Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 260

Next Year… Setting Goals.

I’m a list maker.  I have no less than 4 kinds of To Do lists (yes, this is true).  It will come as no surprise then, that I want to put some goals and timelines in place before my last work day next year (January 28 – can you tell I’m counting down?).  Could I do this in a private venue?  Sure I could.  However, I want to put these goals into the collective – just to see where they go (and to keep myself honest).

Cute cat for motivational purposes only.

Writing Stuff

Edit 1st draft The Queen of England: Coronation
Edit final draft The Queen of England: Coronation (to be complete at 75-80k)
Publish The Queen of England: Coronation (and all that goes with it!)
Complete rough draft The Queen of England: Grand Tour (60K minimum, 15K complete)
Edit 1st draft Lucky Penny (35-40k)
Complete 1st draft The Queen of England: Grand Tour (pending time, energy and motivation)
Start rough draft A.U. (pending time, energy and motivation)
Update all YA projects with back material
Update Room 702/Life After Joe with back material
Finish the pilot of DINKs (25-30 pages, screenplay)
Drabbles for the Queen trilogy (January 2016)
Maybe come up with a new cover for The Line (celebrating 10 years in February!).
Follow up on the 94176128391 websites, articles and posts I have tagged to follow up as research, etc.

Personal Stuff

60kgs and under – my new permanent weight class.
Move and set up of new place in Dubai.
Household maintenance (as a stay at home wife/author, I completely accept this responsibility.  My inner feminist is a bit hesitant about not having a regular paycheck, but as a spouse I accepts that this is a good balance – one only made possible by Hubs working full time.)
Online course, better website management and other social media type skills (analytics, SEO and other terminology I shouldn’t be scared of).
20% increase in ‘new’ traffic and followers across all social media (Pinterest, Twitter, blog, Tumblr).
Regular flossing.
Beating insomnia once and for all.
New hobby or skill (I’m thinking guitar lessons or getting back into fencing or salsa dancing).

Year of Saying Yes

Of everything I’m planning for next year, I actually think this will be the most difficult.

At least once a week (!) attend something (provided I receive necessary invites).
Write up a blog post about the experience (no matter how random).

And there you go – a fairly involved plan of attack for February 2016 – January 2017.

 

 

Not sure how this happened, but I am ‘accredited press.’

Although part of my master plan for next year is to say ‘Yes’ to some of the random events I am invited to (5-6 invites a week, mainly based in Dubai).  In this instance, I registered and was approved (!) for the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature.  Even better?  According to an e-mail I received yesterday, I can request to interview any of the authors.

One of my all time favorite authors, Chris Cleave is one of those who will be in attendance.  Should I sign up?  What would I ask him?

Pretty much how I envision my discussion with Mr. Cleave.

Pretty simple, really.

Literally, this is my biggest wish in life.

A practical gift guide for the author in your life (especially if that author’s name is Ann Benjamin).

I’ve covered this before, but thought it could use a bit of an update.  Also, in case you wanted buying guides based on either of my books, I’ve got you covered (Room 702 or Life After Joe).  I’m not sure why my inner materialistic consumer loves gift guides so much, but I have so much fun looking through all of them (seriously, I can’t get enough!).  Thus, I wanted to put together a few (completely non-practical) ideas of things I would like.  Results my vary.

I don’t have many rules in my life, but I’m a firm believer that there should ALWAYS be champagne in one’s refrigerator.  My bubbles of choice are Veuve, and thus, this mailbox speaks to me on a very specific level.
Although mostly impractical, I can’t help but want another pair of Louboutin shoes, preferably these.
I read every day of my life.  There are no libraries where I live.  Thus, an unlimited Amazon gift card would go a long way in my life.
Moving towards my own office, I think a desktop computer will be in order.
Given I’ll be away from a traditional work environment next year, I kind of like the idea of this book.
My love of beauty boxes knows no bounds.  PopSugar crushed it last year (thanks Dr. B!), so I would be curious to see what this year was all about.
I probably need this bag.

In all honesty…

And you, dear reader?  Are there any gift guides I should know about?  What do you want most this year?

Sunday Sentence.

“Then he kissed her. Betsy didn’t believe in letting boys kiss you. She thought it was silly to be letting first this boy and then that one kiss you, when it didn’t mean a thing. But it was wonderful when Joe Willard kissed her. And it did mean a thing.”

Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Joe

The Betsy-Tacy series was a childhood favorite of mine and this scene means everything in the world to me.  I hope you have a beloved book that makes you smile.

In which I do not care, and that’s (maybe) a good thing.

On a recent weekend, Hubs and I cashed in some points and made our way to the Radisson Blu in Fujairah (side note: do yourself a favor and don’t stay here).  Knowing we had a number of hours in the car, I printed off the NYT’s 36 Questions That Lead to Love.  Fortunately, I’m already very much in love with my husband of 12 years, but I think it’s rare we ask our partners the big questions.

In this instance, when we got to question #22 and I was surprised at Hubs’ answer.  The question is a fairly simple and straightforward one: Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.

It was when Hubs said “You really don’t care what people think” that I learned something new.

While he’s mostly right, I am a very strange person when it comes to people’s opinions.  For example, I had an uncomfortable meeting at work this week.  It kind of bothered me, but not enough to do any permanent damage.  On the other hand, the fact that I’m shortly releasing Life After Joe for free makes me totally freak out.

Why?

The reality is that some stranger leaving a review on one of my books has such a larger impact than anyone in my day to day life.  That’s not to say I’m running around not caring what people in my life think of me, it’s more that I’m super comfortable with who I am.  Until Hubs pointed it out, I didn’t really realize it was a trait worth having, or that others might not have.  However, maybe it’s my lack of caring about people’s opinions that have brought me to where I am in my life.  I self published my books, moved abroad and don’t plan on having children. I’m quitting my job to take up a hobby.

Is that any more or less than anyone else would do?

The Page 69 Test

I recently stumbled on this idea when reading the blog of one of my favorite authors (Gail Carriger).  Essentially:

Marshall McLuhan, the guru of The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), recommends that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Rule One, then: browse powerfully and read page 69.

So, of course, I wanted to apply this to (for now), one of my works.  Direct from the manuscript (the Kindle version might be different) of Life After Joe, I present page 69:

Anniversary

Days without Joe: 84

Today is another one of “those days.” Today would’ve been our third wedding anniversary. Joe wasn’t always the most romantic individual (he had a penchant for being romantic when the mood struck him—not necessarily when it was on a specific day), but for the two years we were able to celebrate together, he followed the suggestions for both “traditional” and “modern” gifts. The first year’s presents being money (paper) and a funky clock I had been eyeing online. Not to be outdone, for the second year, he got me lovely Egyptian cotton towels I had coveted for ages and, for the china, a very quirky Jonathan Adler set that was, again, something I loved but would never actually buy for myself. I don’t think Joe spoiled me per se—he just used silly excuses like anniversaries and holidays to buy me things.

Unable to help myself, I looked online at our wedding pictures. All the little moments captured, all the people who joined and stood by us. How happy we were that day. Although I’m sniffling and will probably dehydrate myself from tears, I think I’m going to focus on the positive by sharing some of the details from the day.

First of all, for all you brides out there, we debated nearly every place we’d ever lived across this great country as possible venues for our wedding. We thought about going back to Chicago; we thought about a destination wedding, about getting married on a boat, about eloping to city hall, before we decided on the Ritz-Carlton in Charlottesville.

I remember waking up that morning of our wedding and thinking, “I’m the luckiest woman alive.” All the planning and dieting and exercising and people from out of town didn’t matter. My phone buzzed, and I looked over to see Joe had sent a text. It read You can still back out.

Not likely. What about you? Got an exit strategy? had been my response.

We’d had a running joke that one of us was going to stand the other one up or that someone would show up and wreck the wedding. However, all that silliness fell away when I walked down the aisle. I know it sounds clichéd, but the way Joe looked at me, it took my breath away. It really did. And when I reached him, I saw so much joy and love reflected back at me, I was almost overwhelmed.

Sure, there had been some minor disasters—a brief rainstorm almost threatened our pictures, some sort of dress emergency with one of our mothers (I can’t remember), Stephen indulging a little too much before the speeches and giving a bit of a drunken ramble when it came to his…

***

How do you determine what books to read?  Word of mouth?  Favorite authors?  Cool cover?  Good reviews?

 

Book Review: Manners & Mutiny

With a deep sigh that only comes with finishing a good series, I swiped to the last page of Manners and Mutiny by Ms. Gail Carriger on Sunday.  In reflection, of course there are many things I enjoyed about the books.  If you’re not acquainted with her work, Ms. Carriger tells a story like no one else – such that her writing is half the fun.  One of the first things that drew me to this series, was of course, the delightful Parasol Protectorate set (which remains my favorite).  Naturally, I compared the two.  And like my love of Tamora Pierce, I find that I much prefer the original series.

