Book Review: Turning Pages by Tristi Pinkston

Blurb:

With his pride and her prejudice, what could possibly go wrong?
When the arrogant Blake Hansen steals Addie Preston's promotion at the library, he pretty much rubs her nose in it. But Addie, who dreams of being a full-fledged librarian, decides to stick it out. She loves surrounding herself with books and keeping her father's memory alive in the building where they spent so much time together.
Soon, Addie learns that her beloved library will be torn down to make room for a larger facility, and she has to make a choice. Fight, or let go?
To complicate things, she finds herself attracted to Blake, who is engaged to someone else. Will Blake and Addie ever resolve their differences?

My review:

Contemporary novels normally aren’t my genre. I live, breathe, write, and absorb fantasy novels. But I loved Turning Pages. This was such a cute story with very real, awesome characters. I have read it twice now and will read it again. (Making it on to my shelf of re-readers is a very high award.) Some books I love. Other books I love enough to read them a million times.

Why was this particular book so good?

The characters. Particularly one character: Blake.

He’s so dreadfully annoying in an awesome, cute sort of way. In a sense, he is the perfect character. He is someone that I want to learn more about. Someone that I get annoyed at, but still adore.

Not that he wasn’t the only awesome character. Addie was great too. The story was from her point of view. Point of view characters have to be superb. They have to be someone the reader wants to be with for two hundred or so pages.

Addie, like Blake, isn’t a perfect person. She tends to be a bit dramatic, but her imperfections are what make her great.

How on earth do imperfections make a character awesome?

It makes them real. Real enough to come off the page. When I was reading Turning Pages, I wasn’t reading about some place and some people that an author made up. I was reading about Addie and Blake and the library. All very real people in a very real setting.

And that is what elevates a book to the read-a-million-times status.

Excellent book. I recommend it.

If you want to learn more about the author, here is the like to her website (she's awesome): http://www.tristipinkston.blogspot.com/

Review of Possession

I finished editing my current draft of Bonded recently. I wanted to reward myself. It was a tough edit, so my prize had to be something really really good.

Books are the best thing in the world, so to celebrate my finished-current-draft, I’d read Possession by Elana Johnson.

And it was a fabulous book! I loved especially the characters. Vi has such a unique voice and Jag . . . he is awesome in every way possible. I think the best part about them is that they are very much imperfect. Now, you might be thinking that’s a negative, but actually it’s not.

Perfect characters never get on our nerves. They never do what we know they shouldn’t. They never disappoint us. In essence, perfect characters are boring.

For writing, this doesn’t mean you should just stick any old flaw on your characters to make them less boring. Readers will see through that Band-Aid so fast. The key is to create a character that feels like a real person with all of their imperfections.

Pure genius is the writer that can create a character that we adore, even when they are annoying us. Those are the characters that will stick in the reader's mind.

How do we do that? I don’t know, but if you want to read a book by someone that does: Elana Johnson’s Possession.

And note: The sequel to Possession, Surrender is being released on June 5, 2012. (That’s in six days!)

Writing Lessons from Angry Birds: Goals

Angry Birds is one of my favorite writing distractions. Nothing like destroy green, smug-faced pigs to get the creative juices flowing or to relax after writing an intense scene. I think you can learn a thing or two about writing from the simple game.

First lesson: Goals. Your hero should have them and they should be worthy goals. That means they should be something the reader cares about too.

In Angry Birds, the birds are angry (well obviously) and are determined to destroy the green pigs. By itself, that is sort of blah. I’m sure the game would still be entertaining, but would I get as angry at the pigs as I do? (Well, technically yes, because I am angry at the stupid green pigs because they always defy gravity and balance on an impossible ledge or they get nestled safely under rubble that should’ve crushed them, but that’s beside the point).

Why should we care about the birds?

Their goal: Not to destroy the pigs, but to get back their eggs. That’s right! The mean old pigs stole the poor defenseless baby birds. It’s a much better goal. Suddenly, those slingshot birds have our sympathy and attention.

A worthy goal will draw the reader in. It will make them sympathize with your hero and want them to succeed.

Best Friends: Your Main Character’s Sidekick

Sometimes good hero needs a sidekick or a best friend. They can provide the comic relief as Ron Weasley so often did. They can be helpful and save your hero’s behind like Timon and Pumbaa. They can sometimes be annoying like Edmund in the Narnia books (or worse like Eustace Scrubb). Sometimes, the sidekick simply gets your characters into more shenanigans like Ethel of I Love Lucy.

Either way, your character isn’t a solitary figure. (Unless you are writing about the last man in the entire world). Use those people around them to create a richer world and a richer character.

Here are some pictures of my two favorite best buddies:

Y: Yuck

Sometimes, characters will do and say things that you wouldn’t. What do you do when you have a character that loves eating anchovies which you despise?

Let them.

It makes your writing stronger. If all of your characters love kittens and lemonade, then your writing will be boring. Your characters should not have the same opinions as you.

That can be difficult. How do you write about how describe how delicious slimy cold anchovies are if you hate them?

That’s why you are a writer—you make stuff up. It can be difficult writing opinions that differ from your own, but your writing will be so much stronger. If you struggle with this, practice it.

Happy writing!

U:Unique

Characters need quirks. What makes yours unique?

It doesn’t have to be something big. Not every book needs a ninja/librarian that loves chocolate ice cream and orange kittens. It came be something simple. Which character in popular literature wears round glasses? Which female protagonist survives with her mad bow and arrow skills? Which cartoon characters have a pet platypus?

It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but give your characters something that makes them unique. Give them a trait or a love or a dislike that will stick in the readers mind. This will make the character more real and memorable.

Important note: don’t go too far with the trait. If your character always does the Hokey Pokey when they hear the word red, it might get a little annoying. For a character whose uniqueness makes them obnoxious, watch Episode 1 of Star Wars. Jar-Jar Binks is unique, but . . . .

What are your character’s quirks?