Dear Readers,
I look at that greeting and can't help but shake my head at the idea of writing an open letter to my audience as though thousands of people follow this tiny little blog. At this point, my audience is so small that there seems almost no point to even writing this blog post. But then I have always been somewhat amazed by the idea that any of you come here at all, so leaving without saying goodbye just seemed terribly ungrateful of me.
Yes, I am saying goodbye.
So long. Farewell. Auf wiedersehen. Goodbye.
Oops, I seem to have slipped into a little Sound of Music there. Sorry about that.
Alas, there are many things going on in my life right now. To be truthful, and I hope you'll understand and forgive me for my vagueness, I'd rather not go into it all here. In addition to my pregnancy progressing along and taking up more and more of my time, there are other matters which are requiring a good deal of my attention.
This has been building for some time now. You may have noticed the rather dramatic decline in my blogging schedule. There was a time there, around the second half of last year, where you could have kept track of the calendar by watching this blog. Posts were scheduled out and appeared in an orderly fashion. I even went out of town for a month and the blog posts just kept on coming.
Since then though, it may or may not have been driving you batty to find that the schedule has completely degraded. Some weeks there are four posts. Some weeks there are two. Some weeks go by with no posts at all.
Okay, it may not have been driving you batty, but it has been making me completely nuts.
I like order and schedules and even though these schedules are largely self-imposed, it still bothers me not to meet them. Unfortunately, to be blunt, I simply don't have time to keep up with this blog anymore, and I don't see that changing at any point in the near future.
I do want to be clear on one point: I'm not giving up on my writing. I'm just not going to be doing all of the other nonsense that has come to surround my writing these days.
Reading publisher blogs and following the industry on Twitter and going to conferences and blogging about my own progress. It all takes up an enormous amount of time. Time I certainly enjoyed spending and fully believe is a necessary and important part of any professional novelist's life, but which I simply can't devote myself to at the moment. I'm confident I'll come back to all this eventually, but I don't want to leave you all hanging in the meantime.
I have thoroughly enjoyed rambling to you all and I hope that you have, in turn, enjoyed my ramblings.
Thanks for reading along,
~NL Berger
From My Bookshelf to Yours: April Winner!
Oops! I forgot to announce the winner from April! Sorry for the delay, folks, but better late than never, I suppose.
The comments for all the April From My Bookshelf to Yours posts were closed last night and the random number generator has selected a winner.
Congratulations to Lindsay, who wins a copy of Anne Bishop's The Shadow Queen!
Lindsay, please email me at nlberger(at)nlberger(dot)com with your mailing address so I can drop your book in the mail.
The comments for all the April From My Bookshelf to Yours posts were closed last night and the random number generator has selected a winner.
Congratulations to Lindsay, who wins a copy of Anne Bishop's The Shadow Queen!
Lindsay, please email me at nlberger(at)nlberger(dot)com with your mailing address so I can drop your book in the mail.
From My Bookshelf to Yours: May 2010, Week 1
This Week's Book: Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs
What I liked: A few friends of mine recommended the Mercy Thompson books to me last year and I've just finally gotten around to reading this first one in the series. I loved it! This is why I trust my friends to recommend books. I have the sneaking suspicion that the rest of the books in this series will make their way from my TBR pile to my bookshelf (only books I've finished reading earn a place on the actual bookshelves) in the very near future.
Mercy, the main character, is so great. She's got an amazingly entertaining voice. She's sassy and incredibly fun to read. She's not as strong as the supernatural men in her life, but she's got a strong enough streak of independence to make up for it. And to make their rather obsessive habit of treating her like she's made of glass blow up in their faces more often than not. I like it when a woman can admit that she's not as strong as the men, but still doesn't need them to take care of her all the time.
The only thing that irked me a little about this book is that there do seem to be a rather large number of extremely hot men in her life and all of them just happen to be in love with her. I find that a smidge unrealistic at times, but she plays them off each other beautifully and so even that is good for a laugh every now and again.
And really, since when is an overabundance of hot men that much of a downside?
