Fairy Revel

Becky is hosting the Centuries Reading Challenge for 2010.

Centuries Reading Challenge
Host: Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews
Length: All of 2010 (finish at your own pace)
Required Books: 3 to 6

Your challenge is to read three (to six) books from at least three different centuries. The challenge is to read books written in different centuries, not just to read books set during different centuries. (If you choose to read more than three books, then you can double up on centuries. You can read as many as you like.)

The centuries do not need to be consecutive like the decades challenge.

Books can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, essays, plays, etc. Books do not have to be a required length. (Though I ask that poetry and short stories be within a larger collection. For example, a book of short stories as opposed to one solitary short story.)

I promised myself I would only participate in one challenge at a time this year, apart from my regular challenges I take every year. However, this one is a year-long challenge that fits very well into what I have planned for my reading anyway, so I thought I’d go ahead and give myself some much-needed encouragement to get those books read.

I’ve decided to read six books from six different centuries:

1. The Iliad of Homer. (8th c.)
2. The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes by Chrétien de Troyes. (12th c.)
3. Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (15th c.)
4. The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology by Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace. (17th c.)
5. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (19th c.)
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. (21st c.)

I have a policy of not working on Sundays, even just writing, and even when it’s fun. However, I find that if I spend more than one day away from a manuscript, I get totally lost, and it can take me a couple of days to get back into a comfortable working rhythm.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve had to add something major to my schedule. It became apparent that I needed a real day-job, and since there are none to be had in my region, my compromise is to start selling handcrafted jewelry. This is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile, but my skills definitely need work; my jewelry is good quality for what it is, but my execution needs improvement. So lately my daily routine (which I had just barely made a habit) has been turned topsy-turvy as I’ve added jewelry technique sessions to my afternoons. While planning all of this, getting the tools and materials together, and trying to keep up the new housekeeping habits, my manuscript got left by the wayside.

Sometime this past week I decided it was high time that I finished that first read-through. I ended up having to re-read about fifty pages just to figure out what the heck was going on, and to get a feel for the story again. (It probably doesn’t help that the plot is a train wreck.) Anyway, I just wanted to say how important it is to revisit your work daily for at least a few minutes, even during times of stress or upheaval, in order to stay connected to it. If I’d done so, it would have saved me hours of catching up.

(via Alexandra Bracken.)

Magic Under Glass is going to be re-jacketed. If you don’t know the story behind it, read here. Bloomsbury says,

“Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of Magic Under Glass. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly.”

Important racism issues aside, I really hope publishers will take notice and start actually paying attention to what’s between the covers of the books they are selling, and accurately reflect it on the jackets. I think this “we know what sells, and this book is getting X on it’s cover, even though it’s about Y” attitude has gone on for far too long. Do they think readers like being misled?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a romance novel with whatever hot guy the publisher deemed most appealing on the cover, and discovered a character of a totally different description on the inside. When that happens, I’m jarred out of the story as my imagination recalibrates the character’s appearance. It happens in every genre.

I don’t know the story behind the cover for Magic Under Glass, but I will say that often it seems to be the case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, or in otherwords, the art department not getting enough or the correct information before planning a cover. I’d be curious to learn how often cases like this are a result of miscommunication and a lack of interest on the part of the publisher. They just want something attractive that sells books; once that need is satisfied, does anything else matter?

Debbie Ridpath Ohi interviews Christina Katz (Writer Mama) about time management for writers.

What advice do you have for writers who are “time management”-challenged?

I’d tell them there is no such thing as time-management challenged. What we are probably talking about is that most left-brained time-management techniques don’t work for right-brained people. So people are not actually “time-management challenged.” They are likely right-brained trying to live in a left-brained world.

What I think what we’re dealing with here, Debbie, is a classic permission issue. If a right-brain person is waiting to be more like a left-brain person before they can master time, they are going to be waiting for a long time. But if they explore and experiment with what works for them within their current work context, and strive for their own definition of time-management success (assuming it harmonizes with those around them), they will start to thrive and be more productive.

This is something I’ve been dealing with for years, and I’ve only recently found the key to routine and time management. I really think it’s down to having a “do it now” attitude, and taking the small steps—consistently—toward getting a task accomplished. I’m not always consistent, I still have times when I blow it or something comes up that throws me off for a few days. But it doesn’t take long for me to get everything back in order.

Now, I’m talking exclusively about housekeeping in this case. I still don’t manage to get writing time in every day, but it happens more and more. It’s become a matter of discipline rather than fighting off the procrastination that is a response to constant nagging guilt over the state of my kitchen.

