A Bookish Alphabet

If there’s one thing I like, it’s answering questionnaire-type things, especially when it has to do with books!

I stole this from The Hidden Staircase who in turn was inspired by Just My Humble Books. Go check out their posts and thanks for the great idea, ladies!

A. Author You’ve Read The Most Books From

Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket. I’ve read all of A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 in total), plus the “extra books” (The Beatrice Letters, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid, and The Unauthorized Autobiography – which is hilarious, if a little nonsensical, by the way) AND the first three books of All The Wrong Questions (just waiting for book four to be released this fall), AND his YA novel, Why We Broke Up.

I also think I have one of his adult books on my shelf (haven’t read it yet), and I’d like to read his latest, We Are Pirates.

B. Best Sequel Ever

That’s like asking parents of multiple children which kid they like the most. I could write an entire post about the sequels (and series) I love.

C. Currently Reading

It’s on hold right now, but I’m re-reading A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray). I’m also reading I am Half-Sick of Shadows (Alan Bradley), two manuscripts for work, and I’ve just started When Everything Feels Like the Movies (Raziel Reid).

D. Drink of Choice While Reading

I don’t often drink while reading, but tea is my go-to drink.

E. E-Reader or Physical Books

Physical books!! I’ve recently been using a Kindle (it’s actually my dad’s but he doesn’t use it, so I “stole” it) for all my NetGalley ARCs, but I do miss the feel of a physical book (even if the Kindle IS lighter than a 300+ page novel).

F. Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School

James from Audrey, Wait! (Robin Benway). He’s a big music nerd and is genuinely sweet (plus at the start of the book, he was working at an ice cream store, so I would just eat ice cream ALL THE TIME. And then at the end of the book, he was working at a music store, so then I would buy CDs ALL THE TIME!).

G. Glad You Gave This Book A Chance

I picked up The Beautiful and the Cursed (Page Morgan) on a whim because I liked that there was a character named Grayson (my current work-in-progress main character is named Grayson). SO GLAD I READ IT, IT WAS AMAZING, DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVOURITE TRILOGIES NOW.

H. Hidden Gem Book

Middle Grade: The Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo. I don’t know anyone else who’s ever read them – they’re excellent for (younger) Harry Potter fans.

Young Adult: People are all about Gena Showalter’s White Rabbit Chronicles for some reason (I read the first one and thought it was awful), but her first YA series – Intertwined – was fantastic.

Adult: My sister, Ro, has a knack for finding excellent books that no one else has heard of. If I had had a rating system when I started talking about books on this blog, these would have gotten five interrobang hearts: Mathilda Savitch, Gods Behaving Badly, Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer, Prospero Lost.

I. Important Moments of Your Reading Life

I chose three big moments:

-my oldest sister (Vanessa) handing me Ella Enchanted for the first time when I was 8. It remains one of my favourite books of all time and it got me interested in the idea of re-tellings and fractured fairy tales.

-my other sister (Roanna) starting to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to me around the same time and eventually just handing it over so I could finish it myself.

-reading The Sweet Far Thing (Libba Bray) at 17 and realizing that books don’t always have to have happy endings.

J. Just Finished

The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath (Ishbelle Bee) and A Red Herring Without Mustard (Alan Bradley). Both reviews will be up this Friday!

K. Kinds of Books You Won’t Read

Satire type things and/or stuff by Chuck Palahniuk (sorry if any of you are fans). I read Invisible Monsters in high school (because Panic! at the Disco‘s song “Time to Dance” is based on it), and while I appreciated how well the song retold the story, I didn’t actually enjoy the book.

L. Longest Book You’ve Read

That I’ve finished? Probably Inheritance (Christopher Paolini) – 860 pages. It took me several months because I was bored to tears by it (and was also in my last year of university). I was just so unimpressed with that entire series.

Long books I haven’t finished: in third year university, I started both Our Mutual Friend (Charles Dickens – 880 pages) and Ulysses (James Joyce – 1056 pages), but didn’t finish either of them because my professor spoiled the ending of Our Mutual Friend and Ulysses was daunting, plus I had 5 other books to read that week (yay for being an English major!)

M. Major Book Hangover Because Of

This happens on a constant basis, but after crying my way through the end of The Wondrous and the Wicked a couple of weeks ago, I had a hard time functioning for about an hour after finishing it.

