Celebrate the Small Things 29-11-24

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things...What am I celebrating this week?

I guess the big thing I'm celebrating this week is that I have signed a publishing contract for a new book.  Standing Too Close will be published in 2025.  I can't quite believe that I am going to have published six novels in the near future.  It wasn't so long ago (okay, almost 11 years) that I felt like I was never going to get even one published.  Yet, here we are...

Although, if I look at it from another perspective, maybe it isn't actually such a great achievement given I think the book I'm working on now is my 19th or 20th...  But this is a celebrate post, so I'm going to celebrate it anyway.

I'm hoping to make some good progress on A Stranger to Kindness this weekend.  I really need to finish it before edits come in for the old book.  Blue and Harley have very different voices and in the past, I've lost my way with a current writing project when I went back to edit another one midstream.  Several of the unfinished books on my hard drive are casualties of this.

I'm having a lot of fun with publishing my short fiction (mainly 100 words or less) stories on Medium.  I don't have a ton of readers yet, but I figure that will come with regular posting.  At least, I hope so.

I have a pot luck dinner with my girlfriends on Saturday night.  This is a group of women I met when my oldest son was six months old and now all our kids are over 20!  And we're still friends!  Our kids, not so much...

The other thing I'm celebrating this week is that I'm going to see the Wicked movie on Sunday.  Looking forward to it too!

What are you celebrating this week?

 

This is one of those books I wanted to like more than I did.  I've enjoyed Mitchard's other books, and the premise of this one sounded promising.  Unfortunately the characters kind of annoyed me.

True Dickinson is a successful business owner and single mother.  Since her husband died many years ago, she's worked hard to create a life for herself, her son and her widowed mother.  She has surrounded herself with friends and co-workers who have become like a family for her.  Yet there is still something missing in her life.

When she meets Hank, the handsome, quirky, passionate younger man who owns the restaurant she and her friends pick to celebrate her 43rd birthday, sparks fly.  But True can't believe a man 10 years younger than her would be interested, and rebuffs his advances several times before finally agreeing to go out with him.

Sparks fly and before she knows it, True is deeply in love with Hank.  So much so, they marry in a rush, not even telling True's son, Guy, before they do so.

Despite the warnings and misgivings of those around them, Hank and True are determined to make their marriage work and to give Guy the father he's never had.  But between True's long-held defenses and insecurities, and Hank's hot-headedness, their path to happiness will not be a smooth one.

I found both the romantic leads in this book annoying in different ways.  True is described as being a successful business owner with a loyal staff who are more friends than employees.  Yet she is so insecure about everything, it's difficult to understand how she ever managed to get the business off the ground.  Let alone deal with all the challenges and personalities a business of this type would involve.

And Hank is both immature and pig headed.  The fact he won't see how wrong his actions toward True are when he chooses an ex-girlfriend over her at a point where she needs his support made me hope they never got back together.

I wanted this book to be much more fun than it is.  I mean, what older woman doesn't occasionally daydream about being with a much younger guy who finds her attractive?  True never seemed to recognise that Hank genuinely does find her attractive and actively seems to seek out the negatives and look for problems.  She treats him like he's an immature teenager at times, and is so suspicious of him, it's not really a surprise that he does wind up failing her.  She expects it and he lives up to her expectations.

So I don't highly recommend this one.  It isn't a bad read and I certainly enjoyed parts of it.  I just didn't find it has engaging (or as hot) as I wanted to.

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

It is True Dickinson's birthday and her best friends have gathered on this snowy night to celebrate. True has never felt more alone. Though her small business is thriving and her young son is happy, the death of her husband eight years ago has left an empty space in her life that friends and family cannot fill. Are youth and beauty slipping away while True is busily taking care of everyone else? An accident the night of her birthday will answer that question and give True the opportunity to let love back into her life -- that is, if she can overcome her own fears and if these two spirits can find a way to tame each other's wild hearts. A story of transformation and an unforgettable tale of the perils and pleasures of modern love, Twelve Times Blessed is a powerful, moving novel of the heart from one of our most gifted and best-loved storytellers.

Weekly Goals 25-11-24

 I did a lot of writing over the weekend, but I still feel like I might be going in the wrong direction with those scenes.  And I feel like there is a lot I still need to write in order to get them to meet up with the stuff I've already written toward the end.  But, because I'm stupid and a sucker for punishment, I'll keep going and see where I end up.  Hopefully this is just my stupid brain telling me I'm hopeless and the stuff  I'm writing isn't as bad as I think...

I'm feeling a certain degree of urgency to finish this draft because I just signed a publishing contract for Standing Too Close and know I will have edits to work through on that coming up.  I need to finish A Stranger to Kindness before that so I can turn my brain to a different character voice while I edit.  Blue, the narrator of Standing Too Close is very different to Harley!

