Tag Archives: historical fiction

02/3/12

{365.34} I Prattle Endlessly About Writing (Again)

I scored a $5 used hardcover copy of Kate Morton’s The Distant Hours on Amazon that was also eligible for Prime, so I’m showing it off in today’s photo~ It’s in awesome condition, looks like it was only read once or twice. I do have an e-reader now, and I definitely love my Nook and can’t remember what it was like in the Dark Ages before I had one (you know, back in December)… but my love for real, physical copies of books will never leave me. I still stalk the books on my Amazon wishlist to see if anyone is selling them on the cheap and having them fulfilled by Amazon’s warehouse, because it’s a good deal. As rabid fans of Amazon, we’re really loving the fact that they have an office and warehouse here in Las Vegas because they very often fulfill our orders much quicker than expected. For example, I ordered this book just a day ago and it already arrived today. It was originally slated for a Saturday delivery.

By the way, it’s one of my absolute favorite books. Duh. I added it to my “books that must live in the exclusive bookshelf above my bed until death do us part” selection last year. I mean, it’s like Kate Morton knew me personally and wrote this book just for me. Just look at the spellbinding front page! No, the book isn’t all done up like that on every page, but that’s really all it took for this story and I to become inseparable. It’s set in WWII: check. It takes place in England: check. There are three spinster sisters with a dark secret: check. There’s a female protagonist who loves books and solving mysteries: check. All of this happens in a house resembling a castle: check. Paola must own this book: check, check, check, freaking CHECK.

Since I’m prattling about books today, it’s only natural that I would begin to segue into prattling about writing. My go-to sources for writing advice and inspiration are the websites of my favorite authors. Whenever I get stuck, or start feeling like I’ll never get anywhere with my stupid novel, I pick a random author from my list and visit their site. Most authors have a blog entry, FAQ, or some other page on their site dedicated to writing advice. They talk about their process, what works for them, and what they do when they start wanting to stab their computer screen with the nearest sharp object. Call me lame, but I take comfort in reading that successful writers have the same problems I do.For example, I felt loads better when I read a pep talk from Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife) on NaNoWriMo.org that confessed the following:

“I’m a very slow writer. Slow works for me. I have all the bad habits my fellow writers warn you not to fall into: I procrastinate. I write a bit and wander off to think it over and come back two weeks later. I have no schedule, no regular habits, no fetishes, no daily word quota. I incubate ideas for years and once I start to work on them I can spend more years happily researching esoteric bits and bobs that may not even end up in the novel. I am terribly caffeine dependent. I edit while I write.”

– Audrey Niffenegger, pep talk for National Novel Writing Month 2011

If an author who produced one of my all time favorite books EVER, which then became an international bestseller AND a major motion picture, can accept her flaws and bad habits, then I can accept mine too. And I can work to get over them. What I’ve really learned in the past month since I really got serious about doing this is that every writer is different and not all of their advice is going to work for me. But that advice does give me ideas for how to improve. Last night I paid a visit to Garth Nix’s website (Sabriel and the other Old Kingdom series books), which btw he runs himself because he is awesome, and read what he had to say about word counts. He keeps a running log of his word counts for every book that he writes, in a notebook. Seeing the growing numbers is encouraging when it begins to feel like wading through a swamp.

I started doing the same thing, but I’ve also increased my word count goal for this first book from 75,000 to 100,000. And if it comes down to it, maybe more than that, or less, depending on what will truly work out best for telling the story. I’m not afraid of my word count goal at all. And even though I only started logging my progress in my notebook last night, I already feel really motivated. It’s kind of like how I feel about this blog and writing in it every day — now that I’ve gone for an entire month, I can’t bear to break the cycle. I’m finding out that this is what works for me and writing, too. I try to write every day, even a little bit. I don’t always work on the novel itself; I also write little tidbits here and there about the world and its culture, or history, or I write a short piece from one of the characters’ viewpoints to get a better feel for them and their voice. But the point is, I try to write something every day. Even if I don’t finish what I’m chipping away on that very same day, I forgive myself and move on.

That being said, I’m also working on toning down my rampant need for perfection when it comes to this rough draft because it’s honestly becoming an obstacle. I need to just write, and get the story moving forward, instead of obsessing because I can’t phrase something exactly how I want it, or because I will never be satisfied with a scene the first time around. Or even the second, or third, or fiftieth. This is just how I am and these are just how high my expectations are, but progress isn’t achieved by me agonizing over a sentence when I could’ve finished writing a chapter in that amount of time. So, I’m embracing Editing Hell. Editing Hell is what will solve my perfectionism dilemma, AFTER I finish writing. I can obsess about this stuff THEN, and not NOW.

Anyway, it really is about time for me to go back to my word processor so that I’ll have a word count to enter for today… haha. Practicing what I preach!!!

