Friday, January 23, 2015

Fiction Friday - Vertigo

http://vmficrecs.tumblr.com/post/101493531235/november-veronica-mars-fic-prompts


It was a steep drop. A long, long way down. Further than she had ever dared to try.

But she had nothing to lose by falling. All she would end up with were a few shattered bones and torn skin, and these didn’t even last. She healed, sooner than she would have liked. She wanted something that would leave its mark, just so she wouldn’t have to feel the constant ache from the ugly, jagged stumps on her back where her wings used to be.

The brackish waters crashed and foamed beneath her, unnecessarily dramatic. She lifted a foot. They were ungainly things, nothing like wings that bore her aloft in an intimate dance with the wind. She hardly ever shifted if she could help it. But now, with her wings ripped off, legs were all she had.

She tipped her head to the sky and raised her arms, ready to leap off the rocky edge of the cliff –

“Suicide, Megonea? How very melodramatic of you.”

She froze. The voice had the power to do that to her every time. She had weathered every element there was, but Finnesias continued to flay her to the bone.

“This is none of your business, Finne,” she called over her shoulder, but her arms fell back to her sides in defeat.

“On the contrary, I have a vested interest in your welfare. A soldier who deserts rank in the name of love might prove our most valuable asset.”

She whirled around and spat. “I am an asset to no one.”

“Oh, come now. Have some faith in yourself.” 

He took a step closer. Megonea forced herself to remain where she was. She would retain what was left of her dignity in front of the pompous leader of the Rebellion. To think they used to train together when they were recruits; they could not be more different now. Finne with his lazy smile and cunning in his eyes (though he would rather use the word shrewdness), he never had and never would belong to the Empire Army.

“Why are you here, Finne.”

“Rescuing you from a terrible, terrible decision.”

“You are hardly qualified to save me.”

“Yet, here I am, succeeding in stalling for time.”

She turned back to face the sea. Part of her wanted to hide her ruined wings from his sight, but then she reminded herself that she no longer cared. This fate she had chosen for herself was far kinder than what lay in wait for her in the sky palace.

Suddenly, he was right behind her, his breath dangerously warm against her skin. His fingers brushed the left stump on her back. She flinched, felt the muscles in her neck tighten but also a tingle in her skin where his breath landed. 

“Let’s make a deal,” he murmured. “If the Rebellion fails, I’ll jump with you. For now, we’re sticking together. Just like old times, eh?”

Megonea wasn’t sure what Finne meant by old times, because not once in their shared history had they ever stuck together. Before she could recall a time where they weren’t on opposite sides, Finne had given her a hard shove in the back.

He would, Megonea thought. Of course he would. She was a fool to have thought otherwise. With her dead, he had one less Empirion to deal with.

She was footloose, tumbling down with none of the grace she held when she was sparring. Air rushed past her with the ferocity of a Black Kite’s wings and a shriek ripped its way out of her.

It was a much further drop than she anticipated.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

this week's reading list

(To make up for last week's absence, I'm posting twice this week, with a short story coming up for Fiction Friday.)


Currently reading:


1. On the Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta


I read her other books, Saving Francesca and Looking for Alibrandi when I was 14, and I fell completely in love. Marchetta's writing was the contact I had with first Australian YA fiction, and it opened up the way I saw how contemporary fiction could be written. Full of heart and characters so real you wish they were your friends because you feel like you understand them and that they would understand you too.

I tried reading Jellicoe Road a few years back, but got thrown off by the complicated territory wars that didn't seem to relate to the main plot. Plus, the story was, like The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee (another terrific Australian YA author), told in a non-linear narrative. So it was kind of confusing, especially with the host of characters.

But I'm appreciating it more now during my second attempt. The poignant moments are never overdone, and I'm beginning to think it's an Australian thing. The story SEEMS light-hearted and funny, but the words worm their way right into your heart.




2. Ruin and Rising, by Leigh Bardugo


I don't want this story to end! The final installment in the Grisha trilogy is just as dramatic and all-encompassing and swoon-worthy and all around awesome I can't even! From the changing dynamics between Alina and Mal, Alina's gradual self-actualisation, the return of the fantabulous Nikolai Lantsov (someday, I aspire to have his level of confidence, wit, resourcefulness, and charm), the seductive power of the Darkling, and Bardugo's skill in world-building, book #3 is the most complex and enthralling in the trilogy, as it should be.


3. Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights, by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins


This compendium is so delectable I could eat it up. It's like a little cabinet of wonders, a treasure trove of bite-sized info on, well, exquisite things like the evolution of the Japanese kimono, unicorns, alchemy, tea, alfresco dining, fireworks, and masquerades. And okay, some of the entries weren't as scintillating (I don't think we need so much info on strings or tassels), but most of the entries, which are subjects in varied fields, set my mind alight with ideas and sometimes that's all you ask for in a book.


While searching for quotes from Jellicoe Road, I found this passage that made me spazz out from the GORGEOUS, lyrical imagery:


Google tells me it's from The Last Unicorn, a 1968 fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle. Wikipedia tells me it's a story centered on a unicorn who, believing she's the last of her kind in the world, embarks on a journey to find out what happened to the others. She meets a host of diverse characters along the way, each of them bringing her closer to her goal. 

If that passage isn't reason enough to read it, the slew of five-star reviews on Goodreads definitely is. Now, off to get my hands on the book. 

