A Finished Manuscript

Bonk’s Bar, my next novel to be published, is complete. The photo below shows the stack of pages. Doesn’t look like much, but the whole story is there, from start to finish and everything in between. What a relief!

bonkjpost1Thanks to my editor, I made some last minute changes that truly improved the story. Happiness is having a good editor who makes you’re writing better, even when you thought you had the story exactly the way you wanted it. This has been a pleasant surprise for me during the completion of Bonk’s Bar, as well as An Island Away. Soon I’ll be working with her on my next novel. I’m looking forward to it.

As you can see, I’ve switched from Coca-Cola Classic to Caffeine Free Coca-Cola Classic. The only reason for this switch is that I can turn down the amperage now that this novel is ready to go. I can cruise a little through the one I’m currently knee-deep in writing. Still, it’s Coca-Cola or water and nothing in between (except Jack Daniels but that serves a separate and distinct purpose).

Enjoy your reading and check back for more updates.

Published in: on January 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm  Comments (2)  
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The Spies of Warsaw

The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst, is not your high-powered spy novel with chase scenes, torture, derring-do etc. More of a slow burn during the run-up to the Second World War, which is true to the Furst style. The plot revolves around a French embassy attache who recruits spies in Warsaw and pries information from the Germans in clever ways. Furst has been paring his style over the years, giving the reader fewer words, which concerns me a little as the sparseness now borders on frugality. I wouldn’t mind if he painted the pictures with a little more detail now and then. Still, a decent read about the ups and downs of people in tight spots doing tough jobs. 

Colonel Mercier was in the Great War, but unlike his relatives and ancestors, he would like to live through the next one. Thus, he’s careful about his operations and when they go wrong, does his best to correct the situation. He’s not immune from a past heartbreak and finds himself drawn to a woman who plays the game as well as he does. Through all this, the Germans are up to no good, the French General Staff denying reality, and people on the ground like Mercier are making the best of it. 

My hope is that Furst fleshes out his future books a little more than this one, which could have benefitted from some of the scene-setting that can be found in Night Soldiers.

Published in: on December 17, 2008 at 4:53 pm  Leave a Comment  
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The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly is only the second book of his that I’ve read. I actually downloaded it to my Kindle and read it here in Aruba. It was a pleasure and my review follows.

Connelly starts the book with, “Everybody lies.” And he’s right, especially from the perspective of a defense attorney. In this case, Mickey Haller is a criminal defense attorney who knows the truth about his clients, that they and everyone in the system lies. He’s recovering from being gut shot in a previous Connelly book when he inherits the cases of a former rival who was murdered. Taking the bull by the horns, Haller sorts the cases and quickly latches on to the most profitable one, that of a Hollywood Studio tycoon named Walter Elliot who is accused of killing his wife and her lover. Enter Detective Harry Bosch, another of Connelly’s characters, although in a somewhat lesser role. Still, the chemistry is good, if volatile, and the plot never slows down.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the honesty of Haller. So many bad things have been written about lawyers and their motivations that it was interesting to hear their side of the story. And it made me think, which is one of the things I look for in every book I read.

Thus, Connelly had me from the first page to the last, in and out of court as well as on the street. Justice is served in this book, though not always from the bench, which is a reflection of the world in which we live.

Published in: on November 20, 2008 at 12:40 pm  Leave a Comment  
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My Front Office (video)

For those readers of this blog who claim that I don’t really use a fountain pen, please check out the following video. It’s not exactly my front office, but a place across the street from my house in Aruba where I do some writing from time to time. Here’s the video:

That’s a Mont Blanc 146 pen I’m using with Mont Blanc blue ink. Not that you can tell precisely because the video degrades on YouTube. Still, I’m there working away, spilling words onto the page that will eventually get typed into my computer, edited, and hopefully come out of the printer as a worthy story. You never know. However, with a view like this, the words come easier.

Stay tuned, I’ll post some more videos of my writing haunts and fountain pens in action just for fun.

Bon dia from Aruba.

Published in: on November 18, 2008 at 10:32 am  Leave a Comment  
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