“Flash”
Shapeless wall of gray.
Forms revealed by white flashes,
looming in the sky.
Steve D
Author: Steven D'Adamo
I'm a fantasy author and blogger. I like to write about the creative process, music, movies, books, and my weekly haiku series, "Haiku Sunday"
September Write Day: Busy-ness
It’s hard to believe it’s September already. August really passed me by in a hurry. We managed to do a lot of family activities outside: theme parks, hiking, swimming. That helped the month fly by, and it also kept us very busy.
Last Month’s Goals
- Read three books.
- Exercise every day.
- Write at least every other day.
- Move to the next stage for my duology.
Read three books?
Yes! Aaaaand… I finally finished A Memory of Light. You can read my thoughts on that here. I actually read four books in August, which felt great, including a couple that had been sitting in my Audible library for ages.
With one epic fantasy series out of the way, I’m on the lookout for my next one. At the moment, however, I’m trying to work through some nonfiction books — actual print books — that have been sitting unread on my actual shelves for years. So, I’m in no rush to find my next fantasy series, but I am in the market if you have suggestions.
Exercise every day?
No, but I was generally more active, I think than in previous months. We’ve started using Sunday afternoons to spend time outside with our boys, and that has helped my own activity levels and keeps the boys interested in being outside. I like this little tradition, and I intend to continue it in all weather, as much as we can.
Otherwise, I leaned pretty heavily on a very basic yoga stretch routine to keep myself loose. I have not yet gotten gym membership at our local spot. Frankly, I’m having difficulty seeing where I can fit the gym into my weekly routine at the moment.
That’s definitely one theme from this month: we were so busy that a lot of routine things fell through the cracks. September isn’t looking any more open, and then, oops it’s the holidays. We’ll see how this goes, but I might be relying on Sunday afternoon activities with the kids for exercise for a while.
Write at least every other day?
No, but I fared much better than in July. I wrote nine days in August, including longer-form blog posts, and I made some strides in my duology.
Move to the next stage for my duology?
Yes! I finished reading through Uprooted and began a read-through of New Earth, the part two. I had completed this draft of New Earth sometime last year, and I hadn’t looked at it since, so it has been really exciting to dive back in. I’m about twenty pages into my read-through, and I’ll be aiming to finish it this month.
Goals for September
This seems to be the place where I’ve developed a solid routine, which is a good start.
- Read three books. I already have one down. The trick will be finishing my current nonfiction read-in-progress.
- Exercise every day. I’m playing loose with this for now. The goal is to do something every day, even if it’s just a basic yoga stretching routine. I have many things on my to-do list this month, and finding a way to incorporate more exercise into my day is one of them.
- Write long-form at least every other day. Focusing on long-form, again. I think this is a good way to focus my energy on the writing that takes the most time and effort. I just need to do it at least fifteen days in a month.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Acorn
“Acorn”
Tiny seed tumbles,
buried in forest debris,
then towers above.
Steve D
Book Review: ANDREA VERNON AND THE CORPORATION FOR ULTRAHUMAN PROTECTION brings quick wit and plot
I don’t remember the circumstances under which I picked up Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection, but it’s been sitting in my Audible library for a good while. So I finally decided to read it.
It was quite enjoyable.
Author Alexander Kane appears to have a knack for witty and compelling storytelling that does not get weighed down by exposition. This story moves quickly and demonstrates Kane’s deft plotting. No chapter felt cumbersome, and no character was throw-away.
Each character had a unique voice, perhaps in part thanks to Bahni Turpin’s excellent narration. Andrea, as the protagonist, had the strongest scenes and sense of growth. Other characters, like Ms. Oh, were interesting in their own right, but I often found myself anticipating Andrea’s next section more than any other POV character.
This is not necessarily my preferred style of storytelling, which veers between absurd cultural references and wise-cracking one-liners to keep the dialogue bouncing along, but I respect that Kane executed it so well.
There are two other books in the Andrea Vernon series, and I just may be tempted to pick them up.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Breath
“Breath”
Grasping for control,
slow to a single inhale.
And then another.
Steve D
Book Review: THE PLOTTERS digs and resonates
I just finished listening to The Plotters by Un-Su Kim on audiobook, a story with the trappings of an action thriller and the tonal resonance of a slow-burning suspense novel.
This story wound through a methodical plot, at times jumping into the past to provide insight into the mind and life of the protagonist, Reseng. While the narrative focuses on Reseng’s time as an assassin and his growing discontent with his life and the people around him, this is really a story about making life choices and living with – or fighting against – the consequences. The reader finds themselves rooting for Reseng to find some semblance of understanding about his own life, even if he is not a heroic character.
