Nanowrimo Update: The Things I'm Learning

As you may or may not have noticed, my blogging.. and reading.. is suffering from my participation in this Nano thing. But... I'm learning so much stuff! For instance:

• It's really really hard not to use adverbs! I like a good adverb now and then. It's also really hard not to use really! Or very.
• The whole time I'm trying to write there's a thing, a demon sort of thing in my head that is saying constantly "show don't tell, show don't tell, show don't tell." 
• Those author people have been right all along.. the characters really DO take over! 
• It's fun when you are on a roll and it's not fun when you come to slamming stop.
• It's very weird to get caught up in a story that's coming out of your own head. Very weird.
• Music helps. And so does chocolate.
• I am much more distracted by life and stuff happening around me when I'm trying to write than when I am trying to read. This is proving to be challenging.
• If they say "write what you know" then why am I ending up writing stuff I don't know? Why?
• Being aware of word count has been interesting. I'm finding that my normal sit down and write moments can get me to about 1000 words pretty easy...after that I have to push. 
• Imagining someone else reading this stuff I'm writing makes me a little sick to my stomach with anxiety. How do the real authors ever get past this point?
• I feel like I'm writing a story that is very much a skeleton and it needs flesh and clothes so bad!
• If  I were to actually peruse this, I'm going to need a writing group. Just sayin.

At any rate, the experiment has been fun so far! I still feel like I'm crashing a really big party, or playing at a very fun and interesting game. I'm a little worried about keeping up the momentum. I feel like I will run out of stuff to write before I ever come close to that 50,000 word mark. As of this blog post, I have about 21,800 words written. So I guess we'll see!

How are my other writing buddies doing? Any past participants have any great advice for me? 

Markus Zusak Picks Five... Make That Six

The movie, The Book Thief, will be opening in theaters next week. Very excited! As part of that celebration, most beloved author Markus Zusak is doing much publicity and press. Last week he did a live Facebook chat, but of course, I forgot all about it, and completely missed it. But then, Tuesday he did a live video Q and A on Goodreads. And yay! I remembered!

It was fabulous. He answered all the normal questions he always gets asked.... did Max and Liesel get married (he'll leave that up to the reader, but not in his mind) and where did he get the idea for the book (stories his parents told about WWII) and how did Death become the narrator (he wasn't at first, but the book wasn't working and suddenly he thought what if Death narrated and then the whole book fell into place) and etc.

But there were loads of other questions I found really fun too. For instance, he mentioned a piece of music that always makes him think of The Book Thief, it's sort of the theme of the book, in his head anyway. It's from the soundtrack for Amelie, a movie I'm not at all familiar with, but here's the song, and it's very lovely:



And he was asked what his writing routine is like and he said, wherever, whenever. But he doesn't like to write outside, he's bothered by the glare and the wind. He especially likes to write in the kitchen and he doesn't mind a bit of kid chaos.

He also showed us his writing notebook, like a real live paper journal, where he writes dozens and dozens of chapter headings, which then becomes a sort of outline for the book. Currently he's working (still!) on Bridge of Clay, which he hopes it will be out some year. Sigh.

Someone asked what his favorite words are. Two of them I remember.... abominable and shenanigans. Ha!

And then, he was asked what five books he would want with him on the proverbial deserted island. I was listening at work and was called away RIGHT THEN! So I missed this bit! But I scrolled back and determined that this is what he listed as his five... and he added a sixth... favorite books, right at this very moment.

Hopefully I got those right! I'm so bummed that I missed what he actually said about them all!

Anyway, it was yet another awesome MZ moment and I loved hearing what he had to say. Did any of you catch the interview? I've tried to find it archived somewhere, but no luck yet.

Book Review: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Book: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Rating:★★★★★
For: Review
From: NetGalley

I actually tried to download this book from NetGalley months ago, and it didn't work. When I clicked on it... no book! I waited and tried again. I tried all sorts of other things, short of sending in a complaint, but no luck. The book was just not there.

Oh, well. I figured I could just get later from the library and just do my review later than my norm.

Then one day, it was just suddenly there on the Kindle! I have no idea what's going on, but it's just one of those magic Kindle things! I was so glad though, because I  truly did want to read this one, even though from the reports I'd been hearing, it might be hard.

And yes, hard it was. Actually, it took me a few pages to get into the flow of this writing again. It's a little on the different side. I understood after a moment, that this book does tie into Code Name Verity in that the main character Rose, is friends with Maddie from the first book. And Maddie, and also Julie, are mentioned a few times, but then, it's all Rose.

