Distractions and Rewards

Wow, is that the fourth of July in the rear view mirror? The weeks just keep whizzing by! Summers are like that, aren't they? I always have high hopes for what I'm going to accomplish during these few months. Maybe unrealistically high.

Photo courtesy of Free Artistic Photos

So far, I've made a slight dent in my TBR pile, including several ARCs I received at BEA. Reviews will be coming as their release dates near.

I've also begun work on a new contemporary YA novel. The fact that I've done more pre-planning with this story than ever before doesn't seem to be helping me get words down on the page. I managed a first draft of chapter one and then came to an abrupt halt. After a day or two of frustration, I decided what I needed was a distraction, yet  I couldn't settle my mind enough, even to read. I needed something to get completely lost in. Enter YouTube, where I found Catherine Cookson's The Mallens. This is one of the titles I've never been able to find at our library. When it comes to distractions, this was the jackpot! This is not just a movie, it's a saga: The Mallen Streak, The Mallen Girls, The Mallen Secret, The Mallen Curse. They actually ran as a television series back in 1979. I spent the weekend watching them all. And I don't even feel guilty about it. I wasn't getting anything accomplished anyway.

This wasn't my favorite of Cookson's works, but when you spend ten plus hours with a cast of characters, it's hard not to become enthralled. If you ever want to study flawed characters, they're in abundance here. In fact, they're so flawed that by the end of the movie there was hardly a character left that I genuinely liked.

I'm tempted go back to YouTube to watch the other hard-to-find Cookson titles, but I think I'll save them for another day, maybe as a reward when I get the next chapter written.

What are your best distractions and rewards?

The Language of Creativity

I know a lot of people don't like reality television. Believe me, there's a lot of it that I don't like either. But, there's some of it that I do enjoy. I've been hooked on So You Think You Can Dance for years now. Master Chef is a more recent discovery. I've been thinking about why, despite all the cheesy drama, I still watch week after week, season after season. Here's what I've come up with. The creativity.
I love watching the contestants who get up on that stage and amaze me with their unexpected humor or   blow me away with the raw emotion of their performance.

(She starts dancing at 3:20 if you want to skip forward.)

Yes, I tire of those who take the stage because they "just know they're meant to be a star." What touches me are the people who are brimming over with creativity and their dance communicates a universal truth to their audience. Not look at me, I'm a star. But I'm a human being, I know what you're feeling. I've felt it too.

On Master Chef the contestants communicate with food. I personally, don't like to cook. (I do plenty of it, I just don't usually enjoy it.) But it's rewarding for me to watch these people who speak a whole different language - the language of food, which often has deep ties to their families, their childhoods, the community they were raised in.

I guess we all feel some of that each time we make a favorite dish for someone we care about. When my dad was alive, my sister and I would visit him every weekend in the nursing home. He had quite the sweet tooth and we'd take turns making things that he loved. After his ability for words dropped off, the food was a way to communicate.We'd open the cooler to reveal a slice of pumpkin cheesecake, or tiny squares of homemade fudge and his eyes would light up. He would open wide for bite after bite as we fed him. Sometimes he smiled. Sometimes he kept his eyes closed and remained in his own world. But I believe those tastes held more than calories. I believe they unlocked memories.

So even though I can't dance and I'm not much of a cook, I am captivated and inspired by these forms of creativity.

NYC/BEA Recap

After one cab, two buses, and a car ride, I returned home from my first trip to NYC in the wee hours Saturday morning. And what a trip it was! I saw Rockefeller Center:

and Times Square:

At BookExpo America, I attended author panels featuring Rainbow Rowell:

Anna Jarzab, Cristin Terill, Amy Rose Capetta, Sara Farizan,

Robyn Schneider and Katie Cotugno:

Corey Ann Haydu:

Suzanne Young & Cat Patrick:

and heard about tons of exciting upcoming titles.

In preparation for this trip, I read a great many blog posts from people sharing their experiences from past years. Despite the horror stories, I didn't witness biting, shoving, using elbows as weapons, or anything remotely unpleasant. I stood in lots of long lines and met many lovely people.

