Tag: Terry Pratchett

Posted in Uncategorized

Merry Xmas: Books Given & Received

Posted on by beckylevine

Books as part of my Xmas gift-giving? Really?

Oh, come on. Don’t look so surprised! Of course books are my favorite presents to give AND receive. So I thought for today, I’d show you some of what passed in and out of my hands, and my family’s hands, this holiday.

What I Gave

To my son, the latest in Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk trilogy, Goliath.

He also got, via my recommendation to the grandparents, Terry Pratchett’s latest: Snuff.

To my husband, Colleen Mondor’s The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska.

To my dad (knowing very well that Mom will read this, too!), Robert Bothwell’s Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories.

Big Sister got Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Judgment of the Grave.

And Little Sister got Debra Schultz’ Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement.

Others got various pieces of Simon R. Green’s Nightside series, Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday, and Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavor.

         

Okay, that’s about….What? What’s that?

What did I get? Oh, yeah!

Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life…

…and Sara Zarr’s How to Save a Life.

(Gee, I wonder how my guys knew what books I wanted!)

Hope you all got books you wanted, and here’s to some wonderful end-of-year reading time!

Posted in Friday Five

Friday Five: Restart

Posted on by beckylevine

Yesterday was a catch-up day. My to-do list had gotten pretty long while we were out of commission, so I plugged myself in at my desk and slogged through, checking things off and moving on.

Felt good.

I have dipped a toe back into my writing & reading, too. Just a bit. And today felt like clearing the decks on things that were getting in the way of doing more of that.

For this week’s Friday Five, a peek at the baby steps I’m taking back into my word world.

1. Ran through a very rough draft of a kind-of concept picture book. Made a couple of little tweaks, and then sent it out the door to my critique group, with a request that they give me feedback on the overall (if any) viability and any ideas for creating that viability if it doesn’t exist. Yet.

2. Completed PiBoIdMo with more than 30 ideas, took the PiBoIdMo Winner’s Pledge (which means I am officially entered for some awesome prizes!), and ordered my PiBoIdMo 2011 mug, with Bonnie Adamson’s fantastic art, from the CafePress PiBoIdMo shop. The big victory for me here was not just finishing the month with enough ideas, but not letting the last few days of the month slide away without any ideas, after I took a couple of days off for being sick. I wanted to actually, actively complete the challenge, and I did. Yay, me. Yay, anyone who also won or participated. Yay, everyone who spent any time writing speedily for NaNoWriMo, too. November is really about doing more than you would/could have, if you hadn’t tried to take the challenge. So kudos all around!

3. Opened the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook again. Got started on the next exercise. Picked a scene to view from the other way around. And today I’ll dig in and really start looking at the YA historical. Again.

4. Read something other than an Agatha Christie mystery or a Terry Pratchett novel. All of you know with what high esteem I seriously hold both these authors, but they are also restful for me in a way that goes well with being ill, or tending the ill. So I’ve been reading a LOT of both. Yesterday, I started and finished Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray. It felt great to pick up something new, something intense and powerful. Okay, probably not the smartest choice for a cold day when the sun set by 5:00, but definitely a read to recommend. And, again, a historical novel with tight, short chapters–something I want for my own YA and something I am really going to have to push myself to get right.

5. Critiqued pieces from two of my critique partners. Lovely to get back into reading good stuff and digging in for helpful feedback. Have I mentioned that my brain was starting to atrophy?

What little pieces of reading and writing did you keep going in your life the last week or so. Did you push through for NaNo, pass the great number THIRTY in PiBoIdMo, or even just get an hour in here or there to move words from your mind to your computer’s? Whatever you managed, you have my admiration and my congratulations!

Posted in Character, Revision

Writing Lessons from Tiffany Aching

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, Tiffany Aching isn’t Steven Tyler. But if we’re learning anything from Jo Knowles’ “unintentional blog series” about Tyler, it’s that writing advice comes where you find it. And, probably, most people would agree that Terry Pratchett would be right up there with authors we could all learn from.

BTW, if you didn’t know who Tiffany Aching is without that Wikipedia link, stop reading this post , go out to the bookstore or get online, and buy yourself a copy of The Wee Free Men. If you’re smart, you’ll just buy the whole series now and save yourself the extra gas and shipping charges. And then be prepared to spend the next few days laughing hysterically, having moments of philosophical clarity, and pretty much bowing down to the genius that is Pratchett.

Anyhoo…

Tiffany Aching is a witch. Not your typical witch, unless you’re talking typical to Discworld. She’s a witch for many reasons–the first and foremost probably being that she chooses to be one. Another reason, though, is that Tiffany has First and Second Thoughts. Occasionally, she has Third Thoughts, but when that happens her Second Thoughts step in and say, “Let’s all calm down, please, because this is quite a small head.”  (She’s only nine years old.) Tiffany’s thoughts let her see things more clearly than other people; they let her stand outside herself and observe what’s really going on, separated from her own feelings at the moment. It’s a powerful ability, better, in my opinion, than all the magic the wizards at Unseen University can do.

So where does the writing lesson come in? Here: To really use these thoughts, to really see past all the illusion and even all the things she’d like to believe, Tiffany has to be still. She has to, as another witch tells her early in the book, “open your eyes…and then open your eyes again.” She has to look.

I’m a bit stuck on my picture book revision. I’m at the point where I really have to get closer to the dynamic/relationship/conflict between my young hero and the other character. Which means–yes, here we go again–really figuring out what each of them wants and what that want makes them do. Once again: goal+action. You’d think I’d have it down by now.

