Random Progress Post: Writing Outside of Your Genre

Subtitle: Where Liz rants about writing detective fiction and how she's worried she's doing it wrong.  Well there's more than one subtitle to this but that's what I'm going with for the moment.  On the WriYe website, there's a challenge called genre stretch.  It's very much like what you're thinking, where you get a genre that is possibly outside of your comfort zone and you write in it.  It's related to breaking out of your box, but it's more of a month to month challenge vs a yearly challenge.  It can be anywhere from a short story to novel length.  I'm working on making mine into just being a short story, even though it's being slow going.

This month's genre stretch is crime fiction.  Crime fiction can be anything from a detective story to legal drama.  Some authors of crime fiction are James Patterson, John Grisham, Mo Hayder, and Agatha Christie to name a few.  If you've ever watched an episode of Law and Order, that's straight up and down crime fiction with the police and lawyers working together.  Another aspect of crime fiction is the movie Usual Suspects where the point of view comes from the criminal who was at the scene of a crime / worked with the suspects of the crime.  I won't say more, other than you should go watch it and bow down to Kevin Spacey's performance.  For older crime fiction movies, Alfred Hitchcock did a lot such as Vertigo, Rear Window, and Dial M for Murder to name some.  He's got a lot.  For myself, I love crime thriller, considering I've devoured three of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club this month (that post is coming this week around Thursday/Friday), and that I will watch Law and Order repeats (has to have Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston in it).

So that's the background of crime fiction.  You cannot throw a stone in our society and not find some type of crime fiction.  Now, you'd think that with all of this in society and how much I love crime fiction, that it would be ever so easy to write it.  Haha, no.  I'm learning that quickly that there is no short cut to writing crime fiction.  Also, no matter how much I've watched, I'm second guessing myself on what I'm writing.  Well, the words itself.  The plot overall is wonderful, if reminding me of L&O, but I'll take what I can get.  Basically, a veterinarian was killed in her clinic and they have to figure out who did the murder.  And, of course, there's the red herring suspects and then the real murderer.  See?  Feels L&O-ery but I'll take what I can get.  I do plan to have it done by the end of the month - four days, four sections, ta-da - and have it up sometime mid-February or start of March so people can read it.

Review: Neither Here or There

Title: Neither Here or There: Travels in Europe

Author: Bill Bryson
Genre(s): Travel
Image from: Goodreads

Rating: 2.5 / 5






When I found this book on my shelves, I was excited.  For one, I do love Bryson's writing as I'm currently reading At Home which is something else I'll review if I ever finish it.  I seem to be slow reading when it comes to non-fiction these days but, like the title says, that's neither here or there (groan here).  This is his fourth published book, third in travel, and I was keen to read it.  For one, I love the idea of Europe and really want to go back there one day.  I've only been to Paris, which is lovely, but there is so much more to Europe than France and Paris.  I've heard Germany is lovely, as is Rome, so I was really liking the idea of reading about places that I really dreamed about going to.

On principle, this is a lovely book about Mr Bryson's travels through the place.  If you know where he is, then you can see them in your mind.  If not, then you're a bit a fish out of water.  However, there were a lot of points where I felt like I was in the bar with him and drinking with him.  That was nice and cozy.  I liked that a lot and felt his pain when he was in Yugoslavia when he was spending so little to have so much.  The social interactions were what made the book sing and I just wished that there had been more of them.  I felt myself cheering at the end when he's at the edge of Europe and decides to go home instead of going onto Asia.

Why I cheered is a bit twofold.  While this book did help with the want to go to see more of Europe, it is also fell down in the same manner.  There were a lot of stereotypes throughout the book, which Mr Bryson relied on heavily throughout the entire book, and made reading less enjoyable.  I was done with the stereotypes by the time he got to Denmark and found myself wishing to be done wanting to speed read the rest by Austria.  Another part where Mr Bryson fell down was actually describing the places.  Sure, we could look them up via Google to see where he went, I didn't want to do that.  I wanted the places he visited to be shown instead of told.  The way that he writes is explaining where he goes but, save for when he visited the Vatican in Rome, I had no sense of space on where he was.  Yes, he talked about all these walks and what were on the walks, but there was nothing to bring me to where he had been.  There was nothing to draw me into the place where he was walking and that annoyed me more than anything.  It's the reason that I was very happy when the book came to a close.

In ending, the premise of the book is wonderful.  If you've been to the places where he has, then you'll probably enjoy the book more than I did.  That is not to say to not read it, but more of a reason why I will probably not be giving this book a re-read next year.  However, as in all interesting experiences and books in life, you should try it at least once.

The 2015 Reading Challenge: The List (aka the Master Post)

So, along with the rest of the WriYers Read Too community, we're doing a challenge to read books that fit a category on a list.  Here is the list from PopSugar but I remember first finding it on Facebook and I started sharing it with others.  Or Tatra/Ana found it first and she started sharing it and then I shared it to others.  Either way, we found it on Facebook and decided to take the challenge and bring anybody else who wanted to read it along with us.  Feel free to join in, readers, and send me the link to your list in the comment section.  I'm going to share mine - it's not complete, so feel free to recommend books too - and you might see books that I've mentioned before.  Or, if you follow me on Goodreads, you'll see I've read them before.  I don't mind re-reads and there's nothing in the challenge against them, so I put them in.

The re-reads that are on here - Prayer for Owen Meany, the Elfquest books, Dragonsinger - are there because there's a comfort to reading them.  It's like speaking to an old friend after not speaking to them in a long time.  Or a nice cup of hot tea on the darkest day of winter or ice tea on the hottest day of summer.  I like comfort and going back to things I've done before.  I think we all do on some level, but I'm getting off track.