01/24/12

{Project 365.24} I’m Definitely Not Very Exciting

I spent most of my day cleaning, which probably makes you feel as bored as my dog did. Still, clutter accumulates over time, which in turn makes my brain feel cluttered, so I get up and do something productive and chore-like to clear it all out. I’m not exactly sure how this happens, but our coffee table is the first place to start piling up with randomness. I have a storage tray/catch-all sitting right on top of it, but somehow the surface soon becomes a forest of empty glasses, game controllers that weren’t put back in the tray, then David tends to step out of his shoes and leave them there so they’re always around the coffee table… lol. We’re both guilty of leaving stuff lying around when we don’t feel like putting them back right away. So, I took some time to sort through all the junk and put everything where it was supposed to go — all the controllers in the tray next to the remotes, glasses in the dishwasher, et al etc. I think I may find a magazine caddy, they tend to stack up too.

Now I’ve put everyone to sleep by recounting my cleaning experiences. Hahaha. Obviously though, I just don’t have much of an exciting life so not every entry can be extremely riveting. I did finish The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman today (our first ever book club selection) and I loved it. True, it started off really slowly, and the first of the four narrators was just as slow to grow on me, but the momentum builds up considerably right up to the end. The book is historical fiction set around the time of Jerusalem’s fall to the Roman Empire and the story is told by four different women who all end up at a fortress called Masada, deep in the desert. In this stronghold, 900 rebels, all driven from their homes by the Romans, have found a way to live despite tragedy and war. As I mentioned on our discussion board, I completely fell in love with the third chapter and its narrator… only to realize that the book’s synopsis specifically warns the reader that only 2 women and 5 children survived the siege of Masada. This, of course, had me reading at a furious pace, trying to find out who survived. I had a feeling my favorite wouldn’t. I won’t say anything else about it because some of my fellow book club members visit this blog from time to time, but I will mention that the ending really moved me. I think this has to be Alice Hoffman’s most stunning piece of work, everything researched and woven together, even with the slow start. The book itself was five years in the writing, and I can see why. I loved that her note at the end talked about her own visit to the ruins of Masada, and that she used artifacts excavated by the museum there to weave into her story. I will definitely be buying the actual book sometime in the future to add to my bookshelf, it’s worth it.

I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow… expect some degree of whining in tomorrow’s post. Haha.

01/4/12

2012 Historical Fiction Nerd-Out Time

Pretty sure someone out there is fully aware of my addiction to historical fiction, because there are THREE — count them, THREE — books that dabble in that genre coming out between now and March that I desperately need. NEED, I say! I’m so excited about them that I’m going to blog about all three right now before I explode. I mean, hello! These books are about some of my favorite historical events/people/places! Yes, I’m really lame and have pet subjects within the realm of history. For example, World War II. I like any book about people living through WWII, maybe because my own grandmother was a teenager in the occupied Philippines during that time and her stories sparked an interest in me from childhood. I never get tired of the resilience that is always evident in a story set during this period — whether its about the London Blitz, Hiroshima, or the Holocaust, it doesn’t matter. These stories contain so much life, persisting in the face of death, and above all serving as a reminder that hope is something you can’t quench. Definitely love me some 1939-1945. Oh, but anyway, I digress! Onward to the books!

No One Is Here Except All Of Us by Ramona Ausubel
Release Date: Feb 2, 2012

“In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans, deserts, and mountains-but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator-the girl, grown into a young mother-must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future. A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, No One Is Here Except All Of Us explores how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.”

Um, okay, I already love this!!! First, note the year: 1939. WORLD WAR II. There are many stories of Jews in hiding during the Holocaust, but this is the first I’ve read of an entire village attempting it. And that last line in the summary, concerning the way storytelling is used to survive and create your own truth, is so beguiling that I can hardly remain in my chair. I must have this book. MUST.

Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt
Release Date: Feb 7, 2012

“As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods – a book of ancient Norse myths – and her inner and outer worlds are transformed.

How could this child know that fifty years on many of the birds and flowers she took for granted on her walks to school would become extinct? War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that A.S. Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark work of fiction from one of the world’s truly great writers.”

London Blitz + Norse Mythology + Post-Apocalyptic Plot = YES. This sounds brilliant. I was the world’s foremost mythology nerd in elementary school, so anything myth-related immediately snags my attention. I really want to read more A.S. Byatt; I downloaded the sample chapter of her novel The Children’s Book and soooo want to the entire book now but I’m waiting to purchase in case there’s a library copy. (I spend way too much of my pocket change on e-books nowadays…) Another novel of hers, Possession, was awarded with the Booker Prize and also made into a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow in 2003. Btw, A.S. Byatt is Dame Antonia Byatt. If the Queen loves her, I also love her. The end.

Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison
Release Date: March 6, 2012

“St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family—including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease that keeps the boy confined to his sickbed, lest a simple scrape or bump prove fatal.

Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories—some embellished and some entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.”

Hold the phone — this novel is about that most tragic of families, the Romanovs. Oh. Heck. Yes. The mystery of the missing Anastasia (and the awesome animated movie~) is only one thing I find compelling about the Romanov story. Now we’re throwing in a star-crossed love as well??? IS IT MARCH YET???

And now that I’ve shared those with you, I’m off to impatiently wait for them to come out. *flailing arms*