Writing with Rain

The weather outside is already turning: rain is pattering against my window and yellowing leafs are dancing in the wind. It's hard to imagine it being anything other than autumn, never mind that only several days ago I was complaining about the heat, melting in my thin t-shirt and shorts. Welcome to the Netherlands! Where the seasons come and go within a week. It will probably be snowing soon.

Personally I don't really mind. Autumn is probably my favourite season of the year because if you ask me, it's by far the coziest one. Something about stormy weather outside, comfy warm clothes and cups of hot tea make me want to crawl behind my computer and just start writing away, or cuddle with a nice thick book and just spend the entire afternoon reading.

Recently I've given the editing process a well deserved rest and am focusing on a middle grade fantasy story about a young girl who just can't seem to get the hang of magic and keeps blowing everything up. 
In the few short periods that I can actually bring myself to write I am enjoying myself immensely. 

The last few months I've had a lot of things I had to deal with and come to term with all, in some way or another, keeping me from editing and writing. Resulting in me absolutely moping around the house, because if I haven't written in a while, I just get this horrible itch that I can't seem to scratch and I just want to get back to writing, even if my mind is to clouded and tired to allow me to.

For all those of you who share this problem of not writing as much as you would like, here is a site that a friend showed me: 

http://thewritingcafe.tumblr.com/tags

It is filled with all kinds of adivce on writer's block, lack of inspiration, but also on different genres on specifics like how to begin a story or how to end it. All neatly here together on one page. 

Enjoy! I am going back to writing! I'm nearing the end of this story, which for me is always the most difficult part, but also very exciting!

Keep Writing!

Xx 

Noortje 


Ps. How excited are YOU that there is going to be a new movie set in the Harry Potter world?!!! 

The Editing Demon

To say that I have not been active in most of my online accounts this past half year is a bit of an understatements. I have many, many reasons, all of them pretty dull or too personal to share here, so let’s just skip all that and say: I’m back! I missed you guys.

 Rest assured, just because I have not been active on my blog, does not mean that I let any other form of writing slip away from me as well. In fact I am quite proud of the amount of writing I still managed to get done during a rather tough school year.

Mostly I have been busy with editing a story that has been trapped inside my mind since I was thirteen years old, and only now seems to be coming onto the page, pretty close to what it looks like inside my head. And yes, finally, after hearing countless authors and a few friends of mine exclaim their joys of editing—with me just sitting there, shaking my head in disbelief—I now too, must say that at the very least I no longer consider editing to be the demon it once was.

In fact, I now no longer carry a sword, shield or any magical items to protect myself and slay the beast whenever the next dreaded “editing session” comes along. Now we wave and smile at each other like friends who are not yet completely comfortable together but enjoy each other’s company in the end.

I think what did it for me was the pure joy that came after days, weeks or even months of struggling with a particular passage without ever getting it right and knowing, in the back of my head that it was bringing my story down—and then having the illuminating blissful insight where everything just falls into place, and your fingers are a blur on the keyboard or you simply figure out once and for all that it has to go.

For me, it is reading the latest version and remembering my visions for the story and the (at times) utter crap that it turned into the first time I wrote it (can you imagine I actually send both my first and second draft to publishers and agents? Yikes) and see everything it is now.

Tell me what are your thoughts on editing?

Is anyone out here ignoring the sunny weather outside (haha joke, I live in the Netherlands, we have no sun here) and participating in Camp NaNoWriMo?  I am huddled around the campfire doing 30,000 words this month and … you guessed it, some more edits.

Keep Writing!

Xx Noortje  

Books Before Movies!

Hey everyone!

2013 proves to be a promising year for some amazing movies! I'm already counting days till I can see Star Trek 2 and the second Hobbit movie! ( I have seen The Hobbit twice already in Imax and would have seen it ... probably 50 times if it didn't cost so darn much money! Tolkien FTW!) 

Here is my list of books you should read before the movies (the ones I definitely want to see at least) come out!  :) It's not so much what the books are about (see Google lol) but what I think about them!

1. Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This one will be in cinemas 14 Feb (in the Netherlands at least) and I haven't read it yet. In fact, due to a funny story I happen to own part 2 of the series but not the first one... A while back I wrote to a teen magazine in the UK who were looking for people to review books. I heard nothing back. Then suddenly! There it was! In the mail with a short handwritten note. A book before it was in the stores (yes I was very excited about this part) and.... it was a part two. I was broke and had no way to read the first part. I tried to read the first chapter but it just didn't feel right. SO as you might have guessed, my review sucked and I never heard from them again (there goes my short and not-so-glamorous magazine review career). 