She, like Maddie, is also a pilot during WWII. Her job is to transport this and that. D-day has happened, but the war has not been won. Allied forces are slowly but surely gaining control of France and spirits are up.

Then, one day, she is flying over France on her way back to home base and she gets a bit sidetracked. I will not tell you why or what happens, but I will tell you that she is captured and ends up at a women's camp in Germany. Remember the place where the "doctors" were later tried in Nuremberg for war crimes and experimenting on prisoners? Yeah, that place. (It's called Ravensbruck. I also think this may be the same camp Corrie Ten Boom tells us about in The Hiding Place.)

Then most of the book is her recounting this horrific experience. The bonds she forms, the friends she makes, the women she comes to trust is the truth and power of this story. The terrible things that happen are so very hard to read about, but the strength and fortitude we see in these women is thing we are meant to remember.

Just like Code Name Verity, this book is written with over the top emotion and images that you won't soon forget. The characters are amazing. It's just simply a wonderful book, a terrible moment in history, but a wonderful way to portray it.

Bottom line: I loved it. I was riveted.

Other Reviews:

Is it worth your while to read “yet another Holocaust novel”? Yes, I think it definitely is. From Rhapsody in Books

But, it is also clear that Wein has really done her research on Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and should you wonder, and as she stresses in the Afterword, it really did exist and so did the Rabbits. From The Children's War

I was glad that the concentration camp stories are told after the fact — all that horror, but at least there is the comfort that we know our main character is writing this at the Ritz in Paris. From Joy's Book Blog

I would say it’s one of those books that truly shows the triumph of the human spirit, cliche as that makes me sound — because even when the circumstances are terrible, people still manage to love and to hope and to be good. From Good Books and Good Wine

Top Ten Tuesday: Sequels I Need Now

The prompt this week over at The Broke and the Bookish is sequels I'm anxious for. At first I couldn't even think of any! What's up with that? But then I came up with these few:

I'm sure I've missed a ton, but that's all my tired brain can think of right now. What's on your list?

Nanowrimo: Update One and a Little Writing History

So yes,  I signed up to try this writing-a-book-in-a-month thing. This crazy "let's go and write 50,000 words RIGHT NOW" thing. I still don't know why, but I just needed to try it and see what happens. I just NEEDED to.

Hopefully I won't bore you with an exhausting account of the experience but I thought I'd at least do little updates every week, just in case you did happen to wonder.

But first, I thought I'd give you my writing background history. Because I KNOW you want to know all THOSE details! :)

The first time I remember loving writing was in 3rd grade when the teacher gave us a creative writing journal and a prompt... nearly every day I think. I loved it. No inhibitions then at all!

Then I started a journal when I was 12 and wrote in it very frequently for years and years. That journal (now 15 or so volumes big) is chuck full of angst and drama. So much fun!

Then I went to college and writing got serious and not fun. I should have taken some fun writing classes. Really. So that sort of slowed things down.

Then I had kids and quit writing pretty much anything. Except I did end up editing lots of newsletters... for church, for school, for the family. That was fun too.

And then about 7 to 10 years ago (when my youngest was still little, but I was starting to think... okay, now what?) I took a few online writing classes. And loved them. They got the ideas flowing, the thoughts racing, the excitement peaked. And I read a bunch of writing books and those pumped me up too.

I wrote some things, including a picture book, poems, travel articles, and the start of a book. But then I just put them away.

It was about that time I started this blog. And I started stalking the authors and listening to them and going to the LTUE conference and reading so much more then I was reading before. It was then I decided... I can NEVER do this. There is NO way. Never in a million years.

I deemed myself a reader only and not a writer.

I saw Nanowrimo happening year after year and it looked like a blast, though I knew I didn't heave time for it. And besides. I was not a writer. So there was that.

But then, this year, my daughter had to pick her Winterim experience at school (where they have a concentrated study thing for three weeks after Christmas before going back to normal classes) and she was choosing between a movie making one, and a writing one where they would do their own version of Nanowrimo. I told her if she picked the writing one, I'd do it with her. She picked the movie one.

But that made me think, hey! So maybe I could just go ahead do the REAL Nano this year! I mean, why not? (I watched We Bought a Zoo, and I can say this all the time now!) WHY NOT? November is going to always be crazy, it will NEVER get less crazy, there will NEVER be a dead November, so it's pointless to wait for that little thing to happen.

So.. WHY  NOT?

I thought about doing it all secretly, but realized, what's the fun in that? So instead, I wrote a post and asked you all about it and told you my fears, and then some of you said, I'll do it too! And some of you said, tell your brain to shut up! And some of you said, you know, this really is fun.

