Category: Reading

In Memory of William Goldman

Faith Allaire November 16, 2018

I am a child of The Princess Bride movie. The witty banter, the belief in true love… the passion for adventure.

It’s crazy that my literary week has been consumed with William Goldman only to hear that he passed away.

It wasn’t easy explaining that to the kids. I had them fall in love with an author only to have him pass away.

Last night we got to the part where the man in black is climbing up the cliff.. and the rope is cut! But dang if that doesn’t stop him! Up he climbs, the true spirit of perseverance. But who is he?

And being 10, she kept saying “Inconsiderate” instead of inconceivable. My constant corrections were driving her crazy, but this is something you have to get right! It’s these small details that stay with you forever.

Of course, I corrected her by saying “You keep saying that word! I don’t think it means what you think it does.” Which cracked me up immensely, but irritated my little young reader. And when she got to the part were Inigo says it, the look on her face was worth it…

Not knowing how the tale unfolds, my daughter mourns the death of Westley. She was upset that he died because Buttercup loved him. Westley will be reborn… he will live on and will continue both his own legacy but Goldman’s as well. As writers, isn’t that one of the finer ironies in life? Your characters will live again and again within the minds of the reader long after you’re gone.

Thank you William Goldman for helping to shape my childhood, but helping me pass on memorable moments to my children.

National Novel Writing Month TO THE EXTREME!

Faith Allaire November 10, 2018

November is National Novel Writing Month, and if you don’t think that I am the kind of person to take that seriously, then by golly you know nothing about me, for I have taken National Novel Writing Month TO THE EXTREME!

First on the line up- I have already declared that I am passionately participating within NaNoWriMo’s challenge of writing 50,000 words . My name on their site is ScriptorimKeeper, so it if you are also participating in the challenge, let’s be NaNo buddies!

In addition to that- I am listening to Steven King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.” Honestly, I almost bailed when the Foreword mentioned his love for Elements of Style, but I am trying to be respectful of others making choices that might not exactly align with my own. I figure this is a good step in that direction. So far, I’ve enjoyed learning about little Stevie King!

I am also reading John Dufresne’s The Truth That Tells A Lie. I have read sections of it before for classes, but now I am going read it cover to cover to get the full Dufresne experience.

And to round off my obsessive tendencies, CNN was having a promotion of StackSkills courses featuring writing and copyediting. As I just finished my Bachelor program, I thought it would be fun to stay on the learning wagon and see what their courses have to offer me (plus it’s cheaper than going to get my Masters!).

Is anyone else celebrating National Novel Writing Month, and if so, what are you doing?

NaNoWriMo and Caffeinated Rebellious Adolescents

Faith Allaire October 31, 2018

My son’s school is expanding, which kind of sucks because my property taxes went up, but it’s exciting because it looks like my kids now go to the school of the FUTURE. Seriously, I think they modeled the look of the school to be like a building on the Jetsons…only firmly cemented on Earth. Could you imagine the taxes needed to keep up a building that defies gravity?!

Now, I don’t know if this really makes sense, because you figure that if the school is expanding, so is the library, but they recently did a purge of books. I am proud to say that my book squirreling fanaticism was passed off onto the eldest, for he came home with more than his fair share of free books.

He had me in mind when he snagged one:

The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson.

coffee… social activism… rebellion… angsty characters..

Yup that about sums up my needs as a reader.

I will be making sure that every adolescent that crosses my path knows of this book’s existence. In a world that is so politically charged (and divided), this book inspires our next set of social justice activists. Now, the main character didn’t exactly set out to be a political revolutionary, but I’d wager neither do most social activists. It’s one of the consequences of seeing the need for change in the world you live in and realizing that no body is going to bring about that change but yourself.

More importantly, you don’t need to be older, smarter, or richer, in order to create change in the world. Young people are doing amazing things each day.

For example, The Stoneman Douglas Highschool Activists on creating safer gun control:

Malala Yousafzai advocating for women to receive equitable education:

Sophia Cruz on humane immigration practices.

It’s truly amazing whether you agree with their stances or not. Every day, no matter what your age or position in society, you have a voice!

And writing is a great tool for becoming empowered!

