I is for I Love to Boogie by T Rex

Okay, I think it's time for some more music. Usually, when I'm writing  - imagine words flowing with abandon, fingers burning with friction - I need to look up and move around occassionally.

There are two songs I can't not dance to, which can be awkward. I Love to Boogie is one of them: I've attempted to dance to this song while on a cross trainer (elliptical) at the gym, while walking in a supermarket, and once - dragging my sister into the boogie - in a service station car park on the M5. (The other one is Footloose, if you're interested.)

This is a live version, and a bit rockier than the single. What I'd really love is if you'd stand up and have a bit of a dance - go on, you've been at this keyboard for a while now, you've visited plenty of blogs, this is time for you! Let me know if you danced!

H is for Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

It may surprise my regular readers that I am inspired by Harry Potter, when I don't write YA, fantasy or series (serieses? is there a plural of series, or is it like sheep?).

The hype passed me by for the first three books, largely because of the reasons above. But the first four were a present for my son when he was a year old. And because they were in the house, I picked them up, read them, and enjoyed them.

When five, six and seven came out (okay, I'm not such a fan that I can immediately recall the titles - lol), I bought them. In fact, I read each of them in one day. It became a ritual - I'd pre-order my copy, clear the day (kids out with dad, no housework) and just read. Bliss! A further fact: I ended up with two copies of the final book because Hubby was invited out to meet his friend who was dressing up as HP, and bought me another copy in case the pre-ordered one didn't arrive!

Anyway, none of that had anything to do with why these books are included in this list. When I read all the books in quick succession (while bedridden with flu), I was struck by the obvious planning and plotting that went into the stories. For example, in the Philosopher's Stone a cat walks across the page; and only in a later book does the significance become apparent. The smallest things tie in to bigger things later on, and that impresses me.

I don't plan or plot. If something important happens, you can be sure that I've re-edited to foreshadow events, rather than the foreshadowing always being in place.

But that's obviously not how Rowling worked because she didn't write all seven books at once, so as a feat of planning and plotting Harry Potter is on my list.

And now, I've got to ask: has anyone not read these books, and why?

G is for Madeleine's Ghost by Robert Girardi

Firstly, thanks to all my new followers, and to everyone who's just stopping by to have a look. I'm blown away by the sheer numbers of people involved with the challenge, and I'm probably being a bit lax with keeping up with all my visiting duties! If you've followed me and I haven't followed back, please leave a comment - it's just an oversight! And now, here's today's post...

Link to the Goodreads entry

Have you ever walked into a bookshop, scanned the shelves and bought a book based on the cover and nothing else? That's what happened with this book, because I thought the cover was fantastic.

It can be quite a difficult decision, choosing books. I'm now on Goodreads, which is helping me enormously, but before that I'd see good reviews and interviews, decide to buy that book - and then totally forget which book it was when I was standing in a bookshop.

So I rely on other methods, such as the cover, the title and the last line. Oh yes, I always read the last page, usually instead of the first page... and I'm not the only one, so an extra bit of advice is: always make your last line really strong!

This story, luckily, was just as good as its cover. Robert Girardi has a great voice, and a wonderful way of envoking the sights and sounds of New Orleans. It was a book I read almost in one go - it has such an easy, fluid style, and you really want to find out how the different threads of the story come together at the end.

But that's not why I'm inspired by this book - it's purely the cover....

F is for The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Five People... on Goodreads

The Five People You Meet In Heaven is on my list of books I wish I'd written. I only read it last year - I bought it on the strength of the title. So I guess what I learnt from this book is that titles really matter.

I'm quite proud of my titles. When a story appears in my head it's fully formed, including the title, character names, beginning and last lines - the trouble comes when I try to write it all down! Recent titles I've been particularly proud of are:

• Our Beautiful Child
• The Guitar at the End of the World
• My Mother's Mother's Mother

None of the above are published yet, so no need to go in search of them!

The premise of this book is wonderfully comforting - in Heaven you meet the five people who have affected your life. It may be your husband or wife, or it might be that person you met just once in a shop who handed back the wallet you'd dropped. You meet the people who have contributed to your life.

Isn't that the most beautiful thought?

