FM-PMS

[akk]

Chapter 18 now stands tall at above 9200 words and returned to solo.
I like it much better now and there's even a cautious "thumbs-up" after the first half of the chapter. However, the new scene that upped the word count by 1500 words is in the second half, so it may be better not to get excited yet.

Comments

36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on writing a review on your stories as soon as I finish catching up, but I had to stop and ask you something that I'm really curious about. In chapter 9 of "Family Matters", when Seishirou is reading "From Hell" and commenting on the inefficiency of the distorted pentagram he mentions Clow and Norrell. I must admit I was super excited at seeing the reference, though I'm wondering who this Norrell is. I originally thought of Susanna Clarke's Mr Norrell--is it him? Or another magical Norrell?

Sorry to be bothering you. I just LOVE all the research and details you add to these stories and this was a little something that caught my attention. I'll write a more appropriate comment when I finish reading "Family Matters" in a few days. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Hello,
and welcome within the Decagram. :)

Yes, he's talking about Susanna Clarke's Norrell. I love that book. S.C.'s language creates a formfitted feeling of the time the book plays in and still it's easily and fluidly readable even to somebody with English as a second language. However, I don't plan to mix its content with TBX. It would cause too many issues, but Norrell as a known 19th century magician was possible. (I ♥ my research & talking about it.)

Btw. I noticed you friended me on LJ. I still don't crosspost chapters there, though the common chitchat is cross-posted again. You can find all my writings on Dreamwidth through my guide post.

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I'm big fan of Clarke's novel as well (read the whole thing in 4 days first time around) which is why I was excited at seeing the reference, as well as the idea that other practitioners of magic would know Norrell's name.

Thank you for the concern. I actually found the Decagram through a link to your guide post. I added you on LJ because I still keep an eye on my friends list. Since you cross-post I can come here to Dreamwidth when you post about progress on "Family Matters". I hope you don't mind, it's just a quicker way for me to be alerted about FM activities. ;)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

I'm afraid I yet have to finish Clarke's novel. About halfway through, my time was gobbled up by completing an urgent scientific paper and I couldn't get back in afterwards. Since then I try to find the time to start it from scratch.

Of course, I don't mind you friending me. I hope you don't mind that I friended you back. I love recs & reviews of fics (it's the way I sort through my "I want to read that once I finished writing the Decagram"-list, which has grown to at least three fat A4-folders so far). And since I stopped considering LJ as my blog home, I treat my friends list almost exclusively as a reading list.

Btw. if you validate the email address for your open-id on DW, you can keep a reading list (including notifications) here as well. Then you don't have to rely on me to remember crossposting to LJ. :)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend trying to read Clarke's novel. Yes, it's enormous but certainly worth it!

Thank you for the heads up on the reading list here on DW. I'll look into it. And I certainly don't mind you friending me back--it's nice knowing someone is at least considering my recs. ;)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Oh, I will definitely finish Clarke's book. I just want to make sure I have enough time on my hands to read it in an acceptable amount of time for full savoring of the excellent era display. Though I have to say, at 1002 pages it hardly deserves "enormous" as an adjective. "The Swarm" in its German original has the same page count and I gobbled it up within a week. But it was a week of vacation, which sadly is something far away while writing on a doctorate thesis, so Strange & Norrell have to wait a little longer for my attention. :)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I'm curious as to what you consider an "enormous" book, then? Maybe Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", if you consider it all one single book?

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I apologise if this last comment sounded a bit rude, it wasn't my intention! I consider over 1000 pages as a big book, considering the average novel doesn't exceed 600 pages. It's all a matter of reference, I suppose, and I'm genuinely curious as to what your reference is. :D

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Don't worry. I didn't take your comment as rude. I was just astonished about a book being considered by its page count, because that was never a measure for me. A thrilling, compelling read of 5000 pages can still be way too short and a boring one of 50 pages can be an excruciatingly horrible experience to me, so... :-)
"Big" or "enormous" are adjectives I have a hard time defining for books. Now, if we go for "captivating", "fascinating" or "compelling" then page count is entirely insignificant (because it's always TOO LOW). ;)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Frankly, I consider Proust a "heavy" book - as in, if I were so fond of it that I'd want to read it on my commuter train, I'd consider getting an ebook (it's lighter on the bag). ;) - but I can't really name a page count that would make a book intimidating to me.
However, a page count by content, probably is. There are books of mere 120 pages that I found excruciatingly boring to get through, either because the language was awful (or the plot absent). :)
As for truly long fav reads of mine...
- George R.R. Martin's "The Song of Ice and Fire"
- Cherryh's "Fortress" series (only 5 normal paperbacks, but a very rich language, not to be missed)
- Michael Baier's "Coruum" (3 books ~2700+ double-sized pages)
- Landau/Lifschitz's "Course of Theoretical Physics" (10 books ♥)
- many more novel series, actually, of which I'm happy that they come in separate volumes to be taken along on commuting. :)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely agree with you, quality should definitely come before quantity. And I also agree that sometimes a book feels longer (or shorter) than it actually is due to quality or content. It's just that physical length sometimes is an easier way to asses how long it will take to read that book, although definitely not accurate! ;)

And thank you for your list of recs--good, long stories are always a pleasure to read!

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

I posted a view book (and movie) recommendations over time, though sometimes in form of a meme. If you're interested:
http://akk.dreamwidth.org/tag/recommendation (books, movies, tv)
http://akk.dreamwidth.org/tag/book (books specifically)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I'll check them out as soon as I can. ;)

And thanks for giving the heads-up about the open-ID. Yay, icons! XD

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

:) It's a cool feature that made moving to DW an easy choice - okay, that and importing whole journals _with_ comments & settings from other serives, crossposting to other services, and having a much bigger word count per post and reply, but let's not be nitpicky - I liked the opportunity for people to follow my stuff (and answer answerable (if that's a word)) without being forced to make an account just to do that. Most people have an open ID somewhere (even if Yahoo doesn't work yet).