The Spiral Notebook

Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:56:00 +0000

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am not a very good feminist. I always thought I was sort of fair to middling, but now I realize that I usually only see something through a feminist viewpoint if someone else points it out to me. It's something I'd like to change.

In fact, I wish I had had this book when I was a teenager (or, more specifically, I wish it has existed when I was a teenager) because it really made some great points about being a young woman in a male dominated society.

Frankie Landau-Banks attends a prestigious boarding school whose students go on to Ivy-League colleges, big business and politics. At first, she doesn't think much about the Old Boys network she is a part of until she decides she really wants to be a part of it — and can't. It might have to do with the fact that she's not rich enough, not well-connected enough, maybe even not Christian enough (at all) — or it might just be that she's not male enough.

I loved the way the author wove in the feminist ideas without beating people over the head with them. Frankie's older sister is away in college at Berkley and has a lot of strong feminist ideas, not all of which Frankie is ready to accept. After Frankie's (rich, powerful, old boy) boyfriend gives her his favorite T-shirt, Frankie and Zada have the following conversation:

But when she told Zada about it, Zada said, "Ugh. Frankie, don't be so retro. I mean, Matthew's a good guy and all, but wearing his T-shirt is like wearing a sign that says 'Property of Matthew Livingston' on your breasts."

"Zada!"

"Well, it is."

"It is not."

"It's like he's marking you."

"On the contrary," Frankie snapped. "He gave me something he loves, something he usually wouldn't want to be without."

Throughout the book, Frankie needs to make up her own mind about how she sees the world. Unfortunately, she doesn't always like what she sees. But the author doesn't villify anyone, either. There are other young women in the book who are happy being trophy girlfriends, or enjoy being domestic and fitting traditional female roles, and neither Frankie nor the author judge them for their decisions. They leave that entirely up to the reader.

Even the boys, who are sometimes less than virtuous knights in shining armor, aren't truly the villains of this story. They are as much the heroes of their own stories as Frankie is of hers.

The story was fun and rambunctious even without getting into feminist theory, but I think the underlying message is a really great one for young women to think about — and make up their own minds about. I wish I'd had a big sister Zada, or an E. Lockheart to make me think about these things when I was a teen.

View all my reviews.

Suite Scarlett

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I had trouble getting into this book. I liked Scarlett as a character, and I liked her quirky family and odd guest at the hotel, but I felt like nothing ever really happened. It had a very episodic feel to me, as if I were reading the quirky adventures of Scarlett in her hotel. Tune in next week! There also never really seemed to be very much at stake for her or any of the other characters.

I wanted to love it! But ended up thinking it was just OK.

View all my reviews.

Online Conferences

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:54:00 +0000

Over on LiveJournal, a group of writers are hosting Bittercon — an online writing convention for those of us who couldn't afford to go to ComiCon and other genre conventions held over the summer around the country. Discussions are going on now.

Drop by and join the conversation if you're interested.

Another virtual writing convention is the Muse Online Writer's Conference for writers of all disciplines and genres. The Muse conference will take place in real time, October 13–19, with workshops and panel discussions exactly like a traditional writing conference, simply taking place entirely online.

Both are free and open to everyone. Let me know if you find anything exciting!

;(

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Has modern life killed the semicolon?

Wonder of Wonders

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:54:00 +0000

Last night, I wrote the climax scene of my novel in my head as I was lying in bed. This morning, I typed it up.

I've never done that before!

Also, more than a week ago, I wrote the last page of the book. This is so weird. I actually feel like maybe I know where I'm going!

Percy Jackson to the Rescue!

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:06:00 +0000

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a great book! Fun, fast-paced, great characters, great premise.

I loved the idea that Percy's ADD and dyslexia were linked to him being half god, and I especially loved the ways in which the mythical creatures insinuated themselves into modern society.

Percy's voice was clever and believable, and I'm sure I'll be picking up more of this series when I can!

View all my reviews.

Currently Reading:

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Or, about to start reading, at any rate. I've heard great things about this book, and I've had a hold on it at the library for AGES, and it finally came in! WOO!

The Hound of Rowan

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:13:00 +0000

The Hound of Rowan by Henry H. Neff

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I realize that there have been stories about magical schools since long before Ms. Rowling picked up a pen, and that there will be similar stories long after, but as I was reading this particular addition to the pile, I couldn't help being stunned by the similarities. The details were all significantly different, but many of the tropes were exactly the same. Enter a magical school that likes to play tricks on its inhabitants (moving staircases?), unusual magical pets, a reformed ogre employed by the school with a soft spot for the protagonist, a big bad believed to be vanquished all these years, a magical sport the protagonist excels at… I could go on and on.

Another similarity to the first Harry Potter book is that the story didn't really get going until nearly two-thirds of the way into the book. Even then, however, I found myself having trouble really enjoying it. Every dozen pages or so, I would find myself so astounded by the audacity of the similarities to the Harry Potter books that I'd have to stop reading.

