Explaining too much

I just finished a book on my Nook app for my iPad called “The Mating” by Nicky Charles. It was recommended to me by a friend, and the storyline is okay. It’s been done, but it was okay. However, I had two real problems with it.

First of all, she explained too much. There were so many times during the story where she should have just let the reader infer things from the scene, but instead she felt the need to add between one to three sentences explaining what I already knew. For example, the book is about werewolves, and it’s mostly a romance between Elise and the Alpha male of the pack. There is one scene where she goes to get her bags from the vehicle (they’ve just been married and she’s moving in) and he tells her not to worry about it. Others will take care of it. Immediately several other guys go to grab her things and carry them into the house.

The author should have left it right there. Everyone who knows wolf packs (or is into novels about werewolves) knows the Alpha is always obeyed. Even if you didn’t know that, you could infer it from the situation and their actions. However, the author felt the need to add a sentence explaining how the Alpha’s word was to be absolutely and immediately obeyed.

There is a fine line between not explaining enough, explaining just enough and explaining too much. I often fall on the side of not explaining enough. I think explaining too much disrupts the story just as much as not explaining enough, if not more, and it frustrated me while reading this novel.

Secondly, commas were in the randomest places, in the sentences and there were no commas where they should have been. (Please note this last sentence; it demonstrates what I’m talking about.) Talk about disrupting a sentence! I had the worst time reading it. I know that sometimes when a book is made into an e-format, things can get messed up like that. Still, this happened too many times to have all been from the reformatting,

I don’t mean to rag on this woman’s novel. The story, once I got into it, was interesting, but I just couldn’t get past these things. Has anyone else ever come across a book like this that they had problems with?

Say “Hi” to the newest member of my family!

This is our new puppy. We called her “Jua” which is swahili for sun or sunshine. My wife’s father used to do a lot of business in Africa so that’s where the swahili came from and we figured it worked well because of the golden color of her fur and the fact that she brings a little ray of sunshine into our lives.

In case you’re wondering what kind of dog Jua is, she’s a Cavapoo – a king charles cavalier spaniel/toy poodle cross breed. Most cavapoos have the curly hair from their poodle parent. However, Jua is somewhat unusual in as much as she was the only straight haired dog in her litter.

She seems to be settling in quite well!

A few tweaks…

The share and ‘like’ buttons now on our blog posts! Also, there is a new page called Trailers and Cool Stuff available. Look around and see what the SLB authors are up to.

What conversation about ebooks?

It seems wherever one goes on the Internet, everyone is talking about ebooks. But are they? Sure, there are plenty of people talking about the sea change that’s happening in the publishing industry. There are stats to show that kindle sales are rising and even surpassing hardcover sales. There’s plenty of chat about self-publishing phenoms that make us all believe that yes, we too could be that millionaire author with our $1.99 ebook price point, and there’s interesting talk of traditionally published authors now going it alone down the self-publishing road. Yes, these are all markers to show that we have truly entered the age of the download generation, but is anyone talking about ebooks? I mean really talking about them? I’m not referring to any of the above, I’m talking about the books themselves. The e-ink. The blood, sweat and tears that authors have left on the electronic page. The magic weaved among the words. The stories themselves.

People have articulated over and over again why they will lament the loss of hardcopy books – the feel of it in their hands, the smell of it, the turning of the pages, the favorite dog-eared copy that holds a special place on their shelf and in their heart. The memories such a tome evoked – but there’s another reason why I will miss books. They’re a talking point.

I’m currently on the verge of buying an e-reader. I’ve realized there are three reasons for this. Firstly, I spend way too much on books and the lower price of ebooks will save me a ton of cash. Secondly, it’s convenient. I have a long commute and being able to carry multiple books at the same time and not run the risk of them getting roughed up in my bag (I hate damaged books!) is a win-win. Thirdly, I just don’t have the space for books any more.
It’s this third and final “confession” that’s most troubling to me. As a child I hoarded books. (There’s really no other word for it). There was a shelf above my bed that was so chock full of them that adding to it required vigorous shoving or Jenga-like balancing skills. Thankfully my father was good at home improvements because I swear, if that shelf had ever failed while I was sleeping the sheer volume of books would have killed me.

