Celebrate the Small Things 31-1-25

 

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 really long week, but it has been just the usual length.  We're still in a fairly quiet period at work, and most of the work I'm doing at the moment is non-urgent admin stuff, so quite boring.  At least next week is a short one because of a public holiday on Thursday.  And I'm taking the Friday off too to give me a four-day weekend.

One of my closest work colleagues is leaving and we had a farewell for her which was very emotional.  She's an amazing person and has just got a fantastic new job in Melbourne, so I'm super excited for her, even if I will miss her around the office.

I picked up an extra class at the gym this week and taught my first class for one.  Not my favourite experience...

And you can read this week's story here. I struggled to find appropriate tags for this one because it's just a little slice of life, really...

Books I've read: Blacktop Wasteland

 

This is not the kind of book I'm usually drawn to, but I picked it up at the library and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Set in a small Virginia town, Beauregard "Bugs" Montage can drive like nobody else.  He used to be in the getaway game, but now he's gone largely legit, owning  a garage to support his wife and two young kids, plus a daughter from an earlier relationship.  He lets off steam occasionally by driving his long-disappeared father's old car in illegal street races.

When a new white-owned garage opens up across town, his business suddenly goes downhill and Bugs finds himself drowning in bills and probably only weeks away from losing the business all together.  So when an old acquaintance shows up with plans for a diamond heist, Bugs reluctantly agrees to take on the role of getaway driver as a way to solve his money problems and get back on his feet.  

Of course, things don't go as planned and soon Bugs finds himself dealing with exactly the type of underground character he's been trying to escape, and the lives of all the people he holds dear at stake.

This book is crying out to be made into a movie.  It's tightly plotted and peopled with colourful, distinct characters who have very real problems.  Bug is a great protagonist, and even though there is a lot of violence in the book, some of it instigated by Bugs, you remain firmly on his side throughout.  

It's testament to the author's skill that a violent, criminal protagonist can be sympathetic even when stomping on someone's ankle and crushing their bones.  But as a reader, you always know why Bugs is doing what he's doing and it's easy to relate to someone who is just trying to do their best for the people he loves and has sworn to protect.

So I'd recommend this one.  It is violent in places and the violence is described in quite visceral detail, so if you're squeamish you might want to give it a miss, but it's a definite page-turner and one I enjoyed very much.

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

Beauregard "Bug" Montage: husband, father, honest car mechanic. But he was once known - from North Carolina to the beaches of Florida - as the best getaway driver on the East Coast. Just like his father, who disappeared many years ago.

After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles - and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he's sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .

Weekly Goals 27-1-25

 A new week and can you believe January is almost over already?  Crazy!

I don't have a lot of goals this week to be honest.  I'm still trying to get back into the swing of the year, but suspect that won't happen until after next week because there's another public holiday next week which gives me a 4 day weekend.

One of my CPs has given me some awesome feedback on A Stranger to Kindness - namely that once she read Chapter 30 she had to read until the end, and that I made her cry more than once.  I call that a win!  Hopefully she can get some notes to me on the post 30 chapters in the next couple of weeks so I can take her feedback into account when I read through the whole book and start making my revision notes.

I aim to write at least four pieces of flash fiction this week, five if possible.  There are some days the prompts I use are so far out of my wheelhouse I can't think what to do with them.  Other days, I look at them and see the story almost before I've finished reading.  So I think four out of five days is a reasonable ambition.

And that's really it for goals...

What do you want to achieve this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 24-1-25

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 know it was a short week, but somehow those short weeks often end up feeling longer than regular weeks.  This week was definitely one of those, so I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Not a whole lot to celebrate this week, I'm afraid.  Nothing terrible has happened, but it's just been... a week.  Nothing exciting about it.  Which I guess is something to celebrate in itself.

I've sent out some more Guide Us queries, so keep your fingers crossed that someone will want to take a closer look.  

And my critique group are still enjoying A Stranger to Kindness, even the funky bits I was worried about! I'm hoping one of them might get through to the end before 7 February which is the day I've taken off work to read through the whole MS and make notes on what I think might need changing.

