Category: Guest Post
How (Really) to Work Like a Writer
Hi, it’s Margaret here, over from Steam Trains and Ghosts. I’m doing a guest post today on the writerly life.
So there was this amusing blog post the other day about writers’ poor working habits. Okay, so the post’s just a joke about some clichés of the writerly life, but it contains some pretty good advice on how to be a professional writer. Just make sure to do the exact opposite of what it says.
Here’s how you should really work like a writer:
1. You ain’t no tortured genius. No, really, you’re not. If you think you are and the rest of the world just doesn’t understand, you’re just pitching a hissy fit. No.
My point is not to insult every single person who reads this blog. The corollary to #1 is:
2. You are not a tortured genius. What you are is you’re the proprietor of a small business. And all the responsibility that that entails. You’ve got to find the work, maintain relationships with clients, and if your work starts to sell, you’ll have to pay estimated quarterly taxes. Sit down and write something or else you will have nothing to sell.
3. Small businesses are massively unprofitable to start out with. Being a professional writer takes patience. Lots of it. I’m not exactly a big-name writer, but I’ve got data on my own experience, so I’ll share it here. I’ve been writing seriously for about 13 years, and in that time, I’ve earned about $300 for it. The vast majority of that was from the past year. You’ll spend most of your first years writing getting good at it, then you’ll start to earn money.
4. Be professional. Because it’s a business. This is the age of the Internet. If you submit a short story to an e-zine and then badmouth the editor behind his back, he will find out. And will that e-zine ever want to buy from you again?
5. There’s still no guarantee of success. Though being persistent and being good at writing sure help.
The Golden Compass (Book # 1 in His Dark Materials Trilogy) by Philip Pullman
Image Courtesy of Goodreads
From Goodreads
Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford’s Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however,nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called “Gobblers”—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person’s inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
Cover Gushing Worthiness: I really like the cover of the Omnibus edition. I can’t say if it fully captures the spirit of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, but it does capture the beauty of The Golden Compass perfectly. The colour combinations are beautiful as well as the of the daemons.
Review: I first heard about The Golden Compass when I was in Grade 12. Some of my friends who were in the Gifted program at my school read the book in Grade 10 and loved it. Then when I was in Grade 12 as part of our school’s Film Society we went and saw the movie. One of the main things my friends said was the movie didn’t explore the nitty-gritty/controversial elements which made the book so great. I wanted to read the book for myself and I wasn’t disappointed.
The story of The Golden Compass takes place in a world quite similar to ours, but with a few differences. For one, each person has a daemon in the shape of an animal who is a part of their soul/acts as a companion. The world in The Golden Compass also seems a bit steampunkish, at least that’s what I thought when I read the book. The story begins with Lyra witnessing a conversation between her uncle Lord Asriel and the scholars of Oxford about a substance called “Dust.” Then a series of events occur starting with the kidnapping of children; including Lyra’s friend Roger the kitchen boy, eventually leading Lyra on an expedition to find the missing children and on the way she encounters Gyptians, Witches, armored bears, an Aeronaut and the Gobblers.
Plot wise I enjoyed the story a great deal. While I read the book I could understand how it could be seen as controversial. However the way I saw it, Pullman was suggesting that all things should be questioned, including religion. Nothing should be followed blindly is the message I took away. I grew to love Lyra’s world and all the fantastical elements in it. The Alethiometer was a unique instrument and I can’t wait to see how it’s going to play a bigger part in the next two books. Two elements I liked in this book in regards to the creatures of Lyra’s world were the witches and the armoured bears. I think the armoured bears was such a great concept and it’s one of the things the movie actually got right. The concept of daemons too is an interesting one and it made you wonder what kind of animal you’d like if you were to ever have a daemon.
I thought the pacing of the book was well suited for the plot, but in my excitement I couldn’t help but wish the story moved a bit faster. It literally had me on the edge!I have two complaints about the story and they are 1) The ending: I found the ending to be a bit anti-climactic. It left me with a feeling of “Oh…that’s it? Seriously?! No angry out bursts? Really Lyra?.” However I’m going to assume that the next book will pick up where this one left off. 2) Is in regards to the explanation of what Dust actually is. When I was reading the explanation for Dust, I realized I was never a science student for a reason. It was quite a scientific explanation and there’s nothing wrong with that, it was just difficult for me to understand it.
