Prom Pictures

I'm not a photographer.  Just not my skill-set.  I tried, I really did.  I took three pictures of Bryce before he headed out the door to his date's house for a pre-prom gathering (we were invited, too, but felt too exhausted and uncomfortable to attend - since I'd been gone all day at a music day event and we don't really know any of the other parents).  For weeks, I've been asking Bryce to see if we could get some pictures from his date.  Not the best solution, to ask your teenage son to intervene.  Alas, nothing happened.  Finally, I sent a FB friend request to his date's mother and requested a photo that way.  So, with no further ado (or babbling about my insufficiencies) ...

Book Review: Trapped

I picked up Michael Northrup's new book, Trapped, because it features a male protagonist narrator (the very point of view I am trying to master in one of my manuscripts).  The back cover boasted plenty of accolades: "An ALA/YALSA Reader's Choice List Selection," "An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers," and "A Spring 2011 Indie Next List Selection."  USA Today calls it "compelling," Publishers Weekly calls it "a gripping disaster story," and Booklist promises "the pages will turn like wildfire."

Trapped tells the story of Scotty Weems and six other students who are trapped in their isolated high school building during a horrifying and lengthy blizzard.  If they have to spend the night in the school, at least there is a consolation prize of two hot girls thrown in the mix.  The final sentence in the back cover blurb proclaims, "As the days add up and the snow piles higher, the chances of survival seem to be slipping away, and Scotty and his friends are forced to make some devastating decisions..."

I will admit, I wondered if things were going to get so bad that the characters were going to turn on one another.  In the end, the story could basically be summed up by the blurb on the back cover.  The romance was limited and primarily featured Scotty's buddy, instead of Scotty himself.  As for the harrowing experience, it just felt predictable. 

I don't know why, but I blame myself again for not finding this story to be more "compelling."  I think my reading drive is stalling out for some reason.  It was a good book, just not as great or compelling as I expected.  I do think the author did an excellent job with voice for the narrator, but the characters seemed somewhat cardboard to me. It was a typical mix - reluctant jock, average Joe, pretty girls out of their league, nerdy weird kid, and gruff bully.  Yet, the interactions between them were fairly tame (apart from one fight based on a misunderstanding).  I tried really hard to put myself in the shoes of the characters and their dilemma, but never quite connected with the story as much as I had hoped.  I would give it 3.5 stars.  I do think it would appeal to reluctant teen male readers.

Book Review: Hooked

When you start querying agents for representation of your writing, you begin to realize how small your window is for attracting the desired attention.  In other words, they usually only request to see the first five to ten pages of the novel with the query.  That's not a lot of words to entice with.  You have to be really high on your mark to pull the agent-reader in.

I once entered a young adult novel contest where you submitted the title and the first 500 words.  That's an even harder task to appeal with.  You need to present the best possible use of your words to enchant and hook the reader.

Thus, when I noticed Les Edgerton's book on Amazon, Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go, I knew I wanted to read this book.  It is a skill I'm determined to master.  I will take all the advice I can find.

A major emphasis in this book is the argument concerning the importance of a great beginning.  I think I already grasped this, or I wouldn't have purchased the book.  Still, the author did have some good points to make.  He emphasized the need to start at the right place, a place of action rather than rumination or back-story.  He talked a lot about the inciting incident.  I think what I gained most from the book was the idea that you must know what your driving conflict is for your novel.  If you don't know what is driving your book, then you can't possibly deliver the kind of beginning that will prove to be irresistible.  The first few sentences have to be labored over enough to stand out for the reader.  Oftentimes, a reader will only give a novel the first few sentences to see whether they are indeed interested in reading further.

I will admit, I don't tend to open books to the first sentences.  What hooks me is the paragraph blurb, on the back or inside cover, which tells what the story is going to be about.  But still, I embrace the importance of those first few sentences for shaping the direction of the story.  You cannot be wasteful with words!

The author provided many examples of excellent openings, but I didn't find very many of them to be compelling to me.  Which really supports the truth of subjectivity.  Oftentimes, it is just finding the right agent at the right time with the right story and not every story is right for every person.  What he considered to be enticing, often didn't draw me in.

