Which author[s] am I like?

I took a little bit of The Owners Volume I : Alone and input it into this analysing tool and according to this I write like H.P. Lovecraft.

This was the section I used :

The harsh sunlight, which pierced the window in its strong and direct glare, was now mellowed and softened in the burnished reflections of the polished wooden walls. The knots and imperfections of the wood resembling tiny worlds of intricacies, too complex to be fully understood.

In passing, he glanced through the window to find the view as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. An amazing variety of trees stood like proud sentinels around a spectacular natural lake. Trees stretched on into infinity in every direction – luscious light-green foliage appearing to vie with emerald and jade for the eye’s attention. Yet the trees also seemed to be collaborating with one another, joining forces in an attempt to outdo the drama of the brilliant blue sky reflected in the shimmering perfection of the silvery lake.

This scene, with its myriad colours and composition was so intense and so contrastingly stunning, it almost made San’s eyes hurt. Each tree was unique, either in size or shape or shade to its neighbour, just as the houses lodged within the heart of the tree, sitting snug amongst its highest branches were different. There were large tree houses and small ones, round ones and rectangular ones and even some which didn’t fit any one particular shape but instead were a weird blend of curves and angles.

Similarly the colours of the houses were all different. No, actually he thought, that’s not true. The colour was all the same – green – it was the sheer variety of shades of green which made them seem so dramatically different. Yet what struck San at that precise moment, was how each tree house conformed to and in fact complimented, the size and shape of the tree it was lodged in. It was almost as if each house had merged and blended with the branches to become a living part of its tree.  


Here it is http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8


Then I took this except from The Owners Volume III : Dark Side of The Sun and performed the same analysis :

Jack stepped into the darkness. Even in the seconds that his eyes took to adjust to the lack of light, he was aware that he stood next to Seth once more. There was a musty smell in the room. Dank and with the sharp acrid stench of urine, it was all he could do not to heave. Whoever was in the building had clearly given up all pretence of civilisation.

And they were aware of his and Seth’s presence. There was a vague sound of susurration, as if the person was making soft whisperings to themselves or another but it was too indistinct for him to make out its source or what was said.

“Step back slowly. Do not turn around,” Seth told him without moving.

“Why?” He knew he should probably just do as Seth suggested but having come this far, he wanted to know what they had found.

The susurration seemed to increase in response to his words, as if the person or persons were becoming agitated at the thought of them leaving. “This is why,” Seth slowly pulled a torch from his pocket and flicking it on, levelled it at the darkest corner of the room.

Hair tangled and knotted, what was left of the scalp hung down in front of the skeleton’s face. Whilst not strictly a skeleton, it was how Jack had to think of the body which was even now being hungrily devoured by the biggest pack of coyotes Jack had ever seen.  Bigger than the average dog, their normally lean bodies seemed fuller and longer than normal.


And this was the analysis  http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8



So far, so consistent. Now the biggie. What happened when I put in a section from Split Decision?

Here is the excerpt I used :

The atmosphere in the car was suddenly thick with sexual tension. I could feel all of them straining to hear my answer, listening with their groins rather than their brains.

A primitive fear coursed through me riding a tidal wave of doom. There was no right answer here, only a series of wrong answers. My heart pounded at the steel cage it was entrapped within, banged itself into the padded walls around it and no-one heard it scream. No-one but me. Whatever I answered, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t! It was a circular route to Hell.

And the result? This time I wrote like James Joyce apparently!  http://iwl.me/s/d760c1b4



Then this excerpt from my current work in progress, The Plan :


Suzie regarded her companion with wide eyes. None of her friends spoke like this, it was not the type of conversation she was used to having but she liked the honesty of it, the cut and dried truthfulness.

And you will never guess who came out this time! Leo Tolstoy!

And the proof is here  http://iwl.me/s/698342ba

Does that mean I am split personality???

[I wonder what would have happened if I had cut and pasted all the different excerpts into one analysis...perhaps I would have blown the software to smithereens!]

I gave up running the analysis on the other books I have written. They are all diverse - just like me.

So who do I write like? Well I write like me, of course!

Happy Reading. 

Wakey, wakey!