Anyway the book still speaks to me and what I have read online seems very promising! I am certainly going to read it before the movie comes out (better hurry then).

2. OZ the great and Powerful 

I am really excited about this one! The trailer looked absolutely amazing. Obviously it is very loosely based on The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Although I own the novel, I don't think I have actually ever read it. it's one of those novels that I buy because it's a classic, and then come around to somewhere over the years (at least that's the plan). Something tells me that this is going to be one of those movies that will be great to watch in the cinema because the scenes are just so pretty! Not sure if I will read the book before going. But I might if i have time. 

3. The Host - Stephanie Meyer

It's been a while since I read this one, but I remember that I loved it a lot! I used to be a huge Twilight fan in my day and still have a special place for the first book, but the Host is completely different. I loved the idea of these glowing little aliens that could only live in an alien host. The book was witty, interesting and impossible to put down! And different from normal sci-fi alien books I've read. 

4. The Great Gatsby - F. Scot Fitzgerald 

Not completely sure if I'm going to see this movie in the theatres but am really curious to see what the director made of this. What I loved most about the novel was the way the language was used, the story itself, really, isn't all that spectacular compared to other stories out there, although it was still good. For me it was honestly the language that made the book great. 

5. City of Bones - Cassandra Clare 

I read this book a few years ago and can remember almost nothing, except that I liked it, that there were demons and some very interesting revelations. But because I can remember almost nothing (I read too many books I think) I just decided to read it again and then finish the whole series while I'm at it (she says like she actually has this thing called "free time"). 

6. Catching fire - Suzanne Collins

Really looking forward to this one. I loved reading all the books as horrible (in a good way) as they were. And I am really looking forward to see who they cast as whom (I usually don't check in front. Want to see them for the first time on the screen). And curious to see how they will deal with the more gruesome stuff coming up in part 2 and 3!
Funnily enough the books had no appeal to me at all when I first saw them. But everyone kept talking about them so I bought part 3 for 50 pence at a book store that was closing its doors (I must have bought about 50 books there. Not exaggerating. I was one of their last costumers when they had only 5 books left and started asking only 50p for a hardcover and 25p for a paperback). Then I (illegally, sorry) downloaded part 1 to see if I would even liked it. Got hooked. Read it in one afternoon, rushed into town and immediately bought them both! 

  

7. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - (The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien)

Only one book unfortunately, not three. Loved the first movie. The trick is to NOT compare it as much to LOTR. But I loved all the little tributes they made for the fans anyway and have watched LOTR so many times (incl. the extra's, extended version, non extended, with commentary of EVERYONE) that I know it better than the back of my hand. But still managed to separate the Hobbit as much as possible and read the book for the second time before going to the movies. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly recommend it! It's hilarious!

And then you have Jack the Giant Slayer, Oblivion, Iron Man 3, Star Trek 2, The Man of Steel and the Lone Ranger to only name a few that I want to see  .... my wallet is going to hate me.

How about you guys? Do you need to read the book first or are movies better? Do you guys ever read books AFTER seeing the movie (I have with various ways how liking/hating it).

Keep Writing!
Xx Noortje 

Book Review: Between

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’ll all have a happy and healthy 2013! J May this be a good year for writing!

But for now it is time for another book review!

Between, the debut novel of Kerry Schafer, is definitely one of the most interesting fantasy books I have read in a long while—in a very good way.
As someone who loves readying fantasy I know the genre pretty well and I have never come across something quite like this. The story was compelling, surprising, rather horrifying and positively gruesome at times and lots of fun to read.

Dragons, dreams, princes, evil Queens, magic, warriors—Between has it all. The story stars with our heroin, Vivian who is working a shift at the E.R. when a teenage boy is brought in with severe burn wounds that Vivian immediately recognizes as having come from a dragon.  Here is where the pretty disgusting bit starts (for the faint hearted, do not worry. Between isn’t a gory book. It just has it’s moments. They fit the story well and it’s just a book. You’ll probably be OK haha :p)--but disguisting because the boy's skin just melts away.

Normally I wouldn’t think twice about these kind of moments but they were written so vividly—as was the entire book—that I couldn’t help but see everything that happened to Vivian very clearly and realistically in my mind. I love it when a book just grabs you right out of your seat and drags you into a world of wonder, and this is definitely that kind of book.

There was one character in the book that I, when I first read about him, viewed as weird and negative (because it stood out and didn’t seem to fit) but he very soon melted my heart and I started to love the little guy: Poe, a penguin—yep you heard me. Penguin. The cutest, smartest, bravest little penguin I have ever read about (although to be fair I haven’t read that many books with penguins in them. Still.)

