[JULY UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

Oops! I missed the deadline, but oh well, I'm still here to post for this month's book club & goals blog hops.

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : July Edition ~

I've read three novels / novellas this month, and have chosen Eleanor & Park as my novel of the month to share a review for. This is the non-spoilery version of the GoodReads (spoilery) version.

I vaguely remember back when I first heard about this book, reading some reviews of it that were mixed - I remember not everyone loving the book for whatever reason. I admit I was a bit influenced by that memory when I started reading - I was in the first chapter and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the read. Well, now that I've finished reading, I can say without hesitation that I loved Eleanor & Park! It was tragic, romantic, and funny. I love the emphasis on music, too.

The book ends on an interesting note that has seemingly divided readers - some are dying to know more, while others (like me) think that what we are left with is enough. It's not a neatly tied up ending, but there is a sense of hope that makes me happy.

Richie was such a creepy character - yech! I felt sorry for Eleanor's mum, but also angry with her, for much of the book. But I loved Park and his family - his parents were great characters.

This is the GoodReads blurb:

"Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try."

Currently Reading: my own novels...for editing.

But hopefully soon, book #2 in Lydia Kang's duology.

~ Do You Have Goals? : July Edition ~

I'm continuing to work on my revisions for DAPHNE II, but now that studies are starting up as of Monday, I'm not sure how much progress I'll be making for the time being. I also did another thing - I logged back into Absolute Write (the Water Cooler forums) after approximately 6 years of absence, and started posting again.

I've shared the beginning of DIE BEACHSIDE and the first chapter of SUNDOWN III. The former has attracted feedback that surprised me - I need to cut out perhaps the first 1k of words. And I thought that little novella was pretty lean. Gosh, critique feedback is good. It wakes you up from your slumber. As for the SUNDOWN III chapter, that also needs some condensing, but the feedback was overall more favourable. I got some great feedback that I can work with for that one.

Oh, oh, something REALLY EXCITING? I finally got those last two songs done and sent them off to Billy. WOO! I just hope he doesn't ask me to do heaps more work on them. But if he does, so be it, I will do what I can. I'm hoping we can get down to the business of getting our second Woody's A Girl album out in the next few months.

I hope you are all doing well!

[JUNE UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

The last time I participated properly in this bloghop was September 2016! Yes, I've been very slack since then, or rather I've just found it hard to keep up with everything else in life as well as the few blog hops I am still committed to. I was going to skip this one, since I thought I hadn't read any books this month, but then I realised (after checking GoodReads) that I in fact have. :)

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : June Edition ~

Last time I updated, I was reading Poldark. I got to the end of the main series since then, but haven't read the "next generation" books yet. My mum has read my copies and claims they are just as good, so I will get around to it sometime. For now... I read a memoir this month!

In this memoir, Jessica Bell weaves a compelling story of a painful coming-of-age in an unusual setting. As the daughter of rock'n'rollers in the 80s and early 90s, Bell certainly had an upbringing different to most of us - and yet I could still relate to parts of what she experienced, since I was also a child of the 80s and 90s in Australia, and big time into music.

I loved the way the book progressed with its sections of Jessica talking to her reflection. It was intriguing to see her relationship with her reflection change over the course of the book as well.

Jessica has led a life of adventure seemingly largely because of her constant need to run. But this book seems to represent a time in her life when she has finally stopped running and is facing her reflection at last - and coming to realise that her reflection is her friend, supporter, etc.

As usual, this is a well-written book that compels the reader onward. It's even more special because of the bravery it took the author to put it out there for all to read and judge in whatever way they choose.

This is a snippet from the GoodReads blurb:

"Jessica Bell never meant to be a rebel. But growing up with two gothic rockers as parents seemed to make it inevitable.
​
In 1980s Australia, Erika Bach and Demetri Vlass founded Ape the Cry and Hard Candy, two of Melbourne’s iconic indie bands. They encouraged Jessica with unreserved love to pick up the guitar and write her own songs. But Erika’s back problem became a nightmare of pill popping, alcohol abuse, and anxiety attacks. Demetri retreated into silence for fear of triggering Erika’s drug-induced psychosis. And Jessica turned inwards, to her own reflection.

