The seven books that made me who I am today...

Or, more to the point: The seven books which most influenced my love of reading and ultimately, writing...

I've been bequeathed the Sweet Blog Award (already posted on my side bar), this time by Jenna Cooper of Finding the Write Way. Thanks Jenna! Make sure to check out her blog. She's new and on the rise!

The rules state I list seven things about me and find 15 people to give said blog award to. And as I'm prone to do, I'm rebelling. ;) Instead of boring stuff about me, I'm listing the seven books which played the biggest roles in my passion for reading and writing, and why.

So off we go: The seven most influential books of my life thus far...


1. The Bible. Okay, stay in your seats. Nobody panic. I'm not going to preach to you. But have you ever really sat down and read it? Here's a tip: turn to Psalms. Read any of them. Poetry: uplifting, passionate, meaningful, romantic, and melancholy. Then there are the stories in the Old Testament: Daniel in the Lion's Den, Noah's Ark, Moses and the 10 plagues of Egypt, etc... C'mon peeps! This is drama at it's best! Suspense, tension, dysfunctional families, romance, spurned lovers, murder, mayhem and death. It's all there. Honest to goodness, want to know where I first developed my love of story telling? In Sunday School class with those little worksheets that used pictures and text to highlight a different bible story each week.

2. The Cat in the Hat. Who wasn't influenced by Dr. Suess at some point as a child? I remember sitting on the couch just looking at the pictures. Suddenly, I was somewhere else. Transported in time and space to hang out with a funky cat and his candy-striped hat. I got to make a HUGE mess of someone else's house, and didn't even have to help clean up. YAY! Then, once my mommy sat down and actually read the words to me, my ears tickled with rhyme and rhythm.

3. The Wind and the Willows. My first grade English teacher introduced me and my entire class to this tale, a few pages each day. I couldn't wait for that small window after lunch when she would read. The pleasures of country life and the dependability of good friends. This book greatly influenced my appreciation for individual characterization and scene setting/building. The Devil-may-care Mole, impetuous Mr. Toad, shy Badger, and discerning Rat, all going on picnics, joy rides in old-timey automobiles, and hanging around in row boats. These animals ... they knew how to party. And in the process, they taught me some valuable life lessons. Subtlety at its finest.

4. Charlotte's Web. I think I first read this in third or fourth grade. I cried. HARD. It was the first book to touch me viscerally. I loved Charlotte. She epitomized beauty, but on a level I wasn't familiar with. Spiders had always been scary and ugly to me. But Charlotte, she was beautiful inside. She cared about Wilbur when no one else did. And she threw herself into making his life better, in spite of how weary or busy she was. E.B. White gave me my first experience with a selfless character. And when Charlotte died, my love for the bittersweet ending was born.

5. Goblin Market. Please, don't disqualify me on a technicality! I know it's only a poem. But I would be remiss if I failed to mention Christina Rossetti's influence on my writing. She ignited my passion for imagery and sensory through the power of her beautiful and seductive prose.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird. One word for what Ms. Lee taught me with this timeless and poignant tale: VOICE.

7. Stephen King's On Writing. Granted, I read this book after the writing bug bit me. But even from a reader's standpoint, it's engrossing, intriguing, and encouraging. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from him (paraphrased, of course): You're a writer, not a liar. As long as something is true to your character, it will be true to your reader. Always seek the truth in your writing, and your readers will follow you anywhere. I think he's proven that with his incredible career, so I'm taking his word.


And there you have my seven books.

As for who I'm passing this on to, I'm leaving it open.

Think of it as a meme ... if any of you haven't received this particular blog award and would like to follow the original rules or my new ones, snag that puppy up, post it on your sidebar, and give us all some insights into what makes you tick. Just make sure you let me know in the comments so I can come by and read your post. I love learning new things about my fellow writers!

Thanks for dropping by! Since today is my official day to blog, I'll be hitting your blogs shortly. Can't wait to see what's new with you. :)

Writing Wednesday-meme and award COMBO

I'd been planning to partake in Lori M. Lee's brilliant Writing Wednesday-meme for several weeks now, and since I've been bestowed The Versatile Blogger award again, along with The Irresistably Sweet Blog award, I've decided to incorporate an improvised version of the meme into this post. 

Yes, I'm changing the rules of these particular blog awards, folks! Or, at least giving the recipients the choices between ye ol' rules, and some shiny new ones. I'm a rebel, what can I say? ;)

So, off we go!

Thank you, Caitlin Vincent

Bequeathed to:

Lea Zeqiri

Liesl

Taryn Tyler

Brenda St. John Brown

Marigold Lott

The original rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 5 deserving blogging buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them

OR

My new rules...

Replace #2 above with this improvised meme from Lori's post: List the first and last lines of the first five chapters from one of your manuscripts. Can you see a story taking shape? Does it intrigue and intensify, making you want to read what's between?

I chose chapter snippets taken from my historical literary love story, Forgotten Silences (think Jane Eyre meets A Certain Slant of Light) with a unique love triangle between a deaf woman, the ghost that only she can see and hear, and a dark and mysterious viscount tied to the ghost's death.

Chap 1:

Melancholy ... melody; separate words, separate meanings, united by a memory pressed upon my heart.

Taking a breath of cold air, I opened the door and crossed the threshold, alone.

Chap 2:

In my youth, a spot of hot chocolate savored in tandem with a cranberry crumpet could evaporate the rain from the soggiest afternoon.

Then, using the grosgrain ribbon for protection, I picked up the flower, grabbed my lantern, and scrambled along the path and into my home, locking the door behind me.

Chap 3:

It took me half of the hour to plant the blossom, as I wore thick gloves to avoid getting pricked by its stem or touching the poisonous pollen within the raised cone.

