Pinar Tarhan's Addicted to Writing

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I have a deadline for 2 travel posts. I have a more pressing deadline for a writing contest whose early bird deadline I ignored because I wanted the manuscript to be flawless (not that “flawless” really exists for a writer or an editor.) Of course there is the novel I have been trying to finish for months (which was originally intended to finish in line with Writer’s Digest’s 90 Days to Your Novel), and two contests that I found about much too late, but I’m dying to enter (or at least brainstorm a good idea for later use) anyway.

And guess what I’m inspired to write instead? Blog posts for my own blogs. Yes, I love my blogs and writing for them. It is always great to present good new content to your audience, and it definitely helps your blogs’ ranking and traffic if you publish new and interesting content more often. But whenever I make a schedule for my blog posts, I am inspired to write anything but.

When I want to concentrate on my novel, I find myself writing blog posts or working on a story that was written before but will be reformatted.

So I decided to run with the flow.

But if you have to write one thing before the other, and that pressure (of the deadlines) is making you not write at all, it is better to write what you are inspired to than write nothing at all.

I’m a big fan of chasing inspiration, but sometimes inspiration has other ideas, and it wants to reach you for different ideas and stories than the one you need to work on. Don’t let it go. Write it down, and even if you don’t have the time to write all of it, write the most crucial part so that you can make it work when you come back to it.

If you ignore inspiration because you are waiting for another kind, there is a chance it will ignore you for a longer time-even when you are trying to chase it.

So I’m off to writing that TV series post now. What do you feel like writing at this very moment?

6 Reasons Why You Should Write About What You Love &

(Why I Don’t Work as a Copywriter)

I look this happy and relaxed when I write about what I love. Image via livinggreenmag.com.

Starting and managing a successful freelance writing career while writing about things that interest you, things that you love, is the central theme of this blog. Yes, it features articles about writing and blogging (writing better, finding writing jobs, productivity, marketing your writing, reviews of writing/blogging-related books and products….etc.)

But it doesn’t include any articles about how to become a better copywriter/commercial. There are great blogs on the subject and if you are interested, I strongly recommend you check out the following writers’ blogs (I go to their blogs when I need information on how to write better copy- I have blogs and the pages and my product reviews need good copy after all. I just don’t take copywriting jobs.)

Some of My Favorite Copywriting Resources

-          Carol Tice – Make a Living Writing

-          Peter Bowerman – The Well-Fed Writer

-          Ruth Zive- Ruth Zive Copywriting

So having left that broad topic (copywriting/commercial writing) to the experts, let me tell you why I don’t do it: I just don’t enjoy it!!

Yes, it is a lucrative field, especially if you can educate yourself well – including learning how to get clients that pay well (and you can establish a good, professional relationship with).

But don’t think that I’m a stranger to the field or that I made up my mind without trying. I took the class at university (I double-majored in Business and Advertising so copywriting was a part of the curriculum), I constantly read the tips of the blogs mentioned above along some others) and I applied to copywriting jobs (back when I thought the only way to find writing gigs was to reply to job ads, and I was trying to get clips.)

I didn’t enjoy it one bit. Not the class, not the jobs. I’m  not motivated or inspired.

Being a copywriter – freelance or otherwise- would feel like any other corporate job to me. And I hate cubicles, fixed working hours and supervisors. I’d be miserable doing it, even though it is writing. So I don’t.

I’m guessing you too chose to be a writer, because you love writing. You probably couldn’t stop even if you tried.  It doesn’t matter if you write fiction, non-fiction or both.  And this post is still relevant if you do like copy. Because the question remains: Which would you rather do: Write copy for a website whose topic bores you to death, or a website that you (would) enjoy reading?

So whether you like writing copy or not, below are 5 reasons you should write about what you like:

1) Researching becomes fun. After all, you are writing about something you love finding about- whether it is to find a good query idea or not.

2) Researching is easier. It is much easier to dig deep into your target publications archives because a) there is a chance you are one of the subscribers (so you won’t have to add that to your expenses) or if it is a free publication, or solely an online publication, you probably read a lot of it anyway.

I don’t know about you, but if something has given me a good time and/or extremely useful information, I instinctively internalize it. This is a lot more convenient than getting lost in the research about something that puts you to sleep or frustrates you to no end.

3) You can put yourself in the readers’ shoes more easily. This is closely related to the first two reasons. The right slant is all about knowing the magazine and its audience.

