The Night Circus - a Book Review

“The Night Circus arrives without warning.” The Night Circus is more fantastical than you’d ever imagine. The Night Circus is the Circus as you’ve always hoped it would be.

In “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern we meet Celia and Marco. Each raised by a different magician to follow in their legacy, and to participate in a strange challenge that neither of the participants really understands until the end. All they know is that their skills are being pitted against each other.

The arena for this challenge is the Night Circus. The Circus starts as a dream by those who have a love for the incredible, and who have a burning passion to create the ultimate reactions from the audience. Marco joins in the production as the assistant to the man orchestrating it all. Celia joins when she auditions for the part of the Illusionist and shocks everyone with her skill.

The imagery in this book is incredible. I felt as if I was swept up in the magic as I read, and I lost all track of time and what was really going on around me. I was, for a time, transported to the Night Circus, where dreamers are welcome.

Honestly? I don’t think I can adequately describe this book for you. The best thing I can do is to say GO READ IT. This is one of the best books, possibly the best, that I have read in the last year or so. I’m giving this 5 out of 5 cups of coffee and I’ll be anxiously waiting to find out what else Erin Morgenstern does.

For all of your writers out there, especially the Wrimos, guess what? Erin is one of us. This novel came into being because of her participation in NaNoWriMo. I don’t remember the whole story, but if she ended up with an incredible gem like this? Well, I’d say there’s a lot of hope for the rest of us! Dreamers who happen to write.

~ Ruthie ~

WIP Update - Constructive Destruction

***Warning, today's blog is full of pictures, but worth it!***

Thursday I posted about finishing the outlining process for my current WIP. I had gone through, marked each scene, and created flash cards to go with them. This is what happened next:

That's my book! Laid out scene by scene! All 91 scenes originally written! The reason there are some gaps is that some scenes did not contain complete pages. While this looks pretty, I quickly discovered it took up too much space to be practical. The goal was to lay out the book in order to contemplate the order of scenes and chapters, and while I might have been able to do that if I had laid it out on a bunch of tables (maybe set up in a square with me in the middle?), my floor just wasn't cutting it. So I gathered them back into a pile,  but I was still thinking the floor, so I spread them out a few scenes at a time around my knees.

That didn't last long. My joints don't like the floor that much, and I realized that I only needed to look at a handful of scenes at a time, so a table would do. Gathering up my supplies, I moved again.

A few scenes laid out to work on.

Like the card table? It's probably from the 70's... 

I used my tray table to put the manuscript piles. 

On the right, scenes to work on, on the left, completed ones paper clipped into chapters.

I loved watching the second pile grow!

In the middle of moving things around.

Since I don't outline first, I found this process really helpful. Especially because I wrote the first draft using alternating points of view (POV). It worked well at first, but by the time I had added in the rest of the adventurers, it just wasn't working well. I also realized, as I was reading through it, that I changed POV way too frequently. It felt like good long breaks in between each character as I was writing it, but reading? I'd change almost every page! That's just too confusing! 

I'm switching to using an omniscient narrator for at least the majority of the book, and that means I need to reorganize the order of some of the early scenes (where my characters were in two different places) and there was a little bit of shuffling through out the rest as well. Mostly in the chapter breaks. I kept my chapters at a pretty consistent word length during writing (it helped me to set goals and meet them) and had some horrible breaks as a result. I know that these might not be the "final" chapter breaks, but I think how I have them divided up currently will make the editing process much easier. Want too see how the final chapters look?

Isn't it pretty? Each chapter is marked with a sticky note in the top right, and has the 3x5 cards that matched the scenes in the top left corner. I'm currently working on taking the original draft and copying it into pages in a new Scrivener file in the order that I've rearranged things. Then I'll edit it chapter by chapter, with the old text and the new text in side by side windows. I have a list of things I want to remember in this edit, and I'll include those the best I can while changing the point of view. It'll be challenging, but it's also fun to watch the book evolve!

I'll probably do this with future WIP's as well, although hopefully they will need a little less work between first and second drafts! It still helped a lot with chapter and flow, and I liked being able to pick things up and move them around. I think a longer table would be nice though. Maybe I'll get a study room at one of the libraries next time!

~ Ruthie ~ 

Ps. How are your WIP's going?

Fear

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Fear. It's something we all deal with. Some of our fears are irrational (there probably isn't a monster in the closet, unless my husband is about to scare me again) and some of them are quite rational (yes, avoiding black widow spiders is smart). There are fears that we have because of a lack of information, there are fears we have based on past events, and fears that are related to current events in our lives. Lots and lots of fears that people deal with in one way or another.

For most writer's there is a fear that we all share. Namely, that our work isn't good enough. 

Now I know that this isn't a fear unique to writers, but I am writer, and I know many of my readers are writers (or artists) and will identify with what I'm saying.

When you write something (or create a work of art) you invest a lot into it. You put in your time and effort, but more than that, you put a piece of yourself into your work. So this fear of not being good enough is very, very personal. 

I have struggled with this fear many times in my life, and most recently, as I've been working on outlining Misfits, the book I wrote during NaNoWriMo last year. (note: Misfits is a working title) I look at this piece of work in front of me and I see all its messy flaws, and believe me, it has a ton of them. One of the characters starts out talking in full sentence and later in the book he only speaks in choppy, broken sentences. One of the character speaks like a normal person and I need to fancy up his language and give him lots of big words to use. There are plot holes. Places where I made things work so I could keep writing and it's just quite frankly not believable. The conversations in places are so stilted it makes me cringe. 

