Unlike the Hermit of the Southern March,
I’ve only got 31 winters under my belt–
but I think I agree.
Quote from The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Any Such Thing as Luck
Reply
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Jarring: Starting a New Novel
Picture this.
You’ve been working on your novel for almost two years. The first draft was so long ago that you laugh over your silly non-ending and lack of conflict with friends who have read the completed story. For a year and a half, you’ve been refining, editing, polishing the story to a high gloss. You’ve had the luxury of being picky and choosy over individual words and phrases. You can decide to drop in an extra image here or there as if you’re scattering flower petals. You know your characters so well that their reaction to things comes automatically, without reaching.
And then
you start all over with a new story, new first draft. It’s rough and ugly and the characters are stereotypes. You barely know how to start, and every paragraph you write, you want to go back and fix, make perfect. But that’s not what a first draft is like, and you know it. You can remember that years ago, the novel that you’ve just perfected also came out stilted and wrong, but it’s so far away and you’ve become so accustomed to polishing instead of drafting that it’s
quite
jarring.
The Collector
I’m a bit of an image “collector.”
Here are some goodies I’ve discovered.
Which is your favorite?
Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
First of all, happy 3rd birthday to my church!
Secondly, Between Shades of Gray, which, by the way, is not connected in any way to Fifty Shades of Gray. Between Shades of Gray is a young adult novel about 15-year-old Lina, a Lithuanian refugee, in the time of Joseph Stalin.
The book was fascinating, sad, brutal, and important.
It seems to me that while there are many books recounting the horrors of the Holocaust at the hand of Adolf Hitler, there are relatively few stories sharing the atrocities of Stalin (who, by the way, is responsible for more deaths than Hitler).
With the exception of The Book Thief, historical fiction is generally not my favorite to read (although I was a history minor in undergrad!). That said, this novel is so important and eye-opening. It drew me in, this story of a promising young artist being deported to Siberia with her mother and brother– for reasons she didn’t know. It’s a lovely story of the ferocity of the human will, and it definitely made me cry.
Stories like these are hard for me– and often result in a one-time-through read (i.e. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Casual Vacancy, etc.). That said, I cannot stress what an important book this is– and I recommend it.
Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
After reading The Scorpio Races by Stiefvater (and wanting to roll around it and coat myself with awesomeness), I figured I’d better read The Raven Boys, also by her … and on my shelf since January (Des’s husband Matt bought it for me for my birthday!).
The premise is a little involved: Blue’s mom is a psychic, and she’s been told forever that if she (Blue) kisses her true love, then he’ll die. Enter four boys from the nearby prep school: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah. They all have very distinct and awesome personalities, and the brotherhood between the four is incredible! Gansey is on a personal mission to find a ley line. Craziness ensues.
You know what? I liked it. But moreso for the characters and their relationships and interactions with each other than for the whole psychic-and-ley-line-search plot.
Which reaffirmed to me that contemporary is the right “genre” for me to be writing in.
I do so love Gansey and Adam, though, and I already requested the audiobook* for The Dream Thieves (book two) from the library. Looking forward to it!
* The audiobooks are read by Will Patton, and it’s a treat to listen to his Virginia drawl!!! A definite bonus.
Have you read The Raven Boys? Will you?
Jackie’s Favorite Non-Fiction
Yes, I know I’m totally crazy about fiction– but there’s still a lot of non-fiction out there that I love! Here’s a list of the best of the best:
For the Time Being by Annie Dillard | Absolutely gorgeous prose, ethereal and fascinating. Reading it kind of made me feel like a ghost.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott | Advice on writing and life. The best book of its kind!
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott | Her journey toward faith is a hilarious and endearing one.
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris | Everything Sedaris writes is hilarious, but this book is my favorite of his!
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller | Non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality. YES.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller | Very meta. Thinking about how your life is a story and how to make it a great one.
Transformed into Fire by Judith Hougen | How to live life as your true self, how you are God’s beloved. The book I desperately needed to read upon college graduation.
Obsessive-Compulsives are Creative. OCD Itself? Not So Much.
Obsessive-compulsives tend to be creative, bright, highly intelligent, passionate people– and I love that about us!
Our disorder, on the other hand, is sorely lacking in creativity.
