Meg Donohue's Blog: Reading, Writing, and Giveaways, page 3
March 29, 2012
Book Club Party Ideas!
I've just added a cupcake recipe, reading group discussion guide, and How to Eat a Cupcake-themed book club party ideas to my website! Hope you'll check the new page!
http://www.megdonohue.com/book-clubs/
Happy baking...and happy reading!
Meg
http://www.megdonohue.com/book-clubs/
Happy baking...and happy reading!
Meg
March 13, 2012
HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE's Birthday!
Welcome to the world, How to Eat a Cupcake! Today, 3/13, is on-sale day! I'm looking forward to celebrating the book's launch tonight at Books Inc. in Laurel Village, San Francisco at 7 PM and hope you can join me! There will be cupcakes and wine to warm you up on this rainy SF day.
Thank you to all of you who have pre-ordered my book, spread the word to your friends and family, and supported me throughout this road to publication. I am so grateful.
Thank you also to all of the wonderful book bloggers who have reviewed the book and/or posted interviews with me. You are all AMAZING! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Check out my blog on my website to see some of my recent online interviews!
http://www.megdonohue.com/blog/
Thank you to all of you who have pre-ordered my book, spread the word to your friends and family, and supported me throughout this road to publication. I am so grateful.
Thank you also to all of the wonderful book bloggers who have reviewed the book and/or posted interviews with me. You are all AMAZING! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Check out my blog on my website to see some of my recent online interviews!
http://www.megdonohue.com/blog/
March 5, 2012
Sutter Home Wines' Book Club Nominee!
How to Eat a Cupcake has been nominated for the Sutter Home Wines' Book Club! Please take a moment to vote here:
https://www.facebook.com/SutterHome?s...
Thank you for your support!
PS - You can still win a copy by entering this Goodreads giveaway:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
https://www.facebook.com/SutterHome?s...
Thank you for your support!
PS - You can still win a copy by entering this Goodreads giveaway:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
February 17, 2012
Exclusive Cupcake Recipe Giveaway!
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
Happy baking!
Meg Donohue
December 2, 2011
Reading like a Writer: Elin Hilderbrand
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!
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!
October 24, 2011
Reading like a Writer: Amanda Eyre Ward
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
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
