Pride and Prejudice and Staring

So having memorized the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, in the process of rereading the book for at least the third time, and having recently read Pride and Prejudice and Kitties (I bet you thought I was going somewhere else with that “and”), I decided it was about time I watched the Keira Knightly version of P&P all the way through.

So first of all, let’s take a drink every time the scene stops to let characters stare.  It starts out with Elizabeth looking in her parents’ window and the girls peeking through a door.  The dance stops to stare at the Netherfield party.  And I know that the end has an awful lot of Elizabeth staring.

So far I’ve been impressed with the shortcuts taken to fit the book into a movie, but we’ll see how I feel throughout.  We’ve cut out some characters who were unnecessary too. I’m not missing Mrs. Hurst, for example.  I like the family talking over each other too.  It’s a lot more natural than everyone waiting for everyone to speak.

Jane is properly pretty in this, though it’s hard to beat Keira for looks.  She’s doesn’t feel as sweet as I expect Jane.  So far my favorite representation of characters is Mr. Bingley and Lydia (I assume it’s Lydia because it’s hard to identify the other sisters.  I’m not sure Mary’s in it at all).  Up until Jane is sick (where I am now), I’m finding Mr. Darcy characterless.  Caroline does not compare to her A&E counterpart, nor does Mrs. Bennet.  Keira’s doing pretty well as Elizabeth.

Oh, hey, Mary is in it, and I have determined that I was right about Lydia and Kitty.

Mr. Collins isn’t as absurd as I’d like, but the family’s reaction to him is great.

I’m enjoying Mr. Wickham.

Yes, if I had Keira Knightly in my sights, I wouldn’t let her out of them either, Darcy.

Ha, this discussion during the dancing is perfectly awkward.  And the Elizabeth-Darcy dance was also well done.

It’s the swing scene.  This is where I came in before.  If you haven’t seen it, Lizzie watches time pass by swiveling around on a swing.  I thought it came further back in the movie, which just goes to show you how much I absorbed of what I saw of the movie before.

Mariah Lucas was also cut, I see.  I think Charlotte is wearing a bird on her head in this scene.  Judi Dench is Catherine De Bourgh.  Casting win. Colonel Fitzwilliam seems to be have been kept simply to balance out the table.

Bam, Darcy bursts in without knocking!

Ah, Fitzwilliam is here to tell her how Darcy kept Bingley from Jane.  I like the A&E Fitzwilliam better.  But let’s be honest, I wanted to date the A&E Fitzwilliam.

The chemistry shots (dancing alone, almost-kiss lean) are nice, and I’m sure were appreciated by the modern audience in a way that P&P doesn’t really allow for in the text.

Stare at the mirror, Elizabeth.

I got distracted by the internet and laundry for a while.  I wonder how much staring I missed.  Now there are lights flashing, and, oh, Elizabeth’s eyes are closed, and now she’s standing on a cliff…with her eyes closed?  That doesn’t count as staring, Lizzie.

“What a snob you are, Lizzie.”  Ha!

Oh, hey, Mrs. Gardiner is Harriet Jones.  (“Yes, we know who she is,” you say.)

Not sure what all this statue staring is about, unless we’re impressed by the naked bodies?  Why isn’t this one naked? Lizzie thinks, as she stares at the bust of Mr. Darcy.

And then she thinks, It would have been so much better if I spotted him at his house fresh from swimming in the pond.

Okay, this scene where he meets her at the house definitely doesn’t compare to the A&E version, but “I’m very fond of walking,” “Yes, I know,” was pretty cute.

The Lydia affair is thankfully short.

Bingley pacing, trying to figure out how to propose, is adorable.

What was Jane looking at before she spun around on her bed?

Why is Lady Catherine visiting in the middle of the night?  “You have a very small garden here in the dark which I can’t actually see.”

I guess it was good we started the movie by listening at a door, since the family did so at every door afterwards.

Stare at the candle, Lizzie.  It’s good practice for the great stare-a-thon coming up.

Slowly walk through the field and across the bridge.  Turn to look at Mr. Darcy slowly walk for an entire minute.  I mean, it wasn’t even exciting walking.  He wasn’t walking with passion, he was just strolling through the field in her general direction (to declare his love for her again). To be fair, though, we don’t focus on her staring at him during this time as much as I remember.

Mr. Bennet’s line at the end was great.  “If any young men come in for Kitty or Mary, send them in.”

The end is so weird.  The dialogue seems so out of place.  It would be cute in another movie, I guess.

