11 questions: books and me

April 23, 2012 5 Comments

I’ve been double-tagged by Alina Sayre and Mike Schulenberg for eleven book-related questions (thanks for thinking of me!).

But before we get started, here’s the fine print:

  • Post the rules.
  • Answer the questions.
  • Pass the questions on to eleven people by tagging and linking to them.
  • Let them know you’ve tagged them.
  • Then cover yourself in whipped cream and chocolate sauce and do the macarena on top of your car. Post the vid. (Ha, ha, just kidding. Wanted to make sure you were really paying attention. The legalese will get you, you know).

Moving right along: more about my reading habits than you ever wanted to know.

1.  If you could live in a fictional world, where would that be?

A world with a temperate climate, geological stability, no wars, chocolate, and an Internet connection. Since that excludes pretty much all fictional worlds, I guess I’ll settle for Earth, on the grounds that two out of five is as good as I’ll get.

However: When I was a teenager, I wanted to live on Pern. That is, until I realized that the odds were vastly in favor of me ending up a nameless scullery drudge, kicked around by the most despised Lord Holder. Besides, I like modern medicine and flush toilets, and the whole forced-mating part of having a telepathic bond with a dragon is rather squicky.

I thought I wanted to live on Pern. Then I thought again.

2.  Fiction or non-fiction?

Mostly fiction, though non-fiction is gaining ground. Research, you see.

3.  Do you read in noisy or quiet places?

I’ve been known to read while biking (just on the driveway, not on the street!) and to work at my computer without earphones while a department meeting goes on around me. I think I can handle reading in all kinds of human ear-friendly noise levels.

4.  Do reviews influence your choice of reads?

If they’re written by people whose opinions I trust.

5.  Audio books or paperbacks?

Paperbacks all the way! I’m phenomenally good at filtering out noise–to the point that I have sat in my college dorm room with the Inspector Gadget theme song on repeat for about an hour. Yeah, I was surprised that my dorm mates didn’t form a lynch mob, too.

Blame my parents for not reading aloud much to me (maybe that’s why I was such an early reader?), but I can not stand people narrating books to me. Especially since I read so much faster than a person can narrate clearly.

6.  What was the first book you remember reading?

Peter and Jane. Those enthralling tales that invite the reader to: Look! look! Look at Jane run! See! See! See Pat catch the ball!

The first real chapter book I remember reading is my sister’s copy of The Secret Island by Enid Blyton.

The first real chapter book I read. My copy didn't have such a fun cover, though.

7.  Favorite author?

Changes on my age, my mood, the position of the stars, what I ate for dinner, etc. Favorites that have stood the test of time are Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, and Megan Whalen Turner. Recent favorites are Brandon Sanderson and Carol Berg.

8.  Classic or Modern Novels?

Modern, with occasional forays into older literary works.

9.  Have you ever met your favorite author?

I have met Carol Berg, and she is a sweetheart. I’ve Internet-stalked a few others (but obviously NOT in a scary, obsessive way, because I am, of course, a sane balanced person). Does that count?

10.  Book groups or solitary reading?

I read by myself, thanks.

11.  If you could read only one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

That’s easy. The book is Rabia’s Desert Island Edition of Collected Works and would include the Bible, all of the Discworld novels, everything written by C.S.Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, Diana Wynne Jones’ Crestomanci and Howl books, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy and The Way of Kings and a magic section at the back full of blank pages on which a Surprise Book appears every week.

Yes, that’s cheating. But I’m a writer. Making stuff up, finding loopholes, and thinking outside the box is what I’m supposed to do.

So there you have it! Since this meme has been going around a while, I won’t tag anyone unless they volunteer in the comments (oh, what a rebel I am!).

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this post is brought to you by the letter L

April 20, 2012 14 Comments

via Liana Mir:

How to Play: Comment to this entry and I’ll give you a letter. List ten things that you love that begin with that letter and then post that list on your journal.

My List: Ten Things I Love That Begin With The Letter L

  1. Lakes (the deep frozen northern kinds)
  2. Libraries
  3. Leaves in the fall
  4. Loreena McKennit (her music, that is :) )
  5. Lighthouses
  6. Layers of Cake
  7. Lines (as in doodling them)
  8. Learning
  9. Landscapes
  10. London
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reform english spelling

April 18, 2012 8 Comments

One of the most magical parts of homeschooling is being right there next to your child when she discovers reading. And it really is magic, because English–let’s face it–is not an orderly language.  It’s full of redundancies (what for instance, is the point of x?) and rule exceptions and letters that slyly change what they’re saying every time you turn your back.

For example, just flipping through my daughter’s basic, no-frills primer shows me that the long a sound can be represented in the following ways:

  • a_e (but not when the word is “are” or “have”)
  • ai (but not in “again” or “said”)
  • ay
  • ey(?!)
  • ei (say what??!)
  • eigh (*words fail me at this point*)

Amazingly enough, in spite of the vagaries of the English language, many many of us learn to read, write, and–*gasp*–spell it.

If you could reform the English language, how would you change it? Add or remove letters? Change spellings? Which words do you find a challenge to spell?

(As for how English got to be the way it is, check out this 10-minute video about the history of the English language. It’s a little crude/naughty at times, so be warned if you have younglings peering over your shoulder. Otherwise, it’s pretty funny and informative).

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guest post: Shay Fabbro

April 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

Today I’m happy to host Shay Fabbro, SF&F author and fellow WANA blogger, as she celebrates the release of her latest YA fantasy, Twisted Reflections. Welcome, Shay!

I’ve never thought of myself as the romantic type. I mean, the occasional flowers are nice and all but I’d rather have some pretty plants for the yard, or a gift certificate to go clothes shopping on my birthday. I prefer to watch tough guy movies than chick flicks, love going out hunting, camping, shooting guns. In a lot of ways, I’m really not a girly girl.

