I can't imagine getting to a place where I wouldn't be willing to let someone telling me how to make my stuff better.

Word, sister. Big ole word.

And if I thought somebody was humoring me, I'd trip out. I hate being humored, especially if somebody was going around saying "She's really lost her game." Assuming I ever find it, that is.

Well, I have to admit that my first instinct is to guard each and every syllable of my writing as sacrosanct -- my God, it is PERFECT; how could anyone think of changing it? the Philistines! -- but every single time, once I get over myself, I realize that the changes people suggest make my writing better.

I can't fault Anne Rice for the gut reaction, but the ego to not move past it? Give me a fucking break.

The not doing awful things to his characters wouldn't bother me if it weren't dragged out over 1200 pages. Man needs a ruthless editor like most people need water.

Hmm, my problem has been more with repeating tried and true themes. I've never found a lot of extraneous material in his big books (even the couple hudred pages he added back to the Stand had a lot of fun stuff in it, IMO), but I've gotten less interested in the stories he's telling. It's hit or miss these days with him. Hated Insomnia, not because it was long, but because it felt like recycling. Loved Bag of Bones. Granted, that felt a tad recycled too, but it worked for me.

He keeps working, but he claims as far as books are concerned he's done. shrugs We'll see if he sticks to that (he keeps finding other ways of writing without writing, though - Kingdom Hospital, Entertainment Weekly, etc.).

Well, I have to admit that my first instinct is to guard each and every syllable of my writing as sacrosanct -- my God, it is PERFECT; how could anyone think of changing it? the Philistines! -- but every single time, once I get over myself, I realize that the changes people suggest make my writing better.

Tep, I have exactly the opposite - I'm all "Dude! Whoo! Here, read this and suggest stuff for me!" - but I think the urge to guard is the more natural one.

Ego. It takes months to not only prep a book for publication, but there's also a promotion campaign, and you have to list it in catalogs and build interest (even for a big name like King) and handle the orders. There's plenty of time to edit it.

This is true 99.9999% of the time, but at the publisher where I worked, there was one bestselling author whose books we were so eager to get out that they were copy-edited in shifts by different copy-editors just to reduce the time-to-press.

Of course, if the writer had wanted an editorial pass-through, I'm sure we'd have delayed printings more to accomodate him. So I suppose it does come down to ego in the end.

I need to add some more books to the list our bookclub selects from. (we every so often do a purge and add)

Since I am trying to get through my TBR shelves (and I just bought more shelves to accomodate the overflowingness), I thought I'd add books from there. I tend to have books I know almost nothing about, so I am not sure if they would be good or not. If anyone has read any of these, could you let me know if:

1) you liked it, or at least interesting
2) you think it would be good to discuss

Thanks.

Exodus by Leon Uris
Local Girls by Alice Hoffman
A high Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier (I think rec'd by Kat)
Victory by Joseph Conrad
Fortitude by Hugh Walpole
Lila by Robert Pirsig
King of the Hil by A.E. Hotchner

I love the way Alice Hoffman writes very much, although I don't remember if I read "Local Girls" or not.

Exodus is a great book, but I would lean towards Mila 18 as being his best.

I like Alice Hoffman in general, but I found Local Girls scattered and dull.