IWSG - May

 It's the first Wednesday of the month so it's time for....

The awesome co-hosts for the May 6 posting of the IWSG are Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, and Kim Lajevardi!

This month's question has me scratching my head: What is the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers?

I have, and have had, tons of amazing feedback over my many, many years as a writer, so picking the most inspiring is a really tough ask!

But I think when I get down to it, I always feel the most satisfied when one of my readers (and most of all one of my crit partners - she's tough) tells me I made them cry.  I know...  it's not usually a positive thing to cry, but my books tend to have heartbreakingly sad moments in them and when a reader tells me they cried, I feel validated.  I did a good job and nailed the emotional intensity the way I wanted. 

Realistically, it's not just crying either; I write emotional stories about people going through a range of things in their lives.  I want the reader to feel the giddiness of falling in love for the first time, or the joy of reuniting with a loved one they thought they had lost forever.  So, if a reader tells me they felt those emotions along with the characters, that's a win for me.

Weirdly, one of my crit group stopped reading my latest book because he found it too difficult to keep reading.  Is it strange that I felt almost triumphant about that too?  If he felt that deeply about the situation my poor Arlo was in, I must have done it right.  Admittedly, I feel like that doesn't bode well for trying to sell the book, but I feel like there are enough lighter moments in the story to carry it through the darkness.

I also really like it when people enjoy my description.  I try hard to balance my writing and give just enough description to allow the reader to understand the setting.  And if I can use description to give character details as well, all the better.  So, it's a real treat for me when readers tell me they liked my descriptions.  Apparently I'm really good with food...

What pieces of feedback have really resonated with you?

Weekly Goals 4-5-26

I had a busy weekend, so I didn't get any real writing done, just a 500 word story for a monthly challenge I take part in.  So, this week I need to write at least one more story for the collection I'm working on.  I also have a lot of gym work coming up, so I need to learn some classes for the new release week next week.

And... that's about it.  I expect a busy week at work because we have out of town concerts this weekend, but one of them is sold out already and the other is close to sold out, so I could be wrong about that.  I'm not going on this tour which might be a mistake.  One of the venues is one we've never used before.

I have a lot of mulch arriving for the garden sometime this week, so I'll need to get that out next weekend too.

And that's about it for my goals.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 1-5-26

  

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

And how is it already May?  It's my birthday in two weeks and it feels like we just had Christmas.

It has been a rather uneventful week which is probably worth celebrating.  I had a couple of new rejections for A Stranger to Kindness, but one of them was very lovely and articulated exactly why she was passing.   Amazing how a thoughtfully worded rejection can hurt so much less.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get much time to write a story, but I'll give it a go.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: 16 Forever

 

I picked this one from a list of books recommended to me by the Libby app when I was searching around for something to read on my phone.  And it was a fun read.

The book opens with Carter Cohen waking up, excited for his 16th birthday, certain his life is going to change today.  His first inkling that something is wrong comes when his annoying younger brother isn't hogging the bathroom as usual. And when he goes into his brother's room, it's strangely tidy.  Then, when he gets downstairs, his parents sit him down and explain that this is the 6th time he's lived this day - every year when he reaches the eve of his 17th birthday, he loops back in time and has no memory of the previous year he was 16.

In his last loop, Carter and Maggie fell in love.  She was hoping that telling him "I love you" on the eve of his birthday would be the key to him turning 17.  But, when he doesn't contact her that morning, she knows it hasn't happened.  Worse, at school, he doesn't even recognise her.  Unable to deal with the pain of being with someone who will forget her in a year, Maggie vows to pretend she doesn't know him.

But pretending is harder than she thinks it will be, and Carter senses something about her.  It becomes harder and harder for them to be apart, and more and more necessary because Maggie is keeping something a secret from everyone.

Over the course of the year, Carter and Maggie fall in love again.  But with college on the horizon for Maggie, and Carter's 17th birthday approaching again, can they figure out a way to keep him from forgetting her all over again?

This was a fun premise to start with, but as the problems Carter encountered got more and more challenging, the fun part of it got a little dark.  I mean, poor Carter woke up younger than his little brother!  And his poor parents, having to deal with a teenager long after they would have expected to have adult children who had left the nest.

There was some fun stuff in there, like the way Carter used his ID, with his actual birthdate, to legally buy booze and cigarettes and vapes for his friends.  Technically, not breaking the law..  But it was sad how he developed a talent one year, only to have lost the ability when looped again.  I can only see this as being a horrible way to live, no matter how much you enjoy being 16.

I enjoyed this book because Carter was a pretty fun character to spend time with mostly.  I didn't like Maggie so much, which was a shame because she's the POV narrator for some parts of the book.  I kind of understood where she was coming from, but there were places where she was unnecessarily cruel and that bugged me.

But if you're looking for something kind of light and fun to read, but with a little substance, you could do worse than this one.

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

It’s the morning of Carter Cohen’s 16th birthday, and everything’s going his way.

He’s psyched and ready to get his driver’s license, his little brother’s not hogging the bathroom, and, man, something smells good for breakfast…

But when Carter bounds downstairs, Mom bursts into tears. It happened again. It’s Carter’s 16th birthday—for the sixth time. Every time he’s supposed to turn 17, he loops back a year. His memory gets wiped clean, his body ages backward—the rest of the world moves on, just not him.

Maggie Spear, on the other hand, has been dreading this day ever since she and Carter started dating. When she spies him in the halls and he doesn’t seem to know her at all, it’s obvious that it’s over between them. She can’t be in a relationship with someone who is just going to forget her again and again. Since Carter doesn’t remember that they’re together, then it’s probably better if she just pretends that they never were.

Except Carter senses that there’s more to their story than Maggie’s letting on, and Maggie’s keeping secrets of her own—but in the process of trying to let the other go, they find themselves falling in love all over again.

With Maggie soon leaving for college and Carter’s birthday quickly coming around again, will they be able to find a forever that isn’t stuck at 16?

