Alice Hoffman has a new book out, THE STORY SISTERS. Here's a recent review by Chelsea Cain from the NY Times.
I love Ms Hoffman in general -- she has a way of invoking Gods and breezes that reveal inner worlds like no one else. But she also can become quite formulaic, which can be at turns annoying or downright infuriating. (And no, I have not finished TURTLE MOON, in fact I only got to the 5th page. More on that later. Maybe.)
But based on this review and others that I've seen, this book sounds quite good. Let's go check out the first chapter, here.
I'm in, people. Or rather, I'm back. Back in the saddle. I think the up-and-coming cliche "You're either in or your out" is very true in regard to writing (at least, for me it is). I'm rather all or nothing about it.
And after a bit of wandering around in a dry desert of Outness, I have found my oasis. It came in a weird breakthrough of sorts the other day (okay, while I was exercising if you really wanna know). I'm not even sure if my idea will work -- a character, after all, sometimes simply won't write the way you want -- but I'm thinking that a Big Issue, a gaping whole!, in the story may be solved. After having rested overnight, letting the idea nestle itself into my psyche, I'm feeling ready to make my way back to lush and green pastures (read: words flowing from my brilliant mind through my quick hands and into my LSB's WIP).
Now, I just want to hop back in that saddle and let the horse go wild. When we hit our stride, wind in my hair and hooves rumblin' across those lush plains, I can hold on -- I'm sure of that. Desert be damned, I've found a fountain and I'm feeling slightly intoxicated with the elixir of Words Promised. In like Flynn, I am.
It's that time again! Let's have a round-up of articles in the blogosphere out there, shall we? I'm hung up on character development right now, so no surprise it seems a lot of my links tend towards addressing that:
We have author Deanna Carlyle's suggestion to "slam" your character. Her suggestion is brilliant, and I plan on slamming my MC, Josephine, straight away.
Nifty little distraction of the day, one that takes the theory of 'six degrees of separation' to a new level: Literature Map (thanks for the link, Linda, from Another Good Thing).
And for more character development, I tend to skim the fascinating articles and studies constantly being released in regard to human psychology and evolution. Here's a good one, especially for those who are writing for YA, or like me have flash backs to your MC's teenage years: this study finds that genetic risk for substance abuse can be neutralized by good parenting. These little tidbits of information can be uitlized in unsuspecting ways to flesh out a character.
And here is an great article that provides a comprehensive breakdown of what goes into writing a short story. I found this article b y Dennis G. Jerz to be just as helpful for a full-blown novel, and since I am very visual, I really liked all the 'multiple choice' examples for the how-tos.
My Crush blog had a great post about switching your adverbs to verbs, and linked to the aforementioned Deanna Carlyle's blog, wherein she has a fabulous list of 1000 verbs! I found many more great articles about writing at Deanna's site. Check it out!
At Writer Unboxed, there is a great overview for plot structure by Juliet Marillier, here.
And to wrap it up let's put a little Soul in our Ego: I stumbled upon a lovely blog where photographer and author, Wayne Wirs (FADING TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT), chronicles his nomadic journey not only by land, but heart and soul. For anyone interested in reincarnation, the search for enlightenment or imply beautiful imagery, this is a blog worth checking out.
This is a recycled post from my business blog, that I recently closed down. I won't do this too often, but I felt compelled to share it here.
A prayer for you: From Dead Can Dance: Noble Prayer. (Thanks to SandraEgidio)
Thoughts that this kindled for me: There is a lot of craziness out there today. It is so easy to forget what is important, to neglect the precious moments with those we love, to walk past the bounty and gifts that nature offers up everyday, there for the taking. No matter what race, creed, class or beliefs - we each are here for a reason. We are here to learn and evolve from each other, with each other. No one is truly ever alone, and in this truth we can pray for a better world for us all.
