Getting Well, Joining the Campaign, and Sharing the Love

I've signed on for another round of platform-building, blogger-friend-finding fun with Rachael Harrie's Platform Building Campaign. I had meant to post sooner to help spread the word before sign ups closed, but I was knocked out of commission for a few days with a nasty stomach virus. Thankfully, my daughter and my husband took good care of me, making sure I had plenty of saltines, ginger ale, and soup.

In any case, if you're a new visitor, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to getting to know you and your blog better throughout the campaign!

I'd also like to thank Patricia from Children's Books Heal for awarding me the Kreative Blogger award. She runs a wonderful book review blog and I'm so happy to have gotten to know her through the blogging experience.

The rules of the award are to thank the person who nominated you for the award and post a link to their blog. Then list 10 things about myself and award the blog to six other deserving bloggers.

However, I'm shortening things a bit, because being out of commission for the past four days has set me behind on EVERYTHING. I need to start catching up with life again!

Five things about me:

1.  I am constantly fighting the battle against clutter, but rarely feel like I'm winning.

2.  I made Ranger cookies last week and convinced myself that with all of the Rice Krispies and Oatmeal, they were a justifiable breakfast food.

3.  Somehow I always end up watching American Idol, even though it drives me crazy.

4.  One of my favorite things about February are the cherry pies at McDonalds.  Mmmmm.

5. In junior high my teachers got together and presented me with a certificate naming me "Most Talkative." (It was a joke, because I was sooooo shy.)


And now, I'd like to pass the award on to:

Vijaya Bodach at Reading, Writing, Ruminating. She's a scientist turned children's writer who shares her thoughts on faith, family, and writing. And she's a lovely person.

Heather Ayris Burnell at Frolicking Through Cyberspace. She's a PB writer who also runs a cafe & gallery. That's a lot of creativity! Plus, you've gotta love a blog with "frolicking" in the title ;)

Ardith Goodwith at Ardith's Art Journal. I was introduced to Ardith, her blog, and her art through last year's platform building campaign.

The Muse at The Writer Shade of Pale. Not only do I love the title of her (recently discovered) blog, but I'm loving her thoughtful posts.

Leslie Rose at Yes, This Will be on the Test She's a fifth grade teacher and a YA writer.

They're all blogs worth visiting. I hope you'll click over and check them out.

Two Reviews for the Novels in Verse Reading Challenge

Today I'm posting two reviews as part of the Novels in Verse Reading challenge hosted by Amanda at Born Bookish. In January, I read the first two books towards my goal of 9-12 novels written in verse for the year.

May B by Caroline Starr Rose
Middle Grade

Synopsis (from Amazon)

I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return. 
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again. Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.

My Review

I’m a big fan of novels written in verse, so I’d been waiting for this one to come out. When I finally got my hands on it, I read it in one sitting.

 I felt for May right from the start, as she’s told that she has to quit school, leave her family, and go live with strangers to work on their homestead. Talk about drama!

The author does an amazing job of creating characters and emotions we can relate to, even though the circumstances of May’s family are quite different from anything I’ve ever experienced. I felt the weight of her parents’ decision to send her away, not only as it affected May, but also as it affected her whole family.

Another thing that May struggles with is reading. Although her schoolteacher and her classmates ridicule May, she is determined to do better. One of the few things she brings with her when she leaves home is her reader.

When May is dropped off at their neighbor’s homestead she’s full of doubt. But as May adapts to her new circumstances, firstly getting accustomed to the family she’s been sent to help, and finally, being left alone to survive the winter, she finds her strength and her voice.

This was a lovely, captivating story. I’m glad I purchased the book, because I know I’m going to want to read it again!

Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay
Young Adult

Synopsis (from Amazon)

My Wish 

is to fall 

cranium over Converse 

in dizzy daydream-worthy love. 
(If only it were that easy.)

Marcie has been dragged away from home for the summer--from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She's left behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father. 

By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "summer vacation" has become permanent. She has to start at a new school, and there she leaves behind her Leftover status when a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? Can you even know it until you've lost it? 

Love & Leftovers is a beautifully written story of one girl's journey navigating family, friends, and love, and a compelling and sexy read that teens will gobble up whole.

My Review

Okay, I’ll say it again: I love books written in verse. And Love & Leftovers is no exception. It’s like getting all the good parts without any “filler” to slow things down. Which is probably why, even at 432 pages, I couldn’t put this down. I read it in one sitting.

