Fast Reading

Reader of Depressing Books is a great, trippy blog about writing, reading and everything in between you have to check out.

More Kelly Linkage.

The new Powells's interview is probably my favorite contemporary author, Neil Gaiman. He talks about his new novel, Anansi Boys, which comes out next month.

When I was in KC this past weekend, I gave my aunt and uncle my (EPIC TRILOGY ALERT) novel. To my surprise, my aunt read it in two days. She enjoyed it, which was a relief, and had lots of constructive comments, most of which centered on five pages of notes on misplaced words, absent words, and too fancy words. I've learned that I have a blind spot for certain words (I will think I have written them when I haven't) and I need to be a lot more discriminate when I'm looking over my work. I took an hour or so tonight to plug all the holes; going through the book reminded me again of how dramatic the tone is between it and the second book in the trilogy. If the first one is a fairy tale, let's say, a Wizard of Oz type journey, the second one is a Shakesperean style tragedy, crossed with the archetectonic novel.

I added around ten pages to Chapter Seven in the Angel Book tonight, an even mix of old and new material. The first draft was 303 pages, comically or tragically short - presently the second draft stands at 176 pages, and it's barely covered a third of the original narrative. I'm thinking it will be at least 500 pages, maybe 600.

Any bets?

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