So my goals this week are mainly around trying to make some good progress on the book.  I'm planning to take Friday off to write, so that will hopefully be a good way to really dig in.

What are your goals this week?

  

Celebrate the Small Things 22-11-24

 

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 to do over the weekend, but I'm hoping to get a decent amount of writing time in too.  I'm also planning to take next Friday off work so I have a full day to write.  I think once I've done that, and had the weekend after, I'll be pretty close to being done with the draft, if not finished.

It's been a long journey with this book.  I had the first inkling of the characters and their story when I was finishing up the final draft of Standing Too Close.  It took a while for the details to really come together, but I think I started writing sometime in 2020.  I got a few chapters in and then lost confidence for some reason.  I think because of the main character being mute.  Writing a character who doesn't talk is challenging, especially for a writer like me who tells so much of the story through dialogue.

So I stopped working on it.  I wrote Guide Us during NaNo that year (or maybe it was 2021, I can't remember) and didn't exactly forget about Harley and Wolfe, but left them where they were.  I wrote the first draft of Guide Us in about 8 days, so it needed a lot of work to get it ready to be seen by anyone.  So it wasn't until earlier this year I managed to get back to A Stranger to Kindness and realized I was ready to write this book now.

So I have.  Almost, anyway.  Not all of it has come out exactly the way I wanted it to, but there is room to write more and to polish things, change them, rewrite them.  And I will do all that.  I just need to finish the book first.

Oh, and I have started publishing some of my flash fiction and short stories over on Medium.  I figure they should have a life outside my hard drive, even if most of them are little prompt-driven exercises I write during my lunchbreaks at work  - I give myself 30 minutes to write a story in 1,000 words or less using prompts from a writing website I use. 

It challenges me to write outside my usual lane sometimes, and other times it give me a chance to explore characters from my books in a new context.  I don't often use much of what I write in these stories as part of the book, but it's a way to really bed into a character voice or to look at a scene or situation through a different character's eyes.  

Check out the stories I've posted here.  I'll put a new one up every Friday.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: White Oleander

This has been one of my favourite books ever since I first read it many years ago.  It's one of those books I lend to people all the time and never seem to get back.  So when I found a copy at the second-hand book stand recently, I decided to buy it to replace the three or four other copies I've owned and lost.  And then of course I had to re-read it to remind myself why it's one of my favourite books.

On a basic level the book is about a tense relationship between a mother and a daughter across a number of years.  Toward the beginning of the book, when the daughter, Astrid, is around twelve, her mother falls in love with a man who rejects her.  Enraged, she murders him.

Astrid then finds herself in the foster system, moving from placement to placement, bending herself to fit into each new family.  But she never fully escapes from her mother whose voice remains embedded in her soul and whose letters find her everywhere she goes.  

The book follows Astrid as she navigates her way through these different homes, each providing her with a different example of womanhood that she carries with her into young adulthood.

i think what I love the most about this book is the beauty of the writing.  I can only dream of being able to write such gorgeous prose.  But unlike a lot of beautifully written books, there's a compelling story with strongly realised characters that leap from the page.  Too often beautifully written books get so lost in the language, they forget to be great stories at the same time.

So I recommend this book wholeheartedly.  I would also recommend the author's duology about the Russian Revolution (I can't remember the titles off the top of my head, just the way I tore through both volumes in less than a week while on vacation one year).

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

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes--each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned--becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.

Weekly Goals 18-11-24

 I had quite a good writing weekend, but I feel like maybe the scenes I've been working on the last couple of weeks aren't right.  I'm not quite sure what I was trying to do with them, but now that I'm two chapters into this section, I'm wondering if it's the right thing for this part of the book.  I'll keep going though, even if I feel like I may end up rewriting this part later.  Or cutting it entirely and changing what happens completely.

But the goal this week is to keep writing.  I'm very close to finishing this now, even if I do think I'll be doing a bunch of editing.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 15-11-24

 

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!  Writing time!

I have been useless about taking the Fridays off I said I was going to.  I just keep ending up having stuff on on Fridays...  Maybe in two weeks I'll manage it.

On the plus side, I have nothing much planned over the weekend, so I intend to spend a good amount of time writing. I'm hoping I can finish up the section I'm working on and figure out a way to join it up to the ending part I already wrote.  Then I can polish up that ending, making it a little longer and more grueling for poor Harley to get there, write the epilogue (which I'm no longer entirely sure I need, but I'm going to write anyway because I feel like I need to check back in on this kid).