When Marcie’s dad leaves her mother for another man, it affects not only her family, but her other relationships as well.  Marcie begins to question everything in her life. Why didn’t her father love her enough to stay? When will she be able to go home to her friends? Why doesn’t her boyfriend show the extent of his feelings for her? What does being in love really feel like?

Far from home, her friends, and her musician boyfriend, Marcie is lonely. So when a boy at her new school starts showing interest, she rationalizes a new relationship even as she sees it crossing from friendship to something more. Will this be true love?

Although Marcie’s story is not as sweet & innocent as I like teen romances to be, the author creates characters you’ll really care about. 


I'd also like to thank Amanda for posting my review of Gayle Forman's Where She Went. Look for it here.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Sequel to If I Stay
YA










What book are you currently reading and what do you like most about it?

Reader's Bliss

Photo courtesy of Free Artistic Photos

In my last post, I mentioned the beautiful stack of new books on my desk. I'm quickly making my way through that pile and experiencing all kinds of reader's bliss in the process. Here's a look at what that means to me:

• Bliss is finding a book that takes your mind off of your own writing for a while.
• Bliss is finding a a book that is so beautifully written, that the minute you read the last word, you turn back to the front and begin reading it again.
• Bliss is discovering a new (to you) author, getting hooked on her books, and not having to wait for her to write more.
• Bliss is having a friend who reads the same books that you do so that you can discuss them when you finish.
• Bliss is reading a book that not only inspires you to be your best, but makes you believe your best is truly possible.
• Bliss is reading a book that makes you feel like someone understands you.
• Bliss is reading a book that makes you feel like you've made new friends.
• Bliss is reading a book that helps you understand more about human nature and how much we all have in common, no matter how great our differences.
• Bliss is reading a book that makes you feel loved for who you are.
• Bliss is reading a book that you think about for days after you finish reading it.

Photo courtesy of Free Artistic Photos

What does your reader's bliss look like and what was the last book that transported you there?

Time for a Little Fun

Last week I received The Versatile Blogger Award from new blogging friend, Fiona J. Phillips over at Fi's Magical Writing Haven. Thanks, Fi. I'd also like to thank C. Lee McKenzie from The Write Game, for bestowing this honor on me several months back.

The rules insist that I tell you seven things you don't know about me, and pass the award on to five other bloggers, so here goes:

1.  I'm keeping all of the chocolates I received for Christmas (coconut wreaths, cordial cherries, thin mints, assorted cremes, etc.) on my desk. I've been spending an inordinate amount of time in my office this month. Any connection? I'll let you decide ;)

2.  I also received a gift card to our local independent book shop. Stacked in a very satisfying pile on the corner of my desk (next to the cache of chocolates) are North of Beautiful, by Justina Chen Headley, I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, Second Sight by Cheryl B. KIein, and May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. I am in readers bliss.

3. I love to bake, but hate to cook. Give me Toll House cookie bars over pork chops any day!

4. I never learned to dress like an adult. I wear jeans, t-shirts and sneakers every day. (Although I recently went on a shopping spree in preparation for attending a writers conference later in the year.) I almost don't recognize myself all dressed up.

5.  Figuring out what to make for dinner is my least favorite part of each day. Sometimes I just want to scream, "Really, I have to cook every day?"

6. Although I swore this would never happen to me, I sometimes forget how old I am.

7. I was once asked if my (older) sister was my daughter. This happened only once and I tell myself that the room was dimly lit, the woman who asked was elderly and surely she had some sort of vision impairment. It wasn't. And to my knowledge, she didn't. But I tell myself this anyway.

And now I'd like to pass this award on to five of my blogging friends. I hope you'll click on over and check them out.

1.  Mirka Breen shares wonderfully honest posts on her own blog and is a faithful commenter on so many others. Thanks, Mirka!

2.  Susanna Leonard Hill runs a truly versatile blog. She's always got something going on: challenges, contests, polls, prompts. There's never a dull moment.

3.  Janet Sumner Johnson because she is awesome! See this post.

4.  Sarah Pearson has an addicting blog feature called Musical Stories. If you haven't already, you're going to want to check them out. 

5.  Rosalind Adam because she's one of the nicest people I've met since I started blogging.

Now, to celebrate the fact that I'm going to be diving into the query process with my YA novel in verse this week, I'm joining a reading challenge. My daughter, Amanda, is hosting a Novels In Verse Reading Challenge over at Born Bookish.

