New Year's resolutions

It's been an eventful year here at the book cafe: European trips, one amazing Harry Potter studio tour, the Olympics, a trans-Atlantic move, new jobs. But in between all the excitement and the scariness of life changes, one thing remained constant: as always, I had my nose in a book about fifty percent of the time. This year my reading goal was sixty books, a goal that I managed to meet with a week to spare (fist pump).

My other literary goal, of course, was to finish my first draft of Dyllan and Abigail, my second young adult fantasy novel, which I accomplished over the summer.

So, what's in store for 2013?

Reading goals:

• Read 40 books.
• (Of these: 5 history books, 5 poetry collections, and 5 classics.)

Writing goals:

• Write 8,000 words each week.
• Edit Dyllan and Abigail until it looks like something resembling a real novel.

Non-literary goals:

• Complete my first half marathon (only a few weeks away!).
• Keep on running even after the half marathon is over.
• Start doing yoga.
• Learn Spanish.
• Support more charities.

So, what are your New Year's resolutions, readers? Let me know in the comments!

And however you celebrate tonight, stay happy and safe! See you next year.

The ninety-nine percent

*picks up blog*

*blows away dust*

Hello? Is everyone still here? I've been away for a while now, with November being crazy with NaNoWriMo and Thanksgiving and birthdays and new jobs and helping people move—did you guys do NaNo, by the way? I managed to hit 50K at 5:00pm on November 30th, just squeaking by with another "win," although my dragon novel somehow turned into a crazy time travel novel instead.

Anyway, with November being totally chaotic, I managed to fall way behind on my reading. My goal is to read 60 books this year, and last night I finished my 54th. I think I'm going to ease off writing for a little while to make sure I hit my reading goal by January 1st.

But I wanted to leave you with a quote that resonated with me, from one of the two books I did manage to read in November. This is from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (page 159). If I were a teacher, I would put this up on the wall of my classroom:

Persistence is not very glamorous. If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the ninety-nine percent.

"It's not that I'm so smart," said Einstein, who was a consummate introvert. "It's that I stay with problems longer."

Writing your first novel? Helpful blogs for new writers

An old friend of mine from high school recently made the huge decision to write his first novel. Awesome! And that made me think back to a few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and genuinely hoping to be published one day. I had just finished my MFA and I was feeling a little lost. The same sort of feeling you get when finals finish after a really tough quarter: like a train that's run out of tracks. That's when I started to venture into the online writing community, checking out Facebook groups (remember those?), websites, and blogs. I learned a lot from agents, editors, and authors—both published and unpublished. I learned about craft (the MFA didn't teach me everything), good writing habits, setbacks, the publishing industry...you name it and I probably read a blog post about it. These days, I feel confident that I've learned the basics of the publishing process. So while I'm still a long way from querying, I feel informed, I feel ready, and I know what I need to do (namely produce a manuscript that's good enough to sit on the shelves of the YA section in my local bookstore, rubbing shoulders with the works of JK Rowling and John Green and Diana Wynne Jones—yeah, totally no big deal).

So the first thing I did when my friend announced that he was writing a book was offer to give him a list of blogs I found helpful when I first started out. And then I figured that that information might be useful to other just-starter-outers.

Thus, without further ado, here's my list of helpful blogs for the first time novelist hoping for publication:

Rachelle Gardner, literary agent: This lady's blog helped me a lot in understanding how the publishing industry works, and what the roles of agent, editor, and author entail. Her posts are concise and informative, and her tone is helpful and friendly. Check out her lists of popular posts on the right hand side.

Nathan Bransford, author and former literary agent: When I first started reading this blog, its author was a literary agent. As such, there's a lot of fantastic information here about the publishing process. But Nathan Bransford is also a published author of middle grade novels, so his posts span a broad area of the writing/publishing spectrum.

Natalie Whipple, YA author: As nice as it is having the "inside scoop" that you get from the blogs of agents and editors, it's so encouraging and informative to read about the author's journey to publication. Natalie Whipple's first novel comes out next year and she's been gracious enough to share every step of the process, both good and bad. I can't tell you how inspiring and helpful this blog has been for me.

Kiersten White, YA author: Author of the bestselling Paranormalcy series, Kiersten White takes an often humorous look at writing and publishing.

Query Shark: When your novel is the best it can possibly be and you feel like you're ready to get it out into the world, the first step is to write a query letter to a literary agent. This site, on which query letters are ruthlessly critiqued, will help you learn how to write one—or how not to write one, as the case may be.

I read a lot of blogs, but these five stand out as particularly helpful for new writers. As you start to explore the online writing world you will find your own favorite sites. Reading the comments sections on blogs you like and participating in discussions there will also help you find and connect with people who are on the same path as you.

Of course, the most important part of your journey isn't reading blogs, it's writing. So give yourself a little time to check out these blogs, then turn off your Internet connection and write!

