(no subject)

My parents have managed to sell the building they've had their business in for the last 40 years!  They'll be renting it back for the first year (and the rent payments equal the the purchase payments, so ... aside from the down payment, no money will be going in either direction for that first year), but now if something goes wrong it will be the new owner's responsibility to fix, and not theirs!  Yay!

I'm frankly shocked they found a buyer.  I mean, it's a hundred year old building that was built out of local low-quality brick.  The one place that brick is exposed, you can scrape flakes off with a fingernail, and the less said about the mortar, the better.  Oh, and it's thirty years into a roof that was only supposed to last about 25 years.  Oh, and the HVAC is also about ready to go.  Oh, and while the town it's in is doing well, there is a store front sitting empty on the same block and others down the street, and Mom and Dad are only planning to rent the building back for a year, after which they'll move out and the new owners will have an old building with structural problems and a lot of major repairs needed real soon with no tenant in it to give them income.  I certainly would not have bought it, if I were them.

On another note, I am currently re-reading Zahn's original Star Wars trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) for the first time in maybe a decade, and I'm pleased to note that it's held up really well.  This trilogy was the one that launched the Star Wars book line back in the 90s, and in my opinion it's by far the best set of Star Wars novels in the old EU.  (Haven't read any of the new EU, so can't judge quality between the two.)  Zahn really understood the OT (the only movies at the time), and he had a great feel for the characters of the movie.  Plus, he came up with some really interesting plots, and lots of compelling new characters.  And they're just generally well-written.

It's been long enough since I've read the trilogy that I've forgotten a lot of the plot points.  It's the best combination of reading an old favorite and something new.  It's familiar and soothing, and yet I still get surprised by plot twists.  (And did I mention that Zahn had the characters of the OT down cold?  I can just hear Luke, Leia, Han, and Lando saying their lines.)

(no subject)

It's been years since I last re-read Zahn's Star Wars trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) and my skill both as a reader and writer has grown tremendously since then.  I notice a lot more about how stories are written than I did.  And one thing that I really appreciate in this re-read, that I don't remember consciously noticing before, is how smart the characters are even when they're wrong.

We're all familiar with the Idiot Ball, it's so incredibly common in storytelling.  Plots that depend on characters acting stupid, and just passing the Idiot Ball along from one character to the other.  Where we get told that everyone involved is a tactical genius, and we get told that again and again, as they keep doing stupid things.

This book does not do that.  The characters (heroes and villains both) consistently make smart decisions.  They're thinking things through.  They make mistakes, but those mistakes are not mistakes of being either stupid or oblivious.  If there is a vital clue to what the other side is doing, that could (if they find it and figure out what it means) allow them to completely unravel their opponent's plans, they will spot it.  They will see that it is important.  They will take a reasoned and good guess as to what it means ... but that reasoned and good guess may be wrong.  The characters, good guys and bad guys alike, are neither stupid nor omniscient.

It is incredibly effective as a writing technique.  I don't sit here going "but why don't they just ...?" or "how oblivious can they be?"  I don't sit here rolling my eyes while the author tells me how smart the characters are as they do stupid thing after stupid thing.  Instead, I get to watch very smart people do very smart things ... while sometimes going down the wrong path not because they're stupid or oblivious, but because they're smart.  Both sides are planning and plotting and doing stuff, but neither side is doing quite what their enemies expect, and neither side quite understands what their opponents are doing.  So no matter whether the POV is with Our Heroes or with the Empire, I'm sitting here on the edge of my chair, biting my nails.