Another character, Zee, I couldn't resist: a painter and bookshop owner by day and a warrior in his dreams at night.

Did I also mention that this book is filled with dragons? Not the cute be-my-best-friend-and-we-will-ride-the-skies-together kind of dragon that you find in a lot of books these days, but old-fashioned really nasty I’ll-bite-your-head-off-and-toast-you-for-dinner kind of dragons.

Other than that I have to say that I really like the humour, eventually had to laugh real hard about the fact that Vivian seems to spend about 20% of the book completely naked and found the whole Wakeworld / Dreamworld / Between was very interesting and I loved reading all about it and how Vivian handles the fact that these worlds exists and that she can movie between them.

In short a book that I would definitely recommend, especially if you are interested in dreams, penguins or just want something different for a change.

Between will be in stores 29 January and I suggest you go check it out!

Go to kerryschafer.com for more information! :)

I will try to make these book reviews a weekly or at least a twice a month thing! I hope you like them!

And also this year:

Keep Writing!
Xx Noortje

 

 
 

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas everybody!! And if you don't celebrate, then Happy Holidays! :) I hope you have a great time!

I'm off to bake some cookies with my mum!

Keep Writing!

Xx Noortje

Jenny's Letter

Here is a short silly Christmas story I wrote yesterday before bed as a little writing exercise :) Hope you enjoy!

Snow clung to the windows, and the lights, usually so bright from his study, were hardly visible tonight. A warm fire was burning in the hearth and Nicholas had turned his large red velvet chair so that his feet were toasty and his face was pleasantly glowing.

He chuckled and placed another letter on the large pile next to him. A particularly grumpy elf was standing dutifully with a dustpan and a brush to collect any stray letters and to prevent any of them from getting into the fire.

The elves were curious little creatures. Most of them loved working in the workshop, adored the snow but preferred the large, warm halls of Nicholas’ castle and the large hearths. Most of those being so tall, that the elves on cleaning duty had to climb on each other’s shoulders, creating a most precarious tower of ten or eleven elves high, just so that they could dust the top of the enormous construction.

Nobody knew exactly how the elves had ended up on the North Pole, not even the little creatures themselves. The polar bears swore that they had always lived in their snowy land, deep inside the glaciers. One particular bear, G’root Bêr (who everyone except Nicholas called Geebee) claimed that the elves had appeared after it had rained for a whole week straight—which was unheard of at the North Pole which is probably why nobody believed Geebee’s theory—a gigantic rainbow appeared and the elves had simply sled off into the snow. The elves themselves when asked, shrugged and murmured that the North Pole was their home. The arctic hares believed that the elves in fact knew very well where they came from and that they were simply too secretive to share.

Nicholas loved Geebee’s theory best, probably because it helped explain something rather peculiar about the elves: they changed colour according to their mood.

Now this didn’t mean that the little things changed every five minutes or so, just that their overall mood lately was taken into account and it would slowly change the colour of their skin. The sour goblin standing next to Nicholas, picking up another stray letter only a fraction of a second before it would have hit the fire, was a rather dull blue and it had been this colour for as long as anyone could remember.

Elves who are in love turn bright pink—which as caused quite some trouble at times. Elves who are incredibly cheerful and content are red and elves who are playful and happy are green. But what amused Nicholas and his wife the most was when an elf had a very strong emotion. That was the only time they would turn colour in a blink of an eye.

When a elf suddenly felt ashamed they would turn yellow. When an elf would suddenly turn angry they would go entirely orange. When an elf was upset they would turn purple  and when a elf would be so happy they burst out in tears they for some reason turned soft brown. When an elf was cared they turned white. There was one poor little elf who was frightened all the time and stayed a perpetual state of ghost white.

‘Quicky! Open the door man! Quickly! Hurry!’

Nicholas looked up from a particular amusing letter from a little boy in Portsmouth who insisted he had been good all year, even though Nicholas knew for a fact that he had dipped his sister’s long blond curls in ink only the week before.

‘What is it?’ he bellowed good humouredly and the big oaken doors to his study opened. In came a little elf, as white as snow.

‘My good man!’ Nicholas said surprised. He leaped up from his chair and kneeled in front of the shivering elf. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s my sister,’ the elf said shivering and near tears. ‘She was sorting your letters from Germany when suddenly she started to cry and turned so blue and purple that she’s—she’s—she’s nearly black!

