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Only Nine Days until Delivery for Mouse and Dragon
Sunday, July 5th, 2009 10:36 amIt's not raining. More, the sun is out, and there's a nice breeze playing in the trees outside my window. Too bad we have stuff to do inside.
I've been going through the story cards here at the Confusion Factory, mostly to see if I can figure out why the file manuscript of Agent is on nine-pin burst paper. I'm guessing the typescript came back trashed from Ace, where it was submitted first, and I retyped it into the (then lately acquired) computer before sending it out to DAW. There's no other reason that accounts for both the month-long gap in getting the manuscript back into the mail and the computer printout.
Anyhow, going through the cards, I'm struck by the various rejection notes gathered over the years. Mostly, it seems that "nothing happens" in our stories; indeed "Candlelight" was rejected numerous times with the note that "something needs to happen" in the narrative. Then of course there was Stephe Pagel's fond description of Local Custom "the book where nothing happens," and Shelly Shapiro's comments regarding Carpe Diem, which she objected to because (so it says in my notes from our phone conversation) "nothing happens." Since I suspect that "nothing" also happens in Mouse and Dragon, I'm now even more interested in seeing the inevitable revision notes.
So, here's a question for an unrainy Sunday: How much action, and what kind, do you as a reader require in a book to remain engaged? And, for extra credit: What's your favorite book in which "nothing happens"?
I've been going through the story cards here at the Confusion Factory, mostly to see if I can figure out why the file manuscript of Agent is on nine-pin burst paper. I'm guessing the typescript came back trashed from Ace, where it was submitted first, and I retyped it into the (then lately acquired) computer before sending it out to DAW. There's no other reason that accounts for both the month-long gap in getting the manuscript back into the mail and the computer printout.
Anyhow, going through the cards, I'm struck by the various rejection notes gathered over the years. Mostly, it seems that "nothing happens" in our stories; indeed "Candlelight" was rejected numerous times with the note that "something needs to happen" in the narrative. Then of course there was Stephe Pagel's fond description of Local Custom "the book where nothing happens," and Shelly Shapiro's comments regarding Carpe Diem, which she objected to because (so it says in my notes from our phone conversation) "nothing happens." Since I suspect that "nothing" also happens in Mouse and Dragon, I'm now even more interested in seeing the inevitable revision notes.
So, here's a question for an unrainy Sunday: How much action, and what kind, do you as a reader require in a book to remain engaged? And, for extra credit: What's your favorite book in which "nothing happens"?
