Nooks, Kindles, and eReaders...oh my.

I like technology for the most part. That being said, there are some gadgets that I just don't think I could use. Most people accept that I'm not a big fan of touch-screens, which is why I haven't jumped onto the iPad/touch-screen device bandwagon. But the one thing that people are always shocked I don't own is an eReader.

They're just completely baffled, especially if they know how much I read. They get this look on their faces like they've landed in a parallel universe. If they're in my room, they just gesture wordlessly to my overflowing bookshelves. They explain to me that that is the one thing they'd think I would use the most - wouldn't it be easier than cramming eight books into a suitcase for one-week vacation?

Yes, it probably would. But the thing is - they're not REAL books.

And this is where it all goes downhill. People smile, nod and back away slowly, because I am clearly crazy.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much, because the makers of kindle have recently created commercials that pretty much mock people who prefer real books. In the advertisement, someone points out that a kindle isn't a real book, and someone else explains that the kindle is just like a real book, but better, and the other person is just being silly.

1. A Kindle is not a real book. It might have some nice features, but it's not a real book.

2. Amazon has just lost a potential sale.

I know, I'm getting awfully worked up about this, but Amazon made fun of something I take very seriously. It's not like I'm launching a campaign against kindles and the people who have them, I'm just refusing to buy one myself.

Still, even though they're not real books, even I have to admit that eReaders are pretty cool, and I've been thinking off and on about buying one. Since the Kindle's out, that leaves me with the Nook from Barnes & Noble, which I was leaning towards anyway. It's from a major bookstore, which makes me feel better - don't ask me to justify my reasoning, it just doesn't bother me as much that it's not a real book when it's from a place that's focused on selling real books.

There are a couple of problems, though, that I still have to work through before I buy one.

1. I just don't know if I can get over the it's-not-a-real-book thing. My friend Cynthia has a kindle, and she said that the lack of a cover really bothered her. They do make covers, which you can open and close, but still, you only read words on one side of the cover, where the nook is, so I don't know how much that would actually help.

2. I love my bookshelves dearly, and as odd it might sound, I enjoy organizing them. I can always store my potential nook in it's cover on the shelves with the other books, my system is based on genre, and with a nook, I would have books of all genres in the same place, and I wouldn't be able to separate them. The only thing that I can think of that would make it okay is if you can organize books on your nook by genre, or rearrange the order however you want. It wouldn't be quite the same, but it'd be better.

3. I don't know if it's going to be cheaper in the long run; I haven't compared a lot of prices, but for example, "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin is the same price in paperback as it is in the electronic format from Barnes & Noble, and since I'm a member, I get free shipping. The nook is $139, or $249 for the nook color, while my 5-shelf bookcases are $35 from Wal-Mart.

4. I also go to the library quite frequently; while I've read through quite a few of the books in our public library, there's still the school library, which I really haven't even started on yet.

5. I also lend books to my friends a lot, since I have a ton, and I couldn't do that with my nook - even if there was some software that enabled this, none of my close friends have nooks, so it wouldn't be that useful anyway.

6. Plus, there's the simple fact that it's an electronic device and so it just has some inherent problems. How long is it before there's some virus for nooks or something else that causes them crash and I lose my books? No danger of that with my shelves - the only 'crash' would be if they fell over. I haven't been able to experiment with a nook or kindle to see if it really is possible to have no glare in the sun. Plus, since it's wifi enabled, you wouldn't be able to use it on an airplane when it was taking off or landing. Even though I don't fly a lot, it's still something to consider.

As you can see, it's going to take a lot of thinking and research to decide if the pros - instant downloading, the ability to take more on vacation without packing an extra bag (my purse is currently big enough for short trips - something else the people at Kindle like to poke fun at) and that it would save space overall - outweigh the cons.

I'll be looking at a lot of reviews and doing some research; I'll keep you posted on what I find and how it affects my overall decision.

~blackandwhitedreamer

The Ultimate Summer Camp

...And the best part is, you don't even have to leave your own backyard!

Yes, everyone, it's finally here, the long-awaited "Camp NaNoWriMo." What is Camp NaNoWriMo? It's a version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - www.nanowrimo.org, if you're not already familiar with it, although if you've been reading my blog you should be.) that you can do in the summer months. It's definitely helpful if you're like me, and can novel your heart out during November but can't get more than 10,000 words a month during the rest of the year. I'm not yet sure whether I'll participate in the July or August session, but I AM going to give this a try.

