Writing | Beth Hull

Gilt by Katherine Longshore

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Beth Hull

First, disclaimer: Katherine and I are friends in real life. Second: even if I weren’t friends with her, I’d be reviewing this book anyway because it totally rocks. Like, stay-up-way-past-bedtime-reading rocks. And I’m not usually drawn to historical fiction.

The set-up: The year is 1539. Kitty Tylney and Catherine (Cat) Howard are best friends…or as close as best friends can be when one is kind of a jerk, like Cat.

Main character’s goals: At first, Kitty just wants to go to Court, and wear fine clothes and be somebody. But then her goals change, and I don’t want to risk spoilers, so I’ll just say maybe these new goals have to do with a dude, and maybe the new goals have to do with Cat’s marriage to the king, and maybe both. Or, you know, neither.

My reaction: The writing is so pretty! When the book comes out and I read it again (because I’ll have my own sparkly copy with its beautiful cover…probably signed by the author, hint, hint) I’m going to do a better job of savoring the beautiful prose. On the first read, savoring was nearly impossible because I just wanted to freaking find out what happened already. It was tense, and dangerous, and sexy, and just all around marvy. If I could write historical fiction (as in, stomach the research involved), I’d want this to be my book. As it is, Katherine enjoys research (see her interview here) so she gets to do it for me.

A second reaction: sometimes in historical fiction, I don’t feel entirely “there” in the setting. But in Gilt, I was there, and I was loving it.

Of interest to writers: When Katherine wrote this book, historical YA was not a big thing at all. In fact, many agents weren’t even interested in it. I keep coming back to the advice she gave in her interview: “Don’t second-guess whether or not your concept will sell. If a story and character come to you, write them down. That passion will come through in your writing…Passion sells. And in the long run, writing what you love is the ultimate reward.”

Bottom line: Beautiful story, believable and compelling characters – it’s a total win. I’m just sorry you have to wait until the May 15th release date to read it!

Reminds me of: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (Gilt takes place a century later, but life-and-death court intrigue is still a focal point).

For more on Gilt and Katherine Longshore, you can visit her personal blog here, and her blog with the YA Muses here.

Friday Five

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Beth Hull

And more randomness!

1. Poll: How would you feel reading a book in which the main character’s name is Areola (as in, yes, part of the breast)? Would it make you uncomfortable? Would it be funny? Would it make you uncomfortable but it’d be okay if she were nicknamed Ari and went by that for the majority of the story? Would you read a book with her name in the title? Should I just change her name to Ariana and avoid all the awkwardness? Her mom’s a stripper, though, and the story’s pretty whacky, so keep that in mind.

2. When I returned to Wednesday’s post to respond to a comment, Z happened to walk by and see my lovely illustration (which I will put here as well, because I am rather fond of it), and she said, “Oh NO! The Whoofle!” I couldn’t stop laughing, because she wasn’t afraid, just…awed by it, I guess. She later told me that the picture in the computer was a dinosaur because the Whoofle isn’t that big. It turns out the Whoofle is about the size of our cat. It’s brown in the day time and turns black at night.

3. My belly button is still an Innie.

4. I’m having quite a bit of success with Deborah Underwood’s recommendation (given at an SCBWI event in December) to write first, then do email/blog/Facebook/Twitter/other business afterward. My success could also have something to do with FINALLY HAVING THE HOUSE TO MYSELF AGAIN HUZZAH, but it is nice to start writing time off with a clear head, no disappointments or excitements clouding the creative thoughts (and there have been disappointments. A short story “came close” according to the zine editor. Is this better or worse than a flat rejection? I have no answer). Added benefit: on Wednesday I was so excited about all the work I’d gotten done in the morning, that after email/blog business, I turned the computer off and did more writing – finishing the day with ten pages instead of the five that had been my goal.

5. This weekend I get to celebrate Christmas II with my family up in the mountains. It feels strange having it so late, but it gives me a little extra procrastination time for the “homemade” gifts we’re supposed to be doing this year. I admit my “homemade” is really stretching the term, but what’s a little linguistic leeway in the name of Christmas?

Don’t forget to answer the poll in #1. I’m curious what people think.