I'm reading a book I'm enjoying a lot - I'll review it on Wednesday next week, since I'll definitely finish it in the next day or so.

And this week's story on Medium is a little different.  Horror anyone?

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Hide

 

I've enjoyed a lot of Kiersten White's YA books in the past, so when I saw this, her first book for adults, I decided to give it a shot.  Especially when I read that it was about a high-stakes game of hide and seek set in an abandoned amusement park.  I mean, how creepy is that?

Well, pretty creepy...

The book starts strongly with our main protagonist, Mack, a homeless woman living night to night in a shelter being offered the chance to take part in a life-changing game.  Needing something to kickstart the change in her life she needs, Mack accepts.  She's great at hiding.  In fact, her skill in this area is the reason she's alive while the rest of her family are not.

The competitors are bussed to the site and introduced to one another.  Before going into the park for the first time, they're pampered and preened and made to feel very special.  The rules are explained - two people per day will be "caught" and out of the game.  The last man standing will win the substantial prize.  The game ends each day when the sun goes down and only then will it be safe for competitors to come out of their hiding places and head back to the sleeping quarters set up for them.

So far, so simple.

But when people start disappearing, Mack realizes there is something more sinister going on than a simple game.  While she's always been a loner, she finds herself banding together with a small group of others, determined to figure out what's going on and how they can make it out of the park alive.

This book didn't quite hit the mark for me.  There were too many characters, most of whom we got very little information about so it was difficult to care too much when they started being killed off.  And having two characters with the same name seemed silly within such a large cast.  It's hard enough to remember everyone in such a huge ensemble without giving two of your main characters the same name.  Especially since there didn't seem to be any real reason for it.

And the reason for the competition and the backstory to it were a little silly and not really developed properly.  I won't go into any detail because that would be a spoiler, but I didn't really buy the whole premise.

And then the ending seemed very rushed.

It was a shame because I liked the idea.  I just didn't like the execution as much as I had hoped I would.

So I probably wouldn't recommend this one too highly.  It starts strong, but doesn't really follow through.

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

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Weekly Goals 20-1-25

 I don't actually have much in the way of goals this week.  I'm still letting A Stranger to Kindness rest and my critique group are still working through it too.  I have a plan to read through the whole thing without making any changes while I read in a couple of weeks.  I'll make notes then on things I think need to work on.  I bet as soon as I've done that and figure out a plan to revise, I'll get the edits on Standing Too Close I'm waiting for.

I've been trying to keep my creative brain awake by writing flash fiction most days.  The writing website I use has daily prompts and I try to do one of these each day.  It's a 1000 word limit, so it's not a huge time commitment - usually about half an hour or so.  Some days the stories I churn out are actually quite good; other days not so much...  Depends on the prompt, really.

My garden needs some attention again this week.  I'm a little horrified how quickly those dang weeds grow back!

There are so many great movies on and coming out at the moment.  I need to go more often to keep up.  I finally saw Anora last night and what a great film that is!  So raw and real and anxiety inducing.  I also saw Sing Sing this week which was so, so powerful and such proof of the power of the arts to transform lives.  I will be urging everyone at work to see it.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 17-1-25

 

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

What am I celebrating this week?

Long weekend!

Yes, I know I've only been back at work for a week, but that first week back is always the worst.  I've really been struggling to remember anything that happened last year or even what it is I do.  Just beginning to get back into it now...

I haven't got a lot planned for the long weekend.  I'm teaching my first hour-long spin class on Sunday, so that kind of put paid to any plans to go away.  I think my partner and I might go up to his property right after I teach on Sunday and stay there through Monday, but that's weather dependent.

I was super surprised yesterday to get nominated for Quill Awards on the writing website I use.  Weirdly, I was nominated for two poems I wrote to prompts during Poetry Week last year.  I don't really write poetry and certainly wouldn't consider myself a poet, so it was a big surprise!  One of the poems is a ditty and the other is an alphabet poem - one of those where there are 26 lines and you start each line with A, B, C...  I don't expect to win, but it's flattering to be nominated.  And a little embarrassing since I probably spent no more than 10 minutes on either of them.

