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WHY I LOVE LIBRARIANS

3/30/2015

3 Comments

 
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I love Libraries. But I’m really, really obsessed with Librarians.

When I was a kid I thought our weekly trip to a white brick building in the middle of town that was filled with stories was insanely magical. Even as an adult, the concept of a library blows my mind. But as wonderfully revolutionary as that is, the magic of a library quadruples in power when I consider the group of people who work there.

Librarians are amazing.

My library obsession is pretty evident in my series, Between Lions, since the whole thing revolves around the descendants of the ancient Alexandrian Librarians… and people keep asking me why I decided to write about them.

Here is the reason:

No matter what a person is looking for, a librarian will do anything and everything to help you find it, without knowing why you need it. They just assume that if you ask, it’s important. They believe in the pursuit of knowledge and dedicate their lives to organizing and protecting information so that it is accessible to all. I also love that they won’t just give you an answer. Their job is to help you to navigate and translate the intricacies of the Dewey Decimal System to help you locate whatever treasures of knowledge you’re seeking.

Seriously think about that for a minute.  Then, before you get as obsessed as I am, let’s all just agree that Librarians are one of the noblest professions.

Now I feel like celebrating them! So here is my idea to honor them all:
Let's share a favorite book(s) suggested to you by a Librarian! 

In my experience, Librarians always know what you should read next. I have learned to save room in my book pile for their recommendations the way other people save room for dessert. As a child, my Librarians led me through their bookshelf labyrinths to Narnia, Green Gables, Edward Eager’s wishing well, Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tale Books (the titles were the Red Fairy Book, the Green Fairy Book, the Purple Fairy Book etc.… I 'd walked past, thinking a plain, single colored book couldn’t be interesting – gah!).  

So here is my Librarian Love Story:

My children's Librarian overheard me talking to my mother about how much I loved the movie The Wizard of Oz, so she beckoned me over to a whole, amazing foot long section of stories about the Land of Oz. Dorothy was in there, of course, but there were many more marvelous creatures to meet in L. Frank Baum’s books… and I learned at eight years old that if you like a movie, you just might like the book (or books) even better. I will forever be grateful to her for that.

Thank you Librarians, everywhere, for all that you do.

So: What’s your favorite Librarian Recommended Book? Or a book you never would have found with the help of a Librarian?

3 Comments

MY MUSE'S WRITING RULES

3/23/2015

4 Comments

 
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These are my writing rules/philosophies/advice as dictated to me by my Muse:

1. Write the thing you think you cannot write today. You have permission to write the unsayable, unthinkable, & unmake able.

2. Wherever you are is the entry point.

3. There is a reason for the pace that ideas arrive in. To quote Emily Dickinson: "Truth dazzles gradually, else the world would be blind."

4. Your only job is to make visible what, without you, might never be seen.

5. Try again. Fail again. Just fail better.

6. Make space in your mind for writing (in addition to time) each day.

7. Don't show or tell until the baby is ready.

8. In between writing, do things, go places, and talk to people who fill up your well.

9. Believe that when you commit, something benevolent will commit back.

10. TRUST.

These lovely rules give me courage, strength, and permission, all while reinvigorating my love for whatever I am working on. 

I needed to read them today. Feeling fearful as I'm plunging into writing a new book, simultaneously finishing up publishing details for first book, TRUST, that is about to debut. Focusing on #10 right now.

Since I needed them today, I thought maybe someone else might too, so I am hopefully and lovingly sharing the messages.
 
If you or your muse has any advice, words of wisdom, inspiration or encouragement to add for me or anyone else who creating art right now, I'd love to hear it. Please share any good tidbits you've collected or reactions to the 'Writing Rules' in comment section below!


I'm excited to hear your "rules"!



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series LOVE

3/11/2015

6 Comments

 
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Delving into a series instead of a single book is like deciding to move somewhere amazing, instead of just taking a vacation to your favorite place. 

When I enter a book-world that is beautifully and thoughtfully built, with rules that I find mind altering, characters that I find fascinating, off the chart stakes, and a writing style full of searing sentences… I really, really don't want it to end.

I want to find out what happens, of course, so I inhale the pages, but when it's over, I don't want to leave. Happily-ever-after is unsatisfying when it comes too quickly. I want to see what happens with the people, discover more layers of the world and its inhabitants, see how the rules the writer started with shape and illuminate the story over time. Sometimes its cool to see a 'slice of life', but what I really want is to see how characters and places change over the course of a specific, high stakes time period; how they rise and fall and shift and deal with adversity, how they course correct, what they learn - good and bad - and I like for the writers to be able to take their time while taking me on a journey. I like tv shows better than movies for that same reason. I guess I'm just a "monogamous" type of girl.