Character wise, I thought all of them were great. Lyra was an awesome protagonist. She was feisty, loyal, independent and likable. I can’t say that there was a whole lot of character development on Lyra’s part because we got the idea that she was already a well rounded character as the book started. I do think Lyra’s character will grow more in the next two books. Mrs. Coulter certainly came across as a black widow like character. She reminded me of the Snow Queen from the fairy tales for some reason. Her appearance or rather lack of action at the end of the book came as a surprise to me. I thought she would be more involved for some reason, but again I’m sure she’ll appear in the next two books at some point. I’m still not sure about my feelings towards Lord Asriel. I need to see more of him to form a coherent opinion of him. However I will say that he does come across as being quite cold hearted and distant.
For the remaining secondary characters; I liked all of them. I wish we got to know more about John Faa, the lord of the Gyptians and Serafina Pekkala, the witch. From all of the beings present in Pullman’s world I thought the witches were the most underdeveloped. I did enjoy some of the tidbits of information that was given to the readers though. Iorek Brynison was quite possibly one of the most fantastic characters I’ve come across in literature. There was a quiet wisdom about him and whenever he spoke Ian McKellen’s voice would pop up in my head. It was probably because it was McKellen who did the voice for Iorek in the movie. Lyra’s daemon Pantalaimon or Pan was such a sweet character. Pan’s protectiveness and inquisitiveness was a good balance for Lyra’s personality.
Overall I really enjoyed The Golden Compass. The book was a hundred times better than the movie. Even though I was disappointed in the ending and had difficulty understanding the concept of Dust, the world and the characters made up for that feeling inadequecy on my part and I cannot wait to read both The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
My Rating: 5/5
Would I recommend it? Absolutely
“The Infinity Ring: The Trap Door” by Lisa McMann
Dak, Sera, and Riq return to the United States in the year 1850 when the nation is divided over the issue of slavery. The Underground Railroad provides a light of hope, helping runaway slaves escape to freedom. But the SQ has taken control of the Underground Railroad from within. Now Dak and Sera are left wondering who to trust…
It’s been a few months since the last time I had a book from The Infinity Ring series to plow through and share my thoughts about, so if you need a refresher as to what has been going on in the two books previous you can refer to my comments about book one and book two respectively if you need.
The release of The Infinity Ring: The Trap Door, the third book in the series took me a little by surprise to be honest. I knew it was probably coming out soon, but didn’t know how soon until it randomly showed up on Amazon as a recommended read that had just been released. A pleasant surprise to say the least as I quite enjoy these books even though the target audience is for kids less than half my actual age…
After meeting Christopher Columbus and then taking on a horde of vikings, Dak, Sera, and Riq get to come home to the United States in the year 1850 and see what they can do about the fact that the SQ has taken over the Underground Railroad. I’ll honestly say that I was quite impressed that whomever is planning out the historical events that are being used as plot devices for these books decided to go with the Underground Railroad theme. It’s something we all learn about in school, but then we don’t get a lot of exposure to later in life. I’m guessing that given the target audience is children ages 8-12 that this historical event was chosen on purpose because its one that you learn about when you are that age. Excellent foresight by the editors and authors in my opinion.
While the first two books were mainly about Dak and Sera, this book is almost exclusively about Riq. His ancestors were involved with the Underground Railroad and so the things the three kids are doing are going to have a direct impact on him specifically, possibly even erase his existence. When Riq figures all of this out he has a very serious and impressive moment of growth about who he is, what he stands for, and what he’s willing to give up for the ultimate safety of mankind. I liked that as a reader I finally had the chance to be inside of Riq’s head for a little bit instead of hearing once more about how Dak’s impetuousness dropped the group into a heap of uncalled for trouble.
There is also some pretty important foreshadowing about where things might be going several books down the line in a small scene with Sera that I’m not going to reveal because it will be fun for you to find it on your own. Oh, and Dak finally calms down and seems to understand he can’t just do whatever he wants. Finally.
Next up in the series is The Infinity Ring: Curse of the Ancients, due to be released on June 4, 2013. So, it will be a little while before I get to revisit these books, but if previous evidence can be trusted, it will be worth the wait.
