We all love meeting new authors and their books especially independent or as we call them indies. And no prize for guessing what my first question would be to any newly found author – yes their favorite books!
So here I have Greg answering that ‘not so totally random’ question through a guest post. Don’t we love a good book list?
Greg Hickey is the author of the accessible, philosophical, grown-up choose-your-own-adventure novel The Friar’s Lantern and the curator of The 105 Best Philosophical Novels. You can contact Greg through the following social media profiles.
Philosophical novels use fictional stories to explore thought-provoking questions that are often challenging, overlooked or controversial.
The collection of philosophical novels listed below range from contemporary science fiction to inspirational to a mind-bending thought experiment to a few literary stalwarts, all of them devotedly enjoyed by a group of die-hard fans.
These books delve into topics like the existence of God, the nature of self-hood, humanity’s place in the world and more in ways that have inspired thousands of devoted readers.
The Cult Favorites of Philosophical Fiction
1) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Stephenson’s popular sci-fi novel follows pizza delivery boy and computer hacker Hiro Protagonist as he fights a nefarious virtual villain.
Along the way, it taps into virtual reality, Sumerian myth and the burgeoning information age and explores other topics in history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography and philosophy.
2) The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma
This fable by a litigation lawyer-turned-motivational speaker and author follows Julian Mantle, a dissatisfied attorney who sells his vacation home and titular car and undertakes a life-changing spiritual journey through the Himalayas.
Sharma originally self-published this book, but it proved so popular that it was picked up by HarperCollins a few years later.
3) God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams
The first non-humor book by the creator of the comic strip Dilbert introduces readers to a being who claims to know “literally everything” and explains the mysteries of quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity and more in a way that seems to make perfect sense.
Skeptical about the appeal of a non-Dilbert book by Adams, his publishers first released the novel as an ebook but quickly produced a hard copy version after its rapid success.
4) Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess
A virus spread through the use of language devastates the small Canadian town of Pontypool, causing victims to lose their linguistic abilities and devolve into madness, rage and animalistic violence.
Burgess adapted the novel into a screenplay for the 2008 film Pontypool, which was nominated for three Canadian film awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.
5) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
A favorite in literary circles that never seemed to achieve the same level of popular appeal, this novel about a New Orleans stockbroker’s quest to find his inner self won the 1962 U.S. National Book Award in fiction.
It was ranked sixtieth on Modern Library’s list of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century and was included in Time’s 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005.
6) The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Pessoa, who attributed his prolific writing to several alternate selves with different biographies and ideologies, left behind this posthumously published “autobiography” of one those selves.
This incomplete collection of 500-plus fragments of essay, diary, poetry and narrative touches on many of life’s essential questions in what Electric Lit called “the weirdest autobiography ever.”
What are your favorite philosophical fictionalized books? Do you like fiction coupled with philosophy or do you read for just pleasure? Let us talk.
I seldom lose my cool when I see those glaring plot holes in books and movies. If the book has more than a few, I feel completely turned off and may even DNF the book. Many of us do that and it is not wrong to DNF.
I realized these inconsistencies are much more common than I realized and I decided to explore more on it. In order to make it easier to find and fill those damn holes, I will try and classify the holes in terms of plot and story line into groups.
1. Illogical and impossible scenes
I hate it when in the movies the actor gets shot in their chest with a gun, continues to fight the villain and deliver a fatal blow , yet a single bullet can explode moving cars every time. Don’t you?
For me the simple measure to group these illogical scenes in a plot is to ask myself if they make go ‘But how did he/she?’. More often than not, those questions are rhetorical because we know that couldn’t happen, unless there was a miracle. And if your story is about magic and miracle, please elaborate on how it happened. If not, that is a hole for you to fix.
Let us see some examples shall we?
The highly frustrated curly girl in me, wants to mention about how easy the makeovers are – removing the glass and straightening the hair.
Another one about the bullets. A single man (the protagonist) can shooting 20 men has more chance in destroying them than 20 of them shooting him. It always happens in the movies.
2. Contradictory scenes
Y’all how much I love reading Whodunnits and attempting (and failing) to solve it. But you know what irks me the most there? Plot holes!!
Why does the person who left town in the third chapter return in the final chapter? Please do not say he is the murderer, that is too convenient. Don’t we hate it when luck and coincidence solves them all? Okay maybe I am moving away from the topic. Do not let your events contradict.
Here are some more that would just make me pull the hair off my head.