I loved having my books on display. Not only did it serve as a complete visual history of what I had read, it also showed my changing tastes and my growth as a reader. There was Willard Price’s “Adventure” series, Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, and the doorstop tomes of Brooks’ Shannara series. There was the dirty great head of a shark, all teeth and menace, thrusting upward towards the miniscule unsuspecting swimmer on the spine of Peter Benchley’s Jaws. There was Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance trilogies, Tanis reaching for me with an outstretched hand, Desmond Bagley’s High Citadel, Craig Thomas’s Firefox and Firefox Down. And then there were a bunch of psychology books that piqued my interest in my late teens. Games People Play and the bright yellow cover of I’m OK, You’re OK by Thomas A. Harris which, incidentally, is an excellent book that everybody should read at least once in their lifetime. These were just a few.
Not only did I love looking at my own books, I loved going round other people’s houses and looking at their books. Immediately I could tell if I had a kinship with people. “I see you like Connolly too. Which one of his is your favorite?” Or, coming across something I was interested in I could ask, “Oh, you read this? What did you think of it?” Whereupon, more often than not, the person would walk over, whip the book from the shelf and hand it to me. “I liked it. Here. You can borrow it if you want.”
I’ve borrowed books and loved them enough to buy my own copy. I’ve loaned out books, happy to share my passion for a story, and got them back battered and beaten up (which p*ssed me off immensely). I’ve handed out books knowing full well I’d probably not see that copy again and I’ve repurchased books multiple times to replace the ones that didn’t come back. I’ve sat on trains and looked at what the people opposite me are reading. I’ve had people read over my shoulder for a few stops and then ask me what I’m reading, resulting in lengthy discussions. This was true word-of-mouth. With ebooks and ereaders these kinds of interactions just aren’t going to happen and I can’t help but think that this is going to impact sales figures.

Now I’m not for one minute suggesting that people won’t continue to talk about books. The Internet has the capacity to reach far more people than snatched conversations over coffee and review sites are a dime a dozen. However, an online review, no matter how good, is not the recommendation of a trusted friend. A review can’t pull the book down from its shelf and say, “Here. Take it,” and hand you a free copy. Dear God, that’s almost like…(whispers) piracy!
Granted, book clubs will still purchase their book of the month and discuss it at length, friends will still ask each other in passing “Have you read any good books lately?” But having books physically present in a room made starting that conversation all the more easy, almost inevitable, and I do think those conversations resulted in people buying books.

I think there’s another reason why ebooks are going to hurt sales. One copy is always going to be enough. Sure, my digital library can get wiped out in a cataclysmic system crash but the outlets where I buy my ebooks from will have a record of my purchases and let me instantly replace them. I’m convinced I’m single-handedly responsible for making Terry Brooks successful. I bought at least five copies of the Sword of Shannara over the years to replace loaners that never came back – and here’s the kicker, I had no intention whatsoever of rereading it. I just liked owning that book. I liked the cover. I liked the look of it on my shelf, the fat width of it jutting above the books to either side like the top of a castle battlement. I liked seeing it among all my other books, a kaleidoscope of colored spines, vertically oriented text and thumbnail pictures. I won’t get any of that with an ebook.
I’m pleased to see the eReaders are now incorporating lending features, I think this can only be a good thing, but once you’ve borrowed an ebook, are you seriously going to then go and buy it? Why would you ever want to? I rarely re-read books, but it’s not a ebook I’d be buying, it’s just bytes, and let’s be honest, an e-reader lying around the house just doesn’t have the same aesthetic as a book now does it? There was uproar when Harper Collins announced it was going to place restrictions on libraries, only allowing them to lend ebook titles a finite number of times before repurchasing, it got me thinking about how people value ebooks versus physical books and the whole distribution dynamic of books among the general population – borrowing, buying and loaning. I think that’s a topic for a whole other blog post but suffice to say, in hindsight, Harper Collins policy actually starts to make some sense to me.

