Review: Rose and Poe by Jack Todd

Rose and Poe is a retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, from the point of view of Caliban and his mother.

Before I begin this review, I just want to say that I have never read the Tempest, or at least if I have I don’t remember reading it, so I can’t compare the adaptation or anything. For that, you’ll have to read it yourself (and The Tempest, I guess, if you aren't familiar with it). What I can do is tell you if it’s an enjoyable read, which it is.

The plot is fairly straightforward, about a sexual assault trial and trying to catch the actual perpetrator. It’s not a complex mystery case or anything like that, as the plot is mostly a backdrop for the characters and the setting, which are Todd’s strengths in this book. Rose and Poe are based on Caliban and his mother from The Tempest, and my guess is they are background characters in that play. Todd does an excellent job of bringing them to the forefront, developing their characters and making the reader empathize with them. I think Rose’s love and protection for her son are what make it easy to side with her and Poe. The alternating perspectives also provide a more rounded picture of the characters and the events that take place.

Todd's other strength is his setting; he has a way of perfectly describing the scene, which also has the effect of setting the tone for various events. His descriptions of the storm that takes place in the middle of the book are spine-chilling.

One of my favourite things about Rose and Poe, however, is the slight sprinkle of magic that Todd writes in the book, from a speedy delivery “sprite” called Airmail, to Poe’s giant qualities, to a walking staff that seems to hold more power than an ordinary staff should. The magic seems both everyday and slightly out of place to the characters in this book, which makes the setting all the more intriguing. All in all it was just a fun, suspenseful read and I encourage you to pick it up.

Rose and Poe on ECW Press
Rose and Poe on Amazon.ca
Rose and Poe on Amazon.com

Interview With After The Fall Author KATE HART! + Giveaway

Kate Hart has been one of my favourite people on the Internet since before I discovered YA Highway, so I was very excited to finally read her book After the Fall, which came out last year. I was even more excited when I read it and discovered what an incredible book it was. Kate Hart writes complex teen dynamics so well and with such intelligence. After the Fall deals with two characters messing up, forgiveness, the blurry lines of friendship, and learning about consent and privilege. I am also a sucker for friendship and double POV books, so I definitely loved it.

I am very excited to have Kate on the blog today to answer some questions about her excellent debut! Kate has also offered to giveaway a signed copy of the paperback which comes out TODAY with the beautiful cover shown below, so fill out the form at the end of this post by the end of January 27 to enter! (US/Canada only.)

Here's the synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt’s bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn’t even seem to realize she’s a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn't want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family’s eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn’t really get it… and he’d never understand why she’s fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.

One of the things that make or break a book for me are the characters, and I was really impressed with your incredibly complex and dynamic characters. Even the parents were interesting and present in the story, which I find is rare in YA. How did the dynamic between Matt and Raychel and their parents develop as you were writing?

Thank you for the compliment! Several things influenced that depiction. One, while I understand that it's easier to give YA characters agency if you get the parents out of the picture, it's just not a realistic depiction of most teens' lives, and it didn't make sense for this story. Two, as a mom myself, I'm hyper aware that parents are not stock cutouts. Realizing that your folks are individual people with their own pasts and preferences and flaws is a huge part of growing up, even well into one's adulthood, and for girls struggling to find their place in the world and within feminism, that ever-changing dynamic with one's mom or mother figure is an important part of growing up. Three, my own parents were present in my life, but beyond that, my friends' and boyfriends' parents played a big role in my teen years. Some were supportive and almost like friends themselves; some were judgmental and indifferent or even mean to me while they tried to steer their own kids' choices, and some were just straight up awful parents. 

So in early drafts, the dynamic was a little more "good mom vs bad mom," but as the story deepened, I realized it was important to portray Raychel's changing perception of the two moms, in order to support the overall "feminism is complicated" theme in the book. Both moms are doing their best, but both moms screw up, and ultimately, both moms reach the limits of what they can do for Raychel. She can't begin to steer her own life until she reaches that realization.

One of my favourite things are friendship stories, and After the Fall has a lot of interesting friendship dynamics in it, between Matt, Raychel, and their other friends. Was it important to you to focus on the friendships of these characters, and why?