I don’t know exactly what Christina means by right-brained time management techniques, but I know how it feels to wrestle with left-brained techniques; I’ve been doing that all my life. Understanding that I need to take a fluid approach to tasks has opened my eyes, and I’m a lot more able to get things done, including writing. Writing scenes as they come to me instead of sticking a one-line scene idea into an outline, planning for a few minutes at a time, putting the story in order once it’s all there in front of me instead of writing from beginning to end, are all ways I’m working with my right-brained modality instead of against it.

I frequently ask myself the question, “Why do I have to write?” I think it’s a crucial question if one wants to survive the ups and downs of the writing life for the long haul. As a visual, tactile person, who sees strange visions of the story and feels the emotion of it before getting “ideas”, someone who is more inclined to create things that can be picked up and touched, why do I feel this burning need to write stories? I’ve always been a storyteller, ever since my days as an overly-imaginative kid running circles in my parent’s living room, telling stories out loud to myself (I never said novelists weren’t crazy). But why?

I hit on the reason awhile ago, but typically for me I’ve struggled to articulate it. It had to do with expressing ideas and beliefs, with drawing people into another world, and by doing so, putting them off their guard, so they might be willing to examine my admittedly odd ideas about the world, what it is and what it should be, with less prejudice. Not that I would necessarily change them, but that they might become willing to open their eyes and see something outside of themselves, at least while reading my work. In a recent email to her list, Holly Lisle said:

“My job as a writer is to create the best work I can, to raise the level of dialogue, to challenge my readers to see the world in new ways and to think new thoughts, to present to them worlds and ideas they have not met before in ways that make them hungry to discover more.”

There it is. She summed up my main reasons for wanting to write. I want to be able to say to other people, “The way you see the world, your fundamental premises, may be wrong. Why do you assume the segregation of children and old people is ‘normal’? Why do you get all your food from cardboard boxes or plastic tubs? Is the big, important job they promised if you went to school really big and important after all, or are you a wage slave?”

Another reason I want to write is because I am endlessly fascinated by other people and the inner workings of their minds. Visual arts can express the internal state of the artist, and possibly of the observer of the art, but it is limited in its ability to reach into the mind of another person, or many persons, and explore their every thought and feeling intimately, to uncover what drives them and what makes them laugh or shout or go quiet with awe.

I feel some tension with the writer’s life. Words are not my first language; feelings and dream-symbols are the language of my mind. But nothing fascinates me more than people and all the many puzzles that make them up.

© KY Craft

I’ve started lesson one of Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel course, and I’ve already learned some interesting things about my novel and myself as a writer.

First, I’m happier with my novel (a NaNoWriMo novel titled Dogwood for now) than I expected to be. It is a total mess, more like a series of vignettes featuring the occasional random pointless magic item than a novel, but I love the characters and setting, and there are some great moments. Definitely material I can work with.

Second, I think maybe I’m one of those writers who just loves revision. Maybe it’s because I’m a puzzle-solver and right-brained, but I can hardly keep away from my manuscript. Going through it, trying to figure out what’s wrong (not trying to fix it yet) is challenging and an extremely satisfying way to spend my time. Good thing too, because this manuscript really is like a puzzle, with pieces scattered all over the table, the floor, and some probably lost under the dog’s blanket.

Third, I am still struggling with figuring out the major through-line of the plot. I think it’s very bad to still be asking that question at this stage. I hope that by reading the manuscript through all the way, getting a bird’s-eye-view of what’s there, I can separate what’s most important from what is secondary.

I have to say that even if I don’t use anything else in the course, Holly’s method for organizing your revision notes is alone worth the price of admission. I’m sure I’ll be indebted to her forever for saving me from the piles of random scratch paper I’d be buried in without it.

Usually I don’t own the books I feature for Cover Attraction, but I’m so excited about this book I’m making an exception (and I may do so again in the future). This book was hard for me to get; after fighting gift-card wielding customers at Barnes & Noble, only to find it sold out not only at the store, but at the Barnes & Noble website, I had to get it on eBay. But I’m a fan, dang it, and this was the edition I wanted to read before reading The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Anyway . . .

Marcia at The Printed Page hosts Cover Attraction, a weekly occasion to post an eye-catching cover. Here is mine, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics Edition:

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Edition

This slightly fuzzy images shows the back, decorated with the plaque for 221b Baker Street, and other Sherlockian and Victorian objects, including a penny-farthing. The spine is decorated with the Hound of the Baskervilles.

The front and end-papers are decorated with tartan paper, and I fairly swooned when I saw it; it’s masculine and British and very appropriate. The page-edges are gilt and there’s a ribbon bookmark.

The book lacks illustrations and other distractions like spoilery annotations, so it’s perfect for my first read-through of the Sherlock Holmes series.