It would be really easy to stop right here and say, "This is never going to be worth the effort. I should do something else." It is going to take a LOT of work to make this book at all readable and, after all that work, what if it's still not good enough? 

Here's the thing though. I can't worry about that yet. As my brother reminded me yesterday, Misfits is a 71k book that I wrote in 29 days. Of course it has lots of problems! Since I've never completed an entire first draft of a novel, and I wrote this one in a very short period of time, there is absolutely no way that the first draft could be anything but a mess.

And so I go on.

I'm 75% of the way through outlining the book, and when I'm done I'm going to spread the manuscript out on the floor, scene by scene with it's matching index card, and make some hard decisions about what needs to be done from there to fix it. I'm committed to bringing this book to a complete second draft, and my fears be damned. I can't let them rule my work or I'll never get anywhere.

Sure, there's a chance I'm investing all this time and effort and I'll decide, in the end, that this book isn't worth publishing, and that's ok. I'll have learned a lot through the process (and believe me I am!) and the next one I write will be better. I have to believe that, or I might as well stop writing. So adios fear, you can pack your bags, I'm not going to listen to your seductive voice.

~ Ruthie ~

I'm Baaaack!

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I've missed blogging! Actually I've missed a lot of things. I've been sick for weeks... and before that life was insane because someone I was close to was in crisis and...yeah. It's just been crazy but I'm getting better slowly but surely and I'm happy to blogging again! 

Yesterday was the first time in a month and a half that I had sat down to work on Misfits, my NaNoNovel. That's just sad. I have done writing here and there in the mean time, book reviews, a few writing exercises, but not touched the book. I know that the stress I've been under is a big part of it, but I also think that part of it comes down to scheduling.

I hate schedules, which makes it very hard for me to put myself on any kind of one. Part of it is that I can be very ADHD, so schedules tend to annoy me because I have a hard time focusing on what I'm supposed to be focusing on when I'm supposed to be focusing on it. So for a long time I've given myself a schedule of "you must do this and this at some point in the day" and just tackled it in whatever order felt "right" to me that day.

The problem with that is that the things I want to do, or have motivation to do for whatever reason, get done. The things that I don't want to do? Not as much. 

So I'm trying out a new schedule. It still has a lot of flexibility to it, but I'm assigning chunks of my day to certain tasks (like writing!) and then leaving some vagueness to how I approach the use of that time. I've also put into my new plan time for me to get sick or have migraines (which I do a lot) or for other things to disrupt my schedule. I'll let you guys know how it goes! 

~ Ruthie ~ 

February in Review: Trials and Tribble-ations

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For the non-geeks, "Trials and Tribble-ations" was the 100th episode of Deep Space 9 in which they pay homage to The Original Series episode about tribbles. 

February was full of Trials, in fact, they were almost multiplying at the rate of tribbles! Not quite though, fortunately, or I would have been completely buried. Between myself and my friends we had 2 ER trips, a hospital stay, car accidents, parasite infections, and a multitude of housing problems. Ugh. Just ugh.

Because of this, February was less than stellar. I got a little bit of writing done (10,233 words) but no where near as much as I had hoped. This month, instead of focusing on the writing part of the equation, I'm going to focus on editing. I'm doing NaNoEdMo - National Novel Editing Month!

What's that? Well NaNoWriMo is for writing the novel, NaNoEdMo is for editing it! 50 hours of editing in one month, which really shouldn't be as bad as doing NaNoWriMo. I know I put in more than 50 hrs in November! On the other hand, editing is harder, so maybe it will be just as hard. I have no way of knowing. I've never done this before.

I wasn't really planning on doing NaNoEdMo because I thought I'd be far into the editing by now. But, well, the last two months haven't exactly gone the way I expected. And I work better under a deadline! 

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In other news - I read 14 books this month (15 if you count the beta read I did for a friend) although that number doesn't show up on the good reads tracker yet. I have a couple books to put reviews in on the site still. At 30 books for the year I'm right on track for my 180 this year! Which is just a silly challenge to myself, but still fun.

I'm not really "back" to blogging yet. The parasite I mentioned up there? Yeah, um, that was me. *sigh* I'll be fine in the long run, but really still not feeling good, so I'm not going to commit to blogging regularly again until I know I'm better, and that I'm well in the groove for NaNoEdMo. See you next week maybe? 

~ Ruthie ~ 

Banana Bread! Row80 Update

I made banana bread! I'm so happy! Why? I'm learning how to do more baking, and this is something I've never made before and it came out awesome! Woot!

Anyway... on to the writing!

On Wednesday I said that I needed to rethink my goals. Here is the conclusion that I have come to, I can not devote my life to writing right now.

What does that mean?

First of all - I'm not going to stop writing! That would just be insane. That would be ... soul sucking. I may go through weeks where I write less than others, but I am a much happier Ruthie when I write, so completely abandoning writing is just not going to happen. Period.

Second - I am keeping my writing goals, but they have been massively scaled back. I have decided that while I have two books I want to work on, I just can't sustain that level of focus right now because I need it for other things. For the next few weeks my goals are simply to work on blogging regularly again, and focus on Misfits. This decision was HARD because I want to work on both, but I'm not doing justice to either and getting stressed. Stress is not good.

