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Knowledge of our past is our inheritance. What we do with that knowledge will shape our destinies...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Feature and Follow Friday--Best Covers


Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs! 

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! 

Hop over to Alison Can Read to see the feature!


Q: Best cover? What is the best cover of a book that you've read and loved?


The first one that comes to mind that I've read lately is Grave Mercy. This book was a mix of historical fiction and fantasy. I thought it was great! An easy read and a beautiful cover! I would highly recommend it! Why you ask? Many reasons! But I'll give you two words: Assassin nuns. Yup, that's right. I told you this book was awesome, didn't I?

So that's my best historical cover. Hop over to my other blog to see what my best fantasy cover pick was!

What's your best cover?

Random Movie Quotes (RMQ)
Don't know what this is? Click here.

I don't generally do these on Friday, but I've been a slacker this week, so I'm adding one to my Friday meme. Yesterday's RMQ was:

"The gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now, and we will never be here again..."

No one guessed it. This line was said by Brad Pitt (as Achilles) in the wonderful film, Troy. This film was underrated, but I thought it was one of the best representations of the Iliad ever put on the big screen. If you like Greek stuff and haven't see it, NETFLIX PEOPLE!

Anyway, on to today's RMQ:


"I have seen the face of war before,sir, but I've never seen war made upon women and children...and almost as cruel as your indifference..."

Okay, three points possible for this one. One for the actor, one for the character, one for the film. Any guesses?

Thoughts for Thursday (3) and RMQ!


WELCOME TO THOUGHTS FOR THURSDAY!


Thoughts for Thursday is a new meme hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Readers may respond by either commenting on the quote I put forward or contributing a quote of their own. I'll include a linky list, or you can just respond in the comments.

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

This week's theme is "writing fantasy."



"I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living."

                                                                                                             --Dr. Seuss



"Writing fantasy lets me imagine a great deal more than, say, writing about alligators, and lets me write about places more distant than Florida, but I can tell you things about Florida and alligators, let you make the connection all on your own."                                         --Terry Brooks


What do you think about these quotes? How would you apply them to your own writing? Do you have any quotes about writing or fantasy?


Random Movie Quotes


Don't know what this is? Click here.

I normally don't do RMQs on Thursday, but it's been a crazy week and I haven't done any yet, so I'm doing one today! :D 

The last RMQ I did was last Wednesday. No one guessed it. The quote was, "Geez, you smoke too?" This is an immortal line from the great Michael J Fox in his best known role: Marty McFly in Back to the Future. :D 




Today's quote: 


"The gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now, and we will never be here again..."


Any guesses? Three possible points. One for the actor, one for the character, one for the film. Good luck! :D

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Sleepwalkers Book Review

For the month of August, one of my Goodreads groups, Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction, read a book called Sleepwalkers, by Paul Grossman.

Goodreads Blurb: In the final weeks of the Weimar Republic, as Hitler and his National Socialist party angle to assume control of Germany, beautiful girls are seen sleepwalking through the streets.  Then, a young woman of mysterious origin, with her legs bizarrely deformed, is pulled dead from the Havel River.  Willi Kraus, a high ranking detective in Berlin's police force, begins a murder investigation. A decorated World War I hero and the nation's most famous detective, Willi also is a Jew. Despite his elite status in the criminal police, he is disturbed by the direction Germany is taking.  Working urgently to solve the murder, Willi finds his superiors diverting him at every turn. As he moves through darkness closer to the truth, Willi begins to understand that much more than the solution to a murder is at stake. What he discovers will mean that his life, the lives of his friends and family, and Germany itself will never be the same.


Okay, let me start out by saying this book is awesome! I actually really liked it! But, that said, let's back-peddle a bit. 

While I was reading it, it was kind of meh. I really liked the character of detective/inspector Willi Kraus. I thought he was interesting, down-to-earth and very human--in a good way. I loved that he was great at his job, that he had a history (and from it some fame) of bringing down really base criminals, including a child-eater. 

That said, the writing could have been better in places. It was very readable, but there were a few spots where the amateur nature of the writing pulled me out of the story. 

Though the mystery was pretty good--I especially liked that Grossman didn't try to sugarcoat it; he wasn't afraid to get into the true horrors of human experimentation and nazi war crimes--it still didn't blow my socks off.

As I was reading, I kept thinking that the most interesting aspect of the book was the historical setting. The fact that it takes place just before Hitler took power prior to WWII was the thing that made it the most intriguing.  Even saying that, I still would have found the novel to be only mediocre if it hadn't been for the ending. This was one of those stories where the ending made the entire novel!

Not only was the end heart-wrenching and chillingly prophetic, but the author used a great deal of historical fact and worked it into the story. That allowed him to write an afterward that just gave me chills when he explained what different characters (especially the evil ones) went on to do during the war and how things turned out in the annals of history. 

