A Post About Research and Writing

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy. The post is called “Research and the Writer” and it’s about balancing the need to do research for our books and the need simply to write. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and by the way, there’s a new contest up on my website: http://www.DavidBCoe.com. Visit the site and maybe you’ll win a signed book!

A Two-Post Monday

I have two posts going up today. The first, my usual Monday Magical Words post, can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy. The post is called “A Luddite Looks at the Future of Books” and it’s about e-books and what they mean for the future of writing and publishing. The second is a special Halloween Week post that I’ve written for the Knight Agency, where I’m represented. This post can be found at http://knightagency.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy both posts.

A Little Shameless Self-Promotion

Just eleven more days to enter the current contest on my web site.  C’mon!  Don’t you want to win a free copy of The Sorcerers’ Plague (Book I ofBlood of the Southlands)?  Sure ya do!  Follow these links to see jacket art, check out maps of the Southlands, and read sample chapters.  And then give the contest a try.  Or, if you already own the book, but need a gift for a friend or someone in your family, you can try to win one for him or her.

Either way, come visit the web site!

Information About My Next Release

Hi, all.  A little publicity work here:  I have just updated my web page with lots of information about my next book release.  The book is called The Dark-Eyes’ War, and it’s the third and final volume of my Blood of the Southlands trilogy.  I’ve uploaded sample chapters, jacket art, and other information about the book and theseries.  I hope you’ll visit the site and check it out.  Thanks!!

Another Interview With Me!

Thought I’d let you all know that I have another interview up, this one at Examiner.com’s Speculative Fiction page.  This is kind of an off-beat Q and A.  The interviewer, Josh Vogt, has done a series of what he calls “Never Have, Never Will” interviews, in which he asks authors about some of the more subtle points of writing.  I hope you’ll visit the site and enjoy the interview.

A Post About Art and its Influence on Writing

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy. The post, called “Five Works of Art,” discusses five pieces — a novel, a movie, a painting, a photograph, and a piece of music — that have influenced my approach to writing. I hope you enjoy it.

A Post About Creating Magic Systems

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy. The post is called “Creating Magic,” and it grew out of a question from a friend about creating magic systems. I hope you enjoy it.

An Update on my WIP

Thought I’d give an update on my work in progress, since I haven’t done that for some time now.  Usually I’d show one of those fancy progress bars that I like so much — you know:  actual word count versus projected word count.  But for a couple of reasons that doesn’t really work with this current project.  For one thing, I have no idea how long the book is going to be when it’s done.  It could be 100,000 words; it could be 130,000; it could (and probably will) come in somewhere in between.  I just don’t know.  Also, this is a book I’m rewriting (the first incarnation was 124,000 words, by the way).  Parts of it I’m writing again from scratch, while other parts will remain almost exactly as they were in the original version.  I’ve changed the magic system entirely, I’ve changed the core conflict that dominates my main character’s life, and I’ve changed the fundamental narrative thread that drives the story in this particular book (it’s the first of what I hope will be a series of stand alone mysteries with a strong fantasy element).  I’ve kept many of the peripheral characters and their interactions with my protagonist, because they were, along with my main character himself, the strength of that original book.

I’m probably two-thirds of the way through the rewrite and I love the way this thing is coming out.  I loved the original book, but have known for some time that it needed to be reworked before I could sell it.  I believe that when this new version is done, it will be marketable.  In fact, I think it will be as good as anything I’ve ever written.  Rewriting in this way — fitting major new elements into a book I already love — has been a challenge.  At times, as I’ve had to jettison some of my favorite scenes and moments from that first book, it’s been incredibly hard.  At other times, as I’ve seen it coming together into something new and exciting, and yet still familiar, it’s been deeply satisfying.

Along with not knowing for certain how long this book will be, I also don’t really know when I’m going to be done with this rewrite.  It could be as soon as the end of this month.  It could be late September.  It’s flowing well right now, but on Monday it was giving me fits.  I’m sure I’ll cycle through a whole range of emotions several times more before I’m done.  Right now I’m just happy to be working on a project I love, making progress, and watching it gel into what I think could be something very special.

The Harry Potter Movie

I know that others have already weighed in on the new (6th) Harry Potter movie, but I thought I would throw in my $.02 and see if it generates any discussion.  

I saw the movie with my daughters (14 and 10) and a friend of my older daughter (also 14).  The kids loved it.  I didn’t like it very much.  This was actually the second time my older daughter had seen it.  She went with a big group to the Midnight premier last week — several kids her age and two adults.  The kids all loved it.  The two adults didn’t like it very much.  I wonder if this is a pattern that others have noticed.

So, what didn’t I like about it?  For one thing, like the fifth movie, I felt that the movie had no discernible plot.  I’d read the book (I’ve read all the books, and enjoyed them very much, particularly the later ones), so I knew what was happening.  But if I hadn’t known the book, I think I would have been utterly lost.  I felt like I was watching the Sportscenter highlight reel from the book.  All the big events were covered, but there was no narrative thread tying them all together.  As I say, I felt this same way about the fifth movie, but the fifth movie ends with that magical battle in the Ministry of Magic, and it was so stunningly spectacular on the screen, that I was able to forgive a lot that came before.  I didn’t feel that this 6th movie had an effective ending to offset earlier flaws.  There is that one very cool battle scene earlier in the movie. (I won’t say more so as not to give it away to those who haven’t seen the movie yet, except to say that this battle isn’t in the book, so you will be surprised.)  But I would have preferred that they skip that battle and have the final fight at Hogwarts.  It was an effective climax for the book, and would have been for the movie as well.

There were other liberties taken with the book as it was translated to the screen, and while I’m usually fine with that (the changes Peter Jackson made to LOTR never bothered me), I felt that these changes detracted from the story.  Most of the changes I refer to revolved around the development of Harry and Ginny’s relationship.  I won’t say more.

The acting was no worse than it was in earlier films.  Alan Rickman is always good and Emma Watson remains the best actor of the three leads.  Daniel Radcliffe might have been less wooden this time around; Rupert Grint didn’t have much to work with in this movie, and didn’t do very much with what he had.

If I had to rate the movie on a 1 to 5 star system, I’d give it 2 and a half.  It had enough to entertain, but was, in my opinion, pretty mediocre.

Other opinions?

A Post About My Newest Creative Challenge

Today’s post, “My Current Project,” can be found at the Magical Words website.  Magical Words is the blog on the craft and business of writing that I share with fellow fantasy writers Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy.  I hope you’ll visit the site and enjoy the post.