What We're Reading

Sure, it's the start of the holiday season and our busy lives are about to get even crazier. But there's always time for reading, right? Instead of the usual hustle and bustle, here's what some of us Inkies are burying our noses in this week!

Ellen Booraem: I’m reading Bill Bryson’s A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, which is a total gas. As the title indicates, it’s about everything, from the beginnings of the universe to the nature of viruses. There’s a lot of history: who discovered what we think we know now, when they discovered it, and how. Did you know that Yellowstone National Park is one giant volcano? That a square centimeter of skin has a hundred thousand bacteria? On a side note, I just finished GRAVE MERCY by Robin LeFevers, and if the sequel doesn’t hurry up I plan to hold my breath until I turn blue.

PJ Hoover: I am reading SCARLET by Marissa Meyer! I've been waiting for this sequel to CINDER since I finished the first book, and couldn't be more excited. Cyborgs. The future. It's all so awesome!

Katherine Catmull: I'm slowly savoring Philip Pullman's FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM -- a great collection of stories, from hilarious to creepy, and the prose is clear as water.

Hillari Bell: The last book I read was CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE--a fabulous new addition to the Vorkosigan series. These are SF books with deep and wonderful characters, which I'd think would appeal to fantasy readers  (And besides, Lois McMaster Bujold has a delightful sense of humor!). Start this series with either SHARDS OF HONOR, or WARRIOR'S APPRENTICE. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is a great book, but it's a long way down the series, and a lot of the joy of it is that you know all these people so well, and care about them so much.

Amy Greenfield: I've just finished Stephanie Burgis's A RECKLESS MAGICK, the rollicking end to her delightful Regency trilogy. (It'll be published in the US in April as STOLEN MAGIC.) Now I'm reading WITCHLANDERS by our own Lena Coakley, which is a gorgeous, spellbinding story, a great wintertime read.

Lena Coakley: I'm reading the hilarious Jasper Fforde's second book in the Thursday Next series, LOST IN A GOOD BOOK.

Keely Parrack: I'm reading I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith and loving the curious old fashioned sense of pacing and quirky storyline. Before that I read UNDEAD which is pure zombie fun! Like Sean of the Dead meets MEAN GIRLS! Next I'm reading WE'VE GOT A JOB by Cynthia Levinson.

Lisa Amowitz: I am reading DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor, and of course, GOBLIN SECRETS by Will Alexander. I've been busy, so I'm finding less time than I'd like for reading. I do have to say that, though I started DAYS before GOBLINS, I am finding myself drawn to the latter. The writing is beautiful and twisted and the macabre style calls to mind Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. I am loving it.

William Alexander: Just cracked an advance copy of DOLL BONES by Holly Black. Comes out in March. It's beautiful, scary, and costing me sleep.

Leah Cypress: I just finished PROMISED by Caragh O'Brien, the final volume in the dystopian Birthmarked trilogy. I can't say much about the book itself without spoilering those who haven't started the trilogy yet, but I will say that I read the entire thing in a single day. At one point, I discovered that my 15-month-old son had pulled it off the couch and was sitting with it open on his lap, turning pages, apparently trying to figure out what was so interesting. Next up is BREATHE by Sarah Crossan, another dystopian novel with a fascinating premise.

Nancy Holder: I'm listening to the audio book of THE POE SHADOW by Matthew Pearl. I'm a huge Poe fan, so this is a really fun mystery about how Poe "really" died.

INTERVIEW WITH LENA GOLDFINCH

Today at the Inkpot it’s my pleasure to interview fellow inkie, Lena Goldfinch, author of the novella Language of Souls.  I adored Language of Souls. It is a novella jam packed with romance, mystery, adventure and suspense.  And how gorgeous is that cover??? 

 

 

 

Hi Lena, thanks so much for taking the time to answer all of my questions!  As you know, I loved The Language of Souls! It is such a unique story.  How did you come up with the premise?

Thank you! I'm not entirely sure where ideas come from. It's a very mysterious process. (Not unlike cooking, at least for me. ;)) I know at some point I started thinking about the idea of two people who had no common language. Would it be possible, under those circumstances, to fall in love? So much of how we form bonds with others is through conversation (language), but with language stripped away, could someone still win your heart?

Later, I had this concept that came to me about the soul, which is also mysterious and fascinates me. What if it was a physical, visible thing, something we carried around with us always? What if we needed to consciously protect and watch over it? And what if it could be taken from us or we could choose to give it away? So, that was essentially the sci fi/fantasy element that drove me to create the votif. Otherwise, the only "magical element" in the story is Solena's gift of healing.

And over and above all that—which are just the mechanics of the plot—was Solena and Rundan, two characters who stole my heart and kept drawing me back to their story. They wouldn't let me go until I'd completed it. And even after that, the story went through many layers of revisions.

