Fist Pump! I’ve been lucky in love and reading

Posted on May 7, 2013 by

I went through a long stretch of books that were… meh… okay.  I was desperate for a book that would woo me and win me, a book I could love.  Since I’m a smarty, I checked in with my librarian buddies.  (They know all!)  Erin F-B shoved (metaphorically speaking) the first winner on my list.

Now I’m six for six with brilliant books, many of which I’ve gushed about here, but I thought it might amuse you to see the list and know where the recommendations came from.  (As you may know, a recent study showed that the primary way people find new books to read is through the recommendations of others.)

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS was in my TBR pile but was bumped to the top by Erin F-B.

CODE NAME VERITY also got pimped by Erin F-B, and at the launch of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, Laini Taylor said it was one of the best books she’d read all year.

AMERICAN GODS is not new but I’ve got this secret desire to be Neil Gaiman when I grow up and I was going on vacation and thought maybe I should branch out of kid lit a bit and then I saw a string of random tweets about the book…

IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS is the newly released psychological thriller by my friend, Cat Winters.  I’ve been waiting eagerly for it and snatched up my copy at her Powell’s book launch.  It’s creeptastically wonderful and haunting.

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN was book talked by Milly S., the librarian at my kids’ school.  Both of them came home demanding that I buy it immediately.  My son read it first and then promptly removed the book in my hands and replaced it with this gem.

WONDER was a read-aloud in my son’s class so he and his amazing teaching Ms. T get credit for this one.

And in case any of you were curious… yes, I am still trying to finish MOBY DICK.

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In praise of Scriva Liz, kayaking, and straight talk about tough books

Posted on May 3, 2013 by

I have this spectacularly epical (thanks MB for coining the best word ever) critique group called Viva Scriva and each and every member is someone I want to hug tightly and feed cookies for ever and ever.  Today, however, I must call out Scriva Liz for straight talk.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to find my way back into a manuscript about a teen boy and an eleven-year-old girl thrown together by tragedy.  The lovely Kiersi B. calls it THE FAULT IN OUT STARS meets INTO THE WILD–an apt pitch.  Anyway, I worked hard on it during the winter and had made it to about 50K words.  The first two parts were in decent shape.  The last part was a hodge-podge of disconnected scenes and gaping holes.

As I re-read those 50K words, there was no glimmer or spark.  I felt flat and worried that it was crap.  I complained to Scriva Liz (who has read early pieces of it) about how unenthused I was to work on it (even though my agent wants me to finish it right away).  I wondered aloud if my poor response to it was because it wasn’t good or didn’t have the legs to carry a novel-length story.  She looked at me and restrained herself from a dope slap (I’m extemporizing here) and said, “You feel that way because it’s such a hard book to write.”

Face palm.

Yeah.

This book draws heavily on my own grief following the death of my first daughter, Esther.  It’s not a fun one to write.  No swash-buckling.  No make-outs.  Lots of pain, and I hope, lots of heart.  But it is a story I need to tell, and thanks to Liz, I got to work.  I’m making great progress.  I’m in the zone, and I’m even glad to be writing it.

What does this have to do with kayaks, you ask?  Well, also thanks to Liz, I jammed through my writing goal early this morning (1300+ words, thank you very much) and played hooky for the rest of the day.  We kayaked from Hayden Island up to a floating restaurant, drank margaritas, and gabbed.  It was 80 degrees and we were feeling the love.

As I send you off into the weekend, I hope you have a good one, and I hope you have a Scriva Liz!

 

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Up with books and readers. Down with literary snobs. via @matthaig1

Posted on April 25, 2013 by

This post by Matt Haig entitled 30 Things to Tell A Book Snob is too good to keep to myself.

There is something innately snobby about the world of books. There is the snobbery of literary over genre, of adult books over children’s, of seriousness over comedy, of reality over fantasy, of Martin Amis over Stephen King. And it is unhealthy. If books ever die, snobbery would be standing over the corpse.

So here is my message to book snobs:

1. People should never be made to feel bad about what they are reading. People who feel bad about reading will stop reading.

2. Snobbery leads to worse books. Pretentious writing and pretentious reading. Books as exclusive members clubs. Narrow genres. No inter-breeding. All that fascist nonsense that leads commercial writers to think it is okay to be lazy with words and for literary writers to think it is okay to be lazy with story.

3. If something is popular it can still be good. Just ask Shakespeare. Or the Beatles. Or peanut butter.

Read the rest here.

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THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN — Go read this extraordinary book right now

Posted on April 22, 2013 by

Love.

LOVE.

LOVE!

If you haven’t read this year’s Newbery winning book THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate, please remedy this situation.  This is an amazing book in so many ways.

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Two early morning things–Rumi and “flow”

Posted on April 14, 2013 by

This now is it.
Your deepest need and desire is satisfied by this moment’s energy here in your hand.

-Rumi

I know I’ve written about the marvelous book FLOW by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi before, but as I sit here on Sunday morning, dazed by sleep-deprivation thanks to a daughter’s sleepover gone wrong, this quote by Rumi is bouncing in my brain.

THIS NOW IS IT.

I know flow–the state of being so focused and absorbed in an activity that everything else fades away.  I have known it while writing (best thing ever) and kneading bread dough and being in my garden and while running and while braiding my daughter’s hair…

I’m good at hard work and I’m good at focus.  What I suck at is contentment.  The part of flow that eludes me is accepting all the  things that circumnavigate my life.  Many things–all out of my control–slam against my consciously constructed life.

This morning, I remind myself THIS NOW IS IT and slip into the flow (yawning).