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
And don't forget! The contest for this book is open until the fifth of next month, but you still have until midnight tonight to comment for a chance to win one of April's books. Up for grabs: Firespell, by Chloe Neill, The Geometry of Sisters, by Luanne Rice, and The Shadow Queen, by Anne Bishop.
Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water . . .
What I liked: A few friends of mine recommended the Mercy Thompson books to me last year and I've just finally gotten around to reading this first one in the series. I loved it! This is why I trust my friends to recommend books. I have the sneaking suspicion that the rest of the books in this series will make their way from my TBR pile to my bookshelf (only books I've finished reading earn a place on the actual bookshelves) in the very near future.
Mercy, the main character, is so great. She's got an amazingly entertaining voice. She's sassy and incredibly fun to read. She's not as strong as the supernatural men in her life, but she's got a strong enough streak of independence to make up for it. And to make their rather obsessive habit of treating her like she's made of glass blow up in their faces more often than not. I like it when a woman can admit that she's not as strong as the men, but still doesn't need them to take care of her all the time.
The only thing that irked me a little about this book is that there do seem to be a rather large number of extremely hot men in her life and all of them just happen to be in love with her. I find that a smidge unrealistic at times, but she plays them off each other beautifully and so even that is good for a laugh every now and again.
And really, since when is an overabundance of hot men that much of a downside?
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
And don't forget! The contest for this book is open until the fifth of next month, but you still have until midnight tonight to comment for a chance to win one of April's books. Up for grabs: Firespell, by Chloe Neill, The Geometry of Sisters, by Luanne Rice, and The Shadow Queen, by Anne Bishop.
Selling Out: The Power of Twitter Compels You!
Hey folks! Idea Salesman here. How have you been? Ah, good, good. I'm doing well; thanks for asking. Been a long time since I've popped in here to offer up my two cents, but I know the Muse and the Inner Editor are keeping you all so well entertained with their whining and complaining that you haven't missed me at all.
(Pause while there's a string of sounds strongly reminiscent of those old Batman episodes. BAM! POW! CRASH! And add in a little shrieking for the full effect.)
Okay, now I've got the ladies calmed down, back to my blogging. Since Nikki's not actively trying to sell anything right now, my job has gotten a lot more behind the scenes. I spend most of my time keeping track of publishing folks (you know, agent and editor types) and industry issues (think agency pricing and the iPad here) so that when Nikki does get back into the idea selling game, I'm ready to go.
One of the things I've been keeping track of lately is marketing techniques. Because someday we're going to sell one of Nikki's ideas to the publishing folks and then it's going to be my job to sell it to the rest of the world. Getting a novel published is a lovely, lofty, wonderful goal. But let's face it; it's an intermediate goal. What we really want isn't for a publisher to buy it. We really want a reader to buy it. Actually, we really want lots of readers to buy it.
And that would be where the internet comes in. Right now, the internet makes a quality tool for me because I can keep up with all the news and opinions in the industry through blogs and tweets and online magazine articles. Lemme tell you, doing my job from a lounge chair on the beach is tough, but I make these sacrifices willingly.
In the future, though, the internet will still be a quality tool, because more and more readers are getting their book recommendations from book blogs, twitter recommendations, and website reviews. Social networking sites announce to everyone's friends what their reading and how they felt about it. Everyone from the author straight through to the publisher blogs about a book release, on their own blogs and by touring their way through book blogs all over the internet.
And now, even people who've never read the book blog about it sometimes too.
For example, Nikki and I were reading through some book-related blogs this morning and stumbled upon this post by Chloe Neill. Ms. Neill has a book coming out on July 6th called Twice Bitten and she's having a contest to giveaway an ARC.
But notice, she's not just holding a comment-for-a-chance-to-win contest. Lots of people do those. (Heck, Nikki does one here every Wednesday, though she's not to the stage of giving away her own books yet.) No, she's doing even more than that. Comment for a chance to win, and get extra entries by doing a variety of things to expand the author's audience. Increase her various internet social networks. Use your own social network to let other readers know about the upcoming release. Bring this information back to your own blog or book club.