N. Number of Bookcases You Own

Three – two of them are double stacked (the third is too short and stout otherwise it would be too), plus there are four individual shelves on my walls that are packed with books.

O. One Book That You Have Read Multiple Times

There are so many, but I’m going to go with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares) because I was just talking about it on the weekend and it made me want to re-read the series.

P. Preferred Place to Read

My room (i.e. my bed), or the living room.

Q. Quote From A Book That Inspires You/Gives You Feels

Just last week, I talked about my top ten favourite book quotes, but I’m really tied between the first two:

“Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.” – Instructions (Neil Gaiman)

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (spoken by Dumbledore)

R. Reading Regret

I regret buying all of the Cassandra Clare books in hardcover. Yes, they are gorgeous, but they take up SO MUCH ROOM and, as I’ve grown out of her, I cringe at the thought of how much I spent on them (thankfully, I bought them all at Costco, so at least my parents saved some money).

S. Series You Started and Need to Finish

I’m steadily working my way through Alan Bradley‘s Flavia de Luce series, and I’ve only read The Fellowship of the Ring (many years ago), so I should probably read the rest of those at some point.

T. Three Of Your All-Time Favorite Books

1. Ella Enchanted
2. Audrey, Wait!
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

U. Unapologetic Fangirl For

Harry Potter!!!!!!! #always

W. Worst Bookish Habit

Buying books because they’re pretty/look interesting and then not reading them for several years.

V. Very Excited For This Release More Than Any Other

Calvin – Martine Leavitt

I’m a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan and this book will either be the greatest thing to happen to me or the worst. Either way, I’m intrigued!

X. Marks The Spot (Start On Your Bookshelf And Count to the 27th Book)

I chose my biggest bookshelf because the selection is much more varied: The Boleyn Inheritance (Philippa Gregory).

Y. Your Latest Book Purchase

I haven’t bought a book in a while (one of the perks of working in publishing!!), but the last book I picked up was Vanessa and Her Sister (Priya Parmar).

Z. ZZZ-Snatcher (last book that kept you up WAY late)

Every Word – Ellie Marney (which I haven’t written a review for yet because it doesn’t come out until September!).

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite Quotes from Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Technically this week’s prompt was Top Ten Inspiring Quotes From Books, but since I’m more likely to find inspiration in song lyrics, I just chose quotes I like. Several of them actually are “inspirational” or have something to do with books/writing.

1) From Instructions – Neil Gaiman

“Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.”

2) From Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” (Dumbledore)

3) From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

4) From Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine

“I had been able to break the curse myself. I’d had to have reason enough, love enough to do it, to find the will and the strength.”

5) From Audrey, Wait! – Robin Benway

“If you really want to know something about me, you should know this: I like my music loud. I mean loud […]You have to turn it up so that your chest shakes and the drums get in between your ribs like a heartbeat and the bass goes up your spine and fizzles your brain and all you can do is dance or spin in a circle or just scream along because you know that however this music makes you feel, it’s exactly right.”

6) From The Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde

“The artist is the creator of beautiful things.”

7) From Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid – Lemony Snicket

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”

8) From Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast…” (the White Queen)

9) From Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling

“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”

10) From The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman

“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”

And a bonus gif:

What are some of your favourite quotes, inspirational or otherwise?

Falafelosophy: Some Advice from Arthur and Neil Gaiman

I know I haven’t done a “Writing Wednesday” in like 400 years, but I recently found out that NEIL GAIMAN was on an episode of Arthur a few years ago, and I just had to talk about it.

Falafelosophy:

I’ve always enjoyed Arthur; I read the books and watched the show when I was younger. There have even been a few times (recently) when my nieces stay over on a Friday and wake me up at some ungodly time on Saturday (like 9am!! The horror!!) and I’ll insist that we watch Arthur during/after breakfast.

So this was basically a dream-come-true episode. I’ve already watched it 1.5 times, but I might have to watch it again.

In true Neil Gaiman fashion, he drops a whole lot of truth bombs and some sound advice on Sue Ellen, who is struggling with her writing (at his suggestion, she considers writing a graphic novel).

Here are some of my favourite lines:

“Don’t judge your story, you just started it.”

“You’ve got a story to tell and you’re the only one who can tell it.”

“…sometimes it takes a while for people to appreciate something new.”