4)  Coming up with ideas is easier. You know the audience, you know the magazine, you know the subject. Now you have everything you need to start brainstorming. Ideas will come naturally. And after you’ve got your ideas, you’ll adjust them with the right slants.

There are some publications that cover topics I’m interested in, and even though I studied them quite a bit, I haven’t been able to get my queries through yet. Why? I had good ideas, but not the right slants. And even though I did some thorough researching, those weren’t publications I read regularly, so it was harder to get to know the target audience as well as I needed to.

 5) You will have fun and you’ll be paid to do so. Below are the lines from a scene from the movie Catch and Release. The guy, Fritz, works in advertising and his hobby is photography.

Fritz: I used to take pictures all the time.

Grey: What happened?

Fritz: Started getting paid for it. Took all the fun out of it.

But unlike our friend Fritz above, getting paid had the opposite effect on me. That effect is reason number 6.

6) Writing has just become more exciting, challenging and fun for me after it became a paying profession.

For instance, I wrote for Freelance Switch three times (my 4^th article will be published in May). And when I pitched to guest post for Carol Tice, I had read more posts than I could count. So at first it wasn’t about studying it as a publication, but to learn everything I could about making a living writing.

But before I got the pitch, I dug deeper.  I analyzed the tone, word count, headlines, philosophy, other guest post articles…

I got the gig, and the best part was that %75 of my work had been done before I started writing. It was published, and it also appealed to another freelance writer I admire: Ed Gandia, co-writer of The Wealthy Freelancer.  He wanted to use my article in his e-book Land Work Now (whose review I’ll publish here pretty soon, and my article is there, unchanged.)

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No matter what you are writing and who you are writing for, you need well-targeted and marketable ideas. These Ideas have to appeal to the publication’s readers. The process of finding your ideas and slants, and ultimately querying,  gets easier if you at least have a little bit of passion/enthusiasm about it.

I thought writing advertising copy would be exciting when I was taking introduction classes where we analyzed the good, the bad and the ugly of ad copy. Some of the good were just amazing, and they did wonders. Two of my favorites are below.

Image via ideawriters.com

Image via marketingbeyondadvertising.com.

I don’t think these ideas would have come if the people behind it hated their jobs. I’m just saying.

What about you?

Do you love what you are writing? Do write about what you love?

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There is no doubt about the fact that 21^st century made a writer’s job a lot easier. Maybe the markets became more competitive, but at least now it is so much easier to contact editors, submit queries without waiting for the post office to do its job or wait for a conference to be able to get the editors to notice you (although this is still a great method for this purpose. It is just that you can’t always attend all the conferences you want to due to time, money or place constraints.)

And there is so much that we need to do on the internet – from billing to sending e-mails, from researching the web to updating our blogs…It is so easy to get worked up when our internet connection fails us. Usually this glitch is temporary, and it doesn’t cause that much of a disaster-given that we’ve saved all our work, and we haven’t left anything to the last minute.

But whether the problem lasts for a minute or a day, and whether you experience it in your office or at your favorite coffee shop/co-working space, there is no need to lose your temper or patience. There’s so much you can do in the name of productivity and creativity while you are offline. From organizing your files to taking a break, from making a list of your goals to brainstorming, you can turn the glitch into a productivity fest.

The original version of this article was published on Freelance Switch and is called Freelance Tasks To Do Without the Internet.

Enjoy your list, and save it somewhere offline for a rainy  an offline day. : )

You can leave your comment here or on Freelance Switch.

Image via freelancewritinggigs.com

Confession: I am a writing contest virgin. In fact, just a couple of days ago I was going to publish a list post about why I didn’t like writing contests. But then I read about a writing contest that eliminated the most annoying thing(s) on the list, so I decided to give this contest my best shot.

First let me tell you about what I don’t like about writing contests, and then tell you about the one I liked enough to enter.

1)      There are fees. Yes, I know this is very typical, and in a way, reasonable but I don’t write short fiction or poetry. There aren’t that many contests about novels and screenplays. Some fees are reasonable, but some are just ridiculous.

2)      There are limitations to who can enter. Many writing contests are open to residents of a certain city, country or at best- a continent. So even if there are a lot of contests taking place for all kinds of writing, not everyone can enter all of them.

3)      They don’t accept entries online by e-mail- which in this day and age is one of my biggest pet peeves. Online entry forms or e-mail submissions aren’t just easy for the writers, it is practical for the judges (and the environment) as well.

4)      The deadlines aren’t reasonable (for me.) If I’m 40 pages into a novel and they only want completed manuscripts, I won’t be able to make it.