It was that (because I'm such a history geek) that made me love this book. The end sort of blew my mind. 

Overall, I liked it a lot. I thought it was a unique perspective to have a character living in Berlin, trying to solve a crime just prior to the time when the nazis took power. He goes into the state of things in the city, the political clime, what people were thinking that led to them handing power (legally) to Hitler, etc. It's a unique story and one that I would highly recommend to anyone curious about this time period and this particular sequence of events. It's fascinating, enlightening, and also a lot of fun. :D

I will cross-post on Goodreads and Amazon!


Monday, August 27, 2012

The Diary of The King's Speech

As you all know, I love historical tidbits. Sometimes just a simple, random historical fact can set my imagination mill running at full speed. Some of my best story ideas come from these. Today, I thought I'd share the back story of a recent historical film: The King's Speech.

This film came out in 2010, but the story was only discovered a year or two before that. No one knew this inspiring story about King George VI. I watched a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film where they explained that the speech therapist (played in the film by the amazing Geoffrey Rush) that helped King George (played by Colin Firth) kept a detailed diary. That diary was in a dusty attic for fifty years. eventually, the therapist's great-great grandson found it and turned it over the man who ended up making the film. As soon as the film maker read the story, he pounced on it, snatching up the movie rights. He knew that it was such an inspiring story--one that no one knew about--that it was only a matter of time before it went to the big screen.

In essence, he called dibbs.

Two years later, voila! An Oscar-award winning film that was seen by hundreds. Isn't it geeky fascinating to think about the fact that no one knew this story even five years ago? That it was sitting in a dusty attic between the pages of a seldom-read book just waiting to be discovered?

Remember, knowledge of our past is our inheritance. What we do with that knowledge will shape our destinies.


What do you think of The King's Speech? Did you see the film?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

August is Awesome! Strands of Pattern

Hi there everyone! Just a quick note. Today (Saturday 8/25) Strands of Pattern by Jeff Hargett is featuring a guest post that I wrote about relevance in characterization. Hop over there and check it out if you have a chance. Jeff has had TONZ of great guest posts this month all about different aspects of the writing process. Check a few of them out too. Bet you'll learn something! :D Have a great weekend everyone!

http://strandsofpattern.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-is-awesome-because-of-liesel-hill.html

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Follow Friday--Horrible Covers


Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs! 

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! 

Go to Alison Can Read for the featured blogger!


Q: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you've read and loved?


As a teenager I read a lot of Jack Weyland. For those who don't know, he's an LDS romance author. I haven't read him in years but lots of LDS high school girls like his stuff. His most famous novel is called Charly, and it's actually a very good--if also very tragic--book. To this day I still love the story. The cover, not so much. I had this book cover in my parents' house for twenty years and I think my sister still has it. I always thought it was creepy. Chick WAY too close for comfort; eighties hair; one eye bigger than the other... 

*cringes* "Stop staring at me!"

How about you? What cover makes you cringe?

Thoughts for Thursday (2)

Welcome to Thoughts for Thursday! 


Thoughts for Thursday is a new meme hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Readers may respond by either commenting on the quote I put forward or contributing a quote of their own. I'll include a linky list, or you can just respond in the comments.

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

This week's theme is the sea. I'm collecting mermaid novels for my TBR so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! 


“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”  --Brahm Stoker, Dracula

(One of the best novels ever written, btw. Not that I'm partial or anything! :D)

What do you think this line means? How can we apply it to stories/characters? What does it make you think of? Does anyone have any other cool quotes about the ocean/sea?

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Just a Quick Word and an RMQ...

Dearest blog readers,

My deepest apologies but I'm pretty much coping out of my post today. I was going to do a third post on editing, but it will have to wait for next week. You see, though I won't post this until Wednesday morning, I'm writing it Tuesday night near midnight. I am in the process of moving, and have been lugging boxes for two days straight. Can't make my legs work and really just want to drop (that's right, DROP) into bed. So, I got one blog post done, but not two. 

If you're interested, I did the second post of a series on villains on my Musings on Fantasia blog. Go check that one out if you want. I'll also do RMQ below. Other than that, see you tomorrow! Have a wonderful Wednesday! :D

Random Movie Quotes

Don't know what this is? Click here.

So yesterday's RMQ wasn't guessed by anyone, but it was kind of obscure. This angry line was said by Robert DeNiro in the film The Untouchables (one that I can watch over and over again to this day). He was playing Al Capone (hence the angry words when Elliot Ness began to get the better of him. :D)


Here's today's RMQ (I promise it'll be a little easier):

"Geez, you smoke too?" 

