Sabbatical over. For those who don’t remember, the rules are as follows: Submissions are sent to me by the brilliant authors of Hatrack. I post one, along with a list of possible authors to guess from. Guesses must be accompanied by a critique of the excerpt and/or a rationale for the guess. Points are assigned in whatever manner I think will most encourage participation and critique. Currently that is one point for a guess with rationale, two points for a guess with critique of the story, five points for the correct guess accompanied by either rationale or critique, and a menacing growl for a guess with no rationale or critique.
quote: "You'll never guess..."
Joel sat back and savoured his mother's enthusiasm. Good days were getting rare now and he enjoyed them almost fiercely, as if realizing he would need them later to balance the other memories. His grin widened. She was obviously bursting to tell.
"Well. Come on then. Spill the beans."
"Noah's coming to visit!"
His fingernails dug sharp little halfmoons in the green vinyl of the armrest as he fought to control his voice. "But it's been eighteen years. Why now?" Her smile faltered and he silently kicked himself as she said, "I asked Paulie to call him. I wanted to see him before...well, you know." He nodded quickly, though again his mind was reeling. Paulie knew about this? Anger flared in him suddenly. Why hadn't he warned him?
Let the games begin! Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Well, I will merely narrow it down. It's either Ethics Gradient, twinky, Troubador, or amira tharani. And my reasoning is that only an Aussie/Brit/Canadian would spell savored with a u. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I'm going to have to say that this is a male author. And definitely British.
"Well. Come on then. Spill the beans." That's not how an American would say it. Plus the names Noah and Paulie just aren't American names. No self-respecting American guy would go by Paulie.
I like the imagery of his fingernails digging halfmoons in the armrests. It shows Joel's sudden discomfort very vividly. It also characterizes Joel pretty well as someone who likes to be in control, even if it's his own mother. Joel is a calculating sort who likes to know about things and doesn't like surprises.
In that way, his initial pleasure at his mother's enthusiasm kind of goes against his personality.
I'm going to guess ae.
[ September 03, 2003, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: advice for robots ]
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Well, the spelling of "savoured" does seem telling. I suppose if it were in first person that could be a character trait, but since it's in third person it seems most likely that it's an author trait.
Speaking of the POV, I think that the passage makes a good use of the third person limited. The second paragraph seems to pretty deftly give us a snippet of background without bulky exposition: we know that Joel's not in a really good place in his life right now.
I agree with afr about the "halfmoon" imagery. It gives me a definite tactile memory when I read it; I can almost feel my own fingernails digging into vinyl upholstery. I took Joel's reaction differently, though. More as a bad reaction to Noah than a desire to be in control, although I can see that as well in his reaction to Paulie knowing about it.
I get the feeling that it is a woman writing, although it's not much. The emotion driven style is part of it, though I have certainly seen men do that as well. Also, I think that a man would be more inclined to spell it "Pauly," rather than "Paulie."
So my guess is enjeeo.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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You know, I thought about including enjeeo on my list, but she has been in Japan for so long, I wasn't sure if she'd still add all those extra letters. I didn't realize ae was Canadian/Aussie/Brit as well, though.
I think it is a man. There is too little of it to decide that it is character driven or not. Maybe that is just part of the opening, where the author is setting up the action. Maybe it is character driven. Who knows. Also, doing anything "fiercely" is a very jatraqueno thing to do. Short of tackle hugging someone, I don't think there would be anything more telling in a book than adding in the word fiercely to a book so everyone knows it's a person from Hatrack.
Anyway, the reason I think it is a male that wrote is is because I don't think, for the most part, that women write with as a male, from a male's point of view. Women will do boys, but usually not men. And since this is obviously a grown man, I think it is a male that wrote it.
Okay, feel free to now list the thousands of female writers that use a male protagonist. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I didn't realize ae was Canadian/Aussie/Brit as well, though. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
