Bam! It’s clear that Stephen King subscribes to the notion that all exposition must occur after the inciting incident and the inciting incident must occur as close to page one as possible. There is a lot of exposition in this book (600 pages, so far), but you would hardly know it because
Taking The Stand: Front Matter
EducationOkay, I’m cheating. I’ve read quite a bit of this book, but I’m still going to break it down into digestible chunks for this series of posts. After all, this behemoth is 1,433 pages long. When I finish it will be the longest single book I’ve read and I’ve never been noted for my reading speed. It was only recently that I discovered that most people skim while reading fiction! Inconceivable. I’ve never skimmed a page a fiction in my life, which is why I prefer my books short and to the point. Is this a knock against King already? We’ll see.
Taking The Stand: A First-timer’s Read-through of Stephen King’s Epic – Introduction
EducationI’m very excited to be beginning my Genre Writing Master’s Degree this summer. Our first reading assignment, The Stand by Stephen King.
Here’s the thing, despite being a long time science fiction and fantasy reader, I never, not once, have read a book by Stephen King. Surprising, perhaps. In a recent survey of short story writers by Clarkesworld Magazine, Stephen King was the number one author cited as an influence by short story writers. Number one!
And God Made Macaroni
UncategorizedWhen Macaroni Art becomes Macaroni Life … another older, odd flash fiction you can visit at Saturday Night Reader.
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.
MetaI’m remapping this site to benjaminjacobson.net. It’s easier to tell people/link to/remember. Of course, I would have prefered .com, Benjamin! But we can’t always get what we want. Anyway, I do find .net to be the geekier of the two, .com is so .common. Welcome visitors to benjaminjacobson.net.
Failing Works! Another Story Sale
UncategorizedHello, no one!
Guess what?
I sold another story at pro-rates (actually at much better than most pro-rates). I’m very excited about this one. Not only is the money more than respectable, but it’s a SFWA qualifying market. Rejection works. More details as publication gets closer.
Greetings from Fail Fest
Uncategorized“In fact, failure’s lessons are ingredients for later success.”
Ideas do not have to be correct in order to be good; its only necessary that, if they do fail, they do so in an interesting way.
Robert Rosen
Ideas do not ha…
Input, WisdomStory Sale!
UncategorizedA deviation from the norm, I sold a story today. It will appear in July and I’ll update further then. However, just to confirm that the universe continues to value failure, I also received three rejections this weekend. The balance is restored.
So, I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Benjamin Jacobson 