More Reasons You Should Do Camp NaNoWriMo

1. It is created by the folks at the Offices of Letters and Light, and therefore is made of awesome

2. It's the perfect solution to the I-want-to-write-a-novel-in-November-but-stuff-keeps-getting-in-the-way problem.

3. It's the perfect solution to the I-want-to-participate-in-NaNoWriMo-more-than-once-a-year problem.

4. You'll be doing something productive with your summer and will feel better about yourself.

5. It is going to be FUN.

This list should have made you as excited about this as I am, so I'll give you the link. http://www.campnanowrimo.org/

Off to find the deep-woods bug repellent and marshmallows,

~blackandwhitedreamer

Too Horrific?

In general, I'm not a big fan of horror as a genre. I don't watch horror movies. I don't read Stephen King. The main reason I like Halloween is because it's an excuse to eat lots of candy, and it's the day before NaNoWriMo starts.

That's not to say that I haven't written some pretty creepy stuff myself. Some of the descriptions I've written as writing exercises or in response to prompts have made me shudder when I reread them later. I even have a pretty detailed idea for a novel about ghosts with some interesting (at least I think they're interesting) twists. I plan for this novel to become my long-term project once I finish the trilogy I'm currently working on.

This all seems a little odd. After all, I've never even read or watched anything in the 'horror' genre. It's always seemed entirely unappealing to me, so how could I possibly want to WRITE it? After thinking about this, I had to ask myself, is the reason I don't like horror because I don't like the concepts, or because most of it is so graphic?

It's definitely the latter. Realizing this was looking at the summary for the movie 'Black Swan'. I thought it had something to do with ballet but wasn't sure, and I was intrigued, so I looked it up online. The concept - a ballet dancer who gets the part of Odette in Swan Lake but becomes more and more like the black swan, Odile - sounded interesting, but looking at the parental guidance ratings made me lose any desire to see this movie. It's rated R, described as 'graphic and explicit' and 'frightening and disturbing'. There's swearing, too.

And why? I don't understand the need for it. I can appreciate the fun in being a little scared, but why would anyone want to see or read something that's going to disturb them? I was a little grossed out just reading the parental guidance rating! I can't imagine how bad the actual movie is.

I really think it's unneccesary. I understand that people have varying levels of comfort and the effect something has differs, but some things are just too extreme. No matter what the genre, the point should be to produce a good movie or write a good novel, not shock and scare people to the extreme just for the sake of it. I honestly believe that there can be good horror books and movies that don't make you lose sleep for the next week and a half.

I don't know if I would have seen Black Swan even if it had been much less extreme and rated, say, PG-13, because with something like that I do prefer a book because I have more control over the images that I see in my brain. But I do know that I will never, ever watch it now, and I'm sure there are other people who think the same thing.

Maybe 'horror' is a bad name for the genre, since that implies that the point is just to scare, even if you lose the plot behind all the gore. But there are some elements of fiction that are specific to this genre, and I just wish there was way to have those without all the negatives that come with it.

Off to think about my not-too-horrific-horror-novel,

~blackandwhitedreamer

Reading/Writing Cliches

Because I read a lot, I'm usually somewhat knowledgable about what's been done in the world of books, especially young adult fiction and fantasy, the two genres I read the most. Of course, similarities are not the problem; if one or two books have a similar plotline or voice to something that's already been written, there's nothing wrong with that. The thing that annoys me most? Cliches.

Cliche has become a term that can mean almost anything. It can mean an overused expression, an unoriginal character. It can mean a plot that's been done a thousand times or something that's parodied for humor in certain TV shows. (I'm not going to name any names, but if I did, I would name Phineas & Ferb. Not that it's not a great show.)

But I think the thing that annoys me the most isn't plots that are all-around cliche, but little pieces that are used over and over. Subplots, things about character. It drives me crazy. There are many of them, but these are my top three most hated. I advise writers to stay away from them at all costs.

