Tuesday Teasers-What I'm reading

This week's teaser comes from Neil Gaiman's (Yes, the Newberry Award Winner!) THE GRAVEYARD BOOK:

"They kill themselves, you mean?" said Bod. He was about eight years old, wide-eyed and inquisitive , and he was not stupid."

I just started reading THE GRAVEYARD BOOK yesterday so I'm not too far into it, but I'm intrigued by the originality of the story and curious to see what happens next.


I got the idea for Tuesday Teasers from Should Be Reading. If you'd like to participate, here's what you do:

1. Grab your current read
2. Let the book fall open to a random page
3. Pick two 'teaser' sentences from the page and share the title of the book
4. Please no spoilers!


What are you reading? Post your Tuesday Teaser in comments and we'll share book recommendations. :)

On Finding Your Voice

One of the things I've heard over and over as I've worked to improve my writing is the need for a unique voice. That special quality of writing that sets your work apart and captivates a reader in such a way that they can't put your book down. Many times I've read of agents and / or editors who have said they can usually tell immediately if the voice 'speaks' to them or not. But how do you cultivate your voice? And does it change from manuscript to manuscript? And is the creation of voice organic or mechanical or somewhere in the murky middle?

Cheryl Klein,a well known editor, has written a thoughtful post on the subject on her blog. She says this: "Voice is to fiction as air is to life: It's simultaneously everything and nothing, essential to have and impossible to grasp, all-encompassing and absolutely individual." Which really sums the idea up quite perfectly.

She goes on to say: "When I think about voice, I think about how real a sentence sounds to me, how believable it is as the voice of a real human being, if it's in first person; and also about how elegant a sentence sounds if it's in third person (and also in first, if elegance is appropriate for that character)--how smoothly it flows, whether it chooses the right (and yet also sometimes the unexpected) words, its rhythms and its eddies."

You can read Cheryl's entire post here. As for me, I love the ethereal, nebulous concept of voice. Of striving to fulfill the challenge of capturing the true essence of the story and transforming it into words on a page that at the same time, make you forget that you're reading.

What about you? What are your thoughts on voice?

Poetry Friday - Without You Here

I have no idea how we got from last Friday to this Friday so quickly but here we are again on Poetry Friday. My poem this week is actually the lyrics from a song that serves as an inspiration for one of my WIP's.

The poetry of songwriting is an art form in itself and I hope to do some songwriting myself in the future. Anyway, this song is written by Johnny Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls, who was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. Enough said.

Without You Here

Your love’s a gathered storm, I chased across the sky
A moment in your arms, became the reason why
You’re still the only light, that fills the emptiness
The only one I need, until my dying breath

And I would give you everything
Just to feel your open arms
And I’m not sure I believe
In anything I feel

And now, now that you’re near
There’s nothing more without you
Without you here

I’m trying to believe
In things that I don’t know
The turning of the world
The color of your soul

That love could kill the pain
That truth is never vain
It turns strangers into lovers
And enemies to brothers

Just say you understand
I never had this planned

And now, now that you’re near
There’s nothing more without you
Without you here

My head lies to my heart
And my heart it still believes
It seems the ones who love us
Are the ones that we deceive

But you’re changing everything
You’re changing everything in me

And now, now that you’re near
There’s nothing more without you
Without you here


What inspires you?

Poetry Friday

I've seen a couple of sites lately that have Poetry Friday's (even though I'm posting this late on Thursday night...) which I think is a GREAT idea so I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. :) One of the sites belongs to Kelly, who is a fellow writer and blueboarder. She was nice enough to post on my blog so I followed her link back to her blog and discovered her Poetry Friday post which got me thinking.

I've always loved poetry and poured my teenage angst out in notebook after notebook of poems (lost now forever, thankfully!)

