Chronicles of the Dragon Queen

Picks for Holiday Gift Giving-Children's Books

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:34:42 GMT

In recent weeks, I've had some discussions, both in the virtual Internet world and in the real one, about childrens' books. Working at Barnes & Noble as the Lead Bookseller in the children's department has really tested and broadened my knowledge of kid's books over the past few years. Having my own children has also helped and with this in mind, I'll offer my favorites selections this holiday season. I am by no means an expert and can only tell you what I like and have seen many customers purchase. Any last minute gift shoppers out there, this entry is for you. If you're already done with your shopping (I'm jealous) sit back and take in the scenery!

Since most childrens book departments are organized by age group, I'll do my gift suggestion list the same way.

Toddler-Preschool

By far, the age with which I have the most experience as my own children are 5 and 4. My favorite books for the toddler category, birth to around 3 are a collection of books by Sandra Boynton. Hubby (Wildcat) highlighted one of her books in a blog entry. They're fun, easy to read and allow for fun voices. Most of them are published in a board book format which is great for kids to handle and it can withstand some chewing.

Touch and feel books are great for ages 1-2. DK publishing makes a good series of them.

A lot of picture books are also published in board book format for younger kids. Goodnight Moon and the Eric Carle books are good examples. They are great for getting young kids familiar with classic stories.

Picture books for 4-6 year olds which make my list of favs are the Pigeon books by Mo Willems and the Caldecott winner for this year, Kitten's First Full Moon. If you find yourself in a bookstore, you should really give these books a read through. They'reboth very well done.

Beginning Readers.

Can't go wrong with Dick and Jane and they've been republished in recent years. Biscuit is another good beginning reader character that kids who are just starting to read will enjoy. For kids reading at a more advanced level, Little Bear and Frog and Toad are good choices.

Chapter Books.

I've found the two more popular series to be Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House. Magic Tree House has appeal for both boys and girls as there is both a boy and girl main character. The A to Z mysteries and Secrets of Droon are also good for kids who enjoy Magic Tree House.

Young Readers

I'd have to say this is my favorite category because it was when I really began to remember the books that I had read as a kid. Harry Potter goes without saying, but I'm actually not all that fond of ol' HP. My personal favorites are:

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Tale of Despereaux (won the Newberry award for 2004).

Artemis Fowl (four books in the series so far so there's plenty to keep a young reader busy).

Little House books by Laura Ingals Wilder.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge both by Judy Blume.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

The Pendragon series. This is one of those book series that kids who enjoyed HP might also like. It has really taken off in the last year.

Teen Books

I will admit to being completely out of my element when it comes to recommending teen books. Since I stick to mainly fantasy, my recommendations follow that trend. However, I do know that the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and subsequent books are very popular as are the GossipGirl and Clique books. Those are a little too real life for my taste, so take those recommendations with a grain of salt as I have not read them.

Eragon and Eldest are the break-out titles for teens who enjoy fantasy. Another good series is one by Garth Nix beginning with Sabriel; the Abhorsen Trilogy.

Artemis Fowl is also marketted in a teen book format (also known as Mass Market in the adult book world) and would appeal to that age group as well. Chronicles of Narnia are also good for teens.

This may all seem academic now with only seven more days until Christmas, but you may be faced with kids out of school who have nothing to do and need something to read. If you're like me, you need a quick read to tide you over until the holidays are done and real life can resume. Until that happens, good luck with shopping and I hope you can enjoy some of the holiday season along with the chaos!

See ya in 2006!!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 16:06:21 GMT

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books of all time was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. I read the covers off my copy and no matter how much I read, I still remember that book as one of my all-time favorites. Can't tell you how many times I wanted my closet to be a door to another land.

Imagine my excitement when I learned there was a movie being made of my favorite book! Of course, there were some reservations about this as well. Could the movie really live up to my imagination? Could they really pull off a talking lion without it being campy?