The one common piece of advice I found over and over again was "wear comfortable shoes." Even so, I somehow managed to overestimate the comfort level of my shoes and underestimate the amount of walking involved. Which meant that at the end of day one, I had to spring for some comfy sneakers.They did not make the ideal match with my dress on day two, but vanity gave way to survival.

In an effort to save my shoulders, I tried my best to be discerning about what books I gathered, and came home with a total of 29 titles: one for my daughter, five for my mother, and 23 that I am eager to read myself. I look forward to sharing my reviews with you in the coming weeks.

Out on the sidewalk, just before I left on Friday, I was so pleased to meet Kelly Hager from KellyVision. With several years of BEA attendance under her belt, she graciously answered my questions, pre-trip and helped me prepare. I'm glad to have a face to go with her name (and blog) now, and happy to have been able to thank her for her help in person.

A tiny corner of the Javits Center as I left.

The greatest part about this trip was experiencing it with my wonderful daughter, relying on her understanding and Gods peace to help me overcome my anxiety and aversion to crowds. I did not suffer one moment of panic during the trip. God is good!

We're Off to Great Places

I'm going to start right out with a confession: I don't do well in crowds. I panic if I walk into Starbucks and there are more than a half dozen people inside. If I don't get to church before the sanctuary fills up on Sunday morning, I have anxiety entering the crowded room (even though there are many familiar faces.)

Amanda graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Graphic Design and a dream of designing book covers.

The last few weeks have put me into unavoidable crowds. Our youngest daughter graduated from college. (Congratulations, Amanda!!) It was a day among thousands of people and I was physically and emotionally exhausted by day's end.

Yesterday was her graduation party. A much smaller, more intimate group but still - two social weekends in a row. And this week the two of us are going to BEA. Nope, I have not chickened out. Even after reading  stories like this, about someone who was bitten there a couple of years ago. Yep. The old me would have bailed by now. But, I'm in and I'm totally relying on God to get me through this trip and all it involves. He has already gifted me with his peace in that I am truly excited (and only slightly terrified.)

 Most of all, I'm looking forward to getting beyond my fears, sharing the experience with my daughter, and meeting some of my blogger friends in person. Oh, yeah, and then there are the books.

E-Reads

That Sadie Thing

and other stories

by Annalisa Crawford

That Sadie Thing is a collection of award-winning short stories that captivated me from the first page. Even now, a week later, several of the characters linger with me and I find myself thinking of them throughout the day. I’ve been intending to read Annalisa's work for some time. I’m glad I finally dove into this. I expected to read a story here or there, as is easy to do with a collection of shorts, yet once I began, I didn't stop reading until I reached the end. The author has a beautiful way with words and is a keen observer of people and how we relate to one another. Her stories surprised, soothed, and brought me to tears.

Destroy Me
by Tahereh Mafi

In my last post I told you all how much I enjoyed Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me and Unravel Me. My daughter had the novella, Destroy Me, which was released between these two books, on her Kindle. So, still on the Shatter Me high, I read it. Meh. I’m thinking that these types of novellas serve a purpose, and if I were anxiously waiting for the release of Unravel Me, I would have probably been hungry for any continuation of the story I could get my hands on in the interim. But since I didn’t start the series until the first two books were already available, there wasn’t much point in Destroy Me. It’s told from the antagonist’s point of view so it lacks the poetic flow of Juliette’s stream-of-consciousness narrative, and just kind of fell flat for me. But there is a revelation or two, and I do feel I know the antagonist a little better for having read it.

Defy the Stars

by Stephanie Parent

Defy the Stars by Stephanie Parent is a YA novel told in free verse. My daughter raved about this one when she read it a while back. I don’t know what took me so long to get to it. Once I started, I was reading like a fiend. I got nothing done for two days and I may have snarled at my husband more than once when he tried to talk to me. Yes, it was that good!

(And Yay, I finally have one book toward my Novels In Verse Reading Challenge goal!)

