Audely Bensen Writes

Last week I finished revising the final scene of Beekeeper. Yay! Only, we're never really done, are we? Over the course of this round of revision, I had pulled together a short list of scene snippets that I wanted to shoe-horn into the narrative and quality checks that I'd stumbled over during the weeks of drafting.  After a bit of heel-kicking and whining (I just spent 44 days heads-down revising my novel! I was tired!) I got to it. The two quality checks were:  Assess that each chapter has a unique goal. A friend in my writing group suggested this as a way to ensure that the pacing is moving along and that the character agency is clear.  Make sure each event can be linked by the words "therefore" or "but." If I remember correctly, this exercise was suggested through Writing Excuses (but don't ask me which episode). If two events can be linked by the words "and" or "then," there isn't enough causality to string the novel toget...

Private Rites is the third Julia Armfield book I've read. While I don't think it was bad, it also was not my favorite of what she's written. The pacing seemed quite slow, and as usual with Armfield I luxuriated in the lovely prose. Every line seemed packed with meaning, and like there couldn't have been another sentence in its place.  As the same time, I was also never really sure what the point was. It was the flip side of what I've loved most about all of her other work: the prose meanders, and spirals, and not until the very end does it coil into a neat little box of meaning, leaving you stunned and reflective. Even by the end of this one I was not quite sure I grasped that end.  Because I love the effect of that aspect of her writing in all other instances experienced to date, I will probably read her next as well! This could easily have been an instance of me not being in the right headspace to enjoy a slow book when I attempted to read it, and if I read it ag...

If there is anyone who actually reads this blog, they may have picked up that I didn't post anything for all of May. That's because I was swept up in a blanket of comfort reads and didn't want to write about it until I'd finished.  I read all of Tamora Pierce's Tortall books in a month, back to back to back in chronological story order (the three Beka books, four Alanna, four Daine, four Kel, two Ali, and then the companion "A Spy's Guide" and "Tortall and Other Realms" short stories.) If I'm counting correctly, that was 19 books in a month. I did not read the Numair book, because it makes me sad that we may not ever have a complete trilogy. And I loved it! As always, I bawled when I got to the end of the Beka trilogy, and again at the perfection that is the epilogue at the end Trickster's Queen. Every time I read these books I take away something new, and on this re-read I was captivated by the adults in the series, and our protagoni...

It seems like every time I go to the library, there's a new T. Kingfisher book on the shelves. Partly, this is because I slept on a good thing for too long and am playing catch-up. I thought I loved A House With Good Bones the best, until I snagged a copy of Swordheart .  After listening to a few of her episodes of Ditch Diggers , I feel like of all of T. Kingfisher's books, this one is the most in the voice of the author. Not that the others don't also feel as if they're also written by the same author, but it was almost like I could hear her reading Swordheart aloud in my head. Weird, maybe.  But it made me think a lot about what it means to have an authorial voice, rather than a voicey character. I wonder what pieces of my real, actual human voice translate into my works, and whether I will ever be able to recognize those aspects.  Musings aside, this book was a joy. It is full of ridiculousness and sarcasm and heart, and it was just so fucking fun. I will continue t...

A coworker challenged me to read Children of Time as part of our 2-person sci-fi book club. My heart sank when I opened the cover to read the first line: I'd tried to read this book before as an audiobook on a road trip with my husband the year before. He adored this book and was excited to share it with me, and I couldn't get through a half-chapter without falling asleep.  But, since I'd committed to reading it before realizing which book it was, I sat down to finally read it. And just like my husband suggested, I flew through it. Of course, it did take three mediums to read this--I read the first third in the physical book, then switched to audio book on another road trip, then finished it on e-book during an unexpected train delay. Separate from the experience of reading the book, I felt very lucky to have access to so many different library resources to get me through the finish line! I probably would not have picked this book up if not for the joint cajoling of my hus...

Last week I posted about finishing my first draft of Beekeeper. Over 79 days, I wrote 57,00 words.  What I didn't say was that drafting Beekeeper was the first time in nearly a year where I was drafting something completely new. I'd spent so long revising Predacide that even last year's full draft was largely cobbled together from old scenes, with a handful of new ones scattered in; and unlike in years past I hadn't managed to draft my August short-story.  And surprising no one, writing is hard.  When I first started drafting in January, it felt like pulling teeth to write 100 words. I'd push myself to write 100, then 200, and wonder at how I ever managed a whole month of Nano sessions.  And as much as I hate to say it, every day it got a little easier. Each morning I wrote a little bit more than I did the day before. There were some stops and starts, of course. We went to Vegas to see the Killers, and then certain executive orders began sending shockwaves through m...