Free-for-All

Make Room for Margaret Atwood!

Posted on by Beth Hull

We didn’t get that many books for Christmas, considering who we are (who we are: people who sit on their butts for lots of hours, reading…and this description includes my two-year-old). I got one novel, and three books on the craft of writing. Husband got three (four?) Terry Pratchett novels. Z got…I have no idea. A BUNCH of picture books. At least five, possibly more. (And that’s after I held one back as soon as I realized that, given the number of gifts she would receive, she’d be opening presents until Valentine’s Day.)

Anyway, I had to do a little bookshelf organization. First, it had to be alphabetized. It irritates me to NO END that Shakespeare is up at the top, shelved between Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America and Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty. (His Highness’s Complete Works won’t fit anywhere else except that one shelf.)

This is the "after" shot.

Because the available space for library expansion was at the bottom of the shelf, and because I am short, I started at the bottom. First I cleared out the poetry books that did NOT belong in fiction. (The poetry shelves are full, however, so what happens to this small pile of poetry remains a mystery.) Next, I condensed Z’s overflow library to one small corner. Then I began the Perilous Book Shuffle of Doom. The many knick-knacks I had to work around raised the stakes (and time needed to complete my task) to astronomical levels.

By the time I’d reached the top shelf (skirting around the Complete Works of Shakespeare), I had no room for the pile of Margaret Atwood paperbacks I’d found in the basement last month. This would not do. For a few years I was obsessed with her writing. Poetry, fiction, essays, whatever. I wanted to be Margaret Atwood. No matter that I can barely recall the plots of the five paperbacks staring accusingly up at me from the floor. No matter that I still haven’t gotten around to reading Oryx and Crake. I had to fit these books on the shelf.

So the Perilous Book Shuffle of Doom began all over again, starting from the bottom.

This time I culled.

This time, I weeded.

And do you know what I found?

DUPES!

We have:

  • 2 copies of Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
  • 2 copies of South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
  • 2 copies of Sula by Toni Morrison
  • 2 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by you-know-who (one Scholastic, one Bloomsbury)
  • 2 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (one Scholastic, one Bloomsbury)
  • 2 copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (one in Spanish)
  • 2 copies of The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery (one in French)
  • 2 copies of Emma by Jane Austen
  • 2 copies of Twilight by what’s-her-face
  • and 3 (THREE!) copies of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby x3

It’s this last one that bothered me the most. I know The Great Gatsby is like, considered by pretty much everyone to be super fabulous, Great American Novel and so on, but I had to critique it in Sister Aaron’s Critical Theory Class at least three times, not to mention read about it being critiqued ten different ways in my textbook. By the end of that semester, I was ready to ship my copy of the book to the West Egg. Or is that the East Egg. Does it matter?

You’d think the Twilight duplicate would bother me most. I mean, I’m definitely getting rid of one of them, just like I’m tossing the two extra copies of His Holiness the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s touted tome.

The whole exercise got me thinking, though: if I don’t plan on reading a book again, why do I hang on to it? Why does anyone?

Don’t get me started on what happened when Husband and I watched an episode of “Hoarders.” Quite a few of the knick knacks pictured above have gone missing.

On the bright side, I made more room than I needed, and now I’ve got a special place for my library books:

And on a totally unrelated, random note (if you’ve made it through this long of a blog post, I salute you)… I made my first lolcat thingie, which you can view by clicking here. I think I’ve found a new way to procrastinate on typing up my manuscript.

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My (not so) Ambitious Resolutions and New Year’s Eve Plans

Posted on by Beth Hull

New Year’s Eve. A million people pressed together in Times Square. Champagne bottles popping open, streamers flying around, the ball dropping. People cheering, kissing strangers, stamping their stilettoed feet in the cold.

Why join in that kind of fun when I can curl up under a fluffy blanket, eat takeout Chinese food, and watch a movie?