Marketing a book via word of mouth isn't a new concept. In fact, it's pretty much been the primary vehicle for marketing a book since books were invented. And now that social networking sites mean everyone is friends with a few hundred, or in some cases thousand, people they might never even have met, shouting out "hey, you should read this book!" has a slightly bigger impact than it used to.
Of course, some people will see that little shout out in their Facebook news feed or on their Twitter home page or what have you and will just ignore it and move along. But some will notice it and file the information away in their brain for the next time they're in the mood to read. And still others will notice it and forward it on to their social network. Ah, the glory and power of the internet, doing my work for me.
Well, doing Chloe Neill's idea salesman's work anyway.
And the best part is that you're all participating in this wonderful experience right now. You see, Nikki read both of the other two Chicagoland Vampire books and has been eagerly awaiting this next installment. You guys might even remember that one of them was featured in the From My Bookshelf to Yours giveway back in January. So when she saw today's post on The Daily Snark, she clicked on it right away to comment.
And then thought for a moment about that list of other ways to enter. She already follows the blog and follows Chloe Neill on Twitter. She popped over to Facebook and immediately sent out a friend request. Realizing a moment of egregious oversight on her part had lead to her not signing up for the mailing list before, she also fired off an email requesting to be added to it. So, poof, there's five entries right there!
But how to get the rest? After all, now that she's got five entries into the contest, why not go for nine? Well, she couldn't go for all nine. She doesn't belong to a book club, so that last option is out. Tweeting about the book was totally doable. Nikki is practically addicted to Twitter, and TweetDeck was already open and ready to go. But what about the other two options? Nikki is quite fond of her system for blogging and today being Monday meant it really wasn't her turn. We voices lay claim to Mondays.
Admittedly, my counterparts and I don't always have something to say on Mondays, but Nikki very graciously leaves the day open for us anyway.
Nikki came to us for help and I perked right up. Blog about a marketing thing? All you had to do was ask, dear girl! That's what I'm here for.
And so here you all sit, reading a blog post or a Facebook message about Chloe Neill and her upcoming release. Now all of you know about Twice Bitten coming out on July 6th and if you're unfamiliar with the Chicagoland Vampires, you might even while away the weeks between now and then catching yourself up by reading the other two books in the series, Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites. And if you like Ms. Neill's writing, you could even pick up the first book in her YA series, Firespell, which Nikki just happens to be giving away this week as a part of the From My Bookshelf to Yours contest. Marketing mission accomplished.
I spun it my way, of course. That's what I do.
(Pause while there's a string of sounds strongly reminiscent of those old Batman episodes. BAM! POW! CRASH! And add in a little shrieking for the full effect.)
Okay, now I've got the ladies calmed down, back to my blogging. Since Nikki's not actively trying to sell anything right now, my job has gotten a lot more behind the scenes. I spend most of my time keeping track of publishing folks (you know, agent and editor types) and industry issues (think agency pricing and the iPad here) so that when Nikki does get back into the idea selling game, I'm ready to go.
One of the things I've been keeping track of lately is marketing techniques. Because someday we're going to sell one of Nikki's ideas to the publishing folks and then it's going to be my job to sell it to the rest of the world. Getting a novel published is a lovely, lofty, wonderful goal. But let's face it; it's an intermediate goal. What we really want isn't for a publisher to buy it. We really want a reader to buy it. Actually, we really want lots of readers to buy it.
And that would be where the internet comes in. Right now, the internet makes a quality tool for me because I can keep up with all the news and opinions in the industry through blogs and tweets and online magazine articles. Lemme tell you, doing my job from a lounge chair on the beach is tough, but I make these sacrifices willingly.
In the future, though, the internet will still be a quality tool, because more and more readers are getting their book recommendations from book blogs, twitter recommendations, and website reviews. Social networking sites announce to everyone's friends what their reading and how they felt about it. Everyone from the author straight through to the publisher blogs about a book release, on their own blogs and by touring their way through book blogs all over the internet.
And now, even people who've never read the book blog about it sometimes too.
For example, Nikki and I were reading through some book-related blogs this morning and stumbled upon this post by Chloe Neill. Ms. Neill has a book coming out on July 6th called Twice Bitten and she's having a contest to giveaway an ARC.
