As you all know, we didn’t have a SATurdate last week due to the monthly Website Wonders piece, so this one might be a bit longer than usual. (I think I say that every week for one reason or another…but oh well!)
What I’m Writing:
I realized I need to go over Take Me Tomorrow before I can move forward in Take Me Yesterday, so I’m officially working on Take Me Tomorrow. There are a few things I wanted to add, just with a sentence or two. Example, one thing that was hinted but went basically unnoticed (by my fault, not readers’) was the fact that boys and girls are encouraged to separate themselves, which was one of the reasons there were more boys than girls. I actually addressed this directly after a high demand in my article Why Most of my Characters are Male. I mistakenly thought I hinted to it enough, but this time around, I’m going to blatantly say it. There are a few things like that I’m looking forward to adding as I go through it. For original readers, I’m about 60 pages in, in the chapter It’s Too Late.
What I’m Publishing:
We’re working on the cover for Bad Bloods! The ideas were fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the cover ends up being. Bless my cover artist’s heart for dealing with my input. (Seriously. She deserves a huge shoutout.) So, thank you, Marya! Check her out at Strong Image Editing!
Now, I’m sharing the winning #1lineWed from the previous two weeks. The first one’s theme was home.
This was home to me. Just the thought of Catelyn’s suffocating hugs made my heart lurch.
A little background, Catelyn is Serena’s best friend and practical sister. They both live in the Southern Flock, and they nearly look like twins, aside from a scar on Catelyn’s face. Here is a link to the Pinterest Pin of Catelyn. In the original version, she had a moon/star tattoo (something that got cut out) and her name was spelled Caitlin.
Since it was two weeks—of course—here was the second #1lineWed preview. The theme was humor/laughter.
“He told me to stay away from you.”
I laughed. “How unoriginal.”
I would give extra information about this line…but I have to leave some parts up for mystery. 😉
Visit the Pinterest, Facebook, and the Extras page.
What I’m Reading:
Winterspell by Claire Legrand: This is a darker retelling of The Nutcracker, so I thought it’d be the perfect book to start December off with. So far, so good.
The White Rose, book 2 in The Lone City by Amy Ewing: UGH. I love Amy Ewing so much. I cannot wait for book 3. I, of course, gave this wonderful novel 5 stars, and you can read my entire review here. But, again, not for everyone. As a flat-out, upfront warning, this series revolves around a lot of sexual abuse, including but not limited to forced surrogacy, prostitution, and castration. If you can handle reading about controversial issues, you’ll love this series. Amy handles everything delicately and brilliantly. Seriously. I have an author crush.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, V. 8 by Naoko Takeuchi: Again, no secret I love this manga, but I’m currently re-reading it and reviewing the new prints. Here is the link to my five-star review. This one covers the ending of The Infinity Arc and the beginning of The Dead Moon Circus.
What I’m Listening To:
I went to a concert! What? Yes! Little ol’ me went to a concert for the first time in…well…years. I went to the Puscifer concert, and it was pretty badass.
I’ve also been obsessed with I’m Good, I’m Gone by Lykke Li. Literally, it’s probably the only song I’ve listened to in two weeks.
What I’m Watching:
I binge-watched the full first season of The Man in the High Castle, an Amazon original. WATCH IT. It’s phenomenal…and I want a season two.
Basically, it’s alternative history where Germany and Japan won WWII…and Rufus Sewell is in it. For my readers out there, it’s based on a Phillip K Dick novel. Gooooo. Go watch it. GOOOOOO.
On a side note, I also watched Brother Bear. I freakin’ love that movie.
I also watched Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows—Part 1 and Part 2, because you have to watch both if you’re going to watch one of them. This is a rule. You must not break it.
What I’m Baking, Making, and Drinking:
It was Thanksgiving, so naturally, I baked a lot of Thanksgiving-themed treats. I actually made my very first turkey all by myself this year too. Not going to lie, I was pretty proud of myself. I stuffed it with fruit and covered it in a white wine butter sauce. I also made candied yams for my father’s job party and pecan tarts for my little self. (Those pecan tarts, though. I ate all of them.) As if I haven’t made enough sweets, I also made Rice Krispies Treats with butterscotch. Freakin’ delicious.
