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Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Books and blogs

Outside my usual reading habits

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I’ve read several books recently, three from entirely
different genres: Isaacson’s Steve Jobs , Hamilton’s
Pandora’s Star and Simon Haynes’s Hal Space Jock, a slapstick Sci-Fi.  Each of these works is outside my usual
reading habits. 
The Jobs’ biography caught my attention because I am
interested in how other people evolve and grow from clunky teenagers with odd
ideas to adults who build a place in the world for themselves and do it grandly.  They show the rest of us how it is done, mainly
reiterating the adage Do what you love
and give it all you have.  
Pandora’s Star received good reviews, but after reading about
90 percent of it (I refused to give up), I had to acknowledge that space opera
may not be the type of Science Fiction for me. 
If this is a good example of the sub-genre, then clearly I prefer novels
that have a small cast, more characterization and have a plot that is connected
far earlier in the progression of the work. 
The novel had good writing, just is not my brand of Sci-Fi.   
Now Hal Space Jock was a Sci-Fi style new to me as
well.  I have used the author’s software ,
yWriter and thought I would try to read one of his books.  It too fit a particular taste.  Whoever chooses to read it best be looking
for a purely fun read, no philosophical views on life or demanding intellect to
be found here, but fun, funny and relaxing. 
I am still reading Jobs’ bio, having only just started it, and
I’ll probably not attempt another space opera for some time yet (at least not
before summer when I can sit down for long runs at reading rather than the
short bursts I only have time for during the school year), but more than likely
I will read another Hal book.

It’s not the words, but the interplay of them

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I have read A Tale of Two Cities numerous times and have made notations up and down the margins north, south, east and west.  The reading of it always mesmerizes me with the detail and development of character, setting and connection, of what has gone and what is to come.

“Do you particularly like the man?” he muttered, at his own image. “Why should you particularly like a man who resembles you?  There is nothing in you to like; you know that.  Ah, confound you! What a change you have made in yourself!  A good reason for taking a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away from, and what you might have been? Change places with him and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was, and commiserated by that agitated face as he was?  Come on, and have it out in plain words!  You hate the fellow.”

Oh, poor Carton, who loves Lucie but not himself enough to push aside his determined fate.

Or Monsieur the Marquis as he travels home from Paris, just late from his most recent evil:

The Monsieur the Marquis in red

The sunset struck so brilliantly into the travelling (sic) carriage when it gained the hill-top, (sic) that its occupant was steeped in crimson.  “It will die out,” said Monsieur the Marquis, glancing at his hands, “directly.”

Blood not just on his hands but all over him, “steeped in crimson” and “will die out.”  And so his bloodline nearly does; he certainly does and almost “directly.”

I love to get lost in Dicken’s flow of words, so deeply knitted together as though the whole cloth of the story was life as he moves characters in and out of the spotlight until the reader is entirely uncertain who should be followed, main character and supporting shifting places constantly, just as life works, each of us moving in and out of the limelight with the people we most care about.

Something new on my blog

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Well, not really on the blog.  I added another page, Creative Ventings, to my blog site, a fiction corner of sorts.  I thought I would include some samples of my writing, but I didn’t want to include anything that I am working on now as such things are in flux until I finalize them.  So instead, I have some mini writings that are inspired by pictures I have taken.  They might become something more, though not right away as I have enough projects to keep me busy for some time.

On this new page, I will add more scribblings from time to time as I remove those that have been setting a bit.  It is an evolving process much like this endeavor to write and publish my own books.  I am flapping as fast as I can.  So wander around, let me know what you like, what you feel needs improvement or give me ideas for my next creative venting.

Books that connect us to life

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Tennyson and my mother

While I was on Goodreads last week, a thread title intrigued me: Stories about books.  I had to check it out and I am glad I did. It was about how books become a part of our lives, imbedded in them and forever part of memories we take along with us through our lives.  I posted a quick story about a book and how it connected me to my mother.  Mike asked me if I would be willing to add my story to his website Stories About Books.  I checked out the site and decided I would very much like to do that.  Go post your story about a book that has become a part of your life.  Click on the link below to read my story.

My book story

Along the lines of finding authors and books

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Four of the masters

One thing
that I have noticed as a reader in this new digital reading age is that
the opportunity to meet writers behind the books that I like has
changed.  And I think it is a good change.  I read some of Rachel Aaron’s blog
posts weeks before I decided to read her sample (a time difference great
enough to have read the earlier posts before she updated her website,
which, by the way, is quite nicely designed, and then her sample after
the update.)  I like that I learned a bit about her and a bit from her
before I took a look at a book she had written.  Her writing as a
blogger convinced me she could write well and hold my attention, so I
expected her books would do the same.  That is not how I used to select my reading choices, say Azimov or Bradbury.  And I found her as a writer finds another writer, not as a reader finds an author.

In the age of
Azimov and Bradbury, who I found by reading books alphabetically down the
shelf marked science fiction at my public library when I was twelve, I would have just jumped
in (and did) and started reading because I believed that anything that
got into print was clearly worth reading or else they would not have
published it.  I think for the most part that was a reliable belief
in the 60’s and 70’s.  It was not until about 20 years later that I finally
ran across a book which made me wonder who in heck thought this was a
good idea. Even so, I felt it was a fluke not a condition.

Times
do change.  So I select a little differently now.  I read comments on
Goodreads, read blogs by writers, check out what SFWA is serving up for
interest and generally keep my ears and eyes open for a good read.
Sometimes I wish I could just walk along that sound-muffled aisle,
bookshelves twice as tall as I and the bookcases running along far
enough to show perspective lines.  Even so, it’s what is inside the books
that I find most interesting though that memory of how I used to find
them stays a pleasant one.

Writer and novel caught my attention with a door

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This is a door, a very old, Swedish church door.

Very recently (and I mean just days ago), I read a sample from a book (The Spirit Thief) by Rachel Aaron on her website.  I really enjoyed what I read and took no time adding the book to my “to read” bookshelf on Goodreads.  Her writing really caught my attention as she quickly created character and interest in just a few pages.  Now I am reshuffling what I want to read next once I finish Pandora’s Star and Shades of Grey.  (And for some reason I felt the need to add The Owl Keeper to my lineup of reading now novels, so who knows when I will select another book.)  But The Spirit Thief keeps working its way up the list every time I think back on what I read from the sample.  I love her opening event:  Eli Monpress talks a door into releasing him from prison!

And I am impressed with her as a person, too.  I have read a few of her blogs.  She is personable, knowledgeable without being an “I’ve got the answers” kind of writer, and humorous.  She takes her writing seriously and writes in a fun manner.  Nice combination.  So I found a new writer to learn from and a new series to read.