I've signed on at the Sonnet Level to read 9-12 novels in verse before the end of the year. I hope you'll consider joining as well. And if you've never read a novel in verse, you may be surprised to find how many of them there are. She's got lists of both MG and YA titles here.

Infused words

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Last month, I was at the library one day looking for a book that might help my daughter with a paper she was writing for school. As I browsed the shelves, I found a book called The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain by Scott Cairns.  After having watched my father decline into dementia for years, caring for him, and then finally moving him into a nursing home, I have done a good bit of thinking about suffering. I left the library that day with a tall stack of books for my daughter and a tiny 126-page treasure for myself.

Ironically, just a few weeks after I picked up that book, my father’s suffering came to an end. As I mentioned in my last post, he passed away mid-December. And I have to say, there is great peace in knowing that he is no longer suffering. But we seek solace in many different ways, and after receiving the comfort of friends and family, I was ready to pick up Scott Cairns’ book to hear and learn from another’s experience. Just a few paragraphs into the book, the author writes, “Like most people, I, too, have been blindsided by personal grief now and again over the years. And I have an increasingly keen sense that, wherever I am someone nearby is suffering now.” His words are infused with empathy and compassion and though the author and I are strangers, I read them as the words of a friend.

The day following Dad’s funeral, I was drawn back to my desk, eager to get back to the business of writing. Friends advised me to give myself time, not to rush back into things, but I had to wonder, if I was not writing, what I should be doing. Getting back to words on the page was what I longed for.

Likewise, Cairns’ speaks of art as a form of consolation. “Laboring over the wheel, the canvas, the written page, or the musical score can bring to the laborer a powerfully consoling sense of purpose.” He then quotes philosopher George Steiner for a helpful sense of why this is so: “Any coherent understanding of what language is and how language performs. . .any coherent account of the capacity of human speech to communicate meanings and feelings is, in the final analysis, underwritten by the assumption of God’s presence.”

For me this brought to mind the four different clergymen who stopped into my father’s hospital room during the week he was dying. Although we only personally knew one of them, their words and prayers were no less comforting for having come from strangers. Their words were infused with strength, joy, hope, love, beauty, and truth.

What are your words infused with?

Transitions

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As a writer, I think a lot about transitions. When I’m working on a story or article, I want things to flow smoothly from one scene or idea to the next, always trying to make the ride less bumpy for my readers. But transitions in life aren’t always so smooth.

Last week, my father passed away, just two days before his 77^th birthday. We had been planning a big party for him with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Instead, we laid him to rest four days later, on my birthday.

It’s hard to believe he’s really gone. Perhaps I’m still a bit numb. But I’m grateful that I’m surrounded by a loving family, and through us, his legacy will live on.

I am wishing you all a new year of smooth transitions, in writing and in life.

Freight

Our life experiences influence us every day, as do the experiences of those close to us. Some call this baggage. In his new novel, author Mel Bosworth calls it Freight

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As writers, it’s likely that some of our freight makes it onto the page. And it should. It’s meaningful stuff and readers can relate because they live these real lives too. French author Marcel Proust said: “We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.” Perhaps part of that process is writing about it.

Mel Bosworth's novel is a small book about the big things we all carry around inside of us. “This unflinching, quirky novel follows a flawed yet lovable everyman as he searches for Home. We never learn his name. Nor do we learn her name – the woman whose freight is still too much for him to carry. But we know he likes soft things. We know he works through pain. We know his childhood still clings to him, despite his graying hair. And through knowing him and all his freight, ours is easier to bear.” (From the back cover.)

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There is something freeing about finding the right words to carry our burdens onto the page. When we get the words right, they take some of the weight from our shoulders. Again, from the book: “At some point we become a bulging hose or a screaming faucet. We stand in the yard or we hunch at the sink and we have to turn the spigot. . .we become the water, spilling all over the place, and into ourselves. It’s the release we crave, the release we need so we can make more room inside ourselves. . .”

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When I read a story where the characters go through something that I’ve been through, it helps me to feel less alone. There’s a Bible verse that sticks in my head, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galations 6:2) Perhaps God has given us the gift of writing as a means of sharing our burdens, and in the process, lightening the burdens of others. On a planet where more than seven billion people inhabit less than 2% of the Earth’s surface, there’s no reason why anyone should have to feel alone. Maybe we just need to open up more, and share our freight.


Do you put your freight onto the page?