Books I've read: Mister Magic

 

While I didn't particularly enjoy Kiersten White's first book for adults, I have enjoyed her YA books enough that I was willing to give this second adult outing a bash.  And I'm glad I did, because I actually enjoyed this one quite a lot.  It was creepy!

Back in the day, Mister Magic was a kids' TV show. No one who saw it has forgotten it, yet there are no recordings, no clips on You-Tube, no evidence that it actually existed except in the minds of its viewers.  And those memories have to be skewed - people remember it being on at all hours of the day and night; what TV show for kids does that?

Now, 30 years or so after it went off the air because of an accident on set, the five remaining cast members are brought back to the place the show was filmed and face-to-face with the past they've all tried so hard to forget.

Or maybe, not forget exactly.  The Circle of Friends, as they were known while on the show, may have forgotten the details of what happened back then, but they've never stopped longing and searching for the happiness they felt while they were all together.  And now they're together again, they all seem to be sliding far too easily back into the roles they used to play.

And as they talk about what they did as children, and the mysterious figure that gave the show its name, they begin to suspect they were being used for something far more nefarious and sinister that entertaining children.

This was a fun read that delves deeply into the weirdness of childhood memory and the way we can feel nostalgia for something we only half remember.  Not to mention the often-unpleasant conditions child performers are expected to work within to keep their adult bosses happy.

Add to these things a sinister and all-too-perfect town in the Utah desert, some uniquely unpleasant characters, a house that feels like it's probably haunted and the still-traumatized performers as adults and you have a recipe for a chilling psychological thriller with something supernatural at its core.

What that is, I won't go into, but it is definitely worth a read to find out.

So I'd recommend this one.  It's eerie and layered and really got into my head when I read it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show—and discover the secret of its enigmatic host—in this dark supernatural thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide.

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who—or what—the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Weekly Goals 19-5-25

 I did a bit of writing this weekend and have consolidated a bunch of old, short diary entries into single longer ones.  Which means I've managed to get Arlo and Devon together in less than 10K instead of the 30Kish it took me when writing from Devon's POV.  And there are a couple of entries that maybe aren't needed. But I'll leave them for now.  I can always cut them later.

So my goal this week is to keep going.  Write more and progress the story.  There's something really freeing about writing this book in journal entries because it's so subjective.  I always write first person POV, but writing it like a journal means it's even more in the character's head and he's only going to write the things he's thinking about and noticing.  I'm enjoying it.

I'm teaching a bunch of extra classes at the gym this week because some of the instructors have come down with Covid.  I did one yesterday and am covering two today.  Should be a good week for both fitness and my bank account.

What are your goals this week? 

Celebrate the Small Things 16-5-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I've had an okayish week.  Didn't start off too hot, but got better.  Went and saw my friend perform a stand-up show in the Comedy Festival which was hilarious.  And because it was my birthday, the friend I went to the show with took me out to dinner beforehand and I had the most beautiful piece of steak.  It's been months since I had steak.  Yum!

Then I had the opportunity to go to an author talk with Neal Shusterman.  I've reviewed a few of his books on the blog, including two recently.  So it was fascinating to hear him talk about the books and his writing process.  Always interested to hear how other writers write.  It's always so different to the way I do it...  Afterward I got to get my book signed.  A little embarrassing since I read this in the bath and it got a little damp in places so the copy I gave him was rather fat.

Got a little more written on the new book.  I put the first few sections up for my critique group and so far, feedback is good.  Will write more this weekend although I just got asked to cover a class at the gym tomorrow and it's new release week so I need to learn the class.  I didn't do it earlier because I didn't think I'd have to teach it - there were no days scheduled where the regular instructor wasn't going to be there.  Luckily I've done this a couple of times, so I don't think it will take me too long.

Only one rejection this week so far.  I've tweaked my query again and I think it works better now.  I've only sent the new version out to about 4 agents, but I'll use this one for the next batch I send and see if that helps.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

 

I'm usually a little skeptical about reading books by well-known actors (thank you, James Franco for writing the most pretentious drivel I've had the misfortune to read) but this one seemed so in the wheelhouse of the writer, I decided to give it a whirl.  Plus, after spending 30+ years working in the film industry, I figured it would be kind of in my wheelhouse.

And it was!

It's kind of slow to start with and initially, I struggled to figure out how the various parts might fit together, but they did and it was all quite delightful.  The historical sections reminded me a little of books by Fannie Flagg even if the characters here weren't quite as sharply hilarious as Fannie's always are.  Maybe it's the small town setting and the time period...

Once we got through the history and into the making of the big, Marvel-type movie, things became more familiar.  Enough so that the little footnotes about what things mean got irritating after a while.  But that's a small criticism.  So often books about filmmaking gloss over the actual filmmaking process to move on to the more glamorous parts of the business - premieres, press junkets, awards shows and the like.  This book got right in there, with the assistants and assistants of assistants, with the make-up artists and bit players.

And who better to do this than Tom Hanks, who's spent so much of his life on sets with these people and knows exactly the rhythm and chaos of making a film?  Some of my favorite moments were those chaotic ones when you know everything is spiraling out of control, yet somehow, you have to claw yourself back to safety, get back on track because very day over schedule you go is costing millions.

And as a bonus, this book has actual comic books built in!

Yes, there were parts that got a bit baggy and some of the characters were less characters than types, but in a book with enough characters to demand a 10-minute credit crawl, there were enough distinctive people in there to make up for the handful of sketched-in types.  Some more editing could definitely have been done on this book to tighten it up, but overall, I enjoyed reading it very much.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film . . . and the humble comic books that inspired it. Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, while also capturing the changes in America and American culture since World War II.

Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years.

Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero.

Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie.

Cue the cast: We meet the film's extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.

Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are three comic books that are featured in the story--all created by Tom Hanks himself--including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel's major motion picture masterpiece.

