Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday! So who else screwed up and bought the on sale Halloween candy last week? I’m telling you, I’m not much of a candy person—I normally only ever eat chocolate on the golf course when I need a boost, a frozen Milky Way on a hot day is divine—but the combination of sheer boredom and walking practice means I keep strolling past the damn bag. From Costco, ergo: it’s massive. I have it stashed away, but I guess my willpower is weakened by the months of recovery. I asked Randy to disappear it for me this morning, or else the kiddies aren’t going to have any treats!

Are you big on Halloween? I love it, but I also have weirdly mixed emotions. When I was a kid, I had a lot of bad luck on Halloween. One year I fell in a cactus, and spent the remainder of the night having spines picked from my backside. Another year, after a knock-down drag-out fight with my mom because I didn’t want to ruin my awesome Peter Pan costume by wearing snow boots, my ankle was run over by a car. Without the boots it would have surely been crushed, as it was, it was badly sprained. There were other bizarre occurrences, too. So you can understand why I tended to shy away from too much spooky celebration.

But now, Halloween is fun again. I usually carve a pumpkin, make a big pot of soup or stew or chili, we light a fire, toast marshmallows, light some candles to honor the ones we love who are no longer with us, and watch something seasonally appropriate. I don’t like super scary movies, but something psychological is always fun. 

Do you have any special Halloween traditions? Do you dress up? Go to parties? Scare the neighborhood children with a spooky house display? Have a favorite childhood costume you wish you could recreate? Sound off, I’d love to hear about it.

And then, November 1, we get to celebrate our cativersary with the minions! We brought them home six years ago—astounding to think of. They are as sweet and goofy as the day we adopted them.

Before I send you off to the links, a quick reminder. Tomorrow night (Monday, October 28) is a huge, exciting online event—TEAR ME APART is being featured on the Brenda Novak Book Group! Brenda will be here at Chez Ellison to interview me about the book, the minions, life, and anything else that might pop up. You can watch us live on Monday, the 28th at 5:00 p.m. PST/ 8:00 p.m. EST right here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/brendanovaksbookgroup/

This also means I’ll be straightening away all the kitty pillows and toys and blanket tunnels the girls use, so my house will look like adults live in it. So exciting! I can’t wait, and I hope you’ll join us. 

On to the links!

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THE LATEST ON THE INTERNET:

Pitching for Bookstores. Great story about Washington Nationals star reliever Sean Doolittle and his love of independent bookstores. I mean, combining books and baseball? How can you not love him?

Harry Potter book sells for £50k after being kept in code-locked briefcase. But how can they part with it?!

The Stories We Tell Ourselves. Joshua Becker speaks some lovely truth. Our minds are so easily pushed into thinking one way or another. Really like his attitude about how to handle the messages on kid’s clothing, too.

8 Fun Facts About Mary Shelley Just in Time for the Spooky Season. Mary Shelley was pretty badass.

A Rundown of V.E./Victoria Schwab’s Books and Upcoming Adaptations. If you haven't read Victoria yet, you're in for a treat!

As a rule, I don’t read my reviews, but when I heard Abby at Crime By The Book really loved GOOD GIRL LIE, I had to read it. And I was blown away by the analysis of the story and characters. There’s nothing cooler than when a reader “gets” your book. I hope you enjoy her review, and you really need to start following her instagram and blog, She’s the real deal.

The Reason Why The Great Gatsby Isn’t In the Public Domain (Yet). Fascinating history! What do you think the first big pull qoute will be?

15 Quotes That Will Remind You of the Joy and Power of Books. I love a good quote list.

Just in time for Halloween, here’s a great podcast with bestie Laura Benedict on The Monster Professor talking about her gothic inspirations, writing supernatural stories, and her superb creepy storytelling skills.

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WHAT I’M READING:

Boxing The Octopus by Tim Maleeny

With a fascinating caper, a twisted mystery, a grizzled PI with a kick-ass Ninja chick sidekick, and a complex plot worthy of Leonard's heir, Tim Maleeny bursts back onto the crime fiction stage with a surefire winner. BOXING THE OCTOPUS features a dizzying array of well-developed characters both friend and foe—and cephalopod, of course—who catapult the story forward. Thrilling, amusing, and thought-provoking, I couldn’t stop reading! Can’t wait for Cape and Sally’s next adventure. And how cute is the octopus???

What are you reading?

