For Christmas, my wife got me Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity.

And let me tell you this: I've got The. Best. Wife. Ever. 

(for many reasons, one of which is that she buys me awesome books). 

Confession: I have a writer-crush on Ray Bradbury. He's one of my favorite authors and to be able to glean writing tidbits from him is an amazing experience. These essays are wild, inspiring, and stunningly beautiful. In this book, his style is so conversational I felt as though I was sitting on Venice Beach with him, just listening to a wise, passionate man talk about the thing he loves most in the world: writing. 

I do warn you, he doesn't go into things like the eight rules for plotting genre-defining Sci-Fi. Instead, he offers tidbits on subjects such as "How to Keep and Feed A Muse", where he lobs mind-blowers such as these: 

As soon as things get difficult, I walk away. That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. If you try to approach a cat and pick it up, hell, it won't let you do it. You've got to say,"Well, to hell with you." And the cat says, "Wait a minute. He's not behaving the way most humans do." Then the cat follows you out of curiosity: "Well, what's wrong with you that you don't love me?"

Well, that's what an idea is. See? You just say, "Well, hell, I don't need depression. I don't need worry. I don't need to push." The ideas will follow me. Whey the're off-guard, and ready to be born, I'll turn around and grab them. 

I mean, BRILLIANT, right?

Another quote I've etched into my brain. 

I have come up with a new simile to describe myself lately. It can be yours.

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. 

After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together. 

Now, it's your turn. Jump!

And there are a ton more where those came from. 

So what are you still doing here? Go get this book and READ!

Happy Valentines Day!

It's book blog week. Time to share our current reads. Technically, I'm not reading these yet, but I plan to as soon as I turn in my revision of INTO THE STILL BLUE. 

It's a bit of a sequel-fest....

What about you What are you reading? 

 From Amazon:

Learn how to write your own romance novels or scripts by watching and learning from the romantic movies you love!

From award-winning author and screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff: the second in her acclaimed Screenwriting Tricks For Authors series, with a special emphasis on writing love stories.

Whether you're a published author or a brand-new one, this  extremely practical and encouraging workbook will take you step by step through the key story elements  and techniques of crafting a romance, with examples from romantic comedy, romantic suspense, and romantic adventure, including ten full story breakdowns of popular romantic movies.

Screenwriting is a compressed and dynamic storytelling form that carries enormous emotional power, and the techniques of screenwriting are easily adaptable to novel writing. You can jump-start your plot and bring your characters and scenes vibrantly alive on the page - by watching your favorite movies and learning from the storytelling tricks of the filmmakers YOU love.

I've written about Alexandra Solokoff before.  I love her blog, which is an incredible resource for anyone hoping to learn more about plot and structure.  In  Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II, Solokoff explores how the three act structure works in romantic stories.  Since every book I write features a romance in some capacity, I was interested to see how Solokoff applied the three act structure to romantic storylines.  The book includes some fantastic exercises and examples.

I come away with an "aha" moment every time I read one of her books, and this one was no exception.   It was full of tips and illustrative examples that really showed how romance can drive the plot or work as a subplot.  One of my favorites was a concept from romantic movies that one half of the couple is usually the pursuer and the other half is the pursued.  At the same time, one half of the couple allows him or herself to love someone else, and the other half of the couple allows him or herself to be loved.  But the pursuer is not always the lover, and the pursued is not always the loved. While this dynamic may not work out so well in real life, it does work well within the confines of a story.  And, thinking of my characters in this way really helped me to understand their conflicts, goals and character arcs. 

Alexandra Solokoff's books on writing craft are quick reads that I find myself coming back to over and over again. 

Charlie Collins doesn't know what to do about Kevin Lazarus, her crush and, awkwardly, her new stepbrother. Things were complicated enough when their parents were only dating and when Kevin was going out with Charlie's best friend, Tess. Now, post-wedding, Charlie and Kevin are crossing paths and crossing lines, and then they have to eat breakfast . . . together.

If only Charlie could get some time away from Kevin and her annoyingly happy and strange stepfamily, she might be able to deal. Yet first she has to make things right with George, her sort-of boyfriend, and Tess, whose trust she broke. But while Charlie struggles to be the perfect friend and daughter, at the end of the day Kevin is the one waiting for her at home. Would it really be so bad if they kissed again?

It's Valentine's week, so I wanted to throw a little romance into the mix!  KISS ME AGAIN is a fresh, funny look at what it means to be in love and what it's like to start a new family, and how to blend the two.  Or not.  There were a couple of passages where I laughed out loud (mostly recognizing myself in the scenes where Charlie is training for her new job as a barista in an independent coffee house), a couple of passages where I cried and through the entire book, I wondered if Charlie and Kevin could pull off a romantic relationship as well as living in the same house as new step-siblings.  Vail has a talent for writing tension on every page and this book definitely kept me turning them.

I've been doing a little research project with my current reading selections.  In December, The New York Times Best Seller list was divided into two new lists:  middle grade (ages 8-12) and young adult (age 12-18), with both including sales across all platforms.  This new list for young adults intrigues me. 

What makes the books on the list so popular? 

What keeps them on the list week after week (and sometimes year after year)? 

Do they have anything in common? 

I decided to read as many as possible in my area of contemporary realistic fiction to find out.

I previously read THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green and 13 REASONS WHY by Jay Asher, so I recently picked up THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky (yes, I realize I'm way behind the times).  The book was originally published in 1999 and has recently been made into a movie starring Emma Watson and Logan Lerman, which is certainly helping with it's popularity. 

I also decided to try something else new with this book.  I bought it in audible format and downloaded it onto my IPhone to listen while I exercised.  I figured if it can keep me thinking about something else while running then it HAS to be good.

I wasn't disappointed. 

The biggest revelation with this book was voice, and that was especially noticeable in the audio format.  The voice of Charlie is so consistent and powerful.  And in making comparisons with the other contemporaries I had read on the list, this seemed consistent.  Voice.  All very different, but all so clear.  Every sentence, every word true to the main character.  So if you're one of the few people in the world (like me) who haven't yet read this book, I encourage you to pick it up.  It's an amazing study in the craft of writing with an authentic, strong voice.

 

"Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt."