RSS

Monthly Archives: March 2015

Goodbye, and thank you for the sarcasm Mr Pratchett.

13 Mar

I’m really not one to jump on a bandwagon of “someone famous has died and I need everyone to read how it affects ME.” And that was never my intention with the following post… it started off as a simple thing for me to post on my Facebook Author page, and then turned into the following massive brain dump.

This is not aimed at being an attention grabbing moment for me and my writing or blogging. This is a heartfelt goodbye from a fan who always wanted to meet him, came close but never quite made it. This isn’t about me at all.

RIP Terry Pratchett. One of my all-time favourite authors and a man who taught me that it wasn’t just my mind that kept a sarcastic dialog on the world… and he was brave enough to put it in print!

May he have found the death and peace he wanted… or should that have been Death in the Anthropomorphised way? If so, give Binky a carrot for me.

I am very honoured to have had my work likened to that of his… but even more honoured to own a book he signed for me. Well, for my husband who stood in line on a stinking hot and humid Brisbane day as I was too heavily pregnant and was borderline with pre-eclampsia so unable to go.

Mr Pratchett signed the 25th Discworld book, given to me by my husband on my 25th birthday. (Yes, he is the romantic one in this relationship). The book was The Truth and Mr Pratchett wrote: Dear Janis, it’s all true! TP.

Now I’m sure he did that on thousands of books and that particular one was just a blur in the rearview mirror of life. But it is much cherished and greatly appreciated. Especially as hubby also got my Dad Going Postal and had it signed Librarians Rule – Ook. Which my dad loved and treasures as he’s the sod who got me interested in Mr Pratchett’s work in the first place!

Hubby’s biggest brush with fame with this great author: having another fan ask him to take a picture of him and Mr Pratchett. Mr Pratchett had said: “sure, but no flash.” Stranger’s camera handed to hubby… flash went off. Hubby got a scowl from the man himself. Oops. Still, not his fault but a memory of Terry Pratchett being grumpy with him he can tell his grandkids one day, after reading them The Hogfather at Christmas. 😉

Although I didn’t always like his work (see Nation – too harsh and dark a reality for me while being strikingly truthful) I am very proud to have his books take up a considerable amount of our bookshelves. Yes, so loved we have them in paper form! Some even in hardback! *gasp*

For the last week or so I’ve had a hankering to read his Johnny and the… series again so this is a sign it is indeed time to dig them out, have a read and then pass them onto my book loving children to get them going on a great journey through one of the best imaginations I’ve ever had the honour to see into.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for teaching me that my dark and cynical nature and sarcastic outlook on life was perfectly natural. Thank you for showing me how tongue in cheek and downright blatant mockery of others is acceptable on paper in the right forms. Thank you for Rincewind, the Luggage, Johnny, Masklin and Grimma. And thanks most of all for Granny Weatherwax. My kind of witch and a role model for me as I grow older. Although I’m probably more a Magrat if I do say so myself. I started reading your work as a maiden, now a mother and look forward to it into my crone years.

May you rest in peace and never be forgotten for bringing life and magic back into other’s imaginations.

Until next time,

Janis. XXOO

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 13, 2015 in Writing

 

Tags:

First chapters, like first impressions, are important.

11 Mar

What do I look for in a book and why is the first chapter so important?

Well, like most people, a book’s first impression on me is very important. And that first impression consists of three things – the cover, the blurb and the first chapter. Some may say that the author plays a big part, and this can be true… but quite honestly, if the first three give a good result, I don’t need to know who the author is. It often means I’ve just found a new author I like!

Which is the most important out of these three? The first chapter of course! The cover is just to grab your attention. The blurb merely the sales pitch to get you to open the book and read it. But that first chapter is the make it or break it moment. I will freely admit that if my interest is not captured in that first chapter, the book is a failure and gets put on my DNF (did not finish) pile. Admittedly, being the good natured soul I am I tend to give most books the first three chapters before I add to that pile, but that really is only if they pass that first chapter test.

Your first chapter doesn’t have to start with an explosion, big action scene, sex or any of the usual overhyped rubbish. Simply try and capture my mind with it. Sometimes it’s a slow, easy read that twist and tangles itself through my imagination so I don’t even realise I’ve past the first chapter, I’m so engrossed in the story. A good example of this is Mary Janice Davidson’s novel Undead and Unpopular. The opening line of the book is: “There’s a zombie in the attic.” George the Fiend informed me over breakfast.

That one line and how it was casually said got me interested. Then again this is one book in a series I had been reading for some time but it has always stuck with me as a punchy one liner that then goes right into the flow as if you’d been part of the conversation for long before the book started. Your imagination is snatched up and swept along with it and before you know it you’re in the middle of the book – way past the first chapter – and desperate to know how it all ends.

Other times it can even be how the first few lines read. Witty, enigmatic, suspenseful… some kind of emotional punch that makes me want to read on to see the how and why. But I do find if that emotional punch drags on to being a few jabs and a poke, I get bored and wander off.

Saying that, if you’re going to start with a punchy, witty, fantastic first line – keep it going at a good pace. Don’t put all your focus into the opening line and then drone on for the rest of the chapter. This is your make or break moment – show me what you’ve got!

I find one of the best ways an author can do this is to leave the last line of any chapter as a sentence just hanging there seemingly unfinished so that the reader simply must turn the page, start the next chapter and finish what was said.

Katie MacAlister is excellent at this. She always ends her chapters with an enticing sentence that gets that “One more Chapter” mantra going until you’ve found yourself reading until 3am.

I have had similar comments made about my own work and in my first book Bonnie’s Story: A Blonde’s guide to Mathematics it was the ending of my first chapter that got my publisher interested in publishing it.

Would you turn the page when a chapter ends so casually as: It was then that my world came to an end. Nothing too dramatic, just a sucking ‘pop’, and all I can surmise was left in the street was slowly dispersing smoke from his used Maths.

Actually, a first chapter is very much like a blog post. Start with a snappy title, capture the reader’s attention and keep it so they read the whole thing. They might then subscribe to your blog, they might check out what else you do. But you have their attention and they want to know more. Make it interesting, make it relevant to the title and ensure you make it sound like you know what you’re saying.

So grab a book today, be enticed by its cover, interested by its blurb and enthralled by its first chapter. Before you know it you’ll have finished the book. That is what makes a good first chapter.

Why am I talking about the importance of a first chapter? Because I’m lucky enough to have been chosen to be a judge for Freshly Squeezed in their latest C1Blitz. I get to read a lot of amazing and interesting first chapters to new YA works. Yes, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it…. and chocolate taster was taken. 😉

Head on over to Freshly Squeezed and check it all out.

Until next time,

Janis. XXOO

 
1 Comment

Posted by on March 11, 2015 in Book Review, Writing

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,