Eleven words

I've been gone from my blog for weeks now, which is nearly unheard of. I've been snowed under with stressors and various commitments lately, and unfortunately that means I've let other parts of life — reading, writing, and blogging — slip.

Writing? Ah yes. It's November: the month of NaNoWriMo. I have, to date, written a total of eleven words. They are not well-written words.

Why yes, I do plan to write 100,000 words again this year.

Why no, I don't yet really know what I'll be writing about. But in time-honoured tradition, I've decided to write a sequel to last year's NaNoWriMo. I have a vague idea for this (The sequel's heroine hates the first novel's anti-hero and plans to overthrow or otherwise dispose of him).

The cool thing about this year is that CreateSpace are generously offering a free proof copy to winners again. As I wasn't organised enough to order a copy of last year's novel, this will give me an opportunity to publish both book and sequel in one volume! Sadly, this means the sequel needs to be as good as the first book. Sure, this isn't a high standard, but last year's book was the best one I've written. This year's....

I really need to get beyond the first eleven words.

In my mailbox (2)

Another week with my mailbox full of books: good times. Hence, time for another episode of In my mailbox! (Cue theme music.) These books are all pretty recent releases, too, which will help me towards completing my Countdown Challenge.

I know very little about Rooftops of Tehran, but it's about "growing up in an Iran headed toward revolution". Really, what else do you need? It sounds fascinating.

I won this book courtesy of a competition at Savvy Verse and Wit

I won The sister, a debut novel by Poppy Adams, in a competition at Need more bookshelves.

The story follows Ginny, a woman living in her childhood home, a sprawling Victorian house, whose life centres around her moths and the "ghosts of her past". But when her sister Vivien returns to their home, "dark, unspoken secrets rise, disrupting Ginny's ordered life and threatening the family's fragile peace....This [is] a disquieting story of two sisters and the ties that bind — sometimes a little too tightly." (Summary adapted from the backcover copy)

I won Comfort food by Kate Jacobs, from Need more bookshelves as well! This is another story about a woman teetering on middle age. Gus, the host of a TV cooking show, is struggling not only with the big "Five-Oh" approaching, but with being forced to work with a beautiful bee-yatch to boost ratings; with two demanding daughters at home; and with, of course, some attractive man. (I'm going to assume Gus is single. But of course, heroines always are. Why aren't there ever any heroines who start and end books in a happy, stable relationship, and who just have other issues in their lives?) (Even in the Shopaholic series, once the heroine gets together with her man, their relationship is threatened in every single book. It gets old fast.)

Pretties is the second book in the Uglies series. Basically, I read Uglies on Sunday, and ordered the next two books in the series on Monday. I got this on Wednesday, and finished it at lunch-time the next day. Review to follow.

I started Specials — the third book in the Uglies series — as soon as I got home from work on Thursday, and finished it before 8pm that night. It's not that skinny a book, so I was slightly surprised at how little time it took me to read it. Again: review to follow. These two books weren't as good as Uglies, though. (But if you read Uglies, you're probably going to have to read the other two anyway, just to find out what happens. Just warnin' ya.)

The reader's trust

In writing classes, I've been taught about the level of trust between a reader and an author. The author makes a contract of sorts with the reader; that is, the reader trusts that the information the author gives them is true, that the author won't deceive them. Obviously, in a novel, the story told won't be true; but it will be true within the story, if that makes sense.

Take Jodi Picoult. She's an excellent and a talented writer; but she changes the story in the last chapter of every one of her books, turning each story on its head with a surprise "twist" at the end. To me, that feels like she betrayed my trust in her: I stopped reading her books, because what's the point in getting emotionally invested in a story that you know will all change in the last chapter? You can't go the whole way through a book claiming that X is true, and in the last chapter find out that X is all lies (unless it's a mystery/detective/thriller).

I think cliffhangers betray a reader's trust as well. I like books to be standalone books, regardless of whether they're part of a series. I like to be able to read a book in a series, and not need to get the next one to find out how the hero/heroine gets themselves out of the predicament that arose at the end of the book.

Take Juliet Marillier. She's my favourite author, and combines well-researched historical settings with great fantasy details, stirring romances and characters that pull at my heart-strings. I buy every book she's released — I even pre-ordered her most recent release, a first for me.

Juliet Marillier writes a lot of series.

But her books are complete in and of themselves.

When an author ends on a cliffhanger, to me it feels like they're trying to blackmail me into reading the next book. You care about this character now, don't you? Well, look what's happened! Mwaahahahahaa! Now you must read the next book, or you'll never know!

I buy Juliet Marillier's books, not because she blackmails me into feeling I "need" to find out what happens next, but because I love the richness of her writing, her characters, her worlds.

If a book ends on a cliffhanger, I might buy the next one in the series. I might read until the series ends. But I'll have a grudge against that author, and it's less likely I'll buy anything else they've written, because I don't want to be blackmailed again.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?

Another stage to go!

I felt relieved after my interview for the journalism internship. It hadn't gone perfectly, and I'd stuffed up a few questions; but it was over. I could no longer do anything to change the outcome: all I had to do was wait.

Waiting for a call that will come "in a week or so" is much more nerve-wracking than internship test results that will "take five or more weeks".

But I'd passed the application stage; I'd passed the general knowledge test; now all I had to do was hear back from the interview, and I'd know.

Apparently not.

My ideal job would be as a sub-editor, and this came up during the interview. They asked if I'd prefer to do that than be a journalist. I want to be honest, so I said yes.

I know, cringeworthy.

And they rang me on Tuesday: They don't want me as a journalist.

But would I be interested in an internship as a sub-editor?

...

Why yes, yes I would.

I don't have the internship. Not yet. But now there's another — hopefully final — stage to go through. A "casual" meet-and-greet with my potential boss, this weekend.

I'm nervous, for so many reasons. If I get this, the whole direction of my life could be changed — potentially in both good and bad ways.

But wow I hope I get it.