Kerri L. Bennett's Blog

Originally posted on melissasobservations:

When I write about Outlander, I try to keep the blog light and funny and I think I succeed most of the time.�� But lately something���s been bothering me that I can no longer hold down without risk of a stroke.�� It���s been the talk of Twitter and Facebook, so I���m sure many of you have seen the latest photo of Sam Heughan released by Starz.�� I don���t have an opinion on, nor do I want to make assumptions about, their motivation other than it���s simply a great photo, but I do want to discuss the fan reaction to that photo.

Someone has lightened the image in an attempt to get a clearer view up his kilt and this lightened image has been making the social-media rounds.�� Along with posting this newly edited version, women are posting juvenile and degrading remarks about him and his underwear or���

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About a week and a half ago, a friend of mine, Kayla, asked me to participate in a blog hop, and since I need to do something to get back in the groove of frequent blogging, and considering the fact that I’m on summer break, I decided to participate.

What am I working on?

Currently, I am writing the last chapter of the sequel to Three Seventeen, To Catch a Wolf. I know I’ve been saying it would be out soon since this time last year, but take heart loyal readers. Your patience will be rewarded.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

To Catch a Wolf, like its predecessor is a YA/ new adult fantasy novel, but even though it is targeted at teens and twenty-somethings, it has less of a pop lit or light read construction than others of its kind. Don’t misunderstand: fluff-lovers come one, come all. You’ll still find the expected fantastic, romantic, and suspenseful aspects that you’re looking for. I’m simply admitting that before I was a published author, I was and continue to be an English teacher who enjoys the presence of literary devices like complex plot structure, symbols, imagery, etc. in the texts I read, and I’m hoping some of my audience does too.

Why do I write what I do?

I blame S.E. Hinton. As long as I have been able to read and write, I have known I was a writer and wanted to be a published author. When I was in the 9th grade, we read The Outsiders in English. I loved it and wanted to know all about its author, this Hinton guy. As some may know, S.E. Hinton is a female who wrote that novel (her mainstream debut) when she was in high school and had it published when she was a college student. That she was able to accomplish what amounted to my own lifelong dream made me believe that I could do so as well. The Outsiders is realistic YA, and so are my books, to a point. I believe that in order for readers to accept and immerse themselves in the fictional world of a book (especially one with an fantastic element), everything contained therein should be as realistic as possible, so even though my Three Seventeen books involve a shape-shifter, the characters and world surrounding the unbelievable shape-shifter part feel as real as they can to my audience. Hopefully, this makes the readers’ job of suspending their disbelief easy and enjoyable.

How does my writing process work?

To begin writing, I must have time to write and a computer. I have handwritten an entire novella before, but that was because it was begun at a writing camp where I had no access to a laptop. Since I now have two at my disposal, I can’t imagine writing a whole manuscript with pen and paper. That would be tedious indeed. Occasionally I will outline a book or draft a scene or two on paper if I’m not at my laptop or think jotting something by hand will be quicker than typing, but the drafting and editing is all done on computer. I never start writing something that haven’t planned an ending to, though sometimes the ending of the final draft differs from the one in the outline. Also, I usually write the scenes and chapters in chronological order, unless I have writer’s block and have to write around it by skipping ahead. However, I try to follow Hemingway’s rules, one of which is to always stop writing when you know what’s coming next, because that seems to help minimize my blocks. I mean, he may be a pig, and an American, but there’s a reason Hemingway is still a household name, right? He didn’t win a Nobel Prize in Literature for nothing.

Who’s next in my Writing Process Blog Hop?

