Jennifer Freitag's Blog, page 11

The Genres I Write

One of the blog prompts I got back from my general query was about genres.  Okay, specifically it was asking if there was a genre I haven't worked with yet but would like to, and after I read the question my mind flat-lined and I can't think of genres at all.  

The problem is.  THE PROBLEM IS.  I feel like many of my stories are a mixture of several genres, stashed under the overarching theme of fantasy.  (We're on the moon here, people.  It doesn't get much more fantastic than that.)  So how about I word-vomit a selection of my stories and tell you a little bit about the genres that are incorporated into their plots?  Does that sound like fun?  Maybe.  Will that help clarify things?  Probably not.  Let's go.

adamantine rewrite
At the moment, I feel like this story is shaping up to look as if Hayao Miyazaki had collaborated with me.  I haven't really read any Neil Gaiman, but I feel like his horror-thriller sense of fantasy might be a close comparison.  When I think of Adamantine, I get a sense of the hair-raisingly bizarre, an almost out of control fantasy.  So if you are expecting very logical, precise, almost scientific fantasy, please leave that notion at the door.  Buckle up and hug your teddy.

ampersand
Is it dull to say Ampersand could be classed as a novelized history of Plenilune?  You know me.  For all my faults, I'm never dull, and Ampersand will not deviate from that standard.  Here you will get a historical fictional fantasy drama.  Yiss.  I don't think I could pack much more into that genre description.

lamblight
This novel I am definitely looking forward to, but I don't know how well it will be received.  You can probably class this as a psychological thriller/mystery.  I imagine if someone poured a can of gasoline down the rabbit hole and dropped a match in after it, it would look like this.  Won't this be fun!

talldogs
...has almost nothing to do with dogs.  I've already finished the first draft of this novel, and my husband best described it as a kind of English country drama, but in Plenilune.  If you like things that are bittersweet and you like your typical handsome Plenilunar cast, please hold while I tidy up this manuscript and glean enough money to self-publish it.

maresgate
Another thriller, another social tangle, another novel whose reception is debatable.  At present I'm calling this less fantasy, although it is Plenilunar; Talldogs is also not really a fantasy.  I don't know the full scope of this story yet - probably I won't know until I'm done writing it - but here's a heads up to let you know that, like Lamblight, it is not going to be a comfy-cosy novel.  I've always dealt with grit in my novels, even before they were worth consideration for publishing, but as the years have gone by I've honed my handle on them.  For those of you who don't like a shock to be shocking, don't say I didn't warn you this time!

pip! pip!

Drakeshelm Character Gush

I might as well get this out of the way because I know, once the cat is out of the bag, people are going to pester me about it.

Drakeshelm's first name is "Filigree."  No, she is not named after my daughter.  No, my daughter is not named after her.  It's a subtle attempt to make the word a popular name.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

I asked a few people to give me blog post ideas, and Mirriam, queen of character enthusiasm, said I should just do a gush-dump on Filigree Drakeshelm.  Do I love my character?  Yes, absolutely!  What do I love about her?  Well, let's see...


 

Filigree Drakeshelm is a firecracker - a little, blonde, blue-eyed firecracker.  I'd say she's about three-and-twenty in Drakeshelm, so definitely my junior in terms of age, but she's certainly more capable than I am.  You know, one of those characters you wish you were, but aren't.  Ah, those characters...

sasha pivovarova // russian model

"The Higu—they would have come to us with or without her, but with her I feel we stand a chance. Mayhap she is not bred to war,” [Touchlight] mused, “but the consul has war within her.”

Filigree has the energy of a puppy, the distrust of a cat, the bearing of an empress, the tenderness of a mother, and the dubious cunning of a fox.  She is a treat to write, and I look forward to loosing her on you in the future.   She is not generally a peaceful person, and I think that's what I like the balance between herself and my other main character so much - on the one hand I have the thrumming energy of Drakeshelm, on the other I have the rock-steady calm of Herro.  Balance.  "Balance, Daniel-san!"



Bonus trivia, about a month or two ago I discovered  Russian model Sasha Pivovarova, who is pretty much the spitting image of my mental picture of Filigree: haunting pale blue eyes, bleached blonde hair, exquisitely narrow facial structure which is both young and eerily elfin at the same time.  Bonus bonus trivial, Mirriam sent me an article about my favourite makeup artist, and it randomly contained a picture of the Russian model, which was weirdly awesome.  

