Blog 123; Harlan Coben Thinks Twice

In his latest Myron Bolitar installment, I believe that Harlan Coben has reached new heights as an author of suspense/mystery fiction. One thing that always kept me from being “all in” with his writing and novels was the general “clunkiness” of the prose, and a certain ham-handedness that betrayed a lack of fully developed writing style. Some people find that kind of clunk writing endearing, or even relatable, but I prefer my pop Grisham with a dash of classic Hemingway, thank you. And this is what I got with Think Twice. As a reader, I can really appreciate the care and extra time Coben put into the artful crafting of the novel and its key characters. You can tell, unlike with some other suspense authors, that Coben really feels for his characters, even the minor ones. Even from the serial killer’s point of view. He paints the killer as a sadly doomed kind of adrenaline addict who can’t stop the killing, despite best efforts. It is a poignant reminder that the author sees his characters as real, oftentimes frail, people. And this warmth and compassion comes across in a story that is propelled by heart. Good guys, bad guys, regular guys and gals. Makes no difference. Harlan Coben is fast becoming that rare breed of author who started out in the trenches of the mass market world only to find himself a creative author out to break your heart. I won’t give away any spoilers in this review, but suffice it to say Coben pulls away from some potentially devastating punches at the very ending to my dismay. Compassionate, yes. But there are a few heart-stopping scenes toward the end where everything slows down and is on the line and then the book becomes a study in premeditated violence, a tense, edge of your seat, true blue thriller. I wanted to say this is his best work yet, and it is close, but I am not totally sure after the overall ending. I can think of a few other novels that had stronger plotting even if lighter character development. But as an accomplished literary artist, Harlan Coben has raised the bar for everyone and is reaching the height of his powers thusfar. I believe in time, his novels may end up with an even longer shelf life than anyone would be able to predict in today’s rough and tumble fiction market. An old friend in the writing world with a philosophical bent once told me: “The excellent becomes the permanent.” I believe with Think Twice, Harlan Coben has crossed into the realm of the truly excellent creative artist with heart.

Blog 122; Publication Update; Two Poems in Poetry for Mental Health; Upcoming article and fiction story in SwimSwam

 I have two poems recently published on mental health-related themes, in Poetry for Mental Health, and my final article on recovering from heart disease is upcoming in SwimSwam.  Also, in November, be ready for an extra-special fictional story in SwimSwam set in a fictional future Olympic Games.

Take care,

Chris

https://www.poetryformentalhealth.org/featured-poetry---september-2024

Blog #121; Free Digital Swimming Themed Book and Other Give-Aways, Sept. 15 through 17!

 For those of you readers who have not dipped into (pun intended) my swimming stories yet, I am offering free copies of the Swimming Among the Olympians collection I wrote a while back.  A mixture of both fiction and factual writing, it is sure to entertain those of us who at one time or another have made a home of the pool!

Also, don't forget my debut novel, In Love and War, which so far has been getting great reviews.  A bitter-sweet heartwarmer!  It is going to be given away at the same time.

Finally, Physician, Heal Thyself, my best collection of short stories so far, has been getting some great positive attention in the Mormon book review community out here in Utah!   The subject of the Covid vacs has caused a dust-up, to say the least. I am also giving that one away, same days as the others.

Those of you who have followed my writing career are familiar with my close association with SwimSwam, the publication of record for all things about competitive swimming.  Well, soon, I will announce it here first, my culminating update of my recovery from heart disease and my triumphant (kind of) return to the pool, will soon appear in SwimSwam to close out a long and fruitful series.

Also, something quite unusual and exciting in the works for later on in November of this year.  A rare fictional story especially for SwimSwam readers.  More on that as it develops!

Take care, keep your head above water, and read on!

Chris

Click here for my books

Blog #120; Olympic Swimming Book (digital) discounted price for a LIMITED TIME

 LET THE GAMES BEGIN!  Now that the 2024 Paris Olympics have officially begun, let me encourage you to buy my collection of short stories put out a while ago, based on an essay about my time training with Olympic swimmers leading up to the 1984 games in LA.  I didn’t qualify for the Olympic team, but had a lot of fun training and making friends with the swimmers at the University of Florida that year.  The lead essay gives an insider’s look into what it is like to swim on that level, where every day your performance is pushed beyond maximum.

 

I can’t make the digital copies of this book of stories mostly related to competitive swimming free like I'd like to,  or any price lower than .99 cents per copy, but if I could I would give them away for free as I sometimes have in the past.  Still, less than a dollar a copy isn’t asking much for a solid set of stories about swimming in this season of Olympic competition.

 

Also, if you just want a taste of my swimming-related writing, try this link to an article I had in SwimSwam that eventually made it into the book, “Swimming Among the Olympians”.  Click below to go to that essay.

 

https://swimswam.com/swimming-among-the-olympians-a-memoir/

 

And to get the digital book for .99, go to the following link—

 

https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Among-Olympians-Collected-Stories-ebook/dp/B09DYSJ3S8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QALRW20RU3DQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.s-4aAYhL-lTJ8XV_W443BA.3O-qxLtY9S4TWemlfq1RBnjRJ0aAowERaRsXfoW1Kjs&dib_tag=se&keywords=chris+mcclelland+swimming+among+the+olympians&qid=1722158035&sprefix=chris+mcclelland+swimming+among+the+olympians%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1

 

Keep checking back for new chapters of James R. Irish-American Civil War story, and as I continue to publish poetry, fiction and nonfiction, I will let you know...

