Chrissy

Hello Kasei, good to 'see' you. White Fang has always intrigued me, so I will be really interested to read your review when you have completed it. The excerpt is wonderful, you can feel the rush of the passing pack. The thought of a cross over between being a reader and an artist rolled up together is a bit mind blowing for this reading-only gal. If you are inspired to draw from the imagery in a text do you occasionally give into the urge?

Oh, great choices!

This question is to all our visiting authors ~ Is there a first line (from any genre) that you wish you had written?

civic

Trampwrench? Now that's my 'Today I Learnt A New Word' word of the day! From now on I wish to be known as MIstress ChrissyTrampwrench, Chatelaine of Her Own Bookshelf.

classic

Dear Forum Members, Poppy can't post anything today as she is bedridden with crapulence. She often suffers this way. Love Temperance

cataclysmic

caustic

Oh, I LOVE that word, and will endeavour to use it as frequently as I can!

Is it ok if I HATE Helen? I loved the first part of the ending, but not the last scene, that Twilight Zone final twist in the tale. Thanks for this Kylie, I've got a funny old day ahead, and this was a great way to relax for 25 minutes with my coffee.

For me it is safe exploration of the darkness within that ends with resolution of sorts. Crime - investigation - threat eliminated, or variations of the same. In 'Thrones, Dominations' co written by Dorothy L Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh, Lord Peter Wimsey, when speaking to his now wife about her writing of detective stories, Detective stories contain a dream of justice. They project a vision of a world in which wrongs are righted, and the villains are betrayed by clues that they did not know they were leaving. A world in which murderers are caught and hanged, and innocent victims are avenged, and future murder is deterred. and later, Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. I can read the grittiest story of murder, and then read on as the hero / heroine faces the daunting task of figuring out who did it, then bringing them to some form of justice. If I'm lucky then everything gets tied up neatly at the end.

Sorry Janet, I didn't mean to talk in absolutes like that. Having met you I know without a doubt that you are not a 'skimmer'. I was talking in terms of the in-your-face extroverts that spend conversations looking over your shoulder for someone 'more interesting' to come along. They come less under the heading of extroverts and more just bloody rude!

It could be said that I am neither one nor the other really. I withdraw within myself when I am troubled, and consider regular time to myself a necessity in life, but although I don't enjoy social situations much, but am ok in / at them. I am married to an introvert who has learned to function really well in his professional life, and we support each other when faced with daunting social occasions. I have always said I married the best person I know, but few would know he is that as people have a tendency not to spend the time finding out. I think that is the power that introverts have over extroverts - they tend not to just skim the surface of others, they actually look. Maybe that's why internet friendships work so well, we can interact without all the flapping and anxiety that often accompanies face-to-face. Books and t'internet, bringing people together.

I think there is a Coffin Lane and a Fleshmarket Close. *shivers* Was it one of these?

Definitely 3) and 4) for me there Mr Dunne! 3) I have felt embarrassed for many an author that thought to include sex in a scene, and then failed miserably so that you were left feeling a wee bit sad for them. 4) I adore Nathan Fillion. I cannot watch Castle though. I loathe it because the characters think it's ok to make joke after joke at a crime scene, often while they stand there looking at a murder victim. I get gallows humour, and truly do understand the notion of humour springing up at the most inopportune moments in life, but bad pun following snide quip following slapstick facial expression? Repeatedly? If the crimes were art forgeries, bank jobs or cat burglary where the victim lost something other than their lives I wouldn't mind, but murder? Big no-no.

Thank you Poppy, Devi, Athena and Nollaig. As I said, fairly easy reads, but I'm so glad to start the year off flowing! 11) City Of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare Cripes, it's all happening in this book! The series as a whole has placed a lot of focus on love, friendship and loyalty. What lengths would you go to help, or indeed save the people you love? Yes, as always Jace and Clary figure large in the story, but we see a great development in Isabelle and Alexander among others. This novel moves from place to place and keeps a few little sub plots ticking over that enrich the story. A great set up for the sixth and final book in May. Now all I have to do is figure out my need read. I think I need another series to immerse myself in.

Dogma. Not to everyone's taste I would imagine, but a favourite of mine.

I read the 'Running With Scissors' article, and found it to be interesting stuff. It's sad when there is such dispute over someone's recollections. Reading it though I felt that they couldn't dispute as much as they said they could, if you know what I mean. It felt that they were objecting to the embarrassment and discomfort felt rather than how much was written about accurately. I'd be interested to see what anyone else thinks when they have read it.

chronic

So far for us (in the South East of the UK) it is just very windy, with the rain and stronger winds expected this afternoon. This is therefore a great day to have our gutters replaced! John is currently on a scaffold platform at the back of our house removing the old ones. I have said I will keep my ears open for a shout if he gets blown off the scaffold. I am making regular cups of coffee, and I made sure we had a range of biscuits to keep his spirits up. Most definitely rather him than me. I should be doing the ironing, but I am finding lots and lots of other things to keep me occupied instead ~ including being on here!

A clumsily written dubious coincidence that enables the final clue to be solved, or leads to the bad guy (or girl)'s location or the like. Anything too random is just painful to read. If you're going to write a crime story be smart enough to have a strange coincidence free plot. You only have to have the hero rummage through a file earlier on in the story for them to later remember seeing the plumbing receipt for the cabin in the woods. Or maybe remember seeing a photograph that shows the perpetrator in a place they said they hadn't been, maybe even with the victim they denied knowing. Not super clever, but better than a random and inexplicable brainwave that suddenly and significantly takes the plot forward.

For me it's the skill of the writing that matters over the kind of details and description that might be included. I have a vivid imagination I don't need detail, although I am not adverse to it either. There is the likes of Karin Slaughter where the injuries and scenes are described in graphic physical detail, and although they may make me wince at times, they as yet have not felt gratuitous. Whereas an early James Patterson where the detail of the sexual abuse of a group of women by a pair of psychos felt more so. In these two examples, I think it's the combination of how well drawn the scene in which these details are given is, and how we feel about the characters involved. In the case of Ms Slaughter, the victims are dealt with respectfully and with compassion, whereas the Patterson felt more as if the details were included to clumsily express "Oo look, these two are proper sexual psychos ~ see what depravities they are into!". Mans inhumanity to man is pretty much the mainstay of crime killers, so some must at least be alluded to. For me it is that the pitch of the piece is right. Don't make me feel as though the author enjoyed writing it too much. I read classic crime as well as more contemporary novels, it will always be the quality of the writing combined with a great plot that will keep me coming back for more, not the body count of the detailed broken and tortured.