Anna Carrasco Bowling's Blog, page 31

Summer of Love Standout Standalones

Many thanks to all who responded to my last post on a blogging deep dive on some favorite romance series. I had so much fun with that post and the feedback, that my first thought was, “why stop there?” So, I won’t. My first and fiercest love in historical romance (or any fiction) is the standalone. One story, one book, that’s all she/he/they wrote. There’s something special about closing the cover on a book that doesn’t have companion volumes, and letting my own mind fill in the happily ever after, waving our lovers off into the sunset and on with the rest of their lives. Once upon a time, that was the norm. Right now, series drive the market. What will come next? Who knows? What doesn’t change, however, is the power of a great story, . If it’s full and complete in itself, well, for me, all the better, so I want to take you on a tour of some of my very favorites. Since standalone books are naturally shorter than entire series, I am sharing five examples instead of only three, for your consideration. Once again, in no particular order:

The Wind and the Sea , Marsha Canham

Nobody, but nobody swashes the buckle like Marsha Canham, and I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw this cover in person, and knew I had to have this book. I will always look at a pirate story, and if it’s a female pirate, that book Is on my shelf of its own free will. Add in a Barbary Coast (North Africa) setting, the US Navy (set in 1806) and the big, thick doorstopper size I prefer for books of this nature, this is an adventure for the ages. Canham has other seafaring stories (among others) both series and standalones, but for this particular project, this gets the nod.

A Woman of Passion , Virginia Henley

Far and away my favorite Henley standalone (though there are a couple I still need to read, so favorite standalone presumptive?) Straddling the line between historical romance and historical fiction, the heroine, Bess, is based on the historical figure, Elizabeth Hardwick. No, she’s not the “Elizabeth” in the Elizabethan era, in which this is set (Elizabeth Tudor, AKA HRH Elizabeth I, is) but man oh man does she have a life. Or should that be men, oh men, because Bess doesn’t marry just once but four times. But is it still a romance? There have been discussions, but I’ll let you decide for yourselves…or read along with me and let’s talk it out.

Wild Bells to the Wild Sky , Laurie McBain

Can’t get enough of Tudor-era romance? I know I can’t (remember when that used to be a thing? Who wants to help bring that back?) Love shipwreck stories? How about love on a deserted island? No, not Gilligan’s. This is the tale of Lily Christian, who grew up on such an island after a shipwreck stranded her small family, and Valentine Whitelaw (one of my favorite romance hero names ever) the courtier tasked with bringing her home. Lily is smart, strong, resilient and resourceful, Valentine is a man of his time, and there is intrigue aplenty, unmaskign the true reason behind the accident that changed Lily’s life forever. This also has one of my top three romance endings ever.

Broken Wing , Judith James

Those with small children may want to occupy the kiddos in another room for this one because hecking fluff, doe James ever go there. Where exactly is “there?” Oh sweet summer child. Let me tell you about this book. Gabriel St. Croix is the last person who would consider himself a hero. He has lived and worked (yep, doing exactly what you think, his clients not restricted to one gender) most of his life in a brothel. He’s thisclose to finally being free of that living hell, when a young boy arrives to become his replacement, and, well, Gabriel can’t let that happen. If he stays on, will the boy remain untouched? Yes. Okay, then. That’s not all, though. His reason for staying is about to be ripped away from him, as Sarah Munroe, the boy’s sister, has finally found him, and will be taking him home. Not only that, but Gabriel can come, too. Culture shock? To say the least. Sarah is unconventional herself, and when these two wounded souls meet, the click together to form an incredible romance. Yes, there is an HEA.

Tapestry , Karen Ranney

Laura cannot imagine ever not loving Alex, not from since she was a little girl, and certainly not after he returns home from the war so scarred that he shuts himself away and wears a leather mask to shield himself and his scars, both physical and mental/emotional, from the rest of the world. But Laura isn’t the rest of the world. She is a take charge heroine who is not going to let a little thing like that stop her from rescuing Alex from himself. If that means putting aside her identity as a daughter of the nobility to sign on as the new housekeeper so she can get close to him, well that’s what she’s going to do. Her job isn’t easy, either, and this is an extremely emotional read…which is one of the reasons it’s on this list. I am sorry to say that the author, Karen Ranney, passed away recently, so a reread of this feels both timely and bittersweet.