In high school, I was very much that girl who considered herself "not like other girls." Most of my friends were boys, and I invested a lot of energy in trying to prove myself worth of their attention. It wasn't until adulthood that I accrued a solid group of awesome lady friends -- and once that happened, I realized I'd always had lots of girlfriends, but I'd put our relationships on a second tier. So while none of the characters in After the Fall are based on my high school crew, it was interesting for me to explore that particular dynamic and lead Raychel and Matt through the realization that many high school friendships are based more on circumstance than real relationships (but that some can turn out to be the real deal, too). 

After the Fall alternates perspectives between Matt and Raychel. Were there any challenges writing these two different perspectives?

For some reason, all of my projects come to me in multiple POVs. I think it's a side effect of studying history and realizing that there is no true objective perspective: every story has a million sides, and all of them can be correct in some way. Executing the different voices is challenging for me, though. I winged it for awhile on this book, but before I got into serious revisions, I made a list of vocal tics, favorite phrases, and that sort of thing for each character (for example, Matt's narration never uses dashes; Raychel says "y'all" while Matt looks down on southern accents).

Among many things, After the Fall deals with characters struggling with the issue of privilege. How did your own experiences with privilege influence your writing?

This is always a tough question, because while I technically grew up poor, I also rarely wanted for things. My family was upwardly mobile, and my dad's parents were financially secure enough to help us when necessary, so I hesitate to depict myself as someone who grew up in poverty. However, the truth is that it took us a long time to reach lower middle class, and money is an issue I've always worried about. I was lucky enough to get a full scholarship to college, but I was also very conscious of being the scholarship kid who had to actually study and work to stay there. As an adult, I own a small business, but we've scraped by to make it feasible. Meanwhile, economic and social status can play a huge role in assault -- not just in who's victimized, but in who can expect justice, much less afford it. I couldn't ignore that in the dynamics of my hometown, so there was no way I could ignore it in this story.

You’ve talked about your experience getting rejected by publishers, and feedback you received about how your protagonist was unrealistic, even though Raychel’s experiences were largely informed by your own experience with sexual assault. How do you hope your book has an impact on the YA or publishing community?

To be honest, I don't have any illusions about it making any grand changes to the overall narrative. But my hope is that the book will reach some readers who haven't seen themselves on the page -- that they will feel heard, and go forward feeling more confident that their stories matter, or at least knowing how to better support friends who've been victims.

Thanks Kate! After the Fall is a really incredible story, and I would like to think books like this will make an impact, whether that be on an individual scale or encouraging someone else to tell their story.  

One of the many cool items in Kate's Etsy shop!

As well as being an author, Kate also has a really cool Etsy store, The Badasserie, which is fiber arts and woodworking made with lumber reclaimed from projects by Kate's family business, Natural State Treehouses. The stuff she has there is really cool, so go check it out! 

Kate Hart's website

Kate Hart on Twitter 
The Badasserie on Instagram

And don't forget to enter below to win a signed copy of After the Fall, by commenting on or sharing this post! US/Canada only, closes midnight January 27, 2018, winner will be contacted through email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Begin Again

You haven't written anything for two years. Well, aside from essays (and you've gotten quite good at those).

You remember a time when you were a girl who scribbled things with careless abandon. She was so happy, so unencumbered. The words poured from her pen, the tips of her fingers, like it didn't hurt her at all. Her identity was deep and rooted, known to herself and everyone else. Now it seems a foggy memory; the girl a distant stranger.

Other things occupy your time. School. Life. Friends. Books. The internet.

You don't spend time staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page on a screen, because you never get there. Instead, the blank pages are in your head, taunting you, reminding you of all you aren't and never were. You pretend to move on. Writing was a childish past time, nothing that could fulfill you later in life. Besides, everyone says writers write, which of course makes you nothing.

You think yourself in circles. You're just stuck; you're busy; you never really were serious about that writing thing; you're really, really, really busy. You'll get back to writing eventually, you tell yourself. You ignore the self-doubt and terror under the surface, that the blank page must stay blank because nothing you fill it with will ever be good enough. You'll never be good enough.

Maybe you'll never write again.

I wish you could see into the future, have the ability to turn around and look back at the whole picture. I wish you could see how you just need to grow up a little bit, to try something new, to learn to let go. I wish you could see the thousands of words you've put to a page, filling up that white space that so filled you with terror (and still does, to be honest, but you fight it). You're not the same scribble-happy little girl, but interpreting the world with words is something that will always be something you end up falling back into. I wish I could tell you that you'll find it again.