And, my new personal mantra:

“You can’t just abandon your falafel like that!”

Granted, he was talking about an actual falafel at the time, but this sentence works two ways:

First and foremost, you’d be a fool if you ran away from a perfectly good falafel (I mean, look at it! It looks delicious. And the food truck guy was all “I give you hot sauce”, so you know it’s going to be spicy-but-tasty).

But, if you want to over-analyze this seemingly simple statement (and if you’re an English major like me, analyzing simple statements is instinctive) you can also think of it a metaphorical way: don’t abandon your project. Even if you get distracted or plagued by self-doubt, keep at it. Add some more “hot sauce” (“spice/change it up” if you will), but don’t just leave it to the side because you’ll never get back to it and that would be a shame.

That’s just my take on this, I could be making mountains out of molehills or whatever that saying is. But it was still hella fun trying to come up with a deeper meaning from this episode!

And, of course, he offered some genuinely good advice, so I recommend taking the 10 minutes to watch it, especially if you’re a writer. Sometimes all we need is a chat with our Inner Neil when we’re feeling insecure about our work.

Sidenote: I’d pay an obscene amount of money to have Neil Gaiman hand me a falafel. Authorly advice would just be a bonus.

Sidenote 2: “Neil Gaiman? What are you doing in my falafel?” is one of the greatest sentences I’ve ever heard. It’s going to be my new catchphrase.

10 Books That Have Never Left You

There’s a “thing” (a Facebook note or something) that’s been going around asking a variation of the question: what ten books have stayed with you (in some way) after reading them?

I found out about this from a Writer’s Digest post, and decided to try it myself. The point is that you’re not supposed to think too hard, but I over-think everything, so this took me longer than it should have.

Sidenote: these aren’t in order and they’re not necessarily my favourite books (not all of them, anyway). They’re just books that stand out for me.

Also: SPOILERS ABOUND. You’ve been warned.

1) Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine

I’ve read this book so many times, my 16 year old copy is falling apart and there’s tape on one page from when I accidentally ripped it (and cried), but it’s one of my absolute favourites. Don’t talk to me about the movie, though.

Favourite chapter: Hard to choose, but I’d have to say the letters between Ella and Char. No matter how many times I read it, I still feel all warm and fuzzy the first time Char tells her he loves her.

2) Audrey, Wait! – Robin Benway

The characters are so real, I want to be friends with them. Plus so many music references – as Audrey said, “You’re finally speaking my language!”

Favourite quote: “If you really want to know something about me, you should know this: I like my music loud. I mean loud. I’m not talking the kind of loud where your parents knock on your bedroom door and ask you to turn it down. Please. That’s amateur hour. When I say loud, I mean you-can’t-even-hear-your-parents-knocking-and-the-neighbors-are-putting-a-FOR-SALE-sign-on-their-house-and-moving-to-another-block-because-they-can’t-handle-the-constant-noise-anymore loud. You have to turn it up so that your chest shakes and the drums get in between your ribs like a heartbeat and the bass goes up your spine and fizzles your brain and all you can do is dance or spin in a circle or just scream along because you know that however this music makes you feel, it’s exactly right.”

3) Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling

Do I even need to say anything?

Best back story: Prisoner of Azkaban (it was my favourite for the longest time) – the Marauders were amazing; and

Best series ending: Deathly Hallows – I love how she tied everything together.

4) Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

Probably my earliest experience with death in a book. I remember being devastated when Charlotte died (I was about 7. This was also the one and only time I was sad about a spider’s death). My oldest sister (Vanessa) read it to me around the same time we read Anne of Green Gables together and it was an emotional year (Matthew’s death traumatized me for life).

Tearjerking moment: when three of Charlotte’s children decide to stay with Wilbur…even though the idea of a sack of spider eggs freaks me out.

5) Coraline – Neil Gaiman

Ask me again in a couple of years, and I’ll likely have replaced Coraline with Neverwhere (heck, half this list will probably be Gaiman-ized by then). A lot of Coraline’s story stayed with me in the 10+ years between my first and second reading of it: the dismembered hand, the button eyes…Scary but oh so good.

Creepiest scene in a children’s book: the three ghost children behind the mirror, especially when they explain that the Other Mother has their souls.

