Time for a brief update post!
I'm still plugging away at the second draft of my East of the Sun retelling (it's going slower than I'd like—I'm excellent at procrastinating. I'm doing it right now by blogging instead of working on it). Currently I'm revising chapter six of twenty-three (though the last chapter + epilogue have already been rewritten). The middle—and most of the more drastic revisions—is rapidly approaching, so things are about to get interesting!
2015 is shaping up to be a good year! I've tons of books to read (The Winner's Crime is coming out in eight days, you guys!!!!!), my sister and I are going on a double-auntie visit to go see our new niece next month, and in April the hubs and I are traveling to Pennsylvania and Washington D. C. to visit with his family/attend his niece's wedding/hang out with my aunt. Very much looking forward to it!
The last few days my brain has been re-invaded with a story idea from about a year ago that I'm tentatively planning to write after I finish my current project. It should be really fun to explore, and will give me an excuse to re-read some Rosemary Sutcliff as I'm going for an early-Britain-esque type feel/setting.
That's about it for me! Happy writing, everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful week! :-)
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Liebster Award!
The lovely Rachel has nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thanks so much, Rachel!
Here are my answers to Rachel's questions:
1. What's your favorite way to get rid of writer's block?
Take a break. Go for a walk or take a shower or listen to music or read. Sometimes you have to let the ole subconscious work through your problems whilst you're not actively thinking about them!
2. When did you first start writing seriously?
I was pretty serious about writing as a teen. I was always subbing short stories to various magazines and entering contests. I even put out my own kid's writing magazine for a year! I started seriously writing novels in the summer of 2005 after I graduated from college.
3. What's your genre of choice to write? To read?
I love me some YA fantasy, preferably not set in our world.
4. Coffee or tea?
Tea for me!
5. If you have one, what inspired your current WIP?
The novel I'm currently revising is a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. But the thing that initially sparked the idea was a dream I had about a girl riding a caribou racing through the snow. And in case you're wondering, it predated Frozen, haha. That scene actually didn't make it into the novel!
6. Rain or sunshine for writing weather?
Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. I have an overabundance of sunshine!
7. What was the last book you read?
I just finished reading my CP's book, and it was fabulous! Before that it was Days of Blood and Starlight.
8. What's a random talent you have others may not know about?
I can touch my nose with my tongue and my thumbs are double-jointed. Does that count?
9. What's your favorite kind of scene to write?
Hmmm interesting question! Not a specific scene, but I love it when you're writing and you just get completely lost in the world you've created and the real world slows down to a hush around you. I also enjoy writing snarky dialogue.
10. Have you ever won a contest?
Alas, no. Closest I ever got was winning fourth place in the National Written and Illustrated By… competition when I was 14.
11. Would you prefer to tour Ireland, France, or the Netherlands?
Oh I want to visit all three! But Ireland would have to be first.
Let's see. 11 random facts about me:
1. I have a Bachelor's Degree in piano performance.
2. Hubs and I named our cat after Bertie Wooster from the P.G. Wodehouse books/TV show Jeeves & Wooster.
3. I was born in Michigan, but moved to Arizona with my family when I was four.
4. I hate tomatoes, but love ketchup and marinara sauce.
5. I didn't like chocolate until I was seventeen.
6. I am the second of four siblings, but the only one in my family with blonde hair.
7. My dream car is a red Porsche 911.
8. I started learning how to play the violin when I was six.
9. My Meyers-Briggs personality type is INFP.
10. Ice cream makes my world go round.
11. Anyone remember the PBS kid's show ZOOM? I once submitted a play to them and they put it on TV!
Okay, next up, my nominees for the Liebster Award! (I only have six.)
1. Jenna Deviller
2. Lana Wood Johnson
3. Jen Fulmer (sorry dear, I know you probably don't have time!! :-))
4. Jessica Rubinkowski (although I think you've already been nominated. Two times the charm?)
5. Janna Kaixer
6. Leann Orris
And last but not least, here are my eleven questions for you guys!
1. How would you spend a million dollars?
2. What time period in history would you like to spend a week in?
3. Soup or salad?
4. Write a haiku about something in the room you're currently in. (okay I guess that's not a question)
5. Have you visited any foreign countries?
6. If you had to trade in your car, would you choose an elephant, a camel, or an ostrich as alternate transportation?
7. What's your favorite word?
8. Cats or dogs?
9. Who was your first fictional crush?
10. What three authors would you want to have with you in the event you're marooned on a desert island?
11. What's the title of your current WIP (if you have one)?
Thanks for playing along, everyone!!! :-) And Rachel, THANK YOU!
