The Coffee Shop - JUNE

[Sommer Leigh]

Glad you all are enjoying The Coffee Shop. I think I'll restart it each month otherwise I think the thread could get too big and too unmanagable.

Again, it's for general chat purposes - real writing questions should be posted as a separate thread.

So, my husband is going to a gaming convention in Kansas City in a few weeks (I've warned ya'll about the extent of my nerd-dom). I would be going with him to the convention but instead I've opted to hang out in the hotel for 4 days writing. I'm so excited! I mean, I don't think I can properly describe to you how much I love hotels to begin with, but to camp out with nothing but me, free wi-fi, and room service for four days? Paradise.

I expect to run dozens of #1h1k writing sprints on Twitter.

For those Bransforumers who were with me in Vegas, I'm also pretty excited about the fact Kansas City has a LUSH store. Woot!

I'm also going to be attending a sci-fi convention at the end of July.

[Claudie]

YAY Lush store! And you'll need to tell me when those 4 days are. As it stands I still don't have a job, so I might throw Sidekick out and camp out in my room (especially if it's my new bedroom with desk) and cram out all the words I haven't in June!

And guys, guys! Tomorrow I turn 23. Bring the cake!

[Sommer Leigh]

YAY Lush store! And you'll need to tell me when those 4 days are. As it stands I still don't have a job, so I might throw Sidekick out and camp out in my room (especially if it's my new bedroom with desk) and cram out all the words I haven't in June!

And guys, guys! Tomorrow I turn 23. Bring the cake!

My writing marathon begins July 5th around mid afternoon when we get checked in, probably around 3pm, and will run until noonish on July 8th. Technically my marathon begins July 4th, but with the festivities and packing I'm not sure how much writing I'll get done. I plan to break for food, the gym, and a small LUSH shopping trip, but otherwise it'll be all weekend non-stop.

Also OMG YOUR BIRTHDAY. I WILL MAKE YOU A CAKE.

[dios4vida]

All right, Bransforum Birthday Bash for Claudie!! I am so there. With tea. And cake. And Claudie, you've gotta wear your squid hat to the festivities!!

Sommer, have a totally awesome amazing writing sprint!! And if hubby does anything completely nerdalicious, please please share!

I'm planning a huge writing sprint in July, also. It's fiscal year end at the University and they have new software running their system, so Brian will be working long hours and weekends and I'll practically never see him. Which sucks, hardcore, but Brenda's gonna do some major writing. It's not like I'll have much else to do, with it being 110 outside and all. Hopefully that means I can get this book out to the critique partner and bang out a whole bunch on the next WIP!

[wilderness]

Happy birthday Claudie! Eating some imaginary cake right here for you! Tastes delish.

And OMG you guys---I am so near THE END (of this draft), I can taste it. Today or tomorrow...I'm so excited I can hardly write!

[Sommer Leigh]

Sommer, have a totally awesome amazing writing sprint!! And if hubby does anything completely nerdalicious, please please share!

It's only a gaming con so he'll mostly just be sitting at a table pretending to be a zombie apocalypse survivor or a space pirate or a gnome druid or whatever catches his fancy. The con's schedule runs on 4 hour shifts and he's signed up for games every 4 hours from 9am until 11pm. He has a lunch and dinner break, but I doubt we'll have time to get together to eat together. It'll just be me and my wi-fi *forever in love.*

Thankfully we have a friend house sitting for us so our cats won't get too lonely.

[CharleeVale]

So I decided to do the thing I tell everyone NOT to do. I'm going back and revising what I have of this draft without finishing. GAH! I know! You can throw things at me now.

But I was stuck, and I figured out an entirely new format of the book that is now helping me to move forward, but it will be too difficult to implement it later. I have to go back and do it now. *headdesk* But on the bright side, I've written about 2500 words in the past two days, which is more than I've written in WEEKS!

CV

[Claudie]

Oh, Charlee, we won't throw stones at you! If we did that we'd have killed Sommer long ago.

Thanks for the wishes everyone! I consider this a special day. From now on, when I tell people I'm 23, I'm not mistaking my age! Whoot for a year of not looking like a confused dumbass, haha! (seriously, I did that while giving my resume to a place. Epic Fail)

[Sommer Leigh]

I'm going to post about this over in the book thread later once I can put all my thoughts together, but oh my god you guys, stop what you're doing right now and go buy a copy of The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis. And read it right now.

There are a handful of books in this world, you know? That when you close then you think, "My god I am never going to be the same." And also they are the books that when you close the book you have to sit there and stare into space because otherwise you might implode under the weight of it all? Those books that are so beautifully written you forget they are books and not real people? The kind that leave you hiding out in the girl's bathroom bawling your eyes out in the far back stall while all your coworkers are at a meeting because you were stupid and finished the book during your lunch break?

I'm telling you that if someone were to ask me for a book recommendation that would change their hearts, what would it be? And I would say oh this. This book. The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis.

I am a mess over this book.

