I went to the Sylvania Blues Festival last Thursday, as held at the Chandler Cafe in downtown Sylvania. The show started around 6:00 PM, but heavy weather moved in a little after 7:00. I got back to my car in the proverbial nick of time.
Random scribblings and thoughts about writing, publishing and the entire letters to dollars process. Includes copious notes about politics and everyday life.
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2016
Friday, April 22, 2016
Riding With Mother by Momma Fargo, AKA Kathryn Marschalk Loving
Here's an excellent read. The author, an ex-police officer from the State of Wyoming, takes her dear old mother in the passenger seat of her squad car for a first hand look at the dangerous, stressful life of a real policewoman. Kathryn's goal is to show her mother what a self-sufficient, resourceful, and genuinely tough police officer she is. What happens is hilarious!
Here's the link to Riding With Mother by Momma Fargo. Trigger warning: don't drink anything while you're reading this.
Here's the link to Riding With Mother by Momma Fargo. Trigger warning: don't drink anything while you're reading this.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Film Review: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Last night I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), a film about a girl who is possessed by demons and who dies shortly after a failed exorcism. This is advertised as being based on real events, for whatever good that does.
The film is very loosely based on the true story of Anneliese Michel (Anna Elisabeth Michel), who was born in 1952 and passed away in 1976 at the age of 23 due to malnutrition and dehydration. At the time of her death she weighed 68 pounds, had broken both knees and was suffering from pneumonia. She had been undergoing continuous exorcism ceremonies for the past year.
The entire business took place in Klingenberg am Main, Bavaria, West Germany, where I would suppose that such things as death during exorcism raise a few eyebrows. The accused, including priests and parents, were arrested, tried and found guilty of negligent manslaughter. The sentences were very light, and no one served any jail time. The interesting part here is that the sentences were a good deal heavier than the prosecutor requested, who recommended that everyone be allowed to walk away without punishment of any kind.
One argument is that the parents were protected by the German Constitution, which allows for the freedom of religion, or the free exercise of religion. In practical terms, it would seem that the judge and all the attorneys involved were either very reluctant to cross the Catholic church, or that there was more to the story than neglect, superstition and church rituals not often performed in public. I'm guessing that it was a combination of the two.
Being a religious man and having lived in haunted houses twice, I'm open to the idea of demonic possession. I do not subscribe to Catholic ritual as the only sure cure for a case of possession. Prayer will suffice.
The film is very loosely based on the true story of Anneliese Michel (Anna Elisabeth Michel), who was born in 1952 and passed away in 1976 at the age of 23 due to malnutrition and dehydration. At the time of her death she weighed 68 pounds, had broken both knees and was suffering from pneumonia. She had been undergoing continuous exorcism ceremonies for the past year.
The entire business took place in Klingenberg am Main, Bavaria, West Germany, where I would suppose that such things as death during exorcism raise a few eyebrows. The accused, including priests and parents, were arrested, tried and found guilty of negligent manslaughter. The sentences were very light, and no one served any jail time. The interesting part here is that the sentences were a good deal heavier than the prosecutor requested, who recommended that everyone be allowed to walk away without punishment of any kind.
One argument is that the parents were protected by the German Constitution, which allows for the freedom of religion, or the free exercise of religion. In practical terms, it would seem that the judge and all the attorneys involved were either very reluctant to cross the Catholic church, or that there was more to the story than neglect, superstition and church rituals not often performed in public. I'm guessing that it was a combination of the two.
Being a religious man and having lived in haunted houses twice, I'm open to the idea of demonic possession. I do not subscribe to Catholic ritual as the only sure cure for a case of possession. Prayer will suffice.
Monday, July 6, 2015
About a week ago during the weekly meeting of Toledo Writers Group, Mary Shipko passed out
and hit the floor with a meaty smack a proposed FAQ for her latest release, AVIATRIX: First Woman Pilot for Hughes Airwest. The group took a few minutes to read it over, then our esteemed group leader opened the door to the usual flood of criticism.
