Kevin's Watch

It is extremely good, and will only put you back $3!
It was a pleasure to have something so good to read to follow up AATE.
I'm happy I can read stuff again after ten years or more of not being able to get through a single book!

I totally agree I read it as my first kindle book and totally loved it and found it very inspiring

I feel it has enriched my life to read this. It is masterfully written and has a great deal of meaning.

I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say part of it made me cry.

It is a tremendously good book. I'm very happy I decided to buy this and read it.

Of course, I've always suspected this place is a gold mine for great reading.

Might I recommend when referring people to a book you refer to it as more than "this" and "it", and possibly use the author's name?

(Yes, I know I could go for a link in ali's signature to see if I can find it there, but might as well make this topic as helpful as possible, eh?)

Sure, it's called The Maiden's War, written by

Spoiler

Lynne Cantwell:P

You can find out more information, read an excerpt, and order it here

Aw, shucks. Thanks, you guys!

Lord Zombiac wrote:It is extremely good, and will only put you back $3!
It was a pleasure to have something so good to read to follow up AATE.
I'm happy I can read stuff again after ten years or more of not being able to get through a single book!

This is interesting to me LZ - was it that you didn't read a book for ten years or didn't finish a book for ten years. I regularly go through periods when I struggle to finish books. sometimes (eg now for instance) I have 8 or 10 books on the go simultaniously and flip from one to another on a nightly basis depending on my mood.
Weirdly I have just finished a book in one continuous run - the first for ages (in fact since AATE) - and it was a book called 'The Interragotive Mood' by Padget Powell and the entire book composed of many hundreds of unrelated questions (and a few related ones) and nothing else. The wierd thing was that such a book should not work - but in a strange way it does. It's almost as though a personality sort of begins to show through the unending flow of questions and you almost get to like it. Odd but true!

I would get half a chapter into a book and put it down. I did manage to re-read a few choice selections, and I read "Disney's the Black Hole" but I don't think that counts cause it's a novelization.

Let me preface this by saying, don't take this the wrong way, Ali!

What Ali's book did for me anyway is showed me that I don't have to think on such a grand scale. The few times I've tried to sit down and plot out an actual novel (as opposed to a short story or a poem) I've ended up overwhelmed by the scale of world building and what have you.

Ali's book showed me that it is certainly possible to create something enjoyable and high quality and keep it more self-contained to a degree, more about the characters and the themes and less about the world itself, and still have it be believable.

Not sure I'm saying that right, but I mean it in the most positive way.

I don't think she'll take that the wrong way. I'm into the whole "Less is more" thing too. I seldom write songs longer than two minutes anymore. My own novels are about 60,000 words.
I think she achieves perfection with this book-- she has a wonderful sense of magical realism, a darkness that is both overwhelming and uncomfortable to think about. She has vividly described characters, and a truly mystical sense of historical and spiritual connectedness.
She does all of this without having to compile some 200,000 words, which if you ask me is far more impressive a feat.

I started to post in this thread last night, and then the lights flickered and I got kicked offline, and took it as a sign that I should shut up.

Let's just say that I agree with you guys that my book is a "little book". I'm much more interested in what's going on inside my characters' heads than in sweeping battle scenes (which is why TIW is probably my least favorite book of the Chrons) or intricate world-building (which is why I don't write sci-fi ). This last is coming back to bite me in the butt, tho -- I'm dragging my feet on the next draft of the next book, partly because I'm going to have to do some pretty involved world-building. Sigh.

Well, hurry it up missy!

Have I mentioned that I have a signed copy?

I feel totally embarrassed that I haven't ordered this book yet. A fellow Watcher with a book for sale? What have I been waiting for? It's good to hear that others liked it. I'll be ordering soon.

[P.S. Would it be rude to inquire about the numbers sold so far?]

I, finally, ordered it--so ali will have some signing to do at Elohimfest!

danlo wrote:I, finally, ordered it--so ali will have some signing to do at Elohimfest!

Oh gods... (You can line up behind dlb -- he left his copy at home when he packed for WFC. I'll have to pm him a reminder in June....)

Z, if you do read it and you hate it, don't tell me. No idea how many have sold so far, and to be honest, I don't care. For me, the point wasn't to make a lot of money from this (best-sellerdom is too much of a crapshoot) -- it was the validation that somebody liked my stuff well enough to publish it.

Altho if best-sellerdom came knocking, I wouldn't turn it down....

one more sold

aliantha wrote:

danlo wrote:I, finally, ordered it--so ali will have some signing to do at Elohimfest!

Oh gods... (You can line up behind dlb -- he left his copy at home when he packed for WFC. I'll have to pm him a reminder in June....)

Z, if you do read it and you hate it, don't tell me. No idea how many have sold so far, and to be honest, I don't care. For me, the point wasn't to make a lot of money from this (best-sellerdom is too much of a crapshoot) -- it was the validation that somebody liked my stuff well enough to publish it.

Altho if best-sellerdom came knocking, I wouldn't turn it down....

good for you.
your publisher's "helpful" pointers were condescending. I will be published.
I am not an amateur!

Stonemaybe wrote:one more sold

Thanks, Stone!

Lord Zombiac wrote:I don't think she'll take that the wrong way. I'm into the whole "Less is more" thing too. I seldom write songs longer than two minutes anymore. My own novels are about 60,000 words.
I think she achieves perfection with this book-- she has a wonderful sense of magical realism, a darkness that is both overwhelming and uncomfortable to think about. She has vividly described characters, and a truly mystical sense of historical and spiritual connectedness.
She does all of this without having to compile some 200,000 words, which if you ask me is far more impressive a feat.

You're a pretty good advertiser! I think you should definitely find your way to my book.

Oh, and sorry Ali. Haven't read yours yet. Been on a history kick lately.

Cool, LF!
I am getting to be a pretty avid reader now. I'll check it out.
Pretty much everyone here is smarter than most people on most message boards, and I'm not surprised to find so many authors, since reading TCTC made me want to write in the first place!
I'll be glad to check it out!