Music & Me

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

I’m a guest blogger today at Hardcovers and Heroines! To read my thoughts on the incredible value of a local writing group, click here!

Random 5 Friday is a weekly meme over at A Rural Journal.

Today I want to tell you about my relationship with music.

1. I was voted “Most Musical” of my senior class because I was a hardcore band nerd and played trumpet from 5th grade till graduation. I wanted to play the drums but wasn’t allowed because I am missing the very tips of two of my fingers on my left hand. (Surprise!) But I think all along I had more of a brass heart. 🙂

I knew everyone would want to see, so I’m posting this pic of my left hand. I took about one million shots, but no matter what, my hand looked chubby. I am, indeed, that pale, however. 🙂

2. I get wildly addicted songs and can listen to them on repeat for months.

3. Jazz band was my favorite to play in, but I was always terrified of improv jazz solos. (We OCs don’t like uncertainty, ha!)

4. When I’m writing a particular scene, I often create a playlist to match the mood of the scene. Creating the playlist usually takes longer than the writing. Doh!

5. I really like to write to lyrics-less soundtrack music since it’s not as distracting. I particularly enjoy Nicholas Hooper, Alexandre Desplat, and Harry Gregson-Williams.

FREEDOM.

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Obsessive-compulsives, I’m talking to you!

Jackie’s Favorite YA Books

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Ahhh, YA lit! So near and dear to my heart! There are so many books I could recommend, but let’s start with these:

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
This book is seriously one of the best-written young adult books I have ever read. In my life. Period. I love so many things about this book: the language, the characters, the structure, the humor. It gets a 10 out of 10 from me.
Must-read: anyone who loves YA or a clever, quirky romance that is not at all cliche

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Okay, I suppose I should just be upfront and say that everything Melina Marchetta writes is fantastic. She’s definitely my favorite YA author right now. Saving Francesca is about Frankie Spinelli the year she and a handful of other girls (none of them her friends) begin attending a previously all-boys school. She’s trying to navigate a school of boys who don’t want the girls there, girls she doesn’t want to become friends with, and her mother’s mental breakdown. The characters are incredible.
Must-read: anyone who loves character-driven stories, fans of nerdy-but-hot Italian boys (i.e. the Will Trombal Experience/Extravaganza)
Bonus: this book has a sequel– The Piper’s Son— set five years down the road!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
TIME’s 2012 book of the year! This YA book will make you laugh and cry and think. It’s a cancer book– but not one of those cancer books.
Must-read: people who love YA, philosophy, and incredible characters

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Prior to the start of this book, Lennie’s sister Bailey has died unexpectedly. Now Lennie is trying to navigate her grief all while falling in love for the first time. This book is full of Lennie’s short poems, and they– along with the rest of the novel– are startling beautiful.
Must-read: people who are aching for a literary-quality YA novel, anyone with a beloved sister

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
A Printz honor book narrated by Death himself, this is “just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.” I love books that are about the joy of words– and it’s even better when you mix in unforgettable characters and gorgeous writing full of incredible imagery.
Must-read: YA lovers, people who love words, anyone interested in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
The story of Puck and Sean, both set to ride the bloodthirsty water horses in the Scorpio Races. I’m not sure I’ve read anything quite like this before; it is laced with an incredible raw savagery, making it an instant favorite for me.
Must-read: anyone who loves horses, readers ready for wild, tribal-drum-pounding YA

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
This is the very first book that made me cry. The classic book of a boy and his two hunting dogs.
Must-read: animal lovers, anyone who loves a tear-jerker

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
A delicious tale of first love between the two titular characters, the writing in this book has an outstanding and unique voice. I love the characters of Eleanor and Park, and I love the way that Rowell can make your brain about explode when they hold each other’s hand.
Must-read: fans of the contemporary genre, readers who love great imagery, quirky characters, and a sweet romance

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Like so many others, the hype around this series intimidated me into not reading them for years. I’m so glad that I finally did! This is one of my favorite series– seven separate stories that really tell just one about a boy wizard fighting against evil.
Must-read: fans of epic fantasy, anyone who wants to have their mind blown by creativity

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
A story about a homeschooler joining public school for the first time, this book is full of quirkiness and whimsy. A brilliant novel about being different.
Must-read: misfits, anyone who loves a misfit
Bonus: This book also has a sequel!