Lastly - the reason behind all of this is that I'm really good at setting myself up to do to much, and between asthma and migraines, that is not a good thing! Especially since stress tends to lead to both of those. I got through NaNoWriMo and said, "I can do this! I'm going to focus on my writing and put it first!" Which would be great if I was truly at a place in my life where I could do that.

Instead, I really need to put my health first. I'm in the middle of a long journey out of the deep hole that was dug by my body. That may sound weird, but a full explanation would just take too long and make me sad. Suffice it to say, I am a very unhealthy person and large portions of it are not my fault (that and I love food, I really love food!). It means I have a long journey ahead of me to be what could be considered even semi-healthy. I am much better than I was, but...

Working on my healthy isn't just good for all the normal reasons, as I continue to get stronger I'll be able to do more, which in the long run, will mean more writing!

Where are you at with your writing?

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. As a perfect example of how messed up my health has been - yesterday was a really busy day and I wrote this up while the banana bread was cooking. But by the time I had pulled it from the oven, taken pictures, and eaten, I had to go do something else. By the time dinner was done I was so tired I couldn't do anything else and this never got posted. See why we need to get on top of this whole health situation?

Moving Forward Once Again - ROW80 Check In

I'm making progress and writing again. It makes me so happy! I'm no where near caught up on my goals, and honestly I'm fighting a migraine right now so I'm not going to pull up my goals sheet and update it until tomorrow. I'm going to need to revise things based on the time lost due to the back injury, but that's ok. I'm well aware that there are things in life that are out of our control. The only thing we can control is how we respond to them and then move forward.

Moving forward can be hard sometimes, especially once you know your too far behind to properly catch up. The key, I've found, is to remember that even if you can't catch up you'll only fall farther behind if you don't start moving. That's where I usually start, simply moving.

Simply moving can mean a lot of things. Pertaining to the actual injury, it means doing what I can for myself, with out help. Getting my own water. Then, as I improve, getting my own food. As time progresses I move about more often, do basic stretches, start to catch up on small chores.

With writing, simply moving looks similar. The first thing I usually pick back up after a major set back is this blog. If you look at the last two weeks my posts have been few, but I did make attempts to get back at it. Then, once I was able to do that with relative ease, I focused on catching up on book reviews. Now? Now I'm back to the "real" writing.

In the last couple of days I've not only written some of those book reviews that I've mentioned (I have several in queue right now!) I've also started on a ghost story, and worked on going through Misfits and taking notes. I was hoping to work on Jemnath today, but I got knocked down with a migraine so again its one of those days where moving forward involves small steps.

The ghost story is one of those cases where I have loads I'm supposed to be working on, but my muse is insisting I take some time to work on a different idea. I'm trying to balance all three right now, but hopefully the first draft of the ghost story (it's a short story) will be done in the next week and I can put it on the back burner for awhile. Depending on how it turns out I might work on polishing it from time to time and make it my first submitted work. It has potential, but who knows what will happen!

How are your writing endeavors going?

~ Ruthie ~

Creative Nudge #6 - Meet Levi

Due to my back injury I was never able to respond to the last Creative Nudge I posted - or to post a new one! To catch up I'm both going to share what I wrote and give you a new Nudge - all in one post. Sorry if this gets a little bit long!

Creative Nudge #5 was to interview a character from one of your stories. If you didn't get a chance to respond to it but still want to, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments of this one! For now... Here's mine :)

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Levi is one of the characters from my NaNoNovel 2011 which I'm currently referring to as Misfits (although I'm thinking maybe Pack of Misfits instead?) Levi is a Wolf. Wolves in Maerdon are sentient, have a range of psychic and magical abilities, and years ago began learning to shape change to enable them to more easily communicate with the members of other races that weren't comfortable (and sometimes not capable of) using telepathy. Levi has a tortured past, and when we meet him in Misfits he is choosing to live out among the other races in the shape of a man. He's big, 6'2" in human form, with black hair and blue eyes. I've had him answer these questions based on his life before the book starts.

Question #1: What's the hardest part about shape changing?
The small things. At first that means things like getting the fingers and ears right, but then once you have learned the form that becomes much easier. Then you are tripped up by things like facial expressions, mannerisms, even the way you walk. I've spent enough time among the other races that I've learned to imitate them fairly well, but I still forget that most humans can't smell the way I still can while in human form. It takes a lot of focus not to be constantly sniffing the air.

Question #2: What's your favorite thing to do?
Hunt. I love the hunt, and, based on experience, it's something I won't really be able to explain to you.

Question #3: Since you've chosen to live among the other races and not with a pack, how do you make your living?
I hunt. I've learned out to take down a kill without ruining the hide and I then tan and sell the hides. 

Question #4: Where do you live?
I travel a lot. Never stay in one place long, but I do have a cave I take the hides back to so I can tan them. 

Question #5: Wolves are a pack society, is it hard living as a lone Wolf?
Yes.

I could ask him more questions - but this post would get rather long (because of my questions, not his answers obviously, did you notice they got shorter as we went?).  

Erin Morgenstern's Website

Creative Nudge #6: The Circus! I'm currently reading "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern and I can barely put it down (but I know I have to do my own writing too!). So write some thing about a circus, or a clown, or something else you associate with the circus. 

Go write! Then Blog. Then come back here and leave me a comment so I know you did! I will not be using the linky tools that I was previously using (don't want to pay for it) and I'll be looking around to see if I can find another one before next week.

~ Ruthie ~

My Writing Goals - I'm Excited!

