Shapeshifters of the World, Unite!

It took me a long time to decide what to write about for my third Sparkfest entry (which, if you still don't have the information, started here). There are so many books that have been sparks for me and my writing, and a lot of my childhood memories involve the novels I was reading at the time. If there's one series that made a huge impact on my fifth-grade self, it was Animorphs.

A lot of people thought those books were hokey, and I moved on to bigger and better things before they went out of print, but I loved them fiercely when I first discovered them. Who doesn't love the idea of being able to change into any animal you want? Granted, they had to physically touch said animal and acquire it's DNA before they could morph into it, which was interesting when they needed to be more exotic animals, but still. It would be pretty awesome to try on a different animal's skin for a day, don't you think?

There were frequent trips to the bookstore when the Animorphs franchise was booming. When my parents had to make a trip to the store, I clamored for books the way other children beg for toys or candy. Luckily for me, I had parents who supported my book habit, and my mom was happy to supply me with every new Animorphs book as it hit the shelves.

About three years ago, I sold my extensive Animorphs collection to a woman with three boys. The books had been out of print for years (up until a few months ago...they're rereleasing them now, much to my delight), and her sons were unable to find more than the first three at their local library. Looking back on that decision, I sometimes worry that I made a huge mistake selling my books to this complete stranger. After all, those books hold a special place in my heart and it would be amazing to share them with my children someday. But when I really think about it, I helped those boys immensely. I supplied them with books that were otherwise unattainable, and who knows? Maybe I helped spark something in them. :)

J

The Eternal Sunshine of the Imaginative Mind

Wait, that's not the title of that movie...oh well. I like my title better. :P Today, we're continuing Sparkfest (which can be found at Christine's blog). As I mentioned before, my obssession with books began at a very young age. I was reading well above my grade level, so I encountered most books before my friends, a fact which was completely illustrated by my play.

I read a lot of adventure stories as a kid. My dad was in the military, so we moved around a lot and got to see lots of new places. I guess I always identified more with the adventurer types for that reason, even though I was incredibly shy and not particularly brave. My parents could always tell what I'd been reading by how I played.

The year that Island of the Blue Dolphins became my favorite, my brothers and I spent a lot of time climbing trees and hoarding the rocks from the little rock garden under our backyard hose (I didn't know what abalone looked like, but I thought the rocks were pretty close, and that was all we could eat when playing Island of the Blue Dolphins).

The year I read Treasure Island, we drew our own maps and hid "treasures" in the giant dirt pile in our backyard. I even insisted that we include a treasure hunt in the activities for my birthday party that year (much to the delight of all my friends).

As I got a little older, I started reading Harry Potter and Tamora Pierce's Tortall books. I still loved adventure, but fantasy was taking over my imagination. I started telling my brothers that I could do magic (which they believed in their little brother naivete), and spent a lot of time having conversations with myself in an English accent. Don't judge me. ;)

The moral of this story? Imagination is a very powerful thing, and the books we read as children have a huge impact on the kinds of stories we imagine. Most of the stories I write include a considerable amount of both magic and adventure, both of which I absorbed like a sponge in my formative years. Don't be afraid to play, even as an adult. Just look at it this way: you're building a life skill. :)

Happy writing!

J

Orange Belts, Sparks, and Campaigns, Oh My!

Lots of news today! First off, I'm officially part of a three-person critique group, which means...ORANGE BELT! That's probably the quickest I'll ever move up in this writing ninja thing, since I think I have to finish revising my current WIP to get my first stripe, which means finishing the first draft of my current WIP, which means...a long wait. Oh well, one step at a time, right?

In other news, SparkFest started today. I'm just going to share a little story with you about the books that got me into reading. Pull up your computer chair, throw pillow, couch cushion, etc! I started reading when I was two and a half. Yes, you read that right. My grandma was very encouraging when it came to reading, and explained the mechanics of it to my tiny 18-month-old self. I figured it out about a year later. My parents also encouraged this great love of reading, my mom being a bookworm herself, so it wasn't that surprising that I caught on quick.

The books that made the hugest difference in sparking my interest? Dr. Seuss of course. :) Hop on Pop was the first book I ever read on my own, and Green Eggs and Ham was the book that proved to my uncles that I wasn't just memorizing (I had never read it before they showed it to me). Those books taught me so many things, from The Lorax and his love of the environment, to Oh, The Places You'll Go and the value of hard work and big dreams. I loved every tongue-twisting story in the Fox in Socks, and giggled like a fool at the antics of Horton and Yertle the Turtle. I think a lot of people are forgetting those books now. They're always on the shelf at the library when I go with F and A (the kids I nanny), which is sad because they're amazing. I recently introduced F to Horton the Elephant, and nothing has made me happier than hearing him giggle, just like I did, at the very same story. I encourage everyone to keep a little love for good old Dr. Seuss in their hearts, and pass his messages on to your own children. :)

To wrap it up, Rachel over at Rach Writes is starting her third Writing Campaign, which allows you to network and make friends within this lovely blogosphere. I'm signing up today, so hopefully I'll see you all there! Happy writing!

