Karen Sandler

Tag: ya highway

  • Best Book for February

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks the usual end-of-month question, What’s the best book you’ve read in February? I read (or finished) five books in February:

    • Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher, started in January, finished in Feb)
    • A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
    • Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Lawrence Wright)
    • If I Stay (Gayle Forman)
    • Brothers in Arms (Lois McMaster Bujold)

    I just started The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, The Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts, which as a horse nut I’m really loving, but I doubt I’ll finish it within the month. And yes, this is the first time I’ve read A Wrinkle in Time. My kids read it years ago (when they actually were kids). I was finally shamed into it when it came up at the SCBWI winter conference in NYC as a must-read book. And, um, yeah, it was. Must-read, that is.

    So, some good and great books on this list. But as for my favorite for February, I’m going to give A Wrinkle in Time a pass just because, well, it’s a classic. Doesn’t seem fair for it to be in the running. Brothers in Arms was a fantastic read, but it’s one of a zillion Vorkosigan Saga books that The Goddess Who is Bujold has written, so in lieu of her being my favorite every month, I will let someone else win: Going Clear.

    I am not much of a non-fiction reader. I like my fiction stories, particularly genre fiction. But once in a while I will hear about an intriguing non-fiction book, often when the author is interviewed on NPR. Sometimes I’ll check out a sample or even buy it and be disappointed. This was not one of those times.

    Going Clear was a compelling page turner from start to finish. I felt the author was thorough and even-handed, for instance balancing descriptions of Scientology’s unconventional beliefs with discussions of odd aspects of other religions, from young ones such as Mormonism to more traditional belief systems such as Christianity. As someone whose belief system is off the beaten path, I appreciate that aspects of a faith that might seem bizarre to one person can make perfect sense to another. Going Clear did a good job making that case, while also being a fantastic, thought-provoking read.

  • RTW – Looking Into My Writer’s Crystal Ball

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks the question, What do you hope to be writing in one year? Three? Five?

    I’ve always hated goal-setting. Other than the goal that in three years, or five, I want to be rich and famous. Bestselling books, accolades aplenty, twin Cadillacs in the driveway (actually, in my case, it would probably be a couple of Teslas–gotta be green, ya know).

    But that’s just pie-in-the-sky fantasizing, not goal-setting. If you’d asked me five years ago where I wanted to be right now, what I thought I would be writing, I seriously doubt that I would have said, “Just finishing book 2 and about to start book 3 of a young adult science fiction trilogy.” Five years ago, I was still writing romances for Harlequin. Tankborn, its follow-on, Awakening, and the final book, Revolution, were not even a glimmer in my eye.

    But let me try to answer the question anyway, despite my goals-averse ways. One year out is a bit of a cheat, because there is something in the works already, something I can’t talk about yet. In a year, I will have finished a re-write on Secret Book #1 and should be working on writing Secret Book #2.

    In three years, I would like to be working on another YA series. Very likely in the speculative fiction arena (fantasy, paranormal, SF). It’s also possible I will be working on future Secret Books. Because all three books of the Tankborn trilogy will have been published in three years, my dream is that we will be working on the first of the Tankborn movies (hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?).

    In five years, I would be finishing up that Other YA Trilogy, possibly writing more Secret Books, and likely starting another YA series. Or maybe I’m working with an artist on Tankborn graphic novels. I think the Tankborn trilogy would lend itself very well to the graphic novel format. Maybe instead of Teslas, there are a pair of nice, new Priuses in the driveway. And schools are clamoring to hear me speak. My book signings are mob scenes. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is begging me to give a keynote at their summer conference. 🙂

    Okay, so it’s not all completely realistic. I don’t have quite as much control over the rich and famous part as I’d like. But I can keep writing the books I like to write and make my own future to a certain extent.

    How about you? What is your crystal ball saying to you?

  • RTW – Writing and the Change of the Seasons

    This week, YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday asks, How does your writing (place, time, inspiration) change with the seasons?

    It’s a great question but I’m afraid I don’t have a particularly great answer. As a writer, my routine is kind of boring, and, well, routine. I don’t change anything with the seasons.

