Christine Norris's Blog: Christine Norris' blog, page 21

Book Tour is over

 The book tour is over! It was pretty fun, and in the end I hope I picked up a few new readers.  I left the contest open on  kbaccellia  's blog, but there were no other entries, so... the winner is  cleanwriter  , aka Kai Strand! Kai, send me your address and I'll get your book and prizes out to you soon!  The weekend is going much too fast. I have to find time to do some writing. Next weekend is the annual NJSCBWI conference. I have signed up for a five-minute agent pitch. I'm going to pitch SMOKE & MIRRORS and have to figure out what to say about it. I also have to start packing, since I will have to leave Friday right after work. Fortunately I shouldn't need much, just a suitcase.  And who turned on the summer?? We went from early Spring temperature to mid-July in like a minute. Ugh. I had to move Samwise the rabbit down into the cool basement this weekend; I went and bought him a better indoor cage since he's spending more time in there. And now that it's so hot I can't use my new writing loft except in the morning and evening when it's tolerable.I have three fans running non-stop and it's still too hot. I had to grab my computer and bring it so that it didn't cook. Hopefully I will have my A/C before school lets out so I can buckle down and get some serious work done. I have other writing news to share, but I have to wait until that's official. Bye for now!

Bits and Bobs, New Job Edition

** I finally started my new job on Wednesday. They told me at 3:50 pm on Tuesday (everyone at the offices goes home at 4:00).  Yay me!

*I really like the job. The traffic is mildly annoying in the morning, and the last two nights have been outrageously annoying with people leaving work for the holiday weekend and heading to the shore, but otherwise everything seems to be going well. I only have Pre-K and K students, so lesson planning is pretty simple. The school is nice and new, but we're still in a poverty-stricken city, and it shows in little ways.
*The other teachers are seemingly ecstatic that I'm there. They have not had a real librarian since the school opened about two years ago. They've had a parade of subs in the meantime, one or two perhaps seem to have had some idea of what a library is supposed to do, but those people were not recent. When I introduce myself, several teachers have greeted me with things like, "Thank God!", "You're kidding! Are you staying?", and "I should have known who you were, the kids are actually doing something." One teacher said she had stopped bringing her students up to library because the sub was not doing anything useful, but the teacher and aide in that class left very happy today. The gorgeous listening center we have, with four sets of headphones and about two dozen sets of books on CD to listen to, was going virtually unused. I opened it up and there were students in almost every class using it.   *The library is beautiful. It has nice wooden shelves, a SMARTboard, listening center, great beanbag chairs, three Macs for the kids to use (I got a crash course in Apple technology this week), and an empty circulation desk with great chairs.  *And it's a hot mess. The organization, what little there is, is ...odd. One shelf had the label, "Famous Authors, Eric Carle.", while another bore the title "Famous People", and a third "Miscellaneous Fiction."  That last shelf was just a jumble of books not in any kind of order. The back shelves were categorized by subject, sort of like nonfiction should be, but specific to the curriculum. I haven't decided if I will leave it or l redo it properly, where all the subjects will remain together anyway. I've started ripping out things, readjusted the shelves, and am doing a proper fiction organization. Which has revealed that there are multiple copies of the same titles spread all over the place. Grr. If any library school student ever wants to understand the need for an organizational system in a library, send 'em my way. This place is like a giant game of Marco Polo. Half of the books have no spine labels, some have no cards, and I just can't wait to get into the computer so I can see the natural disaster that is the catalog. I may need FEMA  to come and help me, *There are no library supplies. No book tape machine for repairs. The spine labels, what few there are, are mostly handwritten, and I have the small sheets that I'm not sure will work in a computer printer. I DO have spine label covers. No plastic covering for books either. No pens, pencils, paper. Some stuff I can bring from home, others I will be ordering. Much of the stuff that makes a library run is absent. I feel like Old Mother Hubbard; my cabinets are bare. *The shelves are half bare as well. I can't be sure until  get the collection in order, but we are hurting for books. Since no one's been keeping track, books leave the library and never return. I like their system of bundling books to loan to classes, but they gotta come back. I will be working on a sign out system. Meanwhile I've burned through most of a surprise in the form of a Scholastic credit and ordered some books. It's a start, but we are seriously short on proper materials. I will be making another post about that, and asking my friends for help. It may not be as dire as I think, once I empty some of the tubs, but there are things I know are missing from the collection.  *There is a ton of work to do, yes. I'm not complaining, though it might seem like it. On one hand, I may be spending part of my summer fixing this mess, just to make it easier on myself next year. But I get to make it what I want, and how I want, and pretty much no one will complain. It's work I don't mind doing :), because the kids are really sweet. My first day, I was out in my hall duty and one little girl ran up and hugged me. Makes all the work worth it. 

*And when I need to come up with a final project for grad school, I think I've got my choice of topics here :) 

Moving Forward

 Well, the holding pattern is breaking a little. My emergency School Media Specialist cert has been issued and should be here soon. I'm trying to find out definitely when I can start work. My guess is next week, right after the holiday. Which still gives me four weeks before school's out. Which is better than nothing. 

