I often find writing dialogue to be incredibly painful. This nugget, however, poured out of my fingers in ten minutes-ish. I'm not sure why I wrote it as straight dialogue initially, and I thought about going back in and adding dialogue tags, actions, and descriptions. But I decided to leave it as is and leave much up to the imagination of the reader. I'd love to hear what you envisioned in the scene in the comments below!
"I'm just doing what the fortune cookie said. Who am I to stand in the way of fate?"
"So if the fortune cookie told you to jump off a bridge, or rob a bank, you'd do it?"
"That's my fate."
"Wait. Since when are fortune cookies the same as fate?"
"The cookie is just a tool, how the universe communicates with you."
"So the universe gives you a heads up for what's coming, what you've earned, or whatever?"
"I guess."
"What if you don't ever eat Chinese food?"
"Then you don't get to know what's coming."
"If the fortune is really your fate, what's with the numbers? They never work for me."
"Cosmic combinations."
"What?"
"They're probably not lucky numbers here. They're more like coordinates for a place."
"That you can't get to. Cause it's not on Earth."
"I guess."
"So what's the point?"
"Information. It's all just information. A recording of places and events."
"But the events of the fortune don't happen in the place of the coordinates, right? The fortunes are your fate, your future here. On Earth. But the numbers are coordinates for something, somewhere, else."
"I guess."
"That's the third time you've said 'I guess.' Are you just making all of this up?"
"I guess. I mean, no one can know for sure what the fortunes and numbers and whatever else is stuffed in the cookies really means."
"Except the people who stuff the cookies."
"I'm pretty sure it's machines. They automatically cut the slips and lay them on dough and fold them and package them and everything. Untouched by human hands."
"Who writes the fortunes?"
"No one knows."
"Someone knows. They don't just magically appear in the fortune cookie factory."
"Maybe they do."
"Ha ha. Magic isn't real."
"Isn't it? You seem to believe in the fortunes."
"No. That's you. You're the one who blindly did the thing the cookie told you to do. I'm the one who questioned it."
"But it seems to be working out just fine. Which suggests it is exactly the thing I was meant to do. Fate. You know."
"What if my fortune cookie told me to do the opposite. To stop you from doing what you're doing. What then?"
"What do you mean?"
"Which fate wins?"
"We would both just have to fulfill our fate, what was in the cookie, and see what happened."
"So we don't get to know the effects of our fate, we just have to do the thing?"
"Yes."
"Well then, I guess I have to."
"Have to what?"
"Stop you from making a terrible mistake, no matter what the cost. That's what my cookie said. It's not my fault, it's my fate."
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Baby Teeth and other July Reads
In July I finished 13 books:
The Disappearing by Lori Roy (ARC)
Planning Effective Instruction by Kay M. Price and Karna L. Nelson
How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom by Robert Delisle
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage (ARC)
Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach by John Barell
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
1984 by George Orwell
The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher (ARC)
The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
Review for The Disappearing can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2440786934
Review for The Kennedy Debutante can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2461321631
My favorite ARC of the month was Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. I received a review copy of Baby Teeth from the publisher (St. Martin's Press) in exchange for an honest review. Baby Teeth is scheduled for release July 17, 2018.
Baby Teeth is the story of a mother and daughter with a troubled relationship. Hanna is seven years old and non-verbal. She loves her Daddy with all of her heart, but feels like Mommy is a phony who just gets in the way. Suzette is a stay at home mom who struggles with her own health issues and memories of the uncomfortable relationship she had with her mother. Suzette is concerned about her daughter's lack of speech, seeing it as a choice Hanna uses as a weapon to drive her and her husband apart rather than an uncontrollable condition.
This story is told with dual points of view. We get to ride alone with both Hanna and Suzette as they navigate their interactions with each other. Both points of view are well written. I felt like I really got to know what makes both of these characters tick. I also felt like I couldn't trust either of them entirely. There were no blatant secrets they kept from me, they did not deliberately lie to me (I think...), but I still had the feeling that I shouldn't trust too much in their perspective. There was a feeling to both of these characters that they were avoiding truths they didn't want to face.
As the plot progressed (I won't share any details, because I don't want to spoil it!), there were a few spots where I felt the character choices were inconsistent, a few spots where the story went bump for me. These moment stuck with me, hanging in my mind as I read. By the end of the story, though, when the truths of the characters were more fully revealed, these choices made sense.
While I can't say much more about this novel without ruining the experience for the reader, trust that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This novel is definitely dark and twisty in all the best ways!
The Disappearing by Lori Roy (ARC)
Planning Effective Instruction by Kay M. Price and Karna L. Nelson
How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom by Robert Delisle
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage (ARC)
Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach by John Barell
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
1984 by George Orwell
The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher (ARC)
The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
Review for The Disappearing can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2440786934Review for The Kennedy Debutante can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2461321631
My favorite ARC of the month was Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. I received a review copy of Baby Teeth from the publisher (St. Martin's Press) in exchange for an honest review. Baby Teeth is scheduled for release July 17, 2018.
Baby Teeth is the story of a mother and daughter with a troubled relationship. Hanna is seven years old and non-verbal. She loves her Daddy with all of her heart, but feels like Mommy is a phony who just gets in the way. Suzette is a stay at home mom who struggles with her own health issues and memories of the uncomfortable relationship she had with her mother. Suzette is concerned about her daughter's lack of speech, seeing it as a choice Hanna uses as a weapon to drive her and her husband apart rather than an uncontrollable condition. This story is told with dual points of view. We get to ride alone with both Hanna and Suzette as they navigate their interactions with each other. Both points of view are well written. I felt like I really got to know what makes both of these characters tick. I also felt like I couldn't trust either of them entirely. There were no blatant secrets they kept from me, they did not deliberately lie to me (I think...), but I still had the feeling that I shouldn't trust too much in their perspective. There was a feeling to both of these characters that they were avoiding truths they didn't want to face.
As the plot progressed (I won't share any details, because I don't want to spoil it!), there were a few spots where I felt the character choices were inconsistent, a few spots where the story went bump for me. These moment stuck with me, hanging in my mind as I read. By the end of the story, though, when the truths of the characters were more fully revealed, these choices made sense.
While I can't say much more about this novel without ruining the experience for the reader, trust that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This novel is definitely dark and twisty in all the best ways!
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