I’m not against ebooks, in fact I’m really looking forward to the ease with which Ill be able to access them with an e-reader. But I will miss books. Not for any of the usual reasons people give, I’ll just miss owning them.

Are people talking about ebooks? Really talking about ebooks? I’m sure they are, but I don’t think they’re having the same kind of spontaneous conversations that arise from having books physically on display – and I think that’s a sad loss.

Stuart Clark is the author of the Project U.L.F. series of Science Fiction adventure books

An Appreciation of Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds”

“No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space.”

So begins Richard Burton’s narration of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of H.G. Wells’ classic, The War of the Worlds.

Given that this is my first blog entry on the ‘Eclectic Authors’ group blog, I thought it fitting to pay a tribute to one of my earliest influences. As a science fiction author, it’s very easy for me to pinpoint two seminal works that originally got me interested in the genre.   One of them was Star Wars.  The other followed only a year later and came in the form of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of “War of the Worlds.”

As a child, my father would often play WOTW on long journeys in the car. From Burton’s opening lines to the end, I was always captivated.  The opening orchestral strings still give me goose bumps to this day. A real treat would be to go over to my friend’s house whose father had the double album.  I would pull it from his record collection and stare at the stunning yet disturbing artwork of Michael Trim, Geoff Taylor and Peter Goodfellow.

The first cylinder lands on Horsell Common

Jeff Wayne was born in Queens, New York.  He spent four years of his young life in the UK when his father, Jerry Wayne, an actor, singer and theatre producer played Sky Masterson in the original West End musical production of Guys and Dolls.  After moving back to the US, Wayne completed a degree in journalism, supporting himself by playing keyboards in bands and coaching tennis.
In 1966 Wayne composed the score for his father’s successful West End show “Two Cities,” based on another classic, Dickens’ “A Tale of Two cities.”   He returned to the UK and became a record producer, helping to produce David Essex’s album “Rock on.”  He would later collaborate with Essex again on the WOTW project.
Through the course of the 1970’s, Wayne wrote thousands of advertising jingles as well as a number feature film and documentary film scores.  He was also a musical director for various artists.  It was his father that introduced him to Wells’ War of the Worlds.

Wayne’s WOTW was really a product of the times.  In 1978, progressive rock (prog rock) was popular and the concept album – an album with a running theme – was in its hey-day.  Electronic keyboards gave musicians access to a plethora of (other wordly) sounds and the vocoder was the perfect tool to give the martians their voice.  With all the ingredients in place, Wayne took on the science fiction classic.

Despite Wayne’s long list of credentials, for his project to have success it needed credibility and that credibility came in the form of Burton and his supporting cast who read like a who’s-who of popular rock and pop artists of the 70’s.

Burton was arguably one of Britain’s finest actors and a household name on both sides of the Atlantic due to his seven academy award nominations and his turbulent relationship with Elizabeth Taylor.
It is through Burton and his understated yet sympathetic portrayal of the journalist that we witness the invasion.

The Martians Attack London

Scattered through the musical score, the journalist drops anecdotal narration, describing the scenes of horror as he witnesses them, the world being systematically over run by the martian invaders.

The secondary cast gave the album huge amounts of kudos just because of their standing in popular culture at the time, but the fact of the matter is they were all perfectly cast. Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) is the sung voice of the journalist, with Chris Thompson (Manfred Manns Earth band/”Blinded by the light”), starring as the voice of the people.  Hayward performs the ballad Forever Autumn which alone went on to be a top five hit in the UK chart, while Mann sings Thunder Child, a lament to the loss of a warship that would symbolize mankind’s last stand.

A Martian fighting machine destroys HMS Thunder Child

As the journalist struggles for his own survival he meets secondary characters, the late Phil Lynott of the band Thin Lizzie putting in a star turn as the deranged Parson Nathaniel, a man driven mad by the events around him that are inexplicable within the framework of his religious beliefs.  To him, the martians are just “demons in another form.”

"I shall burn them with my holy cross!"