 There was a sudden crack of wood being opened; the fire guttered down into a hollow of red light, crouched at the base of the brazier. The sound of snow and sleet rattled in the hall, then Alwin heard the clear, cheerful notes of a roundelay being sung, coming closer, the notes golden at their centres like flames from a candle, and fading at the edges with weariness. 

Where is the place where morning sleeps?  (Can you tell me? Do you know?)  Where is the way to dawn’s gold steeps  (Cloak of swan-down, feet like snow)? 
Where is the orchard of the morning  (Aisles of silver, fruit of gold,  Where the gossamer adorning  Feet like lilies, iv’ry-soled?) 
From the scarps of tempest cloud-hill  (Truly! truly! morn is sweet)  Pour the notes of jay and hornbill:  “Here will peace and justice meet.”

all images via pinterest because duh where else

The Fox in the Cellar (Fan Art!)

O h, hey, you know what's super flattering for an artist?  Discovering you have inspired other artists!  A fan laboured long and hard on this amazing image for me, just because she wanted to, and I am thrilled!  
"the fox in the cellar," by anita w. I t's got some pretty intense complexity going on, no?  Even a cameo appearance by Rosemary Laronne de la Mare, the mother that we never really get to meet in Plenilune, but whose sad story plays such a pivotal role in the life of yours truly, the main male character.  (For anyone interested, don't worry, we learn more about her later on.  Significant eyebrow-waggling.)  Thank you so much, Anita!  It's an honour to receive such a gorgeous piece of artwork inspired by my novel!

What the Regency & Rome Taught Me About Historical Accuracy

It's no secret that author Rosemary Sutcliff played a crucial role in firing my imagination to write and teaching me much about the craft simply through reading her works.  But within the past few years, I've been able to read some of the author who inspired Sutcliff - Georgette Heyer.  There are few things as widely divergent as Roman England and Regency England, but the one author liked the other and gleaned much knowledge from her.  But while I read Sutcliff say that she took all the bad techniques from Heyer when she started writing, I have to say that, in my opinion, Sutcliff was actually the better of the two.

studying your material
I've read that Heyer was a huge stickler for historical detail.  She would study for years on end, and you get many glimpses of her extensive Regency knowledge through tidbits and comments within her novels.  With Sutcliff, too, you never get the sense that she didn't know what she was writing about.  Their worlds were thick and bustling and alive.  They knew how what they were doing because they knew their material, and they could quickly and deftly go to work.  But there was one massive difference between them for me, a difference which makes me call Sutcliff far and above the better of the two.

too much
Time and again, when I would read Heyer's books and came across multiple allusions to the culture and the time, it was a jangling, abrupt sensation.  I can't even tell you quite how she managed to do it so sharply; she might mention Jackson's saloon, or Beau Brummell, which were influential in their day - and yet, there was always something sudden about their appearance in the manuscript, as if they were there only to remind the reader that this is a historically accurate novel and that the author knows her history.  The easy swing of the soul at one with the time was lacking.

But Sutcliff had that.  Pick up nearly any one of her Roman novels, and suddenly you're there, no looking back, breathing the heart and soul of the same air her characters breathed.  Her novels are chockablock with Roman surroundings - you can't escape the sturdy reality of Roman, which was the backbone of the ancient world in those days - and yet I can't recall being pulled up short by some otherwise historically accurate comment which left me feeling as if the spell had suddenly been broken, the dream had been popped, that I was suddenly back in my chair reading a physical book and not living the lives of the characters at all. 

heart and soul
Maybe that's the key.  Heart and soul.  No matter how much you know or don't know about the time period, it's never going to walk and run and soar with life until you've stopped tinkering with the dead bones of it and breathed life into it, until you've given up the amateur fear of being "correct" and have let the spirit of the story take you.  When a story has spirit, when it has heart and soul, the reader can see and feel it.  That's when the structure of historical accuracy that you have given it has dimension just as a dream has dimension.  Without heart and soul, historical accuracy is just a VBS backdrop to a one-dimensional play.  You can't keep trying to compress your story into "historical accuracy" or it will grow stagnant and pot-bound and wilt.  You've got to let it go.  You've got to let it live.  You've got to give it heart and soul, which are things historical accuracy can't give you: only you can give it to your novel.

