Randall IngermansonRezensionen
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Double Vision von Randall Ingermanson
This one is an approach I'm trying on my current work. My previous books were made up as I went, so now I'm trying a bit of structure. So far, it seems to be working.
While this book did not help remind me of everything I once knew, it had great coverage of the basics including structure and housekeeping (also referred to as paperwork). I appreciate that they emphasized that planner writers and improvisational writers are equivalent and equally talented; approach is individual, and gets you to the same place. It is going to help me get my novel to the next level, even if I see how many more levels I have to go.
The publishing information is quite dated, though I am reading a 2010 edition. Not only did it gloss over some important aspects to publishing that I learned in school, it does not represent the current industry. Now, I still read it over to (a) remind me of what I learned then and since; and (b) can be easier to update yourself than learn new, especially since now you have an idea of what questions to ask (not all, but a place to start).
Rivka Meyers has been transported back in time to the city of Jerusalem, along with Ari Kazan, who is now her husband, here in the years A.D. 62-66. Rivka's knowledge of the future, makes her very aware of the turbulent times coming to the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish zealots are demanding Ari's help to design weapons of war to fight against the Romans. Rivka wants their family to flee before the horrible fighting begins.
The story was a very moving story of what took place during this time of history, and it isn't very pretty. The way of forgiveness is very hard for some and very costly for others. I was in tears by the time I closed the pages of this book. Not every book has a happily ever after, just as in life. But learning to trust in the sovereignty of God and trust in His sacrificial love for us, can make any tragedy bearable
"What if you were studying for your Ph.D. in archaeology and somehow got trapped in first-century Jerusalem after a controversial physics experiment went horribly wrong?
What if you knew from your history books that a kind and decent man was going to be murdered by the powers-that-be, all because of stupid politics?
It’s A.D. 57 and Rivka Meyers desperately wants to go home, but her husband Ari is a physicist, and he says they’re stuck in the first century. He also says that the laws of physics say Rivka can’t change history. Rivka knows he’s wrong, and she’s going to prove it—by saving James the brother of Jesus from being murdered by the evil high priest.
Premonition is a time-travel suspense novel that mixes science, history, religion, romance, and adventure. It’s about becoming the person you were meant to be. It’s about learning to accept harsh reality when you’d really rather quit and go home. It’s about being a fighter for justice, even when you’re fresh out of easy answers to hard questions."
I don't read much "time-travel" books, but must say this series has grabbed my interest and held it. Now on to book 3 in this series, "Retribution".
"What If …?
What if you were studying for your Ph.D. in archaeology and decided to take a break from your crummy life by working on an archaeological dig in Israel?
What if you met a great guy in Jerusalem who happened to be a world-famous theoretical physicist working on a crazy idea to build a wormhole that might make time-travel possible … someday?
What if he had a nutball colleague who turned the theory into reality — and then decided to use YOU as a guinea pig to make sure it was safe?
What if the nutball had a gun and went on a crazy, impossible mission to hunt down and kill the apostle Paul?
It’s A.D. 57 when Rivka Meyers walks out of the wormhole into a world she’s only studied in books. Ancient Jerusalem is awesome! Rivka can’t believe her friend Ari Kazan’s theory actually worked. But when she runs into Ari’s whacko colleague, Damien West, in the Temple, Rivka starts to smell a rat.
When Ari discovers that Damien and Rivka have gone through a wormhole that’s on the edge of collapse, he has to make a horrible choice: Follow them and risk never coming back — or lose the woman of his dreams forever
About The Book
Transgression is a time-travel suspense novel that mixes science, history, religion, romance, and suspense. It’s about learning to stand up for yourself, when you just want to be let alone. It’s about making hard decisions. It’s about asking whether life has meaning and whether God exists. . ."
Looking forward to reading the next two books in this series. It kept and held my interest and I am waiting to see what happens to these people in book two, "Premonition".
The Bad Stuff: There is a fair bit of repetition in this book.
