I agree. It screams "I don't trust my story enough to open it where it really starts, so I'm going to hedge my bets and hook you with this." Then later on you find out that the hook happens, but it means something entirely different. Sloppy storytelling.

Can they take Laurel with them?

I love Amanda Connor's stuff.

It sounds like it's a tone problem. Analogy: They wanted Gaiman and they got Pratchett. Pratchett's wonderful, but he deals in a different tone, a different kind of reality, and I can see the same with Wright, who is also wonderful. Of course Pratchett and Gaiman together produced Good Omens, so it's not impossible…

I've always thought that was flawed on two counts.

Oh, I know what it means. And she'd loathe it. I just think it's pretty (g).

I love everything about Good Omens. I don't think I'd end a friendship over it, but we'll never be close because, really, this book. My only regret is that my daughter was born before I read it because Anathema Device is a perfect name for a girl.

If you put in the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY, you get 30% off the stuff that's not marked down. No idea how long it's good for though.

If you put in the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY, you get 30% off the stuff that's not marked down. No idea how long it's…

Infodump is not a synonym for exposition, infodump is bad exposition, the kind that happens when the author stops the story to dump a lot of information he or she wants the reader to know and then starts the story again. It's lazy, sloppy writing that is a disservice to the reader. Exposition can be beautiful,…

Electric mattress pad. If you don't like a lot of weight from your covers but you don't want to freeze to death (old house, single pane windows), electric mattress pads are wonderful.

They had the best cute-meet ever. Remember when they were in that hotel room and Root was going to torture Shaw with the iron, and Shaw told her she kind of enjoyed that kind of thing, and Root's eyes lit up and she said she was so glad Shaw said that because she did, too?

I'm pretty sure I read that, too. It's so brilliant that they do that. That extra bit of humanity in the monster is really wonderful, especially when it's Spader-Humanity.

I love that last bit at the end with the close up of Ultron as he tilts his head; it's exactly what Spader would do as he said that.

So true. We kinda shared a moment there (g).

Sorry, I get wonky about story. I was focusing on escalation, not a recap. Plus bookending! I know, story nerd. I apologize.

That's a perfect escalating plot. The dog rips up the newspaper which is annoying, and then he locks himself out in retrieving it and has to do actual damage to his property, and because of that he becomes vulnerable to the dog and then gets arrested. Plus the beginning and ending are bookended: his goal is to read…

We may be just having a semantic problem. "Cool" is one of those non-specific words; I usually use "fun" and then have to explain that covers tragedy and horror, too, because I mean "fun for the reader to read and for me to write." I think a lot of the not-fun comes in scenes that are there to set up other scenes…

I always write the cool scenes first. That way when I'm done, I have all cool scenes. Seriously. I used to write in chronological order and I'd be slogging through a scene thinking, "I can't wait until I'm finished," and it occurred to me that if I was bored, imagine what my reader was going to be. From then on, I…

My pleasure!

The problem with prologues is that they waste your first line. Readers come to your book really wanting to like it, hoping it's going to be a favorite. They are completely on your side, looking for a protagonist to latch onto and worry about, to see in action. A prologue essentially tells your readers, "Not yet. …