Comments for Eddie Schneider

Comment on Coming soon by Eugene

Eugene — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:01:24 +0000

I didn’t know you draw! See, I’m already learning stuff. You should definitely blog more.

I want to blog more too, but I’m not quite sure what to blog about, and time is more of a factor these days. I want to post more pictures (when I remember to take them) and I hadn’t considered putting up some artwork, but that isn’t a bad idea.

I was enjoying the 100 Sentences project, so I’ll be glad to see that resume. Not sure what else to call it… “Between the Covers”? “Pick-up Lines”? Because they’re supposed to encourage you to take the book home?

Comment on Narrative development by Noah

Noah — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:00:38 +0000

This is a really interesting post (I realize it’s old, but I only just found it). My one problem with it is that it seems to me that you could have all of the above-mentioned qualities, and still no masterpiece. At the risk of joining you in the ivory tower, perhaps you need to not only have all four CASE qualities, but also have at least one of these qualities be truly superlative. To use an example from your favorite-author list, Kurt Vonnegut’s BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS certainly has a plot and central conflict (Storytelling), but its main strength is what you would call Articulation. I prefer it to CAT’S CRADLE, which again has all four elements, but is stronger on both Creativity and Engagement. (BOC *feels* plenty creative, but when you think about it, how creative is a science-fiction author writing about another science-fiction author?) So I’m just not convinced that the CASE Hierarchy is in fact a hierarchy.

All that having been said, I like your theory of narrative, and it does reflect my experience in terms of writing. When I first started writing my novel (the first three chapters of which may already be sitting on your desk!) I did not expect it to have any significant amount of Engagement. I started writing it in college, and my professors kept telling me that they wanted to see something that dealt with Big Issues–a novel that was more Jewish, or more philosophical, or, it seemed to me, less commercial. I was very resistant to the idea, because I thought they were asking for a polemic and I just wanted to write fantasy. But the more I wrote, the more my novel started to engage with the real world, from religion to love–accidentally! That was a major part of my growth as a writer: becoming engaged (with or without a capital E).

Okay, enough late-night/early-morning commentary on two-year-old blog posts. Good morning, and don’t forget to read my MS!

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Basil

Basil — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:54:10 +0000

Eddie!

Great premise for a blog! I can’t believe I read that book. It was eerie as hell. Especially the statues that came alive in a macabre symphony. I especially loved his use of complex footnotes!

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Rochelle Spencer

Rochelle Spencer — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:26:06 +0000

I hope you continue with this project; it’s important to recognize good writing, no matter what the genre…Just the other day, an established literary writer told me he “doesn’t read fantasy and sci-fi,” and thus, had difficulty offering me feedback on my work. Doesn’t read fantasy/sci-fi? What about Kafka’s Metamorphosis, or Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, or as you point out, Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao? Good writing belongs to everyone.

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Emi

Emi — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:35:51 +0000

Hi Eddie.

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Barry King

Barry King — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:11:48 +0000

Hi, Eddie:

Good to see you at WorldCon during Fi Patton’s reading. Thanks again for the workshop help earlier at Polaris. Very useful.

Are you planning on continuing this project? I’ve been checking by every few days, since the first was interesting. Not to pressure, understand, but I was wondering if I’m just not seeing the continuation.

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:45:23 +0000

Cool! Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with a good variety of books. I have a feeling quite a few of my picks will be obvious, but I have a couple that I know are curveballs (and at least one isn’t, strictly speaking, a “book”).

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:41:50 +0000

I'm all ears on the recommendations, especially if it looks like I'm picking things that are too obvious, or there seems to be some glaring hole yet to be filled. As for Oscar Wao, I picked it up because of the cover, saw the epigraphs, and was in. I wish Junot Diaz would write faster (it took ten years between Drown and Oscar Wao), but some people need the ten years to write a novel. Susanna Clarke did, and so did Tolkien.

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:34:53 +0000

I think this will be fun. I’d worry about running out of books, except that I don’t think that will happen. I’ve already found quotes from about a dozen other titles to get me started. The only challenge will be keeping the Ursula Le Guin to other authors ratio to an acceptable range.

As for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, that sentence, plus the footnote, were what hooked me. At that point, it set in that I was dealing with something that was going to demand my attention, and after getting caught up in the atmospherics, it turned out to have all the other aggregates.

Comment on 100 Sentences – Sentence #1 by Sharon E. Dreyer

Sharon E. Dreyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:15:24 +0000

Thanks! I’ve already added your blog to my favorites list since I plan to return each week. As a science fiction author I love to read science fiction. With a considerable of luck, perhaps my book will one day make it on your list. Check out my first and recently released novel, Long Journey to Rneadal. This exciting tale is a romantic action adventure in space and is more about the characters than the technology.