So there you have it, five standout standalone historical romance novels that I would love to deep dive into with all of you. Which one catches your fancy? Drop suggestions in the comments, or message me at annacbowling@gmail.com or come join the Lion and Thistle group on Facebook, and tell me your favorites.

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Anna

Summer of Love (Stories)

Back before the whole vagabonding thing began, I had planned a Skye-athalon. I would re-read not only my all time favorite historical romance novel, Skye O’Malley, by Bertrice Small,

[image error]Always. :sigh:

but the entire two series that flowed from it, first to last, top to bottom, no interruptions, and blog about the whole darned thing. From Tudor era Br4itish Isles to the high seas, Northern Africa, and back again, up through the Restoration that followed England’s Civil War, this is an epic. I love epics. That’s no surprise.

[image error]Ah, notebook, we will meet again one day

I was super hyped for that, bought a special notebook and washi tape to keep all my notes in, picked a dedicated pen, and even had the namesake of my favorite novel, Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling, the kitty, not the book, to cheer me on while I read the book, not the kitty.

[image error]Fur-ever the queen.

Then life happened. Then it happened again. Then it turned into a dumpster fire, and while all my O’Malley books are safely in storage, my O’Malley books are in storage, so getting to them and the notebook and washi would take some doing, but I still like the idea, so why not do a similar thing with a different series by a different author? That, I can definitely do.

This means I am now in one of the fun parts (spoiler: they are all the fun parts) and that’s picking which series I want to read and share with all of you. I love watching deep dives and readthroughs on BookTube, and t his may indeed be a natural way to jump back into video blogging.

While most of such vlogs I’ve seen are dedicated to some of the brightest stars of today (Julia Quinn, Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, et al) I would love to bring that treatment to some of the grand dames of historical romance, some of which may actually be new to newer readers of the genre. Since I am still vagabonding, I cannot, unfortunately, do this with actual physical books, but that also opens up the whole wide world of the e-reader, and all of Kindle Unlimited is at my disposal. If this works out well, I’ll want to do the same thing with an indie author’s work, and see where things go from there.

So. Which books? Here are a few peeks at my shortlist of possibilities:

The DeMonteforte Brothers – Danelle Harmon

5.5 books, including novellas, Georgian England. 1770s. aka what the British were doing during the American War For Independence.

Culloden’s Fire
Kimberly Cates

5 books. This series is also called the Jacobites, which should give a clue as to the setting, but there are also a few surprises. British Isles

Fire series
Anita Mills

Also 5 books (I am seeing a trend here) and this one’s medieval, and follows more than one generation.

These days, my cheering section looks like this:

[image error]#calicolovestorm

and I am still much more likely to do a thing if I have told the internet I am going to do it, so here we go. I will be reading/listening to all books on my Kindle Fire, through Kindle Unlimited. Shoutout to Lisa at Buried Under Romance for telling me about text to speech so every book can be an audiobook. This will greatly help, as I have found listening to historical romance while playing Sims 4 is my sweet spot.

Which of the three above would you most like to see me cover?

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Typing With Wet Paws: Under the Influence Edition

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We’re going to be changing it up some this week, because Aunt Anna has been doing exactly that, and my job is to report on what she’s doing. Yesterday, she didn’t even turn on the computer to work, if you can believe that. Instead, she spent the day doing a deep dive into reconnecting with historical romance, which she has been kind of unconsciously avoiding for a little while.

Part of that is because real life has been chaotic, and getting her head into another place and time took too much energy. That happens. People change genres. That is not what is happening here. She and Aunt Melva are closing in on the first draft of Drama King, setting the stage (pun intended) for Queen of Hearts, and making plans for more contemporaries to come. That’s all good.

What hasn’t felt so good, and here is where I have done some active mews duty (thinking is much easier when rubbing a lonnnnng kitty belleh, specifically mine) is that looking at her Goodreads challenge (still super duper ahead, so she has wiggle room) showed that her reading has leaned, at times heavily, to YA over historical romance, and that she is not okay with that.

