Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 3, Season XIV. We’ve now got the machinery fully geared up and purring away beautifully. By now you should all feel happily involved in writing, critiquing, assessing and comparing experiences and trying to work out what’s in it for you. If nothing else spurs you on, the mere fact of sharing our common passion for writing is bound to stimulate you into further adventures.
Some of your efforts have been channelled into Alpha activities for the benefit and enjoyment of us all. Today’s agenda is crammed full of writerly treats that I’m sure we’ll all appreciate.
As follows:
- This Bulletin from me
- The results of the ‘Story’ challenge from Rosemary (Already out, and: “Wow!)
- The collated entries for the ‘Pride’ challenge from Stephen (already there!)
- The brief for the Open Page slot from Christine
- The LOG from Sally
- A Writers’ Reads prompt from Morgen
As you can see there’s plenty there for you to enjoy. Take your time and by all means let’s have your comments on anything that catches your attention.
There’s no Alpha news from me today, but Sally’s Log will reveal what’s happening in your writing life which is always interesting.
General News:
We should have set up a betting shop to see who put their money on the winner of this year’s Booker Prize. I wouldn’t have run away with the jackpot and I wonder if any other Alphas predicted George Sanders’ Lincoln in Bardo. I find the ceremonial ritual surrounding this event very exciting, I confess, and I’m full of admiration for George Sanders and his novel. (I have read one of his collections of short stories, The Tenth of December.)
We once had a little discussion about Paula Hawkins and her novels that didn’t seem to appeal to many Alphas. Her latest novel, Into the Water, was criticised for having too many (eleven, I think) protagonists that all sounded the same in the narrative.
Apparently Lincoln in Bardo has something like 160 characters communicating with Lincoln as he visits his son’s grave. And apparently George Saunders has successfully given each one of these characters an individual voice so that the reader is never confused. Now that is some achievement and it’s no wonder he shot up to the top of the list!
It’s certainly a point to bear in mind, isn’t it Alphas? We’ll try our best even if we might shy away from making 160 different characters stand out as clearly distinguishable individuals.
Christine
PS: Who has read Lincoln in Bardo? Tell us about it!