So, no, we don’t have any traditions. Not yet. For at least three New Year’s Eves since we’ve been together, Husband was down in Joshua Tree taking awesome photos. I think I stayed in, played solitaire on the computer, and cuddled with our cat. I’m thinking we should institute takeout Chinese food as a tradition, coupled with a movie. Maybe solitaire. The Stay-At-Homies New Year’s Eve. For the New Year’s Eves he’s been at home, we haven’t done much.

We’re really fine with just sitting around. We’re very good at sitting around, actually. But having a tradition sounds cooler. Do you do anything for New Year’s Eve? Have any suggestions for a couple who would really rather be warm and comfortable than wearing fancy clothes and shivering?

Resolutions? Making any seems too much like tempting fate. Any resolution I’ve made in the past has been broken. I like that David Sedaris short story where the guy’s jerk mother agonizes over her resolutions every year, writing, erasing, rewriting, and erasing so hard that she destroys multiple index cards. And even though she never changes into a nice person, her resolution is always the same: Be good. (Sorry, Mr. Sedaris, for spoiling your punchline. Everyone else: the rest of the stories in that book, Barrel Fever, are hilarious, so…yeah. Buy a copy or something.)

So my resolution is to remember my challenge to myself (The Challenge of Turning 30) and to actually, um, do something about it (the clock is ticking, people!). And to be good.

NiFtY Author: Geraldine Evans

Posted on by Beth Hull

Geraldine Evans is the author of seventeen books, thirteen of which belong to her popular Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series. Below she shares her books and her thoughts on writing.

BH: Dead Before Morning is your first book in your Rafferty & Llewellyn series. Could you tell us a little about it?

GE: It was published in hb the US in 1994 by St Martin’s Press. It’s almost ready for publishing as an ebook on kindle, iPad, iPhone, nook, kibo, android, etc. It introduces DI Joseph Aloysius Rafferty, some of his rumbustious family and DS Dafyd Llewellyn, his straightlaced sidekick. In this book, a naked girl is found murdered in a private psychiatric hospital, her face horribly mutilated. Rafferty has to solve the crime as well as get one of his many cousins out of jail. And it is only when he does his good deed for the day with regard to the latter, that the fates help him solve the murder.

BH: How about your most recent installment in the series, Death Dance?

GE: Detective Inspector Joseph Rafferty is getting married; the last thing he needs is another murder that puts his plans in jeopardy. Adrienne Staveley was strangled, and is soon revealed as a woman with several lovers, a stepson who hated her and a husband who tramped the streets rather than spend time in her company. Altogether, there are a number of suspects who could have reason to kill her. Another possible disruption to Rafferty’s plans and his heart occur when some of the fingerprints in the Staveleys’ home are revealed to be those of his fiancee, Abra. She’d never mentioned knowing the dead woman, moreover, her prints had been found in John Staveley’s bedroom. Was Abra cheating on him even before they married? Or was she a possible murderer? His mind in turmoil, he wasn’t sure which option he preferred. But, somehow, he must put his problems aside and find the murderer.

BH: Which character do you feel is most like you? Did the similarities make it easier or more difficult to write the character?

GE: Definitely Joe Rafferty. He is me – the me I would be if I were a man and a cop. The similarities made it a lot easier to write about him. He’s a bit more of a rule-breaker than I am, but our sense of humour is the same. There’s something of my mother in Ma Rafferty, as well as a bit pinched from the various ladies I used to know when we went to Dublin for the summer holidays when I was a kid. But having said that, there’s a little of me in Llewellyn as well, as I’m quite a studious type.

BH: Which book in the series would you encourage new fans to begin with? Should they start with the first book, or can they pick up somewhere in the middle?

GE: It’s not necessary to start at book one as each book can be read as a standalone. But I suppose all authors prefer readers to start from the beginning and learn about the characters gradually. But if they would like to start with my favourite book, I still think I like Dying For You best as it’s the one where I get my poor old Rafferty deep inthe mire. It’s number six in the series and came out in, I think, 2005 in the US.

BH: Is it hard to write from a male perspective? Do you have any tips for authors who wish to write from the perspective of the opposite sex?