What’s next? You should check out my friends’ blogs. As I said before, Kayla Shown-Dean is a new author and friend of mine from college. Muted is her current literary novel about family secrets and should be released soon, so keep an eye on her blog! Sara Daniell is also a YA author (who happened to go to high school with me), and she has published several paranormal books that are especially fun reads. And if you’re a fan of YA novels involving space travel, you’ll really enjoy my friend Sarah Wofford‘s blog and debut novel, The Unexpected Brightness of Space.  Finally, you should get acquainted with my other hometown friend and fellow paranormal YA author Aaron Slade‘s novel, Colorblind. He doesn’t have a blog, but he does have a Facebook page!

Today, I came across a web article about Megan Follows, whom I have loved since childhood (thanks to her role as Anne Shirley), entitled “The List: actress Megan Follows tells us the 10 things she can’t live without,” and it prompted me to create my own. Though this probably isn’t the most sensational way to revitalize my blog after a seven month hiatus, here it is:

My Trusty Hair Products–because I’ve got curly hair, it takes quite a few products to tame my tresses enough to be presentable. I’ve got six products in it in the picture below.
Hoop Earrings–I have about a zillion pairs, all silver. Rarely do I wear anything else.
Anything in Vera Bradley Java Blue–Hipster style purse: check. Shoulder style rounded purse: check. Vinyl lined drawstring gym bag: check. Overnight bag: check. Large tote: check. Lunch bag: check. Wallet: check. Coin purse: check. Obsessed: much. Retired: sadly, yes.


Books–the look, the feel, the weight, the smell. See bibliophile.
My Nook–I’m a bibliophile who doesn’t have a library the size of Beast’s. What can I say? It isn’t like I can stop buying them.


Baby and Bitey–my laptops, full-sized and fun-sized respectively. Yes, I name inanimate objects that I’m entirely too fond of. I’m a writer. Did you expect anything less? 
My iPhone–it’ll have to do until I can afford to hire my own assistant, photographer, publicist, and chauffeur.
My Starbucks App–I’m a writer and an English professor who currently carries seven classes. Don’t judge.
My Keurig–see item above. 
Tea–blame my Anglophilia or Cinephilia or even the tea parties my mom let my have when I was five. I like tea, English Breakfast, Oolong, and Golden Monkey Black Tea to be exact. I take it with milk and two sugars. Nothing beats it, except perhaps the smell of a brand new book.

Yes, I love Jane that much. You can also see my “good hair day” and a glint or two of the silver hoops in my ears.

  

Click to enlarge.

 

The above image is a screenshot of the book review that I just had published on ALAN Online, a website for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE.   There doesn’t seem to be a way to permalink the review because of the website design, but I’m hopeful that it can be done once the page has been archived. (Until then, go to “Publications & Info” and then select “ALAN Picks” and scroll to the second review on the page.)

I’ve been aware of ALAN since 2010, when I attended the NCTE conference that year.  I had a wonderful experience with a dear friend of mine, listening to YA authors, meeting them and getting their autographs on some of the titles from my 40 lb box of brand new books, several of which were advance reader copies! So I think it’s pretty cool that my first national publication came through this awesome organization.

Because it’s Friday, here are ten of my favorite television shows of the past and present in no particular order after the top three.

