Poohba's Bibliotèque

NaNoWriMo 2010 is Here!

2010-11-01T21:37:00.002-04:00

It's November 1st, which means, of course, that it's the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. My project for the month is a complete change of pace from Thorn of the Kingdom. It's a light romantic comedy set in the present day at a high school band camp. So far, I'm 3,215 words in, which means I'm ahead of the game. We'll see if I can get to 50,000 before November 30.

As far as TOTK goes. I don't have much new to report. It's making the rounds at publishers, but so far we haven't found just the right editor to take it on. So, keep your fingers crossed that that happens.

Big News!

2010-03-01T11:53:00.004-05:00

At long last I have some exciting Thorn of the Kingdom news! I've just signed with Mandy Hubbard of the D4EO Literary Agency!

That's right — I have a literary agent!

Some of you may know Mandy already. She's a former FictionPress author who has been active at Let the Words Flow and she has written several published works of her own, including last summer's hit, Prada and Prejudice. She's been a supporter of TOTK since its earliest days on FictionPress, so I know she's going to be a passionate advocate for it as we move forward. I'm excited about working with her as we get TOTK ready to submit to publishers and hope I have more good news to share with you soon!

Ask the Audience

2009-12-02T17:31:00.002-05:00

We're turning the tables today at Let the Words Flow. Today is your day to answer questions about writing!

In which, I post on another blog...

2009-11-16T13:47:00.002-05:00

I wanted to let you know that I posted my first blog entry on Let the Words Flow earlier today. It's about building a readership on FictionPress, but I think a lot of the tips could translate pretty easily to any kind of publicity.

Please read it and let me know what you think!

In which I am late... as usual...

2009-11-03T13:19:00.009-05:00

I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted here. Grad school will do that to you. The good news is, I am almost finished! Assuming I pass both my classes this last semester, I will be DONE! (Yay!)

That means more time for writing. But, more importantly, more time for querying!

I also have some big news on the FictionPress front, although if you read Sarah J. Maas's (S.J. Maas), Mandy Hubbard's (MandyHubbard), Savannah J. Foley's (Svonnah-la-fay), June Hur's (J.E. Wyatt), Renee Carter's (Pen-Ink), Alexandra Shostak's (frozeninmotion), or Rachel Simon's (bringmayflowers) blogs or FictionPress pages, you probably already know about it, since I am the last of the group to make this announcement. The deal is, we have started a new blog, called Let the Words Flow, that is geared towards FictionPress writers (and former writers) who are serious about getting published. All of the contributors got our starts on FictionPress and are now either querying agents, have an agent, or have books out on the shelves.

It's an exciting thing to open a dialogue about how you go from an online story to a "real" book. We're hoping you will take an active part in the conversation. So, please check out Let the Words Flow, and let us know what you think!

Goodreads

2008-01-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

Here's why I haven't been posting much lately...

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/316422

I joined Goodreads, which is a social networking site for book lovers. I've been reading and reviewing like crazy over there, and have been completely neglecting this blog.

I know I've been a bad blogger, but, please, feel free to "friend" me over there.

And when I get some Thorn of the Kingdom news worth sharing, I'll still pass it along here.

NaNoWriMo Update

2007-11-15T22:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's November 15. We're halfway through the month...

And I have not written a single word.

Somehow, I don't think I'm going to be a winner this year.

It's about that time again...

2007-10-26T17:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I've signed up to participate in National Novel Writing Month, for the third year in a row.

You can check on my progress, beginning November 1, here:

I make no promises about my commitment level to the competition, though. I finished in 2005, but sloughed off last year. (Imagine a professor assigning term papers during NaNoWriMo!)

I've got a few ideas for a story floating around, but I haven't decided on anything yet. It might be "literary fiction" like my profile says, but it's just as likely to be a romance, historical, or parody.

Amusing story about my latest TOTK draft

2007-10-21T23:09:00.000-04:00

Here's why my latest draft of TOTK isn't quite ready for prime time...

As I told you before, I had the draft professionally printed and bound for convenience, as well as so my family could get their first look at this project I've been talking to them about for years and haven't let them read.

So far, both my grandmother and mother have told me it's a great story, but that I could use an editor. In fact, I was embarrassed to discover my mother laughing over a certain scene where Pierre leans down to pet Tiny - a chapter after Tiny's emotional deathbed scene. (This is what happens when you cut and paste too much while writing on computer, I guess.)

Really, I'm glad she pointed it out while I still have time to fix the gaffe. This is why I wanted a new printout. I would have never caught that error onscreen.

Banned Books Week

2007-10-04T22:47:00.001-04:00

Here's some food for thought...

It always amazes me that people still try to ban books. Their attempts almost always fail - and they wind up giving free publicity to the very thing their trying to censor!

(Word to the wise: If you find a particular book offensive, "anti-family", or any of the other things mentioned in this video, shut up about it and maybe it will go away on it's own. You certainly don't have to read it, or let your own children read it, if you don't want to, but when you start messing around trying to tell other people's children what you can't read - well, then you just wind up with the entire country wondering what is it about this book that's so bad - and the next thing you know it's a bestseller. As this video proves, book banning is counter-productive.)

Some TOTK news... finally

2007-09-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

I'm very nervous, but excited.

I just came from the FedExKinko's website where I clicked "send" to have them print and bind Draft #4 of Thorn of the Kingdom. (Remembering how many hours and paper jams it took to print out Draft #3, I decided the 400-some pages were best left to the pros. Plus, this way I get a cardstock cover with my title page printed on it! I'm enough of a nerd to be excited about that.)

Now, this may not seem like great news on the grand scale of things, but it feels like major progress for me. My original goal was to have this draft done last September, before I started my first semester of grad school. Then, I was to have it done by New Year's and that didn't happen either.

DRAFT #4 IS FINALLY DONE!!! I want to shout it out from the rooftops.

I feel as close as I've ever been to having THE definitive draft that's going out to agents/publishers. However, part of the reason I always want a new printout when I get to the end of major revisions is that I want to set it aside for a while and then come back to it as if I'm reading a fresh book. That's when all the grammar mistakes and sentence structure problems come flying out at me.

But I'm finally satisfied on all the plot points. This is the version I'm going to let my family read. (It's been 4+ years and they still have only seen bits and pieces. My 90-something grandmother was getting anxious...)

Romance faves... with just a little bit about Mr. Potter

2007-07-25T22:36:00.000-04:00

— OR —

Saturday night, I went to two bookstores in search of Harry Potter — and they were both sold out!

I felt a little silly. Just hours earlier, I had been assuring someone else that the whole "pre-order" frenzy was just a scam on the part of booksellers to make you part with your money (and to commit to their store) earlier than you really need to. Deathly Hollows was going to have the largest print run of any book ever. What kind of store would actually run out of stock?

The kind I shop at, apparently.

This has not happened to me before. But, while I'm certainly interested in what happens to Harry (And PLEASE don't tell me... I JUST got my hands on a copy and am about to start reading!), I really am more of a casual fan than anything. I was willing to see what else was new — and (yay!) I found the latest Julia Quinn, The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever.

It goes without saying that I'm a hopeless romantic, but I'm not a big "romance" reader — though I was for a while. I went through a spell where I would go to the library every couple of weeks and come back with a stack of historical paperbacks a mile high.

But, after awhile, I had to stop. One can only read about so many Regency rakes and tortured knights ravishing beautiful maidens without beginning to feel brainless and numb. The pencil-thin characters weren't helping me differentiate between the oh-so-similar plots and I was beginning to feel like I was reading the same book over and over again.

So, I set those Harlequins aside and moved on to more "literary" offerings that I like to call "romantic fiction" rather than "romance novels." But I make an annual exception for Julia Quinn.

Why? Because her breezy, light-hearted books can be laugh-out-loud funny AND sweetly poignant. She actually creates a relationship between her main characters based on something other than sex. Walking away from a Julia Quinn novel, I always get the feeling that her main couple are best friends as well as lovers.

She also captures the family dynamic as well as any author I know. This is evidenced in her eight-volume Bridgerton series. Each book tells the story of one of the alphabetically-named siblings of the Bridgerton clan. (In birth order, though not necessarily book order: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth.)

Throughout the series they fight; they laugh; they cry; and, deep down, they all love each other. You haven't lived until you've attended one of their über-competitive games of Pall Mall (they play with something called the Mallet of Death), or read one of Lady Whistledown's gossip rag entries about them.

This new book had all the good humor and likable characters I've become accustomed to when reading Julia Quinn. In fact, I liked it about as well as anything she's ever written. Anytime you have a hero that, in the prologue, promises a 10-year-old girl that someday she will "grow into herself" and "be as beautiful as you already are smart," I think you have a keeper.

My favorite literary adaptations...

2007-07-22T12:07:00.000-04:00

I mentioned all that was wrong with the unlikable The Scarlet Letter. So, as an antidote, here are some of my faves that I think to a great job of conveying the emotional truths of the books they represent. (Is that a nice way of saying not all of them to stick to the very letter of their source material, but they're such good movies, I don't care?)

•I've said before, Little Women was one of those books of my childhood I could never slog my way through. I always felt there was something wrong with me for just not getting this American classic. Then I saw this movie. Somehow it made the book come alive for me in the way my multiple attempts over the years at the first two or three chapters hadn't. I found out all the good stuff I was missing — and eagerly took up the book once more.

•I hold nothing against Keira Knightley's version, except, perhaps, that it tried to cram six hours' worth of story in a two hour movie. My favorite literary adaptations are often miniseries (like this BBC gem from back in the days when the A&E network aired programs that I actually watched) because they can take the time to flesh out important parts of a book that a feature film just can't take the time to. Besides, there may be nothing wrong with Matthew Macfadyen, but Colin Firth will always be "my" Mr. Darcy.

•I began watching these movies right around the same time as I was reading L.M. Montgomery's books for the first time, so they are irrevocably intertwined in my mind. Even when these films take liberties (and the second one does collapse several books into one story, combining characters and moving events around in time), they still get the emotional heart of the books absolutely right. This, unfortunately, cannot be said for the third segment of this so-called film "trilogy." I don't have the space here to describe how awful it was, but suffice it so say, I wondered why they bothered calling it "Anne of Green Gables" at all. (Actually, that isn't true, I know they did it because they knew loyal "Anne" fans like me would watch it — once, at least.)

TO BE CONTINUED...

To Audio or Not to Audio

2007-07-22T11:44:00.000-04:00

My writing friend Mandy had an interesting blog entry the other day on audiobooks that I thought I'd echo here. (I hope she doesn't mind.)

She said she tried them out for the first time recently — and was bored. They were incredibly hard to get into and she was glad she was able to quickly return them to the library.

I have to say I'm not a big fan of audiobooks either. Yes, it's nice to be able to feel like you've accomplished something on a long car trip (though I'll take a good Tigers game over an audiobook any day), but I have a hard time saying I really "read" something that I've just listened to. It often feels like the CliffNotes version — or that I've just watched a movie based on the book.

I absolutely refuse to listen to abridged books on tape or CD. As an author, I feel something of a moral outrage at condensed books. They often leave out everything (or nearly everything) that made the original beautiful or thought-provoking.

I usually stay away from fiction too. Somehow listening to a non-fiction book seems less jarring. Maybe I don't hear as strong a voice of narration in my head when I read non-fiction, so I don't mind if the one I'm getting on tape sounds differently. I can't tell you my exact reasons why, because I don't know what they are.

So, while I don't mind hearing Stephen King narrate his life's story in On Writing on tape, I just can't get excited about audiobooks in general. I enjoy the mental process of reading too much to ever give it up for audio. They are two completely separate ways of absorbing information as far as I'm concerned.

*Poohba steps off soapbox*

Happy Second of July, everybody!

2007-07-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

I meant to post this earlier, but hopefully I can sneak it in before the date changes.

