Jen's Blog
Monday Musings: My Dream Writing Cave
Monday Musings is a weekly event hosted by Jen Hayley, Shana Silver, and Chandler Craig that highlights some aspect of the writing life. Short on blog topics? Everyone is welcome to participate. All we ask is that you link to one of our posts and leave your link in the comments. We’ll provide the following week’s topic by Wednesday of each week.
Today’s topic: What is your writing space like now and what would your dream writing space be?
Well, for the past few months I’ve sort of been wandering around writing-space-wise, being in a foreign country and not really having a real place to myself. So, I haven’t really had a dedicated spot for awhile, which is new for me. Usually, I love having my own desk with my purple lamp and some bookshelves at my side. Back in New York, this is what my spot looked like:
My Old Writing Cave
Now I write where I can. On a couch, at a desk, in a chair, outside, in a tent, at a kitchen table, and even sometimes in bed, though I have a hard time staying focused there. It’s too easy for my eyes to droop. My favorite places to write, by far, are at a desk and in a comfy recliner.
Which brings me to my Dream Writing Cave. It’s nice, cozy room a bit similar to what I used to have, just expanded a bit. Lots of earthy, brown colors and a splash of purple here and there.
As for a desk, basically, I want Neil Gaiman’s desk.
Dream Desk
And then wall-to-wall bookshelves full of amazing books. Um, I also stole this from Gaiman.
Yes, please?
And, last but not least, a super comfy recliner for those days I like to write in a cozy chair with my feet propped up.
A fireplace would be nice, too!
What’s your dream writing space?
A Walk to Hilbre Island
Awhile ago, I took a trip to West Kirby beach here in the Liverpool area in order to take a walk across the soggy sand to an island. Yes, that’s right. A walk to an island.
At high tide, the water rushes right up to the shoreline, and the island can only be visited by boat. But during low tide, the water falls far back away, revealing a long stretch of beach. Enough of a stretch, in fact, that you can make the squishy, hour-long walk to explore the island. And then make it back. You have to time it right, though, checking the daily tide notice on the wooden signpost, or an unknowing hiker can find himself stranded there since the tide rushes back in fast when it does.
The beach at low tide.
Interestingly enough, there are a few homes on the island now, powered by solar panels and wind turbines. But, to me, most of the tiny plot of land feels a lot further from civilization than that short walk through the recessed waters. Even so, it’s believed to have been inhabited since as far back as the Stone Age, and there are still remnants of the busy trading port it become in the 1500s. A fading, broken dock ramp for boats. The stone skeleton of a building that resembles an inn.
The power source for the island.
My favorite parts of this little exploration were the nature aspects of it. At the base, there’s a small enclosure in the rocks. A small cave that isn’t really a cave at all, next to stone-carved steps leading up to the top of the island. From a distance, it made me feel as if I was walking onto the set of Lord of the Rings.
Bilbo is somewhere nearby.
On top of the island, there are rolling hills of tall, squishy grass that you almost sink into as you traverse across it. With the sun shining and reflecting off the ocean just in the distance, I just wanted to stretch out and read there for hours.
Perfect reading spot.
And then I found an even more perfect spot on a stone outcropping over the rocky shore below. Looking down, I could see the glimmering water and the moss-covered stones.
A view from a ledge.
The perch.
So, I just plopped myself down and wished I brought a book with me. Then remembered it was time to walk back. The water was beginning to push back against shores, and within the hour, the sand would melt away to blue.
The walk back.
Bookanistas: IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma
IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma (Penguin Young Readers, June 2011)
Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.
But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.
Have you ever read a book and been completely blown away? That is this book for me. Last week, I saw that there was a 75 page preview of the book online, and I read it all in about half an hour. I was sucked in, I was mesmerized by it. Not only by the kind of beautiful prose and voice that I envy and wish I had in my own writing, but also by the story of these two sisters, by the mysterious, magic-realism-type events happening, and by how different it is from anything I’ve read in a very long time.