See, the thing is, when obsessive-compulsives isolate themselves, OCD appears to be this extremely creative disorder. We imagine that NO ONE ELSE could think the things we think or use “logic” the way we do or entertain such dark and ugly thoughts.
But when obsessive-compulsives are in community with one another, we realize that OCD really has a limited bag of tricks. Sure, obsessions can wear different costumes, but at the core, they often look very similar from person to person.
I recently spent time with another Pure-O, and we were able to list off our various obsessions with each other, and check, check, check, we had so much in common. And both of us grew up thinking that we were monsters, that no one else would ever think about or struggle with the things that we did. Yet our stories were nearly identical!
When I read a book about OCD, those “wild and outrageous” things I once obsessed over end up being the textbook examples.
I am convinced that the more we with OCD communicate amongst ourselves, the more we will realize that while we are creative, OCD quite frankly is not.
Dear Diary (October 2013)
Absolutely no word on the novel yet. I know that publishing is a “hurry up and wait” game, but it is so hard. I desperately want an editor to love my story and give me a chance, and it sometimes feels so close and sometimes so far away.
To occupy my waiting time, I have started to work on a new novel— and not the one I’ve thought for the last two years that I was going to write. I have an idea now that I love and am excited about, but I am not joking: this first draft feels lethal. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to write a novel. I keep wondering, “Maybe those first two stories were all you had in you.” I don’t really believe that, but sometimes it feels that way.
I’ve been traveling for work. Just around Minnesota and South Dakota, and I’m meeting some wonderful students!
Alison Dotson and I are putting on an event for OCD Awareness Week! If you live in the Twin Cities, you should come on out to the Loft/Open Book in Minneapolis. I’ll be reading some fiction I wrote about ERP, and she’ll be reading from her non-fiction book (soon to be released!). Check out the details here.
I just shared about OCD with two separate biblical counseling undergraduate classes at the University of Northwestern. It was a great experience, and the students listened well and asked wonderful questions.
My short story will be published soon through Hunger Mountain! The rights will revert back to me after that, and I’ll share the story with you then– I can’t wait to hear what you guys think of it! (I’d be lying if I said my eyes weren’t glued to my mailbox, waiting for the check to arrive too.)
Blessings, all! Thanks for caring about the details!
My Literary Boyfriends *revised*
It’s time for an update on my love life.
(Please note: my entire love life is fictional.)
(For now.)
And so I present to you …
My Top 8 Literary Boyfriends
1. Silas Hart of Truest
Is it unfair that I put the boy from my own book first? I essentially created him to be my perfect boyfriend, were I seventeen years old. A deep-thinking, goofy-as-all-get-out, handsome young poet. Yup.
2. Augustus Waters of The Fault in Our Stars
He takes metaphorically fraught freethrows, for goodness sakes.
3. Jonah Griggs of Jellicoe Road
Causing a riot is what he does best.
4. Sean Kendrick of The Scorpio Races
My newest love! He can swallow you with his eyes.
5. Will Trombal of Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son
“His voice is deep and gravelly. I once heard one of the girls say that he had the voice of a sex god, but because I’ve never really heard what a sex god sounds like, I can’t verify that.” Works for me.
6. Gilbert Blythe of Anne of Green Gables
Oh Gil! You can call me “Carrots” anytime!
7. Max Vandenberg of The Book Thief
I want a Jewish fist-fighter to protect me.
8. Joe Fontaine of The Sky is Everywhere
The smile. It always comes back to that smile.
Your turn!!
Bookish Blogs I Love
How to keep your finger on the pulse of the YA writing world?
1) Read YA lit like a fiend.
2) Subscribe to the Goodreads YA newsletter.
3) Follow author blogs/websites.
4) Follow amazing YA lit blogs!
Here are some of my favorites (click the graphic to go to the blog):
P.S. I sometimes disagree with their reviews, but I am always grateful for the way they keep me up to speed on what’s new in the YA world.
P.P.S. I actually follow about 80 writing- & literature-related blogs (not to mention the OCD-related, faith-related, and miscellaneous blogs I follow). I hope to introduce you to some more amazing blogs soon.
P.P.P.S. I don’t watch TV. (The answer to your question of “How do you have the time to read so many blogs?”)
JACKIE LEA SOMMERS 