November 02, 2008

The Sunday Salon

It is the second day of the NaNoWriMo and I'm off to a good start with 2863 words under my belt. Only 47,137 left to go. ;) And I already have friends lined up to read my book when it's published, uh, I mean, when I'm done. My husband is rooting for me too. It's so nice to have a support system. I'm sure I will be relying on it by the second week.

For those who didn't hear yet, I finished the mammoth Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Getting that chunkster off my shelves will make room for 2 or 3 books in its place. Yay! I'm halfway through The 19th Wife which is living up to all the hype. I'm curious to solve the mystery in the modern story thread but the real magic of the book lies in the historic accounts of Ann Elisa, the ex-wife of Brigham Young. Good stuff that. When that book is complete I will be picking up another historical fiction, Sarah's Key. It's funny, when I was in school I hated history. Now I can't seem to get enough of it. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon due to reading?

4 comments:

Michele said...

I think historical fiction has a way of doing that. Once you read a phenomenal work of historical fiction, you're constantly searching for more! Learning about history while you're reading a great novel is like icing on the cake. :)

Anonymous said...

Way to go with the writing! Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I didn't ever hate history -- in fact, I minored in it -- but I do understand what you mean.

I think that the biggest difference between school-history and reading-history is the structure in which it's taught/told. Probably in school you got a lot more narratives of events, and fewer stories about actual people's lives... the latter being far more interesting.

Historical fiction is particularly good at showing the stories behind events, and giving a good sense of the era in question. So are some narrative non-fiction histories; Pierre Burton comes to mind, as does Nathaniel Philbrick.

Karen Harrington said...

Good luck on your NaNoWriMo challenge! What a great start. :) I'm in the trenches with you.