...finally his thumb brushed over her lips and he let her go as a man lets go a wild thing he hopes might come back some day.

plenilune

Chuffed As a Cat, & Other Aspects of Drakeshelm

pinterestYou know that slog I was going through during the holidays?  The one with the depression?  I think I'm slowly coming out of the woods now; February has some promises to look forward to, and I am doing what I can in my own way to get through the difficult aspects of my little life.  I think a large part of me simply grows tired with being beaten down and sad, and hardens against the blows; a part of me grows tired of being tired and stops paying it any mind.  It is a stubborn response, and one which some of my Plenilune readers found oddly shocking in my characters, but it is undeniably a fighting sentiment, and life is full of fighting.

Drakeshelm is finally over 50,000 words!  You know, two months after NaNo (which I was not participating in), I finally reached that benchmark.  Boy oh boy, that's ridiculous.  And before you say, "Oh, but Jenny - " (do you call me Jenny? I usually do go by Jenny) " - you have so many other things you have to do!" let's be honest here and just take a gander at all the times I could have been writing, but I sat staring at Pinterest instead.  Okay?  Let's get real here.  No excuses.

Despite some serious terrain alterations in the novel (and accidentally forgetting to take care of a plot point), the novel is coming along smashingly.  I am very pleased with this particular book.  Talldogs gave me heapsuh trouble, but Drakeshelm is being a much better-behaved creature thus far.  Even better than Plenilune, if we're honest, although the scope of the two is wildly diverse and I don't think you could fairly compare them.  Well, anyway, I'm just going to keep saying I'm chuffed as a cat what got in the cream with this book, and I'll keep saying it until I spill the cream all down my front and I'll let you know when it's being a booger.

He nodded. “Heretofore,” his eyelids flickered open, caught in a circle of lamplight as hazel-coloured shards, “I had held it off. But this time I knew it was coming up. Couldn’t stop it.”“That sort of demon, only thing to get it out is with prayer and vomiting.”
A bleak snow-sky overcapped them, but in the west there was a break in the clouds where the golden evening furnace burned and washed the air with light, so that the few soft-blown flakes of snow which were falling were tinged on their sides with yellow and looked like scattered petals of white roses going by. Alwin sat in the shade of the porch, bundled in his lionskin with a heavy rug of wadmal thrown across his lap. Destrian lounged against the railing beside him where the west made a silver-lined silhouette of his helm and a spark off the chape of his scabbard, and together they watched the consul come up the street on horseback.
“I will take it as a compliment,” he lashed back angrily, “for I have seen that you measure no one genially, and your praise, hard-won, is rarely forthcoming. Thank you!”She leaned back upon her heels, her head up and her hands dug down into the froth of her furs. The back of the wind feathered her figure for a moment…then she rocked back down into the shelter of the porch wall and murmured,“Don’t let go your anger yet, Commander. It is at present what gives you strength.”“I have more than you know,” he replied crisply.
...something caused her to look round once more, just once, to see the orderly sitting forward, touching his Commander as if to anchour him to life, his other hand draped limply over his knee. She was put in mind of a sudden of a tapestry she had once seen, a picture of paradise, in which the massive gilt lion with its scarlet maw and flashing tail lounged side by side with the lean, pert greyhound.
She smiled like a wolf in summer.
He turned his head to look at it, feeling an odd detachment from the gesture, wondering why it did not strike him as outrageous that the slip of golden demon, which spun free of any sort of touch from mankind as a feather in the wind, should be human enough and solid enough to put her hand upon him and not vanish into the air. She had a ring on her middlemost finger, rather heavy for a woman’s piece, and it was a real, red thing in the muddled, blackened room. Mars, he thought. Her ruling house must be Ego.

Drakeshelm Snippets

pinterestjust another time i'm caught insideevery open eyeholding on tightly to the sidesnever quite learning why
I recently did this new-to-me thing called "word warring," in which you connect with one+ people online, block out a certain amount of time, and then write as much as you can in that time period.  Whoever writes the most...wins?  Being an insular writer, I always thought I was slow and stupid when it came to the mechanical process of writing.  Turns out, I'm comparatively quick.  (But it's so stressful and I avoid stress as much as possible. O_o)

But this exercise has got me through some of the sticky parts of Drakeshelm and I am definitely farther along than I would otherwise have been.  The manuscript is now roughly 43,160+ words; I guess when you consider how late in the year I started it and how much I've had to deal with in the latter half of 2015, that's not too shabby a showing.

the electric chargeof a change in the weatheryou were touching my armyou were holding a featherand then i opened my eyes
CHVRCHES, Shearwater, Rachel Platten.  My music list for this novel is small, and frequently the songs have very little* to do with the plot itself.  I think it's more the spirit of the thing which agrees with me.  I need a kind of militant energy and a strong undertone within the music to help me construct my writing.

