Black Rabbit Ink

Quote of the Week

"At my first literary luncheon, a woman asked me with absolute sincerity, 'How does it feel to have written your best book first?"

Amy Tan

Bookshelf Review: Godmother - The Secret Cinderella Story

Name:Godmother - The Secret Cinderella Story

Author: Carolyn Turgeon

At first glance, Lil appears to be a regular old woman working at a used bookstore in New York. But Lil has a secret: she was once Cinderella's godmother. 

The fairy tale the world knows, the one that has been passed down from generation to generation? It’s a lie. In reality, Lil failed to get Cinderella to the ball and instead attended it herself, resulting in a tragedy no one expected. As punishment, she was banished from her underwater fairy world and forced to live among humans.

Centuries of separation from her sisters and her home have beaten Lil down. She aches with loneliness, stuck in routines and drowning in the emptiness that has become her life. And the wings - the white feathery wings that won't fly and must be tightly taped across her back - only serve as a reminder of everything that has been taken away. She would give anything for a chance to fix her mistake and return home. 



Opportunity presents itself in a young girl named Veronica, who comes into the store with books to sell. The vivacious girl is a perfect match for George, Lil's bookish boss. When George reveals that he needs a date for a ball just like the fateful one Lil attended so many nights before, Lil believes it is a sign. She knows that if she can get Veronica and George to attend the ball together and fall in love, everything will be forgiven and she can finally go home. But can redemption really be so simple?



Turgeon’s darker version of Cinderella is whimsical, but definitely not light. She blends familiar elements from the classic story – fairy magic, ball gowns, the handsome prince, glass slippers, pumpkins, and stepsisters – with heavy themes of betrayal, guilt, desire, abandonment, aging, and forbidden love. Her prose is spellbinding, as is her use of details (books with "pages like onion skins", "streets rushing forward in black rivers") to deftly immerse readers in Lil’s enchanting world. The result is a magical, entertaining tale that is beautifully told.

The story alternates between scenes of Lil’s life in present day New York and flashbacks of her life as a fairy. This technique of mirroring the past with the present, as well as contrasting Lil’s lush fairy world with the gritty beauty of New York, provides readers with a comprehensive image of Lil and her motivations. Lil is a marvelously conflicted being, trapped between the consequences of her decisions and the desires that fueled them.

Characters are colorfully fleshed out. Veronica, the quirky hairdresser in love with anything vintage, is so full of life that she practically springs off of the page. George charmingly clicks as the reserved Yin to Veronica’s zestful Yang. Fairies, such as Maybeth and Lucibell, sparkle with playful mischief. And Cinderella, the source of Lil's guilt, is a broken girl, weighted down with raw insecurities and sadness for the abuses and losses she has suffered.

The one problem with this novel is the ending, which seems slightly rushed and annoyingly ambiguous. However, while Turgeon’s ending to this fairy tale is definitely not a hard cut happy one, it is haunting. Readers will be pondering Lil’s true fate for days after the final words are read and the book is closed.

Godmother – The Secret Cinderella Story is heartbreakingly lovely and extremely bittersweet. Due to a couple of sexual references and some complex themes, though, this surreal novel is most appropriate for older young adult and adult readers.

Add A Little Romance To Your Spring Cleaning

Ahhh...Spring is finally upon us. Time to go through the closets, open the windows, and shake off the dead weight of winter.

Yes, there's nothing like a good spring cleaning, my friends. And should you decide now is as good a time as any to redistribute some of the romance novels lingering on your bookshelves, keep Maya Rodale and Ann Bleakley in mind.

Maya and Ann write romance novels. They also founded Share the Love, a program that provides gently used romance novels to non-profit organizations for women in crisis. Simply box up the books and send them to Share the Love. The books are then distributed to places like shelters and halfway houses to be enjoyed by those who might otherwise not be able to read them.

It's a great way to clean your home, promote literacy, support those in need, and throw a bit of kindness karma out into the world.

I've Been Nominated!

The absolutely awesome Book Girl has nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award! My very first blog award ev-ah!

According to The Book Girl:

This award is given to new blogs and blogging friends.

The rules to follow are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I know I'm supposed to nominate 15 blogs I've newly discovered but, to be honest, that would end up being a list of 6 or so blogs. So I've listed those below with 9 other bookish blogs I just really love visiting every day!

1. Serenehours
2. Juiciliciousss Reviews
3. Reading Keeps You Sane
4. Katie's Book Blog
5. Pop Culture Junkie
6. YA Fresh
7. The Fictionistas
8. Unmainstream Mom Reads
9. Steph Su Reads
10. Reverie Book Reviews
11. KD's Library
12. In Bed With Books
13. Tru Nerd
14. Hope's Bookshelf
15. Look At That Book

You're all doing a terrific job. Keep up the great work!!

