Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is the story of the “life” of a girl named Liz after her death at age 15. After she is hit by a car on earth Liz wakes up on the boat to Elsewhere, the parallel of earth where everyone gets younger and younger until going back to earth as a baby.
It's a unique concept and a great hook. I've read other afterlife stories before, but none with quite this angle. What's good about this book is more than just the idea, however; it's moving because of what Liz chooses to do with this life she is given.
When she gets to Elsewhere as an almost-16-year-old she finds it terribly unjust that she has to relive all her years in reverse without ever growing up or getting married or having children. She misses her life. Though her death is hard for her family back on earth it is even harder for Liz herself; they lost a daughter and a sister, but she lost everything. She becomes obsessed with watching over the people she left behind, and reading her struggle it's hard not to imagine doing the same thing myself in her place.
Throughout the book Zevin handles questions of loss and purpose with grace. Liz finally begins to accept was has happened, and slowly comes to see that her life in Elsewhere can be just as full as her life on earth. She chooses to be happy.
And her choice makes the book very satisfying. There is a feeling of completion at the end. The final chapters are full of tender, bittersweet moments as Liz gets younger, surrounded by the people she's come to love.
I recommend this book because it is a great reminder that no matter where we might find ourselves in life, there is always a chance to make the best of what we've got: we only have to make the choice.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
E-Book Ethics
This week on the internet:
Controversial post from The Ethicist, followed by some interesting points on both sides, notably by Nathan Bransford and John Scalzi.
My take:
I think part of the controversy is about what you are paying for when you buy a book. Are you buying a product or are you buying the content in the product?
Those arguing for a full payment for each version of the book that you buy are often arguing the product approach: it's a separate product each time; each product has production costs; each product is unique.
Those arguing for a free e-book version after buying a hardback or paperback are often arguing the content approach: they are the same words regardless of version; if you're buying the right to read those words, does it matter what version you read them in?
I've also seen a few people who are looking for a middle ground: buy a hardback or paperback copy and get the e-book at a reduced cost. I think if the author and all the other people involved in producing the book are amenable to this it isn't a terrible idea. If they are willing to give you the e-book for the cost of production (which it would appear is more than nothing), perhaps even the cost of production plus a little something but still less than the original cost, then that's probably a good compromise.
Perhaps some books could come with a cd or website code or something along those lines (tucked away and sealed so you would know if somebody has tampered with the book) that would contain access to an e-book version. And those books could be sold at a price higher than the plain book but lower than the price of that copy and the e-book copy combined.
Controversial post from The Ethicist, followed by some interesting points on both sides, notably by Nathan Bransford and John Scalzi.
My take:
I think part of the controversy is about what you are paying for when you buy a book. Are you buying a product or are you buying the content in the product?
Those arguing for a full payment for each version of the book that you buy are often arguing the product approach: it's a separate product each time; each product has production costs; each product is unique.
Those arguing for a free e-book version after buying a hardback or paperback are often arguing the content approach: they are the same words regardless of version; if you're buying the right to read those words, does it matter what version you read them in?
I've also seen a few people who are looking for a middle ground: buy a hardback or paperback copy and get the e-book at a reduced cost. I think if the author and all the other people involved in producing the book are amenable to this it isn't a terrible idea. If they are willing to give you the e-book for the cost of production (which it would appear is more than nothing), perhaps even the cost of production plus a little something but still less than the original cost, then that's probably a good compromise.
Perhaps some books could come with a cd or website code or something along those lines (tucked away and sealed so you would know if somebody has tampered with the book) that would contain access to an e-book version. And those books could be sold at a price higher than the plain book but lower than the price of that copy and the e-book copy combined.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Seasons
Virginia temperatures reached a record high in places yesterday. It was 90, sunny, but NOT humid, which meant I was perfectly content with the windows open and the fans on. We've hardly had a chance to enjoy spring, though, so I hope that summer holds off a few more weeks at least.
All these changes in the seasons have made me think of the “magic” of weather. In books weather can contribute so heavily to the feel of a scene. Each kind of weather has its own energy and can evoke a corresponding energy deep under our skin.
