Peter Prasad's Blog: Expletives Deleted - Posts Tagged "review"
Get Thee To A Writer's Group
Some say writing is best done alone in a crowded room, by weak light at the wooden table of a tavern or coffee shop. It’s where imagination lurks in an empty chair. Here stories grow loud and bleed techno-colors on a starched white sheet.
To bolster my pen, and having taken to shaking when I lost my compass on manuscript day #66, I found a Sonoma writers group. The rules were rigid. I had to hand in my pages, a copy for each reader. Then I read aloud and watched my babies be red-penciled to less. It was modern torture and I confessed all.
My babies amazed me. Cling not, they cried to the writer in me. Just go with the flow to new 26-letter combinations. My words raced ahead and spun the locks in my head. In a chapter critique, my flat characters popped out round, richer with detail and motive.
Authors and editors squint for extra eyes. Once we literary had them in ivory publishing towers as wards of civility. They’re gone now, off-budget in the global call for ‘more raw.’
Readers want bold strokes and less tip-toe. More gut-wrench and less sit-on-the-fence. It's voodoo to ward off work-a-day and leap to imagination transported, escaped from rows of toil.
In birth and war, no battle lasts forever. In critique I soaked up all the learning I could blot: a litany from confessional to animal sacrifice; a review of place, voice, verbs, action dialog and a hero's march past decision-points of storyline. My tribe survived.
More blood on the cover was the final request. What I showed looked like a sheep-breeding manual. I took a deep breath, perforated by zingers. A phrase or two rang my bell.
I plowed on; we launched and have landed a few 5-star lauds. Yes, I shall return to my critique group as a shorter writer but never short of words.
So began my public journey to address readership. Damn the semi-colons; I leaped with a new crew of characters. If you write, I hope you’ve paid dues at the portal of proof-reading. It helps to know how to bail on open ocean.
Place Is Character: I write of Sonoma to refresh my spirit. Sonoma, is just over the bar to country cream-top dairy -- where sun and rain outweigh us all – and green meadows roll onward in celebration of sun, moon and soil. With a moo-moo here and a bah-bah there. On'Ya readers all.
To bolster my pen, and having taken to shaking when I lost my compass on manuscript day #66, I found a Sonoma writers group. The rules were rigid. I had to hand in my pages, a copy for each reader. Then I read aloud and watched my babies be red-penciled to less. It was modern torture and I confessed all.
My babies amazed me. Cling not, they cried to the writer in me. Just go with the flow to new 26-letter combinations. My words raced ahead and spun the locks in my head. In a chapter critique, my flat characters popped out round, richer with detail and motive.
Authors and editors squint for extra eyes. Once we literary had them in ivory publishing towers as wards of civility. They’re gone now, off-budget in the global call for ‘more raw.’
Readers want bold strokes and less tip-toe. More gut-wrench and less sit-on-the-fence. It's voodoo to ward off work-a-day and leap to imagination transported, escaped from rows of toil.
In birth and war, no battle lasts forever. In critique I soaked up all the learning I could blot: a litany from confessional to animal sacrifice; a review of place, voice, verbs, action dialog and a hero's march past decision-points of storyline. My tribe survived.
More blood on the cover was the final request. What I showed looked like a sheep-breeding manual. I took a deep breath, perforated by zingers. A phrase or two rang my bell.
I plowed on; we launched and have landed a few 5-star lauds. Yes, I shall return to my critique group as a shorter writer but never short of words.
So began my public journey to address readership. Damn the semi-colons; I leaped with a new crew of characters. If you write, I hope you’ve paid dues at the portal of proof-reading. It helps to know how to bail on open ocean.
Place Is Character: I write of Sonoma to refresh my spirit. Sonoma, is just over the bar to country cream-top dairy -- where sun and rain outweigh us all – and green meadows roll onward in celebration of sun, moon and soil. With a moo-moo here and a bah-bah there. On'Ya readers all.
My New Relationship with Reviewers
I’ve trained as a Buddhist meditator for 40 years now, so I enjoy watching new processes awake in me. I have my crime thriller out, Sonoma Knight: The Goat-Ripper Case. It’s my homage to cheese-makers, organic milk and the beauty of Sonoma.