Then the first draft will be done.  I know there are places I need to go back to and clarify things, and there are a couple of chapters that are kind of sketchy and jump around a lot that might need some fleshing out, but it should be done before Christmas.  Which is my goal so I can leave it for a month or so while I enjoy my summer vacation, then come back with fresh eyes at the end of January.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Loved: The Getaway List

 

I've enjoyed all of Emma Lord's books, so it was a no-brainer to pick this one up when I was at the library.  And it did not disappoint!

The book follows eighteen-year-old Riley who escapes her hometown and her overprotective mother for a summer in New York with her childhood bestie who  moved there before high school when his mother's moviemaking career took off.  In the intervening years, Riley and Tom have remained in contact and have planned numerous adventures together, most of which have been cancelled by Riley's mom.  Which has led to them crating The Getaway List - a list of all the things they've wanted to do over the years.  And this summer in New York, Riley and Tom resolve to actually do them all.

Riley is determined to try and find the adventurous person she used to be again.  And she's certain Tom is the key.  He was always the outgoing one, the one who drew people together.  

Things grow more complicated when Riley arrives at Tom's apartment and discovers that not only has he grown up, but he's grown hot too.  They fall easily into their old pattern of friendship, but things aren't quite the same.  Tom isn't quite the same and Riley's feelings for Tom seem to have shifted from just being friends to wanting something more.

As they embark on completing the Getaway List, Tom and Riley meet new friends who they bring along on their journey, ticking off all the things they've wanted to do, and discovering a few more they never expected.

This was a sweet, fun read.  Riley is a delightfully chaotic character whose spirit has been squashed for several years and watching her grow into herself as an adult, rediscovering all the things she loved about her childhood, was a treat. And who couldn't fall in love with Tom?  He's funny and sweet and a little sad and you get the sense that he actually lost more of his spark than Riley did when the pair of them were separated.  This is a pair that are just made to be together and it takes far too long for either of them to actually come to that conclusion themselves.

Add in the delightfully madcap group of friends they make as they make the city their own, and this book is a terrific read.  I enjoyed it very much.

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

The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: One, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer, where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List ― a list of all the adventures they’ve wanted to do together since he moved away ― will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self, and pave the road to a new future.

Riley isn’t sure what to expect from Tom, who has been distant since his famous mom’s scriptwriting career pulled him away. But when Riley arrives in the city, their reconnection is as effortless as it was when they were young―except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

Inescapably romantic and brimming with Emma Lord’s signature cheer, The Getaway List is an uplifting and romantic read that will settle into your heart and never leave.

Weekly goals: 11-11-24

I actually got a little more writing time over the weekend than I expected to get, which was good. I still have a bunch of stuff left to write, but I'm getting closer to finishing. I even wrote the first draft of my query. Let me know what you think...

Dear Agent,

After a childhood spent bouncing between 13 foster homes, 15-year-old Harley’s just spent nine months in juvie and is on his last chance when he’s placed with a brother he never knew existed. Wolfe, who has managed to build a successful life despite his own turbulent past in the foster system, offers Harley a chance at stability—something Harley never thought he’d get. But as Harley steps into Wolfe’s home, he’s a nervous, broken shell of a boy, too afraid to unpack his bags, convinced he won’t be there long enough to make it worthwhile.

As Harley struggles to find his place in this new world, he fights the overwhelming fear that if Wolfe learns the truth about his past—about who he really is—it will destroy any hope of a secure future. Then, in a new school, he meets Meg, a tough yet kind drummer in a punk band, who sees through his walls and offers him a rare sense of belonging. But when Meg warns him about the bad crowd that’s already starting to pull him in, Harley ignores her advice, hoping these friendships will finally give him the connection he’s always craved.

When his choices lead to violence, Harley’s relationship with Wolfe is pushed to the breaking point. Now, Harley must face the consequences of his actions and summon the courage to speak up for himself, even if it means revealing the long-held secrets he’s sure will ruin everything.

A Stranger to Kindness is an X-word contemporary YA novel that explores trauma, family, and identity through the eyes of a boy struggling to find his place in a world that has never given him a home. It will appeal to fans of Andrew Smith and Laurie Halse Anderson.

After moving to a new country every two or three years throughout my childhood, I now live (and write) in New Zealand. My short stories have appeared in Halfway Down the Stairs, Residential Aliens, The Barrier Review, A Fly in Amber, Everyday Fiction and numerous anthologies including recent Voyage YA anthology Just Above Water. I have published five YA novels with a small press and am a contributor to writing blog Operation Awesome, offering weekly advice to writers as agony aunt, O’Abby.

Per your guidelines, you will find the first X chapters and a synopsis below.

Thank you for considering my work. I look forward to the possibility of working together.

