- What was the name of that awesome program I used to use to manage my research? Ah, there it is.
- Wait, now, what was that database that all the literary papers are in? EBSCO? No, JSTOR, that’s it.
- Woah, there are three whole journals basically devoted to CS Lewis? (Only a bit of an exaggeration.)
- Research is so fun! Why didn’t I go to grad school?
- Now how do I get access to these papers without membership in a university library? Oh, wow, this is way easier than it was in 2008.
- Why is the only academic thing I can find on Brandon Sanderson an undergraduate thesis? And I can’t access it. Oh well.
- Hmm, on reading these papers, none of this actually seems to be useful. Am I missing something?
- Should I buy these academic books on fantasy? What am I saying? Yes. The answer to buying books is always yes.
- How do I know when to stop researching and just starting writing? Maybe now?
- Uh, I don’t know how to start this. I guess, what better place to start than the middle?
- Actually, I need more sources to write this part. What if we move on to this later part?
- Now, how do I cite scripture in MLA?
- Writing is so awesome! Who’s the best writer ever?
- Why did I think starting in the middle was a good idea? Now I have two disconnected pieces.
- Why is this so hard? I remember being good at this once upon a time.
- Why do the Kindle versions of all the other books in this series have page numbers but this one doesn’t? I really don’t like having to cite chapter numbers for only this volume.
- What’s a better way to say “In this paper, I will show . . .”?
- Wait, do you italicize series titles in MLA?
- Is it ethical to just pull this quote from someone else’s paper and quote it as if I actually looked it up myself? Probably not. I’ll just buy the book. Mostly likely will use it again anyway.
- Who on my friend list do I trust to help me fix this paper?
- Am I a jerky friend for not asking sooner? It’s due in three days . . . .
- Oh my gosh, my friend is a genius. Why didn’t I see that?
- Should I save this paragraph somewhere before cutting it?
- Are there any more asterisks I haven’t replaced yet? Oh, there’s one.
- Okay, am I ready for this? Submit!
On the Ethics of Negative Book Reviews
A friend once asked me to review on Goodreads a book she was planning to indie publish in a few weeks. Like a shmuck, I said, “Sure, I’d love to” with no further details. I had briefly workshopped stuff with this friend (before dropping out because I had no energy to write at that point in my life). Her stuff had been mostly fantasy YA, and I had enjoyed it. I was sure I would have no problems reviewing this book positively.
I was so wrong. The book turned out not to be SFF but a romance novella. For me, romance is like salt. I don’t mind a little in my books. Occasionally, it really hits the spot like a good salted caramel. But would I ever eat a pile of salt? Nope.
Not only that, but it turned out that the book was, well, just okay. Like, if my friend was still workshopping the book, I would have had lots of questions and feedback. But my friend was ready to ship the book and just looking for some reviews to get the ball rolling. I had no idea what to do.
Continue reading “On the Ethics of Negative Book Reviews”Springtime and Change
So, a lot has changed since my last post in September. To sum up:
- My husband and I moved our family from Washington to Utah! My husband’s job as a programmer went permanently remote, so as of January 2021, we can live anywhere in the US. I have always wanted to move back to my home state of Utah, and this seemed doubly important after the pandemic cut us off from visiting family. So we sold our home in Bellevue and are now under contract to buy a home in Highland, UT. It’s been a wild ride, but we’re in the home stretch and should be settled in our new place this summer.
- Homeschooling is wonderful and horrible and ending soon. Being able to school the kids anywhere was a real blessing during our move but has also been an absolute drain on my creative energy. I’ve loved teaching about science and literature, but all the planning has really kept me from doing much else. The good news is: only 10 or weeks to go. I’m excited to have a break for the summer and send the kids back to public school in the fall.
- I’ve decided to be more open about my interest in Mormon literature on this blog. At first, I was hesitant to include my religion in this blog at all. As someone once told McKay Coppins, “Mormons have no cultural cachet.” The religious right hates us because we’re not mainline Christians, the left sees us as bigoted conservatives. Obviously exceptions exist, but to admit you’re Mormon and to talk about Mormon books is to severely limit your audience in both directions. Even other Mormons often aren’t interested in Mormon lit. It would be so much easier to just focus on mainstream works. But the intersection of religion, and particularly Mormonism, and speculative fiction is kind of a big thing for me. I’ve had an abstract accepted for the SFRA Review special issue on Mormons and SF, and I haven’t been this excited to write something in a long time. I’m going to have to embrace this niche and hope someone appreciates it as much as I do.
I hope to come back to writing more frequently on this blog as my homeschool workload wraps up and the move finishes, so watch this space for more lit crit and writing process in action!
Reading on Vacation: Two Books Set in Idaho
Like many readers, I consider reading a way to relax from my everyday life. Whether it’s escaping to a fantasy world or learning about a new idea, reading improves my mood and gives me a break from the practicalities of life. Reading kept my brain moving during the years when my life was mostly filled with changing diapers, trips to the park, and knocking down block towers for the hundredth time today.
When I go on vacation, I like to take a break from my normal reading routine by finding something related to the place we are visiting. It makes me feel even more grounded in someplace new, even when as a family with small kids, the things we do on vacation are largely the same things we do at home: visiting parks, going hiking, visiting kid-friendly museums, and eating at kid-friendly restaurants. When we went to Disneyland, I read Creativity Inc. When we were in Japan, I read A Tale for the Time Being.
Continue reading “Reading on Vacation: Two Books Set in Idaho”Self Care and The Three Selves
I have a friend who struggles a lot with mental health issues. Recently, her therapist has mandated working on her sleep health (going to bed at a reasonable time, not using screens in bed, not sleeping during the day, etc). She was sort-of-pretend complaining on a Zoom call the other day about how she was “being mean to herself” by forcing herself to skip her typical three hour afternoon nap. I think she knew inside herself that it was necessary to skip afternoon naps in order to be able to get a full night’s sleep. But she still felt like not taking a nap was “mean.”
This conversation gets at the problem of the whole “self care” movement. The definition of caring for ourselves can mean different things to different people at different times. Sometimes a nap is self-care, sometimes it’s not. If you are occasionally exhausted, allowing yourself a break for a short nap is a kind and productive thing to do. But if you chronically stay up late and have trouble sleeping and end up crashing for three hours in the afternoon, then a nap becomes something unhealthy, a bad habit to break. How do we make sense of this?
Continue reading “Self Care and The Three Selves”