Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Devil May Care. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Devil May Care. Sort by date Show all posts

Feb 5, 2011

My Audiobooks

Read to me...

I read paperbacks, hardcovers and Kindle books, but I also like audiobooks. They're great for when you're driving, exercising or just too tired to let your eyes focus, and, who doesn't like to be read to? When I checked my book list in iTunes, I got a bit of a shock - I didn't realise I had so many! There are fiction and non-fiction books for kids and adults. Here's a peek at my audio-library (I've added links if I've posted about these books before):

Fiction:
ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
All Together Dead, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
A Bone To Pick, An Aurora Teagarden Mystery - Charlaine Harris
City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
Cloud Street - Tim Winton
Crooked House - Agatha Christie
Dead and Gone, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Doornail, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Dead in the Family, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Dead Man's Folly - Agatha Christie
Dead Over Heels, An Aurora Teagarden Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Devil May Care - Sebastian Faulks
Dragon Keeper: The Rain Wild Chronicles - Robin Hobb
Endless Night - Agatha Christie
Fashionably Undead - Meg Cabot
Flyte: Septimus Heap Book 2 - Angie Sage
From Dead to Worse, Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
The Host - Stephanie Meyer
Insatiable - Meg Cabot
The Julius House, An Aurora Teagarden Mystery - Charlaine Harris
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Magyk: Septimus Heap Book 1 - Angie Sage
The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie
Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie
Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian - Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan
Point Black: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Real Murders, An Aurora Teagarden Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Shakespeare's Landlord, Lily Bard Mystery - Charlaine Harris
The Sign of Four: A Sherlock Holmes Novel - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Skeleton Key: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House - Judy Schachner
Stormbreaker: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
A Study in Scarlet: A Sherlock Holmes Novel - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, An Aurora Teagarden Mystery - Charlaine Harris
A Touch of Dead, Sookie Stackhouse Short Stories - Charlaine Harris
Trick of the Dark - Val McDermid
The Wire in The Blood - Val McDermid

Non-Fiction:
Deep Sleep Every Night - Glenn Harrold
Dwight Swain: Master Writing Teacher - Dwight Swain
Engaged Writing: Hypnosis for Writers - Maggie Dubris
The Hero's 2 Journeys - Michael Hauge & Christopher Vogler
On Writing, Volume 1 - James Magnuson & Roberta Gellis
Positive Attitude, Positive Life: Hypnosis to Cultivate a Positive Outlook - Maggie Staiger
The Road of Creativity: Hypnosis for a Lifetime of Creative Inspiration - Maggie Dubris
Screenwriting for Hollywood - Michael Hauge
Spanish for Dummies - Jessica Langemeier
To The Best of Our Knowledge: David Foster Wallace - Jim Fleming
To The Best of Our Knowledge: Genre Writing and Beyond! - Jim Fleming
Who's Story is it? Writing from a Clear Point of View - Madeline DiMaggio
Word by Word - Anne Lamott
Writing Exciting, Seminars 1-6 - Bill Baldwin et al
Writing from Premise - Sandra Scofield 

This list has been over the last 18months. I think the number of books I've read would be a lot less, so, it's also a great way to get through books quickly!
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Jan 20, 2010

Editing Lessons - it's starting to sink in

I'm a little disorganised this week, which is not much different from the weeks leading up to this one :-), so instead of hashing out a single topic on editing, I'm going to skim over what I'm learning so far.
  • Know your characters - It's easy to get lazy with some of your secondary characters, but if you don't know them as a whole person (or dog, in my case) then they will be flat in the scenes. Everyone has their own idiosyncrasies which can add flavour or humour to a scene. I just read Devil May Care - a 'James Bond' novel by Sebastian Faulks, in which James Bond was described as being a good judge of character, and in particular, knowing when he could trust someone. Really? Every film I see has James accepting a drink of some evil stranger and getting himself drugged, or hooking up with a sexy young woman who turns out to be working for the bad guys. The rest of the novel was an enjoyable escape, but that small part stuck in my mind and if you are not careful the same can happen with your characters. Your readers will know if something just doesn't sound consistent and your storytelling depends on them being able to imagine it happening.
  • In mysteries the pace should keep increasing to the climax. Try to organise your hurdles in order so they become more and more exciting, leaving your reader breathless. I'm going to rearrange some of my situations that Kitty gets involved in, so they escalate towards a grande finale.
  • The first step to editing your manuscript is to READ it right through. Seems obvious, but the temptation is to keep skimming through to the bits you want to fix. One read through, without making corrections, just get a feel for how the story flows. 
  • My new approach is going to be to schedule time towards editing my stories. I found this didn't work so well for me when I was writing because my ideas would rebel and come 3hrs later or in the middle of the night, so I just went with the flow. Editing is like mending is to dressmaking, less fun but essential if you want a great finished product. I need to be a little more regimented with myself and I think I'll allocate 10am-12pm for editing every day, if I get more in, that'll be a plus.
Well that's it from me this week. I've read a couple of great books and articles on editing while on holidays, so I will try to organise my notes on those for next week's post - which I'm aiming to get back to Monday posts (down here in Aussie calendar time).
Happy writing!
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May 18, 2010

Lousy Characters Rule

Are Your Characters Wearing This Badge?
More often than I expect, I read stories with characters that are good at everything. If watching Australian Idol auditions taught me anything, it's that people should be aware of their shortcomings. By knowing what you are hopeless at (for me anything that requires balance or talking to strangers), then you can focus on the areas you excel, and those traits will endear a character to the reader.

Charismatic, clever and brave James Bond had his weaknesses - alcohol and girls. A femme-fatale carrying a martini (shaken, not stirred)? Then forget it, he's a goner. In Devil May Care (Sebastian Faulks), the narrator comments that James is excellent at knowing who to trust. Really? It seems to me that in every mission he ends up getting mixed up with women who try to kill him, or accepts a drink from a villain only to find he's been drugged.

Choose flaws for your character. Make sure that shortcomings cause them problems on their journey through the story. Perhaps it's something that's necessary to achieve their goal, solve the murder or escape death? You could make them face it (Indiana Jones and his snake phobia) or give them a sidekick that can pick up the slack.

They could be clever, talented and attractive, but... not a very nice person. Lots of great characters have personality flaws, Sherlock Holmes wasn't very pleasant to people, he was only interested in the mystery. This character has been recreated today as Dr Gregory House (in the TV series House). When the occasion requires sympathy and emotional understanding, that's where their sidekick, Watson/Wilson, steps up.

Sam Spade got the job done, but when he wasn't on the clock he was drinking himself into a stupor or bonking his partner's wife. Even sweet old Miss Marple had her moments: in Towards Zero, while on a boat, Miss Marple accuses a suspect of swimming from his hotel to the victim's house. His defence is that he can't swim and everybody knows it. Sly Miss Marple gives him a little push into the ocean but it turns out he was telling the truth.

I'm reading Too Many Murders by Colleen McCullough, featuring chief of detectives, Carmine Delmonico. The plot is great, it's set in 1967 and one April day 12 separate murders are committed, but the detective suspects a link. I find myself skimming parts about Delmonico's private life because it seems too perfect. Great job, well liked, talented, beautiful home, beautiful wife, gorgeous daughter (also extremely talented) and a beautiful bouncing baby boy. *Yawn*

Your character can think they're perfect, as long as it's obvious they're not.
We want characters to be really bad at some things because it provides conflict for the story and makes the character accessible to the reader. What do your characters really suck at?

Some links on Characters and Flaws:
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