by Scott W Clemens | Sep 13, 2019 | Author's Blog
I’ve had a devil of a time finding beta readers for my new novel. You, dear reader, are invited to request a copy, just join my Advance Team on the homepage of this website. I think it’s difficult for most writers to judge their own work. One day I’ll reread a scene and think “how marvelous!” A week later I’ll read the same passage and think, “what drivel.”
To get an unbiased review from a professional reviewer, I submitted the manuscript to the BookLife Prize (a prize awarded by Publishers Weekly to an indie book or unpublished novel). In giving feedback, the BookLife Prize reviewer had this to say:
BookLife Prize – 2019
The Seal Cove Theoretical Society
Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 8 out of 10
Prose: 7 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 8.25 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot: The interlocking stories made the book loom large while highlighting the deep connections between the individual characters who reside in the distinctive community of Seal Cove. In a narrative somewhat reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, even diversionary chapters reflecting on the history and intricacies of the small town, ultimately inform the overarching narrative.
Prose/Style: The author writes in clean, concise, and warm prose that evokes the spirit of the quietly eccentric community.
Originality: Clemens succeeds in establishing a unique setting for these interconnected stories, which ultimately act as patchwork pieces in a broader tapestry.
Character Development: Clemens’s care and reverence for his characters is apparent throughout. Each individual is provided with genuine closure that also resonates within the narrative whole.
END OF REVIEW.
I’m encouraged by the reviewer’s reaction. It could be more enthusiastic, but overall I think the review is fair. Nonetheless, it would be helpful to know how a general reader would respond to this book. You may even suggest how to make it even better. To share your insights before the novel is published, please make your request for a review copy by filling out the contact form on the homepage.
by Scott W Clemens | Jun 15, 2019 | Author's Blog
I finished my new novel last Monday. It’s called The Seal Cove Theoretical Society, and it’s a gently humorous literary take on my town and its inhabitants. I’m looking for Beta readers to give me some feedback about what works and what doesn’t, so if you’re interested you can download it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/q3bibtwfpo
A closet novelist. An erstwhile rock star. A retiring wine importer. A crab fisherman. A dot-com millionaire. What do they have in common? They’re all members of a loose affiliation called The Seal Cove Theoretical Society.
The Seal Cove Theoretical Society is told from multiple viewpoints, and features an author/narrator who tells a little of the “history” of the San Mateo coast through a series of vignettes that form a backdrop to the main plot(s). Interweaving the stories through short chapters, the main thrust revolves around a group of neighbors who come to the aid of Tom Birmingham, a man who, on the brink of retirement, has a nearly fatal accident, and literally meets Fate, who sends him back to “tie up loose ends.” While Tom tries to figure out what those loose ends are, his neighbors deal with issues of their own, and find a way forward through the small miracle of friendship.
by Scott W Clemens | May 24, 2019 | Author's Blog
I visited my hometown after a few decades away. Contrary to popular belief, you can go home again, you just have to step out of the present. It’s all there in your mind, layer upon layer of memories, so that walking around the old town I can close my eyes and remember details of the place in another time, and remember what it was like to be a certain age, when we were all alive and didn’t know how things would turn out. That’s one of the more interesting things about living a long time. When you’re young and the future is a mystery, you can dream, make projections, set goals, hope, and aspire to enrich your life with experiences, while becoming your future self. But walking the old town now is like walking with ghosts. I’m not just in the present, but in the past, and not just one day in the past, but a past made up of all the days, like sedimentary layers, where some of the record lies buried forever, and some connections that were once hidden are now revealed. Past and present are wrapped in an embrace. But I can never see things with the same eyes I had then, the same innocence, the same ignorance, the same hopes and desires. Times change. People change. Our perceptions are filtered by circumstance and experience, and perhaps most of all by attitude, so we never become exactly who we thought we would be. Our future selves are strangers to us. Our past selves are ghosts. I’ve been fortunate. For me most of my ghosts are friendly. Chalk it up to luck, or karma, or attitude.
by Scott W Clemens | Apr 2, 2019 | Author's Blog
Books, like food, come in all flavors and not everyone has the same taste. Likewise, a movie critic may not share your sensibilities, and a wine critic may have opposite tastes. So how do you choose what to read? These days we’re lucky, because instead of just one critic, or one best-seller list, we can read dozens of reviews by readers. As an indie writer, it’s easy to become discouraged. Your work doesn’t pass through traditional gatekeepers (agent and editor) who serve to weed out the chaff. So the only way to know if your book is kernel or chaff is to put it out in the marketplace and let readers vet or reject it. It’s easy to doubt yourself.
