Category: Humor

Fun Articles, Humor

Rewriting the Classics

Literature that is very old has a slight problem. When they were written the authors didn’t have the advantage of our modern knowledge, they didn’t have scientific discoveries, science journals, the internet, massive libraries, etc. The advances that human knowledge has made in the last 150 years is astounding.

But does that mean we should rewrite the classics? Sometimes it is beneficial to leave texts just the way they were written, as it gives us an insight into the period in which they were written. A great example is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, people want to edit out the racist references, yet that would remove part of the context for the struggle Jim goes through in the story. But in other cases you are merely perpetuating factual inaccuracies by teaching and reading kids some classics. As a result it is sometimes important to rewrite these texts to display our updated understandings of the world.

Humor

Definition of the Day

Humor, Writing

This is a long rambling post…

Fun Articles, Humor

Random comments

I appreciate all of my friends/readers here, especially those who take the time to comment. My site statistics tell me that I average roughly 2 comments per post, which is a 4% conversation rate. My own posting on other’s blogs wouldn’t be that high, so I’m fine with that figure, I’m just happy people enjoy my posts.

The point of this post is to highlight my own experiences with some of the more interesting comments this blog receives. The site statistics tell me that I average roughly 640 spam comments per month. PER MONTH! Obviously some of those spam comments may be legitimate comments, if you have fallen prey of my spam filter please email me, but most are rubbish promoting some shoe-viagra-porn-dating-retail site or other. The ones that quote Bible and Quran verses are interesting, but this recent response to my review of Lee Child’s latest novel blew me away.

Lee Child
Dear Sir,
I just finished reading your latest novel, A Wanted Man. Congratulations. Yet another excellent work.
I thought you might find it interesting regarding why I like your stories. These are the reasons:
• I never find a word I do not know the meaning of, and is not part of ordinary speech.
• The story takes place in normal time sequence. No flashbacks.
• A single central character carries the action from the first to the last page.
• I find not one sentence, which is not designed to help tell the story. You never stray.
• I find no forced metaphors that I have to puzzle over to discover their meaning.
• I find no literary actions-verbs that may sound pretty or poetic but make no literal sense.
• None of the characters are wooden.
• All your stories are unique.
• I find no explicit sex included because you can’t think of what should happen next.
• The number of characters is limited.
Keep up the good work.
Jim Cunnungham

Now I am very much a fan of Lee Child’s writing, I have most of his novels on my shelves. I am also working on becoming a published author of crime thrillers, but I don’t think I could be mistaken with Lee Child. For one, I’m not as tall as Lee, he is quite a bit older and he’s English. So addressing this comment to Lee on my blog seems rather random.

After congratulating not-me on a great novel, Jim proceeds to list the things he likes about not-me’s writing. Jim likes not having to use a dictionary, or reading internet addresses or review author names. Jim also doesn’t like flashbacks and appreciates having a single character to follow, clearly much less complicated than having to think whilst reading. I agree with Jim that Lee doesn’t delve into the literary realms with his prose, keeping the story and writing tight. It makes for a much more interesting read; there is nothing worse than wasting your valuable reading time with random stuff that has nothing to do with what you actually want to read. Jim also appreciates the building materials used in creating characters, something I don’t normally consider, but I do like to read things that are unique and stand out. However, I wonder what Jim has against sex scenes, maybe he has been scarred by Fifty Shades of Hype and is just thankful that Reacher doesn’t whip out the ball gag and leather chaps. I’m also guessing that Jim is not a fan of the epic fantasy novels, what with their ensemble of characters, sweeping dynasties of timelines, and elegant prose to describe the entire new world the story takes place in.

All in all, I can’t figure out why this post was flagged as spam.

Fun Articles, Humor

Top 5 fun things about sleep deprivation

  • Everything looks comfortable.

  • Have day dreams about getting a good nights sleep.

  • Make a list of everything you need to buy when shopping, forget to take list with you.

  • You know that coffee shares are a good investment.

  • Of course I know what day it is, just let me check my watch again.

Yesterday I knew that I would forget some things when I went shopping, so I purposely made a list. It was a great list that did a great job keeping dust from settling on the table during my absence. There is also nothing quite so disturbing as not knowing what day of the week it is, especially when you have literally just checked. New parents of the world, I salute you.

Humor

Spelling consequences

Humor, Writing

You think you’re a good writer?

Humor, Writing

Monty Python – Novel writing

Enjoy some of their comic genius.

Humor, Writing

Writing tips: How to write gooderer

Humor

Every Crime Fiction Author’s Thoughts

 

Sometimes the best ideas for a scene come about at the oddest moments. By oddest moments, I mean when someone has really pissed you off. This post is to thank all of those people who make writers think of murder.

Fun Articles, Humor, Reading

The Answer

I may or may not have mentioned that my name, Tyson Adams, was inspired by the man who excited me about writing. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a huge influence on my young brain, setting synapses off in an order that couldn’t even be quelled by Vogon poetry.

The first ‘novel’ styled story I wrote was an homage to Adams’ inappropriately labelled trilogy. The reason for this post is that I was cleaning out one of our cupboards in anticipation of our new family member, when I stumbled upon all of my old stories. The paper may have yellowed, my hand writing may have been small and cramped because I was obsessed with fitting as many words per line and page as possible, and the pencil may not have always been sharp, but the story was actually pretty good. I guess Eion Colfer and I have Douglas Adams to thank for that.

So who inspired you? Which author or authors made you pick up the pen? I’m not talking about the ones who have influenced your style or entertained you, that first author or book that made you dream of joining the ranks of authors trapped inside in front of a blank screen. Comments welcome below.

Humor, Writing

Setting my priorities

Humor

Book to movie revisited

I’ve written before on the lovely job that Hollywood does in translating books to the big screen. This cartoon pretty much sums up the process nicely.

Humor, Writing

Writing right

Originally seen at Bonnie Sparks’ blog post Writing Humour II.

Humor

Typos

Humor, Reading

Readers are smart


They don’t want anything to do with Sarah Palin, even when her book has been put in the right category. I was just surprised that there were any Sarah Palin supporters who could read.

Humor

Fiction Writer

Yeah, it has done the rounds, but this picture really does sum up a few of the conversations I’ve had lately.

Humor

Deadly allergies

Humor, Reading

In the beginning

Life is pretty awesome, there is so much neat stuff going on, yet people want to fill it with meaningless stuff and have us do paperwork. Enjoy today, learn something, read something for fun, wonder, laugh, and don’t forget to poke fun at anyone trying to be boring.

Humor, Reading

Genre vs Literature


During a discussion the other day my favourite authors and books came up as a topic of conversation. Needless to say I listed off writers like Lee Child, Matthew Reilly, Robert Crais, Matt Hilton, etc. Now these people weren’t exactly literary snobs, but they did respond as if I was supposed to list the authors of classic literature and contemporary literature.

Seriously?

Can we all stop pretending that there is something superior about literary fiction. I’ve seen discussions of social problems in crime fiction, fantastic use of literary techniques in horror, exploration of character and humanity in science fiction; all performed with more skill and insight than I have seen in the literary genre.

How about we go back to judging a book by its cover.