Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing...

Readergirlz homecoming chat!

2009-11-30T07:01:00.005-05:00

Wanna chat live with me and almost two dozen YA authors? Get your tushie over to the rgz blog tonight at 9:00 EST.

The rgz alumni roster includes:

Coe Booth, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, Cecil Castelucci, Justina Chen, Rachel Cohn, Holly Cupala, Liz Gallagher, Nikki Grimes, Lorie Ann Grover, Ellen Hopkins, Sarah Miller, Mary Pearson, Mitali Perkins, Dana Reinhardt, Laura Resau, Melissa Walker, Ellen Emerson White, Rita Williams-Garcia, Sara Zarr...

Be there!

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Currently re-reading:

Straw Into Gold

by Gary D. Schmidt

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

The Napoli portion of my Re-read-a-thon has progressed through:

Song of the Magdalene, by Donna Jo Napoli
The Magic Circle, by Donna Jo Napoli
Spinners, by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen

From Spinners, I springboard into a Rumplestiltskin revival:

Straw Into Gold, by Gary D. Schmidt
A Curse Dark as Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Poetry Friday

2009-11-27T08:18:00.000-05:00

What we speak

Becomes the house we live in.

Who will want to sleep in your bed

If the roof leaks right above it?

Look what happens when the tongue

Cannot say to kindness,

"I will be your slave."

The moon covers her face with both hands

And cannot bear to look.

~Hafiz

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Currently re-reading:

The Magic Circle
by Donna Jo Napoli

There are no words

2009-11-25T08:08:00.000-05:00

I don't know who created this, or why, or how I missed it before. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across it, but GOD BLESS WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE:

My e-book dilemma

2009-11-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

Ever since Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook e-reader, my gadget lust has been flaring something awful. They're so compact and nifty-looking. Plus the thought of being able to search and annotate hundreds of books at once makes me a little tingly. I want one. I think. Maybe not.

The trouble with me is, I only buy books once I've read them. And then I defy organizational conventions by arranging them chronologically on my shelves, so that browsing my personal library is akin to a book-spine version of This Is Your Life. Which is probably why I love shelf-gazing so much - I revere my bookshelves the way most people cherish their family photo albums.

Somehow, I doubt flicking through an alphabetical series of virtual cover images is going to be quite the same. (Although the amount of time I can spend admiring the covers in my LibraryThing catalog might indicate otherwise.)

And I further doubt that my inner cheapskate will be up for spending $5-10 apiece to acquire duplicate e-editions of dozens of books I've already paid $15-20 apiece for.

What I really want is an e-reader that will magically import every last one of my existing 752 volumes the moment I hold it near a shelf and switch it on. Because everyone wants to carry 752 books they've already read everywhere they go, right? Or imagine the joy of searching for phrases like "love handles on God" or "awesomely brainless prattle" without having to bother with the irksome task of turning pages.

*sigh*

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Currently re-reading:

Song of the Magdalene

by Donna Jo Napoli

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

Five re-reads and one newcomer this week:

The Alfred Summer, by Jan Slepian
A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, by Barbara O'Connor
The River Between Us, by Richard Peck
Ever, by Gail Carson Levine
Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli

I have a feeling a Napoli-festival is on next week's horizon...

Post-It countdown, week 4

2009-11-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

As far as actual post-its, these last couple weeks aren't so impressive. You could count them on one hand, without even using your thumb. HOWEVER. In the last month since receiving Madame Editor's suggestions I have:

removed 109 out of 130 post-it flags
drafted 3 pesky unfinished chapters
cut somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,248 words (it's hard to know for sure when you're simultaneously drafting at the back and deleting from the front)
converted 20 chapters from past to present tense (which I swore I wouldn't do)
rewritten the end (ditto)

I want a cookie. A big one.

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Currently re-reading:

Zel
by Donna Jo Napoli

Poetry Friday

2009-11-20T08:36:00.004-05:00

Assurances

I need no assurances, I am a man who is preoccupied of his own soul;

I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands and
face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,

I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent in
any iota of the world,

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are limitless,
in vain I try to think how limitless,

I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play their
swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I shall one day
be eligible to do as much as they, and more than they,

I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions of years,

I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors have
their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another eyesight, and
the hearing another hearing, and the voice another voice,

I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young men are
provided for, and that the deaths of young women and the
deaths of little children are provided for,

(Did you think Life was so well provided for, and Death, the purport
of all Life, is not well provided for?)

I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors of
them, no matter whose wife, child, husband, father, lover, has
gone down, are provided for, to the minutest points,

I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere at any
time, is provided for in the inherences of things,

I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space, but I
believe Heavenly Death provides for all.

~Walt Whitman

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Currently re-reading:

Ever
by Gail Carson Levine

Peck + Cashore = hilarity

2009-11-18T08:56:00.002-05:00

So last week I re-read Graceling, and then a few days later listened to A Year Down Yonder for the umpteenth time. And you know what I discovered? The backwoods Burdick clan of Piatt County is chock full of Gracelings! One blue eye, one green, just like Katsa -- thanks to a lightning rod salesman, according to Aunt Mae Griswold.

Just the thought of Mildred Burdick trying to take on Katsa makes me snork...

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Currently re-reading:

The River Between Us
by Richard Peck

Author stalker!

2009-11-16T08:16:00.002-05:00

Me & Deborah Wiles, carousing at the Flint Airport:

(Lookit me, acting all demure. Don't believe it for an instant.)

Yes, the airport. See, I'm the sort of gal who'll jump into a car and drive toward any author who happens to be passing within a two-hour radius of my house. Come to think of it, I believe I neglected to blog the Lansing Sushi-hunting Odyssey I embarked upon with Robin Brande this spring. Shame on me.