Welcome to the outer Hebrides.  It isn't usually until I'm well into the plot before I can give my readers a rough summary of what I'm writing.  You know I tend to feel my way as I go.  In Plenilune you were thrown headlong into the heart of the Honours' world; now in Drakeshelm you're perched on the windy outer rim with little civilization, where people live with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other.  Our characters don't have much in common save their pride and their struggle for survival.

“I am not a devil,” she said, “although I prove myself to no one.”
“It was a mess, and some doing was needed to tidy it,” she curtailed her story. “It was decided that being finely dressed and looking pretty was a luxury I could lay aside for the time being. I took my legate year in Capys and took up the Green Branch shortly after.” She jerked her shoulders. “And here you find me.”
“Insane creature! Malamour outranks Touchlight, she must know that.”
In a voice of almost demonic depth, Drakeshelm shouted: “Where is the captain of the Beacon tower?”Carrilus took a step back, stunned. With a scream of rage, she bounded for the next stone, but at the same instant Destrian was on her. The leap swept her up into his arms; he pitched backward, hauling her writhing body after him. He was a tall, spare man, and she gave him a wretched fight of it. Alwin watched her twist and reach, pulling, jabbing, every motion at once calculated and desperate. He saw her pitch round in Destrian’s arms, her mouth open in a snarl—then she saw who held her, and of a sudden the fight went out of her like a candle blown out in the wind.
With a sigh she shoved her thumb and first finger up under the captain’s throat, into the soft of his jaw. The skin was thick, rough with stubble, gritty with blowback dust from the explosion. Under it all beat the throb-throb scarlet of his pulse. In her own chest, her heart felt like a ring of golden light as the thrill of it passed through her nerves. “Awake.”
“If there is a world made out of pain and fire and darkness—hell, perhaps? I must have been there. I saw nothing. But I remember a woman’s voice like the archangel yelling across the vault to find me. I don’t know who she was or where to find her. I don’t know why she called for me. But I got out somehow. I don’t know how. I don’t know. I smelled something strange…”“Aye, something strange in the kindling,” [she murmured]. “Lucky you are to be alive and altogether,” she added, “and not blown to pieces. You’re a rummy one. Hush, now. Sleep. Sleep without dreams. It will be better that way.” She put her hand across his brow and when she drew it away, his breathing was falling soft and heavy, the quick lashing behind his eyelids had ceased.
With his tattered wadmal hauled roughshod over his lobsterstail, his face beneath its rim scored with rime and care, the orderly jerked up his chin at the Sluice door, as if it had any bearing on his words.“Malamour is without.”
"Whatever you think of Krichirin, he bears you no affection.” The word came torn at the edges by his teeth. “He will give you no quarter, not even if you manage to deliver the consul to him.”
Quietly, the orderly mused, “Sometimes I am not sure which is the more dangerous, the consul or the Higu-Carmarthens.”Alwin laughed. “Oh, the consul, for sure.” 


*katie hates it when I use "very" and "little." they're crutch words. XD

Now You See Me

I t occurs to me that I haven't really updated about myself in awhile, especially for those who might be new to me.  Should we get started?  Okay, here we go.

How to pronounce my last name.  "Fry-tahg."  For those who do not know, it's German for "Friday."  A little trivia for you.  This is my married name; my maiden name is "Hartman."  I'm partly German myself, but I'm also partly Scotch-English and Sicilian, so at this point nothing really matters anymore, it's all a hodgepodge.

I married my childhood sweetheart.  Awwww, how cute is that?  What you don't know is that I all but literally hunted him down.  He was okay with this, though.  He said that when he really thought about it (age twelve), he realized he couldn't see his future without me in it, so that was that.  Actually it was a really rough road, with lots of tears and struggles and drama, but we pulled through.  And here we all, happily married for going-on seven years. 

I'm currently twenty-five years old.  Just had a birthday last November!  Quarter of a century here, folks!