The Good Stuff: This book has a heap of useful information for writers that are beginning their journey. Even intermediate writers will get a lot from this book.
On the whole this is a very informative read, it covers off on pretty much everything. If you are just starting out as a writer and looking for a book with info on writing techniques, planning, editing and publishing, this would be a good choice. It gets 4 out of 5 golden bookmarks from me.
The Snowflake Method is the best of both worlds. It has enough structure to help you plan your novel and keep you on track, but it leaves room for creativity. There are ten steps to the Snowflake Method, but what's also great about the book is how the author explains it.
He explains his method in a parable with Goldilocks, the three bears, the big bad wolf, etc. Most writing advice books are dry, but this one is very entertaining while teaching you a different writing method. Goldilocks is a young mother and now that her kids are in school, she doesn't want to go back into marketing. She wants to write a novel, which is what she's always wanted to do. The three bears teach writing seminars. Papa bear teaches the outlining method, mama bear teaches pantsing and baby bear teaches the snowflake method. The big bad wolf is a literary agent and a friend of baby bear.
The first part is the parable and it takes you through all ten steps of Goldilocks’ novel. The second part is more details of the ten steps with instructions for you to start writing your own novel using the Snowflake Method. The third part is the Snowflake Method of this book so that you have a more concrete example.
Step ten is actually writing the novel, but once you get to this step, you have details of all of your scenes, all of your characters and all of the plot points already planned out. The only thing remaining is writing the actual novel. If you just want to know the ten steps, you can get them from his website, but I don’t think you’ll appreciate the steps as much if you haven’t read the book.
Some people complain that this method is too formulaic. As a writer, you can write with formula without being formulaic. If your novel sounds formulaic then the problem is your execution, not the method you used to plan it.
I highly recommend this book to any aspiring writer.
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Transgression is an enjoyable blend of science fiction with Biblical historical fiction. Customs and culture of New Testament times feel thoroughly convincing and well-researched, and the varying faiths and beliefs of characters are suitably intrinsic to the plot. Jerusalem in the time of Saint Paul comes to life with all the senses employed, and a world of political and religious upheaval, oppression, and hope, proves not so different from today.
Author Randy Ingermanson balances faith, science, history, suspense and even a touch of romance in a cool exciting tale of today and yesterday, set in the boiling pot of Jerusalem’s conflicting faiths and ideals, both now and then. I enjoyed the way all points of view were offered with just enough respect and honesty to make the characters real, and I loved the way the author leaves some questions open-ended, almost unasked, as freewill and unchangeable histories collide.
Disclosure: I found it on a deal and couldn’t resist. I offer my honest review.
I downloaded this as an Amazon freebie because I like time travel. I didn't really know what else the book was going to be about to be honest. I'd recommend you not to read the full blurb since it's one of those that tell so much about the story already.
American archaeologist Rivka (who happens to know a lot of dead languages by the way) learns about Ari and his time travel device and gets trapped in the Jerusalem of 2000 years ago.
At first I thought the book was a bit too strong on the religion side, and although is was more interesting since I know less about the different groups of Jewish faith but there's a scene particularly anti-Christian (and I don't like my books anti-anything). I was afraid this would be the tone for the rest of the novel, but luckily, although religion does seem to play an important role in the rest of the novel it didn't feel pushy anymore and it didn't really bother me.
Rivka's transgression into the new society is very smooth. She happens to know the language and figures out extremely easy how it's supposed to be spoken. There are a few mentions in the beginning of her finding the right wording, but after that she can hold very long and difficult conversations. The same goes for the rest of her transgression. The story that Damien tells her is utter crap and I can't believe she fell for that even in the beginning.
Besides these things I did find myself enjoying the novel, but not so much I'm already planning to read the rest of the novels. Perhaps some day.
Transgression is the first book in the City of God series, the other books are Premonition and Retribution.