“Either I am having a vivid hallucination, Sir, or you are a ghost.”

Chap 4:

I did not have to be a lip-reader to analyze the skepticism within his expression.

Then, as I clasped the chain around my neck and the locket fell between my breasts beneath the throw, my ghostly companion reappeared … this time to stay.

Chap 5:

Morning broke with a reluctant sunrise.

How could anyone withstand the vision of their own grave, knowing what lay beneath the dirt?


 Next:

Thank you, Cherie and Lisa Ann

Bequeathed to:

Lani Woodland

 Stephanie Alexander

Jamie Handling

 Sylvia Ney

 Rene Nightingale

And along with the strawberry goodness comes these original rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated me.
2. Share seven random facts about myself.
3. Pass the award to 15 blogging friends.
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

OR

The new rules...

Replace #2 with: List three of your favorite sentences from a WIP or finished MS. 

And, in the interest of time, you can be creative with #3 and pass the award to as few as five friends.


My favorite three lines (from the same MS as above):

1. Winter had settled in her heart, and was freezing her from the inside out.

2. Yet I could not shake the foreboding sense that each page turned would be another ribbon snipped away from Pandora’s box of beautiful misery.

3. Flames of fear have crisped the memory to a nightmare, which snows like ash over my dreams.

 ~~~

Congrats, nominees! By now I've contacted you. I hope you enjoy the award. You earned it!**

On Friday, my QueryTrackers successful author interview will be with Kaylie Austen. Kaylie's story is atypical in that she's found a trade publisher sans an agent. She has several new books coming out in the near future, so be sure to drop by and congratulate her!

**Award winners: Please don't feel obligated to post the award or partake in the rules unless you're so inclined. The gesture on my part is like a thank you card, and I don't expect everyone to save their cards unless they want to. We all have our own decorating tastes and expectations for our "online home." But, if you choose to post it, here are some helpful hints:

Right click on the picture here and "save picture as." From your dashboard go into 'design' and 'add a gadget' and download the picture.

Why my MC is way cooler than me...

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I'm feeling like a new girl after ridding myself of the ol' half-life gallbladder. And to make my weekend even better, I come back to the blogasphere to find I've been bequeathed the Stylish Blogger Award again, this time by Jessica LeSaicherre, Kaya Koban, and Mandie Baxter. Thank you, lovely and generous ladies!

Along with this award comes a few responsibilities.

1. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you.
2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to five blogging buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

I'll get to steps 3 and 4 later. First, number 2. As fate would have it, I was planning to join in Ashley Graham's fun game of: 7 things you might find interesting about my MC, so I'm changing the rules just a bit. After all, my MC is sooo much more eccentric and intriguing than me.

So here are 7 random facts about Alyssa Gardner, my heroine from SPLINTERED. And, taking a cue from Ashley, I'm adding some visual aids. ;)

1. Alyssa's been blessed, or cursed, with the power to talk to bugs and hear their whispers, the very thing that sent her mother to the asylum. So to keep herself from going crazy, she does the only thing she can to silence them: capture and smother them in bug traps. But, being a frugal and artistic gal, she doesn't waste the corpses ... she preserves them and uses them in her mosaics. Needless to say, the girl's not squeamish.

2. Since Alyssa can hear bugs, she can also hear them scream when captured by a cat or dog and chomped to death. So, in place of a traditional domestic pet, she opts for eels. In her words:  "They’re elegant and mystical, and use a shock organ to stun their prey. It’s a quiet and dignified death, like the bugs dying by asphyxiation in my traps." Oh, and their names are  Aphrodite and Adonis. Romantic, right? *shudder*

3. Alyssa's father is frugal, too. He bought her a used Gremlin for her sixteenth birthday and named it Gizmo after the cute little creature from the eighties movie (which he took Al's mother to on their first date).

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Gremlin

4. For exercise, Alyssa likes to skateboard, but she has a deathly fear of heights. She's always trying to get up the nerve for stunts, but her phobia keeps holding her back.

 5. Speaking of phobias, Alyssa has another debilitating one: the fear of being constrained. This formed early in her childhood, after seeing her mother bound in straitjackets and drugged out of her mind.

6. Alyssa won't leave the house without wearing a pair of fingerless gloves. It's more than a fashion statement. She has scars on her palms that she wants to keep hidden. The way they came about is too weird and humiliating to share with anyone, especially her friends.

7. Though Alyssa's heart belongs to her best friend and secret crush Jebediah, she is inexplicably drawn to the hero from the 90's movie The Crow. Sometimes when she's looking at the poster, the hero seems familiar somehow, like he's the only one who really understands her. Her words: "The emo guy looks back at me, his eyes bleeding black tears like he knows my pain, intimately. Something about him comforts me and I have a weird longing to be in his arms—wrapped up in leather." Well, you know what they say about being careful what you wish for, Luv. 

  

Okay, so that's some of what makes Alyssa tick (thank you Ashley for the excellent idea!).

Moving on to steps 3 and 4 ...

I bequeath the Stylish Blogger Award to four of my pals from LiveJournal, ye old blogging haunt, and to one of our fellow bloggers here on blogspot:

1. Beth Cato

2. Pat Esden

3.Stephanie Denise Brown

4. Terri Coppersmith

5.Tina Moss

Congrats, nominees! By now I've contacted you. I hope you enjoy the award. You earned it! 

And to everyone else, have a wonderful Monday. :)

Award winners: In case you're techno-challenged like me, you can post your award on your blog, just right click on the picture here and "save picture as." If you're on blogger, from your dashboard go into 'design' and 'add a gadget' and download the picture. I'm not sure what the process is for LJ; might take some investigating. ;)