Welcome everyone, with an especial welcome to Zohar! He is our very first guest blogger! I'm really excited to have him with us! Read is post, comment and let us both know what you thought, and then head on over to his site for a visit!
Bio:
Zohar is a father, husband and a new book blogger. He reads usually likes history and non-fiction books but generally reads everything he can get his hands on. His blogs features Pulitzer winning biographies, historical fiction, non-fiction and even graphic novels. You can find him at Man Of La Book
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My rating for Treasure Island — 5
About:
“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson is an 1883 fictional adventurous and classic pirate story. The book follows Jim Hawkins, a young man, who has found a treasure map and with the help of friends hires a crew to find the treasure. But the crew has their own plans.
Thoughts:
I read "Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson as a young boy and always remembered it as one of my favorites. Recently, as part of a classics book club, I read it again.
The two main characters of the book, Jim Hawkins and Long John Sliver have certainly cemented themselves as two of the most intriguing and dimensional characters in literature. I was happy to reconnect with them almost as if they were old friends.
The first half of the book was a breeze to read, but the second half was a bit more difficult due to the pirate’s slang, cumbersome metaphors and tongue tied conversations. However, I quickly re-discovered that those quirks were part of the charm of the book. Even Jim Hawkins admits he has trouble understanding the narrative – so I wasn’t alone.
I read the Barnes and Noble classics version, which came with a fascinating biography of Stevenson especially regarding “Treasure Island”. The book was actually written for Stevenson’s stepson, after painting the island he started the novel and completed 15 chapters. Stevenson finished the book in Switzerland writing a chapter a day.
Unknowingly, Stevenson created much of the pirate lore which we have been accustomed to. The pirate speaking almost unintelligibly, a parrot on his shoulder, missing a foot and ready to double cross his best friends for a buck or two.
My biggest surprise upon reading “Treasure Island” as an adult was that I realized that the story is not about Jim Hawkins, but about Long John Silver. Granted that usually the villain in any book is usually more colorful and fun than the upstanding protagonist – but this discovery has taken by surprise. Silver’s moral ambiguity is well known but just how amoral the character is I never fully realized as a naïve child (even though I have become a naïve adult).
I was happy to discover that “Treasure Island” truly deserves its status as a beloved classic. The story is suspenseful and the adventure can be enjoyed by children of any age.
Synopsis:
In the mid 18th Century at a seaside village in south-west England Jim Hawkins, the young son of the keepers of the Admiral Benbow Inn, meets and old seaman named Billy Bones. Quickly Jim discovers that Bones is a pirate and that his old crewmates want Bones’ sea-chest.
Bones dies and Jim opens his sea-chest to collect the money owed to the inn – only to discover a mysterious oilskin packet. The packet is a detailed map of an island Jim, together with Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney, hire a crew to sail to the island.
But the crew are not the honest sailors they think they are and the sea-cook, Long John Silver, turns out to be the most dangerous one of them all.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang. (click the title for my review!) And today, she is here to talk to us! I really enjoyed the book, so I'm especially excited for this chance to interview her.
Also, before I get to the interview, I have to mention that Daughter of Xanadu hits the shelves today!!! Yay for book release days! (and how cool that I get to post my interview on the day the book comes out!?!) If your interested at all in Mongol culture, historical romance, or fierce heroines, I suggests you check it out! You can also view the book trailer here!