In particular I think there are four “magic” weather days, one for each season.
In winter the magic comes with a blizzard. It's our inability to control this weather that I think we respond to. (I didn't say we had to like the magic weather days. After this past winter I'll be happy if I never see more than five inches of snow at one time again.) Winter reminds us that despite all of our advances we are still small and puny, and a blizzard strongly reinforces the point. The magic is in its wildness and uncompromising power.
In spring we have what I call “memory weather.” I came up with the term back in high school while I was enjoying one of these days and thinking about all the similar days in years past. Memory weather comes on a day that is cloudless, mild and breezy. It's the sort of weather that lends itself to nostalgia, to pleasant recollections of other days spent under a benevolent sun. Perhaps it is because at the time spring meant endings and new beginnings—the end of school and beginning of vacation. I still feel the same things during memory weather, though, even well after high school. It's one of my favorite types of weather, particularly when combined with the smell of cut grass.
Summer's magic is a thunderstorm. It's opposite of winter and yet magical for some of the same reasons. No one can stop a lightning bolt. No one can hold back a downpour. Thunderstorms make our blood race because, like blizzards, they too can't be stopped and they are full of wild intensity. They make us want to be a little wild too.
And finally fall. Fall's magic is a bit like spring's, only it's older and wiser. Fall's changes remind me more of the future than the past. The sharpness, the clarity of fall translates to a poignancy in heart and mind. Fall is a season-long high, and its subtle magic is sometimes the strongest.
Thinking of these things makes me wonder if anyone has used weather as the basis for magic in a fantasy novel. I wouldn't be surprised; it seems logical. I just don't believe I've read anything quite like that. In such a magic system I could see the following:
People born in winter would have winter magic. It would involve cold and ice and could be very destructive but it could also preserve and shelter.
Spring babies would have magic related to growth and renewal. They would be good healers, but maybe they would have less defense against harsher magic.
Summer magic would be wild and hot. It would involve flame and could also be destructive, but it could be nurturing as well.
Fall would be trickiest. I think it would be the most mental of the magics. Hard to say exactly how it would be used. (It might be interesting to have a main character with fall magic, which everyone discounts, but then have that character end up being the strongest.)
Though now I've just realized: the four seasons correspond somewhat to the four “elements.” Winter goes with water, spring with earth, summer with fire, fall with air. I've told myself I would never use that elemental system in a book since it is so overdone and not very relevant any more (at least in my mind). But if I used a seasonal magic system I might find myself doing so unintentionally. Oh dear.
(And yes, I also just realized that other people have probably made the connection between seasons and elements long before I have. Wow, this post is really making me feel behind. In my defense, I usually add magic into a story because it fits the story—I don't typically go around studying fantasy magic trends for their own sake. Though there are some really interesting ones out there—but that's fodder for another post I think.)
Anyway, have any of you seen seasonal magic used in a story before? What do you think of it as a concept?
All these changes in the seasons have made me think of the “magic” of weather. In books weather can contribute so heavily to the feel of a scene. Each kind of weather has its own energy and can evoke a corresponding energy deep under our skin.
In particular I think there are four “magic” weather days, one for each season.
In winter the magic comes with a blizzard. It's our inability to control this weather that I think we respond to. (I didn't say we had to like the magic weather days. After this past winter I'll be happy if I never see more than five inches of snow at one time again.) Winter reminds us that despite all of our advances we are still small and puny, and a blizzard strongly reinforces the point. The magic is in its wildness and uncompromising power.
In spring we have what I call “memory weather.” I came up with the term back in high school while I was enjoying one of these days and thinking about all the similar days in years past. Memory weather comes on a day that is cloudless, mild and breezy. It's the sort of weather that lends itself to nostalgia, to pleasant recollections of other days spent under a benevolent sun. Perhaps it is because at the time spring meant endings and new beginnings—the end of school and beginning of vacation. I still feel the same things during memory weather, though, even well after high school. It's one of my favorite types of weather, particularly when combined with the smell of cut grass.
