November 2019 - Gary David Gillen

Reckoning by John Grisham

Introduction

Reckoning by John Grisham is a combination of a family saga and a courtroom drama novel. Pete Banning is a World War II war hero and the owner of a large plantation in Mississippi in 1946. He has been planning a deadly crime. One morning he wakes up and knows he must commit this crime despite the dire consequences. Can his family learn why he committed his crime and save the plantation from those who will take it from them?

Summary

The Reckoning by John Grisham has three parts.

Part One, The Killing describes the deadly crime that Pete Banning committed. He tells no one why he did it. The section ends with a courtroom drama.

Part Two, The Boneyard tells the story of Pete Banning’s history. He meets and marries his wife Liza Sweeney. It tells the backstory about how Pete’s family bought their plantation in Mississippi. Since Pete was an army reservist, the army calls him up in 1941 and the army assigns him to the Philippines. Pete is one of the prisoners who suffered the Bataan Death March. The Army calls Pete missing in action and presumed dead to his family. He survives, becomes a war hero, and returns home, wounded but alive.

Part Three, The Betrayal follows the events immediately after Part One. Florry, Pete’s sister, lives next door and owns half of the acreage of their father’s original plantation. Joel is Pete’s son is Joel and Stella is his daughter. Liza, Pete’s wife, is committed to the insane asylum. His family must learn why he committed his crimes and save the plantation in a second courtroom drama.

Recommendation

I enjoyed this novel. It had aspects of a family drama, a war story, a courtroom drama, and a mystery. It was ambitious to put all these elements into a novel that wasn’t very long. The central mystery for The Reckoning was why did Pete do what he did. This question concerns every character in every part of the novel from the beginning to the end. So, it is extremely important that the reason was logical and unavoidable to make the novel the best it could be. My issue with the novel is that I don’t believe that Pete would do what he did considering what he knew at the time he committed his crime.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Reckoning by John Grisham.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47173384-the-reckoning

I reviewed Camino Island also by John Grisham.

Camino Island by John Grisham

I reviewed the Rooster Bar also by John Grisham

Rooster Bar by John Grisham

Writing Progress Report November 2019

This is my Writing Progress Report November 2019.

I attended the Gotham Writers Conference in New York City, New York on October 25, 2019, sponsored by Gotham Writers Workshop.

Writing Progress from October 2019

I wrote three blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for October 2019 linked below.

Writing Progress Report for October 2019

I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid to edit my novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters 30, 32, and 33 in August 2018, reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September 2018, and I completed the review in February 2019. Reduced total chapters to 30. Reviewed Chapters 1 to 20 using Pro Writing Aid and submitted it to my novel-writing class. I submitted Chapter 19 and 20 in October.

I completed the first draft of Assassin in New Marl City totaling 99,981 words in July 2018. Completed pre-draft two (30 chapters long) in December 2018 at 89,072 words. I completed draft two edits for Chapters 26 and 27 (in August), Chapters 28, 29, and 30 (in September), Chapters 19 and 20 (in October), and plan to review chapters 21 and 25 (in November). I will start the third draft edits after draft two is complete.

In October, I submitted the story “Runs with Scissors” to the Introductory Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.

I made five posts on my Goodreads account in October.

In the past, I submitted the stories The Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, LARP Film noir, and Sleeping Sickness to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 1 different story submitted 1 time with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 1 rejection.

Events from October 2019

I attended the Indy Writer’s Conference in Parma, Ohio on October 12, 2019, sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Library.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

I attended the Gotham Writers Conference in New York City, New York on October 25, 2019, sponsored by Gotham Writers Workshop.

https://www.writingclasses.com/

Writing Goals for November 2019

I plan to write five blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my Writing Progress Report for November 2019.

I plan to work on second draft edits for Chapters 21, 25, 28, 29, and 30 of Assassin in New Marl City using Pro Writing Aid.