Writing at the library today

We've been looking for places to write—libraries, cafes, book shops. Unfortunately, there's nothing very promising in our immediate area; our local library branches are small, and there are a couple of chain coffee houses but they're not very exciting (and I always feel I have to keep buying drinks and snacks to justify sitting in there—not so good for my unemployed self). But a couple of days ago when looking for an Arabic textbook for my sister I stumbled onto a library branch I never knew existed, about a 15-minute drive from our house. This place looks awesome, guys. Big new building, lots and lots of books, and plenty of work desks and study nooks. Plus, they had the textbook my sister needed. Total win! Big Chimp and I are going there for an extended writing session this afternoon.

As for what I'll be writing, I haven't decided yet. I'll either continue with the contemporary novel I've been slowly working on lately, or I might start the third book in my YA fantasy series, or if I'm feeling very brave I might start reading over Dyllan and Abigail and making notes for edits. I'll report back with how it goes.

Hope everyone is having a happy reading and writing day today!

***

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, image credit to Nick Moreau.

Relocation, relocation

Well, we've arrived in our new home in San Diego after a lot of stress, too many hours on too many planes, and a three-week separation due to visa issues. But now we're happy and suntanned and enjoying lots of great vegetarian food, so all is well.

Mission Beach, San Diego, CA

I've been kept very busy revisiting my hometown like a tourist: the beaches, the bay, the harbor, Coronado Island, the aquarium, the zoo, SeaWorld, a Padres game—I'm doing as much sight-seeing as I did when I lived in England, if not more (probably more, since I'm now unemployed). A lot of that has been with my sisters and my four-year-old niece and six-month-old nephew. After five years of living 6,000 miles away from my family, it's nice to be able to see them on a daily basis. That includes, of course, my ancient and honorable cat, Timmy, pictured here with his summer hairdo:

Love.

Today I rejoined my local library, which was a total blast from the past—I used to spend hours there when I was small, picking out picture books, and later chapter books, books about animals, Sweet Valley Twins, everything by Cynthia Voigt, and on into science fiction (middle school was all about Michael Crichton for me), fantasy, horror, and classics. Walking into that library was like revisiting my entire reading history. It was pretty cool.

In all of this, writing has taken a backseat for me for the first time since 2007. I didn't write a word of fiction for over three weeks (just my personal journal). First it was jet-lag, and then spending time with family and friends, applying for jobs, researching phone companies and banks...somewhere in there, writing got lost.

Yesterday I opened my current WIP for the first time since the move. It felt awesome getting back into a writing rhythm, like scratching an itch or eating your favorite food for the first time in years. It felt right.

So basically this is just a post to let you know that I'm still here, still writing, and still blogging for the foreseeable future. And that I'm so glad to be back. :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So the Big Chimp and I have some pretty big changes coming up. Next month, we're moving. But not just to a new house or a new town. We're moving across the ocean, like this:

This won't be the first time I've done this, but that doesn't mean it isn't stressful and a little scary. I've lived in England for almost five years now, four of them with the Big Chimp. And if you include my junior year abroad during college, that adds up to about 60% of my adult life spent living in the UK. Even my accent has changed—I pronounce tomato to-mah-to and banana ba-nah-na. In short, I've pretty much forgotten how to be American.

And I'm excited, too. We're moving to my hometown, wherein resides the largest chunk of my family—my sisters, my aunt, my grandma and my unbelievably ancient cat, Timmy. I've got a niece and a nephew there, and childhood friends, and—stacked patiently in a cheap storage unit—all of my books. And there's sunshine there, and beaches, and Mexican food, and palm trees and avocados and the Pacific Ocean and all the other things that, in my mind, make up home.

It's a strange feeling, going back to a place that I left so long ago. But it's an adventure, too. When I came to England the second time, to do my MA, I only planned to stay a year. I arrived in Brighton knowing no one and now I have this whole British existence that I never could have imagined just a few years ago. Isn't life weird?

All experiences, big and little, contribute to creating and developing your personality. England is one experience that I'm so, so glad I've had, for so many reasons. But I'm ready for a new adventure now. And a little bit of sunshine.

June reads

I read a mix of things in June: a sprawling family saga, a Shakespeare play, a book on physics, a contemporary YA novel, and lots and lots of manga.

• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese—I read this on the recommendation of my mother-in-law, and I wasn't disappointed. It's a long, complex story centering around a set of identical twins born in Ethiopia in the 1950s to an Indian nun and a British doctor, but raised by neither. In-depth characters and a wonderful sense of place, but a bit too graphically violent for me at times.
• Fruits Basket, Volume 14 by Natsuki Takaya—I think I'm falling out of love with this series, because I didn't like this volume or the one that precedes it. I still love the earlier volumes of the series, but the newer ones (in my opinion) focus too much on uninteresting characters, and certain plots—like the Sohma children being rejected by their parents—are being done to death.
• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare—It's Shakespeare! Yay! And this is a weird one—seriously troubling stuff intermixed with the usual Shakespearean comedy routines: disguises, gender swaps, weddings and trickery. Gives some unsettling insight into the extent of anti-semitism in Europe in the 16th Century.
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green—A novel about a former child prodigy who's just been dumped by a girl named Katherine for the 19th time, and his quest to find a formula to explain and predict romantic relationships while on a road trip with his best friend. I learn a lot of interesting facts reading John Green novels, which is always a plus. That being said, this novel didn't quite do it for me. I did like a lot of things about it, but at times I found the main characters just on the wrong side of the line between funny and annoying. That being said, at 27 I'm not exactly the book's target audience—ten years ago I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.
• Doll, Volume 1 by Mitzukazu Mihara—A creepy manga series of short stories set in a future where people keep humanoid animatronic "dolls" as servants, companions, and sometimes something more sinister. Unsettling and well-written—I really enjoyed it.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow, Volume 1 by CLAMP—A manga about an elementary school girl called Sakura who has magical powers. My local library accidentally ordered this in for me instead of the original Cardcaptor Sakura. Since it was there already, I read it. I liked the characters but felt I was really missing something by not having read the original first.
• Uzumaki by Junji Ito—Another creepy manga, recommended to me by a Scottish dude I work with at the library. This one is about a town that's haunted not by a ghost, but by a pattern—the spiral. Super scary and horrific, with a few scenes of pretty graphic violence. Unsettling yet un-put-downable.
• Relativity: A Very Short Introduction by Russell Stannard—A short nonfiction book about Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. Lots of neat but pretty confusing facts about gravity and space-time. A quick read and worth it if you're at all interested in physics.
• Cardcaptor Sakura, Volume 1 by CLAMP—A fun manga about Sakura, a school girl who has to capture escaped magical cards before they wreak havoc on her town. Loved the characters, especially Sakura—a confident ten-year-old who is great at sports—but I felt the card-capturing scenes were a bit repetitive.
• Bakuman, Volume 3: Debut and Ungeduld by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata—I continue to enjoy this manga series about two young boys who are trying to make it in the manga business. Lots in here both about the creative process and the publishing process for manga, and in the course of the story I'm learning a lot about Japanese culture, too.
 

So, what have you been reading lately? Do you tend to stick with one genre or format, or are your tastes more eclectic? Let me know in the comments!

WIP 2: It's done!

Well, as of June 28th the first draft of Dyllan and Abigail is done!

To steal an idea from Sarah at Squidink, here is a word cloud representing a big chunk of my draft (it was too long to copy/paste the whole thing):

Apparently my characters look at stuff a lot?

Anyway, here are some statistics:

Genre: Young adult fantasy novel
Start date: November 1st, 2011
Time worked on: 7 months, 28 days
Word count: 120,556
Pages (printed): 899

I am so in love with this story right now. Yes, the draft is a bit all over the place, but it's also much cleaner and much more focused than the first draft of Water Magic was.  I'm putting it away for at least six weeks now, but I'm already excited for the drafting phase.

Now the question is: should I go back to drafting Water Magic, or write something new? I feel a dragon-centric novel begging to be channeled, and two or three children's stories that I put aside a while ago that want to be written.

Blog readers: what writing or reading milestones have you conquered lately, or what goals are you working toward? Let me know in the comments!

Hogwarts birthday!

Last weekend was my birthday, and as a super special celebration Big Chimp and I visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. Not only did this make me unspeakably happy, but it also served to remind me what a monumental task it is to create a believable world. I mean, the number of minute details in the sets, things you wouldn't even notice in the films, was mind-boggling. And it all pointed back to JK Rowling's amazing worldbuilding with the seven Harry Potter novels. The wizarding world in which Harry Potter, his friends, and his enemies reside is an entire world, with no vital detail left out—from Gringotts to the Ministry of Magic to the rules for quidditch to the history of Hogwarts. This world is deep, and intricate, and not only believable but also relatable.

The tour itself was very thorough, including a visit to the Great Hall, Harry's dormitory, the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's Office, the Burrow, and the Ministry of Magic. Between the two sound stages you visit is a coutyard housing the Knight Bus; Hagrid's motorcycle; Number Four, Privet Drive; and the Hogwarts bridge. There's also a little cafe that sells snack and, more importantly, butterbeer (delicious, super sweet, a bit cream-soda-ish with a hint of butterscotch)! The second sound stage focuses on animatronics, masks, and creatures, and the super impressive and detailed Hogwarts model, which I won't talk about too much because I don't want to spoil it for those of you planning on going, but trust me, it's amazing.

We got the audio tour, which costs a little more, but it's narrated by Tom Felton and has lots of cool extra facts and videos. The only trouble was the touch screen, which I kept bumping accidentally and skipping ahead.

I could go on and on and on about the tour, the films, the books, and what a hero Joanne Rowling is to me, but you'd rather look at photos, right? Right.

Waiting in line. Not too long a wait—about 10 minutes. You have to buy tickets in advance, and they give you a time to show up. Ours was 17:30.

Harry's cupboard.

Welcome to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore's office!

Ravenclaw's diadem in the horcrux display case. Note the engraving: Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure!

Potions classroom. Thousands of bottles with different ingredients, all hand labeled.

Hagrid's hut.

Magic is Might

Details, details.

Drinking butterbeer while driving Hagrid's motorcycle: life is good.

"Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Knight Bus!

Eeylops Owl Emporium, Diagon Ally.