To make this mercifully short, I'll omit the levity. When my number came up, I offered what I fervently hoped were a couple helpful suggestions and disposed of the whole thing. But instead of moving on, Mary asked me if I found the questions on the FAQ interesting and stimulating.
"In a word, no."
When it appeared that Mary's feathers were a bit ruffled, I hastened to add that my opinion didn't mean much, mainly because I don't read bestsellers from the New York Times Best Sellers List. The authors I tend to read might make this list, but not consistently and not this month. Next month isn't looking good either.
At this juncture I dimly recall some impulsive pedagogue adding something about target audiences and societal pariahs, but perhaps not. My point here is that my tastes don't run to mainstream press or commercial media, which means that I'm not this month's pick to be a hot new property on the Big Five's list. In keeping with that train of thought, if I, personally, like something, be it a book, an electronic gizmo, or a girl, that something is very likely not popular and might easily fail. It turns out that I have a certain amount of support for my harbinger theory.
The Chicago Tribune published an article stating the same thing. Here's a link to the story, but you'll need an account to read the entire article: There's a Reason All Your Favorite Products Are Always Being Discontinued. The Consumerist published a similar article, If You Buy The Stuff No One Else Likes, You Just May Be A “Harbinger Of Failure”, which is worth reading.
Basically, if you liked Zune, an iPod competitor that failed miserably, you might be one of these harbinger people. Worse, the more you like the product and the more you buy of it, the more likely the item is to fail.
The obvious way out of this is to find me, or people like me, and pay us not to like something. If that solution doesn't appeal to you, I suggest you don't waste time learning about your target audience; you'll likely get bored and give up. What you do is find out what your target audience is buying, then buy-borrow-or-steal three to five of these books, and read them to completion. After that, you can sit down at your keyboard and write something similar. Better yet, write several similar books and publish them on Amazon. Once the great unwashed discovers them, you won't have to worry about paying me and my friends not to like them. In fact, your only worry will involves taxes and your next best seller.
To make this mercifully short, I'll omit the levity. When my number came up, I offered what I fervently hoped were a couple helpful suggestions and disposed of the whole thing. But instead of moving on, Mary asked me if I found the questions on the FAQ interesting and stimulating.
"In a word, no."
When it appeared that Mary's feathers were a bit ruffled, I hastened to add that my opinion didn't mean much, mainly because I don't read bestsellers from the New York Times Best Sellers List. The authors I tend to read might make this list, but not consistently and not this month. Next month isn't looking good either.
At this juncture I dimly recall some impulsive pedagogue adding something about target audiences and societal pariahs, but perhaps not. My point here is that my tastes don't run to mainstream press or commercial media, which means that I'm not this month's pick to be a hot new property on the Big Five's list. In keeping with that train of thought, if I, personally, like something, be it a book, an electronic gizmo, or a girl, that something is very likely not popular and might easily fail. It turns out that I have a certain amount of support for my harbinger theory.
The Chicago Tribune published an article stating the same thing. Here's a link to the story, but you'll need an account to read the entire article: There's a Reason All Your Favorite Products Are Always Being Discontinued. The Consumerist published a similar article, If You Buy The Stuff No One Else Likes, You Just May Be A “Harbinger Of Failure”, which is worth reading.
Basically, if you liked Zune, an iPod competitor that failed miserably, you might be one of these harbinger people. Worse, the more you like the product and the more you buy of it, the more likely the item is to fail.
The obvious way out of this is to find me, or people like me, and pay us not to like something. If that solution doesn't appeal to you, I suggest you don't waste time learning about your target audience; you'll likely get bored and give up. What you do is find out what your target audience is buying, then buy-borrow-or-steal three to five of these books, and read them to completion. After that, you can sit down at your keyboard and write something similar. Better yet, write several similar books and publish them on Amazon. Once the great unwashed discovers them, you won't have to worry about paying me and my friends not to like them. In fact, your only worry will involves taxes and your next best seller.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Origins Gaming Convention, Part 4
We signed up for a session of Arkham Horror on Friday, but our event was canceled due to the fragile constitution of the game master (mistress?) who, we were informed, was in the ladies worshiping at the porcelain altar. Too much holy water the night before, I'd guess.
