Murakami Haruki walks into the club bar and sits next to Ursula Le Guin. She says, "Neal Stephenson stopped to pick up Ludwig Wittgenstein, and then we can start." She pours him a glass of Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc, "unless you'd prefer a red;they're pouring a Rosenblum Mourvèdre." "I'm good."
"So," he asks, "what did you think of the revisions to Psalms?"
"Frankly," I'm not sure. Do you think the roman à clef gets in the way of the noir.?
"No, Ursula, I don't, really. It fits in nicely with the dystopia mandela. It will be interesting to see what Neal thinks of the historical vignettes."
"Oh, he'll just say that they are not fully developed enough. By which, of course, he means not didactic, though they're plenty erudite."
The lights come up on the table to display an assortment of appetizers, and they each tap on one.
She continues, "at first, I expected that this project would be the setup for a filmscript, but I don't see how that's possible because you couldn't drop the characters without blowing holes in the storyline."
He said wryly, "from my experience with 1Q84, if you kept the characters you'd then have to make holes in the storyline. The engine of the novel is getting the characters in trouble and keeping them there. It's a lot of action to try to compress into two hours or so."
"Anyway," she replied as the other two hove into view, how can you not love an author who respects the reader enough to drop "ekpyrotic."
Hi Cole, sorry if you have already received this, sent on messages, not sure if it went through ok.
I am just messaging to say I have just finished your debut novel Psalms for the end of the world. I gave it five out of five on Amazon. I really enjoyed it and for a debut novel, you should be really proud.
Things I liked about it. Gracie and Jones their story and how it thread through all the other stories and characters. Clever! Your imagination was brilliant and language was great as well. These characters all went on a journey and were different at the beginning and changed throughout the story, not all writers completely achieved this, but is the corner stone of every creative person’s craft. Cole you achieved this wonderfully well.
There were quite a few characters with different coloured eyes and several with blue, green eyes. Who or what was the inspiration behind this? I adore people’s eyes. I have lived for the last eleven years, with someone’s blue, green eyes in my writer’s head, giving me great inspiration, so I completely understand where some inspiration may have been struck and know I appreciated it greatly.
Things I now disliked. I felt for me there was too many characters, times zones and maybe too fantastical at times for I and my cerebral Palsy Brain.
In closing I think your novel could be made into a film. I would like all these characters to come alive on screen, especially jones and Gracie. I have casted the ones already with the different coloured eyes and it would be all the same person ah!
Hi Tracey, I'm sorry I haven't replied to your direct message. I rarely go there, as I now spend so much time in comments and Notes, responding to readers. Thank you so much for your kind words about PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE END. Thank you so much for the positive review on Amazon, too; reviews on there and places like Goodreads really make all the difference to books like these. As for its future on-screen, we are working on that right now, but I cannot say more. Thanks again for the support, Tracey!
Thanks for diving in, John. I hope you enjoy the read. If you do, feel free to come back and ask me questions. If you don't, you're free to hurl expletives at me, too - heh.
I just bought this book. I have a TBR of at least 200 books on my shelves and in my Kindle, but I've moved this up to #3 (I will begin reading when I've finished the two I'm reading now). I look forward to reading the scenes set in the American Southwest (where I live) - a part of the world often ignored in creative writing.
Well, that's certainly flattering, thank you. As for the scenes set in the American Southwest, I used a very unique approach to them, I think, which will hopefully make sense as you read it. I'll be here if you have any questions or want to hurl criticism at me.
Thank you for saying so, Chris. I hope you enjoy the read. It's the best thing I've ever written, I think, or at least the one that's the most important to me.
I really look forward to picking up a copy. My wife and I are away at the moment and I popped into the local Waterstones to see if there was a copy; but will pick one up when I'm back in Glasgow! I need to know what happens next.
Murakami Haruki walks into the club bar and sits next to Ursula Le Guin. She says, "Neal Stephenson stopped to pick up Ludwig Wittgenstein, and then we can start." She pours him a glass of Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc, "unless you'd prefer a red;they're pouring a Rosenblum Mourvèdre." "I'm good."
"So," he asks, "what did you think of the revisions to Psalms?"
