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Because I am continually reluctant to share unfinished writing with other people (or even finished writing, for that matter), I find it difficult to speak directly about the contents of my book on this site. That's not what the blog is really about, anyway -- it's more about the process of writing it.
In that vein, I thought it might be interesting to post some of the websites that I have been using for reference, in one manner or another. I think its an interesting glimpse into some of the things that might be going into this book. These are the sites I have bookmarked. There are others that I haven't bothered to keep around.
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer
http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm
http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm
http://www.intelligencesearch.com/spy-codes.html
http://www.zyvex.com/nano/
http://www.cia.gov/
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/cia_today/ciatoday_04.shtml
http://www.webflyer.com/travel/milemarker/
In progress news, I am on the far side of the hump that was slowing me down and I can feel the pace picking back up. We are moving along well now.
I have heard a lot about The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown) in recent months. Mostly it was vague raving about how great the book is and how it is rather "difficult to explain, you just have to read it." That sort of thing. So during a recent trip to B&N, I picked it up.
I'm about halfway through it now and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. There is no great writing in this book, in my opinion. Each character is one-dimensional and has virtually no discernible, individual identity. In fact I realized today that you could switch the male and female protagonists without the reader really noticing. Their backgrounds are different, but the difference between them is noticable in the explication only and their essential identities in the narration itself are quite similar.
Stylistically, Brown writes like Clive Cussler without the flair. His story is Indiana Jones without the grit and James Bond without the panache.
Furthermore, while the author has clearly researched the subject matter to an above-average extent, an alarming amount of the would-be shocking revelations in this book are already tired, over-used elements extracted directly from pop culture. If you've seen The Godfather Part III or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade you'll start to understand what I mean when you read this book.
I understand Brown's aim with these elements -- he is trying to tie them with historical facts to create a sort of DaVinci unification theory. One of the repeating themes of the book is the discovery of a revelation that has been right in front of everyone's eyes for years, but no one has noticed.
The problem is that the whole premise lacks surprise. It is painfully predictable. I'm halfway through the novel and I have yet to encounter a "shocking revelation" that I didn't already see coming pages and pages earlier. It's almost like watching a sports race on television in real time, while the announcer is two minutes behind.
I'm eager to get to the end now, because I have tired of the amazing turns of events that are anything but amazing. I'm pretty bored with italics conveying urgency in place of effective writing.
In short, I guess, don't believe the hype.
While I'm managing to stay relatively consistent at writing on Wednesday nights, I'm not finding it to be enough and I'm not happy with the results I'm getting so far. I need to sit down and work on this book more often, when I'm really thinking about it, rather than waiting a week between sessions. I keep forgetting things.
In any case, I wrote some more words and I'm that much closer to the end.
I guess I'm just in a tricky spot right now, at a plot point that is pivotal and tricky but at the same time not much fun to write. I've been riding the coat-tails of shadows and insinuation long enough -- eventually we all need to get down to business and explicate at little.
Work is moving along now on the book. I am starting to get a better sense of some of the twists and turns that I've got planned - about which characters are going to be exactly what they seem, which are not, and which will be even worse. Or better.
I'm currently flying by the seat of my pants as far as some of the technical issues are concerned, but thankfully there's lots you can learn on the Internet that will get you by for a while. I'll have to revisit this stuff later after I've got a first draft completed and try to nail it down more and make it more true to life. But for now there's a good structure in place that I should be able to flesh out later.
In the meantime, if you know any nanotechnologists, send them my way.