All weekend, I was busy with weekend stuff, but I thought maybe I could let the problem bubble away in the back of my mind and see what that back-of-my-mind came up with. The internet is full of writing articles and blogs about people getting brainstorms in the shower or while they’re cooking dinner or just before they go to sleep. Well, I occasionally get this happening to me, but not all that often. For whatever reason, when my brain is showering or cooking or drifting into unconsciousness, it is pretty busy doing just that. The membrane between front and back seems to be relatively non-porous.

Apparently, when I want to figure out a story problem, I have to–yes, you’re getting it–I have to be still. Like Tiffany.

So this week, I’m scheduling time for stillness. I will take myself away from the computer. I will stretch out and close my eyes. I will open them to look at my characters. And then I will open them again.

I’m betting I actually get somewhere.

Posted in Author Appreciation Week

Author Appreciation Week: Terry Pratchett

Posted on by beckylevine

If you go to the bookstore and ask for directions to the Terry Pratchett books, you’re likely to be sent to at least two, of not more, sections. Some will be in the science-fiction/fantasy world, some will be on the new-book shelves, and some will definitely be in the YA section. Which means that, when you’re shopping for the two or three of his books that your fourteen-year-old son hasn’t read yet, you know to hunt through the whole store.

And that’s why I appreciate Terry Pratchett. Because while I would guess he doesn’t think too much about who he’s writing for, I know that he’s writing for my son.

Okay, and for me. And my husband. All three of us laugh out loud—really loud—at the same passages. And, yes, we all try and do the thick brogue when we imitate Rob Anybody or another of the wee free men. Obviously, I love Pratchett’s comedy and would read his books time and time again if only for the brilliance of his humor.

What I love most about his books, though, is the characters. You could probably, if you tried, describe or summarize any one of them in a few sentences, and you’d hit them on target. What that summary wouldn’t convey, though (and what I’m not sure I’ll be able to), is the subtleties Pratchett weaves into each. Maybe it’s because he’s written so many books, maybe it’s because his characters remain so absolutely true to themselves in all those books. I’m not sure. All I know is that, time and time again, he’ll write a scene, a description, a piece of dialog that just makes me say, “That is so her.” Or him.

My favorite Pratchett books are the ones with the witches. My son likes those, too, but I think his first choices would be the ones with the Watch—Commander Vimes, Sergeant Colon, & Nobby. My all-time favorite character is Granny Weatherwax. I’m not sure why, but it has something to do with the fact that nobody—no matter how magical, or powerful, or strong—can beat her. Why? Simply because she knows they can’t. Granny is funny in her crankiness, in her determination to do & see things one way (her way), in her rivalries with the other witches. At her core, though, is a seriousness, a recognition that the world is hard, that people can and will do others and themselves harm without even trying, and that if nobody else is going to do battle, well, she will. And even if she loses, as long as she tries…she doesn’t lose.

And the amazing thing about Pratchett is that he gets that across at the same exact time as he is writing some of the best sheer entertainment of this and the last century, without missing a beat. Honestly, it’s not that often that I’m laughing till tears come and simultaneously sitting in awe of the sheet beauty of an author’s prose.

Pratchett makes me do that.

And I appreciate it.

A few more posts from other bloggers for you to check out:

And thank you, again, Sara, from Novel Novice for the Author Appreciation avatar!

Posted in Reading

Reinstituted: Summer Reading

Posted on by beckylevine

It’s official. I will be adding in specific time this summer for reading. Not just reading, but…yes, I”ll say it: PLEASURE reading!

The last few days have been pretty jitter-buggy around here, with my writing on hold for fun family stuff. It was hard at first, but then I really saw that I’ve been applying just a bit too much pressure to myself. How do I define “too much” pressure?

  • The amount of pressure that makes you step away from productivity and cross the line back into spinning fruitlessly in your own socks.

That would be the technical explanation.

I will write and write and write this summer. My editor just sent me an email saying that The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guidewill probably be on its way to copy edits soon. (Whee!) I’m going to get that first draft of the YA done, done, done–if not by June 30th, but soon after. I’m going to play outline with another nonfiction project.

And I’m going to do research. Four more books have shown up (mysteriously!!) in my mailbox, all about Chicago history and women and garment workers and “fun.” I’ll be making my way through those.

But I am also making a commitment to myself to push all of those away for at least a short time–30 minutes or an hour–as many days as I can. I just grabbed three more books by Tamora Pierce at the library today, and I feel like my son when he discovered Terry Pratchett. Ms. Pierce can keep me in relaxed, curl-up-and-dream reading ALL summer long! When I was a kid, even a teen, that was my favorite thing about summer–all that reading time. Reading whatever books I felt like, rather than something a teacher thought I should pick up. I want that back.

Son and I are discussing going with the whole siesta thing. Our house is almost 100 years old (I think!) and insulation is not in it’s vocabulary. So, during the summer, from about 2:00-4:00, it tends to bake a bit. We use fans, and it’s tolerable, but the brain synapses don’t always fire so great. We’re talking about meeting on the couch with books and popsicles, pointing the fans straight at ourselves and declaring it READING TIME.

Okay, I’m talking about it, with strong hints that this would NOT be a good time for video game noises. But he’s listening. And nodding a bit.

Frankly, I see this as therapy. And recharging. And a recognition that the word vacation IS an important part of the summer months.

What about you? Got your summer reads picked out yet? Your nesting/escaping spot in the house, or by the pool? Fridge stocked with your favorite cold drink?

Let’s all relax together this summer…just a bit and just enough!