BELLES AND BRUJAS Recap

Goals Update:

Books read: 43

Words on WIP: 10,250

Submissions: 1 outstanding

Attending book events is a relatively recent thing for me. I didn’t start going to conventions as an attendee until my mid-twenties, and last year was my first time going to a show as a vendor. I’d never been to a book signing.

Some of this is a result of where I live. My city might be big for Alabama, but it’s not exactly a giant metropolis. Book tours don’t frequently stop in my town, and I frankly haven’t had a whole lot in the way of time to travel for something like a book tour.

But, this past week, a perfect opportunity arose.

I managed to make it to the Nashville stop of the “Belles and Brujas” Tour. The tour is for a couple of books that came out this year: THE BELLES by Dhionelle Clayton which came out in February and BRUJA BORN by Zoraida Cordova which came out this month. Throughout the tour, other authors have joined as guests. For the Nashville stop, the guests included Julie Murphy (author of, among other books, RAMONA BLUE which just barely missed my top five reads for 2017) and V.E. Schwab, who’s got a long list of works that includes the book THIS SAVAGE SONG, which I’ve mentioned here several times. (SEVERAL times.)

 Going to this event was a huge deal for me. These authors’ books have been some of the most captivating recent reads. And I got the chance to listen to them talk. To meet them in person.

Obviously, one of the benefits of going to this event was the swag.

Swaaaaaaag

I got some books signed and got some book-themed goodies. I’ve worn the RAMONA BLUE pin, like, every day since I got it. And there’s something really cool about flipping open your favorite book and seeing a message from its author to you, personally.

But what I really got from this event—the most important swag I came home with—was a spark.

The book signing was the last part of the night. Most of the event was a panel discussion with the four authors. (If you’re interested in the content of the panel itself, Zoraida Cordova has—or at least had—video of the whole thing on her Instagram: @zoraidasolo.)

Listening to authors talk about their work and why they do it is always fascinating. Everyone’s process and reasons are different, and, since our work is shaped by our contexts, getting insight to where different people are provides fresh perspective to the words on the page.

One of the most interesting questions that the authors took on during the panel was the question of with whom or what their work is in dialogue. All four authors talked about using their writing as a way of negotiating their own identities and of making sure that the things that they couldn’t find in books as kids are there for young readers now. They spoke about addressing problematic and frustrating trends in the industry, breaking the patterns to show how a different type of character or arc or archetype can carry a story and be meaningful to readers.

All of the questions were answered with thought and care, but this one, I think, brought out the most passion. It was so wonderful to see authors who clearly care so much about their work and its readers—and society in general.

Being around authors and readers talking about their work and the dialogues surrounding it lit a fire in my belly.

As was said during the panel, so much of writing makes an island out of you. The work can be so lonely. And, for me, I get so in my head. I love creating worlds and stories, but my desire for perfection can start to pull me to pieces. Being around other people who know the struggles, who care about their work, who have sat in front of a page and just wanted to tear their hair out, helps me feel a little more grounded.

I got to spend a couple minutes talking to V.E. Schwab (and managed not to cry/pass out/throw up—good job, me) about the struggles I’ve gone through with my space opera. When I told her how much I appreciated the fact that she is open about the tumultuous relationship she has with her own work, she said that part of the reason she shares the struggles is because, when she started in the industry, there was no transparency. That glossing over of the struggles, she said, can make people feel like there’s a gulf of talent between them and the folks who have “made it” when that’s not the reality.

I know that—have known that. So many factors play into a person getting an agent, getting a book deal, getting sales. Market demands. Agent preferences. Social climate. The phase of the freaking moon.

But when it’s just you and a screen or a page, it’s easy to forget that. To think that the reason that your work still only lives on your flash drive or in your notebook is because of you—because there’s some problem with you or your work or both.

Being around other people who write and other people who care about books, hearing writers you respect voicing some of the same insecurities that you experience makes the whole thing less lonely.

I’ve been struggling to get words on the page this year. Part of it was the whole holding-four-jobs-at-once thing, but part of it was that I was feeling lost. I had so many false starts. So many things about the book I love so much weren’t working (and, to be fair, a lot of them still aren’t, but I’ve at least convinced myself that it’s okay to let the thing breathe for a while).

I left the event Tuesday night feeling buoyant. I felt hopeful. And, most importantly, I wanted to write.

It’s still slow-going—it usually is for me—but I’m making progress. I hit 10,000 words on the WIP. I jotted down some skeletons for a couple of new short projects. I even think I can go back to CANUS in a while and make it shine.

The tour event was the refresher I needed. I’m back. I’m ready.

Read a Book (or a Bunch of Them) Part 1

2018 Goal Update
Books read: 40
Words on WIP: 8,500

I'm deep in the drafting cave right now. Since I (finally) settled on a project that I'm excited about pursuing, I've been doing my best to get a first draft on the page.

The thing with first drafts is that they pretty much always make me feel like I don't know anything about writing. So, I'm not going to be posting about writing for the next few weeks.

