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From the inside flap: “Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.”

Reading Imaginary Girls is like walking through the halls of a haunted house. Everything on the outside is normal, but strange things happen from time to time and you can’t be sure whether the ghosts are real or if its just your mind playing tricks. Events in the book are subtly strange in this way, and the surreal tone of the tale is entirely appropriate, because hauntings abound. The lost town of Olive haunts the bottom of the reservoir, Chloe is haunted by the memory of the dead girl, Ruby is haunted by the secrets she tries to hide.

The title is also wonderfully appropriate, as the uncertainty of what is imagined and what isn’t unfolds throughout the story. Not to mention, what makes a girl imaginary? Is Chloe imaginary because she isn’t entirely her own, because she’s possessed by Ruby (and willingly so, as she offers her devotion wholeheartedly to her sister)? Is Ruby imaginary, because how can that kind of girl, the kind of girl that gets everything and anything she wants really exist? Or is the imaginary part of Ruby dependent on how Chloe sees her, how Chloe idolizes her and in a way shapes her with that idolatry that no person can live up to? And London? Oh, there are many, many ways that London could be imaginary, if she exists at all.

Imaginary Girls is a book that is multilayered and achingly beautiful, one that leaves just the right amount of questions for you to sit with on rainy Sunday and ponder, while outside the water swirls. It’s a book I want to hold in the hollows of my heart and never, ever let go.

It’s also one of those books I want to see made into a movie right now, damnit, now. In fact, as soon as I put the book down, I began to imagine how I would adapt the screenplay and shape the work into a finished film. Click to see my thoughts on how to make the movie (no spoilers really

[Cross posted to my livejournal.]

Taking a line from Lisa Eckstein’s post, I’m going to share with you that I have been busy doing bad, bad things to my character in the short story I’m currently writing. I’ve been a little less compassionate about the bad things I’ve done to my character, in fact I approached the scene with a certain amount of glee as I attacked her with a multitude of spider-like things that crawled under her skin. (There may be something wrong with me.) Though, as I’m not writing a novel, I’m not as attached to this character as I might otherwise be.

The fun of typing up that scene, as well as other strange and surreal scenes (none of which connect into a coherent story yet) allowed me to plow through almost 2,000 words Wednesday night, which gives me a warm cozy feeling and makes me believe that I might actually finish this story, and have time to edit and submit it to Awesome Anthology.

What bad things have you done to your characters? Do you feel sorry for doing it to them?

*

In other news, Z-composition, a new horror, scifi, fantasy lit-zine I recently submitted to, is looking for artists to create a new fancy banner for their website. They’re hoping for bids (which I’m assuming means they will pay a bit), so anyone interested ought to check it out.

Also, here is a rather amusing post about the strange and funny things fans say and do around authors.

*I’m humming along to to the True Blood theme song, as I write this.

[Cross posted to my livejournal.]

Google on how to learn more about SOPA and PIPA and why these bills are a problem.

John Scalzi also presents a great and detailed explanation.

Seanan McGuire preaches to the choir on why SOPA is bad for us.

The Oatmeal presents a koala and jet-ski filled explanation on SOPA (also Oprah and a goat).

One of the ways I’m planning to keep motivated on my massive list of goals is to check in once a month and assess where I’m at. I know it hasn’t been a full month yet, but for some reason I like the idea of doing my check in during the middle of the month. *grin*

I’m off to a good start at the races. Three poems (including two newly written ones) have been sent off to a for-the-love market and I’ve written about 3,860 words of fiction, including work on Untitled Werewolf Novel, a section of the Fay Fairburn story for therealljidol, and the start of a new short story for the Awesome Anthology. So, I’m feeling good on the writing front.

In terms of physical endeavors, I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with the yoga every morning. I’ve only missed a few days. I also got a walk in there and an ill-fated attempt at ice skating (no falls, but the skates temporarily screwed up my feet in a rather painful way). Already my body is feeling better from the little I’ve been doing, which equals awesomesauce.

Thinks to do in the coming month:

• Get another 3000 words down on Untitled Werewolf Novel.
• Complete the LJ Idol prompts (i.e. Fay Fairburn chapters) as they come up, which is necessary if I want to stay in the competition.
• Finish draft zero of the new short story.
• Write two new poem drafts.
• Edit and submit “White Noise”

• Put “Shaking Hands” up on my website
• Create and post a youtube video

• Keep up with the yoga.
• Buy a house plant and frame the art I have in an effort to make apt more homey.

How are you doing in approaching your goals for the new year?

[Cross-posted to my livejournal.]

Total Books Read – 92

Fiction – 60
General – 11
Classics – 8
SF/Fantasy/Horror* – 41
*Grouped together because it’s too much of a headache to mentally debate which book falls into which category.

Young Adult** – 20
**This number does not contribute to overall total as they also fall into the above categories.

Comics/Graphic Novels – 10
Nonfiction – 1
Literary – 2
SF/Fantasy – 7

Poetry – 9

Nonfiction – 13
Writing How-To/Literary & Art Criticism – 7
History/Biography – 3
Memoir – 2
Travel Guidebook – 1


My Favorite 10 Books of 2011
(not in any particular order)

1. Fated, by S.G. Browne
2. Happy All The Time, by Laurie Colwin
3. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forester
4. Locke & Key (series), written by Joe Hill, art by Gabriel Rodriguez
5. Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki
6. Peeps, by Scott Westerfeild
7. Push of the Sky, by Camille Alexa
8. Ceremony for the Choking Ghost (poetry), by Karen Finneyfrock
9. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
10. Zombies vs Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
11. Shine, by Lauren Myracle
12. Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill (a reread and I still love it)
13. The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim C Hines
14. Boy Meets Boy (audio book), by David Levithan
15. The Door to Lost Pages, by Claude Lalumiere
16. Dreadnought, by Cherie Priest
17. A Book of Tongues, by Gemma Files
18. Blindness, by Jose Saramago
19. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
20. Sharp Teeth, a novel in poems by Toby Barlow

[Cross posted to my livejournal]