Murder most useful

So, I have been away. Well, away from here, that is. You didn't notice? Huh. 
Anyways, I have been blatantly neglecting the blog, but in my defense I have been doing words.

Back in October, I was asked by the delightful Belinda Jones to write a story for the second Sunlounger anthology, which is due out this summer.  More to the point, this was a request, not an invite to take part in the competition again.  Obviously there was a fair amount of Happy Dancing around here, which I managed to string out for quite some time, before I realized that having a deadline meant I also had to stump up the goods.

 I had a ropey first draft before Christmas, which mulled until this new year, when it took a brutal beating and slashing, before being cast under the meticulous eye of my Lovely Critique Partner who was vicious but fair. The words "annoyingly wishy-washy" about one segment made me wince but  also made me pull my socks up. That is what good crit partners are for: to dole out The Truth.

  So finally, after a lot of tinkering, re-tinkering and faffing, and killing a darling at the very end, I delivered it to Belinda. I have to say it gave me a sense of relief, as my brain had been filled with it forever, along with that nag of a deadline looming. But there was also a sense of nerves, as what if she didn't like it? Last year I would never have known any different if she simply hadn't picked mine. But I guess that is the case with anyone who writes and sends their work out to anyone else. You always risk them not liking it, be it a short story or novel, or whether it's going to an agent, publisher, or the reader. Luckily, I know now that Belinda is happy with it. Hurrah. Cue Happy Relieved Dance which is altogether more slouchy.

Essentially, writing this Sunlounger story has been a timely reminder of how I write and what my process is. It’s also shown how my attitude to my words has changed over time, where once I would have defended them stubbornly to a point of weeping before making a change, I can now take the comments, try the alternative ideas, and kill those darlings without even a pout. (OK, maybe a small one, a mini-pout...)

So that's where I've been - Killing and Happy Dancing.


What have you been up to?

Eeeeek!

A Very Happy (and yes, I know, six days late) New Year!

 I jotted down my 2014 writing aims down on the 1st and then ran away screaming, as there seemed to be so many. Way too many.

 I want to ramp up my output this year, but I also want to increase the quality. In essence, I'm hoping to up my game in general.  Here's hoping that it isn't just January bravado, because with my list I am going to need more than that.

 Anyone else write their aims down this year? Anyone else quaking in their boots?

Oh. Just me? Right...

Fa la la la lah, la la la laaah.. Again

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

 Wishing you a lovely festive season.

 

Yeah, so I know it isn't the most festive pic, but I have limited resources at the moment, and my boys are minion mad, so  enjoy The Happy!

It's that time again...

  Mmmmm, the joy, the excitement, the savouring of special moments. The counting down, the anticipation, the desperate hope that you'll get what you want  in the end and the underlying-and increasing- anxiety that maybe you wont...

Christmas?

 Nooo - Am having another book crush.

*Cue fanfare* My Winter TBR Pile(s)

Da da da da da da daaaahhhhhhhhh! 'Tis December, the first month of winter and the season of goodwill. With this in mind, I present to you this fine day, my Winter TBR pile(s). I'll have to warn you it is a bit of an odd one, but with bear with me -there is method in the madness. For once…

The pile looks like this;

OK. There are two. I knew I couldn't sneak that past you. Please just go with it for now. All will become clear.

In detail they are, to the right;

Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt (YA) 

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigagalupi (YA) 

Screwed by Joanna Kenrick (YA) 

This is Push ed. David Levithan (YA anthology) 

Starter for ten by David Nichols (Adult

I love New York by Lindsey Kelk (Women's fiction)

Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements (Women's fiction)

Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan (Women's Fiction)

The Chalet Girl by Kate Lace (Women's Fiction)

And then there is the pile on the left;

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark  

Carnevale by M.R. Lovrie  

The Venetian Affair by Andrea di Robilant

Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb

The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin

The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

Still to come is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (YA)

Now obviously this pile(s) is clearly not my usual YA fest. In fact there are only 5 YA books in there, which is less than 30% (Yay, I done maths again). What is afoot?

Firstly, two things that I am currently working on are Chicklit, so I am feeling the need to bathe myself in Women’s Fiction.

Secondly, this pile covers January, which is the month of change, resolutions and good intentions. I already have my dietary practice, and I am not remotely interested in going the exercise route, so I am dedicating the month to getting through some of the books that I have accumulated and that always get overlooked.

Currently my bookshelf looks like this, so some will have to go, and I hate turfing books out before I have read them. Therefore all the books to the left are in fact part of this scheme, but they have been selected very specifically, as I felt a plan was needed. Last January, I spent a fabulous long weekend in Venice (Hello Liz!). This year I'll be taking a reading trip through the city. ALL those books on the left are set in Venice.

So let’s call this a housekeeping pile to get me through the winter.

What are you reading this Winter?

(PS, Can I just apologize for the formatting bun-fight going on in this post. My computer is clearly having a paddy with fonts and spacing and stuff. Being Amish, I can't work out how to sort it. Sorry)

Autumn '13 Gut Reactions

 I feel like I've belted through books this season. I had 14 in the schedule, but I've read 31. And as usual, here's my gut reaction summary (Nooo, no reviews as such. You know that isn’t how it works here.)

