Annie Cardi's Blog, page 14

Quote of the Day

(ABC/Image Group LA) SHONDA RHIMES

“I don’t even know who a character is until I’ve seen how they handle adversity.”

—Shonda Rhimes

I’m reading Rising Strong by Brené Brown right now, and she includes this quote from an interview she had with writer/producer Shonda Rhimes. Brown uses this quote to talk about how we all deal with adversity and how it can demonstrate who we are, but I think this is also a great quote for writers to keep in mind. We don’t know a character until we see them face a major challenge–and this is when the story has to start. It’s gotta be on the day when everything changes for them, when they face the biggest challenge of their lives. Otherwise, how do we really know them?

When do you feel like you really know your characters? Share in the comments!

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, guys! Thanks to some support and enthusiasm from my crit group, I managed to power through the first few chapters of a new project, and I’m heading into the weekend with a good writerly vibe. Here’s a look at what I’ve been reading and writing in fifteen words or fewer:

Reading: Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Not my favorite of the series, but writing was still gorgeous and I love Karou/Akiva.

Writing: “…it’s surprising Lily’s managed to keep her limbs in tact as long as she has.”

I’m glad that writing isn’t a contact sport.

Links Galore

A few links I’ve been saving.

A fascinating look at the 1961 Fiction Jury report, in which To Kill a Mockingbird is named the winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Very excited for Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time adaptation. 
Kim Savage on After the Woods and the Ten Muse Commandments.
And similarly, chasing the unicorn of productivity.
Who wants to get a drink at one of these library bars?
Even bestselling classics were rejected.
Women in Nigeria are starting a revolution through literature.
Friends and books are good for your health.
The science of procrastination.
What’s your bookish love language?

Happy Book Birthday to THE BITTER SIDE OF SWEET!

Being part of a critique group means that you see drafts way before they hit the shelves, which means that you spend a while wishing that you could tell absolutely everyone about this amazing book that they have to read right now.

Fortunately I don’t have to hold back my enthusiasm any more, because The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan, because it is available today! That’s right, you lucky readers you–you can now own your very own copy of one of the most powerful, touching books I’ve ever read. There’s totally a reason why this book has four (yes, four!) starred reviews.

The official Goodreads summary:

For fans of Linda Sue Park and A Long Way Gone, two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory Coast

Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. This number is very important. The higher the number the safer they are because the bosses won’t beat them. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home to Baba and Auntie. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesn’t know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won’t tell him. The boys only wanted to make some money during the dry season to help their impoverished family. Instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast; they spend day after day living on little food and harvesting beans in the hot sun—dangerous, backbreaking work. With no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive—until Khadija comes into their lives.

She’s the first girl who’s ever come to camp, and she’s a wild thing. She fights bravely every day, attempting escape again and again, reminding Amadou what it means to be free. But finally, the bosses break her, and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The old impulse to run is suddenly awakened. The three band together as family and try just once more to escape.

In the Boston area and want to celebrate this powerful book in person? Come to The Bitter Side of Sweet’s launch party tonight at Porter Square Books!

This is a book that gives voice to the tragic reality too many children face today, and deserves to be on everyone’s reading list. Get your copy of The Bitter Side of Sweet today!

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! Last weekend was a lot of food poisoning and frozen pipes, so I’m looking forward to one that’s a little less eventful. To start things off, here’s a look at what I’ve been reading and writing in fifteen words or fewer.

Reading: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Gave me some weird fever dreams, but great distraction from a gross weekend.

Writing: “If you…get hit by a car, I’m leaving you to get eaten by wolves.”

Trying to dive into a new project, still feeling things out.

Advice for Astronauts and Artists

Window to the World (NASA, International Space Station Science, 02/10)

NASA is currently accepting applications for a new class of astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Giving a glimpse into the NASA life, current astronaut Stan Love shares some advice for applicants.

Most surprising for me? How much of Love’s advice could be applied to writers.

I know. Usually when we talk about STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) careers, they’re at the opposite end of careers in the arts. STEM careers are stable, money-makers. Arts careers are an unstable crapshoot.