So, Tuesday, when the book released, I promptly bought the e-book (since I am in the UK right now) and finished it up in one sitting. And then ran to my critique partner to talk about it, because it’s the kind of book you keep thinking about once you finish devouring the words. The kind you want to dig into deeper because it doesn’t spell everything out for the reader.
It is beautifully told. It is magical. It is creepy and haunting. It is full of characters so deeply drawn, you feel as if you really know them. And it is the kind of story that captures you and won’t let you go.
More Bookanistas Posts This Week
Beth Revis interviews Hourglass author Myra McEntire – with giveaway
Christine Fonseca and Rosemary Clement-Moore devour Bad taste in Boys
Shannon Messenger croons over Uncommon Criminals – with giveaway
Myra McEntire invites Possession author Elana Johnson into the Fort
Shana Silver gushes about Bloodlines – with arc giveaway
Stasia Ward Kehoe is stunned by Girl, Stolen
Writerly Treats: Chocolate Cupcake Cookies
I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m writing or revising, I’m a bit of a snackaholic. Lately, I’ve been making all my snacks from scratch, and it’s become such a regular thing, I thought it might be fun to share some of my randomly-put-together “recipes” for cookies, scones and chips (crisps to those British folks).
Today’s snack was put together when I realized I needed some cookies, but I’d run out of brown sugar and chocolate chips. Usually, I like to make the snacks completely from scratch, but there happened to be a box of Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Mix in the house, so I used that to create some soft chocolate cookies with a little chocolate icing on top.
What you need:
- Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Mix
- 2 eggs
- 30 ml Vegetable Oil (about an ounce)
- 25 ml Milk (again, about an ounce)
- 1 cup Flour
- Sprinkles
I started with the cupcake mix in the box. I’m pretty sure this is available in the states as well.
The box, for reference.
Then, I added the 2 eggs and the 30 ml vegetable oil (about an ounce or 1/8 cup) as stated on the box. I mixed this together well. At this point, I also added an extra cup of flour to get more cookies out of the batch (I ended up with about 18 medium-sized cookies) and to make the consistency more cookie-like. Mixed well again.
Important Note: I did not add the water the recipe on the box calls for. In retrospect, even though I’m very happy with how these cookies turned out, I wish I’d had some brown sugar to add, as I think about half a cup of that would have really made them perfect.
At this point, it was ready for baking! I just rolled the dough into small, round balls, as you would with any regular cookie batch, and baked for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) on a non-greased cookie sheet.
The dough after I'd baked over half of it. Those little white dots are the sprinkles from the box I decided to add for a little experiment. Tastes good!
While they were baking, I prepared the icing with the icing mix packet that came in the box. I simply mixed in 25 ml milk and stirred until I got an icing consistency.
After the cookies were done baking and had cooled for a few minutes, I spread a thin layer of icing on top and then lightly added some multi-colored sprinkles. And that’s that!
If anyone reads this and decides to try this out, let me know how it goes!
Final product!
Bookanistas: POSSESSION by Elana Johnson
There are two fun Bookanista things I want to share this week!
1. First, POSSESSION by Elana Johnson has been released into the world! Congrats Elana!
POSSESSION by Elana Johnson (Simon & Schuster Children’s / June 2011)
Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.
But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them….starting by brainwashed Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous: everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.
This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.
I was lucky to snag an ARC of POSSESSION a few months ago. I was very excited to read as I’m a big fan of dystopians, especially one with a feisty, resourceful heroine who’s breaking rules right in chapter one.
The book starts out running, and while I don’t want to spoil too much, Vi quickly finds herself in prison, sharing a cell with the intriguing Jag. I absolutely loved these scenes, and I couldn’t read fast enough to find out how the characters were going to handle being in this cell, if they were ever going to get out, how they would get out and what they’d do next…but you’ll have to read to find out. :p
There’s lots of fast-paced action, interesting sci-fi elements and plenty of romance. Definitely a page-turner, just how I like it!
2. The Bookanistas have put together a crazy, little video to congratulate Veronica Roth and DIVERGENT’s New York Times Bestseller list status! Congrats Veronica!