It took me months to craft a bad guy. When Koch Semper got onto the page, he spawned an even more twisted assistant, Wild Bill. Said a reviewer: “After chapter two, I wanted to see Semper burn.” Said another: “Prasad paints a beautiful, peaceful picture of Sonoma’s winery and farmland, before he shocks the reader by weaving darkness and perversion of a sexually dominant narcissist and a sick-o psychotic into it.”
One reader refused to finish Ripper because she hated Koch Semper so much. So I guess I succeeded; I created bad guys that deserved to die. The forgiving Buddhist in me required bad guys beyond redemption so I could plot their come-uppance. For my next thriller, I’ll opt for moral ambiguity. Goat-Ripper came out to my satisfaction. I hope you’ll read it.
REVIEWS: For the last month I’ve been working the reviews circuit by gifting books, having a book party, participating at Story Cartel (shout out!), chatting up Facebook and Goodreads review groups. Reviews are the bread and butter of Indie Authors. Please express yourself as often as you can, good reader.
As the reviews come in, I notice they create a distancing phenomenon in me. They separate me from my book. A year of hard labor gets summarized in five sentences. I’m not complaining; I’m marveling. It fuels my fire to write an even better one.
Reviews help process the break-up between author and novel. The story has to stand on its own. While I delight in watching Ripper dance through a reader’s imagination, my job is to make the next one better. Of course, I stay drunk on my own imagination in the process, and that’s a better brew than tap water.
I struggle to turn my pencil into a vaulter’s pole in order to top one reviewer’s opinion. “Jake Knight, a returned wounded veteran, finds himself involved with a wine merchant with murderous intentions.....the style of this book is excellent, it is a fun read, extremely funny and witty and the author has not only created a gem of a book, he is created some wonderfully inspired characters.”
Please hand me a tissue to blot my tears as one book departs and to stop a nose bleed that the next thriller requires. It’s all for your enjoyment, dear reader, and I’d have it no other way. Thank you, dear readers and reviewers. On’Ya.
It took me months to craft a bad guy. When Koch Semper got onto the page, he spawned an even more twisted assistant, Wild Bill. Said a reviewer: “After chapter two, I wanted to see Semper burn.” Said another: “Prasad paints a beautiful, peaceful picture of Sonoma’s winery and farmland, before he shocks the reader by weaving darkness and perversion of a sexually dominant narcissist and a sick-o psychotic into it.”
One reader refused to finish Ripper because she hated Koch Semper so much. So I guess I succeeded; I created bad guys that deserved to die. The forgiving Buddhist in me required bad guys beyond redemption so I could plot their come-uppance. For my next thriller, I’ll opt for moral ambiguity. Goat-Ripper came out to my satisfaction. I hope you’ll read it.
REVIEWS: For the last month I’ve been working the reviews circuit by gifting books, having a book party, participating at Story Cartel (shout out!), chatting up Facebook and Goodreads review groups. Reviews are the bread and butter of Indie Authors. Please express yourself as often as you can, good reader.
As the reviews come in, I notice they create a distancing phenomenon in me. They separate me from my book. A year of hard labor gets summarized in five sentences. I’m not complaining; I’m marveling. It fuels my fire to write an even better one.
Reviews help process the break-up between author and novel. The story has to stand on its own. While I delight in watching Ripper dance through a reader’s imagination, my job is to make the next one better. Of course, I stay drunk on my own imagination in the process, and that’s a better brew than tap water.
I struggle to turn my pencil into a vaulter’s pole in order to top one reviewer’s opinion. “Jake Knight, a returned wounded veteran, finds himself involved with a wine merchant with murderous intentions.....the style of this book is excellent, it is a fun read, extremely funny and witty and the author has not only created a gem of a book, he is created some wonderfully inspired characters.”
Please hand me a tissue to blot my tears as one book departs and to stop a nose bleed that the next thriller requires. It’s all for your enjoyment, dear reader, and I’d have it no other way. Thank you, dear readers and reviewers. On’Ya.
Hail Cornwell: The Pagan Lord (a book review)
He writes one a year now, and I wait for it like a virgin on the verge of epiphany. Fifty titles long is his blazing banner of historical fiction, from Stonehenge and Saxon England to the Civil War. From India to Waterloo, Sharpe’s march with Wellington (21 titles) splashes curry and gunpowder burns across every agog reader’s sweaty brow. Lee Child and Vince Flynn agree nobody does it better. If you haven’t discovered him yet, you’re about to launch into the delirious drunken joy of epic story-telling. So run for your library card and get thee to a Bernard Cornwell novel.