So, to recap the autumn pile looked like this:

The additional books were

How we met and other stories by David Levithan

Awaken by Meg Cabot

Abandon by Meg Cabot

The Other Typist  by Suzanne Rindell

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The Sentinel by Holly Martin (MG)

Unsticky by Sarra Manning (Adult)

9 Uses for an ex-boyfriend  by Sarra Manning (Adult)

Connectivity by Aven Ellis (Adult)

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (Adult)

Vixen by Jillian Larkin (YA)
Ingenue by Jillian Larkin (YA)

Diva by Jillian Larkin (YA)

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (MG)

Debutantes  by Cora Harrison (YA)

Debutantes in Love by Cora Harrison (YA)

The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen (YA)

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (Adult)

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (Adult)

The Clockwork Prince – Manga Version – Cassandra Clare

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness (Still reading) (Adult)

Star of the List goes to;

The Dream Thieves. I’ve fangirled about Maggie Stiefvater often enough, but I felt that she stepped up a gear here with great word choices and turns of phrase. Mmmm. I preferred it to the first book even. How often can you say that with the second in a series? And yes there was a cliff-hanger, as there often is in second books, and amazingly I didn’t mind.

A close second to this was Sarra Manning's Unsticky. The  eagle-eyed of you will notice that this wasn’t in the original pile, but I had another of hers in there, where I enjoyed the voice so much that I immediately got hold of all her others. Manning’s books, adult and YA, are bold , honest and funny, and if I aspire to anyone's writing voice, it is currently hers.
Unsticky had two flawed, at times awful characters, but who I still rooted for. Clever. I read it twice.

The Sentinel by Holly Martin.  A fab adventure debut. I know Holly personally, so I might be biased, but honestly the action is unrelenting and a great choice if you are looking for a gift for a 12 year old girl.

How We Met and other stories, was just a perfect anthology of YA short stories. I already have another David Levithan related anthology on the shelf ready for the next pile. (See now, did you notice how I managed to write that without gushing about how much I love him? …Oh…)

Marie Louise Jensen seems to write books about places where I go. (OK, so I suppose it is possibly- probably- coincidence, but it amuses me. Small things, right?) Her debut Between Two Seas was set in Skagen, Denmark, and The Girl in the Mask was focussed on Bath, where I have a close friend and in fact was last weekend. I saw the streets she named. It makes a real difference when you know a place you are reading about.

Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robin Schneider. Really this book should feature below, as in “One of these books had an ending that disappointed me to the point of doing this.” However, up to the end I had been loving it. I bought it because the quote on the front said it was for peeps who like John Green and as we know, I would read his shopping lists. I'm not sure I would draw the same comparison, but it was an ace read, none the less. Until the end, when not so much.

The Heist. Janet Evanovich is a blast. She is funny, she can plot and she has a great set of characters in her Stephanie Plum series. This was a new scenario with an FBI agent and thief, and while it was fun and I'll read the sequel, I still prefer the Plum series.

The Ides of April by Lindsay Davis. This is a new series as a spin off from her Falco series. And a good start it was too. Sure, I saw the twists coming, but it was a fun journey.

Jenny Downham’s You against me, underlined her great YA Contemporary writing, after the brilliant Before I Die. The ending was a little rushed, or perhaps just needed a little more of something, but I’d get more of her books without hesitation.

I feel the same way about Laura Jarrett's writing. By Any Other Name was a s strong as her debut Skin Deep. Jarrett and Downham together are exciting new writers on the UK YA Contemporary scene

The Great Gatsby- I got it this time!

 And as always, the other thoughts;

• One of these books felt like it was the last in a three book deal which should perhaps been a two book deal.
• One of these books should have got a Brit to Beta read it
• Three of these books, I skipped to the end as I got bored.
• One of these books I picked up because I had read somewhere that the first proper kiss is amazing. And indeed it was nice, but I started getting bored soon thereafter...
• One of these books has won prizes, and I can see why, but it didn’t rock my boat.
• Two of these books are by an author I like, but I felt meh about them. I didn’t like the MC. She was just too self obsessed.
• One of these books I still don’t get the title

Anyone read any gems or turkeys this season?

Tripping

 I'm conscious of things having gone a little quiet in the recent months- it's a mix of lack of inspiration for blogs, trying to get 1k words down every day on a new first draft and essentially just not having enough hours in the day to do everything. Why hasn't some science bod sorted that out by now?

That said, I'm currently I'm on a trip. Not geographical travel, but book travel. 

 I briefly blogged about a form-based trip I'd been on here, which was in fact a tangent from another book trip where I was pottering around in World War Two, the least likely of destinations for me, but an ace trip none-the-less. It included Elizabeth Wein's fabulous Code Name Verity and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, so enough said. 

On this trip I am being lead merrily around the US of the1920s, relishing the flappers, the gangsters and the illegal drink.

Here is the route so far:

   The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell (The story didn't do me, but I got swept up in the setting.)

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Yes. Yes that is a Classic. A Classic that I have read and finished. Small miracles, right? In fact I've read it twice now. It is so much better when not being speed-read as part of a Uni reading list at 19...)

Vixen- Jillian Larkin (YA)  (This series is so much fun, and really brings the prohibition scene alive)







                                     Ingenue - Jillian Larkin (YA)

Diva - Jillian Larkin (YA)

 And from there I am about to pop back across the pond to read Cora Harrison's Debutantes books.

 Only two of these books were included in the Autumn TBR pile, but the theme seems to have a plan of its own and who am I to argue? Sometimes, you just need to go with the flow.

My trip is almost up, given the new TBR pile being due next month, but there might just be time to get a recommendation in if you have one. Let me know.

Meanwhile, is anyone else travelling at the moment?