I have a thirteen-month-old daughter named Filigree Marguerite.  She is a doll and a real firecracker.  I love her to bits.  I always worried that I wouldn't connect with my child because I often don't like other people's children, and I was especially worried that I wouldn't bond with my daughter because I don't get on well with little girls, so I was not prepared for how heels-over-head in love I was when they put my little alien baby on my chest after she was born.  It's only increased since.

My favourite beverage is Twinings English Breakfast.  Does anything more need to be said?  I am not a morning person, and I'm not myself until I've had my tea.

I am not politically active so you won't be seeing political opinions/links on my Facebook page.  It's not that I don't care, it's just that...I don't care.  But you will see me posting tongue-in-cheek updates and dialogues with my friends that turn out to be wildly amusing - especially out of context.  Taking things out of context is the best.

I am on Instagram!  I do really love Instagram, even though my pictures are often messy or only so-so.  There are a lot of pictures of my daughter, some pictures of me, often pictures of pretty stuff around me that I have deliberately arranged in order to take a good Instagram shot.  Keepin' it honest.

Skincare is my hobby.  I've never suffered from really bad skin problems, like cystic acne, but I've struggled enough that I really do care about my skin.  I recently saw a random makeup tutorial in which the woman started out bare-faced - quite a bad face of skin, acne-ridden and unevenly textured - and she began simply spackling over with foundation.  I nearly leapt out of my chair screaming at her to stop, to wash her face, to treat it and give it moisture.  Her poor skin didn't stand a chance with all that foundation piling up on top.  She was just making the situation worse, which would necessitate more foundation to cover the issues.  Stop.  Properly clean your face, give it special treatment for its issues, and make sure you moisturize it to keep it supple and healthy!  Your makeup will apply so much better if you do, trust me.

Oh, right, I'm also on Pinterest.  Because who doesn't love pretty pictures and scrolling through endless hours of one's life gathering items which take up absolutely no space?  Want to see my Plenilunar boards?  Check it out!

adamantine ampersandcruxgangdrakeshelmethandunegingerunelamblightmaresgate plenilunetalldogs
My favourite colours are monochrome.  My wardrobe looks like black, white, grey, gold and paaaaale pink.  I like this set-up: it's sophisticated and flattering.  Honestly, I now have only a handful of items, but I love them and don't mind wearing them over and over again.  Hopefully gone are the horrible days of putting on an outfit, taking it off, trying another, trying a third, finally settling on a fourth.  Ugh.

I am a sushi lover.  It's really a problem.  I start thinking about sushi and I. really. want. sushi.  And now I want sushi.  When I am having a really bad day, I have sushi and sushi makes me happy.  Want to get me something I'll love?  Sushi.  Valentine's Day?  Sushi.  Anniversary?  Sushi.  Birthday?  Sushi.  Weekday? Sushi.  Weekend?  Sushi.  Am I alive?  Sushi.

And that's me, in a nutshell.  Maybe this time next year I'll do another personal update and see if I've changed at all.  Stay tuned!

The Best Parts of Ourselves

pinterest
I was just going to sit down to write a general update post, when I saw there was a Beautiful People link-up that was mostly applicable to me this month, so here I am - that's my excuse.  Ready? Let me get my tea...

1. What were your writing achievements last year?
I finished the first draft of Talldogs!  I don't even remember now how long it took me.  Time is irrelevant to me and I've never been good at keeping track of it.  I finished it, and that's what counts.  I was also able to write little stories for a friend to get her through the grueling last days of a college semester, and the fact that I brought her some joy and something to look forward to at the end of the day also made me happy.

2.  Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year.
Currently in the works is my Plenilunar novel Drakeshelm.  I'm really excited about this one, it's really going well and I'm loving the characters.  I have to say, the setting is not what I'm used to, so I feel out of my depth.  But if I were to only write what I'm used to, I would be a lame excuse for a writer, right?  Actually, I'm not sure I even know how to do that...

3.  List [an area] you'd like to work at the hardest to improve this year.
I'd like to not be so much of a perfectionist that I can't practice.  "Almost isn't good enough."  But I have to practice to get to good enough.

4.  What's your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?
Really it's just Mirriam and my husband.  Most people are simply super busy, also I don't write at a consistent pace to give them eyeball fodder.  With the exception of my husband, most people don't see the first draft of my novels.  I like to get the mess on paper first, go back and fix the major structural problems, do a preliminary grammatical edit, and then show the draft to people.  In short, I like to make sure it's washed, clothed, and has some makeup on before it goes out in public.

