Celebrate the Small Things 30-10-20

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?

My partner and I celebrate our anniversary tomorrow.  It's not an important one - 23 years - but we're going to go out for dinner anyway.

NaNo starts on Sunday, and I'm excited to get started even though I'm still vacillating over whether to have my girls already in a relationship when the story starts, or if I need them to meet and get together.  I guess I'll just start writing and see what happens.  I can always change it later.

That's the beauty of NaNo.  You can write without worrying about getting everything right the first time.

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

Books I've Read: The Grace Year

 

This isn't something I would normally pick out to read, but I love Libba Bray's books and she blurbed this, so I thought I'd give it a go.  And I'm glad I did.

Set in a world that is kind of like the one in  The Handmaid's Tale, this book covers a little over a year in the life of Tierney James.  She's sixteen, and in her County, girls are sent away for their sixteenth year to "get rid of their magic".  Before they leave, they are betrothed to one of the eligible men in town and expected to come back and be good wives and mothers.

Only each year, only some of the girls come back and no one speaks of what happens during what they call 'the grace year'.  There are rumours of course - it can't be helped when the apothecary is filled with jars containing various body parts of untouched women that are used as medicine.  Plus one of the ways men living on the outskirts of the County earn money is as poachers who sell these girls to the apothecary.

Tierney expects the most difficult thing about the Grace Year will be the hardships of living in the woods, but is confident in her abilities in that area.  Her father has prepared her well to survive in the outdoors.  There are the poachers to fear too, but what Tierney doesn't anticipate is the other girls and the madness freedom from their constricted society brings on.  It becomes clear from the first night they spend away from their families that not all the girls will return.

I won't go into any detail as to what happens in the woods because that would spoil it for you.  But it is unexpected, even if some parts of the story don't make complete sense or feel unsatisfactory in some ways.  Overall, it was a real page-turner and I really enjoyed it.

Until the ending, which didn't feel entirely satisfying to me. But maybe I was expecting too much...  Or just something a little different to what actually happened.

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

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

Weekly Goals 26-10-20

 It's the week before NaNo begins, so this week is all about clearing the decks to make time and space for writing the new book.  That means finishing up anything else writing related so my focus can be entirely on the new book when I start next Sunday.

Unfortunately the weather has not been ideal this long weekend, so the gardening that so desperately needs to be done is still not done, but it will have to wait until December now.  Unless I get a few really good writing days in there and am way ahead.  Or if next Saturday is fine enough to get some done after the rest of the housework.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 23-10-20

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?

It's a long weekend!  Yes, it's Labour Day here on Monday so we have a three-day weekend.  

And can I say it is much-needed?

I feel kind of bad about saying that because obviously things aren't as bad here as they are in the rest of the world.  We're not locked down.  We just re-elected Jacinda as our Prime Minister and her party won enough seats to govern without having to partner with other parties.  COVID-19 is well managed and there is little to no community transmission.

But I still feel like I need and deserve a long weekend.

I don't have any serious plans for said weekend.  My partner and older son are both working, so it will just be me and my younger son for most of it.  It's the last week of our annual burger festival so I'm planning to take my younger son out for lunch tomorrow to sample one of the burgers.  I also plan to go to the library to get some new books to read.  And after not having had a haircut for almost a year, I've made an appointment.

I also plan to do some writing stuff and some housework and gardening stuff - so long as the weather co-operates.   And that feels like enough.  Especially since NaNo starts next weekend and I'm going to be starting a new book.  Yikes!

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Juliet Takes a Breath

 

This was an interesting read about finding your identity and why it's sometimes better not to meet your heroes.

Juliet is a Puerto Rican who has grown up in Queens.  She's just finishing her first year in college and hasn't yet come out to her family despite having a girlfriend she thinks is pretty serious.  She's about to leave for the summer to intern with the feminist writer who has changed her outlook and decides to come out before she leaves. Her mother won't speak to her which isn't the best way to leave home for the first time, but Juliet feels like she's done the right thing by telling them and heads to Oregon.

As soon as she arrives she feels like a fish out of water.  Harlowe is an ethereal, weird hippie and the work she sets her intern is vague and unstructured.  And then there are all the complicated relationships in Harlowe's life that Juliet becomes entwined with.

As the summer continues, Juliet's eyes are opened in many different ways. Her heart is broken and she learns that nobody is perfect, even writers whose ideas challenged you to change your way of thinking.

I loved the way Juliet grew during the course of this book.  She started out so clueless, but ended up with strength and wisdom that would carry her through the rest of her life.  She began as a child and grew into a woman who, while not wholly confident, was way more sure of herself than she was at the start.

If you're looking for a book which asks some big questions about identity and race and your place in the world, this may just be the book for you.

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

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff.

Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Is that even possible? Or is she running away from all the problems that seem too big to handle?

With more questions than answers, Juliet takes on Portland, Harlowe, and most importantly, herself.

Weekly Goals 19-10-20

 This week my goals are pretty simple.

I aim to finish the MS critique I'm doing for a friend.  I got just past halfway over the weekend, so I figure I can do the rest this week.

I have sent out a second batch of queries for Standing Too Close.  I also got my first rejection.  Does anyone else find it really freaky when you send out a query and get a rejection within a couple of hours?  I always expect it to take a couple of months!

I signed the contract for the new book to be published, and it looks like it will release in February or March 2021.  More about that later.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that edits won't come in until December so I can keep November free for NaNo.

I'm trying to work out my plan for NaNo.  I want to try and take a couple of days off work each week to work on it, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to.  I guess if I can get even a single day some weeks, that will help.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Thins 16-10-20

 

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?

It's the weekend!

I know, I know...  I celebrate that every week.  But this week I feel like I need a weekend more than ever.  It's been one of those weeks where I've had so many things I want to do and so many things I've committed myself to, and work has just got in the way.  I wouldn't mind so much if I was busy at work, but it's actually been a fairly quiet week, so I've been more frustrated by it than usual.

But this weekend will be about getting all those things done that I haven't managed to do during the week.  I have great plans to be very productive, so we shall see how I get on with that.  The weather looks like it's going to be terrible, so at least I won't need to feel guilty about not working in my garden this week.

What are you celebrating this week?