Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On

So, first off: we have a new Doctor in Doctor Who, and it's a woman.

My thoughts? Honestly, the show premise allows for it, so writer-wise, I see nothing wrong. As a viewer who is behind a season (and told that Time Lords regenerate into the other gender only after taking their own lives), I'm a little apprehensive about what I've missed. (What have you done, Doctor? I'm really scared to catch up now!)

I'm also sad because I really liked Peter Capaldi. But I am interested to see what they do with a female Doctor. Dynamics will certainly be interesting.

Anyway, on with the show! Today's blog post is brought to you by William Shakespeare (who graciously donated the title of the post) and by that question that haunts all writers:

Where do you get your ideas from?

I've heard this, you've heard this, we've all heard this. And it doesn't get any easier to answer.

So, ideas. Where do they come from? Where do any ideas come from? How do all the little thoughts and impressions in a day join together to create something worthwhile? Does anyone really know? I can track some of the development of my ideas, but something always seems to be missing.

With me, when someone asks where I got the idea for the Jeremy Wilderson books, I tell a tale about being given an assignment to create a middle grade character while reading lots of middle grade mysteries and wondering where the thief character was. But in a way, describing it like this is similar to being asked for a cake recipe and saying, "Get flour, sugar, milk, eggs, and some other things, and then you have a cake!" It ignores the process, that magic that somehow results in a finished product.

 And even that doesn't always work. Sometimes, you mix eggs, flour, sugar, oil, etcetera etcetera, and you somehow get a steak dinner with mashed potatoes. The idea looks nothing like the finished product!

I just had the opportunity to attend a day of the BYU Books for Young Readers conference (it was awesome), and one of the visiting writers commented that the initial idea for a book kicks it off, but then it gets shed like snakeskin as the story grows. I like that description.

So, where do I get my ideas? *sighs, scratches head, and fiddles around on the computer for a while*

Honestly, all over. I don't always know what's going to give me an idea, but I know the feeling when I get one. And, honestly, a lot of them are bad ideas in the long run. Stupid stories, or stories that aren't going to work. Or, not bad ideas, but things that aren't going to help me now. Things I should save.

I think writers have the habit of thinking a lot and paying attention to our random thoughts. We don't dismiss "what ifs" but like to follow them to their conclusion. Some of my ideas have come from that: what if a middle school criminal was the hero in his mind? What if in a fantasy world, humans are considered as magical as we would consider elves to be?

Some of my other ideas come from dreams. That makes sense to me; in dreams, we free associate, and some random ideas stick to other random ideas to create something fresh and interesting. I love waking up after those dreams and writing down what I remember. This happened for a fantasy I'm working on (although the inciting dream has long since been shed away), as well as my dream sci-fi and a new WIP that, frankly, is going to be a blast to write.

But some ideas I can't explain. My master's thesis came about because a wild image of a girl running into an ancient forest popped into my head when I was desperate for a story idea, and I latched onto it, wondering who she was and why the forest would be safer to her than where she was.

It wasn't this exact picture, but it was close.


Long story short, I don't really know where ideas come from, though I can usually tell the tale of the story's birth in a way that makes sense.

However, no matter where they come from, I love that electric feeling when I get a new idea and develop it into a story!

Here are this week's debuts:

Young Adult:
Jennifer Fenn - Flight (7/18)
Jennifer Honeybourn - Wesley James Ruined My Life (7/18)

Spider-Man: Homecoming, A Review

I love Spider-Man. He is easily my favorite superhero.

Why? Because I care about both the hero and the mild-mannered secret identity. With Batman and Superman, I don't really care about the person as much. I love that Peter Parker is a real person with normal, real-life problems. He doesn't have a billion dollars or a government job - he's a photographer who has to somehow make rent while still saving lives. He's accessible, and balances real life with being a good, responsible hero.

I like that. I think that's the kind of hero that readers and viewers can relate to. I also enjoy a hero who can mouth off to the villain as he fights them.

And I loved the new Spider-Man movie. Seriously. Loved. So, here's my review.

I will avoid spoilers. I promise. But, really, if at this point you don't know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man or what his skill set is, I feel bad for you. Rocks aren't easy to live under during the summer.

So, what did I like about the movie? It had a great tone. It meshes "high school" with "superhero" very well, and Peter comes across as a realistic teenage superhero. The character interactions were also enjoyable and felt realistic. That was probably my favorite part of the movie: the way Peter and his friends interact.

The humor was perfect for the movie. It isn't funny in the same way Guardians of the Galaxy is. Again, it's high school. It's quick wits and sarcasm, which is exactly what Spider-Man is like: mouthing off to villains and whipping out quips.