I have to post one of my favorite historical quotes today. It has nothing to do with literature or writing, but it's very timely.

And funny...

"...The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
— John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, dated July 2, 1776

It's one of those little quirks of history that amuses me. Poor John Adams was so very close to being right. He just got the date a little wrong, is all. If it had been me, I probably would have thought the day Congress voted on Independence would be more memorable to future generations than two days later when a draft of the paperwork got signed too...

Anyway, if you've never read the Collected Letters of John and Abigail Adams, you really should. I never used to think much of the second president of the United States, but the more I read about his marriage and the relationship he had with his wife, the more I have developed a grudging affection for him.

And, for the record, no I did not name the main character in book after Abigail Adams. Not consciously, anyway. I have to admit I did read a biography of Abigail Adams (Lynne Withey's excellent Dearest Friend) the summer before I first began to write Thorn. So, who knows. I may have had a spunky historical figure in the back of my mind when I started to write and I just didn't know it.

I'm Back/Literary Adaptation Review #1

2007-07-02T18:54:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a long time since I've updated — but I think one of the reasons I haven't is I intimidated myself with my highly-organized movie review system. It's a nice idea to have all those stars, but I don't know how practical it is for someone with my less-than-organized brain.

So, I am going to start reviewing literary adaptations, and likely I'll cover many of the points on my Checklist 'O Fun, but don't expect to see fancy charts, OK?

First up is 1996's The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Duvall as Roger Chillingworth.

You may recall in my review of the book I referred this adaptation as "the trashy Demi Moore movie". That was based on my recollection of one viewing more than 10 years ago. I recently had a chance to see this film again and my perspective on it has definitely changed. To be sure, it still completely misses the point of the book — but I did find a little bit more to like about it in this go-around.

Books and film are different mediums. I have no real objection to the movie starting a year or two before the book's action begins. In fact, I rather liked seeing Hester and Dimmesdale getting to know each other. The look on his face when he finds out the pleasant young woman he was flirting with in the forest is actually a married woman — and therefore out of his reach — is priceless.

Part of what makes the book great is that we don't find out immediately who the father of Hester's illegitimate child is. I missed the "forest" scene that comes midway through the book and finally makes it clear Dimmesdale is Daddy. I understand, though, the literary tricks that make that scene great would be impossible to translate to film.

There was just enough retained from the book's opening scene, where Hester faces the public humiliation of receiving her Scarlet "A" (for Adultery) at the town stocks, to tantalize me. That scene, where the Rev. Dimmesdale speaks from above, entreating Hester to name the father of her child for his own good, is one of the most powerful that I've encountered in literature. Of course, a first-time reader may not realize that he's talking about himself. When Gary Oldman gave the highly-abbreviated version in the movie, it was still a meaningful scene — but not quite what I was hoping for. And, of course, having seen him and Hester literally rolling around in the hay together, we were all already clued in that he was Pearl's father.

So, that's the good. (Or, at least, the "not bad.") Now, what was still downright laughable/awful?

• Lisa Joliffe-Andoh's mute slave girl character, Mituba — WHAT??? What did she contribute to the story? She's not in the book. Yes, we all got the P.C. reminder that Puritans kept African slaves — but this character was just awful. All she did was spy on Hester in compromising positions and giggle like a madwoman. Don't even talk to me about the candle scene. How creepy.

• Robert Duvall's portrayal of Chillingworth — Again, WHAT??? How did a nice character actor like Robert Duvall get suckered into a goofy role like this? Yeah, Chillingworth was a little over the top in the book too, but he didn't go around jumping off big rocks and scalping people. In the book, he waited seven years to get his revenge through "scientific" means. He was "chilling" because he was so tightly reined in, not because he was certifiably bonkers.

• The Native American war sub-plot — This was another thing that feels like it was in there because it was made in the 90's and we have to be acknowledge that these Puritans have taken over lands that belong to someone else. OK, point taken. I was kind of intrigued that Dimmesdale was trying to translate the Bible into Algonquin (Although did Algonquin even HAVE a written language back in the 17th Century?) But most of this plot just seemed to have nothing to do with anything else — and the final scene made no sense at all.

• The Steamy Scenes — Granted, if there wasn't some adulterous sex going on, there wouldn't be much of a story. But did we really need the bathing scenes? Any of them?

And finally...

• It misses the point — Ultimately, the story of The Scarlet Letter isn't "an erotic tale of forbidden love," as the movie poster tagline says. It's about hypocrisy and the hidden effects of guilt. Once she receives her "A", Hester's conscience is clear. She can't hide her sin, it's right out there in front for everyone to see. She is able to build a new life starting from scratch, until, at the end of the book, people don't even remember what the "A" originally stood for.

That doesn't happen to Demi Moore. She's too busy whining about equality and fair treatment for women.

Dimmesdale's story is supposed to be the exact opposite. He carries the same guilt around as Hester does, but he's too much of a coward to reveal it and face the public disgrace he knows would follow. He wants Hester to rat him out, but she absolutely refuses. But, with no way of relieving his secret, he grows more and more frail over the years as his conscience gets the better of him.

That didn't happen in the movie either. In the film, it's Hester that stops him from telling everyone he's the father. He's in a hard place, to be sure, but he still gets to drive happily away into the sunset at the end of the picture.

That ending left me feeling robbed, and that I hadn't just spent the last couple of hours watching the "real" Scarlet Letter.

Why I reread...

2007-04-20T16:21:00.000-04:00

"Some books are so familiar, reading them is like being home again."
- Jo March (played by Winona Ryder)
in the 1994 "Little Women" movie

Literary adaptations

2007-04-14T13:11:00.000-04:00

In addition to books, I thought it might be interesting to begin reviewing my favorite films, shows etc. that are based on books and plays (can't leave out Shakespeare).

Now, some of these works are simply great adaptations. They faithfully tell a story I happen to already love. Others are great in their own right... And then there are the Holy Grail of literary adaptations... Works that are both.

To get started, I've come up with a set of criteria to help me analyze each:

The Poohba's Bibliotèque Literary Adaptation Four-Star System™

Actors match character description (Possible ****)
This means just that. The director has not chosen a tall, slim redhead with an American accent to play the slightly pudgy, dark-haired heroine of your favorite Australian novel. This category also will comment on casting choices that seem too "modern" for historical roles.

Plot follows story (Possible ****)
Another no-brainer category. Does the script play fast and loose with what happened in the book? I don't want to see Anne of Green Gables running around France during World War I when anyone who has read Rilla of Ingleside would know how ridiculous that is.

Additional material adds to the established story without contradicting "canon" (Possible ****)
This is very closely related to the category above, but I think it deserves a rank of its own. Adapting art from one media to another can be messy. This is meant to reward films that bring something extra to the table. If a filmmaker adds a scene (or plot point or two), or successfully condenses material that would make a movie too long, all without deviating from the spirit of the original, then they deserve a pat on the back.

Overall faithfulness to the story (Possible ****)
This category takes into account the scores from the first three, as well as my overall impression of whether the spirit of the original work is upheld.

Poohba Entertainment Factor (Possible ****)
Forget the original. Was this a good movie, play etc. in its own right? Would I enjoy it if I hadn't read it first?

A new list of books I want to reread

2007-04-14T12:35:00.000-04:00

I've made some progress on the list of books I wanted to reread that I posted in December, so I decided to update the list of books I've been thinking about a lot lately and just haven't gotten to yet:

1. Devil Water by Anya Seton
2. Avalon by Anya Seton
3. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
5. The Promise by Chaim Potok
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
7. The White Mountains by John Christopher
8. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
9. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

My numbers 7-10 haven't changed. I guess I've just been reading from the top and getting new ideas of what I want to read next. (For example, I did a reread of The Chosen, so now I want to get another shot at its sequel. I begin to fear I will never have the time (or the courage) to attempt all 1,463 pages of Les Mis again - no matter how much I loved it the first time around.

You may have also noticed how heavy this list is on Anya Seton. I blame Chicago Review Press, which keeps putting out her oeuvre in shiny new paperbacks that I feel I must own. I loved Devil Water when I first read a mildewy old edition that's falling apart. Imagine how good it will be with new book smell!

Musical inspiration

2007-04-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

I watched The Sound of Music the other night. What a great movie. A little cheesy, yes, but good.

I'd never really thought about it before, but it also inspired a few scenes in Thorn of the Kingdom. Remember where Abby sneaks into the open ballroom and begins dancing with an imaginary partner? I doubt she would have if Julie Andrews hadn't first.

Actually, the ballroom at Tholly's palace isn't so far off from the one at the von Trapp Family villa. It's just bigger, of course, and with a bit more of the colors you'd find at Beast's castle.

It's strange to realize how all these little bits can get stirred up in one's mind and come out in different ways. It's not plagiarism. It's just how art works and has always worked. Ask Shakespeare.

A thought for Good Friday...

2007-04-06T16:03:00.000-04:00

I have had this passage from Outlander stuck in my head all day...

"The human hand is a delicate marvel of engineering, an intricate system of joints and pulleys, served and controlled by a network of millions of tiny nerves, exquisitely sensitive to touch. A single broken finger is enough to sink a strong man to his knees with nauseated pain."
- Diana Gabaldon Outlander, Chapter 25: "Wentworth Prison"

It gives me shivers to think about on this, Good Friday.

I mean, a broken finger wasn't the half of it...

Nouveau Jane Austen???

2007-04-02T20:27:00.000-04:00

Indiscretion by Jude Morgan

No one can publish a book set in the Regency period featuring an independent heroine without getting compared to Jane Austen. It's just a law of nature. Reviewers see the ballrooms and costumes, think "Austen", and think no further. The problem is, most of the books that get this comparison don't even remotely deserve it - even the ones that want it so bad you can see it.

Indiscretion is different. It's the first Austen "wannabe" I've read that actually seems just as spirited and fun as Austen. Except for a few brief slips into modernity, Morgan gets the tone just right on this one. Some of her plot points and characters will seem familiar to Austen fans, but they never quite become derivative. On the whole, it just seems like the book Jane never got around to writing.

The story:

Caroline Fortune is understandably a little sensitive about people referring to her as "Miss Fortune". She's had an interesting childhood on the outskirts of society. After her mother's death, her weak-minded, ex-solider father turned to card games and the stage for a living - and took Caro right along for the ride. Sometimes he made enough money for the both of them to live off of, but most of the time he didn't. So, by the time Caro is of marriageable age, their credit is used up and their luck has run out.

To take herself off her father's hands, Caro finds employment as companion to a cantankerous old widow. Just about the time she's made a good start in a respectable country life, a ghost from her past shows up to upset everything. It's up to her whether to expose the rake - and, with him, her own background.

This is a fun romp through Bath, London and parts of the English countryside. I'd highly recommend it to all Austen fans... or anybody who wants to become one.

On Writing...

2007-03-22T00:53:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to "reading" Stephen King's memoir On Writing. Actually, I listened to the audiobook, which never seems like "real" reading to me. (But, at least it was read by the author.)

Anyway, I was driving along listening to the thing when this gem popped out at me...

"Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around."

Fortunately, I was on a surface street and not a highway because I was able remember this piece of wisdom until the next stoplight, when I had a moment to jot it down. (Always have a notepad and a pen handy, even in the car. Ya never know when it'll come in handy.)

Unfinished books

2007-03-12T15:55:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting article on the books Britons are most-likely to buy, but not read all the way through.

It got me to thinking about what books I've started and have just not been able to slog my way through to the end. Two that immediately came to mind were Little Women and The Secret Garden. I have read both of them all-the-way-through now - but it must have taken at least a half-dozen attempts for each one.

The funny thing is, I loved the opening chapter of both of them. I would read the opening chapter with enthusiasm. And then I'd get to chapter 2, which wasn't so great (IMHO). I might push myself to read chapter 3 - but that would be about it.

