Ever Bethany

This is a truncated version of a questionnaire created for the finalists of the "Pay It Forward" contest being run by Liz Norris and Janet Reid. I though it would be AWESOME to see what my friends who write (in any capacity! fan-fic; one novel, once) would say. The limit was supposed to be 25 words for each answer, but I didn't count for mine...

Please post your own! Either in the comments or your own post...whatever. :)

Tell us about your book:

Abi's a drop-out, trying to make good by returning to high school at 18. Then she's volunteered into a street-games tournament, rocketing into web popularity. Too bad that's just the bait her old enemy gangs need to attack...

If you could save the life of any one fictional character who would it be and why?

Fred Weasley. Seriously, J.K.? Seriously? A WASTE.

Is there a book that makes you think "If I could write one thing like that, I’d die happy."

Sure. Lots, but they all have a certain magnitude of epicness in common...
The Lies of Locke Lamora. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Shadowbridge.

I think this about certain movie scores, too-- "If I could write one thing that's movie could deserve a score like this..."
XDX  The Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore. (Anything by him.) How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell. Lisa Gerrard's "Now We Are Free".

What's the most terrifying thing you've lived through?

The one sudden moment of terror that comes to mind? Walking into the Panamanian airport, realizing I was by myself, and didn't speak any Spanish. It was kind of a rush, too...


When you're published, what will you do to Pay It Forward?

I love to help younger writers (not in terms of age, necessarily) think about how to write better. I'd love to sponsor one to go to a workshop, one they'd have to pass to get into. Because that's an important element of learning publication.

I'm starting another discipline-season of writing poems!

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, so my dear friends...consider yourself forearmed.

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I finally thought to get this out of the library, though I've been following carriejones  on LJ since she came to Conestoga several years ago--she's funny and charming.

And so is this book, though with a bit, too.

I'm sure I won't be the first to draw comparisons to Twilight, (not even the first to intelligently discuss why Need is superior) but some of the tropes shared by both really struck me as I was reading.

Zara gets sent to backwater Maine because her depression at home is worrying her mother. She is befriended by two fringe kids, one super-class-president type and the fringe kids' somewhat cooler loner friend who is hot. And whose eyes telegraph "danger".
But there's this creepy guy stalking but never getting very close, she has to drive herself because Granny's an EMT and there's snow on the ground, and people are really worried about a boy disappearing....

The more grounded complexity of this book really felt like the classic *bones* of a story that make Twilight fetching, but deal with so much more artfully. And it's a great YA book. BTW. In case you were wondering.

I really like the MC, with her interests and quirks, and the people surrounding her, and the way the paranormal elements offset and relate to each other in this world.

And now I'm going to go check out the sequel...

Yarn Eyecandy and me talking about the look I'm going for these days with my shop photography!
(I call it "rural shabby-chic" but it means "the cool weird stuff in my front yard in Oklahoma"...)

Roses by Moonlight feature post

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Obsessive Book-Lover's Month of Books Meme

Day 16

Any villains you think are too lame?

I knew this was going to be a hard one for me.
To be quite frank...I don't pay much attention to whether villains work for me or not.

I do know that I appreciate it when I can completely sympathize with a villain--so a villain that is evil just BECAUSE is...yeah, lame. In the more literal sense of being robbed of power, too.

I also don't really appreciate it when the bad guy is just a sociopath or lunatic. That's not lame automatically, (it can be quite frightening, hello Criminal Minds) but I don't like it--what's the point then? No matter what the victory is, basically you're just taking out a nutter, the equivalent of a man-eating lion. Though a psycho can be done so you do empathize with them and that is both freaky scary and unlame. (HELLO CRIMINAL MINDS.)

Because then there is an emotional victory, and an emotional defeat--on the side of the hero.


Note that this does not mean I find Sauron or Voldemort lame. If someone has become so consumed by their goals as to be a force-of-nature level of villain, it can be done well. Sauron is like a god and his very power and inevitability are becoming part of the world's very face--and his servants, like Saruman are his avatars. Saruman basically *is* his avatar, the revelation of what he is in the very progression from most wise to most deceitful.
And Voldemort is clearly insane from the start, but his rise to power was due to sane people, and his destiny being tied up in the hero's makes this work quite well.

Examples of villains who don't work for me are harder to drum up than ones I can make exceptions for...
it's not like I have those books on my shelf, so no visual cues, either...

...I also dislike when you don't meet the villain behind all the villainy until the very end--if he's been there all along and a mystery, that's great! But then you don't get to connect with them at all.
Eragon is such an obvious, conspicuous flawed book I hesitate to bring it up but it's the only one I can recall feeling quite that blah about. The Blue Sword sorta falls into this category, but the political enemy is not the real source of conflict in the first place--it's more of a romance, so the conflict is square between the two main characters more than anything.

Um. Um.

That's it. I'm out of ideas.

I just held a Writing Workshop, for my littler siblings.
An informal discourse on the Paragraph--surprisingly some of them had Ah-Hah! moments.

Which was nice.
The two books I'm reading aloud to them provided a nice comparison on how much paragraphs can vary in size, from style to style...

      

Unfinished Angel is adorable, and has chapters that could fit in most of Tolkien's paragraphs.

I find it so funny to have two earnestly novelling younger siblings. They'll probably give it up when they find their true calling, but it's flattering while it lasts...

1.  

You'd probably be appalled if you knew what a high getting mail gives me. Sending it gives me a pretty good buzz, too. Anyway, today I got a good, long letter from a friend *and* a BookMooch arrival, after sending off a yarn.

Also, I can't imagine anything more gratifying than having people like the stuff you make enough to give money for it.


Genie's Wish, off to make it big now. ^_^

Bach is my favorite. It's amazing how after I started paying attention when his name came up, most of my favorite classical work ended up in his camp. Boroque and Bach, you have my heart completely....

Update on BookShoubu!2

or rather, philosophy on my predicament:

It is not really a matter of being disciplined and getting down to reading.
It is a fine wire-walk of keeping up with my intended reading beyond the library books that come with their own imperative--late fees.
There is a seduction to the newest on the pile. Unless they aren't really that interesting.
You find me reading Nevernever by Will Shetterly. It is fun, it is distracting me from writing Mortal Queen, though inspiring me to take up my inspired-by-Bordertown short and polish it a bit.
It is also not getting me any further with Midnight Never Come. But feeling guilty, I at least put it on my bed.

For Reviews and Additions you can glance at the following, mostly pretty pictures of book:

( My Sorrow Revealed... )

Before finishing this post, I finished NeverNever.

I recommend Otto and the Flying Twins, which I also finished this week: it's standalone of a prospective series, and has a fun magical world that doesn't feel done. It's pretty good stuff.