Here are my answers to Rachel's questions:
1. What's your favorite way to get rid of writer's block?
Take a break. Go for a walk or take a shower or listen to music or read. Sometimes you have to let the ole subconscious work through your problems whilst you're not actively thinking about them!
2. When did you first start writing seriously?
I was pretty serious about writing as a teen. I was always subbing short stories to various magazines and entering contests. I even put out my own kid's writing magazine for a year! I started seriously writing novels in the summer of 2005 after I graduated from college.
3. What's your genre of choice to write? To read?
I love me some YA fantasy, preferably not set in our world.
4. Coffee or tea?
Tea for me!
5. If you have one, what inspired your current WIP?
The novel I'm currently revising is a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. But the thing that initially sparked the idea was a dream I had about a girl riding a caribou racing through the snow. And in case you're wondering, it predated Frozen, haha. That scene actually didn't make it into the novel!
6. Rain or sunshine for writing weather?
Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. I have an overabundance of sunshine!
7. What was the last book you read?
I just finished reading my CP's book, and it was fabulous! Before that it was Days of Blood and Starlight.
8. What's a random talent you have others may not know about?
I can touch my nose with my tongue and my thumbs are double-jointed. Does that count?
9. What's your favorite kind of scene to write?
Hmmm interesting question! Not a specific scene, but I love it when you're writing and you just get completely lost in the world you've created and the real world slows down to a hush around you. I also enjoy writing snarky dialogue.
10. Have you ever won a contest?
Alas, no. Closest I ever got was winning fourth place in the National Written and Illustrated By… competition when I was 14.
11. Would you prefer to tour Ireland, France, or the Netherlands?
Oh I want to visit all three! But Ireland would have to be first.
Let's see. 11 random facts about me:
1. I have a Bachelor's Degree in piano performance.
2. Hubs and I named our cat after Bertie Wooster from the P.G. Wodehouse books/TV show Jeeves & Wooster.
3. I was born in Michigan, but moved to Arizona with my family when I was four.
4. I hate tomatoes, but love ketchup and marinara sauce.
5. I didn't like chocolate until I was seventeen.
6. I am the second of four siblings, but the only one in my family with blonde hair.
7. My dream car is a red Porsche 911.
8. I started learning how to play the violin when I was six.
9. My Meyers-Briggs personality type is INFP.
10. Ice cream makes my world go round.
11. Anyone remember the PBS kid's show ZOOM? I once submitted a play to them and they put it on TV!
Okay, next up, my nominees for the Liebster Award! (I only have six.)
1. Jenna Deviller
2. Lana Wood Johnson
3. Jen Fulmer (sorry dear, I know you probably don't have time!! :-))
4. Jessica Rubinkowski (although I think you've already been nominated. Two times the charm?)
5. Janna Kaixer
6. Leann Orris
And last but not least, here are my eleven questions for you guys!
1. How would you spend a million dollars?
2. What time period in history would you like to spend a week in?
3. Soup or salad?
4. Write a haiku about something in the room you're currently in. (okay I guess that's not a question)
5. Have you visited any foreign countries?
6. If you had to trade in your car, would you choose an elephant, a camel, or an ostrich as alternate transportation?
7. What's your favorite word?
8. Cats or dogs?
9. Who was your first fictional crush?
10. What three authors would you want to have with you in the event you're marooned on a desert island?
11. What's the title of your current WIP (if you have one)?
Thanks for playing along, everyone!!! :-) And Rachel, THANK YOU!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Laundry laundry, so Good to Me
Well I wanted to get an early start on writing today, so obviously I got up after nine, started laundry, ate breakfast, chatted on Facebook and Twitter, and made two cups of tea. I wish I could say I drank both cups of tea, but Bertie stuck his face in the first one so I had to brew anew.
In any case, just wanted to post a quick update before Ido more laundry finally get started with my writing.
I'm plugging away on the second draft of my fairytale retelling. I rewrote the epilogue and last chapter, and have now returned to the beginning and started working my way through chronologically. I'll probably just continue linearly unless I have a brainstorm for something later on in the book. We'll see! I'm currently halfway through chapter two, and hoping to at least get partway into chapter three by the end of the day. Of course, that will depend on how much more laundry I decide to do. :-) After that, there's only twenty chapters left to revise!