For years, these books haunted me. I could not get through them. I did finally read Little Women after the Winona Ryder movie came out. I absolutely loved the movie and that gave me the courage to attempt the book again. I read it, enjoyed it, and moved on to Little Men and Jo's Boys. Though - it may be worth noting that I've never attempted a re-read of them.

I did not get around to finishing The Secret Garden until last year - when I resolved I was going to get through all those books in the back of my closet if it killed me. I didn't think much of it, and soon got rid of the copy I'd been holding on to for all those years. However, I also discovered Heidi in my closet-raid, and thought that was a fairly good children's book - even though I'd never given it much of a fair chance when I was a kid. It's funny that I didn't like The Secret Garden, though, because I always loved the first chapter - and Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess was one of the seminal books of my childhood. (I wrote many a piece of juvenilia involving orphans and cruel boarding schools after reading that novel.)

But, I guess that's the reading life. You win some, you lose some.

So, what are some books that you could never get through?

ALWAYS BACK UP

2007-03-12T15:34:00.000-04:00

Here's a lesson to all you would-be authors out there...

When you think it's about time to make a back-up copy of your manuscript on CD-ROM. Do it. Right then. Don't put it off because you're busy and you have a million other things to think about.

I almost made a CD with my latest TOTK draft Saturday afternoon - and didn't. By Saturday night it was too late. In a completely boneheaded move, I somehow managed to delete that draft from my hard drive without noticing - and then I destroyed the only other copy I had of it by overwriting my flash drive with documents from my hard drive.

All in the name of "backing up my files"!

Ironic isn't it.

Unfortunately, yesterday when I noticed what I had done, I could only rage and cry and reinstall my latest copy from the end of January.

It could have been much worse. I could have lost everything, if I hadn't bothered to make backups at all. I'm only out the work of the last month and a half - which, unfortunately, has been some of the most productive I've had in recent years.

I'm not back to square one - but I feel like I did get kicked back a couple of squares on four very important scenes.

I had been thinking I would soon be announcing that this draft was OVA' and that publication was just a bit closer to reality.

Now, all I can do is paraphrase Winston Churchill as a word of warning to other writers:

"Always back up. Always back up. Always, always, always back up things, great or small, large or petty."

Rutherford's first cousin?

2007-03-02T17:50:00.000-05:00

In the vein of Edward Rutherford, I have to recommend The Children of First Man by James Alexander Thom.

This is also a multi-generational epic, exploring the legend of Prince Madoc, a 12th Century Welsh prince some people believe may have colonized America centuries before Columbus arrived.

Thom vividly imagines the kinds of trouble an expedition of Welsh refugees crashing onto American soil at that time might have caused. His group of pre-Colombian settlers causes almost as much upheaval as their European cousins did later, but there are too few of them to overthrow existing societies. Instead, over several generations, they become assimilated into Native American culture, and eventually become known as the Mandan people - a tribe early sociologists believed had European ancestors.

Whether or not the legend is true, it makes for a fascinating story - and it will leave you wondering if maybe, just maybe, that's how it really happened.

Rutherford Rules

2007-03-02T17:35:00.000-05:00

Sarum by Edward Rutherford
London by Edward Rutherford
The Forest by Edward Rutherford

In case you haven't guessed by now, I'm a bit of an Anglophile. (It must have something to do with all those hours spent watching Masterpiece Theatre as a child). I love historical novels, particularly those set in the British Isles, and these three are like taking a travelogue through ancient times.

They aren't really related, except the author wrote them all in a similar style. He takes a few fictional families and weaves their stories into real historical events through the centuries. For example, during Sarum's 10,000-year time frame, we see characters and their descendants build Stonehenge, the Roman Baths at Bath, and Salisbury Cathedral. They also fight in the Norman invasion, the American Revolution and World War II. It wraps up in the mid-1980s, with Prince Charles kicking off a campaign to restore the Cathedral spire.

Rutherford often gets compared to James Mitchner, who wrote the same sort of epic, multi-generational stories, but I think he's better - mainly because he doesn't spend half the book telling you about volcanoes and beavers before the story gets going. He starts out right away with people.

He also has written two books in recent years about Ireland - which I can't recommend because I haven't gotten to them yet. (Me bad.) I'm sure they're just as good as the three that already have a permanent place on my keeper shelf, though.

I've changed my mind about Lucia St. Clair Robson

2007-02-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

You may recall my favorable review of Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson, and how I cautioned at the end not to expect much from her other books.

Well, I was wrong. At least about one of them.

Last weekend, I read Shadow Patriots, her most recent foray into historical fiction. And I loved it.

Like Ride the Wind, this one is a bit of a tear-jerker. But also like Ride the Wind it competely drops you into another time and place alongside a sympathetic heroine.

In this case, the time and place is New England, 1776. The Colonies might be going crazy with Revolution fever, but none of the hoopla of War impresses 17-year-old Kate Darby much. She's Quaker and believes its best to leave the politics of this world to others. Then she meets the very suave, very handsome Major John Andrè, aide to British General Howe, and her brother Seth runs off to join George Washington's army, becoming a secret agent.

Eventually, Kate comes to realize her heart does lie with the Patriot's cause - and with one of their army's master spies. Before she knows it, she's in on the intelligence game, risking her life to pass on military secrets, hoping to give the American army a chance at winning the war.

Robson based Kate's story on a mystery that has intrigued historians for 200 years. There was "a lady," code-named 355, who worked in George Washington's spy network during the Revolutionary War. No one really knows who she was, or what her eventual fate was - but Robson weaves the legends about her into this tale that bears more than a passing resemblance to an 18th-Century version of Alias. (Although Kate, unlike Sydney Bristow, doesn't know karate.)

The book is a little slow-going at first. We don't actually meet Kate until chapter four. And I think Robson got a little carried away, trying to include all the colorful historical characters of the period. But you will get caught up in Kate's story; Seth's too. And, I hope, in the sweet story of Kate's first romance. (Her suitor can outrun British soldiers, but he's so smitten with her, he trembles when she's nearby.)

I'm never going to be a fan of Mary's Land, Light a Distant Fire, or Walk in my Soul, but I'm happy to know Ride the Wind wasn't just a fluke.

Quiz Time

2007-01-28T18:58:00.000-05:00

Personally, I thought I was more Brianna...

Which woman from the Outlander series are you?

You are Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser. You are resourceful, practical and a strong woman. You're not afraid to stand up for yourself or do whatever is needful for those you love, whatever the risk to yourself. You have a gift for healing and you are a faithful lover.
Take this quiz!

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Here's the other thing, Alex Kingston has never been my idea of Claire Fraser. No, Claire has to be somebody like Julia Ormond:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

2007-01-27T19:42:00.000-05:00

This is another of those stories that was simple enough to enjoy as a fifth-grader - but complex enough in theme for me to enjoy as an adult. It examines Puritan culture through the eyes of a complete outsider.

Kit Tyler was raised in the tropical paradise of Barbados by an indulgent grandfather. When he dies, her only options are marriage to a man she doesn't love or a long trip to the cold shores of Connecticut, where an aunt she has never met immigrated with her family years ago. She chooses the latter - having no idea of the culture-shock she's about to experience.

In stern Connecticut Colony, life is all about clean, sober living and manual labor. A woman who shows up in colorful silks, as Kit does, is viewed as highly suspect. She even knows how to swim! Everyone knows only witches can float in water!

But fortunately, Kit is able to meet some like-minded souls. There's an abused little girl, a ship captain's son - and Hannah, the old Quaker woman who lives as a hermit down by Blackbird Pond. Kit's friendships with them make life bearable, but they make her neighbors distrust her even more... Maybe even enough to think she's casting spells about town.

It's when her life is on the line that she discovers where she truly belongs.

Great book, that still has a lot of relevant things to say.

Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi

2007-01-27T19:20:00.000-05:00

Before Anya Seton, there was Ann Rinaldi.

Well, that's not exactly true. Anya Seton published her last novel long before my favorite young adult historical author started her career - but I discovered Rinaldi before Seton. When I was in high school, she was one of my favorite authors. I couldn't get enough of her slices of early-American life - especially this one about a young girl surviving the Revolutionary War.

The story is about Jemima Emerson, daughter of a staunch Rebel family in 1770s Trenton. However, loyalties aren't always clear-cut in wartime. Jemima's older sister is married to a British soldier, and her parents employ that sister's old beau - John Reid, a handsome, young British sympathizer - as Jemima's tutor.

Jemima can't stand John. And, with war in the air, she can't understand why her father would hire a Tory in a position of influence over her.

But appearances can be deceiving - her parents know a secret about John that she's about to stumble onto. And that's going to change everything between them.

I've read reviews of this book that don't like the premise of its main romance, but I've never a problem with it. My only real concern is how quickly it zips through the last four years of the War. The epilogue sums up a whole lot of experience into one neat, little package that I would have preferred to have followed in narrative. But I suppose that would have made the book far too long by pre-Harry Potter young adult standards. Anyway, it's a minor quibble about a fine book.

Another YA Saturday Night

2007-01-27T18:58:00.000-05:00

I decided to add some more of my young adult favorites tonight, starting with Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt.

Julie isn't your typical teenager. She's quite literate and serious minded - and comes by it honestly; her father and step-mother are college professors and the maiden aunt who raised her teaches at a one-room schoolhouse in the country. That doesn't mean she doesn't suffer through your normal growing pains, though.

This story takes her from feisty primary schooler to high school senior. We mourn her mother's death with her. feel the loss she feels when the older sister she idolizes marries, and enjoy the playground escapades she gets into with her brother and his friend, Danny Trevort. Along the way, we come to appreciate her strict Aunt Cordelia, as she does, and learn about Cordelia's one, true, failed romance. Julie also has a gallant and alcoholic Uncle Haskell, Cordeilia's brother, who always claims to be writing, but who never seems to finish his opus. We learn to pity him, as Julie does as she matures into the writer she wants to be.

Julie's story comes from an era much slower-moving than ours. Its unfolding takes a while. But it's worth it. The ending is perfect.

Jane Eyre

2007-01-24T18:58:00.000-05:00

Since Sunday, I've been wondering how long I can stand it before I reread Jane Eyre. I read it once, in high school, and didn't much care for it - despite the glowing recommendation of my mother. She's pretty much a non-reader, but she loves Jane.

I, however, didn't much care for the book, and didn't really care for the movie version I saw once either. Only Jasper Fforde's silly take on it has ever piqued my interest.

However, the new Masterpiece Theatre version has me hooked. I know how it ends - and I still can't wait until the conclusion airs.

The End of Books? I hope not!

2007-01-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

This seems to be a reoccurring theme. Over the last week or so, several of the blogs I follow have had entries on the move away from the printed word. We have "information" now. We don't need "books" anymore.

See here and here to find out what I'm talking about.

Call me an old fart (I'm in my late 20s), but I'm not sure if I'll ever want to read a book off a computer screen. I love sitting in a chair, breathing in the smell of pages. Frankly, I'm sick of doing absolutely everything on my computer. No, I don't want to do my banking or buy my stamps online. I'd go absolutely stir crazy if I couldn't get out of the house sometimes - and going to the bank or the post office often makes a pleasant excuse.

I'm not saying I don't like the convenience of being able to check accounts online, but some things I just want to do in person. I'm a writer. I read blogs. I spend a lot of time in front of my computer already. But I'm not the sort of person who can spend all day there happily. I get more exhausted spending 9 to 5 at a computer screen than I do actually moving around in the world.

This may be one of the reasons that my account at Second Life lasted less than a week before I told them to cancel me. I just could not see myself spending hours at a time in a fantasy world when there's so much to do out here in "First Life"...

... Like read a book.