And so ends my play-by-play.  I had much drinking with all of Elizabeth’s staring.  I was drinking cream soda, so it’s about as exciting as Mr. Darcy’s walking for everyone but me.

Lots of love,
Sage

The New Pocket Watch

My wristwatch is driving me nuts. The little piece that holds down the end of the band broke off.  I’ve been using a twist tie to hold it down, but the ends of that sometimes irritate my skin. So more and more, I’ve been taking it off and setting it aside.  And then sometimes I forget it in a bag or on my nightstand or desk or wherever.

Then I wonder what time or day it is. And I look at my wrist. Oh, right, I don’t have a watch. But I still don’t know what time it is. And instinctively, I look at my wrist again. Yes, I do know the definition of insanity, but I can’t help it. That’s what I do when I want to know the time or date.

When mentioning my watch, there are so many people I know who are shocked that I still wear one.  Why not just use my phone like they do?  But, of course, I love my watch, and I’m used to looking at my wrist for the time and day, rather than reaching into my pocket and pulling out a device to check the time.

And it struck me today.  How funny is it that so many people have returned to pocket watches?  They might look different than before.  They might do so much more.  And they probably aren’t on a chain.  But still.  Pocket watches.  Who knew that technology in all its shininess would take us back a step too.

Lots of love,Sage

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

I picked up Vessel in the store because the cover caught my eye.  Not only is it very attractive, but, amazingly, it is not whitewashed.  I checked out the first chapter, and bought it that day.

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. She will dance and summon her tribe’s deity, who will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But when the dance ends, Liyana is still there. Her tribe is furious–and sure that it is Liyana’s fault. Abandoned by her tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. The desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice–she must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate–or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Vessel is an overall solid YA fantasy book with a gorgeous cover and an interesting premise. I was immediately drawn in by the first chapters, where Liyana prepares to sacrifice herself for her clan in a ceremony that will kill her so that a goddess can take over her body and save her clan from drought. Her relationship with her clan and the sorrows and joys they had over the ceremony were richly drawn in my opinion.

When the goddess does not come, she is cast aside by her tribe due to their belief that the goddess did not find her worthy and that a new vessel will please her enough to save them. Shortly after she is left behind and faces the dangers of the desert alone, she is found by a god-in-a-vessel, Korbyn, the trickster god.

I’m not sure I ever bought Korbyn as the trickster god. Or maybe current perceptions of how trickster gods should act and talk in fiction have influenced my assumptions about such a character. At times it felt like Korbyn was only the trickster god because it made it harder to convince others that he was telling the truth and because his stories could be more interesting that way. I can only think of one time when he “tricked” anyone, and, really, it was no more deceptive than anyone infiltrating an enemy camp would have thought of. More often than not, he seemed to play the “wise, old mentor/guide” role we often see in fantasy

The world-building in the book was pretty impressive, in my opinion. I felt like a lot of time was spent on building the world and the clans’ relationships, their relationship (or lack thereof) with the empire beyond the desert, and especially the myths. I also like how sometimes the myths were completely true, then other times the myths were simply stories. The only time I felt really confused by the world-building/myths/actions of the gods was in the climax. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, what rules they were following, how they were affecting anything, etc.

Another point of note is how the different clans reacted differently to their gods not coming. One drowned their sorrows in liquor, one killed their vessel in revenge, one seemed more reverent with the vessel singing about it, one met any intruders with suspicion and lied about what had happened. Of course, Liyana’s tribe’s answer was to move on and try again.

On the other hand, meeting each of these tribes seemed to slow down the pacing of the novel. It was pretty standard fantasy fare. We visit each tribe and find out how they’re different from the others: how their setting is different, how their culture is different, how they react to strangers and other vessels and other gods (and so we end up with some stereotypical fantasy characters: the warrior, the princess, the rebel; plus a hero, Liyana, and a wizard, Korbyn). In between, Korbyn uses magic to help them survive the desert, then gets weary, and he and Liyana joke around and fall for each other.

The second half focuses more on the “enemy” of the Empire. We’ve already met the Emperor, a teen who is on a quest to save his people. We understand his motives pretty well, and while it is easy to see how he and Liyana could develop feelings for each other, the relationship that develops between them is so fast and so shallow, that, even expecting it (and kind of hoping for it), I had a hard time believing it when it happened.

