Karina Sanchez

And keep Finnian. Reuses, recycle … its the thing … and it saves you making new characters … and it makes your story better, more connected.

Some repeated points.

.Good start, but why not do even more character development? Best is better than great.
.More description.
.Less modern language. More oldish language. Middle english doesn’t even cut it. You can use this in a limited way to give an old feel, but this book is on times long before even that. Invent your own phraseology is my…[Read more]

I like hugs. So… thanks. I’ll take that one.
Ahem… um… Quinn? I like him first because he is compassionate, maybe quietly shrewd.

Captain Quinn leaned his tall body over the wheel,
“You’ve had a good shift, mate. Why don’t you go below and get some rest?” Not many captains would show such quiet, un-condescending concern for their crew, a…[Read more]

Oh, and also, who is the MC? Finnian or Captain Quinn? Not that you necessarily needed to make that obvious in this part of the book just yet, but I’m curious.

By the way… do I espy in Finnian a likely convert? Or is that top secret? 😉

Wow… I like this. A lot.
I had a few suggestions, though.
First, let me say I really like Captain Quinn. I mean, really like him. Eamon has too many teeth. Finnian is a little more nervous than I think he wants to be.
And yeah. All that stuff.
It clung to the Finnian’s clothes and made them damp and sticky as he watched out into the night, k…[Read more]

Haha! I know what you mean. I noticed that this great discussion was going on, and I wasn’t a part of it, and it made me want to go and kill someone off in my novel.

Okay… maybe not.

Isn’t it amazing that God actually cared that much about something that small? You didn’t laugh at the picture because you’re a fallen creature, fighting against the sin in your bones. Even though we’ve been trying all this time to wrap our minds around the deep moral dilemmas behind this complex, stirring issue . . . all that stopped for somethi…[Read more]

Oh good! I’m glad I was able to be of assistance.
Yes, ‘The Hobbit’ did have poetry in it, though more of it was on the comic side than is common with Tolkien. But then, the Hobbit was a bedtime story (he wrote it for his children) and it was on the whole lighter and more comical than the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is a very…[Read more]

Tatiana— I’m always glad to meet another Tolkienite!
I totally agree about Faramir. In fact I’ve just been reading the LOTR for the second time (complete time, that is— skimming doesn’t count) and I found myself falling in love with him all over again. Sometimes I just cannot choose who my favorite characters are, no matter how much I like…[Read more]

True. 😀
That’s a really interesting context, Mark. It doesn’t feel icky as I had imagined anything having to do with an ‘undead’ personality would have. Maybe it’s because you didn’t do it simply for a cheap horror effect. I like it.

Thanks. I think I will make that change. I have read the hobbit. I believe that had some poetry in it. Otherwise, I am unfamiliar with Tolkien. That is a very nice work though.

You must have got the same storm we are getting now! What a small world it is…
Um… I won’t be much help, because I write poetry almost exclusively by ear, but I read your poem and to my highly sensitive ears it sounds very rhythmic and controlled, yet it flows well. The only thing I would suggest would be instead of ‘Storm cloud rifts the…[Read more]

And we’re back with me asking for just a little more help. Actually, I think I might need less help then I did before. You see, about an hour ago, we had a fairly dramatic storm (for Ohio) and I decided it was time to freshen my poetry skills. I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote this short little poem.

Makes the haughty quake
Earth begins to…[Read more]

It’s certainly very gripping. I’ve never really read much dark fiction simply because I haven’t ever found any near to hand. Other than Sherlock Holmes, which—forgive me— I don’t like. This story gave me a very intense feeling like something constricting around my heart— an icy fist, if you will permit me to use a stereotyped expression.…[Read more]

I love it! The personalities are vivid and it was at once dramatic and not at all cheesy. While the last line was a good way to end it, it was kind of confusing. How does a guy get impaled, verified dead and displayed at a viewing, and then turn up alive?

You’ve read a series ten times! … and I thought I had good time management skills. There are only a few (1 or 2) single books that I have read more than once (aka twice). Pray, how do you do it?

By the way, if you ever happen to catch anyone lying down on a cough, ask them how the do it. I would like to know. Its rather impressive.

Well, when you put it that way…

SKIMMING TOLKIEN’S WORK! OH HORRORS! So much of the beauty is in the details. But I do see what you mean. I guess I like Tolkien because he is un-apologetically unique, and there is something about his description that just speaks to me on a deeper level than Dickens’s and Lewis’s ‘See that? See that thing. Let me tell you something funny about…[Read more]

Two of my favorite authors when it comes to description are Tolkien and Dickens. They are also two of my top favorite authors period, but hey. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like them.
Dickens does a lot of characterization of the objects he is describing, as in the time (in A Christmas Carol, I think?) when he likened onions in a market window…[Read more]