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[author-mandi-bean]

ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE FOR THIS BLOG POST! New one drops tomorrow ✍🏻 Use this link to check it out: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writer #writersofinstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #herbeautifulmonster #moodyblue #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writinglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Lehigh Acres, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CehNk68p3hB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kitchentablelit]

We're featuring an excerpt from "An American Marriage" in our upcoming online class! So excited and inspired by Tayari's work! . . . . . #anamericanmarriage #tayarijones #blackwomenwriters #WOCwriters #fiction #workshop #online #onlineclasses #ForUsByUs #alternativeMFA #inspire #writing #community #readlikeawriter #read #newhotness #thatwork #wewritehere

[queenbjan]

Decisions, Decisions

Here’s a sneak peek at conference presenters with descriptions in their own words. We’ll be posting a teaser page each  Monday. You still have time to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount.

Visit: https://write2ignite.com/registration-2019/

  Kim Peterson – Deepen Your Middle Grade & Young Adult Novels

In this hands-on workshop, explore how to make your MG and YA novels more…

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Post Four: Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary: Lament by Maggie Stiefvater is the story of a teenage girl who finds herself suddenly sucked into the world of faeries. And not cutesy fun-loving pixies, either. These are the dark, mischievous, deadly faeries of folktales and mythology.

In a Nutshell: Not one of my favorite Stiefvater stories, but an intriguing tale nonetheless. The author has an amazing talent for world building and character development. Cover Appeal: MEDIUM. It doesn't tell me much about the story, but the dagger is pretty and intriguing, as are the clovers falling all around it. Cover Accuracy: LOW. The dagger suggests high-fantasy rather than urban-fantasy. What I Liked:  In addition to the author's lyrical prose and vivid description, I felt like this book delivered exactly what I was expecting: a modern day fantasy/supernatural romance, a little dark, and a little hopeful. I loved that the faeries were the dark and deadly folktale kind, and not some sort of cheesy modern day interpretation of boys with pretty wings and pixie dust. I also loved the development of one leg of the love triangle, and the use of old Irish songs (real or fictional, I'm not sure) and faerie words, which really lent to the atmosphere. What I Didn't Like: There were some little things here and there which bugged me, but nothing serious. We all have our little writing pet peeves, and I'm sure what bothered me wouldn't bother someone else. I wish the other leg of the love triangle (the main leg) had more initial development, and I wasn't very charmed by the male main character. Perhaps my biggest complaint of all is that I didn't love the ending. It felt rushed and cheesy, and left me feeling kind of blah about the story in general, even though it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment. The Take Away: 

1. Pacing is so important in the development of a romantic relationship. When two people meet and are madly, deeply in love a day later, it's not realistic and is hard to get invested in the relationship. If your characters need to fall in love quickly, just make sure there are plenty of bonding opportunities, lots of sexual tension, and ample demonstrations of chemistry. 2. Don't rush the ending. It may be tempting to tie everything up quickly after the climax, make sure loose ends are tied up except for the ones leading to the sequel, if there is one.  3. Pay close attention to what else is going on in a given situation and how the character's actions affect others. Be careful that your character isn't inconveniencing or even hurting others to get what they want, unless of course that's part of the character's personality.  4. Character names should be interesting, but not absurd, and should be appropriate for the character and the time and place of the story.

The Dissection: This is where I de-construct things a bit. Caution, spoilers ahead.