Note that the event ticket shows the name of the event, the day and time for the event, but as for the location - forget it. You have to track down the location for yourself, which Mike did. I'm told that a key individual quit last year just before the convention started, which means that GAMA had one year to get their act together and couldn't manage to pull it off. Good job, GAMA.
Note that Mister Big Wheel is using the British spelling for the word 'canceled'. I prefer the American spelling, mainly because I'm living in the United States. I suppose it could be argued that the idiot doesn't know how to spell, but that's almost impossible seeing as how he's in management and his team are all university students. I need a tag for sarcasm.
On my way around the dealer show, I happened across the booth for Mayday Games, who were touting their new game, Viceroy. Viceroy is not for sale, as it's due to be released in August at Gen Con. When I asked if they would demo the game, there was a quick huddle, then I was informed that they would demo the game if I could provide the players. As it happened, I knew of three gamers with nothing better to do.
As it turned out, Viceroy is an outstanding game. It took us about an hour to learn and play the game to completion. Setup time is minimal, and the play is mechanically easy and done at a fairly fast pace.
As you can see, Mike won the game rather neatly. Dave beat me by one point, but I'm told that 59 is a respectable score, especially for someone who is unfamiliar with the game. All I can say is that this was a test round, and Dave didn't watch Mike closely enough.
Here's the board at the end of the game.
Cards are turned over four at a time and players bid on the card of their choice, using tokens as payment for the card - if they win the bid. Cards are assembled into a pyramid structure, which determines how points are scored. Players can contest each other for a certain card, thus preventing another player from scoring points. This is an oversimplification of the rules, as there are a myriad number of ways to score victory points in Viceroy.
Our game master for the session was none other than Seth Hiatt, owner and founder of Mayday Games. Seth is an affable, high energy man who is used to dealing successfully with too many irons in the fire. By his own admission it had been some time since he'd had to teach Viceroy to anyone, so his explanation was frequently punctuated with "before you do that" caveats. He also made a few observations about strategy during the game, which was a help to us.
We had a great time playing Viceroy, and were so impressed with the game that both Dave and Mike each bought a copy in advance of the release in August. Their games will ship when Gen Con opens.
The playing time for Viceroy is around 45 minutes, and the optimal number of players is three. Although we didn't try the game with two players, it was easy to see what would likely happen. Four players is the maximum number allowed, and would provide for more conflict between opponents.
The design for Viceroy is solid, and I recommend it to anyone searching for a board game that is not in the same category as Monopoly.
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| Event Ticket |
 |
| Canceled Due To Lack Of GM |
On my way around the dealer show, I happened across the booth for Mayday Games, who were touting their new game, Viceroy. Viceroy is not for sale, as it's due to be released in August at Gen Con. When I asked if they would demo the game, there was a quick huddle, then I was informed that they would demo the game if I could provide the players. As it happened, I knew of three gamers with nothing better to do.
 |
| New Game |
 |
| Viceroy Setup |
 |
| The Winner! |
Here's the board at the end of the game.
 |
| My Pyramid |
 |
| The Winning Pyramid |
Our game master for the session was none other than Seth Hiatt, owner and founder of Mayday Games. Seth is an affable, high energy man who is used to dealing successfully with too many irons in the fire. By his own admission it had been some time since he'd had to teach Viceroy to anyone, so his explanation was frequently punctuated with "before you do that" caveats. He also made a few observations about strategy during the game, which was a help to us.
 |
| Seth Hiatt, Game Master |
The playing time for Viceroy is around 45 minutes, and the optimal number of players is three. Although we didn't try the game with two players, it was easy to see what would likely happen. Four players is the maximum number allowed, and would provide for more conflict between opponents.
