First of all, thank you everybody for the encouraging words on this blog and out, for the smiles, the laughs, the insight…You, ladies and gentlemen, are wonderful…
My first “I LOVE READING” giveaway was fun and I´ll do another one soon again, to continue spreading the love of books and stories 😀
Without further ado, the winner of two books of her choice (one for her and one for somebody younger) as decided by the drawing I´ve done at Random.org is….
Congrats! 😀 All I need now is the title of the two books you wish to have…I even think I remember one of those books may go to your classroom library…AWESOME 😀
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Lunch with other SCBWI members: On Wednesday, I had lunch with three other SCBWI members and it was great! I am very happy I got to meet them. Talking about books, the craft of writing, writing in general or just about our life experiences was fun and enlightening. I am thinking of organizing this type of small get-togethers regularly and look forward to seeing them soon again!
Beta-reading: I started beta-reading this week and feel very lucky for two reasons: 1) I really enjoyed the book and 2) I realized that by helping her, I’m also helping me…Reading somebody else’s draft while keeping an open mind enabled me to go back to my own draft and know where I could improve. Her strengths showed me where I could better my own writing, some questions I had hinted at some I have on my own novel.
Yoga: I started up yoga again this week. None of the complicated poses yet, I am concentrating for now on the breathing exercises and the restorative poses since I have been having some pains otherwise. It helps me get more grounded, more “in the moment”. As I mentioned before, while my imagination helps a lot when it comes to writing, it can be a little frustrating when it turns into stress or anxiety…Yoga, cardio and more exercising in general help a lot.
ChangeWriteNow: I cannot believe the first week of ChangeWriteNow has already gone by. Once more, my teammates are encouraging and I set myself more realistic goals this time. While I am super organized at work, at home…I’m a tad more…hmm…messy and hubby is very happy I’m tackling this issue one way or another 😀
Now tell me: what made YOU smile this week?
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I had the chance of connecting with the very talented S.M. Boyce on Twitter and as she announced her Hidden World Blog Tour, I immediately raised my hand (or sent her a message :D).
First let me introduce you to her book:
Lichgates (Summary from Goodreads): The Grimoire turns its own pages and can answer any question asked of it, and Kara Magari is its next target. She has no idea what she’s getting herself into when she stumbles across the old book while hiking a hidden trail. Once she opens it, she’s thrown into Ourea: a beautiful world full of terrifying things that all want the Grimoire’s secrets. Everyone in this new world is trying to find her, and most want to control her. Braeden Drakonin grew up in Ourea, and all he’s ever known of life is lying. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. He has one question to ask the book – one question that can fix everything in his broken life – and he’s not letting Kara out of his sight until he gets an answer. There’s no escaping Ourea. There’s no going back now.
Then we have a special message coming directly from S.M. Boyce:
And S.M. has been kind enough to answer the questions I sent her. It is the FIRST interview I publish on this blog (and I really enjoyed it so probably not the last :D)
When and where did you have the first idea for LICHGATES?
The first idea for Lichgates came almost a decade ago in my aunt’s basement, when my brothers and I were making little wands and spell casters and other fun things out of clay. I actually still have them, somewhere! These toys sparked a constant daydream about what creatures would use them, and that daydream snowballed into 7 years of development and world building — and, ultimately, the complete removal of the original spell casters from the series. Haha. But, as the old writing adage goes, you need to be able to “kill your darling passages” to write successfully.
The Grimoire Trilogy has been a long while in the making, and I’ve put every ounce of creativity I could spare into making it the best it can be. I really hope you enjoy it.
One sentence of your book which you’d like to share with us:
This one is really hard for me to answer. I hope you know that! One of the hardest from this entire blog tour! Ultimately, though, I have to say I’d go with this one:
“Kara thought of Twin and Adele and Garrett and Braeden and wondered how many of the few people she still had left in the world would survive, since she didn’t quite have the best track record with that sort of thing.”
What are you the most proud of when it comes to your writing?
I think we writers are inherently self-depreciating. It keeps us modest and constantly striving to improve, so it’s hard for me to be proud of anything more than having a published book. That is an incredible, surreal, tear-jerking feeling.
I guess if I had to pick any one thing, I’d say I’m fairly good at describing the world around the characters. I’ve had many readers compliment my world-building description, and I love immersing myself in the ‘where’. You can check out a few of these reviews here and here .
Your most embarrassing writing moment was…
Contradicting myself in one of my first drafts of Lichgates. You know how you can get so into a story that you can’t see beyond the words on the page? I don’t remember the details, but the first reader draft had someone saying they would never do something one sentence…and then they did that without a second thought later on in the book. Oops! I turned red when my beta readers pointed it out, but that’s why we have writing circles!