Weekly Goals 27-4-26

 I haven't managed to get as much writing done this weekend as I hoped.  The story I'm working on right now, just isn't singing and I'm kind of slogging through.  I may leave it unfinished for now and move on to the next one to see if that works better for me.  It's frustrating after having had such a productive day on Wednesday.

I guess I'll see how I go this afternoon.

I'm glad I've done as much as I have done already though.  The next couple of weeks are looking pretty busy and I may not have a lot of writing time available, so having a good buffer in terms of how much I've already written is good.  The end of June is not as far away as I think it is.

I'm teaching four classes a week for the next two weeks, so that's going to keep me busy, and that's on top of my regular job which is winding up into being very busy too..

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 24-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!  And it's a holiday weekend so we get three days!

I had a good writing day on my day off on Wednesday and drafted two stories I'm not entirely happy with, but can work on.  The bones are there for me to polish up once I've finished the others.  I hope to write another two over the weekend, if I can.  I don't have much else on this weekend, so I should be able to get enough writing time in to do that.

That said, I do want to do a bit of resting this weekend.  I taught five spin classes this week and am teaching four per week for the next two weeks at least, so I think I need to give my body a little time to recover.

We had some pretty heavy rain this week and my garden took a bit of a battering, so hopefully the weather will be good enough on one of the three days for met t get out there and do some work on tidying things up.  Thankfully we didn't get flooded like so many other people around town.  Which is kind of a miracle considering the house is on a flood plain.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Always Jane

I've read several other books by Jenn Bennett and have always enjoyed them, so when I saw this one, I thought I'd give it a whirl.  And I did enjoy it, despite there being a few things about it that bugged me.

Jane is the daughter of a chauffeur to a wealthy music producer and as such, she's lived a fairly privileged life in the big houses and summer homes he owns.  The summer house is at a lake town that is sleepy and quiet most of the year, but bursts into a hive of activity each summer as they host a legendary music festival.

The family behind the festival are the Sarafians, and Jane has long had a crush on the oldest boy, Eddie.  A couple of summers back, she and Eddie were at the town dam listening to music from a nearby club when Jane fell in and nearly drowned.  Now she suffers from aphasia, a disorder where she can't always find the words she wants.  But, on the plus side, since the accident Eddie has been attentive to her and she has been enjoying their long-distance relationship and looking forward to spending time with him at the lake over the summer.

So, it's a surprise when Eddie shows up at the airport when she arrives and says he's heading to the Philippines on business for his dad.  And when Jane wanders into the local vinyl store and meets Eddie's brother, she's surprised by his intensity.  Eddie has always been competitive with his brother and has never spoken kindly of Fen, so Jane is shocked by how likable this black-sheep brother seems to be.

Fen has long had a crush on Jane, and no more so since he pulled her from the water when she almost drowned.  And now she's back, and Eddie isn't there to overshadow him with his sweet talk and charm.  That he and Jane begin falling for one another is inevitable.

This was a good set up for a romance, the two brothers making two out of three points in a love triangle, but the fact Eddie left town in the first chapter or two, made it less effective.  I would have liked to see the brothers actually compete for Jane's affections, rather than Fen winning basically because he was there.  I also failed to see what was so great about Jane that she had both brothers falling all over her.

As a POV character, Jane was pretty thin.  She didn't have any real goal in the story and just kind of drifted through it.  There was some backstory about her possible parentage, but she didn't;t even seem that curious to find out if Mad Dog was her real father or not.

But it was still a fun read that kept me engaged all the way through.  The music festival setting in the background could have been played out more - that, for me anyway, was interesting, but it never really got used.

So, if you like sweet romances and love triangles, this one might be for you.  It's not perfect, but it's not a bad way to spend a few hours.

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

Eighteen-year-old chauffeur’s daughter Jane Marlow grew up among the domestic staff of a wealthy LA rock producer, within reach of bands she idolizes, but never a VIP. Every summer, Jane and her father head to the Sierras to work at the producer’s luxury lodge at Lake Condor—a resort town and the site of a major musical festival.

The legendary family who runs the festival are the Sarafians, and Jane’s had a longtime crush on their oldest son, Eddie—doltish but sweet. So when a long-distance romance finally sparks between them, she doesn’t hesitate to cross class lines.

But Jane’s feelings about Eddie are thrown into question after she returns to the lake and reconnects with his alluringly intense brother, the dark horse of her placid summer plans. A fellow lover of music—and hater of the game—Fen Sarafian has been ousted from the family and is slumming it at a vinyl record shop. He burns for Jane like a house on fire and will do anything to sabotage his older brother, even if it means taking a wrecking ball to a multi-million-dollar music festival. Or Jane’s heart.

Weekly Goals 20-4-26

 I managed to get a lot out of my short weekend and got everything done that I wanted to, even with having to work half of Saturday.  

I wrote the second story in my story anthology and I'm much happier with it than I am with the first one.  I'm sure I'll need to polish and tweak all of these when I'm done writing, but having something to polish and tweak is a start.

I've written the opening of the third story too, so I have somewhere to launch from when I start writing again on Wednesday.  I'm looking forward to having a full day to write and seeing what I can accomplish when I have that stretch of time to work.

Plus, I 'd forgotten this weekend is a holiday weekend, so I have an extra day up my sleeve.  If things go well, I could have five or six stories drafted by the end of the weekend - way ahead of the pace I thought I needed to set for this.  I might even have time to go to a movie as well!

Work-wise, this week isn't the most intense because we have no shows for a couple of weeks.  But I am looking into new systems and will have to make a decision relatively quickly to meet the timeframe we'd need to get everything up and running by September.  

What are your goals this week?

Celebrated the Small Things 17-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

Well, sort of.  I do have to work on Saturday because we're running a school holiday program at the museum.  It's going to be crazy - both sessions are sold out with over 350 kids in each. Although, the weather is supposed to be horrible on Saturday, so we may lose a few people to that.

While that's not going to take my whole Saturday, it's definitely going to cut into my leisure time, so writing this weekend might not be as productive as last weekend.  But all is not lost!  Because I'm working this weekend, I'm taking Wednesday off and plan to go to the library to write all day.  I think I should be able to draft at least two stories in that time, if I'm lucky.