The design for Viceroy is solid, and I recommend it to anyone searching for a board game that is not in the same category as Monopoly.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Origins Gaming Convention, Part 3
On Friday we were scheduled to play Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games at 10:00 AM. We endured the snipe hunt, found the correct table - and settled down to wait. The point of playing this board game is to enjoy ourselves, and part of that enjoyment comes from not having to set the game up and put it away afterwards. For those who have never played Arkham Horror, the setup takes time. Then there's the fun of looking up obscure rule exceptions and keeping track of a myriad of play exceptions.
On the way to the table we got waylaid by a pert, young co-ed who, upon learning we were playing Arkham Horror, exclaimed! that, "Your game master is Kim! She's awesome!". Yeah, she really did talk that way.
The game is being hosted by Gamers of the Apocalypse (GOTA on Facebook), who are being compensated for their efforts. About 15 minutes after the game was due to start, a morbidly obese man in a motorized chair wheeled over to tell us that our game master was in the ladies' room throwing up, so the game was canceled. Clearly, Kim's awesomeness didn't extend to limiting her liquor intake to something she could manage on the morning after.
Mister Big Wheel (I never did get his name) signed off on the cancellation at our insistence. We went over to the manager's kiosk, where we were given a somewhat surly reception when we had the audacity to ask for our money back. Officialdom finally signed off on the refund, and we were directed to go to customer service. The lady at customer service was nice about the whole business, apologized and gave us a refund. So we now have a six hour time slot that is empty.
But this gets better.
The following day we showed up for another event for which we had registered and bought tickets. Again, it was Arkham Horror, only this time with all the expansion sets. The game board is going to take up more space than a large dining room table, and the complexity is significant. Once again, Gamers of the Apocalypse was in charge, and once again they failed. This time the game master showed up, but the game was missing. The game master signed off on the cancellation under the direction of Mister Big Wheel, again we went to the manager's kiosk where the reception was a good deal less salty than our previous experience, then over to customer service where the same nice lady refunded out money and issued the standard apology. Now we've got another six hour time slot empty.
This is not our first experience with GOTA. Last year they hosted Arkham Horror, and the game master was an hour late. When she finally showed up, she was so hung over that she was shaking so badly she had trouble holding a cup of coffee. I don't know what she was taking besides liquor, and I don't think I want to know.
I think that in the future we'll just skip the events hosted by Gamers of the Apocalypse. I also think the Origins management team should do a better job of vetting the staff.
On the way to the table we got waylaid by a pert, young co-ed who, upon learning we were playing Arkham Horror, exclaimed! that, "Your game master is Kim! She's awesome!". Yeah, she really did talk that way.
The game is being hosted by Gamers of the Apocalypse (GOTA on Facebook), who are being compensated for their efforts. About 15 minutes after the game was due to start, a morbidly obese man in a motorized chair wheeled over to tell us that our game master was in the ladies' room throwing up, so the game was canceled. Clearly, Kim's awesomeness didn't extend to limiting her liquor intake to something she could manage on the morning after.
Mister Big Wheel (I never did get his name) signed off on the cancellation at our insistence. We went over to the manager's kiosk, where we were given a somewhat surly reception when we had the audacity to ask for our money back. Officialdom finally signed off on the refund, and we were directed to go to customer service. The lady at customer service was nice about the whole business, apologized and gave us a refund. So we now have a six hour time slot that is empty.
But this gets better.
The following day we showed up for another event for which we had registered and bought tickets. Again, it was Arkham Horror, only this time with all the expansion sets. The game board is going to take up more space than a large dining room table, and the complexity is significant. Once again, Gamers of the Apocalypse was in charge, and once again they failed. This time the game master showed up, but the game was missing. The game master signed off on the cancellation under the direction of Mister Big Wheel, again we went to the manager's kiosk where the reception was a good deal less salty than our previous experience, then over to customer service where the same nice lady refunded out money and issued the standard apology. Now we've got another six hour time slot empty.