But her mirror self was a fiend, not a friend. All it took was one secret drink at fifteen, and Jessica dove headlong into depression and self-destruction to escape the madness at home."

Currently Reading: my own novels...for editing

~ Do You Have Goals? : June Edition ~

I had a long period of time when nothing much was happening with my goals. I'm glad to say (as you will have seen if you have looked at any of my recent blog posts - yes, I have recent blog posts!!) that this is no longer the case. Here are some general updates:

• I've completed my latest edit of SUNDOWN, and am now letting that novel rest.
• I'm currently reading through my DAPHNE novel, although I had a lot of edit notes that I lost by accidentally deleting the wrong version of the novel from my Kindle. ARGH, basically. But that happened to me once with my SUNDOWN edits too. Hopefully it will happen no longer!
• I've also had quick read throughs of some of my other novels, like ON THE OUTSIDE and LOST & FOUND. Yep, I've been on an editing / revising binge.
• I've also kind of edited / written new material for a couple of SUNDOWN-related projects.

I'm not sure which novel I will be focusing on properly next, the way I did with SUNDOWN, but it sure feels good to be compelled to do all this editing. I had a long hiatus when I struggled to get motivation, but I've got it in spades now.

As mentioned in other posts, I am also gearing up for my next lot of study (my last semester is coming up), so I will have to concentrate more on that and less on editing until the year's end. But I feel like I've achieved a lot already this year, and that makes me very happy. Someday soon I hope I will be ready to seek out beta readers for at least one of my novels.

P.S. The area still being neglected is my music. But I fully intend to get to that very soon!

Editing, music, and study

Latest revision update - I think I might be at the point where I can leave SUNDOWN III alone and let it stew for a while. I've continuously been tweaking bits and pieces, but now even though I recognise bits that I want to improve, I'm committed to leaving the poor thing alone and letting it settle after being thoroughly worked over.

I have started to look at fixing some of my novel ON THE OUTSIDE now. That's another book I've read and re-read over and over on my Kindle, and have wanted to edit for ages. I may not do a proper systematic edit for now but I'll fix bits as I stumble across them.

Something else that is emerging from this SUNDOWN III edit is what I'm referring to as SUNDOWN 1.5, which is the Jared POV parts that were in the original SUNDOWN novel being put into a new novel or novella or whatever it's going to turn into. I don't know what will happen with that in the long run, but I still want to get it done.

Some of the artwork for our
forthcoming album.

Despite all the stuff I wish I could focus on right now in terms of editing, I have to focus instead on my upcoming studies and also trying to get my vocal tracks down for the new album (OBLIVION) coming out this year. I'll just have to save up all my editing energy for the end of the year once my studies are done.

On another note, I'm now behind in my annual Goodreads reading challenge, due to all the time I've spent reading my own novels instead of other people's. But I hope to catch up, if not now then at least during my week off work which is happening in late July.

SUNDOWN III revision update

To give a brief update on my revision progress, I'm ready to do one last sweep through to correct any little niggly mistakes, and then I'm going to let the revised novel sit for a while...maybe even until the end of the year since I will be busy during the second half of the year with studies.

I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made, having corrected a lot of annoying problems that have been known to me for years through many re-reads of the novel. But I definitely think I need to have fresh eyes before I go through the novel again, so I'll give it a break once this last sweep is done.

When reading through parts of the second novel in the series, I recognise so much that needs changing. It's another novel that has a lot of bloating, so it needs to be whittled. I'm not sure where it should start, but I'll have to stew on that and see what I come up with. There are also obvious changes that need to be made that are the result of me changing various plot points / settings in the first book. I'll get to that someday, but I have plenty of novels that need editing, so I might work on a novel from a different 'world' next.