A person who is trapped in a dungeon appears from nowhere at the last moment to defuse the bomb. He WAS TRAPPED!
You were beaten black and blue in a fight earlier, but without any more new reinforcements you win him the next day. What changed and how?
How did you know land the bull’s eye if you never learnt archery? At the least tell me in advance that you were good at darts. Look out for those events that could not have happened because of something else that happened in the book and kick them off.
3. Unresolved conflicts:
I cannot emphasis too much on this one at all. I mean am sure no one would like to wait for eternity to know what those smaller characters did next in your story. Of course I hate cliffhangers, but I am not talking about them.
While love having lots ofa fewjust the right number of side plots and characters in a story but only when you intend to make them reach their destiny er.. I mean solution. Why else would you include about them, except perhaps to add some conflicts just for the heck of it?
I know some of these might sound a bit over the top but they do happen. As a beta reader I do point out such inconsistencies in the manuscript but it saves a lot of time and your efforts to fix them when you revise your manuscript before you send it to the beta reader or the editor.
Just remember, if it doesn’t make sense to you, your readers won’t understand it either.
What is the most blatant plot hole you have come across in a movie or a book? Do you find these gaps in the plot annoying or they completely obtrusive? Do share with me.
There comes a time when every author has to put an end to their writing and start seeing their work objectively. Their objectivity would go a long away in making their manuscript, or book if I may, appealing to the masses. Of course the beta readers and editors would do their jobs but you would be glad you did your part before sending it off to the professionals.
Much like typos and grammatical errors, a glaring plot hole would turn me off from reading the book completely. When we say plot hole we generally think of the inconsistencies in the storyline or the plot itself, but it is much more than that, don’t you think?
In fact anything that would make your readers go ‘what just happened?‘ in a not so expected way is just the plot holes we are talking about.
As an author you are expected to have already fixed the plot holes when you send your book off to editing and critiquing, but there are some plot holes that are sneaky and may not be visible to your eyes, especially after repeated readings. This makes the use of a beta reader indispensable.
A plot hole is a collective term to all the sneaky inconsistencies in the narrative or a character development of a book or a movie/television programme, to paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary.
This does not include those apparent inconsistencies that will be solved in the oncoming chapters or books. We can divide such inconsistencies into three heads based on where they may be found.
Inconsistencies in the plot
Plot holes refers to any inconsistencies in the plot or any event in the story line. Plot refers to anything from the place, time and events that take place in those places and times.
Inconsistencies could be illogical, contradictory or ignored. Let us examples of each of these cases.
Illogical plot hole:
A character who is terminally ill gets well miraculously just to be a part of a love triangle.
Contradictions:
A character that living 2000 km away from his lady love, drives back to her hometown in a single night to save her from the villain.
A plot that is ignored or forgotten:
A character that goes missing (i.e forgotten) all of a sudden for no reason.
2) Inconsistencies in the character development
We are never gonna hear the end of how Lily has brown eyes, when we all knew she and Harry had the same blue eyes. Or why Buzz has to pretend freeze around humans if he thought he was a real space ranger.
And that is exactly what we are talking about.
Anything that character does or does not do as the reader has been told to expect of him is an inconsistency and thus a plot hole.
Some examples of such holes are:
A mighty super villain has a change of heart about destroying the planet just after a small setback.
A protagonist that never grows, changes or is affected by the plot.
3) Inconsistencies in the world building
This is a major one, especially in the fantasy genre. The fictional world that we write for includes why things happen the way they do and why the characters react how they do.
We need to know the reasons and motivation behind the character’s actions before we can relate to them and continue to root for them. But when these fails, the readers stop caring about what happens to the characters and the plot.
Some examples of issues in terms of world building:
An antagonist whom we fail to see as powerful enough.
Sub plots that are not closed.
Why the lead falls for the female and why is it different from the other times?
While these plot holes may not be apparent to you, your readers are definitely going to find them out and it is critical that you should too. You could always reach to a friend, a fellow writer or a professional beta reader requesting them to give a read to weed these out.
Aside, I am considering to write more on these series, what do you say? Should I continue these writing topics? Let me know in the comment section.
Are there plot holes that do not fall in these headers? Do you plot holes turn off from reading further? What is the most annoying plot hole issue that you have read? And authors/writers, tell us about the plot hole you had and how you fixed Let us chat.
Of course we are going to judge a book by its covers. Let us be honest, does any one follow that proverb in its literal sense. More often than not, it works so well. So well that they tell us off some books.
I am sure you have seen some interesting covers on books. Who has not?