But you won't believe me.

*** 

I really, really wish I would have posted more about not being able to write anything during the time when I wasn't able to write anything, even just for those people who suffer long dry spells (including myself). Because I know it's easy with hindsight, when you are writing regularly, to look back and tell people it'll be fine, you'll get back into it eventually once you let go of your stupid perfectionism, learn a few tricks, and stop caring so much. And then suddenly you'll have almost two full-length books written! However, it's not so easy to see how you'll get out of a hole when you're in it.

But I'll say it anyway - you will find joy in writing again. It will probably be different this time; a different routine, on a different theme, more or different people cheering you on. But you will find it.

How do you get out of writing slumps? What advice would you give to someone trying to find joy in writing again?

3 Books I Read Because Other People Made Me

HA just kidding as if anyone could make me read books that I don't want to read (sorry, dad). But sometimes a nudge from a friend really helps to push me out of my comfort zone, or actually sit down and read a book I've been meaning to read for months. Here are a few books I've read recently based almost solely on the recommendations of others!

1. Waking in Time by Angie Stanton

Recommended by: I can't remember who recommended this to me... it may have been Lara? Someone on Twitter, anyway, when I asked for romance recs.

Well, whoever recommended it to me said it was cute, fun romance and they were so right. It was exactly what I needed after the crazy month that is November for university students. It was a simple, fluffy read, featuring romance and time travel and centred around a super sweet family story.  It was such a fun, relaxing read. ...Although I was trying to figure out the age logistics of someone from the 2010s dating someone from the 1920s. Like, is age just inconsequential when you hop from time to time? How does that work? (This is why I love time travel. So many questions. So many possibilities.)


2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Recommended by: A school friend of mine who is getting an English degree. She read Frankenstein for an essay she was writing for class, and said that Frankenstein reminded her of herself in some ways, which I thought was intriguing. I've also been meaning to read Frankenstein for forever, and this was just the push I needed to actually sit down and read it.

It was... a lot different than I expected. I didn't know much about it, aside from the usual cultural connotations of Frankenstein, and that it's considered the first sci-fi novel. It was much starker and sadder than I thought it would be, and a lot of it takes place more internally than the sci-fi I'm used to reading. It was still good though, just made me think. (And also weirded me out a lot...) I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, necessarily, but it was interesting.

3. Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs

Recommended by: A friend of mine that I worked with this past summer, who reads almost exclusively thrillers, which I would not have guessed upon first meeting her. She said it was one of her favourites of the genre.


If you aren't aware by now, I don't really read thrillers at all. I read Melina Marchetta's Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil, but that's it (and it was so very familiar and similar to the rest of MM's work that it wasn't that strange). So reading Monday Mourning was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I gave my friend Jellicoe Road to read in return so I had to read it. It was really good! It's amazing how no matter the genre if there's good, self-aware and empathetic characters then I'm hooked. My favourite part of this book is how Reichs weaved in a message about the utter sadness of women being victims of violence into her mystery story. And it ended so, so well, despite being unexpectedly sad in places.

This recent experience with reading books outside of my comfort zone has made me want to read even more widely and outside of my reading comfort zone. What should I try reading (maybe a genre you haven't seen yet on the blog)? What books have you read solely because of others' recommendations?

The Future (2017 Reading Goal Check In & 2018 Goals)

We've already got the review of all the books I read in 2017 post out of the way, so onto this year's reading goals! First, how did I do with 2017's reading goals?

1. Read 7 books by Indigenous authors, including at least 1 by an Indigenous author not from North America.

I actually read 9 books by Indigenous authors this year! All of them were Canadian books I believe, but I think that's pretty good. You can read a few of the reviews I did: Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont, A Two Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and From the Tundra to the Trenches by Eddy Weetaltuk, and Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl. I intend to continue reading more Indigenous fiction each year, both because they really do help open my eyes to a world I am entirely unfamiliar with, and also because they are just fun. Other books I read that I didn't get around to reviewing were Dawn Dumont's Glass Beads, and a Indigenous sci-fi short story collection, Love Beyond Body, Space and Time, edited by Hope Nicholson.

2. Read more books written by non-American authors than American authors. I will do it this year!! Third time's a charm!!

I don't think I quite did it, I'm still over in American authored books by a few, but if I don't count my rereads of Queen's Thief or Maggie Stievfater's The Raven Cycle, then I definitely read more books written by non-American authors! I'm counting it.

