Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 45

Monday Morass: Beyond the B.I.C.

I'm curious about how others deal with the problem of having trouble getting started. I don't necessarily mean getting started with a NEW writing project, but getting going in general, when your mind feels sluggish, or the project is frustrating you, or you feel blocked for one reason or another.

Obviously, BUTT IN CHAIR is a basic requirement. B.I.C.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” ― Stephen King

However, that only addresses the physical environment of writing. What about the mental part? What if you don't know where or how to start when it comes to the actual work itself?

Do you just pick an arbitrary point and just GO? Like, let's say you know X, Y, and Z need work, but they're all equally frustrating, so you just decide, "Fine, today I'm working on Y and I'm just going to SIT DOWN AND DO IT DAMMIT."

Sometimes I use that method. Sometimes, once I start and really dig in and overcome that initial resistance, that fear and perfectionism, then I'm fine.

"There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write." -- Terry Pratchett

But I can't get past the idea that I want to muster some sort of enthusiasm, or at least sense of DIRECTION, before I begin, and there are times when that's very difficult. I feel like I want to find an answer to my writing problems, The Answer, somewhere in a writing how-to book or online on somebody's blog. Even after years of writing, I want a Magic Answer.

Unfortunately, the only magic answer I've found so far is this: That book ain't gonna write itself.

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done." -- Steven Wright

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Catching Up: Book Blurbs of Fall/Winter, Pt. 1

I've gotten incredibly far behind on my reviewing, so it's that time again: time to cut to the chase and offer quick, no-nonsense book reviews before I completely forget everything about these stories. This past fall was a real bear as far as staying caught up on ANYTHING, so I read a lot of books (for relaxation/escape) but lacked either the time or energy for my reviewing to keep up with my reading. I tried to temper this by reading some adult books here and there, but I nevertheless got very behind, and some of these books date back to about mid-September in terms of when I added them to my Goodreads. Anyway, some quick impressions:

All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry. This one held a lot of surprises. From the cover--both artwork and blurb--I had assumed it was a contemporary YA, but it turned out to be a sort of unspecified historical setting (could be anywhere colonial/pioneer-ish). That was my first shock, but it was a positive thing for this story. The tension created by the gritty, bare setting makes narrator Judith's situation all the more horrific as the mystery unfolds. After Judith's return from a two-year abduction, her tongue cut out, her own mother forbids her to expose her shame to their small, judgmental village by speaking. But Judith still has allies as well as enemies, and soon, the twin forces--equally powerful--of love and war force the village to recognize the inevitable changes that are already occurring in their midst. This one held a surprising amount of suspense, along with plenty of redemption to balance the terrible wrongs that pile up in the earlier parts of the story. Quite a powerful book, all in all.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME by Julie Berry at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

The Iron Trial (Magisterium, Book 1) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. This is one that will surely satisfy and entertain anyone going through Harry Potter withdrawal. Of course, the story is rollicking and fun and much more than simply "Harry Potter American style." It's full of interesting and diverse characters, including narrator Callum Hunt, who has been warned away from magic at all costs by his father. Unfortunately, Call is summoned to take the entrance exams for the magical Magisterium, and despite his attempts to deliberately botch it up, he is admitted as an apprentice to the great (and enigmatic, and sometimes infuriating) Master Rufus. Along with two fellow apprentices, Call is plunged into the fantastical and dangerous underground lair of the magical school, which is peopled with wildly imaginative creatures and intriguing forms of magic that are quite distinct from Harry Potter. Master Rufus tasks them with seemingly endless zen-monk-like challenges to hone their magical skill, which of course makes his students desperately impatient and drives them out to explore on their own--and get into trouble. I don't read a ton of middle grade fiction, but this was a wonderful first book in a new series, and I'm eager to read more.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find THE IRON TRIAL by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes. This was another surprise title for me, and a fun, funny take on the whole "Battle of the Bands" idea. The band Lemonade Mouth forms, Breakfast-Club style, in detention, when five completely unlikely bandmates are stuck together and end up in an impromptu jam-out with a radio commercial. When supervising teacher Mrs. Reznik (who is, in fact, the music teacher) encourages them to actually meet up and try playing some music, at first it seems like a ridiculous, horrible, doomed plan. Five losers? New kid, nerd, social outcast, fat guy, daughter of a convict? Until they decide to have a little fun, and they end up becoming the voice for all the misfits of the school. Music just might change their lives for the better...but can they challenge Mudslide Crush, the school's current most popular student band? And can they succeed in bringing back the basement lemonade machine? There's a wonderful combination of the ludicrous and serious in this book, and that rings true. The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of each of the five characters, and each one is a unique individual with a fascinating backstory who brings something different and entirely themselves to the band. I didn't realize until partway through this book that the Disney Channel made a movie out of this one, and I still haven't seen the movie, but I can see why it was chosen--it has that heartwarming/funny/caper/success-against-impossible-odds feel, and has fun with many of the tropes of teen movies without taking itself too seriously--yet the characters, again, are three-dimensional and feel real. This ended up being one of those "gee, I wish I'd written that" titles.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find LEMONADE MOUTH by Mark Peter Hughes at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Cybils 2014: A (Spoiler-Free) Peek Behind the Scenes