I’ve read about many competitions and their rules, including the ones organized by Writer’s Digest, whose website, magazine and store are among my favorite writing resources. But when it came to the competitions, I just couldn’t see the ones that appealed to me – until a short while ago.

The Writer’s Digest Contest – Deadline: May 1, 2012

The contest has many categories including spiritual writing, personal essay, magazine writing and movie/TV script writing. You pay $25 for your first entry- and if you make your multiple entries during the same transaction, you pay $15 for the others.

I might submit more than once piece for one category, depending on I can finish everything before the deadline. But fingers crossed for my first time. I’m looking forward to it.

What were your first times like?

Surprise, surprise – I have a cold again. I hate colds probably more than any other person you know. Yes, having a weak immune system (no matter how healthily I try to eat or how well I try to take care of myself) and getting colds a lot more often than anyone I know is truly annoying.

Even though my cold symptoms aren’t typically that serious, they are bad enough to limit my social life and decrease my productivity nearly to zero.

Being a one person-company doesn’t help either. After all that’s how many freelance writers operate. We write, edit, research, query, organize, brainstorm, market and a lot more. Having a head that feels like 40 pounds or feeling dizzy as soon as you get up doesn’t really help with any of our tasks.

But while there is not much I can do about the colds, I can at least think of the benefits (and lessons learned) to avoid feeling blue and frustrated.

1)      You save money. Assuming you have a solid insurance, having a cold means you don’t go out much and therefore you don’t spend much. This way you have a lot more to spend when you are feeling all energetic and healthy. Maybe you can put some of them in your saving or traveling accounts. And I am not making this up. You should see how good my account balance is right now.

2)      You can procrastinate, and not feel guilty about it. There are many ways to procrastinate, and despite our best efforts we find ourselves doing it. I know that we need our relaxation moments but we often spend a lot more time resting/delaying/dealing with less challenging stuff/depressing over queries more than we should or need to.

If you are not feeling terrible, there are of course productive things you can during a cold. But chances are you are not going to be nearly as efficient as your healthy self. So take this time to procrastinate away. Watch mindless TV, feel upset, eat some comfort food….

3)      You can reach a whole level of motivation and drive.  The longer a cold sticks around, the more driven I become to do more for my career, and do it sooner and faster. You realize how important time is one more time, and when you have the energy to do things to reach your goals, you should just do so.

4)      You can get the not-so-exciting tasks done.  Not all tasks require much energy. Try organizing your desktop, getting rid of all the resources you don’t need, rearranging bookmarks, going over your markets lists. Note all your ideas. Go over your old posts to see what you have covered so far.

Once you get your health back, you can get back to work with guns blazing.

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How do you deal with your colds?

Above: A writer waiting for inspiration to start writing. Image via kateevangelistarandr.blogspot.com

Some people love to chase. While I am not a big fan of chasing when it comes to dating, chasing inspiration is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a writer.

I love it when inspiration comes by itself.  When I have a magical A-HA! moment. When an idea comes by itself and not when I was brainstorming, forcing my brain to fix a plot problem. When it comes unannounced, unexpected and gives me the rush to start writing it right there and then. And even if I can’t start at that moment, I am smart enough to take enough notes so that I don’t let it get away.

Except this rarely happens to me. Especially when writing fiction. An exciting, entertaining idea doesn’t just come on its own. An idea- typically an ordinary one- comes when I think about what I want to write about. I know I want this ordinary situation or character in some way, but I don’t want it to be ordinary. No, I am not contradicting myself.

OK, think about it like this. You want to write about cancer. But you don’t want to go down the old, depressive, tragic, “what-have-I-done-to-deserve-this route”. Or the “I’m-already-dead-might-as-well-go-all-self-destructive route”.

Instead, your character decides to make the most of her life right there and then. She finds out humorous, practical and innovative ways to deal with her son and husband. She doesn’t care that much about saving money any more. She buys a red convertible – which will go to her son after he reaches a certain age. See how she lived for the moment, without screwing up anyone’s future? She also has workers build the swimming pool she always wanted. Impulsive? Yes. Irrational? No. If anything, this will increase the value of the house.

Did the plot sound familiar? Well, it is the plot of the comedy/drama show The Big C starring Laura Linney. Before watching it, I remember thinking        “Humor in cancer? Right. Like that could happen!” But it has, and the show turned out to be really good and unique.

Isn’t this more interesting than typical ways of grieving?