Stevenson wrote The Latte Rebellion during a NaNoWriMo challenge, which given that it is the Eve of NanoWrimo, should inspire those embarking upon National Novel Writing Month. I’m surprised that so many writers around me have not heard of this, so let me do a quick clarification. November (yikes that’s tomorrow) is National Novel Writing Month, and there is an organization called NanoWriMo that challenges writers to spend this month plugging away at a project. The goal is to get to 50,000 words, which is the smaller side of an average book. They have an online forum page, regional chapters who host events, web series, and word sprint mini challenges to keep writers engaged. They also host CampNanoWrimo events twice a year that allow you to set your own goals.

I find it incredibly useful to build up your writing muscles, but more importantly to NETWORK! Writing is incredibly isolating, and so it’s healthy to find a community of writers to support and to be supported by. I’ve found a lot of my online community by being a resident CampNaNoWriMo member. This will be my first official attempt at NanoWrimo itself. I have faith that if Stevenson can be successful, I can be as well!

You Are Weird, but That’s Why We Love You.

Faith Allaire September 30, 2018

I would like to personally thank Felicia Day for her memoir, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). I know her from her internet show, The Guild, but my mom, and most everyone else, know her as Charlie from Supernatural.

I’ve always loved her because she outwardly owns how I feel on the inside – an awkwardly adorable nerd. I could tell right away that she was a kindred spirit.

When I saw her memoir was on audible, it became my summer jam. Audible books are great, especially memoirs being read by the person themselves, because it feels like you are having a conversation with them.

I finished Day’s book while recovering from eye surgery. The memoir felt like she was saying “Yeah, you crying tears of blood is a bit weird, but have you heard about how I was homeschooled?” <~ It was the perfect distraction to help me re-coop.

I thought my right eye was literally going to pop out of my socket. I essentially laid on the ground thanking gravity for its existence, because I felt it was the only thing keeping my eyeball on the inside of my head. It wasn’t paranoia; it was science!

I really identified with her needing to get that 4.0 in college. Sadly, in both community college and in my four year institution, I did not maintain it. And you know what, I’m still bitter. The classes that took me down were supposed to be easy and fun ~> Looking at you Digital Photography and Introduction to Mythology! Felicia’s ability to keep her 4.0 is proof that she deserves to be put on a pedestal that I will forever worship.

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Comic from FowlLanguageComics.com

There were other gems found in that memoir, specifically the issue involving GamerGate. I admired Day’s incredible strength in defending all gamer women. I’ve been accosted myself a few times playing games, and as one who has taken numerous sociological classes with a focus on gender, I can attest that these conversations are not only vital but well over due.

I am, however, disappointed because she mentioned that a PDF should have been included with the audio book, yet I never received it. I missed out on glorious visual elements that would have fully engaged my experience with this memoir.

Also, never mind, a quick google search can save embarrassing whiney moments such as this…

Being partially blind for an entire week made me a bit crazy, but since the whole point of the novel is to own what makes you a weirdo, I feel comfortable sharing this with you all. Crazy and weird are practically synonyms right?

Reading

The Independent Queens of Twitter

Faith Allaire September 27, 2018

One of the final classes I that I had taken at Southern New Hampshire University was a Social Medial platform building course for aspiring authors. I learned a lot, and it was that class that birthed this site!

The course also introduced me to Twitter and how it can be used to gain an audience. Oh boy, that was the beginning of a serious social media addiction. Not to brag.. but I have a whole 265 followers. I’m practically Twitter famous at this point.

It was thanks to Twitter that I have been introduced to the world of independent authors, and I am loving it. There are so many passionate people contributing to this underappreciated area of writing. I’m not going to lie. Some of the independent authors that I have read were a miss, which has been fun in its own way. I’m learning what I want to do as a writer, and especially what I shouldn’t do.

When you find an author who is amazingly awesome, it’s like finding buried treasure.

One treasure of an author that I found is Carla De Guzman. I read The Queen’s Game and instantly loved the dynamic set of characters she wrote about. Nina is a strong woman who feels insecure about leading, and Felipe is a super smart and incredibly deserving leader in his own right. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the situations that Guzman presented to them.

She has a new novel, How She Likes It, coming out October 1^st. Just putting this here for those that may be interested .

And see.. it’s ROMANCE! I don’t usually read romance! So, on top of experiencing new authors, I’m branching into other genres!

If you love Independent Authors, or happen to be one yourself, please comment below so you these books can get some well deserved recognition!

