The Da Vinci Ring with fifty Shades of a Hogwarts Lord

It seems that the only thing literary (?) agents are interested in these days, are bestsellers. Shouldn’t they purify their identity and change it to book agents? A lot of agencies claim on their websites that they are looking for real character driven plots, writing that’s crisp and sparkling and more literary cliché’s. When you take a look at the list of authors they represent it’s often the would-be J.K.Rowling, a fake Dan Brown (who perhaps is the real Dan Brown), fantasy stuff that would make Tolkien roll over in his grave and erotic books without any nuances. Literature means: books, poems, etc. that are considered to be art:

Don’t get me wrong. It is okay that there’s fantasy, science fiction, horror, erotica, youth, chicklit or whatever. It’s the pretentious way agents say they represent literature that annoys me. Let them say honestly: ‘If Proust came knocking on my door, I wouldn’t open it.’

David de Wolf, author of Solace of Stone

Consistency

“The burden of being human is that we are blessed with phenomenal comprehension,
but unfortunately we are not granted the ability to grasp it all.”

From Solace of Stone by David de Wolf

This quote I used as a tagline in the marketing campaign for my novel Solace of Stone. I realized that the thought behind this also might be applicable to plot building in a novel. Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative, Oscar Wilde said. Should the plot of a real literary novel be completely consistent ? Should it all be causal? Impossibility isn't the word to measure a plot, credibility is the key word. A good writer can make the impossible come true. Remember Gregor Samsa?

Book Awards 2013

I am excited to announce that Solace of Stone made it to the semifinals of the Kindle Book Awards 2013.

http://www.thekindlebookreview.net/2013-book-awards/

Solace of Stone: Masterful - a book to savor and ponder about

Set in Sicily and other parts of Europe, Solace of Stone brings together two unlikely characters: George, a lonely architect, whose memories into the past we follow in this book, and Charlotte, an emotionally-wounded woman. Told in almost poetical prose, this novel demands to be savored and not read quickly. Although it appears to be a love story, the novel is more about the confusing impulses that compel both characters to lead the lives they have followed. The important of intuition and its consequences are all there, with the clear message that it's important to make the best of this short life we live.
Touching, emotional, powerful, and thoughtful. This is a high quality novel that stands out from the many books we find today.

Latest Review

'Solace of Stone' is a touching and complicated love story.

George and Charlotte, the book's two protagonists, struggle with emotions of regret, loss and loneliness. Where can people find solace: in nature, work, philosophy, art...other people? If you want to embrace life, should you lose yourself in Beethoven and Brahms, or the breaking of waves on the reef? David de Wolf gently probes these and other questions of human nature throughout 'Solace of Stone'.

I recommend this book to fans of Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu', or anyone who prefers soulful and mature writing to shallow sensationalism.

From Solace of Stone

She recognized the scenario: as on a summer evening, when the tempest gathers in the east, and when the sun, ignorant of her impending setting, seems to exert herself, then the sharp reflections on the clouds create a light that is inconceivable in clear daylight. The tempest exists and you know it’s there, but as long as you look at the bright side, the threat doesn’t exist and life appears more vivid than ever. But Charlotte no longer had the option to look away from the tempest; she couldn’t even rise to the feeling of melancholy, since even that feeling suggests life.

From Solace of Stone

Nature is an overture to death, a volatile shore of timeless loneliness. If you want to live, it's better not to look at nature but at humanity in its often woeful, sometimes triumphant civilization. There one can find solace. If you want to embrace life it makes more sense to listen to Brahms’ Fourth Symphony than to the breaking of the waves on the reef.



Quote from Solace of Stone