Grave Mercy – Becky Levine

1. Right now, my son is off in Southern California, (possibly yawning and) playing stand-up bass in a music festival. Jazz band is first on the calendar for the day, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t get into the hotel till 11:00 or so last night. I’m also pretty sure the adrenaline is going to make the lack of sleep irrelevant! Not to mention the fact that, Disneyland is next, this afternoon and all-day tomorrow. Too much fun!

2. What that means for me is a few long, uninterrupted days of writing. Okay, plus a few errands, a couple of work tasks, and some date-time with my husband. But mostly I’m spending time with my historical YA and Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. Yes, again. Yes, still. Got started yesterday, and am remembering how great it is to be able to just sit for a long stretch, thinking and taking notes, rather than trying to cram brainstorming and illumination into a brief hour here and there.

3. HUGE storm here last night. I tried not to spend too much time thinking about those big buses taking all the band kids down Highway 5 and up and over the Grapevine.

Here’s to good, safe bus drivers! There’s a tree down on our road somewhere, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be without power some time today. Here’s to good, charged laptops! This weather feels an awful lot like that lion March was SUPPOSED to come in like, even though it’s mid-April.

4. I spent time the last two days immersing myself in Robin LaFevers’ Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book 1,and let me just tell you how happy that “Book 1” part makes me. I love all of Robin’s books, but she has surpassed herself with this one. So many layers. Such an awesome heroine–complex and angry (totally justifiably) and smart and powerful, with just the right amount of flaws and need to change. All smoothly and seamlessly integrated with real history, including a young-teen duchess I would totally support as ruler. Not to mention lots of action. If you’ve been hesitating about this book, don’t–it’s a wonderful read.

5. I’m struggling with finding the right music to work to lately. I’ve got my playlist for the historical, but it’s feeling a bit old (probably a clue about how long this book is taking me to write!), and I’ve been switching around on Pandora with some Electric Blues here, some Folk Rock there, but nothing’s quite making me happy. If you’ve got any new stuff to recommend–something with a strong percussion or bass line, some awesome strong-voiced singers, or just something you’ve discovered this year that you must share, feel free to leave a note in the comments! With my gratitude for the assist.

Lately, I feel like I’m checking in a blogs a lot, but not necessarily posting comments. I know there’s a lot of discussion around about whether blogs are on the way out, and I never know if my pattern is part of a trend or just a piece of my general business? Either way, I know there is still a lot of good stuff out there, and I thought I’d share a few today.

1. First, in case you missed it during the week, a link to my own blog–but to someone else’s post! Annette Dashofy guest-posted here on Wednesday about managing and participating in an online critique group. She’s got great stuff in the post, and if you leave a comment before Sunday night, I’ll enter you in a drawing for a copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

2. Have you been following the Ed DeCaria’s Madness 2012! Poetry Competition? I’ve been popping in and out to see some rounds and give an occasional vote. I’m not a big poetry expert, but when something wows me, well…then I feel like adding my reaction to the count. It’s an amazing concept, I think–each poet gets a random word to build a poem around, and their poem comes up against another poet’s poem, written around a totally different word. Susan Taylor Brown wrote a great post here on dealing with her word and her fears–check it out. I wasn’t sure what page to link to for the contest itself, but here’s the scoreboard for the competition, which does have links to some of the poems. I think! Myself, I’ve just been watching for status updates on Facebook and then following those posts to the poems. Whether or not you’re a poet, I think this is both amazing and fun.

3. I’ve had people see me at the bookmobile, with my (yes, rather largish) stack of books to check out, and sigh that they wished they had time to read that much. Ack. Yes, I get that there’s never enough hours in the day to do all we want, but I also know that nobody in my family would want to live with me if I didn’t get my reading time in. Even so, I totally know what Jennifer R. Hubbard means about the rarity and the delight of just curling up with some reading time, not letting anything else demand your attention or your minutes. And someday, I’m going to get myself away on the kind of reading retreat Debbi Michiko Florence has been scheduling for herself this past year.

4. Until I was scanning my blog roll for links today, I actually missed this post by Nicole at Viva Scriva on getting back to her WIP after a forced “vacation” from it. Oh, so much here that resonates with me this week, plus some of the links that helped Nicole get back on track. Blog links within blog links–that’s what it’s all about today, folks. BTW, if you don’t have the Viva Scriva blog on your reading list, check them out for a few weeks–I’m guessing they’ll be a permanent add.

5. Another post I missed until this morning (okay, maybe I AM skimming too much!) is Jen Robinson’s review of Robin LaFevers‘ new book, Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book 1. I am a huge fan of Robin’s Theodosia books and enjoy her Nathaniel Fludd books, too. Not to mention I read Robin’s blog posts avariciously for her help with plotting. I haven’t read this new book yet, because if the car works and the creek don’t rise, I’m hoping to go buy my copy (and finally meet Robin!) at her Books Inc signing on April 4th. Jen’s review should give you a good idea, though, about why you want to read this book.

6. Here’s a fun post from Beth Revis, where she polled the members of her debut-authors group, the Elevensies, on the top three things they learned in their first year of publication. There’s a definite thread of letting the things that are out of one’s control be, well…out of your control. And another one on getting that next book started.

Enjoy the links, and enjoy your weekend. Happy writing inspiration to everyone!

Tag: Grave Mercy

Friday Five: What’s Up Around Here?

Saturday Six: Links to Share