Back from Angel Island State Park now. We had a really great time. It was an awesome little trip. Backpacking through SF was amusing, riding the ferry out was good fun, and the island itself was just perfect for a three-day stint. I've done a lot of camping, but never in quite this setting: at a primitive site overlooking a busy shipping lane, with Alcatraz in swimming distance, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop and the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate at either side of the horizon. That was our view.

We hiked in about a mile and half, backpacks and all, and spent most of the second day walking the five mile perimeter road around the island. What's so unusual about the place is that it's an unspoiled collage of historical ruins from several time periods: 19th century barracks, early twentieth century immigration stations, quarantine areas, cold war military batteries, not to mention the Native American history that predates it all. By "unspoiled" I actually just mean that the ruins dot the island like ghost towns, decaying, haunted, so very quiet. There's something about the silence and the emptiness of the spaces that makes the connection with the place's history tangible in a way that no museum or complete reconstruction or reenactment could. It's like you're walking on sacred ground, across earth and through buildings with memories.

The kids felt it, too. On their own impulse, they couldn't help but tell tales of murder and hauntings, of escaped prisoners that lived on yet among the echoing halls. They just felt it.

This is not to say it was morbid. We were surrounded by life and movement and lights in the evening. (Ah, the view...)

I feel like mentioning as well that part of the joy of it was just being with my family without outside stimulus or interruption. We played many card games, read and told stories. I'd forgotten - and bear in mind that I'm actually home often and get to spend a lot of time with my family - just how completely wonderful it is to have belly laughs inspired by nothing other than the comedy that springs out of conversations with the ones you love. (A lot of the humor was Sage inspired. The boy has absolutely no poker face!)

If you'd like to see some photos you can check out the snaps at our family blog, Girl Cat Snoozing. (The two photos here I stole from over there, but there are a few more, as well.) My wife, Gudrun, is into experimenting with her camera, hence the strange effects...

Labels: Family Stuff, Random Mountainy Things

Hi. Early in the AM here in Fresno. Just writing to say that I'm off camping for a few days at Angel Island State Park. Should be interesting. We have to walk through downtown San Francisco with our backpacks on to get the ferry out to the island.

I've got a new mini-cassette tape handy, so I've every intention of having lots of good plot ideas, lines of dialogue, descriptive flourishes recorded over the next few days. Work on the book will continue! So it's not a vacation. Not completely, at least...

Labels: Family Stuff, Random Mountainy Things

Okay, that's it. I'm off to Big Sur. Boogie boarding. Cycling. Camping. Getting some decent air in my kids' lungs!

Just thought I'd mention it. Be well, folks!

Labels: Random Mountainy Things

That Tess Gerritsen post from a while back created a nice little discussion. People had interesting interpretations of (and issues) with her post, which I enjoyed hearing about. Right from the start, though, I was thinking about an off-shoot that wasn't really her topic. That is, what to make of reviews that attack works you love as if they had absolutely no value, quality, anything of interest to anybody? Every book that's been read by enough people has a few of these reviews on Amazon. (And they happen in paid-reviewer venues as well.) They're usually in the minority, sure, but they can feel like tiny worlds all to themselves, worlds in which the reviewer acknowledges no other perspective than his/her own (or dismisses those other perspectives as crap)...

Okay, so here a few quotes taken from one star Amazon reviews of four books. Each book gets a few choice critiques. See if you can guess the book by the quotes. They're all completely famous books. I'll name the books down at the end.

BOOK ONE:

"Clumsy writing, heavy-handed symbolism, self-righteousness, unbelievable dialogue, characters even a comic book would blush at. A book that insults the intelligence at every level."

"This was not a good book. The dialogue is stilted, the characters are caricatures, and everyone's always "hissing", "glaring", or "swallowing with a dry throat"... from where I stand, XXX is a poorly-written, lackluster, repetitive tale."

"This is a chore. I don't go for complex storylines and this book is the worst of the worst for those. I kept turning back to read over parts I had not taken in the first time, and in the end I gave up. I got to almost half-way, but I had lost interest way before then."

BOOK TWO:

"I was stupefied by its thick, plodding, contrived plot and bizarrely drawn characters. I do not understand why on earth this book has received the altitudinous praise it has received. I would not choose to teach it again and I would not recommend it. Maybe something else by XXX (who I feel is an "okay" writer, but certainly not an American great) would do."

