Book Reviews for Writers: Maintaining Enthusiasm from True Spirit by Jessica Watson

On May 15, 2010, after 210 days at sea and more than 22,000 nautical miles, 16-year-old Jessica Watson sailed her 33-foot boat triumphantly back to land. She had done it. She was the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and nonstop around the world.

Jessica spent years preparing for this moment, years focused on achieving her dream. Yet only eight months before, she collided with a 63,000-ton freighter. It seemed to many that she’d failed before she’d even begun, but Jessica brushed herself off, held her head high, and kept going.

Told in Jessica’s own words, True Spirit is the story of her epic voyage. It tells how a young girl, once afraid of everything, decided to test herself on an extraordinary adventure that included gale-force winds, mountainous waves, hazardous icebergs, and extreme loneliness on a vast sea, with no land in sight and no help close at hand. True Spirit is an inspiring story of risk, guts, determination, and achievement that ultimately proves we all have the power to live our dreams—no matter how big or small.

I'm a dreamer, like most writers are, so I love when I hear about people who are living their own dreams. When I first heard about Jessica Watson, she had just left Australia to begin her sail around the world. I followed her blog (who knew you could blog from the middle of NOWHERE with a satellite connection??) every week throughout her journey, and when she came home, I cheered. I bought her book, True Spirit, as soon as it was out.

And folks, it's AWESOME.

Jessica wrote the book herself, using her blog entries for parts of it, and it rings with her enthusiastic teen voice. That's what I want to talk about today: enthusiasm. Jessica was only 16 when she sailed solo, non-stop, and unassisted around the world. I remember thinking, how the heck can a teenager be able to do that? It wasn't an easy journey, even before she set sail. She worked her tail off for years, improving her sailing skills and finding sponsors. She had numerous set-backs, some of them big enough to nearly derail the entire project. But she never gave up. Why?

You can hear it in her voice. It's her enthusiasm. She didn't just work hard, she loved working hard. She relished every moment and didn't let herself dwell on her defeats. Partly because she was determined, but partly because she was so excited and enthusiastic about her goal. After reading this book, I think it's her enthusiasm as much as her hard work that helped her achieve her dreams.

So, my friends, what are your dreams? Are you enthusiastic about them, or just going through the motions? How do you maintain enthusiasm in the face of your own set-backs?

Check out my reader's reaction here.

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Book Reviews for Writers: Deepening Setting from The Healing Spell

So I'm pretty excited to announce that I'm now a reviewer for Afterglow Book Reviews! It's a fabulous place to find reviews of books that people really loved-- I've been adding to my Goodreads list for days.

I'll still be doing book reviews for writers here, but my reader's reaction will be on Afterglow. Today, I want to talk about The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little.

Eleven-year-old Livie is terrified when her father insists that they bring her comatose mother home from the hospital. How can she look at, much less touch and care for, Mamma when she alone knows that she caused her illness? As Mamma continues to languish in bed, Livie grows more and more estranged from her family, a chasm that begins to close only after she gathers her courage to visit the local traiteur, who gives her the formula for a healing spell. As Livie collects the spell's necessary ingredients, she begins to open up to the knowledge that she is loved and cherished by her family.

As a writer, one of the things that stuck out to me in this book was the setting. I think setting is not always something that we writers focus on, but it's an aspect that can really make a book stand out. In The Healing Spell, the Louisiana Bayou becomes a character unto itself. Here are a few take aways I had.

The bayou has shaped the characters. It has created not only a rich cultural aspect to the book, but richer characterizations, especially in Livie. Her history with the bayou is an enormous part of who she is, and feeds not only her character, but the actual conflict of the book.

The characters have a relationship with the setting. The bayou means different things to the different characters. To Livie, it's an old friend. But it's also a place that holds as much guilt and fear as it does love. Her relationship with the bayou isn't just a simple, "I love to play in the woods" kind of thing. Like her relationships with her family members, it's complicated and multi-layered.