We are now well into the Round 2 judging period for the Cybils Awards, and this year I'm on the committee for Graphic Novels (both YA and Elementary/Middle Grade), which is always wonderfully fun for me. Without going into detail on the actual books themselves or my opinions (which are MUM for the time being), I did want to post a bit on the topic of how I try to evaluate the shortlisted finalists and what goes on behind the scenes when the judges deliberate. It's been interesting to me, because I was new to the whole book-award thing before getting involved with Cybils way back in 2006. I always felt like the awards judging process for books was a bit of a black hole. Who makes these decisions? How do they happen? What if people don't agree?

Because Cybils is a two-round process, the Round 2 judges are working from the shortlists that the Round 1 judges have settled upon, so that's the first cut. And, obviously, because it's a different set of judges that decide the finalists, it's always interesting and occasionally surprising (hopefully in a good way) to see what books we'll be judging in Round 2. This ensures that we get a variety of opinions in on the judging process.

Whether I'm reading for Round 1 or Round 2, my personal evaluation process is pretty similar when it comes to each individual book. Because the Cybils' two main criteria are KID APPEAL and LITERARY MERIT, during and/or soon after I've read the book, I write down my impressions on both of these measures and assign a score out of 10 for each one. What would kids or teen readers think about the story and/or subject matter? Is the story timeless, or important, or particularly well-written? For graphic novels, I also include a score out of 10 for graphic storytelling. How effective are the visual elements, and how well do they work with the text? (If I have anything additional to say, I write more notes, which often end up in future blog posts when the mandatory judging-period silence has been lifted.)

At this point, rather prosaically, I select my personal top choice or choices based on the total out of 20 (or 30, for GNs). If titles are within a point or two of one another, factors other than pure numbers may come into play, but the numbers give me a good starting point, especially if I'm reading a long-ish list and want to make sure I remember each one well enough to consider it fairly. [Please note that these numbers and stuff are just me and my personal method of keeping track of what I read as I read it. This is by no means anything definitive or official.]

Then come the group deliberations. Those might be a bit different on every panel, but generally speaking, sometimes there's a clear favorite common to many judges, while other times there's a bit more discussion and weighing of relative merits before coming to agreement. Sometimes it's a vote; sometimes it's more of an informal consensus.

So, yep--that's kind of how it goes. Right now I'm still reading and reflecting, and pretty soon we'll be discussing and deliberating. And then, on St. Valentine's Day, the secrecy lifts!

I wonder how it is in other book awards, though. I'll have to grill my librarian friends who have served on Caldecott committees and such...