Three points: one for film, one for character, one for actor. Good luck! :D




Monday, August 20, 2012

Pushing the Limits Read-Along--Week 4 and RMQ

Here is Week Four Questions for Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. Random Movie Quote is below.

Getting toward the end of the book! :( Here's this week's questions/answers:


1. At a certain moment, Echo tells Noah that she feels safe with him. Echo thinks that because of this comforting feeling, she may be able to finally have a full night of peaceful sleep. Why do you think it is important for Echo to feel Safe? and why no one else but Noah has been able to provide this to Echo?

A: Everyone needs to feel safe. No one would sleep well otherwise. This is perhaps especially important for Echo, though, because the people should have felt the most safe with--her parents--betrayed her, so she's forever insecure. I think Noah provides this for her because he understands. He's the only one who knows the entire truth of what happened and doesn't judge her for it.

2. Beth, Noah's friend, also have a very complex life situation. plus she also do drugs. However, what grabs my attention is her mean behavior towards Echo. Why do you think Beth hate/dislikes Echo so much?


A: Beth is blinded by her prejudice toward rich kids. She thinks Echo has been handed everything on a silver platter her entire life. She can't imagine that a spoiled rich girl would know anything about pain. When Noah tells her that Echo is going through a hard time too and explain's why, Beth is shocked. Her entire outlook toward Echo will probably now change. 

3. At some point, we finally get to know how Noah's parents died at the fire and how it started. Unfortunately, this is something that has happened before. What tips to avoid a fire (specially when there are kids at home) do you now about? List a few! recommendations to avoid tragedies are very valuable. :)


A: The only thing anyone can do is be vigilant. Open flames should not be left unattended and, even if a child knows how to use matches/candles, they should still be supervised.

4. Echo finally discovers more about what really happened to her the day she got her scars at her mother's place. Unfortunately, this also involved Echo's father and Ashley. What do you think about them and to what point do you think it makes them responsible to what happened to Echo? 


A: I don't know that you can hold Ashley responsible for this. Whatever she did was self-serving, but it had nothing to do with Echo. Her father, on the other hand, while not responsible in a vindictive way, is definitely guilty of neglect. No doubt he was putting his own desires above the safety of his daughter. That said, I think it was a very human mistake and that he's truly regretful of it. I think he's doing what he can to make up for it and I actually feel very sorry for him. 

5. On p.303 (from arc) Echo said to Noah: "I love you...[y]ou love your brothers more. I'm okay with that. In fact, it's one of the things I love about you. You were right the other day. I do want to be part of a family. But I'd never forgive myself if I was the reason you didn't get yours... I love you enough to never make you choose." What do you think of Echo's decision to break up with Noah? What does it mean to you?


A: I think she thinks she's being self-sacrificing. I think this is a true sort of love being she's being selfless and putting his desires before hers. Yet, I also think it's a flawed way of thinking. If they really wanted to make it work, they could, and it wouldn't even be that complicated. I think she's still hiding behind an excuse because she's still too afraid of being hurt to completely trust Noah and join her life to his.



Random Movie Quotes (RMQ) !!!
Don't know what this is? Click here.

No one guessed yesterday's RMQ. I'm kind of surprised. It's was from The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Ecklheart) says the first line and Rachel (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) says the second. Come one guys! That wasn't hard! :D

Today's RMQ: "I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground!"

Obviously this guy has some anger issues. Three possible points: one for the film, one for the actor, one for the character! Bring on the guesses everyone! :D

What did Julius Caesar Know?

"When their enemies were at the gates, the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to defend the city. It wasn't considered an honor, it was considered a public service."

"...[But] the last man to be appointed to protect the Republic was named Caesar and he never gave up his power."

I always loved this conversation. (This will serve as our RMQ for today. See below.) I'm not sure how accurate this little history lesson is, but I thought it was fascinating the first time I heard it.

Though no one is entirely sure of the etymology (word history) of the name Caesar, what we do know is that it came from the family name of one Julius Caesar and it came to mean supreme Emperor. I often wonder if Julius Caesar, who without question was an ambitious man, could have had any idea how far his influence would truly reach.

Not only did it permeate every part of the Roman Empire until it's fall (which serves as the history and ancient foundation of nearly every society on earth) but it would go on to influence many nations and lands, even generations after the Roman Empire had crumbled to dust.

Kaiser is the German word for Caesar, but there are similar words in Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, and old English.

When Ivan the Terrible had himself crowned Tsar/Czar, he in truth crowned himself Caesar, as Tsar is the Russian equivalent of Caesar. Eleven other Slavic languages from different parts of the East also have similar words.

African, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Georgian, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Albanian and Armenian all have versions of the word as well.

Even the Seljuk Turks (think Aladdin) whose Sultan was proclaimed Kayser-i-Rum (Caesar of Rome) or in other words, the Muslim heir to the Roman Empire.