The Gift of Belief

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Beth Hull

The Gift of Belief. No, I’m not talking about Santa Claus.

Last week, the YA Muses wrote about gifts for writers. What do writers want for the holidays? Things like people to read their books (Katy), ultra-fine tipped Sharpies (Donna), conferences and retreats (Talia), fingerless gloves (Veronica), and guilt-free writing time (Bret). Yes, sign me up for all of those. But the most important thing I want is something I already have, which is a community of people who believe in me. They believe in me not only when things are going well, but even when I have no faith in myself. When I’m thinking of herding goats in a cold remote country that has no computers or typewriters or notebooks.

Friends and family – writers & non-writers alike – post encouragements via email, texts, and Facebook. They listen to me whine. They talk me down when I’m facing the Crevasse of Insecurity. They celebrate the good things, and believe more good things are to come.

They also read my words over and over and over and come up with brilliant suggestions to make my words into something people – not just goats – would want to read. They listen to me obsess about plot, character, revisions, querying, success, and failure.

And all this time invested comes down to one very simple thing: belief. They believe in me. Maybe they don’t think This Book is the one, but they won’t say so. Because even if it isn’t This Book, it’s the one after that, or the one after that, or – you get the idea. And they’re all along for the ride, with all its ups and downs.

I’m frowning a little as I write this, because it’s so sappy. But it’s true: I love you.

So We All Understand Each Other: Just because I’ve already received the Gift of Belief does NOT mean I will turn down other, more materialistic offerings this holiday season.

So tell me – who do you have to thank for believing in you?

Baker’s Dozen Auction…again

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Beth Hull

This is not a Momming Around post. It was a toss-up: either write about what happened yesterday with the Baker’s Dozen Auction, or give a list of reasons why I should move into our bathroom (it’s actually a compelling list – you may see it posted in the future).

Yesterday, I was all set up to do multiple page refreshes and comment-feed checks. Like, for hours. I had no idea how the auction would play out, and frankly, not a lot of faith in myself or my writing at that point.

That’s not entirely true. I vacillated between, “I am the QUEEN WRITER and no one can eff me up!” and “Woe is me, my writing is horrible, and why did I ever listen to Kristen about entering this silly, silly contest where the agents will ridicule me in the comments section and tell me to get a job raising goats in a remote, cold country that has no computers or typewriters or notebooks.” Sadly, I was mostly in the second, insecure frame of mind.

So yesterday morning, I left home at 8 to drop Z off at school. When we arrived at school, I received a text message. It was Melissa, telling me I had a bid!

By the time I got home, I’d received numerous extra text messages from Melissa, each one spazzier than the last, culminating with the Big News: a full manuscript request. In all this time, I was trying to turn my laptop on and actually SEE the bids, because I was convinced that some jerk out there was pretending to be agents and making bids even though he was a jerk and not an agent, so that suckers like me would get all excited and squeal and dance and then find out, the lottery ticket was a total fake (see: joke my high schoolers played on me for my birthday) (I haven’t actually written about that and I never will, because it was a cruel, cruel trick and besides you get the idea anyway).

To my non-writing friends in the studio audience: no, this does not mean the book is being published, and no, it doesn’t even mean I have an agent. It means that the winning agent who has excellent taste (especially based on the other entries she bid on), will read my manuscript. That’s all. She will read it, and do one of (I think) three things: 1) offer representation, 2) suggest revisions and invite me to resubmit the manuscript, or 3) decide the project isn’t for her (boo) but hopefully give me a clue why (yay!).

The bids were exciting, and it was fun to watch the bidding on the other entries, as well. But I think the truly beautiful thing about the whole experience was being a part of that group, that community of writers who were cheering for each other and encouraging each other and giving just the best critique and feedback they had to offer.

Miss Snarks’ First Victim has secret agent contests on a nearly-monthly basis, and in-house critique sessions, in addition to the annual Baker’s Dozen Auction. If you write fiction, I strongly recommend joining in the fun, because you won’t be disappointed in the talented, warm-hearted people who frequent her blog.

ETA: the auction from an agent’s perspective: click here for Josh Getzler’s blog post.