Dori has been writing for a while now. She's got a great website, and she included a quote from my review of Daughter on her website! How great is that?!:) Her website is www.dorijonesyang.com and I strongly recommend you head over there after you read the interview here! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ashley: Hello Dori and welcome! Thank you so much for being here with us today. I was reading the bio on your website, and you have had a very interesting and varied life. You've lived all over the world and done a lot with journalism. You must have fascinating dinner conversations! You've been a journalist for a lot of years, but when, and how, did you decide you wanted to write books? And how did you decide to make the switch from non-fiction writing to fiction? Dori: I have wanted to write books since I was a little kid, an avid reader like you! When I was 17, my dad popped my balloon by telling me that no one hires authors; he suggested I aim for a career in journalism. I did, and I loved it. As a journalist, I got to meet fascinating people, interview the experts and learn a lot with every article. My goal was to become a foreign correspondent in China, and I achieved that at age 28. But I never forgot that early dream. As a business reporter, I decided to write my first book about business. After that, though, I was eager to write fiction. What I did not expect was just how hard it would be to make the transition from just-the-facts journalism to how-did-she-feel? fiction. Daughter of Xanadu had very beautiful and vivid descriptions, and contained a lot of information about the Mongol Culture and way of life. What kind of research did you have to do to create such an authentic story? The research was fun! I read every book I could get my hands on about the Mongols, the Mongol Empire, and modern Mongolia. Then, I visited Mongolia. Wow! It’s so remote, and many people live nomadic life in yurts (gers), just like in the old days. That gave me a strong visual sense of their world. I used a lot of my Mongolia photos in the book trailer video for Daughter of Xanadu. As I mentioned in my review, I loved the book, but was a little disappointed with the ending. It didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the story. Have you seen this reaction in others? What are your responses to that/How have you responded to that? I hate to disappoint my readers. But here’s one thing I discovered about endings: Most stories can have a happy ending, if you cut them off at the happy part. What happens after that ending is another story. Are there any plans for a sequel to Daughter? I’d love to publish a sequel if my readers are eager for one! You've written fiction for children, YA and adults. Is it hard adjusting your writing style for different age groups? Do you find that you prefer one genre/age group over the others? It is hard. But I’m guilty of genre-jumping because I love new challenges. One thing I find great about YA is that the genre is booming, with many talented new writers, a huge variety of styles, open-minded editors, and avid readers. I love that. It’s interesting that the music industry discovered the demand for youth-oriented music decades before the book industry truly discovered the demand for youth-oriented fiction. What do you have planned next? Do you plan to write more for young adults? Oh yes, I am working on a young adult novel now, almost finished, and am planning more for the future. Which books and authors have inspired you? Both in writing and in life. There are many! But one of them I especially admire is C.S. Lewis. He wrote many different types of books, for different audiences. He is most remembered for his Narnia children’s books, but he was quite a genre jumper, a Renaissance man with many skills and deep insights. If you had to pick one favorite book (or author), a book that's a favorite just because it is, what would that be? That’s a hard question. As a girl, I loved J.R.R. Tolkien so much that I learned to write in his elvish script and taught it to my friends; we used it to write secret notes in class. But today, I read many authors and books and can’t pick a favorite. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us? In your review, you mentioned how Emmajin begins to view her culture from the eyes of an outsider. To me, this message is the heart of Daughter of Xanadu. Too many of us, in America and all over the world, don’t get to this point. Next time you meet someone who comes from a different country or culture, I hope you’ll spend some time trying to see how our culture looks from that person’s eyes. It is eye-opening. Again, thank you so much for talking with us today! I really appreciate it!
Although I have always enjoyed history and love learning about the past, a lot of non-fiction tends to be very dry and tedious. It is informative and the information itself is interesting, but the delivery often leaves much to be desired. It is always a treat to find an author who can write history and keep it interesting.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir is a wonderful example of that. Ms. Weir delivers a very informative, yet highly entertaining account of Henry the VIII; one of England's most notorious monarchs. Henry's desperation to father a son led to one of the greatest scandals in English history. Before reading this book, I knew the basics about Henry's reign. I knew that he married 6 women and had a reputation for beheading those women who displeased him, his desire to marry Anne Boleyn initiated the break between England and the Catholic church, because the Pope wouldn't grant him a divorce and his two living daughters were both rather famous monarchs in their own right.
Because I knew very little actual information about this period of English history, but have always been fascinated by what I heard, I decided to pick up this book and learn a little more about King Henry and his outrageous court. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. The book was very well written and flowed from one sequence of events to another very smoothly. Although this was non-fiction, it read more like a novel than the typical dry recitation of historical facts.