An oldie, but goodie

2007-01-15T22:55:00.000-05:00

I've been slowly rereading The Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch the last week or two and have finally concluded it is one of my favorite books.

It took me forever to come to that decision, though, because this nutty family saga is not an easy book to love at first. The first time I read it, I set it down not knowing what to think of it.

My fascination with all-things John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford first directed me to The Wheel of Fortune a couple of years ago because, while ostensibly it's a family saga about this zany clan of aristocrats called the Godwins living on the Welsh/English border in the early part of the 20th Century, in reality, it's about the 14th Century royal Plantagenets. Every character in the book has some counterpoint in the courts of King Edward III and Richard II:

"Robert Godwin" = Edward, the Black Prince
His wife "Ginerva" = Edward's wife, Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent
His brother "Johnny" = John of Gaunt, while Johnny's beautiful mistress Bronwen = Katherine in disguise
"Kester" is Richard II
"Harry" is Henry IV
And "Hal" is Henry V.

I still marvel when I think about how how well Howatch translated events from one century to another. A concept this crazy should not work this well.

Another thing is, the book doesn't just have one narrator - or even two or three. No fewer than six members of the Godwin clan get a chance to tell a part of the story. And each section builds on the points of view that came before it. You only get to hear the deepest thoughts and motivations of one character at a time, but then you move on to another narrator and get a completely different perspective on the character and events you just followed. It can be a frustrating way of telling a story (how I wanted to know what Bronwen was thinking sometimes! You get to hear from nearly everyone else.) - but it's also fascinating to get a new perspective every few hundred pages or so. You're guaranteed to change your opinion of each Godwin about half a dozen times - sometimes even more than once in a chapter.

As I said before, this book isn't an easy one to love. It especially gets bogged down in "Hal's" section as he tries to play amateur detective and solve a murder mystery from a previous generation. But the more times I read it, the more I get hooked on the characters and their obsessions. It's easy to believe that if we could jump into a time machine to the 14th Century, we'd find Howatch got her psychological "facts" just about right.

Literary speed dating

2007-01-06T11:38:00.000-05:00

Now here's an idea.

It does bring up the interesting point of what kind of book I think the man of my dreams would be a fan of... or what kind of tome I'd take to an speed dating event like this, myself. Somehow Katherine seems like a little too heavy-handed for a 15-minute first date. ("In my favorite book a handsome knight falls in love with a beautiful commoner and they wind up more-or-less happily-ever-after. Yes, my life is grounded in reality.")

I think maybe I'd hide behind the literary safety Gilead or The Good Earth: two books I do happen to love, but don't involve princes or fairy tale endings.

Sweetgrass by Jan Hudson

2006-12-30T19:01:00.000-05:00

I discovered Sweetgrass when I was 11 and immediately fell for its vivid prose. I've read it over and over again and still love its mix of innocent romance, medical drama, and Blackfoot culture.

It starts out simple: Sweetgrass just wants to be able to convince her father that she's mature enough to marry, and that her old playmate Eagle Sun would make a better husband than any of the old men of her band who already have several wives. Little does she know she's about to take part in a much bigger struggle, one with life or death consequences that will change her family forever.

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

2006-12-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

The Perilous Gard is about a girl who's been sent away to a castle that's full of all kinds of mysterious happenings: disappearing heiresses, pilgrims trekking to a wishing well, and sinister strangers lurking about in the forest.

Kate doesn't really believe the superstitious stories she hears about the "fairy folk" who live near Elvenwood until she finds herself a captive of the People of the Hill - an ancient, mystical tribe who are still practicing the old Celtic religion during the Elizabethan age.

I can't say I'm usually a big fan of this type of thing, but Kate's just the kind of intelligent heroine I most enjoy reading about, and her love interest is just as compelling. It's worth a look, even if you don't normally like fantasy.

The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye

2006-12-30T18:40:00.000-05:00

I decided to turn my attention to children's lit tonight and share with you some of my favorite books for kids and young adults. These are the ones that came from the "Books I'm not supposed to like anymore (but still do)" section of my old Poohba's Bibliotèque website.

The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye can truly be called an upside-down fairy tale. There are certain rules and expectations about princesses: they must be blonde, slender, beautiful, and gentle - and poor Amy doesn't fit the bill. At her christening, Princess Amy's fairy godmother decided to proclaim her "ordinary," so instead of growing up like her six perfect older sisters, she turns into a freckled tomboy that no respectable prince wants to marry.

That suits Amy just fine. Being ordinary, she can run off and have adventures her sisters couldn't even dream of - and she winds up with the best husband in the end, just being herself.

I have to admit this book was one of my inspirations for Thorn of the Kingdom - though it's much funnier and more clever than anything I've ever written.

If you've ever read Kaye's The Far Pavilions you might be surprised to know she also wrote this children's book in such a completely different style. I hate this cover art, by the way, because it makes it look like Amy's about 5. She's actually a teenager through most of the story.

Inspiring Abby

2006-12-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

Since I provided some thoughts about where the characters of Tholly and Pierre came from ages ago, I thought it was only fair to give you some insight into how the character of Abby developed.

My original concept of Thorn of the Kingdom was that it was a love story between Abby and Tholly. Even after that relationship ends, it's still the driving force of everything else that occurs. But, over time, I've come to see TOTK much more as "Abby's story." Tholly is an important part of it, but he isn't her whole life.

It may surprise you to know that I didn't originally intend to write TOTK from Abby's perspective. I thought the narrative would be mostly about her, but with a few chapters focusing on settings where she couldn't possibly be present. I didn't like writing first-person stories and hadn't attempted one in years.

However, just a page or two in, I knew something wasn't working. The third-person narration was lifeless. To save a story I knew I had to write, I took a deep breath and started writing it a different way. It's strange, once I made that critical decision, Abby's voice was just there. The more I wrote about her, the more I felt I knew her.

... And the rest is history.

In my writing notebook, I keep several pictures of Abby. I think this photo of Liv Tyler in Lord of the Rings captures Abby in a wistful mood. Perhaps this is how she looked when she met Tholly in the empty corridor the night of the grand ball, or perhaps she's in the midst of some philosophical debate with Pierre. The only thing wrong with it, is Liv doesn't have enough red in her hair.

A Mystery Quote

2006-12-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

I hate writing. I love having written.

When I went looking for a refresher on who actually said this, I found competing stories. You most often see it attributed to Dorothy Parker, but I've also found evidence that Edna St. Vincent Millay and Robert Louis Stevenson said it.

Whoever did, knew what they were talking about... though I find it applies to many areas of life.

I hate exercising, but love having exercised. I hate doing laundry, but I love having laundered. I find it can be used in almost any situation.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T01:06:00.000-05:00

Here's an old favorite to get you in the mood.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

I love the voice of the unnamed narrator in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She really tells it like it is, calling the Herdman family "absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world."

She should know. She and her younger brother - and all of Woodrow Wilson School - have been terrorized by the six unruly Herdman siblings (who "lie, steal and smoke cigars - even the girls") for what seems like forever. They all have learned the tricks of staying out of the Herdmans' way.

But then little bro, Charlie, tired of having goodies stolen from his lunchbox, tells Leroy Herdman that the minister gives kids all the cake and cookies they want at Sunday School.

Inevitably, all six Herdmans show up at church the next Sunday... And the next thing you know they have the leading roles in the traditional (read: boring) Sunday School Christmas pageant, the fire department has to be called in, and the minister's running around town in his bathrobe.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has been a holiday tradition at my house forever. It's a funny, funny story, but it also carries a deeper meaning. The Herdmans remind us Christmas is about more than just trappings and traditions.

As Gladys Herdman says it, "Hey, unto you a child is born!"

Bill Bryson: Cranky, but Funny

2006-12-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

I was just reading that Bill Bryson was recently honored with the Order of the British Empire, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to honor him on the blog.

In The Lost Continent, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, and Notes From a Small Island, Iowa-born Bryson takes us through the absurdities of life and travel in the nation of his birth, and in his adopted country of Great Britain. Nothing is safe from his scrutiny - not vehicle cupholder design, not bad food, and certainly not tourist traps that fail to live up to expectations.

Lost Continent and Notes are basically travelogues. Bryson covers 38-states in the Continental U.S. in the first, and almost the whole of Great Britain in the second. Stranger is more contemplative; a series of essays he wrote on U.S. life to a British newspaper. Some have called them mean-spirited, (and Bryson does come off as a bit cranky now and again), but mostly they're just funny. His snide observations give it to you the way it really is.

These are the only three of his books I have read, but I'm eager to tackle his other travelogues, his books on the wackiness of the English language, and even his ambitious-sounding A Short History of Nearly Everything.

He's a funny, funny man.

< >< >

Food for Thought

2006-12-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.
- Oswald Chambers

Do I even have an Inner Troll?

2006-12-16T12:49:00.000-05:00

I entered Miss Snark's latest Crapometer with a hook for TOTK last night. She posted her response this morning.

Not exactly what I was hoping for - but at least she didn't tell me I can't write. I can see a few place where the hook needs some "punching-up". (There's a sentence I never thought I'd write!)

Top Ten Books I've Been Meaning to Reread

2006-12-13T23:32:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy fall, going back to school and all. Not only has my fun writing fallen to the wayside, so has my entertainment reading. I have a whole stack of unread books by my chair and a list of dozens more that I'd love to find the time for.

Still, as much as I want to read new material, I'd also love the chance to go back and read some old faves.

Here (in no particular order) are some I've been thinking about a lot lately and just haven't gotten to yet:

1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
4. Avalon by Anya Seton
5. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
6. Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
7. The White Mountains by John Christopher
8. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
9. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

C.S. Lewis once said...

2006-12-13T23:19:00.000-05:00

I love this quote:

"You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me."
- C.S. Lewis

Love Books? Need a Good Laugh?

2006-12-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

I can honestly say that the Thursday Next books by Welsh author Jasper Fforde are some of the most intelligent gut-busters I've ever read.

Detective stories don't normally do much for me - but crime thrillers set in an alternate universe where characters from famous books can (and do) get kidnapped, cloned dodos and neanderthals wander and people can get arrested for fooling around with Shakespeare - now that's entertainment.

The Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten) are kind of a cross between hard-boiled crime novels, literary exposés, and the silliest political statements you'll ever find. Thursday (yes, that's her real name) is a "literary detective" in (as the book jacket copy calls it) "a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985." Her job involves tracking down the bad guys who perpetrate crimes against books - such as kidnapping Jane Eyre right out of the pages of her own novel.

I'm convinced Jasper Fforde must have a very interesting mind to think up all of this stuff. He's recently moved on to a second, equally-loony series based on crimes against nursery rhyme characters.

If you've ever wanted to jump into the pages of a favorite book, you need to give these a try. My favorites are actually number 2 and 3.

The Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland

2006-12-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

This book is all about the characters.

It could have so easily just been another anachronistic, Medieval love triangle about a Welsh king, a queen he married for politics, and a courtier who fights the growing attraction he feels for the queen because the king is his oldest and dearest friend.

(Getting any Camelot vibes yet?)

There's where the similarities end, though. Gwirion (the friend) isn't exactly Sir Lancelot. He's more like the court jester; a perpetual adolescent who's always up to some prank or other. Noble (the king) keeps him around because Gwirion amuses him, but also because when they were boys, Gwirion once went through a terrible experience to save Noble's life. The horrors Gwirion survived are alluded to in the prologue, but never really fleshed out. However, the incident does add depth to the men's friendship and go a long way towards explaining how Gwirion and Noble grow to be like they are.

As you might imagine, Gwirion's less than thrilled when Noble decides to marry. There goes all their bachelor fun. What's worse is Noble's bride is the simpery, little niece of his worst enemy. Gwirion doesn't think much of Isabel from the start - and the feeling is completely mutual.