It's YA, I guess, but kind of adult too. It's written by a German author, set in a town in Germany. It's contemporary, and also, fairy tale, and also a murder mystery, and I don't know. The scary kind of fantasies before they've been Disneyfied. It reads like a fairy tale with gorgeous, lush storytelling, too gorgeous for the modern day, but it's not over the top, not fake. There's just some distance between the story and the characters in the way that fairy tales have to be told otherwise they'll just about kill you if you're too close to the ending. It's about a girl named Anna who lives in a bubble. A good student, a good daughter, clueless to the world. And her obsession with Abel, the "Polish Peddler", a drug dealer at her school who is the opposite of her and knows things about the world no one will tell her. And his little sister Micha, six years old and fed on a healthy diet of fairy tales and hot chocolate. Anna kind of shoehorns her way into their life, no matter how much Abel tries to stop her. She discovers Abel is raising his sister in secret because his mom's run off and their dads are worthless human beings. She discovers Abel is telling his sister a fairy tale, but it's also a lesson in the world and the truth told in a way only a six year old can understand. The tale is about Micha, the little cliff queen with the diamond heart and the diamond hunters chasing her who want to hurt her and all the characters who get involved when all Abel wants to do is keep everyone out in order to protect his sister. The tale is told in tandem with Anna and Abel's story. And you are told early on that this is a dark fairy tale without a happy ending, but then you forget very quickly and you are just sure it'll all work out because it has to? No matter how dark and disturbing and upsetting the story gets, and oh my god does it go down paths that will upset and disturb everyone. Like I said. It's not a Disney fairy tale. It's the other kind. Where good hearts are destroyed by evil ones.

[trixie]

CLAUDIE! Happy birthday, my friend! I hope you have a wonderful day! And thanks, Sommer, for the delish cake. No one judge if you see me trolling for seconds...

And Charlee, I'm the QUEEN of revising before finishing. Another confession: I'm one of THOSE writers. You know, the kind who can write and revise for AGES but can't seem to actually finish the story. That's one of my goals. I have to finish the story if I want to query it!

Sommer--sounds like a gorgeous book, but I'm also afraid. When you describe it as "good hearts are destroyed by evil ones", I can't help but think of GoT and no thanks, I can't bear to be any more depressed. On the other hand, you give it such a glowing review! And I love love love those types of books that somehow "change" you, like THE BOOK THIEF or A MONSTER CALLS.

[wilderness]

So I decided to do the thing I tell everyone NOT to do. I'm going back and revising what I have of this draft without finishing. GAH! I know! You can throw things at me now.

But I was stuck, and I figured out an entirely new format of the book that is now helping me to move forward, but it will be too difficult to implement it later. I have to go back and do it now. *headdesk* But on the bright side, I've written about 2500 words in the past two days, which is more than I've written in WEEKS!

CV

I do that all the time. I don't think it's anything you have to worry about. Sometimes you want to make sure you've got your footing right before continuing. It's totally a legitimate way of writing. A lot of people warn you away from this because some people revise and revise the first chapter and never make any forward progress. However, if you are revising in order to work something out that will help you finish your novel, you should do it. It can work out better than forcing yourself to write an ending that you may completely throw out because you didn't fully understand your characters/world/or whatever.

[dios4vida]

And I love love love those types of books that somehow "change" you, like THE BOOK THIEF or A MONSTER CALLS.

I've been trying to get THE BOOK THIEF from the library...reserved it, waited for six weeks, it came in the week we were in CO...re-reserved it, waited six more weeks, it came in the week we were in CA...so I'm STILL waiting to read that book! <grumble grumble>

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CLAUDIE!! Thanks for giving us a reason to have a virtual party and cake. Hope you and the Sidekick get to celebrate.

[Sommer Leigh]

CLAUDIE! Happy birthday, my friend! I hope you have a wonderful day! And thanks, Sommer, for the delish cake. No one judge if you see me trolling for seconds...

And Charlee, I'm the QUEEN of revising before finishing. Another confession: I'm one of THOSE writers. You know, the kind who can write and revise for AGES but can't seem to actually finish the story. That's one of my goals. I have to finish the story if I want to query it!

Sommer--sounds like a gorgeous book, but I'm also afraid. When you describe it as "good hearts are destroyed by evil ones", I can't help but think of GoT and no thanks, I can't bear to be any more depressed. On the other hand, you give it such a glowing review! And I love love love those types of books that somehow "change" you, like THE BOOK THIEF or A MONSTER CALLS.

It is a grogeous book and it is also scary, but not in the way that GoT is. It's actually very much reminds me of both The Book Thief and A Monster Calls. It also reminds me of Tender Morsels. It's about the relentless nature of a first love and how crushing responsibility can be on a scared boy too young to have to play parent and child both. There's one really, really, really I can't underline this enough REALLY upsetting moment and aftermath that left me shocked and scarred, a little bit. But the fairy tale Abel tells Anna and Micha? The little cliff queen and her companions are traveling across a freezing ocean, pursued by very bad people, on a little green boat called HOPE. The story is set on the wasteland of winter, but it is spring by the end.

[Aimée]

There are a handful of books in this world, you know? That when you close then you think, "My god I am never going to be the same." And also they are the books that when you close the book you have to sit there and stare into space because otherwise you might implode under the weight of it all? Those books that are so beautifully written you forget they are books and not real people? The kind that leave you hiding out in the girl's bathroom bawling your eyes out in the far back stall while all your coworkers are at a meeting because you were stupid and finished the book during your lunch break?

I'm telling you that if someone were to ask me for a book recommendation that would change their hearts, what would it be? And I would say oh this. This book. The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis.

I like fairy-tale like books. There are have been two books that read like fairy-tales that I read recently, and both of them made me react the same way, like wanting to tell everyone I know, "OMG GO READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW OR ELSE I'LL DIE."

Those two didn't "chnge" me persay, but there have been a few books that definitely have done that!

And also:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAUDIE!

[CharleeVale]

HAAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAUDIE! YAY! *noms cake*

In honor of Claudie's birthday, I send you to my favorite Hyperbole and a half post ever: The god of cake -- http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... -cake.html

Everyone else, thanks for the reassurance! It's more that I'm breaking my own rule than anything else.

CV