I’m very excited to share my writing goals with you, my blog readers! I’m not sure I’ve ever been this excited about sharing my goals. There are several reasons for that, but I’ll save that for later.


This year I’ll be joining in on A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80). ROW80 is all about setting good writing goals and then achieving them, but there is lots of grace involved, you are free to change your goals and adjust them to meet reality.

I am excited about meeting other writers, and about the accountability involved. I’ll be posting twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday) about how I’m doing with my writing goals. I have put a page up at the top of my blog with my writing goals (or you can click here). That page has it a copy of my spread sheet (I’m all about spread sheets!) but I’ll summarize in this post.


1. Write 750 words a day. I’m doing the 750words.com monthly challenge (for more on 750words see my post here.) If I write every day for this month I get to buy myself a book! Going back and forth between actually owning Hunger Games, Eden by Keary Taylor, and working on my Terry Brooks collection. Anyway, the 750 might be made up of writing prompts, writing book reviews, working on my books, or just stream of consciousness, but it will happen!

2. Two chapters a week in Jemnath. I’ve projected that out until the end of the 80 days, but I honestly have no idea how many chapters this book will take! I may be done by the end of ROW80 - or I might just be really close. We’ll see. Two chapters equals one long chapter and one short (about a page) chapter. I think that’s attainable and still gives me time to meet my other goals.

3. Editing Misfits. I really don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like past the first read through and going at the book with a hatchet (I’ll post about that on Wednesday). For now I have the first two weeks filled in and the rest is TBD (To be Determined). I’ll expand on my goals once I have a better idea of how the edit is going.

Like I said - I’m really excited about this! I think I’ve set attainable goals that will stretch me, but not too far. It certainly won’t be the challenge NaNoWriMo was, but I think thats probably a good thing in this case. I also feel more confident about meeting those goals than normal, because I’ve learned that I desperately need outside accountability to meet my writing goals, and I think this will be perfect for that. Not to mention, I’m just elated that I’ll be doing so much writing!

What are you writing goals right now? Want to join ROW80? We’d love to have along for the ride!


~ Ruthie ~


Ps. Do you like my writing notebook (see picture)? I love Celtic knot work and leather - so this book is perfect for me! I also love purple and this pen works really well.

Friday Features - Author Interview with Jenni Merrit

I'm very excited! Today I get to feature my first author interview on this blog! I first met author Jenni Merrit through NaNoWriMo this year. We are both part of the PDX group of writers, and chatted through out the month. I started following her blog and was quite excited to hear about her first book that was published right as this years NaNoWriMo wrapped up. I snatched up a copy to read, and you can read my review of Prison Nation here - it's a great read. Now I present, without further ado, my interview of author Jenni Merrit.

LLLW: How long have you been writing? What got you started?

Jenni: I have literally been writing since I could hold a pencil in my hand. My mom has told me that when I was 3, I would sit at the dining room table and teach myself to write. I would ask her how to spell "cat" then proceed to ask what a "c" looks like... My parents, teachers, and friends encouraged me so much, by the time I was 6 I declared that someday I would be an author. Obviously, I stuck to that declaration. I don't think I ever had any other choice. *smiles*

LLLW: It sounds like you were destined to be an author! What happened between age 6 and now? Did you ever doubt?  

Jenni: Oh man, I think for some time I doubted more than I believed. I always stuck to it though. I would enter writing competitions, fill binders with short stories and poetry. I started more beginnings to books than I can even remember, then hid most of them away. I knew I loved writing, but I convinced myself that everyone out there was better than me. Once I graduated high school, I got married. I had thought about going off to college to pursue writing, but I knew marrying my honey was the right choice. Sadly, my writing got put on a way back burner. We had our first kiddo. I didn't fully feel like myself anymore, lost in mommy-land, so I started writing again. This time, just for myself.

LLLW: Sounds like quite the journey! When you started writing again what was the tipping point where you decided: "I can do this, I can publish this story"?

Jenni: I wish I could say there really was on actually tipping point. I guess first was becoming friends with Keary Taylor. She just wouldn't let me stop. Soon after that, I won my first year of NaNoWriMo. I think it was after that, as I sat and stared at my first ever finished manuscript, that I realized this dream wasn't as far fetched as I thought. I loved this story too much to let it hide, and right then I knew I had to publish it.

LLLW: Was Keary the one that got you involved with NaNoWriMo? Does she have a blog?

Jenni: No. Funny story about how I got involved with NaNoWriMo, but Keary wasn't it. Keary is a self-published author who, I must say, is doing quite well. We had mutual friends, and easily clicked once we found we shared the same world: Writing. Keary has a blog at:  http://kearytaylor.blogspot.com/

LLW: How did you get involved with NaNoWriMo? 

Jenni: In 2008 an old friend told me about this crazy month long event called NaNoWriMo. I checked it out, and instantly shook my head at the very idea of trying to write that much in a month. There was no way I could do it. I quickly forgot about NaNoWriMo. Then in 2009, halfway through November, a different friend told me she was trying this event where you write 50k words in a month. She told me I needed to try.   It was one of those "Oh yeah, that crazy thing again..." moments, followed by a "What the heck" moment. I signed up. Wrote about 1500 words, and quit. The month was already close to ending, and besides, this was just too crazy of a goal.

A few months after though, I kept thinking about it. I heard all of these success stories, and wondered if I could maybe be one. Then I got an idea for a new story. And decided: I would do it. I didn't plot. I didn't plan. But when NaNoWriMo 2010 started, I started. By the 14th of that month, I "won." And by the 30th I had finished my first draft of Prison Nation.