What I’m Wearing:
Blueberry-Chocolate Burt’s Bees lip balm. It’s a treasure.
What I’m Wanting:
Book 3 in The Lone City by Amy Ewing. It doesn’t even have a title yet, and I’m DYING.
What I’m Dreaming Of:
I dyed my hair white as the world went to war with one another. It was rather strange, because my hair looked normal until I could flip it over and put it up, and then it looked like an elongated white halo, almost like a melted halo, down to the ending of my back. I believe a bomb went off near me, and I thought I lost Bogart. But someone I knew found him and brought him to the safe house I was staying in.
I was a mouse, and my boat went down with three other mice, so we found another GIANT boat, and we got on. It was full of monk-related items, but no one seemed to be on board. There was also a story about Lykke Li on there and how she pretended to be a priest once, so we decided to pretend to be priests. The owners of the boat turned out to be cats, but when we told them we were priests, they decided to keep us on board.
What Else Is Going On:
The dorm hall I lived in while attending the University of Kansas was demolished this past week or so. It’s rather strange to see, considering it’s the oldest dorm on campus, a dorm my father AND my uncle lived in when they attended KU. I spent a year of life calling that place home. It was an awkward time of my life—definitely not the happiest—but now those memories are there, despite the location being turned to dust. I feel old, really. So, here’s a photo of my old dorm room.
~SAT
Shannon A. Thompson 
Really need to check out ‘Man in the High Castle’. You mention blatantly mentioning stuff in your book, which I’ve found myself having to do. Do you think more readers are missing foreshadowing or wanting a clear explanation in fiction than before? I’m just noticing that people around me seem to get confused easier when it comes to things that are hinted at.
MITHC is seriously worth it. I’m not huge on watching TV shows either, but I watched it all in one weekend. In regards to readers…that’s a really tough question. I have no idea. An author who has been in the business for much longer than me might have a better grasp at that, but I do think there is a HUGE demand to blatantly say things, rather than suggest it. Ex. I actually spoke to a few TMT readers about that issue before posting my article about having male characters. Many said there were no hints, so I sent them pages numbers to re-read, and then, they got it. They were amazed they didn’t see it before, but they still insisted that I should just blatantly say it somewhere in the book. I still might change my mind before I submit it to my current publisher – I’m using Review in Word to track my changes – but I’m probably going to suck it up and change it for the overall market. We have to be flexible, after all. Doesn’t mean we have to like it. 😉
~SAT
I’d have to spread it out over a few nights. Mostly because I don’t think it’s 6-year-old friendly. 😀 Maybe for some readers, it’s like an author editing his/her own work. You end up focusing on everything or one specific thing, which causes you to miss the hints (or typos in the author’s case).
Definitely not 6-year-old friendly lol Good call. And yes, I see the value in adding blatant information on top of the hints here and there, which is why I decided to do it. We authors can always learn. 🙂
~SAT
True. Though I’ll admit that I always enjoy leaving some bread crumbs in the previous books. We authors need to be mischievous too. 😀
Oh, yes! You must still add those little hints. 😀
~SAT
I too watched Man in the High Castle. I could take some of the changes to the novel, though why they had to change the Grasshopper from a book to a film I only saw in those final minutes which wrecked the whole story and so ‘childish’. I had to see it more as ‘a based on the novel…’ series, but for me the whole thing was wrecked by the final 10 minutes, why oh why did they do that!! I wrote a novella 3-4 years ago taking the ideas forward to today which I hope kept the bleakness and lack of hope of the original!
Yeah, I like to look at any adaptation as a “sister piece.” Like, something inspired from the book, rather than an actual representation of the book. Makes things more enjoyable most of the time. 🙂
~SAT
You may be interested in my novella The Report – https://issuu.com/timdiggles
Re the Man in the High Castle – but surely it has already ended???!!! I loved it when the nice Jap man looked up from his bench and it was all the real 1960s, at the end!!! I’m listening to the original book (by Phillip Dick, published in the 1960s), it’s really good, I’m sure you’d love it, if you find, like I do, that the alternative history element is the most interesting. It tells you more about what the Nazis did to other countries too – terrifying, especially Africa and the Slavs.