1. The Star Athlete Who Hates Sports

You know the type. They're the most amazing thing to happen in the history of the high school sports team, but for some reason they're not interested. They're amazing, but they want to do something else. The catch? Their father has planned out their life since they were three, won't let them quit because they need a scholarship to college, and they're too spineless to stand up for themselves. They're mostly in movies - "A Cinderella Story" and "High School Musical" come to mind - but also in books. In fact, there's one in the book I'm reading now, which is what originally prompted me to write this post.

2. Girl-Finds-Out-She's-Pregnant-After-Boyfriend-Dies

Doesn't have to be her boyfriend, of course - could be her husband, fiance or the random guy down the street. But as soon as the funeral's over, she realizes that the one night (or several nights) they spent together resulted in her getting pregnant. The first examples that come to mind are the novel "Numbers" (which had about three awesome places where the book could have ended before it even got to this point - and the actual ending wasn't even that good. But I'll save that for another post) and The Last Dragon series by Chris D'Lacey. And of course, it was the entire plotline of Sarah Dessen's "Someone Like You", which was the only time I could actually tolerate it.

3. Platonic Relationships

This is what I hate the most. I understand they happen, but I don't think they happen as often as most books would lead you to believe. I especially hate it when the guy realizes he's in love before the girl and spends half the book pining while she dates someone else. The only time this is ever - EVER - acceptable is when it's Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes in Gilmore Girls. Every other platonic relationship in the world needs to disappear forever.

Of course, there is the one cliche that I doubt I will ever get tired of - the one where a couple is formed from two characters who bicker constantly throughout the book and then at the end, realize they're in love with each other. I know it's used a lot, possibly more often than ANY other cliche, but...I just love it.

Off to make sure there are none of these cliches in my own writing,

~blackandwhitedreamer

Gardening

Gardening has always been something I've enjoyed. I'm not a huge fan of bugs, but I love having fresh vegetables in the house. However, because of the temperatures around here and the fact that we've had frost in June, gardening can be a tricky business. There's no guaranteed best time to put in a garden; you simply have to wait until it's warmed up.

It's warmed up. And by warm, I mean, 90 degrees, hot, sticky, and humid. Summer takes it's sweet time getting here, but when it arrives, it arrives with a vengeance.

So today I tagged along with my parents while they went shopping, and we went to a greenhouse to get some plants. In previous years, all that's ever done well in our vegetable garden has been tomatoes and squash, despite me and my mom's best efforts to grow peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, and watermelon. One year we did have a huge amount of snow peas, which were delicious, but because we had to wait so long to plant our garden, decided not to grow them this year. So this year, I decided that since squash and tomatoes were all that really did well, that was what I was going to grow. We bought two tomato plants (any more and we can't use them fast enough, they all go bad), four cherry tomato plants, zucchini and summer squash. And because we just can't pass up an opportunity to try something knew (and because my dad wanted to see if we could grow it), we also bought some acorn squash.

We brought the plants home, and I began weeding out the garden and then planting. By the time I finished I was hot, sweaty, covered in dirt, and in desperate need of a cold shower, but the garden looks pretty good. Sure, the tomato plants are completely dwarfed by their cages at this point, but they'll grow fast, and if last summer is anything to judge by, the zucchini is going to go wild. And my less-is-more philosophy seems to be catching on; my mom looked over the garden and agreed, "That's plenty of vegetables for the summer," and my dad agreed.

One place that I have been letting myself buy and grow almost anything has been with herbs. A few months ago, a woman who has an herbal tea business came and spoke at our library, and I found it really interesting, so I've been wanting to enlarge our selection of herbs and experiment with using them in new ways. I've already started, making an iced tea from lemon balm and pineapple mint that was surprisingly potent despite the fact that the leaves barely colored the water, and today I picked up oregano, rosemary, and spearmint to add to our garden. I'd like to try growing chamomile and ginger, but I'm pretty sure I'd have to start the chamomile from seed and ginger can't tolerate cold so I'd have to bring it inside. However, I'm definitely going to keep working to build up a sizable herb garden, and I'll continue to post updates on how it goes and how I'm using the herbs, in teas or recipes.

Off to relax in the air-conditioning, after being outside all day...

~blackandwhitedreamer

Music and Books

As you might know, music and books are the two things that I am completely obsessed with. I have two five-shelf bookcases in my room that are overflowing and hundreds of songs on my iPod. If an entire day goes by without me reading or listening to some kind of music, then you know something's seriously wrong with me.

