Books I Love: Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

This is another one of my favorite British writers. She writes primarily chick lit. She also writes the Confessions of a Shopaholic series and under Madeline Wickham. I've not read any of the books she has written under Madeline Wickham, but I did enjoy everything I've read under Sophie Kinsella. Some of her books I like more than others, but my very favorite is Can You Keep a Secret?

The premise of the story is that the main character, Emma, is on a business trip. The plane nearly crashes and she ends up confessing all of her little secrets (like the fact she lied about her weight to her boyfriend, and she killed her parents' goldfish and replaced it) to the man next to her on the plane. She also confesses she lied on her resume. When the plane lands okay, she's embarrassed, but figures she'll never see him again. Until he turns up the next day at her work, and is her boss.

It's a fun story, and the characters are great. I really love the voice in the story. Have you ready any books by her? What is your favorite?

Friday Five: Winter, Winter Go Away!

1.  This winter has been crazy. My kids missed another day of school this week due to an ice/sleet incident and other districts are on a delay today because another storm like that rolled through. I'm glad we are below the freezing line and just miserable with wet, cold icky rain. (I never would have thought to say or think those lines.  I think we are up to nine days missed this year. And it's driving me a bit crazy. Somehow though they have managed to salvage Spring Break.

2. I think I'm getting older, or something. I've started falling asleep around 10:00 each night. I'm rarely up until 12:00 anymore. I used to pull late nights like until 1:00 all of the time. Getting up with my daughter so she can leave before 7:00 is killing me. I hate that school starts so early. Hate it.  Luckily my boys still don't start classes until after 9:00, but that also means my entire day is disjointed.

3. My first radar had to write a report on the saying March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. We had a good discussion about it and the weather, but all it really did was make me want to cry. I want spring. Really, really want spring to come right now. Right now.

4. For the first time ever (in my entire life), I'm assembling my own list of songs to write to. I've always relied on my husband to do this--and he's done an excellent job of choosing music that I like. And I listen to Pandora a lot while I'm working and now if there is a song that I love, it gets added to my list that I'm building on Spotify. The list is a bit different than my other ones, a bit more sweet and slow.  (And yes I've never put together a mixed tape even though I had friends do it all of the time. I've never purchased a CD for myself. I had friends who did, my husband does--he loves music and keeps up with it all, but I never did. I now hang my head in shame.)

5. I may have mentioned before, but I work full-time from home. I work for several different companies, because as a freelancer, it is important to have multiple income streams. And while I need to log a certain amount of time each week, only one of my jobs has set hours each day. The others I can work when I want to. I love the flexibility it givse me. I can run errands while the kids are in school (but then I have to work when they are home) and I can be home and working if they are home sick. It's great. But it's also frustrating to explain to people that I actually work at home. Like a real job. I can't drop everything to be on the phone all the time or babysit other people's kids or just relax. I work. So that's my mini rant!  I'm very grateful that I work at home, I love it. It's just tough to explain it sometimes!

Have a great week

Outlining, Plotting and Planning

When I wrote my first book (which is very trunked), I wrote it out of order. I had a general idea of what I wanted to happen, and so I wrote whatever scene I felt like that day. And it ended up that I had to write all of the boring middle parts at the end of the novel. Plus I was going back and reworking so many scenes because things change when you write out of order.

When I wrote my second book, I had this awesome concept. It evolved and grew and i was so excited to finally be writing about it. I originally had the idea about five years before I started writing, so I had been thinking about it for a long, long time. I knew that I wanted to write it order from the previous book, so I did that, but anytime I was stuck I added in an explosion.

It took a lot of work to get the plot where it didn't drag and so that everything worked well together. A lot of work. I did two new drafts where I shifted, and then a complete rewrite, and then another complete rewrite where I got rid of about half of my characters. It made my novel much stronger, and it helped me to get ready to write Lexy.

With Lexy, I plotted before I started. My plot wasn't in a lot of detail. It was less than a sentence per chapter, and the book is only 30 chapters long. My entire outline took up one page. And I didn't stick with it exactly, as I wrote I realized that some things needed to be slowed down and take up more time, and that some things needed to happen earlier, and that I needed to add more conflict at this point in the plot or that point in the plot. I finished and my drafts were more focused on fixing emotions and showing relationships better. Totally different style of rewrites.

I look at the books I 've abandoned (but hopefully not for forever) and realize that part of the reason is that I didn't have a solid outline in place. While I started out more punster style, I am definitely much more of plotter. And this next book, I'm plotting both relationships and events and emotions, so that the book comes together really cohesively.

