Another Space in Time

Okay- so you have your first ever completed fiction book. You are not alone, another thousand have been written today. So, how are you going to add enough to your great story to turn it into something that readers will think is great? A good idea is to sit down with the 'Elements of Active Prose' for an hour, before you start your first personal edit. Ten more private edits, then read again. You will hopefully find that you have absorbed at least a little from that hour of advice. Of course, you could read Newland's guide first. But most of us won't, I wouldn't, I was born knowing how to write. Few of you will be quite as arrogant as I tend to be, but I'm sure you get the picture. There isn't a wrong way to write, but there is often a better way. Do I follow all the rules? Not a chance. Will you? I don't know, that's not the point. The point is to learn to sit outside your work looking in, seeing where you could do things just slightly better...

These short stories are like snapshots in time, the way things were in passing, not stories that conclude, but rather flashes of action that are left to run on in our own imaginations. There is a good diversity of main characters each with their own stories, stories painted with good supporting casts. There is a partial end point to a couple of the stories that strongly determines direction, but basically the reader is left with a great deal of adventure. These glimpses into other's lives are set in French, English and Spanish speaking environments. I'm sure that they reflect by degrees not only Rogers observations and also his own experiences across the world. As with all collected works, some will interest any individual reader more than they will another. All though are enjoyable and encouraging of thought long after the book reading device has dropped into stand-by mode. This is a short book, quality rather than quantity, and well worth the little it costs. I only...

The title is very appropriate- a good place to start and a connection that is often missing. The future here isn't one I would be eager for, one in which a super species, computer intelligence, and manipulated humans/androids, seem to subvert the very laws of nature and even of physics. This is about progress defeating culture, science defeating religion, and I sense a final hopelessness for the rebel 'Orphanage' in a following book. The 'Mother against invention' may not get another outing, as the script does stand alone, but I expect one. The style is very much telling, reporting, by characters. There is no omnipresent voice. This is a difficult style to pull off. We read a series of reports from different characters, different angles and shifting time. I was happy with that, but felt I needed to be taking my own notes. I'm sure I missed some significant points, which is always easier to do when the story is driven by detail about events rather that events ...

I could have sworn that Miss Maple was back, in Scottish guise. Is it ever fair to compare, possibly not, but this is very Agatha Christie-esk for the modern century. 'One Two' is a great first in series, introducing some wonderful characters of senior years. Lamprey has a very easy read style and an ironic, subtle humour that says most by what it leaves out. The plot is complex enough with a couple of classic murders, lots of possible clues and badly attached leads, some more doggy than others. All the bits simply can't be quite put together until Edge gets a grip on the case. The older generation will enjoy this, if they can find their glasses, and the ageing youths and middle readers should enjoy noting that at least at the Grasshopper Lawns, 20 miles north of Edinburgh, old age doesn't necessarily mean the end of joie de vivre not to mention a bit of nitty-gritty. This is a relatively short read, one sitting for those that consume books at burning pace and only...

This is a beguiling and imaginative read, about an eccentric group of characters that remain individually believable even though in any combination they produce a potpourri with very weird odours and even whiffs of the macabre. Zany humour adds bounce to articulate flowing prose, making this book an easy yet rewarding read. I think of this as light literary fiction, with flourishes from, yes you guessed it, a potpourri of genres. Murder is the central focus, though the crime itself is really just a plot device to help us explore the psychology of the small town, rural, American characters. The book is so pacy and easily absorbed, painting such graphic pictures, that I found myself drawn to compare it with elements of zany type TV series like Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives, without the omnipresent voice, or even some of the irreverence and immediacy of character penetration in Breaking Bad. The multiple POV first person writing works a treat here, letting one get a very ...

I enjoyed this adventure from the perspective of a superhero. The plot catapulted me into a sort of Batman, or Incredible Hulk type world, a normal landscape inhabited by an individual with Marvel Comic type superpowers. I appreciated the good and bad in his character, the do-gooder who comes to believe that some dark activity is justified by the intention to bring greater light. That is a behaviour that we all see in politics and business, as well as amongst those in pursuit of more personal goals. The cops that support the just bad to bring down to the evil, the wife that turns a blind-eye to her husband's dealings with narcotics because they provide the income to put food on her kids table, the person that robs rich Peter to pay poor Paul. But is it ever right to risk the killing of innocents to get at a greater evil? Arguably sometimes this can be so. This idea provides the binding theme of Elsner's plot. The book is written in a very easy read style that keeps the p...

This has elements from a mix of genres; including supernatural, spiritual, romance, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. Overall, it is well written and very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed reading this as a series of short-stories, being only disappointed with the lack of connect between the science fiction, the regressive themes, and the end of the book. The past lives are all exciting reads, though saddled with my common complaint that it is funny how more often than not past life memories are of infamous and famous events and times, rather than of ordinary lives. This makes for good entertainment, whilst reducing plot 'credibility'. A-Lo, if this is 'future biography', certainly gets the Halo. However, the bar to reaching redemption is set so high that I'm quite sure I'd be stuck in Limbo, or Clapham, or Mean Street forever. Perhaps like most superb destinations the already resident wish to stop 'Heaven' getting too crowded. Only special frie...