Weekly goals 12-5-25

 I didn't get a whole lot of writing done over the weekend, but I did some.  I think writing this book from Arlo's perspective is definitely the way to go.  He's way more fun to write.  I hope to get another 4-5K added this week.  I'm aiming for each of his entries to be around 1K give or take.  Then when I get to the part of the story where Devon takes over, her parts can be longer or shorter as need be.

I sent a big batch of queries out, so will wait and see what happens with them before I send any more.  One rejection already, but that was from an agent I did wonder about sending to.

Got a draft of the cover art for Standing Too Close and I'm excited to share it with you.  It just needs a little tweaking to get it right.  Hopefully I'll get the final version before the end of the week so I can share it.

It's my birthday this week, so I'm going to do my best to celebrate that too!

What are your goals this week?  

Celebrate the Small Things 9-5-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It's been a long week so I'm looking forward to it.  Not that I have a whole lot planned...  I have a new spin class to learn for next week, but I've been through it once already, so it shouldn't be too hard.

I haven't done a lot of writing this week, but the prompts for the contest I try to do every day worked for diary entries a couple of times this week, so I have two new Arlo sections to add to the book.  I hope to go through and bulk up the existing entries a little and then move forward with the rest of the book all from Arlo's POV.  We'll see how that goes...

Only had a few rejections this week, and weirdly, they have mostly been for Guide Us, not for A Stranger to Kindness. I stopped querying Guide Us in October, so these are from a long time back!  Not sure yet if the new query is working better - I've had one rejection from that version so far.  No requests from either yet.  It's kind of brutal!

Got feedback from a new beta reader which was really positive.  She even wanted to know more about Meg and Ozzy so it was fun to be able to say that Ozzy actually has his own book which is already published.  She emailed me back the next day to say she'd bought it.  That's what I like to hear!

And that's about it for me.  What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Break to You

 

Continuing on my Neal Shusterman kick, I read this book he co-wrote with two other authors.  It's set in a juvenile detention facility which I was interested in since A Stranger to Kindness also has some parts set in a facility like this.

Or, not quite like this - this centre houses both boys and girls, but they are strictly segregated with the common areas being used by girls and boys at separate times.  Which opens the doors for a clandestine romance between inmates when a girl accidently drops her journal in the library and a boy discovers it.

The pair then write back and forth, using the journal to get to know one another and to fall in love.  And then to set in motion a daring plan to actually see one another in the flesh.

I enjoyed this book and feel like the depiction of detention is more realistic than in some other books I've read with similar setting.  The characters were interesting and diverse and I particularly liked the contrast between the boys' behaviour and that of the girls. 

I learned some interesting things too, like the fact foster kids with nowhere to go sometimes end up in detention centres.

The planning and the way everyone on both sides of the prison worked together to get this pair of wannabe lovers together was probably very unrealistic, but made for a very satisfying story nonetheless.

The only thing I found disappointing, was the ending which seemed very abrupt and not entirely satisfying.  I felt like it was almost like the authors were leaving things open for a possible sequel, but not quite...

But overall, I enjoyed this very much and raced through it far more quickly than I've read a book recently.

So I'd recommend it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Bestselling author of Scythe and Challenger Deep Neal Shusterman, here with coauthors Debra Young and Michelle Knowlden, tells an intense yet tender story of two teens, trapped in impossible circumstances and unjust systems, willing to risk everything for love—no matter the consequences.

Adriana knows that if she can manage to keep her head down for the next seven months, she might be able to get through her sentence in the Compass juvenile detention center. Thankfully, she’s allowed to keep her journal, where she writes down her most private thoughts when her feelings get too big.

Until the day she opens her journal and discovers that her thoughts are no longer so private. Someone has read her writings—and has written back. A boy who lives on the other side of the gender-divided detention center. A boy who sparks a fire in her to write back.

Jon’s story is different than Adriana’s; he’s already been at Compass for years and will be in the system for years to come. Still, when he reads the words Adriana writes to him, it makes him feel like the walls that hold them in have melted away.

This fast-paced, highly compelling tour de force novel exposes what life is like in detention—and reveals the hearts of two teens who are forced to live in desperate circumstances.

Weekly Goals 5-5-25

 As I suspected, I didn't get a whole lot of writing done over the weekend.  I did rework my query letter for A Stranger to Kindness after getting a couple more rejections.  It's not significantly different, but I think the stakes are a little clearer now.  I hope, anyway.  I sent this one out to four or five agents, so we'll see if it works better.  A whole swathe of agents I identified as being a good fit for this book are currently closed, so fingers crossed some of them re-open.

I toyed around with Arlo's diary entries, and I think it might work to have the whole book told this way.  It just feels terrible to have written 30K already and then just ditch it all.  But I think this is the direction I need to go.  I thought Devon's arc was the most compelling one, but I think Arlo actually has more growth to make..  And we'll still see Devon's arc, just through Arlo's eyes.

So my goal this week is to work on this.  I'll need to pad out the diary entries I've already written since they're only about 300 words at most, and I'll need them to create more of a driving narrative to move the story along.

So that's my goal for the week.

I also have this horrible thing going on with my lips that's making life quite unpleasant.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so hopefully we can figure out what the issue is and do something to fix them up.  It's annoying not being able to smile.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 2-5-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I have a few things on this weekend, so I'm probably not going to get a whole lot of writing done.  Plus, I'm starting to think that maybe the problem I'm having with the book is that I'm writing it from the wrong POV.  I've been enjoying writing Arlo's diary entries far more than Devon's parts, so I'm curious about maybe trying to write the whole this as Arlo's diary.  There is a section he wouldn't be able to write, but I think it could make sense for Devon to fill in his diary at that point.

So I might have a go at splitting out the diary entries and having a go at telling the whole story that way.  Why do I always prefer writing boys?  And why do my boys always have more voice than my girls?  It's weird.

I've had a couple more rejections for A Stranger to Kindness which is disappointing.  I need to get to sending another round of queries.