Lynott is joined in his duet “The Spirit of Man” by Julie Covington (Evita/”Don’t Cry for me Argentina”) who plays Beth, his wife, a woman desperate to make him see reason again. Essex plays the artilleryman, a character we meet early on in the piece when his unit is “wiped out” fighting the martians on Horsell common.  It is the first time the humans square-up against the invaders and an indication of the shape of things to come.  He travels briefly with the journalist to London where the two are separated during a massive martian attack but they are reunited later when Essex lends his gravelly vocals to the rousing “Brave New World,” a battle cry for human resilience.  At this point it is hinted at that the soldier has also become slightly mentally unhinged, a Victorian victim of post-traumatic stress perhaps.

You know where..? Underground

When you’ve listened to the musical WOTW a few times it’s hard to imagine anyone else bringing these characters to life, but the real genius of the work lies in Wayne’s composition – a seamless melding and layering of acoustic, electric and orchestral arrangements.  Sure, there’s the occasional twangy guitar in there but this was the seventies man, and if the musical style dates the work a little I would argue that it is all the better for it.

Much of the album’s success lies in Wayne’s ability to use music as a medium to bring WOTW to a wider audience.  For every die-hard sci-fi fan who was an instant convert, there were probably many others who didn’t like science fiction or weren’t big readers but who found the album an attractive alternative because they were more inclined toward music and the spoken word.  Maybe they were just tempted to give it a listen because of the big names associated with it.  Whatever the reason, to quote Burton himself, “from that moment, they were doomed.”

As mentioned before, WOTW was first released in 1978.  It spent 235 weeks on the UK chart and sold more than 13 million copies.  In 1995 a special edition featuring remixes and additional concept art was released and in 2005, the original album was digitally remastered.
Each re-release of the album has touched a new generation and garnered Wayne’s version of WOTW a legion of lifelong fans.  The interest generated in the work has spawned a number of spin-off projects.
In 1994 and 1998, computer game versions of WOTW were released and a PlayStation game is also available. 2007 was supposed to see the release of an animated movie version, although at present it is still in the production stages. Test animation footage can be seen here
A live tour of the production began in the UK and Ireland in 2006. As well as featuring some of the original voice talent (Justin Hayward, Chris Thompson) It includes a holographic projection of Burton and a gigantic martian fighting machine.  The orchestra is conducted by none other than Wayne himself.

The show has proved to be such a huge success that it has toured annually since, visiting Australia and New Zealand, Germany, Holland and Belgium.  You may want to prepare yourself, it can only be a matter of time before the martians invade US shores.

Wayne’s “War of the Worlds” will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my earliest influences. Like Star Wars, it has survived the test of time remarkably well.  I still listen to it on a regular basis and digital technology allows me to skip to a favorite track if time is short but that’s never as satisfying as hearing Burton’s opening lines and listening to it in its entirety.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to experience Wayne’s War of the Worlds I would strongly recommend you do so.  It’s a great piece of work.

Additional Links:

All things relating to Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds”
A fascinating history of Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds”

Stuart Clark is the author of the Project U.L.F series of science fiction adventure novels.

“Would You Like a Free Mug With Your Coffee?”: Drug-Company Gifts for Doctors

By Chris Stookey

During my medical residency in the 1990s, the hospital where I worked put on, like most hospitals, a monthly “drug luncheon.”  A drug luncheon is something akin to a fair where drug companies operate booths pitching their various wares, in this case, drugs.  The drug companies, themselves, pay for the event.  I remember how my fellow residents would get excited on drug luncheon day.  There would be free food, flashy slide-show presentations, and free gifts.  All the doctors, residents, and medical students at the hospital were invited to attend.

We would walk into the large conference room where the luncheon was held, and we would immediately be assaulted by the smell of simmering casseroles and by blue-suited drug salesmen, the so-called “drug reps.”  We would pile our plates with free food, then the drug reps would invite us to visit their booths where we were promised a variety of gifts.  The gifts would range to include free drug samples, free stethoscopes, and free trips to tropical places.  Nearly every drug rep offered you a complimentary pen with the company logo on it.  There were also free penlights, free centimeter rulers, free tee-shirts, and free coffee mugs—all with the company logo, of course.

