Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 118

Another Country

Recently on this blog, I mentioned that the author of a book I was reading had broken a Big Writing Rule, and seemed to be making it work. I promised to blog about it if it turned out well, and I'm now keeping that promise.

The book is James Baldwin's Another Country, and I can't really discuss it without some spoilers, so you've been warned. (But it was first published in 1960, so this book is older than I am, and I'm allowing myself the spoilerage.)

It's written in third person, although the...

Multi-author signing and benefit for libraries

1st Annual 2010 PAYA Festival
August 21st 1pm-3pm
Center for Performing and Fine Arts211 Carter Drive, Suite CWest Chester, PA 19382

And, the authors* signing will be:

Josh Berk (The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin)Amy Brecount White (Forget-Her-Nots)Stephanie Kuehnert (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Ballads of Suburbia)
Jon Skovron (Struts and Frets)Shannon Delany (13 to Life)
Jeri Smith-Ready (Shade, WVMP series, Aspect of the Crow trilogy)
Meg Medina (Milagros: Girl from Away)
Chelsea Swiggett (Rae)
Ki...

Unbelievable

As a writer, I've developed a fondness for narrators who are unreliable in a certain way. They tend to be reliable in reporting facts, but they're often unreliable in reporting their own emotions. That is, if the narrator says someone crossed the room, that is almost certainly what happened. But if the narrator tells us that the room-crossing made him happy, or angry, or sad, he may not be honest about his reaction. He may be deceiving us deliberately or unconsciously; he may be deceiving him...

Influences from the world of painting

Today, I ventured into an art museum, which is a fine way for a writer who's between major projects to spend an afternoon. This particular museum, the Brandywine River Museum, is largely dedicated to the work of the Wyeth family, although there are works by other artists there, including Gilbert Stuart and Maxfield Parrish.

Random thoughts that occurred to me while browsing:

What is the literary equivalent of trompe-l'oeil painting? Fake memoirs?

I loved the portrait of the woman who had herself...

Another visit from the Muse

Writer: Really? That's what you want me to write next?
Muse: Why not?
Writer: Well, it's another male narrator, for one thing. People are going to think I can't write female narrators.
Muse: Why would they think that? You're female.
Writer: You wouldn't know it from my WIPs.
Muse: Is that all?
Writer: No--the other thing is, this topic is really controversial. I'm not big on sticking my tongue against the third rail, if you know what I mean.
Muse: I thought artists loved to be controversial.
Writer: ...

Random Recommendations

Tonight I asked Twitter for some realistic YA fiction recommendations. (I've overdosed just slightly on paranormal at the moment.) FWIW, here are the titles that came up, many of them more than once. (Asterisks mark the ones I've already read myself.)

Hate List*
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Flash Burnout*
The View from Saturday
Sea*
Some Girls Are*
The Outsiders*
We Were Here
The Sky is Everywhere
Tell Me A Secret
anything by Ally Carter
Things a Brother Knows
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Evolution, Me, and...

Investing in the literary

It's funny; while my agent is asking whether literary fiction is dying out, I happen to be reading a literary novel that I'm in love with. I keep rereading passages, and marking my favorites with itty-bitty pieces of torn paper.

Honestly, I don't know if literary fiction has ever dominated the bookshelves. The works we still read from previous generations are largely literary, which can lead us to a nostalgic admiration for the past, but I think there were plenty of potboilers on the shelves ...

Ever been here?

One of the best passages I've ever read about what it's (sometimes) like to write fiction:

"He did not seem to know enough about the people in his novel. They did not seem to trust him. They were all named, more or less, all more or less destined, the pattern he wished them to describe was clear to him. But it did not seem clear to them. He could move them about but they themselves did not move. He put words in their mouths which they uttered sullenly, unconvinced. With the same agony, or grea...

Excitement

I'm reading a book in which the author has just Broken a Rule--one of the big writing rules--and this kind of breach should be a fatal flaw. But I don't think it is fatal in this case. For one thing, the author is pretty well known, and this particular book is in its umpty-umpth printing some fifty years after it was written, and I suspect there's a reason for that. I have just gotten to the point where the breach occurs, and I'll have to finish the whole book before I decide whether I think ...

The Achilles heel

I may have posted about this before because it's a basic belief for me, but I've been thinking about it all day, so here it is:

Test a character at his/her most vulnerable spot.

If the character is an egomaniac, have someone puncture his vanity. If she likes to play the field and keep things light, have her develop intense feelings for one person. If he likes to keep to himself, put him in a situation where he has to deal with people. If she's impatient, put her in a place where patience is the...