Isabel isn't completely happy with her husband either once she realizes Noble never intended to give up his playboy ways just because she entered the picture. Simply said, she and Gwirion don't stay worst enemies forever. Most of the suspense of the second half of the book comes from whether they can keep their love affair a secret from their friend and king - and what the sometimes-cruel Noble would ever do if he found out.

Just when you find yourself despising Noble for being a callous adulterer - or Isabel, for being judgmental - or Gwirion, for going too far with his tomfoolery, Galland turns around and creates a completely different view of a sympathetic character. It's been a long time since I've read about such three-dimensional people in a novel.

I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened to them.

And the denouement... Well, it's stunning. I don't think I can say too much more without spoiling it.

This is why I always liked Captain Picard better...

2006-12-03T15:14:00.000-05:00


Now Jean-Luc, he appreciated books. He'd keep his leather-bound copy of Shakespeare sitting on his desk while he worked - even though he could have called up anything he could have possibly wanted to read on the 24th Century version of Project Gutenberg. But, James T. Kirk apparently was anything but a bibliophile.

It's December 1

2006-12-01T18:36:00.000-05:00

So, I failed miserably at NaNoWriMo this year.

It turns out - yeah, I really was crazy thinking I had time to write a novel last month. I had six major class assignments due either in November or the first week in December. And for some reason they took priority...

I wrote 3,767 words on the first two days of the NaNoWriMo quest and then completely pooped out. My profile page bar graph, which is supposed to resemble a staircase, instead looks like a pathetic, weenie plateau.

It's a bummer, because I liked the two chapters I actually completed. My writer's group laughed at all the right places when I read Chapter One to them, which was really quite gratifying. The group members even seemed to enjoy my explanation of why I changed my main character's name from "Mary-Anne" to "Mary Anne". (Well, duh, "Mary Anne" counts as two words, while the hyphenated "Mary-Anne" is only one.)

The "novelette" isn't in my normal "style," for sure. It's just fun. I was looking forward to "writing without a net," so to speak. My plot was wide open and I had no road map - unlike last year when I spent the last couple weeks of October outlining the whole thing.

I guess it just wasn't meant to be - though I hope "someday" I'll be able to add on to The Crazy Grad Student Who Thinks She Has Time to Write a Novel.

But, before then, I want to share what I started. I hope you enjoy it:

The Crazy Grad Student Who Thinks She Has Time to Write a Novel
Chapter One

Mary Anne stared at the empty computer screen, almost certain that it was staring back at her. She tapped her pencil against the case of her laptop and wondered if that could possibly hurt the computer.

Focus, girl, she told herself. Focus. This novel isn’t going to write itself. A sudden whir of the hard disk answered, as if taunting her.

Plot. Characters. That’s what I need, she said to herself. But who am I kidding. I’m in grad school; I don’t have time for this. I should be doing my Shakespeare paper right now.

“To Nano, or not to Nano, that is the question,” she said out loud, and then laughed, feeling quite a wit. No one else was in the room. She could laugh at her own lame jokes if she wanted to.

But just as quickly as it came, her good humor left her. “What I need - is a plot,” she said, flicking the pencil between her fingers, trying to mimic a majorette’s baton. “Can’t have a novel without a plot, after all.”

Setting down her pencil, she clicked the Internet Explorer button on her toolbar and Yahoo’s main screen came up. Perhaps she would find some inspiration online. But, as she scrolled through pages at Barnes and Noble.com, she only grew more despondent. All the good stories had already been written. “Yeah, good luck coming up with the next Mr. Darcy or Rhett Butler,” she sighed. “Heck, I couldn’t even come up with Stephanie Plum. How great IS that anyway - naming all your books in order with numbers in the title.”

She looked at Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books and wondered why she couldn’t have a mind that worked like his. Detectives solving fictional murders and disappearances, affecting the outcome of classic books - that’s brilliant. Why couldn’t I have thought up something like that? Why can’t I kidnap Jane Eyre right this instant?

Uh, November would be a good month for plagiarism, she thought. But I don’t want to be the next Kaavya Viswanathan - or even the next James Frey. “Though if I could get an Oprah deal...

“No. Focus,” she reminded herself, but surfed on over to FictionPress.com, where she had once had moderate success writing fantasy stories, anyway. “Who am I kidding, I can’t even come up with another K’ Adorna,” she sighed, recalling the heroine of her most popular story and its three sequels. If only she hadn’t killed off K’Adorna and her mate, Galorn, in the last epilogue.

She briefly considered resurrecting them, Sherlock Holmes style, but shot the idea down, vehemently. All she needed was to have to write more about that bratty daughter of theirs, Galorna. Mary Anne hated Galorna with a passion only rivaled by her affection for Ben and Jerry’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. She wondered why she’d ever listened to reviewers’ demands to see K’Adorna and Galorn’s children.

And then, returning to tapping the casing of her laptop, she wondered why she’d chosen to kill off the parents, when it was the daughter she couldn’t stand.

No matter. What she needed now was a really fresh, really creative idea that would get her through the next 30 days of writing. She knew from previous experience, 50,000 words didn’t seem like an awful lot of words to write in one month’s time - except when you were deep in the middle of writing them. December 1 would hit and she’d wonder what she’d been stressing herself out about all month - unless she woke up Christmas Eve and discovered she’d flunked out of the English program she’d tried so hard to get into. Why, exactly, WAS she doing this, anyway? “I’m insane,” she muttered for about the fifth time since turning on her computer an hour earlier, “Certifiably insane.”

Maybe she needed to build her novel around a deep theme. Oppression. Injustice. Slaughtered manatees.

No. No. A real idea. Something big. Something bold. Something that had never been done before.

“Fairies,” she said, suddenly - and just as quickly took it back. “No, that’s a terrible idea. Everybody does fairies.”

She turned to the battered copy of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” sitting on the desk beside her. “Even The Bard did fairies.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pencil still in hand. “It’s not like this is something I’m going to want to publish someday. I just want to have a little fun in the middle off all this stress from school. I just wish I could come up with this fantastic idea, and write something no one else in this competition is even going to dream of.

“I wish,” she said, thinking of Shakespeare - and with one final tap of her pencil eraser on the keyboard, “to write something fantastic and silly and romantic and heroic, all together.”

“Well that’s not so hard to do,” said a very proper-sounding person from within her computer. “Goodness, the fuss you make of it. Why these things practically write themselves!”

Mary Anne scrunched up her nose. She had imagined that, of course. She hadn’t realized she was putting herself under enough stress to begin hearing voices - but perhaps she had a low genetic tolerance for the stuff.

There was a knock, sounding just as if someone was rapping against the inside of a window. “Hulloo dear,” the mellow voice from within her viewscreen sounded off again, “I’m sure you can hear me. Wake up, dear. It’s time to get writing.”

Mary Anne took a deep breath and forced herself to open one eye, and then the other. The web browser had disappeared from her screen, replaced by the head and shoulders of purple-cloaked cartoon character that - for the life of her - looked exactly like Cinderella’s...

“Well hulloo dear,” the figure smiled, “I’m your fairy godmother and I’m here to answer your wish.”

“Exactly what wish was that?” Mary Anne stumbled, trying to recall all the mutterings of the last hour. The reality of the situation had yet to hit her. She was only hoping the cartoon made no mention of the rats and asses she’d mentioned in connection with her least-favorite British lit lecturer.

The round woman’s rosy cheeks beamed with delight. “Why the wish you made just now, of course. The one about your novel...”

“Or lack thereof,” Mary Anne mumbled.

“Fantastic, silly, romantic and heroic,” the cartoon, marked them off on her fingers, one-by-one. “Why that’s no trouble at all.”

Mary Anne arched a brow, and leaned her elbows against the desk. “Fantastic, silly, romantic and heroic? That’s impossible. No one could do it. That doesn’t even sound good when you say it a second time. It sounds like a ridiculous book no one would ever want to read.”

“Well, certainly it would be a silly one,” her fairy godmother admitted, nodding rather earnestly.

Mary Anne shook her head, “Forget it. I don’t really want to write that book. In fact, I don’t think I even really want to do Nano anymore. Forget everything.” Her eyes were drooping - and she hadn’t even begun taking notes for the Shakespeare paper yet. Her noon class the next day suddenly loomed before her. “I knew this was a stupid idea,” she said, snapping the lid of her laptop case shut with a decisive “click” and turning to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“What fools these mortals be,” she quoted rather ironically, flipping to Act I, Scene II and the play’s introduction to Bottom the Weaver cum actor.

But before she could even focus in on Quince’s first line, “Is all our company here?” a blinding flash filled her living room.

“That was rather rude,” said the voice at the center of all of it. “I travelled all this way - through Fairyland and Neverland both - to get here to help you, and you won’t even bid me a proper goodnight?”

It took Mary Anne some time to gather her chin off the floor once she realized the rather plump and dowdy figure of her fairy godmother no longer inhabited her computer screen - but was now standing - all five feet of her - a few inches away from her couch. “Y-y-you’re real,” she finally stammered, “but how?”

The fairy waved her wand, sending a cascade of sparks down into the pile of Mary Anne’s carpet. “It’s complicated - and of no matter to our present situation. I am here to help you write a better novel - by any means necessary.”

“But,” Mary Anne said, staring downward to make sure her carpet didn’t start smoldering. “I didn’t even KNOW I had a fairy godmother.”

The figure - who had become decidedly more lifelike once she was no longer pixelated - sighed. “Most people don’t, dear. We don’t show ourselves until we’re desperately needed.”

“And - coming up with a great idea for Nanowrimo counts?” Mary Anne felt her voice rise in pitch, uncertainly.

Her fairy godmother put her hands on her wide hips. “Well it certainly does if you’re protege is going to become a world-famous authoress.”

“It does?” Mary Anne felt herself sit a bit taller in her chair. “I am?”

“Well, if I have anything to say about, you will,” the fairy said with a satisfied nod, “Now, where to begin.”

Shakespeare was still open across Mary Anne’s lap. “Well, I’d love to start writing this world-famous blockbuster - but right now I’ve got other things to do. My paper’s due at noon tomorrow and I haven’t even started. I was just procrastinating earlier. It was better not being able to come up with a topic for some dumb Internet challenge than not being able to come up with a topic for a paper that’s worth a quarter of my grade.”

Again, the wand sent sparks dangerously close to Mary Anne’s upholstery. “Plenty of time for that, love. You’ll have all night to write your paper. But, first thing’s first.” The glittering light emanating from the wand changed colors from white to a strawberry pink.

“Um, how can I spend all night writing my paper if you’re going to show me how to write my novel first,” Mary Anne questioned.

The fairy’s laughter changed the color of her wand sparkles from pink to blue. “Oh my, I do have some explaining to do,” she tittered. “I nearly forgot to tell you that time as you know it has stopped - and we have all eternity to make sure we get your book EX-AACK-ET-LY right before your life resumes and you need worry about class.”

“All eternity?” Mary Anne gulped.

Her fairy godmother nodded knowingly. “These things take time. We can’t expect to craft the Great American Novel without some work, you know.

“Now, where to begin... And where is my other wand?” She began waving the sparking wand dangerously close to Mary Anne’s face as she searched for something up her voluptuous sleeve. “Ah, there it is. Now...

She winked at Mary Anne and withdrew a wand that was twice the size of her original. Drawing it about her in a circle, she enveloped both of them in a light even brighter than the one she had appeared in. “Kafkaesque!” she shouted above the sudden roar of a thousand voices. “Dickensonian!”

And then, Mary Anne and fairy godmother both, were whisked out of the comfortable living room and off to lands unknown.

Outlander: The YouTube Movie

2006-11-28T22:26:00.000-05:00

I just found out about "do-it-yourself" Outlander trailers from Herself (as Diana Gabaldon is known among the Ladies of Lallybroch). I have to say I liked this one - a summary of the first part of Outlander.