Sorry, Mr. Neff. I bet I would have loved this book a lot — if it had come out 11 years ago.

View all my reviews.

Blooks?

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Editorial Anonymous tackles an issue I've often wondered about: whether or not a book published online will have trouble being published elsewhere.

This is good news for persons like me who like to write to an audience!

Where We Also Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:12:00 +0000

The editorial department at my job has started a new blog. Editorial Ephemera is a place for us to collect tips, tricks, tools, and tidbits as well as whatever else catches our passing fancy.

Some of it will pertain only to us, but feel free to stop by for some copyediting/proofreading tips and interesting tidbits about the travel and publishing industry as you see fit.

Currently Reading:

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:58:00 +0000

Gurl lives in an orphanage in New York and is one of a rare few "leadfoots" who cannot fly. Not even a little bit.

But she can do something else.

When she finds a rare cat on a midnight excursion (or does the cat find her?) Gurl discovers her hidden talent.

Bug can't remember where he was before he was at the orphanage, but he knows one thing. The cat he found in the hallway chose him, not Gurl, and he wants to get it back.

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:41:00 +0000

OK, I have a new favorite toy, and it's called Wordle!

I pasted in the text of the first few chapters of my novel and got this masterpiece:

Very cool.

Almost gives you shivers…

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:37:00 +0000

I *love* good writing, and this profile of Barak Obama in today's New York Times is a great example of it.

You just know that the author knew this would be his conclusion before he even started. And for good reason. It's a doozy:

“I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much as on me."

He shrugs; it’s that distancing eye of the author.

“It’s like I’m just the excuse.”

Booklust

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:17:00 +0000

When I was a kid — I guess we'd call me a "tween" nowadays — I read voraciously, adictively. I would lock myself in a quiet place for hours and hours on end. I distinctly remember my mom chiding me one time, telling me to come out of my room and "be a person" for a while.

Probably there aren't TOO many moms who have that problem with their teenagers. ;) At least, not addicted to books.

I've been rediscovering my ~~addiction~~ passion lately. I've been reading the "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfield, and I CANNOT. STOP. READING.

I spent three hours yesterday finishing "Specials," the third in the series, and I went to the library today to get the fourth.

I read sixty pages when I got home, and then put it aside. I need to be a person for a while.

But it's still sitting in there.

Waiting.

Thoughts and Books

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:32:00 +0000

It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that I don't write when I'm unhappy. I don't do much of anything I'm "supposed" to do (exercise, eat right), but it seems particularly hard to force writing.

This past week has been something of an unhappy week for me, for various reasons. I turned to journaling to help me through it, but I didn't do much of any writing on my project.

And maybe that's OK. It seems worse to force it. It seems like it would only make me feel worse to write crap, and have to deal with the subsequent self-doubt that would emerge. I'm much better at dealing with crap when I'm feeling generally positive about the rest of my life.

~*~

On a lighter note, I finished "The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney" last week, and quite enjoyed it. It was a library read, and not something I would normally have picked up, but I am trying to broaden my horizons.

Now I'm working on "Specials" and man — why didn't I pick this up sooner? It's everything I love about scify, and well written to boot. So yay for that.

YA

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:15:00 +0000

There's a great post from Boing Boing's Cory Doctrow about good reasons to visit the YA section of your bookstore.

Poetry Out Loud

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:05:00 +0000

The winner of the "Poetry Out Loud" recitation contest for high school students reading "Frederick Douglass" by Robert E. Hayden.

the fireworks of its origin

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:30:00 +0000

But with or without prescience, considering only the hard-earned craftsmanship of songwriting, as I get older I have found the quality of my attention to be more important, and more rewarding, than the initial inspiration. I’ve found that the melody is already inherent in the language, and if I pay close enough attention to the roundness of the vowels and the cadence of the words, I can tease the melody out of the words it is already woven into. I have found that continual referral back to the original “feeling tone” of the inspiration, the constant re-touching of that hum and cry, more important than the fireworks of its origin. I have learned to be steady in my course of love, or fear, or loneliness, rather than impulsive in its wasting, either lyrically or emotionally.

This maturation in songwriting has proven surprisingly satisfying. Twenty-five years ago, I would have said that the bursts of inspiration, and the transcendent quality that came with them, were an emotionally superior experience, preferable to the watchmaker concentration required for the detail work of refining, editing and polishing. But the reverse is proving to be true. Like everything else, given enough time and the long perspective, the opposite of those things that we think define us slowly becomes equally valid, and sometimes more potent.

And speaking of Truth, and its relative experience, those niggling questions about the specifics of writing — the order of creation, the source of inspiration, the parsing of individual truth and the wrestling of facts and the divergence of the two, are better left alone and in the realm of mystery, where all creative work forms. I am of the same mind about these things as Martha Graham, who told a young dancer who asked if she should be a dancer, “If you have to ask, the answer is no.” Perversely, if you have to ask which came first, the lyrics or the music, the answer is… No. Or Yes. Depending on your maturity and how slow the opposites are to reveal themselves.