In addition to the free food and gifts, we also earned free “CMEs,” continuing medical education units, at these lectures.  All doctors must stay up-to-date by attending lectures and taking medical courses, and all must earn a certain number of CME credits every year to keep their licenses current.  As it turns out, the pharmaceutical industry funds about half of all CME courses offered in the United States, and CME credit was an important part of the drug luncheon experience during my residency days.  Simply by signing our names on an attendance sheet at the luncheon, we earned valuable CME credit.

All we had to do in exchange for the free food, gifts, and CMEs was listen to a four- or five-minute sales pitch by this or that drug rep regarding his company’s newest and greatest wonder drug just brought to market.  In addition, there were lectures and videos promoting featured drugs.

I always came away from these luncheons feeling a little “unclean.”  Had we all just been pawns in a big brain-washing scheme, a scheme to get us to prescribe the drugs pitched at the luncheon?  My fellow residents all answered this question with a resounding, “No!”  They all said their prescribing habits were not in any way influenced by these luncheons.  They were just there for the free food and gifts.

But, I wondered: if no one’s drug-prescribing habits were influenced by the free food and gifts, then why were the drug companies spending so much money to put these luncheons on in the first place?  Was it simply because they liked us?  I suspected the truth was the marketing departments at the drug companies had thoroughly researched the answer to the question, and the answer was a resounding, “Yes! Drug luncheons do influence prescribing behavior.”

Yet, if the luncheons influenced prescribing, was this ethical?  Shouldn’t doctors be prescribing medications based what’s best for their patients—rather than on a free lunch and a fountain pen?

I’m certainly not the only one who feels uncomfortable about drug-company-sponsored free food and CMEs.  Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, has been outspoken in her criticism of this practice.  Dr. Bernard Lo, a leading medical ethicist at the University of California, has called for an end to drug-company-funded CME conferences.  In June of this year, the University of Michigan Medical School announced it would no longer accept drug company money for CME coursework (the first medical school to do so).

According to an article appearing in The New York Times (June 23, 2010), drug companies and medical device manufacturers spend around $1 billion a year to sponsor CME events.  The drug companies maintain they offer lectures, information, and courses that are free from bias.  Dr. Michael Steinman, a professor of medicine at the San Francisco V.A. Medical Center, disagrees.  As quoted in the Times article, Steinman believes: “The course providers have a subtle and probably unconscious incentive to put on courses that are favorable to industry because they know where their bread is buttered.”

Meanwhile, as I wander around the hospital where I work today, I still see the signs of drug company marketing.  There’s the doctor who just walked by with a drug company pen in her white coat.  There’s another doctor drinking coffee from a mug with the name of a popular antidepressant written on it.  Another doctor gleefully tells me he’ll be going to a medical conference in Hawaii—meals and CME credits paid for by the drug company sponsoring the event.

I tell my colleague to have a good time in Hawaii.  Rather than mention my discomfort with drug-industry-sponsored CME, I simply shrug my shoulders and say: “Be sure to wear sunscreen.”

Hello all!

Since the best way to begin a conversation with someone new is to introduce yourself, that is what I will do here. I am B. Pine, and I am the author of a fantasy series titled The Draca Wards Saga. The first book, Familiar Origins, was picked up by Silver Leaf Books and is now available. The official release date is May 2011, but it is available right now on Kindle, and as a pre-order.

In order to break the ice, many seminars and workshops would have each member of the group state a few interesting facts about themselves. It always seems to work, so I will pick up on that and list five things about me that I think are interesting:

1. I am a left-handed Capricorn. (Look up other left-handed Capricorns; many of them are quite famous. He,he!)
2. My oldest child was born in England.
3. My youngest was born on Halloween.
4. I love Boxers (the dog, not the shorts)
5. I skipped kindergarten and was placed straight into first grade.

The Draca Wards Saga is my main project at the moment. You can find out more about it here: www.dracawards.com

I like putting images in my posts. So here’s one. This is the map of my world:

Click here to read a few interviews: Familiar Origins Tales of the Council of Elders

That’s all I have for now. But I hope to have more for you all soon.

B.