J

Birthday Art

So for any of you who don't know, my fiance is an illustrator. And I mean that in a stating-a-fact way, not a rubbing-it-in-your-face way. My birthday was last week, and when asked what I wanted, I said, "A painting!" My birthday was kind of awful this year though, and we were so busy doing damage control that he didn't really get time to work on anything. But...it's finally done! The birthday painting we've all I've been waiting for!

Here it is:

Aren't they beautiful?! I've been a HUGE fan of Peter Pan my whole entire life. We're talking that's one of 10 books that made it into my suitcase when I studied in London for five months. I LOVE it. The faeries in the 2003 movie adaptation have always been my favorites. They have lots of glow and sparkle, and they're absolutely gorgeous. These ones, drawn for me for my birthday, are even better imho. They're clad in natural elements, as I think all faeries should be, and they have so much dust! I love dust...of the faerie variety, of course.

Anyway, if you get really excited about this picture and want to see more artwork by my talented counterpart, head on over to his blog, or check him out on DeviantArt. :)

J

Dream Movie: MC Casting Call

And now, a new feature I stole borrowed from Christine's blog (seriously, if you haven't checked it out yet, do it!): casting your dream movie. I'm casting my main characters today, since that seemed like a good place to start. I will say, before I get into my casting, I've never seen any of the following actors in the movies or on tv. I know what they've acted in, but I haven't actually seen them work, so I'm basing my casting purely on the look of my characters. Maybe someday I'll go back and do more research, but my characters all have a very specific look, so I'm focusing on that right now.

Onward! None of you know anything about my characters, and I'm not quite ready to share that with the masses yet, but you will learn their names in this post. :)

For Faron, the oldest of the MCs, I've gone with Chace Crawford (in all his gorgeous glory). He's got gorgeous brown hair, like Faron's, and blue eyes that could easily change to green with contacts. His build is similar, and from what I've heard, he's pretty tall. :)



For Orla, I chose Ariana Grande. She's beautiful, as befits a princess, and she has the gorgeous dark red hair I gave Orla in the story. She'd be perfect!

That hair!

Kai is the spunky character, with crazy/messy black hair and blue-green eyes. I chose Logan Lerman (of Percy Jackson fame).

And finally, for Wren (the youngest of the four), I chose Niamh Wilson. She was in the Saw movies, which I refuse to watch, but she's tiny and blonde like Wren. There aren't many photos of her, unfortunately.

So there you have it, the heroes in my imaginary movie! Who would you cast if your book was made into a movie? Leave your answer in the comments or, if you choose to respond with a blog post, leave a link!

J



Crit Partners and Sparkfest

Big news, people...I have a crit partner! We'll call her M. :) She's the same age as me, writes in the same genre, and is at a similar point in her writing process. You can find her blog here. All in all, I'd say we're a pretty good match. We're trying to set up a group of four or five, but I'll post more info on that as it comes.

Here's some even bigger news though. There's this really cool blogfest happening next week, and it's called Sparkfest. The idea behind it is to get people blogging about the books and authors that inspired them to write. It sounds like a great way to network as well as find some inspiration, so I'll be participating. You can find all the information at Christine Tyler's blog. I'm really looking forward to reading other people's responses to the questions, as well as sharing my own writing story. :) Did I mention there are prizes?

Hopefully I'll see you all there! Happy writing!

J

Writing Ninja!

Wow, this has been a much longer hiatus than I anticipated. I've been so busy, and I'm still not quite finished with Dance with Dragons! Ugh. I'm going to knuckle down and finish it by the weekend, I swear.

In other news, I've been attending WriteOnCon, which (for those of you who haven't heard of it) is an online writers' convention. It's pretty freaking awesome, and I'm looking quite a lot from it. One of the best parts about it has been the critique partner match forum. I'm hoping that I'll finish WriteOnCon with one (or more) critique partners. Fingers crossed!

One of my potential CPs is a writing ninja, and inspired me to become one too. Currently, I'm a yellow belt with two stripes...hopefully it won't take too long to get all the way to a black belt! I've realized in the last couple of days that I really want this life for myself, and the only way it's going to happen is if I make it happen. *sigh* Nothing awesome ever comes along without some seriously hard work.

So here we go! Dance will be finished by Monday, and hopefully I'll have some crit partners to gush about by then too. :) Happy writing!

J

PS If you'd like to join the ranks of writing ninjas, click here. :D