I only have two criticisms of Cornwell. 1) The Pagan Lord is not long enough. 2) He’s a nasty bastard for making me wait 365 days for more Uhtred of Bebbanburg. But I forgive him. Even hounds must scratch patiently in Valhalla for a feast as frothy as his. And Uhtred’s oath-swearing alone makes me want to call mine enemies and leave evocative midnight voicemail.
If you care about a young mind that yearns to know history, treat him to a Cornwell. If you mentor a budding historian that wonders how we became this way, gift her a Cornwell. If you love an old man, waiting to compost in a rocking chair on the stoop of the veteran’s hall, honor him with a Cornwell.
How good is Lord Cornell? I leave you with one sentence. Imagine standing in a shield wall, blood-soaked axes and blades screaming, your death inches away. “One stab, quick and upward, the blade going through the chin, the mouth, the tongue, up behind the nose and then he stepped away from the threat of a Danish sword-lunge, and the axman was shaking like an aspen leaf, the ax forgotten in his suddenly weak hand as blood spilled from his mouth to run in wiggling rivulets down his beard, which was hung with dull iron rings.” Page 283, The Pagan Lord. Christ on a crutch, I see it better than Showtime.
In the lag time between Super Bowl and Opening Day, hunker down in your man cave with a Cornwell. No matter how bad you think you’ve got it – disaster, divorce, heartburn or taxes -- Bernard Cornwell’s characters have got you beat. They play with their lives on the line, while we readers play to avoid library fines.
Sonoma Knight: The Goat-Ripper CaseOn’Ya, dear readers, one for all.
I only have two criticisms of Cornwell. 1) The Pagan Lord is not long enough. 2) He’s a nasty bastard for making me wait 365 days for more Uhtred of Bebbanburg. But I forgive him. Even hounds must scratch patiently in Valhalla for a feast as frothy as his. And Uhtred’s oath-swearing alone makes me want to call mine enemies and leave evocative midnight voicemail.
If you care about a young mind that yearns to know history, treat him to a Cornwell. If you mentor a budding historian that wonders how we became this way, gift her a Cornwell. If you love an old man, waiting to compost in a rocking chair on the stoop of the veteran’s hall, honor him with a Cornwell.
How good is Lord Cornell? I leave you with one sentence. Imagine standing in a shield wall, blood-soaked axes and blades screaming, your death inches away. “One stab, quick and upward, the blade going through the chin, the mouth, the tongue, up behind the nose and then he stepped away from the threat of a Danish sword-lunge, and the axman was shaking like an aspen leaf, the ax forgotten in his suddenly weak hand as blood spilled from his mouth to run in wiggling rivulets down his beard, which was hung with dull iron rings.” Page 283, The Pagan Lord. Christ on a crutch, I see it better than Showtime.
In the lag time between Super Bowl and Opening Day, hunker down in your man cave with a Cornwell. No matter how bad you think you’ve got it – disaster, divorce, heartburn or taxes -- Bernard Cornwell’s characters have got you beat. They play with their lives on the line, while we readers play to avoid library fines.
Sonoma Knight: The Goat-Ripper CaseOn’Ya, dear readers, one for all.
More Muckrakers, Please. A Review.
MUCKRAKER journalism serves a vital role as watchdogs on government, beauracracy and run-away polluting corporations like the Koch brothers. The evil Koch spend billions a year financing crooked Republican politicians and fighting a carbon tax. Their industries put enough soot in the air to replace five million cars. If you kid has asthma, now you know why.
We need more muckrakers to expose this kind of crap. For now, the media has it down to 60 Minutes, and much of that is fluff. F.S. Fayth sets an excellent example in her new book, INNOCENT, VULNERABLE AND LEGALLY ABDUCTED. Here's my review:
5-Star Muckraker Journalism: This is a sad tale of a child that goes to school, confesses to bullying his brothers, and gets arrested. This unleashes the most appalling social services people on a timid family, unaware how to aggressively advocate for their children. Tell social services to take a flying leap off the cliffs of Dover. They want to arrest the other two children and take them to foster homes. The story comes from England, the land of Dickens, made famous for child abuse and Pip who begs for more porridge.
