Good out of Bad

We were discussing the review comments you see on the front of books the other day. Someone had read something that they felt didn't fit with any off the comments on the cover and was wondering why it should be.

And so we started talking about how these comments could really be taken out of context. Maybe "I was blown away..." really came from a comment that said "I was blown away by how awful this book is."

So we thought we'd play a little game - find a really bad review of something and extract a few choice phrases that make it sound like a good review!

It turned out to be rather fun!

So if you ever get a bad review - why not try this - and turn it into a good one!

Sunsets

Last month the skies were filled with darting swallows, the breeze carried their cries and the air hung sweet with the smells of summer.

But the day came when I looked up and the sky was empty. The swallows had gone.

The leaves curl brown. The days shorten and the sunset creeps ever westward along the ridge.

The seasons turn.

Booker Debate 2011

Last night I took part in the Booker debate at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil. Interesting because I was the only person on the panel who loved their allocated book. So will the Booker judges feel the same? We'll have to wait until next week to find out!

But if you haven't yet read "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes then I can't recommend it strongly enough!

Beneath the Overgrowth

From a distance this looked like just another clump of trees in the corner of a field, but when I got closer I saw it was something else.

Strip away the ivy and creeping overgrowth and there's a building underneath.

And it made me think of what you have to do when giving your work a really good edit - it's very similar - cut away the weeds and diversions and woolly descriptions to reveal the story within.



I asked the farmer what this place was and she told me it was called Jones's Hole. There's a barn, underneath all that ivy, and in the spring, if you go inside, you'll find barn owls nesting.

My Booker Book...

My Booker Debate book has finally arrived - and I've been allocated this one to read!



Is anyone going to be coming along? 6th October at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil? Do let me know if you are.

Watching Me?

I walk over the cliffs and drop down to my secret beach to eat my sandwiches.

But as I sit there I get the feeling that I'm being watched.

I look around.

The beach is deserted.

But then I spot him.


There are a number of sea stacks just off the headland. But one of them isn't a sea stack at all - it's a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And he's watching me!

It looks like he's eating a burger. I hope, once he's finished, he doesn't decide to eat me!

Booker Shortlist

The 2011 Booker shortlist has been announced and already it’s the cause of much debate – should this one have been included? Why was that one missed out? In case you haven’t seen it here’s the list….

• Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending (Random House/Cape)
• Carol Birch - Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate);
• Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers (Granta);
• Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail);
• Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English (Bloomsbury).
• AD Miller – Snowdrops (Atlantic);

Next month the YCAA will be holding the annual Booker Debate at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, and this year I have been invited onto the panel. So sometime in the next few days one of these books will be winging its way towards me so that I can read it and put together my review.

But which one will I get? And more importantly will I enjoy it?

I’ve taken a look around the net to see what I can find out about the books and the one that sounds most interesting is The Sister’s Brothers. I quite like the idea of a Western being on the shortlist. Jamrach’s Menagerie also sounds like my kind of book – I always like stories set at sea. (Well I am a SeaSerpent).

I’ll let you know as soon as it arrives. And in the meantime, has anyone read any of them?

What did you think?