LLLW: That must have been crazy exciting! What was the editing and publishing process like?

Jenni: The editing process was insane. I went through my book more times than I can count, focusing on a different thing each time. Read thrus, editing, consistency, editing, beta readers, editing. I honestly thought this process would never end! I worked pretty much on it daily for the last year, (I know, right?) by the end, I pretty much hated my book with a passion and never wanted to see it again. That was how I knew it was finally done.

Publishing was a whole new area for me.   I did query some agents, but not every book hooks as we all know. I got some great responses from some. Yet it just wasn't meant to be. I finally decided "Hey, I still want my book out there. Self-publishing, here I come!" Thank goodness for CreateSpace, I must say.

LLLW: Is there anything you'd like to say to the aspiring author's out there? Any advice?  

Jenni: DO IT. Honestly, if you love writing. If you know you want to do it... then do it. I know how easy it is to be a "someday" writer. But your novel will never be written unless you sit down and write it. Yes, rejection is waiting around the corner. Yes, it is a heck ton of hard work. But it is so worth it. If this is what you love doing, then figure out what is holding you back, get rid of it, and start writing!

LLLW: Where can we find your blog and your book? Anything else you'd like to say?

Jenni: You can follow my on my blog at  http://jennimerritt.blogspot.com/   I also keep a Facebook page and Twitter (@JMWriting) Please, do keep in touch!   I love talking to people,  especially  about books and writing.

Prison Nation is available via Createspace and through Amazon and Kindle.   It is also on Nook.
And don't forget to add me on Goodreads!

Thanks to Jenni for allowing me to interview her! 


~ Ruthie ~

Friday's Feature - Prison Nation by Jenni Merrit

I decided quickly at the beginning of doing NaNoWriMo that I couldn't let myself pursue reading every book my fellow WriMo's had published. It's tempting, there's an intoxicating thrill in being able to say, "I've met the author!" but there are also dangers. What if I don't like it? That can be interesting. So I approached it with "If the description sounds like something I'd read anyway I'll look into it."

When author and fellow WriMo told me about her soon to be published (and now out!) book "Prison Nation," I immediately knew that it fell into both the categories of, "something I'd read anyway," and, "something I really want to read!" I bought a copy on Kindle as soon as it came out, and I'm really glad I did!

Here's a synopsis of the book from the author:
In the Nation, no one is innocent. Not even the children born behind bars. Millie 942B has spent her entire life inside the Prison, locked away with her criminal parents and the countless other inmates. She believes in the Nation. In its strict laws and harsh punishments.    

The Nation is good. The Nation is strong.     

Now eighteen, Millie is finally released. And the world is nothing like she ever dreamed it would be.     

Meeting Reed, the man born and raised outside the Prison, stirs feelings Millie never expected: Doubt in the Nation. The hunger for freedom. Everything she ever believed may be teetering on the edge, and only the truth can set her free.

Growing up in a Prison, locked in for your parents crimes, is a concept that is both extreme, and fascinating. It brings to mind the Old Testament concept of visiting the sins of the fathers onto the children. Viewing this world through the eyes of Millie 942B could have been boring, but author Jenni Merrit takes us into the prison and fills Millie’s world with rich detail. She manages to make even simple things, like a trip to the laundry room, fascinating.

I loved Millie 942B. The poor girl goes through a lot, from dealing with a Mom who’s crazy and a Dad who’s a shadow, to dealing with a horny prison guard who has complete power over her, but she gets through it. It was a lot of fun to see how she grew through it all. There were times my heart ached for her, and others where I silently cheered her along, and I think you will as well.

I give this book 5 out of 5 cups of coffee:

What more can I say than that? I loved the book and I look forward to reading more work in the future by this budding author! I hear rumors there may be a second book about Millie (she left Prison Nation wide open for a sequel) and I know she has lots of other ideas.

Want to buy Prison Nation? You can find it on Amazon, for your Kindle or Nook, and Createspace.

What to get to know the author better? Follow her at her blog! And then come back next week to read my interview with her!

~ Ruthie ~

Miss anything during this holiday season? Check out my WIP post from yesterday and what I learned during NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Random Facts and Lesson's Learned

This post will prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I can be a little obsessive compulsive! If you don't want to read all the way through, that's fine, but you'll miss some laughs!

Things I Learned During NaNoWriMo 2011:

1. I’m completely insane (I knew that already, but further proof is always fun).
2. I’m not as insane as I thought (There are 5,548 people who signed up of for the Portland area Region alone! Look! I’m not the only crazy person!)
3. Distractions are my friend! Can you say SIMS? Facebook? Books? (I managed to read 13 books during NaNoWriMo) Long conversations with friends? Even occasionally….cleaning?
4. Since I am very easily distracted, to-do lists, notes about where my story is going next, and giving myself motivating rewards are a must!
5. Writing really does beget more writing! I started this blog and made a number of notes about other things I’d like to work on, and I’m really excited about going back and finishing my original book!
6. When there’s a mystery in your story it helps if you know before your characters do what the answer is, but if that fails, walk around the house talking to yourself!
7. I start dialog sentences with “Oh!” too much. I talk like that too.
8. Coffee is my friend!

Beverages Consumed

- Coffee,

- Fancy coffee’s

- Water (Occasionally….ooops!)