The first half of the 600+ page book was dedicated to Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife and Anne Boleyn, his second. Catherine was married to Henry for 24 years and is the only wife to have been married to Henry for longer than 4 years. During the later years of his marriage to Catherine, Henry's attentions began shifting toward Anne Boleyn, one of the ladies of the court. While it makes sense to devote so much of the book to these two women, the history here did get a little repetitious. I was also a little disappointed because none of the other wives were given as much detail as the first two. Although I did wish for a little more detailed information to be given on the remaining 4 wives, I understand why there was less to say of the others. I mean, Katherine Howard was only 19 when she was married to King Henry, and she was executed after only 2 years of marriage, and Anne of Cleves was married to Henry for less than a year. I did love that interspersed throughout the story of each of these women was the connections to the other women in Henry's life, as well as information about what had happened or what was happening to each of the previous queens. That is something that would have been missing from individual biographies on these six women that I was grateful was included.
Overall, this was a book well worth reading. The facts were well researched, the history informative, and the writing engaging. I will definitely be picking up other books by this author in the future.
WARNING: This review contains more spoilers than normal.
When I first picked up this book, I, like most readers, had heard that this is a true story. Go Ask Alice is marketed as the true diary of a 15 year old girl detailing the destruction of her life after becoming involved with drugs. (Not true, but, more on that later.) In high school, I kept a journal. A very detailed journal. (I filled 9 large notebooks in 2 years...) Although absolutely nothing in my life relates to or compares to what Alice experienced, I did keep a journal during the same age bracket Alice was writing. Reading this book as if it were her diary was interesting for me, because I did not recognize this as an actual diary of a young teenage girl. Very little of the book focused on typical teenaged drama. She touches on major crushes, glosses over losing her virginity and gives an intensely colorful and detailed description of the wonderful colors and feelings experienced while high on acid... Hmm... The writer of this 'journal' rarely felt 15 to me. Her writing was too advanced and cohesive to be the true ramblings and musings of a lost (and generally high) 15 year old trying to sort out her problems and her life. It just wasn't realistic. The few times the narrator felt 15 were after being ostracized from her peer groups. She expresses feelings of confusion and loneliness that range true but even those passages were so short as to almost be an afterthought. I read this believing it to be true, but was confused more than once and had to really stop to think about it. No 15 year old I know writes or talks like this. (I am about to SPOIL the ENDING. You have been warned.) Perhaps the most disappointing thing about this novel was the ending. It leaves you with a feeling of hopelessness. Rather than being a triumphal story about a young girl overcoming her addictions, or a cautionary tale about a life of excess, it is a tale to those addicted to drugs that there is no hope for you. The end will never come, and you will be a user until you die no matter how hard you try to get away from it. Alice has got her life back on track. She is clean, living with her parents and she even has a new boyfriend who knows her past and accepts her for who and how she is. Everything seems to be going so well for her. It seems so hopeful and wonderful. So what happens? In an 'afternote' we are told that 3 weeks after Alice wrote the last page in her diary (remember, she's clean now) she ODs and DIES! Really?! She cleans herself up so that she can die in the end?! Sigh... Okay. Now that I've told you why I didn't love this book, I should tell you that I did like it. It made me sad. It broke my heart. Although it wasn't always delivered in a perfectly believable manner, the situations Alice discovered herself in were traumatic and portrayed quite well. If nothing else, this book made me feel. For the most part, I was able to ignore the parts of the story that didn't ring perfectly true until I had finished the read. It's a short book, and one that I would say is definitely worth the read. Even though some of the descriptions and the writing itself isn't always on the level a 15 year old would use, the language of emotion was. When Alice did speak about her emotions, I found myself easily believing the sincerity of the narrator's emotions, especially when feeling lost, lonely and homesick. So, although overall I DID enjoy this book, and I DO recommend it, I am going to warn you now — This book is a work of fiction, no matter what you have heard otherwise. Check out snopes.com for the specifics about this book. And, read the copyright page! It clearly states that this book is a work of fiction. My recommendation to you — Read this book knowing that it is NOT really the anonymous diary of a teenager addicted to drugs and is instead someone's story of what could happen to you if you find yourself mixed up with drugs. It's a horrifying tale that doesn't need to be marketed as non-fiction to accomplish it's goal. I would have enjoyed this book much more had I know beforehand that it wasn't really true.
