Congratulations! Hopefully you can shake off the impostor long enough to thoroughly enjoy this fabulous accolade! Great post and writing, love the word penumbra too.
I love the interjecting of the altered state set off by //. When you get deep into the mind of a character, traditional prose falls short of capturing the experience. I had a similar dilemma when writing my serial, “The Memory of My Shadow.” In my story, an AI actually breaks into the consciousness of the main character and can experience her mind, and perceive through her senses. I had to find new ways to offset the AI’s voice and thoughts from the character’s. I ended up using [ ] and I think it worked out well.
altered state perjury promise personification Puddlebrain power purity panic..... perusal. At some point discovery that that altered state can be toggled at W I L L , without obsessive compulsion to dare the skirmish with death, or worse .... insanity. Or so I find, N'est pas !? Peace, Maurice
Congratulations on a well-deserved honor! As the self-appointed Queen of Overthinking 👑, I deeply understand feeling impostery. But also: you're just gonna have to learn to live with your stories being enjoyed! Ha ha! I wish you all the happiness of it! 😈
Interesting device you are playing with, working on a way to show thoughts interjecting on each other. I like that play on how little control we have over what we think on the best of days, and using that to play with a character's interiority. Looking forward to more!
Also: I love re-reading books! It's like getting to play with your favorite stuffed animal from childhood again with all the magic of that young experience intact.
Oh my, yes! Depending on the kind of support I want, there are a bunch that I'll go back to for different reasons. But my mainstays since my teen years have been Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, and Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. One to remind me that magic and regret are both real and necessary; the other to remind me that it's possible go forth and do anything I want to do, including not suffer fools!
I just read The Last Unicorn for the first time this week, and I immediately went back to page 1 and read it again. It's one of the few books I've done that with, and it was an interesting experience to see the story again in light of where I knew it was going. I can see why it has so much staying power in the fantasy community!
Well to be honest, I re read it because I didn't pay close enough attention and got confused the first time, ha. It is ethereal in tone, and I was expecting a more straightforward plot. I also realized my expectations of pace (I read it in one sitting) were off, so I started over with different expectations and enjoyed it a lot more. I'm now reading Wolfe by your glowing recommendation and finding the same issue - it's a book meant to be savored and pondered, not rushed. Maybe I've been too long in recent fantasy books, all action and plot! Need to rebuild the muscle of patience 🙂
Gosh, already onto Wolfe. That's amazing. I do hope you enjoy. It is absolutely something to be savoured. I've always felt a "ok, this is great but I really must finish so I can start the next book in the pile" when reading, but Gene has helped me slow down and savour the depth. I look forward to hearing of any further thoughts you have down the track.
Enjoyed your post. First of all, mad congratulations for your mention in Substack Reads! I’ve never read the books, but they seem very up my alley. I’ll have to check them out. Also, I dream of owning a Folio Society hardcover one day too! Thanks for writing this, Nathan. It seems we’ve got some things in common.
So, having read the first half and skimmed the second half of The Shadow of the Torturer, I have to say I am on the one hand enraptured by the language and on the other hand thoroughly confused by the whole thing. It is genre-bending in a way that makes my brain hurt, and it refuses to explain itself clearly - it's described online as "science fantasy," which should have told me something about what to expect! It feels like fantasy, but there is no obvious magic, and also there is ancient technology in ruins and apparently in later books, aliens (?!). I will have to come back to this one, I think. It appears to be a story about Severian's journey inward to understand himself at the same time as he moves outwardly through the world, somewhat aimlessly at times and with many detours. I need to be in the right mental frame of mind for that kind of winding road, plus the copy I have from the library has incredibly small font, which makes it difficult to focus. Sometimes books hit differently at different times in life, and I've found it does no good to force the issue. However, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Clearly it has high praise and a solid place in the science fantasy canon (whatever that means, ha).
Yes, science fantasy. My first real venture into that specific genre, too.
My take on this so far [spoiler??] is that this is our earth, many many many thousands/millions(?) of years in the future, where technology is what we would call magic anyway, but that civilisation has largely crumbled, the sun is cooling, ice is encroaching upon the land; space travel was at one time possible, possibly? Many questions remain.
But yes, requires a specific headspace. I can only read 5-10 pages at a time because I'm taking notes and flipping back and rereading to try to make sure I understand as much of the meaning as possible.