There’s a lot of good conflict behind whether it’s right to sacrifice one person for the good of the rest, and whether the gods are righteous in taking a vessel or selfish. Liyana, who was ready to die for her clan in the beginning, fights very hard to live throughout the rest of the book. You can see that she does believe that it is right for her goddess to sacrifice her, but that it’s harder to maintain that belief once the moment she’s always prepared herself for passes by and she has to do it again. Or when there appears to be a loophole (but not a plothole, I promise) in how vessels work.

But even with a few pacing problems, I enjoyed the book overall, and think it would make a great addition to YA fantasy lovers’ bookshelves.

Recommended for fans of: traditional fantasy tropes in a unique setting, great mythology and world-building, desert settings, covers that are not whitewashed!, “villains” with understandable motives.

Rating: Four hearts

Barbershop

So in my spare time, I sing in a barbershop choir–I mean, chorus, as they keep reminding me–as part of the international organization of Sweet Adelines.  My chorus does a concert in the winter or fall and sings for various other events, but we also compete along with other Sweet Adeline choruses and quartets.

You probably think of barbershop as men’s quartets, possibly thinking of the guys in The Music Man, singing “Lida Rose” or “Goodnight, Ladies.”  So did I.  The first time I knew that women could be in barbershop quartets was when I saw MAXX Factor on the show The Sing-Off.  And it wasn’t until I was looking for a choir to join that I found out that there were choruses.

Barbershop is a cappella music, featuring four vocal parts–in order from highest to lowest: tenor, lead, baritone, and bass.  Even with women singers, the parts retain these names.  My part is lead, which means that 90% of the time I have the melody (phew).  This is pretty different from choirs that I grew up with, where the first soprano part–the highest part, which corresponds with the tenor part in barbershop–has the melody.  The tenor sings harmony over the lead, the bass is our foundation, and the baritone completes our chords.  One thing we strive to do is ring a chord so that a fifth note appears to be included, an overtone.

The music we do spans many decades, but traditionally, barbershop sings music from the 40s.  But, for variety, we had a quartet sing us “Poker Face” (the Glee version done for four voices instead of two).  For competition, every chorus and quartet sings a ballad and an upbeat song, and the performances I saw this weekend followed that format.  It’s great because some people get bored during ballads, while others prefer the emotions in them, so you are guaranteed the variety with each chorus/quartet’s performance.

This weekend, my chorus met with others in the region.  Apparently during this convention, there are usually many vocal techniques given to us, but this year they focused on two things: choreography and attracting younger singers.  That was fine by me because I had a sore throat and I miss zumba, so spending a weekend dancing was lots more fun than straining my voice when I could be saving it for rehearsal.

While there I met a high school choir (chorus?) who came to learn along with us, even though they don’t belong to Sweet Adelines.  A group of us had them sing for us, and they were great!  And later on, there was a contest for quartets with younger women (under 25) to see who would be sent to the Rising Star contest. (BTW, here‘s the winner of the most recent competition, if you want to get an idea what that’s like.)  And as I was watching them, I was thinking of the girls’ stories and how unique each one was, and what must have attracted them to barbershop (thanks a lot to those presentations on how to get them interested), and it sparked an idea for a novel!

So I’m sure that I’ll have more on that when I get closer to writing it, but for now I need to do more research.  I’m still really new to barbershop (I’m sure my chorus friends will come on here and laugh at how basic my barbershop info is in this post), and I’d like to get more experience under my belt before I go writing anything about it.  Besides, I have a novel to rewrite and another to start querying again. 🙂

Lots of love,Sage

The Hobbit: movie vs. book

So I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for the first time this month.  I’d been wanting to read it, but unlike many classics, it wasn’t free on my Kindle, so I put it off.  Then I heard about the movie, and decided to wait until after seeing part 1 before reading.

As soon as I watched the movie, I downloaded the book and began it.  And I was over half done (more than past the first movie) when I went to see it again.

There are those people out there who want movies to be identical to the books that they are based on.  I have heard many grumblings from LotR fans about the differences between the books and the movies.  And the Hobbit movie is very different from the book.  I described it to my dad like this: “It’s as if they received an outline of what happens in the book, and followed the outline to the letter, but had to fill in all the details themselves.”  That is exactly what it’s like to compare the two.

All the events in the book are there in the movie.  Direct dialogue from the book makes it to the movie too, but, quite frankly, most of the conversations in the book are told to us, not shown.  I remember remarking in Goodreads, about a third of the way in, that the longest conversation anyone had had so far in the book was between Gollum/Smeagol and himself.  But screenwriters like dialogue, so naturally they made it up.  Scenes are expanded.  Battles are more epic.  Scenes were added.  Hey, what’s this ex-Doctor brown wizard doing in here?  He’s clearly setting up the battle that we’re inevitably going to see Gandalf have in a later movie (only mentioned in the book).

