AGATHA CHRISTIE - The Queen of Psychology

Agatha Christie 

Boy did she know human nature. And, funny thing, is even after 50 or 75 years, her books still resonate because they are relatable. The characters act like modern day folk. They are motivated by the same kinds of things. It may be slightly less technical, but it's still people being people.

MURDER IS ANNOUNCED

Murder is Announced

I read this book late last year and commented that Agatha knows human nature. In this story an advert is taken out in a local newspaper (one with little content except local gossip). The ad says there will be a murder at a neighbours house at 6:30 on a Friday. Well, all the characters read the paper and of course are so curious (and nosey) that they just happen to show up at this neighbour's house on the said Friday at exactly 6:30. They have a variety of reasons from that once a year evening stroll to the letting the dog get loose and having to chase it down.

I could see that happening today. The ad might not be in a newspaper, but it would be on some social media platform. If I put a big old post of Facebook saying there will be a murder at my house on Friday I bet some people will come out of the cracks and happen to be walking by. People I haven't seen in person for years, no doubt. 

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMB

By the Pricking of my Thumb

I just finished this eerie book and again the beginning scenes ring true. In this case the main characters have a cantankerous old Aunt in a nursing home. They feel guilty for her and plan the once a year visit. They let this old hag get away with being rude to the wife. Heck, they even applaud her for it - shows she still has life and spirit. Can't you picture yourself in the exact same position? The nursing home might be more medical, full of doctors and nurses instead of ill trained maids, but the same idea.

Her books may be old, vintage, antique almost...but the writing, the stories, the situations, the characters, even the murder methods, all still have a relatable feel to them. Christie's books are timeless. 

Buy Agatha Christie Books

DRAFT ONE - ANOTHER FANTASY TALE

 First Page Draft. 

The first step to writing is to actually take a first step. Duh? 

You know that saying, every journey begins with the first step (or something like that)? To me, it works if my first step is more like a frantic, run from the-man-who-is-calling-from-inside-the house, kind of run. Not pretty. Arms flailing, lots of slips and falls, clothes get ripped open (possible showing of chest), and I will finally get caught and be brought to a dead standstill...but it gets me from point A to point B. Which is writing down the most words I can down in as little time as possible. Like a run for your life, you don't care what happens, you just go with it. So I just vomit words and ideas as fast as I can type (or write). I've found that if I think about grammar, spelling, word choice, sentence structure...all those little details, then I stop moving forward. 

I do not get my ideas down on paper.

I do not write. 

What I find works, is just throwing shit on a page and typing until I'm fresh out of shit. 

Then I clean it up after. 

This first part is often so bad that I need to put a warning for any member of the grammar police - this may cause long term trauma. 

A quick glance over 'the mess' is usually enough to catch any extremely offensive language mistakes. 

First patch.  

What I do after that is bring out the space-aged technology! There is a handy little button on my computer that will Read-The-Text out loud. Hearing the words, instead of reading them, is an ingenious way to catch little tiny grammar errors, word repetition, and run on sentences that when read can seem okay because maybe they are full of important information but when heard out loud they just sound very long and badly written. Bring out the handy man and shore up these mistakes. 

With a solid base I move onto the detail work. This is where I go old-school - Tree killing paper and toxic chemical pens. 

Step 2) I print, actually print a physical copy of the words. Sometimes I try to be eco-friendly and print it small, two pages per sheet, low quality ink...that kind of thing. It's the actual object that I need. To hold it. Write on it. Doodle. List. Draw. Scratch. Arrow. 

This is where I go over every word...does it bring me joy? If not, I throw it out...unless I can upgrade the word choice, then it has a chance of staying.  

I can say I do not relish this step. A) It is time consuming. B) It is heavy lifting for the brain. 3) It's hard. No other way to describe it. It's hard! 

The payoff is worth it though. By the time I'm done I have created a piece of art. Oh, and the writing has improved, at least I hope it has. 

Here is page one. 

First draft includes notes, doodles, and a coffee cup stain

I just want to frame it and put it up on my wall. If I had a writing room and wasn't using my kid's old laptop while sitting at the kitchen table I would totally wallpaper the writer's nook with these editing pages. Ego much? 

Do you have a method to your madness?

NEXT UP - I DRAW A MAP 

James Bond - THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

 THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

The Spy Who Loved Me - James Bond was the spy

- Ian Fleming -

I get that authors might feel pigeonholed when they write a successful series, always writing the same character and story over and over. I get that they might want to try something new. It seems that Fleming tried to do something new with The Spy Who Loved Me... but, it also seemed like he wanted to hedge his bets and keep the Bond name attached. 

