Posts

Posted on

Book Event

I got to attend an event hosted by Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore for a discussion about Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell, between Catherine and Allison Saft.

Catherine Bakewell was the sweetest! Her and Allison have been friends for about six years. It was cute to see that Allison was so excited to share this moment with her friend. They apparently met over a pitching event. Catherine contacted Allison because she thought her pitch was awesome and then they became query buddies. They announced that they decided the main character in Flowerheart and one of the characters in one of Allison Saft’s books are cousins. Haha.

The host showed some awesome character art that Catherine’s friends made. One piece of art was made by her friend when her friend read her manuscript four years ago. She had called her up and was like, “Now is the time!”

Catherine’s book is a cottagecore YA Fantasy Romance. Cottage core is light-hearted, summery, and takes place in country side. It is a cozy fantasy. In her book, her main character Clara makes flowers grow because of her emotions. She accidently curses her father, making flowers grow in his lungs. She then has to team up with her best friend who is hiding secrets and they have to make a hard bargain. It is apparently full of feelings.

In the book she uses concepts of flowers that she learned from Nancy Drew computer games that stuck in her mind. The name Xavier is also from Nancy Drew!

Catherine started the book in 2017 and wanted to make it a fun and bright world. It is different from the first version of the book drastically, but she still kept it fun and lovely. Some of the things that had changed from the beginning was the age of the characters. When she started, she considered the book adult and had the characters 22-years-old. But then she was told it was YA, so she made them 18, then 17, and then the editor had her make them 16. Also, the two main characters Clara and Xavier didn’t know each other at first. To solve the problem of them falling in love in 9 days, she made them childhood best friends.

I loved when she talked about her listening to her audio book version. She said it was like watching a movie in her head that she has watched at one minute increments for many years. She said it is like listening to her children. She loves being able to go on the journey with her characters again in a cinematic form.

She considers this a very therapeutic book. It has lessons she had learned from therapy in the book that the characters puts into practice.

Posted on

The Eclipse’s Bloom

There are enough flowers

That belong to the dusk, sun, and moon

But the flower of the eclipse

Lives on in gloom

Only spreading its petals

When everyone looks away

Distracted by the phenomenon

That breathes it awake

Posted on

Book Event

What a great discussion about Deep by Rivers Solomon with Oxford Exchange Bookstore.

At the beginning, everyone agreed they felt a little lost but that the book was most likely made that way to fit the story. Everyone also agreed that the world was beautiful, immersive, and enticing enough that even though confusing, they wanted to stay and keep going. They also wanted to follow the main character’s stakes because they were personal enough to cling to and care about.

It was interesting to hear that many reviewers thought that Yetu seemed whiny. Everyone jumped to defend her in the group, believing that she wasn’t whiny and that, even if she was, she had excellent reason to be. She was being tortured in a very real sense by how she had to live.

Everyone discussed the bits and pieces that described how the mermaids looked and then went further into how they might have sounded. There were so many favorite quotes, moments, and scenes in this book that everyone stated. So many wished that the book could have gone on longer.

On the discussion with it lasting longer, it was brought up that maybe the book was the short length it was with nonreaders in mind so that they would have an easier time digesting the topic, and so it would welcome them into the reading world. I thought that was an excellent take.

Everyone loved this book and thought it had a great premise when it came to giving back to the lives that were stolen and giving people that were killed a history by becoming something else that was everlasting.

Posted on

To Stare Up

Lonely, desperate, despaired

I stare up at you

Orphan to a forbidden cause

I look to the face of the moon

You are the only one to smile back

From the darkness in the sky

To the pits I was abandoned

Until you brought light to my life

Never leaving me lonely

Following me to where I need to be

Always up there smiling

You let my soul and self be free

Posted on

Book Event

I got to attend a book event with Brookline Booksmith for the new book coming out The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour which is the fifth graphic novel to release in the series. Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Carey Pietsch discussed it with a few special guests.

If you are wondering, they are mostly all a family. Three brothers, a dad, and Carey the cartoonist. For some of them, it was the first time they met the cartoonist, so it was cute to see them so excited to meet her. And even cuter that the dad was dressed in a chainmail cosplay.

They asked her which picture the cartoonist drew where she really blew it haha. She said something about a time-loop page.

They discussed how they really started taking it seriously with this book and put a lot of work into it and that it’s their best one yet.

They had special guests who said there were tons of cosplayers from Monty Python and the Holy Grail everywhere during release day at their bookstore. All of them, including the special guests, did a reading for each character. The colors and pictures of the graphic novel were brilliant. It was cute and funny with cuss words haha.

