Category Archives: Reading

7 Quick-Takes (Vol. 9)

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~ ~ 1 ~ ~

Last time I “taked” I felt wobbly about specializing.

This week  I embraced the gift it is.

All my life I’ve felt pulled between all the things I love and all the things I do well, and it was only recently I released most of them to consciously focus on writing as my first (extra-curricular) priority.

On Tuesday I lived a day that reminded me of the turmoil I used to live in my trying to do everything.  It was energizing and exciting… and nothing got done in my home.  My children played more with other people than with me.  Okay for a day, but I wouldn’t want to live this way.

~

I am so thankful for the opportunity God provided to let the other things go.

~ ~ 2 ~ ~

Fertility in fiction.  You ever wonder why there isn’t any?

I played with the idea of a closer-to-natural fertility in my novel.

That is, I sat down with my time line and two major families then calculated how many children they ought to have with normal health in a pre-birth-control era.  This quickly became overwhelming by sheer numbers and I turned evil-god and gave one family a bad marriage and the other miscarriages.

They still ended up with 5 and 7 births, respectively, but it was good practice in understanding why so many stories center around 1- and 2- children families.  I no longer am certain those choices strictly reflect a lower view of large families.  Rather, I see it as an example of something most novelists wrestle with–simplicity enough not to drown.

~ ~ 3 ~ ~

Does anybody here remember Colby? This is the sort of music I grew up on.

At my mom’s yesterday I played the record for my kids.  The “computer” elements have not aged well, but the music and the clear communication of foundational messages is still *solid*.  The music caught my emotional memory in ways I never expected, and reminded me of how much I wished I could play piano– I can’t think of another way one person can teach two-part harmony.

The sweet two-part harmonies are the exact thing I want to teach my kids and their Sunday school class.  If you ever hear of this being re-issued on CD, let me know.  I have some scruples about giving away copies of recordings, so I haven’t done that, but I wish I could get “Make a joyful noise” into every home in our little church.

~ ~ 4 ~ ~

Tonight I’ll be going to a “ladies’ retreat.”  I’ll be overnight away from home, sans kids, husband and novel.

*What* am I going to do with myself???

Is it too much to hope that I’ll get good sleep?

~ ~ 5 ~ ~

I’m considering joining Weight Watchers.  I have several friends who’ve spoken well of it and the structure it provides.

My resistance comes from the cost and the reality that I– in theory at least– already know what to do, so paying someone to *watch* me do it seems weird.  It makes me think of what my mom says about those who have that gastric-bypass surgery: “If they can change the way they eat afterward, why not before?” (I’ve been told reasons, but they’re pretty gross)

~ ~ 6 ~ ~

I haven’t been reading much since I started this last revision, but on one level I see this as a basic defense.  For me, reading (beyond the recreation and enjoyment of it) is to gather input and ideas for my own work.  At this exact moment I am not in a conscious idea-gathering stage and don’t want to be distracted from the “basic clean-up” I’m working on completing.

Honestly, if there is some huge structural flaw, or major twist or revision that needs to be worked in, I am not in a mental/emotional state to apply it, so I’d rather not increase my awareness just now.  I’ll re-engage after I send this out.

~ ~ 7 ~ ~

I have a stack of “animal-transformation” novels I’m working my way through (in the not-this-minute sense).  Also found an interesting book  called The Beast and the Blond with a chapter about animal transformations and the difference between males and females with the affliction.

All sorts of assumptions and discussions about the differences between male and female troubles and attitudes.

Fascinating stuff this.  To me.

For more 7 Quick Takes visit Jen’s Conversion Diary

Other 7 Quick Takes on Untangling Tales

New Book Review Up

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The Book Thief.

I needed something contained and formulaic to work on last night, so I pulled the book off my shelf to see how much I remembered from when I read it.  I think it’s a credit to the author that I could complete the full review.  It is a memorable book.

I know a number of you have read it as well, so if I missed or misrepresented something important I’ll accept correction.

Beginning Book Reviews

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Since last year’s blog party I’ve been following Teen Lit Review in my Bloglines.

This year’s party I found out I joined a couple months late to know they invite regular contributors.

Since I’m already making a special effort to read a bunch of YA this year, I figured anybody might be welcome to my opinion and checked-in with the coordinators.

They graciously allowed me to join the blog and my first review is now up.

I never lose a book (but I might lose me…)

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That is, since I re-did my bookshelves, I’ve always been able to find whatever book I’m looking for.  If it’s mine.

You see, if it’s mine it finds a home among other books of its type so I always know where to go when I’m looking for something.

But library books are another issue altogether.

