Writing: Making Use of Newfangled Technology

There are so many options available to writers today that sometimes we lose sight of the benefits these technological advances can have for our creative sides. Smart phones, for example, have almost eliminated the random clutter of scraps of paper on my nightstand. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, I send myself a text or open a new memo or (in the case of my beautiful ipad) go directly into the document and type away. It's a glorious thing and I love the feeling of knowing that all of my random thoughts that don't apply to any one story are no longer scattered around my bedroom but neatly organized in a document titled Random Pieces.

There is, however, a downside. With these devices comes a million other ways that you could use them and a billion other things you could distract yourself with if you aren't careful. I got a new phone today (a Samsung Fascinate which, so far, I highly recommend), but that means that I've spent most of the afternoon changing settings and adding apps and before I knew it I'd wasted one of my only afternoons off this week.

The point of this rambling blog post? Use your technological resources to their full potential, just make sure your technology doesn't end up using you.

This post made possible by my Verizon Smartphone. ;)

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Books: Intrinsical by Lani Woodland

Isn't it pretty? Yeah. I know both the author and the woman who took that fantastic picture. It helps that they're the same person, though, I guess... How did so much creativity and talent get packed into one (tiny) person? I don't know, but it's gloriously unfair. KIDDING, LANI! Well, about the unfair part, not about the talent. ;)

Intrinsical is a true young adult paranormal with all the juicy bits of a good love story and all the suspense of a good ghost story. Set in the Pendrell boarding school (which doesn't exist, but the land it sits on does and OMG gorgeous), Intrinsical follows Yara as she arrives at this school expecting nothing more than boy trouble and homework stress because the long dominant trait of otherworldly communion seems to have skipped her. This hopeful outlook lasts only as long as it takes for her to set foot on Pendrell's campus, for on her first day she intervenes in a spiritual attack on another student named Brent, saving his life and drawing the attention of a malicious spirit that appears to her as a black mist. Yara soon finds out that there is more to this new school than uniforms, curfews, and panoramic vistas. She becomes entangled in a sixty-year-old curse that endangers her life and the lives of everyone attending Pendrell including her best friend Cherie and her new flame Brent (yes, the boy whose live she saved. Isn't it romantic?!).

Besides being one of the kindest, most awesome people I've ever met in my life and had the fortune to call a friend, Lani's book is an engrossing read. And that picture really doesn't do the cover justice. The book is available now in hardcover from Amazon and Barnes & Noble (unfortunately my bookstore is dropping the ball on this one, but I'm working on making sure Borders carries it soon, too), so stop by your local B&N branch and demand a copy!

Erica's rating: 4/5

Books: Room by Emma Donoghue

Every once in a while I read a new book that I want to tell everyone about. Room is one of those stories.

It was the basic idea that caught my attention. A story about a girl who was kidnapped at 19 and held in an eleven by eleven foot shed for seven years. Depressing, right? Or intriguing? If it's told entirely from the point of view of her five year old son Jack who was born into this captivity and knows nothing else, it becomes absolutely fascinating.

The book opens as Jack wakes up the morning of his fifth birthday. "... when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra." Now Jack is an unusually intelligent five year old (on the first page alone he demonstrates a knowledge of negative numbers) or this book would probably fast dissolve into something annoying and unreadable, but Donoghue creates a brilliantly sympathetic child in Jack. I found myself torn between amusement and horror as he catalogs his daily routines with his mother (even simple tasks like brushing their teeth have an added hint of the dramatic), and quickly fell in love with this precocious child who is his mother's only comfort. Now that Jack is five (and because his mother is truly reaching the end of her mental rope), the reality of a world outside theirs is slowly revealed. He begins asking questions that never occurred to him before and his mother can no longer lie about their circumstances. Between them, Jack and his mother devise an escape plan which, despite a few heart-stopping hiccups, works, and the two are finally rescued. The remainder of the book deals with the reality of release as both a child who didn't know the world existed and a woman who has forgotten how to live in it cope with the many sudden changes in their lives.

A lot of things made this book both valuable and entertaining. It's a fascinating look at the psychology of captivity and the impact early childhood has on development. It is a literary marvel (I mean, how many other writers could realistically pull off the voice of a five year old without it getting old real quick?). It is also a look at both the highs and the lows of the human experience and the highs and the lows of human morality. Highly unique, brilliantly executed, and now recommended to everyone who passes through my bookstore.

Erica's rating: 4/5

Writing: Exploring New Territory

So, my novel is out with publishers again and I get a text message from my friend Lani Woodland asking me if I want to contribute to a young adult paranormal anthology. Well, sure! Why not? Only problem? Deadline is in two weeks and I have nothing that could even loosely fit that description in the works right now. I tell her I will try to think of something and let her know if I can't and then I go about my business.

The idea popped into my head at work one morning (waaaay to early in the morning to be at work) while I was listening to my iPod. A Kate Nash song followed a couple of minutes later by a Silversun Pickups song started a spark in my head. I wrote down the title and the one sentence that popped up out of the flames that spark started and let the fire burn for a while (by force really. I was at work, remember?). Later on in the day, I open a new document on my iPad (which I absolutely adore, by the way) and let the title and that one sentence transport me into another world. As is my tendency, I immediately saw the potential for a novel in the story that was flowing onto the page, but I had both a deadline and a word count limit to work under so I held myself back from all those tantalizing subplots and backstory scenes. And you know what? It's going fabulously. I'm already over word limit (but, really. 5000 words? Was I ever known for my brevity on a page?). I may miss the deadline (really short timeframe! But I'm trying!). But no matter what happens,I'm back in the creative saddle working on something I'd never have come up with otherwise. It feels fantastic.