Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 58

Sunday Salon: The Shelf Awareness Interview

No, Shelf Awareness isn't interviewing me, but I love to read their author interviews, and they always ask the same questions (at least in my limited observation). They're fun questions, too. So should Shelf Awareness ever want to interview me, they can simply copy and paste.

On your nightstand now:

I actually have a stack of books against the wall more than a pile on the nightstand. In my stack are Misery by Stephen King, a few Sharyn McCrumbs I want to get to, Tea with Jane Austen, Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier, The Widow's War by Sally Gunning, Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, among other books I dip into occasionally.

Favorite book when you were a child:

When I was in the third grade, it was Superfudge by Judy Blume because Mrs. Elliott read it to us, and it was impossible to check out of the library for months afterward. I also loved The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. When I was a little older, Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume.

Your top five authors:

J. K. Rowling: Her books are pure, imaginative escapism, and I am grateful for all the time I've spent at Hogwarts.
Jane Austen: She is my literary comfort food. I can always turn to her for a good read.
William Shakespeare: Unqualified genius and master of the English language.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Beautiful turns of phrase and poetic writing. I admit his place here rests on one book— The Great Gatsby .
Barbara Kingsolver: I so enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible , and The Bean Trees is one of the few books I've read in one sitting.

I should note that list fluctuates, but it's true for today.

Book you've faked reading:

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. I've still never finished it. I read the Cliff's Notes for a test in American Realism and Naturalism in college, and I earned a B on it. If I'd read it, I could probably have earned an A, but that's the way it is.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I think everyone should read it, even if they don't think they're interested in Africa. What Kingsolver did with that book amazes me, and it's the kind of writing I aspire to.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I've talked about this before, but I bought Alice Hoffman's Blackbird House because I liked the cover, and it didn't pay off. However, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, both of which I bought for their covers, paid off beautifully.

Book that changed your life:

This is a hard one, but I'm going with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I never get tired of that book. It helped me look at my own beliefs and made me question what I would do if I were Atticus. Would I have the guts to do the right thing in the face of so much prejudice and opposition in the town, especially knowing I was licked before I began? The reason that Atticus is such a hero is that he did all this and so few people would.

Favorite line from a book:

The last page of The Great Gatsby is beautiful:

And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there, brooding on the unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run raster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I never tired of The Great Gatsby, and that page contains so much gorgeous writing.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Oh, surely the Harry Potter series. The wonder and waiting for the plot to unfold was one of the best reading experiences of my life.

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Post © Dana Huff

Sunday Salon: The Shelf Awareness Interview

Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Twisted is the story of Tyler Miller, a seventeen-year-old boy with a dysfunctional family, a nerdy friend nicknamed Yoda who is in love with Tyler's sister, a crush on teen queen Bethany Milbury, and a deep and abiding hatred for Bethany's twin brother Chip. Tyler, caught spraying graffiti on the school, is ordered to do community service and remain under probation. His community service, helping out with a landscaper and school janitors, allows him to bulk up. His new physique, coupled with his newly-acquired bad-boy reputation, attract Bethany's attention. She talks Tyler into breaking the terms of his probation and his parents' restrictions to attend a huge party, where something that happens that causes Tyler's life to nearly come crashing down around his ears.

I'm not sure I liked this book as much as Speak or Wintergirls, but I still liked it enough to devour it in about a day. Laurie Halse Anderson might be this generation's Judy Blume. Her characters are real people, with real problems. This story has much to say about the cycle of abuse and the workings of dysfunctional families. It's a quick read. Tyler is a likeable character. If I didn't like it as much as Anderson's previous books, it might be because the protagonists were teenage girls, and as a former teenage girl myself, I suppose I found them easier to relate to. There is nothing that rings false about Tyler's character (or any of the others). If you like Anderson's other books, you'll like this one, too. Anderson cleverly ties together several motifs (see, Tyler? I get it) in the end in a way that satisfies.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I checked this book out of my school library.

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Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson

Reading Update

I've not finished many books lately. I was writing a lot as I participated in NaNoWriMo, which took up a good deal of my time, but in addition to that, I picked some books I wound up not liking much to read during the month of November. I'm giving up on Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe.  I am about halfway through it, and it's just not grabbing me. There is no agreed upon style convention regarding sharing a character's thoughts when you're writing in third person, but I am not a fan of using quotation marks for this purpose. I think it causes confusion with dialogue or speech. Also, when I read a paragraph written in this style and rewrote it in my head to stay within third person, I knew I wouldn't finish the book. Still, the book was instructive.