This is not our first experience with GOTA. Last year they hosted Arkham Horror, and the game master was an hour late. When she finally showed up, she was so hung over that she was shaking so badly she had trouble holding a cup of coffee. I don't know what she was taking besides liquor, and I don't think I want to know.
I think that in the future we'll just skip the events hosted by Gamers of the Apocalypse. I also think the Origins management team should do a better job of vetting the staff.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Origins Gaming Convention, Part 2
On Thursday, June 4th, the three of us played our first registered event: Elder Sign. I mention this as a point of interest for two reasons:
Here is a shot of the winning board, which looks fairly chaotic. The game is complex, and the players must cooperate if they are going to win.
After the game, we walked around the dealer show a while. The crowd on Thursday was a little sparse by comparison with the weekend, but there was traffic.
I have no idea what the vendors pay for a booth, but I gather that Origins sold out of booth space.
- We won, which is rare with Elder Sign.
- The other events we registered for were canceled.
Here is a shot of the winning board, which looks fairly chaotic. The game is complex, and the players must cooperate if they are going to win.
 |
| Elder Sign - The Win! |
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| Dealer Show |
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Origins Gaming Convention, Part 1
I'm a gamer. I make no bones about it. I enjoy fantasy role play (FRP) games, as well as board games. About the only thing I don't enjoy (game-wise) are head games, especially with members of the opposite sex.
So last week I, along with my two brothers from other mothers, attended the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus, Ohio. We've all attended Origins before, and so understand the dysfunctional system that the organizer mistakenly calls registration, but this year the glaring errors in the process were worse than ever.
The Origins Game Fair is organized by the Game Manufacturers Association, or GAMA, a non-profit organization based in Columbus, Ohio. Origins is held in the Greater Columbus Convention Center Hyatt Regency (GCCC/Hyatt). About 15,000 people attend the convention over five days, June 3rd through June 7th. Given the number of people, online preregistration is strongly encouraged.
The problems we encountered at Origins started with the online registration system, which might have been designed by an SJW suffering the effects of mescaline and PMS. The design is just this side of completely dysfunctional, but the worst part about the design is that one person isn't able to register several people for an event at the same time. So if you have a group going to Origins and you all want to attend one particular event, good luck. You must all register separately and hope that available slots don't fill up by the time the last person in your group registers. Making things worse is the downloadable event grid, which is in an *.xlsx format. If you don't have an up-to-date version of Micro$oft Excel, forget about trying to open it. Mind you, GAMA could have published this as a PDF file, which everyone can read, but I guess they didn't like that idea.
When you have trouble with the online system, you can try emailing GAMA. They won't answer any emails, but you can try. Mike sent GAMA four email messages and was ignored all four times. While one email message might get lost in the shuffle, two is improbable and four is just plain rude.
The three of us managed to register more by luck than anything else, and received an email message confirming our registration and providing us with a barcode that we will presumably scan when we get to the con.
The registration line at the convention is long. It's always long, and this year is no exception.
I'll give GAMA credit where it's due. Although the line was long, it moved right along and about 15 minutes later we had tickets to the three events we'd registered for, along with our badges and passes for the board room, an exclusive gaming area.
The printed version of the events list is not organized correctly. GAMA separates the list by genre, then by date and time. So, if you're trying to find out what might be available on Saturday morning, you end up flipping back and forth between sections of the program and getting more frustrated by the minute. Again, this is a simple fix that GAMA refuses to provide.
As I looked through the program, I noticed that several authors I admire were going to be present at Origins, but that none of them were holding a seminar. In particular Timothy Zahn was here, but he wouldn't be speaking anywhere. All the seminars were being held by someone whose name I didn't recognize. Then I discovered that Michael A. Stackpole was here, but not listed as a speaker. I found that very odd, as Stackpole is a high-energy sort that will hold a seminar for anyone.