This happens to me a lot. I respond to my ideas by changing the core of the story, changing the sex of the main character, shaking stereotypes, or adding some unexpected traits to the archetype. Victoria Connelly did a wonderful example of this by creating a writer character in her book “A Weekend with Mr. Darcy”.

In the book, the main character is Lorna Warwick – a modern day, famous author of best-selling Jane Austen style novels. But of course Lorna is the pen name and the writer is actually a guy. And he is not gay or a nerd. He is a masculine, heterosexual, sexy guy who hides behind the persona – and does adrenaline-inducing outdoor activities with his friends while he is not writing. And best of all…his interest in Jane Austen, and his novels, is genuine.

A Weekend with Mr. Darcy may not be the best book ever-created but I really liked the male protagonist being a guy’s guy and loving Jane Austen, and her characters, as much as the next gal. And guess what? Connelly has been published many times.

Where did the inspiration for this article come from? It came while I was reading this Writer’s Digest article about how not to write a novel, and one of the best ways to do it was to wait for inspiration. I am trying to write a novel and yet after all this time creating stories, I still tend to make the mistake of waiting for inspiration. The article stroke a chord and I wrote about it.

So an article about writing inspiration came when I was studying writing (so I could write my novel better and I could get to know the magazine enough to pitch great queries.) Not when I was doing something totally unrelated, or not doing anything at all.

While inspiration might occasionally do the favor of dropping by out of thin air, it mostly loves to be chased with vengeance. So you can just start writing about anything in anyway…and spice things up later.

If there is something that bothers me than writing something ordinary…it is not writing at all. The name of this blog is not a coincidence. I truly am addicted to writing. And while ordinary can be changed into extraordinary through trial and error, extraordinary isn’t born from nothing.

Image via trulyt.files.wordpress.com.

One advertising teacher had told me there was a word for people who were addicted to deadlines, and the adrenaline that last minute rush created. I’ve not forgotten the definition. Yes, I was pretty guilty of it when I heard the word.

The easier a subject was to study, the more I procrastinated. Oh, I procrastinated for the subjects that were hard for me too- I just did it a little less and gave myself a little more time.

For some reason, I just couldn’t focus or worry enough until 2-3 days were left before the exam. And if I thought I could pull it off, I’ve been known to start studying as late as in the morning of the exam!

Of course I made exceptions for term projects, theses, grades I needed to improve and while I was studying to get into university.

I’m much more professional and careful now. I take my assignment deadlines very seriously, and start the project almost as soon as I accept it. I also make sure I finish it a couple of days before the deadline so that I am ready for last minute problems.

And although my sense of professionalism has made me procrastinate less, it hasn’t eliminated it completely. Let’s take my first novel for instance.

Since it is my first, I don’t have an editor/publisher pressuring me to finish 5 chapters in 2 weeks or something. It is not that I don’t try to write as much as I can whenever I can. But when I get stuck with a scene, I let myself suffer from the writer blues, and sometimes it is hard to take back the inspiration I need for fiction.

Then there are the blogs I run, but I don’t publish as often as I’d like to because in between gigs, other marketing efforts, market research, and trying to squeeze in a novel, I sometimes lose more time when resting than I intend to.

But is procrastination purely evil? Or is it a necessary tool for innovation? Does it always make our lives worse? Or does it really help with productivity and creativity?

The two posts I read on it made me wonder. The first one was Melanie Brook’s article on Freelance Switch “The Pull of Procrastination”, and the second one was the article that inspired Melanie’s post “Procrastination Is Essential to Innovation” on Harvard Business Review, written by Whitney Johnson.

I was amazed at how successful Melanie was at not procrastinating, and I did relate with Johnson’s tendency to delay things she wasn’t familiar with – even though she needed to do them to promote the thing she was familiar with-her book.

Both Melanie and Whitney seem to agree on the fact that a little anxiety about an approaching deadline might be necessary. Desirable even. But too much of it is bound to decrease productivity and innovation.

I agree. Below is a list of when I find procrastination a friend or a foe.

It’s a friend when:

• It really makes you get off your butt. Yes, ideally we’d all start doing something about dreams and goals right here and right now. But this is where the saying “better late than never” comes in. Starting and rushing to finish is better than not finishing at all. But of course this goes more for first drafts you write for yourself and not for your clients.

• It gives you adrenaline that was missing for a long time. I don’t know about you, but some adrenaline does fuel my productivity, speed of learning and creativity. I remember promising to a friend that a story would  be ready at a certain time. Guess what? It worked. She got the story – and a good one – at the promised time.  I just didn’t want to disappoint a reader, no matter how hard and fast I had to work to get it done.