In other unrelated news, I finally finished reading Jessica Bell's autobiography Dear Reflection: I Never Meant to be a Rebel. It was a fantastic read and if you didn't know it was non-fiction, you'd think you were reading some compelling novel. I'll do up a proper review to put on GoodReads / Amazon, but for now that's my quick thought on it.

Compelled into revision mode

The last time I posted a writing update, I was writing something new. Well, my writing ground to a halt when I suddenly got re-obsessed with editing my first SUNDOWN novel. I had been part of the way through a rewrite that was bringing it from present tense into past tense, last time I opened the file.

Since starting up with that again, I'm now almost done with the present-to-past transition. But a complicating factor is that my previous editing had led me to remove all sections of the novel that were from Jared's point of view, leaving me with some gaps to fill from Louise's point of view. I'm now nearly done with that part too, I think. Along the way, I've also done some other editing, like removing sections that were too wordy and / or boring, and unnecessary, and trimming unnecessary words here and there. I have a lot more work to do on that. The first few chapters I think are pretty strong, but after that there is a bit of bloating that needs to be addressed.

On another note, I was looking back through my blog posts here and found this one: Knowing your characters vs. showing them. It's a little scary that that was back in September 2012, and I am still grappling with the problem today. But I'm slowly bringing my characters into line with their actual character. I just have some more work to do on it. It's all part of the joyous editing process. ;)

This current rewrite is titled SUNDOWN III (whereas the one I spoke about in 2012 was SUNDOWN II, my first total rewrite). This current rewrite is less drastic, as the setting and plot aren't really changing. But it's still taking me some time and patience, of course. As much as I'd love to be done with this and ready to think about sending my book out to beta readers (again), I'm also enjoying the process of refining the book into what I hope will be its best shape to date. Maybe because I know that in not too long, I'll have to put it aside because I'll be studying for second semester this year.

I'm getting stuff done while I can! And it feels very good to be inspired about my writing again. I've had a tough few years on that front.

[OCT UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : October Edition ~

I've been meaning to read this book for ages, and have only just got around to it.

It was a pleasure to read a book that was well written, as well as witty and entertaining. Jordan sure can write.

I am not religious at all, and the heroine in this book is Mormon, but the story doesn't preach to the reader about religion or anything - her being Mormon is just another aspect of her character (albeit one that does effect her decisions and sometimes complicates her job as a spy) that you get to know.

The book is mostly taken up with spine-tingling action, and that's the way I like it to be! There's also a little bit of romantic sweetness, in case you were wondering. :)

Thanks for the fun read, Jordan McCollum!

~ Do You Have Goals? : October Edition ~

During October, I've continued to do some work on SUNDOWN III. It's slowed down a bit though, I'll admit. But I have done some rearranging of chapters, merging some short ones, and have continued on my quest to convert the story to third person. I know there will be some gaps in chapters to come, that I'll need to fill in. I've already filled in one significant gap. But of course November is coming up, so I won't be doing much work on this novel revision during that month.

So, speaking of November, my goal is the usual one - to get a new novel written. The title is THE PHOTOGRAPH and the story is what you'd call a drama, I guess. But it'll also be a romance, I think ... though at the moment it's not feeling very romantic to me! So I guess we'll see how it goes.

I hope to update regularly during November... for a change. My poor blog is a little dusty of late!

[SEPT UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : September Edition ~

I read five books this month. I was travelling, so I had a bit more time to devote to reading. Also, I was trying hard to catch up on my reading goals (I was 6 books behind at one point). This is one of the books I downloaded for free (or very cheap... can't remember which) in recent weeks. I have been on a bit of a 'free books' binge, which is helped by a mailing list I'm on for free / discounted books. There is quite a lot of mediocre stuff out there, but this was one that I really liked (one of three this month actually!).

The book did have some (but not many) typos and things that could be fixed with a good line edit, but they weren't enough to piss me off particularly. I loved the story so much - and the writing! and the characters! - that I could move past the imperfections fairly easily. I love the whole zombie apocalypse theme - and the fact that Adrian takes that on board with enthusiasm. Reading the very first scene, I did wonder, IS this book actually about a zombie apocalypse? But soon enough I found my footing and knew there were no zombies about.

