RTW: This Seems Familiar

Writing Song of the Day: "Deja Vu" by Beyonce

It's Wednesday which means road tripping with the ladies of YA Highway. This week they're asking us:

What themes, settings, motifs, scenes, or other elements do you find recurring in your work?

I was a little lost on this one at first, but then Pam pointed out that we have discussed certain elements that continue to show themselves in ALL of our writing.

Pam's Answer:

Okay, my answer is really strange because:

A.) I'm a daddy's girl.

B.) My dad is pretty much awesome and

C.) Did I say I'm a daddy's girl??

With that being said, the recurring element that pops up in both Wants and Project J is daddy issues. My major characters either have a physical or emotionally MIA pop. Now that I think about it, this could stem from the fact that my dad was in the military for most of my childhood and he was gone for at least a year when he fought in Desert Storm.

Quita's Answer:

The recurring element that surfaces in my writing would be literally killing some of my darlings. For some reason I kill every single one of my character's best friends. Not just the associate they talk to in school sometimes--their best friends. In both In Limbo and The Blues the killing of the best friend serves major purposes, but still--I don't know why this keeps happening. It's not like I want to kill people--it just seems like the right thing to do. Wow. That sounds pretty creepy...

Your turn! Tell us what keeps popping up in your writing??

Writing Through Grief

Writing Song of the Day: "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Greenday

**Disclaimer: You may want to have Kleenex on hand ...**

We were debating whether or not we should do a post directly relating to yesterday's ten year anniversary of September 11th. It took us quite a few hours to decide if we would or if we'd just allow the numerous other blog posts (all very beautiful, thought provoking, and touching) to stand on their own and we'd take another approach. We'd like to discuss how writing can be a form of therapy when dealing with grief.

As writers, we all are guilty of putting ourselves in our material. Whether it be a character who loves cookie dough ice cream or hates football as much as we do. And me and Pam believe that as writers we also use our craft as a form of therapy.

When I was writing short stories to get into the MFA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, I wrote an entire story based on a young girl who was losing her father to cancer. I wrote this story a little while after my own dad lost his battle with cancer. Writing it helped me to get out the things I couldn't say, like: "I'm sorry for not always being there when you needed me, Dad." All I can hope is that he was reading over my shoulder.

When Pam lost her grandmother she wrote an essay in high school that helped her to express how she felt. She never talked about her grandmother's death and this essay let out all her sadness and the guilt that she kept bottled inside.

The point is: writing is GREAT for getting out pint up emotion, anxiety, and even anger. And when you feel like no one will listen, will care or will understand what you have to say--write it down! OR you can also READ.

Writing takes on a new form of therapy for those who read. Think about Peter Negron. The thirteen year old read the poem "Stars" by children's writer Deborah Chandra two years after his father was killed in the 9/11 attacks. That poem helped the teen to relay how he was feeling after losing his father. It offered a form of release, of understanding that two years earlier, Peter did not possess.

What about you all? Does writing and/or reading serve as a form of therapy for you?

Friday Fives: Best Summer Reads

Reading Song of the Day: "You're So Last Summer" by Taking Back Sunday

*sigh* The Summer has officially ended and we are wrapping up our first week of school. That means four days down, 176 to go! But we can still relish in the ah-may-zing books we read over the summer...

What? Paper Hangover wants us to do that???

Well, okay then...

This week's Friday Fives from that awesome blog group mentioned above is:

What are the FIVE best books you read this summer?

In no particular order, here are the five books we loved on over the summer:

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga : Pretty much any book about a child or a young student being molested by a teacher seems like it would come off "messagy". But according to Pam, this book doesn't. It helped her to make sense of why children/teens blame themselves and the healing they go through in order to move on.

Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff: Pam gave love to Brezenoff's new masterpiece here (and also loved on him in other spots on our blog). This book made her feel. And she loved, loved, adored the imagery and mysteriousness of the MC and his/her love interest.

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson: I've already loved on this book enough here...but just in case you need to know MORE, know this--Nelson is a master at pacing. The story moves along fast, but not so fast that you're wondering what the *bleep* happened with that plot line or this conflict. MASTER, I say!

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa: Pam discussed before why she loved this book so much here, but she will add that it's one of the rare fantasy books that hooked her from the beginning and never let go.

Looking For Alaska by John Green: I am such a late passenger on the John Green train, but I ain't getting off! This book hooked me from the first page. The MC is likable, believable, and made me feel every single emotion that he was going through. LOVE!

What books did you love all up on this summer?

Tagged! We're It!

Miscellaneous Song of the Day: "Price Tag" by Jessie J

The lovely, funny, all around cool chica, Amparo Ortiz, tagged us last week, and we FINALLY got a chance to play the game--woo hoo!

Enough with the small talk. Here are 10 Random Facts about Quita and me:

1. We have an obsession with movies. Seriously. Our idea of relaxation is popping in a DVD or running to the cineplex. Some of our mutual faves include Inception, Mysterious Skin, and The Rules of Attraction.

2. To piggy-back off of #1, we quote movie lines in our day-to-day lives. From Interview With the Vampire ("Don't make me do this, I can NOT!), to The Departed ("I can investigate anyone I want!"--Boston accent included), to Juice ("Fat a** Still is stuck in school again, again")--we pretty much find some kind of way to show our love for the moving picture.

3. We both ordered travel information about New Orleans when we were in high school--and we didn't know the other one had done that until recently. Which proves everyone's theory that we're pretty much the same person.