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Flourish & Blotts, Fortescue's, Ollivanders, Gringotts <3

All in all it was an amazing experience, and I feel so lucky that I got to go!

Question time: have you ever been on a literary/art/music pilgrimage? Who and what and when? Tell me about it in the comments!

WIP Wednesday

Just a short update to say: the first draft of Dyllan and Abigail is almost done! At this point I think we're 10,000 words or fewer from the end. Yay home stretch! I'm hoping to finish in the next two weeks. The book needs a lot of work, but on the plus side I have a pretty good idea of what needs to change and how to tighten up the plot. I can't wait to get out my plotting notebook and highlighters.

Current total word count: 111,325

Random quote:

For a moment Davy’s head spun. The other side. That’s what people called the afterlife, wasn’t it? He had the horrible thought that he was about to die, and his brain was coping by coming up with this elaborate fantasy. Tears welled in his eyes. Maybe the next world wouldn’t be as strange and frightening as this one.

How is your writing/reading week going? Let me know in the comments!

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012)

I was sad to hear the news that Ray Bradbury passed away on Tuesday. I first encountered this author's stories in middle school with The Martian Chronicles. In high school I read and loved the short story "All Summer in a Day," about school children living on Venus, where the sun shines only once every seven years. It wasn't until last year that I finally read Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451, about a dystopia where firefighters exist for the sole purpose of burning books—a powerful, frightening book.

In 2010 I had the pleasure of attending a panel featuring Ray Bradbury at Comic Con International in my home town of San Diego. He looked very old, and he couldn't hear very well, but he seemed happy, and what he had to say was interesting and thought-provoking. He talked for a while about space exploration, and Mars in particular (the colonization of which is the only chance for the survival of the human species), and writing, and life, and learning, and happiness. I had my notebook with me that day, so that I could write down interesting quotes and facts from the panels we went to. I have three quotes from Ray Bradbury's panel that I still think of often. Firstly,

"When I was twenty-six years old, I graduated from the library."

Bradbury couldn't afford to go to college, so after he graduated from high school he educated himself at his local library, going there several days a week for four hours at a time. I just think that is so cool, so empowering. We so often get caught up in the idea of formal education that we forget that we can (and should!) educate ourselves. There's really no excuse for ignorance—at least not if you have access to a library (and the time to use it). This is especially true for those of us with the privilege of an Internet connection. Which brings us to the next of Bradbury's quotes; in response to the question, "Ray, what do you think of the Internet?"

"The Internet is one great big, goddamn, stupid bore!"

Which, you know, as a blogger/Tweeter/Facebooker/Skyper...I sort of have to agree with. A little bit. In some respects. I mean, I think the Internet is great for so many things, like meeting other people with the same interests as you, and talking about books, and keeping in touch with friends and family who live eight time zones away. But there comes a time when we all need to remember the real world and real experiences, and that they happen whether or not I remember to update my Facebook status. Meeting up with friends in real life, taking the dog for a walk, making dinner—there are so many great things about life that cyberspace (do people still call it cyberspace?) just can't compete with. Which brings me to the third quote I scribbled down that day in my notebook:

"I've had a pretty goddamn good life!"

You can't say fairer than that.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bradbury.

May Reads

Another month is gone! Can you believe it? Here in Britain we've finally had a few days of sunshine and warmth, but now we're back to freezing rain, just in time for HRH Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee (and yet thousands of Britons lined the banks of the Thames yesterday for hours to see Her Majesty float by on her royal barge—there's something strangely endearing about that).

Anyway, here is what I read in the month of May:

• Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition, volumes 1, 2, and 4 (and Fruits Basket regular edition, volume 13), by Natsuki Takaya {manga}: Going back to the beginning in my favorite manga series, which follows orphan Tohru Honda as she is taken in by the beautiful and mysterious Sohma family and soon discovers their curse—that twelve of them are possessed by the vengeful spirits of the Chinese zodiac. Afflicted family members turn into their zodiac animals when they are sick, weak, or hugged by a member of the opposite sex. I love this story, especially Tohru's indefatigable optimism—it just makes me smile.
• Songs to Make you Smile by Natsuki Takaya {manga}: Curious to read some of Fruits Basket author Natsuki Takaya's other work, I've been wanting this collection of short stories for a while. I liked the stories, particularly the title one, in which the slightly odd singer in a teenage pop band tries to make the bullied, troubled girl he has a crush on smile. It's super cute and heart warming. Some of the stories in the collection are older, and you can really see how Takaya's art style has evolved into the clean, polished drawing that we see in Fruits Basket. The only story I didn't like as much was the bonus chapter, which struck me as a bit creepy with its odd sexual references.
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson {YA contemporary}: Fast-paced, easy-to-read novel about Ginny, a 17-year-old girl whose free-spirited aunt bequeaths her 13 envelopes, each with a task for her to complete. Only when she completes the task can she move on to the next envelope. In the first envelope: a thousand dollars and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London; so begins an adventure that leads Ginny all over Europe. At first the novel seemed a disjointed series of events, and it felt like the author just wanted to take the reader along to all of the neat places she herself had visited. But toward the end the plot really came together, and I ended up liking the book. I did have a hard time believing that Ginny's parents would allow her to travel to Europe on her own for an unknown span of time with no cell phone or itinerary, and instructions not to contact home at all. But once I got past that, I enjoyed the story. I was pleased to find that, with the exception of Scotland and Greece, I'd been to all of the places that Ginny visits in the story, which really helped me to visualize her journey. A good, readable, if not especially deep novel.
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor {YA fantasy}: I'd heard great things about this YA fantasy, but still approached it with a certain amount of skepticism, since I haven't loved most of the YA paranormal romance stories I've read. The book follows 17-year-old Karou, an art student in Prague who has had a rather unusual upbringing, in that she was raised by chimaera—hideous magical beasts who are actually pretty nice once you get to know them. When the seraphim—the angels—arrive, bent on carrying on an ancient war between the two races, Karou finds herself caught in the middle of it. So, I've raved about the book here. It's one of the best novels I've read this year, and if you haven't read it yet, I recommend you do so post haste. Just be warned: the sequel doesn't come out until November.
• Hot Gimmick, Volume 1 by Miki Aihara {manga}: When high school student Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test for her younger sister, the housing complex bully finds out and threatens to tell unless Hatsumi becomes his slave. I really liked the art, characters, and story in this manga, but I'm upset by how casually the author/characters treat sexual assault.
• Nana, Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa {manga}: Two very different young women, both named Nana, are thrown together when they both move to Tokyo for a fresh start. For the first half of the book I felt a bit iffy—Nana number one struck me as a bit helpless, naive, obsessed with finding a man to complete her life, and into drinking, all of which make her hard to like. The second half focuses on Nana number two, a rock musician in a semi-popular band. This Nana is much more interesting, and I love that she's independent and yet still vulnerable. Having read much tamer manga up to now, I was surprised at the more mature content: sex, drinking, and smoking (I guess that's why it's rated Older Teen), but all of that was okay once I got used to it. Not hooked on the series yet, but I'll read the next couple of volumes to give it a chance—it has to be one of Japan's most popular mangas for a reason, right?
• Bakuman, Volume 2: Chocolate and Akamaru by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata {manga}: Ninth graders Moritaka and Akito continue their quest to become successful manga artists. I love the way this series focuses on the creativity and especially the hard work it takes to make a work of art, and I love the way it informs us about the business side of manga. I also enjoyed the introduction of a new interesting character, Eiji Nizuma, an eccentric high school prodigy who soon becomes the boys' biggest rival. I still wish there were more—and more interesting—female characters, but I like the series and will continue reading it. 

So that's it! What have you been reading lately?

WIP Wednesday

Small aside: after reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the fact that the magical world in my novels has two moons which are referred to as "the two sisters" doesn't seem as cool and original as I first thought it was. Possible back-to-the-drawing board on that one.

Okay. Okay! So, tonight I will cross the 100,000 word threshold in Dyllan and Abigail. I'm getting near the end now, and everything is starting start to come together—it's exciting! I went into this novel with a very clear image of the last few scenes—the climax and denouement—but I was unsure how I was going to get there. I'm still not entirely sure, but I'm a lot closer to figuring it out.

I can already tell this novel will need a lot of revision, but I feel like my second draft will be a lot easier than my second draft of Water Magic was. I'm looking forward to tightening the plot, fleshing out the characters, and fixing the pacing.

Total word count: 99,837

Random quote:

With nothing else left to do, Hammish turned to the door and knocked. For a long time nothing happened. He was just about to turn and rejoin Margot and Radgaw at the bus stop when the door lurched open with a creak.

A pair of eyes met his—young eyes with dark, sickly shadows lying beneath them. Dark blond hair, even-toned skin that must have been olive-hued when it was healthy. But it was the eyes that drew Hammish’s gaze. Beneath a certain hollowness, they were unmistakably Folk eyes. Just now they flicked over him with impatience. “Yeah?”

The traditional weapon of the Folk is the yari, a sharpened stick with a fire-hardened tip. Worn in a sling across the back, it can be used as a spear or a javelin, and can also be used to throw and direct spells. Image by Ragnar Singsaas, 2008. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Javelin_throw.jpg

Thoughts on mythology and DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE

Photo source: fantasticfiction.co.uk

This weekend I finished reading Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I loved the book for a lot of reasons—characters, setting, just plain good writing—but one of the things that really struck me was the way that the author used and re-imagined mythology. I think this can be a tricky thing to do, and we see it fairly often in YA and middle grade—mythology tweaked to fit the story. Werewolves who change according to the temperature rather than the fullness of the moon (Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver), vampires who come out during the day (Twilight by Stephanie Meyer; Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy), and I'm sure there are loads of other examples. The thing is, this normally irritates me, because I find it jarring and that makes it hard for me to get into the story.

But with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I didn't get that at all. I found the world of the chimaeras and the seraphim very believable within the context of the story. More so than that, I loved the mythology within the mythology—the fact that both chimaera and seraphim have very different—and beautiful—legends that explain their own origins and the origins of their enemies. These stories in themselves tell us a lot about the fictional cultures from which they arose.

