Chat about the novels?

CarolD

CarolD

Registered User
Jul 15, 2006
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Hi all,

As I mentioned in my little mini-bio in the "new member" thread, I'm the author of the Leap novels "Obsessions" and "Mirror's Edge."

I know some fans didn't care for the books (in a big way - my eyes bleed every time I look at the reviews on Amazon) but some do like them. There seem to be a lot of members here on the Forum, so I'm curious to hear what you thought - with a chance for me to reply, and give you my perspective and some insight about the writing process.

Looking forward to hearing from you...

Carol
 
I have read, Carny Knowledge, Too Close for Comfort, The Beginning, Angels Unaware, Search and Rescue, Mirror's Edge, The Wall, Odessey, Obessesions, Song and Dance. and in that exact order too. Some of them have some details that conflict with the shows, but i enjoy them, in fact because of them i have so many other books left eaither unfinished or unstarted. I am expecting Heat Wave in the mail but its very late. :p

My best friend got me into a lot of them, like Obessions and Odessy, i did not want to read those, especially Obessions, i thought it was soo stupid sounding, but she read them and told me little stuff about them in AIM and she made them sound real good so i borrowed them from her, and loved them. She also got me into thinking Forknowledge might be good, and i disliked the sound of that one even more than Obessions. She hasn't lent it to me yet, but i hope to read it soon.
 
My favorites were always Prelude (I think it was called, correct me if I am wrong as I am too lazy to go and look) and Too Close for Comfort. I also really enjoyed Angels Unware and The Wall
 
First let me say that it's great to have an author of some QL Novels as a member of Al's Place. I am a bit of a writer myself. This year, I had four stories air in Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons.

I am always looking for constructive critisism for my writing. This way I can takmme that and put it back into my writing and become a better writer. Like for my story "To Help a Friend". It was pointed out to me that the dialoug seemed wooden. I reread it and saw what the reviewer was talking about. So I took some advice and fixed it for Draft Dodger.

I have read several of the Quantum Leap Novels. I own Obsessions, but I have not read it yet. I read about half of Mirrors Edge, then I misplaced the book.

When I find it, I plan on finishing it. As for what I think about it, It's not my favortite novel, but it is certainly not the worst. (I personally am not a fan of Ashley McConnell's Novels. However, I do respect the fact that she stayed true to her vision after it was stated that it was Sam's Body leaping.)

The biggest gripe that I have about Mirror's Edge is that it seems nothing like Sam. The book is missing his entire personality. But as I said, I haven't finished it yet.

When I finish Mirrors Edge and get around to reading Obsessions, I'll let you know what I think
 
reply to all

kumiko said:
Is Mirror's Edge the one about the twins?
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Ruthie: Twins book is called Double or Nothing. I also wanted to say once again, thanks Carol for attempting to write a QL book. I never told you that on the QLIK; I was some immature bratty 18 year old then. Sorry. I know if you read my outline of a QL story you wouldn't like mine too much either. Donna's not really in it much. P.S. I'm slowly getting about 1/3 of that QL fan fic story outline done. It's a long way from finished though. I'm starting my class in a few weeks. I'm also working more...
 
ziggysego said:
I am a big fan of the novels. My favourite novelist of the Quantum series was Ashley McConnell.

However, I was a fan of your novels too Carol. My favourite of which was Mirror's Edge.

The one book from the Quantum series I didn't like was Search and Rescue.
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I was not a big fan of Ashley Macconal, i don't really like her writing style :p
just my opinion.


I like to write QL stories, in fact i have two really good ones that i have started but need to crack on, i will share them here someday perhaps in the vertual seasons. i hope you end up liking them, although i am a novelest still in the making, i am still learning how to improve my writing even thought i have had a talent in it for years.
 
laestrella said:
Ruthie: Twins book is called Double or Nothing.
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Ah ha. I have a really bad memory and since I havent been into the fandom much, I can't remember the names of the books, well, most names anyways. :lol
 
CarolD said:
Hi all,

As I mentioned in my little mini-bio in the "new member" thread, I'm the author of the Leap novels "Obsessions" and "Mirror's Edge."

I know some fans didn't care for the books (in a big way - my eyes bleed every time I look at the reviews on Amazon) but some do like them. There seem to be a lot of members here on the Forum, so I'm curious to hear what you thought - with a chance for me to reply, and give you my perspective and some insight about the writing process.

Looking forward to hearing from you...

Carol
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From someone who has thoroughly enjoyed any verse of Quantum Leap, I want to thank you first for taking the time and energy to write about a show that this group loves and cares for. I have read all of the Quantum Leap books.