I definitely think you are correct, based on my brief perusal of the commentaries on the internet (which I immediately pulled up to attempt to orient myself to what the heck I had just read)! I bet that if I started from the beginning again with that perspective, the narrative would make more sense. But, I have The Once and Future King and Snow Crash staring at me from the shelf, so I may make it through those first before returning...
I am also like you with the notes - hard to read a library copy when so much of the material cries out to be studied closely, underlined, and marked up!
My husband also tells me I read fast - "sickeningly fast" as he puts it. :) I blame my childhood surrounded by books and peppered with library visits, I had a lot of time to get good at it.
I envy you the reading speed ability. It would help me chip away at my TBR pile. Not read either of those so if you do a review then I'd be keen to read.
So happy for you! Congratulations again. And, yes, that Gene Wolfe quote made me chuckle, too. Writing in strange tongues! Needless to say, the book is on my TRL.
Congratulations! Hopefully you can shake off the impostor long enough to thoroughly enjoy this fabulous accolade! Great post and writing, love the word penumbra too.
Thank you Mya! It is a great word.
EXCELLENT; EVOCATIVE; EXCITING: Keep on trucking
Heh, I sure will. Thanks Maurice. All the E's!
“I have no idea what I'm talking about.” You do make me laugh, Nathan. And Gene Wolfe is a man after your own heart, I see! How nice 😜
Congratulations again on your featuring. And also HAPPY SUPER BLUE FULL MOON 🌝
🌕🌕
Double moon! Alas, there's no blue version. (In that book, the moon is green...!)
Thanks for swinging by, Chloe.
I love the interjecting of the altered state set off by //. When you get deep into the mind of a character, traditional prose falls short of capturing the experience. I had a similar dilemma when writing my serial, “The Memory of My Shadow.” In my story, an AI actually breaks into the consciousness of the main character and can experience her mind, and perceive through her senses. I had to find new ways to offset the AI’s voice and thoughts from the character’s. I ended up using [ ] and I think it worked out well.
Sounds really interesting, Ben. I will definitely check it out. Wanna drop a link here?
Sure, the novel is in it’s own dedicated section of Catch & Release. Here’s a link to a preview https://open.substack.com/pub/benwakeman/p/preview-the-memory-of-my-shadow
Wonderful, thank you.
altered state perjury promise personification Puddlebrain power purity panic..... perusal. At some point discovery that that altered state can be toggled at W I L L , without obsessive compulsion to dare the skirmish with death, or worse .... insanity. Or so I find, N'est pas !? Peace, Maurice
Congratulations, Nathan. I'm way behind on substack reading so didn't notice that you'd been featured. Well done!
No worries Terry, but thank you. Hope you're having a great week.
Thank you, squire, you too!
Congratulations on a well-deserved honor! As the self-appointed Queen of Overthinking 👑, I deeply understand feeling impostery. But also: you're just gonna have to learn to live with your stories being enjoyed! Ha ha! I wish you all the happiness of it! 😈
Interesting device you are playing with, working on a way to show thoughts interjecting on each other. I like that play on how little control we have over what we think on the best of days, and using that to play with a character's interiority. Looking forward to more!
Also: I love re-reading books! It's like getting to play with your favorite stuffed animal from childhood again with all the magic of that young experience intact.
Thanks Elnora. And oh that's a lovely way of thinking about re-reading. Is there any one or two books that you keep returning to?
Oh my, yes! Depending on the kind of support I want, there are a bunch that I'll go back to for different reasons. But my mainstays since my teen years have been Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, and Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. One to remind me that magic and regret are both real and necessary; the other to remind me that it's possible go forth and do anything I want to do, including not suffer fools!
Amazing, thanks for sharing.
I just read The Last Unicorn for the first time this week, and I immediately went back to page 1 and read it again. It's one of the few books I've done that with, and it was an interesting experience to see the story again in light of where I knew it was going. I can see why it has so much staying power in the fantasy community!
It's timeless! And the language is beautiful.
Have you seen the cartoon movie adaptation they put out in the 80s? It's different, but charming in its own way.
Wow, that's quite the recommendation if it made you immediately go back. Somehow I've never read the book. I should rectify that.
Well to be honest, I re read it because I didn't pay close enough attention and got confused the first time, ha. It is ethereal in tone, and I was expecting a more straightforward plot. I also realized my expectations of pace (I read it in one sitting) were off, so I started over with different expectations and enjoyed it a lot more. I'm now reading Wolfe by your glowing recommendation and finding the same issue - it's a book meant to be savored and pondered, not rushed. Maybe I've been too long in recent fantasy books, all action and plot! Need to rebuild the muscle of patience 🙂
Gosh, already onto Wolfe. That's amazing. I do hope you enjoy. It is absolutely something to be savoured. I've always felt a "ok, this is great but I really must finish so I can start the next book in the pile" when reading, but Gene has helped me slow down and savour the depth. I look forward to hearing of any further thoughts you have down the track.