Billy and I saw the movie last night and I can say with certainity, at least in my opinion, that yes, they did it.

Aslan, the lion, is one of those characters that could either work well, or bomb horribly. Even the mention of his name causes that goose-bump thing to happen, Lewis did such a good job of building him up as something more than a lion in the book. Could the movie do the same? I wondered about this as I sat there watching the movie. When Aslan shows up, the effect was more than I could have hoped for. I felt like a character from a book I loved had just stepped off the pages.

The Stone Table scene was also very well done. As tragic as it is in the book, it was one of my favorite scenes and in the movie, it went above and beyond.

While there were some nitpicky things that bothered me about the movie, overall, I loved it and I think they were true to Lewis' original work. Billy and I would love to take the kids to see it, but they're a little too young. There were some intense moments, the battle being one of them. They'll have to watch it on DVD. I hope they read the book as well. It would be cool for them to enjoy a book that I loved when I was younger.

Certainly worth the 9 dollar price of admission. Time allowing, I'll probably go see it again!

Not Very Good at Tag, But Here Goes

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 15:46:21 GMT

I've been tagged by Jess! I was never very good at tag when I was a kid, but I'll give it the old college try, as they say. Heh.

Ten things that make me happy in no particular order:

1. Like Jess, I would have to say my kids. They do drive me crazy, but they're a lot of fun, especially when my daughter, Regan is modeling her latest fashion concoction and Liam is just being Liam.

2.The beach. I love the beach, a nice private beach with enough sand between the house and high tide to actually qualify for beach. I don't like those beaches that are built up right to the high-tide line.

3.Writing. It's infuriating sometimes, but it's a great excuse to live in my own little world for awhile.

4.A really good book that I can't put down.

5.Riding a horse. There's nothing quite like it.

6.Of course, Hubby, Bill, aka the Wildcat.

7.Breakfast at any time of the day, especially late at night.

8. Dark chocolate, the darker the better.

9.Beads. Last year, I started making beaded jewelry and now I can't get enough of beads. Be nice if I could parlay that into a money-making venture, but one thing at a time.

10. Comfortable shoes that aren't ugly. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate the value of comfortable shoes, especially in my job working retail.

That's my list, unfortunately, I don't have anyone to tag except Hubby, so, I guess I'll have to tag him. Wonder if he will have to do this twice since Jess tagged him as well. Heh.

The End of NaNoWriMo

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:47:15 GMT

November 30th has arrived and with it, the end of National Novel Writers Month, or to those of us insane enough to try it, NaNoWriMo.

When I started this year's challenge to write a 50K word novel in thirty days, I wasn't at all sure about the wisdom of doing it. The NaNo website forums were also filled with dire predictions on the Sophmore flop. As this was my Sophmore attempt at NaNo, I wondered if I too would fall victim to this affliction.

I decided to give it a go anyway and it went well for two weeks, then I hit the 20K mark and words, plot and characters failed me. I did manage to work through it, get to around 40K and finish the book. I realized though that my tale needed a skeptic, hence the birth of Will Campbell who became my POV character for a great deal of the book and became a lot of fun to hang out with. In it's current form, the book is rough but it does have some gems buried in the rocky writing, bad prose and all-out blatant word padding. I think it might even work out to be two books when I'm finished with it.

By the end of NaNo 2005, I have a book, possibly two, a title and a host of characters who are fun to write, (some more than others) and I can say that I can indeed write a 50K novel in a month. Second year, sophomore flop didn't hit me and I was done with three days and around ten thousand words to spare. I won NaNo for the second year in a row.

So, at the end, am I glad I did it? Of course. A story that began as a short story about a vampire slayer has turned into something with greater scope and with, I hope a lot more heart. It was a fun vacation from the nagging of my Inner Editor.

And the title of my slightly-less-than-magnum opus? Here it is, complete with banner designed by Hubby.