Library books have no definitive home– because even when I put them dutifully away on the “library book shelf” in the living room their proximity to the ground seems to translate them, substantially, from Something-To-Be-Read (and let alone until read) into Things-To-Be-Carried.

Like all books in our house they are treated with utmost respect, but it is the respect Eliza Dolittle would get from Col. Pickering: genuine, but oblivious.

So I’ve lost the book I meant to finish next (A Curse as Dark as Gold, that I quoted from here), and it’s really annoyed me.  I’ve checked all the usual places and now all that’s left is to wait till this bug finishes its sweep and we dig out the corners again.

~

In the meantime I’ve dabbled with the idea of helping to organize a fundraiser that should take place in about 2 months.

The impossibility of this is emphasized on at least one web site: Nine women working together cannot produce a baby in one month! it insists. In the same way you cannot expect to put together a fundraiser faster just because you have more people.

But I have to wonder about the doom and gloom.

This particular event has been in place for more than 5 years, and involves (in an original stroke of genius) each hostess supplying both the food and guests for her table, so I think what’s left to us would be venue and program, mostly.

I said keep me in the loop, because I want to help the cause (our local CareNet Pregnancy Center) but when I shifted off my brain-storm document and back into my re-write I felt such a distinct chink of a fit it made me nervous.

Not about the fit of the writing, but about the fact that the other work was not.    With my life wound so tightly just now I wonder (almost fear) if I’ve stepped into a tripwire.

~ ~ ~

Found a redundant scene to cut. I’ll work the best parts into the later confrontation. Finished clean-up on 26 and 27.

Does this say something about me?

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I hit my favorite used book store’s annual 50%-off sale yesterday.  Came home with 40 kids books (picture books, schoolbooks and YA novels) for 25-cents apiece, and just over a dozen grown-up books for a dollar each.

I also picked up a crate of nice books that were individually priced because they were “special” and among these were

  • The complete Burton translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (6 volumes in 3 fat books) for $5 on-sale– awesome score for my collection, and
  • Dragons: a natural history
    • Mentioned because this one has already made me start considering whether I ought to change my lindorm’s appearance.  I’ll do a separate post about that when/if it’s confirmed.
      • What’s in question is whether the monster will have two limbs or none.  I have to work the math and see what side is better for the story as I can find either type useful.

Putting all those books away was plenty fun, and I had to laugh when during the process I noticed the audio course Argumentation, Part 1 was right next to an unread copy of Making Friends.

Examples of some Likes

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In my Magna Cartas post I got pretty specific about what I like and don’t like in my entertainment.

I decided it would be most accurate to say entertainment, as I feel the same about these theses whether I’m reading, writing or watching it on-screen.

Some of my favorite examples.  It’s easy to see why my favorites rate that way, as they fit so many of my criteria.

  1. Physical (especially trans-species) transformation
    1. Any number of folktales.  Also,
    2. East and
    3. The Hound and the Princess
    4. A Well-Timed Enchantment
    5. The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis)
    6. The Cat who Wished to be a Man (Lloyd)
  2. Music as part of story
    1. East
    2. Dragonsong and Dragonsinger (McCaffery)– These are her only books that ended up on this side of the chart.
  3. Well behaved animals (impeccably trained or sentient)
    1. The Hound and the Princess
    2. Fire Arrow
  4. Mysteries that go deep into folklore
    1. The Perilous Gard
    2. Moorchild
  5. Making necessary elements of folk/fairy tales natural
    1. Ella Enchanted (Levine)
    2. Fairest (Levine)
    3. The Perilous Gard
    4. Shadow Spinner
  6. Genuine peril
    1. Enchantment
    2. The Sea Wolf (London)
    3. Inkheart            Continue reading »

A prayer for our leaders

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From this story.

Father of Lights, the time is dark and our eyes are dim. Our kings, ordained for the protection of the weak, expose them to death, yet cry ‘hope.’ Our people have lost their way and are deceived.

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Light in the Darkness, we call upon you that we may be undeceived and follow you once more. We humbly and earnestly implore you, not only that the evils in the land be turned back, but that we have the courage to stand against them.

~

Holy Spirit, hear our intercession for the repentance and conversion of those highly placed who do wrong. Renew a right spirit within them. We beg the same mercy for ourselves, who have stood by and called evil good. Assist our prayers, and enable us in all times and places to give you thanks.

~

In the Name of the Trinity, Amen.

The implication is that it is an older prayer, but no source is referenced.  Either way, I greatly appreciate here both the acknowledgment of evil and the source of hope through times of evil.

