Hear ye, hear ye, this is the first of many Lazy Sundays, Reading in Bed (or wherever, really) series. Lazy Sunday posts are meant to be fun and exciting so join in the conversation in the comments! (This is not a book review.)

Get comfy and get your book ready. #LazySundays

Thank you to the publisher, Flatiron Books for approving my request.

Currently I’m reading:

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

This is the sequel to The Hazel Wood which I loved and have been waiting for book 2 for what feels like forever, Melissa! I am loving it! Back in 2018 (when The Hazel Wood released) she was on book tour and came to the Irving library. I was working on my own manuscript and asked Melissa about her writing process and the story. I asked her something along the lines of how to balance the magical elements that are placed in our world so that it seems realistic without the reader stepping out of the story. Something she did really well, I was so immersed in The Hazel Wood, I didn’t even notice when I finished. Anyway my question was something along those lines and her response or what stuck with me is that she said something along these lines (sorry I didn’t think back then to write it down) but that ‘fantasy elements are only fantastical because that is what we as the writer make them to be in the context of the world we are building.’

And as a writer literally beginning to navigate writing and publishing this meant so much. Heck it still does because that’s true, I agree, take a look at Doctor Who, takes place in contemporary London, you have alien invasions, time travel, space travel, some aspects of magic although the show focuses specifically on science. But it all seems to thread seamlessly and the audience is quick to believe the possibility of those events happening in the DW world.

The other questions were character and story related but as River Song would say…

 

Here are some questions that might help take your reading to the next level.

✨ Who are these characters?

✨ What do they want right now in the story?

✨ Would I be friends with them?

✨ What type of music would they listen to?

✨ If I met them in the street or at a coffee shop what would they order?

✨ Do I want to live in this world? Would I survive living in this world?

✨ What’s happening in the story right now?

✨ Where are is each character? (location, emotionally)

✨ What are the characters doing? (physically, schemes, what’s going on…on a character level)

✨ Where do I think this story is going? How does it align with what the character wants? How has the story and characters changed?

Let me know what you’re reading in the comments!