This novel was good despite its flaws which is a testament to the writer's talent. Since it was her first published novel but not the first of hers I read, I think the flaws just stood out more to me in contrast to her later work. In any case, there were times when the story didn't make sense to me and I felt like remnants of an older incompatible draft were inadvertently left behind. My first issue came when characters had a hard time saying or remembering the name of the male main character, Luke Dillon. His name was mispronounced in a variety of ways by several different people, and the protagonist, Dee, points out that she herself has no trouble pronouncing his name. This confused me on multiple levels given the fact that Dee's full name is Deirdre Monaghan, an infinitely more complicated name to pronounce than "Luke Dillon." It left me feeling like his name had been changed from a previous draft where it was some unpronounceable Gaelic name like Addriryn Careoddry or Amhladh MacEamailinn. And, in truth, I do wish Luke's name had been something a little less mundane. He's a thousand year old human-turned-faerie and his name sounds like a character in bad 90210 fan-fiction. It may be a perfectly acceptable Irish name, but the 17 year old American girl had a more Gaelic-y name than the ancient Irish faerie. And while we're on the subject of Luke, his run-of-the-mill name matched his run-of-the-mill character. Initially I did find him to be kind of charming and mysterious. Dee had seen the guy in her dreams and he shows up in the real world just as she's puking her guts out before a musical performance. He very gallantly comforts her and tries to calm her down, calling her "pretty" and "lovely," and encouraging her to play the heck out of her harp. They had great initial chemistry which blew up like crazy when they performed together at the last minute, but that early scene seemed to be the climax of their chemistry. Probably because by the very next day they were practically a full-fledged couple, head-over-heels in love with each other. Even within the context of a fantasy story, it was too far out there to feel invested. The worst thing about Luke Dillon was that I couldn't stop imagining Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies. Maybe it's because they were both centuries old supernatural men with the bodies of indescribably beautiful young men, despite being killers who harbor some impetus to kill the Plain Jane protagonist who they're deeply in love with. And that's not the only similarity to Twilight--like Bella, Dee has secret extraordinary powers that she doesn't yet know about, but which allow her to save the day at the end. And like Bella, Dee went off with this old creeper despite being pretty convinced he was a serial killer. I definitely don't find anything romantic about that, and it was just one more thing that kept me from getting invested in the relationship. My biggest problem of all was that the ending felt cheesy and rushed. I was expecting a big showdown with the Faerie Queen on faerie turf, and instead got a minor tussle in a high school parking lot. While I did kind of like the contrast of otherworldly creatures against an everyday human setting, I'm not sure it entirely worked for me. Regardless, things were tied up too quickly and conveniently with not nearly enough drama. Then, when the dust of the final conflict settled, there was this moment between Luke and Dee that could have been heartbreakingly romantic--him telling her that they have until the music ends to enjoy each other's company, and then he'll be gone--but all I could think about was Dee's poor best friend, James, who had been injured during the conflict and had been on the verge of death only moments ago. Admittedly she knew he would be okay by this point because he'd just been resurrected by a faerie, but he's still lying unconscious on the pavement, just waiting for Dee to take him home or to a hospital. Meanwhile, his poor family is at home thinking he was dead, and yet Dee is going to sing and dance and enjoy the faeries' solstice party like all's well. It came across as overwhelmingly selfish that Dee had chosen to party with her doomed faerie boyfriend instead of being concerned about her friend. It all made the ending fall flat for me, but I still enjoyed the story.

[author-mandi-bean]

LAST CHANCE FOR THIS BLOG POST! New one drops tomorrow ✍🏻 Use this link to check it out: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writersofinstagram #writer #author #authorsofinstagram #herbeautifulmonster #moodyblue #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writnglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Melbourne, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CegRjJpLSGk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[author-mandi-bean]

Check out my latest blog post! Use this link: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writer #writersofinstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #herbeautifulmonster #moodyblue #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writinglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Melbourne, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceep37bppRX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[author-mandi-bean]

Check out my latest blog post! Use this link: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writer #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram #author #herbeautifulmonster #moodyblue #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writinglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Melbourne, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CedkIpeumFV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[author-mandi-bean]

Check out this week’s blog post before the weekend hits! Use this link: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writer #writersofinstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #herbeautifulmonster #moodyblue #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writinglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Lehigh Acres, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeXHPcFp65J/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[author-mandi-bean]

Check out my newest blog post! Use this link: https://mandibeanwriter.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/01/on-reading-like-a-writer/ . . . . . #mandibean #writer #writersofinstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #blogger #bloggersofinstagram #student #ul #creativewritingma #dissertation #writinglife #reader #readersofinstagram #readlikeawriter #francineprose #onwriting #stephenking (at Lehigh Acres, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeUczVJpRux/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Post Three: Trapped by Michael Northrop

