Weekly Goals 17-2-20

I didn't get much writing done last week so this week is still about finishing the book I've struggled to finish.  I don't think I'll get a lot of writing time this week either, especially since I'm going away this weekend, but I'll do what I can.

And that's about it for this week...  Not exciting is it?  Wish I had something more I could offer, but when I'm busy at work, I have to keep my goals limited or I'll be disappointed with myself when I don't meet them.

What are your goals for the week?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-2-20

This post is part of Lexa Cain's blog hop, Celebrate the small things. Head on over there to sign up!

What am I celebrating this week?

Well, it's Valentine's Day, so I guess I'm celebrating love.  I don't really do Valentine's Day, but it's always nice to reflect a little about those you love and all the different kinds of love there are in the world.

Because Valentine's Day isn't just about romantic love, it can also be about loving your friends and about loving your family.

So celebrate the people you love, not just on Valentine's Day, but every day.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Sky Is Mine

I have really mixed feelings about this book. It deals with some really complex and relevant issues that need to be discussed. But I feel like it tries to cover too much for a single book and every one of the issues gets a little short changed as a result.

There's date rape, coercion, psychological and physical domestic abuse, sexting, revenge porn, abortion and more, all wrapped up between the covers of this single novel. All important topics to explore in YA literature, but maybe not all in the same book.

The central character is Izzy, and as the book begins, she's dealing with the fallout from a party where she got drunk, had sex with a guy she didn't like much who then shared photos of her in a compromising position all over their school. He claims to have more photos and says he'll share them if she doesn't continue to be at his beck and call.

To complicate things further, just getting out of her house is a challenge thanks to the man her mother married a few years back. A man who is both verbally and physically abusive to both Izzy and her mother. He's controlling and has them both so terrified they tend to jump when he says to, just to keep the peace.

And it doesn't help that Izzy's best friend has fallen in love and is far more interested in finding ways to spend time with her girlfriend than in hearing about Izzy's problems.

I thought this book was really well written. Some of the descriptions were beautiful, unusual and really evocative. I just felt like it was trying to cover too much ground, something that became even more apparent as I reached the end of the book and so many different threads needed to be tied up. Compared to the pace in the rest of the book, the ending felt rushed and wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping for as a result.

I think books like this are really important because they can start a conversation about things that are difficult to talk about. I just wish this one had focused on fewer issues because none of them really got enough room to breathe before being crowded out by another, competing issue.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance.

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

No one has ever asked Izzy what she wants. She's about to change all that...

In a house adept at sweeping problems under the carpet, seventeen-year-old Izzy feels silenced. As her safety grows uncertain, Izzy know three things for sure. She knows not to tell her mother that Jacob Mansfield has been threatening to spread those kinds of photos around college. She knows to quiet the grief that she's been abandoned by her best friend Grace. And, seeing her mother conceal the truth of her stepdad's control, Izzy also knows not to mention how her heart splinters and her stomach churns whenever he enters a room.

When the flimsy fabric of their life starts to unravel, Izzy and her mum must find their way out of the silence and use the power in their voices to rediscover their worth.

For fans of Sara Barnard, Louise O’Neill and E. Lockhart, The Sky is Mine is a powerful exploration of rape culture and domestic abuse, and a moving story of women learning to love themselves enough to demand to be heard.

Weekly Goals 10-2-20

After just about finishing the book last week, my goal this week is to actually finish it.  I don't know if I'm going to get a lot of writing time this week, but hopefully I can knock out the epilogue and then go back to the point I feel needs some padding out to make the pacing work.

And that's really it for this week...

What are your goals?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-2-20

This post is part of Lexa Cain's blog hop, Celebrate the small things. Head on over there to sign up!

What am I celebrating this week?

I almost finished the book I've been struggling with off and on since last year (longer if you remember I wrote the beginning of it in NaNo about 2 years ago).  I wrote the ending and am now just getting into the epilogue which I feel is needed.

It's not finished by a long shot, but having written an ending makes it feel like I can finish it now.  I need to go back and fill in a little bit in the middle where I think the pacing is off and events happen too quickly, but other than that, I think I may have something to share with readers soon.

I'm having a long weekend this weekend because Thursday was a public holiday and I took Friday off too to write.  The rest of the weekend is going to be busy with household chores, family and my son's band playing a gig at a local fair.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - February

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

This month's question is a good one!

Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

I can answer this with a definitive yes.  

I often use prompts to kickstart my writing, usually written prompts, but on occasion I have been inspired by visual prompts.  One of my first short stories to be published, Free, was inspired by a visual prompt.  It was a photograph of an old car with the driver's elbow, clad in leather, poking from the window.

The entire of my Beach House series of stories were inspired by photo prompts.  The Dock, by a photograph of a jetty protruding into the sea, The Kite by an enormous kite, trailing tails bobbing across the sky and The Mine Shaft by a picture of an abandoned mine, overgrown now, and almost invisible amongst the trees that had grown up around it.  The Treehouse, which is probably my favorite in this series, was even more complicated in that it was born out of a series of prompts, one photograph of a gnarled old tree, two words that needed to be used (I can't remember what they were now, I'm afraid) and a character with a broken leg.

But it's not just photographs or paintings that inspire me.  I work in film and I watch a lot of films.  Often something, usually a single scene or conversation, will inspire me.  The Sidewalk's Regrets was born out of a single line in a documentary about a guitarist friend of mine.  The whole book came to me, fully formed, almost overnight from that one line.  And the weirdest thing is, when I went back and re-watched the doco when the book was finished, I couldn't figure out what the line was that was the inspiration.

Stumped was also inspired by a documentary, this one about an Australian sex worker.  I had the pleasure of meeting her when the film had its first screenings in New Zealand and she was among the most inspirational people I've ever met.  As Stumped developed and changed with feedback from agents and publishers, the thing that she said in the film that inspired me to write the book in the first place ended up getting edited out because readers found it hard to believe.  Truth really is stranger than fiction...

Do you like to use prompts to kickstart your writing?  What works better for you, visual prompts or written ones?

Weekly Goals 3-2-10

Wow.  It's February already?  How did that happen?

I have a short week at work this week because there's a public holiday on Thursday and I've taken Friday off as well to get a four-day weekend.  And since the kids are going to be at school, that Friday is going to be a writing day.

I think I finally figured out how to end that book I couldn't finish last year, so that's my project this week - to write that ending.  I also think I need to write a little more in the middle of the book because things feel a little rushed in there.  But hopefully, by the end of the long weekend I'll have something to send to my critique partners.

What are your goals this week?