But Love’s description of life as an astronaut suggests that the two career paths are way more common than you’d suspect. He talks about the ups and downs of having one of the coolest jobs ever:

“It’s hands down the coolest job on or off the planet…The cherry on top is actually strapping into a rocket and blasting off to orbit around Earth (or, starting in a few years with Exploration Mission-2, the moon). You’ll float peacefully in weightlessness and gaze out the window as our amazing planet rolls by underneath you at 25 times the speed of sound.

Unfortunately, most of an astronaut’s time isn’t spent in space. It’s spent working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas…At my house, an astronaut takes the trash out to the curb every Tuesday morning.”

I don’t know much about being an astronaut, but that totally reminds me of being a writer. Writing is awesome–nothing beats being totally immersed in a story, understanding the characters and their motivation and riding along with the plot.

Center of the Milky Way Galaxy (NASA, Chandra, 11/10/09)

But that’s not most of writing. Sometimes it’s you, staring at your computer, writing a sentence and deleting it, or deciding that the last chapter isn’t going to work. It’s finishing a draft and going back to revise it for the fifth time. It’s querying and going on sub and getting rejected and getting bad reviews. It’s balancing your writing with your family and friends and other jobs and that laundry that somehow hasn’t learned to do itself.

Come on, you think. Anyone with a STEM background automatically gets a great job! What does someone at NASA know about rejection? Um, a lot, it turns out:

“In our last selection in 2013, we had more than 6,000 serious applicants. We hired eight of them. That’s just slightly better than one-in-a-thousand odds…I started sending in applications – and updating them regularly – in 1991. I did that seven times in all. I got an interview (an exciting milestone, since it means you’ve made the short list) in 1994. I interviewed three times before finally getting hired in 1998. I like to joke that I didn’t so much impress the Astronaut Selection Board as wear them down.”

Kind of like the querying/submission process, right? One rejection doesn’t mean you’re not a worthwhile candidate or that your career is over. It means maybe not right now. It means keep trying.

Love also talks about managing expectations with regard to the application process, rejection, and not framing your life around trying to game the system:

I met some folks who had dedicated their whole lives to becoming astronauts. They learned to fly, not because they love airplanes, but because they heard that the Astronaut Selection Board likes pilots. They learned to scuba dive, not because they love the sea, but because they heard that the board likes scuba divers. I observed folks doing these things, and then not getting selected (the likeliest outcome), and then becoming very, very bitter and disappointed people.

I didn’t want to follow their example, and I recommend that you don’t either. Instead, just do what you love doing.

I was drawing pictures of airplanes and spaceships in first grade, so when I had the chance to earn a pilot’s license, or take elective courses in aerospace engineering…or take a job as an engineer working on spacecraft optical instruments at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I jumped on it. And I had a blast.

Now, all of those things were also good for applying to be an astronaut, so I went ahead and included them on my applications. But because I was doing what I loved, I would have been perfectly happy where I was—even if I hadn’t been picked as an astronaut.

Space weather forecast from @ISS: Moonless with a chance of #Perseid meteors! – photo by Astronaut Scott Kelly

There’s no way to know what a publisher will like, what kind of book is going to be the next major bestseller, or what kind of book will be in print for the next fifty years. You can try to write a book that you think has all the elements of being a bestseller (vampire dystopian quirky romance!), but there’s no way it’s going to resonate with anyone if you don’t write it out of pure love. Sometimes the story you love is also the story that’ll sell a gajillion copies and get you a castle next to JK Rowling’s. If that’s the case, awesome. But you get there because you’re writing the story of your heart, not because you’re writing the story you think will sell.

For artists and for astronauts, you have to deal with a lot of rejection. Maybe someday you’ll see your book on a shelf or see the Earth from orbit. Maybe not. But the work you do should be what propels you forward–even when it’s not fun and when it really feels like work. Because when you put yourself and your passion in your work, that comes through to editors and to the Astronaut Selection Board.

I get super motion sick, so I won’t be applying to the astronaut class anytime soon. But I’m glad to take a little astronaut advice into my writing life as we all explore new worlds.

