Book-To-Movie Trailers Galore

Eventually, when I run out of book-to-movie trailers to post about, I'll get back to writing about writing and book reviews. But for now, you can get excited about these upcoming adaptions!

Book #1:

The YA novel How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff has won several awards, including YALSA's Printz award (just found a Goodreads list for Printz award winners!). An American girl visits her English cousins and Aunt. Soon after, the aunt takes a business trip, leaving the cousins alone. The next day, London is bombed by an unknown enemy and war breaks out. The story sounds amazing, although I've never read it. I have heard that the narrator is obnoxious, at first (too teenagerish, according to Maggie Stiefvater's review), but that her voice quickly draws the reader in completely.

Trailer for Movie Adaption:



Next Book:

The next movie needs no explanation beyond "Hobbit Part II." *Happy dance*

Trailer for Movie Adaption:


And Finally:

This teaser trailer for the movie "Divergent" is based on the crazily bestselling YA novel of the same name. I was modestly excited about the book, on a thematic level, and it has a killer pace with a few good thrills. But I say "modest" because craftwise, it could have been better. We'll see how the movie turns out...I fear we may have a soap opera on our hands! But we'll never know until we watch, right?

Trailer for Movie Adaption:

Free PDF Converter

Creating PDFs is a helpful skill for any writer to learn. Maybe you want to keep a club or community informed; maybe you work in an office; or maybe you're starting your own newsletter. PDFs are great tools for all of those things and more.

But the software can be expensive. I use a free website recommended by library staff called "Dopdf.com" to convert my Friends of the Library newsletters from Word docs to PDFs. It's easy and it works great!

When installed, it lists itself under your printer.

This is a screenshot from the Windows 8. If you have an earlier version of windows, it will look slightly different,
but it's just as easy. Just act like you're going to print your document, but choose "doPDF" as the printer rather than
your normal printer selection. The red arrow points to the spot on my screen. **Revision note 9/2/13: Since I got
Windows 8, I found another way which worked better. Instead of "Print" I chose "Export," which is a few
options lower on the blue sidebar on this page.

Enjoy!

The Book Thief Trailer

Since I'm lame and missed my post on Friday...you'll just have to suffer through this wonderful trailer for The Book Thief today instead...




By the way: The Book Thief is available on both ebook and audiobook from the Lakeport Library, if you want to prepare for the movie.

End of Teen Summer Reading Program (Pictures!)

What a great year for the tween-teen program!

• 37 teens signed up. Although 38 signed up last year, this year's crop was much more active in the events.
• 33 teens attended 1 or more events, which is kind of incredible.
• 14 teens read 3 or more books. In order to get prizes, the teens needed to read at least 3 books.
• 145 books were reportedly read. (Wow!)

Here are some pictures Amy sent me of the final shebang (the Award Party):


Eating Pizza Om Nom

Awkward Moment when head librarian and teen winner
fight over the Kindle Fire grand prize.
OKAY, yes, I'm kidding.



Girl in front wearing Pikachu shirt: Fist bump.

YA Fiction Booklist: Twisted Fairy Tales and Retellings

Fairy Tale Retellings

Check out these twisted and retold fairy tales, all available at the Lakeport Library,or upon order from nearby Redbud library. And don’t forget about our ebook and audiobook downloads. You can download certain books on your home computer through “overdrive” onto your Kindles, ipods and other ereaders and mp3players. Some books are Adult Fiction that appeals to Young Adults, and others are Juvenile Fiction that appeal to Young Adults.



Cinder / Marissa Meyer

The book of lost things / John Connolly (Adult Fiction)

Golden / Cameron Dokey

Bewitching : the Kendra chronicles / Alex Flinn

Princess of the Midnight Ball / Jessica Day George

Just Ella / Margaret Peterson Haddix

Fire and Hemlock / Diana Wynne Jones

Snow / Tracy Lynn

Beauty : a retelling of the story of Beauty & the beast / by Robin McKinley (Juvenile Fiction)

Deerskin / Robin McKinley

Rose daughter / Robin McKinley (Juvenile Fiction)

Mermaid : a twist on the classic tale / Carolyn Turgeon

Spindle's end / Robin McKinley (Juvenile Fiction)

Beast / Donna Jo Napoli

Bound / Donna Jo Napoli

East / Edith Pattou

Sisters red / Jackson Pearce

Bella at midnight / Diane Stanley

Nobody's son / Sean Stewart

The swan maiden / Heather Tomlinson

Midnight pearls : a retelling of "The little mermaid" / Debbie Viguié

Breadcrumbs / Anne Ursu

Briar Rose / Jane Yolen

The following books are available Ebooks or Audiobooks AND in hard copy at the Lakeport.

