I love this book!

Mostly that is all I want to say this morning, but since words are my playthings and I’m a navel-gazer to the core, I’ll add this:

Lately I’ve been obsessing on what book to write next.  Ideas are many.  Time is fleeting.  I want to write the right one–a book that fits with who I am as a writer and one that leads me forward into the career I want.

I’ve been yearning for focus.  Couldn’t I be like Ellen Hopkins–a master of a particular kind of story.

Then I think of Geraldine McCaughrean.  I’m currently reading her book Stop the Train.  It is equally brilliant as The White Darkness but a totally different kind of book.  She’s a gifted word smith and story-teller in both works, but stylistically and topically, each is utterly unique.

I wish I’d written The White Darkness.  I wish I were that good.  But at least I can aspire to McCaughrean’s skill at realistic world-building and her flexibility with the form.