Thoughts on Novel Length

Yesterday I topped 100K words in the novel I'm writing. It got me thinking about novel length. These days, the general consensus seems to be most readers enjoy novels in about the 80K area, give or take 10K words. I gleaned this from reading various blog posts and opinion pieces on the great big Internet.

I like a novel that's a bit longer than that, 100-125K, or 325-400 printed pages, but that preference has evolved. Back in the day, I used to like long novels like those written by Stephen King and Tom Clancy. How many novels have those authors published that pushed or topped 1,000 pages? King, several. Clancy, maybe in the 700-900 page range.

CANALS came in at 200K words at first and was trimmed down to about 150K, or about 425 pages (I think). THE MIGHTY T weighs in at a little over 100K and about 325 pages. DEATH OF A MATADOR was in between: about 125K words and in the upper 300s pages. (If I was writing this at home I could look on the shelf at the page counts, but I'm not. I'm in my office-away-from-home: the local Starbucks.)

I'm currently reading UNDER THE DOME by King, and I'm generally loving it. But I think it's too long. I have the ePub version I'm reading on Marvin for iPad, and Marvin tells me DOME had 336K words. If King was a young author trying to get a publisher interested in his manuscript, and he sent in a 336K manuscript, it would've been sent directly to the recycle pile. No passing GO, no collecting $200. By contrast, SILKEN PREY by John Sandford, which I recently read, weighs in at 109K, according to Marvin. DOME is three time longer than SILKEN PREY, and it feels it.

DOME is a great story with delicious characters. I'm 70% into the book now and find I'm reading faster, because I want to see how things turn out. I want the main bad guy to get what's coming to him, and I want him to suffer. I'm anxious to see how the "good guys" take the Dome down (see, I'm capitalizing Dome, too). I understand the main good guy, or supporting good guys, might die in coming pages, and I'm okay with that. But I'll be disappointed if Rennie doesn't get it in the end. King wrote him very well: a delectable bad guy.

Written in Writer in my iPad.

5-Star Review for CANALS

I recently received a 5-star review for my horror novel, CANALS. It now has an average of 4.6 stars over 10 reviews. The review is brief so I've copied and pasted it in its entirety.

"This book kept me on the edge of my seat and made my heart race! I grew up in Modesto and it was interesting reading about places I am actually familiar with. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to really get involved in a great thriller! I got this book for a low price of .99 cents, but had I pay $10 it would definitely have been worth it and I would not have been disappointed! Awesome!"

Now, I admit it might look like I know this person. Let me assure you I don't. She purchased the eBook for 99 cents, read it, and left a review of her own accord.

I had hoped, when writing CANALS, that it would appeal to Modesto-area residents. The locals who've read the book have said they enjoyed reading about local sites and businesses, but it hasn't yet caught on big. I'd imagined throngs of citizens gobbling it up... A goal for the future.

CANALS remains on sale for 99 cents.

I'm Interviewed by Eden Baylee

Eden Baylee

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by author Eden Baylee. I've done several of these interviews and while I've enjoyed them all, I really enjoyed this one because Eden asked some of the toughest questions.

For example, how would you answer "What is your idea of perfect happiness?" Perfect happiness? Sheesh. I had to work on that answer alone for a month.

Thanks to Eden for asking the tough questions and featuring me on her blog.

Eden writes erotica and has published several books. HERE is her book page with buy links.

Review of "The Rose Hotel" by Rahimeh Andalibian

I recently finished reading a book titled "The Rose Hotel" by Rahimeh Andalibian. It's worthy of a review and post. 

The story begins in Iran shortly before the Islamic Revolution in the late-1970s and follows a family who owned a hotel called, you guessed it, The Rose Hotel, into the present time. Much has been written about Islam by both friends and foes since 9/11 and I thought this book might give me some insight into the life of an Islamic family unaffiliated with terrorism, or with what I think of as "militant" Islamic beliefs. It did and I'm glad I read it.

The family is thrown into turmoil when the oldest boy is arrested after the revolution and is sentenced to death for crimes he didn't commit. He's only sixteen. The grief and remorse his death causes traumatizes the family for a generation. 

The book details the family's journeys to England and the United States, how the parents face the challenge of their children becoming westernized, how the children deal with what happened to their older brother, and how they eventually realize they must face what happened together if they wanted to survive as a family.

At first I was a little annoyed that everything in this family's life revolved around the oldest boy, I mean everything. The mother nearly killed herself with grief and I am, frankly, surprised the parent's marriage survived considering the depth of her grief and the depth of the father's guilt. I would like to think that, God forbid, if something so tragic happened to my family we would find a way to move on quicker than the family in this book moved on. It nearly destroyed the parents marriage, drove one brother to drugs and another to reckless financial behavior, and caused many years of grief and, likely, illness, as chronic stress usually leads to illness.

But, I've never walked in their shoes and have no idea what it would be like to lose a child or loved one like that. He was taken from them unjustly and condemned by people who should have been honest and upheld the law.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, the eBook can be found on Amazon HERE, as can the paperback, which, oddly, if you don't mind a used copy, can cost less than the eBook.

I rate the book four stars out of five.

“Seven Dwarf Stories” Released!

I was privileged to be involved in an anthology for Twisted Core Press called "Seven Dwarf Stories"; a grown-up take on the 7 Dwarfs. I chose to write a character named “Medicus,” a twist on Doc.

It was an excellent mental exercise for me as I’ve never written anything in what I would call Old English (or what I hope was Old English).

It’s a terrific anthology with terrific authors. Take a minute to check it out! At least download the sample and give it a read.

In case you missed the link above:

Seven Dwarf Stories