We had a huge storm here yesterday and it has got really, really cold.  I think winter has hit for real now.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: How to Survive 1985

 

I read this author's first book, Royals a few years back and quite enjoyed it.  So when Netgalley offered me the opportunity to read this in advance of publication, I jumped.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one so much.

In Royals, a group of kids were trapped in a shopping mall while the world went on without them outside.  They were there for several weeks and had time to develop relationships, have fights, and work out how to get back into the real world before the mall destroyed them.

In this book, the same characters find themselves transported to 1985 for some reason.  They're not together in their own time, so one by one they arrive in the past and somehow manage to find each other.  Some stay for the full length of the book, others vanish back to 2025 quite quickly without really seeming to have any real reason to be there.

This book happens over only two or three days, not really enough time for the characters to even get properly familiar with the strange new world they find themselves in.  And in the time they're there, nothing particularly challenging happens to them.  Even finding their way back to their own time doesn't seem difficult - it just happened when they went to the place they arrived at the right time.

This felt a little unfinished to me.  It was super short and not a lot actually happened.  I was suprised when I realized I'd hit the end already because it didn't feel like enough had happened for it to be a whole book.

Which is a shame, because I enjoyed the earlier book with this characters.  And there's so much possibility with a time travel story where kids get to hang out with their parents at the same age.  There are so many more interesting aspects of the 1980s this book could have explored through the lens of someone from 2025.

So, I was actually disappointed by this one.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

When four friends find themselves thrown back in time to 1985, how will they handle being teens in their parents’ era? And will they ever get back to the future?

It takes Shannon a while to work out what’s happened. She went into the cinema in 2025 and came back out … in 1985? Somehow she’s travelled forty years back in time.

But this isn’t the first time something strange has happened to Shannon and her group of friends. Is there a chance that whatever mysterious forces brought them together a year ago have sent them back to the 80s with her? To find her friends, she’ll have to navigate a world with no smartphones, no internet, and – worst of all – no access to bubble tea. Plus, what’s with the hairstyles?

Once they’re reunited, things only get more complicated. As the group tries to find a way back to the future, some friendships are strained while others blossom into something more. Can they stay together – and stay friends – long enough to survive 1985?

In another warm, wise and life-affirming story, Tegan Bennett Daylight takes her beloved cast of characters from her debut YA novel Royals on a fresh adventure, to discover something about their roots and how far their generation has come.

Weekly Goals 28-4-25

 I think I've figured out which version of the book I'm going to go with.  Annoyingly, it's my original version so most of the stuff I ended up writing last week is going on the scrap-heap.  I figured that if it was going to take until chapter 11 or 12 for my characters to meet anyway, I might as well go back to the original.  So I've made the new stuff fit with that version and I'm still at around 31K.

It's a little irritating that this is the way it's worked out, because I now feel like I kind of wasted my week off re-writing stuff that didn't need be re-written.  If I'd trusted what I was doing, I would have been much deeper into the story by now. 

Consider this a lesson learned.

I've had another rejection for A Stranger to Kindness so I need to get onto sending out another batch of queries.  It would be so useful to know if it's the queries or the pages that are getting me the rejections.  I hate querying.

I have to go back to work today which is likely to feel like something of a shock after having 10 days off.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 26-4-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

I've made progress on the new book.  I haven't written as much as I'd hoped to over the break, but I'm at around the 32K mark.  I'm pretty sure most of what I've written is pretty diabolical, but I'm going to keep going in the hope I'll be able to peel the good stuff out of the crap in revision.  At least I've finally got my two characters together now.   It just took 12 chapters to get there.

And because I went back and re-wrote the beginning to try and get them there faster (it didn't), now I have two versions of the start of the book and I'm not sure which works best.  Which is all very annoying.  Seriously, if I ever say I'm going to write a book start to finish again, please tell me to get off the crack.  It's just not the way my brain works or the way I pull stories together.  I feel like this one is already a nightmare editing project and I'm not even halfway through drafting.

I sent my first queries out for A Stranger to Kindness and have already had three rejections.  So I will try and get a few more out next week.  I love this book so much, but it is a character journey rather than a super-plotty story that races from one place to the next.  I worry that maybe those early chapters (which is all an agent sees in a submission package) might feel too quiet.

I guess we'll see what happens.  Keep your fingers crossed for me..

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: All Better Now

I've read a bunch of books by Neal Shusterman and even though they're not the kind of thing I usually read, I've enjoyed almost all of them.  So when I heard he was coming here to do a talk in May, I decided it was time to pick up his latest offering and read it before I go to his event.

This book deals with a pandemic very much like COVID and cleverly uses the things we know about pandemics now, and the way people behave, to create a very realistic picture of what might happen when there's another one.

The virus in this book is quite different to COVID though.  It completely transforms those who recover from it, making them gentler, happier, less consumerist, more altruistic people.  Billionaires give away their money.  People rush to help those in need.  No one buys anything made of plastic.

Obviously, the people in charge of the world and its economy aren't thrilled by this.  The army isn't thrilled by this.  The uber-wealthy who haven't contracted the virus aren't thrilled by this.  And factions develop, the line between the uninfected and the recoverees becoming stark enough to create conflict.

An interesting group of protagonists explore this new world, each navigating through their own status as infected, recovered, or, in one case, naturally immune.

There's the son of the world's richest man who has been protected and coddled his whole life, but more so since the virus.  When he is infected and recovers, he becomes a super-spreader, convinced everyone deserves the gift of being the new person he's become since recovering.  Trying to contain him is Mariel, a homeless girl who has a pragmatism that will balance out her friend's dreaminess.  She's immune to the virus, the first person to be discovered to have this trait.

Which makes her valuable to Morgan and the scientists she's stashed away in the arctic to find a vaccine against the virus.  Her immunity may be the key to crushing this thing.  Morgan only has the power and wealth to run this lab because prior to contracting the virus herself, one of the world's wealthiest women elected her to be a successor.  Knowing the virus would make her lose her ruthless, cruel streak, this woman handed over everything and instructed Morgan to carry on the nefarious work.

