Tonight being the Wednesday night when my ok club meets meant that the house was nice and tidy, and it also meant that four friends arrived to share news of weddings, holidays, expected babies, business plans … oh, and what we have been reading!
The book for this month was ‘The Free’ By Willi Vlautin, and I must admit I struggled with it. I may have struggled but it is an amazing book, Vlautin is an incredible writer, I read his work and was in awe of his craftsmanship. Vlautin is not only a writer, but also a musician… surely a winning combination?! He has a band called Richmond Fontaine and has released nine studio alums. He ha also published four books, The Motel Life (2006), Northline (2008), Lean on Pete (2010) and The Free (2014). He was born in 1967 in Reno, Nevada but now lives in Portland, Oregon.
I’m not sure I will read any other books by him, but he really is an incredible author, a great writer, and a master story-teller. I think the other members of the book club enjoyed the book more than I did but as usual we had a great evening together. This time, as well as a new member we had an innovation in what we did; each of us chose a passage to read from the book and then comment on it. I chose a passage near the beginning which was a conversation between two characters; I have been criticised in my own writing for the way I write conversation,so I chose this because of the comment.
Lois Elsden 
In the first place I LOVE that pic – “my book club only reads wine labels”. Sounds like a club that has a lot of fun!
Dialogue is one of the trickiest things to write. I feel each writer has an own unique style about dialogue, so unless it holds up the reader or breaks the flow, no problem.
Do more of your book club members write? Have you mentioned “Mercury Silver” to them at any point? (I hope they all celebrated your publication?)
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Thanks – my daughter made the bag for me, she saw it on somewhere and being a hard-up student made her own version!
I think my problem with dialogue is that I hear it so vividly in my mind and transcribe it almost literally, and although that might be true to life, on the page it can get a bit boring! I’m working hard on how to improve it – and that’s why I welcome criticism! As a self-publisher there is no editorial team to pick up on things like that.
Thank you for reminding me about ‘Mercury Silver’ – we are going to be sharing short stories next time so that’s a most timely suggestion!
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Great! Keep me posted. 😉
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