- Diet Dr. Pepper

- Gatoraid

- Mint tea

- Hot chocolate

- English Breakfast tea

- Kahlua (not enough!)

Places Written:
-Most of the rooms in my apartment (not the bathroom, but I did figure several things out in the shower)

-(Big) Jam coffee
- Ava Roasteria
- Sweetness Bakery
- On the bus.
- On the side of the road in a bus stop.
- PDX airport
- On airplane.
- In hotel room.
- In a retirement center

Obstacles Overcome:
- Losing 6,000 words (that’s 2 1/2 chapters!)
- Sprained wrist
- Migraines
- Distractions (duh!)
- Writing while traveling (and the exhaustion I end up with on the road.)
- Handling car repairs.

Music: 

- Lots of random stuff. I put my entire collection on random for about a week.

More specifically:

- P!nk - Greatest Hits So Far

- Matt Kearney - Young Love

- Sugarland - Incredible Machine

- P0TC Soundtracks 1-3

- Flogging Molly - All cd’s but newest

My Words Mondays - A Plot Ninja

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Ninja Monkey! I love monkey's! I was excited when I found this picture to go with my weekly sharing of some of my writing :) This week I'm going to share a piece I wrote as a result of a Plot Ninja. What's that you ask? At the Kick Off party for Portland area WriMo's we passed around 3x5 cards and wrote Plot Ninja's for each other. They were ideas that we could throw at our story if we got stuck. Well, I never got stuck enough to use mine, so I opened it after it was all over, took one my main characters from Misfits, and used it as a writing prompt! My card said, "Your main character climbs a tree and breaks a leg."

This is the result... 

*****

Alina had wandered off for some time to herself. Their pack of misfits was a lot of fun, and she loved being with the others, but sometimes a girl just needed some time to herself to think, or not think, and to have no external pressure to do either. The woods she was walking through were lovely, but she only half-noticed them. She was entranced by the fact that she was alone for more than five minutes for the first time in days, and everything else was just peripheries.

She had no idea how much time had passed. It was still afternoon, the light told her that, but nobody expected her back so the time was relatively irrelevant except for realization that she'd been walking for awhile, and she probably should start paying more attention to her surroundings if she was going to make her way back to the other's any time soon.

Looking around Alina realized that she was in a relatively sparse area of the forest. A fire had obviously passed through here some years before, and while there were a few of the big tree's that had survived, the majority of what was around her was new growth. Looking at the old tree's, the one's who had survived through wind, rain, and fire, she noticed that one of them had something purple up in it's branches.

"That's strange." She muttered to herself, and decided to get a closer look at it. She wound her way through the bushes to the base of the tree and started looking for hand holds. From the black marks along the trunk she suspected the old fire had made her job harder, but she'd climbed a few tree's in her day, and soon she was working her way up towards what appeared to be some fabric.

The tree was tall, from it's height and girth it was likely one of the oldest tree's in the surrounding area, and the purple fabric was high in it's branches. It looked like the wrong shape for a kite, but that was about all Alina could tell, even as she slowly drew closer.

Suddenly she heard some loud barking, and even though she should have been used to it by now, she started, losing her footing, and fell. As she bounced off of branches, trying desperately to grab hold (and nearly succeeding) she had just enough time to think, "We were tempting fate when we named that damn dog Trouble," before she hit the ground with a thud.

Alina blacked out for a few minutes, and when she came too Trouble was licking her face eagerly. She glared at him and pushed him away, taking stock of her injuries. Her body was covered in bruises and small cuts, but what consumed her attention was the pain in her leg. From the angle it was lying at the bone was obviously broken. She attempted to move it and blacked out again, but for only a few seconds this time as far as she could tell. Realizing that moving was futile she laid back and tried to figure out how she was going to get a message to the rest so they could come set her leg and help her back to camp.

How could an afternoon that had started out so right end up so wrong?

*****

I hope you liked it! 

~ Ruthie ~ 

Ps. If you had a plot ninja last month (for my WriMo friends) what did you do with it?

Friday's Feature - 750Words.com

“They” say that the best way to become a successful writer is to write as much as you can, because it’s in that volume that you will hone your craft by making mistakes and learning from them. Well I have always hated that mysterious “they,” but in this case I can actually think of several successful writers who’ve said this, so I’ll let that one be. Writing every day isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s all well and good to say you are going to write every day, but how do you maintain that discipline? How do you find the inspiration day after day?

I’ve spent the last few years struggling with that. Time and time again I’ve set the goal to write every day, or write a certain number of words a week, and fallen flat on my face. I’ve had some excellent reasons (migraines, injuries, and other things like that), but the core of the problem has truly been motivation and inspiration. It’s the real reason I failed my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, and the reason my first book has sat at 38,000 words for three years.

This year I was determined to break that routine, to complete NaNoWriMo, and to use that momentum to launch myself into finishing my original book. I still had that nagging fear that I’d fail yet again, but I was trying to ignore it.

Then I went to a kick-off party the weekend before NaNoWriMo started, and Kim (check out her blog!), one of our Regional Liason’s, mentioned a web-site called 750words. I went to check it out and this is what I found:

I've long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in  The Artist's Way  called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in "long hand", typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. 

It's about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.

I've used the exercise as a great way to think out loud without having to worry about half-formed ideas, random tangents, private stuff, and all the other things in our heads that we often filter out before ever voicing them or writing about them. It's a daily brain dump. Over time, I've found that it's also very helpful as a tool to get thoughts going that have become stuck, or to help get to the bottom of a rotten mood.