With us today, we have Mette Ivie Harrison, author of The Princess and the Hound, The Princess and the Bear, The Princess and the Snowbird, Mira, Mirror and the upcoming Tris and Izzie. Her bio tells us that her name, Mette is Danish and when spoken, rhymes with 'Betty'. She currently lives in Utah with her husband and five children. And, she tells us 'I write during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning. Whenever Ig et a chance. I love to write the kind of books that I love to read. And I love to discover what it going to happen next, just like a reader would.' As if being a writer isn't enough, she also participates in triathlons.
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I wrote the first draft of The Princess and the Hound in 1997, and in that version, it was a retelling of the story of The Princess and the Pea. Doesn’t sound likely, does it? What happened as I was writing the first scene, in which the bedraggled princess knocks on the door of the castle to escape from a rainstorm, was that she came in with this hound. This big, black hound whom she would not let anyone take away from her. It was obvious they were very close, that their relationship was not like any other hound and girl. And Prince George, who told the story from the first, could not stop thinking about this princess and this hound. He had to find out the mystery behind their relationship.
So, it was a mystery and a romance from the beginning, and it was based on a fairy tale. But as I rewrote it many, many times over the next eight years before it was accepted for publication, it took on its current hints of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I thought of it as a new fairy tale, a story that would make the reader sure that this was a fairy tale she had missed reading from the original Grimm’s collections, but in fact was my own invention. It wasn’t until my editor pointed out the hidden Beauty and the Beast that I realized she was right. There are many fairy tales based on Beauty and the Beast, however, and it is only if you look for it that you will see that as a backstory.
Some readers have complained that The Princess and the Hound isn’t a retelling at all. Well, it’s not like any other retelling you’ve probably ever read. I think my brain is just twisty this way, and as soon as I hear a story, I start thinking of the way I would tell it, and by the time I actually tell it well enough that it could be published, it doesn’t look very much like the original. I got some of the same complaints from readers of Mira, Mirror. If you want a retelling of Snow White, you might not be happy with Mira, Mirror, because Snow White appears in one sentence and then disappears. It’s the story of the mirror and the evil queen before Snow White and after. It’s my own story, one only I could tell.
I remember an experience at a writing conference I went to in 2010. Candace Fleming was there and she was teaching a section on writing historical non-fiction. She had just finished writing The Lincolns, a wonderful biography of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and she told us about a bit of historical fact. Mary Todd had been stopped by a night watchman while running by the streets of Atlanta in the wee hours of the morning. The night watchman thought she would only be running toward an elopement, but in fact, she was going to an early morning poetry class, held at that hour so that the oppressive heat of the summer did not bother the students. We were supposed to work on telling only the facts of the story, adding in no details we could not verify. This was something I could not do. Really. I just wanted to go off in all directions on my own. In fact, I started working on a novel called The Asylum after this workshop, using the idea of a girl sent to an insane asylum (as Mary Todd Lincoln was sent by her own son after Abraham’s assassination) for no reason other than that she would not do as she was told.
Tris and Izzie, which will be out in the fall with Egmont, is a project I have been thinking about for a long time, as well. I studied German Literature in college and have a PhD in it. I read Tristan and Isolde in the original middle high German in grad school, and also listened to Wagner’s opera of it. It’s one of the greatest love stories of all time, but it’s also very frustrating to me. It doesn’t have very modern sensibilities about women, and I object to the adultery scheme. Plus the ending is wretched, not romantic at all. And I hate love triangles. So why in the world would I choose to do a retelling of that story? Well, the challenge of it always gets me excited. I feel like I tend to retell fairy tales I hate more often than ones that I like, because I want to fix them. Tris and Izzie is my “fixed” version of the original. I get to play with a love triangle, but in a way that I don’t find objectionable.