One of my favorite things about the book was the vivid and richly painted world that you created. What are your world building techniques?

 At first, it's primarily intuitive, where a mish-mash of influences and images in my life spill over into each other and combine to make something new. The setting almost chooses itself, but then as the storyline develops, I start to questions things and do research. I'm heavily influenced by ancient Italy & Turkey, for example. I'm also absolutely passionate about culture and languages (with a title like The Language of Souls, perhaps that's obvious!). Art, religion, music, education, society, intriguing landscapes...all of these things collect as I'm researching. The differences between people sparks my imagination, and, maybe even more so, what we still have in common beyond those layers of differences.

Are their parts of you in any of the characters?

I wish! They're such amazing characters to me. I'd especially like to be more like Solena. She's so brave and so loyal, and she's extraordinarily kind too. She's driven by a genuine desire to save her beloved grandfather. And in her quest to save him, she gives too little thought to the risks to herself, which gets her into trouble. I wish I was more like that. I'm afraid I much less of a risk-taker!

The Language of Souls has something for every reader – romance, suspense and plenty of action.  Was it difficult to accomplish so much in a novella?

It's funny; I had rather naively set out to write a short story (along the lines of "I think I'll write a short story! Gee, won't that be fun?"). Then, come to find out, it's really hard to write short. I like writing novels and the long form suits me best as a writer, so writing shorter is a challenge for me. The earliest draft ended up sounding more like the first chapter of an epic series, and I simply didn't know how to fix it. So I set it aside and occasionally came back to it when I had some fresh vision. I really had to work hard to tighten the structure and to narrow my scope, but it still ended up being over 25,000 words! (Way too long for a short story, but perfectly okay for a novella.) I think because I'd set out to write a short story, it forced me to very economical and examine every word and sentence to make sure it contributed. The short answer though, is: yes, it was very difficult, and I actually failed at what I set out to do, which was write a short story :) , but I'm perfectly content with that. I really love this story.

What inspires you as an author?

People. People just intrigue me. I'll see someone in a store or I'll read a news article, and I'm just amazed at how many different types of people there are in this world. It provides me with endless inspiration. I'm also inspired by acts of faith or when I see someone who has a lot of personal drive, a mission, some personal passion....

And reading. I think being an avid reader from a very young age taught me a great respect for books and a deep love for stories.

What are you working on now?

I have a couple of young adult fantasy novels in the works. And also a "ghostly little short story," which is already threatening to become a novella.

Thanks so much, Erin!

Thank you Lena! I can’t wait to read what you come up with next!

 

Thankful For Fantasy

This is the time of year we reflect on what we are grateful for, so I asked the authors of the Enchanted Inkpot which fantasy book they are thankful for. The answers are below!

Lisa Amowitz:

Just one? Okay--Patrick Ness and the Chaos Walking Trilogy, The knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, Monsters of Men. (I still managed to pick three).

Hilari Bell:

One fantasy novel I'm thankful for is Patricia McKillip's Riddle of Stars Trilogy.  I'm not sure which book it was in, but these were the books that, through the sheer power of the way she used language, convinced me that I could shapeshift into a tree.  In my head, I knew that of course it was impossible, but in my heart I absolutely knew that people could do this.  And I was in my late 20's when I read those books.  Worth being thankful for. 

Shelley Moore Thomas:

As for me, I am thankful for The Search For WandLa by Tony DiTerlizzi.  It was my favorite fantasy read of the year because of the incredible world building, the awesome characters, and the mind-blowing twist that I did NOT see coming.  Well, done, Tony!  I find myself thinking about this book again and again.  There is such a timeless quality to this sci-fi fantasy that I am sure kids will be loving it for years to come.

William Alexander:

A Wizard of Earthsea. I read it when I was eleven, and it helped me decided what kind of person I wanted to become. 

P.J. Hoover:

The fantasy book I'm most thankful for is THE SILMARILLION by J. R. R. Tolkien. It's an amazing introduction to the history of Middle Earth, and I poured over it back when the LOTRs movies were coming out. I immersed myself so deep into the world and I loved it. And then, one day, I had a eureka moment. It dawned on me that I was spending a ton of time in a world someone else had created when, instead, I could be creating worlds of my own. So I started writing and haven't stopped.

Myself? I’m thankful for THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. That was the book that made me feel like another world did exist and was within my reach, a place where I could be special. It got my imagination working, and I’m pretty sure that’s why I do what I do today.

What about you? Which book are you most thankful for and why? 

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD SHAMELESSNESS!!!

We're starting out with ridiculously exciting news!!!  This year's winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature is...

WILLIAM ALEXANDER 

for 

GOBLIN SECRETS!

Plus there's an amazing interview with Will in Publisher's Weekly.  We pretty much couldn't be more excited.  You should have seen the email chain that went through the Inkies group.  It was epic.

