The Writing Process Blog Hop: My First Blog Hop Ever!

I was invited by the talented Krista Quintana (Check out her blog, Color Coordinated) to participate in a blog hop. Naturally, I first panicked, because while I’ve seen these words around before, I had no idea what they meant. It’s like “hookeybobbing”; it means something (though definitely not something as dirty as it sounds), but I finally bucked up and asked this year. Trivia question: do you know what that means?

These are the questions I was asked to complete for you all. Hope you enjoy!

1.       What am I working on? Currently, I’m experimenting whether or not it’s possible to successfully self-publish a quality children’s picture book on a budget. I hope to have The Clumsy Princess available in both print and electronic versions by the end of June! I’m also working on a detective novel, yet untitled, that I hope to self-publish next year sometime.

2.       How does my work differ from others of its genre? I’m tired of children’s stories where the princess simply waits to be rescued. Instead, my princesses are adventurous, exciting, and have a life outside of waiting for a prince to show up and sweep them away to something better. These are the stories I want to read to my girls one day.

3.       Why do I write what I do? The Clumsy Princess is intended to encourage, in a fun way, accepting who you are, without being preach-y. I’m hoping that the subtle influences of a fun and courageous character will help girls not aspire to be the Disney-perfect princess, but instead realize that they don’t have to be perfect to be a princess in their own way.

4.       How does my writing process work? I write in fits and spurts. I know some people carve time out to write daily, but my days are utterly unpredictable, due to being on call 24/7 for work. However, when I sit down and write, often 5-10 pages will pour out of me at once. Usually, a story bangs and rattles around inside my head for a while until I absolutely must get it down on paper. The Clumsy Princess had been on my mind ever since my friend’s 18 month old daughter ended up in the Emergency Room again, this time for taking a fearless flying leap off the top bunk while on a family vacation.

Now you know a little about me… I’m interested in you! Tell me something about yourself?

And don’t forget to check out Krista Quintana’s blog, Color Coordinated! 

Excellent Writing Advice from Ernest Hemingway

 The writer of "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Old Man and the Sea," was a foul-mouthed, charmingly genuine man, with a love of the written word and grain alcohol. Never short on opinions, he contributed some of the best advice on writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the incorrigible Ernest Hemingway.

 

“The first draft of everything is shit.”

“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.”

“Write drunk, edit sober.”

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”

“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.”

“In order to write about life first you must live it.”

“Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.”

“The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”

“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

An exciting novel based in a dystopian society where love, or amor deliria nervosa, has been declared a dangerous, deadly disease. No worries though; there’s a Cure, forced on individuals by the government when a person turns eighteen.  Not only will you never fall victim to love once this cure is administered, you also will never find yourself the proprietor of hate, terror, delight, or wonder.

Lena Haloway is looking forward to being cured. Her mom got infected, and it destroyed her family. She is determined that the same thing will never happen to her. Counting down to the day of her Cure, Lena could not be more prepared to be an adult. Then, she meets Alex, and before she even realizes it, amor deliria nervosa sets in.

This book is a high energy, thrilling book that not only captures the feeling of a first love, but also the terror of being caught. The stakes are high, the action is fast and gripping, and the characters are wonderfully appealing. I enjoyed this book so much that I bought the next two and binge-read (is that a term?) for two days until I finished the whole trilogy! I couldn’t even sleep last night, because the plot was still running through my head.

Absolutely excellent! The whole storyline was completely enthralling, and I highly recommend the book. Heck, I highly recommend the whole series!

The Top 10 Books Every Adventurous, Can-Do Kid Will Enjoy Reading

Think this girl will be satisfied reading something because she "should" read it?

 There are mountains of books out there highly recommended (they'd require it if they could!) by all sorts of experts. As a kid, I found most of the books on those lists incredibly dull, especially the list of books that girls should read (Coming of age stories? Blehhhh!). I wanted books that were exciting adventurous, funny, and just a tiny bit scary. So, what about a list of books that smart, funny children will enjoy reading, rather than “should read?”

1.       The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald: A smartly-written book about a boy, John, whose older brother Tom (nicknamed The Great Brain), is both a genius and a swindler, finding crafty ways to bilk the neighborhood kids—and occasionally adults—out of money. My four grade teacher read this to us (thanks Mr. T!), and it was laugh out loud funny for the entire classroom.

2.       Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix: An edge-of-your-seat novel about a girl, Jessie, who thinks she lives in a tiny rural village in the 1840s, only to find that’s she’s actually living in 1996, in a replica of a historical village that’s actually a tourist attraction. A deadly disease is running rampant through the village, and Jessie must go into a world with technology 150 years past her understanding to get modern medicine, without alert the people who are desperately trying to keep the inhabitants inside “history.” I must have read this two dozen times.

3.       The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner: This series focuses on four orphaned children (Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden) who solve mysteries. The mysteries range from simple to complex as the series goes along. These were my go-to books in second grade, and there are well over a hundred of them.

4.       Mossflower by Brian Jacques: Despite the name sounding somewhat feminine, this is chronologically the first book in a fantasy series about animal warriors who live in the Mossflower Wood. Martin the Warrior (a mouse), is traveling through the Wood and is captured and imprisoned by a tyrannical wildcat. After escaping, Martin must rally the peaceful residents of Mossflower (moles, mice, hedgehogs, etc) to fight back against the evil ruler. Not only is the storyline captivating, I love the chivalry and honor that pervades the story!

5.       Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt: All about the consequences of immortality, this fantasy book is about a girl named Winnie and the family she meets, who have drank water from a hidden stream and become immortal. This book accelerates without warning, and become a wild adventure trying to find the correct choice between deception and doing the right thing.

6.       James and the Giant Peach by Ronald Dahl: This adventure follows a young boy named James who lives with his horrible aunts. Through an accident of magic, a peach grows massive in the garden. Some bugs (including a worm, ladybug, and grasshopper) are also affected; growing not only larger, but also developing the ability to speak. James and his new friends end up using the peach as a boat, and float away to some great adventures. This book is absolutely full of goofy and ridiculous fun. Please don’t judge it by the movie of the same title.

7.       A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett: Three Baudelaire orphans (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) are placed in the custody of Count Olaf, a truly terrible human being. Olaf has every intent to steal the Baudelaire’s immense inheritance. Throughout the series, the children must work together to escape his evil clutches again and again, as many of the adults in the series are oblivious to the children’s plight. These books are darker than most children’s books, but if your kiddo (or you) likes impossible adventures, bizarre twists, and unique villains, these are great!

8.       Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson: An imaginative story about two lonely kids who together create an imaginary kingdom and who are transformed by friendship. This book starts out very light and fun, but becomes much more serious. Warning: this was the first book to ever make me cry. I still cry every time I read it. This may lead to serious conversations about death with your children.

9.       My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George: Sam Gribley runs away from his parents’ cramped apartment that he shares with too many siblings and forges out a living for himself in the Catskill Mountains. This book is all about the difficulties of survival, courage, independence, and loneliness. This may have been required reading in 3^rd or 4^th grade… And it made me want to live off the land in the middle of nowhere. My husband love this one as a kid too.

10.   Purple, Green, and Yellow by Robert Munsch: By the author of The Paper Bag Princess comes a story about Brigid, who wants the latest and greatest markers. First, she gets regular markers, then markers that wash off with water, then markers that smell, then the holy grail of markers: the super-indelible-never-comes-off-till-you’re-dead markers. I must have read this to my cousins about 100 times, and we always laughed like crazy at the end.

Those are the book I would recommend to your adventurous, can-do kid. Anything I missed? What would you recommend?