I don't know if it will make any sense to you if you haven't read the book, but whoever put it together did a nice job.

I was also impressed with another one that made creative use of Kate Beckinsdale movies and the Braveheart soundtrack. You can find that one here.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

2006-11-27T20:44:00.000-05:00

And now for something completely different...

Well, actually this one kind of is. The Blue Castle is an L.M. Montgomery book, but one a lot different from her usual fare. For one, the heroine doesn't start out as a child. Valency is almost 30 - and, as her domineering family keeps reminding her, unmarried.

Then, her doctor tells her she has a year to live - at most. Suddenly, she has an excuse to throw off her drab, dreary existence and start to make every day count.

There's a fascinating, rakish man involved, of course - though he doesn't turn out to be nearly as wicked as he seems at first. Moving into the "Blue Castle" of her dreams, Valency learns to live the life she was meant to (and uncovers a secret or two along the way).

The ending is not going to shock any long-time L.M. Montgomery fans (I saw it coming a mile away), but this book is a testament to living "the road less traveled by". A great story.

More L.M. Montgomery

2006-11-27T20:12:00.000-05:00

I had to get around to listing one of my favorite series of all-time sooner or later.

I have been a fan of the "Anne Girl" since a day when I was about 8 or 9. I caught my mom laughing uproariously over a book and it turned out she was reading Chapter II of Anne of Green Gables - the chapter that introduced the immortal Anne Shirley to the world. Well, knowing that something funny was on the way, I slogged through the very-boring first chapter of Green Gables (no modern editor would have let L.M. Montgomery get away with that) and entered the world of Anne.

Shortly thereafter I was introduced to the CBC/PBS miniseries starring Megan Follows. Between the movie (which ranks right up there with the BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice as one of the best film adaptations ever) and, with the remaining seven "Anne" books, I was hooked for life.

Trust me, if I ever have a daughter someday, she's probably going to wind up being an "Ann with an e".

Countless rereads later, I can honestly say I still enjoy visiting Green Gables (and the House of Dreams and Ingleside). I get something different out of the hijinks of Anne, her best friend Diana and her sworn enemy/later beau Gilbert Blythe every time I read them. The later novels in the series aren't just the children's books they're often shelved as (Anne's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside, especially).

One thing I always did wonder was why I found Book #4 Anne of Windy Poplars and Book #6 Anne of Ingleside too be rather flat compared to the others. I found the answer a few years ago reading a bibliography of L.M. Montgomery's work. Although Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside are chronologically Book #4 and Book #6, L.M. actually published those two last - at the insistence of her publisher and long after she'd run out of fresh ideas for Anne. They're actually comprised mainly of worked-over short stories from her early writing career (which goes a long ways towards explaining why the stories suddenly veer off in the direction of some very minor characters in spots.)

Ever since I've felt justified in recommending people read the "Anne" Books in their original order so they don't get bogged down by the weaker books:

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne's House of Dreams
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Ingleside

Reading them in this order also makes the final chapter of Anne of Ingleside that more poignant. You'll know what I mean when you get there.

My Top Three

2006-11-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

The results of this little survey are supposed to say something really important about my personality. What, I can't say - other than these are my favorite books, movies, songs etc.

1. Three songs you can — and do — listen to again and again:
1. "Beautiful Day" by U2
2. "Clocks" by Coldplay
3. "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel

2. Three movies you can — and do — watch over and over:
1. Beauty and the Beast - The best Disney film and one of the best musicals ever
2. The Phantom of the Opera - Ditto (except for the Disney part, of course)
3. The Hunt for Red October - It's just a really good movie... and it has Sean Connery. What more do you need?

3. Three dishes you would choose for your last meal:
1. Grilled salmon
2. Wild rice
3. A frozen mocha latte

4. Three most relaxing vacation spots you've ever visited.
1., 2. & 3. "Up North" (It's a Michigan thing)

5. Three books that you consider great reads:
(Like I haven't mentioned this here before)
1. Katherine by Anya Seton
2. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen

6. Three shows that you consider the best on television, past and present:
1. All time favorite? I know it makes me a nerd, but I've got to say Star Trek: The Next Generation (and not any of its much-lamer sequels, mind you.)
2. Friends
3. I made the mistake of renting Disc 1, Season 1 of Alias a little over a year ago. I have not been able to pass up a good Rambaldi story since.

LibraryThing's "Unsuggester"

2006-11-21T00:11:00.000-05:00

Here's one of my new favorite ways to waste time: LibraryThing's "Unsuggester".

Just like it sounds, it's the opposite of a "book suggester". It gives you a list of books you probably won't like, by comparing the book title you input to the shelves of LibraryThing users. You don't even have to have an account to use it; it's just for fun.

So far I've learned I probably shouldn't invest in fantasy novels, technology manuals and Christian non-fiction. I probably knew that already - although I do happen to own The Purpose-Driven Life and Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

2006-11-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

This is an obvious choice. I already told you I dig Pearl S. Buck, so, of course I'm a fan of her most acclaimed novel.

In case you somehow got through high school without having to read it, The Good Earth is the story of Wang Lung, a peasant farmer in a rural part of China yet-untouched by the modern world. Along with his good wife, O-lan (who he completely fails to appreciate), he survives flood and famine - always striving for something better. But when he gets the life of his dreams, it doesn't make him nearly as happy as he thought it would.

Putting it like that makes the book sound like a sappy, morality play. It's not. Buck shapes her simple prose so beautifully you can actually see the sweat dripping off Wang Lung and O-lan's brows as they work together in the fields. This is another book that won the Pulitzer Prize for a reason.

Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck

2006-11-20T23:47:00.000-05:00

Pearl Buck is on my short list of favorite authors (along with Anya Seton, L.M. Montgomery and Diana Gabaldon). Even a bad novel by her is still pretty good compared to most of the stuff that gets published.

Imperial Woman is based on the true story of the last Empress of China. Tzu Hsi (a contemporary of Queen Victoria)gave up the great love of her life to become one of the most powerful women in the world. It makes for a great and heartbreaking story of triumph and endurance.

I recently read another novel about Tzu Hsi, called Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min which gave me a whole other perspective on her life. It's hard to say whether I still like Imperial Woman best because it's the definitive novel on Tzu Hsi, or because it's simply the one I read first. In any case, both are worth a look.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

2006-11-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

Since I seem to be on a faith-based theme tonight, I'll stick with it and make my final recommendation of the day The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

I've loved this book since I first read it as a high school sophomore. It's another slow-mover, but one with a lot to say about friendship and the relationship between fathers and sons.

Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders are both Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn during World War II - but on first appearance, they seem to have nothing else in common. In fact, the first time they meet, during a school-league baseball game, they take such a violent dislike to each other that Danny tries to murder Reuven with a ball aimed at the head. The resulting injury puts Reuven in the hospital, but that's where he learns to appreciate his repentant attacker.

Danny is the son of an ultra-conservative rabbi and is supposed to inherit leadership of the flock someday. Unfortunately for him, he's possessed of a brilliant mind and has different plans for the way he'd like to spend his life.

Sensing that Danny is close to rebelling from his father completely, Reuven's father has secretly been mentoring him for months. Now Mr. Malter tells Reuven that Danny needs a friend like him.

And so, Reuven and Danny forge an unlikely friendship, becoming close as brothers. The Chosen takes the two boys through college graduation and into manhood during the turbulent post-War years, until Danny finally has to make the ultimate decision about his future.

The sequel, The Promise is a good follow-up, but I'd be happy simply reading this one over and over again. It's a beautiful story.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

2006-11-15T19:33:00.000-05:00

Word to the wise: Not all that much happens in Gilead. It's one of my new favorites, and even I will admit that. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic novel. It didn't win the Pulitzer Prize for nuthin'.

The premise is thus: The Rev. John Ames, pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Gilead, Iowa, is dying. He is 76, but married late and has a young son.

Fearing his child is too young to remember him as he really is, the Rev. decides he's going to fill a notebook with rembrances and musings that his son can read as an adult and know where he comes from. Gilead is comprised entirely of that series of writings.

So, really the book is a love letter about fathers and sons, mothers and brothers. And what it lacks in plot, it makes up for in mood.

One can tell the Rev. Ames has lived a good, long life; his only fear of dying is what will happen to the loved ones in his life once he is gone. He worries most about his bride - a much-younger woman who has brought him happiness in his old age - and his son, but he also tells stories about his best friend's troubled son and the dynamic he witnessed firsthand between his own father and grandfather.

Normally I find so-called "literary" novels to be pretentious and depressing. Gilead is a refreshingly-honest departure from that kind of book. I could almost imagine the clear Iowan air as I read along.

No, not a lot happens, but the Rev. Ames is able to squeeze a lot about faith and life into these pages anyway.

Two From Galilee by Marjorie Holmes

2006-11-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

Time for another series of book reviews! (I seem to only do this in fits and starts. I really should promise myself to post more often.)

We'll start off this session with a timely review. Or, at least it will be timely in a week or two.

Two From Galilee isn't quite like your typical Christmas story, though. No Scrooge. No George Bailey running through town yelling "Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!" Not even one reindeer sighting. Actually, this story doesn't feel very "Christmasy" at all, since it's set in the dry, dusty world of Palestine 2,000 years ago.

The main characters are a young Jewish couple named Mary and Joseph (you can probably see where I'm going with this.) They have been in love with each other since they were children - much to the chagrin of Mary's parents, who think she can do better for herself.

When Mary finally hits a marriageable age, her parents decide it's probably best to marry her off to one of the richest men in town. But Mary fights for Joseph. He may only be a poor carpenter, but he's the man she loves.

It takes half the book for Mary to win the argument. But no sooner than she and Joseph are officially betrothed in a legally-binding ceremony, she gets an angelic visitation and miraculously finds herself in the family way.

Mary may find herself being called "most blessed of all women," but that doesn't mean she doesn't fear the loss of all her hopes and dreams. However, she and Joseph are about to get a lesson both in love of God, and love between a man and woman.

Though this is listed as Christian fiction, it goes easy on the proselytizing, and is one of the best of the genre I've ever read. It's a rich and sensual book about a culture completely foreign to most of us, but at its heart it's the story of a love that has affected the world as we know it for all time.

NaNoWriMo, Day #1

2006-11-02T01:10:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I was thinking I had to write some 6,000 words a day to get to 50,000 in 30 days. (Math on the fly has never been my strong suit.) So, I was satisfied with the 1,889 words I wrote today, but still kind of indifferent as to whether I'd actually push myself to finish Nano this year. I did it once. That should be accomplishment enough, right?

Well, then I recalled that it's only 1,600-something that you have to write a day. And that means that - at the end of Day #1 - I'm ahead of the game.

That makes me feel good - but I think I'll feel guiltier if I don't keep it up, now.

Anyway, I tried throwing my plot (and I'm starting to develop one!) into the Plot-o-Matic and got this:

The Crazy Grad Student Who Thinks She Has Time to Write a Novel
an original concept
by Poohba

Comedy: A struggling artist teams up with a crotchety codger to take on the mafia. In the process they fall in love with four British men on welfare. By the end of the movie they run away from 49 oogly aliens and end up winning the admiration of their 3rd grade teacher, living happily ever after.
Think It's a Wonderful Life meets The Phantom of the Opera.

(I don't think the Plot-o-Matic's pull down menu choice's quite represented where I'm going with this story, but oh well. It sure makes it sound interesting, doesn't it?)

It's almost November...

2006-10-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

And you know what that means.

Nanowrimo is here!

I completed a 50,000+ manuscript called Dancer, which I really don't like - which is why you don't see it anywhere - last year. This year, with the extra demands of grad school, I don't expect to finish anywhere near as well. Besides, my focus is on TOTK right now.

