Finished Solitaire two days ago; it’s still ringing in my thoughts. I’d almost given up on it around page 50; you found your stride later, and I’m glad I stuck with it.
Twice (twice!) I found myself tearing up (and I don’t cry *that* easily) – both times with joy, at the human truths you gracefully set up and then depicted, cleanly, showing-not-telling, without a bit of the maudlin or the melodramatic.
Nicely done! Just wanted to pass on my compliments directly. Keep writing – I’ll keep looking for your next novels.
Michael
Thanks for sticking with it. I’m glad it became more to your liking, and that you did not find it maudlin or melodramatic. I worry sometimes about my propensity for what I think of as riffing, which is akin to taking a running start at an emotional cliff and then flinging myself off, clinging to a rope of exuberant prose. Riffing is great fun, but not always great writing. The last two paragraphs of the elevator scene are a riff, and so is most of Day 424 in VC, and the entire reunion scene with Snow, and they were all fun to write, even the hard ones.
One way I know I’m on a right track in my own work is that it makes me cry to write it, not because it’s deathless prose but because I’m getting close to some kind of truth that is right for the story, a joy or sadness or exhilaration, or those piercing moments that are these combined.
I, too, am looking for my next novels (grin) and I know they’re in here somewhere. If I could get away with riffing all the time, I’d be on Book 37 by now.
If I could get away with riffing all the time, Iâd be on Book 37 by now.
Ditto. Five years ago, I kept two blogs: one in English, one in Spanish. I updated each of them with Really Long Posts two or three times a day. Yep, I’m inclined to riffing. Now, writing a good story… that’s hard. I’m in awe that you can do both so well.