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That’s it from me. Carve an elaborate pumpkin, just for fun, make a big pot of turkey chili, kick back with your favorite spooky movie, and I’ll see you next week. Happy Halloween! 👻🎃

Peace and hugs,
J.T.

PS: Please bear with me over the next few weeks — I am moving email and newsletter services and there might be a few glitches. Will do my best to keep everything in line. If you see something wonky, feel free to shoot me an email and let me know.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday! I come to you without stitches! This gives me freedoms I haven’t had in a couple of weeks, like baths. And CBD cream. And pants. That last comes at the perfect time since it’s suddenly quite chilly here. We went Summer to Winter with barely a Fall. We have a big neighborhood party today, with fire pits and hot dogs and bbq and chili and s’mores. It’s always so much fun to connect with the folks we only wave at most of the time as we’re driving in and out. 

It was a long, strange week. We lost an uncle who had been ill for some time, and the funeral was unbearable, uplifting, and everything in between. He was an Air Force veteran, so there was a full military service graveside, and that was the strangely uplifting part for me. The playing of Taps, the flag-draped coffin, the ceremony and respect helped, in some ways. So too did the baby changing station in the bathroom. Such an odd reminder of the circle of life. Rest in peace, Joe. You will be missed. 

I also think I have the book figured out. Three big plot breakthroughs, lots of waking up to write myself notes and scribbling away in the notebook. Oddly, I didn’t get a lot of writing done, but I’m working on the outline now.

Last week at Southern Festival, Jeremy Finley and I were talking about outlines. I don’t like to outline until I’ve been writing on a project for a while; he won’t start writing until he’s planned out exactly what he’s doing. Neither way is right, neither way is wrong. Both are valid, both get you where you need to go.

I like to do my outlines at this point, when the first third of the book feels really solid, when I’ve set up several plot points, and I know the why behind them. I can see the threads of where things are going, why the characters have made their moves, and know many of the scenes I want to write to make it all come together.

And by “outline”, for me, that’s just putting one or two lines about what happens in the scene. I don’t map it out deeper than that, just make a note about what I want to accomplish in the scene. It gives me a little bit of a road map. My notebook is littered with scenes broken out by character. At this point, I take those, lay them into Scrivener, and the shape of the story reveals itself.

Hmm. Maybe I should stop referring to it as outlining, and starting using roadmap instead.

And with that, I’m back to it. A happy writing and reading week ahead to you all.

Oh! Be sure to keep an eye on the Bargains page. Lots of deals rolling through right now and there’s more to come.

On to the links!

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THE LATEST ON THE INTERNET:

How To Search Books By Color. Great tips for those of us who have rainbow bookshelves or want to know what that book with the red cover is. Because trust me, when you know the book cover is black but the spine is red, it causes all sorts of issues.

Waldsassen Abbey is the Fairy Tale Library You Need to Visit. This is so gorgeous!

Are the Women of ‘Succession’ Finally About to Smash the Patriarchy? If you're not watching Succession on HBO, you should be, because it engenders fascinating conversations like this.

Pottery Barn Is Launching a Harry Potter Holiday Collection. This is tempting…

What Fan Fiction Teaches That the Classroom Doesn’t. “A fan-fiction site is a uniquely energetic learning environment. Unlike in the classroom, where a writing prompt is as likely to be met with groans as with enthusiasm, writers on fan-fiction websites are thrilled to be there, excited to write, and passionate about the material—because it’s based on a book, TV show, movie, video game, or something else they already love.”

The germiest place in your home and the best way to combat those microbes. ACK! At least I feel better about Jameson’s love of drinking out of the toilet.

Could you be suffering from ‘book burnout’? “Don’t get me wrong, I love reading, but it’s got to a point where I feel like I’m only reading to keep up with the zeitgeist, rather than for my own sheer enjoyment or learning.”

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WHAT I’M READING:

GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn

When we talk about unreliable narrators in novels, Amy Dunne is almost always at the top of the list. Gillian’s brilliant book almost single-handedly resurrected the female villain/unreliable narrator device, and love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. It never truly went away; read any Du Maurier book and you’ll see this device front and center.

It’s always been my goal not to overly victimize the women in my novels, especially those who die at the hands of a male killer. Now that I, too, have pivoted toward writing books with unreliable narrators, I’ve been thinking about how the female villain can too easily be forced into this role, becoming the victim in other ways.