Life is a field of unlimited creation that we choose to manifest. We can choose to have compassion, to embrace an open mind and give room for the dynamic ways of being that this world offers us. Compassion is an action, it grows and flourishes the more that we practice it. Compassion is like honey; a gift from the heart of hard work and effort, unhurried and dense with sweetness when we savor it. It lingers in the heart once tasted.
The ways that we are connected, I firmly believe, are far more important and worthy of my intention (attention! ;>) than the ways that we are different. This is my prayer for you - for those of you struggling on your way, for those of you who feel left out in the cold, for those of us who may feel overwhelmed, misunderstood. For anyone out there that desperately needs a kind word, a sweet smile. Or simply a lucky break.
Breathe. Smile (even if it hurts.) Wake up at sunrise and whisper "Thank You."
May all beings find their honey... may we all find our feet on a path towards our personal best, towards being cherished.
This is making the rounds, about a funny kid who just came out of the dentist. But I have a different take on it: this reminds me of how some souls must feel when they 'wake up' to being here. Y'now: WHA? What am I doing HERE?! "Is it gonna be like this forever?!" Yeah, hang in there, kid!
As you can see, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I changed the 'face' of this blog. I'm still not sure that I like it, but it was such a hassle moving it to this format, that I won't be going back anytime soon!
The real downer is that I lost a lot of information, which I thought I had saved. The worst of this was losing my 'character spotlight' blurb on Janus. Look for more character spotlights to come up, however.
Over at Paperback Writer , she has a great post about some unique ways for us writing types to use Wordle. With this program, you can see which words you may be using too many times, for instance. You can use this as a non-linear tool for inspiration (chapter title? Book title?).
Here is mine from a scene I am working on right now (in which I learned that I am not using any one word too much, as there doesn't seem to be one large stand-out in the mix):
If you really want to analyze a scene, you can see how the words play off of one another, or if there is a theme. In this scene, I realize there are is a lot around the body: bite, musk, tremor, aches, breath. Good, that is what I want here so this works well.
I'm on a writer's list for mothers, and a fellow writer mama, Saoirse Redgrave, posted a plug for her story, 13 To Life, at textnovel.com. Check out her blog, where we all get to vote on how the story plays out. Very cool!
I have to say, I was sucked in to this story immediately. This is the tale of Pietr and Jessica. Pietr's a werewolf, and even worse, the 'fresh meat' at Junction High. Jessica, poor girl, has been assigned to show him around...
I haven't intended to be slacking on my shiny new blog.
But one of our family's own, our dog Maya, is in the processing of dying. She leaves behind her partner in crime, Sage - and those of us, the furless ones of the family, lucky enough to have loved her. She has blessed us, watched over us and barked incessantly at us for more than 10 years, and now her body is being ravaged by some unknown illness. In a matter of 2 weeks my sassy rolly-polly aussie became a serene and silent bag of bones.
I'd love to write something eloquent, or maybe funny and saucy (like Maya), but I'm not feeling up to it right now.
Soon enough, the words will come. Breaking hearts need to be expressed, all forms of art and craft seem to help hearts bleed when they need it most.
I'm enjoying Nathan Bransford's blog a lot these days (who is your pick to win the SUFPCx2?). I've added him to my blogroll.
So I was reading this entry (full of info!) and this led me here to Jeff Abbott (great post on how to get organized - who doesn't need that?), and that led me to the gold at the end of the rainbow, people! Evernote, where have you been all my life? This looks to be an amazing way to keep track of things online (and if you have an iPhone or the like, offline as well. Alas, I do not.) Check it out! You can track all those interesting tidbits you come across online, and it categorizes and organizes it for you. You can easily, quickly look up via word search what you are looking for. Awesome.
No more searching in my folders and lists for "17th century French fashion" (there's a wee hint about where we may go in my WIP, The Soul's Beloved, for those paying attention). No more banging my head on the keyboard because I somehow misplaced the link to that awesome, strange article that mentioned one specific village that was perfect for my scene, no more searching everywhere for the image that I had intended to save to the right folder for inspiration later...well, you get the idea.