I loved Deanna Eshler's witty writing, and I really love the character of Keegan. Adrian, of course, was totally adorable, and it was great seeing their story unfold. I haven't read Book #1 (which focuses on different characters), but having read this one I hope I will find #1 to be just as entertaining, when I do get around to reading it! For now, I recommend this book if you like quirky humour and wacky characters (like Robert. That guy was hilarious too).

~ Do You Have Goals? : September Edition ~

Last month I reported that I had been doing some work on SUNDOWN III. This is still the case, but it's been slow going. I did manage to do a bit while I was travelling. The latest thing I did, was remove all of the hero's POV chapters. I want to try doing this book with just one POV. But I will do something with the hero's scenes, it just might not be a full length novel. So now I have some gaps to fill, from the heroine's POV.

I am also still in the midst of editing it back to 3rd person. I always go back & forth on this. Deanna Eshler's book that I reviewed above is written in 1st person, and I really do have a soft spot for that perspective. But I've committed to 3rd person for SUNDOWN III, and it does seem to be working quite nicely.

Next month is October, "the month before NaNoWriMo". So I'll be doing some gearing up for NaNo during October. But I hope to have a lot more to report on my editing of SUNDOWN III too, for the October check-in.

[AUGUST UPDATE] Cephalopod Book Club & Goals

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : August Edition ~

Once again I've read a Katie McGarry book I really enjoyed. This one might have been my fave yet, though some of the other leading men have probably intrigued me a little more! But I really loved the story of West and Haley.

Haley reminded me a little bit of the main character in the movie "Stick It" (and it turns out her name was Haley too!), but I think book-Haley's self esteem was way lower than movie-Haley's, for most of the book.

It was really nice to see her finally start to believe in herself towards the end of the book, and stand up for herself. And the ending was perfectly happy! I look forward to seeing which book is next in line for me to read in this series!

~ Do You Have Goals? : August Edition ~

I'M SO EXCITED!! Finally I can say I have done a good amount of work on one of my editing projects (well, good compared to what I'd achieved previously, anyway ;) ). I've been working on SUNDOWN III, and my main task has been to switch from present tense to past (I have a long way to go there). I was also experimenting with doing 3rd person for one character, but it wasn't working, so I'm reversing that.

I haven't made huge progress, since I've been jumping around in the manuscript, compulsively editing scenes I've been dying to edit for a long time. Constant re-reads of a draft really get you familiar with what you don't like about your manuscript! So that aspect is exciting. But I'm still sort of figuring it out as I go. I don't expect it will be a very smooth ride, considering the jumpy nature of my editing. But it feels really good to be doing something.

I am going on holidays for three weeks, at the end of August. Though I'll be in the US and Canada with friends & family, I do hope to get some writing time in here & there. We'll see how I go, I guess. :)

GOALS update & Cephalopod - a day late!

***WARNING, maybe-spoilers*** - THE GIVER, Lois Lowry

I really enjoyed this read, though sometimes in the beginning I found it a bit cringeworthy reading about the corny jokes the happy family unit made to each other. The story really does start out so 'pristine' and orderly, and then comes the scene where the second twin gets 'released', and the true horror of the society hits home. There was a hint of that reality when we found out about the previous 'Receiver''s release, but the twin scene was just really dark.

At the end of the book, I really wanted to be able to read on and find out what happened next, after the sled ride - but I guess that isn't the important part of the story.

I'm also very curious about the setting in this book, e.g. how the heck did humans get to such a point? I can sort of imagine it being some apocalyptic war that nearly killed everyone, and so they became mega strict about allowing 'free will'. But I was left wishing I actually knew the history. I know there are other books in the series, but not sure if they explain more about that history or not. But I guess I'll find out when I read them!