Nothing much else to report here.  It's that time of year where winter is just about to kick in, but we still have some gorgeous days that feel summery.  I don't think that's going to last too much longer though.  I probably only have another three to four weeks left in which I can ride my bike to work.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Rent a Boyfriend

 

I'm a huge fan of Gloria Chao.  I discovered her first book, American Panda, before it was published and she entered parts of it in a contest I was slush-reading for.  The voice and humor just leapt off the page.  I can't remember if she won the contest or not (I think she did), but it was not a huge surprise when the book was published.

Rent a Boyfriend mines similar ground in that it's about the massive divide between an American-born Chinese girl and her very traditional Chinese parents.

Chloe (or at home, Jing Jing) is at college in Chicago.  With the holidays looming, she's terrified about going home to California and facing her overbearing parents who have basically promised her to the worthless son of a wealthy family in their community.  In an attempt to put the brakes on this arranged marriage, Chloe uses a company called Rent for Your 'Rents and hires a boyfriend for the holidays - Drew, who arrives as serious, studious Andrew.

Her parents aren't entirely convinced that her relationship with Andrew is real, and are not sure he's from a good enough family to support her the way they want her to be supported.  There's friction, fighting and some hilariously bad food involved.  And somewhere in that mess, Chloe and Drew begin to have feelings for each other.

With the arranged marriage still on the table, Chloe hires Drew again for the next holiday and the lies begin piling up as she blows her entire family's lives apart.  And somewhere, within all this chaos, she and Drew fall in love.

Drew's family have basically disowned him for not following their dream for him becoming a doctor or lawyer or architect.   Instead, he dropped out of college to try and become an artist, something that is not going well because he doesn't have the confidence to show anyone his art.  If Chloe's parents find out the truth about Drew,  they will definitely not trust him with their daughter's future.

As Chloe and Drew grow closer, she gives him the confidence to try and move forward with his art while he shows her that she doesn't have to give up her Chinese side to have a happy life.

This was a deeply uncomfortable read.  Chloe's parents are so well drawn with their traditions, superstitions and neuroses.  To anyone not familiar with Chinese culture, they could be seen as borderline abusive, but if you understand, you can see it's just their way of showing their daughter they love her.  Unfortunately, Chloe has been brought up n western culture and doesn't want the things her parents want for her.

Drew's character was kind of under-written in many ways.  He lacked direction, I think.  If he dropped out of college to pursue art, he should have been pursuing it, rather than hiding it in his room, too afraid of failure here too to even make an attempt.

Yet, despite being somewhat under written in places, the book felt too long.  There were several places it could have ended and didn't.

I didn't dislike it, but there was definitely some tightening that could have been done.

But if you enjoy reading about cultural clashes and people finding the strength to defy their parents and go their own way, this is a good place to start.

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

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.

Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.

Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.

When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.

But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?

Weekly Goals 13-4-26

 I drafted my first story for this short story collection over the weekend.  It's not great.  I was on a real roll with it on Saturday, but when I came back to finish it on Sunday, I'd kind of lost what I was trying to do.  I guess I'm so used to writing fast flash fiction where the story just comes out in a burst, stopping in the middle was kind of a mistake.  On the plus side, I know what I need to do to fix it.

My goal this week is to write at least one, probably two more stories.  The timeframe for this contest is pretty tight, so I need to work fast.  I figure if I get rough drafts of all the stories done quickly, then I'll have some time to polish and finesse them before they're due.  

I'm working this weekend, so I plan to take a day off during the week next week and if things go well, I should be able to draft at least two, if not three stories that day.

I should find out tomorrow if I've won another contest I entered.  It's exciting (and a little nerve wracking).  I don't expect to win, but it would be nice...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 10-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

I have some writing stuff to do, so I'm glad I'm not away or otherwise occupied this weekend.  I signed up for a writing challenge where you have to write a short story of up to 2500 words for each song on an album.  As someone who has been quite obsessive about music since I was young, this was a challenge I couldn't pass up!  It closes at the end of June, so I have just over 2 months to write my stories - 14, because the record I chose has 14 songs - which is both a very short time and quite a long one when you consider that I usually write a 1000 word story every day.

I have a theme for my stories, and after listening to the record again yesterday, I think I have some ideas for the stories in this loosely connected collection.  I'm setting it n a psychiatric hospital and while I initially thought I might write some horror or supernatural stories in that space, the ideas that have come to me are all characters, so I think we're probably looking at a collection of stories about different people in that space.  

But, it's early days yet, so that may change as I write.

It means the new novel I was planning to start is kind of on the back burner, but I don't think that's a bad thing because it hasn't really started coming together in my head very well yet.  Maybe by the time I finish this other project I will have a better idea.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Last to Let Go

I really enjoyed a previous book by Amber Smith, so when I saw this on the shelf at the library, I jumped.  And I was not disappointed.

Brooke feels like her life is about to begin for real.  She's been accepted at a great school for her last two years of high school and feels like she is finally on track to live her dream: get a college scholarship and get out of town.  She has the grades and the drive and nothing is going to stop her.

Then her mother is arrested after murdering her father.  

It's a shock.  Her dad has always been abusive, but Brooke never thought her mother would do anything but forgive him and make excuses the way she has for years.  No one knows exactly what happened, even Brooke's younger sister who saw the whole thing happen.

Suddenly, Brooke's world is in turmoil and rather than getting through her summer reading list, she's staying with her mother's best friend she never knew existed, picking her sister up from a therapist's office and meeting a grandmother she's long assumed to be dead.  Plus, dealing with her older brother who fled the house a few years earlier to move in with his girlfriend rather than face their father's continual abuse.

I thought this book was very realistic in the way it portrays the long-term effects f living in an abusive home.  Brooke has always hated her family's dynamic, yet is the most unable of her siblings to give up on keeping the family together as best she can.  When she forces her brother to move back into their apartment and act as guardian to her and her sister, I knew it was not going to work out.