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Toon Thursday Blast From the Past: Here's to Miracles

I actually do have a new cartoon in the works, but it's currently...a sketch on a miscellaneous scrap of paper. I posted this toon in honor of the fact that my novel-in-progress is still slogging through the quagmire of many pieces of paper, both large and small, and here's me hoping for a miracle!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: MS. MARVEL VOL. 1: NO NORMAL by Wilson and Alphona

Summary : I was excited, intrigued, and a little wary when I heard that the new reboot of Ms. Marvel was going to be a Pakistani-American, Muslim teenage girl. I cheered because young women of South Asian descent would finally be represented in the pages of a mainstream comic book, and while I have never been a huge fan of the Marvel universe (I generally prefer DC, Vertigo, and indies) or superhero comics (I tend to prefer antiheroes), there's no WRONG venue for the world of comics to reflect our diverse world.

At the same time, I worried: would the representation be excessively stereotypical? Would it be inaccurate? Would it have a hidden agenda? Would it fail miserably to appeal to its desired audience for one reason or another, bad luck or bad marketing or whatever, thereby causing gender, ethnic and religious diversity in comics to suffer a setback? Would it be too preachy or too message-y?

After reading the graphic novelization of the first several issues of Ms. Marvel: No Normal, I'm…well, I'm pleasantly surprised. Yes, there are a few stereotypes, but character types are to be expected in a superhero comic. I mean, it's a superhero comic. There is diversity, and plenty of it--not simply because the main character, Kamala Khan, is Pakistani-American and Muslim, but there is diversity depicted in the variety of beliefs and practices within Islam: Kamala's brother is so devout it drives everyone a little nuts, her best friend Nakia is Turkish and chooses to wear the hijab—against her parents' wishes, and Kamala herself is trying to find a middle road, wanting to do "regular American" teenage things while still loving and respecting her parents, who are strict and want to keep her safe. She's always been a superhero fangirl, and looked up to Ms. Marvel as a strong female role model…and then she ends up with some superpowers of her own. Then things really get complicated.

Click to embiggen. Peaks : I like it that there are nuances to Kamala's relationship with her family and friends. This isn't just the story of a poor beleaguered Asian-American girl with overly strict parents who can never go out or talk to boys. In fact, one of her best friends is a boy, Bruno, and her parents seem to be just fine with him. Her parents, while strict by American standards, love Kamala and try their best to explain their point of view rather than simply being portrayed as tyrants. As I've already mentioned, the variety and diversity of characters is a positive thing, and the colorful environment of Jersey City is nicely shown in the artwork that provides a backdrop for the story. And, overall, I just think it's a fun, fresh take on the old-school superhero comic. Kamala is a relatable teenage girl, and there's a strong subtext of empowerment (both symbolic and literal) throughout the story.

Valleys : For me, I suspect the valleys here are things that would bug me about most superhero comics: moments of ridiculous dialogue and characters who are exaggerated for comic effect. At least the exaggeration and ridiculousness seems even-handed and no one group (or ethnicity) is targeted more than the others, as far as I could tell. If you don't like superhero comics to begin with, this one probably isn't going to offer you TOO much that breaks the genre mold.

Conclusion : This was fun. I will probably pick up the next installment just to see how Kamala copes with her new powers and new identity—another thing I did think was done well here was her struggle for how to view herself, and how to make something new of herself that wasn't done before by the previous Ms. Marvel. I was prepared to be annoyed that her superpowers, at first, came with a righteous head of blonde hair, but instead, Kamala goes on to reject the classic image of Ms. Marvel and redefine what it means to be all-American, reminding us all that there is no single, all-encompassing definition for it.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my friend Ross, who loaned it to me. You can find Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

They're Here! Some Observations.

The Cybils finalists for 2014, that is. And the diversity tally this year is something to shout about (in a good way, I mean). Some personal highlights from this year's Cybils finalists:
One of our most longstanding blog buds, Melissa Wiley, is a finalist in the Easy Readers category for her book Inch and Roly and the Sunny Day Scare. YAY YAY YAY!
I'm very excited to start judging Round 2 in the Graphic Novels category--so many amazing finalists for both Young Adults and Elementary & Middle Grades. And I haven't read that many of them prior to this--just In Real Life and The Shadow Hero. I'm eager to read Jimmy Gownley's The Dumbest Idea Ever!, which I read some buzz about when it came out (I love the title), and I've also heard great things about The Harlem Hellfighters...but most of all I'm pleased to see the level of variety: the diversity of authors as well as subject matter and style.
There are some awesome-looking middle grade finalists this year. I don't read as much middle grade fiction, but I really want to check out Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood (yay for more books by South Asian authors!) and Death by Toilet Paper.
I haven't yet managed to review Brown Girl Dreaming, but I'm happy (and not surprised) to see it make the Poetry list. As a rule I don't generally read novels in verse, but somehow I feel differently about the memoir form, and this one is unlike anything else I've read. 
I've only read three of the seven YA Spec Fic finalists! My TBR list just grew...
I haven't, shockingly, read ANY of the YA Fiction finalists. Not even Pointe by Brandy Colbert, which has been on my radar for a while. MOAR BOOKS.What do you think of the Big Reveal? What finalist titles are you looking forward to most? Inquiring minds (or, anyway, mind) want to know. 