Congrats friend... means so much not just for the community but for all the writers here. True motivator! 🎉
Thanks so much, Alex! Reading all the Substack Reads has always been very motivating, so if some of that gets passed on here then that's awesome.
Let´s keep the excitement rolling. Would definitely love to have you write a "letter to a friend" series!
We’ll crops those unknown paths... knowing there’s something better along the way. That’s the promise 🩵
Cross 🥺
Should have left us guessing without the correction ;)
Ruined the surprise? HAHAHA
👏👏👏
Enjoyed your post. First of all, mad congratulations for your mention in Substack Reads! I’ve never read the books, but they seem very up my alley. I’ll have to check them out. Also, I dream of owning a Folio Society hardcover one day too! Thanks for writing this, Nathan. It seems we’ve got some things in common.
Thanks, Andrei, very kind of you.
And yes, the books are superb! And yeah, all Folio books are so lovely, so $$ 😆
So, having read the first half and skimmed the second half of The Shadow of the Torturer, I have to say I am on the one hand enraptured by the language and on the other hand thoroughly confused by the whole thing. It is genre-bending in a way that makes my brain hurt, and it refuses to explain itself clearly - it's described online as "science fantasy," which should have told me something about what to expect! It feels like fantasy, but there is no obvious magic, and also there is ancient technology in ruins and apparently in later books, aliens (?!). I will have to come back to this one, I think. It appears to be a story about Severian's journey inward to understand himself at the same time as he moves outwardly through the world, somewhat aimlessly at times and with many detours. I need to be in the right mental frame of mind for that kind of winding road, plus the copy I have from the library has incredibly small font, which makes it difficult to focus. Sometimes books hit differently at different times in life, and I've found it does no good to force the issue. However, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Clearly it has high praise and a solid place in the science fantasy canon (whatever that means, ha).
You are a swift reader, Renee 😊
Yes, science fantasy. My first real venture into that specific genre, too.
My take on this so far [spoiler??] is that this is our earth, many many many thousands/millions(?) of years in the future, where technology is what we would call magic anyway, but that civilisation has largely crumbled, the sun is cooling, ice is encroaching upon the land; space travel was at one time possible, possibly? Many questions remain.
But yes, requires a specific headspace. I can only read 5-10 pages at a time because I'm taking notes and flipping back and rereading to try to make sure I understand as much of the meaning as possible.
I definitely think you are correct, based on my brief perusal of the commentaries on the internet (which I immediately pulled up to attempt to orient myself to what the heck I had just read)! I bet that if I started from the beginning again with that perspective, the narrative would make more sense. But, I have The Once and Future King and Snow Crash staring at me from the shelf, so I may make it through those first before returning...
I am also like you with the notes - hard to read a library copy when so much of the material cries out to be studied closely, underlined, and marked up!
My husband also tells me I read fast - "sickeningly fast" as he puts it. :) I blame my childhood surrounded by books and peppered with library visits, I had a lot of time to get good at it.
I envy you the reading speed ability. It would help me chip away at my TBR pile. Not read either of those so if you do a review then I'd be keen to read.
Congratulations! Well deserved Nathan! 🧡💜💙
Thank you my friend. Hope you're having a lovely weekend!
Congrats again on the well deserved award!
Liking the rumination on dialogue and hope it continues.
Thanks Kate 😊
I'm sure that ruminating will continue.
So happy for you! Congratulations again. And, yes, that Gene Wolfe quote made me chuckle, too. Writing in strange tongues! Needless to say, the book is on my TRL.
Thank you, my friend.
TRL ... I'm trying to work out the letters.
Totally Relevant Lexicon.
To Read, Literally.
Top Rated Level ...
Torturer Reveals Life.
To read list 😂
Facepalm. I just couldn't get there with my morning brain, haha.
More Java! Then again I am making acronyms up willy-nilly, cause lazy here 😅
Congratulations Nathan. Haven’t read that book but it’s going on the list. The folio society really do some amazing editions
Don't they just? They're a bit pricey but they are so lovely.
And thanks, Daniel. Hope you're having a great week.
Thanks Nadia, I'm glad you liked. Wasn't sure if it would make any sense entirely out of context.