This led to a long time in what Aunt Anna calls the soft office, with notebook and pen, and me cuddling close, writing down how she feels about that and how it came to be, as well as a way back to what feels like a better balance for her. Some of this comes as she prepares material for future video blogs, and some of it comes from Buried Under Romance doings. Where Aunt Anna has landed on this is that it’s okay to go through times of not having a lot of energy (cats totally understand this) but it is not okay to use not engaging in something a human loves because of that.

Yesterday, Aunt Anna wrote down a lot of things, including a list of some of her favorite classic historical romance authors. It included but was not limited to:

Bertrice SmallValerie SherwoodAola VandergriffAnita Mills Marsha Canham

If these names are familiar to you, you might notice that they have a few things in common. If they are not, consider clicking these links, and keeping an eye on this blog for more about them inthe future. These are big stories. Sometimes it feels scary to want to write big stories, especially when a lot of things in life are very very big. That is, though, maybe exactly when and why big stories are needed the very very most.

Aunt Anna is excited not only to revisit some of her favorite historical romances, by these authors and others, but to look into how they have and continue to influence her current reading and writing.

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Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for the important stuff, aka me. I have talked in the past about my adventures with the butt warmer, but I have not shared yet about my special trick (because I just learned it) and that is that I can turn off Uncle Rheuben’s trackpad. I won’t give my secrets but when Uncle Rheuben couldn’t find his cursor and the trackpad wasn’t doing anything, he asked Aunt Anna for help (she has a lot more experience with cats and computers) and she did some Google-fu.

What she found was that the number one cause of this particular problem is cats on keyboards. There was a post that told her what buttons to push to undo my trick, and she did, and boom, back in business. This does not mean that I will stop doing it, because sometimes humans need feline intervention to know when it is time to stop with the clickety clack and make with the belly rubs. Speaking of which,

Headbonks!

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Summer Planning, Part the Second

All rightyroo, time for the part two of my summer planning lineup, drifting into the world of notebooks. Let’s take a look at the lineup we’re dealing with here.

[image error]does anybody see a theme here?

Back to front, we have a mini Happy Notes, mini Happy Notes journaling notebook, and micro Happy Notes, which has gone through a lot of incarnations and will probably have a few more before I figure out how it’s best suited for me.

[image error]nothing says commitment like a new notebook

This notebook is technically from the wedding collection, but I’m using it to write romance, so that’s actually appropriate. I am a longhand first type of writer, and this size, 4.5 x 7 inches, hits the sweet spot for the story stuff that falls out of my brain and onto the page. It lays flat, fits in my purse, and I love the feel of the paper.

Since we’ve been vagabonding, I have fallen, hard, off the bullet journal train, and as with anything else, the longer away, the longer the road back. Still, as I’m herding cats to get my stuff back together, I do better with structure, so back to bujo it is. When I saw a Happy Planner set up for bujo users, I had to give it a try. Still figuring that out, but take a look at the first thing I made in it, my TV tracker. (TV being Nexflix, Hulu, etc)

[image error]these viewing choices may say something about me

The boxes were preprinted on the pages, which went a long way into helping me figure out what I wanted to do with them. I will probably let the other boxes on other pages lead me. Not all the pages have boxes on them, so we will see what I do with those.

[image error]work in progress

Mu latest plan for the micro size is that I may use the first section of it (I made the dividers myself, as well as the pirate-y page finder) is to use them for my daily plans, as my current mini planner ends at the end of this month. This is as far as I have got to date. Right now, the only thing I do with those pages is make a plain bullet list, which is functional, but not me, so the quest continues. I do have another micro notebook, that I use as a Sims journal, where I need to take pages in and out on a regular basis, as I use it for rotational play.

Phew. This will probably be it for the notebook/planner show and tell for this month, but as a dear aunt often said, never say never. We’ll move on along to what goes inside the notebooks, namely writing and notes on reading, because writing in these notebooks about what I’m reading and writing brings up some interesting patterns, and is a big help in crystalizing what I want to be doing with my writing life. We’ll get to that later.