I’m also interested in how many writers have changed from having women as victims to women being the leads, albeit often as unreliable narrators. Is it any different? Or is it just the other side of the coin? Would love to hear what you think...

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That’s it from me. Make some popcorn and sit by the fire, work on strengthening your core with some great yoga (Adriene is my favorite), rake up some of your neighbor’s leaves, and I’ll see you next week.

Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday! It’s the first cool weekend of the fall here in Nashville, and I for one am thrilled. I can’t do a lot of walking yet, but I can sit on the porch and enjoy the sounds and smells that are so specific to this season--the crackle of leaves, the scent of the fire, the rustling of the breeze through the thinned out trees. It’s perfection.

Oh, before I forget: Today is the last day of the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, and I am appearing on a panel at 1pm with my friend and fellow author Jeremy Finley. If you find yourself downtown today, we’re at the NPL auditorium, and would love to see you!

So that paragraph in and of itself tells you how I’m doing. I’m getting back on my feet, slowly but surely. I am down to one crutch already, and the swelling is going down. Stitches out later this week, and then it’s all healing, all the time. I admit, I’m getting a little claustrophobic not being able to move freely, but I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass. I had that feeling last surgery, and I’m so far ahead of where I was at the same point last time that I’m sure I’ll have full motion soon.

The enforced downtime made for good writing this week. I’m trying to get a draft of this book done by the beginning of December so I’m not frantically writing through the holidays. I’ve had some trouble nailing down my main character, she simply refused to reveal herself to me. I finally realized I’d named her wrong. When her real name came to me this week, boom went the dynamite, and the story is flowing again.

I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I do believe in the power of a story to drag its feet until you dread to open the damn thing because you know you’re going to circle around what you’ve written, feeling like something is wrong but not being able to nail it down, until you give up and go binge-watch Succession. I have done this enough to recognize the signs, and I know not to force it. Whatever’s wrong with the story will eventually let itself be known. 

My rule of thumb: if it’s been a couple of weeks and I haven’t moved forward, I start looking at where I went off the tracks. I don’t panic. I don’t flip out. I don’t tell myself I’ll never write again. I give it some slack, read a fabulous book, get some inspiration, and tackle it again, starting at the beginning. Often times, there’s something in my original concept that’s off, and if I let it go and accept where the story has gone instead, things resolve themselves. Sometimes it’s a tense issue, or a POV. Sometimes, it’s as simple as a name. Regardless, you have to respect that this is art, and sometimes, art doesn’t want to behave. Like a child, you can indulge to a point until you are forced to lay down the law.

With that, I’m off to the festival. If you’re in town, I hope to see you there. On to the links!

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THE LATEST ON THE INTERNET:

Fall 2019 YA Books: 90+ October–December New Releases. There goes my TBR... There are SO many great new books out this year…

Trick-or-Treat: 18 Examples of Bookish Halloween Decor. Cool ideas! I’m a little behind on my Halloween decorating.

Caroline Vs. Natalie And My Personal Essay Identity Crisis. Shannon Keating gives us lots to think about...is laying bare your soul for the world to see healthy?

See 23 of the world’s most enchanting libraries. Beautiful!

How Your Phone Is Ruining Your Relationships. “Society changes as technology changes.” We’ll never recover, I fear.

All about the inaugural MMD Book Club Retreat. How much fun is this? Modern Mrs. Darcy always comes up with the cool stuff.

Literary Wedding Ideas for People Who Don't Really Understand Books. These ideas sure are something. I can’t believe people have actually done a Handmaid’s Tale theme!

True Life: I Inherited a Private Library. Great story. Can you imagine???

Study finds that learning to read enhances the brain in more ways than one. More proof that reading is good for you!

Reese Witherspoon's Book Club Is Keeping Hello Sunshine on Top. Interesting behind-the-scenes article.

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WHAT I’M READING:

THE SECRETS WE KEPT by Lara Prescott

The hype surrounding this book is so well-deserved. I'm a fan of anything lady spy, especially CIA, so I pounced the moment it came out, and it was so worth it. Elegantly written and realized, Prescott has done a fascinating moment in history justice. I had no idea about the backstory of Dr. Zhivago's long road to publication. Prescott presents all sides of the story, from Russian gulags to the swans of a D.C. summer, from the keen eye of multiple fascinating narrators. This is a get smart kind of book. (see what I did there?) I loved it!