The setting takes on a life of its own through the character's eyes. This is one we hear a lot: describe things through your character's eyes. But it goes beyond description in this book. Because of Livie's history and relationship with the bayou, she sees it completely differently than her father or her cousin. Her father sees it as a source of food; her cousin sees it as a terrifying mystery; Livie sees it as a friend that can help her family heal despite the tragedy that's happened there. Because of that, the bayou takes on a bit of mysticism that filters through the rest of the book.

So, my friends, not only do I highly recommend The Healing Spell, but I'm curious about your thoughts on setting. How do you use it in your writing? Where have you seen setting used in a deft and deepening manner?

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Book Reviews for Writers: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

The book Wither by Lauren DeStefano caught my eye for several reasons. The gorgeous cover. The sci fi/dystopian aspects. The polygamy. My own grandmother was born into polygamy, and was lucky enough to have an enterprising mother who escaped with her. So the story had my attention.

And it did not disappoint.

When scientists engineered genetically perfect children, everyone thought it would ensure the future of the human race. Though the first generation is nearly immortal, a virus causes all successive generations to die early: age 20 for women, 25 for men. Now, girls are kidnapped for brothels or polygamous marriages to breed children. Rhine is taken from her hardscrabble life and sold with two other girls to Linden Ashby. Though they live in a palatial Florida home surrounded by gardens and treated like royalty, the girls are sequestered from the outside world, and Rhine longs to escape. Her growing affection for her sister wives, her pity for Linden, and her fear of Housemaster Vaughn, Linden's manipulative father, keep her uncomfortably docile, until she falls for servant Gabriel.

First off, the writing is gorgeous. Rhine's voice is mature, and the books reads smoothly. It's one of those that I got so swept up in, I didn't even analyze it as I went. I just wanted the story. I found the science aspects fascinating, and I loved that it was kind of a dystopian made small. The dystopian aspects of the world took place within the mansion where Rhine lives-- her small world is seemingly perfect, but it is a cage nonetheless. I also loved the book's apocalyptic aspects-- a world that is very slowly dying.

But what I loved most about this book were the relationships. Obviously there are some very heavy issues at hand here-- characters who are dying, kidnapping, polygamy, teenage brides. The emotional poignancy of these issues is enhanced by the relationships of all kinds: the sister-wive's, the wives with their husband, Rhine with Gabriel, everyone with evil Vaughn. As writers, this is one thing I think we can take away from this book.

I talked about character relationships recently, and Wither is a great example of how relationships between characters strengthen a story. All of the characters in the book were complicated, and each of their relationships was as well. For me, that's what made this book with such a far-out premise real. I believed the characters, so I believed their story. I admit, there were a few world-building aspects in Wither that felt flat (and one that I found down-right unbelievable). And yet, I still loved the book because of the characters and their relationships.

If you're looking for an emotional, gripping, and fascinating read that you can learn from as a writer, I highly recommend Wither!

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Book Reviews for Writers: Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg

When I was in college, my roommate came home one day with a CD. She said her boss's wife was a writer, and had offered to let my roommate read an ecopy of the book she was working on. When I found out it was sci fi, I immediately wanted to read it too. I popped the CD in my computer...and read half the night.

I loved the story so much, my roommate gave me the CD. For the next few years, I would pull it up every once in a while and read it again. One day, I decided to find out if the book had ever been published. And lo and behold, it was! I was thrilled, and immediately bought it for my Nook. I even finally met the author at the LTUE conference and got to tell her how much I loved it.

So now, for your reading pleasure, I give you Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg!

Dace's wants are simple - a trading ship and the freedom to fly where she chooses. But on her first trip, her crew betrays her, her ship explodes, and she finds herself stranded on Dadilan, a planet locked in a feudal age.

Survival is hard enough when you have no technology or resources. It's even harder when you have drug smugglers hunting you. Dadilan is the source of shara, a drug that enhances psychic abilities, a commodity so rare and precious people will kill for it.