3. Read 3 books that have been translated from another language.

Thanks to Women in Translation month, I surpassed this goal! I actually ended up reading 6 books that were translated. I think my favourite of these reads were Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer and Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada. That book is strange at first, but in the end so fascinating. Please pick it for your next book club read.

4. Have 40% of the books I read this year be diverse #ownvoices books.

I got 34% for this year, a little bit up from last year but still not quite as high as my goal. There was definitely more diversity in the settings of books I read, though, thanks to WITmonth.

5. Read 5 books with non-Western settings.

4! So close... to be honest I kind of forgot about this goal. I'll try for more next year!

6. Do a reading challenge on the blog! Which reading challenge? Who knows, not me!

I am sooo happy that I found Women in Translation Month, it fits so well with my goal for this blog and my reading habits. I am definitely going to participate next year, and hopefully read a bit more women in translation from other non-Western countries and languages.


Despite the fact that I ended the year with a months long reading slump (which always happens when I'm stressed about school; I really should see it coming by now), looking back I'm really proud of what I accomplished in my reading and on the blog.

*~2018~*

I've thought about it (not very much), but I actually don't think I'm going to make any specific goals for this year (which I know is not how you make goals, but whatever). I know I want to keep doing the same, reading lots of CanLit, lots of diverse literature, and reading even more widely than I do currently, whether that be through characters, setting, language, or genre. And I still want to keep reviewing and promoting books that I think deserve more love.

I have thought a lot over the years about what I want my blog to be; whether I should post more consistently, or do more posts that would get me more traffic than I currently have. I always come back to, no, Alyssa, do want you want. This is your space. Some people get to say that and still have thousands of followers, but I guess what I want to say now is I'm thankful for the platform that I have, and that I've come to terms with making a small drop in a bucket over waves. And I've come to realize just how important that drop can be. And now I can say that I'm glad that it's been my commitment to, well, stick to my own commitments for what I want this blog to be.

So going into the new year, a lot of what I did this past year is going to stay the same, but it's also going to change, because that's what I do. Over the past few years this blog has become less of a writing blog, more of a reading and book review blog. Which is great, because I never thought I would consider myself to like or be good at writing reviews, and now I do. But I've recently got back into writing, and I want to start talking about that more too - including sharing more of my own writing and my thoughts behind that terrifying process. We'll see how that goes. 

Basically, I have a few plans in the works (and by "in the works" I mean "I've had passing thoughts about"), I may update all this to be more concrete later, and... thanks for reading. 

Here's to 2018.

 

Review of All The Books I Read in 2017

Well, the year is coming to an end, which means it's time for my annual tradition of trying to make up for a year of not talking about books as much as I would like to by talking about them all at once!! This year I'll do it with the help of this survey done by Jamie over at the Perpetual Page Turner.

2017 Reading Stats

Number of books you read: 61!

Number of re-reads: 16, a few more than last year...

Genre you read the most from: Looking through the genres I read this year, I read a *way* wider variety of genres than I usually do, which is cool! It's always my goal to read widely. However, my top genres remain YA fantasy (mostly because of my rereads of both Queen's Thief and Harry Potter), and adult and YA contemporary.

1. Best Book You Read in 2017? I'm not sure... maybe Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer or Sputnik's Children by Terri Favro. Gosh I love sci-fi. Oh wait, no, I forgot Thick as Thieves came out this year... augh I can't pick! 

2. Book You Were Excited About And Thought Were Going to Love More But Didn't? I loved The DUFF by Kody Keplinger, but none of the books I've read after that have pushed boundaries quite like that one, including the one I read this year, Run, although it was still an enjoyable read.

3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read? Trafalgar!! In all ways. Well, not bad, but like, in that I was surprised to find that I liked it, and I was also surprised by the twists and turns and stuff. And now I remember how these end of year things go, where I just keep talking about the same good books over and over...

4. Book you "pushed" the most people to read (and they did)? If by "pushed" you mean "handed to and insisted they read it", then Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. Always.

5. Best series you started in 2017? Best sequel of 2017? Best series ender of 2017? I almost forgot about Leigh Bardugo's incredible duology, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. I love when authors can both do amazing characters *and* crazy good action. However, best sequel I would definitely give to Thick as Thieves because, uh, Megan Whalen Turner.
 

