2011 Reading Roundup

Writing Status: Procrastinating.

I read a ton of books in 2011. Since our public library reopened, I've been trying to catch up.

My favorites, offhand, were:

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
I love smart characters. This story looks a little incredulous at first, but it was real and heartfelt. Definitely a fave.

The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy by Clare Dunkle
Now one of my all-time favorite book series. I even got the first one for Christmas.

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
I have a huge crush on Artemis, I'll admit.

Airman by Eoin Colfer
I am naming my first son Conor Broekhart.

Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
I finally got around to reading these. They were awesome, kickbutt, and funny.

The Thief Lord and Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
These definitely go on my all-time favorites list.

Gods of Manhattan by Scott Meebus
I'm a history and a fantasy buff. This married the two perfectly.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
I want this book. I really do. The characters are great, and the writing is just as good.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Because who didn't love it?

Wings by Aprilynne Pike
I liked this because it combined science and fantasy beautifully.

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott
I read the back of this book like a cheater, but still wanted to read the whole thing through. That is a good book, imo.

Simon Bloom, Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman
Lots of Douglas Adams references. What more could you want?


Honorable Mentions:

Need by Carrie Jones
I'm waiting to see whether Zara ends up with Astley to deliver judgement on this series.

The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter
She's an awesome writer and I stalk her agent, Kristen Nelson.

The Maze Runner by James Dashnell
I loved it for four-fifths of the book, but I couldn't get into the way he ended it. It just didn't make sense to me. Should've been a stand-alone. No Scorch, please.

Across the Universe by Beth Nevis
This book was too much of a psych-out for the favorites list, but I can't wait to read the sequel.

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
It made me smile.

Wolven by Di Toft
ditto.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, etc., by Rick Riordan
I liked the books a lot better than the movie.

Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
I got this for Christmas and I've read four times already. I think it's on its way to being a favorite.

Also, I developed a taste for graphic novels of all things (I know, the horror). I blame Ultimate Spider-man and the Artemis Fowl graphic novels. And all the superhero movies that came out last year. (We bought three of them.) And this is nowhere near all the books I read, but I didn't want the list getting too long.

FREAK

For 2011 I will do Nanowrimo for the FIFTH time (can you believe it?) Anyway, I think I'm decently prepared. My story is about a dragon prince living in a 1970s circus full of disguised fantasy creatures.

I still have to try and find time to complete another story. The story I chose I now hate. Hate, hate, hate. The ending I have is terrible. So now I have to choose another one, finish it by spring, and query it out.

Need some more chocolate and maybe dinner.

Later.
:D SD

Revision Pains Etc

I have been revising Dark Falcon for the past week or so. I'm overwhelmed now. I really, really want to finish this revision by the end of the month. That was going pretty well, but the past couple days have been gunk. Maybe it's allergies... but my head just won't work. Not the best time to edit, you know?

I'm optimistic about Dark Falcon, but I need a beta reader. Trouble is, I'm not actually sure how to get my manuscript off my internet-less Windows 98 and onto this one (a Vista).

I've also been writing a short story I've tentatively entitled "The Goblin Queen". It's my own take on goblins, Faye, and Otherworld, so that's always fun.

My interest in Twitter has been revived as I now have more opportunities to sneak on.

I'm not really big on writing scripts, but I may collab with my brother again for ScriptFrenzy. He gets to mess with the formatting that way.

My 18th birthday is coming up (yay!) This may sound weird, but I want to head out to the zoo and practice my photography for the occasion.

:D SD

P.S. I have discovered I am a geek: This summer's superhero movie lineup has me freaking out. ...And Cowboys & Aliens.

Finished Draft Woes and Longhand Binges

So I finished Dark Falcon with I think it was 73K. Have read through it a couple times since November. There are a few issues. It needs expansion in some places, and a lot of (rather difficult) research in others. Somewhat overwhelming amount of supporting characters. Can't think of any major revisions to the story though, and it's been bugging me whether or not that's a good thing. I spent so much time planning the story out in September and October, that I may have actually gotten it right in November.

Of course, I hope this isn't the wrong intuition.

While I work out this small conundrum, I have been writing another story (August 16th) longhand. It's made great progress, but I'm still sorting through any multitude of options for the story. (I always hated Choose Your Own Adventure stories. There would be pages I just could never find. Not that this story is one. Just feels that way.) Spent all of the last three days working on it.

Have to say, because I'm writing in time-coded sections, writing longhand has been easier for August 16th. I did once have this crazy idea about making it anchronological, a whim since abandoned.

Hope everyone is having a great 2011, and does anyone else find some stories just flow better in longhand?

:D

Researching for Nanowrimo

How tall would a wall have to be to break Humpty-Dumpty?

It's not easy. You've got to sit down an think about all the vague exploits and hijinks that will happen, character details that you often forget to pay attention to, and all the while, you're sure that there's something that you haven't remembered.

Wikipedia's always a good place to start, but it's not a story-solver. After that, there's the Reference Desk on the Nano forums. People are more than willing to share their wisdom. Only problem is pretty much every other person on Nanowrimo is asking questions too. At that point, you might try wading through the different forum posts, which very often does turn up useful information.

Of course, if you've some VERY specific inquiries to make, you have to take on the Google beast or the labyrinth of your library. This is not for the faint of heart. In 2008, I was writing about a woman who had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. I wanted to know what her chances of recovery were from different specific scenarios. It wasn't easy. A lot of the information I needed was locked away on websites that required $800+ dollars a year for access to their articles. So I spent the first half of October piecing together the information for myself using diagrams of brains and TBI patient resource sites.

You can make an inquiry with a specialist, or perhaps someone on Nano, but usually you're in a hurry. Come November, you realize what it was you really needed to research back in October. You're falling behind on word count, and no one's answering your Reference Desk post. None of scientific/medical lingo really makes any sense to your literary mind anyway.

In the end, you might even find you wind up leaving this information out all together. Your story might no longer make sense, but that's what revision's for, right?

Of course, when you do get the information you need, it can put your story together or break it to pieces. But even then, it's hard to be completely sure your story is believable.

It must have been a writer deluged in this sort of exhaustive research who first said: "Write what you know."

Not that, I think, anyone ever takes this advice for more than five minutes together.