    I just sit at the same computer, in the same office, and whether I’m under contract and working on a deadline, or writing some spec piece, I just…write. I work nearly every day. There are times I take a break (like between contracts) when I go a few days or even a week or so without writing. But then a new contract starts or I settle in on a new spec project and I’m back to the routine.

    Ye Olde Grindstone

    I confess, I’m not exactly sure what I would do differently. I don’t find any particular season any more inspiring than another. If I’m on deadline, I just work. I do dislike deadlines that around Christmas (like if something is due in January), because I just want to kick back and bake cookies and decorate my tree and enjoy the season. But it’s not like I suddenly get ideas for holiday stories.

    Am I boring or what? At least my son, who’s got a YA circulating out there and is currently working on a MG book, goes out on the back deck to write on lovely summer days. I just stay in my cubicle, taking root and growing mushrooms between my toes.

    I really want to hear from other people on this. Do you have a seasonal ebb and flow with your creativity? Do you write differently at different times of the year? Drop me a line. I’d appreciate a break from my grindstone.

  • RTW – Best Book Read in September

    As it’s the last Wednesday of September, YA Highway asks what’s the best book we’ve read this month. It’s a bit of a blur as to what books I read in September. I might have finished a Lois McMaster Bujold SF book early on. Part of the month I’ve been doing a beta read on an urban fantasy for another writer in exchange for her beta reading my YA paranormal. I’ve also been busy working on the synopsis for Revolution, the third book in the Tankborn trilogy. Plus I was a little under the weather so I didn’t read as much this month.

    But I did make time to read James Rollins excellent thriller/adventure novel, Map of Bones, which is part of his Sigma Force series. While I’ve read a number of other books by James, this is the first Sigma Force book I picked up, and it wasn’t the first in the series. But he doesn’t leave new readers of the series confused about who is who and what Sigma Force is. Although he jumps right into the action, he introduces the characters in a nice balanced way so that new readers can get to know them, and returning readers aren’t overwhelmed by a data dump they don’t need.

    For those who love intriguing twists and turns, who like learning about arcane bits of history (in this case, of the Vatican and the Catholic Church) made fascinating by a breakneck plot, who like cool gadgets and clever characters, you’ll love this book. His ensemble of characters get into some dire fixes, are surely doomed, can’t possibly succeed, but a new twist and their quick wits pull them out of disaster.

    If you’re squeamish about violence, fair warning–this book has its fair share. Map of Bones doesn’t contain nearly as much on-the-page gore as say, Lee Child’s books. But it opens with a pretty hard-to-take scene for a wimp like me. I kept reading and I’m glad I did. It’s a great read.

    How about you? What did you read this month?

  • RTW – Fairy Tale Remake

    This week, YA Highway‘s blog prompt is to name a fable or story we’d like to see a retelling of. We’re also encouraged to be creative and come up with our own version.

    I have always been fascinated with fairy tales and fables. I even played around with an updated retelling of Cinderella in one of my romance novels (His Make-Believe Wife, under my pen name, Kayla Russo).

    I’d actually intended to write a few more fairy tale-based romances, and had even started one based on one of my favorite fairy tales, Rumpelstiltskin. It was to take place in a modern-day wrecking yard (where old cars go to die). The woman who owned the wrecking yard would discover an odd little man wandering around the yard. I don’t remember the details, but likely it was something like the woman would have to figure out his name to find love.

    I ended up completely jettisoning that version of the idea. I did go on to write the book, which was originally published by Berkley as Unforgettable, but is now available as The In-Between (again using my pen name Kayla Russo). The little old man was replaced by teen ghosts, Laura and Johnny. Rather than figuring out their names, the heroine (and hero) have to figure out how Laura and Johnny died to free the dead lovers from their bondage on earth.

    I’ve had another idea cooking for a long while that likely will never see the light of day. In that story, a fairy godmother appears in the apartment of a hard-driven, type-A woman. But before the fairy godmother can grant any wishes, she has a heart attack and drops to the floor. Just before she dies, she transfers the mantle of fairy-godmotherness to the type A woman. Now the woman has to be fairy godmother, which of course ruins her life.

    So, what are your favorite fairy tales and fables? What would you like to see retold?