Posts tagged ‘fiction’
THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by JOHN LeCARRE’
My reading volume has increased since becoming a fulltime writer, as it should. Also, because I’m a fulltime writer with minimal sales and retired, I haunt the Goodwill store and local library where books can be obtained, hardback for one dollar and paperbacks for fifty cents. I love bringing home an armful of books for next to nothing. My piles of books grow and I feel I’m surrounded by, soon to be, old friends.
During my book-buying adventures I stumbled upon books by John LeCarre’. I put them aside for I thought they would be too dated, spies and the cold war. But when I finally went to read the novels, I was in for a treat I did not expect.
The Looking Glass War, published in 1965, is a spy novel. Because of its publication date, I thought it might not offer much, instead, it was a book I could not put down.
We are all familiar with the James Bond character and the adventures described in Mission Impossible movies where the characters succeed in everything they attempt and nothing goes wrong.
Give me a break!
In LeClarre’s spy novel, the spies make mistakes, their frailties play into their work – they are human. Not only does everything not go right, little does. As they try to do their job they worry about cost and budgets.
If you want an entertaining read, try to find some of this author’s books.
THE NIGHT ETERNAL by GUILLERMO DEL TORO AND CHUCK HOGAN
The Night Eternal, the final book in The Strain Trilogy is a wild ride and a ‘must read’ for anyone at the least interested in vampires or the source of this horror.
Never before has there been a scientific explanation behind the myths and legends of these monsters, how they infect, how they react to sunlight and mirrors. The authors have changed some characteristics, replace fangs with a method of infection beyond repulsive, but it is all to their credit. And never before, to my limited knowledge, has there been an explanation involving the birth of the original vampire. And I must tell you, the source of the original vampire will rock you.
I cannot strongly enough implore you to read The Strain Trilogy.
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
Amazon.com
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FRANNY AND ZOOEY BY J. D. SALINGER
I’ve mentioned in a past post that, after reading an author’s work, I seek out their biography. With J. D. Salinger, I did the exact opposite.
I first read Salinger’s biography by David Shields and Shane Salerno. I couldn’t remember if I had read Salinger’s classic, The Catcher in the Rye, so I read it and recently posted my thoughts, and now have read Franny and Zooey. This book is composed of two works concerning members of the Glass family. Here are my thoughts.
Franny and Zooey are the youngest of the seven siblings, two girls and five boys, of the Glass family. Their parents are vaudeville actors and the children are all described as being extremely intelligent and attractive. The radio show, It’s a Wise Child, features the siblings for an extended period for there is a great age difference between the first and the last.
In the first piece, Franny, we find a girl of twenty, with a rather unstable nature, meeting her boyfriend for a weekend game. They go for lunch where martinis are consumed and endless cigarettes smoked. The language is stilted, by today’s standards. The Zooey piece concerns her brother and her condition in the previous piece. Zooey, along with his mother, also smoke constantly. Zooey also exhibits an attitude and sophistication not keeping with his age of perhaps 25.
The purpose of this post is, in my opinion, today’s reader would not find these works entertaining, or meaningful.
After publishing his work, Salinger wrote, as a recluse for 45 years, producing a reported volume of work to be published in the future, dealing with the Glass family as well as the Caulfield family from The Catcher in the Rye.
I’m looking forward to reading these works to see, while in seclusion, Salinger kept up with the times. Generations of both families would have past. Did they trade martinis for marihuana? Did the stiltedness of their encounters become steamy sex? Did his writing change to reflect the time?
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
Amazon.com
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BEGINNING A NEW YEAR, 2014 in review
This is the time we make promises to ourselves, most of which we won’t keep. Time to reflect on the year past and the one that approaches. Time to get on with life.
As in the past, my blog will focus on writing, on where and how to publish your work, and how to endure this absurd profession. If I have any successes, I’ll share them with you. Failure will find itself under the rug.
