okay

[maderr]

Certain thing about this story grate, but then the author does something clever, or proves she put some effort into the research, and I like to keepy at it. Then I get lines like this, and I totally want to keep at it:

Jack rolled onto his stomach and clutched a pillow over his head. Sure, no problem.Testify against some drug lords. All in a day’s work. Get a new name and get yourself relocated thousands of miles away. No sweat. Assassins coming after you? Check. Conscience-ridden hit men spiriting you away? Check. Hiding out in a remote cabin? Oh, got that one covered. Develop unseemly crush on ruthless hired killer?

Jack sighed. I am one incurable illness away from a Lifetime Movie of the Week.

~Zero at the Bone, by Jane Seville

I am 70-ish pages in and right now the only thing really irking me is the one guy's accent. First rule of accents: Establish it in the first couple of pages, then stop doing it. If you establish it quickly and well, the reader will hear it no matter how you type. It is really fucking annoying to constantly read all the mispelled words and crap. Other than touches of 'I like Emily Dickinson and other important persons" the book is not bad. And the above quote is fucking hilarious.

oh, yeah. it's an ebook, from, uh, dreamspinner press, I think.

Comments

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

I thought you were going to bed?

You just didn't want to talk to me anymore. I see how it is.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Basically. I totally hate you and had to run for the hills.

Or, you know, my bed where I tried and failed to sleep. But we can go with hating you, that sounds way more fun. Then we can call in lawyers and fight over the business.

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

My sympathies. I've been drowsy all day, and now I'm reaching that point of AWAKE! -_-

mm... visit the nap room? ^_~

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

Fine, but you have to sue me first. I want to be the one to counter sue.

Also, I demand all rights to Prisoner, Bound, and any subsequent sequels.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

HEY I OWN THE STORY THE RIGHTS ARE MINE. COURTROOM, FIGHT!

[drowning-london.livejournal.com]

What happened to sleepy sleepingness? Also, I now want to read the story, but given my current financial situation I'm balking at the price considering I don't know the author and am afeared I'll regret the purchase. Rawwwr.

Jane Seville

[berneynator.livejournal.com]

As Madlori she has written a couple of Brokeback Mountain fanfics- Zero at the Bone actually was one as well, but so AU that she simply changed the names and a few references and sold it to a publisher. If you want to sample her work she has a livejournal account and you can find it there- I would suggest going to the Human_Interest community and reading Human Interest.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Tried to sleep, it took me for bloody ever. I'll send you the book if you want.

[drowning-london.livejournal.com]

Sorry it was so hard to sleep, I can sympathize. Thank you very much for the book!!

[jadis31.livejournal.com]

My issue with accents goes back to middle school. I read Wuthering Heights and Joseph's accent was so too much for my young brain that I had to read all his parts out loud to have any hope of understanding what he was on about. Since then, every time I've come across spelled out dialects, I have to actively work not to hate the character with the accent. I don't blame the authors, though. I've always figured it was my failure more than theirs.

[(Anonymous)]

Hahahahahaha that was originally a BBM fic before she changed the names. Speaking of BBM and accents, if you go into the fandom it is chock FULL of accents in fic. It does get horribly grating, but one must deal, especially when you encounter 100+ pages of sentences like "Waitin’ in line, Momma give me a dollar for lunch but I ain’t gettin’ none a that shit they slop on the tray no way get me a Coke and a Twinkie waitin’ waitin’ what the hell takin’ so long shit dude can’t that bitch at the register count shit. "

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, someone else mentioned that, which sort of sucks. I mean, I can see why she just made it original, but...meh

The accent problem + some other stuff sort of killed it in the end. It was okay, but I do not think I'll be getting the others in what apparently is a series when they come out.

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I intentionally tried to keep the accents consistent in the way I was portraying them, I'm sure I wasn't totally successful, but it's hard. Every book I've ever read that featured dialect was consistent in portraying it. It was my eyes that got used to it. A good example is Jamie O'Neill's masterpiece "At Swim, Two Boys" which features VERY heavy dialect. He kept it consistent, and it took a couple of chapters to get used to it, but I did.

But hey, everyone has different pet peeves. I can't tolerate mid-scene POV shifts but people do it all the freaking time.

And you want the truth about the Emily Dickinson poem? I'm not actually much of a fan of hers, but I loved that line from "The Snake" for the title, and the only reason I used the poem as an epigraph was to avoid the whole "bone = boner" thing. I didn't want readers to think it was a smirky erection joke on my part. Heh. My secret's out.

The BBM fandom is chock full of accents, fo sho. Some authors do it way more extreme than others.

Thanks for talking about my book, even if you're a bit on the fence about it! Cheers!