Book Recommendation: The Abhorsen Trilogy

I'm taking a slightly different tactic this week in recommending a series instead of a particular book: the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. Why? Well, for one because the whole trilogy is fantastic, but also for a more practical reason: I read the first two books several months ago, and only the third is really fresh enough in my mind to address.

Book 1: Sabriel is the daughter of the Abhorsen, the man responsible for standing against necromancers and any dead who seek to return to life. But when Sabriel's father goes missing she must assume his responsibilities and face one of the greatest threats to the world of the living in generations.

Book 2: Lirael is a daughter of the Clayr, those who see into the future, and yet her own Sight never comes, even though the gift has never been known to skip over any Clayr girl. Then the Clayr see a vision of her in the thick of the latest trouble facing her world, and Lirael sets off to discover her true purpose and help restore the balance of living and dead.

Book 3: In Abhorsen Lirael continues her journey to stop the Destroyer from consuming her world. Sabriel, Lirael and their friends and family must join together if they are to save all life before it's too late.

There are several things I love about this series. The world that Nix has created is divided into two sections: The Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre—the land of magic and the land of science. Most of Ancelstierre believes there is no such thing as magic, and that the accounts of magic in the Old Kingdom must be the reports of simple-minded folk who don't understand the true scientific explanations. But in the Old Kindom magic is very much alive, and Ancelstierran technology is useless. Nix uses both worlds adeptly, and the setting is the perfect backdrop for this story.

In particular I love the creativity that Nix put into the idea of the Abhorsen. In Nix's world the barrier between life and death is thin and not permanent. Most of those who die are content to traverse through the gates of death to their final rest, but there are some who fight to get back to life. The Abhorsen's job is to prevent them, using seven bells that command any who hear them. The bells each have a particular use, and even a personality, from the smallest bell Ranna, which brings about sleep, to the largest bell Astarael, the sorrowful bell that sends all who hear it deep into death.

The characters are fun too, particular the Disreputable Dog and Mogget, the little white cat, both companions of Lirael and her friend Sam.

If you're looking for a creative fantasy adventure, this is a great series to try.

You know you're a writer when...

I had a dream last night that I was a star in a major movie.  It was a fun movie, too, though I have no idea now what it was about.  But while all the accolades I was getting were nice, my biggest concern in the dream was whether or not all the new publicity from the movie would give me greater chances of publishing my book.

Yes, even as a superstar, all I wanted was for my writing to succeed.  Go, little book, go!

Editing: Structure

Warning: lots of writing process babble ahead.  Proceed with caution...

Well, I've taken the editing plunge.

The idea of editing is always a little overwhelming at first. I have a vague idea in my mind of all the things that need to be changed, but I start out not entirely sure where to begin. I have several little editor voices in my head all saying things like “This bit over here needs to be cut,” or “These lines don't belong here,” or “That's not the right way to present that plot line,” or “This scene just isn't working—figure out why!” or “Do you seriously think you can get away with that opening hook?”

And of course, being a perfectionist, I want to fix all of these things at once. But that can't be done. So eventually I come to the obvious conclusion that I should start with the structural issues first.

So that's how I spent yesterday. I went through the first section of the book and made a chronological list of all the scenes, chapter by chapter. (The process was complicated by the fact that I had three different versions of chapter 1.) That way I could piece together where all the scenes should be, and after writing out the new order I set to the task of copy and paste.

Scene reordering is a lot more nerve-wracking than it may sound. There's the constant fear that I'll delete something and forget to put it somewhere else and thus lose it entirely. Or that I'll lose my place and get so muddled in where I am that I'll end up creating twice as much work for myself. Maybe it's a control issue—I feel that if I'm not holding both the current order and the correct order in my head at all times I'll get swept away in a river of homeless scenes all looking for their place in the story.

But happily, the copy and paste is mostly done now. (I say mostly because there are a couple small bits that might still need reorganizing.) Now comes the fun part: making the new order of scenes flow together. Well, fun for me, but I like that sort of thing.

And then will come the other big-picture edits: fixing flawed scenes, making sure characters are behaving appropriately, cleaning up major dialog errors that take the story off track... things like that.

And then mid-sized edits: descriptions and character reactions... the typical weak points of my first draft.

And finally the nitpicks and the “how many unnecessary words can I find and cut” game.

Two bright sides to the structural work I've just done:

1) There are three distinct sections of this story, so the structural complexity isn't nearly as insane as it could be.

2) I only have one POV character. So much easier to figure out the order of things when I'm juggling just one time-line instead of two.

Now back to work for me!

Guest Post

I've got a guest post up today at Down with the Author!  DwtA! is a new blog for characters.  My character Annie has been invited to make a few appearances there.  Today she's talking about Happy Endings.  Go check out the blog, and get in touch with the admins if you're interested in contributing.

Book Recommendation: The Dead and the Gone

The Dead and the Gone, by Susan Beth Pfeffer is the companion novel to Life As We Knew It, which I have also read and loved. I recommend both: they are each strong stories.

What would happen if an asteroid knocked the moon closer to earth?

The answer is even more nightmarish than you might think. Survival is against the odds, and those who do survive must overcome nearly insurmountable challenges: flood, famine and worse. How long would you last in those conditions?

The Dead and the Gone follows a New York City boy named Alex during the aftermath of the asteroid, as he struggles to care for his two younger sisters. Time and again he must face situations that require the utmost resourcefulness.

The book is very hard to put down. Pfeffer leads her readers through heartache and triumph with expert skill. Every moment feels all too real. More than that I'm reluctant to say; I don't want to spoil one single moment of the suspense and surprise.

But I will say this: the story has everything—smooth writing, sympathetic and believable characters, and an engrossing plot. Every page is a blood-pounding thrill.