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2017? DAWN DUMONT. She NEEDS to be the next famous-even-outside-of-Canada author, because her work is incredible and absolutely hilarious. I loved her newest book, Nobody Cries at Bingo, and want to devour everything she has written and will write forever.

7. Best book from a genre you don't typically read/was out of your comfort zone? I pretty much don't read thrillers but a friend of mine solely reads them, so she gave me Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs. It was good! And I wasn't even (too) scared.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? Six of Crows, hands down.

9. Book you read that you are most likely to re-read next year? Thick as Thieves, definitely! I have been meaning to reread it all year. 

10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2017? Probably Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont.

11. Most memorable character of 2017? Ugh, don't even know. The characters in Thick as Thieves though. MWT knows her characters and writes them so well. 

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017? Probably the most eloquently worded book was Rose and Poe by Jack and Todd, which I still intend to do a review of, so look for that soon! Either that or Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Gosh that author knows how tug on a person's soul.

13. Most thought provoking/life-changing book of 2017? Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Hit me in exactly all the right spots at the right moment. 

14. Book you can't believe you waited until 2017 to finally read? Six of Crows!! Also, Devil in Deerskins by Anahareo. I knew that book would be fascinating, and it was! Thanks U of M Press for providing with the final nudge I needed to read it. ;) 

15. Favourite passage/quote from a book you read in 2017?

“What do you think? I laid my hand flat on the table so that he could see the scars. Do you think we are needed? I mean people like us, who have strayed from the path, withdrawn? Who have no diploma, no education, no work, nothing to show, have learned nothing except this: That it is worth it to stay alive.” – I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flasar

 16. Shortest and longest book you read in 2017? Well, I read a short story collection, so that's pretty short (it was Love Beyond Body, Space and Time by Hope Nicholson). Longest... probably Thick as Thieves or Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. 

17. Book that shocked you the most? Thick as Thieves! Or Trafalgar. 

20. Favourite book you read in 2017 from an author you've read previously? Do I need to say it.

21. Best book you read SOLELY on a recommendation from someone else/peer pressure: Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs! Unexpectedly entertaining, and enlightening.

23. Best 2017 debut you read? AFTER THE FALL by Kate Hart, hands down.

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year. SPACE in Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer. 

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most FUN to read. Oh! I read Waking in Time by Angie Stanton, and boy was that fun. Romance, college and time travel? Sign me up.

26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2017? Oh, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, definitely. 

27. Hidden gem of the year? After the Fall! Actually, all the books I read. Please just go back and read all of the reviews I did this year, find some gems!!

28. Book that crushed your soul?? Gilead. And Thick as Thieves, because page 287.

29. Most unique book you read this year? My sci-fi loves, Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer and Sputnik's Children by Terri Favro! Both so unique, and BOTH SO MUCH FUN. Go read. Now.

30. Book that made you the most mad (in a good or bad way)?  I don't think I actually got mad at any of the books I read this year. The ones I didn't like were just... blah... and the good ones were just too good to make me mad. Sad, yes, but not mad.

Book Blogging Life

New favourite blog you discovered in 2017? Guys, I can't keep up with my own blog, how can I keep up with new ones...

Favourite review you wrote in 2017? I think my review of Sputnik's Children by Terri Favro. Although I like most of the reviews I write now. I think I've gotten a lot better at writing reviews. 

Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog? Either 5 Things To Remember When Looking for Diverse Books or 5 Strategies For Finding Under the Radar Books. Basically, my blog's mission statements.

Best event that you participated in (author signings, virtual events, etc)? Not really an event, but the release of Megan Whalen Turner's Thick as Thieves! I got together with an IRL friend of mine who is an MWT fan and we had a little Queen's Thief Party, it was lovely (and uber nerdy, just the way we like it). 

Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2017? Some lovely publishers decided to send me books to review, which is awesome! I love it that publicists think it's worth it to send books for me to review. :)

Most challenging part of your blogging or reading life this year? Balancing it with school, as always. And, now that I'm back into writing, trying to balance it with writing. And, as always, figuring out how to grow out of YA (although I think I'm getting the hang of it more now), and what I really want the blog to be. You know, just the little things. Oh, and keeping to my one-post-a-week goal. 

Most popular post on your blog? My review of Devil in Deerskins by Anahareo! I'm so glad because that book deserves to be read more.