And...I received a letter yesterday from my first publisher, returning the rights to me for my first two books, Talisman of Zandria and Return to Zandria. 

I'm kind of sad about this. These were my first two novels, and my first publisher, and it feels like the end of an era, sort of. I learned a lot writing them, and since writing them. Kids still buy them, mostly from me at events, and they love them. So I'm wondering if I should let them go or try to find them a new home. I think I could do a lot to improve them, knowing what I know now, though the stories are good themselves. Hmm...I may be making some inquiries about re-prints... If not, I can always rewrite them myself and put them up for sale on Amazon or something. Though that's way more work than I have time for now, I think. Things to think about... 

Snoopy Who

 I totally want a t-shirt with this image: Snoopy Who.  Posted originally at The Angry Black Woman. Because the Beagle who Could totally rocks as the Doctor. And Woodstock as K-9 is brilliant.

I would change one thing, though.

Snoopy totally needs a fez

Keeping Busy

As I said last time, I'm still in a holding pattern - waiting for paperwork to start my new job, waiting to hear from agents on the new project. Waiting, waiting, waiting. So I used my time to work more on my writing loft project. Now that the electric is finished, I was able to move my stuff up from downstairs.

This is what the space looked like before:

    
And then when I cleaned it: 



And now it looks like this: 

      I really need to fill those shelves...

Pretty sweet, huh? Well, almost. It was very warm up here yesterday. I had the newly purchased oscillating tower fan on full blast, to pull some of the cooler air in from outside. And the attic fan. Maybe what I really need are some ceiling fans, but I plan on getting my uncle over here to run a duct from the basement so that the A/C and heat come up here too. Winter's not as bad as summer. This morning, though, it's pleasantly cool and quiet, and I am in love with it. 

Eventually I will be moving more stuff around the attic, clearing the arranged clutter left after the Great Attic Purge of '11 and pushing it under the eaves so that I can use the space for a comfy reading chair and other stuff. I have my rocking chair up here already, but I think a great squashy armchair is needed. Someday I may even have the whole thing finished. But this will do for now. It will do nicely. 

Quick Update

 * I have STILL not started new job. State DoE and sundry other persons are being so slow it's almost painful. If it were up to me this would have been taken care of weeks ago. Alas, it's not as important to anyone else as it is to me (and possibly my school's principal), so I must wait, hopefully not much longer.

*Virtual Book Tour continues! I have posted daily links on Twitter and FB if you want to follow. I still have not chosen a winner from  kbaccellia  's interview stop on the tour, and I will leave it open for a few more days in case you want to enter. Yesterday's stop at the Children and Teen Book Connection also includes a giveaway if you'd like to enter, and I have a giveaway going on at Goodreads. Lots of chances to win a copy of THE MIRROR OF YU-HUANG

*I am trying to get caught up on stuff, work on finishing the next LoA book. No replies to any agent queries send in the last month, and things are just kind of blah now, I'm in a holding pattern. 
*Hopefully I will get my stuff moved to the attic this weekend so that I can use the new writing loft space while we work on finishing the work, which will take some time. Eventually it will all be done.   

Review Linkies and Blog Tour Stops

 The Virtual Blog Tour continues! This week I've been at Beyond the Books, The Book Faery Reviews, and on a Book Panel at Literarily Speaking. Today I have an interview at The Examiner, and I answer three questions at Jenn Nixon's blog.  The blog tour has been great so far, and I've been trying to keep up with all the comments.  I haven't selected a winner over at  ixtumea  's blog, so if you want to comment you still have some time.  Meanwhile, seems as if THE MIRROR OF YU-HUANG is actually a pretty good book! A reviewer at Goodreads wrote what I consider to be one of the best reviews I've ever had, and Rie Sheridan Rose, who has been following the blog tour, picked it up and decided she liked it too.  
Overall it's been a good week! I am working today (STILL  not at the new job), and getting ready to head to the Maryland Faerie Festival for the weekend. Hopefully the weather holds out, because we need a good one. Later, my lovelies!

Breaking Dawn is...broken (SPOILERS)

 Okay, look. I'm not a huge TWILIGHT fan. I didn't hate the first one; liked it enough to read NEW MOON. I wanted to shove Bella off a cliff myself by the end of that one, but after a pause I went ahead with ECLIPSE. That surprised me in that I liked it best, I think, enough to read BREAKING DAWN. 

And it all fell apart like a wet paper sack.

I'm not a hater. There were things I liked about all of the first three books. She obviously has some talent and is telling a story that people want to read. Her writing is simple and easy to follow, descriptive enough in places that I get a good image. It was entertaining and I've definitely read worse. I don't want to bring down the wrath of Twi-hards here. I'm only speaking as a reader and author, and not bashing the story itself, which has merit. My problem with BREAKING DAWN is that it failed to live up to the expectations the author set out for herself and her readers. Let me explain, and I will be spoiling the book, so if you haven't read it and don't want to be spoiled, stop here.

