Author | Joseph L. Selby

Time Out

December 9, 2010

I have two thousands words left before I complete JEHOVAH’S HITLIST. I just bought SHADOWHEART, the fourth and final volume of the Shadowmarch Tetralogy written by my favorite author, Tad Williams. This is a time for writing and reading a big ass book.

…yet SHADOWHEART sits on my table (damn that thing is heavy to carry) and I haven’t opened my computer since yesterday morning. Why?

A book came out earlier this year, MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins. The tweet-o-sphere erupted in various expostulations of worship. No genre is more represented on Twitter (or the internet, really) than YA, and there was no one that didn’t love this series. I’m not a big YA reader myself, limiting that to Rawling and Hardy and that’s about it. So when I see such a one-sided outpouring, I tend to stay away. Especially since a lot of the outpouring began with agents. Popular online agents tend to have a trail of sycophants behind them, so I find their corroboration of the agent’s opinion to mean little.

Then a few actors hired a production company to film them in an 8-minute trailer in hopes of landing parts in the forthcoming movie. This trailer spoke to me. I downloaded the book preview (a genuine previous and not some front matter plus two pages crap I so often find) and immediately bought the book.

Dude!

DOOD.

Finishing a novel? That can wait. SHADOWHEART? That thing weighs a lot. Why wasn’t there an ebook?

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins? Believe the hype. This thing is good.

Joseph L. Selby

author, books, JEHOVAH’S HITLIST, pause, wicked awesome, wip it

3 responses to “Time Out”

Ted Cross

December 9, 2010

I felt the concept was excellent. I thought the writing was adequate and the main character a bit unappealing.

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Elizabeth Poole

December 9, 2010

Wow. That must be a good book to make you shelve your long awaited fourth book AND stop writing.

I must check this book out posthaste.

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Joseph L. Selby

December 9, 2010

@Ted: It's a YA book. For a YA book, I think the writing is spot on. It comes off condescending, but I don't mean it to be. Writing YA is hard. I've tried to take the adult out of my fiction and it's incredibly difficult. It's hard to measure your tone and vocabulary where you are approachable by a young reader without treating the young reader like (s)he's stupid.

I also like Katniss, though admittedly I haven't finished the book yet. Maybe she sucks later. So far, I find her entirely believable based on the type of upbringing she's had.

@Liz: Yes, please to be adding this to your list of books to read and bump it up near the top. It is wicked good.

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Time Out

3 responses to “Time Out”

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