Reading the Classics- A Challenge

I don't know if it's just me, but I tend to read more when it's cold and rainy (or in some case for others, snowy). There is nothing like curling up on the couch with a warm blanket, cup of coffee or hot chocolate and a good book. Now that summer is drawing to a close, I can feel the leaves turning around me (or as much as they do in Southern California) and it makes me crave those days.

I have plenty of books on my TBR pile that will keep me busy all winter, and even through the next year, but that doesn't keep me from buying new ones. How can you resist the great books that are on the horizon in YA/Teen literature? I know I can't.

Too many books are already calling my name on my shelves, and each time I finish one, I can't decide what to read next. That is why I'm going to help myself and add a change to my reading...at least once a month.

Recently Barnes and Noble gave away a group of classics each week in ebook format. I think I've mentioned on this blog, I'm not a huge lover of classics but I hope to change that in the coming months. I downloaded many of the books they offered, excited to get a free ebook, no matter what it was! Of course, now that ebooks are everywhere, the classics are easy to come by for free. You only need to look as far as Google Books or Project Gutenberg to download most of them. You don't even need an Ereader (though if you have one, you can easily get these ebooks on your device), only a computer and in some cases Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) which is a free program. Because the classics are old enough for the copyright to expire, it is not stealing, but considered public domain now. The reason I was so excited about Barnes and Noble's offer, their books are formatted properly, fixing all of the errors that occur in the scanning process. Sites like the ones I listed above, do not--but here's a tip. Project Gutenberg is a little cleaner usually--but that shouldn't stop you from reading books that have shaped the literary world for decades, if not centuries.

So I give you my challenge. I will be reading one classic a month and then posting a review of each one. Hopefully I'm able to get through each in a timely manner (I seem to read classics a little slower than modern books).

Anyone interested in playing along?

Here is a list of the books I downloaded in the past few weeks that I will choose from each month. Looking at this list, it really is amazing how many of these books have been made into moves (some several times) and how many by Disney.

Journey to the Center of the Earth- Jules Verne
Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
Man in the Iron Mask- Alexandre Dumas
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume I & II- Arthur Conan Doyle
Gulliver's Travels- Jonathan Swift
King Soloman's Mines- H. Rider Haggard
Canterbury Tales- Geoffey Chaucer
Cannecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court- Mark Twain
Fairy Tales- Hans Christian Andersen
The Jungle Books- Rudyard Kipling
Prince and the Pauper- Mark Twain
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea- Jules Verne
Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings- Washington Irving
Time Machine and The Invisible Man- H.G. Wells
Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
Woman in White- Wilkie Collins
Main Street- Sinclair Lewis
Portrait of a Lady- Henry James
Wings of the Dove- Henry James
This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beautiful and Damned- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Metamorphosis and Other Stories- Franz Kafka
Uncle Tom's Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Persuasion- Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey- Jane Austen
Room with a View- E.M. Foster
Wuthering Heights- Emily Bonte
Mansfield Park- Jane Austen
War of the Worlds- H. G. Wells
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
Emma- Jane Austen
Peter Pan- J.M. Barrie (this one isn't very fair to have on the list. I adore this book)
Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson Burnett
Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Grahame
Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum
Tarzan of the Apes- Edgar Rice Burroughs
Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass- Lewis Caroll

So, let me know what I should read as the first book of the challenge starting in October. Should I go for something that fits along with Halloween like the Legend of Sleepy Hallow or Frankenstein?

What are some of your favorites from this list?

Character Development Via Birthday

We have a company that arrives at our school once a month with books and gadgets to put on display in our staffroom, and staff can purchase these items if they wish. It's a very effective "impulse" buy strategy. There you are in the staff room, nothing to do but eat leftovers, so you flip through the cookbooks or spot a cute Labrador retriever calendar you suddenly can't do without.

Anyway, one day last year I walked into the staff room and found one such gem, a ginormous book called: The Element Encyclopedia of Birthdays (EEB) by Theresa Cheung. I was familiar with the Element series as I have many of their folklore/mythology titles and being that I already thought of the series as research material might have put me in the right mindset. After a few page flips I understood just what I was holding.

