you know me by now?) That's an..."
Click on link above to continue reading.

Karina Fabian books I'm peddling:
Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator
Infinite Space, Infinite God IILeaps of Faith

Interview with Syzygy author Amanda Borenstadt

Don't call them werewolves. The Fir Na Gealaí in Amanda Borenstadt's urban fantasy novel Syzygy have a lot in common with werewolves, including having their 'time of the month', but you aren't supposed to call them werewolves.

Author Amanda Borenstadt shares her experiences in writing and publishing Syzygy.

Why did you choose the publisher you did and what were your experiences with the publisher?

I chose to self publish with Smashwords.com and Amazon.com. I queried agents for a while, but couldn't find anyone interested. Many are not taking new writers and I hadn't a thing to my name when I began. Now I have several short stories published, so perhaps it would be a different story. Who knows? I love Smashwords. They made it so simple. I ran into a technical glitch but Mark Coker, the Smashwords founder himself, helped me fix it. I'm very pleased. And their site is easy to use. Amazon gives a writer more exposure, but it doesn't feel as intimate. Both have their place in the world.

What are your three favorite books?

Tough to narrow down. I sometimes say my favorite book is whatever I'm reading at the time. LOL

My nine-year-old twins and I just discovered The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. I get a kick out of fairy tale spin-offs. My all time bread and butter book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I can pick it up any time and smile. And for my last one, I'll pick, C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. I was fortunate enough to see that performed live. It was the coolest!

What are your three favorite authors?

Once again, only three? Okay. Tolkien, Karina Fabian, Douglas Adams, and Neil Gaiman. Oops, that's four. ;)

In your mind, what is your book about?
Good question. I think the running theme is love- all sorts: friendship (the real and true kind), romantic love, parental love, and loving your neighbor. It's about people reaching outside of their safety zone to trust and become trustworthy. It even touches lightly on loving God. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but one character reveals they might be called to a religious vocation.


What modern fiction books have some similarities to your book?

This is the toughest question because- number one- I don't know that I'm good enough to compare myself to anybody else and -number two- I don't know of anything like Syzygy.

I asked a couple readers what they thought and they came up with books they said it wasn't like- which means they must hold some resemblance to Syzygy. Rachel Hawthorne's Dark Guardian series was mentioned. I think what people are doing is thinking "werewolf society."

I don't even have werewolves, just a race that's not entirely unlike werewolves. Also James Patterson's Maximum Ride. Loved it, but no. It's not like that.

One writer friend mentioned it weaves ethical dilemma and moral obligation with action and suspense like Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. Hmm, never would have thought of that. I'll take her word.

I searched for something else like it when I was trying to decide what genre to put it into. Romance is only a one portion of what Syzygy is about, but it is a paranormal romance.

It's a fantasy set in an urban environment, but it's not as full of fantasy as many of the other urban fantasies. The characters deal with some very human issues. It deals with serious stuff like depression and self harm and yet it has a lot of humor.


What do you think is the strong point of your book?

My characters feel genuine. People tell me they become attached to them. Each has real growth during the novel. One lady says she's simply in love with Finn. LOL


What do you think is the weak point of your book?

It's not as well polished as it could be in places. The overall plot is not air tight.

What writing project are you working on next?

Aside from the occasional short story, I'm writing a novel called "Twelve Keys" which will be heavily illustrated by my niece, Jasmine, who did the cover art for Syzygy. It's set in a sort of post apocalyptic time warped California where old time California is fused with modern California.


Why did you call it 'Syzygy'? How do you say 'Syzygy'? If you use the word 'syzygy' while playing Hangman, will you always win?

LOL Super questions. It went through several name changes. The most recent was To Be Human, but as you know, they came up with a TV show called Being Human. I didn't want to appear as a copycat, so I changed it. Some of the teenagers in my life voted for Syzygy. There's a humorous line in the book, "Hey baby, what's your syzygy?" which they liked.