5.   Pick one character you want to get to know better.  How are you going to achieve this?
I'm going to go with Philip Cheval of Ampersand.  He is so much that I am not and I love him.  I can't wait to tackle his story and get down to business.  (There are no Huns involved.)

I 'm not going to bore you with the questions I left out because they didn't apply to me and that, as an answer, would have been lame.  Okay, update time.

What are you reading?  I'm currently reading The Witches: Salem, 1692.  Not a quick read, but I am at least halfway through now.  Yay me!  I'm actually super intimidated by large books and I rarely pick them up.  I'm a slow reader and I get discouraged when it takes me a long time to accomplish a book.  It's lame, but that's my confession.

What are you watching?  My husband and I are watching the Korean drama "My Love From Another Star" (murder! intrigue! humour! glamour!) and "The Worst Cooks in America" (very embarrassing and entertaining at the same time).

What are you listening to?  My favourite songs right now are "Stand By You" by Rachel Platten, and "Make Them Gold" by CHVRCHES.

What are you writing?  This is not always obvious, given the way I can flop from story to story.  I'm working on Drakeshelm, I swear!  I'm over 42,000 words on the main document.

when you can't rise, well, i'll crawl with you on hands and knees'cause i'm gonna stand by you
I have to confess, December was a tough month for me and I don't feel like I'm out of the woods yet.  I've had some difficult, circumstantial depression to slog through.  Writing has fallen by the wayside because of that - not because I wanted it to, but because it's hard to breathe when depressed, let alone buckle down and dredge up creativity.  On occasion I have made myself do it, just to have accomplished something.  Sometimes I felt nothing afterward except disappointment at what I had created ("Almost isn't good enough"), but other times I really loved what I had made and I was genuinely happy.

we will take the best parts of ourselves and make them gold
T o those of you who are enthusiastic about my work and let me know that you have read my blog for a long time, who always look forward to my updates and my snippets, thank you.  You give me something to look forward to.  You give me a reason to do this.  When you can't walk, you crawl - and when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you.

here's to you

My 2015 Bookshelf

You're acquainted with that gig we do each December/January, when we all post lists of the books we've read during the last year.  It's tradition.  I walked into the sunroom to pick up my book-log moleskin notebook and jot down the latest book I finished, and the tradition came back to me.  So here I am, writing up a post of the books I've read this past year.

the purge

Before I get into that, I have to admit I did a thing recently that I never thought I would do, that most book bloggers will instinctively consider anathema.  I got rid of books.  Lots and lots of books.  I sorted and cleaned my shelves.  I still have quite a chunk of books left, but an even larger mountain of books are sitting in my garage in boxes, waiting to be carted off to Goodwill.  I had so many books, it was pinching my nerves.  They were ugly and messy and made me feel guilty when I looked at them.  I hadn't read most of them - many of them, I honestly didn't feel like reading at all.  So I pulled them all off the shelves, I sorted through them, and I kept only the ones that I loved, only the ones I actually, seriously wanted to read (not the ones I had told myself, "well...I'll read it some day"), and the books I knew I wanted my children to read.  That was it.  That constitutes a large collection still, but much slimmer and more manageable than the zoo I had before.  Phew.

the list

The Tulip by Pavord (1/3/15) - a massive, beautiful book on the history of the tulip. yes, I read a gigantic book on a flower.

Assurance by J.C. Ryle (1/7/15) - a little booklet on just that, the assurance of salvation. I love J.C. Ryle's work.

50 Things Every Young Lady Should Know by West  (1/7/15) - a little book on feminine etiquette. got this as a Christmas present from my parents last year.

A Year In Provence by Mayle (1/20/15) - a funny culinary journey through 365 English days in a French land.

First Principles of Verse by Hillyer (2/12/15) - a small book I picked up at random, but which proved to be a gem of instruction.

Jane Eyre by C. Bronte (3/-/15) - this doesn't need any introduction.

Villette by C. Bronte (7/-/15) - another of Charlotte's, a beautiful, personal fiction of an English girl in France. Ask Katie for details. XD

Wuthering Heights by E. Bronte (7/-/15) - I read a lot of Bronte this year.

Rebecca by du Maurier (8/3/15) - phew! what a tense, tense read.

For All the Tea in China by Rose (9/12/15) - an account of Robert Fortune, the man who stole tea plants from the insular world of China and broke the Oriental monopoly on the world's favourite drink.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by A. Bronte (??) - arguably my favourite Bronte novel thus far, with Jane Eyre being close.

