I’m just posting this to test and see if WordPress and LJ will play nicely together if I schedule posts ahead of time. They used to, then they didn’t…I’m hoping they are friends again. I would like to blog on an actual regular basis but my time comes in weird chunks. If I can plan ahead, however, I’ll be good to go 🙂
In theory….
Book ratings are tricky things. I think the thing which contributes the most to their trickiness is time.
How much I (or you, I’m betting) enjoy a particular book has a lot to do with when I read it. How old I am, what’s going on in my life, what book I read just before it. These are all things that alter how I feel about a book. For example, when I set up my Goodreads account however long ago, I couldn’t stand having an empty virtual bookshelf but I certainly wasn’t about to go through and add every book I could remember reading. My compromise was for me to add the books from the shelf nearest to me (or maybe the two nearest me, I don’t remember). Adding the books was easy enough, but rating them was a little trickier.
Between about the ages of 11 and 13 I read a lot of VC Andrews. A LOT. I devoured them. Now, if I were to read them today I suspect I would like them only slightly more than I did Twilight, which is to say, not very freaking much. But I’d loved them then, so how should I rate them?
I think, in the end, I gave them 5 stars because when I read them, I loved them.
Thus, I say again, book ratings are tricky things…and if you look at my Goodreads bookshelf and the stars I gave a particular book make you scratch your head because it seems out of character? Remember that time totally has to play a part.
Book reviews are also tricky things. I am not very good at writing them but there are loads of people who are. One of those people is Fate, the blogger behind The Fickle Hand of Fate. Fate agreed to review Shades of Green.
Rhonda’s strength definitely looks to be in the area of plotting, (Twists! Reversals! A totally unexpected ending, but still a square peg in a square hole!) and worldbuilding…
Fate didn’t love it unconditionally, however. You should read her complete review here. She makes a lot of very good points, which I should totally address in another blog entry because this one is getting a bit long 😉
Oh, and the picture? I took it. That flower is the result of some ‘blooming tea’. I like tea while I read…and um…yeah, that’s as strong as the connection gets to the content of the blog I’m afraid. It’s pretty though, no?
Coyote Con is a virtual convention run by Drollerie Press. It will take place over the month of May and in addition to the usual con fare there is also a MayWriMo challenge which is quite a bit like NaNoLJers Writo de Mayo except, I presume, bigger. Registration opened up yesterday and is free. They are having a limited number of memberships though, so if you’re interested in attending you ought to register sooner rather than later.
I’d planned to register from the first time I heard about it, so you can imagine how pleased I was when Deena Fisher emailed and offered me a spot on one of the panels. Would I like to sit on the panel about ‘Zine Evolution. Um, lemmethinkaboutthat-YES. Yes, I really would. Thank you 🙂
So I am. I’m nervous. I’m not really an expert about ‘zines, but I’m more than happy to share what I -do- know based on my personal expirience. Hopefully that’s enough and I don’t end up looking like an idiot. If you’re going to Coyote Con and want to see if I manage to get through the panel without inserting my foot in my mouth, the ‘Zine Evolution panel is on May 29th at 5PM EST. In addition to yours truly, JA Howe, Karen Newman and Megan Arkenberg will be panelists.
It should be an adventure, and the flutter of nerves I feel in my stomach when I think about doing it tells me that doing this is a good thing.
You know my ‘if I go and start writing maybe a plot will just magically appear’ plan? Don’t look now, but it may have worked. I didn’t get any writing time yet today, but I think I can sneak some in tonight after meeting with my critique group.
Also, do you know what’s awesome? Finding people who want to pick up some of your responsibilities (this time at NaNoLJers) thus making them happy and freeing up more time for you to write.
Win!
I took this picture last night from my back porch. I’m quite fond of it so I thought I’d share.
Now I need to go write something for Round 4 of the Whittaker Prize. I have a character and um…a character…
Frankly I’m kinda hoping if I just start writing a plot will come to me.
<.<
>.>
What? It could happen.