So I'm trying to figure out what it is about this book that made me love it when most books with this kind of set up just annoy me. I think it all comes down to the quality of the writing. Laini Taylor can write, there's no doubt about that. But more than just the skin and bones of good sentence structure, pacing, or even good characters (though those all help). I think it's the utter originality of the story that hooked me and kept me reading. It was so much more than "paranormal dude becomes obsessed with an ordinary high school girl". Karou, the protagonist, is interesting in herself—confident, artistic, physically strong, yet simultaneously flawed and confused. She, the angel Akiva, the chimaera Brimstone—in fact all of the main characters—are complex and believable. And lines between good and evil aren't clear; there's a lot of gray. Plus, without spoilers, the way the story falls together at the end of the novel is beautiful; it's seamless.

I guess the re-imagining of mythology in this novel didn't feel like laziness or crowbarring—it was artfully done and it made sense. Which, now that I think about it, is true for all good writing.

***

So, what are your favorite/least favorite books that re-work old legends? Or do you think that it's best if modern authors stay away from mythology entirely? Let me know in the comments!

WIP Wednesday

As is becoming usual these days, I didn't actually get much done in my WIP over the past week, word count wise. What I did manage to add felt pretty solid though, and I'm still pretty happy with the story and where it's going, considering it's the first draft. And though I haven't been writing much quantity-wise, I have managed to write every day, even if it was just a paragraph or two. I'm still struggling a bit with feeling tired and drained after a full day at my library job, when I come home and don't want to look at a screen anymore for any length of time. I suppose I'll have to keep working to find a way around that lack of energy.

Total word count: 91,185

Abernwyth has two moons. Unlike in this photograph, one is significantly larger than the other, and appears to lead it across the night sky. They are commonly called "the big sister and the little sister." The superstitious sometimes foretell the future based on changes in the colors of the moons. Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dark_side_of_the_moon.jpg

 Random quote:

Abby’s eyes flicked toward the window, where a white-feathered face watched her with giant yellow eyes. She almost laughed with surprise, but her head hurt too much. “A cloudwing!”

Collin nodded. “Faster than almost any other dragon.”

The cloudwing blinked first its left eye, and then its right.

“He does that so he never takes an eye off you,” Collin said. “He’s taken quite a shine to you, Abby.”

 Hope everyone else is having happy writing and reading this week!

March + April reads

I'm way behind in my reading posts. *sigh*

Here's what I've read over the last two months.

MARCH

The Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones—12-year-old Aidan shows up just as Andrew, a history-professor-turned-writer, inherits his uncle's magical field of care. I liked this book, but I didn't love it like I loved Howl's Moving Castle or Charmed Life. At this point in my Diana Wynne Jones phase, I think I was starting to get a little burned out.

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones—Cat Chant, the protagonist from Charmed Life, returns for a new adventure in which he befriends a girl witch. When the two discover a mysterious and highly magical egg, the entire town is thrown into an uproar. Thoughts: This book was okay. I liked parts of it, but thought it dragged in others. As with The Magicians of Caprona, at times I felt like there were too many characters and the story was more complex than it needed to be.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare—Hermia is in love with Lysander. Helena is in love with Demetrius. Demetrius is in love with Hermia. When the four young lovers run away to the forest, a group of mischievous fairies complicate matters even further. Shakespeare! I can't not like Shakespeare (except in the case of Titus Andronicus—I mean, ew). Magical, lighthearted and fun—what's not to like?

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones—A ghost wakes, with only a vague feeling that there's been an accident. Slowly, she regains some of her memories, but her past remains hazy. She knows she was one of four sisters, but which one? This is a strange book, and quite a bit darker than the other Diana Wynne Jones novels I have read. I liked how strange the characters were, but I thought the plot moved too slowly, especially during the first half.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak—A novel set in Nazi Germany, and narrated by death (who, actually, is pretty amiable and sympathetic). The story follows the Book Thief, Liesel Meminger, as she arrives at the home of her new foster parents in a suburb of Munich, and for the next several years as she makes friends, learns to read, steals books, and grows to love her new family. Thoughts: I love this book. I love the characters, the narrator's voice, the relationship between Liesel and her best friend Rudy, and between Liesel and her foster father Hans, who teaches her to read. I just can't adequately explain my love for this novel. If you haven't read it, you need to. Seriously.

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson—Goes over everything we know about William Shakespeare. Which actually isn't a whole lot. Covers what we know about his life and the society in which he lived, and examines the conspiracy theories about his existence. Thoughts: A short, easy-to-read, interesting book.

APRIL

Fruits Basket: Ultimate Edition, volumes 5 and 6—The ever-optimistic Tohru Honda continues to live with the beautiful but cursed Sohma family. Wacky adventures, comedy, innocent romance, drama, and fighting abound. Thoughts: This series is like crack to me! So sad that Tokyopop is no longer active in North America, and the remaining Ultimate Editions were never printed.

***

April is kinda deceptive, as I was also working on Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, and The Merchant of Venice, which I'm reading sporadically (mostly because my favorite Shakespeare volume isn't very portable and I read a lot on the go).