Alongside the family struggles, Brooke's clumsy attempts at first love and finding friends at her new school plays out in a very realistic way.  As someone who has been keeping their home life struggles a secret her whole life, Brooke's inability to open up to the girl she likes is wholly realistic.  And as the secrets pile up, her increasingly desperate attempts at holding what's left of her family together have a devastating effect on not just her, but everyone around her.

It's not an easy read.  It's actually quite harrowing in places, but that's what makes it so strikingly realistic.  Brooke is so stubbornly a teenager, despite all the responsibility she takes, and her inability to foresee the consequences of her actions is very realistic.

So, I'd recommend this one if, like me, you enjoy gritty, realistic stories about characters going through traumatic things.

But don't just listen to me.

Here's the blurb:

How do you let go of something you’ve never had?

Junior year for Brooke Winters is supposed to be about change. She’s transferring schools, starting fresh, and making plans for college so she can finally leave her hometown, her family, and her past behind.

But all of her dreams are shattered one hot summer afternoon when her mother is arrested for killing Brooke’s abusive father. No one really knows what happened that day, if it was premeditated or self-defense, whether it was right or wrong. And now Brooke and her siblings are on their own.

In a year of firsts—the first year without parents, first love, first heartbreak, and her first taste of freedom—Brooke must confront the shadow of her family’s violence and dysfunction, as she struggles to embrace her identity, finds her true place in the world, and learns how to let go.

Weekly Goals 6-4-26

 It's a concert week this week, so it's going to be busy at work.  Especially with the short week.  Plus, I'm teaching an extra class at a different gym as well.

As a result, I'm nt going to put a lot of pressure on myself with goals.  I planted a whole bunch of new stuff out the front of my house, so my goal is to keep it alive if I can.   I haven't had a great track record in that particular part of the garden and picked plants that I think will be hardy enough to survive the winter, but they will need watering and maybe some fertilizing to keep them healthy.

I haven't started writing the new book yet.  Unusually for me, I know how it starts, but everything beyond that is a little vague and I feel like I need to know more about what happens after the start to be able to keep going.  So, I'm sitting on it.  I'll write that first part soon, but I know there's a second character who's important to the story and I'm beginning to think she may need to be a POV character too to make this story work.  I think maybe having the whole this in the MC's voice might be too much.  So, I need this other character to introduce herself more fully so I know her deal.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 3-4-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!  And it's a long one!  Four days because of Easter.

I have a few things I need to do over the long weekend.  When my house got painted, the painters wrecked my garden with their ladders so I had to pull everything out.  This weekend I'm going to get some new plants and get them in the ground.  I also have a screenplay to read for a friend and give notes on.  Plus, a monthly flash fiction challenge to write and maybe start the new book that's beginning to clamor for attention. 

I won't be bored.

I saw a new film, The Drama, which I enjoyed.  I love a good character study and this film was a great example of exploring why and how people do things in specific circumstances.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG: April

 It's 1 April so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for this  posting of the IWSG are Melissa Maygrove, Cathrina Constantine, Kate Larkindale, and Rebecca Douglass!

This month's question is an interesting one:

If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

I usually don't listen to music while I'm writing, and if I do, I listen to music without lyrics or with lyrics in a language I don't understand.  I also don't find I have a particular playlist for a specific book most of the time.  With a few very important exceptions.

The Sidewalk's Regrets had a soundtrack, but it's a book about music and falling in love with music.  The specific album I thrashed while writing that one was Teenage Snuff Film by Rowland S. Howard.

Guide Us also had a soundtrack, but a very different one.  That book was fueled by musical theater songs.

The rest of my books don't really have specific songs associated with them, although I guess you could say Standing Too Close was partially inspired by the Police song Don't Stand Too Close to Me. The title anyway.  And the fact there's an inappropriate teacher-student relationship in there.

Mostly, if I listen to music while writing, I listen to a playlist of classical music I call Classical Music for Metalheads.  It has all the really bombastic classical music moments, the ones that show the clear line between classical and metal.  It's great for amping up the energy.

Or, I listen to Arabic music which is achingly beautiful even though I can't understand the words at all.

And, I love Elgar's cello concertos.  They're amazing to write to.  So many different textures and emotions in there,

I have a new book brewing in my head right now.  I'm not sure if I'm a good enough writer to tackle it because the main character is going to be a huge challenge to write.  I need a little more time for him to settle (why do all my main characters at the moment seem to be boys?) in my brain, and there are some other characters that haven't fully revealed themselves yet.  I wonder if this book will have a playlist. and if so, what it might be...

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you write?   Do your books have playlists?

Weekly Goals 30-3-26

 After working for a big chunk of the weekend, I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to go back to work today.  But, there's going to be stuff that needs doing and fallout from the weekend that needs cleaning up.  If I can get through most of the stuff that needs doing quickly, I might take Thursday off - give myself a Nic long weekend because it's Easter.

If I do manage to take Thursday off, I think I'll go and write, see if I can figure out the voice for this new story that's nibbling.  Once I find the character voice, the story will come through.  There are a few scenes I know I need, so I can write those and wait for the rest.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 27-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

Well, except it isn't really for me.  I have to work this weekend because the orchestra is going to Christchurch and I'm going with them.  I haven't been to Christchurch for many, many years - more than 20, I think.  Definitely not since the earthquakes.  So, that should be interesting.  One of my colleagues from the Film Commission has moved down there recently, so I'm going to catch up with her in the afternoon, before I have to go to the venue.

I finally had an idea for a new book.  It's a little like A Stranger to Kindness in that I'm not sure I'm a good enough writer to pull off the character that's coming into focus, but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Weirdly, I'm also thinking this one needs to be in third person present tense which I've never attempted before.  It's not one I particularly like reading so it's weird that this story feels like it has to be written that way.

But, I've done this enough times now to know not to argue when my brain starts putting things out there.  I just have to go with it and see how things turn out.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Careering

I really related to this book on so many levels.  It's about a very specific time in life, one I remember very vividly and kind of perfectly captured the emotion of that time.  

Imogen is in her twenties.  Not the early part either.  She's wanted to work in magazine publishing forever and has done the hard yards, interning and being a junior and working without pay to get that valuable experience while working menial other jobs to pay the rent.  Her real love, writing, is channeled into her blog which she writes between her jobs in a factory, a pub and her internships.