Then you come upon famously awarded books that are so bad that you can’t help but feel your book is better. At times like these, you realize that the critic who pronounced that book a work of genius, was either drunk or smoking some bad weed. What else could account for such drivel. I’ll give you three examples that I bring to mind whenever I doubt the value of my own work. The first is James Jones’s National Book Award winning From Here to Eternity, which wraps poor writing around the story of a loser who makes all the wrong choices and dies for nothing. Then there’s John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a parody of Victorian hysteria and sexual repression, where the narrator occasionally steps into the picture and reminds you that it’s small make believe and nothing to be excited about. Not to be outdone by Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools which, though well-written, presents a cast of such despicable characters that you can’t help but hope the ship will sink and take all of them to the bottom so you can be rid of them for good.
As a reader, you always have the option of bailing out before the crash, but a lot of us keep reading with the misplaced optimism that a satisfying ending will save an otherwise hollow story.
by Scott W Clemens | Feb 8, 2019 | Author's Blog
I don’t think there is a writer in the world who doesn’t cringe at his or her own writing from time to time. It’s easy to get discouraged, which is why I’m heartened by positive reviews. They let me know that I’m on track and delivering what readers want. Even better are negative reviews of other books. They let me know that even well known writers, or well publicized writers don’t always hit the mark. Of course, knowing you’re no worse than some other schmuck is a poor substitute for praise, but we writers will take what we can get. Best of all are the monumental failures, books so bad that they make your worst book look like The Great American Novel.
That said, I’ve usually refrained from gloating over someone else’s poor reviews in public, which is why it was so unusual for me to post a scathing review on my Facebook feed last July. Here it is in total:
“The next time I question my writing, I’ll only have to look at Half Moon Bay again and be assured that writers far worse than I are still published by reputable publishers. Read it aloud and have a good laugh.
“I live just north of Half Moon Bay, so when I saw a new book called Half Moon Bay and set in my own backyard, I had to take a look. I’ve reviewed plenty of books, but I’ve never been tempted to spread the word about a really bad book — until now. Simply call it up on Amazon, click on the Look Inside feature, and read the sample chapter. Then read the reviews, and you’ll wonder how such incoherent, overwrought drivel received any stars at all. The author, Alice LaPlante, taught writing at Stanford, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. Stegner must be spinning in his grave. If you want something amusing to show your friends, you can have all 272 hardbound pages for $24.25 (the cover is kind of nice), or the Kindle edition for just $13.99. For the record, Scribner has foisted this gewgaw on the innocent public. I expect the editor (if there was one) has moved on to another line of work.”
I know I’m being mean spirited to call attention to it, but I couldn’t help it; it felt so good to know that I’m not the worst writer on the planet. The book had only been out a week or so at the time, so it was hard to know how the general public would receive it — anything is possible. As it transpired, I’m not alone. Six months after its release, fully 50% of reviewers have given it only one or two stars out of five.
That gave me pause to wonder how books are received by their intended audience. While poorly written books can become bestsellers (Love Story, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull are good examples), at the same time, some beautifully written books receive poor reviews because the subject matter is disturbing (My Absolute Darling), or because the storytelling is deficient (Less, and Infinite Jest, and Ulysses), or the public is not up to the literary challenge (The Sound and the Fury, or Lincoln in the Bardo come to mind). Yet it’s nice to know that a writer can still trust in his or her artistic vision, however quirky, and still find an audience. It gives me hope.
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