Written is a style that milks the story for emotional resonance, the book is clean, well-edited and deserves to be part of a training manual for new social services recruits. It is a calamity of uncaring people that need enemas, pitted against a family out of their depth. The story could be serialized as an expose on 60 Minutes.
For example: “Then the most bizarre episode happened. Feeling the weight of Glenda’s stare from behind her, Jane glanced over, and was taken aback at the actions from the manager of social services. Without uttering a word, Glenda deliberately, and slowly, proceeded to look Jane up and down in the most disgusting way, as if she had stepped out of a sewer.”
So arrest me for assault and battery, but keep these heartless aid workers out of my life. I don’t condone being a victim to inept bureaucracy. Barricade the door and throw meatballs. Tape record the interviews and sue the government. What never gets answered is why the eldest son got bullied in the first place and why no one ever nipped that abuse in the bud. I would have crucified a few kids on the playground long before you’d do that to my child.
Even worse, this is purported to be based on a true story. We have a new nurse Ratchet, in the guise of Glenda the evil witch social worker. According to the author, “these techniques were just one of many local authorities used countrywide.”
I’d move to Scotland and tell William Wallace to get on it -- Glenda needs a lobotomy. Don’t trust the judge. Don’t trust the system. Bureaucrats tell lies. Someone is on crack and they work for social services. Alfred Hitchcock has found a new villain, the devil-possessed family counselor.
It takes $250,000 to raise a child, plus the expense of college. Never let anyone from social services urinate on your investment. Stand up, parents, raise your voices and hurdle your pens. And vote.
If you plan to raise children in England, please read this book. If you’re American, boycott everything British until there’s a full-on investigation. I am disgusted that humans conspire to hurt even a single child, and think they're saving the planet. On'Ya, dead readers.
We need more muckrakers to expose this kind of crap. For now, the media has it down to 60 Minutes, and much of that is fluff. F.S. Fayth sets an excellent example in her new book, INNOCENT, VULNERABLE AND LEGALLY ABDUCTED. Here's my review:
5-Star Muckraker Journalism: This is a sad tale of a child that goes to school, confesses to bullying his brothers, and gets arrested. This unleashes the most appalling social services people on a timid family, unaware how to aggressively advocate for their children. Tell social services to take a flying leap off the cliffs of Dover. They want to arrest the other two children and take them to foster homes. The story comes from England, the land of Dickens, made famous for child abuse and Pip who begs for more porridge.
Written is a style that milks the story for emotional resonance, the book is clean, well-edited and deserves to be part of a training manual for new social services recruits. It is a calamity of uncaring people that need enemas, pitted against a family out of their depth. The story could be serialized as an expose on 60 Minutes.
For example: “Then the most bizarre episode happened. Feeling the weight of Glenda’s stare from behind her, Jane glanced over, and was taken aback at the actions from the manager of social services. Without uttering a word, Glenda deliberately, and slowly, proceeded to look Jane up and down in the most disgusting way, as if she had stepped out of a sewer.”
So arrest me for assault and battery, but keep these heartless aid workers out of my life. I don’t condone being a victim to inept bureaucracy. Barricade the door and throw meatballs. Tape record the interviews and sue the government. What never gets answered is why the eldest son got bullied in the first place and why no one ever nipped that abuse in the bud. I would have crucified a few kids on the playground long before you’d do that to my child.
Even worse, this is purported to be based on a true story. We have a new nurse Ratchet, in the guise of Glenda the evil witch social worker. According to the author, “these techniques were just one of many local authorities used countrywide.”
I’d move to Scotland and tell William Wallace to get on it -- Glenda needs a lobotomy. Don’t trust the judge. Don’t trust the system. Bureaucrats tell lies. Someone is on crack and they work for social services. Alfred Hitchcock has found a new villain, the devil-possessed family counselor.
It takes $250,000 to raise a child, plus the expense of college. Never let anyone from social services urinate on your investment. Stand up, parents, raise your voices and hurdle your pens. And vote.