Syzygy (SIZZ-uh-jee). The term as it's used in the novel refers to the new or full moon. As to the last question, well, if I were playing, no. I would lose. The other player would guess for sure because I do tend to go on and on about my book. LOL


Amanda Borenstadt's blog: A Fortnight of Mustard




Fans of urban fantasy will probably like the BBC TV series Being Human
Being Human: Season 1
Being Human: Season Two

Shirt-tail relatives of this blog post (with werewolves):
BBC's Being Human
Doctor Who: Queen Elizabeth I mystery solved!


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6 Best Times to Publish a Blog Post

Sometimes the most important thing you can do to get new readers for your blog is to pick the right time to post. Do it right, and you will be at the top of the heap when folks are searching for a fresh blog post to read.

What are the best times? A fellow named Dan Zarella over at ProBlogger has done some research. Here are the 6 best times:

• Saturday. This is the peak day for sharing on Facebook, my favorite social media and the most popular. The slowest day for Facebook sharing is Thursday.
• 9 am Eastern Standard Time, USA. This is the peak sharing time on Facebook, though it goes up and down a lot during the day. 1 am is the slowest time.
• 4 pm Eastern Standard Time, USA. This is the peak time for re-tweeting on Twitter, so if you post then and tweet your post (I do it automatically), you are most likely to be retweeted. The slowest time for re-tweets is 9 am EST.
• Friday. This is the peak day of the week for re-tweets, while Sunday is the slowest. So the peak time for posting is 4 pm on Fridays.
• Mornings. That's when the most folks reported that they read blogs, followed by afternoon, evening and night.
• Twice a day or more. The most popular blogs, judged by unique views per month and by links on Yahoo, are the ones that post twice or more a day rather than once a day or less. But I'm sure once a day is better than once a week, or once a month...

Source: When is the Best Time to Publish Blog Posts

Books I'm Peddling:
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
Blogging For Dummies
Where the Opium Cactus Grows by Nissa Annakindt


Shirt-Tail Relatives of This Post:
Promoting a Book or Blog in the Darwinian Underworld of Reddit.com
Prolific Blogger Award goes to the Crazy Cat Lady
And the cat came Back

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Now that I've spoke my piece, what do YOU have to say about it?

Having fun with my juvenilia

As I am working on the new poetry book, I'm having to go through some of my earliest poems--- my juvenilia (though I was already old enough to be tried as an adult when I wrote them).

We all like to think we are making progress in our writing, and so sometimes we are embarrassed enough by some of our early work that we are tempted to through it out. But resist that temptation. Because for one thing, old writing can help you measure your progress. And sometimes you will be surprised by something that you wrote years ago that turns out to be good enough to keep, or at least be worth the effort to re-write.

Total Word Count Guesstimate
I don't know how many words the poetry book is going to run. It's actually more a matter of the number of pages. Currently I am at page 38 which is nearly halfway to the minimum.

A Guessing Game
These are two of the poems of the new book. One was written in my first year of writing poetry (un)seriously. The other was written this year. Guess which one is which.  Note also that the titles of these two poems are in the running for being the book title, so if you like one or another say so.

running about on hens' legs
for baba yaga
trouble, trouble vicks and tea
break the corners of tv
hide the harp and bend the lid
do you know what marko did?
too late
too late
anticipate
simmer pansies vixen tee
build the carpet on the sea

ninth horseman

my heart's
frying in a cast iron skillet

the refrigerator watches sullenly
as the world melts

Editing an expanded poetry volume

My poetry chapbook on Lulu.com has done amazingly well--- it sold 1 copy, to my mother--- and so I'm doing a complete re-write and expansion into a full book which can be sold on Amazon.com. If I work really hard on it, maybe I can sell another copy to my mother.

The chapbook was called 'surly petunia' after the name of one of the poems. I figure the new book should have a different name, even though it's going to have all the poems from 'surly petunia' plus whatever other ones that I've written that don't now annoy me. I'm also NOT including the one which is an acrostic featuring the 'F' word, which was an even dumber idea than you'd think. Acrostics are HARD!