750 Words is the online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of this exercise.

 It goes on to explain that 750words.com provides you with a simple, private, place to record your thoughts. I decided to give the site a try, and I quickly fell in love. It can be a bit intimidating at first (a blank screen? Yikes!) but once I got used to it I found that it has helped provide the motivation that I need to sit down and write every day.

The layout of the site is simple. When you log in you’ll see a mostly blank page that has a few links at the top in case your not really ready to write yet, the number of days in row that you’ve written,  a simply row of boxes that will contain x’s for every day you write, and the date. At the very, very bottom is a running tally that refreshes (and saves!) frequently so you can know just how close you are to those 750 words.

Once you hit your magical 750 you see a little green box show up in the upper right hand corner congratulating you at achieving your goal! I love it because it allows me to write and not worry about looking at the total number of words obsessively (although I do that too some days). Once you’ve hit your 750 you can keep writing (there’s not limit) or you can click on your word count on the bottom to be taking to an awesome page that gives you some fun stats like how long it took you to get to your 750, how many words you wrote total, and how many WPM you wrote. There are some other stats but these are the one’s I pay attention to.

Now here’s the best part - they give you badges! (I've included a few in this post.) I know it sounds silly, but I can’t tell you how exciting it is to earn your first few badges. These little prizes, and the information on your streak of days written are really helpful, for me at least. You can also choose to receive a daily email (sent at whatever time you pick) to help remind you. I leave it in my inbox, unopened, until I write. Unopened emails drive me nuts, so that’s a really good incentive for me. They also do monthly challenges, where you pledge to write every day for a month, and give you a little “pledge box” where you get to chose your self-given reward for winning, or punishment (if you so desire) for losing.

Bottom line? I’d give 750words.com 5 out of 5 coffee cups (because I love coffee, and stars are boring). It’s simple, but provides everything I need for that motivation to write every day. My longest streak so far is 37 days, and I only broke it when I got really sick this last week. I don’t always write something that’s “any good,” but I always write something, even if it’s just a mental/emotional dump, and a lot of days I’ve used it to write a portion of my novel or do a writing exercise. I love this site!

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. Do you have a favorite writing web-site?

Poem - The Distracted Writer's Mantra

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It's Monday again - so it's time for me to share another piece of my writing! I wrote this piece last week. NaNoWriMo was over, and I wanted to keep up my pattern of writing every day, but I didn't want to work on any big projects for a few day, to let me brain unwind a little. I hadn't written a poem in awhile, and I decided that would be perfect! That's about as far from writing a novel as you can get right? 

Well, maybe. As you will see this poem is all about the writing process, and all the things that writers do to avoid sitting down and writing. I've done each and every one of these in this last month.

The Distracted Writer’s Mantra
By Ruthie Stickney
Copy-write 2011

Must Write! Should update Facebook first.
Must Write! Can’t forget about Twitter!
Must Write! There’s an email from Mom.
Must Write! Haven’t written Nana in awhile…
Must Write! Should respond to that comment.

Must Write! Forgot to check my phone!
Must Write! Should respond to that text.
Must Write! Call from my best friend.
Must Write! Need to text my cousin.
Must Write! Oh look, another email!

Must Write! Forgot to shower today.
Must Write! Should start the laundry.
Must Write! Did I water the plants?
Must Write! There are dishes in the sink.
Must Write! Did I eat breakfast?

Must Write! Need more coffee first.
Must Write! The coffee pot is empty.
Must Write! I’ll make some more.
Must Write! The coffee’s done!
Must Write! I’m out of creamer.

Must Write! I should run to the store.
Must Write! I need to return that book.
Must Write! The car needs more gas.
Must Write! Think I’ll stop at McDonald’s.
Must Write! A quick trip to the Goodwill.

Must Write! I deserve a break now.
Must Write! They updated my game!
Must Write! Earn more coins for items.
Must Write! So close to the next level…
Must Write! Change my characters outfit.

Must Write! Never folded the laundry.
Must Write! What should I make for dinner?
Must Write! I’ll thaw some chicken.
Must Write! Should clean the bathroom.
Must Write! Is the mail here yet?

Must Write! Don’t have a playlist for it.
Must Write! Should download that song.
Must Write! This isn’t enough songs.
Must Write! Look on Youtube for more.
Must Write! Should synch this to my phone.

Must Write! Time to make dinner!
Must Write! I’ll eat and answer emails.
Must Write! Ice-cream for desert.
Must Write! I haven’t written anything.
Must Write! Oh well, maybe tomorrow.


It's a wonder I made it both through my 50k and to the end of the book huh?

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. What do you do when you should be writing instead?

Wednesday's WIP's - The Book Job

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Last night my husband and I relaxed in our computer chairs, and started catching up on all the shows on Hulu that we usually watch together but have fallen behind on because of our trip to Phoenix and my obsession with finishing my book. Amusingly, one of the shows in our queue was the Simpsons episode, "The Book Job." The episode is a double parody of the book writing world itself, and the Ocean's Trilogy.

Now, considering I've spent all month desperately writing a book, and I'm a fan of the Ocean's Trilogy, I was dying laughing watching this episode. There are all sorts of references that only make sense to a true bibliophile, and Neil Gaiman even had a considerable role in the episode! 


The best part, however, was watching Lisa sit down and try to write a book and then go off and organize her music collection, play games, attend conferences about writing books, and generally do everything BUT write a book. I kept laughing and saying, "I've done that!" and my husband would shake his head and give me a long suffering, "I know."