All of the authors of these books: John Peel, Sandy Schofield, L. Elizabeth Storm, Christopher DeFilippis, Minoy Peterman, Barbara E. Walton, Ashley McConnell, Melanie Kent, Melissa Crandall, CJ Henderson and yourself all deserve a big hand and an even bigger thanks than I can give for adding to what we Quantum Leap Fans know is a show that should have continued to a decent end.

I will be honest to the n-th degree. It has been quite a while since I have read "Obsessions" and "Mirror's Edge", but I will be re-reading them. That's the whole point to having a book - to enjoy the writing in them more than once.

I can remember opening the books and being ever so grateful that I was able to read another QL book. I opened them and and was disappointed because... they came to an end.

It was because of these books that AJ and I started The Virtual Seasons. I loved the idea of the leap continuing.

I would love to talk with you about the writing process. Boy, would I! Any helpful hints would be wonderful. Please. (Yes, I'll even get on my knees... I don't mind begging.) :)

MJ
 
Let's see... My least favorite novel, hands down, is Search and Rescue. I don't remember it being so bad when I first read it, but I've been re-reading the novels, and it's the one I'm currently reading. It draaaaaaags. I'm not a big fan of Ashley McConnell, either - Prelude was the book by her I liked least. And the book Heatwave bored me.

My favorites are Knights of the Morning Star (even if Al did make fun of the town where I currently live!) and the L. Elizabeth Storm novels. As for the rest, I need to reread them again to remember.
 
hmm yeah as far as favorites go, i forgot to mention that. I would have to say at the top of my list are Odessey, Mirror's Edge(as far as i am concerned, this one should have been an episode), and Song and Dance.
 
Likes and dislikes

I think it's really a matter of what you look for in a book that will determine your favorites in the QL series. Some folks like the warm & fuzzy type stories. Some like stories with a lot of Al in them. I got a lot of complaints for not using Sammy Jo, but that's a character I just never liked. I thought it was an insult to Donna for Sam to have this affair and produce a daughter. (I think Deborah Pratt said they were trying to forget they ever stuck Donna in there in the first place.) Anyway, when I wrote the stories, I created my own characters at the Project.

I did do a "leap home" story called "My Brother's Keeper" that involves Sammy Jo and gets Sam back home; and a novel called "Fork in the Road" that brings Sam home to Donna, although not without some difficulty along the way. They're both online now - if you're interested, I can post the link.

As for my own preferences as a reader, I liked Pulitzer and Angels Unaware a lot, and didn't care for Heat Wave or Search & Rescue. Double or Nothing...well, I think that would rank as my least favorite.

For the fanfic writers out there, I would pass on the advice that was given to me when I got started: WRITE YOUR FACE OFF! Keep at it, as much as you can. Read as much as you can. And listen to how people talk - it will help you develop a good "ear" for dialogue. And use the Spell Checker. If you're not a good speller by nature, it's a great help.

If you've got specific questions about the books or about writing, I promise to try and answer them in a helpful way!

Stay cool...
Carol
 
CarolD said:
I think it's really a matter of what you look for in a book that will determine your favorites in the QL series. Some folks like the warm & fuzzy type stories. Some like stories with a lot of Al in them. I got a lot of complaints for not using Sammy Jo, but that's a character I just never liked. I thought it was an insult to Donna for Sam to have this affair and produce a daughter. (I think Deborah Pratt said they were trying to forget they ever stuck Donna in there in the first place.) Anyway, when I wrote the stories, I created my own characters at the Project.


Carol
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ooh Carol, i sooooo agree with you, i never liked Sammy Jo eaither, so from me, i thank you for not using Sammy Jo. :) you basically hit the nail on the coffee for me. I too felt it was an insult to Donna for Sam to have sex with Abigale, and it makes me sad now every time i watch the leap back and hear Donna say that line "no, i've never once felt that you betrayed our love."

that is soo mean that they wanted to forget they did Donna, i love Donna, i disliked the whole Trilogy thing, its like a really bad fanfic to me, i wish they hadn't done them, Abigale was sooo annoying! In fact my best friend and I have come up with a storyline where Sam had made love to Donna in the leap back and inpregnated her with a daughter to be named Chelsea after Scott's real live daughter.

finally someone agrees with me, i love you girl. :cheers

and i still say Mirror's Edge should have been an episode, it was awsome,
(Warning, from here on contians spoliers)







 and i loved that Donna got to talk to Sam, and idea that i actually had before reading this book, for a fanfic but never got around to writing it. I felt Tom's behavior was a little out there at first but he got better, so that was good. I almost thought Sam was going to make it home, my heart was beating fast while i was getting to the end chapters. It made me real sad too when Tom was talking about how Sam is missing everything and it was Sad thinking about all hes missing and how his family doesnt think he loves them even though he does. in a lot of parts i kept thinking poor Sam.


and thanks for the advice.
 
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Thanks!

Thanks so much for the kind words, Sam Beckett Fan - it's really nice to hear that a reader enjoyed the book.

