A New Year, Or Staying warm

Yeah, yeah.  What blog.     Certainly not what most would consider this broken down abandoned-lookng…….  Well, I’m sure you get it….   

So I’ll take the writer’s advice of ‘Don’t dumb down your reader” ….  

If there are any left….

Ok, so now that’s done I can dust my hands off and continue.   

 I will Try to do better with this.  Yeah, yeah, heard it before.          Well, I have lots of reasons, even some excuses I can dredge up I’m sure - more than enough to want to read.      I’ll just say that last year was rather a fast moving blur.  Especially the last half.  And don’t even talk about the holidays that tinsel wrapped itself around all my time and dragged me out.      We didn’t even get decorations up on the tree!!!!    Luckily it is one of those pre-lighted ones.  

Really, if not for notations all over our calendars I’m not sure what I would remember of last year.     Not that last year was bad necessarily just really, really busy.   Makes me tired now just thinking about it.

Course that could be helped along by All the COLD and SNOW we’ve been having.

Okay, Okay, I might just be a smidge grumpy.   And tired.  Did I mention that?

I am thankful that the electricity hasn’t gone off with all this snow and mess.  Not like inexplicable times before that!

So at least I’m not grumpy And cold right now.

Hey, things to be thankful for.

Another thing to be thankful for …. Altho’ come to think of it I think I Still haven’t caught up on sleep and not being tired…. I did get a bad cold …okay, I don’t remember how long ago it was, a few weeks.  I think.   That’s a blur too.   Not because of medications, but because I couldn’t sleep and breathe at same time.  So I chose to breathe.  I like to breathe you know.   So there I am sitting bleary eyed and trying to breathe a lot.  Of course I turned to my book piles.   It’s a great thing you know.   Of course not as great as when you aren’t sick and bleary eyed and trying to breathe a lot.  But helps take you mind off such things anyway.

I read some good books, some not so good -will-never-read-again ones, and some middling books, or ones that just don’t stand out as being really good, or really bad.   Is that a good thing or not?

One of the ones on the good side .. Or I guess I should say, some of the books on the good side is by Florence King, [another Virginian!], since I read and am reading a few of her books.

I enjoyed the humor so much in her When Sisterhood Was in Flower that I am rereading it in her book The Florence King Reader.    Which has a few of her stories in it.  I had read ‘Flower’ as a stand-alone book but since it’s in the ‘Reader’ book too, can’t help myself from reading it again.

This helps explain why a little… but not even by half.  

Briefly this scene - is preparation of 2 opposite ‘room’ mates - yeah, you must read how That happens.  And one cat, named by ex-boyfriend….  :::snicker:::  ….. moving…

“A few minutes later, or so it seemed, the alarm went off and it was time to get up.  I lurched like a beached seal and tried not to throw up; this was what Polly meant by “getting an early start.”  The room was pitch black.  For a moment I thought I had gone blind from shock, but then Polly switched on her light, swept back her blanket with a d’ Artagnan flourish, and rose.

Or she tried to.  Quadrupet was slung across her neck like a hairy albatross, determined to thwart what he knew was to be a violent uprooting.  She tried to push him away but he rolled over on her face and tried to smother her.  I waited hopefully, listening to the struggle.”

And you’ll have to read the book for the the rest of it.   Who survives, etc…. *Grin*

Trust me.  You’ll want to read it.  If you like to smile at all you will.   Which with the winter weather we’ve been having, don’t you want to?

By the way, writers might want to check out the book for her comments on editing her stories before they were republished here.  Even though she was considered a careful and tight writer when she first published them.

A book I read and still sticks with me, not for humor so much as ….well, I’m still thinking on that….

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

But my fave book I’ve read ‘recently’ is   Major Pettigrew's Last Stand   by Helen Simonson

It does have humor.  A more ‘quiet’ humor than Florence King’s perhaps.  But it’s there.  As a writer though, the descriptions she uses……

Even my husband likes the book and says we should buy it.    For those who know my husband is there any higher praise?    

For those that don’t know him, he is Great, but he thinks I have too many books.  Course he does have tendency to mingle his books into my stacks somehow.  Or is that me reading some of the ones he bought? …. I do agree that We do need to go thro’ and decide on books…..  Which means I need to read more!!!! 

Sigh.

Alas, not today.  That ‘free’ time has gone to the making of this blog post.

I shall now drag myself on to doing other needed things.

Oh, and if you want me to follow you back on Twitter, do Not post about sitting out enjoying the warm sun and weather, writing.         No, I will not follow you back today.    Maybe on Thursday when we’re supposed to get warmer temperatures.

Why We Should Support Our Independents

In Whatever form they take?

But Especially our Independent Bookstores.