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Summer Planning Part the First

Welp, it’s that time of year again, when last year’s eighteen month planner is about to be over, and this planner enthusiast comes to the inevitable question, what’s next? This is already both exciting and frustrating during the best of times, but throw in 2020? Yeah. First world problems, for sure, but in stress times, planning is my happy place, for writing and family life alike. Add to that the fact that we are still vagabonding, and that adds a level of difficulty…and the need for planning in the first place.

[image error]18 month Happy Planner mini

Last year, I flitted around from traveler’s notebooks of various sizes to ring bound planners of various sizes, was snotty about Happy Planner, because plastic discs. Then I got two Happy Planners for my birthday, and the snottiness (in that aspect) dissipated. I really do like this size, this format, and I even came to find my own comfy zone in the horizontal format. The only thing I didn’t find was a 2020 18 month planner to replace it.

This is easily remedied, because a) I have alternatives, b) I know how to make my own, and c)trying new things can be fun. So can dusting off old stuff that I can’t stop thinking about. As a subscriber to several Instagram accounts dedicated to planning, inspiration is a daily resource, and this time of year, my brain is tuned to blush pink. Which describes this A5 size planner from Carpe Diem.

[image error]A5 six ring binder, Carpe Diem

This is probably my favorite ring bound planner, because of the color, and I like the way it feels in my hand, plus the rings inside are gold, not silver, though I usually like silver better. This way, though? Love it.

[image error]Insert repurposing?

Okay, this needs some explaining. The pages you see here are actually from inserts in a different planner (Agenda 52?) that were already outdated when I bought it, but I didn’t want to let them go to waste because pink, and with only a little bit of correction tape, a little washi (the month is not listed because I know what month it is, and may change inserts for July, anyway) boom, back in business. Which is what I am going to need for wrangling the three ring circus that is family and writing and day to day chaos.

The page finder is actually back to back paint chips from Home Depot. They’re the right size, the right shape, easily hole-punched (I have not yet tried with punching for any disc bound systems, but I will try that in the future.) and cuts down on waste, so win. If I like the way my planner looks, if it feels like me, I am more likely to look forward to using is, and stick to what I write in there. I don’t know yet if I am going to switch to the A5 for my everyday carry, since it is larger than the HP mini, but being back in the binder that made me go all heart-eyes the first time I saw it feels right. Other sections are set up to be a reading tracker and some…sort…of…writing…tracker (more on that later) and there are a couple of different types of art paper in another section, just in case.

[image error]Happy Planner/Notes gang

Ever since October, I’d been in my same classic Happy Planner, which was bright, fun, empowering women illustrations, and I love it. I also accidentally packed it and now have no idea where it is. This gives me a chance to try a different theme and layout, plus the discs in the Glam Girl classic are metal (lavender metal, super pretty) and it’s makeup themed, and I think we will get along together rather well. The other two are Happy Notes notebooks, though the one with the leaves is actually the cover to a Homebody mini planner, though I swapped its cover for the Homebody Happy Notes cover. So, planner cover outside, notes pages inside. That’s for morning pages, and some writing notes.

[image error]Lined vertical layout? Do I like this?

Not sure what I think about that green bit up at the top, but I will figure it out. I like the color scheme, and if I count down three lines from the green part, I can neatly divide this layout into my preferred vertical. Vertical pages are also good for plotting, which is going to come in very handy as I put up the framework for the next few projects. I do a lot better with a roadmap (I will plan anything, seriously) if I want to get from where I am to where I want to be going.

Speaking of which, off to adult for a while, and then I come back to play with my imaginary friends (aka write) and then I am allowed to Sim. Stay tuned for part two later this week. Much writerly planning stuff will ensue.

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Typing With Wet Paws: Summer’s On Edition

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Even though the calendar says summer does not officially start until later in the month (I am only two, so I don’t know a lot about calendars) for Aunt Anna and the other humans in my family, this counts as summer. It is Aunt Anna’s least favorite season, but our basecamp, as Aunt Anna calls it, has air conditioning, so the summer really doesn’t bother her or Uncle Rheuben at all. They have also found that they share a desk really, really well. If I am feeling especially sproingy, we can all three share the same workspace. That’s what I call efficient use of space.