Truthfully… I'm in between series right now - ugh! Ick! Yikes! The horror!
So I decided to use a blog entry to manipulate you all into giving me series recommendations in exchange for a few of mine. I could go on, and on and on - in fact I might do a whole blog list of my favorite series - but for now, here's the three that pop up in my mind today:

Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy was a masterpiece. 
Read the first few pages and try not to be hooked. I triple dog dare you. I marvel at her sentences as much or possibly more than the brilliant way she uses our cultural concepts of monsters, fairy tales and spirituality against us, pushing the readers to see our own world with new eyes. I was so not ready to leave Karou after one book - No way! In truth, it was painful to leave her after three. I am secretly hoping for another trilogy from her, set in the same world. 

One of my favorite experiences EVER was reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. There are a few that happen in "order", but what links them together is that they all take place in the same world. That's it. The characters in each are from completely different parts of the world. Sometimes they bump into one another, which is fantastically fun. There is one particular character (no spoilers, but Prachett lovers know who I mean) who shows up in at least a minor guest spot in every book. You recognize him because his dialog is in all capitol letters. Sometimes he is the main character in the story, sometimes he shows up in a scene to push the characters in the story forwards, and sometimes he's just passes by the protagonist like a ship in the night (always in some hysterically random and wonderful way). The books are all really great, but when HE shows up, it's like a reward/gift to those who have committed to reading every Discworld novel. You want to look at someone else and scream - "there! he just popped in! how awesome was that?!?!" Because you know who it is, even if nobody else in the scene does. Of course, the really, really great thing about this series - even better than that little gifts - is that it takes a long time to finish with Discworld. Wiki has forty-three titles listed, and I'm pretty sure they missed some.That man is a writing freak of nature, and I love him for it. 

I also adore the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, because each book is told from a new protagonist's voice. The twist? It's always a cleverly re-imagined fairy tale character whose store we vaguely recognize, but somehow, she manages to surprise you with HOW she gets there, even though you know its coming. I also like that the heroine (or villain) from the last book always shows up in the next, so we don't lose them, and lastly, I love that they are always set in her brilliantly cool and complicated futuristic setting, so that with each story you are continuing to delve deeper into the hows, whys and whats of the world.

Okay, your turn!! Gimme your fave series (YA appreciated, urban fantasy preferred, but by no means is either required). I'm ready to commit to a new world!

6 Comments

MY BODY MUSE

3/1/2015

5 Comments

 
Do you trust your body?
In fifth grade I missed approximately twenty-one days of school. The teacher actually read aloud the names from the the list of top 5 miscreants who had ‘skipped out on learning’, and I took second place to someone who had mono. I’d actually been suffering from terribly debilitating allergies, but in that moment, at age ten, I just thought I was 'bad' & 'weak'. So I listened to adults who told me I had to ‘buck up’. (One school nurse actually told me that I wasn’t really sick, I just invented reasons to stay home on the days when the most exciting, Must-See-TV events were happening on General Hospital & Days of Our Lives. I started watching soap operas that year just to find out what she was talking about).

I didn’t have a lot of sick days at my high school for the performing arts. Morning academics were hard as hell and all afternoon, instead of sports, we had kick ass, intense arts classes. Evenings and weekends were spent in rehearsal or studio practice time. Despite double the homework, triple the physical & emotional exhaustion, and quadruple the commitment, nobody complained. We all thought that getting to do what we loved and being taken seriously as artists made us the luckiest kids on earth. Shocker: being happy made me less sick. But of course, one day I did feel yucky. My teacher sent me to the school nurse.

When the nurse clucked and told me I was sensitive, I braced for the 'buck up' lecture. Imagine my surprise when she added: “Being sensitive is lucky. Everyone’s body talks. Sensitive people are more likely to listen. That's how you fix minor issues before they became major. Better to listen to your body’s whispers before they become screams.” Then that incredible medical professional told me: “Take two days off: one sick day to get better and then one mental health day. Take a bath, take a walk, read a non-school book... do something nice for yourself to refill your depleted well, and then get back to work.” 


That amazing woman invited me to start learning how to understand messages from my Body-Muse. I wish every young person was given that gift.

I found out my Body-Muse's messages to my sensitive self are very loud and very clear:
 
If I’m not ‘handling’ a situation that needs to be dealt with, my hands break out in eczema or hives. If I don’t digest my emotions/acknowledge them, I get a stomach ache. If I stop being creative, my ovaries throw fits during moon cycles. I also found out my Body-Muse gives me cravings for food that contain the exact nutrients that she needs to function well (like, when she needs calcium, she nudges me towards cheese. If I need iron, she’ll suggest my fave New England treat: steamed clams (YUM) and suddenly kale needs to be added to every dish I make. I am also grateful to her for suggesting regular walks to and from the library when I lived in NYC, since those library lions eventually found their way into my books! 

From the way I've been bouncing in my office chair to the music in my headphones today, I'm pretty sure my Body Muse wants me to go take a dance class ASAP!

What are the ways your Body-Muse inspires you/talks to you? 

What does your Body Muse want you to do today? 

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    My MUSE-INGS BLOG

    Long ago people believed that otherworldly creatures called Muses gifted lucky artists with creative ideas. My Muses deliver me stories about Werejackals, Ancient Libraries, Kick-ass Heroines, & Doorways to other worlds. 

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