 

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Calling All Young Writers – I’m teaching a free, transmedia storytelling workshop this Friday

Posted on April 9, 2013 by

BOOK FAN FRIDAY – YOUNG WRITERS, BIG FUN
Book Fan Friday is a workshop for tweens and teens who love to write.

April 12, 2013 @ 4:30 pm

Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton, OR
503 228 4651

Transmedia storytelling refers to the delivery of story through a variety of media.  These forms can include film, graphic novels, traditional books, flash fiction, gaming, iPhone/iPad delivery of content, and various forms of audio.  Typically, story lines are interwoven and connected but not strictly repetitive.  Often, fan engagement and participation in the creative process are facilitated by social media.

Increasingly, all media forms—books, movies, games and TV shows—are looking for transmedia opportunities.  During this session, Amber will introduce transmedia storytelling and show how the Angel Punk team (www.angelpunk.co) delivers story via novel, feature film, comic books, and an interactive fan site with an emphasis on the creative process.

 

 

 

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Wide Open Spaces (Required for Writers)

Posted on April 2, 2013 by

My family and I spent spring break in a rented house on North Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas but one rarely frequented by tourists.  There are no large resorts or mega-hotels, no gift shops, no high end spas.  In other words, my kind of place.

I had a week’s reprieve from email (the wifi was down most of the time), to-do lists (other than: eat, read, kayak, swim, snorkel, bird-watching, sleep, repeat), deadlines, and the interwoven schedules of my family of four.

I re-remembered and re-affirmed that what I love and what I need is wide, open space.  I need the horizon so I can see where the moon sets each night.  I need the expansive sea so I can track the rise and fall of the tides.  I need the untrammeled sand, twice renewed each day, to find my path.  And most of all, I need the wide, open spaces of my mind once it is cleared of all the must-do, should-do detritus of daily life.  I can not create without  it.

 

 

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You Do NOT Have To Save the World

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

On VivaScriva.com, a blog about critique and the writing process, I recently blogged about using Publisher’s Marketplace to get a handle on what kinds of manuscripts are and are not selling in today’s YA market.  (Get the nitty gritty details here.)  These patterns are still dominating my thoughts.

Even as the number of titles featuring zombies, dystopias, ghosts, murders, etc have surged, peaked, and ebbed, I’ve notice one thing that doesn’t seem to be changing.  There are a whole lot of main characters who have to, at least according to the log line, SAVE THE FREAKING WORLD.  Think Bruce Willis plus asteroids for the YA set.   Confession: I’ve written log lines like this for my own book.  (Hangs head in shame.  Plans to revise.)

As a fan, I love epic fantasy, but as a reader and writer, I’m captivated by fully-fleshed, step-off-the-page-real characters.  Hence my love for THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green and CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein.  The characters in these books are heroic.  They are heroic because they live richly and die bravely.  They don’t have to save the world.

Real teens live many lives–protected and dangerous, religious and not, lonely and social, quiet and loud, painful and triumphant–but very few of them have to single-handedly deflect an astroid from hitting Earth and thus save all humankind.  They just don’t.

They often have to survive terrible things and books can buoy them up.  (If you weren’t immersed in the loud and raucous #YAsaves conversation last year, this link will get you up to speed.)  They also like to have fun (one of the reasons I often prefer spending time with teens rather than adults).  Fun in real life and fun in reading.

Last night I attended to book launch for POISON, the debut YA novel by the late Bridget Zinn.  The tag line reads “Can she save the kingdom with a piglet?”  That’s right!  WITH A PIGLET!  What follows is about as far from the doom-and-gloom of the recent rush of teens-killing-teens as you can get.  Think THE PRINCESS BRIDE–good, silly fun.

It’s a good reminder in these dark days of YA that we can write stories about characters who don’t have to save the world.  All they–and we–have to do is create authentic lives, whatever that may look like.  And like Bridget, we should try to leave something good behind.

My heros (and genuinely FUN adults): the YA literati of Portland launching Bridget’s book with cupcakes and good cheer

 

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I love THE 500 HATS OF BARTHOLOMEW CUBBINS

Posted on March 4, 2013 by

I’ve had Dr. Seuss on the brain of late (like the rest of the kidlit and elementary school world, I suppose).  When most people think of the good doctor-ish doctor, they think about his mastery of rhyme and meter and his scrumptastic made-up words.

And yes, yes, yes, I love all that (especially the spooky pale green pants with nobody inside ‘em), but it is, perhaps, easy to forget that Master Seuss was also a master storyteller.

So today I offer you THE 500 HATS OF BARTHOLOMEW CUBBINS.  It’s got a perfect story arc, great characters that evoke strong emotions, and lots of beautiful, symbolic pairings (the view up and the view down the valley, for example).

This is one of my favorites by Dr. Seuss and this is the actual tattered cover of the copy I’ve had for nearly forty years.  Pages are starting to fall out and I guess I’ll have to replace it but as the kids and I were reading it last night, I thought:

You can look high and low,
You can look far and near,
But the book that you want,
Is this one right here!

This weekend, my husband and I attended our kids’ school auction, which was a Dr. Seuss themed extravaganza.  Here’s a peek at my whimsical, Seussical attire.  Too bad it’s hard to make out that I chalked my hair pink.  I’m sure Dr. S would’ve approved.

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Keep the encouragement close to your heart #writing @drydnbks

Posted on February 28, 2013 by

We writers have lots of voices in our heads.

Some of them move our stories along.

Some are just bitches.

When we do hear the voice of encouragement, how easily it can be lost among the cacophony.

Don’t let it get lost!

I printed Emma’s words and pinned them next to my computer–keeping the encouragement close to my heart.

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