I’m sitting here listening to Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley (who make up Evelyn Evelyn) perform even though they are separated by an ocean courtesy of the giant ash cloud. It’s remarkable what technology makes possible, isn’t it? Someday perhaps it will inspire me to write something techno-y. In the meantime, I’ve found some inspiration in the deadlines and prompts offered via the Whittaker Prize. I included one of the stories I wrote for it in my newsletter, which yes, I did get done and sent out today.
Yay!
Writing goals. I need ’em. Without them I write but not in any sort of organized or consistent way.
In April I am doing the poem-a-day challenge from Poetic Asides. I don’t think I’ll be entering the contest, but I will be using the poetry prompts in order to write some more zombie poems. Ideally I would love to end up with enough poems to create a chapbook (with April’s poems combined with the ones I wrote in November).
It is in May, however, that I have a slightly less orthadox writing goal. Each year in May my writing group, NaNoLJers has a writing challenge we call Writo de Mayo. For Writo de Mayo each person is encouraged to set an individual writing goal and report their progress throughout the month. Most people choose a word count or a revision goal, I am not. My goal for May is to get healthier.
My plan is to do the 30 Day Shred each weekday. I’ve started doing The Shred before but fell out of the habit. I know from that expirience that the first few days are going to be pretty hellish and I will NEED weekends to recover. I’m hoping that toward the middle of the month I’ll be able to do it in addition to my regular work out on the exercise bike. I’ve also started counting calories again effective today.
How is this a writing goal? Well, the way I figure it I have a lot of stories I want to tell, and I’m going to need a lot of time to do it. With my health and weight as it currently is, I am decreasing my life expectancy and thus how much I can write. So from now through April I will be building up slowly to May when my #1 priority (other than my family and friends) will be working out. Developing some good habits and a routine that I will be able to stick with afterward. Before I buggered up my ankle backpacking I had a routine I loved and actually became addicted to. I was losing weight and inches and feeling good with loads of energy. I want that again.
Writing goals. They come in all shapes and sizes, eh?
The lovely Lototy from Coffee Time Romance reviewed Shades of Green today. She gave it 3 coffee cups out of five. She articulates the issues she has with the story, the ending especially I think, but also has some nice things to say like:
The visuals in this story are most amazing, and keep you intrigued with the characters as well as their environment.
You can read her complete review by clicking on the picture above, or by clicking here 🙂
In other news, my friend Scott’s book BREATHERS is on the ballot for a Stoker award this year, and the award ceremony is this weekend. Good luck Scott (it’s not bad luck to say that, I hope). I’ll be thinking of you 🙂
This is Absinthe. I’m currently sitting on the sofa while I work and she is pressed up against my side being an adorable little purr-ball.
Shortly after I made my blog post yesterday Kari Wolfe from Imperfect Clarity posted an interview she’d done of me a while back. It might be interesting to you. You can see it here.
Also? I’m bad. I totally forgot to mention that I am giving away three copies of Shades of Green on Goodreads. You can enter to win by clicking here. Also, while you’re there why not friend me? My profile is here and I’d love to have some more friends over there. I really enjoy seeing what people are reading and quite often pick up books based on recomendations from my friends.
For people who are subscrib
ed to my newsletter this update post will have some news that you’ve read already. Bare with me (or is it bear with me?) though, there will be some stuff you’ve not read before too 🙂
First of all, Clarion West sent me their spiffy form rejection letter last week. I was disappointed, of course, but far less than I would have guessed. Truthfully, as much as I wanted to go to Clarion West (or Clarion), the idea of being away from my life and family for six weeks was a difficult one. It would have been tough on them, Danica especially, and I wasn’t sure I was actually willing to be that selfish, or what the cost for the people I love would be. Still, yes, disappointed. Maybe next year — Dani will be more independant then. We’ll see. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I keep writing. I entered the Whittaker Prize this year in an effort to give myself deadlines and also receive completely unbiased feedback on my work (since judging is anonymous and I don’t know the judges so they can’t recognise my style). I shared the story and poem I was submitting for the first round in my newsletter. The scores are in and I did better than I expected (74/100 on the poem and 85/100 on the story — surprising, I would have never guessed I’d score higher on the story than the poem.), now I’m looking forward to receiving my written feedback. I’m also working on my submissions for round two.