6) The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton

We read it in grade seven and it was my favourite book we were ever required to read. Plus Hinton was only in her teens when she wrote it, which makes it even more impressive. My dad read it relatively recently and I kept flipping through it whenever he put it down. The ending made (makes) me cry.

Memorable quote: “Stay gold, Ponyboy.”

7) Wicked Lovely series – Melissa Marr

Easily one of the best YA fairy series I’ve read (sounds specific but you’d be surprised at how many YA fairy series there actually are). Extremely well written and fascinating. Also had one of the best series’ ending.

Best bromance despite being from separate courts: Seth, the Summer Queen’s beloved/the High Queen’s adopted son, and Niall, the Dark King – especially in my favourite book, Fragile Eternity (#3). They’ve always been my favourite characters, and I loved that they both had bigger roles in the second half of the series.

8) Gemma Doyle trilogy – Libba Bray

Admittedly, I don’t remember many of the details from this trilogy, but Libba Bray is one of my favourite authors and I’ve always loved her writing style. On my “to re-read” list.

Memorable scene: That time when Kartik turned into a tree and fans had a collective heart attack. I was distraught, at the time, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Plus The Sweet Far Thing was the first book to set me on the “endings don’t always have to be happy” route, which has definitely influenced me as a reader and a writer.

9) Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones

It took two readings before I fully figured out what happened. She took a basic idea (boy who doesn’t know he has powers) and exploded it into something completely new. You think you know what’s going on but then there’s the bombshell at the end and you’re all “WHAAAAAT the heck just happened?” Extremely well done.

Best set of siblings: Torquil and Hathaway. And Awful gets a shout out because, despite what her nickname suggests, she was hilarious.

10) Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

A bookworm who has trouble separating fiction from reality – I relate to Catherine Morland on so many levels. (Sidenote: the “retelling” by Val McDermid is only good if you like stupidly stereotypical teen protagonists).

Best (Austen) hero (in my opinion): Henry Tilney. Mr. Darcy’s great and all, but you have to give Mr. Tilney props: he knows full well how naive and silly Catherine can be and yet still puts up with her. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

Trust your heart, and trust your story – Neil Gaiman

This is my new favourite quote (like I’ve said numerous times on this blog, I’m currently obsessed with Neil Gaiman – seriously, why did I wait so long to read his stuff?!). I think it’s perfect and one day, in the future, I would like a tattoo of it. Maybe it will be my gift to myself when I finally publish a book.

On Friday, I received my first rejection from an agent. You’d think that my reaction would be to sit down and cry for a few hours, but I didn’t. I’m not saying I didn’t eventually tear up a little, but my initial response was an odd sort of pride. Now I have something in common with other authors: everyone gets rejected at some point. I’ve never felt more like an author than I did at that moment.

This literary agent was quite nice: she offered me a couple of suggestions and wished me luck – infinitely more helpful than a curt “no”, which is what I had been fearing. Of course, now the problem is all I can think about is ways to improve my book. Last night, I scribbled an alternate story line on a Post-It that made perfect sense at the time…until I explained it to Ro who pointed out that the rest of the plot stops making sense if I change that particular aspect. She was right, but in my efforts to make my story more explosive (which is my new way of saying “better”), I lost track of my original idea. In a way, I stopped trusting my story and, consequently, I stopped trusting myself.

So this quote comes at a good time. Not only do I think it’s beautiful (it’s from Gaiman’s poem “Instructions”, and it’s laden with deliciously metaphorical meanings), but it’s something I need to remember. My book might not be ready yet – because these things take time, you know – but my story – my dream of being an author – is just getting started. I only have to learn how to trust myself.

A writer […] is someone who pays attention to the world – Susan Sontag

I know I’m not alone when I say that I enjoy people-watching. Not in a sketchy hiding-in-the-bushes sort of way, but in the hey-look-at-those-people-I-wonder-what-their-story-is kind of way. Many writers will say that they are inspired just from sitting quietly and observing the people around them.

Lately, I’ve started people-watching in another form: rather than physically observing people in real life, I read about their lives through a computer screen. It sounds like cyber-stalking when I describe it, but it’s not (the main difference is that this information is public and easily accessible).

Basically, I scroll through the “Personal Life” forums on AbsolutePunk. It’s an odd habit and I’m not sure how/why I started when I don’t even have an AP account (although, I’ve used them as my number one music news source for the past 3 years). But it is fascinating.

