The book I chose to review this month for The Artful Readers Club is
"Love, Hate, and the World goes Round" by Katherine Rochholtz
a collection of poems and short stories.
Now I know I am a bit of a Grammar Troll, but I get that people(even myself) make mistakes...I get that we regularly make typing errors, and that sometimes we just can't be fussed about correcting every last piece of syntax, BUT!!!!!
If you are going to publish a piece of writing that you expect people to pay for, you should make at least a reasonable effort to ensure it is "readable".
That is, after all, what proof reading is about. You may not have the necessary skills or time to do this yourself. Even if you do, it is definitely worth getting someone else to read through your piece BEFORE publishing.
Within a few short pages of starting this book I found myself infuriated by the sheer lack of punctuation. In fact, I often didn't realise I had moved on to a different story as the title for it was merged into the last line of the previous piece. The spacing between sentences was chaotic and confusing, and some sentences were so long I had forgotten the point being made by the time I reached the end.
In the main story, the author continually changed from one tense to another mid sentence, and to be honest, on at least 3 occasions I planned to give up, BUT!!!!
I wanted to know what happened to the characters. The author created some wonderfully interesting protagonists, who I would love to have known better. I had to know if they had a happy ending, because she did make them real and likeable.
I found it extremely difficult to read this book. It actually gave me headache as I was constantly re-reading sections to make sure I had understood things properly, but it is filled with little gems, that if the author had taken the time to polish them, could have really sparkled.
I started my art project during my first "frustration break". At that point I had decided that if I had been reading a paper copy, I would have been tearing pages out of it. So I used some old book pages from my stash instead :D...
and decided to comfort myself making paper flowers...
I took my frustration out on them by spritzing them with water
and scrunching them up.
Part of the short stories section of the book has a collection based on Death/Reapers, so during my second "frustration break" I stencilled a skull to add to my finished piece.
Darcy made a tutorial earlier this week for Paper Artsy, in which she made "patchwork paper".
I used some more book pages and inked them up, before cutting into random rectangles and pasting them onto a backing paper...
before cutting them into panels to fit the base "fan shape" I had cut from black card stock.
I over-stamped, faux stitched and mounted each panel before gluing in place.
Then it was just a matter of putting everything together :D
I added some sparkly details with Stickles...
and a sentiment I felt appropriate to the book itself.
In the end I was pleased I made the effort to finish this book, not for pride, but because it has the makings of some very very good stories.
Enjoy :D XXX
