Eating crow...

That part yesterday, where I mused about how I could write stuff that was better than some of what appears in Michael Crichton's Binary? Well, maybe that's the case and maybe it's not, but when I couldn't fall asleep last night, I fired up my Kindle app and picked up reading Binary where I had left off... and was compelled to read the story right through to the end. So let me amend my rash statement to "in places," I might, etc.

The story's denouement was very carefully planned and meticulously set up (and the way this is presented to the reader is pretty direct, generally in the form of answers to the hero's questions about what the bad guy had been seen doing). Once things start to move, near the climax, the pieces of the story resemble a jigsaw puzzle, where theoretically, things get easier as you go along because (a) the "bigger" picture is taking shape and (b) there are fewer loose pieces to have to deal with. However, I found that the effect due to (a) did not progress as quickly as I had expected, and the effect due to (b) never quite kicked in during the final few pages until there was really only one loose piece left, and even then, I wondered how it was supposed to fit into the puzzle.

In short, excellent story engineering.

There's a lesson to be learned, here.

Cheers...

Making a list...

Something I've been meaning to do for some time is compile a list of upbeat, positive songs. My list of songs and performers starts with:

• Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive, by Johnny Mercer
• What A Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong
• The Best Is Yet To Come, by Tony Bennett
• We Are The Champions, by Queen
• Don't Worry, Be Happy, by Bobby McFerrin
• Ain't That A Kick In The Head, by Dean Martin
• Top of the World, by Karen Carpenter
• ???

Any other suggestions?