Round And Round She Goes...

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I ordered POPULATION 1280 by Jim Thompson. It has 40 five star reviews at Amazon, and is prolly the most boring book I've read in the last 60 years. Its gotta be like a 3 some with PENNLADY and 3113. Or with STELLA and her alter ego. That is, the book is stupid and silly and a waste of time. Its supposed to be laugh your ass off funny, too. Nope. More PENNLADY and 3113.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Creating a menu for a decent Spanish meal in a story I'm writing.

Paella de Valencia
Pan rustico a common Spanish table bread
Crema Catalana (Crème Brulee really)
Blood sausage (pig blood, rice, onion, spices)
Jamon de iberico ($100 per pound) ham jerky is what it is
sliced tomatoes and romaine lettuce
and a Sangria made from red wine and chunky fruit called Zurracapote

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

One of our elite editors expressed her sadness for a story I'm serializing; she had hopes based on the first episode's virtues, but the 2nd episode is other worldly and beyond the pale.

Goddamned right it is or are. And it keeps good company.

I'm reading MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, and each chapter stands alone. She oughta read LeCarre or Raymond Chandler, where apoplectic fits are guaranteed.

The elite LIT editor likes SEE ROCK CITY 200 MILES signs painted on every adverb and pronoun. FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD! editing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Started a GM story, something new for me. In a nutshell Hillary and Shamu run for President, and an android stalks Hillary. Ooops, Shamu is really Rosie O'Donnell. But its still a GM story.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't usually care for Walter Mosley. But OUTNUMBERED, OUTGUNNED is good. Any book that starts out with an asshole teen getting his ass stomped is Pulitzer material, I think.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Its payday this week so I'm making a book order.

So far its: THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Hemingway, and THE SINS OF THE FATHERS by Lawrence Block.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I forgot to change the oil in the car yesterday when it was sunny, so I did it this morning in the rain. Self discipline. No excuses.

Before I retired I drove 3000 miles per month, now I drive 1000 miles every 3 months. About 75 miles per week.

 

[lovecraft68]

I forgot to change the oil in the car yesterday when it was sunny, so I did it this morning in the rain. Self discipline. No excuses.

Before I retired I drove 3000 miles per month, now I drive 1000 miles every 3 months. About 75 miles per week.

That's why my friend who's a car dealer loves to buy cars from Florida in auctions. They have no where near the wear and tear of the cars that have to survive up here in New England.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That's why my friend who's a car dealer loves to buy cars from Florida in auctions. They have no where near the wear and tear of the cars that have to survive up here in New England.

Us old bastards don't go no where.

 

[carlieplum]

Stick with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, JBJ. It's worth it.

 

[patientlee]

Stick with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, JBJ. It's worth it.

I loved it both times I read it. That probably means that you won't like it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I loved it both times I read it. That probably means that you won't like it.

The writing is good, the characters are finely detailed, the chapters are interesting, and I have no idea what the books about.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OUTNUMBERED, OUTGUNNED by Walter Mosley is good reading. I don't care for Walter Mosley but this collection of short stories is excellent. Gotta order a copy for the library. Its several stand-alone episodes of an ex-con who handles trouble in the hood. Trouble the cops wont touch.

 

[JackLuis]

Jimmy, I found this site that has some good stuff.


Here is the starting page.

It's focused on Screenwriting, but it bleeds well into fiction.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Jimmy, I found this site that has some good stuff.


Here is the starting page.

It's focused on Screenwriting, but it bleeds well into fiction.

Thank you! I'll read it soon as I think screen-writing techniques are essential tools in modern fiction composition.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

THE MOON IN THE GUTTER by David Goodis arrived today.

 

[JackLuis]

Thank you! I'll read it soon as I think screen-writing techniques are essential tools in modern fiction composition.

Well it was interesting to read the Advanced section. nothing, groundbreaking, but some keen insights to salable stories. They discuss several story arcs, and it's good for the common language of the craft.

Screen writing is about 200 pages per story. To fit a ~2 hour movie. or at 400w/pg 80,000 words. ten times, or more the ~Lit story.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Well it was interesting to read the Advanced section. nothing, groundbreaking, but some keen insights to salable stories. They discuss several story arcs, and it's good for the common language of the craft.

Screen writing is about 200 pages per story. To fit a ~2 hour movie. or at 400w/pg 80,000 words. ten times, or more the ~Lit story.

Its worth the candle so far!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OUTNUMBERED AND OUTGUNNED by Walter Mosley.

As much as I like this book I almost threw it in the trash while reading a chapter I violently oppose.

The principal character is an old black man who spent 30 years in prison for murder; he murdered a man to rape the wife, then murdered her to shut her up, but he was too wasted to leave their home, and passed out.

So he gets outta prison and goes job hunting with a chip on his shoulder. That is, he has a massive ego, no skills, cant read, and wants to kill anyone who gets in his way. A female friend offered him a job in her restaurant, he refused to work for a woman. Then applies for a job at a grocery store managed by a woman. She interviews him and he gives her fits about his civil rights. He doesn't bathe, that's whiteys fault; his clothes are rags, that's whiteys fault too; he has no phone, whitey again; and his criminal history is one more whitey snare to hold the black man down. He imagines murdering her. So she passes the buck to the corporate office, they send two sweeties to deal with the hostile black, and he gets a special-made job just for him. A man gotta fight whitey for his rights!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I threw it in the trash. Mosley self-destructed at the halfway mark. It was good till then.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If Chablis doesn't go away soon I'm tossing MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.

 

[sr71plt]

If Chablis doesn't go away soon I'm tossing MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.

Chablis is a real person, used to add Savannah RL flavor. Would you like it better if he used Paula Deen instead?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Chablis is a real person, used to add Savannah RL flavor. Would you like it better if he used Paula Deen instead?

Hows your ADD, Wonder Wino? I only said 6000 times I'm deeelighted Paula Deen is going away. And Chablis is a boring Negro.

 

[sr71plt]

Hows your ADD, Wonder Wino? I only said 6000 times I'm deeelighted Paula Deen is going away. And Chablis is a boring Negro.

Oh, I was expected to read your previous monologues?

I used both Chablis and Paula Deen in a book with a Savannah setting before I'd read "Midnight." I enjoyed both the book and the movie of "Midnight."

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Ordered HIT MAN by Lawrence Block.

Got 600 words written of a story about a city dominated by females devoured by the chaos they create. I mean feral male children. The antagonist is a human-android created by a liberal computer scientist, a liberal manufacturer, and the brain of a genius death row inmate. The fun happens when the evil genius android learns to outwit its machine controller.

Read one chapter of THE MOON IN THE GUTTER by David Goodis. No enchantment so far. Its said that Goodis wrote suicide notes NOT stories. Ordered NIGHT SQUAD by this author.