Harri is on track to be the editorial director of glossy fashion mag, Panache.  Until she isn't.  The company is taking the magazine in a new direction and Harri and her years of experience aren't needed.  To soften the blow, she's offered the chance to start a new online product for younger women: The Know.  She thinks the outrageous content on Imogen's blog might be just what this new product needs and invites her to be part of her new team.

Imogen is thrilled.  As an intern at Panache, she's long admired Harri and thinks all her dreams have come true.  Especially when one of her first stories for The Know goes viral and puts the new product on the map. 

It seems like a fairy tale but why is Imogen still so unhappy?  And how can Harri impress upon the business owners that she does know what she's doing with this?

Following two women at opposite ends of the their careers, this book explores ambition in an interesting way.  It also shows how cold and uncaring business can be, where even huge successes aren't enough to be praised because that level of revenue needs to be maintained.

I related to Imogen's struggle because I remember that time of life very well.  Working three jobs, just to get a foot in the door of the industry I wanted to be a part of while struggling to support myself doing anything else.  Working long hours for nothing - in my case it was for a film festival - because it was something I loved and believed in and wanted so much to be a part of.  And the disillusionment when that thing I wanted so much, wasn't quite what I thought it might be.

Harri's story also resonated - that realization that you've worked your whole life for something that doesn't really belong to you at all.  That doesn't care about you and will go on without you after you're gone.  I've never been in quite that position, but I've certainly been in jobs where I knew I'd be forgotten five minutes after I left.

So, while I enjoyed the content and premise of the book, I really didn't love the characters.  Which kid of ruined it for me.  Imogen was kind of whiny and judgmental.  She felt privileged, yet pointed out everyone else's privilege and whiled about how she'd grown up with nothing.  And the way she treated her parents and friends was appalling.

On the other hand, Harri seemed totally unaware of the effect her actions had on her staff and how terrorized they felt by her.  As someone who had lived the struggle they'd been through, I'd have thought she might have more compassion - even with the evil overlords from head office breathing down her neck.

So, reading this was a mixed experience.  I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend it, but I didn't hate it.

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

Imogen has always dreamed of writing for a magazine. Infinite internships later, she dreams of any job. Writing her blog around double shifts at the pub is neither fulfilling her creatively nor paying the bills.

Harri might just be Imogen's fairy godmother. She's moving from the glossy pages of Panache magazine to launch a fierce feminist site, The Know. And she thinks Imogen's most outrageous sexual content will help generate the clicks she needs. But Imogen's fairy-tale ending soon sours as she finds herself putting more and more of herself into writing for a company that doesn't care if she sinks or swims.

Neither woman is aware of the crucial thing they have in common. Harri, at the other end of her career, has also been bitten and betrayed by the industry she has given herself to. Will she wake up to the way she's being exploited before her protégé realizes that not everything is copy? Can either woman reconcile their love for work with the fact that work will never love them back?

Weekly Goals 23-3-26

 It's going to be a busy week with the season opening on Thursday, so I'm not going to make too many plans for the week outside work.  Especially since I go back to teaching at the gym this week as well.  I did a full spin class yesterday, and while I probably wasn't up there in terms of the gear I put on, I did make it through.  Which gives me hope that I'll be fine teaching my 30 minute class tomorrow and Thursday.

I also plan to ride my bike to work as much as I can this week too.  Getting my fitness back is very important to me and daylight saving ends in just a few weeks so I want to get as much riding in as I can before it gets too dark in the evenings.

Still haven't got any burning idea for a new book, which is unusual.  I think maybe my brain is telling me I need to take a break after writing two in such quick succession.  I'm getting quite a stockpile of unsold books piling up in my hard drive!

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a long week, so I'm looking forward to a little down time.  The orchestra season starts next week, so it's going to be busy from now until December.

I rode my bike to work for the first time since my surgery and it felt good.  I did feel a little tired and sore when I got home, but not too bad and I didn't hurt the next day.  This weekend I plan to do a spin class too, just to make sure I can before I go back to teaching on Tuesday.

I've managed to write flash fiction four out of five days this week, which is pretty good.  Not sure I'll be able to do the same next week, but we shall see...

The new (well, the old library that's been closed for earthquake strengthening since 2019) opened this week and it's a really beautiful space.  I can't wait to go and spend a day writing there.  And they have all but my newest book on the shelves in the YA section.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Daisy Darker

Set over one night in a house on a remote island only accessible at low tide, this was a very creepy little thriller.

After many years apart, Daisy's family gather at Nana's house to celebrate her 80th birthday.  As kids, the three girls spent a lot of time here, especially after their parents divorced, yet their memories of their time on the island are not all sunny and fun-filled.  So, each family member arrives with a lot of baggage (and I'm not talking about suitcases).

At midnight, when the tide is at its peak and the island is cut off from the mainland for the next 8 hours, Nana is found murdered in the kitchen.

As a storm rages outside, the family gather to try and figure out who could have done something so heinous.  When, an hour later, another body is found, it becomes increasingly clear that a killer is among them, determined to bump them off one by one before the tide goes out.

The book does a good job of weaving together the present-day mystery with their secrets from the past, creating an ever-ratcheting tension as the bodies pile up and the list of suspects narrows.

I enjoyed this one.  I always like a book with a compressed timeframe and a ticking clock. It really makes every detail important.  And in this book, there were so many details I kind of overlooked as being unimportant before the twist at the end revealed exactly how important they really were.

While definitely contemporary, this book felt like one of the old mysteries by Agatha Christie I read when I was a kid (I went through a period when I was 12 where I read everything the Queen of Crime wrote) and that's not a bad thing.  There's a reason why she was called the Queen of Crime.  And the setting was perfect for this kind of mystery where there's absolutely no possibility the killer isn't among the people in the house.

So, I'd recommend this for people who like a good mystery, especially one that takes place over a single night in a unique, creepy locale.

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

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

Weekly Goals 16-3-26

 I don't have a whole lot of goals this week.  