For the coming year, I’ve decided to begin a new category, one I’ve felt growing for some time now. I already have a category, Observations and Opinions, but I find the title too mellow for what I observe as I travel through space and time. Rants & Raves will be the new category I plan to visit often in this upcoming year. It will encompass subjects which, to me, make little sense, or in general, just piss me off. The older I get, the larger this category grows.
“How does that apply to writing?” you may ask. As I read I find many current authors address issues in their fiction nudging important topic into public view. My last post, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, is a case in point where she addresses climate change incorporated in a fantastic story. But this trend is not new. Currently, I’m reading Charles Dickens’, Hard Times, an author whose work constantly addresses the wrongs in English society. Then, there is Upton Sinclair writing The Jungle, altering the meat processing industry. The list goes on and on where fiction is used to alter fact.
Let me finish this post by thanking you for entering my life and thoughts this last year, and hope that our relationship continues.
Finally, I’ve included my past year’s blog life as reported by WordPress.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.
LOVE MACHINE/STEPPING STONE by WALTER MOSLEY
As usual, I’m way behind the curve in becoming familiar with the important authors of the genres in which I’m most interested and participating in, namely science fiction and horror. The problem is, I’m interested in so many different types of works; mystery, historical fiction, literary works. Also nonfiction; biographies, military history to name a few. My stacks of to-be-read books sometimes gets quite ridiculous, as the list of my interests goes on and on.
Not long ago, I picked up my first work written by Walter Mosley and now I’m hooked on the guys writing having read a few Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill mysteries, two compelling characters. Once you get into his mysteries it’s hard to stop, but then again, why should you?
Some time ago, while on a bookstore expedition, I notice a book my Mosley, Love Machine/Step Stone. Not even reading the blurb about the short novels, I added it to my stacks. There it sat for quite a few months until a few days ago when I decided to give it a try.
Published in 2013 by Tor, I was amazed to find that they were two short science fiction novels. I know I’m probably the last to discover that Mosley wrote science fiction, but just in case there is one more of you out there lacking in this knowledge, I thought I’d write this article. Both works are complex and well written contributions to the genre.
Love Machine is nothing you would expect from its title. Rather, it centers on a device used to merge individual psyches, and that’s just the start. I finished this book in one night and defy you to put it down once you begin turning pages.
Stepping Stone takes you on a fantastic ride, starting slow with a ‘special needs’ man. The pace quickens as you find both of these observations, ‘special needs’ and man, stand on shaky ground bringing you to a conclusion you never see coming.
If you enjoy reading science fiction with a twist, or are a Walter Mosley fan, definitely give these short works a try.
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
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SALINGER by DAVID SHIELDS, SHANE SALERNO, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J. D. SALINGER
Until recently I knew little about J. D. Salinger other than the fact that he was the author of the Catcher in the Rye, that he was out there remaining secluded, and then he was dead. I could not remember if I had ever read his classic.
After catching some of the documentary by Shane Salerno on PBS about Salinger, I decided to read the biography he and Shields wrote about the author. I found it to be a compelling read exploring the complex personality of the writer and the influence of WW II on his work, and how an off-shoot of Buddhism, Vedanta, influenced his life and made him the man he became after the war. Shields and Salerno brought home the point that Salinger could not tolerate phoniness in people and the life that surrounded him. This, of course, is the primary theme of Holden Caulfield, the main character in the Catcher.
After reading Salinger’s biography, I decided to either read or reread the Catcher. After finishing the book, I can say that I either totally missed the great revelations supposedly contained within the pages of the work, wouldn’t be the first time, or the book is like a good poem, you take away from the reading what you bring.
Holden Caulfield, Salinger’s alter ego, cannot tolerate the phoniness in all he sees around him. At the age of sixteen, he has an opinion on everything and yet has accomplished nothing other than being kicked out of a series of exclusive prep schools.