It feels great to find yourself reaching a productivity  level you never knew existed.

It’s a foe when:

• It creates extra stress that you could probably do without. As freelancers (and/or writers) we are under enough pressure and stress already about running a one-person company, responsible for all the aspects of our business. And even if you are collaborating with others, it is a lot different from just being responsible from one or two tasks and leaving the rest up to your boss.

• It messes up your schedule and other tasks.

• It makes you enjoy the project less.

Bottom line?

It all depends on what you are procrastinating against and how you procrastinate. How much damage are you doing to your work? To your peace of mind? To your career?

Or are you using your procrastination for inspiration?

Just like most things in life, procrastination lies in a grey area, and it is up to you to pull it to the white zone, or let it drag you to the black.

Image via institutechildrenslit.net.

How fast can you churn out a decent novel? 3 years? 3 months?

While I was hunting for a good resource on writing a good page-turner that would satisfy me and land me an agent (and later hopefully a publisher), I thought Writer’s Digest’s 90 Days to Your Novel was reasonable enough.

The book tells you everything you need to know from the beginning to outlining to writing dialogue.  And while I didn’t finish my book in 90 days (it is on me though – I also love to maintain a part-time career in teaching, as well as a career in non-fiction), I learned a lot from that book.

Then of course if you are ready to dedicate a really good portion of your available time, I do believe that even the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is not a far-fetched concept, especially if you do have a certain grasp of your main events and characters before starting. A novel- at least a reasonable first draft- can probably be written in 30 days. And a goal of 30 days, whether you officially join other writers in a contest or just set it for yourself, is a great and productivity-fueling idea.

But while I was reading an article on the Funds for Writers newsletter and saw the term 3-Day novelist, I thought it was a typo. A novel? In 3 days? Right…But then I read on to find out how the writer had used fundraising for her book and her proposed budget was $120….So I hit google.

Sure enough there it was: 3-Day Novel Contest. OK, to be fair, the novel is going to be about 100 pages but 3-Days? Seriously?

But short(ish) or not, I don’t honestly see myself sitting through one weekend and being able to finish a novel. But it is a challenge like I have never seen before. And if you win, your prize is getting published. But there is an entrance fee, and you must be ready for a true marathon.

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• Have you ever joined the NaNoWriMo? Or the 3-Day Novel Contest?
• Did you assign yourself a certain amount of time to finish your novel and stick to it?
• What do you think is the most probable amount of time for producing a satisfactory novel, or its favorite cousin: the holy first draft?

I would love to learn about your experiences and insights.

Image via iawtvawards.org.

Most writers in the 21^st century have embraced both fiction and non-fiction. The reason can be money, promotion, the need to engage with readers, the need to connect with the world…You name it. But there are very few writers left who engage only in fiction or non-fiction.

I started creating stories when I was 9. I started writing them down when I was 12. And even though I didn’t try to get anything actively published until I was 24 (my bad, don’t follow this example!), my writing efforts never stopped. Whether it was finding the idea for a novel because of a true story my PR professor told me or passing from most of my courses (Human Resources, Organizational Theory…, etc) with flying colors because of the engaging essays that I wrote, I wrote. Non-fiction and fiction. Together.

In 2009, I realized that blogs were so much more than personal diaries (if you knew how to take advantage of this, that is), and Facebook was for so much more than just connecting with Friends. So my non-fiction journey started online.

I realized I loved writing for the web, while I kept researching about writing for magazines. I came a long way when it came to using blogs and social media, getting writing gigs and getting published on successful blogs and yet something was missing: My fiction.

My characters were still very much in mind, hardly able to wait to find their voice on paper and yet I hadn’t actively written fiction for 2 years. No wonder I was uncomfortable and was feeling that things were missing in my life.

But how was I supposed to balance fiction and fiction? How was I supposed to blog for me, others, keep my part-time job for stability and sanity, keep researching and have the time to write fiction? And did I mention I also happen to be very social?

Easy. I needed to be productive. I needed to stay focused. I needed to prioritize according to deadlines, my readers’ content needs and my inspiration levels. Some days I can have a blast writing movie reviews all day. Some days I can’t wait to go out there and market my writing, and sometimes it is the fiction that drives me.