GE: I don’t find it hard, but then I’m not a very girly woman; I  was never very fond of pink, for instance, even when I was a little girl. Tips. Hmm. I would say try not to make them too tough. All men have their feminine side, even the most macho types. I’m not saying have them spend hours prinking and preening, but make them rounded, rather than a stereotype. Think about the men in your own life – they will all have their weaknesses and emotional times; maybe use them to help you build your characters.

BH: Tell us a little about your path to publication.

GE: It was a long one! I started writing in my early twenties, but I never finished anything. It was only when I hit the milestone age of thirty that I really got down to it. I wrote a novel a year for six years, only the last of which was published. That was Land of Dreams, a romance set in the Canadian Arctic (don’t ask!). When my next romance was also rejected, I turned to crime and – apart from one historical novel Reluctant Queen, about Henry VIII’s little sister, which was written under the name Geraldine Hartnett – I have written crime novels ever since. All during the years I was rejected, I had also written articles on subjects like historical biography, writing and New Age and these were published, not just in the UK, but in foreign magazines also.

BH: What is your writing schedule like?

GE:  I’m not an early riser. I generally start writing around 10.00 a m and carry on till around 6.30 or 7.00 p m. I’ll often continue to write later in the evening as well, though nowadays, I tend to give myself the weekends off (if I don’t, my husband moans! Quite rightly, really. He married me because he likes my company, after all).

Of course, as with other writers, I have other calls on my time. I’ve just finished proofreading my latest Rafferty novel, Deadly Reunion, which is out in the UK at the end of February 2011 (out in the US a few months later). Next, I have to do the final proofread of the ebook version of Dead Before Morning, after which I’ll have to get myself in gear to get the next out of print Rafferty novel, Death Line, ready for epubbing. I give talks and interviews. I do all my own marketing and produce flyers, bookmarks, news releases and postcards.. I also interview other writers for my blog, which I started recently. I use facebook, I tweet and belong to various Author websites, where I post and which I regularly update. So altogether, I keep quite busy.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

GE: I do most of my work downstairs in the living room by the fire (nearer the kettle for tea!). It’s quite a small room and is not very tidy (no Domestic Goddess, me!). I used to work all the time in my study upstairs, a small boxroom as we call them in the UK, but since Mark, my stepson, gave me one of his spare laptops, it’s been wonderful to have the freedom to work anywhere. I’ll get my husband to take a picture. The living room’s a bit of a shambles at the moment because I was busy yesterday evening wrapping Christmas presents for my family (nearly done. Only four more to get, though we also have four December birthdays and three in January L). Wish my lot went in for a bit of family planning!

BH: What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

GE: I like the one by Lawrence Block. I can’t find it at the moment and I can’t quite remember the title (From Plot to Print?), but I’ve read that from cover to cover many times. I love his humour. Some writers who try to teach about writing get a bit too precious, but I’d definitely recommend his book.

BH: Any words on advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

GE: I know it’s difficult. I’ve been rejected many times. Have a cry, then dry your eyes, grit your teeth and say: ‘I’ll show ‘em’! Try something different and shorter, like an article, something you don’t need to put your heart and soul into Anyone can research facts for a non-fiction piece and put them in order with a bit of flair. Don’t forget to do your research on your intended market, too, regarding what their requirements are (word length, subject matters covered, etc). As I mention on the Advice Page on my website (www.geraldineevans.com), this will, hopefully, give you something, maybe several somethings, to put on your writer’s CV, which should lead editors to at least consider you a professional. Getting non-fiction published is a lot easier than trying to place a novel. But with regard to your novel, please don’t follow the herd with the latest hot ticket. All would-be writers do that. Do your own thing and write what matters to you: that way, you’ll stand out from the crowd.

BH: Thank you, Geraldine, for the interview and for your thoughts on writing and publishing! For more of Geraldine, you can visit her in various places on the internet:

Website: http://www.geraldineevans.com Here you can visit Geraldine’s blog, find links to her books on Amazon, and read all sorts of writerly advice.

Blog: http://wwwgeraldineevanscom.blogspot.com (If this link doesn’t work, try going from Geraldine’s website.)