I've had a couple more rejections for Guide Us which is no longer a surprise.  Some of them are for queries I sent in March last year, so it's definitely taking agents a long time to respond!  I think I still have 40 or so that haven't had a response yet, so I guess there's still a chance someone might want it.  But I'm not holding out much hope.  

Guess I'll whip the new book into shape and get ready to query that one...  Although I'm not sure if I'm hardened enough to deal with Harley getting rejected.

Today's story is a little bit of fun.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: When the World Tips Over

 

I've been a massive fan of Jandy Nelson's writing since I read The Sky Is Everywhere many years ago so when I found this one, I jumped at the chance to read it.  And it did not disappoint!  What a beautiful, beautiful book!  I found myself simultaneously wanting to keep reading forward to find out what happened next and wanting to re-read every chapter as I finished it because the writing was so gorgeous and delicious.  Definitely one I will return to again.

The book is about three siblings, 12-year-old Dizzy and her two older brothers, Miles and Wynton.  All three have been damaged by their father leaving before Dizzy was born in their own unique ways.  And the fact their mother still cooks for him every night doesn't help them feel the loss any less keenly.

When a stranger shows up in town with her rainbow hair, she touches each sibling's life in her own way, but leaves again as quickly as she arrived, who she might be remaining a mystery that must be solved if this family is every going to be able to pull themselves together again.

And it's a complicated family.  The book delves into the history, going back to Europe and old-country curses and rivalries that have echoed through generations.  Part magic-realism. part road trip, part mystery, this book unfolds numerous different stories according to its own logic, piecing together a family saga on its way.

And I loved it.  The writing is magical with descriptions so evocative you can almost taste them and phrases so delicious you want to savour them over and over.  But unlike some books with delightful writing, the story here, and the characters, are as compelling as the language.  

Very, very recommended.

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

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.

Dear Me 2025

Every year I write myself a letter outlining my goals for the year.  I try to do a check in on how I'm tracking mid-way through and again at the end of the year.  So here's 2025's letter.

Dear Me,

I did pretty well with 2024's goals, so here's to doing as well in 2025.

Despite having got absolutely no traction so far in querying Guide Us, I will keep persevering with it.  I know this is a good book and I'm really weirded out that it hasn't had any requests.  The last book I queried was the same, but at least with that one, I knew there was something in it that might prove difficult for agents and/or publishers even if I didn't advertise it in the query.  With Guide Us, I don't think there's anything too controversial in there... I guess religion could be controversial though.  Especially questioning it.

I have a book - Standing Too Close -  coming out sometime later in the year; I'm still waiting for a date for that.  Hopefully I'll find out soon because I'd like to be able to start things rolling as far as publicity goes as soon as possible.  I'm also waiting on edits for that one and would like to get through those before I dive into revisions and editing on A Stranger to Kindness.  They're both boy narrator books but the voices are very, very different.

And talking about A Stranger to Kindness, the plan for that is to get it revised and ready to query before the end of the year.  I feel like that's going to be a tough one because I love this book so much and if it winds up getting the same response as Guide Us, it's going to be somewhat devastating.  I need to mentally prepare for that.

Luckily, by the second half of the year my work will have ramped right up so I will probably be far too busy to get too upset.  Here's hoping anyway...

And as far as non-writing goals go, I suppose they're much the same as they have been for the last few years.  To keep exercising, to keep reading as much as possible and to see films at the cinema least every two weeks.

The exercising should be easy enough since I'm now an instructor at the gym and I'm hoping to pick up a couple more regular classes this year.  I've been teaching only 30 minute spin classes, but I'm starting to learn the hour-long ones now too, so will probably pick up some of those classes in the next little while.

I've lowered my reading target for 2025 to 110 books since I've failed to meet my goal the last two years running.  I've been reading more adult books than YA recently and they tend to be both longer and more complex than my usual YA reads, so they take me longer to get through.  Here's hoping the large number of books I got through during my holiday last week - the weather was not great so there was a lot of time to read - kickstarts things well.

There are a lot of films opening the next few weeks that I want to see, so I should be able to keep up my film-going at least in the early part of the year.  Things might get a little more challenging once the Award Season movies dry up, but by then the Film Society should have started up again.