I made a few inquiries and found out that the man in charge of printing the program had quit in 2014, just before the convention opened. His replacement was responsible for the myriad errors in the program. This is something that GAMA had one year to fix, and they couldn't even get this one right.
Then Mike pointed out the problem with the tickets.
This is a ticket for an event at Origins. Note that the ticket displays the name and number of the event, the date and time the event is held - but where, exactly, are we supposed to go? The locating is listed as the GCCC/Hyatt, but the room number and the table number are conspicuously absent, as is the name of the game master (who supplies the game, does the set up and teaches the rules as necessary). We went from the customer service booth to a large gaming room where we spoke with another official, who cheerfully admitted that GAMA screwed the pooch on this one and directed us to the correct table.
I mean, tickets, right? You'd think that someone would have proofed the tickets before printing and spotted this little error.
Tomorrow I'll be writing about the gaming experience we had at Origins.
So last week I, along with my two brothers from other mothers, attended the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus, Ohio. We've all attended Origins before, and so understand the dysfunctional system that the organizer mistakenly calls registration, but this year the glaring errors in the process were worse than ever.
The Origins Game Fair is organized by the Game Manufacturers Association, or GAMA, a non-profit organization based in Columbus, Ohio. Origins is held in the Greater Columbus Convention Center Hyatt Regency (GCCC/Hyatt). About 15,000 people attend the convention over five days, June 3rd through June 7th. Given the number of people, online preregistration is strongly encouraged.
The problems we encountered at Origins started with the online registration system, which might have been designed by an SJW suffering the effects of mescaline and PMS. The design is just this side of completely dysfunctional, but the worst part about the design is that one person isn't able to register several people for an event at the same time. So if you have a group going to Origins and you all want to attend one particular event, good luck. You must all register separately and hope that available slots don't fill up by the time the last person in your group registers. Making things worse is the downloadable event grid, which is in an *.xlsx format. If you don't have an up-to-date version of Micro$oft Excel, forget about trying to open it. Mind you, GAMA could have published this as a PDF file, which everyone can read, but I guess they didn't like that idea.
When you have trouble with the online system, you can try emailing GAMA. They won't answer any emails, but you can try. Mike sent GAMA four email messages and was ignored all four times. While one email message might get lost in the shuffle, two is improbable and four is just plain rude.
The three of us managed to register more by luck than anything else, and received an email message confirming our registration and providing us with a barcode that we will presumably scan when we get to the con.
The registration line at the convention is long. It's always long, and this year is no exception.
 |
| Registration at Origins |
 |
| The Long Line for Registration |
The printed version of the events list is not organized correctly. GAMA separates the list by genre, then by date and time. So, if you're trying to find out what might be available on Saturday morning, you end up flipping back and forth between sections of the program and getting more frustrated by the minute. Again, this is a simple fix that GAMA refuses to provide.
As I looked through the program, I noticed that several authors I admire were going to be present at Origins, but that none of them were holding a seminar. In particular Timothy Zahn was here, but he wouldn't be speaking anywhere. All the seminars were being held by someone whose name I didn't recognize. Then I discovered that Michael A. Stackpole was here, but not listed as a speaker. I found that very odd, as Stackpole is a high-energy sort that will hold a seminar for anyone.
I made a few inquiries and found out that the man in charge of printing the program had quit in 2014, just before the convention opened. His replacement was responsible for the myriad errors in the program. This is something that GAMA had one year to fix, and they couldn't even get this one right.
Then Mike pointed out the problem with the tickets.
 |
| Event Ticket 2015 |
I mean, tickets, right? You'd think that someone would have proofed the tickets before printing and spotted this little error.
Tomorrow I'll be writing about the gaming experience we had at Origins.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Book Review: The Bell Witch [Kindle Edition]
The Bell Witch [Kindle Edition]
John F.D. Taff (Author), James Roy Daley (Editor), Books of the Dead (Editor)
File Size: 4491 KB
Print Length: 266 pages
Publisher: Books of the Dead Press (August 5, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00ED5QAZW
I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.