In one of my books, THE GETHEAS STONE, the protagonist, Nica, has to follow ancient quatrains, which are really clues hidden as four line poems. One of my favorites from the book is this one:

Between the cross and the crescent moon

When the lion stands at high noon

A secret of blood, hidden by ancient lies

At last revealed before one dies

A cheery story, as you can tell. :) And then another one is in a (made-up) language:

Selo quatrand, ser maba randatt mokata

Histra e, ejob e, regata e, murdaba

Le cuiske fle monarche

Garot de histra y'ar yian

Probably had a LOT of chocolate the day I wrote that one. ANYWAY, one of my very favorite poems of all time is entitled THE RIVERBANK. I found this in a newspaper probably 15 years ago and I loved it so much I cut it out and pasted it on my computer. Well, I've had to photocopy the thing several times as it gets more yellowed and worn but the message still rings true and I love it as much today as the day I found it. I hope you enjoy it too. It comes from Chongquing, China, written by Fan Ming, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter:

THE RIVERBANK

Red roses bloom
In the woods
On the other shore

There is no bridge over the river
I linger
Linger on this shore

Golden apples ripen
On the branches
On the opposite shore

There are no boats on the river
I linger
Linger on this bank

The red roses have withered
The golden apples have fallen
And I discover
The river
Is very shallow after all



Tell me, do you have any favorite poems?

photo: courtesy of www.samford.edu

Progress! I'm halfway...

As I mentioned last month, on December 7th I started writing DARK SHADOWS, the sequel to THE FAERIE RING, which is currently out on submission. My goal was to have the first draft completed by the end of January and today, I've reached the halfway mark - YAY!

Of course, I've got some serious writing to do between now and the end of the month, but I'm in Montana at the moment helping my brother after eye surgery, so I'm away from the normal distractions: work (though I am tethered by that electronic leash), kids, dogs, husbands, cooking, going to the grocery store, (am I the only one that ends up at the grocery store every other day??) cleaning, laundry etc. etc. I'm hoping to make some serious headway in the next few days and still think I can have that first draft done by the 31st. So I guess I better stop chatting and get back to London, 1872. I think there's a ball I need to attend....

Favorite Websites: AuthorsNow!

There are so many great writing related websites out there that it's difficult at times to keep up with all of them. One of my new favorites is AuthorsNow! which lists debut Children's and Teen Authors and Illustrators that will launch in 2009 and 2010. It is an awesome site and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have one (or more!) of my own books lined up on that beautiful header showing the covers of the upcoming releases.

The site lists a short blurb on an upcoming book along with publisher info and release date as well as a link to the author's website. There is another interesting feature - a map of where the debut author's are located. I assume that the author's have agreed to release this information when they signed up on the site so it's kind of cool to see where some of these writers are located. There is one new book I'm looking forward to reading, Prada and Prejudice, that I learned about on VerlaKay. Turns out that author, Mandy Hubbard, only lives about 45 minutes away from me. Weird. It is such a small world after all. :)

Anyway, I was going to try and post a picture of the map, but because it has links where you can zoom into particular areas and then click on through to the authors but you just need to go to the map. This site is a great resource for the latest and greatest that will be gracing bookstore shelves near you soon - check it out!

YALSA Top Ten Books for 2008

It's a new year and the time for making resolutions and looking forward. But it's also a perfect time to look back and appreciate the good things we experienced in 2008. Like GREAT books. Here are the YALSA (Young Adult Library Association Services) Top Ten Young Adult Books of 2008:

2008 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. Illus. by Ellen Forney. Little, Brown, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-316-01368-0; $16.99.

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-374-10523-5; $22.00.

Downham, Jenny. Before I Die. Random House/David Fickling, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-385-75155-1; $15.99.

Hemphill, Stephanie. Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath. Random House/Alfred A. Knopf, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-375-83799-9; $15.99.

Jones, Lloyd. Mister Pip. Dell Publishing/Dial Press, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-385-34106-6; $20.00.

Landy, Derek. Skulduggery Pleasant. HarperCollins, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-06-123115-5; $17.99.

Peet, Mal. Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal. Candlewick, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-7636-3488-9; $17.99.

Polly, Matthew. American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China. Penguin Group USA/Gotham Books, 2007; ISBN13: 978-1-59240-262-5; $26.00.

Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel. Illus. by Brain Selznick. Scholastic, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-439-81378-5; $22.99.

Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. Illus. by Shaun Tan. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-439-89529-3; $19.99.

To go to the YALSA site and read about previous year's picks as well as nominations for 2009 go here. I've read some of these picks for 2008 and loved them, but I haven't read the entire list. However, some will be added to my 2009 reading list. :) How about you? Favorites here? Or favorites not listed here?