Even though summer is usually Aunt Anna’s worst time when it comes to productivity, she had a super good writing day yesterday. It all started with hauling herself over to the computer with the promise that if she could write some notes on the stinkybad movie in Drama King, and then send it to Aunt Melva, then she could play Sims. Aunt Anna is super easy to bribe with Sims, especially since she had to reinstall stuff when the latest patch broke pretty much everything (whoops) and she had to start fresh. Surprisingly, she did not mind that at all.

[image error]Aunt Anna says making this stuff helps her think

Starting from scratch was actually kind of fun, and she got to use one of the premade families to test out some new gameplay features, fiddle with custom content, and maybe a mod or two. If you think that sounds kind of like writing fan fiction, you are not wrong. Aunt Anna sees that, too. As a matter of fact, Aunt Anna had Sims stuff open in the background while she read a lot of Wikipedia articles about movies (stinkybad or otherwise) to know what kind of information goes into such a thing, laughed a lot while using name generators to get over herself already, slap down a placeholder and move forward, and refresh herself on the recipe for a romantic comedy movie, plus all the ways one could go wrong.

In the middle of doing all that, she also had Scapple open. It is kind of like a whiteboard on the computer. If you don’t know what Scapple is, click here to read about it on Ginny Frost‘s Apps For Writers blog. (Miss Ginny also writes contemporary romance for The Wild Rose Press, so check out her books while you’re over there.) While Aunt Anna had the seeds of a scene on her mind, she might as well get a few things down where she would be able to easily access them.

That’s when something clicked open, and a whole bunch of stuff came out of her head and onto the screen. It’s kind of messy, mixing tenses and Aunt Melva (who has a PhD in English) may have a headache from switching from script form (many of Aunt Anna’s first-first drafts of dialogue are in script form when they fall out of her head) to dialogue and narration but then again she knows how Aunt Anna works and still wants to write books with her anyway, so there’s that.

That stuff is now in Aunt Melva’s hands, so Aunt Anna is now turning her hand to writing a faux Wikipedia article for a different fictional movie, and getting ready to do the same thing with Her Last First Kiss, but there won’t be any movie stuff in there, because there were no movies in 1784. Probably no YouTube mouse videos, either. It was the dark ages.

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Speaking of mice, Aunt Anna and Aunt Linda got me some! Uncle Rheuben stayed behind to give me pets while the other humans went for groceries, and they found themselves in the cat toy section. Ever since my red dot died, I have taken to going to the corner near the door and giving big kitty eyes, to indicate that I really need a new red dot. Well, the store didn’t have any (the nerve!) but they did have a package of three catnip mice. Aunt Anna figured they’d see how I liked them, so she threw me one as soon as she got back, and I LOVE IT. I call them all “Prey.” When I bring Prey to a human, the human is to throw Prey, which I will then chase and CATCH, and then I have no idea what comes next, but a nap comes after that, and the whole thing starts over again.

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Before I fur-get (hah, see what I did there?) Aunt Anna was at Buried Under Romance this past Saturday, with a topic that comes to a lot of readers’ minds this time of year (or so I have heard. Again, I’m two.) and that’s weddings. Are they really needed in cotemporary romance? If that is a topic that interests you, read about it here, and pull up a chair in the comments to chime in with your opinion. Aunt Anna already talks to herself enough. Trust me on this one. Part two will be about historical romance, and probably will go up Saturday but might be Sunday because she just got done being sick and is running a little behind.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. No Goodreads update, because mostly Aunt Anna read a little bit of stuff and fell asleep and then her loans expired, so she is starting new books now. Maybe I will start telling you when she starts reading a book and then what happened to it. First, though, this Prey isn’t going to chase itself.

Headbonks!