Caesar's reach is felt even today in our culture and politics. It makes you wonder about his character, personality and origins.

What do you think? Did Caesar imagine what the extent of his influence would be? Do you think the story about the enemy at the gates is true?

*******

Random Movie Quotes

Don't know what this is? Click here.

Today's RMQ is the one I began the post with. This is actually two lines by two different characters having a conversation. One point for naming the film, each of the actors and each of the characters, which means there are five possible points to be gathered for today's RMQ. Here it is again:

"When their enemies were at the gates, the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to defend the city. It wasn't considered an honor, it was considered a public service."

"...[But] the last man to be appointed to protect the Republic was named Caesar and he never gave up his power."

Any guesses?



Thursday, August 16, 2012

Follow Friday--Blogger Inspiration!


Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs! 

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! 


Q: What blogger inspires you? It can be any kind, it doesn't have to be a book blog.


I really love inspirational blogs. Strong Lola is a great one. My cousin has a blog about food in New York that's fun called The Sweet Life. And Jeff Hargett's Strands of the Pattern. He's doing August is Awesome this month and all the posts have been tremendously informational AND inspirational. I also recently started following a blog called English Historical Fiction Authors which is all about history. Totally my kind of blog! :D

How about you?

New Meme: Thoughts 4 Thursday


Thoughts 4 Thursday!



Hooray! My 50th post! For this, my golden post (;D) I'm starting a new meme!

Thoughts for Thursday is a new meme hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Readers may respond by either commenting on the quote I put forward or contributing a quote of their own. I'll include a linky list, or you can just respond in the comments.

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

This week's Thoughts for Thursday quote is about the internet: 


"The internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had." --Eric Schmidt


Discuss! Do you agree or disagree? What do you think Schmidt means? Do you have an awesome, internet-related quotes?


Happy Thursday! :D
Image credit: devor / 123RF Stock Photo

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

New Blog Feature: Random Movie Quotes!


So I'm adding a new feature to my blogs:

RANDOM MOVIE QUOTES!!!


Let me explain. No, is too much. Let me sum up. (*wink, wink*)

My entire family LOVES both TV and the movies. We all have Random-Movie-Quote-Terets. As in, we blurt out movie/tv show lines in random conversation. This is totally normal at my house. Others who witness it are all kinds of stupefied. And it's not always obvious quotes, mind you. Some of them are ridiculously obscure. Of course, WE all know what we're talking about, but no one else does.

So, starting tomorrow, I'm going to end my blog posts with a random movie quote. All my readers get to guess where it came from. You get 1 point for being the first to guess which movie the line is from; 2 points if you can identify the character and/or actor that said it. (I.e. If one person gets the movie but not the character or actor, someone else can pick up the second point for that, but not for the name of the film once it's been guessed.) And of course I'll announce the winner or winners the following day!

Keep track of your points! I'll endeavor to do the same, but I can't promise anything on my busier weeks. I haven't worked out all the prizes yet, but it will be something like 25 points = a bookmark. 100 points= ...um, something cooler. 250 points=free book, etc. Once I have all the prizes worked out, I'll post them!

Anyway, be on the lookout starting tomorrow for Random Movie Quotes! Have fun! :D

Monday, August 13, 2012

Guest Post: Chris Loke

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Please welcome guest blogger Chris Loke. Chris is the CEO of his own publishing company, entitled Jolly Fish Press. Jolly Fish is a fledgling publishing house actively looking for new clients. (In fact, Yours Truly even has a book slated for release with them late next year!) Chris has also recently become a first time author with his debut novel, The Housekeeper's Son. (Look for a review of this book on my blog later this month.)

I asked Chris to talk to us about what it's like to be published for the first time. Here's what he had to say:


It’s great to be published, even for a publishing pundit like me. Being an author means a lot of things for an author who’ve been working on a novel for years. It means that you’ve been officially “canonized” in the publishing world. It’s a great feeling, because your book—the story that begs to be told forever and a year ago—is now in the hands of readers. Finally, you can rest and breathe a long sigh of relief. Your dream has come true. Or has it?
 Though the long and tedious process of writing—the creative stage of the book—is complete, the real journey of your book has just begun. Once your novel is published, it now enters the second stage: marketing and publicity. And no matter how beautiful your book looks or reads, if you don’t pass this stage, your book goes nowhere, and in many ways, you’d have achieved only half of your dream. The marketing and publicity stage is when you move your book from the shelf to the hands of readers. This is a crucial stage in the publishing world, because a book is nothing if it is not read.
 As an author, writing a book is the easy part—we’re all creatives, and challenging as it might, writing is one innate ability that comes naturally to us. If not, we’d not be writers. What comes after the writing and the publishing is the difficult part, because while we are all writers, not all of us are marketers.
 As today’s authors, we cannot be a bunch of social invalids who are only good at writing. We can’t just coop ourselves up in a corner of a dimly lit room churning out words on a page anymore. We are more than that—at least we should be. We need to be advocates of literature and the novels we write. Thus, we need to interact and be the face of our own brand. This process, to many, is not the easiest. But as we all know, difficult does not always mean impossible.
 As we connect with readers and fans of the genre we write, we build a two-way dialogue with readers and build a fan-base. This fan-base will be your first round of readers who may buy your book. And if you have, one way or another, captured the hearts of your readers with your story, then you’d have embarked on a wondrous journey of successful book-selling, for word of mouth is the best marketing tool an author can ever get. Once people are talking about your book, you will have done a good job.
 My advice to writers is this: Write a good book, take time to edit and perfect it, get it published, and then market the heck out of it. Or in the words of my long-dead and once-national-pingpong-grandmaster Aunt Marjory, bring it!


Follow Chris on his blog: A Writer's Notebook, on Facebook at Christopher Loke, and on Twitter @christopherloke .

Check out his book, The Housekeeper's Son  as well! :D

Happy Monday!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Pushing the Limits Read-Along: Week 3

Still participating in the Pushing the Limits Read-Along! Here's my answers for Week 3!

1. In the beginning of this section Noah decides to ignore Echo because he's angry and hurt. What did you think of this? Have you ever experienced a friendship that went awry and they started ignoring you?

A: Yes, definitely. Especially at school age, this is common. I thought it was sad, but not necessarily out of character.

2. Noah has a bit of a false reputation. Everyone thinkgs he's a big druggie and a guy that just randomly hooks up with girls. While some of it is true to a certain extent, we see it's not really him. Have you ever had a false reputation where people draw their own conclusions? Do you think Noah should do something to make people not think that about him?

A: I don't think I've ever had an interesting enough reputation to make people talk either way, and that's always been fine with me. As for Noah, I don't know if he should do something to change it or not, but I don't think he will. He's one who doesn't care what other think, and even uses it as a defense mechanism at times.

3. Ashley finds out she's having a boy and informs Echo she will have a brother 'again'. Echo took this very personally and was extremely upset. Do you think Echo overreacted? Do you think Ashley meant that the new brother would replace her brother?

A: This is hard to answer with a simple yes or no. For a teenager who recently lost her brother, no, I don't think Echo overreacted at all. In fact, I think her reaction could have been much worse. But I also don't think Ashley meant anything by it. She was just talking.

I'm really on the fence about Ashley. On the one hand, she's obviously far from saintly because of the way she entered Echo's family dynamic. That said, I think she now truly wants to be Echo's friend. The only problem with that is that Ashley is very self-centered. (She'd have to be, considering, again, her entrance into Echo's father's affections.) She doesn't dig deep to really get to know Echo or help her. Everything is superficial with her. On the other hand, because she's the 'step mom' and Echo misses her really mother, Ashley is never going to get fair treatment, and sometimes, like when Echo got angry about the "brother again" comment, it's obvious she isn't being vicious, she just didn't realize what she'd said or how Echo took it, so I feel bad for her. If Echo weren't a teenager dealing with SO MANY horrible issues, she and Ashley could probably be civil, if not close. Of course, this is not that story. :D

4. Echo doesn't remember what happened with her mother and for this reason she has troubles seeing her the way everyone else does. She can't seem to not miss her and still wants to talk to her. Do you think she should pursue finding her mom? Do you think it will help her or do you think she would be in danger?

A: I don't think she should pursue her mom just yet. Maybe when she's out of high school and has gotten some more distance from whatever happened, when she's finally remembered everything and allowed her mind to heal, then she could safely confront her mom again. For now, there's a real chance of both physical and psychological danger. The fact that everyone freaks out to the extent they do about her contacting her mom should be a major red flag for Echo, but she just seems to dismiss it as everyone else's overreaction.

5. Noah doesn't trust the people who have his brothers because of his own past situations. He decides to seek out a lawyer himself and try to get custody. Do you think this is his best move? Do you think there are some other options he should consider? 

A: His best option? Hard to say. It's true that he needs to be certain he can take care of the boys. And I don't think their foster parents are as bad as he thinks. Yet, despite all the logical arguments, I'm with Noah on this one. If my parents died, I would move heaven and earth to get my siblings under my roof and take care of them for the rest of my life. I think that of my siblings, too. I'd raise their kids in a heartbeat if anything ever happened. I think keeping a family together (so long as no one's being put in danger) is more important than almost anything else. If he left them with a good family and just saw them a lot, and that worked for him, fine. But if he wants them and they want him and he can prove that he can provide for them, I say let him do it. One hundred percent.