I hope no one will think that I am calling our leaders themselves evil.  I’m not yet ready to go that far.  But I cannot call the upholding and easing of abortion by any other name.  

Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy

Hero as Mother?

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What a fascinating thought!  LitLove at Tales from the Reading Room analyzed Twilight with this view I’d never seen before; basically that the ideal romantic partner is as all-powerful, all-providing, all-protective, and all-loving as a good mother is to her young child.

So naturally I had to return to my story and see if that is in my “ideal” world as well, because, however well it worked for Twilight and vampire romance it’s not something I want to promote.

Even so, my main trouble with the idea of calling these romantic notions “maternal” is finding (or defining) the line between the healthy mutual dependence and the unhealthy.  I completely reject the idea of hubris and total autonomy (it’s actually one of my novel’s themes).

~ ~ ~

A quick mental review of my story does show a bit more give-and-take than I would imagine for the maternal model:  Yes, the husband rescues the wife, but she’s already saved his life too, so I see it as a reciprocal relationship.

At one point early in the relationship he actually scolds her for depending too wholly on his (underprepared) judgment.

“Tykone didn’t want us to go,” said Kennett.“He thought the king and queen would come up with some solution for a useless crown prince.”

“He didn’t call you useless, and you said you wanted to go.”Linnea was shivering and angry, wishing the sun would hurry up and rise so she wouldn’t be so cold.They had moved away from the warmth of their fire and shelter so they wouldn’t waken Hale, but the ground of the barren clearing was completely frozen where they stood and Linnea could feel the cold seeping up through the soles of her simple boots.

“You said you would go where I go.That’s all you said.You’ve been human longer than me.You knew you’d be cold out here without the proper gear.Why didn’t you say so?”

Linnea closed her eyes, pinching out tears of cold.“It’s that— I thought you knew what you were doing?”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Kennett staring at her, open mouthed.“You can’t be serious,” he said, finally.She looked away.

Now it was Kennett’s turn to sound angry.“As soon as Tykone was gone I told you I have no idea what I’m doing.You’re the one with all the experience being human!”

In contrast it’s the fellow she’s forced to depend on while in hiding who takes the (more controlling) role that might be labeled maternal.

~ ~ ~

Speaking of relationships in general, my limited education/experience leads me to mistrust such one-sided power/surrender in a relationship.   Not because I believe men and women are the same (I believe there are distinct roles), but because I see that one-sided relationship as half a step from a controlling, then abusive, relationship.

And either could look the same from the outside.

But for all that I still see couples for whom the “total dependance” model seems to be working for.  Whether or not that stems from elements missing from her childhood could be irrelevant.  After all, “compatible neuroses” seems to be an utterly sufficient alternative to two “healthy” people when looking at the levels of peace and happiness in a marriage.

Another 24-inch Stack from the Library

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I considered taking a picture, or listing titles, but then I figured I’d rather be reading than promoting.   So here I am, emerging for a breath of air before I decide how (or where) to dive back in.

I’ve been revisiting my how of homeschooling (never the why or whether to) and that is what prompted my latest stack of acquisitions (never mind that more than half were actually storytelling books I want to explore and see about connecting them to my children…)

But the last day and a half I’ve been feeling a bit as I did when I was 19 and listened to Jane Eyre for the first time.  I remember thinking, I really like this story then freezing mentally and wondering, Is that okay?  Who do I ask?  Who do I go to? (Today I’s probably ask whom…)

That led to an interesting time of introspection where I realized my main survival mechanism through high school was to filter everything I was learning through outside sources, because I didn’t particularly trust my teachers.  Which meant I also didn’t trust myself.

You see, if I trusted myself I would have been running everything through my own filters.  But I had learned very well that teaching most teenagers seem to miss, and that is Your perceptions are not the final word on reality.  And I’m not knocking this, much, but it did leave me with some catching up to do.

~ ~ ~

That said, I have been taking notes as I read, and I’m finding myself falling into a student mindset that is only vaguely familiar and teasingly enticing.  I appreciate the organization of thought I’m seeing in these books, and while I’m waiting to embrace even the things I like, I have certainly gleaned a bucket of new things to think on.

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POV Comparison

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I (currently) have only one 1st-person POV scene.  And that’s just not right.  So I’ve been considering my options.

  1. Change it to a close 3rd (to match the rest)
  2. Change Tyko’s close-3rd POV to 1st person (bearing in mind he is… well, the short description is he’s an “unreliable narrator” as well as inarticulate.  He’s a good observer but he acts on what he observes rather than thinking on it.  Not a useful narrator, either.)

So I lean toward #1, but in rewriting the scene it seems to lose something.

Continue reading »