Twitter: Geraldine_Evans

Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=www.blogger.com&type=users#!/pages/Geraldine-Evans-Crime-Author/134541119922978

Crimespace: http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/GeraldineEvans

Scrub Free or Die!

Posted on by Beth Hull

I don’t know what moron installed our shower. This is a good thing, because if I knew who that person was, I would make that person scrub the shower.

I actually don’t mind cleaning the bathrooms. It isn’t a chore I embrace, naturally, but I’d rather scrub the shower once a week than wash the dishes every damn day. (Fine, I’ll confess. I don’t scrub the shower once a week. We’re lucky if I do it every other week. But it’s only because the dishes will not go away!)

But this shower? This shower is stupid.

Now, I normally would not have such crude graphics, but at least this beats photographs of the real thing (ewww). Plus, our computer crashed (every precious word I ever typed on it was backed up, so no worries other than the $300 bill for fixing it). I’m at this moment using an ancient lap top that doesn’t have an SD drive ?! and don’t have a scanner hooked up to it either. So bear with me.

The Stupid Shower Viewed From the Side

This little dip between the shower floor and the drain reminds me of a moat dividing a castle from surrounding lands. But because the water just sits there, we end up with lots of yuckiness:

Nasty soap scum in stupid shower

Like a moat, there could be dragons in it. (Wait, do moats have dragons? Or monsters? Or something else entirely?)

Monster living in shower moat

So periodically (not once a week, mind you) I have to go into the bathroom armed with a rag, scrub brush, and Scrub Free, which is the cleaner that came with the house, and smells sort of like a combination of car exhaust and moat-dwelling dragon farts.

And when I’m done scrubbing, the shower looks pretty much the same.

Also, our house seems to be collapsing around our heads, and we’re feeling very discouraged. I would catalog our recent misfortunes, but I’ve used up my hourly allotment of complaints. Until next time.

Oh, and I actually am kinda proud of my Paint graphics. They’re not up to  Hyperbole & a Half standards, but I like them so be gentle.

NiFtY Author: Erica Perl AND Contest!

Posted on by Beth Hull

Erica Perl and employees of The Garment District, the store that inspired the Clothing Bonanza

Exciting times, amigas, amigos, y rivales! This is the second week in a row I’ve had the privilege of interviewing an author whose book I randomly plucked from the shelf AND WAS SO GLAD I DID. Erica Perl wrote Vintage Veronica, (you can click here to read my review), and now she’s agreed to answer some questions about her book and her writing. She’s also agreed to give away a signed copy of her book!

BH: What’s your one-paragraph pitch for Vintage Veronica?

EP:  Veronica Walsh is 15, fashion-minded, fat, and friendless so her summer job at a vintage clothing mecca is a dream come true. There Veronica can spend her days separating the one-of-a-kind gem garments from the Dollar-a-Pound duds without having to deal with people. But when two outrageous yet charismatic salesgirls befriend her and urge her to spy on and follow a mysterious and awkward stock boy, Veronica’s summer takes a turn for the weird. Suddenly, what began as a prank turns into something else entirely. Which means Veronica may have to come out of hiding and follow something even riskier for the first time: her heart.

I also think you can get the flavor of the book via my book trailer.  Here’s the link:

http://www.ericaperl.com/vintage-veronica-video/

and here it is on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udRBvaJvT_M

BH: Veronica has a wonderful voice. Can you share with us some of the joys (and challenges) of writing such an engaging character?

EP:  Thanks!  The joys were many, since Veronica has a lot of attitude, so I had fun letting her give voice to many things that I wouldn’t necessarily say.  For example, she’s snarky to Bill, her co-worker at The Clothing Bonanza, at a point where he’s pretty much her only friend.  I think the challenge was making it clear that she’s pushing people away because she’s scared of being rejected (again) herself.

BH: Where did you get the inspiration for the Clothing Bonanza? Have you been to a place like it? If so, where is this magical store?

