New Field & Track Novel

[Marlow]

[from home-page-link] excerpting:

"Vault" the debut novel by Athens writer Margaret Mims Johnston, explores relationships and values in the competitive world of international athletics.
When Krysti, a Richmond high school teacher, track-and-field coach and tournament official, is invited to serve as an official for a World Invitational competition in Australia, she finds that her boyfriend, Kyle, a gymnast who runs a sports academy, is less than enthusiastic. Pressures increase in Melbourne, along with her friendship with Jake, a pole vault competitor and Kyle's college dormmate.

I smell Pulitzer!!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

[lonewolf]

Hey, as some famous, or infamous, person once noted, "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
Lets just hope they hire a technical advisor for the movie so I won't have to fume through it as I do through movies about the "Oil Biznizz". :evil:
My attorney daughter says she has the same problem with movies involving legal scenes.
Or, maybe we are just a cantankerous tribe.

[Marlow]

Lets just hope they hire a technical advisor for the movie so I won't have to fume through it

Yes, I want it as brutally authentic as this movie:



:twisted:

[lonewolf]

Perfect example.
Which poses a challenge. Is there any subject for which Marlow cannot immediately come up with an appropriate graphic?

[Marlow]

Perfect example.
Which poses a challenge. Is there any subject for which Marlow cannot immediately come up with an appropriate graphic?

I've already taken the liberty of designing the cover to your autobiography

[lonewolf]

Ok, you win.

[Daisy]

Or, maybe we are just a cantankerous tribe.

Never! More often than not I have the same problem with the science stereotypes in movies.

[Conor Dary]

Lets just hope they hire a technical advisor for the movie so I won't have to fume through it

Yes, I want it as brutally authentic as this movie:



:twisted:

Please, not this piece of trash again. As noted on another thread, I was an extra in this movie, filmed at Hayward Field. I even played a pole vaulter in the background!

While MH seems like a nice person, her athletic ability has much to be desired.

[Marlow]

While MH seems like a nice person, her athletic ability has much to be desired.

Her hurdling form doesn't look bad, and neither does she, which is what they probably really hired her for. :wink:

[Conor Dary]

While MH seems like a nice person, her athletic ability has much to be desired.

Her hurdling form doesn't look bad, and neither does she, which is what they probably really hired her for. :wink:

What you actually believe what you see in a movie? Hah! Such illusions.

In reality MH's hurdle was about a foot shorter than her competitors. Obviously, they didn't show that. And in the high jump MH runs up to the bar, stops....out comes a step ladder...and clears 6 feet! Amazing!

Frankly, a lot of my distaste for this movie is related to the horrible week I spent as an extra in this film. If there ever was a time that Hayward Field felt like a Gulag this was it.

[Brian]

While MH seems like a nice person, her athletic ability has much to be desired.

Her hurdling form doesn't look bad, and neither does she, which is what they probably really hired her for. :wink:

Speaking of nice assets:

This was her first bit of work after getting the implants, if memory serves. Seem to remember her doing the talk shows talking about both "them" and the movie.

Or I might be getting mixed up with her later flick "Star 80." [Have to admit not paying much attention at the time.]


Also, she had the famous surname and (dead) relative. Remember a Playboy bit also promoting her nudity in the movie with the title, "Papa would be proud." Irony of course, being that Ernie wouldn't have been able to sit down long enough to watch the movie in a theater, thanks to his chronic hemorroids (must have been all that matador-sliced bull meat. ]

[polevaultpower]

I ordered the "Vault" book a few days ago :wink:

[Rog]

Possibly the worst book I have ever read was "Sprinter" by Frances Edmonds, who was well known in the UK a few years back for being the wife of a well-known cricketer. She didn't have a clue about the sport, and she couldn't write a readable sentence, so I gave up midway through, which is incredibly rare for me.

I await Anota Brookner's take on the world of international athletics.

[Halfmiler2]

When I saw the caption of the thread, I thought it might be about this one just out:

http://www.amazon.com/RELAY-Edward-R-Ko ... 891&sr=1-1

[polevaultpower]

Sadly, this book ended up coming up short in both understanding of sports and being a good love story.

It would have benefitted from being proofread from someone more familiar with elite track and gymnastics. The love story aspect was cheesy and had a horribly cheesy happy ending.


I'll grant that it's a work of fiction, so I was prepared to cut the author a lot of slack, but here are some of the elements of the book:
- The main pole vaulter runs 15 miles every morning. One day he runs a 30-miler to make up for traveling the day before.
- The main two pole vaulters are also two of the best high jumpers in the country, and one runs on the Team USA 4x400.
- The main pole vault character vaults 20'.
- The main girl character is a 23-year-old former college athlete who was a high jumper/jumper in college, had a college record in the HJ, oh yeah and also ran the 10k.
- She was the head official for the pole vault at USAs.
- Which were in Seattle at amazing facilities.
- And she has other officials that are around her age (OK they don't say the age but they are obviously under age 40)
- And they went to a country music club that had just opened in Seattle.
- Seems to think that the track events at track meets always run wayy longer than the field events.
- Didn't seem to have any concept of how PV qualifying rounds would work at an international championship.
- Some of the gymnastics stuff was off too.
- The story was generally told from a third-person limited narrative of the girl, but it would sometimes inexplicably switch to third-person limited narrative of the pole vaulter... then back to the girl. Like in the middle of a chapter.
- It's billed as a Christian romance novel, but it doesn't really dive into anything religious. It just makes the main characters good people who don't drink or mess around, and there are a few mentions of church, but it's all on a very shallow level.


Things the book did well:
- The author has officiated and her technical knowledge of that aspect of it was not bad. I'm a 27-year-old official and most officials I know are over double my age, so the idea of a 23-year-old already being one of the top in the country and having other officials she can hang out with and go to clubs with is a little implausible but it is fiction. At least she did a good job of describing some of the different duties an official might do (relay judging, spotting for the announcer, etc).
- It's a very tame book, PG rated. There is sexual tension and a lot of intense physical attraction but no action. This is a good thing.
- The main character has a lot of similarities with me (except for having so many guys chase me at once!) and I generally found her likable.


It's not the worst book in the world, if you're looking for some light reading and some inaccuracies won't get you too riled up. Probably more appealing to girls than guys.