I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, December 14, 2007

Book Finishline crossed by Matt Mitchell

Cool new guy Matt Mitchell just finished up and he's posted an excerpt of his new book (warning, excerpt has graphic violence, not for the squeemish). You should go and congratuate him. The excerpt is nicely wrapped in a blue box so you can avoid it if you like, or just skip to it if you like.

Congrats on book number three, Matt. You sir, rock (and I'm not saying that staring at a green axe either).

4 comments:

Matt Mitchell said...

Steve, thanks; now once I get through the many rewrites I'm obliged to perform maybe I can do something with it. (Care for a critiquing job?? :-)

Steve Buchheit said...

No worries, Matt. Seriously, congrats on finishing your 3rd novel. I've got two stubs, one of which I need to get back to, I feel it resting in the back of my mind even eight years after the voice telling me the story and myself agreed that I needed to learn more before I could do justice to the story, it's still the same, even with how much I've grown as a writer (this is the one that I posted the first chapter). Another is a longer story that I have the basic outline for, although the opening scene (and some later scenes) wouldn't let me go until I wrote them out (Green, green, green, every damn thing is green). I have a few novellas started (I thought they were short stories, but then I realized they'd need 15-20,000 words to pay off). But I really want to get this third novel out. I have several pieces for it written, tons of notes, outline, spreadsheet of chapters, etc.

As for critiquing, I have my own writers group where I critique (they're at the pro level, I'm kind of the group plaything at the moment) and another friend's novel that I've only critiqued the first chapter on (and I've had since October). In the past year I've critiqued three full novels, and am working on the fourth, and with my group we're in the middle of the fifth novel (which is really so cool). So I don't think I can add much more, sorry. :)

Matt Mitchell said...

Oh well... just a thought. I wish I had a competent writing group here locally, but I don't, and I don't have any friends who even read, much less take on a job of critiquing. My wife reads a lot, but of course she finds it difficult to be critical. I love her for it, but sometimes I just wish I had someone who would give me an honest opinion.

Steve Buchheit said...

Matt, it took me a long time to find a writers group that worked well. And then it took me years to get into it. Have you looked at the online groups of Critters, OWW,, and Absolute Write? Or look for conventions that have writer critiques as a part of their programming? Then there's always the writer Workshops of Clarion(s) and Odyssey (both are 6 weeks), or Viable Paradise (with is one week).

For my current writers group I drive over an hour to make the once monthly meetings. So they're not really "close," but man they're good. I learn as much from hearing them critique others and I get from them critiquing my stories.

But I definitely know how you feel. The next closest group was about a half hour away, but they met at an inconvenient time and I found myself always being late. They also were more of an appreciation group than a critique group. But they certainly helped me out with some things, if some weeks to only validate that writing was worth while.