But notice, she's not just holding a comment-for-a-chance-to-win contest. Lots of people do those. (Heck, Nikki does one here every Wednesday, though she's not to the stage of giving away her own books yet.) No, she's doing even more than that. Comment for a chance to win, and get extra entries by doing a variety of things to expand the author's audience. Increase her various internet social networks. Use your own social network to let other readers know about the upcoming release. Bring this information back to your own blog or book club.
Marketing a book via word of mouth isn't a new concept. In fact, it's pretty much been the primary vehicle for marketing a book since books were invented. And now that social networking sites mean everyone is friends with a few hundred, or in some cases thousand, people they might never even have met, shouting out "hey, you should read this book!" has a slightly bigger impact than it used to.
Of course, some people will see that little shout out in their Facebook news feed or on their Twitter home page or what have you and will just ignore it and move along. But some will notice it and file the information away in their brain for the next time they're in the mood to read. And still others will notice it and forward it on to their social network. Ah, the glory and power of the internet, doing my work for me.
Well, doing Chloe Neill's idea salesman's work anyway.
And the best part is that you're all participating in this wonderful experience right now. You see, Nikki read both of the other two Chicagoland Vampire books and has been eagerly awaiting this next installment. You guys might even remember that one of them was featured in the From My Bookshelf to Yours giveway back in January. So when she saw today's post on The Daily Snark, she clicked on it right away to comment.
And then thought for a moment about that list of other ways to enter. She already follows the blog and follows Chloe Neill on Twitter. She popped over to Facebook and immediately sent out a friend request. Realizing a moment of egregious oversight on her part had lead to her not signing up for the mailing list before, she also fired off an email requesting to be added to it. So, poof, there's five entries right there!
But how to get the rest? After all, now that she's got five entries into the contest, why not go for nine? Well, she couldn't go for all nine. She doesn't belong to a book club, so that last option is out. Tweeting about the book was totally doable. Nikki is practically addicted to Twitter, and TweetDeck was already open and ready to go. But what about the other two options? Nikki is quite fond of her system for blogging and today being Monday meant it really wasn't her turn. We voices lay claim to Mondays.
Admittedly, my counterparts and I don't always have something to say on Mondays, but Nikki very graciously leaves the day open for us anyway.
Nikki came to us for help and I perked right up. Blog about a marketing thing? All you had to do was ask, dear girl! That's what I'm here for.
And so here you all sit, reading a blog post or a Facebook message about Chloe Neill and her upcoming release. Now all of you know about Twice Bitten coming out on July 6th and if you're unfamiliar with the Chicagoland Vampires, you might even while away the weeks between now and then catching yourself up by reading the other two books in the series, Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites. And if you like Ms. Neill's writing, you could even pick up the first book in her YA series, Firespell, which Nikki just happens to be giving away this week as a part of the From My Bookshelf to Yours contest. Marketing mission accomplished.
I spun it my way, of course. That's what I do.
From My Bookshelf to Yours: April 2010, Week 4
This Week's Book: The Shadow Queen, by Anne Bishop
What I liked: Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think my favorite thing about this book is that the heroine isn't beautiful. Not the lame kind of "not beautiful" you often see in books, where a woman is really drop dead gorgeous but just can't see it in herself until the right swoon-worthy hero comes along and sweeps her into his arms.
(Pardon me while I just step off to the side here and gag.)
No, she's legitimately not beautiful. We see the reactions from inside the POV of enough men to confirm that while she's not ugly, she's just not all that attractive either. I like that no one falls to their knees to worship her just for the chance to look at her. Especially in this series, where the use sex as a weapon and the fight for dominance between the sexes are such major themes, it's refreshing to have a character who not only doesn't use her looks to get what she wants, but doesn't even have that particular weapon in her arsenal.
She's also not a super powerful witch, or a genius, or extraordinarily gifted in any other way. She's not horribly disfigured or psychologically scarred. She comes from a good family and, while her life isn't perfect, she's a generally happy person. She's not a zealot or a fanatic or driven by some deep-rooted force that pushes her to do incomprehensible things. She's just . . . normal. And yet she's still the only hope of a desperate people who need a strong leader and a role model to rally around. She's a good person, she's strong willed enough to stick to her convictions, and she's intelligent enough to figure out what the people need. How great is that?
