The Prestige

Ah, what a great book! The 1996 winner of the World Fantasy Award is soon to be a movie starring two of my favorite actors: Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. So I thought, huh, rival magicians in 19th century England. I'll give it a shot. Boy, howdy! What a great book! Beautifully written, detailed, fascinating! With a weird, weird, ending. Wow. I did not see that coming. It reminded me of "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." Which would also make a great movie. Which also left me clamoring for a sequel. But alas, I'm sure that neither of these books will ever been sequeled, and we can only dream.

Frustration

I'm deep in the depths of editing Dragon Slippers, and I'm about to give up and cry for mercy. My deadline is looming, my attention span is shorter than ever, and the doubts are coming thick and fast. Sure, this sentence needs work. But what if the 'fix' is just as bad? What if I shorten a scene that goes on too long, and then something later doesn't make sense? Whimper. I know I should be excited, since this is the first time I've worked with a real editor (and she's amazing, so no complaints there), this is the first time I've had a deadline. But editing really makes me tear out my hair and head for the cookie jar. Help me!

Dragon Slippers

It's official: I've been talking with my editor, the lovely Melanie, and we've agreed on a title change. Yes, for those of you keenly following my doings (all three of you), the title of my debut novel is now Dragon Slippers, which rolls off the tongue much better than Dragonskin Slippers. Do I feel a pang? Not even slightly. I have a devil of a time coming up with book titles, I may have a "Name that Book!" contest one of these days, just to save myself the strain. I'm working on a story right now for which I haven't the foggiest idea for a title. A little help?

Kira-Kira

A book so beautiful that it deserves its own piece of blog. I just finished Cynthia Kadohata's book "Kira-Kira", the 2005 Newbery Award Winner. What an exquisite book! I could not put it down, I was so engrossed in the lives of the narrator and her family. There have been many, many times when I have disagreed with the Newbery committee. I often prefer the "Honor" books to the actual winner. But this time, I think they done good. This is a perfect book.