Still no title for Stand-Of

Here’s what I have so far:

• Stand-Off (fairly nonsensical)
• City Of Lost Light (too familiar to the film City Of Lost Children)
• Lost Light  - this one I quite like.
• Low Light – a bit nonsensical, but I like this is some nonspecific way

No others yet.

A fantastic writing tool – Moleskine Folio Ruled Notebook

For all of us who choose to hand write our little pieces of non-fiction, I’d like to suggest you take a look at the link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/8862931913/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

I picked up one of these this week, and by the gods it’s a pleasure to use. Not only that but I can’t browse the web on it. Which means one thing: no distractions – apart from posting this, naturally.

Stand-Off – Chapter 3 begins

Firstly, I have no idea why this novelette is still called Stand-Off.

I can’t even remember why I decided to give it that name in the first instance. Was it something to do with a Mexican stand-off I imagined would take part in the third act? God know how that fits into this version of story. Still, quite an intriguing idea…

Anyway, enough babble. Chapter 3 is cooking as we speak, albeit it in written form. There’s something pure and artistic about ditching a keyboard and reverting to a brand new empty notebook and my fountain pen, and just crashing out on the bed, the act of ‘making stuff up’ rendered into its simplest form. The progress is slower, but only to the degree I can type about four to five times my writing speed. Factor in the umpteen distractions and shiny things my MacBook wants to show me, and I find that speed is relative.

Of course, what this means is that I won’t be posting any of my writing until either the Novelette or a Chapter is finished. This decision will be based almost entirely on my whim.

Review of Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Best Served Cold is a standalone novel set in the same fantasy universe Abercrombie created in the much applauded‘The Blade Itself’ trilogy, and although the world events mean there are interactions between the series of books, in terms of characters who make cameo appearances, large and small, Best Served Cold is very much a different type of story.

The gritty and Tarantino-esque plot of revenge, murder and violence will appeal to fans of Richard Morgan (who is name checked at the end of the novel) while I quickly tired of the repetition and sheer bludgeonous nature of one savagely described death after another, descending into fare at some points. In one scene a character beheads another by throwing a knife at him. I’m not kidding. Mix this in with characters who are fundamentally unlikeable, bereft of any charm and who all appear to talk like they are auditioning for a Guy Ritchie movie, and I found myself losing interest half-way through the book, and completely indifferent for the last third.

Most frustrating is the lack of humour and playfulness I enjoyed so much in The Blade Itself. Abercrombie has elected to play this particular story straight – too straight, relentless as it is in the pornography of its violence without a counterbalance, leaving us with a one-note novel that runs out of steam half-way through and can only attempt to up the ante by multiplying what has previous gone on before by a factor of n.

It is a shame, because for the first third the book had me in the palm of its hand, but as a novel the idea outlives itself. This would be a more satisfying read as a shortened, tightened novella, a segue into the world he has created. Instead we are left with an overlong, disappointing, arduous and grim effort that makes me sincerely hope his next novel avoids the pitfalls of this one.