Such as Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia.   They do shipping too!   Like they ship Art doodled, Signed Maggie Stiefvater Books!   Like Maggie’s new book in the Raven Boys series coming out Soon!!!

Just saying - the Maggie doodled, signed books are Pretty Nifty looking!!

In the current issue of Shelf Awareness, a great interview with Cynthia Voigt about writing this book.

Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things

by Cynthia Voigt , illust. by Iacopo Bruno

Which the Interview has some great insight -

Max's knowledge of theater overall and of Shakespeare in particular often leads to the solutions he seeks for the dilemmas he's hired to fix. As Max says, "You can't know a lot of plays well, some of them written by William Shakespeare, without getting a good understanding of how and why people do what they do." 

Sounds like a great book.

But also she has some Great information on how she wrote it, in which she has some great interesting tips on things that might help all writers with their writing.

Such as this:

The "Lost Things" apply to things large and small--Max's parents being the large thing--to something as small as the Baroness's spoon, and yet the spoon's significance is large. Did you have fun coming up with what would be lost and how Max would "find" it?

I went about it not directly, because, as I say, I'm not a good plotter. Originally, the first paragraph of the first chapter read, "When Max was 12, he lost his parents." Then I thought about, "What does it mean to be lost?" You lose your mind, you lose your way, your sense of direction, your watch; you lose track, you lose an idea. I thought about the kinds of things you can lose and the variety of ways in which you lose them. Things like the dog that wasn't lost but ran away.

Check out the great full interview here:

Sometimes you think you have the answers, but the answers change as you change.

You need to accept that, too, that the answers change as we go through life. There are so many things that any sentient adult wants to plant with kids, there's no room for them to think for themselves.

We also learn things about pirates.  Or being a pirate.   Or pirating… or, …..okay, your choice in how you write.  *Grin*

Thanks, Kelly, Fountain Bookstore!       @FountainBkstore     

Arghhhh!!!!

Writing Advice / tips and looking at Blogs

If anyone has been reading and following my blog [Yay! Thanks! ;)] you will already know that I think Steve Berry is Terrific!

[And Don’t even get me started on his wife!!!]

I have talked about in posts before about the Writing Workshops that Steve and his wife give, that are totally Fabulous! No matter what your stage or where you are in your writing. [I talk abut them more, I assure you, just look thro' a few past entries and I'm sure you'll see mentions.]

Steve’s books are very good as well, and one of the very few writers that my husband has insisted we collect all the books.

So I am a big fan of Steve, and his wife, so when I came across this in a blog…

a Great blog b-t-w, you should definitely check it out as well - of course I had to bring notice to Steve’s great writing advice.

[If he and his wife ever write and put out a writing / marketing book - well, I’ll be All over That as well! ]

So here’s the great Writing Advice from Steve Berry.

Here’s the great blog where I saw it listed - Jody Renner Editing blog. And she has a great list of Conferences! Hopefully she’ll add the James River Writers Conference to the list as well. ;)

There really is a Lot of great info’ on the blog so be sure to check it out.

Also check out this other great blog I discovered - from a reading / book perspective. And who of us doesn’t need that, right? So many books to read - so much that gets in the way. :(

So you should know which ones you should move to the top of the ‘to read first’ stack, right?

And so many blogs to explore. Come on, I’m not the only one that ends up clicking on blogs and clicking on their blogs, and…. somehow end up coming out hours later on the other side of the known blog universe. Am I?

So where’ve you been lately? Come on, you can tell us. We’re all friends here. :::Grin::::

Check out blogs.

And of course go check out Steve’s Own site, and his books!

Then come back and let’s chat about the blog travels.

And books of course! ;)

From Jody Renner Editing blog

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010

STEVE BERRY'S EIGHT RULES OF FICTION

When I was at Thrillerfest, the International Thriller Writers' Annual Writing Conference, in New York City last July, I attended an excellent workshop by bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry. He gave us eight key rules that all successful fiction writers should know and follow:

1. There are no rules. You can do anything you want as long as it works.

2. Don't bore the reader. You can bore the reader in a sentence, in a paragraph, by misusing words, poorly choosing words, using the wrong length, etc.

3. Don't confuse the reader. Don't misuse point of view. Don't do too much at once.

4. Don't get caught writing. Don't let you, the author, enter the story. (E.g., "And he never would see Memphis again." How would anyone other than the author know that the character would never see Memphis again?)

5. Shorter is always better. Write tight. It makes you use the best words in the right way.

6. Don't lie to the reader. It's okay to mislead, but don't lie. If you say the character's motivation is A and it turns out to be B (and you haven't foreshadowed it at all), the reader will feel cheated.

7. Don't annoy the reader. Don't use names that are hard to pronounce or write choppy sentences throughout the entire book. It keeps people from getting close to your characters.

8. You must tell a good story. Bad writing can be forgiven with a good story. A bad story with the most beautiful writing cannot.