   The wedding: Once again, Bella gives in to whatever her family wants to make them happy instead of making herself happy. It's a character flaw that has bugged me since the beginning. I can't really complain, though,because it was in character for her to do that. I guess I  can't fault that too much, but it was annoying. No real stakes: Okay, so there WERE stakes for Bella and her baby. Bella could have died either by childbirth or the wolves. But we knew she wouldn't, because Edward would save her and then the wolves wussed out (though I did like it when Jacob took over as Alpha. That was cool). She's the POV character, it's not a great leap to think she would live. I really never had any doubt, and I SHOULD have, I think. But let's move on to Bella's transformation into a vampire. She knows what it feels like to have the venom inside her, after James bit her in TWILIGHT. It was excruciating and I believed it then. This time? It was glossed over and weak, to be precise. I wanted her to scream, I wanted to feel her blood burning in her veins like fire. But the author took the cheap way out by having her paralyzed with morphine. Really? It's like she didn't want to hurt her characters, a theme in this book. No consequences: Bella's a vampire. She's ready to be a newborn-- a bloodthirsty, raging monster with unequal strength. But no, not our Bella Sue. She wakes up like a princess in a fairy tale, ready to greet her new life with open arms. UGH! I would have liked to have seen her dive at someone. Give me a reason to CARE, to make her fight for this new life. Bella can resist, like magic, the lure of human blood, even when she's been drinking it for weeks (ugh again). So Bella never has to deal with the consequences of her actions. She's like a decades old vampire as a newborn. Please. Let her bite one human (make up a red shirt!) and let's see how she deals with it. MUCH more interesting.
 Nothing bad happens:  I have done horrible things to characters. I've had them nearly eaten by Minotaurs, almost dropped off of buildings, died and come back to life, set on fire, and stabbed. Think about all the stuff that happens to Kat in THE HUNGER GAMES. You are rooting for her because everyone loves the underdog. NO ONE loves the person who gets everything they ever wanted without trying and without trials. Bella has NO TRIALS. Life is perfect, the end. There are no hurtles, no obstacles to make us pull for her to win. Except the Volturi, and I'll get to that. Likewise with all the characters. Bella could have-- SHOULD HAVE-- broken one man's heart into powder, and then both would have had to heal. We LIKE THAT. But the author copped out again, creating the imprinting bond between Jacob and Renesmee (*snort*), so that Bella was completely off the hook and Jacob could just *poof* let go of her without any pain whatsoever.  I was not creeped out at all by that relationship, by the way. The author did a nice job of setting that up ahead of time with Quil and Claire, showing us it was not icky. It was a good connection. But characters NEED TO SUFFER. It helps us relate to them and makes us cheer when they eventually do win. There was no suffering here. I mean, they did suffer a little, having to choose between lives and duty and love, but it wasn't strong enough and then it was over, tossed away. Finally, and my biggest problem: What was with that whole Volturi build-up, just to have it turn into a gab fest? Not one drop of blood was spilled, Bella suddenly has control over her 'shield', and the bad guys go back to Italy with not a drop of blood shed?   WHAT?? Not that I enjoy character deaths, but come ON! The author could have, SHOULD have, sacrificed a few characters. JK Rowling did this in a superb way; not gratuitous deaths, but deaths that were meaningful, and I cried over them, as I'm sure she did when she wrote them. The epic Battle of Hogwarts is the reward to the reader for sticking with the series, hoping and praying that their favorites made it out alive. This thing?? Huge letdown. There was no cost to them for facing the Volturi, and it came out weak -- with a whimper instead of bang. 
 I was watching Armageddon the other night, and though it's completely cheesy, it made me think about what it has that BREAKING DAWN did not: challenges. An asteroid is going to destroy the earth. Drillers, untrained, go into space. They stop to refuel and end up blowing up a space station, nearly losing a member of the crew. They DO lose crew when the other shuttle crashes, but amazingly three survive. Broken drill bits, fighting among themselves, reunion, triumph, and then sacrifice when Harry has to stay behind to blow up the bomb. They won and it was hard-fought. And it came with cost.   For BREAKING DAWN, I agree with the Publisher's Weekly review: All the characters got everything they wanted and gave up nothing to get it.  Booooo-ring. Three books of buildup for that??

New Author Blog!

Hey kids!

This week I started a new blog for YA authors with small presses, appropriately titled: YA Authors You've Never Heard Of. There are 10 of us so far, posting on all kinds of stuff about writing, YA books, the highs and lows of being completely obscure...

Stop on by and check us out! We're at http://obscurekidlitauthors.blogspot.com

Christine Norris: Now on FB and Twitter

I've been on FB for a while, with a personal page, but now I also have an official "Author" page, where I can promote my books without incurring the wrath of the FB Gods. You can follow me by becoming a fan: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/...

And yes, I signed up for Twitter, finally: http://www.twitter.com/cnorrisauthor