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
In a tumultuous world ruled by witches and warlocks who wear their power as jewels, one Queen's chance at redemption is the last hope for a desperate people . . .
Dena Nehele is a land decimated by its past. Once it was ruled by corrupt Queens who were wiped out when the land was cleansed of tainted Blood. Now, only one hundred Warlord Princes stand--without a leader and without hope . . .
Theran Grayhaven is the last of his line, desperate to find the key that reveals a treasure great enough to restore Dena Nehele. But first he needs to find a Queen who knows Protocol, remembers the Blood’s code of honor, and lives by the Old Ways.
Languishing in the Shadow Realm, Lady Cassidy is a Queen without a court, a castoff. She is not beautiful. She thinks she is not strong. But when she is chosen to rule Dena Nehele, she must convince bitter men to serve once again.
Theran's cousin Gray is a Warlord Prince who was damaged in mind and body by the vicious Queens who once ruled Dena Nehele. Yet something about Cassidy makes him want to serve--and makes him believe he can be made whole once again.
And only Cassidy can prove to Gray--and to herself--that wounds can heal and even the whisper of a promise can be fulfilled . . .
What I liked: Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think my favorite thing about this book is that the heroine isn't beautiful. Not the lame kind of "not beautiful" you often see in books, where a woman is really drop dead gorgeous but just can't see it in herself until the right swoon-worthy hero comes along and sweeps her into his arms.
(Pardon me while I just step off to the side here and gag.)
No, she's legitimately not beautiful. We see the reactions from inside the POV of enough men to confirm that while she's not ugly, she's just not all that attractive either. I like that no one falls to their knees to worship her just for the chance to look at her. Especially in this series, where the use sex as a weapon and the fight for dominance between the sexes are such major themes, it's refreshing to have a character who not only doesn't use her looks to get what she wants, but doesn't even have that particular weapon in her arsenal.
She's also not a super powerful witch, or a genius, or extraordinarily gifted in any other way. She's not horribly disfigured or psychologically scarred. She comes from a good family and, while her life isn't perfect, she's a generally happy person. She's not a zealot or a fanatic or driven by some deep-rooted force that pushes her to do incomprehensible things. She's just . . . normal. And yet she's still the only hope of a desperate people who need a strong leader and a role model to rally around. She's a good person, she's strong willed enough to stick to her convictions, and she's intelligent enough to figure out what the people need. How great is that?
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
Would that Edits were as Habit-Forming as Words
(crossposted from http://www.themodernmythmakers.com)
With the notable exception of pantsing my way through my rough drafts, I'm very into planning. I am a big fan of the idea that it takes 21 days to make a habit. The Franklin Covey system and I go way back. I like SMART goals and spreadsheets and timetables. My planner is color coded in addition to being prioritized by type of task. I'm a huge planning nerd.
I was talking to someone about writing the other day and I happened to mention NaNoWriMo. We were talking about getting over the two-page problem. (You know, where you never get more than two pages into a story because you get stuck trying to make it perfect or your idea just runs out of steam after those first few moments of inspiration.) The reason I always recommend NaNoWriMo to people with the two-page problem is two-fold.
Not only did NaNoWriMo get me into the habit of writing every day, it got me into the habit of writing whenever I had time, of keeping a notebook on me for sudden moments of inspiration, and of expecting writing sessions to yield at least a thousand words rather than just two little pages. I found my writing style through NaNoWriMo, which just happens to be perfectly compatible with the program.
Other people have to work a little harder during November, being that they're not complete and total pantsers capable of banging out 1000 words in 15 minutes if hyped up on enough coffee and leftover Halloween candy. I spare brief moments of sadness for those poor unfortunate Wrimos. And then, you know, I have to get back to work, because there's likely a word war I'm supposed to be paying attention to.
But, Nikki, you might be thinking, it's April. Why are you talking about all this now?
