What’s Up Wednesday

It’s time for another catch-up on life as we hit the middle of the week, known as “What’s Up Wednesday.” This blog meme is the brainchild of Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk. If you want to know how to participate, and see a list of current participants, visit Jaime’s blog.

What I’m Reading

I finished THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER by Megan Shepherd, and I must say, it did improve a bit for me after about half-way through, when the danger and mystery started to ramp up. The romance still annoyed me, but not because of the romance itself. It took getting to the end for me to concede that there was a plot point to the love triangle, at least somewhat of a plot point. I think it’s the way Juliet responded to her feelings that I didn’t like. Juliet comes across to me as a emotionally scarred, analytical kind of girl, and hardly the kind to get all gushy about boys. IMO, her feelings could have been handled with a lot more nuance, and frankly more sophistication. There are a couple of other things that made me shake my head, but I’ll talk about those in a moment. As I said, the novel did get better, or maybe I just got used to the style–possibly a bit of both. When the story focused on the main plot, which centers around Juliet’s father’s experiments, and the dangers they present to her and those around her–which is about as much as I’ll say–it actually became a bit of a page-turner. There were plenty of plot twists to keep me interested, too. So, not my favorite read, but not a complete shipwreck either.

What I’m Writing

I’m still working on edits to the first draft of the WIP. Nothing more to report, but I am pleased (and kind of excited) to see some people offering their beta reading services (see last week’s comments). Thank you all! If you want to be included on the list to beta read this novel when I get through with it, please let me know either in the comments or via email. My email address is on my About page, and you can get an idea of what my WIP is about from the WIP page. I’ll probably only select two or three readers, but everyone that expresses an interest encourages me to keep going.

The portion of my brain where ideas go to brew is currently working on a vampire story. This could be my NaNoWriMo project for the year, as it sounds like it could be an interesting, and perhaps novel approach to the genre. Some of you might be confused because you know I don’t generally read or write horror. But the idea hit me, and it’s proven too good of an idea to let go. More on this when there’s more to share!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Back to THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER. As I indicated last time, this book has been inspirational in that it has made me think about things I shouldn’t do. The way Juliet responds to romance makes me give thought to my characters, and making sure their reactions are in-keeping with who they are, and not with preconceived genre conventions. Also, a couple of times Juliet uses language that I thought to be inappropriate for the period and her upbringing. The story is set in Victorian/Edwardian times, and the characters are either English, or have received an English upbringing. Once in the book, Juliet refers to something as having been “busted.” As a term for “broken,” I’ve only known it to be used in the US, or perhaps among British schoolkids (perhaps under the influence of US television). Seeing it on Juliet’s lips reminded me that the author is American. And when I’m reading a novel, I shouldn’t be reminded of the novel’s author. The author should be like Jim Henson. When you see Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street, you don’t look at him and think of Jim Henson. You look at him and see Kermit. If Kermit were to suddenly talk like Jim Henson, using his vocabulary and ideas, you’d realize something’s wrong, and the illusion would be broken. Something for me to keep in mind as I’m writing my alien girl. Also, along a similar line, there was a point in the story where Juliet indicates that 13-year-old girls should be thinking about first dates and first kisses. That may be so in today’s Western culture; but I’m not so sure about back then. I could be wrong, but as I recall, in Victorian times 13-year-olds wouldn’t be expected to worry about boys. They were considered children, and still some years away from being marriage material. And when that time came, she would have courted, not dated, and the courtship would have been with a view to marriage. Again, I might be wrong about this, but I think the broader point to bear in mind is for me to avoid assuming my characters share my cultural ideas and viewpoints–especially if I’m writing about a different time period, and/or an alien culture.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I haven’t been up to much, but my SecondBorn has been on a trip to South East Asia, and if you know how much of an Asiaphile she is, you’ll know how exciting this was for her. Anyway, she returns today, so I’m looking forward to seeing her and hearing all her stories. Aside from that, not much else to report.

How have you been this week?