I often find that when I read a standard romance with a love triangle, I want to smack all three characters around. What are those two hot guys doing, waiting around to be chosen? They need to get a life, both of them, and dump her. Plus, what is her problem? Doesn’t she know she can’t hold guys on a string like that? If she seriously can’t choose, then she’s too stupid and young to have a romance right now anyway and she should go to an all girls’ school until she grows up. So, in my version of the love triangle, you can imagine things are a little different. I don’t want to give it all away, but I hope readers like my modern take.
Tris and Izzie is also the first time I’ve had a chance to try out a humorous slant on a retelling. It’s not slapstick funny, but Izzie tells the story and she has an ironic twang to her depiction of events that I think works well. There’s lots of action and big save the world stuff going on, but she can also make fun of herself and what’s going on at the same time. It may not feel like it’s as serious a love story or a meditation on life as The Princess and the Hound, but there’s some serious stuff hidden in there, too. I mention how I feel about love triangles, about girls who can’t choose who they love, and about girls who are fighting over the same guy. Also, what secrets do to relationships. And what has happened to our scientific world in which we have no sense of magic anymore. Those are some of the big themes that I think are touched on, while the readers are having a good time reading.
I've got a new website up: www.trisandizzie. com which I’m trying to promote. There is a “Dear Izzie” vlog there, where “Izzie” answers questions for the romantically and magically challenged. So I will give a free book away to the best question posted here in comments, with the understanding that all questions can be used on my blog. Hope you have fun!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ What a wonderful post Mette! It was awesome hearing more of the story behind the book. And Tris and Izzie looks amazing! Can't wait to read it!! Isn't that cover gorgeous?!
Alright everyone! You heard her! Go to www.trisandizzie. com and come up with some questions for Izzie for your chance to win a copy of The Princess and the Hound!
Be sure to leave your questions in the comments section of this post!! Contest ends May 5th. May 8th!
Today is my first actual Memory Monday post, and I'm pretty excited about it! If you missed what Memory Monday is all about, you can read this post here for a more detailed explanation.
I thought for a while about which book I want to start with, but couldn't really settle on one book. Two of the books I read this week happened to be fairy tale retellings, and I have quite a few (a lot) more on my read and to-read lists, so I decided I would start my Memory Monday postings with the reason I love fairy tales so much. And that reason is:
Grimm's Fairy Tales as written and collected by The Brother's Grimm!
Have any of you read their collection of fairy tales?! It's wonderful!
I first read this when I was 10 years old. We were spending a week or so visiting my grandparents, and I was bored. I love my grandparents very much, but at 10 years old, just being in the same house is usually enough. I'm sure you can all relate...
Always having been a reader, I was looking for a book. They had a few picture books, a lot of plays (my grandfather and that whole side of my family is very big into theater), and a bunch of non-fiction — biographies and the link. When you are ten, all of that equals one big BLAH.
I can't tell you how much time I spent searching their shelves just hoping that something interesting would appear and give me something to read. There are only so many times you can play "River Wild" in the hammock. (That's another long story...) Ahem...
As I was searching the shelves, my grandpa pulled an old copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales from the bookcase and told me to give it a try. I was skeptical at first but soon because deeply fascinated by these dark and often morbid tales. Disney never told me that Cinderella's bird friends pecked out her evil-stepsister's eyes, or that Snow White 'dies' two or three times before finally eating the apple, and that it's the dwarf's who save her the first times. There were so many more tales that I had never heard of before and they were all so fascinating. Not all of the heroines are helpless, waiting for their prince to come. A lot of them are ultimately the ones who save their princes and even the tales that have a happy ending are not nearly as peaceful getting their as the current tales would have you believe.
I overheard my grandpa remarking how impressed he was with me to my parents because of my reading. I was sitting on the couch while my brothers were watching cartoons when my grandpa walked through the room. He assumed we were all watching TV, but was impressed and pleased to find me tuning out the TV and little brother noises to focus on my book. I was, as my grandma says, tickled pink. I remember that day, and I remember that book. I loved the stories so much that my parents got me my own copy that Christmas which I promptly sat down and read again, and would use night after night to read bed time stories to my younger brothers. I have such fond memories of these stories, and I love reading them in their original form and retold in new and unique ways.