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YA Recommendations for Pride, pt 2

When I first thought about posting a list of YA recommendations with LGBT themes, I thought it was going to be easy to pick a few favorites, but I was wrong. Love, loss, angst, healing, friendship, and growing up and into oneself are universal, and as with many genres, there are flat out too many excellent voices to pick only a few, and I want to know the stories of people whose experiences are different from mine, so here are five more examples of the stories that have stuck with me the most. gain, no particular order, and all are, as far as I know, own voices stories, and standalones.

Deposing Nathan, Zack Smedley: This book, oh man, all the love. Told in non-linear fashion, we learn how it was that Nate and his best friend, Cam, came not only to blows, but a near-fatal scuffle that now has the legal system involved. The added bonus here is that Nate is equally rooted in his orientation, and his Christian faith, truly desiring to reconcile both truths about himself and live his most honest life. Gripping, raw, and real, this is a five star read for me, and I will pick up Zack Smedley’s next book by only his name on the cover. I’m sold.

I Wish You All the Best, Mason Deaver: When Ben DeBacker comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they toss him out of the house without even shoes on their feet. Where can they possibly go while processing such betrayal? To the only person who can understand, their estranged older sister, Hannah, who immediately comes to get Ben and brings them to live with her and her husband, Thomas, a teacher at the school Ben will attend for the next year. Hannah and Thomas don’t have all the answers, but they want to ask the right questions, and guide Ben as Ben charts his own path in life, art, and love.

If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo: Meredith Russo is another writer whose books I will pick up by name alone. In her debut novel, Ms. Russo hits the sweet spot of heartbreaking and heartwarming, as we journey with Amanda, a trans girl looking for a fresh start in a new school. She is strongly attracted to classmate Grant, but unsure of how much to share about her past. She also has some ups and downs reconnecting with her divorced father, with whom she now lives.

Symptoms of Being Human, Jeff Garvin: In Riley Cavanaugh’s own words, “The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?” This is how Riley starts the anonymous blog on the advice of their therapist. Riley, a genderfluid teen, has a voice, but how to use it, when they are settling into a new school, their conservative congressman father is running for reelection, and everybody has expectations of who Riley is or should be. The blog takes off, creating a community, but when Riley’s identity is leaked, that’s when Riley has to decide who they are and what their future will be.

Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden:

There is a lot to love about this book. Not only is it a seminal work of contemporary YA, one of the first with LGBT themes (and certainly with a happy ending)but the author’s voice is so lyrical that it’s almost like music. Not a lot is actually shown of Annie’s musical talent, but it’s infused through the story, told entirely from Liza’s point of view. Two teenage girls, from two different worlds, who find love in each other, the story of their growing relationship interspersed with a letter Liza may or may not send to her estranged beloved, Annie, grabs readers by the heart and doesn’t let go.

Annie, it’s raining. From those three words, the first three that came to the author when she began putting Annie and LIza’s story to paper, I knew this story had me. The scene, early on, where Liza first encounters the enchanting Annie, in a museum, on a rainy November afternoon, instantly earned a place as one of my all time favorites.

It’s not easy to be two young women in love in the late 1970s/early 80s (the book was published in 1982) and both Annie and Liza learn this firsthand, but that’s part of the magic of growing up, getting through the things we think will break us, and learning who our people, family, and chosen family, truly are.

I had a lot of fun coming up with these lists, so will probably be adding more recommendations, both YA and historical romance, maybe a few other things, in future posts. If there’s a topic or trope you’d like to see me cover, drop it in the comments, and I will see what I can do. If you’d like to follow me on Goodreads, to keep up with what I’m reading as well as new releases, I would love to be Goodreads friends, which can happen right here.

YA Book Recommendations for Pride Month, pt 1

After historical romance, my next favorite subgenre of fiction is Young Adult (YA.) It’s still not a genre in which I write (I hear a dear aunt’s voice in my head now, saying “never say never.”) but one in which I know I am going to find a lot of love, familial, platonic and romantic.

It’s also a genre that is wonderfully diverse, which I love. Here are, in no particular order, five recommendations for YA novels with LGBT+ protagonists. As far as I know, all are own voices stories.