But, if you're interested, you can keep track of my progress (or lack thereof) right here. My new Nano novel currently has no plot and no characters, but it does have a great title, The Crazy Grad Student Who Thinks She Has Time to Write a Novel (no, really, that's the title.) As you can tell, I'm going a bit more autobiographical this year.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

2006-10-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

Loved the movie. Loved the book. This is well worth the read, even if you've seen Clark Gable tell Vivian Leigh that he "doesn't give a damn" about a million times.

(And, if you've never seen the movie... Go rent it this instant! It's a movie that has aged much better than most Hollywood epics of the studio era. I was really surprised by how sophisticated a movie it still is the first time I saw it.)

And Tholly?

2006-10-25T19:58:00.000-04:00

I don't have as good examples for Tholly as I do for Pierre. The closest I can come is this image, from Sir Frank Dicksee's painting of Romeo and Juliet:

That's him... except his face isn't showing.

Inspiration

2006-10-25T19:25:00.000-04:00

If you're interested in how I came up with my characters. Well, mostly they evolved as I was writing them... None more than the character of Pierre, who was a total enigma to me when I began the section where he arrives into Abby's life in Thorn of the Kingdom. He revealed himself to me in layers, just as he did to Abby (whose character was a completely different story. As soon as I realized her story needed to be told from her perspective, her voice was just there.)

However, in recent trollings of YouTube, I rediscovered this Alanis Morissette video, which I remember really making an impression on me when it first came out. (I think I completely missed the point of the song, but that's okay.):

Keep a close eye on the guy on left side of the split-screen. (Yeah, I know it's the same guy on both. But he's not dressed up like the "knight in shining armor" on the right side.)

Pierre?

Well, yeah, a little bit.

Of course, my other big influence on his character was Michael Vartan's version of Lancelot in The Mists of Avalon TV movie.

(Thanks to Two Evil Monks for the photo.)

TOTK Chapter 1

2006-10-25T19:02:00.000-04:00

I feel a bit like George Lucas here, re-releasing old material. But, like Star Wars, I guess you can't beat the original. I am finding myself having a lot more sympathy for him tonight than I usually do, though.

As a viewer, I want the movies I saw as a kid. I don't care if the special effects date it. But as the creator of a piece of (is it pretentious to call it "art"?), I look at this version, and all I can see is the flaws. I itch to correct them, or present you with my latest draft.

But here it is... From February 2003... Not seen since last summer on FictionPress... is the original beginning of Part I: Orphaned, Chapter 1.

“Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?"
King Henry VI, Part I
Act 2, Scene 4

PART I:
ORPHANED

I have often given thanks that we cannot see into our futures. That we do not wake in the morning and realize that this day will change our lives in ways we cannot even imagine.

Some changes, of course, we could look forward to. Others, we are glad to put off as long as we can. And it is those that I am most thankful we do not portend.

When I think this way, I remember one day in particular. It altered the course of my life forever. For if events had happened differently, I would have never met Tholly at all.

It seems strange to think that Tholly is rightfully King Bartholomew II, now. He will always be Tholly to me.

But, that cold mid-winter’s morning when I was six years old, I was unaware of Tholly, the palace or even events occurring in my own household that were destined to change my life.

I remember hearing strange murmurings in my dreams. It wasn't Mama and Papas’ voices that I heard rising and falling, but they seemed somehow familiar.

I tried to force my eyes open, but they were as if someone had sewn them shut. At times, I seemed conscious, as though I could actually see myself lying there, auburn hair bathed in the sunlight from the room’s lone window, small body twisted up in sweaty bedclothes. But it must have just been the hammering of my head, tricking me into thinking so.

There were faces at times, in front of me. I thought. I was sure of nothing. Nothing seemed real.

I was dreaming again.

And then a horse's neigh came from outside and my eyes flew open. That had been real. A horse was tied up at the hitching post outside the shop, I could have sworn by it. I could even hear it stomping its hooves in the snow.

That could only mean that someone had stopped by the shop to trade. I listened as hard as I could, but only muffled tones came from downstairs. I did not hear Papa's deep voice bartering with a customer.

I reached one of my still-chubby hands up to my eyelids, rubbed, and realized my eyes were no longer throbbing. I tested my head by rolling it from side to side on the pillow and felt none of the stabbing pain that had been with me for...… for I didn'’t know how long.

The sun fell on me, but it was cold winter sun and my sweat-soaked nightshift gave me no warmth. I shivered as I lifted the covers off and slid my feet to the side of the rope-bed, but I had to know who was downstairs. Perhaps there was a thief pilfering through Papa’s hard-earned trade goods.

My feet made contact with the rough-hewn boards. I held on to the side of the bed to steady myself as I rose, and made my way out of the small bedroom onto the landing, balancing against the wall as I went.

My head no longer pounded, but I felt strangely lightheaded. The landing opened up to the shop below and I had to grasp the wooden railing when I saw how far I had to fall.

The shop was as dark as always, with only the sunshine filtering down from upstairs, the fire, and what glow came from the chinks around the door to light the room. It took my tired eyes a while to adjust to the coziness and see the three figures gathered around the fire, talking softly.

Two I recognized as Cunningham and his wife.

Cunningham was a neighbor, and I knew Papa considered him a friend. His wife, however, was the bossy matron of a brood of twelve. The youngest Cunningham was my playmate, but her mother had always intimidated me. I shrank next to the stair post; at the sight of her, thankful Cunningham'’s wife seemed intently focused on the conversation.

The third figure was an elegant stranger. The woman’s heavy royal blue cloak only slightly concealed an elaborately brocaded gown. Her headpiece was similarly intricate. Her neck and most of her head were wrapped with cloth as I had seen nuns wear, but instead of a habit, she wore a large circlet of wrapped blue and white cloth on the crown of her head.

I had never seen such a person in my life. Certainly this strange person must have come to our home from one of the ships in the harbor. No one in this land could own such finery. Even the richest women in my small coastal village, and I counted my own Mama among them, could only dream of brocaded silk gowns.

And yet, despite her splendor, the stranger seemed perfectly content to sit and talk with Cunningham and his wife. It was if she sat around in small merchant's dark shops everyday.

It was puzzling. I found my legs were weakening, so I lowered myself to sit on the top step and peeked through the railing, trying to listen in on the conversation.

"fevered... child... we sent for you..."

It was impossible. I could not understand half of what they were trying to say. I wondered why Mama and Papa didn't come out of their own room underneath the stairs and meet this stranger. Why were the Cunninghams sitting there in front of the fire, entertaining their guest?

Frustrated, I scooted down a few more steps, trying to get closer.

The three adults' heads spun towards me when one of the stairs creaked. How could I have forgotten the third step from the top was so noisy?

“Why it'’s the young missy, out of bed,” Cunningham exclaimed as if no one else could see that fact with their own eyes.

His wife lifted her considerable frame off of her stool and started clucking, "Abigail, what yea be doing out of bed? Yea, getting over fever." She took heavy steps up the stairs and when her breath allowed, continued, "Get back in bed... bed... I say... Yea sitting there in the draft with naked feet... Oh, if yea mama could see ye..."

I clambered to my feet, desperate to reach the safety of my bed before Mistress Cunningham reached me. But, I rose so fast, it took a moment for the room to stop spinning again. When my eyes cleared, I looked down. The stranger was looking up at me and smiling. Her well-featured face seemed so familiar somehow... especially her brilliant blue eyes. Even in the dim light, I could see eyes that matched the color of the ocean.

But that glimpse was all I got, for Mistress Cunningham had reached the top of the stairs and was forcing me back into the bedroom by the scruff of my neck.

Where do you find TOTK, anyway?

2006-10-25T18:28:00.000-04:00

Anonymous said...
I tried to find a published copy of Thorns of a Kingdom in bookstores, online, etc but I couldn't find it :-(. I reallllyyyy wanna read it. Where can I find it?

Part of the reason I started this blog was to keep my FP readers up-to-date on what's happening with TOTK, so I'm glad you asked this.

I want you to read Thorn of the Kingdom. I'm excited that you're excited about it.

Unfortunately, it isn't available anywhere online at the moment.

As I was writing the first draft, several years ago, I posted each chapter to FictionPress.com. As I got closer to what I thought was the end of the revising process, I took it down because I thought I was close to sending my manuscript off to agents and publishers. Then I decided it needed one more draft before it was "ready for prime time."

And so, my faithful readers are in limbo right now. My new goal is to begin searching for an agent before the end of the year, but the publishing business is notoriously slow, so it could be a while yet before you can order it from a bookstore.

I still have a few "Outtakes" from TOTK on my FictionPress homepage. Think of them as "deleted scenes" from a DVD. (I'm having some trouble viewing content on FictionPress right now. I don't know if it's due to their recent upgrade, or if I'm just to stupid to figure out the new features, but just to let you know you might have some troubles with it too.)

But, in the meantime, I think I'll post the original opening here, as a sign of good faith.

Thank you for your patience!
Poohba

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

2006-10-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

Epic is about the only thing to say about this story. It's intimidating just because of its size... At close to 1,500 pages, it's thicker than some Bibles. But is it worth it to read the unabridged version? I think so.

There's a lot of information in here that has nothing to do with the plot... but it contributes to the mood. And the plot, itself, is full enough.

I challenge you to name a human emotion that it not found in these pages, somewhere. From compassion to greed to desperation to anger... it's all here.

And, I also happen to love Les Mis, the musical. I wish I could have seen it on Broadway.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

2006-10-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

Golden paints a vivid portrait of Geisha life in early 20th Century Japan. How he did it, I don't know, but as you read this novel, you might find yourself wondering if it actually is a true story. It isn't, but Golden went to great pains to recreate a culture that doesn't really exist in the modern world anymore - not in the way it did before World War II when most of this novel is set.

It's one of those books that leaves you with a sigh of contentment when you finally put it down. I love that kind of book.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

2006-10-05T23:02:00.000-04:00

Don't ever compare this book to the trashy Demi Moore movie. On the surface, it is about adulterous sex, but don't expect any steamy stuff.

I don't even know how to explain this one. It gets deep into sin, guilt, pride, revenge and love.

Go ahead and skip the introduction, "The Custom House," if you want to. It really doesn't add much to the story, and has little to do with it. Go back and read it once you're done.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

2006-10-05T22:55:00.000-04:00

While we're talking plays, I might as well mention my favorite Shakespeare. Again, I have to recommend the movie version. If you haven't seen the Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson version, you need to. It's the movie that made me "get" Shakespeare for the first time and now I'm as nutty a Shakespeare nut as they come.

Anyway, the play:

Beatrice and Benedick have always hated each other. They have a war of words every time they meet.

So, of course, their friends and relatives decide they'd be perfect for each other and come up with a hysterical way to set them up! It doesn't prove too hard to do, of course. Maybe they didn't hate each other as much as they thought they did.

There's a few other plots running through (after all, it is Shakespeare), but Beatrice and Benedick are the reason to read this play. They're as witty and fun as old B.S.* gets.

(* "B.S." stands for "Bill Shakespeare." It's what my old high school English teacher used to call him.)

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

2006-10-05T22:51:00.000-04:00

Actually, this is a play... and perhaps the best story of unrequited love on record. I highly recommend the Gèrard Depardieu film version.

Cyrano is lover, poet and a fighter, but he's just too scared to tell the beautiful Roxane how he feels about her. Meanwhile, he's helping a much more handsome man woo her with the words of love that spring from his own heart. When Roxane confesses she's fallen for the poet, and not the pretty face, Cyrano may have some 'splaining to do.

It's sweet and tragic. Man, I seem to be on a "sad endings" kick tonight. Kleenex anyone?

Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson

2006-10-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

This novel is based on the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who spent most of her life with the Comanche after she was captured off her family's Texas settlement by them in 1836 at the age of 9. Fortunately, she was considered young enough to be adopted into the People and escapes the rape, murder and torture that befall her older relatives. (Word of warning: St. Clair Robson doesn't gloss that part of the story over.)