Below is the list of my books that I'm reading.  I'll link to the reviews as I do them / do them later in the month if I happen to read a bunch of them, as in the case of the ones with numbers in the title, but that'll be on the rare side.  Bold means that the category is done.  Books that are striked out are ones that could not be finished for some reason or another.  They'll still get reviews and, who knows, I might finish them, but for the most part, they're DNF (Did Not Finish).

So, the list.

2015 Reading Challenge

• A book with more than 500 pages: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett; The Stand by Stephen King
• A classic romance: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen; Little Women by Louise May Alcott
• A book that became a movie: If I Stay by Gayle Forman; The Maze Runner by James Dashner; Paper Towns by John Green;
• A book published this year: I Was Here by Gayle Forman; Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins;
• A book with a number in the title: 1st to Die by James Patterson; 2nd Chance by James Patterson and Andrew Gross; 3rd Degree by James Patterson and Andrew Gross; 4th of July by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• A book written by someone under 30: Looking for Alaska by John Green
• A book with nonhuman characters: The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien; The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
• A funny book: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett
• A book by a female author: A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott;
• A mystery or thriller: Birdman by Mo Hayder
• A book with a one word title: Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
• A book of short stories: Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
• A book set in a different country: Neither Here or There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson;
• A nonfiction book: At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
• A popular author’s first book: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice; Irish Thoroughbred by Nora Roberts; The Thomas Berryman Number by James Patterson; Odds On by MIchael Crichton as John Lange;
• A book by an author you love that you haven’t read yet: Cider House Rules by John Irving; The Shinning by Stephen King; Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman;
• A book a friend recommended:
• A Pulitzer Prize-winning book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• A book based on a true story: Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill;
• A book at the bottom of your to-read list: The Stand by Stephen King
• A book your mom loves:
• A book that scares you:
• A book more than 100 years old: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
• A book based entirely on its cover: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy;
• A memoir: Wild by Cheryl Strayed; Blind Courage by Bill Irwin;
• A book you can finish in a day: Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
• A book with antonyms in the title: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
• A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
• A book that came out the year you were born: Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
• A book with bad reviews:
• A trilogy: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A book from your childhood: Fire and Flight by Wendi and Richard Pini
• A book with a love triangle:
• A book set in the future:
• A book set in high school:
• A book with a color in the title: The Green Mile by Stephen King; The Thin Red Line by James Joyce;
• A book that made you cry: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving;
• A book with magic
• A graphic novel: Kings of the Broken Wheel by Wendi and Richard Pini
• A book by an author you’ve never read before:
• A book you own but have never read:
• A book that takes place in your hometown: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
• A book that was originally written in another language: Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
• A book set during Christmas: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
• A book written by an author with your same initials: Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth Samet
• A play: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
• A banned book: Looking for Alaska by John Green
• A book based on or turned into a tv show: The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (Bosch - Amazon Prime); A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin (Game of Thrones - HBO)
• A book you started but never finished: Magic’s Price by Mercedes Lackey

[WriYe Blogging Circle] Hello 2015: There Can Be Only One

Hello everyone!  I'm back, after a few days of getting into the feel of 2015, and decided to kick off with doing the WriYe Blogging Circle.  It will become known as the WBC when I'm feeling too lazy to type that all out.  For those who are new, this is a once a month blogging prompt about a certain topic.  For example, this month is about the one goal for the year and then asking a few questions about it.  What I do is usually list the questions and then have my answers follow them.  It's a simple format and I might change it up or I might not.  Either way, it's a fun once a month prompt that I like to answer.

Goals: What is your one main goal for this year?  Call it your writing resolution - not two, not five - your main and only one.  Why is it your only goal?

Well, I do have a lot, but the one big main goal is to publish this year.  I've got a novel on it's third draft, called Mystery of the Dark, about dhampirs and vampires and all those good supernatural stuffs.  I'm hoping to find a small press instead of a big one, mostly because I feel that a smaller press would be better for me, but we'll see where the chips fall.  Either way, I've got to get 3.0 done to get to 3.5 to get to 4.0.  Draft four goes out to the readers to see if people like it enough and to make sure that I'm hit all the narrative points.  Don't have plot holes and the like.  It's going to be fun in the end.

Bonus: Make a mantra to tell yourself all year when you feel as if you can't reach this goal.  Share it with us!

You mean aside from "Let It Go"?  I think the mantra is more "Yes We Can" or "I Can Do It".  The "Yes We Can" coming from the year that I started winning NaNoWriMo (2008) along with all the other craziness going on.  The craziness being working as a volunteer in the field on a Presidential campaign, getting sick right after, but being able to write 50,000 words in such a short time after.  That was the year that I truly, in my mind, became a writer.  Therefore, "Yes We Can" doesn't sound half bad.


That's it for now.  There might be something coming up this week but we'll see.  It's still early in the year, so I'm going to try to keep on blogging as much as I can, so watch this space.

Goodbye 2014

As we enter into the new year, I thought I'd come and say something.  The problem is that I can't really think of anything to write about.  It's not like things didn't happen in the last year, considering that I got another short story published, and I went to a workshop in Iowa, but otherwise?  Not a lot happened, minus figuring out what I really want to do next year.

The goal of 2015 is publishing, publishing, publishing.  In small forms, in big forms, but the goal is to get out there.  The goal is to push out and run into walls so fast that I leave a size the shape of me, like in the Road Runner cartoons.

So, that's it.  Goodbye 2014, you will be missed, but hello 2015.  Hello the year of getting stuff done.

A Happy New Year to everyone.  I'll see you in 2015!