Because of this book, I also read The Complete Tales of Hans Christian Anderson, and although there were a few favorites there (namely The Little Match Girl and Thumbina) the stories of the Brother's Grimm are most definitely the favorites. (Do you know that HCA has a fairy tale (no lie) about a dung beetle? Ya, I thought it was weird too).
The Brother's Grimm had a very definite impact on me early reading, and what interests me today. Do you have any old favorites? I'd love to hear about them! Leave me a comment telling me about your childhood favorites, or linking me to your blog post, or telling me about your experiences with Grimm's Fairy Tales! I'd love to hear from you!
With us now, we have Jaclyn Dolamore, author of Magic Under Glass and the upcoming Between the Sea and Sky. Jaclyn was homeschooled in a hippie sort of way and spent her childhood reading as many books as her skinny nerd-body could lug from the library and playing elaborate pretend games with her sister Kate. She skipped college and spent eight years drudging through retail jobs, developing her thrifty cooking skills and pursuing a lifelong writing dream. She has a passion for history, thrift stores, vintage dresses, David Bowie, drawing, and organic food. She lives with her partner and plot-sounding-board, Dade, and two black tabbies who have ruined her carpeting. So now, I give you, Jaclyn:
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~ Even if not direct fairy tale retellings, your stories definitely have fairy tale-esque elements. Is this intentional on your part, or just a by-product of the tales you like to tell? Any plans to do a direct retelling?
Well, so far, my intention with any story is to take a period of history and run it through an otherworldly, magical filter. I guess the fairy tale part just comes in as a by-product. Certainly, I read a lot of fairy tales as a child; we had an old book of Perrault stories as well as some of the Lang Fairy Books, Russian tales and Hans Christian Andersen (way to traumatize me as a child, Hans), and I read many retellings. One of my favorite things are stories that mash-up a bunch of tales like the mini-series "The Tenth Kingdom" (seriously, it is so fun, if anyone hasn't seen it yet you should), the musical Into the Woods, or the comic Fables. I always thought that would be fun to do, but I'd have to come up with a new take on it because it's already been done so well by others. I've often thought it would be fun to do a fairy tale retelling, but I'm waiting for the right one to cross my path, something a little creepy but also romantic in just the right way... Of course I've seen a lot of comparisons between Magic Under Glass and Beauty and the Beast so perhaps I DO retell fairy tales in some ways.
~ Your ideas are really original and interesting, with great juxtaposition (a dancer falling for an automaton, a mermaid falling for a winged man, etc): can you tell us a little bit about where these stories come from?
I am a SUCKER for star-crossed romances between two outsiders. Magic Under Stone, of course, continues the Erris/Nimira love story but there is also a jinn whose master pits him against the girl he loves. (To be very vague about it... I don't want to be spoiler-y.) All my books have some element of this and I doubt that will change anytime soon. I am especially attracted to stories about two like minds in unlike bodies... a girl and an automaton, a girl with a fish tail and a boy with wings... I guess they are kind of stories about how human hearts cross boundaries.
~You mentioned in a past interview with another blogger (I’ll link to it) that you wanted to see more Victorian era fantasy, so you wrote Magic Under Glass: what was the research process like for this? Beyond the rest of the Magic series, do you intend to set any more books in the Victorian era, or is there another time period calling your name?
I've always loved the Victorian era, and history in general, and I am a total non-fiction book junkie, especially when it comes to the details of domestic life such as houses, clothes, social mores, etc. so I wrote the first draft of Magic Under Glass without any research. But, the more detail, the better, so I also read many books while writing it, and looked at a lot of period photography of people and places so I could capture details like what you would really see when you walked down the street or what accessories a woman would wear with her dress.
As for other time periods, well, Between the Sea and Sky is set in that world's equivalent of 1800, so it's earlier than Magic Under Glass, and now I am working on a novel based loosely on the 1927 German silent film Metropolis, so the settling is based heavily on Weimar Berlin. Which has proved to be a pain to research. Most books on Weimar Berlin seem geared to really intellectual political or art scholars and as an extra bonus, were translated from German and read very stilted, and it's been hard to find much information on everyday life. Even memoirs and diaries have been kind of hard to find. I've cheated a bit and read a lot about 1920s Paris... There is a silent film called "Berlin: Symphony of a Great City" that is nothing but scenes of everyday life in 1920s Berlin, though, so you do find these little tidbits...