Also, here a couple middle grade (MG) suggestions!

Bridge to Terabithia by Kathleen Patterson
The story of two young friends who create their own make-believe world. This book is a classic, and unless you have a heart made of cement and broken glass, you will cry.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
I can’t say too much about this story because I don’t want to give anything away, but it is brilliant, one of those books that ties up all loose ends so perfectly in such a satsifying way. I highly recommend this book– I read it when I was 30 and loved it! Great voice.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis|
These are classics! I seriously cannot get enough of them– I read them over and over and over and love them every single time. I am just finishing up the series for the first time this year, and– no joke– after book 7 is over, I will start again on book 1.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Classic tale of a pet pig and his spider friend who is trying to save him from slaughter. Lovely.

Jackie’s Favorite Adult Fiction

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

So, it’s no secret that I’m a YA junkie, but I still have adult novels that I adore (like, head-over-heels-feeling-giddy-and-lightheaded adore):

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
This is the story of Reuben Land, who– along with his father and sister– set out on a journey to find Reuben’s outlaw brother Davy. Filled with his sister Swede’s hilarious epic poetry and his father’s deep faith, this story is some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read.
Recommended for: anyone who loves literary fiction, parents, folks from the Midwest, readers looking for a masterful roadtrip book

The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
If you click here, you can read my desperate plea for people to read this incredible grown-up fairytale.
Recommended for: people who want the meat of fantasy, not the candybar version (i.e. vampire lit), people who love incredible writing, people who just plain-and-simple love story

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
This book is richer than chocolate. It has magic and competition and romance– and it avoids all cliches. It is a sensory extravaganza.
Recommended for: people who love Harry Potter and are ready for magic from a grown-up perspective, anyone who values great imagery

C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hiddeous Strength
In general, I’m not a big sci fi fan. But then there’s C.S. Lewis sci fi, a whole different breed. It’s like mixing deep thoughts, deep theology, and deep space into a hearty stew. Each book is better than the one that came before it, so don’t stop reading!
Recommended for: fans of C.S. Lewis, deep thinkers, people who love theology, readers who love rich writing

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Forget Grapes of Wrath– this is Steinbeck’s magnum opus. This is the story of Adam Trask, his brother Charles, and Adam’s sons Aron and Cal. It’s a re-telling of the story of Cain and Abel, mixed with Steinbeck’s own history, and it is brilliant.
Recommended for: people who enjoy generational stories, theologians, connoisseurs of fine writing

Rosie by Anne Lamott
I wanted to add another contemporary writer to this list, and Anne Lamott is one of the best out there. While I think her truest forte is in memoir writing, she still writes incredible fiction. Rosie is the first book of a trilogy, but it can also stand alone. It’s the story of Elizabeth Ferguson and her daughter Rosie while Elizabeth is sinking into alcoholism. It is great.
Recommended for: people who want to laugh and have their heart broken by the same book, readers who want incredible characters and great writing, fans of Anne Lamott’s memoir

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
A work of “theological fantasy” from the best of the best. A fascinating look at heaven and hell, which uses Dante, Augstine, Milton, and Bunyan as sources. Brilliant.
Recommended for: Christian thinkers, non-Christian thinkers

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
I have to admit here that I’ve only read the 500-page abridged version, but it was fantastic. What an incredibly well-written story of grace. I gobbled this one up!
Recommended for: anyone who loves the classics, anyone who loves grace

I also recommend the following:
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Exodus by Leon Uris
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Redeemer

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

I am being mentored at my workplace, and Monica, my brilliant mentor, said to me the other week, “If we are being conformed into the likeness of our Redeemer, then we should be little redeemers.”

