Write Campaign - 11 Questions (I've been tagged!)

As you know from my February 7th post I am participating in Rachel Harrie's Fourth Writers' Platform-Building Campaign. Every year some of the campaigners tend to 'tag' participants to answer and then create and again 'tag' others with 11 questions. Fellow writer Elizabeth Twist has tagged me with the following questions. Thanks, Elizabeth! These are good questions.

1. What are you reading?

Currently I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It was a book club pick from my previous job.

2. What is your favourite creative activity that is not writing?

Well, if you're on this site you know my other love is baking and/or eating baked goods. Mmmm, sugar. I have the battle scars to prove it to (3 root canals, 4 if you count one redone). Also naps are pretty sweet.

3. Where or how do you get your best ideas?

Randomly. I've gotten many from walking, being on the subway, waking up in the middle of the night or not being able to go back to sleep. I got some decent ideas bike riding. They really do just smack me in the face at times and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

4. If you could magically and painlessly change one thing about your mind or body, what would it be, if anything?

Augh, my lack of will power when it comes to portion control. I need to eat smaller servings and not just eat because I'm bored or stressed or because food is there. It's not going to disappear, I hope. So I wish I had more will power in terms of that and to really pursue what I want and not always second guess or think of repercussions. Wouldn't hurt to be selfish every so often when it comes to my art.

5. What's the scariest movie, story, novel, or scene you can recall?

I don't know if it counts as scary but there was a cringe worthy love scene in Endless Love (Scott Spencer) that went on for awhile in that book. I won't even attempt to go into detail.

A scene that also freaked me out was in Saw 2 when the woman was thrown into the well of needles and had to find a key. That is basically my worst nightmare. Tetanus shot!

6. What's the weirdest thing you believe?

I believe in karma. What goes around comes around and all. Some people may find that to be weird or feel that the world is out to get you but I firmly believe good things happen to good people and sometimes it takes awhile. I do not believe that bad things happen for a reason though. Not all the time anyways.

7. Super strength or super intelligence?

Hard one. I'd say intelligence. Of course that has its downsides as well, but in the end knowledge is power, supposedly.

8. You're granted the ability to become invisible. Where do you go and what do you do? (Bonus question: Are you wearing clothes? I mean, what about YOUR becoming invisible makes your clothes invisible too? This has always bothered me.)

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in a politicians office to hear what he/she is saying without the media around. How he/she may feel about issues but what they tell the public be it because they do or don't believe it or purely from a tactical standpoint.

If invisible I would prefer to wear clothes but obviously from a scientific standpoint it may not work and all. I mean it seems that perhaps invisibility of clothes comes into play as a way to get around things in films/books, especially in retaining a PG-13 rating and all.

9. What one change do you think would have the most positive impact on the world as a whole?

Equal rights for all. I think if everyone was truly seen and treated as equals all this bulls*** strife in the world would melt away a lot of issues that we have now. Think of it, why do we have so many wars and such? Because someone is trying to maintain a power over another group. The world just doesn't change.

10. What is the crappiest advice you've ever been given?

Hmmm, I did tell a girl to tell a guy she liked him even though I knew he didn't. This was more than ten years ago when I could be a petty b****. He wasn't rude when he turned her down or anything but I could've looked out for her a bit more.

11. What's your favourite song right now?

I had a thing for Mumford & Son's 'The Cave' a month back but now I'm back into Florence & The Machines 'Dog Days are Over.' That is a great jam!

My turn for questions!

They are as follows:

1. What literary character (any genre) can you most relate to & why? 2. If you could choose between having six months to yourself to pursue your art in a great area with beautiful landscape to write and no worries on money, food, living arrangements but would not be able to have any communication with the outside world whatsoever, would you do it? 3. What do you think is more important: true love or success? 4. What is usually the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? 5. Of all the books pubbed that you have had the pleasure to read which one do you most wish you'd written? 6. Why do you write? 7. If you had to lose one of your senses which would it be? (And yes, I include taste in this.) 8. What is the best memory you have? Have you ever used it in your writing? 9. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? 10. What is your favorite thing to do before you write? 11. What is the food/drink item you go to most when stressed/upset/irritated? What is the food/drink item you go to most when happy/exuberant/celebratory?

And I choose to tag the follow fellow campaigners in my group(s):

Gwen Tolios, Jaye Viner, Diane Gillette, Sorcha's Blog, Lori M. Lee, & Yikici.

And feel free to answer the questions posed to me from Elizabeth or the ones I've posed in my comments section or on your own blog. Would love to read.

Happy campaigning! I look forward to hearing/reading about everyone's work.

