Fishman-Wolff takes 45 words to tell me what Stu Silver’s, Throw Mama From The Train, told me in four words: “ The night was sultry.”

I found Chapter 1 Mary, of The Prisoner of Hell Gate, intriguing and somewhat reminiscent of Alice Hoffman’s first few pages of Turtle Moon.

But many readers are lovers of story, not words. I don’t need reminding: “How clever this writer is with all those words.”

Chapter 2 breaks us from intriguing Mary like “schist” (the stop reading and look up this word for metamorphic rock) where those rats live in warrens during Chapter 1. It made me wonder what happened to the rabbits? Oh, well, never mind.

It’s that old “grab them in the first five pages and don’t let them go” sort of thing. We are not pleased. We prefer: “Hold me like you’ll never let me go.”

AND NEVER break me out of your story. One reader’s opinion.

You’re right again, Kristen. The Prisoner of Hell Gate is not for me. Thanks a bunch for the warning. I was skimming before I finished Amazon’s: LOOK INSIDE sample.

Aren’t opinions a wonderful thing?

P. S. Speaking of 90’s predictions: Sweethearts of the Rodeo ain’t bad. I’m still looking for that “Midnight Girl from the Sunset Town.”

Thanks for this post.

Nice!