Should the book ever reach publication, the title I'm sure will change, but for now, as it lives in my mind, this is the way I will remember my NaNo book for 2005. November went by fast. When it's all done, I'm happy with my novel (even managed to avoid a useless sex scene). And, I'm looking forward to next year. I'm determined to have a second computer so Hubby can do NaNo with me. Twice the fun, two more books under our belts.

Look out NaNoWriMo 2006!

NaNo, week 3 and a half, sort of.

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 00:38:30 GMT

You could call week three of NaNoWriMo for me, Two Plots Diverged in a Wood.

In addition to buying a house and working full-time retail during the holidays (there's a reason they call it Black Friday), I've been working on this NaNo thing. It was going well at first, but when I hit the 20K Word Land, it was hell. It was like pulling teeth at a taffy factory. The muse had left for Key West and forgot to tell me.

This resulted in me typing whatever the heck came into my head. I even managed to parley an interview with the main antagonist of the book, with me as "the Writer" an actual character conducting the interview. During this bit of self-indulgent writing, I decided the characer needed a career change. I decided to make him the priest. He did a strip-tease which was good for about thirty or so words after I asked him to change into the priest garb. I either need to be committed, or published. Maybe both.

All of this made me realize this book of mine needed something (other than a good editor). It needed a skeptic. Everyone's going around with this idea of "Vampires, yeah, sure." I needed a character I could convince, that I had to convince along with the reader that this plot was feasable, and not just the product of too much cafe mocha.

Enter the character Will Campbell. So, what does one do when one discovers that the entire beginning of the novel needs to be changed before one reaches the end?

I wrote to the end of the book, with notes to myself to insert Will in so and so scene. Then I went back and added Will to the beginning of the book.

The great thing about NaNoWriMo is that there is no such thing as "delete." Scenes that are now rendered moot are still in the book. Why? Cause I need the word count. Good news, I have written around 43,000 words. Bad news, it's mostly crap. The writing is sloppy, but as I said from the get-go, it's about the quantity. December is the time to deal with quality. And some of the writing is usable even in the moot stuff.

This is assuming I don't end up a raving lunatic by the end of it. Of course, if that happens, I might be able to add that to the NaNo book and milk another 2K out of it.

Here's to the end of the road, the home-stretch. May I make it to the finish with my sanity intact!

NaNo Update; That Screeching Sound You Hear Is Your Plot Coming To A Grinding Halt

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 17:44:12 GMT

End of week two of NaNoWriMo and I have basically managed to stay on schedule. I'm about 345 words from the halfway mark of 25,000. This book has taken several turns that I didn't expect with the addition of a character who insisted on being in on the fun. He's actually turned out to be a fun character to write.

Now that I am halfway to the magic land of Word Mecca (50,000), I find that I am running out of steam. All of my characters are where they need to be, the plots and sub-plots are arranged and moving right along, but for some reason, I can't get them to the end. I have hit a stall in the writing.

Either I went too far too fast in the beginning, or the concerns of real life are taking me out of my story. Or maybe I am frankly sick of it. On the upside, I have a title now.

I am, however doing much better this year in terms of making the word count and not waiting until the last two weeks to hammer out 48,000 words. That was a trick.

Part of this book involves a romp in the ancient past of Celtic Britain. I have ordered several books on the subject so I think, in the name of research (also known to anyone writing as procrastination) I'll peruse one of them for a dose of inspiration. If I can make it over the hump, the rest will surely fall into place.

Week three, I suspect will be all about figuring out exactly how to end this thing and merging my two parallel plot lines. That of course will be in between doing house-buying stuff and working and getting ready to move.

And last but certainly not least, I have a couple of people to thank. First, the folks at http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/translation/ for some Gaelic/English translation for this book. It's actually a pretty cool forum.

Second, a huge thank you goes to Pat for the nifty signature graphic featured on this week's entry. Awesome work!

Anyhoo, back to the writing. Let's see if I can push this puppy up over the hill.