Bad Navy Guys and Awesomely Feral Navy Kids

Faith Allaire September 18, 2018

Over a month ago, the kids and I went to this amazing summer fest that they have on the subbase.

They had paintball- which got super heated because you had grown men serving in the military either pairing up with or going against children. My son was accepted into this super alpha group of guys, and I now think he assumes being the in the Navy consists of drinking, cursing, and playing paintball.

Rock Climbing- the guys that manned this station were so great with kids. I saw more than a fair share of kids get halfway up, realize that heights could lead to impending doom, and freak out. These guys deserve hazard pay..

Inflatables galore- Most of these involved waiting in a line until an unspecified amount of kids cycled through. This one little kid was like NOPE. He barreled through the line and monkeyed his way up the slide and then proceeded to hide within the innards of this Ironman bouncehouse. My daughter was asked by the attendant to perform a special ops mission to retrieve said kid, which she agreed to do, but then didn’t. She left the kid to be feral for another 10 minutes before the kid came out his own. I can laugh about it, because it wasn’t my kid…

They also had a pretty cool archery set up, but most of the little kids couldn’t wield the bows, so they were natural targets for the bigger kids… <~ I’m really starting to see that Navy kids are both brutal and fierce creatures O.O

And fireworks: The best I had seen in years!

But what got this military spouse happy was the FREE STUFF! And imagine my extreme giddiness when my daughter, knowing that I am huge nerd for books, snagged me a free book by James Patterson.

I had given the book a good home, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to ever read it. Action Thrillers aren’t what I normally read. But then Alycia asked me if I would go to a book signing to meet Patterson. Naturally, you should read a book from an author before you meet them right? I remembered that I had one of his books! It felt like the book was free twice over!

Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend, but I was motivated to finish his book. Once you start an action thriller book, it’s really hard to put it down.

One thing I really liked about Patterson’s work was how he seamlessly combined three different crimes into one flawless experience. It wasn’t just a “ME SMASH ACTION TOGETHER,” but rather each crime had a key element that connected each to the next one. There was a continuity, so to speak, that kept up the pace of reading that, dare I say, made it enjoyable?

Like so enjoyable that I feel kind of sad that I didn’t start the series from the beginning? Patterson, what have you done to me?!

There is also some pretty hilarious irony in the fact that two of the main bad guys in this book are Naval Academy Officers, and this book was given out for free at a Navy Family event….

Although,

Can we take a second to look at this guy’s photo on the back of the cover. Is this really the photo they liked and felt should take up the entirety of the back of the book? Over the few days it took me to read, I felt like this guy was staring at me confused..

Like he was asking me how to fix his computer and couldn’t understand what I was talking about when I suggested turning it off and back on. He knows what that means, but can’t fathom why it works..

Or was that really the top I wanted to wear to work?

Another cup of coffee, Faith.. really?

Or it looked as if he was trying to figure out if a certain vampire was his son…Pattinson is obviously the British version of Patterson.. AND look, they both share that confused browed scowl! No DNA test required!

(Photo curtesy of http://www.robsessedpattinson.com/)

Ok, I think the connection is all in my head. I clearly just wanted a reason to browse 100’s of Pattinson photos….

Stitching Together Fiction and Science

Faith Allaire September 5, 2018

I’ve developed a love for listening to e-books on my deck while I cross stitch. It beats being stuck inside watching TV, right?

Over the summer, I finished Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. That book- deserves a re-listen. He was throwing terms and concepts way over my head, but I was like, “This makes sense” and “Double down on the history/science lessons!” His passion for everything beyond our atmosphere was infectious!

I also learned some new concepts that will enhance my ideas for Children of the Planes, which tweaks Albert Einstein’s Theory of relativity just enough to become official science fiction.

What’s crazy, is that perhaps my ideas aren’t that far off from the truth. I think that’s why science fiction is so appealing. A lot of what is placed as science fiction isn’t always that far off from tomorrow’s technology.

For example, Popular Science has an article by Mary Beth Griggs that shows examples from Star Trek. From cell phones to Bluetooth, her article highlights just how close the gap is between what we dream as far off concepts and realistic technology. All it takes is one person to look at the colorful ideas that science fiction presents and break it down into manageable shapes, which is very much like cross stitch.

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Oh, and I’d like to thank Jupiter for essentially keeping us alive every day.