Actually I did want to bring Sam home at the end of the final book, but the publishers set down an ironclad rule that he could NOT come home, in case a movie cropped up someday. (We're still waiting...!) So I thought it would be interesting for the final book to lead right into the final episode. Originally the book was called "Balance of Power," but when I came up with the idea for that last chapter at Al's bar, the editor said she'd like the title to include the word "Mirror."

To expand on things...there was a rule from the publisher all along that we couldn't change anything drastically. They said we could bring in another sibling for Sam, or give Al another wife, but at the end of the book things had to be restored to their original state. (Like, the Leap could change Sam's or Al's history while it was happening, but when the Leap out happened, things returned to normal.)

So I felt bad for the readers who were upset that Sam didn't return home, given that the book was billed as "the final adventure" or some such thing.

More on the ending...people have complained about it, saying that it still left a lot of holes, a lot of questions unanswered. Yes, I know. :) The reason is that I was writing under a very tight deadline. The book got off to a slow start for personal reasons (not my own), so finishing the book was a serious crunch - remember, I was working full time, and could only write evenings and weekends. I came up with an ending, submitted it, but wasn't happy with it. Neither Ginjer (the editor) nor I could come up with a solid way to fix things. I tried several drafts, and none of them really worked. So we had to settle for "this is the best I can do in this time frame." If I'd had another couple months to do a few more drafts, the story probably would have been tighter and the ending somewhat more satisfying.

And a comment to the people whose response to "Obsessions" was "Sam doesn't do anything! He doesn't DO anything!" Well...yes. Because the story is about AL. (And the others at the Project.) The idea was for Sam to sit at the cabin feeling frustrated, and for the reader to feel frustrated FOR him. So in that sense, I guess it worked.

More comments are welcome, and I'm glad to answer any questions.
 
i didn't feel frusterated for him, it was Stephanie Keller that made me mad, even before i read the book (and i pretty much had guessed what she was up to), in fact i may have stated above that i almost didn't read it but my best friend pulled me in like she's good at. in fact what really got me to read it was when Kristen told me that there was a cute scene where Donna remembers meeting Sam and him asking her to mary him. when i read it though, i was very surprised, i found it to be a lot better than i pictures, and i loved Rufus the dog. hehe.

Oh, and i liked how Mirror's Edge went into Mirror Image, but i would have much prefered Sam to get home, cuz a lot of the sad stuff going on at the project made me wish Sam wasn't missing so much.
 
Hi,
Only just found out about Mirror's Edge a few weeks back (I thought I already had all the books and hadn't realised this final one had been published) and hunted down a copy over the internet. Having arrived not long ago, I'm now halfway through it.

Regarding your other stories 'My Brother's Keeper' and 'Fork in the Road', are they still available online?
All the best,
Ian.
 
I think the novels can be found on Amazon, although I'm not positive all of them are available.

I'm jumping onto the novel bandwagon rather late. I've read the first one and liked it. I want to read all of them as I'm able to.

I know it's an old thread, but about the Trilogy...I can understand why it would bother people that Sam had a child with another woman when he was married to Donna, and if he'd actually remembered he was married and done so with that knowledge, it would bother me a great deal too. I don't condone it, but I think the whole point was Sam wanted to settle down and have a normal life and be with people he loved and couldn't. He didn't remember Abagail or Sammie Jo later either.

Sigh, I'm a hopeless romantic...The scene where he's going to pieces in the nursing home and tells Al "even heroes are human" always makes me melt. I realize that won't be the case for everyone, and there are valid reasons for that. I agree it would have been better if he had been single.

It's hard to keep in mind it's just a T.V. show sometimes. :b
 
I'm reading Pulitzer now and so far it's my favorite. I have all of them now and am slowly reading through them. It's interesting to see Quantum Leap in novel form, and how the authors have taken ideas from the T.V. show and built stories around them. The Vietnam QL episode was one of the best so it's good to read about that in more detail.
 
The main problem I had with the novels is that many of the authors weren't familiar with the show, and the characters' thoughts and dialogue didn't ring true to their personalities. In a couple of the books I remember thinking, "Sam would never say anything like this," or "Sam doesn't talk like this" - tone and speech pattern is very important when writing a well-known TV character. The worst, though, was when something was mentioned that contradicted what had happened on the show. Only writers who knew QL inside out should've been commissioned to write the stories.
 
manifan13 said:
The main problem I had with the novels is that many of the authors weren't familiar with the show, and the characters' thoughts and dialogue didn't ring true to their personalities. In a couple of the books I remember thinking, "Sam would never say anything like this," or "Sam doesn't talk like this" - tone and speech pattern is very important when writing a well-known TV character. The worst, though, was when something was mentioned that contradicted what had happened on the show. Only writers who knew QL inside out should've been commissioned to write the stories.
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Pulitzer is the only novel I've read through so far and I thought it was great. Storm is a terrific writer and really knows the show and its characters well (I have one of the fanzines by her which I'm about to read too). I love the episode Pulitzer is based around as well, it's one of my favorites, so that also probably has a lot to do with it.

