Category: Uncategorized

I’m running an IK RPG which will feature Everblight as central antagonists.  So I needed a Carnivean and his shredder friends.

Sara Zarr is awesome.  I read all her books a few years ago, which at that time meant three.  This weekend I caught up on the two she published thereafter–How to Save a Life, and The Lucy Variations.  I enjoyed them so much that I now count her among my favorite authors.

It’s a rare thing for me to read two books in a row by the same person, and an even rarer thing to love every book an author puts out with the same ferocity.  I’ve finished each one and decided it’s my favorite, so take this with a grain of salt: The Lucy Variations is my favorite.

Lucy is a decorated pianist, or she was, before she quit suddenly from severe burnout.  Her journey to discovering what she wants to do with her life is beautiful and nuanced; I’d recommend this book to every writer whose ever suffered from burnout–Lucy’s experience dovetails eerily with my own.

But really, if you love contemporary YA and you aren’t reading Sara Zarr, you’re missing out on one of the best authors in the genre.  I’d say her books keep getting better, but I’m pretty sure if I went back to read Story of a Girl again, it would be my favorite.

That’s a problem I’m happy to have.

For the next three days I’ll be at the Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium in Provo, UT.  If you’re local, please come.  This conference is always fantastic, and gets bigger and better every year.  I’m thrilled to be on programming this year.  Here’s my schedule if you want to come say hi.

Thursday @ 3:00
Gamer Girls: Why you need one in every campaign

Thursday at 7:00
Reclaiming the Vampire

Friday @ 10:00
Writing the First Few Pages

Friday @ 1:00
Young Adult Writing Panel

Saturday @ 3:00
Wrapping Things Up

Saturday @ 4:00
Reading.  I’ll be reading from books I have coming out this year, so come if you’d like a preview!

See you there!

Sometimes, I read a book, and I wish I could write like that. When I read Anna and the French Kiss, I wished that so much that I read it three times, trying to figure out how the author achieved such charming and intense romance.

Then I read the sequel, and it was even better. (Maybe because the love interest in this one is more geeky, and therefore more to my taste. But I actually think it’s because Lola’s voice is so. much. fun.)

If you haven’t read these books yet, you should. The voices and the banter are top notch.  And there’s a third one coming soon, for which I cannot wait.

Meanwhile, I’m going to work on pumping up the intensity of my romantic subplots.  Thanks, Stephanie, for the inspiration.

This is a D&D Gargantuan Blue Dragon, which I’ve modded into an Everblight Archangel.  Why make an alternate of that beautiful model?  I had the Gargantuan Blue lying around, and I didn’t appreciate his dog face, or his floppy ears.  I’m much happier with him now.

This post is part of an ongoing series I’m doing about trying to work from home with a child.  As always, I don’t think this information will work for you unless you are me, trying to parent my particular child at this particular time, but I could have used this information to give me hope of future productivity before I had kids, so I’m imparting it anyway.  Enjoy!

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.  In the second year of my daughter’s life, things changed WAY slower than they did in the first year.  I’ve been able to get into some rhythms and maintain them, instead of needing to re-evaluate every two weeks.  I find this hopeful: the insanity of the first year is incredibly short lived.  Big sighs of relief all around.

In the last year, it’s been a lot harder for me to write with my daughter around than it was in the first year.  When she was under a year old, she laid still.  She rattled toys.  It was after she turned one and learned that Mommy’s laptop WAS a fun toy that things got a little crazier.

So, as I wrote in my last post, I wrote during nap time.  The key to this was prioritizing.  There’s this feeling that would come over me every time my daughter quieted in her crib.  My shoulders would relax.  I’d look around at all the things I wanted to do with my quiet.  I could do the dishes without her pulling everything out of the dishwasher!  I could run an errand without putting her in and out of the car!  (It should be remembered here that my husband works from home.)  I could zone out on the internet!  I could take a nap myself!

And then, instead of doing any of those things, I would write.  Because as much as I wanted to relax, or clean, or whatever, I wanted to still be a writer more.  The key was remembering that the seemingly-small decision I made in that moment, every day, was the difference between writing novels, and not.

So I wrote during naptime.  And I got a lot done.  In October I decided I was going to do 2k a day, and that was going brilliantly.

And then two weeks into that, my daughter stopped napping.

Looking back it was obvious that’s what was happening.  She’d been less and less tired, taking naps later and later in the day, crying more and more before she went to sleep.  She’d even started crying at night on the days that she napped, because she wasn’t tired enough to go to bed.  Her sleep needs were changing.

I resisted for longer than I should have.  But I knew once she gave up the nap longterm, there would be no going back.  It took a couple of days of easy bedtimes and twelve-hour overnight sleeps that I finally accepted the obvious.  She didn’t need a nap anymore.

My work time was gone.

I did a couple of things, after that, one of which is somewhat more noble than the other.  I still wanted to hit my 2k a day, and I didn’t want to have to work in the evening hours when I usually hang out with my husband.  So I divided my 2k up into 200 word stints, and did one every hour.  I could write 200k in five minutes, if I was focused enough, and then spend the rest of the hour playing with my daughter, or involving her in housework.  It wasn’t that hard getting her to leave me alone for five minutes, even on her whiniest days, if I was paying attention for the rest of the time.

That still works well, but I can’t keep it up every day.  The focus it requires is too much to maintain five days a week.  Hours slip by, and I don’t get as much done as I’d like.

So instead my daughter watches one movie every day, and I write.

Yes, I am THAT mom, the one who uses the television as a babysitter.  One movie a day is over the amount of TV recommended for kids by the AAP.  I’m aware.  I do it anyway.

Why?  Because my daughter is so much happier if she gets a resting time during the day, even though she doesn’t need to sleep.  And a movie is the sort of resting time that she can handle without screaming because I dumped her in her crib alone.  And I am so much happier if I get a dedicated writing time.  A movie is actually longer than some of her old nap times, and the end time is predictable.  I get work done, she enjoys our Miyazaki collection, one movie a day.   Her verbal development is progressing just fine.  Everybody wins.

In addition, I sneak small stints during the day when she’s happily playing by herself.  But having a dedicated time every day helps me to maintain momentum and discipline, and make sure I’m not ignoring her all day when I ought to be playing.

I have a feeling this work habit is going to continue working for quite a while.  But I’ll let you know when it quits.

I used to do lists on the blog of what I read every year.

Then I got lazy.

Well, first I had a baby and the thing I quit doing in my life to take care of her was reading.  Then a tablet appeared in my house and I discovered how easy it is to read on it–I can buy books for $3!  I can check books out from the library without leaving my house!–so I started reading again.

I want to share with you books I’ve read and loved.  I don’t review books, but I do want to spread the word about wonderful things I read.

Two books to start:

I am probably the last person who hadn’t read these, but I loved them, so I’m sharing.

This fall I saw the Austenland movie and loved it.  Love love loved it.  I’m a sucker for meta-genre pieces that mock genre tropes while simultaneously committing them.  So of course I went and found the book.  And, to my joy, there were two!

Shannon Hale’s Austenland and Midnight in Austenland are charming books that I read in a few hours each.  They’re just as meta-genre as the movie, and benefit greatly from Hale’s witty narration.  Midnight adds a mystery element to the mix, which makes it even more fun than the first book.  The characters are different, so you don’t have to read Austenland first, though if you do, the recurring characters are all the more amusing.