It seems to me, and here is where I may be missing something, that Caulfield is the biggest phony of them all. His total existence is dependent on his lawyer father’s ‘dime’. The language in the novel is true to the era, but dated by today’s standards. This should make the future publication the 45 years of constant writing Salinger supposedly accomplished in solitude interesting. During those years, Salinger was allegedly working diligently in fleshing-out the Caulfield family along with the Glass family, the subject of much of his other works.
The setting for the Catcher strongly reflects the 1940’s. It will be interesting, taking into account Salinger’s isolation from the world, how he handles the development of his characters, their language and lifestyles. Needless to say, Salinger’s publishing future provides great anticipation.
To be continued…
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble. Com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
Amazon.com
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STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: HOW MUCH OF ‘YOU’ IS IN YOUR CHARACTERS?
This is a question I often ask myself of the author while I read his novel. How many of the characteristics of a main or minor character are yours?
I’ve recently finished reading Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s a strange, enjoyable read. In the book, one of the characters is the creator of the characters in the story which makes for a strange interaction. The ‘author’ character refers to elements of his past. I’ve also recently completed reading And So It Goes by Charles J. Shields, and all the facts and incidents mentioned by the ‘author’ character are also true for Vonnegut.
As in the above, what I like to do when I find an author whose work I enjoy is seek out facts about the mind behind the words by reading their biography. Here’s a sampling of whose fiction I’ve enjoyed and whose lives I wanted to discover.
I expect that you know by now that I enjoy writing horror. One of my favorite authors of the genre is H. P. Lovecraft. I have a volume of his complete works and occasionally visit the volume to enjoy a short story or one of his longer works. His writing is quite dated but I find the worlds he creates interesting. Lovecraft gave birth to a subgenre of horror which lives on. Sometime ago I read a biography of his short life. I recall he died around the age of 49. He initially fancied himself a poet but eventually fell into horror much to our benefit.
Frederick Exley is a writer I found to be both funny and sad. For a great read, find a copy of his novel, A Fan’s Notes, a work following the career of Frank Gifford and is a weakly veiled account of Exley. The biography of Exley I read confirmed this. As an example of Exley’s outlook, in one episode of the book the main character thinks he is dying. He decides to practically take up residence in a bar and then relates how he gained twenty pounds while wasting away from cancer. You’ve got to feel sorry for the guy and yet love him. As I said, funny but sad.
Jack Kerouac is another author I enjoy and read his biography. His classic novel, On the Road, closely reflects his life with the names changed to protect the guilty.
So many authors endure lives that are far from pleasant, something I’ll touch on in a latter post concerning the merits of good vs bad in an author and his characters. But with their many and sometimes tragic faults, we readers reap the rewards of their work.
So back to my original question to you writers: How much of your characters reflect details of your life? As far as my work is concerned, there is one character in my novel, New Moon Rising, who is me, and I’d like to challenge my readers to name the character and reap a reward.
To be continued…
STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: A WRITER’S NEED TO READ
I want to approach the making of a writer from a new direction, that with reading in mind.
These thoughts are the result of the ongoing question I have: Can imagination be taught? I have pondered this topic in past posts. You can be taught how to write, but can you be taught what to imagine, taught how to provide that spark which becomes a work of fiction. Some writers use prompts to get their writing juices flowing, but I feel these prompts could provide either the imagination trigger for a piece or merely a subject, depending on the individual. The crux of the effort is the individual.
The birth of this piece is the fact we are told over and over that when a writer is not writing he should be reading. As I write this I continue to perform mental gymnastics. If you must be encouraged to read can writing be in your future? For some reason, I have always had a burning desire to read which required no encouragement and feel naked when books are not present or readily available. I’ve always felt that the more vivid your imagination, the more enjoyment you derive from reading, the more vivid your imagination the more brilliant the pictures created in your mind as you read a book. Images which a video game or television show cannot compete with. In this sense, a writer can’t help but be a reader feeling incomplete without a book close by. For that book is feeding what is the life’s blood of the writer – his imagination.
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