Where do you usually write?
I live on the edge of a nature preserve, so I tucked my desk in a corner where I can look out the window. It’s beautiful! And when the wind gets going, there are all sorts of crazy noises. It’s both tense and beautiful. I love my writing spot.
One piece of advice for writers:
Write for yourself.
You are putting your name on this story, and it ultimately reflects what you think is artistic and beautiful. If you write for others and always bend yourself around others’ input, you will lose the story you originally wrote. It will lose its meaning. So write what makes you happy. You will never be able to please everyone else, so it’s crucial that you are happy with what you put out there.
Imagine you can go back in time and have a face-to-face with teenie S.M. Boyce: what advice would you give her? (yes I’m all about giving advice today :-))
I would probably tell myself to invest in Google. Short of that, I’d sit back and sigh deeply as I watched myself do stupid things. The mistakes I made make me who I am today, and I’m better off for them. It would be hard to watch, but I know it’s for the better that nothing in my past change. Except maybe a nice investment in Google. Money, I’d like. Haha!
For those who would like to snag their own copy of Lichgates, you can go to any of these sites:
And as S.M. Boyce explained, she prepared a treat for you 😀 By clicking on the Rafflecopter image, you will access the giveaway for an e-book copy of Lichgates or a set of Grimoire Book Swag…
And of course you can win a Grand Prize – including Amazon gift cards, signed books… – on her blog (just click the banner below).
Thanks again for stopping by, S.M. Boyce :D!
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My fingers have been itching to type this post but I had to stay longer at work so it´s a bit later than usual…Ready? Here are some of the reasons why I smiled this week…
My “I love reading giveaway”: This giveaway is to celebrate my love of reading with all of you. There will be one winner (but I probably will repeat this in a few months) You can win 2 books (up to a total of $30): one for you and one for a teenager or a child or a baby you want to share your love of books with. If you’re a teenager, that’s one for you and one for a friend or somebody younger than you. The giveaway is international (open to all countries that The Book Depository ships to). Just fill out the entry form by Friday March 16th.
Revising: Two weeks ago, I sent my first chapter to Tarah…I was anxious to receive her feedback. How would I react to the possible criticism towards the words I put on paper? What did she think about it? Was it awful? Was it good? and wow, I never thought I would be so happy to see her many comments on this chapter. Tarah: again THANK YOU! She not only took the time to read it but she gave a lot of thoughts to it. She edited some and pointed out where it could actually get “tighter”. I am very grateful because I just have the feeling, that thanks to her, my story is moving forward. It´s getting better. I´m excited to dive into the story again!
Reading: I started reading Incarnate at the beginning of the week. I was not sure what to expect…but I was in for a treat. I had plenty of time while waiting at the French consulate to finally change my papers (got married in August and only getting around to it but that´s another story). I will probably do a full review soon but let me just say that Jodi managed to make me miss my piano even more. I also really enjoyed the world-building, the development and the romance. Right now, I am thoroughly enjoying Amy and Roger´s Epic Detour (thanks Jaime for pointing this book out to me some time ago :D)
So tell me what made YOU smile this week?
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Nope I don’t have 100 followers (yet). It may seem like I do but really the number on the right includes my Twitter followers on top of my blog friends…
Since I did not want to wait any longer, I decided to do an “I love reading GIVEAWAY”.
I love reading. I love books. I really do. It’s a love affair which has been going on for the longest time.
It started when my parents read to me each evening before I fell asleep (Merci Papa et Maman!). It continued when I picked up books on my own. Reading Victor Hugo at the age of 8 because really who wouldn’t want to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame at that age…I did not understand everything though. I should read it again 🙂 In my teens, I fell deeper in love with all types of stories and well now, my husband put a limit to the amount of hardcovers I can buy a month…(I’m still not happy with this, Mr Chemical Engineer).
So this giveaway is to celebrate my love of reading with all of you. There will be one winner (but I probably will repeat this in a few months)
You can win 2 books (up to a total of $30): one for you and one for a teenager or a child or a baby you want to share your love of books with. If you’re a teenager, that’s one for you and one for a friend or somebody younger than you. The giveaway is international (open to all countries that The Book Depository ships to). Just fill out the entry form below by Friday March 16th.
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I’ve been a bit out of the blogosphere and twitter the past days cos’ I’ve been a tad sick…I’ll be back full speed soon though 😀
Now, on to Road Trip Wednesday (get ready for a long post!)…
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.
This Week’s Topic: What Shiny New Idea were you psyched to work on, but discovered it was too close to something already done?