I came upon Trapped in a book blog or article promoting good YA fiction. The very first thing that grabbed me was the cover art. There is so much about it that appeals to me. The snow. The fact that there is a lot of it. The school looks so desolate. The colors are hopeless. The next thing that pulled me in was the front flap description: "The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive." In all fairness to the author, that is exactly what this book delivered, but something about the blurb misled me. Something about that last line suggested that they might have more sinister things than the weather to deal with. For a little while it looked like that might be the case, but it turned out to be a momentary sinister flare-up in an otherwise straightforward story. Not that the lack of a deeper story line took away from the story at all. It just seems that when you have several teens trapped in an isolated high school with limited resources, there is probably room for more than just fear of freezing to death.   There is, however, something deliciously realistic about the domestic side of a post-apocalyptic or catastrophic event. It was thrilling to watch the kids solve little problems like how to use the bathroom without functional plumbing, and rationing the food so it will last as long as possible. It was easy to imagine myself in their shoes, but that also left me wanting just a little bit more. There were even promises of things that might happen: Les, the known troublemaker with an aura of danger, the constant threat of freezing to death as the temperature plummeted, becoming injured or lost while navigating the school's pitch dark hallways. There were even signs of sickness beginning to spread and of a section of roof about to collapse--the protagonist was always hinting at a coming death toll, and even another student uttered some dark prophecy about none of them surviving. But in the end none of that amounted to anything. They were seeds that were planted and left untended. Foreshadowing for events that would never come. Where the story really fell short, in a very literal way, was the ending. It's a funny thing when you're coming to the last pages of a book, and the story is so far from being resolved that you begin to wonder if you got a bum copy, but you hold out hope that there is some sort of epic ending that will somehow occur on the last two pages--and then nothing, and no missing pages, either. My mouth hung open in disbelief when I got to the end of the story. To be quite honest, it was like the writer got up twenty-five pages before the story's end and just never returned. It was so abrupt and so far from resolved that it kind of ruined the book. There were too many questions left unanswered, and not in that annoying-but-vaguely-satisfying way where you're meant to puzzle it out and draw your own conclusions. This was like, "Eff it! I'm done!" Even a short epilogue would have done the story boat loads of favors.

[readlikeawriter-blog]

Post Two: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Summary: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer follows the lives of a teen girl and her immediate family in the days following a catastrophic event which knocks the moon out of orbit, wreaking havoc on the earth below. The story is told through a series of journal entries written by the girl, who is the protagonist, and chronicles her family's daily struggle for survival. In a Nutshell: When I think about how to describe this story, what I keep coming back to is that for me it meandered between really good and really bad.

Cover Appeal: VERY HIGH. First, the color scheme and the moon imagery is beautiful. The past tense and intriguing title combined with the moon's size and proximity to earth give me a hint of what this story might be about. The isolated house with the single light coming through the window further drew me in. Cover Accuracy: HIGH. The cover is a fairly accurate representation of the story, but there's just something about the image that doesn't quite translate to the story. Maybe it's the isolation that's missing from the story, or maybe the idyllic nature of the image suggests something a bit more enchanting than what was delivered. Either way, it falls short of being perfectly accurate. What I Liked: In addition to enjoying the journal format, it was interesting watching the slow deterioration of daily life. Pfeffer was good with details and kept it believable, and leads you to really appreciate the little things we take for granted, like running water, warmth, and food. What I Didn't Like: I expected the book to be scary (and it was), but it was also depressing and hopeless. It was a bit heavy-handed with the politics, and even in a realistic vein, there really needed to be a little more love for humanity and hope to balance out all the sadness, anger, and cynicism. The characters' scope of concern didn't go much beyond their own front door, apart from a neighbor lady who was already like family. While I'm sure the "every man for himself" mentality is somewhat realistic, I'd like to think things wouldn't deteriorate quite that far so quickly. And, as tempting as it might be to get into the scientific probability of the moon getting knocked out of orbit, I'm not going to go there.  The Take Away: Improbable story lines are okay and can even be clever when done right, but you still need to keep one foot in reality. The author seems to have done at least some research into the scientific side of things, instead of just making a giant leap about what might happen during a natural disaster such as this one. If you're considering writing a natural disaster story, you can easily find out about science-based theories (however crackpot they might be) which should come along with the necessary explanations and scientific back-up you'll need. And not even just scientific--the same goes for politics, infrastructure, sociology, human health, etc. It's so much more satisfying to the reader than just, "And then this happened," with no plausible explanation of how it could be possible.

