tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429192322415915313.post3653324901065166060..comments2022-10-26T04:11:54.975-07:00Comments on Professional Freelance Content: The Secret Struggle for the Magic It (How to Write Spy Fiction)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02525554161335481694noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429192322415915313.post-72375979972846615722013-07-11T10:30:50.629-07:002013-07-11T10:30:50.629-07:00At this point, to keep it simple, I would say that...At this point, to keep it simple, I would say that my novel is Mythiopedia, but I think most think of it as Paranormal.Marta C. Weekshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08201300362483291904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429192322415915313.post-42562296107838393402012-12-27T15:09:05.738-08:002012-12-27T15:09:05.738-08:00Tough question. I get a lot of books sent to me b...Tough question. I get a lot of books sent to me by guests and I buy a few on my own and have a vast collection in my personal library. Genre, for me, is not as important as voice, style and technique are when it comes to deciding whether I like a book or not. This applies to fiction as well as non fiction. In fiction, I'm drawn to narratives that are compact yet engaging. I hate 'fluff'. I can spot it a mile away. It makes me think the author is just writing to reach a word limit even though that may not be the case. Prose should be poetry with legs. Perhaps the easiest way to get my point across is through example. I read a James Patterson book this year, finished it in a couple of days and threw it in a corner somewhere hoping that I'll never have to find it again. All gimmickry and no depth. I also read Dennis Lehane's, Shutter Island, and was caught up in the story from beginning to end. The prose was so rich you could cut it with a knife but it did not slow down the pace of the plot at all. I keep re-reading, Jorge Luis Borge's fictions because they are cerebral, imaginative and reflective of a mind that knows literature. I'll never get tired of his writing. Everybody is writing today and everyone wants to be a niche writer--terrorist plots, erotica, etc. A lot of the stuff people send me suck. Mommy blogger wants to be the next J.K. Rowling but barely made it through community college. Scientific genius wants to be the next Arthur C. Clarke but knows nothing about real life dialogue outside the classroom. I guess what I'm saying is that people who have really lived life and read a lot of literature and passed a few English classes shine on the page and I see it immediately. The rest are like the millions of failed dot.com entrepreneurs of the 90's who thought they could make a fast buck in a growing market but didn't even know how to compose a basic HTML document. And the literary agents and publishers who push their garbage because it's trendy really get my goat, too, as you well know. To use a phrase from one of Jim Morrison's songs, the late Doors singer, and apply it to literature being produced today, I conclude with his words: True sailing is dead.John https://www.blogger.com/profile/14680903411394068312noreply@blogger.com