I Love a Good Story

I am really enjoying the TV show Castle. I think even if Nathan Fillion weren't in the title role I'd still like the show. (Barring that whoever else was playing Richard Castle wasn't a total dweeb at the part...) I've also been reading the book written by Richard Castle that ABC is releasing later this month.

I've commented on the book previously. It has some things that make me, as a writer, cringe a little. Like when the POV character refers to herself as "the detective". Or when there's point of view confusion (for example, we're in Detective Heat's point of view and are told "her face was set in concentration". What, is she looking at herself in a mirror?). There have been some typos in the chapters I've read so far; typos I hope have been taken care of in the print copy.

But there's also some really clever writing going on. Really clever.

With the brush cut, she could picture the boy of him on a soccer field or lofting a stick in a hockey rink. But the hardness was what Pochenko was all about now, and whether it came from doing time in Russia or learning how not to do time, the boy was gone and all she saw in that room was what happens when you get very, very good at surviving very, very bad things.

And my personal favorite so far:

The sign said they were on the Cosmic Pathway, a 360-degree spiral walkway marking the timeline of the evolution of the universe in the length of a football field. Nikki Heat covered thirteen billion years at a personal best.

That is some good writing! You want to engage your readers, this is how you do it.

For whoever's interested, the first seven chapters of HeatWave by Richard Castle (copyrighted by ABC Studios) is available at ABC.com. The book goes on sale September 29th.