Summer's magic is a thunderstorm. It's opposite of winter and yet magical for some of the same reasons. No one can stop a lightning bolt. No one can hold back a downpour. Thunderstorms make our blood race because, like blizzards, they too can't be stopped and they are full of wild intensity. They make us want to be a little wild too.
And finally fall. Fall's magic is a bit like spring's, only it's older and wiser. Fall's changes remind me more of the future than the past. The sharpness, the clarity of fall translates to a poignancy in heart and mind. Fall is a season-long high, and its subtle magic is sometimes the strongest.
Thinking of these things makes me wonder if anyone has used weather as the basis for magic in a fantasy novel. I wouldn't be surprised; it seems logical. I just don't believe I've read anything quite like that. In such a magic system I could see the following:
People born in winter would have winter magic. It would involve cold and ice and could be very destructive but it could also preserve and shelter.
Spring babies would have magic related to growth and renewal. They would be good healers, but maybe they would have less defense against harsher magic.
Summer magic would be wild and hot. It would involve flame and could also be destructive, but it could be nurturing as well.
Fall would be trickiest. I think it would be the most mental of the magics. Hard to say exactly how it would be used. (It might be interesting to have a main character with fall magic, which everyone discounts, but then have that character end up being the strongest.)
Though now I've just realized: the four seasons correspond somewhat to the four “elements.” Winter goes with water, spring with earth, summer with fire, fall with air. I've told myself I would never use that elemental system in a book since it is so overdone and not very relevant any more (at least in my mind). But if I used a seasonal magic system I might find myself doing so unintentionally. Oh dear.
(And yes, I also just realized that other people have probably made the connection between seasons and elements long before I have. Wow, this post is really making me feel behind. In my defense, I usually add magic into a story because it fits the story—I don't typically go around studying fantasy magic trends for their own sake. Though there are some really interesting ones out there—but that's fodder for another post I think.)
Anyway, have any of you seen seasonal magic used in a story before? What do you think of it as a concept?
Monday, April 5, 2010
1st Person POV
POV is a tricky little thing.
Growing up I always thought that 3rd person POV was the only normal way to write. Anything else was too stylistic and glaringly obvious. Nearly everything I read was in 3rd person, so that's what felt right to me. All else was wrong.
Somewhere along the way I've changed my mind. I suppose I've just read enough 1st person books now to see it as a very natural style. (2nd is still a whole other creature. I might be willing to poke at it with a stick, but no way am I ready to pick it up and examine it with my bare hands.) Perhaps it is a false perception, but it seems to me that 1st person is far more widely used now, particularly in young adult fiction.
I know I've read a lot of it lately. I would guess that of the YA books I've read this past year, the majority that have a single POV character are written in 1st person. Whereas I used to find that POV so jarring, now I don't even notice until half way through the book unless I'm intentionally looking for the POV.
All the same, it wasn't until very recently that I was willing to attempt writing in 1st person myself. I've built a comfortable home out of 3rd person bricks, and I know what I'm doing in there. I've worked on 3rd person for (what feels like) so long with True Sight and Swift Flight (Kierr and Deisa's first two books) that it's very strange for me to make a change to a new story at all, not even counting the POV change.
I didn't originally plan to write Annie (my most recent character) in 1st person. I wrote a few practice scenes several months ago just to start getting a feel for her world, and they were all in 3rd. But recently, right before I started writing the first chapter, I felt that little click in my mind that happens when something that should have been obvious all along finally falls into place. Annie belongs in a 1st person world.
So far it's been quite an adventure for me trying to write her that way. It feels very right, but it's also a big challenge. The POV is forcing me to examine her personality a lot more closely. Some of her traits are different enough from my own that I have to be very intentional about the way she thinks. It's mental exercise for sure. I come away with my cerebrum panting from the effort.
But the experience has been very rewarding too. I know Annie so much better than I've known any other character after such a short time. When I force myself to look through her eyes, somehow I see more of the world she lives in. She brings me closer to the details and makes me think more about her surroundings. It's a bit of a rush.