One day I'd like to write a book that someone considers so wonderful they want to own it, and love it, and never let it out of their sight.

E is for Everybody Hurts by REM

You'll probably have noticed that Everybody Hurts is not a book.

I'm a bit nervous about posting this one now, though - because last week a lot of people took part in a Sad Songs blogfest, and this song was featured heavily. However, although, this song can make me cry when I'm in the right mood, for the purposes of this blogfest it's not a sad song, okay?

I was reading a blog a few weeks ago that was talking about themes. (I can't remember whose it was, so I can't credit it - sorry!) I admitted that I didn't know what my theme was, and then I heard this song on the radio and thought that's it!

It's not just the theme of one story or one novel. It's the theme I apply every time I pick up my pen - it is my theme. Everybody does hurt at some point in their lives, but that hurt will be cured (or, if you've read some of my work, killed).

I hope the Sad Songs blogfest hasn't put you off wanting to listen to this song again!

D is for Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

D'ya geddit? D'Urbervilles!

As luck would have it, today's post ties in with the Insecure Writers Support Group, because Tess of the D'Urbervilles made me insecure when I read it at A Level. I found it difficult to read and to understand, and I really didn't see the point. It made me feel I shouldn't be in the class. Everyone else had really important things to say about it, and I didn't. Because what I really wanted to say, but was too insecure to say, was:

Project Gutenberg free download

Mr English Teacher, Sir, this story is based on a small misunderstanding which should have been easily cleared up, if Tess had been the kind of strong heroine that I've come to expect in literature. Lizzie Bennett is a strong heroine. Even Jane Eyre is strong (even, because I don't much like that book either - I'm a rubbish Literature student, Sir).

Maybe Tess is the kind of girl who was abound in 19th century England. But it's a hard task to imagine - as a 20th century girl (as I was) - that level of docility and sappiness. I can't do it, and I won't do it. I would say more, but I'm on a word count limit!

(At this point, you need to imagine me packing up my folder and walking out of the class, leaving my copy of Tess on the desk, only returning when we move onto the next topic - which was probably metaphysical poetry).

Ah, that's better. Twenty years of insecurity unburdened!

C is for Chuck Palahniuk

 I heard about Chuck Palahniuk after watching Fight Club. I thought it was a good film with great actors; and a fantastic twist!

I discovered Fight Club was actually a book, so off I went in search, and I was hooked on the style, on the shape and form of the prose - and the much more realistic ending. Then I discovered that Fight Club wasn't actually his best book. I've read Invisible Monsters and Haunted (which I never completed - trying far too hard to be gory and becoming a parody of himself, sadly), but my absolute favourite is Diary.

Haunted, incidentally, is the novel that caused several men to faint at a reading as Palahniuk gave a graphic account of some damage to the male anatomy.
 

Chuck Palahniuk's Goodreads page

Diary is about a woman who always wanted to be an artist but never thought of herself as any good. She got married, had a daughter, acquired a pushy mother-in-law, and then her husband ends up in hospital in a coma. The flashbacks are really well-handled, in that they don't glare off the page, they flow with the rest of the story.

The plot jumps along at quite a pace, and I must admit, the idea of a man in a coma for the whole novel inspired a character in my latest novel MS. It also - much to my dismay, because I'm not sure how to recitfy it - leant itself to the tone of half of my novel, until a point where Palahniuk's voice fades out and mine appears. One of my betas who knows me very well actually noticed the change of voice, so I know it's obvious, and I know I can't attempt to sell a novel that's half written in someone else's voice. Especially a voice as obvious as Palahniuk's. But because it's so strong, and because it lends itself so well to that part of the novel I can't even re-write the first sentence - it's just so perfect the way it is!

I would add that if you're going to check him out on my recommendation, go for some earlier stuff. The repeated hooks - almost refrains - that I thought worked well in Fight Club and Diary are used to excess later on. Maybe he thought because it worked in a couple of novels it would work in them all! Actually, I may have more mixed feelings about Palahniuk than I thought!

My aim of this post wasn't to advertise, but coincidentally...
C is also for Cat and the Dreamer, my new novella.
Please feel free to check out the links on the top of the left-hand column :-)
Thank you!