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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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« THE GROVES OF ACADEME | Main | HARRY SIGHTING »

April 11, 2008

TEV GIVEAWAY: ROOSTER TROIKA

RoosterThis year's regrettable Rooster contretemps should not obscure the fact that some truly wonderful books were considered, and two extraordinary titles made it to the final round.  Now, for the vast majority of you who didn't get to participate as a judge, we are happy to offer a special TEV giveaway: The final round of the Tournament of Books - Junot Diaz's newly anointed Pulitzer Prize winner The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and zombie round dark horse Remainder by Tom McCarthy.  And to sweeten an already sweet pot, we're throwing in the book you know we were rooting for all along - The Savage Detectives.  The lucky winner of this package will swear they're a Rooster judge, you'll see.

So, we all know the drill.  Please drop us an email, subject line: "HOLY CRAP THAT'S AN AWESOME GIVEAWAY" and, as always, include your mailing address, please.  We regret that previous winners ineligible.  We'll take all entries until 8:00 p.m. PST at which time the Random Number Generator will crow.  And don't forget that Harry, Revised is supposed to be in the stores on Tuesday, April 15.  Until then ...

UPDATE: And this staggering popular giveaway has been won by Kyle McClure of Grey Eagle, MN.  Thanks to the many who entered!

Posted by TEV at 12:01 AM in Giveaways |

Comments

Hi to all those in literay land. This is my first foray into the "Blogosphere." Wild! I´ve always looked to Mark´s blog as a source of inspiration as to how to write about stuff you love. And so, I am going to try doing the same for Mark and his new book, Harry, Revised, and I invite all those who are fans of TEV and who are as excited as I am about reading it and who just in general love books to join me in discussing what must be the most anticipated release of this young year, hands down.

I will try to keep you up-to-date on all the reviews of Harry, as well as interviews, author appearances -- all things Sarvas! Thanks for checking this out.

If I may paraphrase the best movie of the year in talking about what is sure to be the best book of the year: THERE WILL BE SARVAS.

sarvaspark.blogspot.com

Posted by:Mike Eagle | April 12, 2008 at 12:13 PM

Just to explain: the idea behind my blog is to provide an independent place (i.e. a "park") for Mark´s fans to celebrate Mark´s work. TEV is a lot of things to a lot of people, but my feeling is that there are people out there who do not want it to be a fansite. Thus, sarvaspark.blogspot.com.

Posted by:Mike Eagle | April 12, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Mike, I am a bit speechless. I fear you might be considerably overestimating interest in my book, but I do appreciate your spirit ... and I hope the book lives up to your excitement.

Posted by:TEV | April 12, 2008 at 01:36 PM

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THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

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