Instead, I'm going to talk about books I've read.

Since I'm a person that reads a lot, I get asked for book recommendations pretty regularly.

Rather than just listing books I like, I want to tie my recommendations to specific tropes, archetypes, and trends that I like. I read a pretty wide variety of books, but there are some specific things that pretty much always catch my attention in books. For these lists, I'll tell you a little about some of my favorite elements and recommend a book or two that showcase that element.

We Are the Monsters

I read a lot of genre fiction that pits humans against supernatural creatures or beings from outer space. A pretty frequent theme in these stories is humanity banding together to defeat a common enemy. But what's more interesting are the stories that make me question what it means to be human--ones that point out that human and monster aren't mutually exclusive categories.

My Recommendations

I've talked about this duology before, but it's one of my favorites. In the Monsters of Verity series, violent acts create actual monsters--the worse the violence, the smarter and more dangerous the monster. The city of Verity is divided. A human, Harker, offers protection from the monsters in exchange for a hefty fee. On the other side of the wall, Flynn pushes for stopping the problem of monsters before it starts--and using the most dangerous type of monster, soul-stealing Sunai.Harker's daughter, Kate, wants to prove that she's worthy of her father's monstrous reputation. Flynn's Sunai son, August, just wants to be a normal boy. These books were based on one idea: Plenty of humans are monstrous, and plenty of monsters know how to play at being human.

Grief and Grieving

Loss is always difficult to cope with, and reading has been one of the tools I've used to work out my own feelings. Art--movies, plays, books--give us an chance to vicariously experience the emotions of grief. They help us find catharsis. They give us some tools to deal with these difficulties in our own lives without us having to go through a trauma of our own.

My Recommendations

For this category, I have a genre recommendation and a contemporary recommendation.

THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER follows a girl named Leigh who is navigating the aftermath of her mother's death by suicide. Leigh is convinced that, after her mother died, she turned into a bird. To find out what her mother's spirit is trying to tell her, she takes a trip to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents and connect with the parts of her mother she never knew. This book is devastating--and I mean that in the best possible way. Leigh's journey is as much about figuring out how to manage the way her life has changed as it is about developing an understanding of her mother's struggle. Plus, the prose is beautiful.

UNDEAD GIRL GANG is one of my favorite reads from this year. Mila's best friend was found dead in the park in what the authorities think was part of a suicide pack with two of their school's queen bees. Unsatisfied with the official explanation, Mila casts a spell to bring back the dead, hoping that her best friend will be able to tell her what happened. Unfortunately, she also brings back the other two girls and is no responsible for managing three undead girls for a week while they work out who killed them. This book isn't the gut-wrencher that ASTONISHING COLOR is, but it does dig into the power of grief. Though Mila gets her friend back temporarily, she does have to figure out how to live in a world where her best friend is there. It's got some great action, wonderful friendship, and magic.

That's it for part one! I'll be back with another round of recommendations. If there are specific tropes, trends, or archetypes you'd like to see recommendations for, let me know.

 
 

Schedules and Recs

2018 Goal Update
Books read: 39
Words on WIP: 6,000/?

So I guess I took a month off from blogging?

May was an exercise in figuring out my new circumstances. Though my new job leaves me with much more in the way of energy and is something that I'm actually done with when I leave for the day (no more student emails in the middle of the night!), it requires my physical presence for a greater number of hours than my previous jobs did. I'm still figuring out the best way to manage this.

I haven't been slacking in my absence. Though there have been a few false starts, I've finally settled into drafting my new WIP. It's not BRUSHSTROKES or Space Frankenstein (though I'm holding on to my notes for both of those--I want to write them, but now's not the time). It's an older project that I made a couple of half-hearted attempts at last year. I think it's had time to percolate, and I'm really enjoying digging into it. As much as it's possible for me to enjoy the torturous process of writing a first draft.

That being said, finding the time to put together blog posts has been a struggle. I plan to keep blogging, but I'll likely be switching to posting on a different day, and maybe once every other week as opposed to once a week. More updates on that as they come, I guess.

June's going to be a month of reorganizing. Hopefully, I'll have my act together by the time of my next in-person author event.

I'll be a guest at the Rocket City Author Event in Huntsville, AL on July 21. It's a day-long event, and tickets are pretty cheap (I think $5 for guest tickets and $7.50 for VIP tickets?). I'll have copies of EVIN and MATA HARI, so it's a great chance to get those signed if that's the kind of thing you're into.

Since I'm going to be busy in the drafting cave and doing event prep, I'm trying to plan out my next few blog posts. What I think I'm going to do is a series of book recommendations. I'll start with ones based on my favorite things in books--favorite tropes or character archetypes or settings. But what I'd really like to do is give recs for things you're looking for.

So here's what I'd like you to do: in the comments, tell me what things you're looking for in books. I'll see if I've got anything on my list that hits those marks.

Catch you in a couple weeks.

Favorite Reads from 2017

There are still a few weeks left in it, but I can safely say that 2017 has been a hell of a year. One positive thing that's come out of what's otherwise been pretty much a dumpster fire of a year is that I spent more time reading.