If you plan to raise children in England, please read this book. If you’re American, boycott everything British until there’s a full-on investigation. I am disgusted that humans conspire to hurt even a single child, and think they're saving the planet. On'Ya, dead readers.
Cue George Burns to light a cigar
A 5-star review of The Reluctant Jesus by Duncan Whitehead.
Okay, so you’re Jesus returned, but you don’t know it until you’re 33. And the Second Coming plays out in NYC with a talking cat that steals the show. God love it. The human condition requires humor. People take their religions so seriously these days and God has been laughing at us for a while now.
Whitehead shines in his epic tale well-told, almost a hero’s journey of funny stuff: dialog, scenes, settings, plus sparkling wit. Trust the British; they invented divorce and Episcopalians. Duncan gets it right in this Swiftian devotional: some parts subtle, sarcastic, ironic, and satirical.
Hold onto your rosary, mama, our Duncan is writing for the big guy in the sky, the grand audience of ONE. He puts a giggle in the hellfire and damnation that others are slinging hereabouts. The angels will gawp in wonder as I do a reading on Cloud Five at twilight tonight.
Okay, so you’re Jesus returned, but you don’t know it until you’re 33. And the Second Coming plays out in NYC with a talking cat that steals the show. God love it. The human condition requires humor. People take their religions so seriously these days and God has been laughing at us for a while now.
Whitehead shines in his epic tale well-told, almost a hero’s journey of funny stuff: dialog, scenes, settings, plus sparkling wit. Trust the British; they invented divorce and Episcopalians. Duncan gets it right in this Swiftian devotional: some parts subtle, sarcastic, ironic, and satirical.
Hold onto your rosary, mama, our Duncan is writing for the big guy in the sky, the grand audience of ONE. He puts a giggle in the hellfire and damnation that others are slinging hereabouts. The angels will gawp in wonder as I do a reading on Cloud Five at twilight tonight.
Review: GUT-CHECK GREEN 5-Star Thriller
With Gut-Check Green Prasad wrote a novel that is intelligent, thought-provoking, fast moving, suspenseful and very entertaining. The story flows, is well structured and easy to read. There are patches of dark humor, the book is brilliantly written and the story kept me guessing to the end.
Sonoma PI Jake Knight is the kind of protagonist you want to find in a good thriller. Pencil, one of the bad guys, establishes himself right from the beginning as a bad guy, when he kills a… Sorry, can’t give away too much.
I hope Peter Prasad enjoyed a few glasses of Sonoma wine after he had completed this novel. He deserved it. I highly recommend Gut-Check Green, a climate fiction thriller. -- Fred Schafer, author, Don't Mention the FBI.
http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Check-Green...
Sonoma PI Jake Knight is the kind of protagonist you want to find in a good thriller. Pencil, one of the bad guys, establishes himself right from the beginning as a bad guy, when he kills a… Sorry, can’t give away too much.
I hope Peter Prasad enjoyed a few glasses of Sonoma wine after he had completed this novel. He deserved it. I highly recommend Gut-Check Green, a climate fiction thriller. -- Fred Schafer, author, Don't Mention the FBI.
http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Check-Green...
WILD, a review of female characters
How Likable Do Your Female Characters Need To Be?
This question fascinates me. So I was reading Time’s review of Reese Witherspoon’s new movie WILD. The headline said the lead character isn’t nice or wholesome and that’s what makes the movie great. As a writer, I read on.
“She's foul-mouthed, unfaithful, abrasive and irresponsible — which is what makes her the most unexpectedly great protagonist in years,” said the review. Wow, Hollywood shifted from fantasy to realism for a week in mid-December and, yes, I’ll be buying a ticket.
Every book or movie has a chance to redefine its genre, at least throw some serious moral directive one way or another. For every Captain Jack Sparrow, there’s a Mata Hari, the archetype femme fatale, out there waiting to be inked. The real question is how likable do female characters need to be? I remember watching Beaver’s mother June Cleaver on TV in the early 1960s to establish a point of embarkation. We’ve come a long way, writers.
Here’s more that resonated with me from the review. For WILD to work as confessional memoir, honesty must trump likability. Empathy for the character results from her wholeness, not her wholesomeness. We have to buy into her journey and participate in her process as she cleans up her ugly bits, and thus we experience some purification too. Ah, catharsis!
