Book Review: Wildwood Dancing
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier is truly a delve into the fantastic through beautiful prose and detailed imagery. I was wandering around my local library and saw this book. I started reading page one and couldn’t put it down. This book was inspired by the 12 dancing princesses fairy tale.
For me that brought back the memories of grade school, when Nickelodeon still had a program called special delivery, where they showed an animated fairy tale every afternoon. That was the first time I heard the story of the 12 dancing princesses. So this book held me captivate not just by the story but by the nostalgia of childhood.
The story is of sisters, not 12 of them, and takes place in I believe Transylvania or that area of the world. The girls are left on their own as their father goes away for winter due to his health. They fall under the tyranny of their cousin. The tale is powerful. It is of the repressed struggling for freedom, about family ties, power, corruption, and romance. It’s a book that gives you sensory image without boring you or overloading you. If you are a fan of fantasy, then this book is a treat.
To find out more about the author, check out her website.
Writing Software: Write Way Pro
So, I have been researching writing software for about a year now, possibly longer. Up until now I’ve never found anything that I felt was worth getting. Then I tried the demo version of write way pro software. Now, I like to outline. It helps keep me going in an orderly fashion. When I haven’t outlined properly, I tend to have more problems plot wise. This software handles outlining like a champ and has a built in word processor. Another feature that was very important to me in terms of outlining was being able to drag and drop things, which Write Way does. This software also is not outrageously expensive, costing around $60 for the pro version. If you like to outline whether you do it before you write the book or afterward to help iron out your plot, you may want to take a look at this software. http://www.writewaypro.com/
2010 Willamette Writers: Robert Dugoni
I never did finish writing about this year’s conference, but I wanted to take the time to comment on one of the most popular speakers this year: Robert Dugoni. He was the Friday lunch speaker, and he taught a couple of workshops on Saturday. His speech Friday, was entertaining, encouraging, and full of great information. His workshops were so popular they had to move a room in order to expand the room he was in. His handout was great. Listening to Dugoni was life changing for me. It was one of those aha, I finally understand moments. The whole conference was that way for me really but it started with him.
He recommended several books to study the craft. For that matter he emphasized studying the craft of writing. One of the books he recommended that I found particularly useful was : Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. That was an amazing read that I learned a lot from. So to wrap up, if you have a chance to hear Robert Dugoni speak you should take it. It just might change your life or lead you to your own aha moment.
Book Review: The River
The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand caught my attention for several reasons. The first was the cover. The second was that it takes place in Oregon on the Santiam river. The third reason is that it involved solving a murder and I was in the mood for some suspense. The book delivers on the promise of suspense that keeps you turning the pages. The main character is like-able though she seems a bit naive. There were a few plot points where I questioned the character’s believability, but it was not enough to make me put down the book. Plus I was already hooked, I had to find out what the end result would be.
The nice thing about this book is that it is a good read while also being relevant to today’s society as it addresses the problem of crystal meth. I’d recommend it for a quick read.
Finding Time to Write
Well, I apologize for not keeping up the past few months. I promise to have new bits of information heading into the new year. Consider this a check-in post, letting you all know what I’ve been up to.
Right now, I’m trying to overcome obstacles to writing.
These are the obstacles that I face for writing: I work full time with a two hour round trip commute, 5 days a week. I am currently dealing with chronic health issues, including chronic pain. I have an 8 month old baby. My laptop decided to stop fucntioning in any capacity except occasional web surfing. So when do I write? That’s a damn good question.
Before I was on the medications that I am now, I was getting up an hour early. That’s when I was writing. So I guess my advice to you is that if you want this. If writing is your air. If that’s how you breathe and function. Then you make the time. Look at your day. Can you give up one hour of sleep? Can you write through your lunch? Can you dictate to a voice recorder as you drive (not operating the recorder of course, just have it recording so it you have an idea you can just say it and then review later.) Can you give up TV time? Where can you create time in your life? That is what you have to ask yourself.
You may be scoffing at me right now. You may think that this isn’t easy to do, and there are only 24 hours in a day. You’re right. It’s not easy to do. It’s hard. It’s exhausting, but for me, it’s worth it. That is something I tend to forget. I get overwhelmed. I think about giving up. But here’s the thing. I did take a break from writing. It did not give me more time. It did not lessen my stress. Above all, it did not make me happier. I’m happy when I’m writing. When I’m not writing, I’m lost.
Looking Ahead
I must apologize for dropping off the face of the internet for awhile. My life got in the way of my blog, which does occasionally happen. Since the conference I’ve returned to work full time, had a medical relapse, and been studying the craft of writing continuously, and there’s also taking care of the baby. Now I’m sure you are only interested in the writing part.
So, here is what you have to look forward to in the near (crossing my fingers) future.
Comments about the 2010 Willamette Writers Conference
Comments about what I’ve been reading/learning about writing
New resource recommendations
So stay tuned!
Censorship, Alive and Well
I was very upset about a blog that I read so I had to post about it. Below is the link to the blog and my comment that I posted there.
I also applaud these authors. Whoever arranged this fair knew what the author wrote before inviting her. I applaud any author who is dealing with topics that are relevant to today’s society and today’s teenagers. The dis-ivinite is quite frankly a group of people wanting to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the stark reality of our world. I completely agree with the poster above: Tanita–Evil flourishes in secrets and silence–wonderfully put Tanita. Bravo, Ellen Hopkins for breaking that silence and shame on those who refuse to listen.
Willamette Writer’s Conference 2010
Ok, so I spent the weekend at the conference. Every year I am amazed by how much I learn, and how much I enjoy being there. I learned so much, that I won’t be able to express it in just one post. So, check back, and I’ll be blogging about my experience at the conference and some of the things I learned. Oh, yes I do have a couple of agents who encouraged submissions. I’m quite happy about that, but I feel I have some polishing to do before sending.
A Cool, Custom, Website Header you can do yourself
I hope that you like my web page header. Curious on how I created it? Yes, I did create it. I did not have someone else create it.
Well, I started with photo software
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/
You can download the free edition and then upgrade it to the full edition for $10. You can also go to their website and buy their latest and greatest for about $50 or $60. This software, in my opinion, is a great substitute for Adobe Photoshop at a fraction of the cost. I do own the $50 version now but when I created my header it was with the $10 version.
Next I bought a royalty free photo from a stock photo site.
I bought from https://www.123rf.com/purchase.php They had the best pay as you go plan. You can purchase 15 credits for $15.
I opened the photo in my photo program
I typed in my name, picking a font I liked–this automatically creates a new layer
I changed the color of my text to a light, mint type color, green.
On my text layer I applied the difference blend mode.
Once I was happy with the way it looked (different text colors will affect how it looks and so will the position of the text) I exported it as a jpeg and uploaded it to my website server. Now it was all ready for me to use as my header.
The serif website has a lot of tutorials on it to learn how to use the program.
Book Review: Captivate
I recently read Captivate by Carrie Jones. This is the sequel to Need. We see familiar characters and learn about new fairies as well as Valkyries. There are new faerie kings that are invading, her faerie father ends up dying, and the main character makes a drastic choice at the end. The story is engaging with some unexpected twists and, much to my frustration, has a bit of a cliffhanger ending. Overall, we see some character development as well as new plot points. I would suggest reading Need before your read Captivate.