The elf who had been attending Nicholas gasped and the little fox that had been sleeping on the pile of unread letters woke up with a start and rolled onto the ground.

‘Where is she now?’

The elf wasted no time but hurried out of the room, leading Nicholas up several stairs and through corridors, down a set of stairs, round a corner, past the dining room and finally to a small door that Nicholas vaguely remembered led to a storage room.

When he opened the door it turned out to be a cupboard and there was the little elf, sobbing and hiding behind a bucket  and several mops.

‘Hello Jenny,’ Nicholas said with a kind smile. Even though there were currently 879 elves living in his castle, Nicholas knew them all by name.

‘S-santa,’ Jenny cried between her tears.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘S-she didn’t—she didn’t write!’ The little elf said and grew an ever darker shade of blue and purple until she was nearly as black as night.

‘It’s that girl from Portsmouth,’ Jenny’s brother quickly said. ‘She didn’t write this year.’

‘I know that we shouldn’t w-w-write them baaaack,’ Jenny sobbed, tears streaming down her little face. ‘But I wrote Jenny Green because we had the same n-name. She was so nice. She said she would write back—why hasn’t she written back. Something is wrong. Something—’ She couldn’t talk anymore, burying her little head in her arms.

‘I remember Jenny Green,’ Nicholas said and chuckled. ‘Delightful girl.’

‘She doesn’t believe in me anymore—in us.’

‘She didn’t write,’ Nicholas corrected her. ‘That doesn’t mean she stopped believing. I always got the impression that Jenny was one who would believe for life.’

‘Then something happened. She would have written.’

 Without a word, Nicholas picked Jenny up and held her warmly in his arms. Jenny hiccupped and already turned a little less black. Her brother sighed with relief. An elf only turned black when they were dying—or dead.

Nicholas made his way up to the tallest tower where he kept a very special telescope. He placed the little elf in front of it and changed several dials and complicated looking levers.

‘This telescope shows only what you most desire to see in the mortal world.’

The elf nodded and put her large blue eye to the lense. First nothing happened. Then the little creature started to shake and shiver more than ever.

Through the lens she could see Jenny, decorating a Christmas tree, singing songs to a small happy baby.  Then she took a picture of the wall and showed it to the child, her lips moving rapidly and a smile spreading on her face. The telescope zoomed in and Jenny could see that it was one of her letters. Framed. The walls were filled with them.

 Jenny smiled and slowly her skin grew soft brown.

Holiday Read Book Review: Holly Claus

It's the Christmas season!! and with my exams finally being over I find myself capable of really enjoying everything I love about this time a year. :) 

Something I've wanted to do for quite a while now but never really found the time to do is book reviews.

And what better way to start then with my favourite holiday read? 

The Legend Of Holly Claus is a book that just screams Christmas and it never fails to bring me in the holiday spirit. I bought it a couple of years back and this year is my third time re-reading it. 



In this wonderful book by Brittney Ryan, Santa Claus is actually the king of Forever, which is the land of the Immortals. Every soul who changed the world in their own way, who selflessly and full of love helped those around them, becomes Immortal and ends up in Nicholas' kingdom. 

One Winter day Nicholas is reading letters from children all over the world and he gets one from a small boy who asks something nobody had ever asked him before: What Santa would like himself for Christmas. A miracle occurs and Nicholas and his wife Viviana are blessed with a child: Holly. 

But the beautiful day of her birth is ruined when an evil being named Herrikhan, who is trapped by the universe because of all the horrible things he has done, hears of Holly and her perfect, loving, selfless heart and puts a curse on her--turning her heart to snow so that it will belong to him alone when she is older. Once he possesses her heart, he will be set free...

The Legend of Holly Claus must by far be the most adorable book I have ever read. It really makes you remember what Christmas used to feel like as a child and reminds you of the wonders if every day things. Holly is a happy innocent and curious child, despite the fact that she has to stay locked up in the castle for most of the year, in her enchanted room where it always snows, so that her cold heart won't melt. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to curl up with a cup of tea on the couch, snow lazily drifting outside, book in your hands. To anyone who wishes to laugh and cry with joy (yes this book nearly made me cry many times), marvel at the breathtaking illustrations and just escape for a few hours in the wonderful and beautiful world of Holly Claus. 


Do you have a favourite holiday read? A book you simply have to read every year to get a complete Christmas? Please share in the comments!

Also let me know if you think I could improve this review and those to come. I have never really done anything like this before :) 

Now it is time for myself to curl up with Holly and later on write some pages of my own :) 

Keep Writing!

Xx Noortje