Meg Donohue's Blog: Reading, Writing, and Giveaways - Posts Tagged "how-to-eat-a-cupcake"

I am so very happy to have finally started reading Amanda Eyre Ward's novels. I recently finished CLOSE YOUR EYES and now I'm halfway through HOW TO BE LOST. How am I so late to this party? Ward's books are right up my alley; I can't believe it took me so long to discover her! Smart writing + noirish plots + female protagonists = my favorite kind of book.

Ward is one of those writers who makes every word count...each sentence feels necessary and just right. Such spare prose could result in a spare story, but that's not the case here. Ward tells suspenseful tales that are emotionally resonant and slyly funny. Her protagonists are smart, tough, unpredictable women.

As a writer reading Ward, I'm reminded to weigh each word and sentence carefully. Long descriptions are rarely necessary...the right few words can set a scene and your capable reader can easily intuit the rest.

I'm often wrestling with unwieldy flashbacks in my writing, and it's interesting to see how Ward frequently solves this problem by setting flashbacks into their own chapters...almost creating two separate narratives. I'm always trying to weave my flashbacks into my story's "present" so I'm interested to note another approach.

Thanks for the writing lessons, Amanda Eyre Ward!
Amanda Eyre Ward

As I dive into work on my second novel, I'm learning that a sense of place is very central to my writing. In HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE, I felt that plot and place were closely entwined -- what happened to those characters wouldn't have happened in the specific way they happened in any other city than San Francisco. In the book I'm currently writing, three characters have a strong connection to the beach town where they spent their summers in childhood, and I hope I'm able to breathe enough life into that relationship and that place that it will become a central character in its own right.

Who better to teach a master class on place as character than Elin Hilderbrand? Silver Girl is the first Hilderbrand novel that I've read, and I found myself taking little mental notes the entire time I was reading. SILVER GIRL, like all of her novels, is set mostly on Nantucket, and she does a wonderful job of making the island, and her characters' relationships and history with the island, come alive. I've never been to Nantucket, but I found myself seeing the island clearly through the eyes of the two main characters, heading out with them to the market, the restaurants, and the beaches.

What hooked me? The details. Not untethered, omniscient details, but the details only these specific characters would notice, the details tied to memories: the beachside playground with the metal slide that was always too hot for Connie's now-estranged daughter when she was young, how the curves of the house that her now departed husband designed pull at her heart. These are the details that create place as character.

Reading Hilderbrand, I'm reminded to think about how each of my three characters would look at the beach town of their childhood summers and see, or remember, different things. Each character has her own relationship and memories with the place, and uncovering those unique details will be the way to bring place to life.

Thanks for the writing lesson, Elin Hilderbrand!

Less than one month to go until How to Eat a Cupcake's pub date! Let's celebrate with some homemade cupcakes. If you pre-order by the on-sale date of 3/13, I’ll email you a Meyer lemon cupcake recipe developed exclusively for HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE readers by Bar Bambino pastry chef Alyce Shields. Just email hellomegdonohueATgmail.com with “I Pre-ordered” in the subject line, and I’ll email you the recipe. Orders must be placed before 3/13. Print and ebook pre-orders welcome.

Happy baking!
Meg Donohue

Want to win a signed copy of How to Eat a Cupcake, a $50 gift card to Georgetown Cupcake, and more? I'm running a giveaway from now until December 15, National Cupcake Day! Check out my blog for info and entry methods: www.megdonohue.com/blog

Happy (almost) 1st birthday, How to Eat a Cupcake! Thank you all for making my first year as a published novelist so incredibly special. Let’s celebrate with a giveaway! The winner will receive a lovely gift bag including:

• A signed/personalized copy of How to Eat a Cupcake
• A signed/personalized uncorrected galley of All the Summer Girls: A Novel (Eeeek! You’ll be among the very first to read my new book coming May 21!)
• The “Flowers in Bloom” cupcake decorating set including 24 cupcake wrappers and 24 bright and beautiful flower cupcake toppers. Just in time for your Spring cupcake baking! ☺

Contest runs through 3/13/13. I’ll select a winner using random.org. Winner must have a US mailing address. Enter via the below methods up to TWO TIMES EACH:

1. What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Let me know in the comment section on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/authormegdonohue

2. Share this giveaway post with your Facebook friends and let me know you’ve done so.

3. Share giveaway info on your blog/website and let me know you’ve done so.

4. Tweet the following: I want to #win a signed ARC of ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS by @megdonohue! #giveaway on.fb.me/SKisIJ

5. Sign up for my mailing list (on the left column of my website): www.megdonohue.com/all-the-summer-girls/

6. Add All the Summer Girls to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

7. Pin the ATSG cover to a Pinterest board and let me know.

8. Share the ATSG cover on Instagram and let me know.

Can’t wait to share these fun prizes! Good luck, everyone!
xo,
Meg
Meg Donohue

The ebook of How to Eat a Cupcake is on sale everywhere for $1.99!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...