I finished my first draft of my first-ever-finished-draft last month so I don’t have a lot of experience on this and I have plenty of ideas for my second/third/and upcoming WIPs…none of them I am tossing aside yet.
The question would be: How close is too close for comfort?
Let’s say I am writing a dystopian book and my new shiny idea is: a world where each year tributes from different sectors fight to death until only one stays alive.
This may sound a tad too close to something already published (*cough* The Hunger Games)…unless…it takes place in an avatar-like world and it’s beasts vs humans and we see the perspective of the monster and it’s in an arena where everybody can cheer them on and nobody volunteers for somebody else and the humans become more monstruous than the beast and a beast rescues a human and they flee the game and the winner of the game needs to kill them both if he wants to survive and it’s her brother and the monster and the beast discover they have more things in common and….the story is actually different.
Does my actual draft (the one I wrote, not the imaginary one I just made up above) have similarities to something already published?
Yes.
Is it a bad thing?
I don’t think so.
My book has witches in them. It also has love, steamy kisses, sad moments and learning to know oneself.
Plenty of books have witches and love, just like plenty of books had vampires before Twilight. And don’t get me started about books where love plays a role in…
Would you pick my draft up and think: wow, wait a second, I read this and this French lady should totally be sued for copyrights’ infringement, like Deforges for Gone with the wind? (by the way I love the Bicyclette bleue series)?
No
I will not toss my idea aside for two reasons:
By the time I am actually done with the process of seeing my book on shelves: revising, sending it to my beta-readers, making changes, querying, getting-the-agent-who-loves-my-story-and-the-way-I-tell-it, making changes, landing the contract with amazing-publisher, possibly making more changes…, the market may be curious for new stories about witches.
The story will be different. Let’s take another example the fairy tales re-telling…they have the same idea in them but the way they are told make them stand apart,
Let’s talk movies.
See, I love that movie!
And I love that one too 😀 (not ashamed to admit it)
And wow, Drew Barrymore in that one? (amazing…)
Ok to get back to point 2) 🙂 The story will be different because this is the one I wrote. We all bring ourselves to the paper, one way or another, if we recognize it or not. Books are not written in a vacuum – New Historicism amongst other literary theories help us to see this. I get inspired by other people’s writings, by the sun, by the clouds, by music, by a certain light, by a smile…by many things. I get better thanks to other people’s writings but the story I am telling is still my own.
Sometimes, as a reader, we see story lines which ring a bell but we still dive into a novel because of the craft of the writer, because the characters become endearing, because this story becomes fresh in our eyes when we do so.
My story is original and I certainly hope that it will get the chance to see the wild wild world…And if it does not, it might get tossed aside for awhile but it will always hold a special place in my heart!
Wow…this was a looong post 🙂
I cannot wait to read your thoughts on this!
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Disclaimer: Laini Taylor has a way with words, she makes magic with them and spreads hope while touching your heart…
Summary from Goodreads:Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself
I finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone this week-end. I had picked it up after reading so many good reviews about it and seeing it showing up on Best Reads of 2011. I was not quite sure what to expect from it. I went into reading this book with anxious questions: would I actually enjoy it? will I feel with Karou?
And then…I read the first sentence.
The story of Karou and Akiva is not just another star-crossed love story. It takes your heart, breaks it and tries to mend it as it goes. Karou is the type of heroin you root for. You feel close to her as the book reveals her personality and her quirks. The way she reacts makes sense because that´s how well you get to know her. What I particularly enjoyed is how true the emotions felt in such a fantastic world. And there are the details: you can roam the streets of Prague with Karou (I´ve been there once and this is such a magical place), you can learn so much about men with mustache (and here I mentioned this in my Happy Friday post but it reminds me of the way Gogol wrote), you are reminded how there´s always more to a story than the surface, how myths grow on history (to use Laini´s words)
Favorite quotes:
“Stop squandering yourself, child. Wait for love.”
“Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?”
“She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil’s lair.”
“My life is blood because my world is beasts”
“Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”
So tell me, what book surprised you recently? and did you have a nice weekend? 🙂
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Ok I have to admit there will be no rollers in this post…I was just looking for another word starting with the letter “R” 😀
* Happy for Christa: I started following Christa a few weeks ago and I am happy I did ( I found another Center Stage fan). In case you have not seen Christa´s news, she announced on Wednesday her book deal with SimonPulse. The story of Ani and Ben is not the kind that will make your heart flutter with happiness, actually it might tear up and break but it seems to be powerful, gut-wrenching. It’s a story which needed to be sent to the world.
* Revising: Chapter 4 and I had a date. We fought. We made up.