The important part, however, is that despite all my distractions, I came to a different ending then Lisa did. She ended up taking the credit for a book that was written by a desperate team in it for the money, having never written anything beyond "Chapter 1" herself. I, on the other hand, have put the first draft of my book to bed!

It was an odd feeling staring at that last page. At the top it says, "Epilogue," and concludes with the incredible words, "The End." I've never actually typed that on a story before. Partially because it always seemed silly on my short stories, but also because this is the first book I've ever completed!

Oh yes, I know I have lots and lots of work ahead of me if I want to publish this thing, but that's not what is important. All that's important today is that I DID IT! I wrote an entire first draft, from page 1 to the Epilogue, of a novel. It's a mess, characters say things that make no sense coming out of their mouths, there are filler bits that are absolute rubbish because I didn't know what else to write, and the grammar and spelling are atrocious. I don't care! I can take care of all of that in January and the months to come.

For today, I'm just excited that this first important step in this journey is over. I am excited to be able to proudly say, "I've written a book." And most of all? I'm ready to sleep. A lot.

~Ruthie~

Ps. Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? How did your book turn out? 

No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty - a Book Review

Buy It Here

Excerpt from the back of the book “No Plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty:
NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty’s mercilessly pants-kicking guide walks novelists through the process of finding workable story ideas and tweaking busy schedules for maximum noveling bliss before sailing off into a month of literary abandon. The high-velocity handbook also includes week-by-week overviews, exercises, and pep talks, and also features heaps of tips from NaNoWriMo veterans. Great for November, or any month you find yourself needing a creative boost.

Granted, it might have been smarter to at least start reading this book before NaNoWriMo, but that would have been too easy! I do things the hard way. Which is probably why I’m writing a novel in a month. Anyway, I picked this book towards the latter half of the second week, and found it a great reason to avoid writing (yes, I’m good at finding those, aren’t most writers?).

The good thing is that it quickly pushed me back towards writing. I couldn’t help wanting to dive back into my own work as I read through Chris Baty’s adventure in starting NaNoWriMo. The rest of the book was like that as well, I always put it down wanting to write more, and I think that’s the best review I could give for a book like this.

Other than how much it helped me want to write, the two other things that jumped out at me from this book are it’s great suggestions and writing exercises, and that it’s just plain funny! I kept laughing while I read this book, as Baty talked with a straight face about ways to manipulate others into letting you have your writing time, and beating people who talked at Write-Ins instead of WRITING.

If you’ve never done NaNoWriMo before, then next year I both encourage you to join in the fun, and have this handy while you do so. I’d recommend picking it up and reading Chris Baty’s story about how it all started the week before, then reading each week’s chapter full of encouragement as you are actually in that week, and wrapping up the book in December. Mind you, I didn’t follow my own advice, so you don’t have to either.
Overall I give this 5 out of 5 stars. 

Now excuse me while I go back to writing. It is still NaNoWriMo you know!

~Ruthie~

Wednesday's WIP's - In the Home Stretch of NaNoWriMo 2011

NaNoWriMo.org

It's the last week or so of NaNoWriMo 2011 and I am definitely feeling it! I hit 50k Sunday night, so by the basic standards of NaNoWriMo I'm already considered a winner! That is an incredible feeling! I was walking on sunshine for about 24 hours, and I'm still glowing just a little bit.


I have another goal though. I want to actually finish my book. That's part of the spirit of what's intended with NaNoWriMo after all. You are considered a winner at 50k, but the ultimate goal is to write an entire novel in one month. Sitting down to write Monday morning, after hitting 50k the night before, was both an exhilarating and terrifying moment.


I've had days this month where I doubted even hitting the golden mark, let alone finishing the book, so just thinking of 50k still fills me with endorphins! On the other hand, I sat and looked at where I was at, and realized that I have a lot of work ahead of me if I am I going to finish the book by 11/30 at midnight. I'm guessing that I need a total of 80k to wrap it up, which breaks down to 3k a day, with a holiday trip to Pheonix in the mix, and I had no idea on Monday how to get my characters to the end of the book!


My main problem this week (other than the holiday trip) is that I created a mystery in my fantasy novel, and I've given it all sorts of juicy details, but I myself don't know the answer to the mystery! Yes, that's probably a backwards way to write. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised. So Tuesday morning found me wandering around the house, talking out loud to myself, and then nearly killing myself in the shower when I figured out a piece of the puzzle and got over exuberant.


In exactly one week this entire roller coaster ride will be over. For better or for worse, I will type the words “The End,” even if I have to first write, “then this happens, and that happens, then this happens.” I’m hoping to be able to actually complete the story and not leave it at some short summary of what I want to happen, but I know that no matter where I’m at when I cross that finish line I am a winner! I have worked my hardest. I am sitting at 56K this morning, and that is 18,000 words longer than I’ve ever written before!

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To each of my friends, to the other WriMo’s in this wonderfully crazy ride, don’t give up! We can do this, and no matter where you are when we cross that finish line, you are a winner! You’ve written thousands of words, you’ve learned more about yourself, and you’ve participated in something most people never have the guts to try.


So let’s run this home stretch with confidence! I’ll probably drink more coffee this week than is strictly necessary, but I’m in good company, and I know most of you are doing the same thing. May the Force be with you.


Happy Thanksgiving.


~Ruthie~