As both a writer and a musician, songs and stories are inextricable for me. Lyrics are a fascinating narrative form--Springsteen is like Steinbeck with a guitar--and even the flimsiest dance tune develops a narrative in an author's imagination. I've got whole soundtracks for novels! No room for that today, so here are a few of... Continue Reading →
Top 5 Wednesday: Characters Most Like Me
I thought this T5W topic would be easy. I've always identified strongly with fictional characters, and over the years I've allied myself with almost every gutsy heroine whoever butt-kicked her way through a novel. But upon considering the subtleties of this week's challenge, I realized that few of those characters are comprehensively similar to me. Katniss... Continue Reading →
Top Five Wednesday: Books For Which I’m Thankful
Yes, I restructured the original wording of the challenge to avoid ending the sentence with a preposition. I’m thankful for grammar, okay? The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. As discussed in last week’s T5W post, this book reignited my love of YA fiction and got me writing again. (Hopefully none of you have to play... Continue Reading →
Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite “Hunger Games” Moments
Clunk. My friend slapped the hardback book, stripped of its dust jacket, onto my desk. “This is the book I was telling you about,” he said, with the same expression of distaste he wore when I suggested any remotely exotic cuisine for lunch. “Bunch of kids killing each other. It’s awful. You have to read... Continue Reading →
Top 5 Wednesday – Books I Did Not Finish
This list shames me. I try not to abandon books (unless the prose is so bad and riddled with errors that reading it causes me physical pain). Even when I’m not enjoying a story, I strive to at least skim my way to the ending, if only to give a more thorough condemnation. But here... Continue Reading →
Top 5 Wednesday: Banned Books
“Ban a book? How can someone control what I read?” I demanded. It was the mid-1990s and our local librarians had asked my mother, a trusted patron with an educator’s objective eye, to evaluate a young adult novel another parent was lobbying to ban. For me, books were like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and in almost unlimited supply. I... Continue Reading →