Cynthia eventually comes to the lodge of Pahayuca, a band leader of the Comanche. She eventually accepts her new identity as Naduah, Keeps Warm With Us, and comes to love her new life. She also comes to love one of the People's young leaders. Their relationship - based on friendship, desire and love - stands up with John of Gaunt and Katherine, and Jamie and Claire Fraser, as one of my favorites in literature. But anyone with a passing knowledge of late 19th Century Texan history will know their life will not have a happily-ever-after ending. The Comanche's way of existence is slowly being eradicated by the Parkers and people like them. This book is definitely a tear-jerker, but oh-so-worth the read.

The only hesitation I have in recommending this book is that others may do what I did. After reading it, I eagerly sought out St. Clair Robson's other books - and eventually came to the conclusion that she was a one-hit wonder. This was her debut novel and though I have read several of her succeeding titles, I have not found one nearly as engaging as this one. There's a new one out about the Revolutionary War that looks intriguing, but I keep picking it up and putting it back down at the bookstore, thinking I've been burned once too often by her. Maybe someday I'll work up the courage to try again.

But please don't let that discourage you from reading this book that I love.

Bummer

2006-09-02T21:11:00.000-04:00

It figures that the time I actually get around to submitting an entry to the crapometer, Miss Snark decides to only review randomly selected ones. I was #43, which didn't make the cut. Bummer.

Methinks I need to submit the query letter part to Evil Editor. He was begging for new queries the other day. Although I'm sure no other rejected Snarkling has thought of that already...

Actually, now that I've checked over there, I see Evil Editor's thought of it already. He started up a whole new blog to handle Miss Snark's overflow!

I R a Nitwit

2006-09-01T14:27:00.000-04:00

I was up 'til 3 a.m. refining my query letter and first page for Miss Snark's latest round of the dreaded Crapometer.

I had my word count at the exact 750-word limit. I even doublechecked the time on an atomic clock before sending her my entry because she had been so adamant that we weren't supposed to e-mail them before 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time today.

And then the second I clicked "send" (at 1:04:57 p.m.) I realized, NOOOOOOO! All my commas and quotation marks had been replaced by formatting gibberish just as her Snarkalicious self had specifically told us not to do!

I'm just waiting for her to officially brand me Nitwit of the Day.

Keep me away from agents who only accept e-queries. It's obvious I'm not ready for them.

"Bestselling" Out of Print books

2006-08-31T13:10:00.000-04:00

Now here's something interesting. My daily e-newsletter from Publisher's Weekly, just alerted me to this "Bestsellers List" for out of print books.

Actually, it's just a report on what out of print titles were the most requested on BookFinder.com during the last year. I'll have to see if anything I've ordered shows up on the list. Probably not. I have a hard time imagining there's much of a demand for Fortune Made His Sword by Martha Rofheart or My Lord John by Georgette Heyer.

What a great idea

2006-08-20T22:50:00.000-04:00

I just found out about this new blog today. Inspired by Evil Editor's "New Beginnings" feature, this blogger has decided to post the first 150 words of contributor's favorite novels.

That falls under fair use, right?

In any case, I'm dashing off an e-mail about Katherine right now.

My Girl Emily

2006-08-19T19:57:00.000-04:00

Emily of New Moon
Emily Climbs
Emily's Quest - L.M. Montgomery

I just reread the Emily of New Moon trilogy by L.M. Montgomery, the author best known for the Anne of Green Gables series. As much as I've always loved the Anne books, I really remember identifying with Emily as a teenager. I can still remember bawling all the way through Emily's Quest the first time I read it at age 14 because I thought the romantic misunderstandings between Emily and Teddy were so true to life. With apologies to Emily's teacher, Mr. Carpenter, I had to use italics: the book spoke to me.

Now I find myself wondering what would have happened if she'd married Dean. He was one of the most interesting characters in the series. I had a much different impression of Emily and her younger friends this time around. She seemed much saucier than I remembered her. Anne was a dreamer who found herself in trouble with the adult world often enough, but Emily often gets into her trouble by making snarky comments and defying her relations. Her bohemian best friend, Ilse, is a far cry from sweet, Diana Barry.

Emily's childhood sweetheart (there always seems to be a childhood sweetheart in L.M. Montgomery books) was not exactly the true-hearted Gilbert Blythe either. (Gilbert may have escorted Christine Stuart around Redmond College events for a while, but he wasn't the biggest flirt on Prince Edward Island.)

Supposedly, the Emily books are the most autobiographical of all Montgomery's novels. I believe it. I've read her childhood journals and some of Emily's experiences are taken almost word-for-word from her own.

Perhaps you have to be going through teenage angst to fully appreciate this story, but I still enjoyed my reread. I'd recommend Emily to any young, aspiring writer. Emily's Quest has one of the best writer's encouragements I still have ever read. I have the last words of that wise educator, Mr. Carpenter hanging on my wall, within sight of my computer:

"No use trying to please everybody. No use trying to please critics. Live under your own hat. Don't be led away by those howls about realism. Remember - pine woods are just as real as pigsties and a darn sight pleasanter to be in. You'll get there sometime - you have the root of the matter in you. And don't tell the world everything. That's what's the matter with our literature. Lost the charm of mystery and reserve."

Reading Lists

2006-08-05T20:51:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me the other day how many of the BBC's Top 100 books I've read. So, I sat down and made a list:

2. Pride and Prejudice
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four
9. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
10. Jane Eyre
12. Wuthering Heights
17. Great Expectations
18. Little Women
21. Gone With the Wind
22. Henry Potter and the (Sorcerer's) Stone
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
33. The Pillars of the Earth
36. Treasure Island
38. Persuasion
40. Emma
41. Anne of Green Gables
43. The Great Gatsby
46. Animal Farm
47. A Christmas Carol
51. The Secret Garden
62. Memoirs of a Geisha
63. A Tale of Two Cities
70. Lord of the Flies
74. Matilda
75. Bridget Jones's Diary
82. I Capture the Castle
95. Katherine

That's 31, in case you were counting. A piddly 31 percent. And this is a reader poll, based on a survey the BBC took in April 2003. If you post an"expert's" list of 100 great books, I fare even worse:

2. The Great Gatsby
13. 1984 (Do the Brits spell out the title while Americans don't?)
18. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Winesburg, Ohio
31. Animal Farm
41. Lord of the Flies
74. A Farewell to Arms
86. Ragtime
88. The Call of the Wild

Uh, that would be nine. And most of them I didn't even like all that well. It seems just as heavy on old, white dudes as the first list was on Harry Potter. And The Modern Library's "reader list" seems to have been highjacked by Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard fans. I didn't do a whole lot better on that one:

2. The Fountainhead
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (the "experts" didn't pick this one??? What???)
6. 1984
13. The Great Gatsby
20. Animal Farm
23. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Gone With the Wind
25. Lord of the Flies
53. The Handmaid's Tale
75. The Call of the Wild
77. Farenheit 451
81. The Hunt for Red October (but the movie's better *g*)
91. A Farewell to Arms

I can't believe what books weren't on any of these lists. Where was Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth"? Chaim Potok's "The Chosen"? Alex Haley's "Roots"? Heck, if "Gone With the Wind" made the lists than "Outlander" should have too!

Maybe one of these days, I'll have to come up with the definitive "Poohba's Top 100."

Lets get Jane Austen out of the way too

2006-07-31T18:37:00.000-04:00

My favorite Austen books:

Pride and Prejudice
I always thought this book sounded boring... until I read it. I was laughing by the time I turned the first page. And then I fell in love with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, just as they're falling in love with each other. What's not to love?

Persuasion
Once I read "Pride and Prejudice," I had to go read all of Austen's books. This, perhaps is my favorite. It's a story for everyone who's ever wondered what would happen if that one special person you let go walked back into your life. The heroine meets up with the man she turned down years before. Does she still love him? Does he still love her? Of course there's a happy ending. It's Jane Austen.

The Outlander saga

2006-07-31T18:33:00.000-04:00

Here's another review of one (or six, actually) of my all-time favorites

Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

People kept telling me how good these books were, and I kept putting off reading them because they're time travel romances. Time travel romances are always completely cheesy aren't they? Well, I finally broke down and read "Outlander," and quickly discovered it's one of the most original novels out there. I was so happy to see Barnes & Noble move them out of the "romance" section because they are way more involved than your typical girl meets boy.

Claire, the World War II combat nurse who wanders through an ancient stone circle in the Highlands of Scotland and finds herself suddenly in the 18th Century, is a refreshing change from the princess-type heroine. Jamie Fraser, the Scot who winds up being the love of her life, is at times both a sweet innocent and a dangerous and passionate warrior. In the later novels I've come to love their daughter and son-in-law as well.

Be forewarned: these books are gargantuan pieces of historical fiction mixed with fantasy, some very steamy erotic stuff and the occasional gruesome torture scene. They are also addicting. I stayed up until 3:30 one night finishing "Outlander." The next day, I went to the bookstore and bought the rest of the series.

What an Honor

2006-07-31T17:44:00.000-04:00

Who knew I was so accomplished?

A letter I received today informed me that I've been chosen to be included in the upcoming First Edition of Who's Who of Emerging Leaders.

According to the letter:

"You have been selected for inclusion because you represent the best of a new generation of achievers worldwide. Only 25,000 men and women under the age of 40 have been selected to be profiled in the First Edition of Who's Who of Emerging Leaders...

Of course, I'm entitled to to order my own personal copy of this book at 25 percent savings. (Which still is $195 I have better uses for.)

The thing is, I used to fall for these kinds of things. One of the shelves on my parents' bookcase has a whole row of Who's Who in American High Schools and The National Dean's List that I purchased in my younger and dumber years. Now the whole thing reminds me way too much of the poetry.com scam.

What in the world have I done that's notable? My book isn't published yet. I've gotten a few of these Marquis things over the years. I think I've also been "selected" to be in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Women. I filled out the first one and returned it without paying for a book. I got so annoyed by the company's unceasing mailings (and e-mailings) thereafter that I vowed never to do it again.

But, today, I googled "Marquis Who's Who scam" just to make sure I wasn't turning down some great honor before the whole thing went into the shredder. I found this gem of an article from Forbes magazine.

Yep, that's about what I thought.

And here's another...

2006-07-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

From author Sara Donati, on the long road to getting published:

"Ever wonder why they call it submission?"

One of my favorite writing quotes...

2006-07-28T21:47:00.000-04:00

"Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like"
- Walter Benjamin

Let's start things off with a review of one of my favorite books of all time

2006-07-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

Katherine by Anya Seton

This book haunts you. I don't think I've been able to get it totally out of my head since I first read it. It makes you want to go out and research the true story behind it... which is a pretty fascinating one.

In 14th Century England, there weren't any men more handsome or powerful than John of Gaunt, the great Duke of Lancaster. Katherine de Roet was a naive teenage girl when she first came into his life. Despite the gap in their positions, they found love together. "Katherine" beautifully tells the story of their thirty-year affair and the way their illicit love changed history.

Anya Seton wrote some other good books (Devil Water & Avalon especially), but make no mistake - this is her masterpiece. If you come away from this book without falling in love with John, you're a stronger woman than I. It just makes my toes curl to hear him call his "Katrine," lovedy.

Finally!

2006-07-24T21:30:00.000-04:00

Poohba's Bibliotèque has been without a home for nearly a year after I changed ISPs and lost the free webspace I used to get.

In the meantime, I've become an ardent fan of Miss Snark's and Evil Editor's blogs. So, I finally decided, "Why don't I just rethink things and restart the Bibliotèque that way?"

I think I'm more likely to update in this format - and I'll be able to share news of my adventures in the realm of publishing along with my usual book reviews.

At least, that is the plan...