Book Review: Seabiscuit, An American Legend

I'm going to go ahead and assume that most of you aren't fans of horse-racing, so trust me, I was skeptical too. When I opened up to the first page of the novel I was ready for a ton of description and waiting for the dialogue. I turned the page. The closest thing to dialogue in the whole novel was two lines long, but they both had the same speaker. I didn't like that, but then again, the novel is non-fiction.

The first three chapters or so were horrendous. Okay, you own cars and make more money than me... alright, you train horses... cool. Those were my thoughts. Hillenbrand first grabbed my attention by explaining all of the crazy things Jockeys did to stay in shape. Then my interest kind of went downhill. The story itself, in my opinion, was quite dull. However, Hillenbrand's writing made it worth while. Her ability to paint images in your head and force emotions upon you is quite amazing.

I couldn't care less about horse-racing, but Hillenbrand made Seabiscuit feel like a human being. After up and down and up and down in Seabiscuit's career I found myself wanting Seabiscuit to be cut a break. I'll let you find out what happens though :)

I believe the shining moment in Hillenbrand's writing was this paragraph: “The bell rang in Pollard's ears, and he felt Seabiscuit drop and push beneath him, hammering the track and powering forward. There was the rushing sound of seventy-five thousand voices and the tumbling motion of horses and the flight of wind and dirt and the airy unreal feeling of mass and gravity slipping away.” The emotions are rushing and you can feel yourself on the back of the horse. I loved it.

Though a skeptic at first, I now realize that Seabiscuit is more than a tale about a race-horse, it's a legendary tale about hope and perseverance. I'm glad I read it, but I will never read it again. If you don't like horse-racing you should still read it, but hang tight because the beginning of the story is going to be rough for you.

(Originally Written on August 31, 2011 at: http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers91 )

Nature's Lament

With the water's edge, mother nature is receding.
The world, once covered in life, struck by man.
Spiraling in to darkness, the trees are bleeding,
and mourning their brothers, who couldn't have ran.

Trees fall in the forest, leaving no sound,
with no one to hear them, almost like they're dreaming.
Their roots whither and the fires burn all around.
They have no voices, but they will continue screaming!

And at the end of all the world's time,
the eldest tree will stand tall and gaze upon
the barren land, leaves falling, blending with nature's rhyme.
The eldest tree will plant a seed, and the world will go on.

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Written on August 22, 2011 by B.S. Meyers

(Original Post on August 22, 2011 at: http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers90 )

Continuum

I've learned a lot about myself over the past two and a half years of writing. I've learned that my writing reminds people of Douglas Adams and of J.R.R. Tolkien. I've learned that I know how to write. Most importantly, I've learned that I can write a book!

After much thought and discussion, I've determined that my first novel, The Greatest Story Never Told, wasn't accomplishing my goals the way I wanted to accomplish them. That being said I've decided that my new course of action is to write (what was planned to be) my second series. Fortunately, it will be very easy to salvage some concepts, plot ideas and characters from my first novel and incorporate them into my new series.

Many writers would be disappointed and possibly discouraged after spending two and a half years writing a novel, only to discover that it wasn't working, but I look at it this way: I spent two and a half years developing characters, plots and a Universe. More importantly, I spent two and a half years developing my writing skills and my writing style. I'm ready to take on this new project and I'm extremely excited to write it.

Although this decision sets me back quite a bit it will be better for me in the long run. My journey will continue and I hope that you will continue to follow me on that journey. I'd like to thank my family, my friends, Melissa Foster, Aubrey Hansen, Richard Allen, Ms. Jennifer Case and each and every one of my twitter followers for their support. Without people like you there would be no need for writers.

(Original Post on August 14, 2011 at: http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers88 )

Overplanning and Setting Projects Aside

Currently I find myself in a tight spot with my writing. Often times I've been known to be obsessive compulsive and I rarely under-do things. Because of this, I have rough plot lines and character ideas for over 20 novels planned out.

I have three series that I hope to eventually write. I'm writing the second book of the first series, but I'm a bit stuck there. For that reason I decided to write the first chapter of my third series (just for fun and to keep writing) on Wednesday. Yesterday I decided to write the first chapter of my second series.

My problem is that I feel like the second and third series' will work a lot better for me. What do you think I should do? Is it a bad idea to set my first series aside and pursue writing my second or third series first?

(Original Post on August 12, 2011 at: http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers87 )

Vacation

For the past two weeks I've been in Florida on the vacation of a lifetime. I went to Universal Studios, Sea World, Aquatica (Sea World's Water Park), and Disney World: The Magic Kingdom, The Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot and Downtown Disney! It was a blast!

One thing I learned over the past two weeks is that I LOVE writing. I did not write a single word in any of my books for two weeks! Now I'm home and I find another obstacle keeping me from writing: my dreadful summer assignments.

I will get back to writing!

(Original Post on August 10, 2011 at: http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers86 )