The EEB is the motherload of character development tools. Looking to add depth to a shallow character? Need a few extra plot conflicts? Get them through personality clashes! Each birthday/day of the year is broken down into easy to read chunks of info: traits, challenges, good luck charms, how this person acts when feeling "dark side" or when they're at their best, their health and career interests. See? The motherload.

I'm not suggesting you pick a day of the year and base a character on the info you find, though I guess you could. I think it's better to take bits and pieces from different days and create your own dynamic personality. This resource works wonders if you're adding to an existing character, incorporating traits that you might otherwise not have thought of, or ones that make a flat character come to life.

So grab a copy, flip through the pages and get inspired!

The Sounds of Revision

Revisions are hard work. Anyone who doesn't agree may need to get their head checked! I'm in the middle of revising my book, Parlor, and it's slow going. I've gotten to the point in about half of the chapters, where I've revised the stuff that just doesn't work out. That's the easy part! Now comes the hard, trying to make the words that remain better. I have trouble getting it to the sparkly point, but maybe I'm not alone.

This is where good critique partners come in. Each person reads a story a little different, offering small tidbits of amazing advice to push you to see your work in another way. I know both of my crit partners do an awesome job! Once they've read and given their notes, I go back to each chapter and revise again.

A few weeks ago, after my crit partners took their turn, I followed my usual steps. Read their notes, revised, read over the chapter and then fixed anything odd that didn't flow. I still felt like the chapter wasn't quite there, so I was a little down. I didn't know what it needed, but it was definitely not up to my standards for how much work I had put into it.

Normally, my husband doesn't read what I write until it's practically finished. I don't know why, but that's how it worked with my last book. I didn't let him see any of it until it was time for me to query. I had an idea recently and I can't even explain how helpful it was. I sent him the first chapter, asking him to just look over it and give his initial thoughts. I'm always nervous when he's reading something I've written, and this wasn't an exception. In fact, it was worse. I knew it wasn't very good, and like I said, he was used to reading my work in a pretty polished state.

I thought he would just tell me quickly what worked and what didn't, but he went above and beyond. We sat for three hours, breaking down each sentence. After about twenty minutes time, I was having trouble typing as quickly as he was talking, trying to get each little note down. Then we got the idea to record it! That's right, we audio taped the whole thing. It was amazing because I didn't miss a single thing we said and I was able to wait until Monday (we did this on a Saturday) to make changes based on our discussion. I could edit at my own speed and could just rewind when I needed to hear something a few times.

It was great because he reads enough YA to know what works, but also has a different viewpoint than myself or my crit partners. I would totally recommend talking through your work with someone and recording it for playback later. At least, if you can stomach having to listen to yourself talk for hours on end. Now THAT was harder than the revisions.

SWEET Giveaway Contest: The Great YA Bake Sale

YA author, Christine Johnson, (Claire de Lune) has organized one hell of a sweet tooth appeasing giveaway contest. Here's Christine with the details:

It’s here, it’s here - The Great YA Bake Sale of 2010!

It all started when I realized that YA authors seem to have one big thing in common - an obsession with sweets and baking.

That gave me an idea. I started calling (well - okay, emailing) around and ended up with more than a dozen kind, sugar-loving authors on board to bring you one amazing contest.

Here’s the deal:

To enter, simply leave a thoughtful comment on an author’s Bake Sale blog post, or tweet about the contest with the hashtag #YABakeSale10. Voila! You’re entered.

When you enter, you become eligible to win any one of the Personal Prize Packs (i.e. a comment on Saundra Mitchell’s blog may net you the Cyn Balog prize pack. You’re entering the whole contest, not just that particular author’s part of it.) You also become eligible to win the humongonormous Grand Prize Basket.

What’s in the Grand Prize Basket?