* Reading: I am in the middle of a Daughter of Smoke and Bone and wow, Laini Taylor has a magical way with words. I love all the references of men with moustache (for some reasons, this reminds me of one of the short stories from Gogol)
I did a little happy dance yesterday as I joined NetGalley to receive ARCs on my Kindle (thanks to Tarah who posted about currently reading Goddess Interrupted) As you may have guessed from my January books post, I have a lot of time to read…so that will be great to get my fingertips on some not-yet-released-look-at-me-I’m-so-cool-books… And I already got approved for some. (more on them soon…ta ta ta da *that was me building up suspense*)
* On InstaLove by Jaimee: If you have not yet seen Jaimee’s post on InstaLove, go ahead, I’ll wait here.
waits, waits, waits.
Cool, you’re back 🙂 While I do enjoy Valentine’s Day a tad more than Jaimee apparently, I wholeheartedly agree with her take on InstaLove. My heart beats a bit faster when I can see the sparks between people as they first lay eyes on each other call it InstaYummfactor) and then the fireworks when they first interact with one another (call it InstaConnection). I do need the connection though, the laughing or the long discussions. I need something. If there are no explanations or if the love is just based on the looks or does not seem reciprocated (the guy is a jerk, stalker, ignores her completely…) then it can become more of an InstaObsession. While the story can still work if the main character conveys this to the reader (and not just the I am so happy, we’re in love), it needs to develop.
* Honeymoon: And because I just talked about love, I am happy to report that hubby and I have finally booked our flights for our honeymoon (we got married in August). We’re going to the US for 3 weeks. Road Trip. Mustang. Leaving the work Blackberry at home. We’re going to visit dear friends in many States and spend some time in a Bed and Breakfast in Cape Cod…and I will get to roam the streets of Manchester-By-The-Sea (that is where my WIP takes place…I talked about it in my Dreaming of a Writing Retreat post)…
I wish you all a wonderful week-end and I am looking forward to know what made YOU smile this week 🙂
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Yesterday, I posted a letter “Dear Book, it´s not you it´s me” in which I tried to explain to this wonderful novel that this was not the right time for us to become involved. I just figured out why. The book I was trying to read (and only got a few pages in) was in French. I love reading in my mother tongue as it helps me to remember the way the words flow, their melody, their strength and their passion.
However, I am currently revising my first draft – and I write in English. Reading in one language while my brain keeps on calling me back to my manuscript which is in another language just does not work right at the moment. The funny thing is that it does not bother me when I write.
And I did do plenty of reading this month in English. Really, I enjoyed 15 books (see my Goodread shelf for more info): 13 young adult novels and 2 were thrillers 😀
I commute and I took a short writing break after finishing my first draft. Plenty of time. Some of those books took my breath away. Out of 15, it´s difficult to pick only one book and I won´t 🙂 but I will name the ones that sticked with me for a long long time after I put them down.
The Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent, Anna and The French Kiss, The Statistical Probabability of Love at First Sight…
What do all of these books have in common despite being so different?
I felt with the characters on many levels, the voices were amazing and the emotions jumped out of the pages right into my heart 🙂
Which book(s) did you read this month that you simply could not put down?
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I need to apologize to the book I am currently reading.
It’s just not the relationship it used to be and it is all my fault.
Dear Book,
I am sorry that I am not paying attention to you as I should, or that it is taking me longer to care about the characters. It’s not your fault, it’s mine.
I know you don’t believe me. I see you looking at me with your big dark words. You think I’m just saying it to make you feel better. But it’s true. I am not ready for a committed relationship at the moment.
It sounds cliché you say. Please don’t cry. I know you want my fingers on your pages. I promise to come back to you when I feel less distracted. I know I should not be looking at that other book this way but we grew older together. The words on its paper are mine, you see and I recognize their potential. The characters are in my head and they won’t rest until I give them more time.
You are truly a wonderful book and I do love you. I just don’t love you that way yet. Maybe we’ll get there if I give you a try. Maybe you will help me get the voice in my own draft even stronger.
I guess time will tell but in the meantime, please don’t take it personally. I am sure somebody else somewhere already loves you the way you deserve to be loved.
Take care
Elodie
Now tell me 🙂
Do you sometimes get too distracted to really engage in a book ? or how do you deal with revising/reading?
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First of all, thank you everybody for the encouraging words on this blog and out, for the smiles, the laughs, the insight…You, ladies and gentlemen, are wonderful…
My first “I LOVE READING” giveaway was fun and I´ll do another one soon again, to continue spreading the love of books and stories 😀
Elodie Nowodazkij 