Agnes Grey by A. Bronte (10/3/15) - not as strong a novel as Anne's latter work, but that's understandable. still, enjoyable!

Face Paint by Eldridge (10/22/15) - ever since hearing that my favourite makeup artist was publishing a book on the history of makeup, I was on pins and needles to get it. it did not disappoint! what a lovely, insightful, inspiring read it turned out to be!

Black Spring by Croogan* my bad, it's Crogan, I just miswrote it (11/17/15) - this novel was recommended to me by Mirriam; it's a fantastical twist on Wuthering Heights, and I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed it more than the original. I felt that Croogan took some of the holes or poorly answered aspects of Emily's work, and fleshed them out, made them even more poignant, or put them in a garb they should have had. perhaps Emily should have written fantasy instead. it might have suited her tastes better.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Kondo (11/25/15) - one of the most delightful, inspiring books I've read this year, this simple, drastic approach to decluttering (and staying decluttered!) has helped me shift loads off my life.

The Little Book of Skincare by Cho (12/28/15) - yes, more Asians! I absolutely love Korean skincare and if you let me loose in one of their department stores, I would be happily lost forever. their fabled ten-step routine is legendary and I thoroughly enjoyed getting a front-row seat via this book, getting to know the Korean way of skincare in wonderful, accessible detail.

the current

The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Schiff. I saw this endorsed by historian/author Robert K. Massie, whose books my father owns many if not all of, so I grabbed this book off the B&N shelf without a second thought.  so far, so good!

how about you? what did you read this year?

The Point Is To Avoid Them

I saw a list of romance tropes on a popular, otherwise reputable blog the other day.  At first my thought was that the author/blogger was warning young writers against these tropes.  Disappointment: she was not.  Some of them were so-so, many of them were regrettable, some of them were downright awful.  I had to laugh to keep from crying.

I'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume she just found this list, alphabetized it, and posted it, because I certainly hope no established author in her right mind would willingly recommend young writers use tropes as a crutch.  We've all used tropes before, okay?  We all start there.  Then we look back and blush and try to hurry on as quickly as possible.  But please, don't recommend to people that these tropes are actually good things.  We're supposed to move on from them, not carry them with us.

Okay, I'm going to hit the highlights here.  You ready?  Be prepared to blush and laugh and cry and tear your hair out.  It gets good.

