Reviewer Praise for "While You Were Dancing"

I have been a bit out of sorts recently, but just noticed this review for my novella, While You Were Dancing on Catholicfiction.net. I have to admit, I was always apprehensive about putting this out because I was afraid people would mistake it for a nihilistic dirge. That caused me a lot of strain in rewrites, but I'm glad the reviewer told the story for what it was and instantly got what my intention was. It's a relief to me when a story comes across to people.

Some quotes I enjoyed:

"Yet, at the same time, the confused, detached mood and technicality of the work furthered the environment that Two Tone was living in: a society where people detached themselves from each other, a world full of darkness and pain. Appropriately, much of the story happens while it is raining, which adds to the dreary atmosphere. Through specific details, Cowan opens up this world for the reader."

"Much of the story is told by way of Two Tone’s own thoughts and reflections, and in these reflections, the reader comes upon prominent themes of the story, one being loneliness. Two Tone experiences incredible loneliness and separation from others, noting that most nights, he was “left sitting and waiting for an idea of what (he) should do.” While sitting alone in his apartment, Two Tone thinks about dancing, and reflects that he has a purpose greater than merely going about his daily work—yet he could not fulfill his entire purpose by himself."

"In our society, which is continually filled with chaos, sin, darkness, and suffering, the message of hope is important and necessary. While You Were Dancing was difficult for me to follow because of the complicated arrangement of scenes and the lack of character exposition, but it was very intriguing and beautiful in its message of redemption. Two Tone’s loneliness calls out to the reader, encouraging the reader to hold close to others. This book made me ask myself: When life gets rough, is it easier to go through everything alone, or with another? Further reflection on Two Tone’s character and the story shows that it is always best to join with another in times of trial. Furthermore, this story illuminates the darkness of society with hope; it reminds the reader that hope is always to be present and cultivated in the lives of Christians, since Christ has conquered all: “Sunrise was coming soon, and with it the rain would finally break. Everything would be different.""

I do apologize if the text was a bit rough for readers, but I do hope they manage to get as much out of my novella as Mrs. Hauge did.

Many thanks to Catholic Fiction for this charitable review!

While You Were Dancing - The Placement & The Meaning

*Sorry for the lateness of this post, I've had a rather complicated day*

Get it here!

 

 

This is it, the final entry in my series. This week I'll be focusing on the overall direction of my stories and how it relates to what I was trying to do with this novella. Feel free to skip this one if you aren't interested in the extraneous details and only want to know about the novella. If you do, simply read the other posts in the series. If not, read on!

"While You Were Dancing" is, in essence, the beginning of an ongoing story. It's not the first story chronologically,  nor does everything that happen here directly relate with others, but it still is part of a series. If you're confused about what I mean, then I'll try and explain it a bit better.

First, this is not a situation where I'm setting up a prologue for a trilogy or a series of standalone adventures like you see so much these days. It's not the elaborate. What I'm attempting is much simpler than that.

While You Were Dancing - The Sight & The Sound

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I have so far explained the influence that went into much of its construction, but I have yet to explain the images and sounds in my head that helped get it all into shape. Yes, that's a bit of a trickier explanation to get across, I admit, but I'm still going to give it a shot.

You see, I was born in 1984, and as such, there are certain stories that have influenced me more than others, just as there are for those born in the 1970s or 1990s. The difference is that the images put in my head when a story starts to bubble up there is much different than one born in another era might expect. I grew up on "Unsolved Mysteries" and not "CSI", on "Rocko's Modern Life" and not "Spongebob Squarepants", on S.E. Hinton and not Stephanie Meyer, and on "Akira" and not "Avatar" like the current generation.

When a story comes to my head, it tends to be filtered quite a bit differently than several stories of similar styles. I simply don't come from that place. You won't find the common element in suspense stories nowadays by lingering on a build up for a dozen pages in my stories, you'll find action sequences that slide out of the background and into the forefront that might catch you out of nowhere and end as quickly as they began.

While You Were Dancing - The Who & What

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John Henry "Two Tone" Fisher is the main character in "While You Were Dancing" and, despite his name, is not based after me. I'm neither of average height, nor do I have naturally white hair, and his name actually comes from two important Catholic figures in Blessed John Henry Newman and St. John Fisher. I wanted to give him an important name that actually has meaning to which he has no inkling of, which goes with much the rest of the story.

If you know much about this story, then you probably have noticed something very apparent with the names. That being, what is with the names?

I find we have a big problem in this society with calling something what it is. We make up stupid slang all the time, we deal with political correctness on a daily basis, and we change terms to match whatever we want at any given moment. If words are ultimately meaningless to these people, then why wouldn't names be, too? After all, that can be changed, too.

But life is about more than just what we make of it. There's plenty out there we don't think about, see, or hear on a daily basis.

While You Were Dancing - The Why & How

*NOTE* In celebration of the start of this series, the novella will be free on July 5th, should amazon decide not to randomly mess me up with delays again. I originally wanted to do it for today, but, again, it just didn't work out that way.

Today, as promised, will be the first in a series of posts about my first published novella, "While You Were Dancing". Today I will discuss the "Whys" and "Hows" of the story and why it even exists at all. More after the jump!

Get it here!