No cherries for Evil Machines.

I must admit to not having read this story Celticman however I would add that I am constantly underwhelmed by much of what established (published) authors produce. Actually underwhelmed is not really the right word - I think a lot of what they produce is utter rubbish. It seems to me that there is a publication merry-go-round and if you're on it or know the ride operator you'll go far on little talent but if you aren't or don't it matters little what quality you write; you simply won't get on the ride at all. I can think of a handful of writers on this site who produce work of far greater quality than that often offered by published authors - will these writers get the recognition that they deserve? -I doubt it.

I've always been a little baffled by the success of J.K. Rowling. Every Harry Potter book seemed to follow the same theme, starting with the journey to Hogwarts, which always takes up about ⅓ book, then the inevitable fight with monsters which Harry loses ….. almost, finally turning the tables in the last few minutes. Very repetitive. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy showed, for my money, much greater imagination with animal spiritual beings known as Daemons, Gyptians, armoured bears, panserbjørns, parallel worlds that you could simply step into by slicing the air with the Subtle Knife etc. Harry Potter for grownups. Rowling seems to have been in the right place at the right time, appealed to a wider audience and was able to sell the film rights, although the first novel in His Dark Materials, Northern Lights, was made into a film entitled The Golden Compass. So I honestly think it’s ‘wide audience appeal’ as opposed to ‘quality of writing’ that is the key to getting published. Sad, isn’t it?

I liked Harry, though admittedly it did go on at times. Climbing on soap box. Phillip Pullmans books, that was a disgrace. I enjoyed the series and was very disappointed when the movie studios knuckled under to very real pressure from the very factions Pullman alluded to in his series, and decided not to make the sequels. They didn't like the fact he's an atheist and they didn't like how close he came to hitting the mark, so they stepped in. What happened to separation of church and state? And they wonder why no one attends anymore. Climbing off soap box. Insofar as publishing. Well you could be right. Maybe its not what you write but who picks a fight,and just maybe its not what you know but who you know. But I'd like to think there's still a chance for the rest of us. Otherwise what the hells the point of all this?...Wes

I think the point is that we love words. That's where our magic lies. A chef's magic is in his ingredients, our magic is in our words. Check this out, it's marvelous; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_cGjQSR80

Took a peek a the 'look inside' of Evil machines on Amazon. I have to admit to being disappointed, especially as I was a great fan of Terry Jones in Monty P. Looks like he hasn't moved on. One big --- but not surprising -- disappointment was reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci thing. Not only was it a load of bollocks it was also written terribly. I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, about the 18-millionth I estimate. I bought in a charity shop for a couple of quid, so at least something good came out of it.

Will take a look at Mortal Engines...Wes

Unbound doesn't live up to its promise to promote new work from up and coming writers. I saw that 'Smoking with Crohns' made it but there are too many Q(ueue)-list celebs and their irrelevant spouses jumping on the sand-wagon. Publishers have been rolling out dross from celebrities for ages now, and the bubble has seriously burst thanks to the depression, but there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary coming from Unbound just yet. Failure of new, adventurous-minded business models to deliver on promises has only one outcome. I hope they start to see that we're not as desperate as a published author out of contract.