I’ve been notified that I’ve won the 2009 Meager Puddle of Limelight Award for Best Opening Line, a competition administered by Jon Gibbs on his LiveJournal blog “An Englishman in New Jersey.” Only LiveJournal members could vote, and I’m gratified to have won because I know I don’t have that many friends on LiveJournal! It was by secret ballot, and anyhow I entered anonymously, which it turns out I didn’t even have to do. One of these days I’ll figure out how computer technology works…
My opening line was “Without meaning to, Camilla Torres had picked a good place to die.” That is, legitimately, the opening line of the book I’m currently writing, ONE BLOOD, the prequel to DANCE WITH THE DRAGON. Jon tells me there were 67 entries, 52 people voted and my entry got 23.1% of the vote. He said I win a “metaphorical trophy,” but I gather he’s also going to interview me on his blog, which is a really good prize.
Meanwhile, my first draft of ONE BLOOD is stalking toward completion. I’ve finished a climactic scene in which the hero and heroine finally see eye-to-eye (spoiler alert), and as I figure it I have three scenes to go, which I plan to divide into two chapters. Still haven’t completely figured out the second-to-last scene yet, because it will take a little more research, but I should have plenty of time over the holidays. I actually get some time off from work, though not a whole week.
I just finished THE LOST SYMBOL (Dan Brown, of course) and enjoyed it. Every author has his or her strengths, and Brown’s certainly is keeping you turning the pages. The symbol stuff can get to be a little much, his characters are pretty two-dimensional and seem to exist mostly to voice his ideas, and he uses so many italics that I now feel very restrained by comparison. But his villain was interesting, suitably scary, and some of the twists were very clever. Things move so fast in his books that you don’t spend a lot of time analyzing the flaws.
I quite liked The Lost Symbol too. There seemed to be a ‘We hate Dan Brown because he can’t write’ campaign going on over the internet when the book came out, which I thought was a bit silly. It’s not his fault if millions of people enjoy reading his books.
Oh, and congrats on that Puddle award. It was well deserved 🙂
Thanks so much, Jon!
Re. the Dan Brown controversy, I’ve come to the conclusion that writers are a very jealous lot, and it seems to come with the territory. I think it’s because it’s so hard to make a decent living as any type of writer, much less a fiction writer. As in most of the arts, you’re either not making enough to eat regularly (from your writing) or you’re a superstar. Often the difference between the person who “makes it” and the one who doesn’t is mainly luck–being in the right place at the right time, making the right connecitons, or hitting on an idea that just happens to catch the public’s fancy.
As a result, there are a lot of people who look at a very successful writer who’s good, but obviously not perfect, and think, “That could’ve/should’ve been me!” They vent their envy (and I’m not exempt) by sniping and nitpicking. You have to be very mature and well-balanced not to succumb to that. It’s the result of a very out-of-kilter system. I think if the majority of people who want to write–and are talented–could make a decent living at it, they wouldn’t be as jealous as they are of the few superstars.