Karen Sandler

Tag: TANKBORN

  • My Dream Bookstore

    BookshelfThis week, YA Highway asks a very fun question:  Imagine you get to open your own bookstore. What would it look like? What kinds of books would you sell?

    It wouldn’t surprise me if 99% of avid readers and maybe 95% of authors have at some time in their lives fantasized about opening a bookstore. I certainly have. Even knowing how difficult running a small business is, even with how dicey the book business can be and how it’s changing so quickly it’s hard to keep up, I still dream about being a bookseller.

    hp photosmart 720So, what would my bookstore look like? Lots of shelves crowded with books, of course. Comfy chairs for readers to relax in while they’re considering a purchase. Maybe a couple of display cases filled with cool gift items, like dragon sculptures, and pewter wizards, and unusual jewelry made by local artists. And of course, there would be a bookstore cat.

    What kind of books would I sell? I’d focus on genre fiction. Plenty of science fiction and fantasy, a section for mystery, another for romance, a little horror. Books for adults, but also a generous offering of young adult and middle grade. Of course, a corner for wonderful picture books with a few toys for the little ones to play with while their parents shop. And I would emphasize diversity in all my offerings.

    I’d also have a full calendar of author visits. Set up chairs or throw pillows on the floor, have the authors do readings, or talk about how they wrote their most recent book, or about whatever they feel passionate about. I’d have a storyteller come on Saturdays for the little ones. I’d have fundraisers for local schools or other causes. I’d want my store to be a community center where people would look forward to visiting, and even though they could save a few bucks on Amazon, they’d buy at my store instead because it’s just such a wonderful place to be.

    Yeah, kind of a pipe dream. But if I’m going to imagine my own bookstore, I might as well imagine big.

    How about you? What would your bookstore be like?

  • Goals–Fear & Loathing

    Goal KittenThis week for Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway asks, What are your goals for the new year–for reading, writing, or other? I gotta tell ya, this kind of question always terrifies me.

    It goes along with that equally frightening question, Where do you see yourself in five years? Luckily I’m not out there pounding the pavement looking for a job and so I don’t have to answer that one.

    The thing that’s so scary about goals is that I immediately fear I won’t be able to reach them. I’ll promise myself I’ll lose five pounds, and that bowl of ice cream will tempt me. I’ll declare I’ll read four books a month, and I’ll come up one short. It’s much easier to do things “unofficially,” that is, having the idea or notion or half-baked whatever that I might want to eat half as much ice cream next time I scoop up a bowl. And maybe I’ll count the number of books read without stating that this many reaches a goal.

    That’s not to say I can’t meet deadlines or finish tasks. I do that all the time. I have a few book deadlines in the upcoming year that I have to meet. But those aren’t really goals. To me, a goal might or might not happen, and let me tell you, these books have gotta happen. No choice there.

    So what is it about the word goal that makes me cringe, that makes me worry? What’s up with that, do you think?

    Well, whatever it is, let me put on my big girl panties and fess up to one goal I’d like to achieve. Here it is: I want to become more disciplined in my writing life. I’d like to accomplish that by resisting the allures and attractions of the Web and Internet when I should be writing. It is ever so much more entertaining to read blogs and tweets all day than it is to put words on a page.

    big-foot-wavingGulp. There, I said it. And I will work toward it, I promise. I will do my best to achieve that big, scary goal.

    How about you? What are your hopes for the new year?

  • Best Book in December

    I completely forgot about YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday this morning. Today’s topic was What was the best book you read in December? Since it’s so late, I was tempted to just give RTW a pass this week, but I just finished a phenomenal book and I’ve been itching to give it a mention.

    Before I get to the title, there were some things I was pondering about highly recommended books. Such as, I sometimes pick up a book that lots of people rave about and for me it turns out to be kind of ho-hum. I don’t much like the characters or the plot drags for me. Other times I read a book (The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater comes to mind) that I just swoon over, but other people didn’t much get into it.

    Then there are those books that I know will be a bit of an emotional roller coaster so I’m hesitant to buy them. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a good example of that. But I did put on my Big Girl Panties and read TFIOS and despite the gushing tears that blurred the words sometimes, I loved-loved-loved it.