But my absolute favorite part is how they handle a newbie hero who is doing his best but still making mistakes. With so many teen hero stories, the hero gets in trouble for being irresponsible. I was worried, a little, that they'd do that with Spidey. Which wouldn't make sense, really, because it's Spider-Man. The whole "with great power" thing? Yeah. You see what I mean.

But they didn't do that! Every time Peter has a chance to do something totally irresponsible with his powers, he doesn't do it. I hope this doesn't count as a spoiler. You see temptation, but responsibility always comes first. Every bit of trouble Spider-Man gets into is because he is new to saving people. He doesn't know, exactly, how to minimize damage and how to deal with villains yet. It's not irresponsibility. He's just learning the ropes. And I loved that. It was a nice take on the "teen gets in trouble" trope.

I did have one criticism: where the heck was the spider sense in all of this? Does this new incarnation of Spider-Man even have this power?

Maybe it was there but I didn't see it. I should watch this movie again. Maybe a few times. Heck, I should buy it when it comes out.

Overall review: a rather friendly and amazing movie (see what I did there?). Stay to the end of the credits for one of the best credits scenes Marvel has given us to date.

So, I'm going to be visiting the Orem Public Library at 2 pm on August 1. If you'd like to come, the details are here.

And here are the debuts for this week:

Middle Grade:
Heidi Lang & Kati Bartkowski - A Dash of Dragon (7/11)

Young Adult:
Blair Thornburgh - Who's That Girl (7/11)
Julie Shephard - Rosie Girl (7/11)

Fourth of July and Other Explosions

Happy Canada Day, a little late, to you!

And Happy Fourth of July, a little early, to you as well!

My work schedule is finally settling down, and I can't work on my most current projects until I get feedback on them, so I'm in a kind of limbo. However, it is giving me time to plan my next knitting and writing projects, so that's been good.

I'm also doing some more author visits, and will be at the Orem Public Library on August 1 at 2 pm. If you're able to go, I'd love to see you there!

In other news, the roads were nuts today. Everyone's out shopping for barbecue food and supplies, and fireworks, and ice cream because it's hot as Mordor out there this week, and, of course, Provo does the biggest Fourth of July festival I've ever seen (and I'm from Philadelphia!), so there's a carnival in town here, another festival in Orem (Colonial Days), and people setting up for tomorrow's parade along the streets.

See the tents? The blankets? It's like this. For miles. The parade is tomorrow morning.

So, roads are packed, and people are slow since they're looking for parking that's at a premium. I'm driving home today and I'm behind someone going slow, slower than expected. I try to peer around them to get an idea of if there's a line of backed-up cars in front of that one. The car graciously gives me a good view of the nothing ahead of it by swerving to the left, and then to the right, and then back to the left.

Eventually I get my chance to pass this car and I look over. AND THE DRIVER IS ON HER EVER-LOVING CELL PHONE!

TEXTING, NO LESS!

I hate this so much. As someone how has repeatedly almost been hit, both in my car and out running, by people texting while driving, I'm not quiet about it. If you're talking, I get it. Some phone calls are urgent and there's nothing you can do about it except put the phone on speaker. But texts are inherently NOT urgent, and so you swerve and drive erratically and everyone behind you knows what you're doing.

Drive safe this holiday season. Put the freaking phone down.

Grrrrrrr.

Well, you wanted an explosion, right?

Here's a better one, courtesy of San Diego's 2012 fireworks mishap (they accidentally set off 18 minutes of fireworks in 15 seconds), followed by tomorrow's debuts. Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Middle Grade:
Beth McMullen - Mrs. Smith's Spy School for Girls (7/4)

Young Adult:
Emily Bain Murphy - The Disappearances (7/4)
Kendra Fortmeyer - Hole in the Middle (7/6)

A Couple of Giveaways

This week I've been learning what it feels like to be a career writing, and I love it.

Not that I am; I am very far from being at the place in my life when I can quit my day job and write full time. But, this last week, I did so much writing that I got a small taste of what it would be like to wake up and write all day, every day. It's exhausting, but I enjoy it.

I still have a ton of writing to do, and honestly, all I did last week was write, so I don't have a lot of interesting things to report (except that at this time last year I'd just come back from Disneyland, so there has been some reminiscing this week).

I did take part in a couple of giveaways last week, which are both still going so if you want to try to win a copy of Under Locker and Key, you can!

One giveaway is part of Celebrating Debutantes 2017, a series of giveaways and interviews with authors whose first books are coming out this year. Here's a picture of my giveaway, which includes a signed book, a bookmark, and a pair of "Retrieval Specialist" sunglasses:

Under Locker and Key is one, but there are a lot of other great novels you can win, so I recommend clicking through the below link and doing some exploring. Free books, am I right?

