Phoebe North's Blog, page 19
May 5, 2011
Review: Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin
Recommended.
I stumbled across Ursula Le Guin's 1976 realistic young adult novel Very Far Away from Anywhere Else while searching for cheap ebooks. Amidst a sea of self-pubbed young adult paranormal, this quiet title stood out—and stood out even more because I'd never heard of it. I'm a fan of Le Guin, as both a writer and a human being, but I never knew that she dabbled in realist YA.
But dabble she did, and Very Far Away . . . , while...
May 3, 2011
Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
I feel like I should start this review with a caveat: this will not be a positive review.
There's always some danger in panning a highly-buzzed book, particularly one where the financials are so well known (if you haven't seen it all over the internet, or the local news, Starcrossed was sold for seven-figures). Critics—especially critics who are members of the great unpublished masses—risk being labeled "haters" (or, worse, "jealous, bitter failures") for...
April 30, 2011
Gentle Reader, I haven't forgotten you!
Still editing, as you can see–typing my comments in at this point. Apparently I didn't much like this paragraph. I started to copyedit it, then circled it and wrote "UGH" over the text.
Indeed!
Review of Starcrossed at some point this weekend is coming, lovelies. Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you.
April 26, 2011
Marianne Elliot Said 1957 – 2011
It's funny which deaths affect you.
Poly Styrene died last night. I haven't really thought about her in years. I first heard of the X-Ray Spex when I was twelve or thirteen, going somewhere in my sister's car. The car was olive green with a cloth ceiling that was falling in. She'd put checkered contact paper along the sidewalls to make it look like a cab. It smelled like motor oil and rust.
My sister was a Riot Grrrl. She made zines (which I was not allowed to read) and mixed-tapes and the...
April 25, 2011
Guest Post over at The Book Lantern: A Writer's Education
Up at the Book Lantern blog, I have a guest post that answers the immortal question, "Should I get an MFA?"
There were good things about my time spent in my MFA program. I had a fairly relaxed schedule, wrote quite a bit, and made many good friends there. My professors were caring and dedicated and always well-intentioned. And I had the opportunity to take other classes at the University, including critical coursework in young adult literature and science fiction.
But I can't deny the conflict...
April 23, 2011
Asking the Hard Questions: An Interview with Kody Keplinger
Today's the first day of a new feature here at the Adventures in Dorkdom blog (yes, I know, I should stop trying to make that blog title happen–deal!). One of my favorite YA blogs, The Book Lantern, has been posting great interviews for about a month now, and I just adored Cory's interview with Hannah Moskowitz about Moskowitz's book, Invincible Summer. Reading over it, I realized that this was something I wanted to see more of in the blog-o-sphere: conversations with authors, focused on...
April 21, 2011
Review: How Opal Mehta . . . by Kaavya Viswanathan
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life: A Novel by Kaavya Viswanathan
I can't pretend that I read How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life for noble reasons. I was bored, and putting off my own writing, and the internet is an abundant source of everything, even plagiarized pap that the publisher tried to destroy.
I'm sure you know the story behind Viswanathan's book–how she, an Indian-American girl from New Jersey, was going to debut as a novelist during her sophomore...
April 20, 2011
Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth
Last night, I stumbled across a Facebook quiz where you can "discover your faction" a la Veronica Roth's upcoming debut Divergent. It was a clever piece of marketing and design, where you select options in a brief thought experiment until your single true faction becomes clear. I scored as Candor, of course, representing the faction in Roth's book which values honesty above all else. So of course, I'm going to be honest here in my review of the book.
That little test ...
April 19, 2011
Late Night Teaser Tuesday: Revision and Revenge
Just a little teaser from the last quarter of my book. In revision, I've been going through and adding a lot of scenes to the second half, trying to slow down the sloppiness break-neck speed. I like these new scenes–they feel luxurious. In drafting this part of the book, I felt like I was on this long slide toward the inevitable end, and so I didn't take the time I really needed to examine my main character's mental state. Here, Terra's voice shines nicely.
Silvan knew my body, but he didn't...
