Read the reviews on my livejournal.

I was going to try to flesh this out with other news, but I’m coming up blank, so I’ll just leave you with that for the moment.

[Cross posted to my livejournal.]

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.]

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).

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.]

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]

Click here to read the reviews on my livejournal.

In general I feel pretty good about my level of creative productivity. I wrote a lot at the beginning of the year, slowed a bit in the middle, but picked up some nice word counts over the last four months or so. I wrote oodles of poems (mostly for my blog), one novlette, a handful of stories, and got a good chunk going on a novel. Considering I work full time with a commute, I’d say that’s pretty darn good.

I think I made about 10 (or so) submissions to magazines and journals this year, of which 3 were accepted and 6 rejected, with one response still pending. Not bad at all.

My personal everyday goals are the ones that collapsed a bit. After I quit on my plans for participating in the half marathon in July/August, pretty much all my exercise stopped. No running, no yoga, etc.

Any meditation, affirmations, or breath work was also almost nil. That said, I give you

The Masive List of 2012 Goals!

I always vacillate on how I feel about New Year resolutions and goals. I think they’re good to a degree, and I enjoy making them, because I love lists and I love the idea of scratching off the to-dos as they are completed. The past couple of years, I’ve been more in favor of loose, short lists, which allow for flexibility.

This year, however, I’m going back to the detailed style list. There are things I want done damnit (mostly career-wise), so I’m announcing them. The plan is to check back in once a month and update the list (i.e., strike out what’s completed or change as necessary).

Cut, because it's, um, massive. Click to read

* * *
Some closing thoughts:

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.“
– Neil Gaiman

[Cross-posted to my livejournal.]

In the meantime, I’m planning to do the category reading challenge again this year (what can I say, it’s fun, and gets me reading what I might not read otherwise.), so here are my planned categories for 2012 (my Librarything thread is here). Some categories have more required reading than others, but the ultimate goal is to read 100 books.

1. Hello, I Love You (0/6)
I’ve read one book by an author and loved it. Now I want to read at least one more by the same author.

2. Oh, How I’ve Missed You (0/6)
Books by an authors I once loved, but haven’t read in a long time. OR, rereads of favorite books.

3. It’s a Smoldering World After All (0/7)
Apocalyptic and Post Apocalyptic books, as well as some dystopian novels.

4. Unicorns from Space! — Science Fiction (0/10)

5. Unicorns from Space! — Fantasy (0/10)

6. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up (0/9)
Books for children and young adults.

7. Bam! Pow! Wham! (0/9)
Graphic novels and comics.

8. Just the Facts, Ma’am (0/8)
Nonfiction.

9. The Universe in Verse (0/9)
Poetry.

10. From My Bookshelf (0/8)
I have a tendency to jump at the new and shiny in bookstores and the library, rather than reading the stacks already on my shelves. This is meant to rectify that.

11. From the Modern Library’s 100 Best Books (0/10)
There are actually about 200 books, since there is also the publicly voted list (with some overlaps). I’m working off the list from 2009, which is posted on my blog.

12. Miscellany (0/8)
The catch-all category for whatever doesn’t fit in the above.