But that's not all the news we have today. The new YA edition of Lena Goldfinch's fantasy novella, THE LANGUAGE OF SOULS, is now available as an ebook (print forthcoming). And yes, there's a cover reveal!!!

Nancy Holder has accepted a position as writer in residence at Odyssey, a six-week intensive science fiction and fantasy workshop held at St. Anselm college in New Hampshire. The workshop runs from June 10-July 19, 2013.

She will also serve on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program at their campus in Dingle, Ireland, in July of 2013. For those of you who haven't been, the Dingle Peninsula is one of the most beautiful places in the world.  So yes, I'm ridiculously jealous.

Hilari Bell's first four novels have been re-released as ebooks! You can look for SONGS OF POWER, NAVOHAR, A MATTER OF PROFIT and THE WIZARD TEST, wherever ebooks are sold. And if you check out her Facebook page, you can get a Smashwords coupon to get any one of those books free.

And that's it!

"It."  WILL WON THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD!!!!  *flails*

:)

The Hobbit Read-Along, Day 5: Chapters 17-19

All week we have been reading J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit together here at the Inkpot. Today is the grand finale, the end of the journey, where we read the final chapters and finish our Hobbit reading adventure.

It's been a marathon week of reading - (and writing for all those involved in NaNoWrMo) - and today we cover how Tolkein ended his classic. Personally, it's made me hugely excited about the first of the three Hobbit movies, Unexpected Journey.  Unfortunately, we have to wait until July 18, 2014, before we see these chapters on the big screen in the third and final Hobbit movie, There and Back Again, but we have the book so we can hungrily anticipate Jackson's magical movie interpretation knowing how it ends.

Briefly, in Chapter 17, The Clouds Burst, Bilbo's plan has backfired. Not only does the appearance of Bard, the Elvenking and Gandolf with the Arkenstone incense Thorin against Bilbo, but it incites him to call for dwarf reinforcements. Thorin has such treasure-lust that he refuses to honor his deal with Bard and chooses to fight instead. With true Tolkein genius, the stakes are raised when the armies of dwarves, elves and men are forced to unite against the Goblins who turn up with their chilling sidekicks: bats, wolves and Wargs. At the beginning of the chapter Bilbo courageously owns up to his part in handing over the Arkenstone, but by the end of the chapter Bilbo is our loveable coward again - hiding under his ring of invisibility as the battle rages, and Bilbo gets knocked out cold. 

Chapter 18, The Return Journey Tolkein as omnipotent narrator has Bilbo rescued, reunited with a repentant and dying Thorin, and tells us how Beon in bear form, along with the eagles, saved the day and routed the goblins so their defeat was absolute (well, almost). And so, Bilbo, Beon and Gandolf head home and our omnipotent narrator saves us a hundred pages or more by summarizing the journey back to Rivendell.

Chapter 19, The Last Stage (can we bear it? The FINAL chapter.) Here Tolkein indulges in Elven songs and an informative rest stop with Elrond before Gandolf and Bilbo move on to retrieve the buried gold from their encounter with those three delightful trolls, Tom, Bert and Bill, and then travel to Hobbiton. Instead of a quick happy-ever-after ending, Bilbo arrives home at Bag-End, Underhill, to find the scrumptiously named Messrs Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes auctioning off his possessions on behalf of Bilbo's conniving cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses. There's nothing more satisfying than Bilbo arriving home just in time to thwart these sneaky Sackville-Bagginses' plans to move into his most cozy hobbit-hole.

And just when we thought it was over after our narrator tells us all about Bilbo settling back into his content, not-quite-respectable Hobbit life, who turns up again but Gandalf (who is habitually enlightening when it comes to backstory and information) with Balin. They fill us in with an all-is-well follow-up from the lands of the Mountain, and Gandolf gives a profound reminder to Bilbo that much more than luck was at work throughout his adventure.

For Discussion:
When I picked up my old tatty copy of The Hobbit after 20 years (gasp, did I say 20 years?) for this weeks' read-along, I was struck with how much of the story I had forgotten. At 13 yrs-old I had struggled to get into it, but on my third attempt I got beyond the first chapter and couldn't put it down. I fell in love with the story, and The Hobbit is still one of my all-time favorite novels. It was great to read it again, and yet, my honest opinion is that Tolkein's writing would never be acceptable to an editor today. What do you think?

What impact did your first reading of The Hobbit have on you? 

And how did you like Tolkein's ending?

I hope you enjoyed re-reading The Hobbit and spending time with us here at The Enchanted Inkpot as we've discussed it. Can't wait to hear from you - and come back and let us know what you think of the movie. I'm a huge fan of Martin Freeman so consider him a rather dishy Bilbo Baggins ... but that's a whole new topic entirely!

Pippa Bayliss (the short and non-hairy-footed honorary Hobbit. Second breakfasts rock.)