Hello!

[jhorton]

Hello Fellow Bookworms!

My name is Jeff Horton. I'm a soon to be published author with one book finished and two other books almost ready. I seem to gravitate to science-fiction/adventure thrillers, along the lines of someone like Michael Crichton, though I plan to constantly plum new depths.

I'm a fan of many of the classics such as Dickens, Burroughs, Hemingway, and Wells, though I have recently become a fan of Tom Clancy after reading Sum of All Fears a few years ago. I'm currently reading Rainbow Six, which I highly recommend.

Well thanks for having me! If you'd like to visit my website the URL is www.hortonlibrary.com.

Cheers!

Jeff

[Theomanic]

Hi Jeff, welcome to BookTalk.

Congrats on finishing a book -- AND getting it published! Wow, that must have been hard work. I'm one of the many people with tons of ideas that never really make it. So kudos to you for being one of the few that does! I notice your three main characters all have real words for last names (White/Young/March). Is that a particular theme, or is it just something you're fond of doing? I often make characters with complex first names and very simple last names. Can't explain it, just something I find appealing.

Have you ever read Peter Watts? He's a sci-fi writer I really love, with some action and a lot of great sci-fi... middlish hard I would say. You might find him enjoyable - in particular I recommend "Starfish". If you like Crichton's attention to detail and realistic scenarios, you'd probably like that one.

.theo

[jhorton]

Hi Theo.

Thanks for the welcome and for the congrats! It's been a great experience, and a very rewarding one. I never knew a few years ago that I could write one much less three books, regardless of quality.

The names of some of the characters in my novels come from people I know, others I pull out of thin air, others just seem to "feel" right. The antagonist's name in my next book, the Dark Age, is Kraken. He's a pretty nasty character so it seemed fitting.

I haven't read any of Peter Watts' work yet that I recall, though it does seem that I've heard of Starfish. I'll have to check it out, I appreciate the recommendation!

If writing is something you enjoy, I encourage you to keep it up.

Cheers,

Jeff

[jhorton]

Theo,

I read some of Starfish on Amazon.com. It looks very interesting, I found myself on board the ship in the first chapter, exploring the deep ocean floors, expecting a giant squid or something worse to attack at any moment. Watts seems to be an excellent storyteller!

Jeff

[Theomanic]

I'm glad you liked it! Watts is a marine biologist so he has a pretty excellent knowledge base to draw from. He wrote a more "critically acclaimed" novel called Blindsight that was in space, and while I found it enjoyable, it didn't have the depth and realism that Starfish had.

As to writing being something I enjoy, it's hard to say. I enjoy coming up with stories and characters, but actually committing them to paper seems to be a whole other beast entirely. Everything becomes dull and vapid when written out. At least, so I feel. But randomly I'll try again, and see how it goes... I think the key is not giving up and trucking through the difficult parts.

[Chris OConnor]

Welcome to BookTalk.org.