    WonderMy fave book for December falls into this latter category. I’ve seen many recommendations for R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, but it seemed like it would be an emotionally hard book to read. But I went ahead and bought it a few days after Christmas, and wow! It was fabulous.

    The characters were fantastic (especially Auggie, the main character) and the uplifting plot was just a joy to read. It was one of those impossible to put down books that I kept thinking about even when I wasn’t reading it. Truly, the ideal holiday read. I can’t recommend it enough.

    So, what have you been reading during the holidays?

  • The Shopping Gene

    If I say, let’s go shopping, and the destination is the local mall, or the outlet stores, or those cute little shops on Main Street, does that invitation fill you with dread or excited anticipation? Does the necessity of going in search of something you can’t do without seem like torture, or are you happy for the chance at the hunt?

    While I am not by any means a shopaholic, I do like shopping. I generally prefer it when there’s something in particular I’m looking for. For instance, I had a lot of fun shopping for dress shirts and ties for my husband’s Christmas gift. I get a great deal of satisfaction finding a shirt in the right size, the perfect color, and the tie that pulls it all together. It’s also nice when the price is right.

    JacketBut I am aware that there are others who just despise shopping. When the jacket we’d ordered from Amazon for my son didn’t fit right, nor was it warm enough, we decided to shop locally for another jacket before he returned to the East Coast. To say he dislikes shopping is putting it mildly. While I see it as an opportunity to search out exactly the right thing at the right price, his reaction is more along the lines of dread.

    But we truly lucked out. We headed for Eddie Bauer at the outlet stores. It just so happened they’d gotten in a couple of “East Coast” jackets, jackets that were rated for zero to 20 degrees. It was a mistaken delivery in chilly but still rather temperate Northern California. Because they knew the jackets were too warm for 99% of their shoppers, they were selling the two at a 50% discount.

    Woo-hoo for us. One of the jackets fit fine and was plenty warm. We added a few pairs of jeans to the pile and in very short order we’d completed our shopping goal. I felt triumphant and fulfilled. My son was just relieved.

    So how about you? Is shopping one of your favorite activities? Or would you rather chew dirt?

  • Who Are You (woot-woot)?

    Tankborn smlThis week, YA Highway asks the questions How do you decide on names? Would you ever name a character after a friend/family member/ex?

    Back when I was writing romances, I wanted everyday names for my characters. So I kept a baby names book near my computer. I’d flip through it for my hero’s or heroine’s name, looking for one that seemed to match the character’s personality. When I found the right name, a little bell would go off inside me. I could see the character that much more clearly.

    When I started writing the Tankborn series, I couldn’t use a baby name book anymore. The Tankborn trilogy is set hundreds of years in the future. To set the tone for the world, the names needed to be a little more exotic than what’s on offer in the naming books. Also, I had a multi-ethnic cast and I needed names that would suit them. So I had to rely on the Web, and sites that listed, for instance, Brahmin or Chinese or Zimbabwe given names and their meanings. Here’s one of my fave sites for finding international names.

    Kayla, the name of my main character in Tankborn, isn’t super unusual. At least it isn’t now. When I first came up with it, back when I was writing the movie script that later became Tankborn, I thought I’d made up the name Kayla. Not so much.

    When I wrote the first book, I did make up some of the names of other characters: Tala, Jal, Tanti, Quila. In real life, people make up names all the time for their children, why wouldn’t they in my future world? I used made up names mostly for GENs, sometimes for lowborns. And just as with Kayla, sometimes the names I thought were made up, that originated with me, were actually “real” names (Pia and Risa come to mind).

    For my trueborns, I used real names of various ethnicities. There’s Devak (Indian), my main male character, Devak’s friend, Junjie (Chinese), Devak’s father and mother, Ved (Indian) and Rasia, (Indian). Raashida (African), is an important character in Awakening, the upcoming follow-on to Tankborn.

    Do I ever use the names of real people in my books? Yes, although I don’t match the character to the real person. I just “borrow” the real name because I like it and it works for my book. I borrowed Zul (Devak’s great-grandfather) and Azad (Devak’s dead half-brother) from people I actually know.

    How about you? If you write, how do you come up with those character names? If you’re a reader, have you ever stumbled across a name that didn’t seem to fit the character, or a name that was absolutely perfect?