Are you a plotter or a panster?

Books I Love: Love Letters by Katie Fforde

Love Letters by Katie Fforde

I think this was the first book I read by Katie Fforde, and then it was a mad scramble to find all of her other books to read them. The great thing about falling in love with an author with an established career, is that it takes you awhile to read through her list, and you get some really great books out of it. One of the frustrating things to me is that she has even more books out in the U.K. and I can't get them since they aren't out here yet, and I don't want to bootleg them. I have a handful of authors that I read that mainly write adult chick lit type of books, and the majority of them are British, but she is my favorite out of al of them.

This is the story of Laura, who works in a book shop that is closing down. She ends up taking on the planning of a literary festival and through it meets her favorite author. A romantic relationship begins, and it is just a good, fun read.  

I have enjoyed all of her books, but I definitely have favorites. Love Letters, Stately Pursuits, and Second Thyme Around. The other books are great too, these are just the ones I keep coming back to and reading again. Have you ever read Katie Fforde? What did you think?

Books I Love: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

This is the story of Samantha Reed, and a relationship that develops with the boy next door. It is sweet and funny, but also very sad. In the book, Samantha's mother makes a mistake and tries to hide it from everyone, only Samantha is very aware of the mistake and the huge consequences it has on those around her. It's a look at what is wrong, and what is right, and how parents can sometimes not make the correct decisions. 

I fell in love with this book as I read it. There were quite a few things that I just adored about this. The first is that the family next door is large, with eight kids. I'm the oldest of six, and it is so rare to find a large family really depicted in a positive light. I also liked that there was the opportunity for Samantha to help her mother to learn and to change. It also explores first love, and is really sweet in how the relationship develops.

I'm very much looking forward to Huntley Fitzpatrick's second book,  What I Thought Was True, which comes out on April 15. Have you read this? What did you think?

Friday Five

1. Wacky weather. I have always been interested in the weather, and if I had decided to study science instead of English, I would have studied to become a meteorologist. This year has been wacky in North Carolina. Two big snow storms, much colder than normal with days and weeks going up into the 70s in between. We have thunderstorms today and warm weather.

2. Time. This week I've been thinking a lot about prioritizing and managing my time. Am I focused on what is the most important? If I want to accomplish something, am I spending the time on it that I need to? How do I find and make the time to make those things happen.

3.  I am shopping for new glasses. It's been about five years since my last pair, maybe longer and I really want to find a cute pair. The Hipster glasses all remind of the glasses I had in Junior high, when I was at the horrible awkward stage. And when wire frames came out I embraced them whole heartedly. So I'm not loving this new fashion trend. Really I'm not. I don't like really heavy glasses on anyone's face. Some people carry it off better than others, and the shapes of the frames are definitely nicer than back in the early 90s. I rarely get glasses because even with insurance, I pay a ton for the glasses. I'm pretty blind--negative 7 in each eye and so I have to pay for the thinnest lens available or they look like coke bottles.

4. Some days I find it harder to focus than others. Good music helps. Deadlines actually help me. And no distractions--like no Internet really helps. When I was younger I used to be able to tune everything out and just really hone in on a task until I got it done. Now I feel like I've developed some type of ADD, every time I pause to find the right word, I want to jump on check my email and do other meaningless things. So silly!

5. This weekend I am creating a solid plan for my writing goals and other goals. I think it will help me to really achieve my goals. Do you have a plan that you follow?

Are You Alienating Your Reader?

Today I started thinking about how I connect with certain characters and how writers can sometimes change that connection and push away the readers. I tend to think it happens more in series rather than stand alone novels. And I've seen it happen multiple times with television.

I will wander into the world of television for a bit and then come back with writing. I used to be a big Scandal fan. Loved the show, loved the writing, loved the characters (all of the characters, even the bad guys), but then Huck turns on Quinn. I know the plot line was leading there. I know that the writers had their reasons. But I was done.

A similar thing happened with Downton Abby. I get that the actors didn't renew their contracts, but I hated the way that Matthew died. And how every problem is conveniently solved within three episodes at max. So the loyalty that I felt toward the show disappeared.

And there have been a large number of trilogies where I have felt very betrayed by the author. As writers, you do get to decide what happens to your characters. And I don't always expect happy endings, but ultimately I need the character to continue to grow stronger and to do more.

How do you stop yourself from alienating your reader?