What happens when the distractions are taken away?

My electricity got cut off this morning. Three hours, without the internet and its dangerous siren's calls; no emails, no blogs, no links. No music in the house. Nothing. (I have paid my bill by the way. It was a scheduled cut, to replace something extremely vital apparently. I have a spiffy new set of wires now.)

Instead of staring at the computer, I sat with my thermos of tea, at the kitchen table for best light, and an A3 pad and stared at the brilliant-white page. There is something delicious about A3. It invites bigger ideas than A4 in my mind and there’s space for more of them. (Plus walking around the house with an A3 drawing pad makes me feel Creative, but then as we have established, I do not get out much...)

And then I started jotting. Just random notes and instant thoughts scrawled onto the page before I analysed them too far and over-reasoned them. A basic premise had been in my head for a few days, but I hadn't really played it out yet. By the time the fridge and freezer kicked back on, the page was full. Of plot. And down the side there were side notes (yes, where else would you find such notes?); possible names, things to be looked up, alternative paths to be considered.

I can see that sometimes I need a window of silence and no distractions. And sometimes I need a blank page and a licence to scribble randomly. I think that such sometimes are going to have to be a more regular fixture. Luckily, I now know where the fuse box lives...

This Morning’s Distraction Tools; NONE!! (were you not listening?)

The Twice-lived Summer of Bluebell Jones by Susie Day

I've just finished a teen book, and it was a lovely read.

 The blurb says "Turning thirteen. It’s a rollercoaster ride. Especially for Bluebell, when she accidentally summons her fourteen-year-old self from the future. Red has amazing friends, actual boobs and a road map of the year ahead. Perfect! Blue can’t fail to have the summer of her life. But Red’s got secrets. Ones she won’t share – not even with herself."

 Susie Day brilliantly captures that awkwardness you have as a brand new teenager, of all the expectations you have of this new era, but at the same time not knowing how to make the leap.  It’s the things you want to say and do, the ways you want to look and be seen, but not quite having the courage to do them. It is the age where you are precious about how you project yourself to others, whilst still grappling with working out who that self in fact is.

 It is very difficult to talk about the book, without giving away spoilers and that would be such a shame, but it is a vibrant yet tender portrayal of a teenage summer, and the angst and victories that come with it. It is smart and emotional, and ultimately breath-takingly brave, just like Blue. 

I've passed it straight on to DD1, as she is on the brink of all that teenage malarky, and I'm hoping that she'll take from it the central message of "Seize the day".

Top of the Drops.

Just as there are some books that are keepers, I guess that there will always be some books that are more destined for recycling than others. For example, Dan Brown has the dubious honour of having written 4 out of the top 5 books most commonly offered for swapping over on the ReaditSwapit website here in the UK.  Really. Of all the books in the UK, people mostly want shot of his. Poor Dan. 4 out of the top 5! On the flipside, he’s sold gazillions of copies, so need not care.

Interestingly, some companies actually monitor such statistics. (Ok, so when I say interestingly, I mean to me. Others out there might actually have a life...) For example Travelodge Hotels, have a chart of books that are left behind in their hotel-rooms every year. Yes, there is someone somewhere, whose job involves logging this data. Who knew?

 21,786 books were left in Travelodges last year apparently, (which coincidentally, according to some, roughly equates to the books in my TBR pile). The Telegraph covers the Travelodge stats here along with other unusual tomes that have been left, but the Top Ten this year looks like this:

1. Fifty Shades of Grey                                  E.L. James
2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo               Stieg Larsson
3. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest     Stieg Larsson
4. Fifty Shades Freed                                     E.L. James
5. The Hunger Games                                     Suzanne Collins
6. The Girl Who Played With Fire                    Stieg Larsson
7. Fifty Shades Darker                                     E.L. James
8. Catching Fire                                               Suzanne Collins
9. Mockingjay                                                   Suzanne Collins
10. The Help                                                     Kathryn Stockett

Am I the only person who repacks what they bring to hotels? Deliberately leaving books would feel strange to me; abandonment in some cases, or plain flytipping in others. Or maybe guests see it as generously "donating" a story to the housekeeping staff, sharing the joy so to speak? Or is this usual behaviour and I am in fact just a hoarder...?

Yesterday's Distraction Tool, (especially for Louise); studying charts like this, and yapping with my coffee coven for the first time in months. Not even feeling a little bit guilty about that one. 

Submissions Bonanza

In case any writers have been hiding in a dark room recently and haven’t seen these, then there are two submissions opportunities about to open up. Firstly Miss Snark’s First Victim is gearing up for her annual Bakers Dozen Auction, where 60 selected 250-word entries are placed under the hammer. Agents bid  for 24 hours on how many pages they would like to see.
The submissions start on the 30^th October however, there are optional critiquing rounds, starting this Monday (24^th) in the lead up. The auction will go live on December 4^th, but check out the details of the various stages over on the website (link to the right), so that you can be on time.

It was also announced last week that Harper Collins, who usually never cast their eye at anything that hasn’t be passed their way by an agent, are having a two week submissions window  from October 1^st to 14^th.  

The aim is to acquire UK, US and Australian rights to their favourites, in the hope of publishing an e-book per month. If that is of interest to you, i.e. you don’t fancy e-publishing yourself, then the full details are available over at Harper Voyager. They’ll also reserve the right to publish the books in physical form. Am hoping there’s a decent deal for the author in there too...

Good luck if you go for it, and for the hard work getting the manuscripts ready. Let me know if you get anywhere!

A Monday Quickie...

Just saw this over on Mental-Floss. It is slightly tenously related to writing, but it made me smile. So Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I give you, for your wonder and delight (and possibly shock);
11 Librarian Tattoos!
Ta-dahhhh!!!!

Bring on the mail!

  I’m currently experiencing a thing for story form. I get excited by the different ways that authors tell their stories. I think I've mentioned a couple of times my attraction to epistolary novels.

 Recently I read and enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and I clearly recall the first one I ever read which was Daddy Long-Legs when I was at school. I now have a copy on my iPad.

 It has led me to look for other stories told through letters, for example John Marsden’s Letters from the Inside. There’s also The Colour Purple, and Lady Susan. I was reading an essay from 1987, about the letters of Frankenstein, and the writer referred to “the now stagnant epistolary form”. It may have gone out of fashion because of the rapid changes in communication starting with the telephone, but if so, then I think it is experiencing a revival. Both the Guernsey book and the Marsden book were written in the last eleven years. The issue is to justify the form – Why would someone write a letter nowadays? The Guernsey book is set just after WW2, so letters and telegrams are appropriate, and the Marsden story is based on prison correspondence. If the story fits, it can work.

Naturally, times have moved on - but the form has evolved rather than stagnated, with stories now told through modern technology. Meg Cabot's funny The Guy Next Door was the first book I read that used emails, as does Siobhan Curham’s Dear Dylan which I read during the summer.

And it doesn’t just stop there; Lauren Myracle tells stories with titles such as TTFN and L8R G8T using IM conversations.

Twitter has stories told via texts, and if they haven't been already, I'm sure that some will make into print too.

Alice Kuiper’s Life on the Refrigerator Door, is based on Post-it notes between a mother and daughter.  A moving story, with a brilliantly realistic and evocative form, which shows the state of their communication from the outset. And there isn’t any technology in sight, so pleasingly we are back to letters. Modern letters.

So I was wondering if anyone out there had any recommendations of novels that are based completely on correspondence, in whatever form, letters; emails; texts or IM, or something else that I haven’t even thought of?

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story...

What makes a well researched book? The writer clearly knows their stuff, right? The facts add colour, mood, depth and quirk to the life of the characters and their world. Even in a fantasy, where the “facts” are complete fiction, the details shine through when an author has researched or extensively created their world.

However, the use of the research and the success of the story is still reliant on the skill of the writer. Well applied research shapes the world and supports the action without drawing attention to itself. Two examples that immediately spring to mind would be the flying knowledge in Code Name Verity which makes the action so believable and the detail of Thisby’s cliff landscape in The Scorpio Races which clearly evokes the rugged unforgiving environment of Puck’s island and layers the mood and tone to the story.

 The book I abandoned this summer addressed the role and life of a roman woman, and it was full of facts. To the brim. I believe it was designed to be fictionalised non-fiction in order to make the subject more accessible, with the facts woven into a story; in this case, a year in the life of a wife during Hadrian’s reign.

 But it wasn’t really a weave. It was more of a stuffing. As the reader I felt that the turns in the plot were purely there to get us through the long list of information that the writer had assimilated in her research. Fictionalised non-fiction or not, it was still a story and as such it wasn't engaging. There was simply no voice or pace or excitement to it.

I'm sure it was a hard balance to meet in the first place, but what it taught me was that in a story – a good story- the research is there to support, not lead. The plot has to come first. We need up to sign up for the journey before we can enjoy the world a writer takes us too.

And I suppose that is why we send synopses to agents and publishers, not the list of facts we worked with.

Goodbyes and Hellos

Sadly this week brought the end to a favourite blog of mine, Nicola Morgan's Help ! I need a publisher blog, which is a priceless source of information for aspiring authors.  I’ve blogged about her before. Nicola is concentrating on her children's writing and I wish her all the best. In the meantime, for those who missed the blog while active, it is still in existence; a treasure trove of top advice, with some crabbit dos and don'ts. Nicola does not pussyfoot around, so expect some straight talking. Which is as it should be.

As one blog site moves on, I discovered a new one yesterday which is now a new addition in my procrastination blog roll. It is Letters of Note, where letters, both famous and personal, are shared. Some are smart, some witty and some heartbreaking. I'm still in my phase of seeking out epistolary novels, so this site feels like a happy sideline.

I know some people still write proper letters - you know who you are, readthisandweep- and that is a wonderful thing, because getting a proper written letter – not the ones wanting help with that bank account in Nigeria - is a fabulous thing. But oh what a rare thing too. 

Not long ago my best friend lent me back the pile of letters I sent her while we were at our respective universities. There were so many, all full of nonsense and trivialities, but lively nonetheless. I just don't know where I got the time to write them. Maybe I didn't go out for the three years? Maybe the social life I thought I had was a myth...

Am off to find photographic proof that I did have a life at Uni. But then I must have done, as I wrote about it to her in the letters, didn't I? And then maybe I'll write her a letter, a real one, just to surprise her.

Stats and Conclusions

It is September and thus officially Autumn. I posted a while ago about my Summer TBR pile and I guess now is the right time to look back and assess it.

 Let’s have some stats shall we, so that I can feel all scientific. I'm even adding a pie chart as it feels appropriate (not that it relates to my stats, but it does relate to my recent holiday and future aspirations...)

The Results;
Books in the pile - 12

Books finished - 9 and 1 I’m still using for research.

Books abandoned- 1 , although I should have abandoned another, and 1 is still lurking, just started, on my bedside table, having been leapfrogged by a cheeky YA outside-runner since I got home. It might remain there for a while. 

Books where I skipped pages, skimming to get to the end - 1.

But I also snuck in/was distracted by 3 ebooks that I hadn’t accounted for in my original pile, because

a) I hadn’t found them yet and

b) ebooks don’t photograph so well.

So, for the record, they were Melissa Marr’s Fairytales and Nightmares, Tasha Harrington's Package Deal, and Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster.

And what can we conclude from that? Well it was a joy to submerge myself in books for a while, storming through some that have been calling me for ages, including a few that were the next instalments of some series I follow (Holly Black's Curse Workers and Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.)

 The grown up books were where I faltered. Badly. And I am ashamed. Yes I am. I am a grown up, I even studied literature at Uni, but I failed with the Classics in my pile. They bored me, pure and simple. I am feeling bad about this, and I must try harder. But I think the conclusion is clear that my heart lies firmly with YA fiction, and that I don't feel bad about. At all.

At the very least, I have cleared a chunk of my ever increasing pile (Addicted? Moi?), even if I failed on a few of them. Now I need to start looking at The Winter TBR list. Any recommendations?