Monday, February 23, 2015

#WriterRecharge Week #3

Writer Recharge is once again hosted by Katy UppermanAlison MillerElodie NowodazkijSara Biren, and Liz Parker! This is your chance for a four-week jump start in the middle of a cold, dreary winter. Set goals for yourself, check in once a week, and connect with other recharging writers.




  • WRITE/REVISE –  The theme for this week has been slogging along--revisions for SAVANT, drafting WHITE NIGHTS without adding much to the overall wordcount.
  • READ/REREAD - My out-of-print book about travels in seventeenth-century Russia has been held up somewhere, so I won't get it until March.  I think I'm going to treat myself to a re-read of an old favorite this week instead.
  • STRETCH - Still trying to feel grateful.
  • SELF - Our huge snowstorm this weekend has cast a damper on my preferred workouts, but I got my weight training in, at least!
  • CONNECT - This is the easiest one for me to disengage from, especially in this weather.
  • FUN - Looking forward to dinner out at a new place this weekend!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

January books

This January, the books were oh-so-good to me.  It's been a long time since I've had a streak of such great, unexpected books.  Here are my four (six, if you count their sequels) favorites:


The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 

This was one of the most charming books I have ever read.  A 40-year-old man with undiagnosed Aspergers develops a questionnaire to find himself the perfect wife.  Instead, he meets the wild and unpredictable Rosie, who becomes his best friend.

Reading as a writer, I constantly paused to re-read one of the most marvelous examples of voice I have ever read.  And somehow the author manages to show us the world through Don Tillman's unusual set of eyes as well as the world's reaction to Don Tillman.  The details are fabulous, the characters are charming, the interactions are so darling.  I loved every page of this unexpected love story.  The sequel, The Rosie Effect, was great as well.  


Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

The second book in the YA Reckoners series is even more magnificent than the first--and that's saying something.  

We have the same endearing narrator who is still in love with the Epic Megan, and still devoted to destroying Epics--but he thinks he understands how to riddle out their weaknesses now.  Great details are filled in about the coming of the Epics and their rules, abilities, and backstories.  

Firefight is set in Manhattan--Babilar, or Babylon Restored, in this book, and the setting is as fanciful and charming as the all-steel Newcago.  This series is so creative and engaging with characters who are trying to be good in the face of evil.



Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

This is my favorite of the female comedian memoirs I've read lately, including those by Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey.  There is a lot of coarse language in the book, and I'm so out of touch with comedy that I had no idea who she was talking about much of the time.  

But!  I really appreciated her thoughts, including her mantra towards other woman's choices regarding childbirth, parenting, working, and living: 'Good for her.  Not for me!'  

I loved how she said she decided early on that her currency was not going to be her looks--it was going to be her mind and her humor.  

Talking about careers and success, she says, "You have to care about your work but not about the result.  You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look."  Advice I needed to hear!




The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison 

The author turned a ward in Draper, UT, into the setting for two murders--and a Mormon bishop's wife into a detective.  She did it in a way that seemed realistic, believable, and accessible to both Mormons and outsiders to this close-knit community with so many cultural and doctrinal distinctions.  
While I guessed at certain elements in the conclusions, the spins in the plot kept me on my toes, and I just really liked seeing a modern Miss Marple that I could identify with.  I appreciated the issues she struggled with and the emotions she felt.  I really, really loved the detective.

I did find some details not quite right--a bishop leaving orders in notes for his wife, her impression of her position as the 'mother of the ward,'--but that might be because I'm not part of that Utah culture.

I will stand my ground on this: cinnamon rolls take a long time to make.  They rise twice!  They are my specialty, so I kept getting thrown out of the story when the main character would whip up a batch in an hour.  (How nitpicky is that!) 

I also had a hard time believing in the evil portrayed here, but that's a constant for me when I read murder mysteries.  Maybe I know too many nice people! 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

#WriterRecharge week 2

Writer Recharge is once again hosted by Katy UppermanAlison MillerElodie NowodazkijSara Biren, and Liz Parker! This is your chance for a four-week jump start in the middle of a cold, dreary winter. Set goals for yourself, check in once a week, and connect with other recharging writers.


I've had a grumpy week.

Here are my goals for the month:
  • WRITE/REVISE –  I've been revising SAVANT.  Right now I'm letting it sit before giving it one last read.  My book set in Peter the Great's Russia is a little over 80,000 words now.  I still can't figure out how to get all my characters to their ending, so I took a break from that and am filling in the places where, as I drafted, I wrote BLAH and BORING and NEED SCENE ABOUT--.  I also need a better name for it.  I've been calling it White Nights, but between Dostoevsky and Baryshnikov, I may (do) need something less pretentious.  Ideas?
  • READ/REREAD - I still haven't read either of the two books I said I would this month.  I did read a memoir set in (Soviet) Russia a friend recommended--Out of the Ice by Victor Herman.  The writing itself was on the rambling side, but the story!  Like a Russian Unbroken.  The American Victor Herman moved to Russia as a teen, was called the 'Russian Lindbergh' for setting parachuting records, spent a couple of horrible/tortured years in prison during Stalin's purges and another ten of hard labor in the Siberian gulag, and then was exiled to Siberia (where he married a woman as dogged and determined as he.  I loved her).  It was one of those stories that makes me wonder about the human condition.  I can't decide whether it's harder to believe that any regime (or human beings) could be so cruel or that any man could endure the torture, starvation, deprivation, and impossible tasks and come out on top. 
  • I also read The Zookeeper's Wife for one of my book clubs.  During the German occupation, Warsaw's zookeeper and his wife used their empty buildings to shelter about 300 Jews en route out of Poland.  I'm not a huge animal lover--I'd take a baby over a puppy any day--so the descriptions of animals bored me a tad, but I was fascinated by the Polish Resistance.  It was the best organized and most effective of any resistance in German-occupied territories, and I didn't know a thing about it.  Again, the story ripped me between the extremes of complete self-sacrifice and ultimate evil. I think I maybe need a little break from war stories, even though both of these were uplifting and inspiring in the end.  I need to lighten February's mood!