I started to read one of the McConnell novels though and didn't like the way she portrayed both characters at all, and wasn't grabbed by the story either. So I ended up stopping halfway through. Maybe I'll give it another try but on first reading that was my reaction.

But that's just my personal taste I think. I can't really comment on the novels generally since I haven't read them all yet. Reading the threads here about them though it strikes me that people really vary widely on what they like or don't like in the novels. Many people love McConnell's stuff and think she does the best job with the characters, some people don't (I couldn't get into the one novel). Same with the other novels and authors. You're absolutely right that tone and speech pattern is very important - getting that right is a huge part of characterization in any writing, particularly with already-well-known characters from a fandom. I've found in reading stories both in the fanzines and online that many authors' 'takes' on the characters vary somewhat, and I don't think of any of them as being wrong, just that sometimes it resonates with how I see them, sometimes it doesn't.
 
Pulitzer is the best one of the bunch I've read so far; she's a great writer. I'm reading Double Or Nothing right now and so far I'm not real crazy about it but I'm not that far into it. It's been interesting to see the different leaps the authors come up with and how they connect them to the TV show. It can be a matter of personal taste, but it bothers me too when something seems totally out of character. One of the novels-The Wall I think-had Sam dropping the f-bomb at one point and that's not something Sam would have done. It would have made more sense for Al to be saying that, although it would have been stretching it a bit for him too. He was a little rough around the edges but he didn't swear indiscriminately. I think a problem in general is too many authors just throw in bad language for no apparent reason.

In fairness, the TV show is a tough act to follow, and writers probably have guidelines set down by the publisher that they have to follow. I'm enjoying the novels for the most part, but I probably won't be going out of my way to read most of them again. Pulitzer is an exception at this point.

I LOVE the comic books, I have all 13.

Can someone post a link directing me to some of the fanzines? I did look for them but I couldn't find any specifically for fanzines. I may have been looking in the wrong place. I've read a few fan fiction stories and I've loved them.
 
MichelleD said:
Can someone post a link directing me to some of the fanzines? I did look for them but I couldn't find any specifically for fanzines. I may have been looking in the wrong place. I've read a few fan fiction stories and I've loved them.
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Although most of the stories are not online some of them are, and more and more authors of those stories have been posting them to AO3 lately. The wiki entry for QL fanzines also provides links for some of the stories that are online. Here's the wiki link: http://fanlore.org/wiki/List_of_Quantum_Leap_Fanzines

Click on the title to bring up the article for each. They list the stories, with links to the ones available online.

For others, Agent with Style sells some of the fanzines. Here's the link to their home page: http://www.agentwithstyle.com/

I've ordered a few fanzines from them and received them very quickly, with no problem, but be warned some of them are pretty expensive.
 
Thanks...And thanks for the warning about cost. I will be careful. LOL, I could easily max out my credit cards with all this fun stuff, but I won't.

There are plenty of great stories here to keep me reading.

Update: Good Heavens, I just checked out the Agent With Style site and they ARE expensive. :lol I will use discretion in deciding which ones to get and proceed with caution. :p
 
I've only recently started reading the novels. I am also lucky enough to be able to interview some of the authors and get some great insights to the writing process. I am enjoying the "new" Quantum Leap stories. I have so far read:

"Independence" by John Peel - I really enjoyed this one, it's great seeing Sam in a time period he would nearly never be put in due to the "within his own lifetime" rule. John was amazing to talk to as well.

"Search and Rescue" by Melissa Crandall - I liked the fact that this story was mostly about Al, as he is my favourite character. His method of finding out how he looked in this leap was different. I also enjoy reading about Native American culture and how they use talismans, spirit animals, and read the animals' movements. Melissa was lovely as well when I spoke to her.

"Loch Ness Leap" - I like that this one is mostly about Sammy Jo and how she has become a very important part of the project. Seeing her alternate timeline, where she doesn't join the project was also very interesting. I'm looking forward to talking to Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith soon :)

"Foreknowledge" - this one was great, seeing all the possible paradoxes coming in to play. Chris DeFilipis has now become a good friend of mine through the podcast as well.

"The Wall" nicely showed how domestic violence carries through the generations.

"Pulitzer" and "Angels Unaware" are hands down my favourites so far. I love seeing the continuation of the stories that we have seen in the TV show, and Elizabeth Storm did an amazing job with the writing, because I could easily picture Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell acting these out.

I also have "Song and Dance" on the way to me, I look forward to reading it and interviewing Mindy Peterman in the near future.
 
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