Gulp. Umm, since last time I guess I haven't done much with my creative stuff, BUT I have still done the occasional bit of editing on SUNDOWN III. There is also a writing group that meets every Sunday, which is run by our 'region leader' on the NaNo site. I haven't been to one yet, but I think I'm going to try to go as many Sundays as I can. I can't go tomorrow but maybe next week. It's about time I did something that requires me to be accountable.

In the meantime, this happened to me today:

And there are seven more that have just been trapped, needing care!!

No wonder I'm distracted from my writing. ;) Rescue chaos doesn't allow for much spare time for 'other things'.

Cephalopod Coffeehouse + Goals :: FEB

I've only read the one book this month, so I guess my review will have to be of that one - Mistborn book #1, by Brandon Sanderson. This is my first Sanderson read, if you don't count the Wheel of Time books he helped to complete (which I sort of don't...).

I enjoyed the read, but it was very slow going. A lot of the time I would read a few paragraphs and then put the book down. Whereas at other times, the story would suddenly get quite suspenseful and I would be eager to read on and find out what happened next, e.g. when Vin realises that Elend is in mortal danger and rushes off to save him.

I think the world Sanderson has built so far is fascinating, and I'm oh so curious to read on and find out where he's going to take the story in book 2 - because the major goal has already been achieved. So I guess there must be new huge challenges in store for Vin and her friends!

Gee, it's been a while since my last "goals confession". It was actually back on November 28th that I last participated in this bloghop. At that point, I was still in the midst of a rather slack NaNoWriMo, nearly at the end of my novel. But at least I had well and truly achieved my reading goal for the year.

This year so far, I've done some editing on my novel SUNDOWN III, but have been really slow at reading. It took me around 1.5 months to read one book, which is pretty unusual, even for slow-reading me. And now it's nearly March!! This year is flying, but then, they all seem to do that a bit these days.

My goals for the next month are 1) to do more editing, as 'life' has been getting in the way of that a bit in recent weeks. And 2) to read a bit more quickly.

I hope you are all reading great books, and making great strides towards achieving your goals!

Editing ctd., sort of (and foster kitty)

Since my last update, I've done a bit more editing - but since the weekend began, I haven't done any. Tonight I hope to get some more done, but I had a terrible night's sleep last night, with kitty rescue "stuff to do" pestering my mind, so I guess we'll see. :P

This morning while I was trying to get back to sleep after two hours awake and tinkering with said "to do stuff", one of my foster kitties, Maurizio, decided it was time to play his new favourite game - Tug on the Bit of Carpet That Isn't Meant to be Lifting But Is! It's an awesome game, sure, but at around 5:30 am on very little sleep I wasn't as in the mood for it as I usually might be! So I got my kitty spray bottle ready for the next time he started up with his tugging.

Of course he somehow sensed this was going on, because he quit the game immediately. But not wanting to encourage a later continuation, I locked him and the other fosters out of my room anyway, and managed maybe 40 minutes more sleep before my alarm went off.

So that's where I'm at today - sleep deprived, but reasonably happy I guess. And I have chocolate in my drawer here at work - I can tell you right now I won't be waiting till Chocolate Friday to crack that open (it's only Wednesday).

Maurizio, my stunning foster boy.

I actually EDITED something!

Mind is officially blown. I did some editing last night.

I decided to just go ahead and edit one of my novels I've been wanting to edit for ages now (SUNDOWN III I guess I can call it, since the previous revision resulted in SUNDOWN II). I edited chapters 1 & 2 ages ago and was excited about where it was going, but it's taken me this long to get back to it, because I was stuck on my other not-yet-finished editing project. ;)

So yeah, last night I edited some stuff. And I already know that one section I edited should probably be deleted altogether. The book currently has two points of view, but I am considering removing the male point of view entirely.

The book also contains much passive aggressive martyrdom, which I was sure I got away from in a much earlier revision. But it clearly crept back in. So I have to work on getting rid of that, once again.

It felt good to actually edit something. I'll see how I go tonight when I continue.