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Review: The Girl with All the Gifts

Ron Delaney Jr2 Comments

The Girl with All the Gifts
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know what you’re thinking: yay, another zombie book. Yes and no.

The Girl with All the Gifts takes an interesting look into the world of the walking/shambling/running/sprinting dead by making one of “them” (quotes because again yes and no, but I won’t spoil it) a main character (I use “a” because this is a multi-POV work, which is a whole ‘nother post). It also avoids the oh-so-common reanimating virus angle, but barely, basing the contagion on a fungus that gained popularity a few years ago for the crazy crap it does to ants (Google it). It does suffer from a few tropes, though, including ‘We’re safe in our base oh no the base has been overrun!’, ‘Scientists are jerks!’, and ‘This idea will probably get us eaten but I’m going to do it anyway because she’s not a monster dammit!’ (see flair gun). Still, I enjoyed the book. It has good pacing and writing (though a little tell-y), the concept is original enough to not make me roll my eyes, and the details of the ending were a cool surprise.

Thing I liked most – Melanie (and the other children). I wish the book was told from her POV only.

Thing I hated – I’m kind of over head hopping, especially when it involves characters I’m not supposed to like (and don’t).

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The Villains Guide to Winning #NaNoWriMo Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Ron Delaney Jr1 Comment

Welcome home, villains!

So the silly season is once again upon us, that time of year where all sanity and reason abandon those writers possessed of the notion that committing fifty-thousand words in a single month is a good idea. What folly, to bleed upon their keyboards through November, as if their souls ache for torture like that willfully sought by those sinners hurling themselves into Dante’s sixth circle of Hell, intent on the corruption of that sacred process of creation known as writing.

But if ya gotta, ya gotta, I guess.

Last year, I wrote a piece offering suggestions on how one might make novelist torture porn National Novel Writing Month easier on themselves. If you didn’t read that post, the villainous premise is simple enough:

#NaNoWriMo is not about writing a good book, it’s about getting 50K words into your document. Winning is all that matters, and you do that not by being a good, honest writer, but by hitting your daily word count, plain and simple.

I shared some villainous tips (as in things other suckers writers won’t think “honest” or “scrupulous” or “fair”) on how to get your daily word count swole, but surely you didn’t think I gave away all the dark secrets in that single post, did you? If so, surprise, fools! Here are some additional rules for cheating winning NaNoWriMo.

Embrace the dark side, kids. We have better toys.

Continue reading “The Villains Guide to Winning #NaNoWriMo Part 2: Electric Boogaloo” →

Temporarily suspending Friday Morning FYIs

Ron Delaney Jr2 Comments

This Friday I’ll be on a mountain in NH, hopefully with no signal, next Friday I’ll be in Seattle gearing up to hike Mt Rainier, and the following Friday I’ll be in Boston for some haunted fun. Because of this whirlwind coast-to-coast travel (and everything in between) I’m going to temporarily suspend your Friday Morning FYIs. Fear not! FMFYI will return in November. Enjoy my beloved October, everyone 🙂

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 9/30/2016

Ron Delaney Jr2 Comments

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

Autumn is here, and that means apple picking, long walks in cool night air, and camping/hiking among the fall foliage (maybe that last one is just a few of us). Hitting a local orchard with my girlfriend last weekend (seriously people, come out to west NJ) I happened upon a gorgeous monarch butterfly down on the grass. I took a few pics, and then not wanting him to get trampled, decided to see if he’d climb onto my hand so I could put him up on a tree. The result was three very cool minutes of communing with that little guy. I think I’ll make that this week’s FYI (yup, no lecture, no wisdom, just some pics):

Butterfly climbs onto my hand Butterfly on my hand  Butterfly on hand

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 9/23/2016

Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI (wow! a week late edition) – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

In addition to day job work and working on a novel and various short stories, I’ve decided to get a yoga trainer certification. Being all healthy and stuff, you know. In outlining a one hour class, I encountered a similar issue to one with which many writers struggle : flow. The beginning of the session is easy to construct, as is the end, but the middle… that friggin’ middle… is tough. Let’s make that this week’s (yes, fine, LAST week’s) FYI:

We all know the phrase “Life imitates art,” but no one ever said “Living life is like making art”. Not that I’ve seen, anyway, but it’s true. Things we do are like other things we do, but more often than not we don’t see the similarities, the connections, the bond. If you do something well, pay attention to what you did and how you did it, and that goes double for something you did poorly. Recognizing those patterns may pay off in another aspect of your life.

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}