I like that idea. I think.

Remember John Coffey in The Green Mile? How he could siphon illness and even death from people with his touch– and then would expel it from his mouth like ashes?

Sometimes I wish I could do that for the readers of this blog. Just steal your suffering away.

Reminds me of the verse from Galatians 3: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (emphasis mine).

I love that RESCUE is God’s work, and I will count it an honor if he grants that I be used as a tool in that work.

Most Intimidating Books

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is

TOP TEN MOST INTIMIDATING BOOKS (due to size, content, hype, etc.).

10. Persuasion by Jane Austen | In general, any “manners” book is intimidating to me. This one is all about waiting, and I actually ended up liking it– though I have never re-read it … or any other Austen book. (Does that make me a bad English major? Just wait– there’s a bigger confession on its way.)

9. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling | Sheer numbers, baby.

8. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo | … aaaaaaaand numbers again. I read the 500-paged abridged version though and thought it was masterful!

7. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder | Essentially a philosophy textbook disguised as a novel. Still, it was amazing. Then again, I’m not sure that I could spout back much to you about Aristotle and Plato. But I trust it’s in my head somewhere!

6. Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel | The premise is a little overwhelming: a writer … who meets a taxidermist … who is writing a play about a monkey and a donkey … in the Holocaust. As I’ve said before, only Yann Martel could pull that off so perfectly.

5. Meditations by Rene Descartes | I love philosophy– maybe because in my OCD hey-day it was a little too dangerous for me. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to understand and follow this work by Descartes … but I loved it. It was a must-read as research for my novel.

4. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling | After the world fell desperately in love with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I think we were all a little worried about Jo Rowling’s venture into the adult world. And let me tell you, although this book has incredible writing, the content matter is harsh and depressing.

3. Exodus by Leon Uris | I can still remember Mrs. Grams promoting this book from the front of my 11th-grade English class. It was the story of the Jewish nation, and it looked ginormous— which it is, at around 600 pages. I didn’t choose it for that particular assignment, but I decided I would read it over the summer. And I did. Once each summer for the next 3-4 summers. It’s incredible.

2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck | It’s supposed to be one of his best (though I would argue that East of Eden is his magnum opus), and you’re supposed to like it … and I just didn’t. At least, at first. But as I journeyed across the country with Tom Joad, somehow I came to love him.

1. Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien | English geeks everywhere unite around this book. I knew I was supposed to love it … and again, I didn’t. And with this one (confession time!), I never did grow to love it. It was a painful, torturous reading that I only slogged through because it was assigned reading for class. I never read the second or third books. After I read a biography of Tolkien, though, I came to a real appreciation for The Lord of the Rings. And that’s where I remain to this day: appreciative, but not a fan. Commence hateful comments. 🙂

A Closer Look at HOCD

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Since I first blogged about HOCD, more and more people have been coming out of the woodwork in my life to say, “That’s me.” I’m realizing every week just what a common OCD theme it is to struggle with and question one’s sexuality, even when there is really very little reason to do so. When I talk to obsessive-compulsives with HOCD, it’s very clear to me that they are straight (they want to be straight, they are not generally attracted to the opposite sex, etc.), but OCD– that old bastard– won’t give them any rest.

I decided to conduct a small, not-scientific-at-all study on my own so that I could compare responses and see what trends I could see. I asked the same 8 questions to 4 of my friends– one male and one female, each with HOCD, and one male and one female, both who are homosexual. I’m so grateful to them for their thorough and honest responses, which I have edited down without changing any of the meanings obvious in the larger context.

I’d like to share them with you.

1. When did you first start to wonder if you were gay? How old were you? Was there a particular experience that “triggered” your questioning?

2. When you first suspected you were gay, how did you feel? What emotions went through you, both as you considered what it would mean for yourself internally and for your relationships externally?

3. How long did the debating (am I gay/am I not?) last? Was this something you knew or something you were/are trying to figure out?

