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Ali Cooper

Författare till Archaeology Walks in the Peak District

5 verk 22 medlemmar 3 recensioner

Verk av Ali Cooper

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Kort biografi
Ali Cooper is an author, songwriter, guitar teacher, archaeologist, and musician, living in Devon, UK.

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Too many indie writers rush to publication, but so do writers aiming for literary representation in the mainstream industry, and I’ve been looking for a book on editing that I can recommend to those who seek my advice. This is such a book.

In ‘Editing A Better Book’, Ali Cooper differentiates between the types of editing a typescript should be subjected to, and how to subject it to such without the writer going into emotional meltdown. Four sections are each split further for ease of understanding, with tips, examples and hyperlinks to useful grammar and punctuation checkers.

“Many people say you cannot edit your own book…” Ali Cooper says you can. With her leading writers by the hand, I whole-heartedly agree. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to aid their own cause.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
LindaAcaster | Mar 8, 2015 |
Cave is about Marty. Marty is a bit of an idiot. What's more if he isn't careful he's going to be a dead idiot. As the story opens, he is trapped in the entrance to a cave, injured, frightened and alone, with no chance of rescue and no immediately obvious way out. At first even the reason for him to be marooned there isn't immediately clear.

As the events unfold, Marty tries various ways to get to safety and when each ends in failure he returns to the same spot to take stock and plan the next one. He's plucky, and if he's going to go down, he's definitely going down in flames. As he carefully rations his food and plans each attempt to get to safety he is prompted to think through events and aspects of his recent life, taking the reader through them with him.

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this book because, initially, I didn't like Marty. It is clear, at the start, that for a large portion of his life he's been a total git.

However, I am glad I kept going (I whizzed through Cave in a couple of days in the end) because as I began understand Marty's personal development I began to like him a lot more. He is unfailingly honest with himself and as he starts to face up to his faults he seems vulnerable and human in a way that makes many of his less attractive traits forgiveable. He wants to make sense of his emotions and relationships but he doesn't always get it right. This is an appealing flaw, too. His character development is subtle and beautifully drawn and as the book progressed I found that, underneath the vacuous exterior, lay a far deeper and more rounded personality than I'd expected.

The quality of the writing is excellent, indeed, the denoument, while it works perfectly well, is effective, first and foremost, because the author has the writing skill to carry it off.

I read the e-book, which was very well presented and I didn't spot any typos.

A cracking book, thoroughly recommended.
… (mer)
 
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MTMcGuire | Sep 6, 2011 |
I downloaded the sample of this book after seeing Ali on the forums, where several of the others had praised it greatly. I dithered a bit because it really didn't sound like my sort of thing, but downloaded the sample out of curiosity and by two paragraphs in had bought the book.

The first thing I noticed about "Girl on a Swing" is the intricate, almost poetic use of words (this was what sold me on it). If you want a taste of the writing style, definitely have a look at the sample but bear in mind that while the sample covers the beginning which is quite still and slow, the action gets more intense and exciting later in the book.

The story is told in the first person, mostly in the present; the heroine, Julia, lives a very isolated life, emotionally speaking, and this is communicated with the barest minimum of implications but permeates everything else. In some ways her life seems much less real than her remembered lives - at the beginning of the book I had a good idea of what was going to happen, and then it baffled my expectations at every turn, which is always gratifying!

It is very atmospheric; very gripping; and very unusual. The only reason for which I gave it four stars rather than five is that when the action comes to its climax, I would have liked to have heard a little more from Frank about what / how much he remembered, just to give the ending a little more symmetry and definition. (That said, you don't notice at the time because you're so into it; only when savouring the aftertaste of the book, so to speak.)

It's such an unusual book, with such a fresh use of words; it's very powerful. Julia isn't cheerful, and yet she's leavened with enough cheerfulness from other characters that you're certainly not left in a cloud of depression. The development of Julia from her grief and isolation in the beginning of the book to the better, happier, more fulfilled self as she finds relief from various sadnesses at the end works quite naturally and is ultimately rather uplifting.

Should you try it yourself? Absolutely yes. And bear in mind, if it's not your sort of thing - it's not my sort of thing either! But excellent things are, and this is excellent.
JAC.
… (mer)
 
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J.A.Clement | May 25, 2011 |

Statistik

Verk
5
Medlemmar
22
Popularitet
#553,378
Betyg
½ 4.4
Recensioner
3
ISBN
4