I got my RevPit entry in over the weekend, which was good.  I still don't think I've 100% nailed the formatting for that manuscript, but I guess it doesn't matter too much, so long as it' s readable and understandable.  It's just tricky because of the way it's written, it kind of demands to be formatted differently to a regular MS.

I have a busy week ahead of me.  The Arts Festival is over, but the Symphony season kicks off next week for the year.  I'm ahead of the game and have everything ready to go up until mid-July, but I should probably start looking at what I need to get done for the second half of the year so I can get a jump on that before things get crazy.

Otherwise, it's kind of a waiting game.  I have some manuscripts out with agents, a whole lot of unanswered queries out and I'm waiting for a new book idea to sweep me off my feet.  I just don't have anything big enough to start writing yet.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 13-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

I've had a busy week and dealt with some rather difficult people as part of it, so I'm looking forward to having a couple of days to decompress.

I'm getting my materials together to enter RevPit, a contest I have entered the last couple of years.  I've never won, but I have got some really useful feedback on my query and openings pages.  I'm going to enter Street Smarts this year, since it's the most raw of my completed manuscripts and could benefit most from a professional edit.  I hadn't really finished writing a query, or even started thinking about a synopsis until now, so that's going to be my weekend...

I got to go to the dress rehearsal of a beautiful dance work this week.  One of the pieces is by a very well known New Zealand choreographer and I saw a performance of it in the '90s when it premiered.  At the time, it was quite shocking and groundbreaking and made a huge impression on me.  Now, when so much contemporary dance has adopted these techniques,  it's less shocking, but still a very hauntingly beautiful piece.

I've managed to stave off the cold I thought I was getting, but my partner got hit hard.  I have my fingers crossed it was me who brought the germs into the house and that I won't get it now.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Bad Angel Brothers

I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux as an author, so when I saw this at the library, I just had to pick it up.  Even more so, because I always enjoy reading about the relationship between brothers.

Cal and Frank Belanger - known around town as the Bad Angel Brtothrs - could not be more different and their relationship is troubled from the time they are children.  Their mother dotes on Frank and feels he can do no wrong.  Cal does not agree, all too aware of the way Frank manipulates the truth and steals other peoples' stories to make himself look better.

As they grow up, their relationship becomes more distant.  Frank becomes a successful lawyer and a pillar of the community it their small hometown.  Cal becomes a geologist and works in the mining industry, usually outside the States.  Yet, despite the contentious nature of their relationship, Cal is constantly drawn home for visits with his mother and Frank.  Visits he tolerates, but rarely enjoys.

As they grow into middle age and are forced to deal with first their mother's decline and then her death, what has been a distantly unsteady relationship, becomes a full-blown war in which there can really be no victor.

I enjoyed this book.  Cal was a delightfully slippery narrator and I was kept wondering through most of the book if Frank was as truly awful as he was through Cal's eyes.  Especially since everyone else in their small town from their mother to random people on the street all seemed to think Frank was some kind of saint.  I started wondering if Cal was an unreliable narrator or if Frank really had this entire town duped into believing he was a good person.  It makes for compelling reading.

As I expect from Theroux, the sections about Cal's travel to far-flung places as part of his mining work were detailed and well-drawn.  And while demonizing Frank, Cal was under no illusions about his own failings as a man and a husband and father.  But, by the end of the book, you really feel Cal's pain as he struggles to find his feet in a life Frank has all but destroyed.

So, I'd recommend this one.  It's a distinctive portrait of two people and a lifetime of struggling to negotiate each other.

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

An evocative novel about two brothers whose rivalry as youths in the Massachusetts town of Littleford reverberates throughout their lives, with striking consequences. As they grow into men, they develop into very different people on very different paths - Frank becomes a successful lawyer, and Cal becomes a geologist - but they are constantly drawn back to one other. As they grow into middle age, their relationship reaches crisis point after the death of their widowed mother. The Bad Angel Brothers is an intimate portrait of family, resentment, and the bonds that shape our lives.

Weekly Goals 9-3-26

 I had a very busy weekend with Arts Festival shows and a powhiri and various other events, so now I feel like I need a weekend!   But, no rest for the wicked, as they say.  Thankfully, the cold I felt like I was getting seems to have changed its mind and gone away.  Must've been all the vitamin c and echinacea I've been taking.

It's going to be another busy week at work - when isn't it? - so I'm not going to set any really heavy goals for myself.  Especially since I said I'd help out the Festival with some front of house stuff since they're short staffed.

I haven't managed to get my daily flash fiction done every day recently; it's been more like four times a week, rather than six or seven.  This week I'd like to aim for five, but we'll see.  Time is kind of at a premium at the moment.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 6-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I made it through my first week at work and am feeling okay.  I suspect I may be getting a cold, but I'm trying hard to ignore it.  Maybe if I don't pay attention, it'll go away.  Not being able to do any exercise other than walking is beginning to get to me a little - walking takes a lot of time which I don't have.

The Arts Festival I worked for in my previous job is currently on and I've been to a few shows and have a few more to go to this weekend.  Saw a very thought-provoking one-man play called Nowhere which I thought was great.  Going to music things both nights over the weekend, and hopefully to a dance show during the week.

Got another couple of rejections for Stranger this week.  Maybe it just isn't the right time for this book, no matter how good it is.

What are you celebrating this week?

ISWG- March 2026

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

This month's hosts are PJ Colando, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Natalie Aguirre, so let's give them a cheer!

This month's question is one I'll be interested in reading other peoples' posts about:

What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book?

I'm actually pretty useless at releasing my books and I'm not ashamed to say it.  I have a company I work with (Itsy-Bitsy Book Bits if you want to know) who help with social media and stuff which I'm useless at.  They also have a big stable of in-house reviewers and that helps at release time too, especially since about 90% of the reviewers I approach directly usually turn me down.

Finding reviewers is usually the biggest part of my launch strategy and I spend a lot of weeks reaching out to bloggers and reviewers who read contemporary YA.  Most never respond, and the ones that do are  usually too busy with other books to accept anything new.  But I still feel like this is probably the best use of my time because reviews are so important when a new book is released.