The Dissection: Here's where I would normally get into the nuts and bolts of the story, but to be honest, it has been awhile since I read this one and it's not fresh enough in my mind to give it the full deconstruction. And really, that's ok because I think I've pretty much covered the important things above.

[readlikeawriter-blog]

Post One: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Summary: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where a virus has reduced most of the population to zombies. The story is set in an isolated village surrounded by a zombie-infested forest, with nothing to protect it but a chain link fence and the group of nuns who govern the village. For generations The Sisterhood has told the villagers that they are the sole survivors of the outbreak and that there is nothing beyond the forest. The protagonist, Mary, grew up hearing stories of life before the virus and dreams of a life beyond the fence. When things in the village start to go awry, Mary begins to suspect that the nuns aren't being truthful about the state of the world. In a Nutshell: It wasn't awful but it wasn't that great. The story had a lot of promise but didn't quite get there, and the writing wavered between good and just okay with moments of bad.

Cover Appeal: HIGH. I was instantly intrigued by this dark, complex looking girl who appears to be hiding from something dangerous in the forest. I was also quite taken with Scott Westerfield's cover quote calling it "a post-apocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line".

Cover Accuracy: LOW. I felt the book did not deliver on the expectations the cover image and quote evoked. The girl on the cover was not a good representation of the protagonist, there was really no scene similar to what the image depicts, and nothing about the quote rang true for me.

What I Liked: I thought the plot and setting were interesting, maybe even a little bit clever. It was fun to see a marriage between a zombie apocalypse story and a run-of-the-mill teen drama. I also liked that it wasn't a typical "zombie fighting" zombie story. There was more going on than just keeping the zombies at bay. The immediate world of the story had some interesting details that kept me interested. What I Didn't Like: I thought the character development was pretty dismal. I'm a complete sap who is easily touched by the emotional and romantic trials of a character, but these characters left me cold. Even the protagonist seemed cardboard, and she was so focused on specific issues that you never got to know her very well. I also felt short-changed by the romantic element. Frankly, it fell flat for me. The Take Away:

Characters must be well developed if your readers are going to care about what happens to them.

It's a slippery slope between boring prose and purple prose. You have to find a balance between simple and flowery.

Character body movement should be plausible and should realistically elicit the desired emotion. Slipping, falling, or clawing your way toward a loved one through dirt and mud is never going to be romantic. It might look good in your head, but it looks embarrassing to everyone else.

Identify words or phrases that you use to often and eliminate as many of its occurrences as possible.

Make proper word choices. Someone shouldn't be "panting" unless they have a reason to be out of breath.

Be sure that characters aren't using words or concepts they shouldn't be familiar with. Would someone who grew up in a post-apocalyptic village surrounded by trees know what a desert is and what one is like? Probably not unless they read it in a book.