So those are my adventures in reading lately. What books have you guys been into recently? Let me know in the comments!

WIP Wednesday

I tried a new strategy today: writing to trance music. It really seemed to work! My concentration was very good, and the story was flowing well all day. Of course some of that might have been due to the run that I went on this morning. Exercise always has a calming effect on me, and I can concentrate noticeably better after I've gone for a run or had a gym workout.

Mostly due to traveling and the general fatigue that lingered even after the traveling was over, I'm not as far along in the novel as I would have initially hoped (my goal in January was to finish this draft by the beginning of April *laugh*), but I'm still feeling pretty good about the story.

Total word count: 89,843

Random quote:

"Go on, we’re almost there. What are you doing? Go!”

But Abby was there next to them, grabbing one of Collin’s arms. His face was turning magenta as he struggled to breathe.

“Dad—” There was a blinding crack, and Abby felt the witch standing over them before she saw her. Lady Charmain, in a towering rage, seemed to grow out of the hillside like a deformed, spindly tree.

 Yup. She's a pretty scary witch and she's not happy.

Hope everyone else's writing is going well!

World Book Night 2012!

World Book Night 2012 was yesterday!

If you haven't heard of it, WBN is a way of spreading the joy of reading, and especially of encouraging people who don't read much (or at all) to pick up a book and experience the particular joy that comes with immersing yourself in a story.

How it works

Here in the UK, twenty-five titles are chosen by a panel and printed in special World Book Night editions—one million of them in total. By February, 20,000 World Book Night "givers" are chosen by application, and assigned either their first, second, or third choice book. In mid-April, each giver collects his or her 24 books from a designated collection point (usually a library or book shop). Just before collection time, each giver is sent a list of unique identification numbers to write on the bookplate at the front of each book, along with the name of the giver and the location where they picked up the book—this allows readers to track a book's journey via bookcrossing.com as it passes from reader to reader. At noon on April 23rd (a date chosen for its literary significance—it is Shakespeare's birthday and also his deathday), givers begin their giveaway. This can be out on the street, in schools, in parks—anywhere the giver thinks they can reach the most non-readers. The books are absolutely free, no strings attached, though readers are urged to pass the books on when they finish them.

The remaining 620,000 copies that aren't distributed to givers are given directly to prisons, hospitals, homeless shelters, and similar places where there are a lot of hard-to-reach potential readers.

Isn't that an awesome idea?

Photo from worldbooknight.org

My experience

Last Thursday I printed out my World Book Night email and took it to my collection point—a Waterstone's bookstore near the college where I work. As I was on evening shift that night, I arrived (with aching arms—the box was heavy) at the library and eagerly filled in the bookplate in each of my 24 copies of The Time Traveler's Wife as I sat at the desk. 

I'm having technical issues uploading my photos of the books, but this is what my title looked like (photo from http://www.nwhc.ac.uk/library/blog/2012/04/world-book-night/)

On Friday, my fellow library assistants and I put up WBN posters, signs, and information all around the library, including a big display board with blurbs of all the titles we were to give away (we had eight givers at the college who participated in our event).

Finally, Monday arrived! A lady from the college's events team came down to the library with an intern, and they set up a big table in front of our display for all of the books. Nearby, they laid out several beanbag chairs to allow for comfortable reading. As 12pm approached, they organized the books in neat rows on the table. Finally, noon struck and World Book Night began!

My turn at the table lasted about an hour, during which time students trickled past in ones and twos, leafing through our packets of novel synopses, asking questions, and talking about books. The Time Traveler's Wife went pretty quickly, as did Stephen King's Misery and Paul Coelho's The Alchemist. Also popular were I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.

After I'd been at the table for half an hour, the fire alarm went off, prompting the evacuation of the entire building, after which we stood down the road for 30 minutes while the fire brigade cleared the college. Having been too tired/lazy to iron after returning from a weekend in Belfast, I was wearing my go-to lazy outfit: a thin polyester dress that requires no ironing but probably shouldn't be worn in five degree weather. It was cold.

Aside from this minor setback, my whole experience of being a World Book Night giver was a positive one. We were able to reach at least a couple of kids who I know aren't normally readers, but who seemed happy enough to give a free book a try. I got to spend a day talking about books, which is one of my favorite things to do after reading them, and now I get to look forward to tracking the books and seeing where in the world they end up.

For more information on World Book Night, including how to be a giver next year, visit:

www.worldbooknight.org for the UK

or

www.us.worldbooknight.org for the USA

If you were lucky enough to receive a World Book Night book, or were giving them away yesterday, please tell me about it in the comments!

Breaking the routine

There is a lot to be said for having a daily routine—especially for people who write. Finding (or making) a good time to write is essential, and so is coming up with a routine that allows you to meet all of your responsibilities.

But sometimes you need a refresher; sometimes a break in routine can be beneficial both creatively and emotionally. Shakespeare examined this idea a lot, particularly in his comedies—a group of characters steps away from their everyday roles and responsibilities and spends a few days in the woods or in the country, ignoring society and its rules as they experiment with different ways of living. Shakespeare scholars call this phenomenon "festival time," which almost always occurs in a "green world"—usually somewhere in nature. For me, modern day traveling is very much like this. It is stepping away from your job, your Twitter account, your comfort zone and even—yes—your art, all in order to experience something that is "other."

