by Jason Joyner | Apr 11, 2007 | Blog, CFBA, fiction
I’m excited that the CFBA blog tour this week features Brandilyn Collins and her new book Coral Moon.
I’ve been keeping tabs on Ms. Collins for a couple of years now. I’ve mentioned her blog, Forensics and Faith, as a prime writing resource before. That’s where I first found out about this wonderful author, following along with her entertaining blog posts and signature cliff-hangers. Last year I was privileged to be a part of the marketing for her book Violet Dawn, the initial book in the Kanner Lake series. She devised a clever aspect to her books – a real-time blog created by one of her characters in Kanner Lake. Various denizens of the town would post about life there, with different readers playing the roles. I was on the tag team (along with Bob Edwards) that wrote Pastor Hank Detcher. The initial commitment to participate there is over, but I’ve contributed a couple of posts since then, the last one commenting (vaguely) on the circumstances of Coral Moon.
Anyway, Coral Moon continues the adventure started in Violet Dawn. It seems that a new hotel has been proposed for the lakefront, and residents are predictably torn on the benefits of progress versus keeping Kanner Lake the quaint little Idaho town it is known for. With that backdrop, hot-shot reporter Leslie Brymes is heading out to interview proponents of both sides when she finds an unexpected situation in front of her – a body in her VW!
The quiet town explodes with intrigue once again, as various citizens wrestle with keeping the village safe from an insidious evil…
Brandilyn Collins has a very strong, identifiable style – her Seatbelt Suspense. This book will not disappoint fans of heart-pounding fiction. She does not leaving you wanting AT ALL in the beginning, establishing the tension from the first page. Her strengths are in weaving believable characters into the backdrop of suspense that has spawned the Big Honkin‘ Chicken Club, a group of writers who can’t read Collins’ books due to the intensity of the story!
You don’t *have* to read Violet Dawn before reading Coral Moon, but it definitely helps. The characters established in the first book become more alive, making the book very interesting. I like how she keeps you guessing about certain characters until the end of the book. I lost sleep the night before I finished the book, trying to work out “who did it” all night!
Coral Moon does have some intense scenes, and it have a fairly different vibe from the first book. The spiritual component, which was light in Violet Dawn, is much more front and center, due to the nature of what is happening in the story.
I have some very minor quibbles – I wouldn’t bring them into a different review, but as a “student” of Brandilyn’s via her blog, I can’t help myself. Rarely Leslie slips out of her early 20’s character and says something not appropriate for her age. Also, a couple of metaphors keep repeating, and they are so striking that they jumped out at me as they came back. (If you’re up for a game, look for how many times the idea of something “zinging through veins” or “knocked/kicked up the spine” shows up throughout.)
Overall, the book is a very enjoyable continuation of the Kanner Lake saga, and is a great read for any fan of good suspense. Keep an eye out for Crimson Eve, the 3rd book due later this year.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 4, 2007 | Blog, CFBA, fiction
This week’s CFBA blog tour feature is In High Places, by Tom Morrisey.
It is always interesting to see the type of books we get for the blog tour. We have gotten a wide variety of choices, and we’ve read a lot of good books. Some weren’t my favorite. If you can tell, I don’t tend to read the romances or “chick-lit” books (either I use the CFBA blurb or have my wife review). Sometimes we get an unexpected gem in all of the books we read.
In High Places is told from the point of view of Patrick Nolan, a teenager who is an only child. He and his father share a very strong bond – a love of rock climbing. The book opens as they are on a climb at Seneca Rocks, a well-known haven for climbers located in West Virginia. Their return home reveals a tragedy that pushes his father to distract himself in possibly destructive ways and threatens to destroy the strong bond that holds them together.
I read a lot of glowing reviews before I was able to dig into this book. It took a little effort to really get into it, but I encourage readers to stick with it. He spends a lot of time describing the scenes of rock climbing, carefully discussing equipment and technique. It is a foreign activity to me, and although it was interesting, I wasn’t engaged at first.
There is some excitement in the climbing scenes that occurs early on, but this isn’t an adventure novel. It is a novel of the heart, and it takes the person of Rachel Ransom, a young woman Patrick meets about 100 pages into the book. This dynamic transforms the book and made it a delightful read for me. I’ve seen other books with characters like Rachel in them (I don’t want to describe her too much, I hate reviews that give the story away), but I don’t get tired of them. There’s something magical in the way Morrisey treats the new twist that brings the novel home. I guess it is the threshold of the novel for me.