I guess that makes me a 1st person convert after all.
Growing up I always thought that 3rd person POV was the only normal way to write. Anything else was too stylistic and glaringly obvious. Nearly everything I read was in 3rd person, so that's what felt right to me. All else was wrong.
Somewhere along the way I've changed my mind. I suppose I've just read enough 1st person books now to see it as a very natural style. (2nd is still a whole other creature. I might be willing to poke at it with a stick, but no way am I ready to pick it up and examine it with my bare hands.) Perhaps it is a false perception, but it seems to me that 1st person is far more widely used now, particularly in young adult fiction.
I know I've read a lot of it lately. I would guess that of the YA books I've read this past year, the majority that have a single POV character are written in 1st person. Whereas I used to find that POV so jarring, now I don't even notice until half way through the book unless I'm intentionally looking for the POV.
All the same, it wasn't until very recently that I was willing to attempt writing in 1st person myself. I've built a comfortable home out of 3rd person bricks, and I know what I'm doing in there. I've worked on 3rd person for (what feels like) so long with True Sight and Swift Flight (Kierr and Deisa's first two books) that it's very strange for me to make a change to a new story at all, not even counting the POV change.
I didn't originally plan to write Annie (my most recent character) in 1st person. I wrote a few practice scenes several months ago just to start getting a feel for her world, and they were all in 3rd. But recently, right before I started writing the first chapter, I felt that little click in my mind that happens when something that should have been obvious all along finally falls into place. Annie belongs in a 1st person world.
So far it's been quite an adventure for me trying to write her that way. It feels very right, but it's also a big challenge. The POV is forcing me to examine her personality a lot more closely. Some of her traits are different enough from my own that I have to be very intentional about the way she thinks. It's mental exercise for sure. I come away with my cerebrum panting from the effort.
But the experience has been very rewarding too. I know Annie so much better than I've known any other character after such a short time. When I force myself to look through her eyes, somehow I see more of the world she lives in. She brings me closer to the details and makes me think more about her surroundings. It's a bit of a rush.
I guess that makes me a 1st person convert after all.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Book Recommendation: Un Lun Dun
Un Lun Dun, a novel by British author China Miéville, should come with a warning label:
BE ADVISED: This book has been known to elicit giggles from twelve-year-old boys. Read at own risk, particularly if reading in a public place.
About the book:
What do you do when the prophecy that everyone is counting on to save the world turns out to be utter bunk? Well, if your name is Deeba Resham you go right ahead and save the world anyway, through a combination of imagination, determination and knack for making your own luck.
This book is proof that the best stories are often the ones in which nothing turns out the way it's supposed to.
So what is Un Lun Dun? It is London's topsy-turvy counterpart, the home of black windows, carnivorous giraffes and words that literally come to life. It's a place where trash has personality, and in fact one of the most lovable characters is an old milk carton. It's a world of boundless imagination, delightful at every turn.
And one thing is for certain: once you have finished you will not look at your umbrella the same way ever again.
I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age who is looking for adventure, wit and a lot of good laughs. Just don't be surprised if strangers look at you funny for giggling while you read it on the bus.
BE ADVISED: This book has been known to elicit giggles from twelve-year-old boys. Read at own risk, particularly if reading in a public place.
About the book:
What do you do when the prophecy that everyone is counting on to save the world turns out to be utter bunk? Well, if your name is Deeba Resham you go right ahead and save the world anyway, through a combination of imagination, determination and knack for making your own luck.
This book is proof that the best stories are often the ones in which nothing turns out the way it's supposed to.
So what is Un Lun Dun? It is London's topsy-turvy counterpart, the home of black windows, carnivorous giraffes and words that literally come to life. It's a place where trash has personality, and in fact one of the most lovable characters is an old milk carton. It's a world of boundless imagination, delightful at every turn.
And one thing is for certain: once you have finished you will not look at your umbrella the same way ever again.
I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age who is looking for adventure, wit and a lot of good laughs. Just don't be surprised if strangers look at you funny for giggling while you read it on the bus.
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