I've also changed my pen name from N. I. Annakindt to nissa_ami_kato, because I really like my new internet name. You can even sing it! You know that song 'Mr. Roboto'? The part that goes 'domo arigato, Mr. Roboto', you can sing 'nissa_ami_kato, Mr. Roboto'. At least, you can if you are as weird as me.

The possible titles for the new volume include 'jungle spiders', 'wired floor sculptures' and 'alien invasions & the love of lawn furniture'. and, well, any other poem titles from the poems in the book. I'm also willing to entertain suggestions from readers so long as those suggestions are NOT 'what a piece of sh---' (because I've already thought of that one myself, but decided against it since my mom might not buy it if there is a Bad Word in the title.

I also wouldn't mind some input on the poem I'm adding to the book right now, which goes like this:

paper dragons


blue & yellow folded paper dragons
sail away in an indigo Tintenfaß
dragons dangerous yet delicate
for they cannot breathe fire
and live

Well, I'm pretty much satisfied with this poem (which I wrote over 10 years ago). Yes, I'm way too easily satisfied. But the question I have is whether I should include a footnote to the poem explaining the word 
'Tintenfaß'.

Would explaining that the word is German for inkwell, or at least mentioning that the letter'ß' is pronounced like 'ss', be helpful, or would it spoil the whole thing? I mean, when it comes to my poetry, I kind of think trying to understand what it means is beside the point.

If you have an opinion on this, let me know. Or else you can always go over to Dan Lacey's blog and view his latest pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. Because you can just never have too many pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. (Don't worry, they don't show Obama's naughty bits.) Dan Lacey also likes to paint people, including saints, with pancakes on their heads.

Square 8: I am Joe's Functioning Label

Many years ago there was a magazine called Readers' Digest. It once ran a series of articles about Joe--- or, more accurately, about parts of Joe. There was 'I am Joe's Heart', 'I am Joe's Kidney', 'I am Joe's Alcohol-Damaged Liver', 'I am Joe's Left Testicle'.....  Actually I might have made up the last one.

Bev, over at the blog Square 8, has done a take-off on this series called 'I am Joe's Functioning Label'. It describes how an autistic person's 'high functioning' label affects how he is perceived.

'Autism Spectrum Disorder' describes a number of neurological conditions which might include a person with 'low-functioning' autism who perhaps does not communicate with others and bangs his head against the wall even when President Obama is NOT making a speech, and also a person with 'high-functioning' autism and/or Asperger Syndrome who can (sometimes) 'pass' as a neurotypical ('normal') person.

The functioning label can be somewhat arbitrary--- for example, Asperger Syndrome is considered 'high-functioning', yet 80% of people with Asperger Syndrome are unemployed. And a person who seems to be 'low-functioning' may understand quite well what people are saying about him when they talk about how disabled/defective he is.

Anyway, I thought that was a great piece of writing and thought I would share it.

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2010: Pete the Pirate gets Ordained!

The Ironic Catholic has come out with her Talk Like a Pirate Day post. In this episode, Pete the (former) Pirate gets ordained.

On the subject of Talk Like a Pirate Day--- this year it falls on the day of the season finale of BBC series 'Being Human'. Isn't that kind of a conflict of interest? Or at least too much excitement for one day? My hope for the episode? That the evil Christian villains turn out to be atheists in disguise and are defeated with the aid of actual Christians, possibly including Pope Benedict.

WTF?

There are certain things you shouldn't put on banners at your church. This is one of them.....
Found at Ironic Catholic, who got it from Southern-Fried Catholic....

For those with far purer minds than mine: WTF is a common acronym for 'What the F...'. 'F' being a Very Bad Word.

GothNoWriMo is creeping up on us.....

GothNoWriMo, or Gothic Novel Writing Month, starts the first of October. It's dedicated to the writing of Gothic/Horror/Creepy or Vampire-related fiction. The related message boards are at: http://gothnowrimo.proboards.com/index.cgi?

I wasn't planning on participating. I wasn't planning on participating in any more WriMos. In fact, I had been in the process of recognizing the unpleasant fact about my writing--- that since I have never, as yet, finished a novel which I began, that at this point in time it is unlikely that I shall ever have an actual career as a writer. (Or as anything else for that matter. Having Asperger Syndrome sucks.)