With the cure/vaccine about to be unleashed on the world, creating a planet more miserable than any we've known, the two factions will inevitably, clash.

I really enjoyed this book.  The idea of a disease that makes you a better person appeals to me.  Maybe this is exactly - well, maybe not quite; these people are so altruistic they're willing to dive into the ocean to save drowning people even if they can't swim - what the world needs to reset itself.  Maybe we do need a virus to show us what it is to be content and truly happy.

The intrigue and plots and the very definite line between the infected (embraced) and not (unembraced) was fascinating to watch.  And there were some fabulous villains in there to hate.  I particularly liked the old lady billionaire whose entire life had been devoted to making tis miserable for people she disliked.  In petty, annoying ways.

So, I'd recommend this one.  It's fun and fast-paced and while speculative, has enough reality in there to make it feel all too possible.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman comes a young adult thriller about a world where happiness becomes contagious and the teens caught in the conspiracy by the powers that be to bring back discontent.

An unprecedented condition is on the rise. It behaves like a virus, with the first symptom being a fever, but those who contract it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

Almost everyone revels in this mass unburdening. But people in power—who depend on malcontents tuning into their broadcasts, prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince people they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Soon, campaigns start up convincing people that being happy all the time is dangerous. There’s even a vaccine developed to rid people of their inner peace and get them back to normal because, surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos.



It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their own agendas, and two teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in different ways by the virus find themselves enmeshed in the center of a dangerous power play. Can they reveal the truth?

Weekly Goals 21-4-25

 I have the whole week off this week so my goal is to write a lot.  I spent the weekend fixing up the place I feel like I went wrong with the book I'm working on, and now I'm charging forward with it.  I should be able to re-use a few bits and pieces I'd written earlier, but probably not the whole lot.

So this week is all about the new book which I'm calling Street Smarts at the moment, but don't think that will be a permanent title.

I'm also going to send out a handful of queries for A Stranger to Kindness.  Just to kind of test the water.  I got some feedback on my query and I've tweaked it as a result, but it will be interesting to see how it goes in the wild.  So wish me luck...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 18-4-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

Holidays!

It's Easter, so we have a four-day weekend, plus, because it's ANZAC day on Friday next week, I only had to take three days of leave to get a 10 day break.  Nice, huh?

I'm not going anywhere, but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get a good way through the new book, so my plan is to try and write at least 5,000 words a day over this break and get a good way in.  I had initially thought I'd be able to finish the whole thing, but realizing I went the wrong way in about Chapter Two means I'm not as far in as I thought.

But it's fine.  I'll fix that chapter up and get things moving in the right direction, then I'll see if anything I've already written can be salvaged. I'm pretty sure some of it can.  Just probably not all of it.  And if I can get 40-50K written over the next week or so, that will be fantastic.  I'll be right in the story then.

I'm also hoping to send off my first few queries for A Stranger to Kindness over the next week, so please keep your fingers crossed for that.  I feel so protective of Harley and Wolfe, I can't bear to think of them being rejected.

Oh, and that exciting thing I alluded to that I couldn't talk about?  Turned out to be nothing.  Just another disappointment in a week that's been a little disappointing on numerous fronts.  But this is a celebrate post, so I'm not going into that....

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The History of Love

 

I found this one in the bookshelf in our office breakroom.  Because we run a Writers progamme as part of our Festival, we often have books given to us at work and when they've been read, they end up in the library in the Whare Kai.  Plus, other people (myself included) often offload books they've read into those shelves if they're not ones they want to keep at home. Anyway, this one looked interesting enough, and I needed something to read, so I picked it up.

It was one of those books that have a variety of POVs, all linked by a single thing - in this case, an obscure book called The History of Love.  

There's Leo, an old Polish man who has had one great love in his life and his love was so huge, it spilled over into a book he wrote to contain his emotions. Both the book and the woman are long gone now, and Leo is in New York, trying to prove to himself he's still alive.  At least for one more day.

Also in New York is Alma, a fourteen-year-old girl whose father has died, leaving her mother desperately lonely.  When they met, her father gave her mother a copy of a book called The History of Love, in Spanish.  when a stranger writes and asks her mother to translate the book into English, Alma decides the man asking for this must be her mother's next soulmate.

As the various characters in this book circle closer and closer to the truth about The History of Love, all their lives might be changed forever.

I enjoyed this book.  It was well written and the various different relationships revealed themselves quietly.  It wasn't something completely absorbing or mind-blowing, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading.  It was also quite sad, or maybe, melancholy would be a better word.  It left me with a bit of an ache in my heart for all the lost opportunities the characters had.

So I'd recommend this one.  It's not right up there among my favourite books of the year, but I did enjoy it .

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.

Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives...

Weekly Goals 14-4-25

I didn't do a lot of writing over the weekend, but I think I figured out that I've gone the wrong way with this book.  I thought originally I needed something dramatic to happen to get Devon out of her house, but was convinced by a bunch of other people that a slow fade would work.

Maybe in real life.

In fiction, I think you need more and certainly, the slow fade isn't working for this book. It's taking far too long for me to get the characters to the place they need to be and I feel like a lot of what I've written is really boring.  So I'm going to go back and figure out where I need to add the dramatic bit that forces Devon's change, then I'll be able to get this book on track.

Very glad I've figured that out now because I have the whole of next week off to write and was really planning to get this book done in that week.  Not sure I'll manage that now, but I should be able to get a good way into it anyway.

So that's my goal this week.  To figure out where I went wrong and to fix it before I move on further into the story.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 11-4-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It's been a busy week and I'm tired.  I haven't been feeling all that great either, so am looking forward to maybe getting a little time to rest.  I've had this weird lip thing going on, where my lips have suddenly got really dry and cracked and no lip balm seems to help.  I finally went to the doctor and was given some cream to use, but I suspect it's just steroid cream and will clear things up for as long as I use it, but won't actually fix the problem.  But maybe that's me being cynical...