–Roseanne Cash Don't Fact-Check the Soul

Last Day of Poetry Month

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:19:00 +0000

Dear Friends
by EA Robinson

Dear friends, reproach me not for what I do,
Nor counsel me, nor pity me; nor say
That I am wearing half my life away
For bubble-work that only fools pursue.

And if my bubbles be too small for you,
Blow bigger then your own: the games we play
To fill the frittered minutes of a day,
Good glasses are to read the spirit through.

And whose reads may get him some shrewd skill;
And some unprofitable scorn resign,
To praise the very thing that he deplores;
So, friends (dear friends), remember, if you will,
The shame I win for singing is all mine,
The gold I miss for dreaming is all yours.

Where oh where could it be?

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:29:00 +0000

OK, this is why I'm normally über organized: I KNOW I wrote a scene at one point of an attack on my MC's house, and now I cannot find it to save my life!!!!

This is extremely irritating.

On Creating Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:44:00 +0000

I'm reading Holly Lisle's Create a Culture Clinic, and came across this gem:

So you head into your own work, and you're writing along, and maybe everything feels fine, or maybe you get an inkling that you can hear guys pulling on ropes and scooting sets into place on the other side of your nice little backdrop. So you stop. You read back through and look at what you've done and you discover, depending on the genre you're writing in, that:
Your fantasy novel contains only paladins, clerics, bards, rogues and healers, and maybe the occasional barmaid or whore.
Your literary novel contains only university students, postgrads, professors, and maybe the occasional irritated parent.
Your romance novel contains only twentysomething women and well-employed thirtysomething men, and maybe the occasional unplanned pregnancy.
Your suspense or mystery novel contains only scumbags, victims, and detectives, and the occasional useful cop.
Your science fiction novel contains only geniuses—whether human or alien—and one token woman.
Or something very like this. You discover that you don't have a world.

You don't have a culture. You don't even have a societal cross-section that could survive for a week on a desert island. Nobody knows how to cook, nobody knows how to start a fire, nobody knows how to find food, or how to tell what's edible, nobody knows how to keep excrement out of the drinking water (or the genre equivalents). You aren't writing rich and full and round. You're writing a skeletal
woman on a catwalk, and if you take the time to listen, you can hear
the wind blowing through her ribs.

That's not gonna be good for anybody.

In writing, skinny is horrible, thin is bad, stocky is survivable, fat is where all the flavor is....but bloat sucks.

I think I relate to this because I've definitely written a few that fit that pattern (*ticks off: fantasy novel, literary ~~novel~~ screenplay, science fiction novel — though, to my credit, there were THREE women…)

Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:27:00 +0000

I left my writing notebook at home today and it is driving me CRAZY!

I just realized that I spent the last five minutes — literally — dithering over whether I should just jot some notes down on some other paper, and if so, which paper, or if I should write them on the computer, or, or, or.

I think this is progress (for my writing life, though possibly regression for my occasional OCD).

Bring Your Novel to Life

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:32:00 +0000

Holly Lisle, whose advice I quite enjoy, is doing an eight-part series on bringing your novel to life through a strong theme.

The first three parts can be read here, and this site will be updated as she goes along. Otherwise, you can subscribe to her newsletter (from her website, linked at right) and receive them as they're written.

Grooks

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:24:00 +0000

SIMPLY ASSISTING GOD
I am a humble artist
moulding my earthly clod,
adding my labour to nature's,
simply assisting God.

Not that my effort is needed;
yet somehow, I understand,
my maker has willed it that I too should have
unmoulded clay in my hand.

THE ROAD TO WISDOM

The road to wisdom? — Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.

both by Piet Hein

RMC-SCBWI

noreply@blogger.com (Lacy) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:12:00 +0000

Went to a great SCBWI conference this weekend in Lakewood, and I attended a wonderful session on "Nurturing a passion for stories." Following are some of the snippets I wrote down as the wonderful presenter was speaking.

Writing is the discovery of the hidden potential in people's hearts.

While our addictions diminish us, our passions enlarge us.

We all write about what we love. Love is about what you are going to give up for someone else.

Writing makes us larger because we are sharing and growing.

...the holy longing for something we don't have.

Enchant the reader.

You know the old joke about someone dying, and he gets to heaven, and God says, "How did you like my book?" What he really might say is, "How did you like my world?" and that's what writers always want to know when someone reads their stories.

How did you like my world?

The color of your thought dyes your soul. The color of your soul dyes your world.

The most important ingredients in children's literature are hope and joy.

To name someone is the first act of loving them.

No act of writing is ever wasted.

You don't need to be God to create.

Creativity is like the story of the magic well: it never ran dry so long as the people kept putting the ladle in to draw up water.

inspire — to breathe life into

That which we cannot see is just as important as what we can see.

We are the myth makers.

Americans are obsessed with what we put into our bodies, but we should be equally obsessed with what we put into our souls.

Make your very flesh a poem.