The Book Bag: Someone Else's Fairytale

Showing posts with label Someone Else's Fairytale. Show all posts

Friday, April 5, 2013

Winner @ The Book Bag!

I've got another winner to announce!

This is for the wonderful book

Someone Else's Fairytale by E.M. Tippetts

And the winner is ......

Angela C!!

(I will be sending you an email soon ~ watch for it)

And be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Friday, March 22, 2013

E. M. Tippetts, Voices. and a Couple of Giveaways!

Yesterday I posted my thoughts about the amazing, fun book by E.M. Tippetts, Someone Else's Fairytale. You can read my thoughts here. Today I have Emily here at The Book Bag giving her response to the 'voices' question I like to ask authors.

I have to say that her response is probably one of the best ones I have ever received from an author; very well thought out and she makes a lot of good points.

So here goes ~~

I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books: the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.

When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?

I’m somewhat skeptical that authors hear their characters voices in the same way people who need medical attention hear voices. Which isn't to say we don’t hear voices and spend a lot of time with imaginary people. We do, but we’re in the business of creating imaginary people and making them talk. Thus, I think a writer hears voices very much the way that an architect sees completed buildings that haven’t been built and a musician hears music that has never been played. We train our minds to do this and some of us have a natural inclination to do it even before we start training. And yet, there’s an odd glamour that some of us attach to being a little mental, and I have to say, I've never understood it.

Now, I don’t want to get up on a soapbox and preach, so I’ll keep this part brief. I think mental illness is widely misunderstood, and idealized in a somewhat unhealthy way. So yes, it bothers me when I hear writers or other artists bragging about how they've got a mental disorder, as if this is some badge of greatness or authenticity. Again, I don’t want to preach. I merely want to put out there that the mentally ill are people who may or may not be artistic, may or may not be geniuses, and all have a difficulty to overcome that isn't glamorous. And their experience is different, I would say, than the writer who hears voices, though I suppose someone prone to psychosis could also be a writer and get inspiration from their hallucinations. It wouldn't be all that different from those of us who get inspiration from our dreams.

In artistic circles, though, it’s not uncommon to hear people brag about having mental problems. One common one is the writer who has to write or they start to go a little loopy. What’s odd here is that I am actually one of those people, so I can attest: It’s not a sign of greatness. It’s an obsessive disorder (mine is very mild). In fact, I can’t help but laugh when someone tries to one up me on this. “Oh yeah? Well if I don’t write every day, I start pulling out my hair. I start talking to people who don’t exist and getting in fights.” I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I didn't satisfy my urge to write because… well, it’s a really easy urge to satisfy. Anyone who has gotten to the point that they pull out their hair or have delusions makes me wonder how they manage that. Do they not have pencils, pens, paper, a computer, crayons, steamy mirrors, dirty cars, gravel in the yard, or anything that they can write with or on? I’ll go so far as to say, they've got to be lying. The proof of my mild obsessive disorder is that I write an average of six days a week. I have no idea what would happen if I didn't because that would be really hard to do, and I wish this meant that I am therefore a great author, but it doesn't mean anything like that. Many authors better than I have admitted to me that they've taken years off from their craft with no ill effects.

So, I would argue that no one is so different from the average writer that they can’t get the general idea of what it’s like to hear character voices. Everyone creates in some way or another. Perhaps you don’t hear voices, but you can look at a barren garden and see rows of carrots and peas, or at cans of food and see a completed three course meal. That ability to visualize the next step is the same ability that writers use to write their stories, and just like everyone else, the exact way each of us goes about it differs.

I have a friend whose main character whispered the first line of her book series in her ear one day. I've never experienced anything like that. I, on the other hand, daydream constantly. Any time I can get away with it, I zone out and imagine my characters interacting, and if I don’t like the scene, I change something and run it again and again and again. Mine isn't as romantic as some. It just involves me looking like a space cadet much of the time. Some authors see their characters in other people, by picking and choosing characteristics and setting up situations. All of us, after we've been at it a while, have a very active fantasy life and spend a lot of time with people who don’t exist. My opinion, though, is that we live in an era of specialization. Some people specialize in building things, some adding things, some moving and shipping things, and some of us in imagination. Everyone imagines a little. Artists imagine a lot, all the time. It may make us a little quirky, but it won’t require medical attention, and some of us have mild disorders that add to our quirks, but that’s, again, a different matter entirely.

E.M. Tippetts grew up in New Mexico and now lives in London, where she raises two boisterous toddlers, designs jewelry, and writes novels. A former attorney, she used to specialize in real estate and estate planning, specifically literary estate planning. She currently has five novels out, Time & Eternity, Paint Me True, Someone Else's Fairytale, Castles on the Sand, and Nobody's Damsel (Fairytale 2).