Hoping to get some writing done this weekend.  I'm a little stuck right now on how to get Arlo and Devon together.  I mean, I know how they meet and why and everything - I've even written that section - I just can't seem to get Devon there.  From where I am, I still think it's another two chapters.  And I think that's too long.

But I'll figure it out.  I always do in the end.  Unless I trunk the book, but I don't feel like I'm at that point with this one quite yet.  And next week's easter and I have 10 days to immerse myself in the book and figure it out.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: Boy Swallows Universe

 

I can't believe I didn't discover this book sooner; it's so up my alley it's not funny!  The writing is glorious, the story is edge-of-your-seat gripping and the characters are absolutely unforgettable.

The book follows the exploits of one Eli Bell, starting when he's around twelve,and finishing up when he's on the threshold of adulthood.  Eli is a sensitive, observant kid, prone to crying, yet tough as nails at the same time.

He has to be.  His mother is a junkie, his father a drunk he barely knows, his stepfather deals drugs and his brother chooses to be mute (sound familiar??).  And his babysitter is the legendary crook and prison-escape artist, Slim Halliday.

Growing up with Slim's stories of goodness, crime and derring-do, Eli has a nose for a good story and an over-developed sense of right and wrong.

But life isn't kind to Eli and his family, especially when his stepfather crosses the drug kingpin in town and gets himself disappeared, his mother thrown in jail and Eli himself mutilated.  But true to his adventurous spirit, even losing a finger doesn't slow Eli down.  It might take years for the opportunity to take Tytus Broz down, but he will be taken down.

And in the meantime, there are other adventures to be had, from falling for the crime writer at the local paper to breaking into a prison to spend Christmas with his mother.

I loved this book.  Eli is such a delightful character, even when he's in some stupidly awful situations.  And the relationship he has with his silent, possibly magical older brother is beautiful.  You know what a sucker I am for a good brother relationship...  The depiction of Brisbane's criminal underworld in the 1980s is perfectly drawn in its gritty, slightly shabby and worn-out criminality.

And the writing is gorgeous.  As a wannbe reporter, Eli's editor tells him he's too flowery, too focused on the details, and the author is just as focused on the details - to great effect.  There's some gorgeous language in this book, even though it's as tough and gritty as the streets the Bell boys grow up on.

So yeah.  I loved it.

But don;'t just listen to me.   Here's the blurb:

A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane's violent working class suburban fringe - from one of Australia's most exciting new writers.

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.

Weekly Goals 7-4-25

 I got all the edits done on Standing Too Close over the weekend, so that's gone back to my publisher.  I expect it will be a few weeks before I get the next round.

So this week, it's back to the new book.  I finished chapter seven this weekend, and I feel like it's still going to be another two or three chapters before Devon and Arlo meet.  Is that too far into the book?  I think I'll be at around 20K by then, which feels like it might be too far.  But I guess we'll see.  Writing a book from start to finish is weird...

I have a function to cater for work this week which will be a nice change from being in front of my computer all day.  Looking forward to that.

And that's really it for goals this week.  What are yours?

Celebrate the Small Things 4-4-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I got edits through from my publisher for Standing Too Close, so that's going to be my weekend.  I flicked through them yesterday and there's nothing too major that needs to be done.  I started yesterday, but didn't finish, so I plan to try and get that done today.  Then reward myself by going to a movie.

Oh, and Standing Too Close will release on 8 August.  Cover reveal to come...

It's so weird going back into that book.  A Stranger To Kindness was born out of writing that book, and I've spent so long working on that one now, Standing Too Close feels very, very long ago.  But apparently it made my editor cry, so that's something!  I do remember there's a scene in there that made me cry when I wrote it which has never happened to me before.

Something else potentially exciting happened this week, but I can't talk about it yet.  So I'll just tease you with that much.  Again, more to come...

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - April

 It's the first Wednesday in April, so it's time for the IWSG!

The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question really had me scratching my head.

What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

You see, I don't really read fantasy.  I've never enjoyed fantasy books much. I've tried reading The Hobbit about 10 times, and never got far into it.  I think there are two types of people in the world - the ones who like The Hobbit, and the ones who don't.

I've tried reading other fantasy too, thinking maybe I just don't like Tolkien, but I've had the same reaction to most other fantasy books I've tried.  Just. Not. My. Thing.

Interestingly though, one of my longest-term CPs, Breanna, is a fantasy author.  High fantasy too.  With complex magic systems and wizards and battling tribes.  The stuff I usually find a complete turn off if I come across it in a book's description.  And I love her books.  She has a unique voice and an even more unique way of making what are probably fantasy tropes something specific to the worlds she's created.  In her published novels, the way magic is used and the effect it has on users is something I've never come across before.  And her new stuff...  well, you fantasy lovers are in for an absolute treat when these books come out.  

So, to answer this question, I'd have to say, if I had to go on a quest or sit down for a bevvie with a fantasy character, it would have to be one of Breanna's. I have a specific one in mind - he's one of the heroes of her newest book that I'm reading for her at the moment, as she writes it - but as the book isn't finished yet, I'm going to have to go with one from one of her published novels: Corcoran Gray from Lord of Secrets.  He's kind of a scoundrel, but a loveable one, in his own way.

But to be honest, there are characters in a bunch of books I'd love to spend time with, even some of my own characters.  By the time I've finished writing them, they kind of have lives of their own and I'd love to know more about them.  But fantasy characters?  Not so much...

Who would you pick?

Weekly goals 31-3-25

 I ended up going up the line on Saturday after all, so my writing time this weekend was a little limited.  I did almost finish the chapter I was working on, and I've written a whole lot of bits and pieces for later in the book.  I do feel like it's taking too long to get my main characters to meet.  I'm over 10K into this book and they haven't even seen each other yet.