"Awkward, boring, poorly written, nearly incomprehensible. I admit I did not get to page 75 - so maybe I shouldn't even write a review. But even getting to the point that I did, took extreme perseverance... honestly, I hated it - or the part that I did read... Didn't work for me at all. Don't bother with XXX."

"Simply Unreadable."

BOOK THREE:

"I admit I only read the first 120 pages. Reading the entire book is not my responsibility. Instead, it is the author's responsibility to maintain my interest."

"Completely disappointing. Read to learn how not to write."

"The reason I hate this book is because it sucked! I was astonished that it got so many great reviews. The plot was extremely slow and dull. And the whole story seemed unoriginal, like I've heard it many times before. The author has been praised for his amazing characters and personally I found them flat, boring and predictable. They seemed to have no original thoughts or feelings and some of their actions were unrealistic in human nature. I felt as if everyone had a blank expression on their face and they were speaking in monotone... I think this is a horrible author and you would do good to avoid his work."

BOOK FOUR:

"I really didn't like this book. Maybe it's because you need an imagination to read it, and mine isn't always there. It just seemed too unrealistic, and I just hated it."

"I found this book the most boring and monotonous book I've ever read... I literally had to slap myself a couple of times to stay awake and read this darn book. I just found this book disgusting boring, but that's just my opinion."

"To call this book an enduring American classic gives America a bad name."

"This book was a profound disappointment. It offered nothing in the way of plot, characters, or theme. It is a long, painstaking, tedious read. Don't bother with this book."

"Simply put: What a lousy novel! Maybe this was his first novel...I don't know. Anyways, I sure hope he doesn't plan on writing anything else. I read this book, initially, in the author's native bulgarian language...and it was even worse! The translator was probably trying to do us a favor by touching up this P.O.S. novel, but I think it would take an act of God to save this text..."

And just what books are these (so you know to avoid them)?

BOOK ONE: Dune, by Frank Herbert

BOOK TWO: Beloved, by Toni Morrison

BOOK THREE: A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin

BOOK FOUR: Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Anyway, these are just a few I picked out. Any book that's been read by a lot of people ends up with reactions like these. (Go look up one of your favorites.) My books have gotten a few as well, so even little me hasn't dodged the angry reader's wrath. (Except for Walk Through Darkness, which has only Four and Five starred reviews. Go figure...)

Oh, by the way, I highly recommend all four books. They're totally different, but I think they're each awesome in their own way. Does that mean I think everyone will love (or even like) everything about them? No, but unlike these detractors, I'm not saying I have the intelligence and knowledge and insight to damn them for all possible readers. I'm just saying that at least this one person (me) found something wonderful in each of these. That's quite different than suggesting that because I hated something everyone else will/should also. I like that kinder and gentler approach...

Labels: Other Authors, Random Mountainy Things, Recommendations

The New York Times recently did a story on The Highs and the Lows of Rankings on Amazon. It talks about the whole rating system and outs us writers as often compulsive in checking our figures. (Numerical figures, that is.)

Man, I so do that! What a waste of time, but I can't help it. It's either like an instant little pill of pleasure when the ranking is good or a quick kick in the teeth when it's not.

So why do it? I don't know. It's there. I can't help it.

Any advice on how to break the habit?

Labels: Links, Random Mountainy Things

Yikes. We had a great time in the mountains, but I'm hobbling around now like an old geezer. You would be too - well, I'd like to think so, at least - if you'd driven up from flat Fresno to 7,500 feet, and from there hiked up to camp at a high, alpine lake at 10,000 feet! It was kinda epic, the first time we've done this sort of thing as a family. The kids were great. Absolutely great. It was decidedly the workout of their young lives, but they ate up the trail. (Granted, at some point during the second night they both hurled. Reaction to the fatigue and the altitude, I figure. But beyond that they honestly didn't complain.)

I won't go on about it here, but if you'd like a glimpse of things Durham you could click over to Girl Cat Snoozing, where my wife will be posting about the trip as well - with pictures! (Try clicking on the last photo. It looks like it's just a boulder field, but my son and daughter are in there somewhere.)

Labels: Random Mountainy Things