Post you wish got a little more love? My post about J.K. Rowling, Megan Whalen Turner and Authorial Intent. I was hoping to get a bit more discussion going... Oh, and my Local Book Nook series! Read it, love it, participate!


Best bookish discovery? Can I just say Women in Translation Month?

Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? Yes! I said I wanted to participate in a reading challenge, and I did participate in Women in Translation Month, which was one of the best things I did all year. Meytal Radzinski is a genius for coming up with that campaign and I'm so excited to participate again next year (and read waay more women in translation all the time!)

Looking Ahead

I seriously suck at keeping up with debuts and stuff so the only question from this section I'm going to answer is One Thing You Hope to Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life in 2018? One of my post recent posts was talking about how sharing writing is scary and I think I may have decided (as you can tell, I'm sooo committed) that I want to share more of my own writing on the blog. As for reading, for once I think I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing (although I'll go into more detail in a New Year's reading goal post!)

What are some of your best or worst books of 2017? Have you read any books that I've talked about this year? WILL you read any books I've talked about this year?? 

What's Up Wednesday feat. Christmas Cat

Happy December!

Christmas cat!

Well, I think I can say I have failed my goal of doing a post a week this year, BUT I haven't published this many posts since 2012, so I'm going to call that a success.

I don't have any grand ideas for today, so I thought I'd just talk about what I've been up to, in the style of What's Up Wednesday of course!

What I've Been Reading

As always happens when I start school, I go into a reading slump and don't really get out of it until I start reading fun, easy, fluffy books. So recently I've reread some of The Raven Cycle, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and the kind of companion novel Carry On, also by Rainbow Rowell. I also read somewhere in there Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, which I may do a review of still, since it was an unusual book that just seemed to find me at exactly the right moment. I also read Frankenstein and a fun YA contemp about time travel called Waking in Time by Angie Stanton. Now I'm reading Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs because a friend recommended it to me, and it is definitely not something I normally read, but it's fun so far!

What I've Been Writing

So, last year around this time I finished a 50,000 word very messy draft of a thing. Then in July this year I finished a second draft rewrite of that thing. Then in August I think? I started writing another story with the same characters, about the next step in their journey. It's another thing that's a lot different from everything I've written, but I love it and these characters so much. A few weeks ago I thought I might finish this draft before the end of year, which would be crazy. Two drafts in a year!?!? Now I don't think it's going to happen, since the holiday season is a lot busier than I thought (with all good things!) Anyway, it's been cool in the past couple of years to have gotten back into writing, although I'm writing about completely different things than I was when I fizzled out four or so years ago. I definitely want to keep working with these characters' stories for awhile yet. One day I will have the courage to share it with people. Maybe. (I'm working on it).

-finished a second draft (the 1st in years)
-wrote 25k of a (heart-breaking) sequel w some of my fav characters ever
-also got a couple lovely short fiction pieces & poems in there

...wow. This has been one of my best writing yrs in a LONG time 😄❤️ https://t.co/ZCqQkGgFGr

— Alyssa Sherlock (@asherlockwrites) November 28, 2017

What Inspires Me Right Now

I think the Literary Inspired Web Series online community is something that inspires me right now. If you don't know, there are a bunch of young women who make literary inspired web series (often following in the footsteps of the famous Lizzie Bennet Diaries, although the series have changed a lot since then). It's cool seeing so many young women be brave and put their writing and work out there, and working together and... it's just so cool. It makes me believe more in myself and my own abilities when I see other women my age being so creative and productive and putting their work out there.

What Else I've Been Up To

Finished my second last semester of my undergrad degree!! One more semester to go. It feels good to be off school for the moment, and the blog ideas are slowly trickling back in... I have a few reviews I want to do, maybe before the end of the year, my traditional end of year posts of course, and I have a special surprise for January that I'm quite excited about! Other than that, right now my life is consumed with holiday stuff like working, baking, and watching Star Wars.

Also, I've been slacking off on my Local Book Nook project (because, school. If you're one of those students who is ALSO a consistent book blogger, you get all the prizes). But if you're interested in participating, please either leave a comment, DM me on Twitter or email me!

What are you reading or writing these days? How do manage to balance blogging, writing, and life?? Please tell me your secrets.

Book Blogging, Sharing Writing, and Other Scary Things

This post has been sitting in my drafts for a couple months now... thought I'd finally post it.
 