  • STRETCH - This week has been a tough one, and I'm having a hard time being grateful (although every time I've eaten since reading Out of the Ice I think about what that man was thankful to eat--rats, slugs, salty water, pork fat--these were his TREATS--and I realize anew that I'd never cut it in a Soviet prison).
  • SELF - I missed a day of weight training last week with the sickness going around my house, but I was back at the gym this morning.
  • CONNECT - I have done terribly with this challenge.  I did call my grandma and had a wonderful talk with her.  That was a bright spot in my week.  
  • FUN - We've booked dinner at a fancy-pants restaurant with some of our favorite couples at the end of the month for Denver's Restaurant Week.

Monday, February 9, 2015

#WriterRecharge check-in

Writer Recharge is once again hosted by Katy UppermanAlison MillerElodie NowodazkijSara Biren, and Liz Parker! This is your chance for a four-week jump start in the middle of a cold, dreary winter. Set goals for yourself, check in once a week, and connect with other recharging writers.


Too bad I posted my goals Friday, cheered at basketball games and taught church lessons all weekend, and am checking in Monday.  Here's to a more productive week ahead!

Here are my goals for the month:
  • WRITE/REVISE – I'm putting my drafting on hold for a few days while I tweak the ending of SAVANT to make my con man a little less slimy.  I feel like every plot point I solve creates new holes elsewhere!  I have a brainstorming session planned tomorrow and a phone call with my agent later in the week, so I should be able to get this done.  
  • READ/REREAD - I read a little book called Manage Your Day-to-Day:Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind that had some excellent ideas about managing a creative life (spoiler alert: stop checking email).
  • STRETCH - My gratitude challenge continues to be a challenge!  But I am taking note of some of the wonderful things in my life.
  • SELF - My bike ride was magnificent and came with a side of mild sunburn.  I'm going again tomorrow!
  • CONNECT - I had a great chat with my sister today (she's going to St. Petersburg!  Shouldn't I go with her for strictly research purposes?).
  • FUN - We've booked dinner at a fancy-pants restaurant with some of our favorite couples at the end of the month for Denver's Restaurant Week!

Friday, February 6, 2015

#WriterRecharge

Every season, I read another inspiring writer's challenge on the talented Liz Parker's blog.  Every season, I think I ought to try it.  And then I turn my Kindle off and fuggedaboutit.

Not this time!  This February needs a kick in the pants.  Here's the deal:
Writer Recharge is hosted by Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Elodie NowodazkijSara Biren, and Liz Parker! This is your chance for a four-week jump start in the middle of a cold, dreary winter. Set goals for yourself, check in once a week, and connect with other recharging writers.
This year, we’ve come up with a few categories you might want to consider when making your goals. You can choose a goal (or goals) for one or some or all:
  • WRITE/REVISE – Choose writing goals for the month.
  • READ/REREAD - Read a book that's been on your TBR forever or reread something that had a great impact on you. 
  • STRETCH - Do something outside your comfort zone, from reading a genre you typically avoid to trying a new food or rock climbing when you're afraid of heights - that kind of thing. 
  • SELF - Do something good for your mind or your body. 
  • CONNECT - Find a way to make a difference in someone’s life. Make a connection, via social media or in person. Initiate twitter writing parties, have a real-life write-in with writers in your town, or offer to critique or beta read someone’s work. 
  • FUN - Make a goal to do something super fun and exciting that you can look forward to.
How Writer Recharge works:

  • First week of February: Post your goals for the month on your blog, website, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #WriterRecharge. Link your blog post at Sara's blog.
  • Every Monday in February: Update your progress via your blog or twitter. Link your blog posts on our Monday posts.
  • Throughout the month: Use the hashtag to connect with other writers, have writing parties, and cheer one another on!
  • Friday, February 27: Post your final update via your blog or twitter.
  • Anyone who uses the hashtag or links their blog posts will be entered to win a fabulous prize package at the end of the month.
Here are my goals for the month:
  • WRITE/REVISE – I want to finish my current WIP this month (a poisoner descended from the Caesars in Peter the Great's court, bent on revenge for her parents' murders).  I wrote a solid chunk of it last November, and I've been plugging away every day since, but I have several sticky plot points that I keep dancing around instead of solving.
  • READ/REREAD - I'd like to read something written in the seventeenth century, since that's when my WIP is set.  I do well with sideways inspiration like that.  I read a lot (A LOT) of these in college, and I think it's time to revisit some Moliere.  He wrote later in the century than when my book is set, but for court life, who is more fun?  I also ordered a book called The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia that will be interesting to read (let's hope).
  • STRETCH - I'm trying to be grateful this month instead of frustrated with how stuck I feel in certain areas of life.  Is it sad that gratitude is a stretch for me?  YES.  But here I go.
  • SELF - It's 68 degrees here today, and I am going for a bike ride!  Swimming and biking outside make me happy. 
  • CONNECT - I want to make more of an effort to reach out to my friends this month.  Now that my kids are in school, it's too easy for me to cocoon and text instead of meeting up.
  • FUN - We've booked dinner at a fancy-pants restaurant with some of our favorite couples at the end of the month for Denver's Restaurant Week!