Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 November 2004 09:07:51
...By mutual consent this blog is (and will continue to be) about a lot of things. Primarily on my mind is the book what I writ that was released in mid september, because the whole process is still fresh in my mind and often things will happen that remind me its out there..
But the blog is about a lot of things. I'm a freelance artist for a start so occasionally I'll talk about that process of image from agreed sketch to finalised artwork. I'm a volunteer youthworker and a father of two which is always fun. One of my two is autistic and the blog may well go more into that off and on. Oooh there's loads I could chat about, and I'm purposefully trying to avoid focusing specifically about the book for a number of reasons. One is that it's one of the many things on my mind and another is that some of my friendships have taken to becoming frequent chats about whats happening with the book, how its selling and all that. I don't mind in many ways, because my friends are enjoying the release of the book as much as I am. But I do miss phoning a friend and not talking about Dr Sylver. Some conversations seem to dwell on that subject all the way through. Others can be skirted around quickly. Hopefully it'll quieten down soon and I'll go back to being just me. (This isn't a criticism of my friends btb. Just a need for me to escape it all from time to time..Then some times there are times when it's the only thing on my mind. I need a two sided badge that I can swap around to guide conversation...)
That all said I'm going to torpedo my argument by chatting about the book for a sec (yup. It's ok for me to dwell on it, but only at times of my choosing :) :) ) Anyway, I had a mixed review and I thought I'd share, because it amused me.
'Paul Kercal' it starts 'obviously has a visionary world already established in his head for the Sylver chronicles' (well he does and he doesn't and he certainly didn't choose the title the Sylver Chronicles..That was a publisher thing). 'His style of introducing us to it is a bit jumpy and abrupt'. Lets just quick cut to the next quote... 'There are some typos - the most annoying being the consistent use of "bought" when "brought" is meant' (oops. that proofreader needs replacing... You should see all the typos that were in the first draft.)
Anyhow I say mixed. Thats the negative. Then we quickcut into: 'the authorial quirky dry humour comments throughout the book are a charm, and enable us to feel that we are standing alongside a friend as we try to understand the worlds he is presenting to us in this book', 'The whole concept of the Repository of Time and the the changing books that Dr Sylver has the job of editing is amazing' and my favourite bit: 'Through this rattling good tale: young people are affirmed and encouraged and ministered to and cared about in this book in an understated way, and presented with tools for living which should challenge them to think and invite them to respond.' Which is wonderful, but could have done with an extra full stop or two.
I just hope people don't read the first paragraph and think 'sounds bad' before they read the last part. The comments are by Robyn Whitefern from the Librarians' Christian Fellowship Newsletter, Winter 2004, due out soon I'm told. Thanks to Graham for setting that up for me.
On a different review subject had another nice review on the amazon page and a mixed responce from my sunday group to it all. We had one visiting kid come in on sunday and someone said 'you know that book you liked' and then pointed at me. That was very nice. Then one of our long standing groupers said 'saw you on the radio!' (they had a webcam). 'yeah?' said I. 'yeah you looked really stoopid' said she. That was less nice but at least she mentioned it :)
We also had a paper vote on who would be most trusted within the youth group in various situations and I was asked to count. I won! And was so trusted in fact that no-one even commented that I did the count, got the most votes and won the chocolate :) Honestly, it was all fair and square. Also finished two pieces of work on sunday (don't like to work on a sunday but the deadline was brought forward from friday to monday so no choice really.. ) so all in all a very pleasant day. I hope yours was equally nice.