There are not enough hours in the day for me at the moment, so for the last three weeks I have been going to bed at midnight and getting up at four am in order to get everything done. Before you feel sorry for me, I must point out that this is entirely my own fault. I have stupidly co-ordinated events so that everything has now come to fruition at the same time!


This is not a problem however, as I am currently so filled with nervous energy that I could light up the whole of Bromsgrove if they wired me to the grid. But like an athlete after the competition, or a rock star after a tour, I know that very soon, when the need for all this activity is over, I will slump, exhausted and wiped out, for at least two days.  Right now that seems a small price to pay.

 
So what is the cause of all this hyperactivity? Partly my decision to move home. As you may be aware, I have been longing to do this for some time. So I bought a new house. But not just any old house, oh no, not me! I bought a house where the doors do not actually close in the door frames [to my shame I did not realise this, having actually not tried to close any of the doors], where each and every door lock was broken, where there was no door to the en suite bathroom [I know!], where there was a smallish kitchen but a large utility... and an endless list of other strange things.


Yet I LOVE the new house. It is full of potential and possibilities that have been all but exhausted in my present house. So I set a team of builders to work on it. And they are really cracking on. So much so, that I have been forced to speedily decorate my current house and put it on the market, with a view to possibly moving to the new house once it is completed.


But as we all know, with a new house comes even more running around, setting up things, so between all this, life has been popping up its funny little head, reminding me that I have other commitments too - a family birthday party to organise, a holiday to book, five chapters left in the current book to write, other work commitments and, dare I suggest it, a social life! On top of all that, I have also been informed of details of the book launch for Split Decision, which of course coincides with all of this.


Maybe one of the most difficult things I am doing at this moment though, is wrestling with the moral conumdrums and issues which have presented themselves in The Owners, Volume VII: Hunter's Moon. God help me, I have always been an eye for an eye sort of person. I have striven to rise above this my whole life, for I truly believe that train of thought is detrimental to the soul, but being a female born under the astrological sign of scorpio, of short statue, and raised in Glasgow, it was always going to require a lot of effort to be ambivalent let alone magnanimous when I felt wronged.


And  I see a couple of this book's characters having the same problem. What has happened with the story has shattered their world so completely, that they are finding it difficult to stem the tide of hatred that wants to flow from them. And with every word I write, I feel their pain. They want me to set them loose, to allow them to wreak havoc upon others, as it has been wreaked upon them... so here is the latest snippet:-

There was the bigger picture to think of too though. There was the thought that one day, when she was a grown woman, questions about this night would arise and he would be forced to say that he had stood back and let whatever happened, happen.


I would love to tell you that this book has a happy ending, but I fear I would by lying. All I can say [and I am as much in the dark about the book's conclusion as you are,] is that it is sure to be exciting!


So for now, happy reading and I'll catch up with you soon.


Carmen.

Now in between all this frantic running around [see previous post below] I am actually trying to get some writing done.

Here is a snippet I literally just committed to the white screen. It is taken from my chick-lit book which will be finished mid November. I know, I know! I told you that it would be finished by the end of October but in my defence I have been rather busy!

I hope you like it :-

“Is there a problem here?” Clipped tones preceded a woman of indeterminate age down a sweeping staircase to arrive in front of their little triangle. “Who are…” the woman began and then stopped abruptly, eyes widening slightly in surprise. The skin around her eyelids seemed unable to fully support the manoeuvre she was trying to make, Botox or perhaps surgery holding it as taut and unlined as a teenager’s. Instead her neck displayed a sudden rigidity, chords and sinews sticking up through the skin as if skewered there.

“You!” Julia expelled on a breath as if Indie had arisen from the dead.

“That should have been my line!” Indie said rancorously. “Seems to me like you stole it. Just like you stole my mother’s place in my father’s bed!”

 

Happy reading! x

Coming up...

Things have been frantic over the last couple of weeks...so much so that I find myself running from one place to another, one book signing or event to another so fast that I barely have time to catch breath...

Last night I was invited to a wonderful exclusive event. I really want to tell you all about it but I am awaiting photographs of the evening to be emailed to me. So until then my lips are sealed.

Please check back later to hear all about it!