I checked Laurie Halse Anderson's Twisted out of our school library. I figured YA would be just the thing after the National Council of Teachers of English conference, where I heard about so much new YA I need to read, and a huge writing project. Plus I have read and loved two other novels Anderson wrote: Speak and Wintergirls. Laurie Halse Anderson shared the coolest picture of herself and Judy Blume on Facebook today. Blume was giving her a Defender of Free Speech award from the National Coalition Against Censorship. If anyone knows what it's like to be in Anderson's shoes, it's Judy Blume. She must have been so excited to receive the award from one of her own personal heroes. I admire the both of them so much for writing the truth about kids.

I have been so out of the loop this month. What are you reading?

[image error] photo credit: Glenn Waters ぐれんin Japan now in Milano

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Post © Dana Huff

Reading Update

I Won NaNoWriMo!

I just submitted my still-incomplete novel for validation, and I am so excited because…

I WON NANOWRIMO!

I feel like I should give a speech or something. First, I would like to thank my husband and kids for respecting my need to do this and for giving me the time and space to write. If Steve hadn't taken this project seriously and supported my efforts to complete it, I just wouldn't have completed it.

I want to thank Helen Fielding, Sarah Addison Allen, and all the other chick lit writers for giving me a model of the kind of story I wanted to write.

I want to thank Jane Austen and William Shakespeare.

I want to thank Scrivener, which is an excellent app that I will now be able to buy for 50% off because I won! Seriously, this app enabled me to plan and move text around, and it gave me the freedom to write and organize all of my notes in one place. Plus their word count was really accurate. I think the discrepancy between my Scrivener word count and the official NaNo word count was only 34 words, which is really close.

I think my MS Word count differed by a lot more than that when I won in 2009. Even though this is the second time I've won NaNaWriMo, it doesn't feel any less thrilling. I don't feel less a sense of accomplishment. I feel as exhilarated as I did the first time, and perhaps even more so because I managed to win even though I went out of town to a conference.

Here's to hoping I can finish the darned thing. I think this one could be publishable if I can get it into shape, but then most writers probably think that about their work, or they wouldn't bother. Still, at this point it's too soon to be discouraged, especially because I managed to write 50,000 words of my novel in 30 days. Actually, 29.

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I Won NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo News

NaNoWriMo is nearly over for this year, and with a current word count of 47,333 and two more days to write, I think I'm going to "win" this year. I am excited because I even went out of town to a conference and managed to keep up OK. I fell behind a little, but I had planned ahead and written a lot so that I would have some padding in case there was time I couldn't write in Chicago. It was a great trip, by the way.

One of the "carrots" for me this year has been the 50% discount on the full version of Scrivener for winners. I can't see using anything else to write fiction with, and I'm certainly not using MS Word or Apple Pages. Scrivener was designed with writers in mind. I keep forgetting it has templates for nonfiction and academic writing, too.

I am happy with most of what I wrote, but I gave myself permission to write stuff I know I'll need to cut later just to have it down and move on to the next thing. I think it helped that I set the story in a place I know well. Although I did just manage to send my main character to London, she's spent most of the novel a couple of blocks away from my house. I also didn't worry a lot about pop culture references. The movie Anonymous and the breakup of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore both made it into my book. Hey, if Colin Firth and Hugh Grant can both be mentioned in Bridget Jones's Diary, I think I'm OK.

Here is to the home stretch. May I have more time to read and thus update this blog on the other side of November.

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NaNoWriMo News

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

This morning on my way to school, I finished listening to the Naxos Audio recording of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen read by Juliet Stevenson. I first read S&S 1998 and again in 2010, and it was a treat to re-read. I particularly loved Elinor this time around.