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Countdown to Cybils Finalists! Two More Days...

We've been resting and recovering and just generally taking a much-needed media holiday here at FW, but the New Year is fast approaching, and with it, one of our favorite annual bookish events:
the announcement of
the Cybils shortlists!Finalist titles in all of the categories will be posted on January 1st at the Cybils website. As one of the Cybils organizing crew I've had a sneak peek, and I can tell you there are some wonderful finalist titles in store for you to peruse. But I'm keeping mum until the official announcement--you won't be able to bribe, beguile, or beat it out of me. Just rest assured it's the best list yet. Of course, we say that every year...

Stay tuned!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: UNMADE (THE LYNBURN LEGACY #3) by Sara Rees Brennan

Cool font, spooky silhouettes...me like. Summary : Okay, so, I have read books 1 and 2 of The Lynburn Legacy and failed to write about those, so this is really a review of the entire trilogy. I know, I know; I really MEANT to write about them individually. But, what can you do? Anyway, I will, as per usual, try not to give too much away, but if you have a pathological fear of spoilers, I suppose you might want to just go read the books now.

Right: for those of you who are still here! Unmade is the third book in this trilogy; Unspoken was the first, and Untold the second. In this story we meet Kami Glass, who lives in the wonderfully picturesquely-named English village of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Kami's a pretty normal girl; she's part Japanese (go mixed race protagonists!), she wants to start a school newspaper, she has two little brothers and a Goth-y best friend named Angela. Oh, and she hears a boy's voice in her head—and he answers back. That kind of keeps her on the outside of things, for obvious reasons.

SO she isn't totally normal. But she's been talking to Jared in her head ever since she can remember. She doesn't even know if he's real or not, but it is what it is. Until the legendary Lynburns return to the village and everything changes. The Lynburns used to "rule the town"—whatever that means, thinks Kami. Who cares if the youngest Lynburn, the super-hot Ash, starts going to her school and even wants to join her newspaper staff? Who cares about all those crazy rumors? Well, turns out that makes a pretty juicy news story…but what she uncovers is dire and magical and frightening. And it involves generations of sorcerers and their unusual relationship to the village they supposedly protect.

Oh, and then—Jared appears. In the flesh. IRL. That's when things start to get really weird, not only for Kami, but her friends and family, too.

Peaks : I really like the fact that nobody is truly safe in this story. It isn't just the protagonist, Kami, putting herself in danger, but her entire family is threatened, and the village's way of life as they know it. Friends become enemies; enemies become friends—their small world goes topsy turvy and it isn't a secret to anyone in the town. There are no clandestine adventures, had by only young people, that no adults ever find out about; it's all too real for everyone, and so much is at stake. That was really well done, and Kami makes for a very interesting and quirky (and diverse! without it being a Thing!) protagonist who isn't your average heroine, but someone who prevails due to her wit, her inner strength, and her love for her friends and family.

Valleys : I guess if I have to pick at something, on occasion I found the characters' witty banter to be a little too perfect. OK, there, I said it. All joking aside, that's a tough balance to strike, and opinions may vary, too. And, of course, there's always that love triangle thing that shows up so often in YA romance. (We should all have been so lucky. Or unlucky.) But it's handled well, I'll admit.

Conclusion : The story is both lovely and dark; atmospheric and spooky but with a lot of humor, too. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black—definitely don't miss this one. A very enjoyable adventure, and a must read for fans of magical stories set in Britain.