Summer just whizzed by, and all of a sudden it's almost October [it's November!! ] and I've gone three weeks without writing a blog post (sorry!) In case you missed it, I spent most of August doing reviews for Women in Translation Month, and I also did a review of Anahareo's incredible autobiography Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl, which includes pictures of my family's annual trip to Riding Mountain National Park.

Since then, I've started my final year of university, got yet another job, opened a new bank account, read and thought way too much about media and the way it manipulates our brains, biked a bunch of places, hung out with friends, and somewhere in there the scariest thing of all, writing.

I also have not been blogging, obviously. I have been thinking a lot about what I should blog about, though.

I've wanted to talk about book reviewing, in response to this post, and the bizarre concept that there are book bloggers who review every book they read?? I often feel like a fake book blogger, that I kind of stumbled into book reviewing after goofing off as a teenager for a number of years. I don't really know how this thing is really supposed to work. The type of book blogger world that you review every book you read is so distant and strange to me. I think so differently about the books I review, if I did that with every book I read it would ruin my reading experience and make me want to read even less than I do. (I have been stuck on Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Ueashi for about two weeks now. Although I did read Tash Hearts Tolstoy somewhere in there, and that was pretty cute.)

I also have very specific reasons for publishing reviews on my blog - usually because I think it's a book that people may not have heard of and I want to make them aware of something new, not reinforce or go against ideas they have about a book they already read. Something I don't get is when there are a million reviews of the same book and people think they still need to put their voice out there. I know it's the nature of the beast that is a book blog, that you get more views if you post about more popular books, but it's a stupid system that lets a lot of really good books fall through the cracks.

The other thing I've been thinking about is sharing work. I finished the rewrite of the draft I finished last November this summer, and sent it off to a few people, with the knowledge that some of these people wouldn't have time to read it, and wouldn't necessarily critique it because that's not the kind of readers they are. Did I do that purposefully? Yes, probably. (Okay, definitely.) Sharing work is scary. I get so panicky every time I hit send on a document. It is weird how writing can involve both being entirely solitary and opening your thoughts and ideas up to the whole world. There are these "one line Wednesday" things on Twitter where you share a line of your Work in Progress on Twitter, and even that terrifies me. I don't know how people are constantly sharing their work on Twitter and elsewhere. I know it's my own fault that it scares me so much, that I really just need to practice.

And that's another thing - why is writing so hard? Why haven't I figured out how to do this? I've been doing this for over fifteen years. You would think I would know things by now. I mean, I've figured some stuff out, like telling myself to just write 500 words is a good way to trick myself into getting started and end up writing a lot more than that. But I still agonize over that actually starting part, I don't have a regular writing routine, and I still don't really know how to share my work with people and invite real critique.

I mean, this is the point where I should say, hey, want to read a terrible second draft about friendship, family and scary transitions? But I don't even want to do that, because it's too scary. There are too many things that could happen after that. I'll just keep my MS to myself, thanks, rereading it every so often as a nice reminder that I can spit words semi-coherently on a page. But then there's also the deep desire in me to share this with another human, to have someone read what I wrote and get it, get what I'm trying to say and in that connect our human experiences on earth.

And now I'm going to share this, I guess? In the hopes that someone might comment and assure me that I'm not the only one who thinks these things? 

Review: Devil in Deerskins: My Life With Grey Owl by Anahareo

Devil in Deerskins: My Life with Grey Owl is written by Anahareo, born Gertrude Bernard, and I really can't begin to describe how amazing she is, and how amazing she is at telling her story. Devil in Deerskins is everything you could ever want in a memoir: humour, adventure, romance, death, separation, coming back together, journeys to find oneself...

Devil in Deerskins begins with Anahareo meeting Archie Belaney, "Englishman, trapper, and guide - later known as Grey Owl, author, lecturer and naturalist - Brother of the Beaver People." She then goes back to tell the story of her Mohawk family and their influence on her, her grandmother in particular, who raised her. Eventually, Anahareo, quite green to the ways of the wilderness (which makes for a hilarious tale), goes to stay with Grey Owl on one of his hunting trips and never goes back. The rest of the book follows Anahareo and Grey Owl's many ups and downs, as well as how they end up adopting two beaver kittens and turning from a life of trapping to a life in conservation.