Enjoy the Paris games, and keep swimming!

 

Blog #119; Amazon book giveaways (digital version)

 My novel In Love and War will be available for a free digital version July 4-5, 2024 and my short story collection, Physician, Heal Thyself will be available for a free digital version on July 2-5. 2024. I hope you will enjoy both this holiday!

Click

Click

Blog #118; In Defense of the Slow Read

 In Defense of the Slow Read

 

 

At various times in my life I have attempted to learn to speed read, particularly in college, or later, working as a technical writer on documents meant to convey purely technical information.   With technical information I had much better results.

 

The experience in college was a disaster, because I tried to speed read fiction and other "creative prose".  I just lost too much of the nuance, the flavor of the prose.  I think of prose and poetry like the verbal paint of a visual artist, where words form the colors and sound of the experience of the artistic work.  It took me over a year to finish War and Peace, and your average novel takes me at least a month to fully take in.   It took me over five years to write the novel In Love and War.  There is a certain enjoyment to reading and writing slowly, though.  The flavors, the textures of language.  Reading is no longer flat information, it is an experience to be immersed in.  Do you wish to immerse yourself in the fictive experience, swim in the waters of the world through another's point of view? 

 

Even as far back as thirty years ago, at the particular institution at which I was teaching, the composition director decided to focus composition 2 solely on research papers and framing arguments.  Prior to that, Composition 2 in the state of Florida had been primarily literature based, both analyzing literature and producing original fiction.  I truly enjoyed teaching fiction, both analyzing and practicing it.   It was a sad realization when I saw that the university no longer saw writing as an art and a skill to aspire too.  It soon became just another technical "competency", like coding in Fortran.

But today, with the shift of the "humanities" towards a tech-based world, as Jacques Barzun noted in his last eminent master work From Dawn to Decadence, the vital life force in contemporary fiction is under attack from the forces of AI, as Barzun foretold, and the academy is helping big tech along in the race to dehumanize the humanities.  The future of the art of literature darkens.  Please don’t let the sweetness and light fade away in your own writing and the choices you make for your nightstand.

And as a reader, in this blog, I am asking you to slow down and soak up the author's voice as a human being having a shared experience.  Try not to glean.  Rather, absorb more fully.  Slowly.  Thoughtfully.

Blog #117; Kinds and Purposes of Writing, Particularly the Narrative versus the Lyric and Spiritual

 Kinds and Purposes of Writing, Particularly the Narrative versus the Lyric and Spiritual

 

This blog is going to be a little "herr professor" talk regarding writing and its purpose.  If you aren't interested in this kind of thing, just skip it and we should have another blog here in about a week or so.  

--Cheers!

I see writing as divided into two main types, and each one serves multiple purposes regarding what the aims of the writer are.  Prose is generally the vehicle of communication of information, and sometimes appeals to getting the readers’ attention, sometimes not.  Its main function is raw data collecting and transmission.  Kind of like what the Mars Rovers send back to Earth. This kind of writing does not appeal much to me in terms of meaning, particularly from an artistic point of view.

Prose that tells stories, particularly stories that are not literally true, but peak interest in what it means to be human, have more value to me creatively.  In this realm are narrative poems, short stories, tales, etc.  Here a writer develops characters, builds settings, infuses the writing with spirit and liveliness and generally makes a world that the reader can get lost in, populated by people that one usually wants to know (or not know!).   JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is a good example, albeit somewhat fantastical.  Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is another work of fiction that explores the nature of sanity and what it means to be human and functional as a human being striving to connect with others.

Some prose reaches for even more.  I am thinking of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, which is so lyrical that it barely even qualifies as prose.  It is song more than anything.  So much of the language is figurative.  But like the scholar Joseph Campbell has said, that is what makes Finnegan’s Wake one of the most transcendent novels ever written, how close it gets to the infinite.  It is a poem, really, a song praising not only one woman (or river, depending on how you look at her)  but also God the Father and the whole universe, while giving Man his due.

Then there is Goethe’s poetic drama, Faust.  It is meant as a dramatic piece never to be staged, about spirituality and natural versus spiritual man, a song, like Finnegan’s Wake, but about a man who has too much ambition, so much so that he aspires to becoming a creator of worlds himself, not in a beneficial, life-affirming way, but in a self-aggrandizing, form of life appropriation.  Angels feature prominently in this work, and Goethe has been called a genius for daring to tackle this subject matter.  In the end, Goethe leads us to believe that poetry is as close as we can get to the divine, but I think one must first learn what the divine learns, study what He studies, inherit His treasures, and focus creative energy, again, on life-giving.

As a result, the prophets and holy men, old and new, are perhaps some of the most talented poets our society knows of.  Crafters of hymns.  Scribes, both known and unknown, of the scriptures and the messages they carry to us from beyond the mists of time and space.  Poets and prophets are those most close, I believe, to Truth, and most closely aligned, I think, to each other and Heavenly Father.