I finally managed to (sort of) break my nail biting habit in 2024, so I will endeavor to keep my nails nice in 2025 too.  Preferably without having to pay for expensive manicures every few weeks.  I do like having my nails done properly, but it does become expensive.

What are your goals for the New Year?

Celebrate the Small Things 10-1-24

 

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

What am I celebrating this week?

I had a relaxing holiday at the beach house.  The weather wasn't amazing so I didn't swim every day, which is very unusual,  but I did get out to walk every day and I read a lot of books - 13 in total.  I knew I didn't take enough away with me, but I really couldn't carry more than 9.

My critique group continue to enjoy A Stranger to Kindness.  One of them has even reached the part of the book I really struggled to write and she has had no complaints about it so far.  Fingers crossed this continues until the end.

I've spent the time since I've been back from the beach doing some deep cleaning of my house.  I have the bathrooms still to do, but I've asked my son to help me with those since I need to try and clean some mould off the ceilings and he's tall enough he may be able to get the mop up there without having to stand on a chair.  Once I'm through those, I'm going to put some effort into my new office space.  I have a bunch of posters I want to put up, but haven't remembered to get any stick-um to do it yet.  

I'm going to (maybe) teach my first hour-long ride class next weekend, so I'm busy trying to learn the choreography for that.  It's not actually that much more to learn than the classes I teach regularly - 10 songs instead of 7,  but each track is longer and somehow it feels a little daunting.  But I'm sure I can do it.

This week's short story has a bit of a twist to it...  

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - January '25

 

It's the first Wednesday in January (sort of), so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

And here's this month's question:

 

Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

I've been struggling to answer this one.  I'm sure there were people I admired as a child, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. What does come to mind when I read this question is some of the books and authors I loved as a kid that I have gone back and re-read as an adult either to read to my own kids or just out of curiosity.  Some of those books I thought were so magnificent, books I obsessed over for months or years and read until they were rags... well, they're actually pretty dreadful.

I was huge fan of Rosemary Sutcliffe as a child, especially her book The Eagle of the Ninth.  I read two copies of that book to rags because I re-read it so many times.  And a few years back, I stumbled across it at the library when I was looking for something that might interest my son and took it out.  And I could not figure out what the heck I'd liked about it so much that I re-read it over and over again.  The book was boring as all hell.  The characters were flat and the writing wasn't even that good.  

The other books I obsessed over as a kid were the Adventure series by Willard Price.  In these books a pair of brothers, Hal and Roger, were sent all over the world by their father to have wild adventures with animals in South America, Africa, the South Pacific and the Arctic. I think to collect animals for their zoo - I can't quite remember that part. There were 14 of these books all together and I had the entire set which I re-read over and over.  I found a couple of them in the library when my kids were around the right age for them and picked them up.  Again, what a bitter disappointment.  

Apart from the colonialism and very un-environmentalist behavior in these books, they are wholly unbelievable in terms of the characters.  Hal is supposed to be 19 and Roger 13.  What parents let their teenage sons risk their lives with lions and panthers and tigers and rogue elephants and even living in an underwater village?  Not just once, but over and over again?  Even after one or the other of them almost dies in every book?  I can maybe accept Hal getting to go once or twice, with his more experienced father perhaps, but doesn't Roger have school? And given how terrifying and perilous these adventures are, these brothers don't ever cry or need a hug or even touch one another to give comfort when one or the other is hurt.  It's very unrealistic.  Especially how strong they both are and how they know all about how to deal with these wild animals despite being children.

On the plus side, I did learn a lot from reading these books.  I'm always surprised how much I know about Roman legionnaires from Rosemary Sutcliffe and all the random things I learned from Willard Price.  In fact, Volcano Adventure saved my entire family's life once...  We were staying somewhere where they'd lit a coal fire to keep the room warm for us and in the night, my father got up to go to the bathroom and promptly fell over on the floor, waking me up.  I used my Willard Price knowledge and figured out that the room was filled with carbon monoxide and managed to wake my mother and sister and get everyone outside before we all died in our sleep.  I think I was 10 or 11.  

So thank you Mr. Price!

Do you have someone you admired greatly as a child?  How do you feel about them now?