I borrowed my copy of this book from my local library. You can find Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy) , and the other two books in the trilogy by Sara Rees Brennan at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: WHEN WE WAKE and WHILE WE RUN by Karen Healey

Summary : When We Wake--and the companion/sequel While We Run--are the newest spec fic/sci-fi books by Karen Healey, whose books The Shattering (reviewed here) and Guardian of the Dead (reviewed here) I really enjoyed. If you're already a Karen Healey fan like me, you won't want to miss this fast-paced, frightening, all-too-believable sci-fi adventure.

CREEPY FROZEN FACE!!!We've all heard the half-joking references to cryonics—freezing someone's head or body and reviving them sometime in the future. In the world of these two books, cryonics isn't a joke. The beginning of the story takes place in 2027, the near- but still-recognizable future. Tegan is sixteen, lives in Australia, and she's pretty cutting edge: her hobbies are guitar-playing, parkour, urban exploration, and going to protests with her best friends Alex and Dalmar. Dalmar, who she hopes will soon be more than a friend.

…Until one day's protest changes everything, and Tegan wakes up a hundred years in the future.

Peaks : Without giving too much away (because the constant surprises and twists are what really make these two books so compulsively readable), I really thought this was a fantastic premise, and one that hasn't (yet) been done to death, at least not in this specific way. Who hasn't wondered what it would be like to just wake up sometime in the future, just catch a glimpse of what's in store? And yet, the author has created a world that is still recognizable, still our own in fundamental ways; the story's not set in space or on another world or anything like that. Humanity's not quite there yet. In fact, humanity's still pretty horrible in a lot of ways, and this is a story that doesn't pull any punches about the potential for stuff seriously going down the tubes.

Kudos on not whitewashing!In the midst of all that, Tegan (in the first book) and Abdi (in the second book) make very relatable narrators. Tegan is the one whose story we hear first, and the one who was uprooted from her world and tossed into a new, scary environment where she's locked in a government hospital and nobody will tell her what's going on. Her already-mentioned skills at jumping around abandoned buildings make her attempted escape more realistic, but it doesn't take long for her to figure out she has to cooperate, at least for now. She has to learn what life is like in this unfamiliar new world before she can strike out on her own. IF they let her…

Valleys : I have to admit—I'm not generally speaking a fan of all these books featuring teens who do parkour and urban exploration and building scaling and whatnot as a hobby. How widespread is that, honestly? As a character trait, that always tends to feel more like a wish fulfillment fantasy than anything else. But beyond that, there really are no negatives as far as I'm concerned. The characterization in all other respects was fantastic: the good guys were relatable, the bad guys were truly scary and despicable, and there were plenty of people who fall into the in-between gray area, including an array of interesting side characters, allies and enemies alike.

Conclusion : I think I've succeeded in pushing this enough without giving too much away. Fans of lightly futuristic action/survival (like Carbon Diaries or Rot & Ruin or Mila 2.0) will really like this one. Though I wouldn't call this one dystopian per se, I'd also not be afraid to hand it to fans of The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, or Across the Universe.

I borrowed my copies of these books from my local library. You can find When We Wake and While We Run by Karen Healey at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

'Tis the Season to Go Shopping...

...and there's very little I personally hate MORE than "going shopping," especially when it's the season of Everybody Shopping. Shopping online, therefore, is kind of what saves me during this time of year. I just made my first holiday purchase this morning and that reminded me to remind YOU: you can benefit the Cybils Awards just by doing your Amazon shopping, if you click through using one of the Cybils Amazon links from their website (see this Cyber Monday post from the Cybils blog).

You don't even have to buy the book in question! You can buy some other book. Or a plant. Or a big-screen TV, or a Rolls-Royce, or stock in Kim Kardashian's butt. (I assume they sell that on Amazon. They sell everything.) But regardless of what you buy, a teeny percentage will go towards the Cybils, and we'll use those not-so-ill-gotten gains to fund nifty prizes for the award winners. So, in the name of the big C, by which I mean Cybils, go forth and shop!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.