Guess I'd better get to it.
Cheers, all! Happy writing!
In any case, just wanted to post a quick update before I
I'm plugging away on the second draft of my fairytale retelling. I rewrote the epilogue and last chapter, and have now returned to the beginning and started working my way through chronologically. I'll probably just continue linearly unless I have a brainstorm for something later on in the book. We'll see! I'm currently halfway through chapter two, and hoping to at least get partway into chapter three by the end of the day. Of course, that will depend on how much more laundry I decide to do. :-) After that, there's only twenty chapters left to revise!
Guess I'd better get to it.
Cheers, all! Happy writing!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Return to Revision-Land!
Well, I've officially taken the train back to Revision-land!
Thanks to feedback from my awesome critique partner as well as my own notes, I know (mostly) where I want to go with Draft #2 of my fairy-tale retelling. To my astonishment, I only have one scene slated for deletion—the other changes are new scenes or rewrites of existing ones. I'm not really rearranging much of anything either, which is really weird to me!
I usually work chronologically when I'm drafting or revising, but this time I'm trying something a little bit different, and I started with the ending! I expanded my last scene today—and lost a couple of hours in the process!—and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Sometimes you have to run with an idea when it comes to you, and that was definitely the right choice for me today!
I'm not sure what I'll do next. I might work backwards, I might attack the middle, I might return to the beginning and go chronologically from there. We shall see! But in any case, I'm back working again and it feels great!
Cheers, all. Happy writing! :-)
Thanks to feedback from my awesome critique partner as well as my own notes, I know (mostly) where I want to go with Draft #2 of my fairy-tale retelling. To my astonishment, I only have one scene slated for deletion—the other changes are new scenes or rewrites of existing ones. I'm not really rearranging much of anything either, which is really weird to me!
I usually work chronologically when I'm drafting or revising, but this time I'm trying something a little bit different, and I started with the ending! I expanded my last scene today—and lost a couple of hours in the process!—and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Sometimes you have to run with an idea when it comes to you, and that was definitely the right choice for me today!
I'm not sure what I'll do next. I might work backwards, I might attack the middle, I might return to the beginning and go chronologically from there. We shall see! But in any case, I'm back working again and it feels great!
Cheers, all. Happy writing! :-)
Friday, January 9, 2015
These Broken Stars
In other news, I'm preparing to revise my novel! Gonna revisit some revision techniques I used a couple of years ago, and see how quickly I can whip this thing into shape. Can't wait to make it better!!
Cheers, all, and happy weekend!
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
On Retellings
I have always loved retellings, like Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted (Cinderella), Edith Pattou's East (East of the Sun, West of the Moon), Robin McKinley's Beauty (Beauty and the Beast), Diana Wynne Jones Fire and Hemlock (Tam Lin.) Ever After, I must admit (only slightly shamefacedly) is still my favorite movie (another Cinderella retelling). There's just something intriguing about stories so timeless they can be told over and over again and no one (myself included!!) seems to get sick of them.
The novel I finished drafting last month is a retelling of the fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, with a little bit of Tam Lin thrown in because I thought it meshed really well.
My favorite fairy tale of all time is Beauty and the Beast which, like East of the Sun, is a variant of the Cupid and Psyche myth. I love it SO much I never thought I'd do a retelling—there are many, many wonderful versions out there already (And yes, Cruel Beauty is on my to-read list. I'll get to it soon!). But stories have a way of tugging at you, and here I am now with a first draft of my own take on East of the Sun. I have no idea if I did the story justice (though I hope I did!), but regardless, it was a fascinating experience to follow a plot essentially already written for me, trying to keep it fresh by doing new/different things, and at the same time wanting to remain faithful to the spirit of the original fairytale. I made a conscious decision to not re-read the fairytale before writing my first draft, as I wanted to allow myself the freedom to follow the story where I felt like it needed to go.
In my version, I modeled the setting after 19th-century rural Russia. Looking at pictures of the Siberian landscape inspired whole sections of the plot (seriously, it's so gorgeous!). I'm excited to do further research and incorporate even more historically-inspired details in future drafts.
Now that my rough draft is finished, I'm going to go back and re-read the original fairytales, dig deeper into my world, fix inconsistencies, figure out the real backstory of a character who unexpectedly turned out to be somebody different than I'd planned, unravel the confusion of my middle, work on characters' relationships… Lots and lots to do, but I'm looking forward to shaping my version of East of the Sun into exactly what it's meant to be.