The other giveaway is from the blog From the Mixed-Up Files and is specifically middle grade. I'm giving away a copy of my book, and like the other giveaway, there are plenty of other middle grade books worth reading that are also being given away. Here's the list of all the books that are part of the giveaway, and you can click through the below links to learn more about each one:

KAT GREENE COMES CLEAN, by Melissa Roske
INSIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF A CACTUS, by Dusti Bowling 
ONE SHADOW ON THE WALL, by Leah Henderson
THE DOLLMAKER OF KRAKOW, by R. M. Romero
AHIMSA, by Supriya Kelkar
UNDER LOCKER AND KEY, by Allison K. Hymas
UNDER SIEGE! by Robyn Gioia
THE GHOST, THE RAT, AND ME, by Robyn Gioia
THE SECRET DESTINY OF PIXIE PIPER and PIXIE PIPER AND THE MATTER OF THE BATTER, By Annabelle Fisher

Here are the links for the giveaways:

Celebrating Debutantes 2017

From the Mixed-Up Files

And, here are this week's debuts:

Young Adult:
Carlie Sorosiak - If Birds Fly Back (6/27)
Bonnie Pipkin - Aftercare Instructions (6/27)

Dream Diary

Things that have happened in the last week:

1. I discovered one of my running routes may be .5-1 mile longer than I thought (which would explain why my times are always worse than expected when I run it).
2. Speaking of running, I just got back to my normal running schedule after 3 weeks of unusual and recovery runs, so this morning's 4-mile-fast run felt like death. Thank heavens for cold showers after hot summer runs!
3. I've been working hard on my work in progress, revising it and polishing it as much as I can.

The work in progress is the one about sleep and dreams. I'm currently working on 3 books at once (Arts and Thefts finalization, a third Jeremy Wilderson book, and this other one), but I call the dream book my work in progress because it's a new project.

As a result or driving into dream science and spending so much time and energy using my imagination, I've been having some weird dreams lately. Weird, vivid dreams that leave me wondering, "Where did that come from?" I usually have pretty vivid dreams, but this last week they've been weirder than normal.

So, here are some of my recent bonkers dreams. We'll see if any of them turn into stories (my WIP came from a dream, appropriately enough):

- Snowy morning in June (I blame watching the new live-action Beauty and the Beast three times in three days for this one). I was on vacation in some small resort town, and it was snowing, but I still needed to go running early in the morning. I remember this dream because the cold of the snow was so vivid, as was the taste of the dark chocolate I bought during said run from the candy store that was strangely open at 3 am.

- Apocalypse. I dreamed that something had happened that had destroyed modern civilization, and my dad was trying to protect me and my siblings as we traveled through Provo. (Happy Father's Day, all!) I don't know where my mom was. I do know, though, that there was widespread flooding and people were dropping into comas for no good reason. Other people were finding these amulets that looked like crescent moons, and, if you had one with you when you returned to the place of your birth, you'd get superpowers. I was born in Provo, so I wanted to find one! I was trying to solve what had happened and how to stop it from getting worse. The other thing I remember about this dream was that people who still had indoor plumbing charged people to use their toilets. Seems like a good apocalyptic strategy.

- The half marathon from Hades. Clearly, I dream about running a lot. This one, I'm sure, comes from the two halves I did recently. But this race was organized by a despotic government that had magical monsters and powers behind them. I was part of some group that believed that by running this race, I'd have a chance to counter some of that power and prepare for a coup. They were helping me cheat (apparently, that was needed to counter all the other racers' cheating), but they still expected me to take 3 days to finish a race that currently takes me two hours. Oh, and the kids from Fablehaven were there.

 
- A TV show based on my book. I dreamed I was watching a TV show based on the Jeremy Wilderson books and I was on episode 5, which is impressive considering I've only written 3 books, so it was going further than I'd written. I was upset because they had some good ideas, and I couldn't use them because I wasn't the one who came up with them. But then I woke up and realized that they were, technically, my ideas because I dreamed them and I can use them if I want to.

So, that's my dreaming recently, or at least, what I can remember of them. When I sleep deeply, and am exhausted mentally and physically before bed, I have dreams like this. I can't express how vivid they are: I've been able to feel and taste things in the dreams like they're real. Maybe I should keep journaling what I dream, for research purposes.

Here are this week's debut:

Young Adult:
Larissa C. Hardesty - Kiss Me Kill You (6/19)

Race Results

So, first: a shout-out to the people who have checked out/put my book on hold at libraries. Thank you for making me feel like my book is wanted.

Second, a reminder that BOOK 2 OF THE JEREMY WILDERSON SERIES, ARTS AND THEFTS, IS ONLINE NOW ON AMAZON!

