Cat waxing... sort of. Spiral Hunt is shiny

[prusik]

I've "finished" a short story. (Actually, I'm letting myself get some distance from it before I read it again.) I should be working on my next one since I have some inkling of what it's about. However, I'm writing this blog entry instead. I've been meaning to blog about Spiral Hunt anyway.

OMG, is it a wonderful novel. The first chapter is a total grabber. When Maggie had read it at the Broad Universe reading at Boskone in 2008, I knew I had to read the novel.

Tight and fast-paced, just when you think it might fall prey to the tried and true, she tweaks the convention and the result is awesome. Just when you think she can't possibly ratchet up the tension any more, or pace the story any faster, it goes into overdrive. The result is exhilarating.

Yes, I know Maggie, and I can't help but imagine the main character, Evie Scanlan, looking like her and speaking with her voice. (OTOH, I also imagine one of the other main characters looking like either Vin Diesel or Taye Diggs. No, I don't know either one of them.) I've always been a fan of her work. She's really outdone herself though. The novel is filled with compelling characters with tough dilemmas. She's weaved Irish myth deftly through the story. I totally can not wait for the second book.

On the same subject of something worth reading, I just found It Came From the Slush ...and Survived! by Douglas Cohen. He wrote this in 2007. The blog entry goes through the openings of 14 stories he picked out of the Realms of Fantasy slushpile . He explains why each entry grabbed him. Worked out examples of story openings that grab an editor. Cool...

Comments

[mac-stone.livejournal.com]

Spiral Hunt was very, very shiny indeed. I loved it!

[bmlg.livejournal.com]

I particularly liked that the characters had backstory, but it wasn't infodumped. They all came from somewhere, and weren't dropped off by Central Casting for walk-on parts.

[garunya.livejournal.com]

What I find interesting about that slush survivors post is that it really shows (to me) how much of this is about personal tastes. There were a few openings there that intrigued me, but most of them I'd probably skip even if I had the published magazine in had - some I found rather mediocre, while there were also a couple I actively disliked.

Of course taste isn't the only factor involved - craft is just as important, and there is some good advice there for everyone, though some of it is also about what grabs him personally more than anything else.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it -- I loved working on it, and yes, there's some echoes of Vin Diesel in that one character. I think you'll like the second book, since I've had even more fun with it.

And it's funny you mentioned the Slush Survivors, since my first sale was as a slush survivor of Douglas Cohen's predecessor. It was an Evie Scelan story as well: "Christmas Apples."

-- Maggie, who's posting this as anon due to some connection issues at home (plus some remnant desires for internet anonymity).

[krylyr.livejournal.com]

I've bought the book and am very much looking forward to reading it, thanks to your enthusiastic plugs for it.