Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 134

Heifer for the Holidays

Remember our library-lovin' blog challenge? (I included the link just in case you don't!) My agent, Nathan Bransford, is currently running a similar challenge to benefit Heifer International.

The challenge is today-only, and this is impromptu, but I'm joining in. I'll also donate $1 per comment on my blog for the first 50 unique commenters (no 50 comments from the same person!).

This costs you nothing. If the spirit moves you, please do any or all of the following:

Leave a comment here. Yes...

A full cast of characters

If no man is an island, then our characters shouldn't be islands, either.

There are exceptions. It is possible to write an entire book with only one character. But what a challenge--and that character had better be doing something reeeeallly interesting, like making a major scientific discovery or fighting a killer storm or canoeing through a wilderness full of adventure. Even then, inanimate objects or forces of nature are likely to function as characters.

Most of the time, we will have multip...

writerjenn @ 2009-12-21T17:13:00

Thank you all for the warm and sympathetic response to my last post. I'll continue to thank people individually for their comments, but what I want to say now is that this is what writing is for me: the communication that sparks recognition, that forges a link between people. That "me, too" moment. So many people have said variations on this: I know what you mean; I'm going through that, too; it happened to me. It's one of the things I seek from reading, and what I hope to bring to my wri...

Loss

This weekend, I've been mourning the sudden death of a good friend. I've been debating whether to blog about this, since this blog is largely about writing and I tend not to say much about my personal life. Also, I have found the greatest consolation in talking about this with the people who also knew my friend.

But writing is inextricably bound with the emotions that make us human. I have been finding solace in my writing—in what I have already written and what I am writing now. I've ev...

Snowy reading

One of my favorite books to read when it snows: The Centaur, by John Updike (because of the big snowstorm at the end).

"This discovery is ever surprising, that Heaven can so prettily condescend. Snow puts us with Jupiter Pluvius among the clouds. What a crowd! What a crowd of tiny flakes sputters downward in the sallow realm of the light above the entrance door! Atoms and atoms and atoms and atoms. A furry inch already carpets the steps."

"The storm walks. The storm walks but does not mo...

Inspiration

Some quotations I find compelling:

"Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself."
--Ann Patchett, "Why Not Put Off Till Tomorrow the Novel You Could Begin Today?" Writers [on Writing:] Volume II: More Collected Essays from the New York Times

"I think there’s an innate dangerous quality to the human psyche that makes us doubt ourselves if we feel like we are doing something 'different'. But seriously, we need to get over that instinct because we are ALL...

Otherness

One of the reasons I write fiction (one of the reasons I read it as well) is to break down the wall of Otherness.

Otherness is the separation we feel between ourselves and others. It's more than just being different from someone. Otherness is the gap that opens up when we not only disagree with someone, but we can't even imagine what it's like to be that person or see the world the way s/he does. Otherness is the refusal to acknowledge the validity of another's experience. Otherness enab...

Last Book of 2009; looking forward to Books of 2010

It's the end of an era: I'm featuring my last Book of 2009. Rhonda Stapleton's Stupid Cupid is the final offering from the Debut2009 community, my beloved Feast of Awesome.



It debuts December 22 from Simon Pulse. Synopsis: "A 17-year-old girl becomes a cupid for her high school, arranging matches with a tricked-out PDA." It's a funny story full of mix-ups and situations that seemed like a good idea at the time, but lead the narrator into all kinds of trouble. As matchmaking tends to do...

Unreliable narrators

I've mentioned Chris Lynch's Inexcusable before as an excellent example of an unreliable narrator, and I'm looking forward to picking up Justine Larbalestier's Liar at some point to study how she approaches unreliability. (Also, I'll admit, just because it looks like a darn good book.) I've also heard that Libba Bray's Going Bovine is an excellent example of a book with an unreliable narrator.

I love the concept of the unreliable narrator. It adds a layer of uncertainty, and can lead to grea...

Write-first day

We're all busy. Writers generally juggle day jobs, family, significant others, volunteering, hobbies, friends, spiritual nourishment, networking, reading, etc., etc. At this time of year, I add holiday preparations. Sometimes writers get asked, "Where do you find the time?"

We dig for it like pennies in the couch. We carve it out, scrape it together. We catch some of the balls we're juggling and let others drop.

I write every day. Usually, I do other things first, because I'm a night person an...