The reviewer says Reese’s character heals her own wounds through self-acceptance. The review concludes, “And if audiences hope to see more fully formed female characters onscreen, it is we who must take her as she is — all the way to the box office, and in droves.”
WILD is a movie I will take my daughters to see. I sense I may soon be bold enough to craft wildly entertaining, beyond the pale and slightly over the edge characters in my next book. No one wants to read safe, sane dreck any longer.
If you’d like to stumble through a gritty, thrilling growth experience with one of my female characters, check out GURL-POSSE KIDNAP. OnYa, dear readers & writers!
http://www.amazon.com/Gurl-Posse-Kidn...
This question fascinates me. So I was reading Time’s review of Reese Witherspoon’s new movie WILD. The headline said the lead character isn’t nice or wholesome and that’s what makes the movie great. As a writer, I read on.
“She's foul-mouthed, unfaithful, abrasive and irresponsible — which is what makes her the most unexpectedly great protagonist in years,” said the review. Wow, Hollywood shifted from fantasy to realism for a week in mid-December and, yes, I’ll be buying a ticket.
Every book or movie has a chance to redefine its genre, at least throw some serious moral directive one way or another. For every Captain Jack Sparrow, there’s a Mata Hari, the archetype femme fatale, out there waiting to be inked. The real question is how likable do female characters need to be? I remember watching Beaver’s mother June Cleaver on TV in the early 1960s to establish a point of embarkation. We’ve come a long way, writers.
Here’s more that resonated with me from the review. For WILD to work as confessional memoir, honesty must trump likability. Empathy for the character results from her wholeness, not her wholesomeness. We have to buy into her journey and participate in her process as she cleans up her ugly bits, and thus we experience some purification too. Ah, catharsis!
The reviewer says Reese’s character heals her own wounds through self-acceptance. The review concludes, “And if audiences hope to see more fully formed female characters onscreen, it is we who must take her as she is — all the way to the box office, and in droves.”
WILD is a movie I will take my daughters to see. I sense I may soon be bold enough to craft wildly entertaining, beyond the pale and slightly over the edge characters in my next book. No one wants to read safe, sane dreck any longer.
If you’d like to stumble through a gritty, thrilling growth experience with one of my female characters, check out GURL-POSSE KIDNAP. OnYa, dear readers & writers!
http://www.amazon.com/Gurl-Posse-Kidn...
Hark! The craft is in the lotus!
Review: The Assassin Lotus by David Angsten
For a thriller author, Angsten bites off a mouth full and delivers a feast. His well-told tale stretches from Rome to the historical vistas of the Silk Road. He pits multiple religious traditions against a lineage of terrorist assassins. Subterfuge and cliff-hangers lurk behind every sand dune. People tumble faster than dominoes in this exploration of love, lust, reality, zeal and somatic insights.
As a thriller writer and practicing Buddhist, I find no fault with Angsten’s craft, style, content and intent. In fact, I laud him for trying to chew through so much of history while telling a gripping story. He makes the reader richer for it by reflecting purely delightful experiences of insight and radiance. Enjoy amateur sleuths that tour the ends of the world at a breakneck pace on the quest of a lifetime. Even several lifetimes, if history is to be believed. On’Ya author! This is a five-star feast for readers!
Now, as a writer, what about David’s craft lit me up?
A) Amateur sleuths – they’re allowed to stumble through the story, going head to head with more skilled assassins and finding a way to survive.
B) Globe-trotting – I love an exciting yarn that takes an historical turn through the sands of time on the Silk Road. It feeds my imagination and saves me a trip to Tibet or having to ride on a camel.
C) Soma – the magic elixir, the shortcut to Nirvana, however fleeting. This makes a noble quest though I never found a tea shop that had soma on the menu. Goes to show most readers will try anything once.
D) Weaving a magic carpet – The craft comes from sprinkling the history in little bits like bacon croutons and not getting trapped by your own backstory. When weaving so many richly colorful threads, it’s hard to stay story-lean. Angsten does a jewel of a job with that too. – Peter Prasad, author, The Goat-Ripper Case
For a thriller author, Angsten bites off a mouth full and delivers a feast. His well-told tale stretches from Rome to the historical vistas of the Silk Road. He pits multiple religious traditions against a lineage of terrorist assassins. Subterfuge and cliff-hangers lurk behind every sand dune. People tumble faster than dominoes in this exploration of love, lust, reality, zeal and somatic insights.