4. Also when we were younger, Quita thought she was Left Eye, I thought I was Chilli, and Quita's older sister thought she was T-Boz. Yeah, we were just a little obsessed with TLC. So much so that we created our own music group, PMS. None of us are very vocally advanced, however.

5. When we sign our names on any present or card to each other, we write Mrs.--and then a string of last names of every possible hot guy, ever. Quita's signature is something like: "Mrs. Gyllenhaal-Mathers-Gordon-Levitt" and mine is usually: "Mrs. DiCaprio-Timberlake-Bloom."

6. We have a thing for hot white guys. (See #5).

7. When either of us try to do a British accent, we always sound Jamaican.

8. When we're anywhere in public and something embarrassing happens (to us or to anyone else), we know better than to look at each other because we'll burst into a fit of giggles. And once we get started, it's pretty hard to stop us.

9. I'm pretty good at picking up the dance moves in music videos (albeit, not very good), and Quita's pretty good at making fun of me for this weird habit.

10. If Crumbs Bakery was a person, we'd totally marry it. Click here to see why.

And that is probably as random as we can get. Now, here are the awesome folks that we're tagging (and our apologies if you've already done this--we promise to get back into the groove of the blogosphere again):

Racquel

Alex Mullarky

Jamie Manning

RTW: To Be Young Again

Writing Song of the Day: "When You Were Young" by The Killers

So it's the second day of the school year for Quita and me, but we still have time to take a little road trip with the lovely ladies of YA Highway. This week for Road Trip Wednesday they want to know:

What non-YA character would you love to see star in a YA book as themselves?

Ooh, good question! Probably our favorite one so far...but it also completely stumped us.

After much, MUCH thought, Quita came up with Ms. Sookie Stackhouse herself from the Charlaine Harris series. Why? Perhaps because she was Bella Swan before there was even a Bella Swan--not to mention she has some kick ass fairy powers. And pretty much every guy she meets, supernatural or otherwise, falls in love with her. That is one problem we'd LOVE to have.

We actually stole our other choice. I saw that the lovely Katy Upperman mentioned Dexter Morgan, star of one of our favorite TV shows evah. And Dexter would be awesome to see as a teen. We already have a vague idea of his background based on flashback, but to be there in the moment with him while he makes his first kill and discovers his dark passenger? Whoa. Okay, we realize that sounds a little demented, but hey--we're writers. That gives us a crazy pass.

What about you all? Who would you love to see as YA character?

Writers: Totally a Labor Organization

Writing Song of the Day: "Holiday" by Madonna

So, it's Labor Day. What does that mean for you?

A pool party?

A cook out??

A day of relaxation???

What about what the holiday was created for originally? The United States government made Labor Day a national holiday in recognition of various labor organizations. It's supposed to be a day for those labor groups to be revered and loved on. But what have we, Americans, turned the day into? A day to either lay around and do nothing, or a day to mourn the end of summer and the beginning of dun, dun, dun...the school year!

But what does labor day mean to us writers??? Well, if you are like me and Pam and you don't have children, it's our last full day to possibly get some writing done. If you do have school aged children it's the last day (besides the weekends) that you have to entertain your kids instead of sending them off to school. Either way, we are a labor organization, aren't we? And just like those groups that Labor Day was originally created for, we deserve to be recognized and celebrated.

So, in the spirit of Labor Day, here is what we think belongs at a celebration of what we have deemed the Labor Organization of Writers:

*Party Favor Pack: Consisting of pens, a Moleskin, a flash drive, and Post-It notes.

*Snacks: Of the sweet, chocolatey, and oh-so-bad-for-you variety

*Pictures of sexy celebs: We all need to look at our muses--whether it be Leo DiCaprio or Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

*Balloons: Because what's a celebration without balloons?

*Music: Moody, deep, and probably instrumental.

*Inspirational Items: Quotes, pics of their kids, or books from authors that we all aspire to be like.

What would you all add to our celebration??? Have a happy Labor Day!

Friday Fives: Attention! Awesome Title Here!

Reading Song of the Day: "You Have My Attention" by Copeland

Friday's here! That means we have FOUR days until the kids come back to school and our jobs get even harder...but in the mean time, we can participate in some Friday Fives' fun with the Paper Hangover gang!

This week the peeps want to know:

What are FIVE book titles that got your attention?

If you know anything about me and Pam, you know we aren't huge fans of coming up with our own titles (evidenced by the clever title of this post). But we do love it when we come across titles that snatch our attention right away. With that being said, here are the top five books (in no particular order) with attention grabbing titles:



Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: The title is soooo mysterious. How can someone be a daughter of these two random objects?


The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Pam noticed that she's enjoying titles that are more lengthy instead of the one word titles that she used to be fond of. She thinks this novel is a perfect embodiment of a wordy title that manages to give a concise overview of the novel.


Rock Star, Superstar by Blake Nelson: So, fell in love with Mr. Nelson while reading Paranoid Park. Then I realized: I needed more! I decided to read this book just by glancing at the title. And yeah, the book is just as bada** as the title.


The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler: This grabbed both of us when we attended SCBWI's LA conference in 2010. We've spent some time having round bodies (me, still have it...Pam, not so much--skinny bee-yatch), and seeing that there was a WHOLE novel about a character who had a round butt made us pretty much squeal!



This Is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell: This book is so new that there's no cover art for it over on Goodreads! But as soon as Pam saw the title, she knew she wanted to read this one...also, the summary is pretty interesting. Check it out!

Actually, check out all of those books! The kick butt titles are just a quick preview of all of the awesome-ness that the books have to offer. What about you all? What titles have grabbed your attention?