They also had their editor on to discuss things too.

This was a dynamic team with funny reactions and conversations between everyone. They definitely all have fun.

Carey showed them pictures of her trying out Blender 3D. The beginning pictures were hilarious from when she started the system, then later turned very magical. Seriously, it was amazing how she made interiors of buildings, settings, and references for drawings because, how she described it, she doesn’t have a lot of RAM space in her mind. The best part was seeing Carey’s sketches and everyone trying to guess which panel they were from.

What an amazing team, all of them. And the fact that they all got together to talk about the process was amazing. Like seriously! Wow!

Posted on

Spiral

Too much, I crumble

Too little, I wither

Give me a moment

I swear I’m no quitter

I’ll break off my legs

Burn my soul to the ground

To make sure my day

Is completed, profound

Inside I’m dying

Perfection a curse

But giving I live for

A must or I burst

Got to be the best mother

Got to be the best friend

Got to be the best writer

Wife, lover, no end

Healthy, I doubt it

Goal achieving is key

Got to fill me up somehow

To make you believe

Believe in how wonderful

How achieving I am

How smart and how worth it

Yours till the end

Posted on

Book Event

What a delightful book event with Oxford Exchange Bookstore about Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young.

It was interesting how such a simple book could bring about so many different layers of conversations. One of the layers we went into was the authenticity of a towns and how the author captured that in many areas. Some of the areas she captured that were when it came to tourists, the orchard, relationships, meetings, and the want for things to stay the same.

One of the ways that things in the real world may stay the same when it comes to small towns, like it did in this book, is when someone is around the people they grew up with and then fall back into that mindset. Which may be a younger aged mindset. Then comes the question of if you grow up with those people all around you, do you still fall into that mindset sometimes, do you ever really grow up, or do you need space in order for nostalgia to grasp you and turn you young again?

Everyone agreed that this book was a dark cozy mystery, like a campfire story. And everyone loved the vibes. Many expected more magic and kept trying to find it within the pages, while others enjoyed the light magic and undercurrent of it, saying that it felt more real that way.

I feel like the most interesting conversation that was had was about how to differentiate YA versus Adult fiction. Many agreed that this book felt like a YA read, but it was a YA author’s first Adult novel. Was the YA-like-feel in the way the book was plotted out and in how the author held the hands of the readers through the mystery? Or was it because it was in the minds of characters who were reliving the past, a period when they were teens? Or was it because of the pacing, the themes or lack thereof, the topics, or the relationships? What makes an adult read an adult read, besides the main character in the present timeline’s age?

All very interesting questions worth hours long of conversation.

Posted on

A Knock at Your Door

Horses gallop on my heart

As I walk my way to your door

Nerves tingle in my fingers

Making things I touch singe more

I’m a walking fire lit

Catastrophe on the way

It isn’t until I see your face

That my monsters hide at bay

Take me in your arms

Comfort, to bring my fire down

Shove away the real me

To somewhere she can’t be found

Posted on

Book Event

Books are Magic hosted an event with Camryn Garrett about her book Friday I’m in Love.

The author came dressed in a dress similar to the main character on the book cover! So that was cool! Friday I’m in Love is about a girl who decides to have a coming out party to announce her queerness to her friends and family. Friday I’m in Love is Camryn’s third novel, but first rom-com. She grew up writing lots of ghost stories and wrote this book in high school when she was eighteen. According to the interviewer, she really captured the teenager spirit in this book and it only took the interviewer under 24 hours to finish the book because she loved it so much.

The idea came to Camryn Garrett when she thought about how her friends would have thrown her a party if she had come out when she was younger. She wanted to express that you don’t need to know who you are at sixteen. She explained that parties during milestones like coming of age and sweet sixteen parties are important because it shows that the people who are there care for you, so she wishes there were coming out parties also.

They talked about the music mentioned in the book, social classes in real life and in books, also how different it is writing screenplays compared to books.

Here are some cute, fun, and funny facts from the interview. According to Camryn’s mom, all the characters in Friday I’m in Love are Camryn. Haha. One of Camryn’s favorite tropes is enemies to lovers, but with low stakes. No ‘you killed my brother or you tried to kill me’ “because that’s just wrong”. Haha. Her least favorite trope is second chance lovers because, most likely, if you didn’t work out the first time, you shouldn’t try again. Haha.

This interview was a fun, lighthearted, and uplifting. Thank you, Books are Magic for hosting it.