Plus, he outlined several rules to follow when striving for a solid beginning, but with every rule provided examples that violated the rules, yet were still stellar.  There is an exception for every rule!  In other words, best to follow the standard rules for a great beginning, but know that the rule doesn't apply in every case.  Ha!

Here are a few of the sentences I underlined (I found myself no longer underlining during the second half of the book and really began to lose interest in the writing):

"The inciting incident is the crucial event - the trouble - that sets the whole story in motion.  It triggers the initial surface problem and stars to slowly expose the protagonist's story-worthy problem."

 "The story shouldn't really begin at any time other than when the trouble begins.  The story simply doesn't exist before that point."

"A true story-worthy problem is closely associated with the protagonist's inner self."

"[The antagonist's] goal has to conflict with the protagonist's goal.  That's where the conflict and tension in the story usually comes from."

All in all, I'm glad to have read this book for more insight into developing a great beginning.  But, I did find myself slogging through it in spots.  Now, I will try to put the lessons to work as I refine my openings in a few of my novels.  Apparently, I did reach the mark with one, since an agent requested one of my manuscripts several weeks back.  In that one, I'm sure that I presented the inciting incident within the first page and developed it with a fairly strong voice.  We'll see what happens.

I loved his advice on the final page: "Don't fall victim to paralysis by overanalysis.  Take what works for you from this book and forget what doesn't.  Trust your instincts."

And the Blog Went Silent

Three quick reasons:

1) I've been obsessively re-writing one of my young adult novels in order to submit a query to an agent who is looking for strong voice from a male narrator.  The novel is a mystery and was written in third person omniscient (so that the reader could hear the thoughts of every character and could glean information about the case from all sides).  Talk about tough.  It is quite challenging to still convey important information while limiting the reader's insight  down to one primary character's perspective.  Thank goodness for small town gossip ... otherwise, I don't think I could have completed this re-write.  I finished the first person version today.  Now I will obsessively begin editing the re-write (especially aiming for an enticing beginning).  Yippee!

2) I think I've lost my reading mojo.  When a Newbery Award winner seemed to inch along for me, I was already on the alert to something being up.  Now, I am slogging through a book about ... creating enticing openings for a novel.  Somehow, the writing isn't very enticing, even though it is talking about inciting incidents and being enticing to a reader.  Then again, as I said, maybe it's just me.

3) One of the blogs I follow recently went private.  The author explained why - because she was receiving numerous hits from one location and they were clicking on photos of her sons extensively.  I would have been creeped out, too.  As I read of her experience and related my own, with a stalker from Michigan who used to view my blog almost hourly (and stopped the minute I drew attention to the stalker on my blog), I began to notice that a few different IP addresses from Russia are repeatedly hitting my son's art blog (two posts in particular - a birthday card he made for me and a post about getting a fake I-phone and finding a snake).  These seem like innocuous posts.  I can't understand how they would appeal enough to return to every other day.  Now, they're also hitting my blog.  While I'm not intending to go private (then there would be only one person reading my book reviews - my mother), I'm still a bit put off by it and don't really know what, if any, action should be taken.  Stat Counter can be a blessing and a curse.

Book Review: Wedding Night

I'm a big fan of Sophie Kinsella's books. I loved her from the very start of the Shopaholic series.  While this book was a bit more risque than I am used to, and perhaps not my favorite Kinsella book, it was still a delightful, fun romp of a tale.  I'm not sure why the sexual bits didn't bother me like they do in other novels.  I guess it is because she handled it in such a lighthearted manner and didn't wax overly-graphic.

In Wedding Night, we meet two sisters, Lottie and Fliss.  Lottie is convinced that her boyfriend is preparing to propose to her.  He has arranged a special dinner to "ask her something important."  She is all prepared to give her older sister, Fliss, a play-by-play as it goes down, but then it doesn't go down quite as she expected.  His "important question" is just about using airline miles.  Enter Fliss, who has watched Lottie go off the deep end after every other break-up and anticipates her making another "unfortunate choice," like getting a tattoo or quitting her job to go to graduate school.  Fliss is determined to head off another unfortunate choice.