This is why bad music and terrible books are so devastating to me. I was convinced that the music and book industries would never be able to recover from the horror of Justin Beiber and Twilight. I had accepted the fact that I was going to have to hunt out obscure bands and read books that were published before the rise of the teen-fantasy genre.

But let me tell you, my viewpoint on that is rapidly changing, because 2011 is shaping up to be one heck of a year for music and books.

First of all, OneRepublic seems to be becoming even more popular; I've heard their songs on TV and the radio a lot more than usual, and they performed on Dancing With The Stars. If they continue in this direction, it means I can actually expect them to play 'Good Life' at our school's homecoming dance in a year or two. (2010's homecoming was like a sample of all the popular songs in 2008 and 2009. I was seriously considering chasing the DJ out and taking over the music myself.)

Then there's the fact that Christina Perri (of "Jar of Hearts") released her first full album, "Lovestrong"; I've already listened to some of the songs, and it's amazing. Owl City, which has been the one good artist among all the popular mush, is releasing "All Things Bright and Beautiful" on June 14th. Even better? Vanessa Carlton's finally coming out with a new album, "Rabbits on the Run", on June 21. Judging from the singles, both these albums are going to be beyond amazing.

And what about books? Chris D'Lacey's sixth book in the "Last Dragon" series, "Fire World" came out on April 26. Sarah Dessen released her tenth book, "What Happened to Goodbye" on May 10. I've already ordered it, and it's on it's way. "The Warlock" (Book five in "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" by Michael Scott) comes out on May 24. Not sure what's going on over the summer, but on September 20, Pseudonymous Bosch releases the fifth (and final) book in "The Secret Series" appropriately titled, "You Have To Stop This." (And he really does, it's driving me CRAZY not knowing the Secret.) Then, on November 8, the last book in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini comes out. My dad and I have been waiting ages for that.

All of this is really exciting. But you know what the really weird thing is? All of the things I've mentioned were released or will be released on a Tuesday. That's right. All of them.

Well, for some unknown reason, I've always liked Tuesdays...

~blackandwhitedreamer

The Adverb Debate

First off, I wrote this last night, but wasn't able to upload it until today because this site was in a "read only" mode. That being said, here's my post.

The topic of adverbs is one that people can never seem to be in complete agreement on. True, most writers agree that it's better to eliminate them and come up with one strong verb to describe your character's actions, but a lot of times - especially on the NaNoWriMo forums - there's at least a few people who disagree, often strongly.

In general, I agree that adverbs should be used sparingly; they have their place (like a few words ago in this sentence) but eliminating them often sounds better and is at the very least worth a try. However, I've come up with a recent conundrum in my writing - mainly in my dialogue. In an effort not use adverbs, and not to repeat terms such as 'whispered' or 'muttered' or any other speech tag that isn't as common as said, I've found myself adding descriptions after 'he said' and 'she said.' For example, 'he said, his voice low', or something along those lines.

The problem with this quickly becomes obvious. That type of description is becoming repetitive, and anything sounds bad if you use it over and over.

Take my situation today, the one that prompted me to write this blog post. I was working on a scene where the characters are in awe - they're seeing the dwarf cities in the mountains for the first time. One of them is a dragon, and a dwarf tells him that none of his kind have seen the cities for hundreds of years. I wrote his response:

"I would consider myself lucky to see a sight such as this even if that weren't the case," Fireclaw said.

I stopped writing there, and when I came back to the scene later, I thought, hmm, maybe I ought to change that. I want to convey how reverent he is. I was about to change it to,

"I would consider myself lucky to see a sight such as this even if that weren't the case," Fireclaw said, his tone reverent.

When I stopped, and thought, wait. I use that type of sentence all the time - I should try something else. So of course the first thing that jumped to mind was,

"I would consider myself lucky to see a sight such as this even if that weren't the case," Fireclaw said reverently.

I'm still torn about which one sounds the best. So here's MY adverb debate: Do I avoid the adverb, even if it means risking repetitive phrasing? Do I use the adverb and just make sure there aren't many others nearby? Or do I leave the sentence as-is, letting Fireclaw's words alone show his reverence? What do you think?

As my youth leader often says when silence envelops the room - "That was not a rhetorical question, guys."

~blackandwhitedreamer