Quote of the Week

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

Ben Franklin

IPOD/Touch Applications for Book Lovers and Writers

I heart my Ipod touch. Heart, heart, heart. Big time.  This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about this little piece of technology which, by the way, is the BEST GIFT EVER (thank you Big J)! Recently, though, I’ve discovered a few new applications that have made me want to sing its praises all over again.

As you might have noticed, I kind of like books.  A lot. Which is why I am over the moon that the Itunes App Store has a Kindle application for my Touch. No Kindle 2 required. Which is awesome because, like many other people, I can’t afford one.  

Of course, there’s no substitute for the real thing.  Actual books are easier to read, have pages to flip back and forth between, and feel great to hold. But with my Touch, I can take several books with me on vacation without lugging them all around. And, while going to the bookstore and perusing the shelves for the perfect book is part of the fun of reading, instant gratification is sometimes really, really nice. Especially if there is no time to get to a bookstore. Or, it's 3 a.m. and stores aren't open.

E-readers like Stanza are great, but I’ve been drooling over the Kindle for a year now. A big thing holding me back was wondering if I would really use it enough to justify the cost. Since I’m always using my Touch, and the application was free (at least when I downloaded it), this is no longer an issue. One complaint though – while the Kindle can download blogs, magazines, and newspapers, the Kindle app for the Touch can’t. Just books.  Which doesn’t matter to me but might be a deal breaker for others.

You might also be aware that I like to write fiction. But sometimes I get stuck. Enter iStop Writer’s Block. This app is a random plot/character/quote generator that provides several prompts designed to break through writer’s block.  Need to flesh out a character? Randomly generate a name, description, or quirk. Stuck on a plot? iStop WB can suggest some new ones or even toss a challenge your way (“incorporate the term mad scientist into your next sentence”). It’s fun just to play around with too. This application is not free, though. It was 99 cents when I purchased it. And reviews of this application are really mixed. Personally, I love it. Some of the prompts are vague and some are really short ("advice to character, just say no" - Huh?), but some can really get the brain going and take your writing into a new direction ("advice to character, never follow the advice of your Uncle Richard" - Wait, why? What's wrong with Uncle Richard? Is he manipulative? An idiot? Hypocritical? How does that impact my story?).

Another great app for the writer on the go? Dictionary.com, a combination dictionary and thesaurus. It also has a random word of the day feature and audio pronunciations available. Definitely a handy little application to have.

I so heart my Ipod Touch :)

Bookshelf Review: Perfect Fifths

Name: Perfect Fifths: A Novel (Jessica Darling)

Author: Megan McCafferty

Perfect Fifths picks up three years after Jessica Darling reluctantly turned down Marcus Flutie’s marriage proposal in Fourth Comings. Both have convinced themselves that they have moved on. But have they? 

While racing through an airport in a frantic attempt to catch a flight, Jessica literally runs into Marcus, who has just gotten off of a plane from New Orleans. Neither is prepared for the feelings this encounter triggers.  The connection is still there, but why? When they find themselves stranded together at the airport, it’s a chance to find out once and for all: was meeting again a random fluke or are they honestly meant to be together, imperfections and all?

In Perfect Fifths, Megan McCafferty doesn’t hold anything back, which makes this novel difficult to put down without wanting to pick it right back up. It’s broken into four parts.

Parts One (Before) and Four (Enduring - Lasting) are told in third person, a departure from Jessica’s first person narrative in the previous novels. This time readers get to find out how Marcus views his relationship with Jessica, a change which provides an intensely personal and multi layered look at just how much Jessica and Marcus have matured over the last ten years.  They have made many mistakes, but they have learned from these and have evolved into actual adults. Readers that felt the characters, particularly Jessica, showed no character growth in the third and fourth books (Charmed Thirds and Fourth Comings) will definitely want to check out this final installment.

Part Two (During) is strictly the dialogue between Jessica and Marcus as they catch up on each other’s lives. It’s an interesting technique that reminded me of a Gilmore Girls episode. At times, this section seemed bumpy and perhaps a bit too wordy, but it did fill in a lot of blanks for the three year gap between novels.  Part Three (Enduring – Putting Up With), contains haikus between the two lovers and is only a few pages long. These two sections were not my favorite parts of the novel, but they also were not overly distracting from the story. In fact, they added a fresh and playful twist to it.