It’s a freeing thing to be able to get rid of books I’m not absolutely in love with. I used to keep every book I liked even a little, “just in case”, but now I have an on-going “discard” pile that I routinely pack up in boxes for the used bookstore. However, I still have my permanent collection, books I want to cherish for as long as possible, so I’ve been looking into various methods for protecting my library. One of the most difficult types of book to protect are softcovers, whether mass market or quality paperback. I hate laminating them or using the stick-on plastic covers; inevitably the covers peel off on the corners and leave the book looking worse than if I’d never used anything at all.

Brodart carries these nifty reusable plastic slipcovers for softcover books. There are a number of different sizes and textures, but I like the look of the matte covers myself. When I try one of these out I’ll post a review.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adobemac/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Since Harry Potter ended, I’ve been looking for a series to love. I’ve tried a few but have yet to find any books that hold me captivated like Harry. Twilight was fun at first, but apart from being poorly wrapped up, the surrounding media hype felt like the series was being force-fed to me. Sherlock Holmes is a new obsession for me, but since most of the series is short stories, it won’t be long before I’m in this same boat once again.

I’m searching for a series that will grab me, that I can fall into with abandon and feel like I’ve lived it. Fantasy is my preference, but any genre will do. Here are the top five things I look for in a series. While these qualities are important for any book, I think they are crucial for a series to really be great.

1. Characters who are like real people.
   The characters in Harry Potter feel like old friends. Even minor characters have first names and last names, and you get the sense that they all have lives beyond Harry and Voldemort. They also all have flaws that are just like the flaws of real people: Harry is judgemental and a tad egotistical; Hermione is a know-it-all who sometimes falls apart under pressure; Ron is thick about emotions in spite of his good intuition. They do and say funny things. They have misunderstandings that make sense and jump to conclusions due to prejudice. They are just like real people.
2. A developed setting that is more than just set-dressing.
   I’ve read books in which you can tell that there’s nothing beyond the room the characters are standing around talking in, or the castle they’re about to attack. I don’t need Tolkien-like development (though that is nice), but I should sense that if the characters went through that door, a real, functional world exists on the other side.
3. A good hero and an evil villain.
   Everyone has virtues and flaws, but I like heroes who try their hardest to do what’s right, even when they suffer for it. I don’t want to be confused about who should win and who should lose, and why. I don’t want the villain’s excuses to be treated as justifications. If I’m going to read this series for 3+ books, I want to experience a world that is basically moral, if complex, where tough decisions are made and the hero earns an appropriately happy ending.
4. Story threads that flow from book to book.
   I’m not much for cliffhanger endings, but I do like some threads left loose to be picked up in future books, and I definitely like at least one story arc, even a background one, to flow through all the books in the series, only to be resolved in the last book. Many series (mysteries especially, perhaps?) tend to resolve all plots and subplots before the end, so things are sort of “reset” at the beginning of the next book, but I prefer connecting threads.
5. A believable romance.
   I don’t know about anyone else, but I struggle to stay interested if there are no racing hearts or at least some blushing. Give me a romantic story that develops over the course of the series along with everything else above, and you’ll have given me a series I can fall for.

If you know of a series with these elements, do tell! I am always looking for Mr. Perfect Series.

I am admittedly shallow about book covers and will frequently buy books (or at least give them a serious look) just because of a beautiful cover. Marcia at The Printed Page hosts Cover Attraction, a weekly occasion to post an eye-catching cover. Here is mine:

Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming

Publisher’s Weekly Review:

Flaming’s debut mixes time travel, historical grit and an alternate history of the American frontier in a romance with a fantastic bent. A contemporary antiques dealer, after coming across an old photo, unspools the story of Peter Force, newly arrived in 1900 New York from Idaho, as he joins a crew of laborers toiling in grim conditions to build the subway system. A chance encounter throws Peter into the path of Cheri-Anne Toledo, a troubled woman who claims to have traveled seven years into the future from the Lost Kingdom of Ohio, a small frontier kingdom over which her father reigned. Cheri-Anne’s plight, and his feelings for her, drags them into the orbits of a crusty J.P Morgan and of dueling inventors Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla. As Peter and Cheri-Anne evade the powerful forces invested in Cheri-Anne, the moment when their lives and the contemporary narrator’s intersects looms closer and closer, creating palpable suspense. The journey through the seedier side of New York’s Gilded Age, with reprisal killings for labor agitators and nights spent in drunken dance halls, is an arresting contrast to classic time-travel themes. This is a real crowd-pleaser. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I have a weakness for type-centric covers, and this one is especially striking, with a very readable calligraphic typeface, bright on the dark parchment-like background, and good use of ornament to completely frame the text. While the text imparts a medieval flavor, the stopwatch indicates a story with a steampunk feel. The whole cover has impact while letting the reader know what they’re in for.