1) All the Bad Apples, Moira Fowley-Doyle: We first meet narrator, Deena, after the funeral of her free-spirited and much older sister, at which there was no body. Deena’s family is believed to be cursed, that something horrible will happen on a girl’s seventeenth birthday, that would follow her the rest of her life. Prepare to be swept away by Fowley-Doyle’s compelling voice, and live with the characters as multiple generations of Deena’s family deal with their own curses and choose their own futures. Oh, and Deena likes girls.

2) Let’s Talk About Love, Claire Kann: Alice has her whole summer planned out, but when she comes out to her girlfriend as asexual, that’s only the first of the big changes in Alice’s life. That relationship is over, but life isn’t, and not wanting sex doesn’t mean not wanting love. What better time than a job at the library to keep Alice’s mind on the right track? Well, apart from co-worker Takumi, who very much reminds Alice how nice romance can be. Will he still be into her if he knows the whole truth about what she wants? (spoiler: he is)

3) Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan: modern teenage boyfriends Harry and Craig participate in a kiss-a-thon to set a world record, but the focus is not entirely on them. Narrated by a Greek Chorus of gay men who died in the AIDS epidemic, we also see how the boys’ lives affect other teens, their own families, and the reader’s own heart.

4) History is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera: Oh my heart. Adam Silvera has ripped it out, stomped it flat, put it back in, and made it somehow, if not stronger, more resilient. Here’s how: teenage Griffin was in love with his ex-boyfriend, Theo, even though they broke up so Theo could go to college on the opposite coast. Neither of them counted on Theo falling in love with Jackson. Or Theo dying, in front of Jackson, who has come to NY for the funeral. Who are the only two people who get what it was like to be in love with Theo even though he’s gone? Yeeep. This is raw, beautiful honest grief, with healing and growing up.

5) Pulp, Robin Talley: I said this list was in no particular order (and I am starting to wish I had made this a top ten, but that’s what other posts are form, hm?) but I am going to give this one the title of favorite, because while I don’t know what it’s like to be LGBT in any decade, I do know what it’s like to have the discovery of a genre of fiction change one’s entire life. For me, it was historical romance. For Janet Jones in 1955, and Abby Zimet sixty-two years later, it was lesbian pulp fiction. Ms. Talley is a master at writing twentieth century historical fiction, fully inhabiting both timelines, as Abby delves into what really happened to the mysterious ‘Marian Love” who wrote only one book and then disappeared.

All of these books are standalones, another thing I love about YA, so there is no need to read other books by any of these authors, before diving into these, but oh how quickly those TBRs will grow.

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Typing With Wet Paws: Almost June Edition

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This was a quiet week for blogging, because we had a small family emergency last week (all sorted now, everyone is fine) and then Aunt Anna picked up a gross bug ( the people sick kinds, not the fun six legged hunting kind) which means I am on nursing duty, which means I yell at her when she is up for too long. I have also been diligent in making the very best use of Uncle Rheuben’s butt warmer (he calls it a laptop. It is a butt warmer. Good thing he’s cute.)

Things Aunt Anna has been super good at while sick:

1) naps (I coach her)
2) staying hydrated (once again, I lead by example)
3) watching You Tube videos mostly about Sims and Degrassi.
4) feeling really really guilty as she looks at her unmoving reading tally (and usually falls asleep next to a good book.)

On the one paw, there is nothing to feel bad about because this is how healing happens. On the other paw, the library does want their e-books back after a certain amount of time. On the other other paw, Kindle Unlimited is a thing, and she has a ton of books in her Kindle already. On the other other other paw, there are all those great stories waiting for her, and reading makes her want to write more, and writing more helps her feel better, so those things all feed each other and she really does tend to overthink things like this too much.

That’s okay, though. Taking a catnap with an actual cat is beneficial for everybody involved, and text to speech means that there is always a dependable robot voice ready to read a tired human a story. Not to mention the small notebook Aunt Anna keeps at hand, to write down stuff for when she’s able to keep a thought in her head already (her words, not mine.)