If you have not read the book, it is the only Austen novel I can think of with two female protagonists, though it could be argued the protagonist is really Elinor more than Marianne.  I like Elinor so much. I want to be her when I grow up. Anyway, Elinor and Marianne are the two Dashwood sisters turned out of their home, Norland Park, after their father died and their elder brother inherited the estate and was convinced by his horrible wife Fanny not to provide much for his stepmother and sisters. Meanwhile, Fanny's brother Edward Ferrars visits Norland, and he and Elinor form what looks to all around them like an attachment. The Dashwood women are offered a cottage in Barton by Sir John Middleton, a relation. Marianne meets dashing John Willoughby and considers him a kindred spirit and soulmate even as she captures the heart of Colonel Brandon. However, both women are disappointed in their love affairs, and it is their responses to their disappointments and their consideration of others that forms the basis of most of the novel.

Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite novels of all time, and is in my top three Austen novels (alongside Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion). Each time I turn to any of these novels, I feel I'm sitting down with an old friend. I feel at home. I think Austen does an excellent job with characterization. I did find myself wondering (yet again) what made Edward Ferrars so attractive to Elinor. Hugh Grant does an excellent job bringing life to that character in the 1995 film. I found I liked the idea of her marrying Colonel Brandon and wondered why he wasn't sensible enough to see how wonderful she was, but as neither of them was interested in the other, perhaps it was for the best. Marianne grated on me a little more this time, perhaps because I am now 40 years old instead of my mid-20′s when I read the book last time, and I found her too immature and dramatic. I know—she's supposed to be; that was rather the point. I do love the character names in this book, too. Just a touch of the exotic.

Juliet Stevenson is an excellent narrator. I love her characterization of Mrs. Jennings, and she does an excellent job reading Elinor and Marianne, too. They sound just like they should sound. I had the feeling that Stevenson was rather trying to imitate Elizabeth Spriggs, who played Mrs. Jennings in the 1995 production of Sense & Sensibility. She certainly sounded like Spriggs to me. I had previously listened to Stevenson read Persuasion (review), which I also loved. Stevenson also reads versions of Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park for Naxos, but, curiously, not Pride and Prejudice. She's an excellent narrator, and if you can snag one of her Austen recordings, you won't regret it.

I wonder if anyone can answer me this question (particularly if you're British). I noticed that Stevenson pronounces the word "further" like "farther" and "farther" like "further" (so their sounds are switched) and says "sprung" for "sprang" and the like. Is that a dialect? Or is that considered the proper way to pronounce those words? I thought it was odd because it introduces confusion where there need be none. If it's a dialect, I get it, but if it's accepted pronunciation, that seems like a strange language quirk to me.

I reread this novel for the Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge. It was actually published 200 years ago this month, so how appropriate did it turn out to be, after all, that I waited until almost the end of the year to start this particular challenge?

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Post © Dana Huff

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

NaNoWriMo Week #2

Wow, it's the end of week two of NaNoWriMo already. I have been pretty busy writing and haven't updated this blog in a week. At this point, I have 26,604 words, so I am over halfway done and about three days ahead of par. I am averaging about 2,000 words a day, which is great. As a matter of fact, even though I no longer have a plan and the novel is just sort of going off on its own, I am still mostly happy with it. Some days I really struggle with what I write, but I think that reading On Writing right before I began was really helpful. My reading has slowed down quite a lot. Just can't keep up with everything. It's really important to me to finish NaNoWriMo this year. I have an idea I'm excited about, and it's still fun at two weeks in.

I'm going to Chicago this week for an English teacher conference—presenting, even—and I want to keep up the momentum even while I'm traveling. It will be hard, but it will be worth it. At least if I get fairly far ahead, I will be able to write a little less if I find I'm too busy.

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NaNoWriMo Week #2

NaNoWriMo Week #1

It's the end of week one of NaNoWriMo. I ended the week with a pretty decent word count: 12,115. I am hoping to stay a little bit ahead as I am going to a conference the week after next, and last year, that conference stalled my writing dead in the water. This year, I'm determined to carve out time to write, even if I have to go hide somewhere and do it. Par for day 6 of NaNoWriMo is 10,000 words, so I have an extra day and some cushion at this point.

Erin Morgenstern, whose book The Night Circus began life as a NaNoWriMo novel, wrote a pep talk for participants this week.

Of course, I haven't been reading as much, and truthfully, I haven't been able to figure out what I want to read. I am dipping into As You Like It because it figures into my book, and I am still finishing Sense and Sensibility. I am hoping to be finished with that one, soon. I'm still waiting on Willoughby's Return to arrive in the mail. I am also hoping to read some of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries soon, but those may need to wait until December.