I try to do some interviews if anyone will have me, and write some specific blog posts.  I also try to put together some kind of social media campaign of my own that's different to the stuff the company does - usually some graphics with the cover of the book and some quotes from the story and maybe some good early review stuff.

I make sure there's a page for the new book on my website with links to where to buy it, any good review quotes and other useful stuff to know about it.

And.... that's kind of it.  I don't have the budget to invest in ads or anything like that, and my publisher doesn't do much other than a couple of social media posts, so my books end up launching into a void.  My latest release also suffered from Amazon assigning it some truly bizarre keywords that hasn't helped that one at all.  I managed to get the non-fiction tag taken off, but it's still listed as sci-fi and fantasy which, as a contemporary novel about brothers, is probably not helping the right readers find it...

I'd be very interested to hear what other authors do to launch their books, especially if, like me, they don't have thousands of dollars lying around to spend on ads or billboards or anything like that.  So tell me what you do to launch your books into the world.  I'm listening!

Weekly Goals 2-3-26

 Ack!  It's March already?  How did that happen?

I'm back at work today for the first time since my surgery, so that's my main goal for the week - to get through it.  I have a few extra things to do too, since the Festival of the Arts is on and I have tickets for a few shows.

So, I'm not setting myself any writing goals on top of that.  It seems silly when I'm likely to be pretty exhausted by Wednesday...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 27-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I'm feeling much better after the surgery.  I haven't taken any pain meds since Monday and have been doing longer and faster walks every day.  I still don't feel 100% myself, but I think that might take a few weeks - I do still have four little wounds in my belly that are healing (and itchy as heck) and things inside are probably still settling down too.  I have to go back to work on Monday, so I'm going to try and keep resting as much as I can over the weekend so I'm ready.

Had a couple more rejections for A Stranger to Kindness. No new requests this week either.  I'm getting the new book ready to enter in a contest that will get me the chance to work with an editor if I win, so that's kind of my focus for the first part of March.  I need to come up with a compelling longline for that one...  What do you think of this?

Street Smarts is a platonic love story between Arlo, a homeless rent boy and Devon, the Catholic schoolgirl he rescues when the park is raided.

I feel like it could be snappier, even if that is the essence of the story.  I'm not quite sure how to wrap in that it's told through journal entries either, or if that's even relevant when it's clear once you see the first page.

Any (and all) feedback is welcome.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Really Good, Actually

 

I picked this one up at the library because it looked like it might be funny and light, and because the author was one of the writers on Schitt's Creek.  And while it was amusing in parts, It wasn't really as funny as I think the author thinks it is.

Let me just preface this review by saying I did read a large chunk of this book directly after I had surgery and was on a lot pain medication and probably a little doolally from anesthetic... 

The main character in this book is Maggie, a 29-year-old grad student and newlywed.  She and her husband have been together since the early days of college, but only decided to tie the knot about a yer ago.

So, it's a shock when Maggie discovers her marriage is over and she's facing life as a single woman again at such a young age.  After the initial period of inertia where she can barely lever herself out of bed, Maggie starts making tentative steps toward life again.  With help from her supportive group of friends and their group chat, a fellow newly-divorced woman and her tough, lesbian thesis advisor Merris, Maggie is determined to get back out there and grab life by the horns.

The book follows Maggie through this first post-divorce year as she tries to take up hobbies, moves house, experiments with dating apps and might just find a new guy she could give her heart to.

Some of the stuff she ends up in is quite funny, but in kind of a tragic way because Maggie herself is actually a truly tragic character.  She's completely lacking in any self-awareness, even as she's so totally wrapped up in herself and her self-improvement that she can't see anything outside her own sphere.  I found myself actively disliking her in so many places during the is book, especially the way she treated her friend group who were nothing but supportive of her.

And the way she constantly texted and called her ex everyday, even when he never responded was, again, tragic.  One of the most uncomfortable scenes in the whole book is one in which she goes to a couples therapy appointment, certain her ex is going to show up, when it's so obvious that there's no way he's ever going to do that.

But really, that's just one of many super uncomfortable scenes...

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this book, but to call it laugh-out-loud funny is a bit of a stretch.  It's a more uncomfortable, strained kind of laughter, when the odd moment of hilarity ensues.  I found myself cringing through a lot of it, humiliated on Maggie's behalf.

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

A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman’s messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™.

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there” sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call “happiness”. This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Weekly Goals 23-2-26

 Five days post-surgery and I'm feeling pretty okay.  I've been for a few walks - short and slow, but walks nonetheless.  I need to go to the library today, so that's a slightly longer walk again.

I'm not really setting any goals for this week other than to rest and recover.  I have this week off from work, then I have to go back, so I want to be as strong and rested and pain-free as I can be by then.

That said, there are a lot of hours in a day to fill and I can't just sit around reading and watching movies or I'll go a little crazy.  So, I'm aiming to write a flash fiction each day and to do reviews for my critique group, one a day this week.

I have a ticket to go to the ballet on Thursday, and I'm hoping to be able to go to that.  I had hoped I'd feel well enough to go to the first Film Society screening tonight, but that seems a little ambitious, I think,

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 20-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I made it through the surgery and am home.  Turned out to be a more complicated procedure than anticipated - apparently I was full of endometriosis as well as all the stuff I already knew about.  But it is over now and so far the pain hasn't been too bad.  I'm just really tired more than anything else.  So, I'm taking things easy and resting a lot.  I plan to go for a walk today though.  Not sure how far I'll get, but even if it's just around the block it will be good for me.

Planning to make the most of the time off I have and do a lot of reading.  I haven't tried sitting at my desk yet, but I'll do that today and see if maybe some writing and reviewing will help fill in the time.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Spare Room

This one was a frustrating read.  The main character was annoying and ignored so many red flags it's amazing she ever made it to adulthood.  

Set during the pandemic, Kelly and her fiancee are trapped in an apartment in a city they're new to and where Kelly has nothing to do and no friends to call her own.  When Mike calls off the wedding they've been planning, she decides she needs a break and takes up an offer from an old high school friend she's recently re-connected with online to go and stay.