(I'm still excited about this.)

It's also on Barnes and Noble's website, now.

Now, on to the race results!

So, I just came back from a vacation where I ran two half marathons. You saw the report on the first race, in the Grand Tetons, last week. Now I'm going to tell you about the second race in Yellowstone.

The conditions in the Tetons were perfect: a relatively flat, paved road to run on, ideal temperatures, and sunny sky. Yellowstone, not so much:

This is a picture of my brother and sisters running the 5K the night before the half marathon. I don't know if the picture shows it, but it was cold and very rainy. It was miserable, and I feel so bad for my siblings. They were soaked through by the end.

The next morning, it was rainy and we even had a little sleet, but that ended by the first mile. After that, the sun came out and we had a bit of wind, but the worst part about the rain was all the puddles it left behind. The trail (yes, trail) was covered in huge puddles that you had to dodge. The mud was also thick and slippery.

Add to that that yes, it was an actual trail with exposed rocks, weedy patches, and even small trees, and the run became that much harder. We also had some steep hills we didn't have in the Tetons.

But the thing that burned me up the most about the race was that my brother of the Spartan Race fame, who is fit but doesn't run long distance, kept pace with me the whole time and even pushed it so I was running faster than my usual, dashed forward at the end and beat me by two seconds. I will get him back for that. There's no justice in this world if someone who doesn't prepare can beat someone who has spent weeks preparing. He says that keeping my pace kept him from burning out, but still.

Revenge ideas are appreciated.

But, as a result of our running together, I got a PR on a hard trail: 2:03:29, two minutes faster than my previous PR. I was 14th in my age and gender division. And, now that I know I can do it at altitude on a difficult trail, I'm thinking I can beat a 2 hour half marathon on an easier, paved road at a lower altitude. All I have to do is imagine my brother a few feet ahead of me the whole way. I helped him pace, he pushed me faster. It's amazing what stubbornness, pride, and sibling rivalry can do for you.

It was a beautiful trail, though, through pine forests and along a river. I'm glad I did it. I got three shirts and three medals out of it, too, which, as any runner can tell you, is a very good thing.

The center medal in the picture with me with three is for the Grizzly Double. Doing both the Grand Teton and Yellowstone half marathons earned me and my parents an extra shirt (which is great) and a third medal (which is fantastic).

It's interesting that we did the "Grizzly" Double, since when we drove back after the race we actually spotted a grizzly bear near the Tetons. It was my first time seeing a grizzly in real life, so that was amazing and the timing was perfect.

I just hope my brother was sore yesterday, or there really is no justice in this world.

Here's this week's debuts:

Young Adult:
Meg Eden - Post High School Reality Quest (6/13)
S.K. Ali - Saints, Misfits, Monsters, and Mayhem (6/13)

Checking in to Report

First off, I was online yesterday, and I found something interesting:

My second book is now up on Amazon.

There's a release date, a nice summary, and everything. It's also up on Goodreads, but that one doesn't have the cover art yet. But hey, if you read Under Locker and Key and are waiting for information on the sequel, here it is!

Now, in other news, guess what?

I ran another race.

This one was near Grand Teton National Park and was held by Vacation Races. It was a half marathon, and it was beautiful. I mean, look at the finish line!

This is where we sat and stretched and ate green bananas and gloated over our new medals! And it looked like this the whole way! I ran 13.1 miles with the Grand Tetons constantly visible!

I loved it. So glad I get to do it again, kind of.

Yes, this weekend will be Part 2 of my running vacation, when me, my parents, and my brother will run another half marathon near Yellowstone Park. It's supposed to be a little hilly, but I'm really looking forward to it. I love being able to do this much running in a week, especially when the runs are races.

Racing is fun. There's the crowds cheering, the finish line, the medal, the free food...but also the feeling that I'm accomplishing something special. That I'm pushing myself to my limits and achieving. I get that feeling as I run, and also as I write.

It's nice to have a vacation where I can experience both.

Here are this week's debuts:

Middle Grade:
Lauren Albright - Exit Strategy (6/6)
Gareth Wronski - Holly Farb and the Princess of the Galaxy (6/6)
Leah Henderson - One Shadow on the Wall (6/6)
Alexandra Ott - Rules for Thieves (6/6)

Young Adult:
Natalka Burian - Welcome to the Slipstream (6/6)
Sarah Tolcser - Song of the Current (6/6)
Alexandra Ballard - What I Lost (6/6)
Kayla Olson - The Sandcastle Empire (6/6)
Rebecca Christiansen - Maybe In Paris (6/6)
A.V. Geiger - Follow Me Back (6/6)