I want to start with Scott Westerfield's quote calling The Forest of Hands and Teeth "a post-apocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line." Personally, I didn't find it to be eloquently written at all, and the romantic elements were poorly developed. You need well developed characters for the chemistry of romance to exist, and the characters in this book were flat. The protagonist lacked soul and personality. She was bizarrely clumsy and seemed unaware of her total lack of grace which made it annoying. Travis and Harry, her love interests, made almost no impression on me. Harry has hands that look strange underwater for some reason, and that's all that stuck with me. I'm not sure how old any of the characters are--if it was stated, it didn't stick--and I don't have a good picture of their lives before the story started. All I know is that Travis and Harry have been in love with Mary since childhood. Normally this might be the recipe for an epic love triangle, but not here. Instead, Travis gallantly yields to his brother so he can be with Mary, and then promptly settles down with her best friend, Cass. Because nothing says, "I love you," like going after your soul mate's best friend. To make matters worse, Mary only has eyes for Travis, but it's okay, because despite his lifelong love for Mary and his brother's sacrifice, Harry decides to withdraw his marriage offer leaving Mary no choice but to join the Sisterhood. The real story gets going when Mary joins the sisterhood, but not before a brief-yet-terribly-awkward  reunion with Travis who is brought wounded to the cathedral for medical care. Mary is instructed to pray at his bedside but uses the time to quietly relay her mother's stories of life before the virus. Despite the fact that he's sweaty, incoherent, and potentially dying the entire time, Mary's love for him grows exponentially. This in and of itself isn't problematic, but it's followed by a fully mutual, totally bizarre and strangely hot sexual tension scene. It seemed out-of-place given that Travis was absent during the bulk of the relationship's development. But still, there's promise in the clandestine and forbidden nature of their relationship, except for the part where they're betraying her best friend. It was just compelling enough to keep me interested, but the momentum was disrupted when Travis is moved out of Mary's reach and she leaves the Sisterhood only to be thrown headlong into a new courtship with Harry. By this point I was liking Harry a little bit more and I was all aboard the S.S. Hary, but sadly there was very little development of their relationship, leaving one leg of the potentially epic love triangle totally limp. When Mary finally gets an unfettered moment alone with Travis, it turns into an embarrassing and staggeringly unromantic scene where she trips on her way to where he's sitting and--instead of getting up and walking the rest of the way like a normal person--she inexplicably "claws" her way through dirt and mud to get to him. It was so bad it pre-emptively destroyed for me any bonding that went on to occur between them. Just when Harry and Mary are beginning to bond, zombies breach the fence and the brothers escape to a network of treehouses with Mary and her best friend, Cass. The only problem is that Cass ends up in a house with Harry, and Mary ends up in a house with Travis. With no way to get from one house to the other, and no means of escape, Travis and Mary are finally able to be together unhindered. For an unclear amount of time, days or perhaps even months, they are stuck together in this temporary safe haven literally playing house... AND. NOTHING. HAPPENS. It's not even that they're trying to honor their other attachments--they're very clearly supposed to be together. We just don't get to see it, apparently, outside of a few hugs, whispered words, and cardboard kisses. All of the soul, fire, and passion of their moment of sexual tension at the cathedral is inexplicably absent. When they're finally reunited with Harry and Cass, and their relationship has to end, I just didn't care. And for a book that was called a first-order romance by a well known author, I at least expected to see Mary realize she was wrong about Harry and for them to finally find happiness. But no. The brothers, despite being mind-numbingly in love with Mary since childhood, both decide they could never be enough for her now that she's so focused on what's beyond the forest. And despite her crushing love for Travis and hard won bond with Harry, Mary happily sacrifices both relationships to see what's beyond the forest. And don't get me wrong--that's absolutely fine. Not every girl has to end up with a guy at the end of the story. I just wouldn't call it a romance. As for Westerfield's assertion that the book was "elegantly" written, I tend to disagree on that point as well. The prose meandered between plain and purple, but was enough to paint a vague picture of the people and surroundings. There was a lot of repeat description, which I found distracting, and the use of metaphor and simile often felt contrived but was mostly fleeting. Something that really took the novel out of the realm of "elegant" for me was the repeated use of the word "panting." It appeared to the point of absurdity and in places where it made no sense. I got the feeling that the author didn't have a good handle on what panting actually is and when it generally occurs. At times I literally began to feel like the main characters were all dogs or asthmatics, because they would pant at the strangest times. Also: out-of-place panting is a total romantic buzz kill. Then there was the inexplicable lapse into eighteen-hundreds speak. Post-twentieth century boys referring to girls their age using "dear" as a term of endearment? Yikes. Sentences like: "Why do you say such things?" left me feeling like Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale might burst onto the scene at any second. "Oh no! You musn't! Oh dear!" This old fashioned way of speaking has left the vernacular and isn't likely to re-appear "because zombies." By the end of the book I was left feeling robbed of the romantic element, and was left scratching my head about things that were never explained. There was so much mystery developed at the beginning of the book that got left in the dust of the attack, with no more than the unspoken promise that these things might be addressed in the sequel. I'm all about saving some mysteries for the sequel, but you still need to give your reader a satisfying ending and resolve at least some of the questions posed in the novel.