4. When you pictured yourself interacting romantically with someone of your same sex, what emotions did you experience? Also, how sure of those emotions were you? (Did you waffle back and forth between your reactions, or were you certain and set on a particular reaction?)

5. Did you/do you want to be gay?

6. Do you struggle/have you struggled with any OCD-related obsessions (HOCD or otherwise)? Have you been diagnosed with OCD?

7. In general, do you find yourself primarily attracted to the opposite sex or your same sex?

8. Do you find people of both genders attractive?

I’d be so fascinated to hear reactions to these answers from my blog readers. What did you notice? What surprised you? Are there any trends you are seeing or sensing?

A couple things I noticed:

* In both the male and female HOCD answers, their sexual questioning was triggered by a relatively minor event. In contrast, the homosexual response from both genders was more of a large-scale “I knew I was different.”

* My gay friends seemed to fear people’s responses and reactions more than they actually feared being homosexual.

* Both HOCD responses toward imagining romantic interactions with the same sex were primarily negative– disinterest, nausea– even though there may have been physical reactions that seemed to say otherwise.

* Those with HOCD thoughts were already deeply struggling with other areas of OCD.

* Everyone agreed that both genders can be attractive– but note that doesn’t equate being attracted to them.

I’d love to hear from my readers. What are your thoughts?

Disclaimer that I should probably have put at the top: I think it is obvious that this blog post is not at all about discussing the morality of homosexuality. This blog post is about discovering what we can about HOCD in comparison to homosexuality. All four of the people who so graciously agreed to be interviewed are my friends, if you think I will so much as let you breathe an insult in their direction, just get ready to feel my wrath. There are avenues for you to debate homosexuality and/or homophobia; this blog is NOT one. >calms down, flashes big smile<

Routine

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

ROUTINE

Wringing the Rubik’s cube for a solution,
gentle skill reconciles nine tiny blue squares to become a face
segregated from the greens, reds, and yellows.
Your nimble fingers work salvation into the block
then offer it to me, a finished product fallen to my lap.
Music plays, people talk, we tell stories—life continues—
as I confuse the cube into madness and return it again.

Think OCD is Kinda Funny and Quirky?

Image

Investments

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Random 5 Friday is a weekly meme over at A Rural Journal.

(By the way, I’ve started doing these Random 5 Fridays as a way for my blog readers to get to know me better. Is it working? So many of my other posts are about topics— and while you obviously learn my thoughts and opinions that way, you don’t always learn a lot about who I really am. I hope this meme is helpful in doing just that. If you have ideas for future Random 5 Fridays, please leave them in the comments!)

Today I want to tell you about the five items in my life I use almost every single day.

1. My bed. Oh my gosh, my bed is incredible. It’s this queen-size sleigh bed, and it has an incredible mattress and memory foam. I spent most of my life sleeping on an absolutely ancient old twin (through which the wire coils occasionally poked), and then of course there were the college dormitory beds, followed by this junky little thing I got after undergrad. But now. Now, I tell you, I am like royalty. (If only I could fall asleep and stay asleep … maybe it’s time for new meds.)

2. Narnia on audio. Without my Narnia discs, I couldn’t fall asleep at night. I’ve listened to them so much over the years that they are starting to wear out. I don’t know if I’ve ever worn out a CD before.

3. My laptop. Sweet little Samsung. (I refuse to buy Apple products.) As a writer, I use my computer every day!

4. My TOMS. This seems like such a silly thing to list, but I do find myself slipping into these ultra-comfy shoes nearly every day– and better yet, when I bought them, they donated a pair of shoes to a person in need.

5. My lap desk. Nerd alert! (As if the “Narnia on audio” didn’t already tip you off.) Because of the time I spend on my laptop, I either need to be at a table or to use the lap desk that my beautiful mom got me for Christmas a couple years ago. It too was falling apart at the seams, but nothing a little bottle of Super Glue couldn’t fix!

So, there you go. I feel like a dork for even blogging about this. You should probably give me some suggestions for future Fridays. 🙂

JACKIE LEA SOMMERS

Author & Advocate