I just finished "Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries" by Heather Fawcett: a fun read, and I loved the relationship between Emily and Wendell. Not surprising at all that it was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic with multiple starred reviews and awards. From the author bio, I found out first, that Fawcett lives on Vancouver Island (lucky her, and yay, a fellow Canadian!) and second, she had written both middle-grade and YA books before this one, which I assume is her adult debut.
Which made me think that over the past year or so, I've read quite a few adult debuts from well-known YA authors. Top of mind is Leigh Bardugo, creator of the Grishaverse. At one point, everyone in the family was reading a book from one of the multiple series set in that world (with the accompanying pressure of having to finish yours before the person behind you finished theirs). For what it's worth, the Six of Crows duology was the runaway favourite here: how can you go wrong with a heist set in a fantasy world? Bardugo seems to have moved on to adult fiction for now too, starting with the Ninth House trilogy. I have to say that Six of Crows is still my favourite (Team Kaz forever!), but I'm, of course, looking forward to reading the latest from her, "The Familiar", which has just come out this spring. I also recently read "Sword Catcher", the adult debut by Cassandra Clare, which was a page-turner for me. I felt it still had a strong YA vibe to it, but I wonder if that will shift if the characters age more (the sequel comes out in 2025) . My kids and I had read her middle-grade Magisterium series (co-written with Holly Black) years ago, but somehow I've never read any of her massive body of YA work. After reading "Sword Catcher", I'm tempted to start, although somewhat daunted by the sheer number of books in her Shadowhunter universe! Holly Black herself had her adult debut the year before too with "Book of Night". I loved the concept and magic system, but sadly couldn't get into characters. But plenty of others disagree! It's a lovely thing when a book finds its readers... On that hopeful note, just wanted to share that I got my first finalist nod in one of Globe Soup's monthly microfiction contests. Not a winner, but my little story made it into the top 20 for the first time since I started entering last fall. Hurrah!
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A while back, an acquaintance recommended "The Scarlet Alchemist" by Kylie Lee Baker, and although I haven't been feeling the YA love recently (more on that some other time?), my first impressions of the premise and protagonist pulled me in. Having finished it, one thing that stood out to me was the contrasting personalities of the protagonist, Zilan, and her love interest, the Crown Prince.
I'm not sure where February went. I even missed an appointment for the first time in my life (my poor dentist). It wasn't because I forgot what day it was. It was because I thought we were still on the second last week of February when we'd already sailed past that.
It's been a blur since the new year started, and I'm just catching my breath now. But it was a good blur of lots of hours spent with both family/friends and writing. For a Globe Soup challenge, I gave both horror and historical fiction a stab, two genres that I never thought I would write in. Horror, because I don't read or watch it (I'd never sleep again!), and I believe you have to read a genre if you really want to write it. Historical fiction, because although I do enjoy reading it, I'm too lazy to do the research required to write it well. :) I also re-worked an earlier story for submission to the Kinsman Quarterly’s Iridescence Award. This one was another stretch: it was a Western (the third member of the "I'll never write that" trifecta) with elements of horror. The original idea came about during a Globe Soup flash challenge last year, but with the longer word count for the Iridescence, I could really expand on the story, adding more characters and plot development. Although I didn't make the longlist, I was happy to get to the semi-final rounds, which meant I placed somewhere between 21 and 99 out of 757 entries. :) The writing plan for March? Two short stories and one to two drabbles. One short story is in the feedback stage already, and I'm almost done one of the drabbles. Fingers crossed, I might not be submitting with three hours to go before the deadline this month! A nice way to end the year: a drabble published on New Year's Eve! It was submitted for Black Hare Press's December theme of Clones and Doppelgangers. A bit of a dark way to send out the year, but it was a lot of fun to write. You can read it here: www.blackharepress.com/dark-reflection/
Sometimes an innocuous google search can take you down a funny rabbit hole.