A little princess / by Frances Hodgson Burnett (audiobook, Juvenile Fiction )

Entwined / Heather Dixon (ebook)

Book of a thousand days / Shannon Hale (audiobook)

The goose girl / Shannon Hale (ebook & audiobook)

Fairest / Gail Carson Levine (audiobook, Juvenile Fiction)

Impossible : a novel / Nancy Werlin (audiobook)

The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents / Terry Pratchett (ebook)

Order These From Nearby Redbud

Into the Wild : a novel / Sarah Beth Durst

Confessions of an ugly stepsister / Gregory Maguire

The swan maiden / Heather Tomlinson

Briar Rose / Jane Yolen


 

Letting Critiques "Marinate"

Viewing our stories from the perspective of another person can teach us a lot about writing. Most serious fiction writers make friends with other writers and exchange critiques with them.* Critiques give us vital perspective on our creations.

*You can also exchange work on this great site, called Critiquecircle.com, where I learned how to self-edit by editing the work of others. Besides this, I learned many basic writing skills from the critiques of others, such as "showing" versus "telling." The website is essentially a free, online critique group.

However, we writers won't be able to understand that perspective, at first. It can be difficult for our minds to adjust to the lens of our critique partner's view. A partner's critique on my story often contains all sorts of hidden gold, if only I could mine it. In order to do that, I need to let the critique marinate in my mind alongside my story.

Then something magical happens (Magical, I tell you!). I suddenly see tons of ideas in the critiques that I never noticed before. It's like getting thoughts from several writers, instead of just one.

I used to read a critique once, maybe twice at most, before assuming "I got it."

No. No more.

Now, I have a process.

1. I read the original critique and let it sit for a day or two or more, depending on how it strikes me. I may or may take some notes on it, at this point.
2. Later, I read it again. I take notes on what I think is true, or what I think merits serious consideration. It's important for me to type it out the critique, or explain it out loud in my own words. As I do this, new insights from the critiques pop out at me.
3. I come back to the critique multiple times and reread it, eventually transitioning from the critic's words to my own digested version. I run through my story with them fresh in my mind, taking notes on revision ideas as I go (but not necessarily implementing all the changes I see). As I do this for a time, more things make sense and connect. This part is especially exciting when I have two or more critiques because the advice often overlaps in areas.
4. Finally, I implement the ideas from the critique (or ideas the critique inspired), starting with structural issues and ending with the nitty gritty. I can't say I stick to a list because sometimes new ideas pop up and I follow those. It's a haphazard, yet strangely, chaotically ordered process. (Sometimes it drives me a little insane because I like order. But writing is essentially ordering, so getting it done feels great.)

So, what can you learn from this, Scribblers? I don't know--maybe you'll want to try paying lots and lots of attention to the words of your own critics.

I was inspired to let critiques marinate by Kristin Cashore's wonderful blog post about how tedium and revision go hand in hand. (Kristin Cashore is the author of Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue, all of which are award winning female-driven YA Fantasy that I LOVE.) I highly recommend Cashore's craft post.

Photo Attribution:

By SJ Yang (Ganjang gejang  Uploaded by Caspian blue) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Story of My Feet

Dear friends,

Many of you have kindly asked about my feet over the past ten months, and some of you have even done thoughtful things like bringing meals or praying or mailing me cards. Kevin and I can hardly express our gratitude for your concern. (Thank you!!)

I decided to summarize what’s been going on to answer your questions. I refrained from doing this for a long time because we weren’t sure ourselves what we could say for certain. We still aren’t sure, but I’ll try my best.

Last year, at some point, I bruised my foot from running (*insert complicated story here*). In September, it turned into a stress fracture, but we didn’t know that for sure until December. After this, I wore a walking boot for about 9 weeks. Unfortunately the fracture took so long to heal (for several complicated reasons) that both of my feet developed Achilles Tendonitis & Plantar Fasciitis. The previously-fractured foot atrophied quite a bit. We found out all this in March. At that time, I began physical therapy. I still attend PT once or twice a week. The process has been slow going and has had many ups and downs. At this moment, I can’t drive, play drums, or go many places. That may or may not change soon—it’s very unpredictable.

If you want to help both Kevin and me, you can do one major thing for us: pray! We would love prayer for

1) patience, persistence and a positive attitude on my part.

2) encouragement and lots of blessings on my husband, Kevin, who has been amazing through all of this.

3) that God would reveal His plan to us in all of this.

If you want to pray for the physical, you can pray

1) that God would heal me

2) that we would get into a healthy pattern at Physical Therapy, and

3) that we could reach our goal of going on vacation in October.

Both Kevin and I would appreciate if you didn’t ask when I’ll be better/when I’ll be playing drums again/whether I can help with such & such event, etc. If there are commitments that I am ready to renew, I’ll let you know. It may still be awhile, but I can’t wait to get back to it all! Thank you so much for your consideration in this area, friends.

I must say that throughout this process, God has been faithful to provide everything we need. We have learned so much—I have a long list of blessings and answered prayers pertaining to my foot problems. God is good, all the time.

We hope to see you/talk to you all soon.

Love and gratitude,

-Christy & Kevin Luis