Trapped between rival smugglers and the Patrol undercover investigation, Dace has one hope of rescue: convincing Tayvis, the undercover agent, she's an innocent bystander. But those don't exist on Dadilan. No one lands without authorization, unless they are smuggling.

Her ignorance may cost her life.

This is a wonderful, adventurous space opera. I loved Dace's character, and sort of developed a crush of my own on Tayvis. There were other fascinating characters-- including a hilarious delusional guy who thinks he's Robin Hood. The plot was complicated enough to keep me guessing, but not so complicated I couldn't follow it. And the best part was the adventure. The pacing was perfect, and there was constantly something fun/dangerous happening.

And that's where I'm taking the review for writers today: adventure. Sometimes, I think we get so caught up in the rules and the shoulds and the shouldn'ts that we forget to just have FUN with the book.

One thing I've found is that the first draft is the best place to let all the creativity flow so the fun comes out. I try not to worry as much about the details here-- I just want to tell a story that's fun to write. Of course, all those "details" are important to the fun. Character development and pacing and sentence structure are all key; if those things aren't there, they get in the way of the fun. But sometimes, it's good to just stop and let the plot be an adventure.

If you're looking for a good example of a well-written adventure, read Nexus Point! And keep an eye out for the next books in the series-- I've read a few of them on those early CDs, and they're just as fun!

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Book Reviews for Writers: Matched by Ally Condie

This weekend, I got news that Ally Condie, author of Matched, was signing at a local bookstore. She lives nearby (ish), and had her launch party in my town, but I missed it because I was sick, so I was determined to go meet her and get a signed copy of Matched.

The Kiddo came with me since the hubs was at work, and when we got to the store I almost turned back. Okay, not really, but it was PACKED. They were having a Ladies Night, and I had to fight my way to the signing table. It was worth it, though. I had a lovely little chat with Ally, got my signed book, and got a picture with her.

I'd been lucky enough to read an ARC of Matched, but I'm glad to have my own copy now-- and signed! It reminds me of The Giver in some ways, which is my favorite dystopian of all time. Here's my review, though I've decided to do something a little different with my reviews. I want to focus on things I learned from the books as a writer, and to pass them on!

Here's the blurb from Amazon: "Cassia Reyes is a model student, daughter, and citizen. How could she not be when the Society has everything planned and functioning perfectly? All of her needs are met: food, shelter, education, career training, and even her future husband are selected by officials who know what is best for each individual by studying statistical data and probable odds. She even knows when she will die, on her 80th birthday, just as the Society dictates. At her Match Banquet she is paired with Xander, her best friend and certainly her soul mate. But when a computer error shows her the face of Ky, an Aberration, instead of Xander, cracks begin to appear in the Society's facade of perfection. A series of events also shakes her dedication to Xander and puts her future in jeopardy."

The story is a little slower than I first anticipated, but that doesn't mean it isn't a gripping read. Both times I've read it, I finished it in a single day. I love the characters, especially Xander and Ky, and I love that the love triangle actually MAKES SENSE. I didn't spend the book going, "She's so stupid, why can't she just make up her mind!" I was torn between the boys too.

As a writer, the biggest thing I learned from Matched is that your actual WRITING counts! I've read some books lately where the plot was interesting, the characters fun, and the writing clean, but they didn't have that...oomph to their prose. I loved Matched in part because of the gorgeous prose. It was all the more engaging because of the lyrical rhythms that came out as Cassia's voice.

This isn't to say all your writing needs to be lyrical and poetic. Your character's voice-- and your own authorial voice-- might not be like that, and that's fine! But when you put your words together and string them into sentences, try to find a way to make them flow however the story dictates.

One thing that helps me immensely is to read poetry-- and lots of different poets. It helps to get a feel of how I can use words in different ways to create different moods, voices, and rhythms. So don't forget your prose!

So, my friends, have you read Matched? What were your thoughts? Do you try to focus on your prose at some point when you're writing? What tips can you share with the rest of us?

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