An excellent question! You see, I have a problem. NaNoWriMo gave me the perfect way to form a writing habit. I have yet to find anything that helps me form an editing habit.
My style of editing is meticulous, with many methods and tools layered on top of each other. It can't be accomplished in the same fast-paced, no sleep, go-until-you-die-and-then-get-up-and-go-some-more fashion as my writing. I've tried it. I ended up completely burned out and almost decided to give up writing altogether. I also didn't get through the revisions, so, other than being a nice lesson in what I can and cannot do, the exercise was quite pointless.
Since getting pregnant, I've fallen off the wagon with regard to my writing. I spent my first trimester basically living the life of a newborn. Wake up. Eat something. Throw up. Gee, that was exhausting. Go back to sleep. Repeat for three months. There was not a lot of writing. There was definitely not a lot of revising. And now here I sit on the other side of it, completely out of the habit of working at all with no spiffy internet competition to help me get back on track.
I suppose I could try Script Frenzy, but I have no real interest in writing a script and I feel like that would just slice another month out of the very limited time I have left to get my current WIP completed and queried out.
And so I guess I shall have to get back into the habit the old fashioned way, just trying to remember to do it every day until I don't need the reminder anymore. It would be nice, though, if editing was even half as much fun as playing with shiny new words.
With the notable exception of pantsing my way through my rough drafts, I'm very into planning. I am a big fan of the idea that it takes 21 days to make a habit. The Franklin Covey system and I go way back. I like SMART goals and spreadsheets and timetables. My planner is color coded in addition to being prioritized by type of task. I'm a huge planning nerd.
I was talking to someone about writing the other day and I happened to mention NaNoWriMo. We were talking about getting over the two-page problem. (You know, where you never get more than two pages into a story because you get stuck trying to make it perfect or your idea just runs out of steam after those first few moments of inspiration.) The reason I always recommend NaNoWriMo to people with the two-page problem is two-fold.
- That's how I got over my own two-page problem back in November of 2006.
- NaNoWriMo, falling in November, is 30 days long, giving you more than enough time to turn writing daily into a habit. (If you recall from the first paragraph, I firmly believe habits take 21 days to form.)
Not only did NaNoWriMo get me into the habit of writing every day, it got me into the habit of writing whenever I had time, of keeping a notebook on me for sudden moments of inspiration, and of expecting writing sessions to yield at least a thousand words rather than just two little pages. I found my writing style through NaNoWriMo, which just happens to be perfectly compatible with the program.
Other people have to work a little harder during November, being that they're not complete and total pantsers capable of banging out 1000 words in 15 minutes if hyped up on enough coffee and leftover Halloween candy. I spare brief moments of sadness for those poor unfortunate Wrimos. And then, you know, I have to get back to work, because there's likely a word war I'm supposed to be paying attention to.
But, Nikki, you might be thinking, it's April. Why are you talking about all this now?
An excellent question! You see, I have a problem. NaNoWriMo gave me the perfect way to form a writing habit. I have yet to find anything that helps me form an editing habit.
My style of editing is meticulous, with many methods and tools layered on top of each other. It can't be accomplished in the same fast-paced, no sleep, go-until-you-die-and-then-get-up-and-go-some-more fashion as my writing. I've tried it. I ended up completely burned out and almost decided to give up writing altogether. I also didn't get through the revisions, so, other than being a nice lesson in what I can and cannot do, the exercise was quite pointless.
Since getting pregnant, I've fallen off the wagon with regard to my writing. I spent my first trimester basically living the life of a newborn. Wake up. Eat something. Throw up. Gee, that was exhausting. Go back to sleep. Repeat for three months. There was not a lot of writing. There was definitely not a lot of revising. And now here I sit on the other side of it, completely out of the habit of working at all with no spiffy internet competition to help me get back on track.
I suppose I could try Script Frenzy, but I have no real interest in writing a script and I feel like that would just slice another month out of the very limited time I have left to get my current WIP completed and queried out.
And so I guess I shall have to get back into the habit the old fashioned way, just trying to remember to do it every day until I don't need the reminder anymore. It would be nice, though, if editing was even half as much fun as playing with shiny new words.