~I know Between the Sea and Sky is a companion novel of sorts to Magic Under Glass, but do you intend it to be a stand-alone, or is it going to spin-off into its own series?
It stands alone. I do have some sequel ideas, although they would focus on characters that are children in Between the Sea and Sky. But whether my publisher would buy a sequel depends on whether the book does well.
~What’s the most challenging aspect of writing for you? And what’s the thing that makes it all worthwhile?
Challenging: There is always a sticky spot somewhere in the middle of a book. Also, endings! Sealing the deal is one of my weaknesses for sure. I don't really LIKE things to end... In my mind my books keep going, but of course I can't write endless sequels to everything, so I have to find a spot to wrap everything up, it's just hard. And action scenes. Augh. As a reader, I usually skim fights and escapes. I wish I could skim them as a writer too...
But except for those occasionally sticky spots, I love every part of writing; the research, the early development, the first page, the part where you really start to know where it's going, the editing, the line editing, the copy editing... And sharing that story with others and hearing from fans is a huge rush, although I have to be careful not to get caught up in advances or awards or fans (or the flipside--the lack of those things) and stay focused on the writing itself.
~What is your writing process like? What do you do to prepare and get yourself in the mood to create worlds?
I'm a workaholic, really. I do take days off. But I feel very guilty about them, unless I take an actual vacation away from home. Even when I'm not writing, I think about both my current project and think ahead to my next project almost constantly. It's a constant struggle not to zone right out of my real life and back into my invented one. One time I was apparently in 7-11 with an old man clad entirely in lime green spandex and I didn't notice. I got to the car and my boyfriend was like, "Did you see that guy in line in front of you and his crazy outfit?" I was like, "Uhh, I was thinking about my characters... " Even as a kid I was like that. I'm just glad I found a way to make a career out of it...
~What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?
@_@ Ever?
Boy, that's tough. I do love the climax of Between the Sea and Sky, with its mingled vulnerability and yearning. And kissing and rain. Who doesn't enjoy that mix?
Quickfire, Silly and Random stuff:
~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale? Hmm, not to steal the produce thing, but I could be named after an apple. I think they are nature's most perfect food! Plus they turn up in fairy tales a lot. ~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale: "When the weather was fine, Jonagold and her sister Gingergold would play in the scrub pine forest, catching minnows in the pond and crawling under the palmettos hoping to spot rabbits, but they never ventured into the swamp, for that was where the fairies lived." (Note 1: Apples don't make for very good names. Especially if you are trying to find some that match. Note 2: I really did grow up on a 5-acre property in central Florida with a swamp in back and I wouldn't be surprised if some North American breed of fairy lived back there.)
~Best fairy tale villain and why?
Bluebeard. Talk about creep-tacular; it plays to my love of the mysteries behind locked doors, but in a far scarier way than The Secret Garden. The first time you hear that story you NEVER forget it... Although I also love crone archetypes in general which includes a lot of women you wouldn't want to cross paths with like Baba Yaga.
~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites?
In childhood my favorite tale was in a collection "Princess Tales" by Nora Kramer. I no longer have this book and I'm not sure if it was an original story or based on an older tale; the collection did have The Twelve Dancing Princesses in it so I'm not sure, but I vaguely recall it was about a painter who painted an ugly-but-honest picture of the king or something and was thrown in a prison with a tiny window, but a blackbird would visit him, and in the end just as he was about to be executed the birds saved him. I was enthralled by the poor painter trapped with only one window and the birds rescuing him. I need to get a new copy of that book... As an adult my favorite might be The Seven Swans; I always feel for the poor mute girl weaving shirts of nettles and I always wonder about the brothers who lived as swans and the boy who was left with one wing in the end. I like birds, clearly. There is actually a fairy tale I invented mentioned within Between the Sea and Sky called "The Girl Who Fell in Love with a Bird."
