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.