National Novel Writing Month Begins...Again! (And Update on Bout of Books)

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) again. Last year you may recall that I failed miserably at it. You can see my bevy of excuses here. The aim last year was to finish a new idea I had been tinkering with but 1/3 of the way through I just did not like what I was writing and went back to my passion project--yes that short story collection you keep reading about!

This time I have a plan. For over a year I have been mulling over the side story of one of the characters from my collection. In realizing that an additional 'coming of age' story wouldn't work as a short in the collection I decided to write a companion YA contemporary novel centered around this character where the collection ends. While I was away at my artist residency at Jentel I wrote an outline for this YA novel. I've tinkered with it since but have steadily not written a thing (though have made copious notes) in preparation for NaNoWriMo. I figure that since I do love the characters in this collection and this particular character, Kayla, very much (hell, I've been living with them for 4+ years at this point) that it made sense to delve into something I wanted to do and reserve a set amount of time to do it. And having a framework for the story arc(s) will help me so that I won't be scrambling for ideas of what should happen next like I was last year.

Like always the premise for NaNoWriMo is to write a 50k word novel (or more) in 30 days taking place throughout the month of November. There are write-ins where you can participate with other NaNoWriMos and a large online community.

While I anticipate I'll have much on my plate with a full-time job, freelance work, and social outings (it is wedding season after all!) I hope to be able to focus on this piece while also dabbling with others during the month. But we'll see. I aim to get a completion badge dang it!

If you're also on the NaNoWriMo site feel free to tag me. My username is jenn.bakerhenry.

Bout of Books Read-a-thon update

On October 23rd I posted about being a part of the Bout of Books read-a-thon.

Results: I read all three books I had listed and enjoyed Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self and Wonderstruck very much. Eve I was lukewarm about. (You can see my reviews on Goodreads.) But, the kicker is that I read Wonderstruck in 2 hours the day before the read-a-thon officially began. So my total count from October 24th to October 30th was actually two whole books. Not bad, but I could've done better had I had my weekend free for just reading.

Pluses: I met some great people and one of the entrants in Bout of Books organized a Twitterchat a couple days in which was fun. We talked about what we liked about read-a-thons and books in general. Connecting with avid readers and all-around cool people.

There were also some cool giveaways and contests held during the read-a-thon and I think in general it was nice to see other writers and book reviewers sites to see what they were reading, are reading, intended to read and were excited about.

I'd definitely do it again and have already signed up for another read-a-thon, a holiday one, set for December 2nd-4th. So hopefully I'll be able to block off time to actually read.

Bout of Books Read-a-thon 2011!

Via the Twitter-verse (where I get much of my networking info these days) I learned about Bout of Books Read-a-thon (October 24th-30th) via Amanda at On a Book Bender. And this past Friday I signed up for it.

Why did I participate in this read-a-thon?

A) Because I'm a book lover and as a writer I love learning from books.

B) See A.

With my ever growing crazy schedule the fact that this read-a-thon takes place over a week and not a weekend seemed feasible. And plus I'm kind of backed up on books I got from Book Expo and that I'm just dying to read in general. I already have an indie bookstore trip planned where I intend to do my part to help stimulate the economy. And it's good prep since NaNoWriMo starts in November. So get in a bunch of reading just before for inspiration! Good idea? Yes.

Plus, it's always good to connect with fellow book lovers! Book bloggers are gaining followings because they tend to give voice to books that get lost in the shuffle. In speaking with an editor for a major NY publisher he affirmed that publishing houses reach out to book bloggers more and more because of the fact it helps get the word out about their books.

So, the goal that I have set for myself is to read 3 books in a week. Considering my schedule this can be a stretch as I do most of my reading on the subway to/from work and sometimes in the evening. Basically for this read-a-thon one must spend every extra minute you have reading!

The books I am hoping to complete are as follows:

  

Since I've been writing my own short story collection I wanted to delve back into contemporary ones. And Danielle Evans' collection has won the PEN/Faulkner and she was chosen as one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 this year.

I snagged ARCs of Eve by Anna Carey and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick at Book Expo and haven't had the chance to get to them as much as I wanted to. So I'm eager to finally get to them. Especially Wonderstruck as the illustrations look gorgeous.

If I'm unable to read one of these I may switch it out for another book I have on my shelf to be read, Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

I'll be logging my progress on Goodreads and posting finished titles on Twitter as well. And I'll be rooting everyone on!

If you're interested in still signing up feel free to do so via Amanda's website. She's leaving sign up open until October 28th. (You have to have signed up to be able to participate in giveaways hosted at a new website daily during the Bout of Books challenge.) And if you're on Twitter remember to tag #boutofbooks in your post on status and to other participants.

Happy reading everyone!