And yet I like to get dressed up, have quite a lot of super cute shoes (including a red pair of peep-toe sling backs), and enjoy date nights with hubby.

When it comes to books, I prefer action compared to romance. Not that a little romance is necessarily a bad thing, I just like to read fast-paced books with battles and conflict. I prefer to read about how two people fall in love rather than the act of love itself. What brought the two together? Are they attracted only physically at first but love blossoms later? Do they hate each other only to find they have more in common than they realize? Are they drawn together like a moth to a flame, unable to resist one another? Are they forced into a marriage that their families arranged before they were born? There are so many ways people come to love one another and decide to make that commitment to stay together. It’s this aspect that fascinates me.

When it came to writing my YA series, the Adventures of Alexis Davenport, I knew I HAD to have some sort of romance. Or at the very least a serious crush. Because let’s face it, as a teenager, we tend to have massive crushes rather than a deep-rooted love. But these crushes can be an all-consuming force that robs us of what little sanity we have.

But I also went a step further and gave Alex something deeper than a crush, only she doesn’t quite understand the significance. Each time she travels back in time, she encounters a boy that she feels drawn to, almost as though she knows him better than she knows herself. Isn’t this the kind of love we all dream of? Finding that one person we are destined to be with and living happily ever after?

Will this boy be Alex’s one and only? You’ll have to read the Adventures of Alexis Davenport series and find out :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connect with Shay:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Thanks for stopping by, Shay!

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cover artist: Dominic Harman

April 16, 2012 6 Comments

Yikes! It’s been too long since I last drooled over pretty cover art on this blog. We must remedy that at once! Welcome to Cover Art Monday, and today I’ll be looking at some of Dominic Harman’s work.

Confession: A large part of why I picked Harman is because of the awesome illustration he did for my friend Jo Anderton’s debut book, Debris (which you should all, of course, rush out and buy, if you haven’t already /shameless plug).

Behold and admire!

Harman also illustrated the iconic covers of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series:

These covers are perfect for the books. The concept is simple, but the execution is visually striking and captures the premise–dragons in the Napoleonic era–wonderfully.

Some of Harman’s other work also includes science fiction:

… and more traditional sort of fantasy:

Do you have any favorite cover artists and/or illustrators? Let me know in the comments!

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Filed Under: cover art, pretty pictures

poetry by heart

April 13, 2012 12 Comments

Poetry memorization is a big part of our homeschool. Here are some current poems-in-progress:

Sir I. is working on The Rainbow by Walter de la Mare

I saw the lovely arch
Of Rainbow span the sky,
The gold sun burning
As the rain swept by.

In bright-ringed solitude
The showery foliage shone
One lovely moment,
And the Bow was gone.

Miss M. recently memorized Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson

The rain is falling all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

My favorite poem to quote (aside from bits and pieces of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) is Christina Rossetti’s Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Whereas David prefers something more in the style of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Which poems do you like to quote? Which ones do you know by heart?

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new place, old me

April 11, 2012 12 Comments

I love new beginnings. Fresh starts, clean slates, reset buttons. The passage of time that smooths the rough edges, the emotional distance that gives me a chance to tackle a problem from a fresh perspective.

Moving seven hundred miles away, leaving behind more than a decade of connections and routines and memories, counts as a really big Fresh Start.

With one caveat: I brought the old me along.

Many of my problems, you see, aren’t rooted in where I am or the people I’m around or the place I’m living in. No, many of my problems are rooted in me. They’re rooted in my habits and my attitudes and those aren’t things I can leave behind as easily as I did outgrown toys and clothes that didn’t fit right.

Because even though I’m in a new house and in a new state, I still go to bed too late (like last night *yawn*). I still put off cleaning bathrooms far longer than I should. I still get too wrapped up in mindless ‘net surfing and I still get snappish and impatient with my family. New place, old me.

I can move hundreds of miles, but I can’t run away from myself. If I want to affect change in my life, sometimes the way to do it is to do it slowly and intentionally, one day at a time. One day in which I exercise for 20 minutes–then do it again the next day, and the next. One evening where I send myself to bed at 11, then do it again the next night and the next. Little changes become new habits, building on top of each other, like islands forming.

What habits are you trying to build in your life?

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Filed Under: personal

WIP monday: lucky 7 meme

April 9, 2012 6 Comments

Alina Sayre tagged me for the lucky 7 meme (thanks, Alina!). The rules are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current manuscript/work-in-progress (or page 7 if you don’t have 77).
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

Here’s an excerpt from my current novel WIP, The-Book-Known-As-Kai (it really should have a better title by now, but I think we can all acknowledge that titling my stories is a skill I could work on).

Okay, I’m a little nervous posting this because it is raw first draft. Let’s just say that I tend to be wordy in my first drafts (of anything).

*takes deep breath*

She’d lost control. She’d let the beast back into her head, let it ride along for its acute senses, let it take over. She’d been so proud of how well she’d done in New Warden, how she’d pulled herself up from the bestial savagery that had characterized her life in Ydrael. She’d let herself feel victorious, but tonight had shown how hollow that triumph was.

She’d prospered without the beast in New Warden because she hadn’t needed it. New Warden was a gentler place which valued intellect and personality more than strength and agility.

Here in Ain, the beast was a temptation for the strength it brought her.

Since I’m a writer and thus not known for my strong math skills, I’m tagging the following 4 people:

  1. Liana Mir
  2. Kirsten at Write a Book With Me
  3. Lisa at Writing, Dreams & Drops of Ink
  4. Prue at What’s It All About?
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Filed Under: kai
quote

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Matthew 28:1-10

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quote

Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point – and does not break.

~G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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