But a suitable GothNo idea jumped up and bit me on the rear echelons. It's set in my own private fantasy world, Erileth, in the Northern Quintile of the Important Continent. It features the daughter of a human man and a shape-shifting 구미호 (gumiho, or nine-tailed fox).

I don't know much about the story yet except that the daughter doesn't know much about her non-human heritage but discovers it in the course of the story. I've decided not to do much in the way of pre-planning.

I've set a word-count goal of 25000 words--- one half of the NaNoWriMo goal in other words. Which means either the story will be half done or less, or else it will be more of a novella than a novel. I don't care at this point. Taking these things seriously will just wake up my failure-jinx and I want to leave him out of it this October.

So, that's what I'm doing for GothNo. Anyone out there doing GothNo? Or NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)? Let me know the gory details!

Fictional Characters that might have Asperger Sydrome

There are a lot of fictional characters that have been accused of having Asperger Syndrome, and perhaps some of them actually do, except that being fictional they can't have anything for real....

1. Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek is the classic example, though since he's only half human it may not count. Data, the android from Star Trek TNG, also has been mentioned but I do believe you need to have neurons to have a neurological disorder.

2. Dexter Morgan from Dexter. I like this example in spite of his serial-killery thing.

3. Maj. Winchester from MASH.

4. Brennan from Bones.

5. Goren from Law & Order CI.

6. Reg Barclay from Star Trek TNG. You know the guy with the holodeck addiction.....

7. Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter. (I love Luna, I hope she grew up to marry Neville Longbottom.)

8. House from the series House. I don't think he has AS, I think he's just a pain in the a@@.

9. Adolf Hitler. No, wait, he's wasn't fictional. *sigh*

10. The Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpsons. OK, she doesn't have any strong indications of AS, she just mutters gibberish and throws cats at people. But I have AS and I consider the Crazy Cat Lady to be my role model. And besides, she's so sexy!

all cats have asperger syndrome

I have been getting sick sick sick of not having any new books to read so a couple of days ago I broke down and ordered some new books from Amazon.com. One of them is the book "All Cats have Asperger Syndrome" by Kathy Hoopman.

OK, it's a kid's picture book. But the pictures are all of cats. And the topic of Asperger Syndrome is of renewed interest to me lately as I have been diagnosed with AS and am in the process of applying for social security disability because of it.....

The book seems to be mainly aimed at providing parents of children with AS with a book they can show to the neighbors to explain why their kid is so weird. There seems to be an industry devoted to created books for parents of Aspie kids, which is very annoying to those of us diagnosed as adults. But, as I said, this book IS full of pictures of cats so that makes it okay.

Some of the cats in the book look just like some of my cats. Like, the cat on page 42 could be either Chan-ho or Negi, they both look alike. And the cat on page 29 looks like Grey.  I guess that's an Aspie-ish thing to point out that some of the cats look like my cats because that's just a detail and a good 'normal' person is supposed to see 'the big picture'.

A lot of the books on Asperger Syndrome claim that Aspies can't see 'the big picture'.  Well, I actually can, I just don't CARE about it.

Prolific Blogger Award goes to the Crazy Cat Lady....

Rebecca Luella Miller has awarded me the Prolific Blogger award! I've never been called prolific before (although my cats are).  This is what I've been accused of: “A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.”

This is what I've got to do next:

1. Every winner of the prolific blogger award please (if you have time) pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers.

2. Every prolific blogger please link back to the blog from which he/she has received the award.

3. Each prolific blogger link this back to this post, which explains the origins and motivations for the award.

4. Every prolific blogger please visit this post and add your name in the Master Link (Mr. Linky) so we can all get to know the other winners.

There are so many bloggers that I'd like to pass the award on to, these are the first ones that popped into my mind.