Recent Reads

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be. ( Description from Goodreads) 

This book took me by surprise. It’s a gentle story with unexpected power: one of those books you read and then moment you finish, you look up the author because you want to read more from them. Thankfully, in this case, there’s a lot to choose from. I have a list of them on request from the library.  

The Uninvited
by Tim Wynne-Jones

Mimi Shapiro had a disturbing freshman year at NYU, thanks to a foolish affair with a professor who still haunts her caller ID. So when her artist father, Marc, offers the use of his remote Canadian cottage, she’s glad to hop in her Mini Cooper and drive up north. The house is fairy-tale quaint, and the key is hidden right where her dad said it would be, so she’s shocked to find someone already living there — Jay, a young musician, who is equally startled to meet Mimi and immediately accuses her of leaving strange and threatening tokens inside: a dead bird, a snakeskin, a cricket sound track embedded in his latest composition. But Mimi has just arrived, so who is responsible? And more alarmingly, what does the intruder want? Part gripping thriller, part family drama, this fast-paced novel plays out in alternating viewpoints, in a pastoral setting that is evocative and eerie — a mysterious character in its own right. (Description from Goodreads) 

This was a page turner, but not as intense as I expected it to be. Loved this writer's style and all the details carefully woven throughout the story. 

The Tragedy Paper
by Elizabeth Laban

This book follows the story of Tim Macbeth, a seventeen-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is “Enter here to be and find a friend.” A friend is the last thing Tim expects or wants—he just hopes to get through his senior year unnoticed. Yet, despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “It” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim's surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, but she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone ever finds out. Tim and Vanessa begin a clandestine romance, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.
 
Jumping between viewpoints of the love-struck Tim and Duncan, a current senior about to uncover the truth of Tim and Vanessa, The Tragedy Paper is a compelling tale of forbidden love and the lengths people will go to keep their secrets. (Description from Goodreads) 

I picked this book up because I was intrigued with the concept of the Tragedy Paper and the story revolving around it, but it ended up being a disappointment on a lot of levels. I struggled to even finish it. I still think the concept had a lot of potential, but the flat characters and unrealistic dialogue killed it for me. 

Shatter Me
by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

(Description from Goodreads) 

The upside of being behind on your reading is when you finally read a book like this and then don't have to wait for book two. This book was INTENSE: absolutely impossible to put down. My daughter had told me the writing was beautiful, poetic, but I was still stunned by it. 

Unravel Me
by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette's  finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life. 

(Description from Goodreads) 

I have officially been sucked in by this series. It rendered my entire weekend useless. Dystopian/Paranormal are not my usual choices, but these books are INTENSE. Now, sadly, I'll have to wait, just like everyone else for book three. (Although, my daughter tells me she has Destroy Me, the novella on her Kindle, so that's up next.)

Have you read something outside your usual genre lately that's surprised you?

Coming Up for Air

After much polishing, perfecting, and tweaking, my long-labored-over WIP is awaiting the scrutiny of beta readers. I was not completely prepared for the "lost" feeling that followed. The first day was the worst. What? I can't sit down at my computer and manipulate these characters I've grown so fond of? What else is there to do? Yes, I have another story idea in the wings, but it seems a bit soon to jump into the depths again. So after a day of aimless internet wandering and sitting down at my computer only to be reassured that, yes, the story is finished (at least for now), I have begun making a dent in my to-be-read pile. First off, I read Lindsey Leavitt's Going Vintage, a fabulously fun read!

Then, Ally Carter's Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover. This series is addicting. In a good way.

And as of this afternoon, when I brought my mother to the salon and happily sat in the sun reading while she got her hair done, I'm halfway through Ann Stampler's Where it Began. Just as the cover boasts, it is indeed unputdownable. I only put it aside tonight to write this blog post and I will, assuredly be picking it back up as soon as this post is, well, posted.

 And when I finish the book at hand, this is what the stack that awaits me looks like:

Ahhhhh, heaven! And no more aimless drifting.

While we're talking about bookish things, I've been meaning to show you the gorgeous journal and pen that my daughter brought back from London for me. Love, love, love them!

Do you usually take some time between projects or do you dive right into the next story?