Annie Cardi's Blog, page 17

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, guys! After a lot of travel, I’m back at home and diving into a new project. Here’s a look at what I’ve been reading and writing in fifteen words or fewer.

Reading: All the Rage by Courtney Summers

A punch in the gut kind of book about rape culture in a small town.

Writing: “…I offered to make Miles a last-minute saint outfit (bathrobe, sandals, tin foil halo).”

It’s been a while since I wrote from the big sister perspective; already digging this new protagonist.

Quote of the Day

Here’s to productivity and a warm cup of coffee on a chilly Monday. Thanks to our friends at the Little Crooked Cottage for sharing this one!

Links Galore

Lots of links I’ve been saving:

Major love to Ginger for including The Chance You Won’t Return on her list of debut authors she’s looking forward to reading more of. (Also love seeing Breakfast Served Anytime, one of my very favs, on this list!)

Great list of LGBTQIA+ documentaries for teens.
Art as a literary theme.
This post about writing mental health professionals responsibly is a must-read.
And speaking of mental health, this writing workshop/fellowship from Creative Nonfiction sounds awesome.
Gorgeous map of literary genres.
What is YA and who is it really for?
“Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things” is my new favorite title.
Lots of reading recommendations for Jewish Book Month.
I need this TARDIS journal.
And this laptop case .
And lots of other great bookish gear.
Get paid, writers.
The delightful Diana Renn on writing and rock climbing.
Team INFJ.
Writer yoga poses.
NaNoWriMo info graphic.
As disappointing as the movie was, I would so be down for a His Dark Materials show.
And speaking of awesome children’s lit-based tv shows.
LeVar Burton is a shining light in our reading lives.

Quote of the Day

Since we’re in Jewish Book Month, it feels right to share another great poem from The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 by Peter Cole (translator). This one is by Meshullam DePiera, who was writing in the thirteenth century.

I love the intensity here–it makes me feel both cautious and powerful. Words matter, people.

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! I’m kind of stunned that it’s already the first Friday of November–wasn’t it just summer? I was traveling this week and didn’t get a lot of writing done, but I did use my travel time to catch up on some reading, so this week’s Friday Fifteen is a double-dose of micro book reviews:

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

A thrilling take on Frankenstein and what it means to be a monster. Miyazaki adaptation, please!

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Loved this look at long-distance running as I prepare for my first marathon.

NaNoWriMo Highs and Lows

Last year I took part in National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of a new project. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, and I’m so glad I joined the challenge.

The beginning of the month brings a lot of enthusiasm, but sometimes the expectations of NaNo don’t match up with the realities. But the tough days don’t have to get you down! Take a look at this video I made about the NaNo highs and lows:

If you’re tackling NaNo this year, don’t worry about the bad days. Keep going, take breaks as needed, don’t worry about editing and let your creativity fly. You got this!

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, all! And Happy (almost) Halloween! This is going to be my soundtrack for handing out candy on Saturday. Let’s get the weekend going with a look at what I’ve been reading and writing, in fifteen words or fewer.

Reading: Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Dairy Queen series needs more attention; DJ’s story is funny, sensitive, and genuine. LOVE.

Writing: “…we strip off our parkas and boots, slip on our suits and swim caps.”

Working on my next story for the Hanging Garden. Keep an eye out for it on Monday!

The Martian, Rejection, and Finding Your Reader

Recently I read The Martian. It’s been the big buzz book over the last year or two, with a new movie out. Usually I don’t dive into a lot of the best-seller adult list, but I decided to give it a try after getting recommendations from friends in the sciences who enjoyed it. Psyched by the idea of a sci-fi novel that was heavy on the sci, I requested a copy from the library and (about four months later; thanks, Matt Damon), I read it.

It was fun and exciting. Mark Watney was a clever protagonist with a good sense of humor, and the rest of the astronaut team felt real. The science was well explained to the reader and seemed feasible, like manned missions to Mars could actually happen in my lifetime. The dynamics between NASA and the media and international governments felt genuine. Reading it, I could totally imagine this as a movie.

But if I’d gotten the manuscript as an editor, I totally would have rejected it.

Which is apparently what happened to author Andy Weir. He’d had experience with rejections in the publishing world, so he decided to put The Martian up as a free serial on his website. Success with that led to him self-publishing on Amazon, which led to him being a huge seller on the indie list. That got attention from traditional publishers, and his book was immediately a best seller in the traditional sphere, too.

