Recent Reads: Fragments

Book: Fragments by Jeffry Johnston

Book Count: 4

Chase is a junior in high school and he wakes up each morning not able to completely remember it. The accident that took the lives of four of his friends. He was the sole survivor. Him and the drunk driver who hit them.

Everyone is on edge around Chase. His parents continually ask how he is, though they detach themselves from his answer. The people at school are overly nice to him, but he just wants to be treated normally.

When the memory flashes from the accident lead to him recalling other memories. Darker memories, Chase begins to panic, because he would rather remember the horrible night of the accident than the ugly past he thought he'd moved on from. But for him to move on, he has to face the truth. About what happened and just how involved he really was.

The overall story was compelling and unexpected. I didn't know where it was leading, but I wanted to find out. My only issue: it took me a while to get a handle on the overall voice of the narrator. As I read, the way the character spoke and thought, it didn't seem to be like a normal 16-17 year old boy. It seemed too mature in some places, but too childlike in others. It isn't until the story came to a close and I'd put the book down, letting the tale resonate in my mind for a while that I understood the character better. And maybe that was the point here. It wasn't about "getting it" as soon as I was done reading. It was about looking at the bigger picture and finding out that what you see isn't always what you get, and what you get isn't always what you want.

WiP Wednesday: Flying with My Muse

Long time no real post. *sighs*

Traveling for work is not nearly as glamorous as it is on TV, although I was upgraded roundtrip on my flights last week. SWEET!!

On my flight out to Jersey this week? It was like a 35,000 feet crash back to reality: Coach. Middle seat. Uh, yeah. I will forever appreciate every single upgrade I ever get from now on. FOREVER. I couldn't even bust out the pen and notebook to write in coach. It was that cramped. I'm only 5'1" tall and my knees were touching the back of the seat in front of me! And then the person reclined her seat! Uh, Hello, nice to meet you.

Okay, enough about that. On to my WiP...

So on the upgraded flights I was able to get quite a bit of writing done. 42 pages in my notebook to be exact. I've been trying to write whenever I get a chance, but being on the road has made it so that when I was home over the weekend, I just wanted to hang out with the family. Reasonable, I think. Gotta be realistic about the priorities. Plus, we didn't have the internet (we just switched providers) and so I already knew I was going to be behind on my forum reading and #RSthrowdown updates, so I figured I'd just wait until I wasn't taking anymore time from the kiddies.

Back to my 42 pages. I haven't typed them in yet, so no idea how many words that may be. And then on the flip side, when I was able to get some catching up done in the hotel yesterday, I edited instead of wrote. My brain was a little fried. A bit like Tuesday after a whole day of training. But I did get something writing-worthwhile out of the training. The last segment of Tuesday's session was all around the 2-minute pitch. Or the elevator speech. So something I can definitely apply to the whole query/pitch etc. thing on the writing side. See, I knew there was a reason I NEEDED to come to this training. *winks*

Okay, for now, that's it. Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Quote of the Week

"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent."

-Marilyn vos Savant

The Done Manifesto

I don't remember where I saw this first so unfortunately I'm not able to provide credit where credit is due, but I have loved it since I read it. It is currently my desktop background and though it makes it hard to find my icons sometimes, it keeps me realistic. Here are my two favorite parts of this whole thing:

ACCEPT THAT EVERYTHING IS A DRAFT

THERE IS NO EDITING STAGE

What do you think?

Spring Educator Night - 7 YA Authors @ B & N

For any teachers/writers/readers in the Salt Lake area:

7 local YA Authors will be at the Barnes & Noble at Jordan Landing (about 7800 South Bangerter Hwy) on Thursday, April 23, 7:00 pm.

They are doing book signings and having a panel on writing.

The participating authors are: Sara Zarr, Randall Wright, A.E. Cannon, Mette Harrison, Emily Wing Smith, Jessica George and Shannon Hale.

Here's the link to the event details: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2137

If anyone's able to make it, let me know how it is. Unfortunately for me, I will be missing yet another YA author event due to travel for work. (The last one was Laurie Halse Anderson @ King's English in Salt Lake while I was in Puerto Rico. :( ... )

Work in Progress Wednesday: What Happened?!?

New words (since last update post): 0
Chapters edited (since last update post): 1

The other day I said I needed to change my #RSthrowdown goals for the week. Well, I wasn't kidding. Since then, I've written virtually no new words on my WiP and have been diligently editing away on the completed ms: JM. In fact, I've been so diligently revising/editing said completed ms that it appears I may have another couple rounds of editing to do once I really tell myself that I can't ADD anymore. Not one more sentence. Or line. Or word. When I thought JM was complete, it came in just barely over 89K words. And now? In the midst of revisions/editing round 3? Last night I was barely able to shave it down to a good even 90K. What?! How did this happen? I keep asking myself the same the question.

I think the new stuff is good. Better than what was (or clearly was not) there before. I thought I was getting close to being done. Ha! Yeah. Maybe next week.

Also, I only got the 1 chapter edited last night because I wanted to spend some time with the fam because I'll be traveling with work for the next couple of weeks and so fam time will be limited to the weekends I'm home. But I wanted to share a great moment with our 3-yo (P) @ the grocery store:

P: Can we get popsicles?
Me: If you want. But we're going to the bookstore. [said popsicles would melt with the 75 degree weather we've been have in SLC]
P: But we don't have popsicles at home.
Me: You can pick. Do you want to get popsicles and go straight home or do you want to go to the bookstore?
P: *finger pressed to lips* Hmmm. I want to go to the bookstore. We can just get popsicles next time.
Me: You are so my kid.

I did pick up a couple books at the bookstore (P wanted the uber-expensive version of The Hungry Caterpillar and nothing else, so she had to settle for a promise of taking her to get her her very own library card.).

I've heard some great things about - both YA fantasy. I'm primarily read YA contemporary fiction, but lately I've really been trying to stay openminded about the "other worlds" that are other genres. We'll see how it goes and I'll definitely give my thoughts on here. Stay tuned!

So while I'm on the road, blog posts will probably be even more sporadic than they already are - though I have been trying to be consistent a couple days a week. I'm trying to get things together so I can just get some posts scheduled, but not sure if I'll have enough time. I'll be back in the swing of things mid-May. With all the flights, maybe I'll get some good writing done.

Okay all, have a great Wednesday!