McCafferty’s dry wit and observation are strong as ever here, complete with kooky secondary characters (such as a Be You Tea Shoppe loving tween who can’t stop speaking to strangers) and several hilarious situations involving Barry Manilow. Best of all? With Perfect Fifths, McCafferty has provided one of most unexpected and romantic endings I have ever read. 

Anyone picking this up as a stand-alone novel will be pleasantly surprised and inspired to read the previous books chronicling Jessica’s earlier years, while die hard Jessica Darling fans will find a very satisfying end to the popular series. Be warned, though, that there are several references to sex and various male/female body parts, as well as lots of colorful language. This book should probably find its way into only the hands of older teen readers and adults.

Perfect Fifths will be in stores April 14, 2009.

The Case of the Mysterious UPS Package

Y'know, I thought I was having a pretty good week. I've made excellent progress on my novel. The kids are at their Grandma's for Spring Break, so Big J and I have eaten out every night at any restaurant we want. Best of all, I received an ARC of Being Nikki by Meg Cabot on Monday (Awesome!!!).

But then, Big J goes and tops me today.

We were getting ready to leave and pick up our Chinese carryout. As the garage door opened, I noticed the UPS truck pull up and park in front of our driveway.

"You order something?" I asked.

"Noooo......" Big J said.

But, see, my birthday and Mother's Day are both coming up next month and Big J has been known to purchase things way in advance and hide them until the big day, very sneak-sneak like. So I wasn't buying it.

"Uh huh. Then why is the guy coming up with a box?"

Big J shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the street. He returned with the box, laid it on the top of our trash can, and stared at it. For several seconds.

"Well, open it." I said.

He peeled off the tape on one corner and peeked in.

"Should I go someplace else?" I asked hopefully, visions bouncing through my mind of the wonderful birthday presents that might be inside the box.

Sadly, though, it held nothing for me. Big J ripped the rest of the tape off and motioned for me to come over.

It was another box, with a brand spankin' new JBL On Stage Speaker for Ipods in it.

"I didn't order this," Big J said, holding it up and turning the box around and around and around...

For five minutes, we deliberated. Did the company accidentally send it? Was it some sort of scam? Was it a gift? Had Big J ordered it and then, scatterbrained as it was, completely forgotten he'd done so?

We decided to table the mystery of the speaker until after dinner and left to pick up our #4s with fried rice. Twenty minutes later, while sitting at the table scarfing his food down, Big J started laughing. Then choking, because his mouth had been full of rice at the time, half of which had fallen down the back of his throat. "I bet," he said, in between coughs, "it was a contest." 

"A contest?"

"Yeah, I enter those contests on sites like iLounge."

He immediately went downstairs to check his email. Nothing. He pulled up the site's contest page. Sure enough, there was his name, bright and shiny on the list of winners.

Totally. Cool.

Quote of the Week

"Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing."

Sylvia Plath

Cats + Computer = Headache

It's hard to make progress on a short story or novel or article when you have cats. Because, at least with my cats, I tend to see this instead of the monitor:

Or I'm trying to use the keyboard or the mouse, or both, in spite of the random feline leg or tail or other body part blocking them:

 

Or I'm closing the applications accidentally opened by a misplaced paw:

Or I'm providing belly rubs:

But I think I've finally found a solution:

Yep, I've setup little spaces for them, one on each side of me. I think they're happy with the new arrangement:

 

And I can get some work done. Win-win baby!

Words

Words are powerful. Woven together into strong sentences, they can break hearts or propel ideas. They can be manipulated and twisted into a lie or bared to reveal the truth. Paths can be changed, opinions can be challenged, lives can be altered…just by the skillful combination of a few words.

Maya Angelou is a master at stringing together words that accomplish all of these things and more. Her words rub and spark, igniting imagery and emotion so real that we, the readers, can see it, taste it, and touch it.

In 1970, her first autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , was published. It remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for two years.

Readers connected with her honest and raw account of Southern life in the 30s and 40s. It is an insightful story of a little girl’s journey from insecure child to confident young mother. Along the way, she endures the pain of abandonment, prejudice, and abuse; one significant tragedy convinces her to stop speaking because she feels her words caused a man to die. Even though this consequence was due to his own unforgivable actions, for several years she remains mute until she is able to understand the guilt she feels over this event. Yet, she does eventually come to terms with it and moves on, more determined to survive the circumstances life has handed her.

Six more autobiographies followed I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, each detailing another portion of her amazing life. A life that has included becoming an acclaimed poet, a dancer, an actress, a singer, a director, an activist, a teacher, a mentor, a mother... the list goes on and on.

Today, she celebrates her 81st year on this earth. Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou!

Quote of the Week

"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

Jerry Seinfeld