But it all worked.  Peter Jackson took a thirdish of the book and made it into a full-length movie that was had it’s own plot arc.  In the book, Bilbo doesn’t become part of the gang until they deal with the spiders.  The plot arc for this movie is Bilbo coming into his own, becoming part of the gang, going from a guy who wants to go back for his hanky to a guy who throws himself between an orc and a dying dwarf.  And I dare say, I was more impressed with his arc in the movie (where he doesn’t use the ring to do his most heroic bits) than in the book.

Some parts in the movie do go overboard in their quest to be epic.  The battle against the goblins requires just too much suspension of disbelief.  I mean, really, what could possibly be a challenge to fight after 14 people take on millions of goblins.  On the other hand, the troll battle was perfectly done, IMO.  And I liked how Bilbo got to actually help in the solution to the troll problem.

Pretty much all the dwarf history, including the intro does not exist in the book, but it’s a gorgeous set-up to the movie.

Having just read the book, I can easily see where the line is drawn between movies 2 and 3.  It’s spiders and wood elves for 2 and Smaug and Five Armies (or will it be Six with the pale orc involved?) for 3.  Plus Gandalf will be off doing stuff and I’m sure we’ll get to see that added to it.  And who knows what else will be added.

If you haven’t read The Hobbit yet, I do recommend seeing the movie first, then reading the book.  For me, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed that first third as much without certain visuals already added for me.  It’s a lot of narration, which is not my preferred style.  By the time I got past the first movie, though, I was used to the style and could read the last 2/3 with ease.  In general, I’ve found that if there’s a book and a movie, watching the movie first, then reading the book, leads to less disappointment than reading the book first and then watching the movie.  Not always, but usually.

Overall, the movie was quite an achievement, and I  look forward to the next two.  I wonder if those that read and loved the book first would agree

Lots of love,
Sage

100 Books 2012

Just today I finished my 100 book challenge for 2012.  And over a week to spare.  For those just tuning in, the 100 book challenge is to read 100 books in the year, which includes MG, YA, or adult, audiobooks, and graphic novels.  I also include completed, but unpublished, books that I beta read, but not books of mine that I read for fun, unless they are published.  A book is counted only once if I reread it in this year, but I can count it if I read it again next year.  For this reason, I’ve been waiting on a few books that I’m really looking forward to rereading.

Here’s my list of my 100 books for this year:

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
4. The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
5. Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
6. Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
8. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
9. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
10. Geek Fantasy Novel by E. Archer
11. There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff
12. The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynn Weingarten
13. Absolute Visions by various, including some sage girl
14. Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon
15. Saving June by Hannah Harrington
16. When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen
17. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 1
18. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 2
19. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 3
20. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 4
21. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 5
22. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 6
23. beta read
24. Love Sucks by Sage Collins
25. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
26. Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz
27. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
28. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
29. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
30. beta
31. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
32. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
33. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
34. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
35. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
36. Holes by Louis Sachar
37. Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole
38. Demon Diary, vol. 1
39. Demon Diary, vol. 2
40. Demon Diary, vol. 3
41. The False Prince by Jennifer a. Nielsen
42. Demon Diary, vol. 4
43. Demon Diary, vol. 5
44. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
45. Demon Diary, vol. 6
46. Demon Diary, vol. 7
47. Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
48. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
49. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
50. Loveless, vol. 1
51. Loveless, vol. 2
52. Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin
53. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
54. The Selection by Kiera Cass
55. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
56. A Want so Wicked by Suzanne Young
57. beta
58. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
59. Eona by Alison Goodman
60. White Knight by Jim Butcher
61. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer’s Comrade by Mark Twain
62. Loveless, vol. 3
63. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
64. Loveless, vol. 4
65. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
66. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
67. Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
68. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
69. Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
70. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
72. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okirafor
73. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey by Isabel Fonseca
74. Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
75. What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang
76. The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
77. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator by Jill Baguchinsky
78. Small Favor by Jim Butcher
79. Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
80. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
81. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
82. The Diviners by Libba Bray
83. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
84. Fox’s Mask by Anna Frost
85. The Turning by Francine Prose
86. Ten by Gretchen McNeil
87. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
88. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
89. Firelight by Sophie Jordan
90. Loveless, vol. 5
91. Loveless, vol. 6
92. Cloaked by Alex Flinn
93. Loveless, vol. 7
94. Columbus: Past, Present, and Future by various
95. Speechless by Hannah Harrington
96. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
97. Phoenix by Jennifer Mason-Black
98. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
99. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
100. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Of books that I counted, 3 were beta reads, and 2 were either by me or included a story of mine.  4 were classics, 53 were YA, 13 were MG (counting all Harry Potters), 7 were adult, 2 were anthologies, 1 was non-fiction, and 20 were manga.