Here I am presenting some covers that have freaked me out and go WTF, recently.
Let us get on with it, shall we?
Disclaimer: This post is intended for fun and not intended to hurt anyone. If it did, I am sorry and it was purely unintentional.
Did he cut her head with the axe? If so, shouldn’t the blood mark be on the sharper side? Where are her eye balls?
So many questions!
Where did they find these weird looking kids? And if this is what feelings make us look like, please let us destroy them!
What animal is that? And why is it an Australian art?
Why is she having a crocodile head and why is it titled ‘carnivore romance’? Is it a romance between the crocodile and the red dress wearing, poker playing lady? And what kinda romance ends up with their bodies morphing into one?
Curiosity got ahead of me and I checked the author on Amazon and guess what? All her covers have an animal head human body combo!! Wut?
I get this one. Almost.
Thelma and her fiance are in love. Hint: Silhouette image And he has a pet snake, also pictured.
But what is that weird white thing with syringe or pen or dagger thing in its hands?
What is in that cupcake? Why are they both scared of it? And does she have an Adam’s apple or is it just me?
Did they just show us a literal balance to indicate the pH balance? And it sure makes me think it is a spiritual thing, rather than science-y.
I. am. not. even. gonna. attempt.
Did you like these covers? Which is your favorite? Should I make another list with such covers? Do you have a cover that weirded you out? Let us chat.
The easiest way for a fan to check out an author is by hitting the Google and seeking their website. And when I receive a book review request through email from an Indie author, I do the same. I seldom accept a request without trying to know a bit more about the book and the author.
There are very few requests that come with a sample chapter making it hard to guess how their writing style would be and if I will enjoy it. Also the author website has now become a sort of home base or platform for all the internet activities. Thus my visit to the author website becomes inevitable.
The stronger the message your website sends the more interested and hooked your readers would be. But again, not every author can have a dedicated blog that is updated regularly, as much as we readers would like it. They may not have the time or even just not their cup of tea.
Must have elements on your author website
But it is vital that every author website should have the minimum elements to make a lasting impact on your readers. Let us discuss some of them, alright?
1) An easy to use design.
It goes without saying that any website, be it an author’s or otherwise, has to have a clean and attractive look. It doesn’t matter what platform, whether it is self hosted, or even if it has regular updates.
Clean and professional
It could be just a static website with a minimal look and it would still work.
2) Show us who you are.
In an author website, YOU are the product. YOU are the brand and the product. Any visitor who arrives at your website or blog is there to know about you and then your books. So make your ‘About me‘ page as interesting as possible.
I personally love funny, quirky information about the authors but it could be direct and professional as well. Include your social media accounts along with your accolades and other places where we can find your writing, if any.
An author website acts a sales funnel to your books, so they need to be positioned prominently. The page can contain testimonials from other magazines or reviewers.
When I receive a mail from an independent author that I have never heard of I definitely check out their other books and try to see if it matches my taste. So I usually land up on this page right after reading the about me page.
Some authors leave an excerpt as a freebie for the fans and followers on their website.
4) Keep us updated.
A website or blog can be treated as your own bulletin board and you can make your visitors ‘in’ on the news. Some of the updates that you can share are:
You can share the first hand news about your book releases, cover reveal etc.
You can talk about your work in progress.
Another great way to keep your readers updated by posting your book signings and tours, virtually or in real life.
You can even ask your readers to sign up for more updates. Of course, no one likes spam, so make sure you do not send them too many mailers.
5) How to reach you?
Do not forget to leave the contact information on your blog.
Nothing frustrates a reader or blogger than searching for a contact information especially when they want to leave a feedback. You can leave a secondary mail id, so that you won’t have to worry too much about the spam and dodgy requests.
‘I’m afraid the doctor can’t see you today. You could visit his web page instead.’
You can also add a press or media kit that is available for download. You will never know when it will turn out to be useful. Some of the information that you can include in the kit are:
Basic bio data
Professional head shot
Book cover image in good quality
Relevant information about the book like synopsis
An Excerpt
Testimonials, if any
I have come to know many bloggers who have turned to authors, and be successful at that. And it may not come as a surprise that from the point of view of booksellers and publishers they have a platform established with a sizable number of following, which means selling more books and better outreach.
If you are an independent author who is looking to be traditionally published, or even if not, an author website has become a bare minimum. Do you have these elements in your website?
What are those things that you look for in an author’s website? Did I leave any of the things that are important to you in an author’s website? Let us chat.