I went to Wales and Liverpool with family recently, followed by a two-day sojourn to Bruges, Belgium with my aunt who was visiting from California. But a vacation need not involve traveling to another country or state, or even leaving the town where you live. A vacation can be a state of mind in which you decide to go places you normally wouldn't, try foods you aren't used to, get to know people whose lives are different from your own.

That being said, traveling, if you are able to do it, certainly can be a great way to experience new things. And the memories your travels create not only stay with you forever, but can help to feed your imagination and, in turn, your art.

A short anecdote: I don't normally like scones and wouldn't ever choose to eat them, but at a little cafe near the bottom of Mount Snowdon, on a very cold day, served with jam and clotted cream, accompanied by rich hot chocolate, and eaten beside a roaring fire and with the owner's ancient dog padding about, looking hopeful, scones became a perfect twenty minutes. The owner of the cafe, as a bonus, was a character with a demeanor and manner of speaking that I could never invent—not in a million years.

My aunt, husband, and in-laws enjoying scones with tea and hot chocolate.

I don't usually get the opportunity to climb trees, or ride in giant, terrifying Ferris wheels, or climb 366 steps to the top of a bell tower, or spend half a day in an art gallery and the other half in a 13th century castle—which is why such things have such power to capture my imagination. There are so many ways of life you can see and imagine when you break your routine—this vacation alone had me imagining the prehistoric people who built Stonehenge, the Welsh quarry workers who have mined slate in Snowdonia over the centuries, King Edward I of England, the Beatles, the nuns of the monastery in Bruges, and the list goes on.

Horse-drawn carriage in Bruges. So Brontë-esque.

Aside from all that, traveling takes you away from your physical comfort zone, completely removing you from your everyday life—in short it forces you to notice the world around you more than you normally would. Instead of taking your surroundings for granted, you actually look at them, and in turn think about the things around you. You are engaging rather than just gliding through.

When in Wales, climb trees.

I return from vacations tired, but with hundreds of little seedling ideas stored away—things I can use in my WIP and things I may want to turn into future WIPs. And that makes my imagination very, very happy.

Back from holiday!

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. A few highlights:

Abbey Road, London.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire.

Caernarfon Castle (1280), Snowdonia, North Wales

My aunt and me on the (actually very terrifying) Wheel of Liverpool

Eleanor Rigby, Stanley Street, Liverpool.

The belfry of Bruges, Belgium. Yes, I had fries with mayo. And yes, I had Belgian chocolates. Nom.

How has everyone else's Easter holidays/spring break been? Did I miss anything major while I was away? Tell me in the comments!

Thoughts about traveling and creativity coming at ya...soon :)

Dispatches from Mount Snowdon

Hi! This is a scheduled post, as I'm still on vacation. If all is going according to plan, right now I'm high atop Mount Snowdon, the loftiest mountain in Wales. *waves*

Since I haven't been writing, I don't have an update on my WIP today, so I thought I would direct you to one of my new favorite Internet pastimes: John and Hank Green's Crashcourse videos on YouTube. They're fun! And educational! And contain words like "swoodilypooping!"

Have a fun week, DFTBA, and see you next Wednesday!

Secret notes!

I've been meaning to do a post about things I find in books for a while. As a library assistant in a college (UK equivalent of 11th and 12th grade, though my college has some degree students and adult learners too), I've found a few interesting things in books during my day-to-day shelving and sectioning (putting sections in order). You get the usual sticky notes with frantic scribbling: social stratification, dependence v autonomy, misogyny!, and then you get funny things used as bookmarks: a bank statement, a brochure for a sexual health clinic, a collectible card for a character called Mr Pricklepants (I looked that one up; it's from Toy Story).

A few months back, sticking out of a social science book, I found a note informing me of the following:

You will die in seven days! Sorry! :)

Needless to say, this information was incorrect, but it did provide a source of amusement during an otherwise mundane (and annoyingly dusty) task.

On Wednesday I began reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. The first thing I saw on opening the book—which has been sitting in my massive TBR stack since Christmas—was this:

Fans of John Green may recognize the acronym: Don't forget to be awesome (as they say in my hometown).

I opened it up, and:

A note from someone else who just happens to really like this author and (and his actually pretty cool online community—see http://nerdfighters.ning.com/). How awesome is that?

It's sort of made me think of doing something similar. I've often thought of leaving notes in places students will find them. Things along the lines of subvert the patriarchy, don't let media control you, you're beautiful the way you are, etc. I thought I could leave them on Post-Its on stall doors in the restrooms, or something similar. But why not leave notes like this in books by authors I love, or in books about topics that are important to me? After all, reading creates communities—communities of people who love Shakespeare, or John Green, or Judy Blume; people who love 20th century art or genetics or the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. So why don't we try to connect a little more over the things we love?

So my question for you today, Dear Readers: have you ever discovered a secret note? Have you ever left one to be found? How did it make you feel? Let me know in the comments!