6. Echo finds out that Noah and his parents built houses for Habitat for Humanity. Have you ever volunteered for something like that? What is a cause that you feel strongly about?

A: Hmm. If you can't tell by my answer to #5, family tends to be my biggest cause. Charity through Deseret Industries is another one I give to a lot. And supporting LDS missionaries (especially my brother who is currently serving in Tacoma, WA.--Hi Abe!) :D

How are you liking the book?

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Friday Follow--Early Bloggmanship@



Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.


How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools — keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them “hi” in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!
What sets this Hop apart from others, is our Feature. Each week we will showcase a Featured Blogger, from all different genres and areas. Who is our Feature today? Find out below. Just remember it is required, if you participate, to follow our Features and you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) as a courtesy. How do you follow someone? Well, if you have a preference, state it in your #FF post. A lot of blogs are transitioning to WordPress in which they do not have the luxury of GFC, so an RSS subscription is appreciated or if you choose an email subscription. If you don’t have GFC please state in your post how you would like to be followed.


Q: What would you do over if you were to start your blog again from scratch?


If I knew in advance what I know now, I would incorporate more blog posts that I now know draw a lot of comments and discussion. Hind sight is 20/20, right?! :D


RULES

To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
    • (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
    • (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
    • Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
    • Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
    • If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
    • Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
    • If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
    • If you’re new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Praise of Motherhood Book Review

Praise of Motherhood is a very interesting book. It's very...different. And I don't necessarily mean in a bad way. I'll admit that when I first started this book, I didn't like it very much. The narrator is very negative and his view of the world is rather odd. If I hadn't already committed to reading it in order to be part of the blog tour, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

That said, I'm actually very glad that I'd committed to the tour, because I'm glad I stuck it out and finished the book. It ended up being very intriguing and very touching.

This book is written in the first person. It is a narrative by a boy about his mother. He starts with getting the news that she's had an aneurysm and getting on a plane with his sister. By the time they got there, she was already gone. The narrative is very stream-of-consciousness. It's almost as though he's rambling about his mom. One thought or memory reminds him of something else so he jumps to that. We get a lot of his own thoughts about things--and they tend to be very negative. Despite all the jumping around, it's not confusing, as you might think. The descriptions of his memories are all very vivid and clear, just not linear.

As for his negativity, it becomes clear about a third of the way through the book that, especially as a teenager, this boy was mentally unstable. He briefly touches on a few meltdowns, a few hospital stays. He even says he was a teenager who contemplated the whole Columbine thing, and he credits his mother's constant love and understanding with single-handedly keeping him from actually doing it. The instant mental illness entered the picture, he became a fascinating character study to me.

Is this book for everyone? No. As I said, it's very different at first. Plus, being a troubled, rebellious teen gives rise to plenty of cussing and some sex talk. I wouldn't give this book an R rating, but expect a solid PG-13, hovering toward R.

Overall I ended up enjoying this book. It was a tribute to his mother, not as the world saw her and not even necessarily as she really was, but as HE, her troubled son, saw her and loved her. While he doesn't by far go into every part of who she was, and that may leave you wanting more, it ends up being a profound, touching tribute to a woman by the only person who knew her exactly like he did.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Death of a Manuscript--Part 2

I guess I'm turning this into a bit of a series, though the posts are quite far apart. Any time I start to see mistakes made over and over again in writing, I'll probably do another one of these posts, and hopefully they're helpful to someone. Generally I'll see those frequent mistakes because I'm editing my own work and noticing my own PLETHORA of mistakes. Of course, I'm part of a weekly critique group as well, so I'm always keeping an eye out.

To read Part one, click here.

It's funny to me that, as writers, we tend to have our own set of weakness/mistakes that we make over and over. A bit one for me is the question mark. For some reason I can't explain, when I'm in the groove and writing, I'm totally afraid of the question mark. My group always knows that when there's a question (in dialogue) they'll have to circle the end of the sentence so I can go back and put in question marks. I'm not sure why I do this. Maybe it's just that I'm writing so fast and putting a question mark vs. a period requires the extra step (pressing shift) so my brain just skips right over it. Understand, I don't do this consciously. My group members will just say, okay, you missed seven question marks this chapter. And I'll be like, yeah, okay.

So here are today's pointers:

1) Only describe feelings/sensations/etc from your POV character's POV! This may seem obvious, but I've read plenty of scenes where Character A is the POV character and they're talking to/interacting with Character B. But then, somehow, Character A witnesses the look on their own face. This can't happen! Anytime you describe a feeling, sensation, look, or other general description, make sure to ask yourself if this is something your POV character actually could observe. If not, cut it, or move it to a different scene with a different POV character.