There is nothing wrong with Sophronia and her world, but in a critical look at the series (which I’m doing only because these books will be one of the closest set when my Queen trilogy is complete), I find a few things lacking.  While perhaps my own concern (and no one else’s), I found the ‘big bad’ in each book and overall difficult to identify and therefore at the end of four books, not as much of a payoff as I would’ve liked.  Again, my preference would be for a strong antagonist such that the resolve *feels* like a big ending (Cassandra Clare does this very well in her Infernal Devices series).  Sophronia is wonderfully independent, but the love interest and entire romantic storyline also felt a bit forced.  Like watching two actors on television who have no chemistry, that is how I felt with Soap and Sophronia (although MAJOR props to the author for creating a realistic and fitting end to this biracial couple).

However, there are a number of things Ms. Carriger does seamlessly – including her continuation of strong and developed supporting characters and fully realized world building.

Do I recommend the books?  Of course!

Am I still insanely jealous of Ms. Carriger’s writing style?  I am!

My issues aside, top marks!

Excerpt from Room 702 (w/bonus Ouija .gif!)

IDK, I saw this .gif and it made me think of a scene from Room 702:

“We place our fingers on the device and concentrate on a question or person. We ask the spirit to answer questions for us.”

“Okay,” Thalia says skeptically.

“You have to believe, T.”

“I do! I promise! So what should we ask first?”

“We need to know if Brendan is still in this room.” Closing her eyes and lowering her voice, Maureen says aloud, “Is Brendan Sullivan with us tonight?”

Ever-so-slightly the Ouija device swings toward the No response of the board. Both women take their hands off the board and look at each other. Thalia asks, “Does that mean someone else is here?”

Maureen chews on her thumbnail and responds, “Maybe we should ask if we can speak to Brendan? He could be busy in the afterlife.”

The women take a long moment to look at each other, and Thalia says, “You’re right. We didn’t come all this way not to find him. Plus your fans will want to know we tried everything.”

“Thanks.”

They place their hands back on the piece of plastic, and Maureen asks clearly, “May we please speak with Brendan Sullivan?”

Once again the planchette moves slowly but surely in the direction of No.

The ladies remove their hands, stumped by a piece of cardboard. Maureen comments glumly, “I guess we never thought he wouldn’t want to talk to us.”

Thalia snaps her fingers and says, “What if we ask who we can talk to?”

“Or maybe we should ask how he died?”

“You think that an inanimate object can tell us what the coroner couldn’t fully determine?”

“Maybe we can figure out if what he did was intentional or not.”

“Let’s try.”

They reposition their hands, and Maureen asks, “Did Brendan Sullivan commit suicide in this room?”

The device swings over to No more quickly than with the previous two questions. Thalia, in frustration, removes her hands and says, “Maybe we got a defective Ouija board. This one seems to be pessimistic.”

“All right, let’s give it one last try. Maybe we can get it to spell something for us.” Once again their fingers come to rest lightly on the plastic, and Maureen pitches her voice low. “Great spirits of the beyond, we seek a great favor from your wisdom. Although he cannot be reached on the other side, we seek to find out how Brendan Sullivan met his ultimate demise.”

“Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?” Thalia murmurs in a low tone.

Maureen whispers back, “Shh!” then continues, “If you would be so kind to tell us, we feel his spirit can come to rest and would be very grateful for your guidance.”

They wait in silence, on edge to see if something happens, and Maureen concludes, “How did Brendan die?”

On being friends with a writer.

I had the opportunity to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in awhile yesterday.  When I was trying to sleep last night, it occurred to me that both friends asked me the same question, “How’s your writing?”

Oh friends, I love you.

I realized they could have asked me “How are things at work?” or “What’s going on at the University?” or “Where are you traveling next?” But they didn’t.  Maybe it’s because they know me.  Maybe it’s because while work is where I spend most of my week (for now), it’s not a topic I really want to spend any time on (especially on the weekends).

The thing you have to know about any author is that we LOVE to talk about our characters, manuscripts and other writing activities.  If you give us time, we will talk to you for hours (and hours).  Anyway, while the question may seem innocuous enough to you – trust me – it’s one of the most meaningful things you can ask a writer.  So, if you have a few minutes to spare, please inquire, because we would love to tell you.