It was so much fun to read about Anahareo and Grey Owl's adventures, as they were such interesting, funny people, both separately and together. Neither of them quite fit into the usual mold of society, so it is fascinating reading about their lifestyle and the kinds of things they got up to. It's especially funny when they do something more normal, like go to a dinner party, and then one of them (Grey Owl) acts silly because it's so out of his comfort zone.

There was so much tension throughout the book; of what they would do next, of what would happen to the beavers, how they would support themselves, how they would relieve their boredom (this crazy adventurous couple got bored easily), or whether they would find each other again when they left on their various hunting or prospecting trips. Anahareo drives the story forward at a great pace to keep you completely enraptured; I was hooked from start to finish. She also has a great voice and perspective on life that is so much fun to read. Wow did she know how to tell a good story.

I had actually heard of Grey Owl before; every year since I was young, my mom's side of the family has made a trip out to Riding Mountain National Park around the September long weekend. Over the years I've spent going to Riding Mountain, I'd heard of a man called Grey Owl, when wandering through the Visitor Centre or the tiny, packed museum in town. All I really knew about him was that he pretended to be an Indigenous man, and he worked for the park at some point. I'm so glad that Devil in Deerskins was my more in-depth introduction to Anahareo and Grey Owl, as they are both so much more than what I've ever heard in passing.

This year my parents, cousins, uncle, brother and I all biked just over 7 kilometres along the Grey Owl trail in Riding Mountain National Park to get to Grey Owl's Cabin, a cabin where Grey Owl stayed for six months trying to start a beaver colony (Anahareo was off doing something else at that point - I think maybe prospecting?). (All the pictures in this post are from that bike ride.) It was really interesting that Anahareo wasn't mentioned in any of the blurbs about Grey Owl on any of the trail signs or the book about Grey Owl in the cabin, even though she was a huge part of the reason why Grey Owl stopped trapping beaver and turned to conservation.

They are both such fascinating people, and Anahareo tells her story so well; it is humorous, fast-paced, and even romantic, and I definitely encourage everyone and anyone to get their hands on a copy of this excellent memoir.

Bonus fav quote: "A kiss when both parties are on snowshoes leaves much to be desired. Try it sometime."

Devil in Deerskins on:
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
U of M Press

Thanks University of Manitoba Press for providing me with a copy!

3 Things I Learned From Women in Translation Month

Happy September! Women in Translation Month is officially over. I loved discovering all the new books I'd never heard of before and reading everyone's blog posts, tweets, interviews and guest posts, and feeling everyone's excitement and the enthusiasm for translated books by women. I managed to get in one last WITmonth read before the end of August, The End by Fernanda Torres, which was... really not my cup of tea. I read the blurb on the back cover and was under the impression it was about a group of young boys who got into big trouble, kind of in the realm of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but it turned out it was just stories of a group of awful old men at the end of their lives. That premise wasn't that bad, but the characters were both awful people and uninteresting characters, and I feel like whatever point was trying to be made following these men's deaths didn't quite come across. Anyway I did enjoy all the other books I read for WITmonth: Swimming to Elba by Silvia Avallone, I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flasar, Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk and my favourite, Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer.

I've really enjoyed participating in Women in Translation Month and have learned a lot! Here are a few things I've learned this month:

1. There are so many good books in the world! I love whenever I find new corners of the internet to find books I haven't heard of, and WITmonth has been great for that! It really is true what Meytal Radzinski, founder of Women in Translation Month, said: "[Women in Translation Month] is because we want the best literature, and you simply aren't going to get it if all you're reading is the same men again and again, and only ever from English." I keep coming back to this quote, because it has given me a new perspective on how I choose the books I read. If all I'm reading are books in my own language, from my own corner of the world, I'm missing out on so many good books.

2. Translators are part of the artistic process. I know it seems obvious that translators are part of translating books, but I didn't quite realize how involved they actually are. For some reason I always thought of translators as these neutral mediators who just take words and flip them to a different language. I kind of forgot that you can't just directly translate language, and definitely not literature. There's a whole lot more to translation than that. I had fun reading some interviews with translators and realizing there's this whole other part of literature I'd never considered before.

3. Reading women in translation doesn't have to end! Women in Translation month may be over, but that doesn't mean I have to stop reading women in translation. Which is good because I still have about 10 books out from the library, and I'm excited to read them!

I'm so glad Women in Translation month exists, and I hope it keeps growing every year so that more people like me can discover some awesome books. :)