I’m not surprised the book has connected to fans like it has. It’s an entertaining ride and a high five to science enthusiasts. But I’m also not surprised it didn’t start out in traditional publishing. If I were an editor and the manuscript came across my desk, I totally would have passed–not because I didn’t like the book, but because of these questions:

Image by U.S. Army RDECOM

Who’s gonna read all that science?

One of the best parts of the book is that Weir is so careful to document everything Watney has to think about in order to stay alive on Mars–how to sustain oxygen levels, how to grow potatoes, how NASA technology operates on Mars, etc. I would have thought “This is all cool and interesting, but how many readers are going to plow through a book that’s at least half legit science? Where’s the market?”

Where I fail: Apparently the market is real and it’s big.


What’s Watney’s emotional journey?

Image by Pedro Klien

Mark Watney is a bright and funny protagonist. Part of the reason he was on the Mars team was because he’s the guy who can lighten up the room with a joke or funny comment. But we don’t get to see a lot of his emotional arch on Mars–sure, he gets upset and frustrated, but we don’t see the depths of his fear or loneliness. It’s a pretty emotionally light read, considering he’s been stranded on a lifeless planet.

Where I fail: I think that also ends up being a draw for readers–it’s not literary fiction, it’s an adventure novel.


Who are all these other characters?

Image by Tambako The Jaguar

And considering it’s about a guy stranded on a lifeless planet, the book’s actually got a pretty big cast of characters. Between the other astronauts and the NASA team and the other various scientists/government people, it’s a sizable group to keep track of, and aside from a few people, the voices don’t vary too much. Why would people read through their sections when you don’t care about them?

Where I fail: a lot of the characters can blend together into NASA/China/etc., which means they don’t bog down the reader with their individual stories.

What does that mean for writers? It means that rejections aren’t a blanket assessment of your work. Your story can be a best-seller. It can be a movie. It can be a story that editors really enjoy, even while they reject it.

It sucks, because it’s so frustrating to think that your story can be great and readers can love it, and even then it’ll still get rejected. But I prefer to look at it as heartening. Even if you get rejected over and over, that doesn’t mean your story is bad or that your writing is worthless. It means that you need to find the right reader–whether that’s an editor in a traditional publishing house, or readers looking for innovative new work in the self-publishing field.

So keep writing, keep submitting, keep getting your work out there. Your work doesn’t have to connect with every reader–it just has to find the right ones.

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, guys! I finished a revision this week (hurray!), so I’m feeling good about heading into the weekend. Let’s kick things off with a look at what I’ve been reading and writing in fifteen words or fewer.

Reading: Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally

Questions of faith and summer camp kisses–a thoughtful and sweet combination.

Writing: “There’s been a surprising number of sing-alongs on this trip. Is that a team requirement?”

Yes. Yes it is.

Awards and Hoverboards: Expectations of Your Writing Future

It’s October 21, 2015. Welcome to the future, everyone!

Okay, so no hoverboards for the masses yet, and our 80s-inspired clothes look a little different. But today’s Back to the Future festivities did get me thinking about the future and expectations.

As writers, it’s easy to build up expectations and ideas of success. You put a lot of time and effort into a given project, and you hope that time and effort will be rewarded by a agent offering representation, or a book deal, or an award, or a movie, or a place at the top of the best-seller list. You set deadlines for yourself–finish a draft by X date, query by Y, get an agent by Z. Surely in twenty years, you’ll be at ALA, accepting your Printz award from atop your hoverboard, right?

At last year’s retreat in Tennessee, someone (I think it was Tessa Gratton) mentioned that “at some point, everything in publishing will happen to you.” From getting a book deal to getting a book pushed back to getting a book cancelled; from rejections to sales at auctions; from tons of marketing support and movie deals to seeing a book just like yours make a huge splash while yours falls flat–the good and the bad all happens at some point. No matter what you do or how hard you work, you can’t control the whole process.

So what does that mean for the future of your writing career? Don’t focus on the hoverboard. Forget the movie deals, the sales at auction, the awards ceremonies. Focus on the part you can control–writing the best work you can. Even if you can’t predict the future, you’ll know that you made the very best book you could.

As Doc Brown said: “Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.”