Sabrina is a best-selling romance author with a glamorous,  if mysterious, husband.  They have a spare room at their place in a gated community near DC and are happy to open their bubble to include Kelly and her cat, Virgo.

Kelly is enchanted by her hosts who are fun and sophisticated, if a little secretive.  The house is beautiful and the grounds give plenty of space to wander and exercise. So what if the neighbors act a little weird toward them?

One night, things get a little crazy and Kelly winds up as part of a threesome with her hosts.  It's exciting and risqué and offers Kelly something new that she never thought she'd do.  She finds herself falling for these two people who open their marriage to include her.

But things start to become weird when she discovers she's not the first person they've opened their marriage to and the first woman is now missing.  She starts to wonder if the people she's with are who they say they are and if, in fact, she's safe in this place she's never felt more at home in.

Kelly is a very frustrating character.  Throughout the story both Natan and Sabrina do things that throw up huge red flags about whether they are who they say they are, whether they're being honest or whether their intentions are what they say.  And every time Kelly ignores them, or brushes them away with some excuse.  She loves them, she claims after about three days in the threesome.  And apparently that is enough to excuse even the most suspicious behavior.

I didn't buy it.  I doubt many people would buy it.  I understand that the pandemic made it more difficult to get out of a situation like that, but when it was convenient for Kelly to be out of the house, she had no problem finding a hotel to stay in.  Plus, she go out of her home bubble with her fiancé in the first place.  Not a good enough excuse.

Not to mention, Kelly isn't as good a person as she claims to be.  She snoops through peoples' things and makes judgements on them without all the facts in place.

So, yeah.  I didn't like this one much.  I think it's supposed to be a sexy, provocative thriller, but it didn't;t work on any of those levels.  It wasn't sexy or nearly as provocative as the author probably thinks it is, and the thriller part wasn't very thrilling.

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

Staying with a friend and her husband is sexier—and deadlier—than anyone could have imagined, in this provocative domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here. 

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.

When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.

At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.

Packed with Andrea Bartz’s signature tension, twists, and toxic relationships, The Spare Room marks an edgy, boundary-pushing new direction from the “master of the ‘feminist thriller’” (Los Angeles Times).

Weekly Goals 16-2-26

 I'm having surgery on Wednesday, so I'm not making too much in the way of plans or setting any real goals for the week.  I don't know how I'm going to feel or what I'm going to be up to doing, so it seems silly to set a whole bunch of goals I might fail to meet.

So, my main goal is to get through the surgery and back on my feet as quickly as possible.  I only have 11 days off work so I'm going to use those to rest and recover and hopefully do a bunch of walking so I don't lose too much fitness.

I've taken four weeks off from the gym, but if I feel okay, I might go back sooner.  I guess I just need to listen to my body and not push myself too hard in any area.

If I'm feeling okay, I'll try to write flash fiction every day and do some critiques for my crit group each day.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 13-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a pretty crazy week at work, so I'm looking forward to a couple of days off.  Not that I can complain too much.  I'm having my surgery on Wednesday, so I'll have a couple of weeks off after that. I just have a lot to get done before then,

Only a couple of rejections this week, but no requests to balance them out I'm afraid.

I still don't have any burning idea for a new book.  Just something tickling around the edges, but I don't feel ready to start writing yet.  The characters haven't fully introduced themselves and aren't demanding I tell their story yet.  I guess I just have to be patient.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Just Friends

I got this one out of the library because I haven't read much YA recently and I miss it.  I thought it was a new book, read the whole thing, then discovered, when I went to add it on Goodreads, I'd already read it.  Have absolutely no memory of that at all.  Usually when I've already read something, it feels familiar and I'll remember at least a little bit about the story.  This one - nothing.

It's about Jenny, a smart girl who makes perfect grades and has very few friends and her friendship with the school bad-boy, Chance.  They meet by *ahem* chance in their oral communication class when they're paired up for an assignment.  Chance spins a lie that Jenny easily and eagerly picks up - she and Chance are childhood besties and have spent all their important moments together.

The lie is fun and soon spills out of the classroom and into the rest of their lives.  Jenny finds herself enjoying spending time with Chance who might not be quite the bad boy his reputation would have him painted as. Through Jenny, Chance gets a chance to live a more normal life than what he gets at home.  Through Chance, Jenny gets to experience all the high-school things she's seen on TV, but never experienced herself.

 The more time they spend together, the more true the story they've been spinning becomes - they really are best friends.  But maybe that's the biggest lie of all..

I didn't think this was a particularly well-written book and some parts of it really strained credulity.  Jenny's single mother is painted as being overprotective, but there is no blowback when Jenny and Chance stay out all night at an old barn.  More than once.  Chance's parents are supposed to be selfish and fight all the time, but we never really see that.

It's one of those books where miscommunication and misunderstanding provide all the conflict and you know the whole thing could be resolved- and is, toward the end of the book - with a single conversation.  Which is always frustrating.

So, while there is a fun premise here, the execution isn't great and I fund myself questioning the veracity of so many things the characters did and said.

So, I probably wouldn't recommend this one unless you're looking for something quick and easy to read in an afternoon for some reason...

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

A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.

Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.

Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads.

Weekly Goals 9-2-26

 It's going to be a busy week this week.  I have only nine days before my surgery so I need to make sure all the important things that need to be done at work are done before I'm off for two weeks.  Plus, I have a bunch of social things going on this week too and I'm teaching some extra classes at the gym.  Phew!  I'm tired before I even start the week.

I'm not sure how I'm going to feel after the surgery, but I'm hoping it won't be too bad I can use some of that time off to write.  I'm not sure what I'll write, but I can play a bit with the idea I have for a new book or work some more on the MG book I started last year, or just write flash fiction if that's all I can deal with.

So, this week's goal is to get all the stuff done at work so I don't have last minute panic next week.  And to think a little more deeply about this new story idea I have.  I can probably knock out a pretty decent hunk of a draft in two weeks if I can write a few hours each day.

What are your goals this week?