"Frankly," I'm not sure. Do you think the roman à clef gets in the way of the noir.?
"No, Ursula, I don't, really. It fits in nicely with the dystopia mandela. It will be interesting to see what Neal thinks of the historical vignettes."
"Oh, he'll just say that they are not fully developed enough. By which, of course, he means not didactic, though they're plenty erudite."
The lights come up on the table to display an assortment of appetizers, and they each tap on one.
She continues, "at first, I expected that this project would be the setup for a filmscript, but I don't see how that's possible because you couldn't drop the characters without blowing holes in the storyline."
He said wryly, "from my experience with 1Q84, if you kept the characters you'd then have to make holes in the storyline. The engine of the novel is getting the characters in trouble and keeping them there. It's a lot of action to try to compress into two hours or so."
"Anyway," she replied as the other two hove into view, how can you not love an author who respects the reader enough to drop "ekpyrotic."
This was a lot of fun to read, Richard. Thank you for reading, and thank you for making my time - and noticing my use of "ekpyrotic"!
Thank you,
I can hardly wait to read this one. Wow!
Well, I hope you enjoy the read, Patricia. Thank you!
This sounds awesome! Just bought the book for my Kindle. 😊😊
I hope you enjoy the read, Robin. Feel free to come back and ask me anything about it!
Thank you! So far I’m very intrigued.
Hi Cole, sorry if you have already received this, sent on messages, not sure if it went through ok.
I am just messaging to say I have just finished your debut novel Psalms for the end of the world. I gave it five out of five on Amazon. I really enjoyed it and for a debut novel, you should be really proud.
Things I liked about it. Gracie and Jones their story and how it thread through all the other stories and characters. Clever! Your imagination was brilliant and language was great as well. These characters all went on a journey and were different at the beginning and changed throughout the story, not all writers completely achieved this, but is the corner stone of every creative person’s craft. Cole you achieved this wonderfully well.
There were quite a few characters with different coloured eyes and several with blue, green eyes. Who or what was the inspiration behind this? I adore people’s eyes. I have lived for the last eleven years, with someone’s blue, green eyes in my writer’s head, giving me great inspiration, so I completely understand where some inspiration may have been struck and know I appreciated it greatly.
Things I now disliked. I felt for me there was too many characters, times zones and maybe too fantastical at times for I and my cerebral Palsy Brain.
In closing I think your novel could be made into a film. I would like all these characters to come alive on screen, especially jones and Gracie. I have casted the ones already with the different coloured eyes and it would be all the same person ah!
Regards and best wishes
Tracey
Hi Tracey, I'm sorry I haven't replied to your direct message. I rarely go there, as I now spend so much time in comments and Notes, responding to readers. Thank you so much for your kind words about PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE END. Thank you so much for the positive review on Amazon, too; reviews on there and places like Goodreads really make all the difference to books like these. As for its future on-screen, we are working on that right now, but I cannot say more. Thanks again for the support, Tracey!
Wonderful entry chapter full of hooks and character sketches. Evocative and engaging from the start. Very well done.
Thanks, Steve!
Thanks for sharing chapter one of your novel. It worked & now reading on my Kindle. Looking forward to an interesting read. Thanks again.
Thanks for diving in, John. I hope you enjoy the read. If you do, feel free to come back and ask me questions. If you don't, you're free to hurl expletives at me, too - heh.
I just bought this book. I have a TBR of at least 200 books on my shelves and in my Kindle, but I've moved this up to #3 (I will begin reading when I've finished the two I'm reading now). I look forward to reading the scenes set in the American Southwest (where I live) - a part of the world often ignored in creative writing.
Well, that's certainly flattering, thank you. As for the scenes set in the American Southwest, I used a very unique approach to them, I think, which will hopefully make sense as you read it. I'll be here if you have any questions or want to hurl criticism at me.
Sounds good!
Absolutely loved this; I'm going to pick up a copy as soon as I can.
Thank you for saying so, Chris. I hope you enjoy the read. It's the best thing I've ever written, I think, or at least the one that's the most important to me.
I really look forward to picking up a copy. My wife and I are away at the moment and I popped into the local Waterstones to see if there was a copy; but will pick one up when I'm back in Glasgow! I need to know what happens next.