More Bookanistas Posts This Week
Elana Johnson and Stasia Ward Kehoe savor Bad Taste in Boys
LiLa Roecker celebrates The Summer of the Bear
Christine Fonseca has got a surprise for a Bookanista buddy
Beth Revis interviews Blood Magic author Teresa Gratton
Carolina Valdez Miller enjoys a special celebration
Jessi Kirby and Megan Miranda gush about Imaginary Girls
Bethany Wiggins is crazy about Delirium
Shana Silver sings praises for Starcrossed
Veronica Rossi hails Hereafter
Carrie Harris glories in Texas Gothic
Slowly but surely…
Have I mentioned how amazing my agent is?
After patiently waiting for the finished draft of my latest manuscript, she quickly read and turned around amazing revision notes that I may or may not have re-read about a thousand times. Seriously. I have been working on this novel for what feels like a very long time. I wanted to make sure I got this right, and it’s just been one of those stories I kept needing to step back from and analyze before moving forward. And I got to the point where I felt I had something solid, but I also felt like one aspect just wasn’t quite right. But I was too close to it, I had been staring at it for too long and I knew it was time to send the manuscript along to my agent. And she knew exactly what the story needed, though left it up to me on how I wanted to execute the change. I brainstormed with one of my critique partners and hit on a solution I got really excited about.
So, I’ve scrapped the opening and have rewritten what I think is a much better first few chapters. Revising really is my favorite part of writing a novel. It’s the part where you see your ideas getting fleshed out, tweaked into something stronger, into something more compelling, where the stakes get raised, the pacing tightened and the prose perfected.
Now off to revise the rest of this thing so I can get it back into my agent’s inbox.
Spanish Adventures
I’ve been a bit lax in my England blog posts and today’s update isn’t even about England. However, it IS about travel and the two weeks I recently spent overseas, specifically on the sunny coast of southern Spain.
Our first stop was a small village nestled in the mountains called Sanet y Negrals. I spent a week here, experiencing the quiet Spanish village life. There were a few small shops: a butcher, a florist and a tiny veggie shop with the biggest red peppers I’ve ever seen, but mostly the only sights and sounds were the horses trotting along the highway just outside the balcony. I spent the days here lazing in the sun and catching up on reading. I finally got around to devouring PARANORMALCY, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, I AM NUMBER FOUR and read my ARC of POSSESSION.
Sanet y Negrals
Quiet village streets
The next week, we moved on to Benidorm, a city right on the beach and a huge contrast to the small village in the mountains. Jam-packed with vacationers and full of restaurants and souvenir shops that reminded me a lot of Florida beach towns in the summer.
Benidorm beach
It was also incredibly British. No seriously. It’s full of more British pubs and restaurants than Liverpool. Everyone on the beach seemed to be a tourist from England. The bands who put on nightly shows were even mostly comprised of the English.
They sang lots of oldies.
The food was also surprisingly cheap. Our favorite restaurant was a British place called The Ship right on the beach that served a huge plate of delicious breakfast for only 4 euros. We’re talking the works: sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes, hash browns, toast, baked beans and eggs. I think we ate there every morning but one.
So, what else did I do in Benidorm? Spent some time on the beach both playing Chess and building a sandcastle replica of Gondor. Played some fooseball. Laughed a lot. It was a great trip, and I easily fell for Spain just like I’ve fallen for every place I’ve ever traveled to. There’s nothing quite like stepping off a plane and experiencing somewhere new for the first time. Travel, I love it.
I lost.
We built it during the day, but it still stood tall and proud and only slightly destroyed that night.
:)
Bookanistas: CLARITY by Kim Harrington
CLARITY by Kim Harrington (Scholastic/Point, March 2011)
Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It’s a gift.
And a curse.
When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case–but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother–who has supernatural gifts of his own–becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?
It’s been months since I devoured a book quite like I did with this one. It’s an intriguing page-turner that combined my two favorite genres - paranormal and murder mystery. And, in fact, it was the murder mystery that was my favorite part of this story and how it was solved Veronica Mars style using paranormal powers and, in the case of the spunky heroine, just plain smarts.