After the second draft is complete, I plan to work on third draft edits for Chapters 1 to 18 of Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio. I started the third draft edit for Chapter One used at the first pages workshop at Confluence 2019 in July. I plan to complete third draft edits for chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 in December.

Polish and submit the stories Caliburnus, Space-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit The Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness to other short fiction magazines.

Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the writing program, Scrivener.

Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Write a story for the Introductory Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio library.

Work on a story for the Wednesday Writing Workshop at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Library.

I plan to make five posts on my Goodreads account; update the information on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and update all the pages of my website in November.

Planned Events for November 2019

The next conference I plan to attend is ConFusion in Novi, Michigan from January 16 to 19, 2020. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association.

https://2020.confusionsf.org/

Blood of Cayn by Jason McDonald

Blood of Cayn by Jason McDonald, Alan Isom, and Stormy McDonald, Book #3 of the Cayn Trilogy

Introduction

Blood of Cayn by Jason McDonald, Alan Isom, and Stormy McDonald is the thrilling conclusion of the Cayn Trilogy. The plague has returned. It almost killed everyone in the known world thirty years ago and it is threatening to do it again. Xandor, a ranger for the Kral’s secret service, and his crew investigate the source of the plague. They search the orc city of Cherigov for the legendary Tear of Havel which is rumored to have the power to cure the plague. Will they find it before their loved ones die from the plague or will everyone die?

Summary

In the previous two novels, Xandor and his crew have tracked the source of the plague to shipments of soap going to the orc city of Cherigov. Windrider Yana surveys the orc fortifications at Cherigov with her glider. She reports her findings to Lord Commander Geoffrey Ferguson of the Iron Tower. Ferguson plans to attack the keep outside the city and send a rescue force to recover Sabe’s men who are looking for the Tear of Havel in Cherigov. Sehraine the elf is Yana’s friend and knows more about the plague than what she has told Xandor.

Xandor’s crew are in Cherigov looking for Sabe and the Tear of Havel. Xandor crew are Grendel, the half-orc, Chert, the dwarf healer, Sacha, the princess of the enemy country of the Kral, and Skyld, Sasha’s bodyguard. They are opposed by Bregu Kraagor, The Orc King of Cherigov. His helpers are Marko the prince, Sasha’s brother, Kourash, a dragon kin, and Gregori, a powerful mage.

Sacha’s plan is to have Grendel take the Rite of Passage, defeat King Kraagor in single combat and have Grendel take over as the Orc King to open the city to the allies. Sacha’s plans, Xandor’s plans, and Ferguson’s plans do not go as planned. There are many reversals of fortune in Cherigov. The key to stopping the plague is found at Sabe’s estate and at Sehraine’s elf village. It will take all our heroes might to defeat the power behind all the events that have happened so far. This is the conclusion of the Cayn trilogy.

Recommendation

The Cayn trilogy combined fantasy, mystery, and military action well. I liked all the heroes and despised the villains. The action never lets up. I understood who each of the characters was, though it would have helped to have a written cast of the many characters for the series since I did not read the novels back to back. My only issue was the ending. I feel like I missed something or the last mystery remaining will lead to a sequel. It didn’t feel complete to me.

Links

The Goodreads page for Blood of Cayn by Jason McDonald is through this link.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47145155-blood-of-cayn

My review of Son of Cayn Book #1 of the Cayn Trilogy. Xandor the ranger’s mission is to infiltrate a caravan that is smuggling soap. Soap? Yes, soap. Xandor’s crew must determine where and why the soap is being smuggled.

Son of Cayn by Jason McDonald, Alan Isom, and Stormy McDonald

My review of City of Cayn Book #2 of the Cayn Trilogy. It’s a suspenseful adventure. The plague story begun in the first book takes our heroes to Cherigov, a human city overrun by orcs. They must defeat the orc king, or the plague will devastate the land.

City of Cayn by Jason McDonald, Alan Isom, and Stormy McDonald