It was a good first week, and given how busy work was, I feel a sense of accomplishment over having kept my head above water with the word count. I am actively not rereading anything I've written. I'm not exactly afraid it's bad. I just know it's a draft and I can change it, but I don't want to do it yet. I want to focus on the draft and worry about the revision later.

I wonder if any other Sunday Salon folks are participating in NaNoWriMo?

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NaNoWriMo Week #1

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

Stephen King's guide for writers, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, is the best book on writing well that I've ever read, and as an English teacher, I have had my hands on all kinds of writing advice. King's memoir begins with what he calls his C.V.: the story of how he became a writer. The middle section of the book contains King's advice for writers, including everything from how to start to how to find an agent. It's practical, no-nonsense advice. The final section chronicles King's near-fatal accident and how he recovered and was able to write again.

King's best advice, from the venerable Strunk & White, is to "omit needless words." Especially helpful are King's demonstrations of how he does that in his own writing. I have already found myself applying his advice as I am drafting my NaNo novel. Interestingly, I am not a tremendous fan of King's books. I grew up with a healthy respect for him as a writer because my parents always had his books around, and I could always find them in the bookstore, grocery store, or library whenever I wanted. I read a few of them when I was in high school, but I have not picked up his writing since that time. Reading this book has just about convinced me I have to pick up Misery. I've seen the movie, but I have never read the book. Annie Wilkes sounds like an interesting character to read. However, this is not to say I have ever thought he wasn't a good writer, and to be honest, whether I think that or Harold Bloom thinks that (he doesn't, by the way, but Neil Gaiman does) doesn't matter much because a lot of people like his books. He's doing something right. For what it's worth, I think Harold Bloom is a sexist, barmy old fart.

King's advice to read a lot and write a lot if you want to be a writer is the soundest, most succinct advice I've ever read. I know my writing has improved by bounds since I began reviewing books in this blog because I have read more. This year, I plan to finish 50 books, which will probably be the most books I've ever read in a year. Reading is studying and researching the craft, and I recognized myself in King's description of that moment a writer has when she has realized for the first time that she could write better than a published writer she has read. I am also writing a lot more. I wrote over 2,000 words in my NaNo novel yesterday, and that really wasn't even all I wrote that day. I write something every day. Last year, I couldn't finish, and the year before that, writing even the daily 1,667 was difficult. It's easier now. Not to say it's easy, but it's easier. I have to attribute that to the reading and writing I've done this year. If I could add anything to King's advice, I'd recommend reflecting in writing on the books you read, whether it's a blog or a reading journal. I find that thinking about the reading in that way is a bit like tinkering under the hood. You learn more about how others use words and how paragraphs fit together. Just reading is enough, but the reflection helps you process what you've read.

I didn't expect this book to be so personal. It's very clear that King is deeply in love with his wife, and given the length of their marriage, it's refreshing and encouraging. He respects her opinion and views her as his partner in every sense. I have to admit I did tear up near the end as I read about his fear that he would die as a result of his injuries and how his wife helped him start writing again. I know she is very much in his shadow. I did try to read a book she wrote when I was in high school, but I didn't get far, and I just haven't picked up anything else.

On Writing is readable and direct as well as entertaining and informative. If you harbor any secret desires to be a writer, this book is an essential part of your collection, and dipping into it again every once in a while as a refresher is a good idea.

And now I really need to turn to my own writing, if you'll excuse me.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

NaNoWriMo Day #1

Day one, 2,255 words written. I am not sure how many times I stopped myself from writing an adverb (thank you, Stephen King). I think I did a pretty good job conveying personality in other ways. So far, I am really happy with it. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about something I wrote. I like having a really loose idea of what's going to happen and then letting whatever happens, happen. What surprised me the most was how effortless it was. It just pretty much came out, boom. I think the fact that I have been doing a lot of writing in general, especially on this blog, has helped me with flow. I tell my students this kind of thing all the time, but it's great to see it's actually true.

Meanwhile, I'm flying through Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft so fast that I think I could be done with it tomorrow. Probably the best book I've read on creative writing.

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Post © Dana Huff

NaNoWriMo Day #1