As a thriller writer and practicing Buddhist, I find no fault with Angsten’s craft, style, content and intent. In fact, I laud him for trying to chew through so much of history while telling a gripping story. He makes the reader richer for it by reflecting purely delightful experiences of insight and radiance. Enjoy amateur sleuths that tour the ends of the world at a breakneck pace on the quest of a lifetime. Even several lifetimes, if history is to be believed. On’Ya author! This is a five-star feast for readers!
Now, as a writer, what about David’s craft lit me up?
A) Amateur sleuths – they’re allowed to stumble through the story, going head to head with more skilled assassins and finding a way to survive.
B) Globe-trotting – I love an exciting yarn that takes an historical turn through the sands of time on the Silk Road. It feeds my imagination and saves me a trip to Tibet or having to ride on a camel.
C) Soma – the magic elixir, the shortcut to Nirvana, however fleeting. This makes a noble quest though I never found a tea shop that had soma on the menu. Goes to show most readers will try anything once.
D) Weaving a magic carpet – The craft comes from sprinkling the history in little bits like bacon croutons and not getting trapped by your own backstory. When weaving so many richly colorful threads, it’s hard to stay story-lean. Angsten does a jewel of a job with that too. – Peter Prasad, author, The Goat-Ripper Case
New review: GUT-CHECK GREEN
GUT-CHECK GREEN: “Vivid. Prasad's use of description is nothing short of magic. You want to be transported into another world? You want to escape reality and immerse yourself into someone else's fight? Pick up this book. Now. "When I started reading this book, I felt like I was watching a movie play out in my mind. That same magic stayed with me throughout the entire story. But it's not just his writing style that grabs you. You feel like you become the characters. You feel like you are inside their heads; their addictions. And you want to pull for every character, even if you feel a little guilty by doing so.
"But it's more than just the description or the characters that made this such a strong story for me. As a writer, I read not just for enjoyment, but to learn how to perfect my own craft. While I was reading Gut-Check Green, I was taking mental notes on how Prasad worked out his action scenes. There were no wasted words. No fillers to make the story longer. Each word had its place to further enhance the story. Each line written can be used to make the reader feel like they are watching something they really shouldn't be seeing. But you can't look away. And you can't quit reading.
"Overall, Gut-Check Green is a great thriller. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Neither will you."
Thank you, author Cindy D. Witherspoon.
http://www.cynthiadwitherspoon.com
Happy Holiday Hugs! You help make writing fun!
http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Check-Green...
5-star Review. GUT-CHECK GREEN. 99-cents This Week Only.
I thoroughly enjoyed this eco-thriller. The pacing was excellent and kept me fully engaged from start to finish. The descriptive writing was superb!
As a reader, I was pulled in immediately by the main character, Jake Knight. He authentically brings the viewpoint of warriors returning to civilian life, along with all the challenges that entails. He reminds me of Tom Selleck's TV character, Thomas Magnum or currently, Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS....smart, focused, and deadly.
The eco-terrorists in the story were equally compelling. As I read, I learned more about current hot topics facing veterans and also those facing all of us regarding the stewardship of our planet and the care of its resources. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thriller tied to current world issues.
http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Check-Green...
Thank you, Kathy! To celebrate the new year, GUT-CHECK GREEN is 99-cents this week only. Happy Reading!
As a reader, I was pulled in immediately by the main character, Jake Knight. He authentically brings the viewpoint of warriors returning to civilian life, along with all the challenges that entails. He reminds me of Tom Selleck's TV character, Thomas Magnum or currently, Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS....smart, focused, and deadly.
The eco-terrorists in the story were equally compelling. As I read, I learned more about current hot topics facing veterans and also those facing all of us regarding the stewardship of our planet and the care of its resources. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thriller tied to current world issues.
http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Check-Green...
Thank you, Kathy! To celebrate the new year, GUT-CHECK GREEN is 99-cents this week only. Happy Reading!
Expletives Deleted
We like to write and read and muse awhile and smile. My pal Prasad comes to mutter too. Together we turn words into the arc of a rainbow. Insight Lite, you see?
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