About halfway through my chemo sessions I start watching the clock. Doesn't matter how I've been distracting myself--book, DVD, audio tape--when I hit the halfway point all I can think is getting out of there. I've never been able to count patience among my many virtues.
Unheard of thing happened today. I was so engrossed in a novel that it didn't quite register that the nurse came over, took out the IV and said goodbye. I know all these things happened because when she came back and said, "Are you all right?" I looked down at my hand and there was the band aid covering the spot where the needle had been taken out.
She was smiling. "We wondered if you were all right. You're usually out of here like a shot. But you've been sitting here for fifteen minutes reading."
True unexaggerated facts.
The book is called Shot by Jenny Siler. In broadstroke it's a not unfamiliar story about a sinister government-industry cover-up set in a small Colorado town. Lucy Greene's life takes a startling turn with the accidental death and then a burglar breaking into her home soon after. Right before his death her husband Carl contacted Kevin Burns, a CNN reporter who got tossed for fudging a story, and told him that he had a story that would Kevin back in business.
Not unfamiliar, as I say. But the truth is in the writing and Siler is about as good a stylist as I've come across in a long time, capable of images of people and landscapes that can rock you. She has John D. MacDonald's ability to take the recognizable types of contemporary popular fiction and give them quirky and real life. She is also a cunning plotter; she structures her story for maximum speed that nonethless allows her make the book as much about people as plot.
I tried to finish it when when I was driving home. (Now that's an exaggeration.)
A damned good writer, Jenny Siler.
----Mad Men
As you've been able to tell my negative review of Mad Men pretty much put that show to rest, eh? Ratings soared! I know I'm in the minority and I'm pretty sure it's me not you.
-----The Scribes
Scribe Awards
Winners in bold type. Link via Lee Goldberg.
BEST GENERAL FICTION ORIGINAL
CSI NY: DELUGE by Stuart M. Kaminsky
**MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS by Lee Goldberg
MURDER SHE WROTE: PANNING FOR MURDER by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
CRIMINAL MINDS: JUMP CUT by Max Allan Collins
BEST GENERAL FICTION ADAPTED
**AMERICAN GANGSTER by Max Allan Collins
BEST SPECULATIVE ORIGINAL
LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON by Kevin J. Anderson
**STARGATE ATLANTIS: CASUALTIES OF WAR by Elizabeth Christensen
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Q&A by Keith R.A. DeCandido
BEST GAME-RELATED ORIGINAL (SPECIAL SCRIBE AWARD)
HITMAN: ENEMY WITHIN by William C. Dietz
FORGE OF THE MINDSLAYERS by Tim Waggoner
**EBERRON: NIGHT OF THE LONG SHADOWS by Paul Crilley
BEST SPECULATIVE ADAPTED
RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION by Keith R.A. DeCandido
52: THE NOVEL by Greg Cox
**30 DAYS OF NIGHT by Tim Lebbon
BEST YOUNG ADULT ORIGINAL
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE DEATHLESS by Keith R.A. DeCandido
GOODLUND TRILOGY: VOLUME THREE: WARRIORS BONES by Stephen D. Sullivan
**NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW #10: TICKET TROUBLE by Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon
BEST YOUNG ADULT ADAPTED
**THE 12 DOGS OF CHRISTMAS by Steven Paul Leiva
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2 comments:
I've read Jenny's books, and enjoyed them, too. I believe she's written some new stuff using a psuedonym.
Ed Lynskey
Siler's also writing spy novels under the name of Alex Carr, I think. A real talent.
A crime if she isn't discovered by the Furst/LeCarre/Silva fans.
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