33 of these books were ones I had read at least once before 2012.  17 were ebooks.  7 were audiobooks. 13 were library books.

Oh, and I finished the 2012 YA/MG Debut author challenge, which you wouldn’t think would be too hard, since 4 people within my writing group, including myself, debuted this year and I only needed 12, but I finished the last two in mid-December

1. When the Sea is Rising Red
2. Love Sucks
3. Incarnate
4. Cinder
5. Kiss the Morning Star
6. Scarlet
7. What’s Left of Me
8. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator
9. Fox’s Mask
10. Stormdancer
11. Shadow and Bone
12. Phoenix

It will be interesting to see if I make the challenge in 2013 (will it be 13 debut authors?) since so many of this year’s debuts have sequels coming out, and I know nothing about the debuts for next year.  Then again, that’s how I found out about so many of the ones that I read this year and loved.

So there’s my stats for 2012.

Did you take on a challenge to read a certain number of books this year?  How did you do?

Lots of love,
Sage

Workout Wednesday – Sad news

Taking a short break from NaNo (by which, I mean that I haven’t written anything today yet O_O) to do a Workout Wednesday.  It is Wednesday, right?  My sense of time is wacky this week for some reason.

Anyway, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I was working hard to do the Disney Princess Half-Marathon next February.  Due to financial reasons, I will not be able to do that.  I might do some other local race next year and maybe I’ll be able to do a Disney half-marathon in 2014, but I just can’t justify the trip right now.  It pretty much broke my heart, but I have to do the responsible thing right now.

I’m still running, although I’m not working hard on improving my speed at the moment. A lot of my running was spurred on by imagining the trip, so to avoid relapsing into thoughts of it while running, I’ve started listening to shows I have on my iPod, which means I can’t keep track of my laps at the same time.  So if I’m at the gym, I just run for half an hour and don’t count the laps, which means I can’t keep track of my speed.  But when I ran outdoors the other day, RunKeeper told me that my speed isn’t suffering for this.

I’m still doing my PT routines and other workouts as I can fit them in (on top of losing the half-marathon, my work schedule changed so that I can’t do my midday classes), and I haven’t really let up on how many workouts a week I do.

Still, it was very disappointing to lose the Disney trip.

I hope you are doing well with all your exercising endeavors and that if you’re participating in NaNo, you haven’t gone completely sedentary, as sometimes happens to obsessed writers.

Lots of love,
Sage

The Forums (#NaNoPrep)

Aren’t the NaNo forums awesome?  Wait, you haven’t checked them out yet?  Well, now’s the time!

Once November hits, the forums become this black hole that sucks away all your writing time.  No kidding.  You think you can stop in and check out that dare thread because you’re stuck and suddenly you’ve spent 3 hours reading about the fiction fairies you can adopt or helping someone else name their superheroes or filling out character surveys.

And it’s fun.  But you’ll be mad at yourself when you get to midnight and realize that you only wrote 37 words all day.

But I’m not saying avoid the NaNo forums altogether.  No, go to them now.  Read the Dares threads and tuck away some dare (or 20!) to use when you get stuck in November.  Fill out the character surveys and learn all sorts of new things about your characters before you start.  Read the adoption threads and adopt things.  Help others plan.  Ask for help you need.  Hang out in the chatty threads for your genre or age group or region.  Nominate yourself or others to 30 Covers, 30 Days.  Read the synopses there to see what others are doing.  Check out what events are going on in your area.

And have fun!  Because that’s what NaNo is about.

What’s your favorite part of the forums?  I’ve made a whole novel using dares (36, I think) once, so I have a fondness for that thread, but I love the 30C30D thread the most.

Lots of love,
Sage

P.S. One week left to enter the Trick or Treat Love Sucks giveaway.  That means one week to Halloween and one week left to prepare for NaNo.