Each author has hand-written two copies of a favorite sweet-treat recipe. One copy has gone into a beautiful recipe book that is part of the Grand Prize Basket. In addition to the (hand-written! Did I mention that?) recipe collection, the Grand Prize winner will receive:

A signed copy of Cyn Balog’s SLEEPLESS
Bookmarks for KAT, INCORRIGIBLE by Stephanie Burgis
Signed bookmarks for THE CRESCENT and HALF MOON, pencils, and a crescent moon and crystal-studded star necklace from Jordan Deen
A (signed?) copy of THE BODY FINDER, a THE BODY FINDER tote bag, sticker and bookmarks from Kimberley Derting
An EVERLASTING-themed notebook, bookmark and pin from Angela Frazier
A signed copy of CLAIRE DE LUNE, signed stickers and a silver, moon-themed bookmark from Christine Johnson
A signed copy of SHADOWED SUMMER, matching chocolate candies, Twilight-themed heart candies, bookmarks and THE VESPERTINE dance card from Saundra Mitchell
A signed copy of THE PACE, by Shelena Shorts, along with bookmarks and THE PACE pencils
A signed hard-cover of SHADE and a Keeley Brothers pin from Jeri-Smith Ready
A signed copy of PERSONAL DEMONS, a PERSONAL DEMONS tank top, temporary tattoos, and bookmarks from Lisa Desrochers
. . . AND MORE!!! All for ONE LUCKY WINNER!


But that’s not all!

Each author has one other handwritten recipe that will be part of each author’s own Personal Prize Pack.

The prize packs include:

Cyn Balog - Signed copy of SLEEPLESS and a handwritten recipe for Coconut Bread.
Stephanie Burgis - UK paperback copy of A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK and a hand written recipe for Apple Muffins
Kay Cassidy - Hand-written recipe and giveaways
Megan Crewe - Hand-written recipe and giveaways
Shannon Delaney - Hand-written recipe and giveaways
Jordan Deen - Basket with Pampered Chef baking gear and a recipe for Orange Pineapple Cake
Kimberley Derting - Signed copy of The Body Finder, stickers, a totebag, bookmarks and a recipe for Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lisa Desrochers - A copy of PERSONAL DEMONS and a recipe for Sunday Coffee Cupcakes
Angie Frazier - A signed hard-cover copy of EVERLASTING, bookmark, and a recipe for Butter Rum Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting
Judith Graves - Copy of UNDER MY SKIN, a character card, and a recipe for Dead Lady Fingers
Christine Johnson - A signed hard-cover copy of CLAIRE DE LUNE, stickers, a silver moon-themed bookmark and a recipe for Chocolate-Chip Butterscotch Blondies
Saundra Mitchell - Recipe and giveaways
Jennifer Murgia - ANGEL STAR swag, Octogram earrings, and a hand-written recipe
Shelena Shorts - Signed copy of THE BROKEN LAKE and bookmarks and a hand-written recipe
Jeri Smith-Ready - SHADE UK paperback edition and a recipe for Scottish Oat Scones


Fine print: The contest entries must be posted by midnight eastern time on September 20th. This contest is open to the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Questions? Leave them in the comments or email me - christine(at)christinejohnsonbooks.com

The Future of Libraries and Why I Care

I don't know if it's the same way where you live, but California has but cutting back the hours and days that the library system is open. There's even talk of closing a few down, shifting the books to bigger branches and not purchasing many new ones. It's very sad to see and I don't think people understand what the library means to the community. I know I didn't until just recently when I started to use mine.

Not long ago, I didn't even see the library as an option for me. I bought all the books I wanted to read and always had a huge stack to get through at home. It was a luxury, something that I chose to spend my hard earned money on. Since writing full time, I've had to watch my spending a little more, not buying every book I want the day it comes out (of course, Mockingjay the exception). There was something about going out on Tuesday and buying them right away, even if I wasn't going to read it until months later. It was thrilling to look on my bookshelf (and I must add, still is!) and see so many unread books to choose from. It was like having my own library at home, but I was able to read them at my pace and not worry about a return policy or late fee. Another thing, and this may make me a little weird, I always thought about where the book had been. I'm no germaphobe (is that a word?), but the thought of hundreds, if not thousands of people bringing these books into their house kind of gave me the chills and not in a good way.

My mind changed a little when I got my Nook. My library system has ebooks that you can check out. I went to my local library (that's seriously less than a mile away from my house) and got a library card. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I was looking through their ebooks instantly. It's so convenient, it's ridiculous. You browse the ebook catalog at home, get on the wait list (if there is one) and when it's available they send an email. All you have to do is click on the link and download the book, loading it into your nook from the USB cord. You have the book for 21 days and once the time is up, it's returned to the library's system. No need to worry about late fees, the ebook does it for you! No need to worry about the germy hands that touched the book before you! I've read several books this way, and I have to say, it's magical. It feels as if I own the ebook and the time allotted is a lot longer than I would ever need to read a book.