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! This weekend is Valentine’s Day, and I am a big Valentine’s Day fan–red, hearts, chocolate, bring it on. So for today’s Friday Fifteen, I’m going to change it up a little and make some book recommendations.

When I was a teen, I never dated anyone. I had a ton of guy friends, but there was never anyone I was interested in dating, so my closest relationships were with my friends and family. And I’m guessing I wasn’t the first nor the last teen to feel this way. When people get down on Valentine’s Day for being all about couples, I want to remind them that love exists in all kinds of relationships, and that love is just as real as romantic love. Today, I want to share fifteen favorite YA/children’s lit book recommendations that put the focus on friend and family love.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: the ultimate book about kindred spirits and sometimes you have to find your family.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: in case you didn’t cry enough at Anne of Green Gables.
A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle : four generations of women come together to help one move on in this beautiful portrayal of family.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: about being sisters, being friends, and learning how to grow apart and together.
The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock: DJ Schwenk is my favorite, and this is the Dairy Queen book that focuses most on her family; so genuine and so touching.
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki: a touching, beautiful story about growing up and realizing your family is more complicated than you thought.
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty: forever my go-to book about how friendships form and grow and change.
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: love Zarr’s look at grief and loss and hope and how families can evolve.
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma: the complicated and dangerous devotion of two sisters who can only rely on each other.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: a devastating story of bravery and friendship and all my feels.
Just Visiting by Dahlia Adler: even when their paths may be diverging, Reagan and Victoria’s supportive friendship rings so true to me.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt: this story about the messiness of grief and love and illness sticks with me.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta: this layered story of generations of friends wrecked me in the best way.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth: I got to the end of this book and thought, “Oh my gosh, this is a family love letter.”
Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker: fighting for your family with a creepy Southern gothic style.

Other favorite non-romantic love stories? Share them in the comments. Happy Valentine’s day, everyone!

Quote of the Day

Photo by Sacha Fernandez

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

I recently read Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, which was just the book I needed. And I’ve been talking with friends in the arts recently about our fears and frustrations, and how success always seems so much easier for other people to achieve.

Gilbert’s quote above is a nice reminder that you can’t measure success by how many awards you win or how much you make on an advance or how many reviews you get, because no matter how many awards or how much money you get, you’re still not going to feel like a success . The work itself has to be the thing that keeps you moving down the path.

Links Galore

Lots of links I’ve been saving:

Thoughtful and encouraging advice for young writers.
Books are in the mail for Baltimore’s youngest readers.
The wonderful Lindsay Smith on how outlining help her double her word count last year.
A feminist book list is my favorite.
Marley and her #1000blackgirlbooks campaign warms my heart.
How to support your favorite books and writers.
Excellent roundup of books dealing with dating violence.
Tales as old as time.
The cultural significance of award-winning books featuring diversity.
And speaking of diversity, the publishing landscape is pretty bleak.
A new Beatrix Potter story + Quentin Blake art = British children’s list awesomeness.
Great interview with the wonderful Anna-Marie McLemore.
Love this look at the ampersand.
The seven deadly signs of readings–seriously, don’t be a glutton.
Books featuring trans characters by trans authors.
Fascinating look at Anne Shirley and abortion activism on Prince Edward Island.
Awesome map of the A Wrinkle in Time universe.
A world of wizarding schools for us to attend.
Moby Dick and the War Rig. Guys, I love Mad Max: Fury Road so much.
In case you need help with your new year’s resolution to get more organized.
This YA publishing road map is made of awesome.

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, guys! Yesterday I was drinking an iced coffee and today it’s snowing, which I guess means it’s February in New England. Let’s all spend the rest of the winter indoors in blanket forts, okay? Until the blanket forts are complete, here’s a look at what I’ve been reading and writing this week in fifteen words or fewer:

Reading: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Beautiful writing, and another good recommendation for fans of Jessica Jones.

Writing: “…when I enter the building it smells the same—ice, sweat, and microwaved pizza.”

Oh first draft, it’s been a while.