Researching (#NaNoPrep)

Researching?  What is this researching thing?  We don’t need no stinkin’ research before NaNoWriMo.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I tend to do my real research when I come across a need for it mid-book.  Very rarely do I say, “I’m writing a book set at a ranch, let me do all my research on horses in the months preceding it.”  I use horses because I did some recent horse research for a chapter book I wrote a few months ago.  It was very minimal, as I was just refreshing myself on some terms I already knew.  In that case, it didn’t take too much time away from my writing.

But in NaNo, having to do even a little research can detract from that all-important word count, so it’s good to get it in October or before, if you know what you need.  (Let’s not forget that pantsers might not even know what they could possibly research)

This year I was planning to do a different novel from A Paranormal Bromance, and it was going to require heavy research.  I searched for books, I watched documentaries, I looked for credible information and personal accounts on the internet.  Then I changed novels, so that research will have to hold for another time. But I certainly know people who do the heavy research where they read non-fiction about most of their novels, even interview people for them.  I really admire those people and their dedication, not to mention their creativity to make a novel out of this research.

But here’s how I usually research in October.  I read fiction in the genre I’m writing or about the same subject or for the same age group.  Last year when I was writing my chapter books, I read a lot of chapter books (and low MG to see the difference) to prepare myself for writing for that reading level.

This year I’m writing that paranormal bromance.  And I haven’t decided if it’s a paranormal romance but without lust between the mains or if it’s simply a contemporary fantasy with a humorous title.  Because these are two totally different things.  Even if I go the contemporary fantasy route, I still might use some tropes from PR.  So here I am reading ghost stories (because one of the mains is a ghost).  Oh, darn, ghost stories in October.  But I’m also reading paranormal romances, which are totally not my usual thing, as research.  What tropes do I want? Do I want any? Should I have a similar tone to PRs? Is there a certain formula that I can either follow or parody? Should I stay far far away from anything PR at all?  So that’s the kind of research I’m doing now.  But that’s generally the kind of research I do the most, and no matter whether you’re a planner or a pantser, whether you’re someone who does heavy research about the subject or not, I suggest reading books like yours (or potentially like yours)

What kind of research do you do leading up to NaNo or any other books you write?  Do you do any at all?  Do you find yourself researching mid-book like I sometimes do (or even during edits)?  Have you ever wished you had researched something before you started?

Lots of love,
Sage
P.S. Less than two weeks left to enter the Trick-or-Treat Love Sucks Giveaway.  This also means less than two weeks to Halloween and NaNo!

Lots of Love Thursday – 6/28/12

So as I sit here, waiting for the A/C guy, I thought I would write a blog post.  If you squint real hard at my last title and this one, you might think that I wrote two days in a row (Workout Wednesday and Lots of Love Thursday).  But, no, I was my usual lazy blogging self and neglected the blog for like a month and a half.  It’s hard to get motivation to write (anything) when I’m baking in the oven that is my house these days.

I am cursed.  This is my ninth summer in Ohio, and for eight of them, I have had a broken A/C.   This spans three different places I’ve lived and five different A/C units.  Last year was the only year I didn’t have to get the A/C unit fixed or replaced (it had been replaced the year before…for free, but apparently with a broken model that started leaking coolant…last year).  It’s been a hot spring and summer, but today is supposed to get into the 100s, so I start off LoLT with:

• My A/C is getting fixed!
• Which also means that our windows won’t have to be open all the time, which means fewer bugs and fewer allergens in the house
• I went to check out a choir (for joining) and had a great time
• I rediscovered what a joy it is to read on my Kindle
• I read THE SELECTION like I was addicted to it, which is pretty exciting since I never feel that need to read books by people I don’t know anymore.  I’m not saying it’s great literature or anything, but I could not put it down.
• My parents got back from their cruise and I wowed my dad with his Father’s Day gift
• My Dear Teen Me letter is up.  You can find it here
• My friend Suz’s book, A WANT SO WICKED, is available (our indie bookstore should have it in today or tomorrow).

Since I last was on here, tons of stuff has happened, but this was just the love for this past week (which was pretty nice).

Writing stuff:

I’m working on my Trouble kidlit, although I’m having trouble (haha) deciding where to start the series.  I thought Trouble at School was logical, but it makes the timeline of the series awkward.  I did, however, print out Trouble with Pets, which I wrote in November, and I’m highly enjoying editing that.

I wrote the Dear Teen Me letter.  Dear Teen Me is also doing an anthology, in which the lovely Hannah Moskowitz participated.  Her letter is a tear-jerker, trust me.

I’m waiting on betas for Taylor-Made, but my first beta gave me lots to think about already.

Anyway, that’s all the love for now.

Lots of love,

Sage