I also adored the characters, specifically the family that surrounds Clare. They’re quirky and lovable, and they each have their flaws, which make them even that much more fun to read about. I also thought the town itself was brought to life really well, and I loved all the fun details about what living is a tourist town is really like.
I’ve been looking for more teen sleuth novels told with a paranormal angle, and I absolutely can’t wait to read more in this series.
More Bookanistas Posts This Week
Elana Johnson reveals the cover of The Eleventh Plague
LiLa Roecker wonders What Happened to Goodbye
Christine Fonseca wants to be Like Mandarin
Jamie Harrington falls for Falling Under
Shelli Johannes-Wells visits Dark and Hollow Places
Beth Revis discovers Lost and Found
Carolina Valdez Miller is wild about Wither
Megan Miranda swoons for Anna and the French Kiss
Bethany Wiggins commends Ketura and Lord Death
Shana Silver gushes over What Happened to Goodbye
Carrie Harris is mesmerized by Memento Nora
Matt Blackstone visits The Ninth Ward
Corrine Jackson jumps for Bumped
Stasia Ward Kehoe spotlights Strings Attached
Celebrating The End
Last night (this morning?) at 3:30 a.m. UK time, I finally, finally, finally typed THE END on my latest manuscript. My fifth completed novel. I can’t believe I’ve written five books! And this one has been long in the making. It has, BY FAR, taken the longest for me to write. It has been the hardest to write. It has been the most hair-pulling to write. I’ve often referred to it as THE BOOK THAT EATS MY BRAIN. Yet the love for it has been there from the very start so I kept on and kept on. It has pushed me in so many ways, forced me to better my plotting, my story structure, my research and my pacing, and it feels like a major accomplishment to finish.
Image by vonSchnauzer
I got the idea for this NYC-set, light sci-fi, adventure story back in January of last year. I was still revising another novel at the time and didn’t begin to write this one until April. A couple of wrong first starts, some plot changes, some re-writing and re-thinking, etc, etc, etc, and now I finally have a complete story. It’s taken me almost a full year. O.O
So, I feel very, very ready to celebrate the completion of this one! I’m going to have a dance party, if only by myself. I can’t wait to send it off to my agent. Fingers crossed she loves it as much as I do!
Bookanistas: THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker
THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker (March 1, 2011, Sourcebooks Fire)
Best friends don’t send emails once they’re dead. With her dead best friend’s pearls and skirts tiny enough to make Nancy Drew blush, Kate’s on the trail to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder…
Next week, THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker hits bookstore shelves, and I was lucky enough to snag an ARC of this a few weeks back. The premise is a lot of fun, and it’s been awhile since I’ve read a sleuthy mystery like this. It’s this type of story that really got me into reading when I was a kid so I couldn’t wait to read.
THE LIAR SOCIETY is such a fun read. Spunky heroine, intriguing mystery with lots of clues twisting and turning the story and plenty of creepy sleuthing scenes. It reminded me a lot of Veronica Mars and Nancy Drew, so if you love a great teen mystery, you’ll definitely enjoy THE LIAR SOCIETY.
More Bookanistas Posts This Week
Elana Johnson is tickled pink for The Liar Society
LiLa Roecker is blown away by A Touch Mortal
Shannon Messenger can’t lie about her love for The Liar Society
Shelli Johannes-Wells burns for AngelFire
Scott Tracey is more than a touch impressed with A Touch Mortal
Myra McEntire is A Touch Mortal this week
Beth Revis tells the truth about The Liar Society
Christine Fonseca is leveled by Leverage
Carolina Valdez Miller has tons to say about One
Jessi Kirby soars for Across the Universe
Jenn Hayley adores The Liar Society
Shana Silver can’t imagine you not reading Imaginary Girls
Katie Anderson wants to be Like Mandarin
Matt Blackstone loves The Hate List
Stasia Ward Kehoe falls head over heels for Fall for Anything
Michelle Hodkin champions A Dog’s Way Home
