Just some ideas...

So here we are, blog time!

It's the Easter break from school, a painful time when parents force their sons and daughters to study, just as the Irish weather decides to stop crying. Naturally, I'm going to beat the study blues with some good old fashioned, Literary Den!!

Elizabeth Dyer, AKA Ellie, came up with some rather smashing ideas that I wanted to put past the general readership of this blog... many of you who look at this won't even realise what I'm talking about until it's seven months later and something has happened in the world to give you a reason to look me up.

So here we go! Firstly, there's a "Read Me, Keep Me" day! Now, this all sounds very vague, so here's the details: second hand books with a postet stuck on them (with the aforementioned title) are left all around the city (it will be in Dublin and various other places in the UK and Ireland). People find the books, as you might guess if they're left in public, and they get to keep them, and read them. That way, more people are reading. We're still discussing the details, but it looks to be quite fun. Some artists did this in Dublin City a while back, much to the delight of the people who found the paintings! We'll need second hand books to do this with, so you may end up getting a knock on the door by a member of the "Read Me, Keep Me" team, asking for donations (if you're willing to part with them!!)

Secondly, our mentor programme. Now, I intend on annoying my friend Sam with this as much as humanly possible, but the rest of the public knows nothing about it yet. So, we're going to make a snazzy, and dare I say, sexy website to attract young writers into the group. This will be part of the Den, but an exclusive forum and independant website for the mentor programme. It's bloody excellent!

The group are now also getting ready for The Literary Den Book of New Fiction 2009, which will see the arrival of a large number of Irish writers! Myself and Anthea West were the only Irish writers last year; this time, we're going to have Brendan McLoughlin and Lisa Sills alongside us, and hopefully young Senan Warnock if he can throw something together. We also have a resident of Dublin and native to Bermuda, Jonathon Bell. Woo! In true Irish fashion, we're infesting the book, rather than invading. It's great craic!

So, that's about it for now. I'm still being too lazy to work on the new Campaign document. There's less pressure now, though. Battlefront opted to go for Wrong to Be Different? over our campaign, so we won't be on television. *sigh*

Anyway, if you want to "follow me" on Twitter, you can find me here!

Geneticide - Reviewed!

I received a review from Ellie Dyer today, as part of our review trade off. Though she was afraid I would think her to be harsh, I'm actually appreciative of the review. It makes good points that I will be keeping in mind.



"I enjoyed reading this - the style is simple yet lyrical. Dialogue is used sparingly but to good effect, and free indirect speech moves the action forwards effectively and gives us a deeper insight into the characters. I would like to see a little more in terms of physcial description and differentiation. Saying that, there is a lot of movement and plot development in the early sections, and I managed to follow it all without getting lost; testament to the author's ability to plot carefully.



I'll admit to being a little confused by the use of analepsis and prolepsis - the later chapters in particular jar when you read 'four weeks before the events of chapter 7' - perhaps this would be better done with a date? There are a few typos and syntax errors here, which I'm sure will be rectified with editing. On the whole, this is a remarkable piece of writing for such a young author, and I wish him luck in finishing it - it will be one hell of a story."



Previously I received some other great reviews. The first one I'll post is from NicTei, a mad American author who always puts himself down. I'll have to settle the score with him and leave him a review. Anyway, here's what he had to say:



"Well, I read everything you've got up so far, and let me tell you, it's a great read. That being said, there were some interesting spelling errors that made me reread sentences until I figured out what was supposed to be said.



However, the errors were minor, like a late space (i.e. 'them an' instead of 'the man') or common errors caused by your fingers developing minds of their own while still on the keyboard (i.e. 'teh' instead of 'the').



In conclusion, I found this to be a refreshing read, though I can't say that it's one of the only good things on Bebo. I've lead a sheltered life on the Bebo Authors feature, and have really only read stunning books by the likes of Chinaren and Andy Walker, among others. However, this reaches pretty close to the top of the list, and I'll likely be back if you post anything new.



Keep writing!"



A very friendly review from NicTei. And not too harsh. One of the reviewers who understands a typo when he sees one!



The third of the reviews I'm posting is from China Ren. Yes, the self-praising author I complained about earlier. Here's China Ren's extensive review:



"It's not bad. The theme is possibly a little hackneyed, but what can you do?



As I say below, you need to put more colour into the story. Put some time and work into describing the characters and the world. Take it a little slower in parts as well. There's a bit of a rushed feel here and there.



There are various places in the story that I think could do with a re-work of punctuation. EG:



- She was Emily Quigley. And she was a thief -



I think this should be one sentence with a comma. (And it’s not ‘good’ English to start a sentence with ‘and’ of course, though I understand you are doing it here for impact).



You should try and make sure you use contractions where applicable too. Eg:



- They had received



–“They’d received”



There’s also a lot of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’, though this does improve a bit over the course of the tale. Here’s an example:



- Brock was at his car when a white van pulled up beside him. He got ready for a fight; it was just a plain white van, and in the front two men in black. –



You need to try and put more ‘life’ into the descriptions. For example, maybe the above could read something like:The sound of tyres skidding on the road brought Brock out of his reverie. A serious looking white van screeched to a halt nearby, forcing him to dive out of the way. He just had time to glimpse a couple of shapes in the front, men dressed all in black, before the rear doors flew open with a crash…



Sorry, there’s simply not enough room on Bebo to do a really full review. If you post on Tomecity.com I’ll try and do a more detailed crit there."



It's not hard to see why I got so annoyed with him, is it? He tells me how to write it for crying out loud!

Review - The Invisible Girl

First thing I can say about this book - I wish I'd started reading it sooner! When it came to a stage where the day was ending, I had to leave the final three chapters for this morning. I hate leaving a book like that these days, but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed reading it this morning.

While there is obviously some work to do as regards editting, as every book needs, I can only find fault in the typos that may have occurred. The book was flawless, from every last detail that was revealed. The characters were consistent and believable, and never strayed too much from who they really are. They visibly matured as the story progressed and gave a true sense of realism to the story.

In diary format, the book flowed wonderfully. Each day that passed in Ellie Dyer's life was quick and easy to read, and let me get through each chapter quickly. In no time at all I was nearing the end of the tale, and I loved every last minute of it.

The author, Ellie Dyer, has confirmed that the story is based on her own time training to become a teacher, adding in various twists that provide the story with some extra flavour. Even knowing this, I found it hard to decipher fact from fiction.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read, filled with emotion and scandal that provides the reader with a sense of wonderment.