Happy mid-week! :0)

Friday, January 09, 2015

First To-Read List for 2015

Realistic Fiction (oxymoronic as it sounds):


1. Saint Anything, by Sarah Dessen


I would read ANYTHING by Sarah Dessen. Ever since I first picked up Keeping the Moon when I was 14, I was sold.

Saint Anything didn't come by smoothly for the writer. Sarah struggled with a story that was going nowhere, and was miserable when she wrote it and rewrote it and rewrote it again. It's hard to churn out a novel a year, and after writing more than ten books in the same genre, I guess she got a little burnt out. But I'm so glad she took a break, because Saint Anything looks SO GOOD, slightly different and darker than her usual books.


2. Made You Up, by Francesca Zappia


Ever since E. Lockhart's We Were Liars wrecked me emotionally, I've been looking for more stories told by unreliable narrators. Plus, Made You Up also involves mental illness, another theme I gravitate towards. And the cover art! How pretty!


3. All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven


This book is touted as The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park, a "love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die". Even though I found E&P a little over-dramatic at times, I'm holding out on the hope that this won't be as overplayed.


4. The Howling Boy, by Cath Crowley

This book is a mystery. No cover art yet, or confirmed publishing date. But after reading - and rereading, and re-rereading - the magical, bittersweet, poignant, inspiring Graffiti Moon, this book CANNOT come soon enough.



Fantasy:


1. Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo


More stories from the Grishaverse (that's Grisha universe, by the way). YES, PLEASE! I'm still savouring the final installment of the Grisha trilogy, Ruin and Rising, so it won't end so soon. So more Grisha tales are definitely welcome.


2. The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black


Faeries, monster-slaying children, fairy-tale retelling. What's not to love? And knowing Holly Black, it would be dark and sinister and all kinds of delicious.


3. Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard



OMG OMG OMG. I have never been this psyched for a book to be released before -

Okay, well that's not true. But this is definitely one of the books I'm properly excited about. I mean, just read the blurb. COME ON. Does it not want to make you read it already?! I can only hope it won't disappoint, because I am all ready to sink my teeth into this juicy novel.


4. Beastkeeper, by Cat Hellisen


I love how fairytale-ish the premise is, yet how real and current the protagonist's conflict is, with an age-old curse and an absentee mother. "The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast ... unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever." Okay, I'm on board.


What's on YOUR To-Read list for 2015?

By the way, I am HOOKED on Aussie YA, thanks to incredible writers like Cath Crowley, Lucy Christopher, Melina Marchetta, Karen Foxlee, and Vikki Wakefield. There must be something in those Australian waters that lets them churn out such dreamy prose and create such relatable characters. If anyone has any recommendations, please share the good stuff! :0)

Thursday, January 01, 2015

state of mind for 2015

 
So here it is. We've made it over to the other side. 2015. How should it be any different from 2014? 2014 was a mess of a year, rife with natural and man-made disasters, and social turbulence, tragic accidents ... Ugh, good riddance to 2014.

This time, I don't want to pin too much hope on 2015. Because that's what I did last year. Built up all that expectation and anticipation - I want to write two novels this year, enter this competition and that, write a short story and a blog post every week, post it up on forums, make more writer friends, take up a new hobby! THIS is the year I land a literary agent and get published and start leading a more fulfilling life! - only to meet roadblock after roadblock for No Room in Neverland, and receive rejection letter after rejection letter.

I'm not saying I'm going to be completely pessimistic and dour this year, in case you're thinking I'm starting this year as a grumpy puss. No, I'm just tempering my expectations, taking whatever comes along for what they are. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, just do what needs to be done - rewrite that novel for the fourth time? Bring it. Edit and polish old manuscripts and look for new platforms to gather feedback. Read more books, read outside of what I typically read, watch more movies and drama series, find more new music, to collect fresh, new ideas. Just the gritty work that are a lot less pretty than those daydreams of being published. As happy as I am for authors who achieve mega success because heck yeah they deserve it, I'm done with sighing wistfully over their writing and wishing I could have what they have.


These novels, all this effort into editing and rewriting and pitching to agents, may amount to nothing. And it's easy to get caught up in the whole quest of getting published. But really, what I really need is to write a book that doesn't suck, that people would want to read.

As Chuck Wendig said,
Writing a book and putting it out in the world is an act of ego -- not egomania, but the willingness and decision to create a story out of nothing and push it forward into the world is a bold, brash, unflinching act. You say: this story matters, and it matters that I wrote it. It is a demonstration of your belief in the story and the belief you possess in yourself as a writer, storyteller, and a creator. It takes a rather epic set of genitals to write something that's 300 pages long and then say to someone: "You're going to sit down and you're going to read this and you are going to love it the way I love it. You are going to take hours, even days out of your life to read the little ants dancing across the page, ants that make words, words that make this one big story full of people.

That said, I've been considering other options outside of traditional publishing. Chuck Wendig, as well as many authors and publishing experts have been touting hybrid publishing and embracing crowd sourced novels for a while. Forbes also laid out the pros and cons of hybrid publishing. Some even go so far as to call hybrid publishing the future of publishing. I'm still reading up as much as I can about it so I can decide whether to take this route. If anyone has any thoughts on this matter, I'd love to hear them!

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping for a less turbulent, more forgiving 2015.