Mike Patterson Best-selling Author
Well today we finally had confirmation that Michael Patterson’s first novel Stone Season was a best-seller. One of his silhouetted fans at the book-signing tells us this. I suppose I should be happy none of them is calling the book the great Canadian novel, or telling exactly how long and what height Stone Season achieved on the best-seller list.
Today’s strip continued the theme of Mike being an even more important author than last time, because Elly actually says there are important people there. Then there is a random guy with a microphone seeking an interview in the middle of the signing. But, since the overriding theme is Mike’s need for humility Patterson style, he gets it dished to him by his children, who don’t find the idea that their father has written another book very exciting and don’t understand why other people are excited. “Incited” is the word and has to be a subtle dig at this whole storyline.
For the second novel, Lynn Johnston is throwing out what few story-telling techniques she used the last time.
For Stone Season, Michael had scheduled publicity appearances.
For Blood Cargo, Michael has a random person trying to interview him at a book-signing.
For Stone Season, his kids were excited and why shouldn’t they be? Books are something a kid can easily understand.
For Blood Cargo, his kids consider the book their own dad wrote as just another book in a bookstore and not special in any way.
For Stone Season, Mike was a little put-out and tired during his book-signing.
For Blood Cargo, his mother realizes important people are in attendance.
I had secretly hoped that Lynn Johnston was going to turn this around and not make Michael a phenomenal success. However, what we have instead is conversations which are probably lifted verbatim from Lynn’s upcoming Lives After Lives Behind the Lines book. We now know that Mike will continue to write bestsellers. Some of them will be optioned for movies. We saw this same phenomenon with Duncan Anderson, who is destined to be a travel agent who organizes worldwide sporting events. We also saw Dr. Ted McCaulay, whom we know will work until he dies. April will be a veterinarian, etc. If they say it once, then it will happen. Lynn Johnston definitely appears to be setting up a sequence of visiting each of the characters in order to line up her ideas for that book. I fear this means a lot of tedious strips.
Today’s strip continued the theme of Mike being an even more important author than last time, because Elly actually says there are important people there. Then there is a random guy with a microphone seeking an interview in the middle of the signing. But, since the overriding theme is Mike’s need for humility Patterson style, he gets it dished to him by his children, who don’t find the idea that their father has written another book very exciting and don’t understand why other people are excited. “Incited” is the word and has to be a subtle dig at this whole storyline.
For the second novel, Lynn Johnston is throwing out what few story-telling techniques she used the last time.
For Stone Season, Michael had scheduled publicity appearances.
For Blood Cargo, Michael has a random person trying to interview him at a book-signing.
For Stone Season, his kids were excited and why shouldn’t they be? Books are something a kid can easily understand.
For Blood Cargo, his kids consider the book their own dad wrote as just another book in a bookstore and not special in any way.
For Stone Season, Mike was a little put-out and tired during his book-signing.
For Blood Cargo, his mother realizes important people are in attendance.
I had secretly hoped that Lynn Johnston was going to turn this around and not make Michael a phenomenal success. However, what we have instead is conversations which are probably lifted verbatim from Lynn’s upcoming Lives After Lives Behind the Lines book. We now know that Mike will continue to write bestsellers. Some of them will be optioned for movies. We saw this same phenomenon with Duncan Anderson, who is destined to be a travel agent who organizes worldwide sporting events. We also saw Dr. Ted McCaulay, whom we know will work until he dies. April will be a veterinarian, etc. If they say it once, then it will happen. Lynn Johnston definitely appears to be setting up a sequence of visiting each of the characters in order to line up her ideas for that book. I fear this means a lot of tedious strips.
posted by howard at 10:01 PM
10 Comments:
howard:
Lynn Johnston definitely appears to be setting up a sequence of visiting each of the characters in order to line up her ideas for that book. I fear this means a lot of tedious strips.
Yep. We're definitely spending the last months of the strip getting a preview of Their Official Destinies and it's as boring as all get-out. This seems strange because it disrupts the more natural-seeming flow she used to have.
dreadedcandiru2,
This seems strange because it disrupts the more natural-seeming flow she used to have.
Between this and the flow-disrupting reprints, mark this as the slowest-moving year of For Better or For Worse.
I'd much rather the last few months of this strip were like the closing moments of Six Feet Under. That would make me excited to read it every day.
Oh, yes. No surprises or plot/character development, just putting everything together perfectly for the Pattersons. Even the Settling is boring now; we know it's just going to march along. The only interest is in how very awful and predictable everything is going.
Does Lynn really think there will be anything to write about the future lives of her characters? Even the young ones--Michael, Liz, and April--are completely set for the future. Forget the fact that in real life, not even Elly and John are likely to live "happily ever after" (Exhibit A: Rod and Lynn). Not only has Lynn backed away from the "real time" concept, she is backing away from ANY time.
dlauthor,
I'd much rather the last few months of this strip were like the closing moments of Six Feet Under. That would make me excited to read it every day.
Oh, that would be good, except for the fact that all of them would die in a hospital bed in Milborough.
debjyn,
The only interest is in how very awful and predictable everything is going.
Well, the travel agent who organizes world wide sporting events career for Duncan was pretty funny, but just because it was so stupid.
Not only has Lynn backed away from the "real time" concept, she is backing away from ANY time.
That’s the effect of doing all this set up for the future. It was most obvious with Gerald and April breaking up and destroying the band a year in advance of “real time”. Today, she has Robin dressed like a little Michael with his sweater pulled over his collared shirt; and Meredith is practically wearing April’s school uniform in preparation for her future at R.P. Boire Senior Secondary.
howard:
That’s the effect of doing all this set up for the future. It was most obvious with Gerald and April breaking up and destroying the band a year in advance of “real time”. Today, she has Robin dressed like a little Michael with his sweater pulled over his collared shirt; and Meredith is practically wearing April’s school uniform in preparation for her future at R.P. Boire Senior Secondary.
It occurs to me that Elly's telling Iris that it was time she took care of her was written with the same intent: to prepare us for a future in which she and John would devote themselves to making Jim's last few years easier.
dreadedcandiru2,
Elly and John devoting themselves to making Jim's last few years easier. Elly and John? I can see them talking about devoting themselves to making Jim's last few years easier, but not actually doing it.
howard:
The method by which John and Elly would make Jim's last years easier is to blackmail April into doing it for them.
dreadedcandiru2,
Now that I can believe.
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