One thing that helps her a lot in both reading and writing is accountability. On the reading front, she is way way way ahead of the game, and on the reading front, she is reading The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley, along with Aunt Linda. It looks like this:

Aunt Anna doesn’t know much about this book, except that there are pirates in it, and it’s got a pretty good reputation, so she is optimistic. If she can stay awake for anything, she can stay awake for pirate. Also belly rubs. I do require my belly rubs. More regular posting coming next week, toebeans crossed.

Headbonks!

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Meat Loaf, Muscle Memory, and Writing Romance (Also Sims)

Most importantly, the Meat Loaf of which I speak is the singer, not the food. I did get to meet Meat for about five seconds, at an autograph signing. I blurted out that he broke my creative block. He immediately lit up like a Golden Retriever at hearing “who’s a good boy?” and asked which song, and how, and what genre did I write, which was when his handler gently apologized to both of us and said he had to move the line along. That stuck with me, though, and cemented my love of the Loaf. Which brings me to last night.

I was not listening to Meat Loaf last night. I was listening to a Sims 4 Let’s Play video, which is probably my current favorite viewing material. Even so, I had no intention of writing-writing (cue amused chuckles) as I listened, and managed custom content, and fiddled with my Sims journal, shown here in the charge of my co-worker:

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That thing is packed full of altered index cards, because a) they are sturdier, and b) with my vision, dot grid only works if it’s about an inch from my face, and crooked writing is a big no. Every card is a Sim, their aspirations, goals, traits, spouses, children, and ultimately, when they move to the “graveyard” section, causes of death. No overthinking on this stuff, because it’s a game. So, there I am, thinking that I’m going to have to cut down and punch more cards, because we’re moving into the next generation, and then I’m grabbing one of those discarded dot grid pages, to make notes for the cards I’m going to want to make for the Sims 2 and 5 versions of what I’m doing.

Still no Meat Loaf. There was, though, at some point, a frantic pat through the dark (ah, the joys of motel writing when Real Life Romance Hero is asleep) for my writing-writing notebook. After that, a lot of ink came out of the pen in my hand, as notes on a long-overdue scene from Drama King filled the formerly empty pages. Pages. Plural. When I am done with this post, I will transcribe and send the scene off to my long-suffering contemporary writing partner, Melva.

Still not listening to Meat Loaf while I wrote that, but as soon as I set down notebook and pen to try and get some sleep (my brain throws slumberless parties on a regular basis) the first notes of this song trickled into my subconscious:

this song is relevant to my interstes

One thing that has stuck with me was a tidbit from an interview, where Meat talked about his songwriter, Jim Steinman. He said that what audiences need to remember is that everything Jim writes is part of a universe in his head, that is basically an epic vampire opera. I believe some of it was produced as an opera, in Germany. Possibly in German, which does not sound out of the realm of possibility.

What does this all have to do with muscle memory or romance writing? Actually, a lot. In the midst of custom content and screenshots and Let’s Plays and other things that are still creative but not focused on producing pages, my brain gets to free-float and do its story stuff wihout me getting in its way. Ad the facilitator of a long-ago writer’s group often said, once we put pen or pencil to paper, we were not allowed to stop it moving. The process would beget the product.

With things like this, my brain goes “storystorystorystorystory” and “atttttmosssspheeeeeeereeeee” until I am darned near besotted with it. When that happens, oh look, how did all that writing get on the page? I better get more paper. Not just for one book, because while I was furiously scratching out dialogue for Drama King, Bern and Ruby, from Her Last First Kiss were at the edge of my vision, tapping their feet, and next to them, Cornelis and Lydia from Plunder. All of them with lists grievances….uh, adjustments I need to make so that they look the say they do on the page as they do in my head. Not only physically, but you get the drift.

One of my Sims notes is to set aside time (after writing) to learn Reshade (lighting editor…ish?) and fine tuning presets I didn’t even know could be fine-tuned but make all the difference from bright and cartoony (which is fun, too, when I have the taste for it) to…my people. It is like that with reading and writing, too, as recent conversations with bookish friends have confirmed. Keep at it, when it’s possible. Put the pen on the paper. Keep it there. Sooner or later the muscle memory will kick in, and therein likes the tale. Literally.

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