And the best part is, these moments of pure inspiration and motivation can be managed, compartmentalized and different types of writing work can be done during the same day. Just keep reminding yourself the reasons you keep doing both:

I write non-fiction because:

• I love it.
• It gives me a platform to share my ideas and passions with like-minded people.
• It gives me a platform to promote my writing and get more writing gigs.
• It gives me a platform to connect with other writers.
• Oh, and when my fiction is ready to be published and promoted, it will be a platform for that too.

I write fiction because:

• I love it.
• I wouldn’t be able to stop even if I wanted to. Remember how I said I hadn’t really written fiction in 2 years? I meant that I hadn’t sit by my computer for days trying to get the full story finished. It did however meant lots of scenes written separately waiting to be connected, lots of dialogue and different turn of events going constantly around in my head.
• I do want to see my name on a paperback book. And I’ll have that, even if it means I go the self-publishing route in the end. I think I have wanted it since I read my first John Grisham book.
• I want to connect with more people. I want my fiction to be read too.
• Did I mention it is an addiction and no 12-step-program in the world could help me get over it?

How do you balance fiction and non-fiction?  Do you think the two can/should go hand in hand?

Cover of Twelve by Jasper Kent.

Some of my favorite stories have been a blend of true event and the writer’s imagination. In 2011, I had a blast watching X-Men: First Class where the story put mutants right in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. And Jasper Kent’s Twelve had even a catchier premise: Napoleon vs. Russia aided by vampires disguised as mercenaries, I knew I had to read that novel.

I started reading Twelve (right in the bookstore queue actually) and the prologue drew me further in. It started with a folktale that was creepy and delicious enough for me to continue reading on my way home.

Right after the prologue, though, the narrator turned into first person, but that seemed OK. The narrator, also our protagonist, was an experienced Russian soldier who was a part of an elite group whose members could survive in the battle field or as spies.

These Russians were desperate. Napoleon had marched further way further than Russians ever thought possible, an experienced soldier offers enlisting the help of these mercenaries’, who work as a group, stay loyal to who hire them and they get results by whatever means necessary. And they don’t cost anything, since they live off whatever they find around.

At first the rest of the group is reluctant but desperate times call for desperate measures, and the group arrives. They get the job done, even though they follow their own methods. Things naturally go awry when our narrator realizes that the reason each of these mercenaries can kill so many man at a time is that they are vampires!

So far, so good. The premise is cool, and it is the kind of story I wish I could have come up with. Those are my favorites- the ones that make me wish I had created. But there is one problem with the book, and it is a big one: there is simply too much narration.

At some points the narrator goes on and on and on and on….to the point that I wonder whether the author read some of those how to write a novel books, saw that you are advised to balance narration with dialogue and action and is rebelling against the advice, proving a bestseller can happen with too much narration as well.

I am not saying there is not dialogue. The dialogue is good, and there is plenty of action. After all, there is a war going on and yet our protagonist has noticed that his strongest allies are the enemies of humankind in general.

But the protagonist ALWAYS lets us know exactly what he thinks. Of everything and everyone. That just puts roadblocks to an otherwise enjoyable route. And after you pass one roadblock and just start to speed up, you run into the others.

This much narration doesn’t work in your favor, especially if the narrator fast becomes one of your least favorite characters.  He is self-righteous, he views all things in black and white, he believes in killing for war, and yet he is outraged when a vampire gets to kill a French soldier. So torture is OK, losing vital organs to war is OK, suffering terrible deaths by the hands of a man is OK, but being killed by a vampire? God forbid!

But it is not just his attitude or ramblings that go on for ages. It is also how the writer describes locations and people and interactions in so much detail again and again and again. Are you bored with my repetitions already? Good. Now you know how I feel.

I love the story. I love the villains. The guy who brought in the villains is also very interesting. Yet it feels like work reading through all of the words to get to the more exciting bits.

I feel like the novel could miss a hundred pages, and end up a superior book that doesn’t stall. A great story is drowned and dragged through narration.

I can’t tell you not to read the book as it is too good a premise. I’m, however, saying I’m a little disappointed, because I had expected to finish the book in two days. Several weeks went by, and I had to give a break. After all there are only so many descriptions of Moscow or the guys’ feelings for his mistress I could take.

So if you are one of the writers who love dialogue but have more trouble with narration, or if you are a reader who doesn’t like when an author is a less then concise, this may not be the book for you.

But for some a little-delayed entertainment, it is good. But I was so excited after the prologue, I was sure I’d buy this book’s sequel, 13 Years Later.  Now I’m not so sure. Especially since I know the protagonist will be the same.