ANYWAY.

If I ever question the usefulness of Facebook (and/or airports), remind me of this photo. When Debbie posted that she was headed for Flint, I pounced. Totally worth the drive.

So if you're a kidlit author saddled with a layover in Detroit or Flint, give me a call. I might even bring chocolate chip cookies.

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Currently re-reading:

The Alfred Summer
by Jan Slepian

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

This week's re-reads:

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott

Wendy, by Karen Wallace

Heartbeat, by Sharon Creech (audio edition)

A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck (audio edition)

The Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles

As for next week's Re-read-a-thon selections? I'm flying by my whims, but I already feel a hankering for...

The Alfred Summer, by Jan Slepian

A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck

Swine flu reaches the Hundred Acre Wood

2009-11-14T07:01:00.003-05:00

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Currently re-reading:

The Aurora County All-Stars
by Deborah Wiles

[BECAUSE I'M GOING TO MEET HER TODAY]

Poetry Friday

2009-11-13T07:41:00.001-05:00

God Got in a Boat

And said "Wow."

He'd never actually

floated in a boat, though

He'd seen people

out on the water and

told Himself He'd have

to try that someday.

Water had always bored Him

until He started seeing

people having fun on it.

So one day He got in a boat,

said Wow,

and headed out across the lake.

And the whole world looked different.

He couldn't get over it.

It didn't look anything like

it looked from the sky

or from the ground

or even from inside a whale,

which He'd tried once or twice.

He sat in the boat

and was surprised how

much sense it all made.

All the little houses

and all the green trees

and all the tidy cities

and all the sky and all the land,

it all made sense.

He was surprised.

Because, really,

He'd just been winging it.

~Cynthia Rylant

(from God Went to Beauty School)

DLC match #13: Disney vs. Milne

2009-11-11T08:51:00.002-05:00

Disney Literature Challenge:

WINNIE-THE-POOH

THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER

by A. A. Milne

If you want to learn something about the impact of voice on a story, read the old school Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne. Even though Disney lifted the plots and characters and a heap of dialog without much meddling, in spite of creating an animated storybook complete with text and narrator, there's still something missing.

That something is the gentle earnestness of Milne's voice. For whatever reason, it just doesn't translate. Disney's Pooh is sort of dopily lovable, which endears him to millions of people -- even me, once upon a time. But no more. I accept no substitutes. (Besides, once you've worked at a place called Halfway Down the Stairs, Milne spinoffs are strictly verboten.)

Verdict:

Milne

Score:

Disney - 6

Authors - 8

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Currently re-reading:

Living Dead Girl
by Elizabeth Scott

A-men!

2009-11-09T15:37:00.003-05:00

This should be required reading for everyone who ever asks anyone (editor, agent, author, critique partner, mail carrier, etc.) to read anything they've ever written. Period.

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Currently re-reading:

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-08T18:31:00.000-05:00

Finished:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

The Re-read-a-thon continues with...

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Wendy, by Karen Wallace

Per request

2009-11-07T08:32:00.004-05:00

(Rather dim) closeup of Mystery Book #3:

Also, don't forget #7 and #11 remain unidentified...

Reminder clues:

All three books are by Newbery-winning authors
#7 and #11 are by the same author

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Currently skimming:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Poetry Friday

2009-11-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

"Those who speak know nothing
Those who know are silent."
These words, as I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzü.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzü
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?

~Po Chü-i

Clues

2009-11-04T07:02:00.002-05:00

Four books still left to identify from Saturday's Books Unmasked challenge: 2, 3, 7, & 11.

Clues:

All the remaining books are by Newbery-winners
#2 and #1 come from the same family tree, so to speak
#7 and #11 also share the same type of relationship

[ETA: closeup of #3 here]

Post-It countdown, week 2

2009-11-02T09:13:00.003-05:00

After one week of revision:

Red: 11
Orange: 5
Yellow: 6
Green: 6
Blue: 2

100 post-its, GONE. 30 left to go. Probably less, actually, since some of those red and green ones are likely to stay right where they are. That leaves just a few more tasks. Little things, like, oh...

Rewriting the first 20 chapters in present tense (maybe)
Finishing chapters 44 and 45
Trimming the whole shebang by 15%

Blogging from this quarter might be erratic for the time being. I've got stuff to do.

State of the TBR pile

2009-11-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

Finished:

Under Three Tsars, by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin
Fire, by Kristin Cashore (audio)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

Books unmasked

2009-10-31T07:11:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Here's a puzzle for you -- how many of these books can you identify without their costumes, er, dust jackets? Some should be easy, others maybe not so much:

(click the image to make it bigger)

Other nifty undercover embellishments, which didn't make the puzzle matrix for obvious reasons:

Some cover decorations, like those on Number the Stars, Beauty, The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, Diamond Willow, and The Castle in the Attic are embossed without foil or color, and don't photograph worth a darn. Check 'em out! And next time you've got your hands on a nice new hardcover, don't be too shy to peep under its knickers. You might be surprised by what you find. Heh.

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Currently re-reading:

Jackaroo
by Cynthia Voigt

Poetry Friday

2009-10-30T07:01:00.002-04:00

The Hag

The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

~Robert Herrick (1648)

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Currently reading:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Tiresome trends, volume 5

2009-10-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

For the record: I am officially getting my fill of realistic novels narrated by witty, sarcastic, socially outcast teenagers.

Thank you.

(Prior complaints gathered here.)

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Currently reading:

Under Three Tsars
by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin

Shorty-short Spitfire news post:

2009-10-27T20:47:00.004-04:00

As of today, Miss Spitfire is an ebook!