Jason Alexander, Ami Chopine, Sandra Tayler, Chris Weston, Stacy Whitman

Imposter syndrome.

Reality –> everyone is making it up as they go!

Part of it is humility – knowing you don’t know it all.

And that is good –> willing to learn

Fear can keep you from what you need to do.

It’s okay to get it wrong. Get it wrong and move on!

No about smart, it’s about hard work.

Look at the evidence that you belong – of your own competence.

Write every day.

Spectate on the feelings you have in the moment.

Set goals.

Have somebody be your sanity check – honest affirmation.

Jess Smart Smiley

Developing an idea into a story.

Do a mind map, lists, notecards.

Take one bubble and combine with another. Repeat.

Then take time away from the ideas and let it all germinate.

Get a solid concept.

Notecard method: split into 3 sections – Begin, Middle, End. Put B, M, or E on notecard.

Write 3-5 sentence description of what happens on each card.

Then add 2 cards to each one. Create a middle and end for each section – 2 sentences.

Then build what goes in-between.

Make the process as much fun as the book when it’s done.

Then, Rough Draft.

What story looks like, pacing, get to know story better, see what up against.

Finish rough before editing.

Next draft.

Final Edit.

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now that I’ve read the previous books in the chronology of this universe, this book made more sense to me. It also seemed much more structured and paced than I experienced it the first time I read it (perhaps I read it very quickly before?).

I liked the surprise reveal at the end (even though I remembered it from the previous read and so was not surprised). I watched for clues as I read that led up to that reveal, and I really did not see many. So, that is interesting.

The plot itself was interesting. There were times that Hari Seldon reminded me a lot of Elijah Bailey (except Hari doesn’t shout Jehosephat all the time), which is also interesting.

I also liked the play with Earth and Aurora – I had not remembered that part from my earlier reading.

Dors wasn’t as fleshed out as a character as I would have liked, but I think that is partially due to the extra surprise twist at the end (which, conversely, had lots of clues in the book).

The way that Asimov handled the mind teases of the solution to psychohistory were different than he’d done with Elijah Bailey (although somewhat similar). There were more of them and he hung lanterns more prominently on them. I thought it was more realistic this way.

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Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting start with the whole time travel thing. I never expected that.

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The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked that the antagonist was more than just some evil person – that he had reasons and felt like he was doing what was best.

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The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the suspense and the twists and turns that this novel took.

The ending seemed a bit contrived to me, but it didn’t ruin the book at all.

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This one did not have lots of notes from me because I knew a lot already. But here they are:

iwritenetwork forums for bloggers

smashwords

createspace (amazon)

Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am enjoying this series. It was awesome to get to know Daneel and Giskard even better, and even take part in their conversations.

This is a rather long book (compared with the earlier ones), but it is not necessarily more action. There is a lot of introspection and dialogue here. But it was still fun to see the characters working against each other and planning against each other.

And Gladia is even more awesome now that she seems more independent!

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Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved getting to know Princess Poppy better.

This was a fun and unique take on Cinderella.

For this second book in the series, Poppy is part of a royal exchange program and gets sent to a neighboring kingdom where she has to go toe-to-toe with a wanna-be princess who has her eye on the same prince as Poppy. The problem is that this wanna-be has a fairy godmother on her side.

Poppy is awesomely snarky and her character became much more real in this book.

I’d love to see 10 or 11 more books for each of the other princesses where they take on other fairy tales 😉 (it is 10 because while the first one is all 12, it has a lot to do with Rose. But, it might be nice to have Rose have her own too).

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