Fliss has her own baggage, as she is still in the process of negotiating a tedious divorce and finalizing custody arrangements for her seven year old son, Noah.  Thus, she is all the more determined to keep Lottie from making a mistake, when Lottie informs Fliss that an old boyfriend from her past has shown up and proposed out-of-the-blue.  Lottie feels the arrangement was meant to be and is living in the romanticized past.  Fliss makes it her goal to keep the couple from enjoying their wedding night at all costs (thus the risque nature to the book) in the hopes of pursuing an annulment.  What ensues is a rip-roaring comedy of errors (reminiscent of Shakespearean comedies).

There was one bit I had to relate to my husband because it was so funny (an overheard and misinterpreted phone conversation).  Despite touching on sexual activities repeatedly and being fairly predictable, I still have to say I enjoyed this novel.  The characters were endearing, the dialogue genuinely funny, and the scenarios preposterous, but thoroughly entertaining.  Although I was uncomfortable with the degree of moral relativism when it comes to sexual behavior in the book, I was at least mollified by a few brief arguments for the wisdom of pursuing love, then marriage, then sexual relations.  And, as in Shakespearean comedy, "all's well that ends well."

Book Review: When You Reach Me

I blame myself for not liking this book more.  It is a Newbery Award winner, has received great reviews, and Gemma Cooper (an agent I intend to query regarding one of my manuscripts) says, "One of my all time favourite books is WHEN YOU REACH Me by Rebecca Stead. I love that it blend genres, has an amazing voice and literary feel to the writing." So why, with numerous accolades, blending genres, an amazing voice, and a literary feel, didn't I like it more? Well, I think it is because it took me so long to complete the book. This was one I picked up in audio form and, frankly, I just didn't get all that much audio time in over the last month (twenty minutes here or there when washing dishes and only when the boys weren't around because they are bothered by the volume I need in order to hear it over the running water). So, in addition to finding the pacing somewhat slow, I made the trek even slower by listening to this piece-meal over the space of three or four weeks. Not the best way to approach a book, I'm sure.

Miranda and Sal have been friends for forever, but something has shifted.  First, Sal gets punched out-of-the-blue by a boy they don't know for seemingly no reason.  Then, Sal begins to shut Miranda out of his life, choosing to spend time with his basketball instead.  Miranda tries to pick up the slack by befriending some other girls in her class and even meets and befriends the bully who attacked Sal. But in the midst of all of this, she begins receiving weird messages on small slips of paper.  The first message announces the intention to save her friend's life, but she must write a letter.  Add in the presence of a crazy man on the corner who calls her "smart girl" and you've got the beginnings of an intriguing mystery.

I did enjoy the references to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.  It was appropriate for the book and added support for the mystery element.  I also enjoyed the incorporation of the game show, "The Ten-Thousand Dollar Pyramid."  Each chapter title was worded in the format of the game show (although I don't think kids would totally get that connection). The characters were well-drawn and the voice was solid.  It was a bit hard to get into at the beginning and hard to follow at times, because I was listening in such small snatches.  Moreover, I did find the narrator's voice on the audio version to be a bit whiny in spots (especially when voicing the mother's dialogue). Still, I'm game to try another book by this author and plan to look for Liar & Spy next. I'm guessing I'll read it myself instead of listening, so I can hasten the process. Another plus, Liar & Spy looks like it is intended for boy readers, so I might discover another future book to read with my little guys in a few years.

Disillusioned But Plugging On

Blogging

I've been asked to give a workshop on blogging at a women's retreat.  Preparing for it has made me somewhat disillusioned.  For starters, I'm feeling very unqualified.  My blog is hardly what I would define as successful.  Even though it meets my own expectations for my purposes in blogging, it doesn't attract much of an audience.

As I began to prepare my materials for the class, I decided to google some information about blogging.  According to Wikipedia, as of February 16, 2011, there were 156 million bloggers.  I'm pretty sure it must be over 200 million by now. One measly little book blog is like a single star in the Milky Way in such a scenario. It makes my efforts seem insignificant.

But, I don't plan to stop blogging (nor will I pass on the opportunity to teach others how to begin blogging).  I'm still convinced there is merit in what I do.  It continues to be a method for honing my writing skills.  It allows me a chance to voice my opinion about books I am reading and document my reactions to those books.  Moreover, I need a place to express myself (whether there is only one person listening - my mother - or more). In my isolated existence, the opportunity to set down words and hurtle them into the blogosphere is like a drop of water to a thirsty soul (although my brain still niggles that it is, perhaps, a mirage and not really providing the sustenance I truly need).