abduction to love: I think this is called Stockholm syndrome, and isn't it considered a bad thing?  Yo, Phantom of the Opera - what do you think?accidental pregnancy: Somebody please explain to me (I am otherwise experienced in this) how you can have an "accidental" pregnancy. amnesia:  Ah ha ha, "50 First Dates," anyone?  How depressing is that...antihero romance:  Unless you really know what you're doing, this is going to be lame.  Just because he/she is the antihero does not mean he/she is automatically hot/brooding/mysterious.  arranged marriage:  Because we are so enlightened now and arranged marriages are a freak-show of the past. bait and switch: Yeah, that worked out well for Jacob.beauty and the beast:  Again?best friend’s lover:  Blurred morality.best friend’s sibling:  Why is this a big deal?best friends/ friends first:  Finally, someone is making sense here.blackmail:  How does blackmail produce romance?bodyguard crush:  Oh, grow up.boy hates girl:  Yes, yes, I know, but try not to disguise the fact that they are going to get together because, let's face it, we all know they're going to get together.  That's how the stories work. boy meets ghoul:  Say what, now?  boy meets girl:  Really.  Tell me something I don't know.  The book was listed under "romance," after all.break his heart to save him:  Go ahead and try this one, it could be good.  There is immediate character interplay just in this one line.  This is the kind of love which has true grit: it's going to save him, even if it means he can't have what he thought he wanted.  It could be good.bully turned puppy lover:  Because this is obviously what we should all strive for.
celibate hero:  What.consanguinity: At first I thought we were talking about incest, but no, it's not that bad.crazy love: What.damaged lead finds happily ever after:  Because no one has ever written that before.dark secret keeps them apart:  Or this one.different worlds:  Or this one.fling:  Oh yes, this is the best idea yet.  Shallow, biological attraction.  That's the heart of romance right there.forbidden love/Romeo and Juliet:  I'm still convinced that "Romeo & Juliet" was meant to be a comedic satire on EVERYONE WHO WOULD WRITE THAT KIND OF STORY.girl wants bad boy: Girl, go home.  You're too stupid to know what is good for you.guardian/ward:  Everyone sees that coming.guy wants cheerleader:  The hell why?if I can’t have you, no one will!:  May or may not have used this one to some extent in "Plenilune."imaginary love triangle:  I tried to use imaginary shapes in geometry class.  It didn't work.impotent love:  Exactly why are we using the word "impotent" alongside "love"?innocent cohabitation:  Yes, this is what naive young girls fantasize about, but real life does not work that way. instant/false sweethearts:  I - what? I don't actually know what to make of this one.it happened in Vegas: Because that is always the precursor to a healthy romance.
long-term lovers: I know, they're such exotic creatures these days.love reforms villain: Usually lame and frequently unrealistic.love triangle:  I think most readers actually hate love triangles.mad love:  How is this different from "crazy love"?  Is it actually mad?  Is it angry or insane?  I don't have enough to work with here.
men in uniform:  I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the militia has already left for Brighton.mistaken declaration of love leads to love:  I actually sat here for several minutes trying to work this one out.  I've got nothing.one night stand:  Are you serious right now?one wants true love/other wants a fling:  Seriously?oops! fall in love with the wrong person (which could ruin everything!):  Okay, wow, love is not a contagion that you can't avoid despite taking women's supplements and drinking orange juice every morning.  It's not something that "accidentally" happens to you.  Sheesh, I am so ticked off right now.partners in crime:  Literally or figuratively?  Because crime is still crime, whether you love your accomplice or not.passionate lovers:  As opposed to dispassionate lovers.Plain Jane get the hottie:  Yay, Jane!  You go, girl!playboy:  Encouraging the erroneous view that rich, profligate guys are totally hot and if you can just reform them of their ways, they will still remain mysterious, suave, and filthy-money-loaded.  politics:  There is little romance in politics.  You are either a pawn or a prostitute or both.  
reluctant sex worker:  As opposed to an enthusiastic one?  Guess she won't get a good tip.removing the rival:  But what if the rival was "the one"? What if they were both walking side by side and one of them gets struck by lightning?  What then?rescue romance:  This has been done.return to hometown:  This has also been done.revenge:  Because that worked out so well for the Count of Monte Cristo.road trip romance:  There's nothing more romantic than having to put up with the woman's tiny bladder on a long car ride.rock star hero:  Money? Check.  Fame?  Check.  Good looks? Check.  Got yourself a perfect recipe for a cheap romance right there.royalty:  Yes, just so long as you give me a male heir, otherwise we're through.scars from the past:  Done.
secret baby- he doesn’t know she’s PG:  I literally do not know how to handle this.  Does "PG" mean "pregnant?"  Or does she need parental guidance?  And, you know, if she is pregnant, he's going to get wise to the situation sooner or later.secret that can end everything:  I may or may not have testified against those French nobility.  You may or may not be an Englishman in disguise.sibling triangle:  I was also afraid this was incest, but I think it's just that two siblings are crushing on some one other unrelated person.  This actually happened to someone I know and, trust me, it turns out super horribly for everyone.sibling’s ex-spouse:  I'm going to be downright honest here and say that, since I do subscribed to what God has said, this is not an acceptable situation unless the spouse has died.sleeps with everyone but you:  Then maybe there is something wrong with you.sudden parent:  What the hell even?  Generally you get some warning, so, no excuse.the one that got away:  Then obviously she has good taste.time travel:  Super, super difficult.  Do not attempt unless you know what you are doing.  A good romance is hard enough to pull off without throwing time-travel into the mix.tortured hero(ine):  Wow, that's a novel idea.  I've never heard that one before.tragic love affair:  All affairs are, by nature, tragic.tragic past:  Yes, by all means, let's cheapen real tragedy.
unrequited-love-switcheroo love triangle:  I cannot take you seriously if you use the word "switcheroo."unwanted harem:  Now, this is just hilarious.  virginal/innocent:  I know, right?  It's so rare these days.wallflower noticed by the rake:  Yes, but did you remember to pick up the leaves?

In case you were wondering, yes, I really love romance.  Right off the top of my head, I can think of only two pending stories which do not include romance.  Romance is great!  Romance is sweet.  Romance touches us.  Romance is what we all long for.  So yes, I am making fun of most of these tropes - because tropes are generally stupid.  But also yes, I am completely in favour of romance.

Just not these.