Warm regards,

Kate

Would you want to read this book?

My goal this week is to keep going, keep writing. I figure I have about three chapters to write in the middle to connect things up to where I skipped forward. Then I need to re-work the ending to make things a little tougher for my characters and write the epilogue. And I think that's all there is left to do.

I'm sure there will be more that will come up as I edit and as my crib group keep reading, but I'm getting there...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 8-11-24

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 the first full work week I've had in a couple of weeks, so I feel like I need the weekend!  Although I do I have a bit of gym work I have to do over the weekend.  Every three months or so they release new material across all the fitness programmes and as an instructor, I need to go to a team training on Sunday to go through the material for the classes I'll be teaching from the 19th.  It's going to be hard because I'll be doing a 50 minute class and a 30 minute class back to back.  Not something I do normally!

My critique group continue to like  A Stranger to Kindness which makes me feel so much more confident to keep writing.  I do love this book and these characters.  Even the shitty ones...

I suspect I won't get a whole lot of writing done over the weekend, but I am planning to take the next couple of Fridays off to really dig in and get this book finished.  I feel like I need to make things worse  at the end of the book - what I've already written is good, but the situation gets tied up too quickly.  I think Harley and Wolfe need to suffer a bit longer.  

But on the plus side, I think I've come up with a good plot point for the middle of the book where I was stuck for a while.  So I'm hoping to get to that part of the book over the weekend if I get any time to write.  Why are weekends so damn short?

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - November

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

The awesome co-hosts for the  November 6 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Lisa Buie Collard,  Kim Lajevardi, and JQ Rose!

This month's question is a goodie!

What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?

I have a bunch of things I do when I'm not writing. I'm a creative person and writing isn't my only creative pursuit, although it is probably the one I consider my main creative outlet.

I enjoy cooking and find that very creative when I have a decent amount of time to put into it. Day-to-day cooking for the family isn't really creative - it's more of a grind, especially when one of more family embers is likely to turn their nose up at whatever is put in front of them. But experimenting with flavours and textures and throwing different combinations of ingredients together to see what works and what doesn't can be very creative.

I like making bread too, and again, playing with the flavours and hte shapes and the textures. Cakes can also be fun and creative, especially if you ice them and take your time with the decorations. I love a cake that is both beautiful and delicious.

I also paint. A few years back I discovered pouring as a painting technique and have had a lot of fun playing with different techinques to get designs I like. I'm still not that great with the blow-dryer - I see people in videos making beautiful painting using the blow dryer, but I have never been that successful with this one. I think I may not thin my paints enough to get them to move smoothly. Something to work on over the summer, maybe!

I do other crafty things too sometimes. Usually around Christmas when I try to always make presents rather than buying things. I also often make my own wrapping paper to wrap the gifts.

I also love clothes, especially second-hand or vintage clothes. Some people would call my dress sense eccentric, but I prefer to call it creative...

I'm fascinated to hear what other people do to keep themselves creatively charged when they're not writing, so let me know in the comments.

Weekly goals 4-11-24

 I had a pretty good writing weekend and filled in a bunch of scenes that I'd left unfinished or places I felt needed a little more filling out.  There is still a way to go, but I'm still feeling positive about it.  The book's at just over 55K now, so I have plenty of space for the extra stuff I need to write in the middle as well as the ending and epilogue that I still need to write.

I've made another 10 chapters available for my critique group, so I will be interested to get their thoughts on things as they progress.

So my goal this week is to just keep going.  I need to think of some cruel prank for some of the characters to play and I'm a little stumped on that one, but I'm sure I'll think of something, even if it is just a temporary solution until I come up with something better.

I'm teaching my first full spin class on my own tomorrow morning and have a permanent place on the roster now.  Tuesday mornings are mine for the foreseeable future.  I need to spend a little time this week making sure I really know the new release before we debut it in a couple of weeks.  Then I need to make sure I learn another class to teach once the new release period is over.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 1-11-24

 

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

What am I celebrating this week?

It's been quite a week.  My younger son finished high school and interviewed to go to drama school next year to study stage management and my older son moved out.  So big changes around here!  I suddenly have a spare room I can turn into an office so I have an actual writing space.  But have I moved my stuff in there?  No, of course not.  I'm far too used to working here, in the kitchen.  I will try it out over the weekend though. 

I'm very close to hitting the end of my book, so I hope to get through that over the weekend.  Then I can go and fill in all the places I've left gaps so I could jump forward and write the stuff I knew needed to happen.  I'm confident I can get this finished by the end of November.  Then I'll take a break for a few weeks and come back to it with fresh eyes in the New Year.

It feels good to be in this place.

What are you celebrating this week?