It was interesting to see Bond as a secondary character in a James Bond novel. However, it was the main character (not Bond but a nice young lady named Vivian) that didn't live up to the Bond standard. She was weak. There were hints and tales of this Vivian girl doing adventurous things in her life, in her past, in her spare time. But, when it came down to do or die, she almost died.

I think it was the authour's fault here. Fleming tried to tell the story from the point of view of a woman...and it didn't quite come across as believable. I get it. Fleming was a man of the fifties, wrote about macho men. He even seemed to believe that woman were frail and needed directing by a man. I give him grace though, he was trying something new. And it half worked. The story was interesting and I made it through the book at a good clip. It was just some of the descriptions, or the thoughts that this Vivian had were...not believable. 

Like I said, the book is good. I would say read most of the other Bond books before you pick up this one. But, if you are a die hard Bond fan, this is one to add to the collection. That's mostly why I'm keeping it. I have a bunch of Bond on my bookshelf right now. But, I can always find room for an early sixties printing of a Bond book!

MORE BOND REVIEWS - https://bookwormsfeastofbooks.blogspot.com/2017/04/dr-no-james-bond-novel.html

Book Haul - James Bond & Isaac Asimov

Book Haul

Our last trip to the thrift store was a real winner. Should have bought a lotto ticket that day b/c I was lucky.

First find - '67 printing of James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me.

James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

I saw the PAN books logo on the spine of the novel. It was mixed in the 'F' section of the used paperbacks. There is no alphabetical order on the shelves at the Mission Store past the first letter of the last name. So, if you are looking for a Stephen King book. You would need to find the 'K' section, and then look through every single book in the 'K' section. 

I'm a bookworm, so this doesn't really apply to me since I look at every single book they have.

I was lucky, my eagle eye spotted the PAN icon. The spine is in rough shape - really creased up and hard to read. I love old pulp books like this, so I took a closer look. A James Bond classic!

The front cover is a map of northern NY. The Adirondack region. Isn't that strange?

Pan Book - The Spy Who Loved Me

The back cover is pretty sweet. You have the heart with a gun and 007. A nice pic of Fleming smoking a giant cigarette. And the price tag. The book is a real investment piece. Original cost was 60 cents. I bought it for 125 cents, and thought that was a smokin' deal. Imagine you had bought 1000 of these babies back in the sixties. You'd be looking at a nice return on your investment.

The Spy Who Loved Me - back cover

The next find was in the sci-fi / fantasy section. 

Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation

Asimov's foundation books. The first three, all lined up. Sitting there on the metal shelf, just waiting for a dork like me to come along and buy them all up. And, at 50 cents each...well I couldn't resist. Could you?

I've read them before, like all good sci-fi readers should. It was about twenty years ago. I remember having to order one through an inter-library loan b/c the local library didn't have them all. Oh, how nerdy is that?

While I was waiting for the book to come in I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy...I was fresh out of University on the job hunt. So I had a lot of time on my hands.

Asimov's Foundation Series

Overall a good haul. 1000 pages of pure pleasure for the low, low, cost of $2. That's why I love used books!

LINK TO PREVIOUS BOOK HAULS

Name that Wizard.

THE NAMING OF A WIZARD

I have been working on a new novel - an epic fantasy. You know, with wizards, goblins, dragons, and a magic sword?

Wizards love their balls - fireballs!

 

It's great fun using the old imagination to come up with a mythical world, magical spells, hideous beasts, and that sort of thing. What I'm having trouble with is naming my main character - he is a grumpy Wizard.

There are some great Wizard names that I could borrow from:

• Merlin - the old classic, maybe too old and classic
• Albus or Harry - the modern wiz names, too soon, can't go there
• Gandalf - that's like a retired jersey number, a no go

Maybe a mashup of some well known Wizard tags would work - Ganderlin sounds Wizardy. Or Albandorf? 

Orko wants to change his name

The thing is, Wizards are typically from a made-up land where names are also made-up...so perhaps I should make-up a name...not perhaps, I NEED to make up a name. This is a chance to add to the world building I'm attempting to do in the book. It just wouldn't feel authentic if this wizard's name was Gary. Even just switching a letter or two gives it the feeling of a name from another world. Garvin (close to Gary), now that's a Wizard's name (from the awesome MYTH book series by Robert Aspirin).

But what if I did name my Wizard Gary? It could add to the character's personality. He could be traumatized/resentful by being a Gary, when he should have a Wizardly name like Ganderhoff. He could be so embarrassed by it that he insists to be called by a title instead of a name, ie Wizard, or Sir, or Master, or Master Wizard Sir.

Gary the Wizard ... I'm still not convinced

Okay, I think I've convinced myself to go with Gary...and Gary has a friend named Ganderhoff.

What do you think readers?