The writing is carefully crafted. I corresponded with Morrisey a little after reading the book, and he said he was striving for a different style from what he had written before. I haven’t read any of his adventure/suspense works that preceded this, but I would hazard a guess that he is successful in his attempt. The book reminds me of another coming-of-age tale, Bad Ground by Dale Cramer. That book was widely acclaimed in circles I run in, so it is a compliment.
One other literary trick from the book deserves mention. Note the intro of each chapter – he gives a brief description of climbing equipment or technique which becomes symbolic of the flow for the chapter.
Overall this is a highly enjoyable book to read. The slow start is not a negative in my mind; the story is kind of a slow burn, not hurrying to its destination. But if you find yourself stymied at all, persevere, because the book is a reward at the end of it all.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 4, 2007 | Blog, CFBA, fiction
This week’s CFBA blog tour feature is In High Places, by Tom Morrisey.
It is always interesting to see the type of books we get for the blog tour. We have gotten a wide variety of choices, and we’ve read a lot of good books. Some weren’t my favorite. If you can tell, I don’t tend to read the romances or “chick-lit” books (either I use the CFBA blurb or have my wife review). Sometimes we get an unexpected gem in all of the books we read.
In High Places is told from the point of view of Patrick Nolan, a teenager who is an only child. He and his father share a very strong bond – a love of rock climbing. The book opens as they are on a climb at Seneca Rocks, a well-known haven for climbers located in West Virginia. Their return home reveals a tragedy that pushes his father to distract himself in possibly destructive ways and threatens to destroy the strong bond that holds them together.
I read a lot of glowing reviews before I was able to dig into this book. It took a little effort to really get into it, but I encourage readers to stick with it. He spends a lot of time describing the scenes of rock climbing, carefully discussing equipment and technique. It is a foreign activity to me, and although it was interesting, I wasn’t engaged at first.
There is some excitement in the climbing scenes that occurs early on, but this isn’t an adventure novel. It is a novel of the heart, and it takes the person of Rachel Ransom, a young woman Patrick meets about 100 pages into the book. This dynamic transforms the book and made it a delightful read for me. I’ve seen other books with characters like Rachel in them (I don’t want to describe her too much, I hate reviews that give the story away), but I don’t get tired of them. There’s something magical in the way Morrisey treats the new twist that brings the novel home. I guess it is the threshold of the novel for me.
The writing is carefully crafted. I corresponded with Morrisey a little after reading the book, and he said he was striving for a different style from what he had written before. I haven’t read any of his adventure/suspense works that preceded this, but I would hazard a guess that he is successful in his attempt. The book reminds me of another coming-of-age tale, Bad Ground by Dale Cramer. That book was widely acclaimed in circles I run in, so it is a compliment.
One other literary trick from the book deserves mention. Note the intro of each chapter – he gives a brief description of climbing equipment or technique which becomes symbolic of the flow for the chapter.
Overall this is a highly enjoyable book to read. The slow start is not a negative in my mind; the story is kind of a slow burn, not hurrying to its destination. But if you find yourself stymied at all, persevere, because the book is a reward at the end of it all.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 3, 2007 | Blog, fiction, writing craft
I’m currently reading Coral Moon by Brandilyn Collins. I have hit the point of the book that I decided to call “the threshold”. I am at the place where I want to finish the book. I am looking for time to squeeze some reading into my day. I could plop into a chair (with the lights on, BC ain’t for chickens, lemme tell ya) and push through to the end.
There seems to be a tipping point in a novel where a reader is sufficiently invested that they really want to get to the end. I know there are different types of readers. When my wife picks up a book on Saturday, I may as well head off to do something else, because she’s the type that sits down and reads until she’s done. Maybe this type of reader doesn’t have a threshold. However, I definitely am the other type.
I find I can put down a book if I get busy or distracted and lose track of it if I haven’t hit the tipping point. It’s not a burning priority, but if I cross the threshold, then it is something I won’t let go of until I finish.
A lot of this has to do with book structure. The classic “3 act” framework draws you in for the 1st act, builds tension in the 2nd, and races to the climax in the 3rd, ideally. It probably is natural to have the momentum to finish in the 3rd act, and I bet a lot of times that is when I hit that threshold.
It seems to me that drawing people to that threshold point is a key to writing compelling fiction. There certainly is a different “threshold” at the beginning of a novel, where you either engage the reader or they give up reading it. To me, the point I am talking about is the spot when I realize the biggest enjoyment out of the novel. I can think of novels like Relentless, Germ, Orphans of Chaos, In High Places (on the docket for tomorrow’s blog tour!) that I could really tell I hit that point, and I wasn’t ready to put them down. Then there’s a book like Qi that I really wanted to like, but lost me. I read less than 100 pages and recently packed it away, disappointed in wasted money.