I've loved reading since I learned how, but it's been tough to make it a priority in recent years, between college, graduate school, work, and my own writing. But I've found that if I consider it part of my writing work--you can't write well unless you read, and you can't know the business of publishing unless you keep up with it--I put more effort toward it.

I set a conservative reading goal this year: 30 books from January 1 to December 31. I'm sitting at about 47 right now, and I'll likely make it to 50 before the year's out. That's still about half of where I'd like to be, but it's a start.

Around this time last year, I posted a list of my five favorite reads from 2016. I wanted to do the same this year, especially since I'd read so much more. This is that list.

I don't have very many rules for inclusion, but I do want to give some insight into how I built this particular list.

Books on this list don't have to have been published in 2017 (though many of the books I read this year were--following literary agents on Twitter definitely helps me keep up with new releases); I just have to have read them in 2017. I limit my list to one book per author, which came in handy this year, since I discovered a new favorite author and read a couple whole series this year. This list is for single books and not series, so, for series that I want to have represented, I pick one to represent the entire series.

I don't have a quota for what I read, but I do try to read across age groups and genres. I also make an effort to read underrepresented voices. This doesn't mean that I avoid books by white guys, but I try to make sure that they don't make up all of my reading list. This year, I came pretty close to gender parity. My specific goal for this year was to read more books by women of color, and I think I did that pretty well.

So, all that in mind, here's my list of favorite reads from 2017, in no particular order. And, as always, buy links are provided.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

 This is maybe an obvious choice, but there was no way this book wasn't going to be on my list. Angie Thomas's debut novel spent the better part of this year sitting at the top of the NYT Best Seller list. The Hate U Give follows Starr Carter a teenage girl who has to navigate the world of the mostly-white private school she attends and the mostly black urban neighborhood she where she lives. Her worlds collide when her childhood friend, Kahlil is the victim of a police shooting. Thomas creates characters that the reader becomes immediately attached to, and she gives a face and a point of connection to a larger social problem. Apart from being an emotional and entertaining read,  The Hate U Give provides an opportunity to build empathy. I started putting this book in other people's hands as soon as I finished reading it. I can't recommend this book enough.

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

The Last Colony is actually the third book in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, all of which (except for the sixth and final book which I haven't been able to get my hands on) I read this year. Humans have built colonies in space, but they're not the only species vying for territory. Where the first two installments of this series are more concerned with battles in space, The Last Colony focuses on the struggle of keeping a colony afloat amid galactic conflict and under the thumb of a manipulative governing body. I recommend the entire series (or, you know, the five I've read), but this was my favorite of them.

 Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

I'm way behind the curve on this one. Bad Feminist came out in 2014, and Gay has published several books and stories since this one. I also read a collection of her short stories this year (Difficult Women), but this essay collection hit me hard. Gay writes about feminism from an intersectional perspective, discussing the ways that class, race, appearance, and sexuality all complicate the experience of womanhood and feminism. She writes about mass media and issues of representation, about the treacherous world women have to navigate, and about the internal struggles of feminist movements. Gay's style is forthright and personal, and she doesn't flinch away from difficult topics. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Want by Cindy Pon

This was another of the new releases I picked up this year after hearing about it from lit agents. Want is set in a near-future Taipei, where air pollution has hit levels that make it dangerous to go outside without a special climate controlled suit. But those suits aren't free, so the rich buy them up while the poor suffer and die from illnesses related to the pollution levels. Jason Zhou and his friends have a plan to change the status quo, but it involves Zhou going undercover as one of the wealthy elites he despises. Want hits a lot of my buttons: a hero that's willing to take questionable actions to achieve their goals (but who's also not immune to the emotional consequences of those actions); shady corporate actions; the relationship between quality and length of life and access to resources (can't get away from the sociology, I guess). Want is powerful and atmospheric, with elements of scifi and some pretty neat heists.

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

So, in a discussion with an agent at a conference, I mentioned that I wanted to write across age groups, to which the agent said, "Like Victoria Schwab?"

I said, "Yes, exactly!" And then decided that I should, you know, maybe read some of her stuff.

As of right now, I've read eight and a half (I'm not quite through The Near Witch) of her works since October, and I've loved each one. But her Monsters of Verity duology were my favorites. This Savage Song is the first in that duology. The story follows Kate Harker and August Flynn, a human and a monster who are on opposite sides of conflict in the city of Verity. Kate's the daughter of a crime boss who uses his influence to protect anyone who can pay from the monsters that roam the city. August is a powerful monster who's been raised by the man trying to make the city safe for everyone. Schwab's prose is beautiful, and this pair of books checks so many of my favorite-thing boxes. This Savage Song is the only book that I read twice this year. I loved this series so much; I think I'm gonna get a t-shirt made that just says "Talk to me about Monsters of Verity."

And that's my 2017 list. It's more YA-heavy than last years, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

What were some of your favorite reads this year? Let me know in the comments.