Weekly Writer's Question & NaNo Update

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 04:16:57 GMT

This week Jess poses the following question and like Wildcat, I wondered if I could find an answer, but not for the same reason. I'll explain. First, a recap of the question.

Writer’s Weekly Question #5:

Like I have observed, story and character ideas can come from many different sources. Consider your body of work thus far and discuss the most unusual or cryptic inspiration for a story of character.

I'm not sure if this is cryptic enough, but a lot of my inspiration comes from my dreams. I dream a lot and very vividly so sometimes I'm not sure if a story comes from my dreams, or my dreams are from a story. Reading that line again? Confusing, I know, but I have a tendancy to live in my head most of the time and my fantasy world tends to infiltrate my dreams.

That said, I do remember one dream in particular that I ended up waking from and writing down as a short story. So you could say it was a two part inspiration, the dream whichwas inspired by a chess set that I have. It's pewter dragons and wizards and such that I got for Christmas. I think I was talking about the chess set to someone and ended up dreaming about it.

BONUS QUESTION:

After discussing the most unusual inspiration, tell us how you developed the idea into a workable character or story line. Was the story or character divergent from the original idea, or did you end up staying close to the original source? Did you end up grafting other ideas from other sources to the original idea to create something new?

This particular dream hasn't been changed yet. I wrote it as I remembered it and decided I'd change it later if I had to. Most of my dreams have these disjointed elements, but the premise I think is a good one. It involves a strong female character, a curse and this chess set. Fantasy and it's also terribly romantic, which is why it might never see daylight. I called it Dragon Chess. But then again, who knows?

I get a lot of my story ideas from dreams, the NaNo book from last year, Gryphon Rider as well as the one from this year, as yet untitled.

And speaking of NaNoWriMo, at the end of week 1, I have 12,404 words. It's strange how this free-form kind of writing makes characters and plot twists just appear on the screen. I was writing a scene, not really sure why it was there when this character just popped in. Which ended up tying into the sub-plot that I have going and the past/present parallel story. It all happened in a matter of seconds and when it did, I was like "woah." Talk about a rush.

At first, I wasn't sure about NaNo this year. I wondered what the point was, but I think the book I'm doing this year will be better than last. There are all these new elements that are cropping up that I didn't expect. It's like I'm along for the ride and what a ride it is!

Here's hoping I can keep up the momentum. Regular sacrifises to the Caffiene gods will go a long way to ensuring that.

On the Eve of NaNoWriMo

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:31:37 GMT

There's something prophetic about Halloween falling on the eve of the start of NaNoWriMo. Hopefully, the omens will bode well and not ill for my second year of the maddness that is NaNo.

Last year's NaNo creation was a fantasy thing loosley based on Anne MacCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern. Mine was about gryphons and one girl's attempt to become a Gryphon Rider despite several things stacked against her. At least that's how it started. By the end, it became a rolling conspiracy between two brothers with my main character stuck in the middle of it, as well as her father's story about whether to reveal that he was her father. Some other really wierd stuff happened in that book that didn't make the final cut but I only added for word count. Amazing what you'll put on paper in the interest of words. I somewhat know how Dickens felt.

I also had a lot of background stuff worked out at the start of last year. This year, all I have is an idea based from a short story I wrote many moons ago. I'm sort of flying by the seat of my pants this year. I'm also departing from my fantasy roots and doing something set in present day. Of course, there is a fantastical element. Vampires. Another omen?

The title of my fledgling NaNo novel is proving more difficult than the last one. Anything involving vampires seems to categorically demand a title with blood in it. I'd like to avoid that if possible. Blood Rites, Bloody Death, Blood and Beer... etc. (Part of the book takes place on a college campus).

Maybe this will be a case where the title jumps off the page as I'm writing. I hope so. "Untitled" is so uninspiring.

So, with about 6 hours to midnight and the start of NaNoWriMo 2005, I've stocked up on coffee and have a rough idea of the plot of my story in my mind. Hopefully I can make it this year without adding useless sex scenes to pad the word count. But then, sex and vampires seem to be companions at the same party.