Which is always the thing that happens to me when I start at the beginning of a story - I take 10K or so to find the actual start of the book.  Although, I'm not entirely sure that's the case this time.  I feel like everything has been happening quite organically up until now.  Just slowly.  I guess we'll see how it all turns out.

So my goal this week is to keep going, get some more words down.  It's only a couple of weeks until Easter and my 10-day writing marathon to try and get this finished.  The more I get done in advance, the better.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 28-3-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I was going to be heading up the line for a day or so to catch up with some old colleagues, but my ride has fallen through, so I guess I'm staying home now.  Which is actually fine because I can get more work done on my book.  I've been a little naughty and written some pieces from later in the story during the week, mainly because the prompts for the daily flash fiction competition I do lent themselves to those sections of the book.  This little flash fiction thing I do is very useful for exploring parts of the story and the voices of the characters in little 1000 word or less chunks!

Other than that, I have nothing planned except my usual gym time and chores.  I've been feeling a little unwell for the last couple of weeks - nothing specific, just feeling off - and I think it has a lot to do with how little sleep I've been getting, so hopefully I can clock a few extra hours in bed.

I went to a really cool, innovative show on Wednesday and to the orchestra on Thursday, so it has been a busy week of activities already.

So that's probably enough to celebrate this week.

What are you celebrating?

Books I've Read: The End of Men

A friend lent me this book, saying they thought I'd enjoy it. It's something I probably would have picked up myself if I'd seen it, just because of the tite - I consider it aspirational - but I hadn't come across it.  And boy did I enjoy it!

It was written pre-pandemic, yet so many things that happened, especially early in the book, resonated so much because of what we went through in 2020.  This is actually the second book written pre-2020 I've read since the pandemic that eerily echo the reality we lived through.

In this book, a deadly new virus first come to light in Scotland.  One doctor identifies the salient feature of this particular illness is that it only affects men.  But when she tries to alert the authorities, the scientific and medical community, the world at large, she's dismissed and being an hysterical woman.  And by the time the world catches up with what she'd been trying to tell them, it's too late.  The virus has spread too far to contain easily and men around the world are dying in droves.

The book uses the perspectives of a shifting group of women who are left to deal with the consequences.  These are all very different women with very different skills and interests and come from all walks of life.  Through these various different eyes, we get a very good idea just what challenges the world might face if all the men - well, most... 10% of men in this world are immune - disappeared.

There are the initial stages of the plague where women are forced to face the fact their husbands, brothers and sons are likely to die, then the grieving that comes when they inevitably do. But what's more interesting is the society that develops in the wake of the pandemic, a society where all the roles usually taken by men are filled by women.

There are so many fascinating things this book delves into - global politics where all the world's leaders are now women, the workforce where suddenly all the heavy manual jobs men traditionally do have to be done by women, what happens to love and sex when there are so many more women than men.  Even little things, like redesigning seatbelts in cars so they are more effective for female bodies and re-thinking what families might look like.

I really enjoyed this book and found it incredibly thought provoking. Especially with having a real-world version of this scenario in the very recent past.  It made everything hit home that much harder than it probably did when people read it back in 2018.

So I'd recommend it.  My 13-year-old niece heard me talking about it when I was reading it and decided she wanted to read it too.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Set in a world where a virus stalks our male population, The End of Men is an electrifying and unforgettable debut from a remarkable new talent that what would life truly look like without men?Only men are affected by the virus; only women have the power to save us all. The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland--a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic--and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien--a women's world.What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus's consequences, told through first-person narratives. Dr. MacLean; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the "male plague;" intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping the government forge a new society; and Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways the absence of men has changed society, from the personal--the loss of husbands and sons--to the political--the changes in the workforce, fertility and the meaning of family.In The End of Men, Christina Sweeney-Baird creates an unforgettable tale of loss, resilience and hope.

Weekly Goals 24-3-25

 I finished Chapter 6 yesterday, but I think I'm going to change the ending.  I didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked,  but I knew that was going to be the case.  I'm not too worried about it.  It's only about three weeks until Easter and I'll have 10 full days then to immerse myself in this story.  Very much looking forward to that.

So the goal this week is to just keep the momentum up.  Write another chapter or two.  Fix the ending of the one I wrote yesterday, to start with.

I'm still waiting on a few people to finish reading A Stranger to Kindness, so that's kind of on hold right now.  My goal is to finish the new now, then to start querying Stranger while I let the new one rest.  Feedback so far has been very positive.  Everyone seems to love my boys almost as much as I do.

And that's about it for goals this week.

What do you want to achieve?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-3-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I have a few things on this weekend, including seeing one of my favourite musicians play in one of the most beautiful venues there is in Wellington. So looking forward to that!

I haven't had a chance to get much writing done this week, but will try to get chapter 6 finished on Sunday before I go to the gig.  Not too big a job, I don't think.

I don't have much else to celebrate this week.  It has been a quiet and rather boring one, to be honest.  Hopefully more exciting things to talk about next week.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Take Me With You When You Go

 

I read this one a couple of years back, but decided to revisit it because it has some things in common with the book I'm currently working on.  It's also a really good book.

It's epistolary in form - the whole book is told through a series of emails between the various characters.  Which makes it a little "tell-y" in places, but the things the characters are telling each other about are so engrossing, it almost doesn't matter.

Ezra wakes up one morning to discover his older sister is gone.  She leaves him a secret email address in a place she knows only he will find it, making him promise he won't tell anyone else about it or where she is.

Ezra and Bea have grown up with just their mother - their father left before Ezra was even born - and their mother's new husband who abuses them.  Their mother turns a blind eye to her husband's cruelty, devoting herself to his needs while ignoring the needs of her children.