~If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be?
Fairy tale characters don't have very good lives! I mean, up until the happily ever after part. I guess I'd be Sleeping Beauty because at least she just sleeps through the whole thing. So many of them have to go through a lot of trials; great fun to read about but not much fun to live through.
~Would you rather: - — live under a bridge with a troll, or all alone in a high tower? I think I need more information about the troll and what kind of roommate (bridge-mate) he would be before I can decide...
- — ride everywhere in a pumpkin carriage (messy) or walk everywhere in glass shoes (uncomfortable)? Glass shoes. I already have a heck of a time finding comfortable dressy shoes so maybe it wouldn't be much difference.
- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming? These quickfire questions are harder than the serious questions!;) Well, I guess, although the term "Prince Charming" sounds shallow, I'd rather have someone to spend my life with than a fairy godmother.
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A conversation with Misty and Ashley:
Misty and Ashley: Wow! Jaclyn, you are amazing! We loved the interview!
Ashley: So, Jaclyn's bio mentions that she loves to draw. It would be cruel, would it not, to brag about her mad-drawing skills and not share that with the rest of the world.
Misty: It would be cruel. Too true!
Ashley: So, because Jaclyn has an official saved spot at the 'Fairy Tale Cool Kids Table' and is not, in fact, a cruel person, she has offered up an absolutely stunning giveaway!
Misty: She is providing one lucky winner with hand-drawn bookplates, featuring the main couples from each of her novels. Aren't these covers absolutely stunning?!
Ashley: What must you do to win these bookplates? These hand-drawn bookplates?! It's simple really. You must provide us with unicorn sprinkle cupcakes. (what Misty? Oh... Ooops. Right)
Ahem. To win this one-of-a-kind giveaway, you must leave us a comment. But, not just any comment. Because Jaclyn is putting so much effort into making this giveaway special for you, you must put forth a little effort as well. For any MEANINGFUL comment left on this review, you will be entered to win. If your comment isn't meaningful, I'm going to assume that you don't actually want to win the awesomeness that is these bookplates, and I will NOT enter you into the contest. You must also leave a way for us to contact you, if you are the winner. If I can't contact you, you can't get your prize.
This contest IS open Internationally! Closes May 5th.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner is a book that's been sitting on my shelf for about 3 years now. It was a text book for one of my Political Science classes in college. This book was used entirely for in class discussion. All of my classes that semester had a large reading load, and this one didn't seem as important to get read as the actual texts and published articles.
I read the first 3 chapters along with the class, before I prioritized (well, probably more like got lazy) and set it on the back burner. But, I enjoyed the book and the information it presented, and I've always planned to go back and read it. So, I added it to my Fill-in-the-Gaps list, and on my list for Adam's TBR Challenge, over at Roof Beam Reader.
I liked this book. A lot. The writing is mostly smooth, and the questions asked and the information presented is readable, entertaining, and interesting. Levitt is a somewhat unorthodox economist, claiming he isn't very good with numbers, and the traditional economic subjects don't interest him too much. He'd much rather decipher why drug dealers still live with their mothers if they are all supposed to be rich, or whether or not your name can really make a difference in your future careers. Dubner is a journalist who interviewed Levitt. They liked working together, and decided to collaborate on a book, detailing some of the studies and analysis they did to answer some of these questions.
I liked that the questions asked were a little unusual, but also relevant and pertinent to life. Economics can be broken down into the study of incentives, and it's interesting to note what they believe to be highly motivating. Incentives aren't always monetary. They can also be social, and moral. These incentives are often connected. Breaking apart or changing these incentives give us an added insight into human behavior, and why people do what they do. I don't know that I agree with everything they theorize about in this book, but I can say that they have done a very thorough job with their research, and it was never dull.
It's not a book for everyone, but then — I don't think much non-fiction is. But, this is a book that will make you think a little differently about the world and ask a new set of questions, even if it only happens while actually reading the book. I'm glad I finally finished this one. It was definitely worth it.
Have any of you read this book, or their blog? What do you think?