Why Read

So we can read, and learn to write things like this -

from Kathi Appelt's book The Underneath -

.....a man who drank the hard-edged vodka brought in from Russia and the bitter gin from England, who stumbled home, just as hard-edged and bitter as the vodka and gin. ....


Pssst... a hint for those of you out there reading, be sure to keep an eye on the James River Writers site. For news coming on the Conference to be held in October.
That's all I'm sayin' ... Keep watch. ;) here uh, yeah, go ahead and look now!

Maggie Strikes Again - Check it out

Maggie Stiefvater has done it again.

Not only writing another book to come out in July, continuing the story she started in her successful 'Shiver' book, but she of course being Maggie and all, had to create, make, film, as well as create all the music for, And play most of the instruments for, her new trailer for the book! I know. Sheesh.

Now it's easy to understand why people are missing some talents, sure looks like Maggie, and possibly even her family, got most of them all!

If you haven't read 'Shiver' yet then do read it. You have time before the next books comes out. If you hurry.

Well if you hurry and buy it and start reading. Once you start reading I think the writing and story will take you over so you won't have any problem finishing it in time before the next one.

Yes, it's that good. And yes that well written.

You won't be sorry.

And while you are checking out this trailer for Maggie's latest soon-to-be-out book, be sure to also check out the trailer she did for 'Shiver' since it also shows Maggie's talent with scissors and musical instruments and imagination. Yeah, another Sheesh. But you definitely should check them out.

Here, if I done this right, hopefully this will make it easier. If not go over to her Facebook Fan Page, or one of her blogs and check them out. You won't be sorry, there's Lots of great information that Maggie shares.

She shares a Lot of great information on her blogs, she has one on LiveJournal and she has one on BlogSpot. You can get to hers by clicking on the Friends section of my blogs since I have her linked there.

And here is the plain old link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l59sMzeA_vQ

Books, Readers and Writers

It is interesting how as writers we all have a unique view, a unique voice, but it really came to me recently how different we all are as readers also. I mean, I Know that not Everybody likes the same books I do, and vice versa believe me! But it is really interesting the different things people pick out of books to notice, or even fixate on, that sometimes leaves me going, Huh? I can see, sometimes anyway, some of what people are saying but sometimes it leaves me going huh? Did you even read the same book I did? And then it came to me, as we bring who we are to ourselves and where we've come from to our writing voice, people do the same thing when they read. They read through the filter of the life they've had, the life they live, their life experiences. And sometimes from places of envy or jealousy that they don't even acknowledge to themselves.

And another interesting thing I've realized recently that what people say doesn't really say anything about the object they are talking about, book for example, but it says volumes about who and what the person is saying about themselves.

Hmmmm, so maybe I should be quiet and go off and read now. ;) ;)

So what kind of reader are you?

Checking out books and all things bookstore

Shoot. No, don't do it literally! Although I should really know better than to go over and read Maggie's blog before I decide to post something here. She's witty and cute, And she has pictures! I'm picture challenged. I hate having my picture taken. So that's why I have no pictures posted anywhere. Just these weird guy looking icon things everywhere. That is disturbing. Maybe I should take time to do a drawing of self. ;)
Course then it'd mean I'd finally have to take time to upload the thing. Uh, that's another reason there's just disturbing weird guy icons representing me places. On line at least. ;) That I know of!
Sigh. Another thing on the to-do list. I Really am trying to focus on writing! Really! Uh, on my novels, not here. In case there should be some clarification or something.

But the piles of the notes for my various to be completed novels - adult, young adult, children, - I am an equal opportunity writer! [There's even poetry thrown in there.]
The stacks were getting so unruly. And I didn't want them mingling with the James River Writers volunteer notes and getting ideas or notions, so I've spent some time trying to tame the 'paper tiger' that I assume all writers have.

But that's not what this post was going to be about! [And people wonder why I have such a hard time sitting down to actually write!]

I was going to write a nice shout-out to Kelly Justice at Fountain Bookstore.
And to her great staff of course!
I've picked up and read things I never would have read if not for them and their recommendations. [no actual arm twisting is involved I swear! even though I would like to claim such to ease my bookshelf-overload-woes.]

Fountain Books brings books to every James River Writing Show each month. Which I really appreciate. Well, mostly. It is a bit of a challenge to show restraint.
But it is nice to have one-stop-convenience. Writing Show provides authors to listen to, and gain wisdom from, and Fountain Books provides books so can have author sign it right there.
Pretty nifty if you ask me.
And if you happen to see Kelly manning the table behind the books, well, she's got to be one of the coolest gals that ever hangs around writers!!
You should definitely come check her out. ;) As well as the books of course. And James River Writing Show. As well as all things James River Writers in Richmond, Virginia.