I was reading Linda Sand's blog, and thought her post was hilarious. Wanna play?
"If I had an assistant..." this person would do the dishes before I could pick up the toast, rice and assorted fruit off the floor (thrown there by the Wild Card). They would love - love! - to sweep and mop at least 2x a day, all the while picking up the toys scattered about with a happy sing-song voice. They would hem all the pants I have that I cannot wear because I have not gotten around to doing it myself. (Hmmmm, this assistant is starting to sound oddly like... Cinderella. Note to Self: must get out more.)
Oh, wait. Maybe said assistant could help with more important things! They would organize all my bookshelves, dusted and alphabetized. They would back up all info on my laptop daily, they would transcribe, and organize!, all the pertinent notations I scribble on the nearest flat surface whenever the muse hits me (napkins, receipts, business cards...nothing is safe. And often it is written in crayon. I have no shame). They would never complain, interrupt or question my authority, and would always politely ask for juice. Er... I mean their break. Wait, what break?! This is my dream assistant, right?
They could mow the lawn, do 3 loads of laundry a day - and put it all away! - and then be ready to crit any lengthy dribble of writing I tossed their way. They would exercise FOR me. They would exercise the children for me. Cook dinner, shop for food, make beeswax candles (What? if I had the time I would love to have some homemade ones!).
They would wash windows, re-finish my hardwood floors. Paint the bedroom walls and sand my fabulous old Redwood door and convert it to a headboard (not a great image, but awesome bed! From craigandwhitneys.blogspot.com)... they would... well, they would be doing all this so I could finish this post.
For some odd reason I've become rather obsessed with discerning just exactly where my book fits in. (Hmm, there's a life-lesson in there somewhere ;>).
The Soul's Beloved began as a memoir, based on events in my life when I was a young adult. But there is a twist - and this twist, arguably, is fictional (because it involves past lives, and the opinion of a somewhat irascible soul. And I say 'arguably' because I realize that reincarnation is considered a theory by some. Clearly, not by me).
Anyway, so it is not a memoir. It is not straight fiction, nor is it clearly non-fiction. I thought it may be Visionary Fiction, but ...eh. Am I talented enough [gulp] to pull off Literary Fiction? I sure like the definition, from Wikipedia:
In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, whereas mainstream commercial fiction (the page-turner) focuses more on narrative and plot.?
Well, that would take care of my current issues with plot. [brushes hands to signal 'done with that!'] Is it Narrative Fiction? Who knows...and is it technically even in the Genre arena?
Right now, it's subtitle is: A Novel Based on a True Life.
Ravens love the pretty: shiny, flashy objects to collect and horde in their nests. They can't help themselves, and I relate very well to such urges. What would be I in my nest?
Words, of course! I love words. The way I talk and write is loquacious. And sentences; I love long, complex ones, even when they are badly executed, which mine tend to be. To show you what I geek I was - am - I used to make lists of words when I was in High School, and I enjoyed looking them up and writing out their definitions*. Circumambulation was my favorite word for over a decade. And a thesaurus? Makes me weak in the knees, my friends!
My problem with such linguistic hording is that my writing can become rather verbose. So I love reading a book where the author can convey his or her point in a sentence, in a word. It makes me rather green with cupidity; I choose to make envy my fuel, yet another incitement to write. And when I do get the chance to work on my book, the rather consistent prattle in the back of my mind is this: "Keep it simple."
Write now I am reading Alice Hoffman's latest, The Third Angel, (and yes, I know she can become rather formulaic at times, but the woman can convey an image, invoke a memory like nobody's business!) and I am swooning again and again over her talent for brevity. (Hmmm... "with", or "for"?).
Makes me want to chuck EVERYTHING I have written in my WIP so far, and start afresh.
There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
(and yes, I know she can become rather 