2) Don't show and THEN tell, or vise versa. We all know that we should be showing and not telling at all, as far as that is possible in our novel. I recently heard a book blogger comment that she hated it when an author describe the exact same events from several viewpoints. While I can see the value in this from author's point of view, I can also see how it could become tedious to the reader. The thing that bugs me more, though, is when someone shows and then tells, or tells and then shows. Even if this is an instance when it works better for your book to tell, we really don't need both. For example:

He walked out onto the wet grass. Suddenly his feet went out from under him and he landed on his butt. The grass was slippery.

Okay, maybe not the greatest example, (give me a break! I made it up on the fly!) but it gets my point across. You've already shows the wet grass and that he fell. Most humans have some idea what it's like to walk on wet grass, so unless you're writing to an audience of martians, you don't need to tell us why he fell. We GET that the grass is slippery. You showed us, then decided we needed to be told. TRUST YOUR AUDIENCE! As a fellow writer, trust me I know this can be hard to do, but if you don't figure it out, your audience will feel condescended to and will simply put down your book.

3) And finally, this week's words to steer clear of:

a) so -- I mean this as a descriptive word. "She was so excited to be..." 'So' used this way feels like a comparative word, but you aren't comparing it to anything, and it will leave your reader wondering where the rest of the sentence went. Perhaps that isn't grammatically logical, but the reader doesn't care about grammar or logic. Leave this kind of 'so' out.

b) really -- like very, this is really too often used, and you really don't need it. You'll find if you really take the time to edit 'really' out of your manuscript, it really will be better. The only time it's allowed is to show a character's annoyance. As in, "Really?" (Think Grey's Anatomy. :D)

c) Any and all preface words. I don't know if this is the right term for these, but it's what I call them. They're filler words generally found at the beginning of a sentence, though they can come at the middle or end as well. I.E. actually, well, really, so, in spite of, however, anyway... You get the idea.

Well, that's it for today's edition of Death of a Manuscript! Until next time, happy editing! :D



Monday, August 6, 2012

Praise of Motherhood Whirlwind Blog Tour

I participated in a reading/promoting of a book entitled Praise of Motherhood by Phil Jourdan. Today I will share a guest post by the author and an interview with him. On Thursday, I'll review the book and share an excerpt, so stay tuned! :D


1. Who was your mother?
Hey, perhaps the obvious thing is that she was the single greatest person in my life–a woman who set everything aside to help me when I went through a few rocky years, a lover of animals and nature, a professor of mathematics and computer science who worked because she needed something to do…
She was that lady who’d bring clothes out to the homeless people in the streets when it was cold. She spoke Portuguese, French, English, and Russian fluently. She took people into her life and made them stronger, happier. She drove very carefully.
She was one person among many to die from something as trivial and terrible as an aneurysm; just one out of all the people who died on November 11th, 2009, for no reason, and without saying goodbye to any of us.
And, now, she’s the subject of my book.
2. Who are you?
I’m a bearded, forever-anxious guy in his mid-twenties living in the UK. I’m working on a PhD in Literature and Religion. I have a band, I run a press, I write articles for various publications, and I pace around a lot when I talk about things that interest me.
3. Why did you write Praise of Motherhood?
Because I couldn’t bear the idea that my mother’s death might be just another sad event in the lives of a few people. I wanted my mother to be remembered somehow — not just by those who knew her, but by those who could end up wishing they had known her.
It’s not easy losing a parent, and I wanted to write my way out of some dark places. To focus on the good things. To remember with gratitude the way she did everything she could to make her children feel okay.
4. Were you a mama’s boy?
Of course, I was. She was worth the teasing from my young classmates. I loved her even when I was furiously angry with her.
5. When were you furiously angry?
From the age of 14 to 16, I was so psychologically unstable that I had to leave school for a while to stay in a private clinic and “recover” — which means they pumped me full of medication and made me sleep for a few weeks. This happened twice. My mother’s support was crucial back then, because I was a mess. I hallucinated, I was paranoid, and I wanted to die. Of course, like any screwed up kid, I took it out on my mom.
I’d get so angry that I couldn’t breathe. Everything seemed to hurt me–physically and emotionally. Because I trusted my mother so much, I took her for granted, too. I knew she wouldn’t abandon me if I broke down or lashed out. She was a saint about my outbursts.
6. Is that what Praise of Motherhood is about?
In part. What you’ll find in Praise of Motherhood is a series of short chapters on various ways I related to my mother. Let me be clear that it’s not a book about mothers in general. It’s a memoir about my relationship with my mother, before and after her death. It deals with my weird adolescence, then it moves on to questions about her private life that I’ll never be able to answer, and then it turns toward fiction. I imagine a world in which mother didn’t die on that day. I try to reconstruct conversations I had with her and my father. Then I end the book because I could go on forever and I think it’s best to be brief.
7. What was it like to show the book to your family?
It was less terrible than I’d anticipated. My great fear was that someone might object to the way I’d written it. It’s not “conventional” — there’s a scene in which I imagine my mother breaking into pieces and my sister and I have to tape her back together before she accuses me of having killed her. That scene worried me:  what if my sister hated it?
I’m happy to say it all went well. My sister found that chapter moving, and my grandparents each expressed their support. My father, who hadn’t been married to my mother for over a decade, was equally moved and helped me through the various drafts.
8. Is everything you write in Praise of Motherhood true?
If you read it, you’ll see that some of it is obviously fiction. I don’t think the right distinction here is between fiction and nonfiction; it’s between truthfulness and untruthfulness. The book is certainly truthful: if I make things up, as in the chapter where I imagine what my mother’s “secret life” as an occasional spy might have been like, it’s to show what I think about when I wonder about her as a private person. I paint myself pretty much as I was back then: irritable, self-involved, afraid. I paint my mother just as she was: patient, terrified of losing her child, and often helpless but willing to do anything.
The events that I depict in the more “conventional” chapters are true. The dialogue is obviously not going to represent exactly what was said, but the spirit of the past is contained within it.
9. Who is this book for?
It’s for people who have lost someone they loved and want to know how someone else handled their pain.
It’s for parents who need a reminder that their children can and will end up appreciating all the sacrifices, all the patience, all the secret suffering.
And it’s for anyone who is interested in teenage depression, psychosis and anxiety, and wants to read a memoir about how those conditions affect family relationships.
10. What’s next?
A novel that begins with a mother’s funeral… and then goes in a totally new direction. I started it just as I was wrapping up Praise of Motherhood, and I was ready to let go of those memories for a while, but the image of my mother’s coffin going into the earth has stayed with me so vividly that I had to begin a work of fiction with it. But beyond that, it’s an entirely different thing.




