Kate Warren

I've begun this year's NaNo and already done something I haven't done in previous years.  I started over.  Granted it's only the second day, and I'm keeping what I wrote before, but this is new for me.  I had a terrible time trying to write yesterday.  I just wasn't feeling it and this morning I figured out why: I started too early.  Not early for the event, but early for the story.  The title is North Pole: Confidential, but did I start in the North Pole? No.  I started with one character on a train.  Boring!  And if I'm boring myself how are the readers going to feel?

So I started over, after my character arrives at the pole.  And it's going much better.  The words are flowing, and I'm casting characters in my head.  The first beginning will be reworked and included later in the novel so that wasn't time lost either.

Now, a bit about the story for you:  Undercover detective Jackson Frost is posing as a writer planning a piece on the North Pole, but he's really there to investigate a disappearance.  Santa's right hand elf has gone missing just as they're gearing up for their busiest time of year.  Jackson will uncover secrets he never would have guessed about what really goes on at the North Pole: the Claus' troubled marriage, blackmail, union issues, financial problems, a cookie smuggling ring, and possibly even murder!

Just so you know this is a humor novel.  I've created an inspiration board on Pinterest (joined specifically for that purpose) and a playlist of YouTube videos to keep me in the holiday spirit.  I'll post links to these if anyone is interested, and I'll try to keep everyone updated on my progress.

Happy writing, and for those not writing, happy reading!

Kate

The lovely, talented, and brilliantly fun Angela Quarles has nominated me for the Booker Award.   This award targets literary and book-centered blogs.  The rules are simple: I post my top five books of all time; post the Booker Award icon; and nominate other bloggers to do the same. 

Sounds easy, right?   Well you try narrowing down decades of reading into just five books that have had the biggest impact or your life.  Or just five favorites.  Or just the first five that come to mind.  Well, maybe that last approach wouldn't take me very long.  Anyway, I suppose I'll end out with a combination of those three categories.  Here goes...

1. The Holy Bible.  This book has to be number one because it's been part of my life since before I could read.  No it doesn't have cute illustrations like my favorite children's books.  It's not what you'd call light reading.  And I'm not likely to pick it up for entertainment or a laugh, but it has undoubtedly had the biggest impact of any book on my life.  A large part of who I am is due to the influence of the Bible.  

2. The Complete Novels of Jane Austen.  Is that cheating, do you think?  It's one book but it's six novels plus Lady Susan.  Best combination of human nature observation, wit, and all around brilliance you could find.  My favorites are Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.  I've always been a fan of stories set in times past, so Jane Austen was a natural choice for my favorite author.  Oh, and I volunteer to verbally skewer anyone who calls Jane Austen the mother or Chick Lit.  Her novels were labors of love and brilliant contributions to literature, not forgettable stories about urban 20-somethings obsessed with sex and shoes--though now that I think of it, Mary Crawford would fit nicely into a Chick Lit novel.

3.  Gone With The Wind.  Yes, I've read all 1,024 pages of this American masterpiece.  A snapshot of a rotten time in the history of our nation that shows myriad things that got left out of the history books.  Margaret Mitchell's talent gave us the most complex and misunderstood main character of all time.  The tendency is to dismiss Scarlett O'Hara as simply a spoiled southern belle, when in fact she is far more layered and fascinating.  Here is a woman who is strong and intelligent in a time when those exactly qualities are frowned upon by the society in which she lives.  She takes on responsibilities that would daunt more experienced individuals, spends so much time in the moment and so little on introspection that by the time she figures out who she is and what she wants, it's too late.  Tragic and all too real.  Of course there's a plethora of other characters as well.  The novel isn't just about Scarlett.  If you haven't read it before, you might want to give it a shot.

4.  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Douglas Adams is hilarious.  And brilliant.  There's really not much else to say.  Fantastically entertaining book.

5.  The Little House Books.  Ok, if the Jane Austen one wasn't cheating, this probably is because it's not even a compliation.  I loved these books as a child and I still love them now as I read them to my own children.  The stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life in pioneer-era America will never go out of style because they are real and highlight the spirit that enabled people to go into the wilderness and carve out an existence when the odds were against them, and they could have been much more comfortable back east.  We struggle against different challenges now, but we still struggle; and those of us who are lucky have our faith and the love of family to see us through, just as Laura did.


Now for the fun part.  I hereby nominate the following bloggers:

Jes Langan 
Donna Cummings
J.M. Blackman
Teresa Cypher
Kate Meader