Tag Archives: good writing

March 15, 2014 · 7:20 pm

The Reconstruction Years: The Tragic Aftermath of the War Between the States

Walter Coffey’s latest book looks great, can’t wait to pick it up. His awesome month-by-month account of the Civil War was a great read, too.

I haven’t read his latest book about The Reconstruction (click the cover), but if it’s anything like his Civil War book, it’ll be quality material. I also enjoyed Walter’s Civil War novels.

Full Disclosure: I know this guy, personally. He’s also blogged about me, and one could assume that “I owe him” (and they’d be right). However, I wouldn’t steer folks wrong publicly like this and risk alienating them. Sadly, because I know Walter personally, I can’t add him to the list of great Indie Reads over on the left, but if anyone deserves a spot there, he does.

Great Indie Books #3: Cafe Insomniac, by Mark Capell

Please welcome Mark Capell to the “John L. Monk List Of Indie Authors Who Actually Don’t Suck And Who, In Fact, Kick Ass” list. Nobody goes on this list unless they fulfill the following criteria:

Professional, nearly flawless editing.
Memorable, quality writing.
Good story.
They meet a few additional requirements.

“Cafe Insomniac” is a strange, cozy, left turn from reality, somewhat reminiscent of Neil Gaiman, and yet very much its own unique story: timeless, mysterious, and more than a little dangerous. And fun. I loved it.

Follow the link on the left under “Great Indie Books” to read the blurb and/or buy the book.

Good writing? Hot Fuzz

Ok, the movie’s not exactly new anymore, it came out in 2007. I hate that it feels like just yesterday, but I guess that’s why I wear glasses now and I’m seeing more gray hair 🙂 Stupid human condition…

So the wife and I were re-watching Hot Fuzz and I couldn’t help remarking, way too many times for Mrs. John L. Monk, that the writing was incredible. The editing really brought it out, too, with all the scene jumps and sound effects when they happened. I don’t know what you call it when a comedian says something in the beginning of the routine and brings it up at the end again to great applause, but there was an endless stream of this in the movie, with references to Bad Boys II and Point Break in it that kept coming back to delight us. And the movie was deeply, brilliantly silly.

Also enjoyed his World’s End movie, though not as much as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. But it was still a hoot.

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Tagged as good writing, movies

September 5, 2013 · 10:34 am

Just discovered “Wattpad” – and J.M. Sidorova

Yesterday, I discovered a wonderful place for writers called “Wattpad.” A nice site, you can go there and post excerpts from your writing in a community setting and people can look at it, comment, vote, etc. etc. Pretty cool. I figured I should follow people so I clicked a few people at random with the intent to come back later. Then I got an email saying someone had commented on the first chapter from my book. A nice comment, so naturally I was intrigued and had to go find out more about this wise, intelligent, mysterious person.

This wise person had also commented on someone else, so I went to read that (which is how it works).

If the rest of the writing on Wattpad is anything like this, I’ll be spending a lot of time there:

The Colors of Cold