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[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

I spent a engrossing several hours last night re-reading sgamadison's wonderful story Enigma - she is so good at world-building and makes you feel like you're right there inside the story. I highly recommend this story (and ALL of her other work) to read or rediscover. I never remember how to do the proper link thing, but here's the URL: http://sgamadison.livejournal.com/4729.html#cutid1

Comments

[melagan.livejournal.com]

WoooHooooo!

[dewey3067.livejournal.com]

Oh, just the thing for today! I'm having an at home day and I need some good long stories to lose myself in.

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Hee! I wondered why I was getting comments on that story all of the sudden. :-) Thank you for reccing it!

Enigma was a real turning point for me as a writer. It was the first story where I understood that it was not necessary for me to crank that puppy out in a few days. I spent over a month learning about the Battle of Britain--man, what an eye opener that was! Very humbling to discover how little I knew about that time period and exactly what we were asking those young men to do.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

Enigma is brilliant, I have it tucked into my toolbar for ease of rereading. I cry every time I read the scene where Rodney sees John's name on the casualty list - by that time it's like I'm IN the story. I don't know many writers who can pull me in like you can, but I love your work. I was thinking today, that I wonder what was going on in John's head as he was pretending to be all casual about things, even though he had to know that his number was going to be up sooner rather than later. Fighter pilots had the most appallingly short life-spans back then (I ended up researching the Battle of Britain because of your story and got fascinated with the whole period).

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop. :-)

These boys had to be young to withstand the rigors of flight in a non-pressurized plane without suits, oxygen or anything to protect them from G-forces. Many where sent out with less than 11 hours flight time. The more I studied, the more I was appalled at how little I knew and how many people owed so much to so few.

I got a sense that there was almost a frantic need to celebrate life and that the dead were not to be spoken of. Somehow this was a philosophy that I thought suited John well. :-)

Enigma also taught me that I write more easily as a non-sequential writer--instead of stalling for weeks during the time I was doing all my research, I wrote the scene that I could see in my head at the time while it was vivid and sharp. It was an astonishing thing to realize--that I didn't *have* to write in a linear fashion--and it was like opening the floodgates for me.

I loved doing the research for that piece and it was what gave me the courage to tackle SCI in Second Chance.

Now you've made me all nostalgic for the past! Thank you!