Finding himself alone with this cruelty and neglect, Ezra soon flees the house too, not running as far as Bea, but getting away from a place he feels is increasingly unsafe for him.  Meanwhile, Bea is figuring out how to live on her own in a new city without any friends or family.  As she becomes more comfortable navigating life on her own, she admits to Ezra the real reason she ran - not away, but to.

The things both Ezra and bea discover about their family and themselves rock their worlds to the very foundations, but maybe being torn apart like this is exactly what they both need to be able to find a way back to one another.

As you probably already know, I'm a sucker for a sibling story.  Love sibs that fight, who love, who pull apart and come together.  Most of my own books deal with some kind of sibling relationship, even if it's a subplot to the main story.  So this book was right up my alley to start with.  Add to that the fact it's written by Jennifer Niven and David Leviathan, and it's a double whammy.  I've loved all Jennifer's books, and David is a YA legend.

This one had me on the edge of my seat too.  I was so worried for Bea and what she was running toward.  And so worried for poor Ezra, left behind with those awful people. And then nothing turns out the way you think it might, which was refreshing too.

I enjoyed the email format for telling the story.  It felt very immediate and relatable and the various other voices that came in from time to time made for a nice change.

So I'd recommend this one.  Especially if, like me, you love an angsty sibling relationship story.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling authors of All the Bright Places and Every Day comes a story of hope, family, and finding your home in the people who matter the most.

Subject: You. Missing.

Ezra Ahern wakes up one day to find his older sister, Bea, gone. No note, no sign, nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it. Ezra never expected to be left behind with their abusive stepfather and their neglectful mother - how is he supposed to navigate life without Bea?

Bea Ahern already knew she needed to get as far away from home as possible. But a message in her inbox changes everything, and she finds herself alone in a new city - without Ez, without a real plan - chasing someone who might not even want to be found.

As things unravel at home for Ezra, Bea confronts secrets about their past that will forever change the way they think about their family. Together and apart, broken by abuse but connected by love, this brother and sister must learn to trust themselves before they can find a way back to each other.

Weekly Goals 17-3-25

 I had a pretty good writing weekend and finished chapters four and five.  I feel like everything is moving more slowly than I want it to, but I think it will work.  The situation Devon is in does unfold slowly and I feel like it's realistic, the way it's happening.  Hopefully, anyway...

So my goal this week is to keep working on it.  I know I have stuff on this weekend so I won't get the full six or so hours I had this weekend, but hopefully I can finish chapter six during the week and move on to chapter seven.

I submitted my query and first five pages of A Stranger to Kindness to a contest in the hope of getting some good feedback on them.  I've had really good feedback from this contest before, so fingers crossed.  I'll wait until after that's finished to start querying.  Plus, the MS is still with a few readers, so I'd love their feedback before I start on that journey.

Still no update from my publisher on a date for Standing Too Close coming out.  I emailed again at the end of February and haven't had a reply yet.  I'm going to give it another week, then I'm going back to them again.  Even if they are backed up in editing, I like a long lead time to get my publicity and reviewers lined up, so they could give me a date toward the end of the year.  I just need to know what it is.

And that's about it for me this week.  What are your goals?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-3-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has felt like a long week, so I am looking forward to a couple of days off.  I don't have a lot planned, other than writing and gym stuff, so that is a good thing.

I've had some good feedback on the first part of the new book which is encouraging, even if writing in order and posting chapters as I write does feel weird.  It's too early to know if this approach will make editing easier at the end or not, but we shall see.  I am definitely looking forward to getting back into writing it over the next couple of days, so that's got to be a good thing!  I feel like I'll be on track to actually maybe finish the whole thing over Easter, which was the plan.  All things going as planned of course...

I've picked up another regular class at the gym, so I'm now teaching both Tuesday and Thursday mornings, which is good.  I'd like one more regular class, preferably an hour-long one, but I'll have to wait and see if one comes available.

I went to a premiere last night and saw The Rule of Jenny Pen.  It was excellent and actually quite scary.  Disturbing, anyway... Especially since I think I'd blanked out the fact there's a puppet in the film and I really, really don't like puppets.  Ventriloquist dummies are the worst, but this puppet was damn creepy!

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've loved: There are Rivers in the Sky

 

This one was loaned to me by one of the members of my book group - the one who probably knows me and my taste in books the best.  So when she said she thought I'd like this one, I listened.

And she was right.

I did, indeed, love this one.

It's a sprawling, epic novel that covers centuries and history and interweaves stories from different eras, starting with ancient Mesopotamia and finishing around 2018.

There are three main protagonists, Zaleekah, a hydrologist living in London in 2018, Narin, a young Yazidi girl living with her grandmother on the banks of the Tigris as it is about to be dammed, flooding her village, and Arthur (real name King Arthur of the Slums and Sewers), a Victorian pauper who grows up to be one of the British Museum's leading experts on ancient Mesopotamian poetry and script.

As you'd probably expect rom a book with "rivers" in the title, rivers and water are central to the story, from a drop of rain falling into King Ashurbanipal's hair to the Thames and Tigris rivers winding their way through history.  That aspect of it reminded me of a writing exercise I did at school, where we wrote a story from the POV of a water molecule, following it through history and the various different lives it could have touched.

While all three stories were interesting, I think I enjoyed Arthur's the most, maybe because the book followed him from birth to death, giving us the most complete picture of him. The other characters we only saw for short periods of time, like snapshots of their existence.

Just how these three people could be linked does not become clear until the very end of the book, although it's teased at throughout.  I felt like the eventual resolution was beautifully underplayed - not made into the big, melodramatic moment it could have been.

I loved this book.  As a kid, I went through a period of wanting to be an archaeologist, and this tickled all the parts of me that love the mysteries of ancient civilizations.  I know a little about the region and the history and even the poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, that's central to the story.   But I know even more now.

I loved the way real life characters and events wove through the fictional story - particularly when Charles Dickens showed up in Arthur's storyline for a bit.

