Reading as a Writer: The Frequency of Living Things

When I read Nick Fuller Googin's first novel, I was obsessed. Not only was the story exactly what I needed to read at that point in time (hopeful about a topic that I felt particularly hopeless over), it was the perfect comp title for the project I was pitching at the time. It fell into my lap at the perfect point in time. So I was excited to see his new novel on my library shelves, and then apprehensive when I realized that the opening chapter featured similar world-building themes to my current project, and one of his central characters even shared a name with my main character! Uh oh.

Turns out, I didn't have anything to worry about. While I was expecting another post-apocalyptic, speculative setting, The Frequency of Living Things is a straight contemporary. There's a few odd-coincidences throughout that may speak to a bit of hand-wavey universal magic, but nothing that makes this book in direct conversation with the piece I'm working on.

And maybe because of that confused expectation, I didn't love this book. I wanted something slightly speculative, and this wasn't that. There was a moment where the plot seemed about to veer into a new and dangerous direction (the kiddos, anyone?) and then nothing happened to follow through on that tension; and the novel played with form in an interesting way, bouncing between the sister's perspectives, the mother's perspective, with a little interlude in the middle from the mother's past... which all together didn't really work for me. Maybe because I was expecting the plot to go in a different direction, I spent too long waiting for something else to happen and wasn't really reading what was there.

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AMM Connect

This is my public declaration that I am officially throwing myself (bodily) in to the ring/goblet/hat as an Author Mentor Match round 7 hopeful! As someone who recently organized my google drive, I have to admit that while I've only considered myself to be writing "seriously" for about two years, I've been doing this for ... a while. I've participated in at least one Nano Camp every year since 2012. Of those, I've written "the end" on five full novels and one novella. I've queried two of those novels and the novella, and while the rejections have been very encouraging, they've all still been rejections. After spending about a year and a half working on the same WIP over and over and over, I decided it was time for something new. Currently, I'm working on a lower-YA fantasy in which a pair of 14-year olds with strange powers fight to save their town, while trying to find their places in it. Featuring giant centipedes,...

Reading as a Writer: Children of Time

A coworker challenged me to read Children of Time as part of our 2-person sci-fi book club. My heart sank when I opened the cover to read the first line: I'd tried to read this book before as an audiobook on a road trip with my husband the year before. He adored this book and was excited to share it with me, and I couldn't get through a half-chapter without falling asleep. But, since I'd committed to reading it before realizing which book it was, I sat down to finally read it. And just like my husband suggested, I flew through it. Of course, it did take three mediums to read this--I read the first third in the physical book, then switched to audio book on another road trip, then finished it on e-book during an unexpected train delay. Separate from the experience of reading the book, I felt very lucky to have access to so many different library resources to get me through the finish line! I probably would not have picked this book up if not for the joint cajoling of my hus...

Reading as a Writer: Hungerstone

I read Kat Dunn's Hungerstone because I had to. I'd exhausted all the other books in my library stack, and half of them were overdue, too. Those I read without joy, as a way to distract myself through a family health crisis. It barely worked. Everything I read for a month left me listless. So when I picked up Hungerstone, I expected more of the same. I was mistaken! I loved this book. It was exactly what I needed to pull me firmly out of reality and into the mad world of Nethershaw. It was violent without being gory, emotional without tripping any of my sensitive wires. And the voice was excellent. By the middle of this book I was debating whether I should give first person a try too on my next novel. While reading circumstances weren't great, I really enjoyed this book and will read more of this author.

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