The majority of the posts that I read are about relationships (by which I usually mean “dating”). As someone who doesn’t have personal experiences with relationships but whose stories tend to involve relationship-driven plots, it’s a handy resource. I read about these peoples’ problems and the possible solutions that are offered to them by other people/strangers and I think about how I can use these real stories in my fictional stories i.e. “this guy and his clingy, wishy-washy ex-but-not-really-ex-girlfriend are the perfect basis for my next couple.”

That’s just an example, but you get the point.

What makes it really interesting to me is that it’s so personal and yet so anonymous. No one uses their real names. Not every user chooses to show their age and/or location underneath their avatar. So then you’re sitting around, wondering what kind of life they lead and why do all these guys seem to have the same problem and all sorts of other random questions that would probably be really creepy to say out loud. But for a writer, silent observation is just another part of the job.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down […] and bleed – Hemingway

For this week’s Writing Wednesday, I was going to write/complain about dialogue tags (words like “said”, “whispered”, “replied”, etc – the verbs that come before or after dialogue to indicate which character is talking). There are a lot of rules about dialogue tags – one of the most prevalent being “ONLY USE SAID”, which I don’t agree with at all. But then I read this post which basically took the words right out of my head, so I’ll just leave it here for you to read.

Instead, let’s talk about something that happened on Monday.

My sister Ro and I were talking about the sequel to my book. It should be noted that I haven’t actually published my book yet and only about 5 people have read the first completed draft (which wasn’t that spectacular because it was a first draft).  We were discussing plot. I started out asking her “how do I reveal M’s back story?” and 20 minutes later, she had given me ideas for another major character, including how to introduce her and what her storyline is, and how she’s going to affect the others. Later that evening, as I furiously banged out words on my laptop, my hair sticking out everywhere and my eyes red from staring at the screen, Ro came into my room and essentially acted out a dialogue between this new character and the narrator (at one point, I actually had to tell her to take it down a notch because she was getting so into it that she started yelling and it was, as the kids say, “killing my vibe”).

So then I thought: how did I end up being a writer when she’s the one with the imagination? Sure, I have an imagination. I frequently get lost in my own head and forget whether things have really happened or if they were part of my daydreams. I was always really good at making up stories in school – I still have journals from grade 3 where I wrote about whatever I could think of, including but not limited to my pet monster (who obviously lived under my bed). Ro said that she lacks the commitment to be a writer (she often has trouble with commitment, even if it’s something as simple as watching a movie on a particular day. She’s probably reading this and nodding like “yep, pretty much”).

It seems to be a case of her having the ideas and me having the words. I can take what she says (or sometimes yells) and spin it into a dialogue or a description, a drawn out scene or a snippet of a dream (I didn’t mean to make that sound like a rhyme). And then I wonder is: does that make me less of a writer because I don’t come up with all the ideas all by myself?

But to me, it’s like following a recipe: she gives me the basic ingredients, and it’s up to me to stir them all together, plop them into the right dish, stick it in the oven for the right amount of time, and hopefully by the end I’ll have a delicious pie to share (mmmm, pie). And just like with recipes, sometimes I have to modify the ingredients – a little more milk, a little less sugar/a little more of this character, a little less of this plot line – to get the best results, and that’s something that can only be learned through trial and error. It doesn’t make a chef inferior if he/she starts out their career by following recipes, right? Eventually, they’ll become confident and adventurous and impulsive and put their own spin on a classic dish – but they’ll always have their recipes to turn to when inspiration wanes.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: I am a writer. I find inspiration in the weirdest places. But sometimes I need a little guidance, a few suggestions here and there, maybe just the spark of an idea that’s going to set me off. Maybe I don’t come up with all the ideas on my own. Maybe I need someone like my sister to be a sounding board, to agree (or disagree) with my plot points, someone who cares enough about my characters to want to help tell their story.

I just found this quotation from Mel Brooks: “Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.” Maybe I still need a push in the right direction when it comes to bringing my characters to life (or death…). But that doesn’t make me a lesser writer. It’s a learning experience. And it’s something I think all authors have to face, even if they don’t readily admit to it.

It’s hard to admit you need help doing the thing you love, but once you do, you start to realize that you’ve had the ability all along. You just need the right person (or people) to bring it out.