This story is about the infamous Bell Witch, a legendary poltergeist which is said to have terrorized the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee back in the early 19th century. The first third of the book is very good, and if I stopped after the first third I'd rate this at four stars. But I didn't, and so discovered that the plot tended to stall out during the second third of the book, and by the final third I was wondering if this thing was ever going to end.
The characterization is average, or maybe a little below average. This is a handicap that you can get away with if the pacing is solid and the scenes are exceptional - which isn't true here. The scenes are okay. Not great, not bad. Just okay. The pacing in the final chapters drags along with the tedium people experience while they wait for the dentist to come back in with the x-rays. The ending is in sight, but no matter what happens the author refuses to take us to the end.
What I found disappointing was that the rest of the book didn't live up to the high quality of the first third, which I found very enjoyable. Too bad, because it didn't have to be this way.
John F.D. Taff (Author), James Roy Daley (Editor), Books of the Dead (Editor)
File Size: 4491 KB
Print Length: 266 pages
Publisher: Books of the Dead Press (August 5, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00ED5QAZW
I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.
This story is about the infamous Bell Witch, a legendary poltergeist which is said to have terrorized the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee back in the early 19th century. The first third of the book is very good, and if I stopped after the first third I'd rate this at four stars. But I didn't, and so discovered that the plot tended to stall out during the second third of the book, and by the final third I was wondering if this thing was ever going to end.
The characterization is average, or maybe a little below average. This is a handicap that you can get away with if the pacing is solid and the scenes are exceptional - which isn't true here. The scenes are okay. Not great, not bad. Just okay. The pacing in the final chapters drags along with the tedium people experience while they wait for the dentist to come back in with the x-rays. The ending is in sight, but no matter what happens the author refuses to take us to the end.
What I found disappointing was that the rest of the book didn't live up to the high quality of the first third, which I found very enjoyable. Too bad, because it didn't have to be this way.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Writing a Bad Review
If you're self-published, you are quite literally one of millions. After you've completed the laborious process of getting your work listed on Amazon and fixing it so it doesn't look too awful bad on a kindle, you've got to somehow get yourself noticed by the multitudes who are going to read your work and want more. One major part of that particular flaming hoop is to get people to give your work a review.
Most of us have friends and family who say that they'll do that right away. Most don't, and there are some that you'd really rather not say anything at all. I'm somewhat borderline. I tend to be overly critical and when I give something a good review, it sounds a little like flattery no matter how sincere it is. I write reviews anyway, and I probably shouldn't.
So my current problem is that I've been asked to review someone's work and tell them how good it is, and it sucks. It's poorly written, formatting is non-existent, the plot is disjointed, the characterization has been skipped because it takes a lot of work and, well, if anyone's reading this they may understand what I'm talking about. It sucks. How do I say all that without taking a soldering iron to their fingertips, figuratively speaking?
I think the person in question is looking for a mutual admiration group. I know these sorts of groups exist, but I've never tried to find one and I wouldn't be interested in joining if I did. Maybe I should encourage the newly hatched author to seek out and join such a group, and eventually run for club president.
Most of us have friends and family who say that they'll do that right away. Most don't, and there are some that you'd really rather not say anything at all. I'm somewhat borderline. I tend to be overly critical and when I give something a good review, it sounds a little like flattery no matter how sincere it is. I write reviews anyway, and I probably shouldn't.
So my current problem is that I've been asked to review someone's work and tell them how good it is, and it sucks. It's poorly written, formatting is non-existent, the plot is disjointed, the characterization has been skipped because it takes a lot of work and, well, if anyone's reading this they may understand what I'm talking about. It sucks. How do I say all that without taking a soldering iron to their fingertips, figuratively speaking?
I think the person in question is looking for a mutual admiration group. I know these sorts of groups exist, but I've never tried to find one and I wouldn't be interested in joining if I did. Maybe I should encourage the newly hatched author to seek out and join such a group, and eventually run for club president.
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