And on another note, Hubby has come through with my signature graphic. Hope you like it. Thanks darlin'!

Favorite Monster Novels

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 16:32:37 GMT

Suppose this should be a no-brainer since the challenger of Wildcat's Favorite Monster Novel Challenge lives in my house and is none other than my own beloved Hubby, but here goes.

Wildcat's Favorite Monster Novel Challenge

First, to address a selection chosen by both Hubby and Jess. Frankenstein. I had to read this one for Senior English and couldn't for the life of me get through it. I hated it. Sorry. But it did nothing for me.

On to the books I did enjoy.

Oddly, a mention of Senior English reminded me of a book that I did read and enjoy. Grendel by John Gardner. It's basically the story of Beowulf told from the monster's point of view. An interesting take on the Beowulf legend and it was also a short book; always a good thing when reading for school.

Like Hubby, my monster reading tends to focus on vampires. I too read Vampire$ and the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles. I enjoyed Interview With the Vampire more than hubby did though. Vampire Lestat is still my favorite though.

I also read Stephen King's Salem's Lot and enjoyed that. Though I don't remember much about it as it was many years since I read it.

And of course, Dracula.

I read this one because Hubby read it and we were dating at the time so I needed something to talk to him about. I remember very vividly reading it at like2 am with a candle burning in my room. I was at the part with the sea captain and he was tying himself to the mast of his ship. All of a sudden, I hear this dripping and I nearly came off the bed, it scared the you-know-what out of me. I realized the noise was candle wax dripping onto a plastic notebook. Still, that was the cue for me to put Dracula away and only read it during the day.

Who knows, maybe I'll try Frankenstein again, though probably not anytime soon. Too many books to read as it is.

So many books, so little time.

Jess's Writer's Weekly Question

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 15:50:36 GMT

My entries to this blog have been sporadic of late. I've contracted the Galloping Spooge (cold, actually) from a co-worker and have been feeling icky all week. Searching for a house and working amongst all that tends to leave one with not a lot of free time.

Over the worst I hope, I read Jess's Writer's Weekly Question for this week when Hubby posted his response. An interesting one and for me, an easy answer, at least in part. Mine probably won't feature visuals though.

Writer’s Weekly Question #4: Consider all the things you have written over your writing lifetime and see if you can see a pattern of character or theme in your work. Discuss why you might be creating this pattern and what the significance of it might be for you both in your writing life and (if you are so bold) your personal life.

Father Figures. My writing tends to feature characters, mostly female, who are searching for a father. In the book Hubby and I are writing, one of the main characters loses her father with whom she's had not such a great relationship. She has to reconcile the fact that she'll never get to finish what was unfinished between them. Mother in this book has died and as such has elevated to the heavenly realm where she is perfect. I don't deal with mothers much since my relationship with my own is pretty much worked through on all levels and I'm content with it. My own father left when I was 3 so I've searched for a father in my own life. My characters are doing the same. A book I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year featured a female character who discovers her father is someone other than whom she thought; it was actually the man who was training her (sort of an ObiWan/Anakin kind of thing though my character doesn't turn to the Dark Side). The NaNo book for this year also has a similar theme, only in this case the father figure is a priest who ends up becoming something of a romantic interest. (Hmm... )

The otherrecurring theme seems to be female characters who are strong and rise above their ordinary lives. They defy convention and seek to be more than just wives and mothers. Fulfilling a grander destiny than what was planned for them. Most of my writing also involves fantasy and royalty in some form. I've alway been fascinated with the idea of being Queen of something.

As an only child, I've lived in my own imagination for a long time. In this realm, I get to be whomever I want and discover what makes me tick in some ways. This naturally finds its way into my writing.

Interesting Writing question, Jess! Bravo!

On another note, since Hubby has dressed up his own blog, perhaps I should get him to do something for mine.

I'm throwing down the gauntlet, dear!

Cheers!