Guest Post by Phil Jourdan:

Back in late 2009, when I began working on Praise of Motherhood, I had envisioned a book very different from what I ended up submitting to my publisher. I’d just lost the woman who’d raised me, and when I wasn’t sitting around numb and brooding, I was frantically trying to contain the universe of loss and suffering in a single Word document on my laptop.
I wanted to write a book that expressed the impossibility of letting go. We’re often told, when someone close to us dies, that we have to move on, that things will get better. I couldn’t accept this back then: I didn’t think it was possible to let go of my mother, who had been so patient and kind during my weird teenage years.
The first two versions were entirely different from each other in form and tone, but they did have a certain delight in chaos in common. I was mourning the only way I knew how: by adopting a hundred different voices, each trying to say something about my mother that the others couldn’t say. One chapter was pure dialogue; another was a series of letters; for a while I wrote in breathless page-long paragraphs because it was the only way I could feel “honest” about what I felt. I’d swing from rage to self-pity to sadness to bliss to sheer bafflement.
It was only when I decided to turn this book into something that others could actually read without going insane that I figured out how to structure a book like this. I cut a great number chapters because they were “honest” but unhelpful. I tried to make myself a sort of antagonist, so my mother’s qualities as a human being could be emphasized. I left things relatively ambiguous instead of offering anything like words of wisdom to my readers. I tried to leave the book as open as the wound that stayed after my mother died.
This has irritated some people. They ask why I don’t provide a real sense of what my mother was like on a day-to-day basis, or why I focused so much on how she affected my life instead of just writing about her, as a person in her own right. Fair questions — but I never set out to just “write about my mom”. I wanted to write about the struggle of losing her, and what made losing her so painful. That’s why I ask questions in the book that I never really answer: because I was never able to answer them myself. They are questions that will remain.
Praise of Motherhood isn’t a book praising all mothers across all ages. It’s not meant to praise the idea of “motherhood” itself as some glorious ideal. I wrote this book because I wanted to transmit something of my mother to those who didn’t know her; those who, perhaps, need to hear that it’s okay to say you love your mommy and you wish she could still be here when you feel like crying.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Praise of Motherhood eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $500 in Amazon gift cards and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes isRIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
  1. Purchase your copy of Praise of Motherhood for just 99 cents
  2. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity
  3. Visit today’s featured social media event
About the book: Praise of Motherhood is a son’s tribute to the woman who not only gave him life, but helped him live: through various psychotic breakdowns, tumultuous teenage years, and years of feeling out of place in the world. Get it onAmazon or Barnes & Noble.
About the author: Phil Jourdan fronts the lit-rock band Paris and the Hiltons, runs the fiction press Perfect Edge Books, and occasionally works on a PhD. Visit Phil on his blog,music siteTwitterFacebook, or GoodReads.