First Thing from Carol!
We’re back. It’s been a very long month and a half with many thousands of miles put on a couple of cars. I am still tired. But almost everything I did these last few weeks was worth it. I may have even come up with a scene for a book. What book? I don’t know. But maybe I know the climax of that unwritten, un-thought-of book.
So next week we start in full swing back with the blog.
And we have several fun plans. Plus, we’ll need to set up a meal at Olive Garden for sometime in August!
I have a few goals for myself and the rest of the summer.
Number One–The girls and I are spending lots of quality time together. Dinners. Movies. Game time. Laughing. Arguing. Etc.
Number Two–I am gonna read like crazy. So far I have read THE END OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT and LIFE AS WE KNEW IT and I am halfway through Chris Crowe‘s book DEATH COMING UP THE HILL and halfway through Robin McKinley‘s ROSE DAUGHTER and I have Ilima Todd‘s REMAKE and Courtney Alemeda‘s SHUTTER and Jandy Nelson‘s I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN. Plus I’m reading THE BOOK OF MORMON each day. 🙂
Number Three–I am going to finish four books in various stages of edit and writing.
I will also get my Dyson fixed.
And then vacuum really well.
AND I’m decluttering and preparing for my fall class and working on my website and learning twitter.
But One, Two and Three are most important and I intend to do what I love most the rest of July and August and September AND maybe the rest of my life.
Cheryl Van Eck says:
On my first attempt at writing a novel, my MC was a teenage boy with superpowers who was in love with a girl.
It sucked.
It sucked.
As a woman, I struggle to write like a man, particularly like a man in love.
It goes both ways, too. There’s a certain YA series out there by a man who pumps out about ten books a year.
I was about 50 pages in, doing pretty well, reading about this hardcore, James Bond-type main character with tons of action.
Then suddenly, the MC starts talking about how attractive this other guy is. My first thought: They’re gay?
Really, I considered that the MC was gay before I considered that the MC was a girl with a masculine nickname. She didn’t think like a girl or act like a girl. It was poor characterization.
Are you trying to write like the opposite sex? Do you feel you are successful? And if so, how do you do it?
Brenda Bensch says:
I love cool quotes from cooool writers about cool, writerly subjects. This oldie but goodie is from Ursula K. Le Guin back in October of 2000: “There are a lot of people who will say I’m the exception, the only good science fiction writer. That’s nonsense. I do seem to be somebody who has carried people from realistic literature to fantasy and back. I’m happy to do that. If I’m a steppingstone, walk on me, for heaven’s sake.”
That was then, this is now. And I know plenty of writers who have been steppingstones for a lot of us. Some of the leaders of the pack are Rick Walton, Dave Wolverton/Farland and, of course, Carol Lynch Williams. If we’re lucky, we’re “walking” — if not on them — at least in their well-worn footprints. Thank you all for leading the way!
(Thank you, Brenda!)
Throwing Up Words 