What are you reading?

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That’s it from me. Enjoy a cool afternoon in front of the fireplace, find a new show to binge-watch (I highly recommend Succession), try a book in a genre you don’t normally read, and I’ll see you next week.

PS: Since Succession season 2 is over tonight…what do you recommend I watch next?

Sunday Smatterings

Hello, October! My favorite month. I’m ready for some cooler temps, cozying up to the fireplace, and all the attendant fall regalia.

I’ve been thinking about something. (I know, I know, the most dangerous sentence in the language, topping “Hold my beer” by just a few ticks...) But I’m at that stage in the new book, where I’m looking at some of the connections that need to come into play down the road, looking at some character motivations, and I realized something was missing. This is nothing new, at this stage of the book, 1/3 of the way in, it finally becomes a story unto itself and I have to come to grips with, yes, this is the story you’re telling, get on with it. 

I was thinking about motivation. What motivates a character to do something? What drives them? In my previous few books, I had a scenario that was very distinct (a missing husband, writers in a bad marriage, Olympic skiing, a private boarding school) and I have one in this as well, but I still feel like there’s a layer I need to dig into that isn’t on my radar yet.

I asked the Literati this week what they are fascinated by, what they would like to do as a hobby, what skill they don’t have that they’d like to. I was surprised by how many people mentioned forensics. That’s utterly fascinating. What’s your answer?

I have a few. Architecture. I’ve always wanted to design houses. Meteorology. Weather fascinates me. I would love to be a conductor, bringing out the best performance of a symphony. Golf, obviously. Astronomy.

I think a good book always hangs on something super interesting about the character. Like Michael Koryta’s IF SHE WAKES -- one of the characters in a stunt driver. A female stunt driver. Obviously that plays into the story in several elegant ways.

Another is Deborah Harkness’s Diana Bishop in A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. She is a scholar of alchemy. Unique, strange, fascinating. 

Anyway, I’m just noodling about at the moment. I have a character whose background is distinct, but I’m missing her passion. Even her name is being difficult. Whatever her passion, it’s hiding itself at the moment.

I’ll find these aspects of her soon enough, I can feel them circling, wanting to land but not finding any branches to their liking.

I mentioned last week I might try to post some writing advice today. What I realized is something you may or may not know...I have a whole section of writing advice here on the website. If you look up at the navigation, there’s a heading called For Writers. Click it, and you’ll see a series of articles I feel are important for new writers, little bits of advice from that might help you on your way.

One last thing: the newsletter will be coming out in a few days. Be sure to sign up for exclusive content you won’t find anywhere else. Now, let’s check out the links!

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THE LATEST ON THE INTERNET:

50 Must-Read Crime Novels for Fall and Winter 2019. Thrilled GOOD GIRLS LIE is included in this list! Such good company.

Fall In Love With This Ultimate Guide To Bookish Candles. I love a good candle.

Top 10 culinary memoirs. Adding these to my TBR...

Physical books still outsell e-books — and here's why. “Genres that do well in print include nature, cookery and children’s books, while people prefer to read crime, romantic novels and thrillers via e-reader, according to Nielsen Book International.”


The Best Writing Tips from Electric Literature Interviews. Lots of great advice!

15 Of The Best Books Like SHARP OBJECTS. I loved SHARP OBJECTS so this list perked my ears up.

THE OCTOBER BIG THRILL: New column explores the iconic impact of the King, plus interviews with Cornwell, Jance, Gerritsen, Chbosky, Khoury + 30 more. If you're not subscribed, and you like crime fiction, you really should get on this.

Snøhetta’s New Library for Temple University Is a Soaring Ode to Knowledge. Such an incredible design!

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WHAT I’M READING:

THE THIRD WIFE by Lisa Jewell

The Third Wife is my first book of Jewell's but it won't be the last. I love how she can take a story that could be banal in the hands of a lesser writer and make it suspenseful, touching, and complex all at once. I cared so much about the characters that I forgot I was reading a book and felt like I was catching up with distant friends. Super!

What are you reading?

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That’s it from me. Share your fascinations in the comments, break out the cider and cinnamon, give a lost grocery store pumpkin a home for the season, and I’ll see you next week.

Friday Reads

June is flying by and I hope it's included plenty of good books, whether in the comfort of your home, at the pool, or on a memorable vacation. 

What are you reading this weekend?