YID WITH LID come for the political commetary, stay for the cool yarmulke ads
2SecondsFaster.com prolife and political stuff
Bad Wolf One: Doctor Who blog
The Sci Fi Catholic: co-written by a dragon
Dragon Bloggin': by author Donita K. Paul
Fabianspace: by author Karina L. Fabian
A Blog by Randy Thomas: a Christian blog



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Reducing a novel-idea to one sentence: Oh, the horror!

According to some, one of the first tasks when you begin putting your novel-idea down on paper is to write a one sentence summary of the proposed novel. This one sentence--- which, I've heard, is not permitted to be one of those run-on sentences that goes on for five pages--- is supposed to show some elements of both plot and character.

I am a little wary of this rule. In part because the example one-sentence summaries they give--- more often summaries of films than of novels--- tend to be missing the point of the story they are summarizing.

Task two tends to be to expand that one-sentence summary to a paragraph summary. This can be an easier task to learn because anyone who owns books has a good supply of examples of these one-paragraph summaries--- the book blurbs on the back (or the dust jacket) of novels we already own.

These book summaries are written by professionals for marketing purposes about books that have already been written, so that's a little different from what the novelist is asked to do in the one-sentence or one-paragraph exercise. But reading a bunch of book blurbs is still a good start.

Here is an example, from 'Left Behind' by Jerry B. Jenkins (and that other dude):

"In one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear.

Vehicles, suddenly unmanned, careen out of control. People are terror stricken as loved ones vanish before their eyes.

In the midst of global chaos, airline captain Rayford Steele must search for his family, for answers, for truth. As devastating as the disappearances have been, the darkest days may lie ahead."

This gives a good idea of the main plotline, and also introduces one of the characters.

Here is another example from Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs:

As a shapeshifter with some unique talents, ace car mechanic Mercy has had to maintain a tenuous harmony between the human and the not so human within the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington on more than one occasion. But this time she may be in over her head.

Marsilia, the local Vampire Queen, has learned that Mercy crossed her by slaying a member of her clan. Now she's out for blood. But since Mercy is protected from the vampire's direct reprisal by the werewolf pack--- and her close relationship with its sexy Alpha--- it's not Mercy's blood Marsilia is after....

It's her friends'.

Again this gives us some basic plot substance and introduces characters.

At this point in my current writing tasks, I'm not quite sure how to go about reducing my plot ideas to one sentence or even one paragraph. Currently I don't know enough about the major plot elements--- and I know enough backstory on some of my characters to write a trilogy about it! Except for the fact that this backstory, accumulated over many years, contradicts itself and has to be straightened out.

I don't even know if writing these summaries is REALLY the way professional writers take step one in writing down story ideas. I think some writers begin with what-if questions.

For example: What if a young actor, posing as a Fleet cadet, is mistaken for a real cadet and shanghaied onto a starship captained by a man who was involved in the murder of the actor's twin sister?

That's a tiny piece of what I'm working on for the openers of what I am currently calling my 'Psions universe' series. But there are lots of other bits that are also important.... More important? Less important? I'm not sure at this point....


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What's the purpose of Christian Fiction, Anyway? CSSFBT Day 2

Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour for 'North! Or Be Eaten!' by Andrew Peterson, day two.
North! Or Be Eaten! website
Andrew Peterson author/musician website,

Day two of the blog tour and this is the question for those who have read and enjoyed 'North! Or Be Eaten!', or hope to read it someday. Why?

Why read Christian fiction at all? Wouldn't it be better if there were just regular secular neutral publishers and all writers wrote for them? Isn't it kind of discriminatory--- a publisher that accepts work from Christians but not from Jews or atheists?

And what about our book of the month, 'North! Or Be Eaten!'. Wouldn't it be better if any too explicit Christian references would be removed so that people of all faiths or no faith could enjoy it equally? How much would that change the book and your liking of it?

What I am asking of you the reader is why you, personally, read Christian fiction (assuming you do), what it gives you, what you like (or don't like) to see in your Christian fiction? Please post a comment!

(I have some ideas of my own on this topic which I will reveal on day three--- but only if enough of you clap your hands and say 'I DO believe in fairies! I DO believe in fairies!')

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