The novel I finished drafting last month is a retelling of the fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, with a little bit of Tam Lin thrown in because I thought it meshed really well.
My favorite fairy tale of all time is Beauty and the Beast which, like East of the Sun, is a variant of the Cupid and Psyche myth. I love it SO much I never thought I'd do a retelling—there are many, many wonderful versions out there already (And yes, Cruel Beauty is on my to-read list. I'll get to it soon!). But stories have a way of tugging at you, and here I am now with a first draft of my own take on East of the Sun. I have no idea if I did the story justice (though I hope I did!), but regardless, it was a fascinating experience to follow a plot essentially already written for me, trying to keep it fresh by doing new/different things, and at the same time wanting to remain faithful to the spirit of the original fairytale. I made a conscious decision to not re-read the fairytale before writing my first draft, as I wanted to allow myself the freedom to follow the story where I felt like it needed to go.
In my version, I modeled the setting after 19th-century rural Russia. Looking at pictures of the Siberian landscape inspired whole sections of the plot (seriously, it's so gorgeous!). I'm excited to do further research and incorporate even more historically-inspired details in future drafts.
Now that my rough draft is finished, I'm going to go back and re-read the original fairytales, dig deeper into my world, fix inconsistencies, figure out the real backstory of a character who unexpectedly turned out to be somebody different than I'd planned, unravel the confusion of my middle, work on characters' relationships… Lots and lots to do, but I'm looking forward to shaping my version of East of the Sun into exactly what it's meant to be.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Book Challenge! :-)
My friend and CP Jenna presented me with this book challenge! Here goes!
1. Which book, most recently, did you not finish?
Let's see… I'm in the middle of Days of Blood and Starlight, which I was reading via ebook from the library. My lease expired, so I have yet to finish it. I was having a harder time getting into it than its predecessor, but still plan to finish when it pops up at the library again. :-)
2. Which book is your guilty pleasure?
Hmmmmmmm maybe Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith. I've read it approximately five billion times since I first discovered it as a teen back in the day. I just can't help re-reading it every year or so.
3. Which book do you love to hate?
I'm not a Twilight fan, and I have to agree with Jenna about Wuthering Heights. I've read and enjoyed the other Brontes' books, but that one—my gosh. So many unlikable characters!!
4. Which book would you throw into the sea?
There's a lot of "what books do you hate" questions in here, haha. I'd have to say maybe a paranormal creature book (I'm just not generally a fan!).
5. Which book have you read the most?
I'm a chronic re-reader (see above). Favorite re-reads are the books in Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, which include The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings. I love these books SO MUCH. They're ridiculously fun to re-read, because they're so layered you always see something you didn't before.
This past fall, I read The Winner's Curse, by Marie Rutkoski twice, and I plan to read it many, many more times. It was SO GOOD.
6. Which book would you hate to receive as a present?
Probably any book about math.
7. Which book could you not live without?
The aforementioned Queen's Thief series, Lord of the Rings, Middlemarch, all of Jane Austen, and I'm gonna have to add The Winner's Curse to the list as well!
8. Which book made you the angriest?
While it didn't make me angry per se, The Fault in Our Stars left me feeling empty, soulless, and depressed. I didn't think it was a gorgeous heartbreaking romance so much as trying-too-hard to be deep (don't hate me!!).
9. Which book made you cry the most?
Agreeing with Jenna yet again that If I Stay was incredibly beautiful and sad (and more poignant, IMHO, than Fault in Our Stars). Also, the climax of Ruin and Rising was pretty rough! ETA: Sorrow's Knot, by Erin Bow. OHMYGOSH. You need a whole box of Kleenex for that one.
10. Which book cover do you hate the most?
So many "hate" questions!! I guess my cover pet peeve is that so many books look exactly the same. I get tired of photos on covers (because again, they often just look like carbon copies of each other!), and tend to lean towards illustrated covers, like the Grisha trilogy. That said, I have to agree with Jenna (haha—again!!) that These Broken Stars has a completely drop-dead gorgeous cover. The book is super addicting so far, too!!
I'm tagging my other amazing CP, Jen Fulmer, and Twitter friend KL Norton, to complete the challenge next!!
Happy reading in 2015, everyone! :-)
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