While looking up some Goodreads reviews, I happened on a hilarious page showcasing some book cover failures. Once books are out of copyright, they can be printed and sold by anyone. And apparently some sellers don't think these books will sell by reputation alone. No, what these classics need is an updated cover to attract the modern reader. Joseph Conrad has the distinction of having two works in the list. A collection of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim gets a rom-com style cover, complete with heart balloons. The cover also proclaims the inclusion of colour illustrations (a common feature among these books: if only Tolstoy had realised how many more copies of Anna Karenina he could have sold by including some pictures). Meanwhile, The Secret Agent's cover showcases a demonic Wolverine-like figure wielding a machine gun. I can't believe I haven't read this. Moby Dick's cover features a Great White Shark. But so does Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark. Sharks sell! Whales don't. And neither do snarks. And speaking of Lewis Carroll, an illustration of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland shows up on the cover of Charles Dickens' Children Stories. Sorry, that's Charles Dicken, according to the cover (twice). Check out these covers and others (as well as sarcastic comments) at bloggycomelately.com/books/public-domain-atrocities/ December is here! Christmas lights have been starting to glow throughout our neighbourhood over the past few weeks, but we stubbornly refuse to turn ours on until the first of December. None of the displays on our block are National Lampoon-like, over-the-top extravaganzas, but their combined effect gives a beautiful quiet holiday feeling to the nights.
December is also "Read A New Book Month" apparently. I had no idea this existed, until I saw it mentioned on social media today. I'm not sure who comes up with these things (maybe this one came from a publisher or book store!), but this is a declaration I can get behind. My new books this month include two older books that are new to me. One is "Slow Horses", by Mick Herron. My family really enjoyed the excellent adaptation on AppleTV, so I'm looking forward to reading the book and seeing what that story is like, compared to what we watched. In particular, I'm curious to see the original of Gary Oldman's character: he's a great creation and really made the show. The second one is "Midnight Library" by Matt Haig. Yes, the massive blockbuster. When it first came out, I just didn't feel drawn to it. But after hearing still more good things about it recently, I decided to take a second look. The "first chapter" test. And I was pulled in. So I will finally catch up with the rest of the world on this one. Hope December brings you some gems for your to-read list, whether they're new to the world or just new to you! Excited to see my story published today in an interesting journal called Science Write Now. It's an online magazine dedicated to promoting art and writing inspired by science. As both a science geek and a writing nerd growing up, I love this idea!
The current issue, #9, deals with the concept of "Migration". It's free to read online, and you'll find some fascinating writing, including essays and poems, as well as art based on that theme. My story, Leaving, can be read here. I'm looking forward to hearing what their next theme will be! November 1st marks the start of National Novel Writing Month! The challenge is to write a 50 000-word novel in thirty days, and it's become a very popular event for writers. For everyone who's participating this year, good luck and may your daily word counts never falter!
But there are also many people who can't or don't want to take this on. Maybe you simply don't have the time to get that number of words down on screen or paper every day. Maybe you find the tight deadline overwhelming. No matter the reason, you can still make November a month to work on writing. Here are some alternatives to trying to create an entire novel:
Whether you draft a novel in November or not, you can still work on your writing! Is Halloween an auspicious day to launch a website? Fingers crossed!
Here, the trees have changed to their fall colours: reds, oranges, and golds. At the same time, ghostly and grisly decorations have been sprouting on many of our neighbours' lawns. We've scaled back a bit since our kids were younger: the graveyard no longer manifests each year in our yard, but we've kept the one large tombstone. The Lady and her companion, Bones, still hang on their respective sides of the carport to greet the trick-or-treaters tonight, though. Seasonally-appropriate contest prompts meant I ended up writing two short stories on the themes of monsters and madness over the past month. Fingers crossed for them, as well! In the meantime, if you're looking for some quick Halloween reading, may I suggest some flash fiction? The lovely Globe Soup writing group has posted their winners and finalists for their Halloween contest. Check them out here. |
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