Of course, the best books will draw you past the threshold from the get-go, and is the most desirable for an author to aspire to. I can think of two in the last year that did that for me: Scoop and Abiding Darkness. No coincidence that Scoop was my top book for ’06, and Abiding is leading the pack for ’07. I wish I knew the magic formula for creating such a threshold. It boils down to great writing at the end of the day. I will be watching for this “threshold” in other books from now on, seeing if I can get a handle on this aspect.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 3, 2007 | Blog, fiction, writing craft
I’m currently reading Coral Moon by Brandilyn Collins. I have hit the point of the book that I decided to call “the threshold”. I am at the place where I want to finish the book. I am looking for time to squeeze some reading into my day. I could plop into a chair (with the lights on, BC ain’t for chickens, lemme tell ya) and push through to the end.
There seems to be a tipping point in a novel where a reader is sufficiently invested that they really want to get to the end. I know there are different types of readers. When my wife picks up a book on Saturday, I may as well head off to do something else, because she’s the type that sits down and reads until she’s done. Maybe this type of reader doesn’t have a threshold. However, I definitely am the other type.
I find I can put down a book if I get busy or distracted and lose track of it if I haven’t hit the tipping point. It’s not a burning priority, but if I cross the threshold, then it is something I won’t let go of until I finish.
A lot of this has to do with book structure. The classic “3 act” framework draws you in for the 1st act, builds tension in the 2nd, and races to the climax in the 3rd, ideally. It probably is natural to have the momentum to finish in the 3rd act, and I bet a lot of times that is when I hit that threshold.
It seems to me that drawing people to that threshold point is a key to writing compelling fiction. There certainly is a different “threshold” at the beginning of a novel, where you either engage the reader or they give up reading it. To me, the point I am talking about is the spot when I realize the biggest enjoyment out of the novel. I can think of novels like Relentless, Germ, Orphans of Chaos, In High Places (on the docket for tomorrow’s blog tour!) that I could really tell I hit that point, and I wasn’t ready to put them down. Then there’s a book like Qi that I really wanted to like, but lost me. I read less than 100 pages and recently packed it away, disappointed in wasted money.
Of course, the best books will draw you past the threshold from the get-go, and is the most desirable for an author to aspire to. I can think of two in the last year that did that for me: Scoop and Abiding Darkness. No coincidence that Scoop was my top book for ’06, and Abiding is leading the pack for ’07. I wish I knew the magic formula for creating such a threshold. It boils down to great writing at the end of the day. I will be watching for this “threshold” in other books from now on, seeing if I can get a handle on this aspect.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 2, 2007 | Blog, fiction, resources, writing craft
I’ve pretty much done with my discussion of writing resources. Concerning websites, I could go on and on with places I’ve gone for inspiration or information. Solshine7 wanted to point out Light for the Writer’s Soul as a good site. I haven’t checked it out yet, but I will be indeed.
There are two more books that I thought I’d mention. The first one is Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors by Brandilyn Collins. She was on my list of website resources. She studied the Method Acting technique, and applies it to developing well-rounded characters. I started the book, but it got pushed aside during a busy time and I’ve yet to start over (apologies BC!). This is a unique angle and worth checking out.
Another book is by James Scott Bell, who happens to have a pretty good site for resources himself. He also contributes to the Charis Connection writers’ blog. He has a book in the “Write Great Fiction” series titled Plot and Structure. Again, this was a book that was started, but busyness forced it aside. Bell gives a lot of helpful advice on his site, enough that I could recommend his book (also from what I read).
On an opposite note, I want to give a word of warning. For a time I was a member of the Writer’s Digest book club. It seems like a good deal, and there are various books there that may meet needs you have (I do enjoy my Roget’s Super Thesaurus that I got through there). They just happen to be the type of book club that you have to return the little card or they automatically send you a book. I got burned once this way, and they seem to be about producing numerous products that can feed the great desire of writers to improve and eventually publish. Some of them seem a little superfluous, and I just want people to watch what they’re getting into. I am not anti-Writer’s Digest book club, but I won’t avail myself of their services again.
Ultimately, we can read all the “how-to” books we want to, eventually we have to DO the writing if we’re going to get anywhere. I need this encouragement too! Hopefully this was helpful. Now go put it into practice!