The story is about a space mission to Mars. We meet the characters—the astronauts— when they are in training before the mission launches. The main male character, Bob is outwardly self-assured but inwardly fearful that he will be axed from the mission. The main female character, scientist, medical doctor, and resourceful woman extraordinaire Valkerie joins the crew late, bumping Josh to the consternation of some. Kennedy and Lex, the other male and female astronauts are mysterious and sometimes appear sinister—all the more because they are not point-of-view characters and we don't know their motivations. Characters are well-developed, believable and to varying degrees sympathetic.
On launch day we experience the bone-shaking liftoff through Valkerie's consciousness and the various mishaps that follow through Valkerie's and Bob's. One of the crisis points of the plot occurs when the ground crew realizes that the bruised space craft hurtling toward Mars doesn't have enough oxygen to get the crew of four safely landed on the red planet. This shortage combined with the hostile setting makes for a fascinating exploration of the psychology of people under pressure, as the astronauts together with mission control decide how to handle their dilemma.
The authors' probing of the themes of trust, loyalty, love, and faith make the story more than just a scientific thrill ride.
I enjoyed it. The authors in their back matter, explain how they did their best to make it a page-turner (John Olson: "I was obsessed with giving the reader the most extreme ride possible. I wanted the tension to be maxed out at every point in every scene of the book..." - Kindle Location 7579) and it certainly was that. In fact, I could have used a little more down-time amidst all the high angst.
The back-matter where the authors talk about selling their idea to an agent, explain how they researched and wrote the book, then quote parts of their submission (with comments of what they would do differently if they were submitting that proposal today) was enlightening. This ten-year-old award-winning book stands up well though its now-nearly-upon-us dates (launch January 2014) feel a bit spooky.
Bookcrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5727230/
I wanted to thank the authors for a good read. I read the story first knowing it probably would have spoilers at the end.
I normally don't write much about what I read and it tends more towards the saccharin than anything else. Probably because mom said if you don't have anything nice to say...
In this case though I have so much nice to say I have to say a bit more.
I've read science fiction for quite some time well over 50 years. And if I were one prone to try to distill what would be pure science fiction I think that the authors nailed it here. Its fiction based on science as close to what we see today with little if any deviation. This could be happening now.
It's peopled with believable characters and situations and quirks. I think I've met some of these people. And the story contained 'for me' a predictable element at the beginning which might have blindsided me into not being ready for the twisting turning plot up ahead. I'm not revealing any of this trust me it starts out like a predictable episode of Murders She wrote and veers off into a roller-coaster ride of who dunnits.
The Authors John B. Olsen and Randy Ingermanson have done a thorough job of putting together an enjoyable and informative read. I did stop a couple times to double check their facts. But that's just me being me. If they slipped a few by me, well good for them. Their overall writing is solid.
That part said;I did see one issue or maybe a feature depending on what the authors might know or have intended. There is a great portion of the plot device that smacks of something I read long ago in Robert Heinleins The Man Who Sold the Moon. If the authors have read this I'm sure they should know what I'm referring to. If not they should perhaps check it out.
I'm assuming the best in that they pay homage to one of my favorite authors.
That said I envisioned this as an Apollo 13 meets The Man Who Sold the Moon.
For anyone who has read neither of these I suggest you read Oxygen first. Because its really good and it won't disappoint. Then read the Man Who Sold the Moon because it's pretty darn good too.
And anyone who has read The Man Who Sold the Moon I hope that doesn't end up as a spoiler. It shouldn't because its more of a cosmetic type lift and tuck and perhaps not even intended. Only the authors know for sure.
Leading up to his blunt conclusion that there is no Bible code, Ingermanson allowed for a tiny bit of wiggle room by saying earlier that the amount of information encoded in the Bible is either zero or very, very small.
Robert M. Haralick, a proponent of Bible codes, believes that Ingermanson missed the point of the original published statistical paper on the Torah codes, "The Great Rabbis Experiment," by Witztum, Rips, and Rosenberg. According to Haralick, Ingermanson appears to disprove what none of these writers claimed. Ingermanson's arugument was faulty because he set up an alternate code hypothesis for his refutation. The original Torah code hypothesis still stands.
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