EP:  The store that inspired the Clothing Bonanza is The Garment District, which is located just outside of Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  I researched the book there and many aspects of the store and its long history made it into the book (the Yellow Brick road, at one time, existed as did the store cats, including Rags).  Here’s the store’s website, which also contains some fabulous archival photos as well as current store info.  It is very much worth a trip.  And the store was phenomenally supportive of the book, welcoming me while I researched and wrote it, and then hosting a launch party for it when it came out!

Erica Perl (on left) at The Garment District for the Vintage Veronica book launch

BH: So, Veronica does some things that a conservative readership might find offensive. (I’ve been thinking about this a lot since October’s Banned Book Week.) Have you had any negative experiences because of this?

EP:  So far so good.  I occasionally wonder if I should have toned down the language, since I feel like the younger segment of my readership (11-13 year olds) might not get their hands on the book in more conservative areas.  But I really wanted the dialog to feel real so I tried to reflect the way 15-19 year olds actually talk.

I also wanted to use Zoe and Ginger’s coarser commentary as a means of showing that they are older and more confident than Veronica.  She’s a little shocked by them, but also enthralled.  I feel like there’s room for good adult/teen conversations in this, since it is a common situation for younger girls to find themselves in.  So I’m glad to hear that many librarians have been championing Vintage Veronica as a book that battles bullying (and offers a positive depiction of a plus-size girl who doesn’t have to lose weight to find happiness) rather than getting stuck on the fact that the language is a little edgy.

BH: Tell us about your path to publication.

EP:  If it was an ice cream flavor, it would have been rocky road.  I actually sold the book twice – along with my second novel, WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU O.J., which is a middle grade novel that will come out in June, 2011 – because of publishing industry ups and downs.  However, after a long and bumpy journey, the happy ending was landing at Knopf with my wonderful editor, Erin Clarke.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

EP:  Well, it is clean and well-lit and there’s great – if somewhat expensive – coffee.  In addition to Starbucks, I write in a room the size of a postage stamp that has not one but three desks in it.  Yes, I share my office with my two daughters.  We call it The Drawing Room, which sounds very sophisticated but really it’s just because we all like to draw.  And write.

BH: What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

EP:  I love Leonard Marcus’ Ways of Telling, which I think is out of print.  It is interviews with picture book creators about craft (I write picture books in addition to novels.  My most recent is DOTTY, illustrated by Julia Denos.  I am also the author of CHICKEN BUTT!, illustrated by Henry Cole.  There’s now a CHICKEN BUTT! doll and the sequel, CHICKEN BUTT’S BACK!, comes out in April, 2011).  I also like Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, even though the birds in question are not chickens.

BH: There is a lot to like about putting the word “butt” into the title of a story. What is the best writing advice anyone has given you?

EP:  I think the best writing advice is that of Jane Yolen:  it all boils down to BIC (butt in chair).  In other words, put in the time writing and then figure out later whether you have anything to work with.

BH: Any words on advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

EP:  It’s a corollary to write what you know: write what you love.  In other words, don’t write a book because you think it is the kind of book you “should” write.  Write about what you are passionate about, and work on it until it is as good as it can possibly be.  Vintage Veronica took eight years start to finish.  I hope that is inspirational and not discouraging!

BH: Erica, thank you for taking the time to visit and answer some questions for us. It was delightful!

You can visit Erica’s website by clicking here, or click here to buy her book on Amazon.

And didn’t I say something about a contest? It’s my first ever, and a big thank you to Erica for making it possible. So, the rules are simple. The giveaway is limited to the continental United States (sorry, overseas people…unless you have an address here you’d like the book shipped to!). To enter, leave a comment and do two things:

1) respond to something Erica says/writes in the interview, and

2) share who your favorite strong heroine is in YA literature (if you pick Bella Swan you better be prepared to explain your reasoning).

If you tweet about the contest & share this link, you can get an extra entry (limit one extra). Just comment with the link to your tweet so I can verify that everything’s on the up & up.

The winner will be picked out of a hat at random. Well, his or her name will be picked out of a hat…not the winner in person, which would be too strange.

Deadline: Sunday night, 11/14/2010, 11:59 p.m. PST. Winner announced sometime on Monday.