Connect with Emily

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

Buy Someone Else's Fairytale

Amazon | B&N

Visit all the other stops on the tour!

And enter the tour giveaway!

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page at CLP Blog Tours (here) will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Someone Else's Fairytale before April 8 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**

I am also holding a giveaway right here for a paperback copy of Someone Else's Fairytale. Enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

On Tour and a Couple of Giveaways: Someone Else's Fairytale by E. M. Tippetts

Jason Vanderholt, Hollywood's hottest actor, falls head over heels for everygirl, Chloe Winters, who hasn't gotten around to watching most of his movies. She becomes the woman every other woman in America is dying to be, but it just isn't her fairytale. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about Someone Else's Fairytale ~~

Seems like more and more, there are a lot of books out there about fairy-tales. I loved reading all kinds of books as a child, especially fairy-tales. I am still a sucker for a remake say, you know, when Disney re-releases all those old fairy-tale movies. I'm always looking for a young child to take to the theater as my excuse for watching the movie all over again. And I am loving all the remakes now in the book world too. What fun! So, of course I had to read this book when I saw it was going on tour. Why not read about 'someone else's' fairy-tale?

The story starts out with Chloe and her good friends Matthew and Lori going down to campus to be extras in a movie featuring Jason, who is a superstar. Chloe isn't really star struck like her friends are and she isn't quite sure why Jason pays so much attention to her.

Chloe suffered through a very traumatic time when she was young and that really helped her mature and take life seriously ~ she pretty much had to become self-sufficient. So when Jason tries to buy and do things for her, she is suspicious about his motives. She has her two good friends to help her through the good times, and the bad times, that she goes through with Jason. And Chloe helps Jason figure out what is important in life. Maybe being a superstar isn't the best thing, after all.

I really liked the relationship between Chloe and Matthew, they both seemed very grounded and sensible. And they truly do care for each other. I also liked the relationship that formed between Chloe and Jason's niece, Kyra. It was refreshing to see a young person learn to like, respect, and admire someone she hardly knew, but who was able to help her change her life around. That was probably one of my favorite parts of the book, to see that friendship grow.

Probably one of the greatest lines in the whole book is this one ~~

'That part of me I'd thought was broken past repair, wasn't so broken after all. I hadn't forgotten how to dream, I'd just stopped paying attention.'

That's it folks, we can't stop paying attention!

So.... a lot of great characters and relationships in this story. And is Chloe going to be happy with her life, or just see it as 'someone else's fairytale'?

I was not familiar with this author before the tour and I found out she has 5 novels out. Whoo-ee ~ I've got some catching up to do! I am excited to also be a part of her blog tour for the sequel to Someone Else's Fairytale, which will be in April and May. That book is titled Nobody's Damsel. It will be interesting to see where Emily takes these characters.

About the author

Connect with E. M.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

Buy Someone Else's Fairytale

Amazon | B&N

Visit all the other stops on the tour!

And enter the tour giveaway!

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page at CLP Blog Tours (here) will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Someone Else's Fairytale before April 8 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**

I am also holding a giveaway right here for a paperback copy of Someone Else's Fairytale. Enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

WWW Wednesdays March 20, 2013

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Goodreads
for more information about the books listed below.

What are you currently reading?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This is a re-read for me. One of my book groups is reading it this month. I loved it the first time and am looking forward to reading it again and discussing it with my group.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

(Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy #1)
(audio book)
Still drivin' and listenin'

What did you recently finish reading?

Someone Else's Fairytale by E.M. Tippetts

I read this for CLP Blog Tours. My thoughts will be posted tomorrow

Blue Jeans and Coffee by Joanne DeMaio

Another great story by Joanne ~ you can read my thoughts here

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

This was selected for one of my book groups. I just could not get into it. I only skimmed through it so I could kinda, sorta contribute to the book discussion.

What do you think you will read next?

I'm not really sure what I am going to read next. I'll probably look at the review's I have committed to and select something from that list.

What's on your WWW this week?

Leave me a comment and

I'll stop by to check out your reads.

And be sure to check out the sidebar
for my current giveaways!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

WWW Wednesdays March 13, 2013

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Goodreads
for more information about the books listed below.

What are you currently reading?

Blue Jeans and Coffee by Joanne DeMaio

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

This is for one of my book groups. I don't remember reading it, if I ever did. But it's always nice to pick up a classic, isn't it? I hope I enjoy it.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts
(Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy #1)
(audio book)
Still drivin' and listenin'

What did you recently finish reading?

Okay, so I was on vacation last week and didn't get my WWW posted. Plus I did get a lot of reading done while I was off, so there are quite a few books on my list this week. Gotta love vacations!