I finished the files for the Quarter Share paperbacks yesterday but the review copy still had the wrong cover so now I have to wait for another review.
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I meant to mention a few days ago that I also got those Blue Bell frozen fruit bars. I usually get another brand when they are on sale and they were, but I accidentally got this brand. Anyway, I’m not disappointed. I do eat about 2-3 cups of frozen grapes a day, too, but one of these bars is a nice treat in the evening.
About Owner’s Share: well, I don’t exactly remember the ending just that it was a bit sad. But at the time I really wondered what all the fuss was about. I’ve been waiting for the print to come out so that I can read it and then study it a bit. I do remember thinking that the story was left with continuation possibilities and that made me happy.
Maybe you should just take each positive or negative criticism and put it on a file card and file it in a box. Then when you want to look them over you can thumb through them. The object of these things for you is to be an aid. They reflect the ideas and opinions of others and do not reflect how you are doing as a writer. Your looking back at Quarter Share and comparing it to other things–that is an indication of how you are doing as a writer. I think you are finding that most people who read the first book have read the rest of them. I could be wrong, but probably those who read the first and then no more are people who just don’t like what you wrote and no problem there.
Yeah, I can see how it would be bothersome to have someone say you were in error on that point about Wong’s mother. That was a pretty stupid thing for the reader to write. It is interesting when someone blames someone else for something they didn’t get right. We have probably all done it and that is probably why each of us reacts when someone else does it, especially when they blame us. It is especially embarrassing when we find out we have done it. Hopefully this person will be illuminated! It builds character.
Wow, you covered a lot of great topics today – well worth listening to for fans, and gives an insight into your writing.
My take on the ending to owner’s share is that the bad bits hang over and cloud the ending for listeners, making it difficult to see the continuing plot clues. What you did do though is leave people wanting to know what happens to Ishmael next, how does he obtain his next ship, if he does and if and how he finds some degree of happiness again.
The biggest problem I had with the ending of Owner’s Share was “why? and why Perc?” First time through, this was my immediate reaction. It seemed like he wasn’t even supposed to go that far. Perhaps this would have been too obvious, but I’d have expected it to be the Chief, escalating what Perc had been planned to be just an assualt. Perhaps Perc thought it was just easier to finish everyone off? But if he did that on his own, wouldn’t he have been worried about his boss’s reactions?
Regarding future directions and peoples’ perceptions of it being a negative ending, I think this might be two things. One is that the clue might not be as clear as you think, (“I’d go visit xxx at Port Newmar”.) The tense led me to believe that she’d already died. The other may be that you already have a much clearer idea of what comes next, and that there is a “next.” Maybe another clue in the text would help?
Out of six books, these were the only two things that really stuck out.
As a broad generalization that will probably get me in trouble with a lot of people, women want equality / equal rites etc. (which is fine and I have no problems with that) but when you give them the equality they want and in your example a women suffer violence it’s a case of oh no you can’t do that.
In my own personal opinion equality / equal rites lets everyone get all the benefits that they want but also means that they also can suffer all the negatives as well and not get to say “oh no you can’t do that because violence against women shouldn’t be portrayed in book’s etc.”
Thoughts regarding Owner’s Share plot lines and criticism:
1. I want to read the books that Nathan wants to write. I don’t know what they are, but I have faith that they won’t be the same old tropes trotted out again. I hope that a critic, a few critics, or a boat full of critics won’t change how the books are written.
2. Anyone who cares about their craft wants to hear constructive criticism and use it to improve. To clumsily paraphrase one of my favorite authors “My boy! What you have is a selection problem.” I can’t imagine the temptation to read the reviews, but I think there are probably an inner circle of friends, colleagues, and confidants whose criticism you should at listen to, the rest should be filed under “Chuckle-head.”
3. I use to have a t-shirt with the slogan “Illegitimi non carborundum,” it applies to criticism in general.
4. I was totally bummed by the end of Owner’s Share because I want Ishmael to be happy. That’s what happens when a story is engaging; you empathize with the characters. I have faith that one tragedy will not define Ishmael’s life. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong, but another Ishmael Wang book wouldn’t leave me wondering…
5. Write! (Please)
This!
And if you’re going to tag on a continuity error – go check the source material once again to be sure.
Sorry about being upset about the ending of Owner’s Share (Male Homo Sapiens Aspie, not that it really does matter… I’ve had people I’ve known on the Internet or over the phone, that have thought I was female for several years before meeting me face to face.) It did, however, strike me as cliche’. Perhaps part of my issue was that I found Greta a very unsympathetic character – I kind of expected her to either be the whole problem, or to be the capper by echoing Jen’s actions and leaving Ish on his second romantic strike, tearing him up far more than death would.
I do blame my Aspie tendencies for missing the clues you lay – I found Greta’s actions rather … more than just distasteful. I do have to wonder about Ish’s experience of “Don’t screw with crew” – it seems like the only experiences he’s had with other ways are either very distant, or very distasteful “bunk bunnies” people who are rapists, rather than relaxed. Even The Plumber, and that environmental rating who shifted over so that Ish could move up, were given the “nasty bunk bunnies” aspect. Supposedly, he had a good experience while on the Bad Penny, but even then he seemed to not get the feel of it as a family.
And you’re talking about threads leading to another story – I’m sorry that I don’t see them. There’s a bit, I guess, where maybe Ish gets to know Frank better, and he still has the money from the Chernykova still to come in, and intimations that he might go back to Port Newmarr to get himself re-balanced through Tai Chi…
I’m just glad you made it clear later that Ish had sold the Iris back to DST – I’ve listened to that segment a dozen times, and I’ve never picked up what was supposed to clue me into that, other than perhaps him clearing out his cabin, and even that struck me as just shutting down for a while before perhaps repainting the cabin or otherwise getting rid of the feel of Greta being there.
I dunno – I loved Owner’s Share, up until the Rise and Fall of Greta, but in a lot of ways, Ish seemed to turn into Captain Delman.
Still say Capt. Gigonne did him no favors pushing him to the Academy so soon 🙁
I’m pretty sure I coulda done a better job with Greta
And you’re right about Giggone 🙂
Oh now that would be an interesting point to explore as a sidebar in a future book…especially since Giggone is still our there funneling the young ratings to the academy and all.
I saw Greta as someone who had some pretty bad emotional scarring who latched on to the first person to bring her out of her self-made shell. It doesn’t help that Ish is still not recovered from his divorce either. Its tragic and all to human. I really think you rescued Ish from Greta though I could wish she didn’t have to go the way she did.
The run up to the end of Owners was definitely a bit of a kick in the gut but I clearly saw your foreshadowing of possible future stories. Or at least a life goes on Ish continues to live.
and ummm… yeah wasn’t the line related to Ish’s mom in like the first chapter of the Quarter? I’m pretty sure it was early on anyway.
sigh