June Reads Updated- A Memory of Light

I have finally finished Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's A Memory of Light the final book in The Wheel of Time series. It was a fitting end to a wonderful series. I'm unsure wether or not a spoiler warning is needed here, since the book has been out since Januaray, regardless you can find the rest of my review after the jump.

Tips for Improving Dialogue

This video is titled, "Three anti-social skills to improve your writing" and focuses on how writers can construct realistic dialogue.  I already live by the first tip- eavesdropping. Everywhere I go, I carry a notebook in my purse in case I hear an interesting conversation that I want to write down or see something that inspires me. One tip they didn't include is one I find very useful when writing dialogue- have two friends act out the dialogue for you. Hearing it out loud and discussed between two people similar to the way your characters may speak is always helpful. And if your characters speak in a unique manner- they're always formal or they stress words at inappropriate times- this can help you keep things consistent. I also enjoyed the animation in this video and think that it, along with the length of the video, helps keep your attention. It's pretty to look at, short and concise with a lot of useful information and tips.

Haruki Murakami's Facebook Presence

Haruki Murakami's Facebook page is not run by him personally, but by his publishing company, Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage Books. That is what you are told under the "About" section on the main page, instead of anything about the author. If you click on "About" and go to that page, you get a professional mini biography and under "Interests" are a list of all of Mr. Murakami's various works. So from the start we can see that this is not a page in which that author has a personal presence or makes himself available to his audience, but a page run by a publisher to promote their author. I believe part of this may have to do with the fact that Mr. Murakami is a Japanese writer and, although he doesn't have a personal presence on Facebook, he may have a personal presence on Japanese social networking sites.

 If we return to the main page, we see that the last time a post was made to this page was June 4, and this page is updated sporadically. Before the June 4 update, the previous was on May 29. Most of the posts are there to promote his books. They usual include a quote from the book, and the book cover. There are also snippets from reviews of his books, posts on translating his books from Japanese to English, and a very timely post on why Mr. Murakami decided to translate The Great Gatsby into Japanese, which links to a post on his website. There are also clips and quotes from interviews with Mr. Murakami, so the reader can get to know the man behind the book. As evidenced by this blog, we see that Mr. Murakami is a very private man, because as we scroll down, there is a link to an article titled, "Author Murakami makes first Japan public appearance in 18 years" to promote his new book, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage". I believe the publishing company does a good job at keeping Mr. Murakami's Facebook active and updated with relevant information regarding his newest works. I think they do a decent job at showing us who Mr. Murakami is, despite the fact that he is a private person. This page does exactly what it sets out to do- market an author.

June Reads and Some Writing

It's finally June, and during the summer months is when I usually fly through books. What is better than lying outside, reading a good book? But this year I may have a problem. You see, in February a friend let me borrow the final book in The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. I was so excited to finally have this book in my hand, to know that there was finally an ending. I started this series in 2003, reading all ten books that were out in a few months. I had to wait a few years for the next book, but when it came out, I read it in a week. The same with the two after that. And now, the final book, everything Jordan has been building towards throughout this series, 912 pages of pure goodness, and I'm dragging my feet. I'm almost half way through the book- around 450 or so- and I just can't seem to push through. I average a chapter or two a day, now. I think after 13 books, I have finally lost interest. However, I am determined to finish this book before the end of June! The pacing finally picked up in the chapter I read last night, and it looks likes things are starting to come to a head. It's not the page turner I thought it would be, but it still has 460 pages to make me change my mind. Here's hoping it does, because I really want to love this book. There is one character who is making that very hard for me (Elayne, just go away, please) but I try not to let that interfere too much.