I have no idea how anyone could go about writing a book like this, with so many threads and timelines and histories weaving through it.  The very idea of it boggles my tiny brain.  But it works so well here, every piece of every story compliments a part of one or both the others.

So I'd recommend this one highly.  It's complicated in the very best way, but also has fabulous characters you can't help but care for.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”

Weekly Goals 10-3-25

 I had quite a good writing weekend and managed to finish chapters two and three and make a start on chapter four.  I'm just not 100% sure what I'm writing works.  I initially thought Devon would end up living on the street because of a big fight or something that made it impossible to go home.  But the way it's happening is more of a slow fade as no one cares if she's there or not.  Which is fine except her personality is such, I don't think she'd give up the safely and security of a house, even a house that's indifferent to her presence.

So something needs to happen.  Something that makes it impossible for her to go back.  And it needs to happen in chapter four or it will be too late in the book.  I already wonder if I've let things meander on too long.  So what is that thing?  I don't want it to be big or dramatic, necessarily.  Just something that would be the catalyst for her deciding living away from home would be preferable.  Let me know if you think of anything.

So my goal this week is to get through a couple more chapters.  Finish the one I'm on, and hopefully write another.  Once I get Devon out into the streets, I feel like the book will get easier to write because there's so much scope for things to happen to her. Even before she and Arlo meet.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-3-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

And I have absolutely nothing I have to do this week.  No social engagements.  No teaching at the gym.  No urgent chores.  What a luxury!

I've almost finished the second chapter of the new book, so I hope to get that tied up and posted for my CPs to look at.  And if I can get through or close to through a third chapter, that would be great too.  I've written a handful of journal entries for Arlo. but at this stage, I'm not sure exactly where or how they're going to slot into the book.  It feels weird to have them in there at the start, before Devon meets him, but if I don't have them there from the start, it might be weird to have them suddenly show up.  I guess it's a way to foreshadow what's coming up and to give some insight into who this kid is before he becomes a part of Dev's life.

And now that I think about it, maybe he's aware of her before she's aware of him...

Hmmmmmm.  Things to think about and play with.  This way of writing a book feels weird to me.  I'm so not used to starting at the beginning and writing forward.  I'm not even sure where I started is actually the beginning!

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG: March 2025

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for the March 5 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse Van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Liza @ Middle Passages!

This month's question is an interesting one!

If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and any themes, goals, or values they/it inspire in you.

It's going to sound weird, but I think I'd like to spend a day as my cat.

From my, albeit limited, perspective, she has the perfect life.

She always has food in her bowl and clean water to drink and doesn't need to do anything to get it. It's just always there. Maybe a little later than she'd like on some days, but most days, the bowl gets filled at 5:30am and she has the luxury of not sharing that food with anyone else. She can leave it there all day, popping in now and then to snack on a bite or two, or she can wolf down half the bowl in one sitting and know there will still be some left for later.

She sleeps for much of the day, moving between patches of sunlight, shady bushes, and in the evening, my lap. And then, exhausted by a day of sleeping in interesting locales, she snuggles up in bed for a good night's sleep with my partner and me.

In between naps, she likes to patrol the fence around our property, checking that everything is secure and the only other cats allowed on the property are ones she sanctions. There are three - a very pretty ginger tomcat we call Marmadude, a gray cat that likes to sneak inside if the doors are open, and a black one with a heart-shaped blotch on its white nose.

Marmadude acts like a suitor, coming around for my cat's affections. She just hisses at him and dives through the cat door. He sits outside, pining and blocking the way so she can't come back outside. The other two are less frequent visitors and tend to just pass through on their way to other exotic neighborhood locations.

It would be so nice to spend a day with nothing more pressing to do than find the perfect spot to sleep. And to sleep so much. I probably only get about 4 - 5 hours' sleep a night, so the idea of spending as much time napping as the cat does is very appealing.

And who doesn't want to be able to spring nimbly up trees and onto fences with the grace of a ballet dancer? Or to be showered with love and affection by everyone who comes into your orbit? But only on your own terms... If you don't feel like being loved, you can give the person offering the cold shoulder and just walk away without any ill effect or hurt feelings to contend with.

I think that's what I love the most about my cat. The way she can be both the most snuggly, loving little furball, and the world's coldest bitch - usually within the same 10-minute period - and still have everything she values in life at her fingertips.

What or who would you like to be for a day?

Weekly Goals 3-3-25

 I got a bit of writing done this weekend and finished the first chapter of the new book.  I'm calling it Street Smarts for now, but will no doubt change that later on.  I decided to try something different this time around and attempt writing the book from start to finish so I can post chapters for my CPs as I write them.  I'm hoping this might make the ridiculous amount of editing time I spend on each book a little shorter.  We'll see...

My CP liked the first chapter, so that's good.  I'm a good way through the second one, but I already feel like it's taking too long to get to the moment the book really starts.  But at the same time, I think we need to see enough of Dev's life, figure out who she is, before she ends up on the street.  So we'll see.

So my goal this week is to keep up the momentum on this book, to finish the second chapter and make some headway on the third.

what are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things: 28-2-25

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

I had a thing booked in with my old colleagues, but it has been postponed, so I now have a little more free time on my hands.  Unfortunately I think it's going to be eaten up by gardening and house stuff, but I'm hoping I'll also managed to claw myself a little time to write.  I'm determined to get at least the first chapter of this new book drafted.

One of my colleagues finished A Stranger to Kindness this week and loved it.  None of the things I was worried about seemed to bother her - she didn't even seem to notice them - so that's good.  I've got a few more people reading it, so hopefully I'll get some more feedback soon.

I caught up with some old friends and colleagues last night, which was fun.  Always nice to see old friends again.

I dyed my hair pink and it keeps freaking me out when I see myself in the mirror.  It's not exactly the pink I was hoping for, but it's actually quite cool.

And that's about it for celebrating this week.  What are you celebrating?