Grade: B
Length: 192 pages
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“Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens” by Brandon Sanderson
Alcatraz Smedry, the boy with the incredible Talent for breaking things, has a lot to prove and little time in which to do it. In this final adventure, Alcatraz faces an army of librarians–and their giant robots–as they battle to win the kingdom of Mokia. If the librarians win the war, everything that Alcatraz has fought so hard for could end in disaster. Alcatraz must face the robots, the evil librarians, and even his own manipulative mother! But will he be able to save the kingdom of Mokia and the Free Kingdoms from the wrath of the librarians before everything comes crashing down?
I’ve been enjoying these middle grade books by Brandon Sanderson quite a bit over the past few weeks and I’m glad I finally made it to the last installment (at least to this point). In Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens the Librarian invasion comes to its climax as Alcatraz, Bastille, and their various cohorts try one last time to thwart their efforts.
The relationship between Alcatraz and Bastille takes a long-awaited, very exciting turn when they finally have a moment where they break down and honestly admit their interest in each other. Bastille makes it perfectly clear that the reason she is so hard on Alcatraz is because of her interest in him and Alcatraz takes this news as the motivation to reciprocate to a certain extent, but more importantly as a motivation for actions that will turn him into a true leader in this conflict.
Even more shocking and mystifying is the sharp turn in the relationship between Alcatraz and his mother. There are some reveals near the end of the book that turn everything Alcatraz thought about his parents on its head, toss it through a blender, and spit it back out a million times sideways. I wasn’t expecting it, I don’t think very many who read the book will be expecting it. As one would expect, this revelation has a very significant impact on Alcatraz emotionally. It causes a lot of conflict in his mind as well as his heart.
Brandon Sanderson has said before that this series has always been intended to be five books in length. This is book four. According to the most recent statements that I’ve personally seen, the final book is “indefinitely postponed” for reasons that haven’t been revealed to the general public as of yet. My guess is that it has something to do with publishing rights, interest by Scholastic, or some other such red tape silliness.
Regardless, it is clear Sanderson knew that the fifth book might be a long time coming, if it came at all, and he set up the conclusion of Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens in a way that satisfies the reader, but leaves himself open to completing the series as he originally intended at some point if he is able.
Length: 304 pages
Grade: B
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“Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia” by Brandon Sanderson
When Alcatraz and Grandpa Smedry make a pilgrimage to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, the Smedry home base, Alcatraz is shocked to see that he is, in fact, a legend. When he was a baby he was stolen by the Evil Librarians, and his mother, a Librarian herself, was behind the whole scheme. Now, with his estranged father, who is acting indeed strange, Bastille, who has been stripped of her armor, and Grandpa Smedry, who is, as always, late to everything (that’s his Talent), Alcatraz tries to save a city under siege. From who? Why, the Librarians of course!
I’ve reached the third installment of Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz series and I have to say that I’ve been rather impressed with where he has taken this story. A lot of times when you get to a third or fourth book in a series a lot of time has passed for the characters which sort of spreads things out, but not with these. By the end of Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia there has barely been six months of time since the beginning of the first book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.
As usual, this book follows the humorous, snarky, side-tracked, whimsical nature of the first two books, but in addition it adds a little bit more depth. The relationship between Alcatraz and Bastille takes an interesting turn into what I’m sure if familiar territory for most 13-year-old boys and girls. As a result of previous actions Bastille goes through a tough time and Alcatraz wants to help as her friend but just finds everything so awkward and difficult while trying to. Awkward interactions between friends at that age is something most of the intended audience can certainly relate to on a personal level I think.
Even more impressive to me was the chance that the reader finally has to visit Nalhalla, the capital of the Freelands. For two books I’d been wanting to see what life was like for the Freelanders in comparison to the Hushlanders and I finally got my wish. A city of castles, magical dragon taxis, teleportation rooms, etc. It took the whimsy and fun to an entirely new level for the series. Impressive, considering there are talking dinosaurs in the first book.
Bastille goes through some serious growth in this book and I found it interesting to watch the decisions she makes as a result. She sort of learns to stand on her own opinions more than simply what is “expected” of her by the Knights of Crystallia. Of course, Alcatraz in his usual way completely fails to understand what’s going on with her until the last minute.
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia continues the story of Alcatraz Smedry in a great way while still allowing for the characters to break out of their shells from the first two books without changing who they are at their core. I think it provides some great lessons for young readers buried in between the fun and silly that permeates the pages. If you haven’t already, give these books a try, I think there is a little something for everyone, young and old alike.
Grade: B
Length: 336 pages