Review: Ruin and Rising

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A great ending to a highly imaginative trilogy. I appreciated the complexity of the characters and the depth of emotion in the relationships while at the same time frantically flipping pages to find out what was going to happen next!

Bardugo captured my imagination with her faux-Russian culture and landscape and created a world that inspired awe and fear all at once. I am so glad I finally got to read this book! I've been waiting impatiently ever since I finished "Siege and Storm".



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Review: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line

The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I'm a huge fan of the Veronica Mars TV series, so when I heard that Rob Thomas had written a book, I knew I had to read it. I wasn't sure entirely what to expect. Thomas wrote an amazing TV show, but I was worried that his prose might fall a little flat, or that the characters would not live up to the actors who portrayed them.

In an uncharacteristic move for me, I decided to listen to the audio book (read by Kristen Bell) instead of reading the novel. Let me tell you, that was probably the BEST thing I could have done after deciding to read this novel. Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica on the TV show, added SO much to the narrative voice. It really was Veronica telling the story. I loved it!

The book picks up where the Kickstarter movie left off, which is good, because I had many unanswered questions after the movie. I look forward to finding out more about my favorite characters as this mystery series unfolds.

Thomas's writing was spot on like the TV show. I laughed out loud many times at the dry wit, gasped with pleasure at the appearance of my favorite characters from the show, and teared up at sentimental moments with Keith Mars (Veronica's dad). The story kept me guessing, figuring out "whodunit" along with Veronica was part of the fun, and I never felt like I was jerked around by the author trying to tie up loose ends.

This book was a pleasure I cannot WAIT to repeat, so hurry up and publish the next book in the series, Mr. Thomas!



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Guest-blogging at DIY MFA!

Today I have a guest post on the DIY MFA community blog. Hop on over and check out my article "Why Hire a Freelance Editor?" Then leave me a message in the comments!

DIY MFA (Do It Yourself Masters of Fine Arts) is a great writers' resource center, with tools and tips for doing your best creative work. They host webinars and courses to help you on your way to a successful writing career. Stop in and see what they have for you!

Review: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Christopher Moore's rendition of the life of Christ through the eyes of Biff bin Levi, Christ's childhood best friend, is witty, thoughtful, and well researched. He managed to touch all the major points of the gospels' outline of the life of Christ in a hilarious and strong narrative voice. As the daughter of a minister, I was impressed with the attention he showed to the details of the story, while telling it from the unique and brave perspective of Biff.

I laughed out loud more than once.



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Review: Stardust

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was NOT my favorite Neil Gaiman book. In fact, this was the first Neil Gaiman book I read, and almost the last. I liked it that little. I found the setting and the characters to be hollow. The naming convention he used for the villains made them more flat than they might have actually been.

I put this book down with a "harumph!" and moved on to other things, determining never to read anything by Neil Gaiman again. Then... after following him on Twitter, and really coming to know more about Neil's creative life, I decided to give him another try. I picked up American Gods... and since then have fallen in love with Neil and his worlds of fantasy. I still haven't tried to read Stardust again, and probably won't. But I find that I can forgive him for that book, since the larger body of work he has produced captivates me so.



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N is for Never Giving Up

The thing is, sometimes we hate our own writing. Sometimes a project starts out with so much potential and then suddenly you find that it's gone terribly wrong... taken on a mind of its own and traveled to a place that you would never have taken it and that you never intended to go in the first place. That can be exhilarating, or it can be devastating.

At those times you may be tempted to scrap your project altogether... and that's ok! It's perfectly reasonable to take a break from your work and stretch your mind doing something else. Just DON'T throw away what you've already accomplished. Even if you hate it. Even if you think that you'll never look at it again.

Put your work in a drawer (literally or figuratively) and give yourself some space... but NEVER give up on what you've begun. One day you'll come back to it... 6 months... 2 years from now... and you'll have a fresh perspective, a flash of inspiration that will help you to transform your writing into something new. But you can't do that if you don't have something to start with.

So get out there, get writing, and see where it goes! Then, if your project takes a turn for the worse, give it some time, some space... come back to it later. You might be surprised at what you find.

For developmental editing and good writerly advice, visit www.writingrefinery.com and follow my blog! http://writingrefinery.blogspot.com

Written Magic: My Grimoire

Michael Quinion of World Wide Words highlighted the word Grimoire in issue 872 of his newsletter this way:

2. Grimoire
A grimoire is a book of magic that may contain spells, conjurations, instructions for divination and the construction of amulets, and other secret knowledge of a supernatural kind. The examples include such famous works as the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, The Book of St Cyprian, The Key of Solomon and The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
The word is French, in the same sense. It began to appear in French-English dictionaries early in the nineteenth century but became more widely known in the 1850s. In French, it was a medieval modification of grammaire, a book of grammar, by which was meant Latin grammar, since at the time there was no other kind. It derives from the Latin grammatica, the study of literature in general, which by the Middle Ages had come to mean knowledge of Latin.
The shift from book of grammar to book of magic isn’t as weird as it might seem. Few among the ordinary people in those times could read or write. For superstitious minds books were troubling objects. Who knew what awful information was locked up in them? For many people grammar meant the same thing as learning, and everybody knew that learning included astrology and other occult arts.

I love the idea of grammar as magic... and not just because I'm a freelance editor and prone to hours of reading. Words are powerful, conjuring images and ideas that can help those who read them change the world, or at least change their perception of the world. Perspective is a crucial part of our ability to survive and thrive. Words can build up and liberate or they can trap and enslave. They must be used wisely.

Quinion's post got me thinking, Do I have my own grimoire for the craft of writing? As it turns out, I do. My grimoire, a notebook I keep while reading books on the craft of writing, is full of "spells, conjurations, instructions for [writing]... and other secret knowledge of a supernatural kind," or helpful hints and encouraging quotes that I find as I go along through such books as Stephen King's On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft  or Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated): An Editor's Advice to Writers . The words in my notebook are powerful, they're the key to unlocking creative energy in myself and in my editing clients. They're secrets and experience passed down by generations of practitioners of the craft of writing.

The cover of my Grimoire. "The Lightgatherers"
an original painting by Montserrat Bennett

We endow all sorts of people, objects and rituals with power over our writing, from our favorite authors to the reliability of our computers' operating systems. Why not do something intentional and positive to add power to your writing? Start your own grimoire of your craft and fill it with powerful incantations from people who inspire you to be a weaver of words.