So I signed up.

Then for a week, I thought and planned and listed. And realized (not that I didn't already know this) that I don't know how to make a plot happen. But who cares. And I begged for buddies and added a few people and I clicked around and found the forums and the facebook page.

And then I couldn't sleep for thinking about the freaking story!

And then I waited and waited and finally midnight on Thursday (Halloween) came.

Nanwrimo Day One

So I joined the excitement and wrote for about a half hour at the dong of midnight. But actually, I was re-writing because I got out those old chapters, and according to the "rules" you must start over if this is your plan. So I did. Sort of.

Nanwrimo Day One... continued

The first day, Friday, I was busy until the afternoon, and then stuff happened that made me crazy so I waited really, until 10:00 pm to truly write. And I was sick of re-writing so I started in on the new stuff. By midnight (with lots and lots of interruptions between those two hours of course) I had well over 1000 words. It was a stupid chapter I wrote though. I'm anxious to get to the good stuff. Is this what  it's like for the real authors?

The stuff I re-wrote was about 4000 words long. So I counted myself at about 5000 words by the end of day one. Not bad. And it looks much better than it really was.

Nanowrimo Day Two

On this day I had to drop a kid off at an hour long rehearsal so I brought my lap top and hunkered down in the car for that hour and just wrote while I waited. Ah, it as perfect I tell you! No distractions, very comfortable (you'd think the car wouldn't be but it was) beautiful weather. And I actually truly wrote for that hour, another chapter down, 1500 more words! That hour flew by.

I managed to find a few more moments later on the day, but nothing to get too excited about. I'm finding that if anything is going on around me, I tend to have an issue writing. I can read with all sorts of noise, but writing? Not so much.

Today is day three, and here's hoping I can find more snippets of time to write. Without distractions. Ha.

Pin It and Do It: Second Half Report

You can see here what I did for the first half of the month for the Pin It and Do It Challenge.

During this second half, here's what we did:

First of all, we revisited a couple of favorites. I'm calling them the RE- Pins!

Pumpkin Yeast Bread

I love this stuff! But I forgot to take a picture of our version. Here's a picture of what's on the link above, where you'll also find the recipe.

Andes Mint Cookies

We love these at our house! They have fast become a favorite, probably because they are easy, fun and very very tasty!


We had plans to do more Halloween decorating, but this is all we managed. But it was fun!


Eyes in the Bushes

We've been wanting to do this one forever! And though you get really see them very well, they turned out pretty good! (The directions when you click the link above is not what we did however. We did make eyes in empty toilet paper rolls, but then we simple put a couple of glow sticks inside them. Easy!)


Thanks Trish for the doing the challenge again! I'd say for me it was a success!

Reading Recap: October 2013

Wow! I can't believe I fit in as many books this month as I did. What's up with that? Let's not expect that to happen again this next month!

Here's what I read in October:

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson: Pretty awesome dystopian where the people with super powers are the bad guys.

Fiesta of Smoke by Suzan Still: A sweeping saga of love and revolution.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (re-read): The story of a governess... a bit on the boring side.

Across a Star Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund: A Scarlet Pimpernel re-telling set in the same world as For Darkness Shows the Stars.

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield: Creepy tale of one man's rise and fall.

Tinkers by Paul Harding: The thoughts of a dying man, flashing back to the stories of his father and grandfather.

The Pursuit of Mary Bennett by Pamela Mingle: It's Mary's turn to have a suitor! (Review to come later in November.)

Just One Year by Gayle Forman: In which we get Willem's story of what happened when he disappeared from Allyson's life in Just One Day.

Turning This Thing Around by Keith Maginn: A small memoir of the author's road to emotional recovery.

I hoped to read more for the RIP challenge, but I only managed one that I would count for that, Belllman and Black, which was a perfect creepy sort of book for the Halloween season.

Favorites of this bunch would include: Steelheart, Fiesta of Smoke, and perhaps Bellman and Black.

Plans for November:

• Well, as you may or may not know, mostly I hope to write during November since I went crazy and signed up for Nanowrimo. And I'm not sure what to expect and if my reading will suffer a ton, a little, or not much. It remains to be seen. But if I read this is what I plan:
• And the Mountains Echoed
• Rose Under Fire (I thought the NetGalley download didn't work, but suddenly it's showing up now!)
• The Eye of Minds
• a re-read of The Schwa was Here for book club, and maybe Antsy Does Time, too. 
• The 5th Wave
• EarthBound
• Days of Blood and Starlight

We'll leave it at that!

How did your reading month turn out?