The narrator had a sort of deep, droning voice for the protagonist. As the story proceeded, I think this tone worked to emphasize Reseng’s aimless resignation with his life, compared to other character who had much more distinctive voices and motivations.
I did not find this story to be suspenseful in that I was riveted to my seat, but every scene carried a latent tension that was difficult to grasp. Even the action sequences were described with such monotoned effect that they seemed to be happening in slow motion. It felt like the entire story was gradually building towards something, but the final reveal was inside the character’s head, rather than in the action surrounding them. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a story with that type of tension, and it was quite compelling.
This story asks readers to empathize with its characters despite, or perhaps, because of the horrible things they do. Really fascinating read.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Amuse
“Amuse”
Distraction through play.
Old attractions seen anew.
Pleasantly themed day.
Steve D
Book Review: THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY winds through a meticulous plot
I recently finished listening to The Great Train Robbery, by Michael Crichton, on audiobook. This is the second Crichton novel I’ve read, having started with Jurassic Park a couple years ago.
The Great Train Robbery is wholly different from Jurassic Park in both style and tone, but the level of detail and research poured into it is an obvious hallmark of Crichton’s I’ve already recognized.
This story recounts in meticulous detail the plot to pull off the greatest heist yet seen in Victorian England: the aptly named Great Train Robbery, masterminded by Edward Pierce in 1855.
The Great Train Robbery was a fascinating story combining court testimony of Edward Pierce’s trial, narrative dramatization of Pierce’s planning of the robbery, and historical context for Victorian England.
Because the story starts off with Edward Pierce giving his testimony in court, the suspense of this story comes from Pierce’s planning of the heist and the final outcome. While it’s obvious he had been caught and arrested, how the heist plays out, how Pierce was caught, and the result of the trial are all left as mysteries until the final chapters.
I found that I particularly enjoyed Crichton’s tangents into the culture and society of Victorian England surrounding the robbery and trial, even if these sometimes felt a little too far afield of the primary story. These sections reinforced my interest in Victorian England from a historical and sociocultural context that I’ve grown into recently. Crichton writes this story with the inquisitive eye and narrative flourish of an investigative journalist, which lends itself to a sweeping narrative that deftly weaves direct readings of the original court testimony with dramatized scenes of Pierce and his accomplices playing out their plot over the course of many months.
Narrator Michael Kitchens recounts the story like a documentary, seeming to speak directly to the listener and invite them into understanding every detail of Crichton’s meticulous research.
Although there were some moments of suspense, I was not necessarily riveted by the story. Still, I quite enjoyed its style and detail.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Habit
“Habit”
Pre-selected path,
habitually followed.
Pause to touch the leaves.
Steve D
Book Review: A MEMORY OF LIGHT ends an epic series… abruptly
I don’t recall exactly when I first started reading The Eye of the World, the first novel in Robert Jordan’s A Wheel of Time series. My active Goodreads usage only goes back to about 2016, when I had read The Fires of Heaven (book five).
It has likely been 10 years since I first started reading this series, and to finally have reached the end feels like an achievement on its own.
Overall, A Mermory of Light is a great ending to an exceptional series. The Last Battle plays out with stunning complexity over 100-some pages. All of the major characters and plot threads were tied off from a narrative, and there were still plenty of surprises. Where character stories were not tied off in as much detail as I would have hoped were in the surviving characters dealing with the trauma and the aftermath of such a momentous event as the Last Battle. There was very little time spent on the emotional resonance of everything that had happened in the final act of the book.
Having read this series over the course of years, I at times felt both overwhelmed and bored by the drawn-out narrative, the twisting plot lines, and the ever-expanding cast of characters with seemingly dubious purpose in the story.
This book, and the two preceding it to include Sanderson’s completion of Jordan’s story, managed to balance the incredible web of characters Jordan had created with the streamlining necessary to bring this series to a meaningful conclusion.
Even still, while the primary plots were drawn to a close, I think the ending was rather abrupt and left too many unanswered questions about the aftermath. I fully acknowledge that the lack of definitive aftermath leaves it open to interpretation for each reader. I also recognize that a 900+ page book might not want to dedicate a ton of space to what comes after the Last Battle.
I just wanted a little more closure for the characters who were left behind — their grief and mourning, and their recovery and ambitions for rebuilding their world.
I truly enjoyed this book. And I still have questions to which I will need to devise my own answers, it seems.
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 