From My Bookshelf to Yours: April 2010, Week 2
This Week's Book: The Geometry of Sisters, by Luanne Rice
What I liked: This isn't the kind of book I usually go for. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against women's fiction. It just doesn't happen to be what I spend most of my time reading. But I picked up a copy at a conference and thought it looked interesting, so I gave it a go. I've always had a natural aptitude toward math and the idea of a character who is creative through mathematics appealed to me. Admittedly, geometry always was my least favorite branch of math, but that's really not important.
This book totally blew me away. The relationships were spot on, so complicated and yet so simple, just as real family relationships are. Creating a good family dynamic in fiction can be so hard sometimes. The extremes and stereotypes that I see a lot in family dramas usually send me running for the nearest vampire romance novel. But this book didn't have that. The characters are all going through grief and loss and hope and guilt and love and panic and friendship and heartbreak and . . . life with all the trimmings. Some of it is extreme and some of it isn't, but all of it is real. There's a strange kind of balance to their lives and, just as with any real family, nothing is ever completely perfect or completely tragic for everyone all at once.
Some of the reactions were a little predictable at times, but then life is like that on occasion, so I was willing to overlook it. By the end of the book, I really cared about all of these characters and wanted to see them find happiness. I also felt the almost overwhelming urge to call my own sister, just to check in.
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
NOTE: Karen, you won a copy of Rachel Vincent's Shift in the March giveaway, but I still haven't gotten your contact information. Please email me at nlberger(at)nlberger(dot)com with your mailing address so I can drop your book in the mail!
The storm off Mackinac Island that engulfed Maura Shaw's husband and elder daughter, Carrie, also swept away the illusion of her life as the perfect midwestern wife and mother. Now, after years away, Maura has returned to Rhode Island to teach English at the fabled Newport Academy and to seek a new beginning. Newport has never failed to infuse Maura with a sense of mystery and hope, but ever since the accident, her younger daughter, fourteen-year-old Beck, has retreated into the safe, predictable world of mathematics. Without Carrie, Beck has lost half of herself--the half that would have fit into the elite private school she and her brother, Travis, will attend. The half that made things right. Sixteen-year-old Travis is also struggling to adjust--juggling a long-distance first love and an attraction to a girl with a wicked sparkle in her eye. And for Maura, ghosts linger here--an unresolved breach with her own beloved sister and a long-ago secret that may now have the power to set her free . . .
What I liked: This isn't the kind of book I usually go for. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against women's fiction. It just doesn't happen to be what I spend most of my time reading. But I picked up a copy at a conference and thought it looked interesting, so I gave it a go. I've always had a natural aptitude toward math and the idea of a character who is creative through mathematics appealed to me. Admittedly, geometry always was my least favorite branch of math, but that's really not important.
This book totally blew me away. The relationships were spot on, so complicated and yet so simple, just as real family relationships are. Creating a good family dynamic in fiction can be so hard sometimes. The extremes and stereotypes that I see a lot in family dramas usually send me running for the nearest vampire romance novel. But this book didn't have that. The characters are all going through grief and loss and hope and guilt and love and panic and friendship and heartbreak and . . . life with all the trimmings. Some of it is extreme and some of it isn't, but all of it is real. There's a strange kind of balance to their lives and, just as with any real family, nothing is ever completely perfect or completely tragic for everyone all at once.
Some of the reactions were a little predictable at times, but then life is like that on occasion, so I was willing to overlook it. By the end of the book, I really cared about all of these characters and wanted to see them find happiness. I also felt the almost overwhelming urge to call my own sister, just to check in.
Want to win this book? Leave a comment on this post. Each commenter (excluding spammers, anonymous posters, or abusive commenters) will be entered into my monthly drawing. You have until midnight (Eastern) on the fifth of next month to enter. Open to US residents only. For more details, click here.
NOTE: Karen, you won a copy of Rachel Vincent's Shift in the March giveaway, but I still haven't gotten your contact information. Please email me at nlberger(at)nlberger(dot)com with your mailing address so I can drop your book in the mail!
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