When I think about the blogs I enjoy visiting, I generally select small-time blogs written by women who are very like me - women who love books and are busy raising a family.  I am drawn to writers who provide me with further books to explore and who share the ups and downs of their own lives without putting a fine gloss on the stories or trying to appear better than the next person.  I'm drawn to authentic writers who are willing to put themselves out there and whose posts tend to encourage me in some way.  So that is what I will try to do.  I will continue to blog.  I will attempt to provide information on books others might select based on my recommendations.  I will seek to be relevant in what I share, while also attempting to share honestly, without arrogance (some of those immensely popular blogs wax arrogant quickly).

Parenting a Teen

Yesterday, I had a rare opportunity.  Bryce requested an I-Phone for his birthday present.  In order to upgrade from his current AT & T phone, he had to bring a parent along to sign for the required two-year contract.  Originally, my husband was supposed to accompany him, but he got held up at work yesterday and Bryce was loathe to wait another day to get his coveted phone (patience is not a strong suit for my two older boys).

Thus, we headed off in his car, with Bryce behind the wheel.  It was an amazing opportunity because I so rarely get one-on-one time with my oldest son.  Between his school and social schedules, not much time is left over for family (nor does he really wish to spend much time with his little brothers or his parents).

Suddenly, I had a captive audience (we were in the car for over an hour and he wasn't listening to his music while driving). We talked about many things ... his college and career aspirations, my own career aspirations (or the lack of clarity for my career aspirations), upcoming vacations and his desire to bail because it would mean three days stuck with his little brothers, my difficulty with spending money (I lost it in the store when the clerk explained how much the plan would cost - I insisted he call his father to okay the expense - Bryce insisted Dad would be fine with it ... and he was), and Bryce's hopes for the future.

As he talked, he explained that he hashes out his career aspirations a lot with his best friend's father.  This makes sense.  He spends a good deal of time at his best friend's house (where there are no younger siblings around to pester and annoy and where there is a perfect teen hang-out in the basement, as opposed to our house dynamics where everything is out in the open and Bryce's room is connected to the living room where the little boys tend to hang out). But hearing him talk about his conversations with this other dad made me feel sad and disillusioned.

I began to wonder if things would have looked different if we hadn't gone on and had the two younger boys.  Would we have more communication between us if they weren't in the picture (not that I'm wanting to wish them away)? Is it just a teenage thing to avoid family involvement and to seek out the opinions of peers and their parents?  Are we missing out on something that we should be enjoying (a closer relationship with our oldest son)?

I have no complaints about Bryce.  He is a great kid.  He is respectful and never gives us a lick of trouble.  He shares his successes with us and we cheer him on.  But, he is somewhat closed off. And, I'll admit it, I'm jealous of the conversations he has with his friend's father.  I want to be his sounding board.  I had a small chance yesterday and I am grateful for those few cherished moments.

I guess I'll just have to keep plugging away at trying to be there for him and drawing out what little conversation I can get with my teenage son. I'll seek out as many of those spontaneous opportunities for together-time as I can.  I'll continue to offer to take him out to his favorite restaurant (one of the few tactics that sometimes works).

And I guess I'm already thinking ahead. I want to create a space in this house (perhaps the basement) where my two younger boys can invite their friends.  I want to become the hang-out place for their peer group. I want to have the best snacks and the most inviting location.  Then, perhaps I will open up a doorway for communication with my teenagers and their friends.  If I can't provide that for my oldest son, perhaps I can get there by the time my 6 and 8 year olds are 13 and 15.

So, despite feelings of disillusionment, I plan to keep on plugging away.  I want to see a goal and do all I can to reach it.  I don't want to remain rooted in this moment of disillusionment.  Instead, I want it to propel me to seek better things for the future.  I'll acknowledge that things aren't exactly as I'd like them to be, but I can still give my best.  I'll keep on blogging and keep on trying to nurture a close relationship with my teen, despite times when it looks like I'm not even making a dent.