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A recent tweet led me to an interesting two-part article about "What makes a great character". This is on the blog Yummy Men, Kick Ass Chicks, a paranormal romance blog. In this article, several paranormal romance authors talk about what makes a character compelling. While I have no interest in their genre, good writing is good writing and I found the advice worthwhile. Check out part one and part two.
The Reader's Digest version: characters are interesting when they are multifaceted and flawed. Pretty much all the authors said this. They also said a whole lot more, so if you're a writer, or simply interested in how your favorite characters are made, check these posts out.
Monday, 6 February 2012
What makes a great character
Stumble it!Saturday, 21 January 2012
My Civil War novel A Fine Likeness on sale for only $2.99. Happy Valentine's Day!
My novel has been out two months now and I've received some wonderful reviews and a modest number of sales. I'd like to increase both by offering this discount. I love getting new readers!
I also love my existing readers, so if you've already purchased A Fine Likeness at full price, here's a deal for you: I'll send you a complimentary copy of my short story collection The Night the Nazis Came to Dinner and other dark tales. Just email me at seansontheweb (at) yahoo (dot) com and answer this question about the book: what Union officer was entrusted to guard Rocheport? (Hint: he did a really crappy job!).
I love my readers!
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Book review: The Archaeology of Greece, An Introduction
The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction by William R. Biers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I recently reread this old university textbook of mine in preparation for an assignment in Greece. Biers was one of my professors and his book was assigned for the class.
This well-illustrated book is a clear, general introduction to the topic. No single volume could ever hope to give such a broad subject full justice, but this does give the reader a good handle on the basics. Biers skips lightly over the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic and gets straight down to business with the Minoans. The book continues through the highlights of Greek archaeology down to the Roman period, which is only briefly discussed. Late Antique, Byzantine, and later periods are not covered.
I have only two objections to this book. Neither are major and both may have been solved with the publication of a second edition in 1996. I read the first edition so take these criticisms in that light. I found many of the citations to be rather old. Most dated to the 1970s or sometimes much earlier. Also, some of the photos, especially those of Athens taken by Biers himself, do not show the sights or the city as they appear today. As I said, the second edition may have solved these problems and brought the book more up to date.
In all, this is an easy-to-read introduction to ancient Greek art and archaeology. It's large number of photographs, some in color, the clear prose keep it from ever becoming dry.
View all my reviews
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
The Night the Nazis came to Dinner, and other dark tales
A spectral dinner party goes horribly wrong. . .
An immortal warrior hopes a final battle will set him free. . .
A big-game hunter preys on endangered species to supply an illicit restaurant. . .
A new technology soothes First World guilt. . .
Here are four dark tales that straddle the boundary between reality and speculation. You better hope they don’t come true.
These genre-bending tales mix fantasy, science fiction, horror, and a dose of satire. I've priced it at 99 cents in order to entice readers, and hopefully get them to move on and buy my Civil War novel. A special thanks goes to Dale Roberts, author of Irrefutable, for doing the excellent cover art.
The Night the Nazis came to Dinner is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, and all other Amazon outlets. Coming soon to Smashwords too!
Friday, 16 December 2011
Deja-Vu Blogfest: My thoughts on my page 99
Today I'm participating in the Deja-Vu blogfest, where everyone revives one of their favorite old posts. This one is from more than a year ago and concerns my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness, which back then was still unpublished.
Ford Madox Ford suggested that if you want to know how good a book is, you should "open the book to page ninety-nine and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."
A new website plans to let aspiring and published authors upload page 99 of their work for public scrutiny. The Page 99 Test isn't running yet, so I've decided to jump the gun and post page 99 of my Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness here to see how it stands up. Regular readers of this blog will know that this novel made it to the finals of Dorchester and ChiZine's Fresh Blood contest before losing. Oddly enough, five months on, the novel's fan page is still attracting hits. The manuscript currently squats malevolently in ChiZine's submissions pile.
So here's page 99. Let me know what you think. I'll post my own thoughts in my next post.
“This the right way?” Hugh asked.
“’Course it’s the right way,” Morgan said. “You think I don’t know where I’m going?”
“Don’t seem the right way,” Hugh said.
“It ain’t,” Elijah replied.
“Shut your mouth,” Morgan said, looking around at the woods uncertainly. “What’s that old devil thinking making us come all the way out here for anyways? Why didn’t we meet back at his cabin?”
“Probably afraid we’d get followed,” the Kid said.
“Damn it, we should have made that road by now. He said head north five miles and we’d hit it,” Morgan grumbled.
“We would have if we’d gone north,” Elijah said.
“Course we’ve been going north!” Morgan shouted. “We’ve been going north the entire time, haven’t we Jimmy?”
Jimmy didn’t reply, looking down at the ground as the Kid led his horse.
“Don’t ask him nothing,” Elijah said. “He’s been told his end and that’s a hard thing to take. And we ain’t been going north the whole time. When we took off from the Schmidt place, remember how we cut along that streambed? That made us move east a ways before we straightened out. We’ve passed the road.”
Morgan frowned at him, not wanting to believe, but he knew as well as the rest of them that Elijah never got lost in the woods.
“Jimmy, what do you think?” Morgan asked, bringing his horse alongside him.
“I don’t know what to believe,” Jimmy said.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
My Civil War Novel "A Fine Likeness" released today!
Thank you all for your encouragement! For those of you unfamiliar with my novel, the blurb is below:
A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there’s something more dangerous in the woods than each other.
Jimmy Rawlins is a teenaged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead.
Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son’s death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill. Captain Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must decide whether to betray the Confederacy to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
My next book project: Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881-82
The manuscript isn't due until almost a year from now so it will be some time before it will see the light of day. Of course I'll keep you updated! The Raid series looks at military or paramilitary raids, including their planning, execution, and an analysis of their success or failure.
I've written two books in this series already, including Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, and a book on James-Younger gang's Northfield raid that will come out next year.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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