I was shocked this week when I went to the library to write. I decided to give the books a chance, and went to check out the crochet books they have available. There was a book I saw they had in their catalog that I'd been wanting to get, but didn't want to spend the $20 on. I couldn't believe it when I saw it sitting on the shelf, waiting for me to check it out. While I walked the shelves, I was shocked at how busy the library was. Who said no one uses the library system anymore? There were people there of all ages, most of them ready to check items out. In fact, I couldn't find a empty seat near a table, and ended up writing with my laptop on my lap. Everyone seemed happy to be there, among so many books that they could check out for free. There were several people with huge stacks of books, the look on their faces was like they had hit the lotto jackpot.

I understand that with a state that is as poor as California is right now, there needs to be cuts somewhere, but how can you take away something that makes so many people happy? I bet most people there don't have the extra income to buy all of the books they were checking out. Books are expensive, and like I said earlier, are a luxury.

I was completely converted to a library user as I walked about with my two crochet books (one not even in print anymore!) Hey, next time I may even check out a YA book or two.

Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook

This week I purchased a title I've read a lot of buzz about online and I'm happy to report it's as well organized and targeted to youth as they say. Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook was written by children's authors, Anne Mazer (the Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series, Sister Magic series, etc.) and Ellen Potter (the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh, etc.), illustrated by Matt Phelan. Working in an elementary school, I know just how popular these authors have become. I love their quirky, endearing characters.

If you work with kids and need a resource to help you, help them, to write, or if you know a child with an interest in writing - heck, writers of any age will benefit from the information - get a copy. 23 chapters (or sections) cover everything from Ugly First Drafts, Suspense, Writers Are Strange Creatures. Thank Heavens!, Criticism and ends with a great question and answer session. The writing within the book is entertaining and age appropriate. There's nothing dull about learning to write here. The exercises, aptly titled, I Dare You, offer opportunities for readers to try their hand at the concepts being discussed.

I'll be using Spilling Ink as a resource for my own presentations with students during school visits - hauling my copy around Alberta (along with my other wonderful writing texts!) and encouraging writers of all ages, as well as educators to check it out.

Side Note of Irony: A friend pointed this out to me as she skimmed the book while I raved on and on about it....but on my copy of Spilling Ink, the back cover has a typo in the praise quote from Bruce Coville. "...have craftedsuch a wonderful" - did you catch it? Should be "crafted [space] such". The lack of a space between these two words doesn't diminish the quality of the information in Spilling Ink. I intend to draw attention to this oopsy and use it as an example of how, even big publishers, aka books with lots of "eyes" on them, can still have errors. Again, Spilling Ink teaches right to the last page, and then some. ;)

Research When You Least Expect It

This past weekend, we went to a fun annual convention/concert here in San Diego called Tiki Oasis. It's the third year we've gone and we have a great time each one. It's basically what it sounds, a tiki themed convention with surf/tiki bands, symposiums, vendors and of course, tiki drinks (because what is a tiki convention without Mai Tais?)

This isn't Tiki Oasis, but it is our kitchen, displaying a few of my husband's tiki mugs from his collection.

Despite writing a book based in Hawaii and Hawaiian mythology, I didn't really think that I would be buying anything at Tiki Oasis for research purposes. Last year, I didn't see anything that would even inspire me, so this year was a surprise. Don't you love when that happens?
Since starting my current WIP, I've been collecting books on Hawaii and Hawaiian mythology. You never know which book will come in handy, so why not buy the ones that are out there just in case? To my shock, and elated surprise, I found a book that I had yet to see or even hear about that is perfect research for my story.

The Hawaiian Mythology book I bought at Tiki Oasis

After reading a little of the book, I can't believe that I missed it for so long. It will really help me as it gives first hand encounters with Hawaiian spirits/gods from the natives. Very awesome.

I also bought these little tikis below. Aren't they awesome??? Hey crit partners, doesn't the one on the left remind you of a certain mortician? I will glance at these statues for inspiration, but hopefully won't look too long, or they will curse me!

Don't look into their eyes!

You just never know when research will fall in your lap. Of course, I was at a Hawaiian tiki convention, so I guess it's not too far fetched!