One of the prompts reminded me of a story I’d long wanted to write about Michael and Margaret. It’s set a long time before Sister Margaret but when it’s done I hope that you’ll be able to see the seeds of their future in its pages. It’s also meant to stand alone. Progress is going well on it, and it will make me happy to be able to submit an Aphanasian story for unbiased scoring and feedback. As for the poem…I’ve only a vague idea. We’ll see what comes of it. It is, of course, zombie related 🙂
Speaking of zombies, I will be doing the poem-a-day challenge in April. Sorta. My plan is to follow his prompts and write a poem a day, then after revision combine those poems (all zombie, of course) with the zombie poems I wrote based on Robert Brewer’s prompts in November and see if I can’t come up with a chapbook. I don’t know that I’ll do the ‘enter-the-contest’ part though. I doubt it.
Let me leave you with a short story about the kind of book I want to write. I was talking with my daughter about a book* she was reading and loving. We were discussing the storyline and one of the mysteries within. Danica said, “Well, that’s possible, but we think *insert spoilerific theory here*”. I said, “Oh, are some of your friends reading this series too?” she said no and asked why I’d think that. I said “Well, you said we think. That implies that you’ve been discussing this with other people.” Danica laughed and explained that no, when she said ‘we’ she meant she and the other characters in the book.
Think about that for a moment.
Those are the kinds of characters I want to write, the sorts of connections I want to make with my readers. Bravo Kelley.
*The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong. Danica loves what she’s read of the series so far. I, personally, enjoyed the first book in the series, The Summoning, until I realised there wasn’t going to be any resolution at all. I don’t like book series in which none of the books can stand alone.
Lastly, that picture? I just love it, and with the snow that has decided to return and cover my world with its beautiful but decidedly cold goodness I am truly longing for warmer weather and flowers.
March is a crazy month around here. It really is and it always has been. My birthday and two of my siblings birthdays are all in March. Now that I’m a grown up (in theory anyway) it’s still frenetic. Jo’s birthday is in March, as are several members of our extended family. It’s also exam time at the university which means Jo is really, really busy at work. Between setting the exams, help sessions, supervising exams, marking them and answering loads and loads of student’s emails there’s not a whole lot of ‘down’ time. As if that weren’t enough, schools always seem to plan things for March; meetings, info sessions, student performances…
It’s crazy!
We’re halfway through though, which is yay!
I heard back from Clarion, they said thanks but no thanks. I also applied to Clarion West and am waiting to hear back from them with my fingers crossed. I’d prefer CW over Clarion, actually, so I’m not overly disappointed about Clarion. Besides, did you see who’s teaching there this year? I bet the competition was pretty crazy. Which is not to imply it isn’t for CW as well.
I will be disappointed if I don’t get into Clarion West, but not destroyed. This is a good thing. A very good thing. I want to go, but I don’t -need- to go. We’ll see what happens 🙂
While I wait I’m writing a lot. I’m doing a pretty good job of sticking with my plan to write each morning when I have my coffee. So far as a result I’ve got one poem, a pretty darn good short story and have almost finished another short. They are all first drafts, but since I find revising easier than getting the first draft done, that’s a pretty big hurdle. I’ll be sharing the second short story (in all it’s first draft glory, I’m afraid) with my newsletter readers…tomorrow. I won’t have time to finish it today.
The last (but, as they say, not least) thing I wanted to share today was this. It’s a review of Shades of Green, this time by an unbiased reviewer. Zeek from The Way I See It reviewed Shades of Green and, for the most part, he liked it. He said some nice things about the story, including that he enjoyed the world and could see how it would be the springboard for more stories, and also made me smile with this.
…there is much potential and its obvious the author has her craft honed already, so in the end this story gets a 3.9 out of 5 from me.
I like it when people think I have honed my craft. I know I have so much more to learn, but it’s wonderful to feel as though I’m progressing steadily.
Oh, and what’s with the picture of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco? Nothing. I took it last summer when we were on vacation and I like it. That’s all.