Friends, NBC (1994-2004). Six young friends live in The Village in NYC. I own the whole sit-com on DVD, and it’s still funny after all these years.
Boy Meets World , ABC (1993-2000). A pre-teen boy grows up in Philadelphia and learns life lessons from Mr. Feeny along the way. I own all these episodes too, and I’m still waiting to meet my own Cory Matthews.
ER , NBC (1994-2009). A med student, John Carter, begins his residency at Cooke County Hospital in Chicago. This and Friends were part of my regular Thursday night ritual the whole time they aired.
Downton Abbey , BBC (2010-Present). Robert Crowley, the Earl of Grantham, and his family’s lives change forever when the heir to the title and estate drowns on the Titanic. It’s a period piece produced by the BBC; what else do I need to know?
Doctor Who , BBC (2005-Present). A humanoid alien travels all of time and space with various companions and has countless adventures in a blue box-shaped spaceship, all the while saving humanity from themselves or hostile alien races. David Tennant? I’m there.
Grey’s Anatomy , ABC (2005-Present). Meredith Grey learns what it means to be a doctor when she takes her first job at Seattle Grace Hospital. It’s no ER, but it fulfills my constant need for a medical drama in my life.
Criminal Minds , CBS (2005-Present). Members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI use their collective profiling skills to catch serial killers. I’ve gotta have at least one murder/suspense drama to try and puzzle out.
Once Upon a Time , ABC (2011-Present). All the characters from traditional fairytales are cursed by a wicked queen and sent to our world, where they have no memory of their magical pasts. Any story with princes and magic has be on my list…especially if it’s affiliated with Disney!
Grimm, NBC (2011-Present). Detective Nick Burkhardt discovers that there’s more to fighting against evil than just being a cop when his aunt lets him in on a little secret–He’s a Grimm, and it’s his job to protect humans from the monsters that the original folk fairytales dipict. Again, if fairytales are involved, I’m all in.
Supernatural, CW (2005-Present). Two gorgeous but troubled brothers spend their days cris-crossing the country in a black 1967 Chevy Impala, hunting down the monsters and demons that most people don’t believe in. If there wasn’t enough sex-appeal in the show already, the Winchesters had to befriend a ridiculously good-looking angel in a trench coat. I couldn’t stop watching this show even if I wanted to.

Honorable Mentions:

Magnum, P.I.
M.A.S.H.
The Practice
Crossing Jordan
Law & Order: SVU
NCIS
Law & Order

Paving the court hits me hard, makes me hurt,

Pulls something out of me as the smothering past gasps.

It feels like the end of all that I played for,

Seeing the net folded and taken away. But

Progress means more and that more needs

Places that come from the loss of the game.

I have run and pushed, served long and quick.

I have swung and missed, given up more than I took.

The score is plain but uneasy to see:

Match point is yours, and you move so fast.

Though you do not return what I serve,

I’m left without.  Love.

©2010 by Kerri L. Bennett

Today in my Composition I classes, I taught “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin.  It’s a story that’s meant to provoke discussion and critical thinking among the students so that they can better compose a reader response essay.  I have a new textbook this year, and a new syllabus to go with it. I have never taught this story before today, but by the time I got home from work, I’d taught it three times.  It really struck a chord with most of the students, especially after we discussed utopian and dystopian societies and how the two are more similar than they seem.  We discussed the disparity between perfection and imperfection, the power of ideals such as “The American Dream” and what one person’s happiness might cost another.  They definitely understood the concepts of “the scapegoat” and “the greater good” better than I’d hoped.  Because they got so wrapped up in discussing the story, we didn’t finish all I had planned for the day.  Some of them were even reluctant to leave the classroom when I told them our fifty minutes were up.

Whether their reader response papers contain the exact structure and content I’m looking for seems beside the point now.  During today’s class meetings I saw the dawn of a new perspective in many of their faces, and if I’ve gotten them to expand their point of view even a little, I feel pleased.  They will not all leave my courses writing like Hemingway or Fitzgerald, but maybe  they will have learned that good writing–literature–is magical. It is more than just well-crafted words. It has the power to open the mind’s eye to whole new places and concepts and bring new meaning to everyday life.  It is in the hope that I can teach them to recognize and use that magic that I teach.

Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

Penguin Group, 2013, 496 pp. $27.95

Romance/Romantic Suspense/ Contemporary Fiction/Fiction

ISBN: 978-0-399-15989-3

Boston lawyer Eli Landon’s life began to spin out of control when he came home and found that his estranged wife had been brutally murdered.  Because he was the police’s prime suspect, Landon eventually lost both his job and all the friends he thought he had, though a case was never brought up against him.

Now, months later, he has returned to Bluff House, the lavish Landon ancestral home on Whiskey Beach to escape the dogged policeman who still has him pegged for the murder and to care for Bluff House because his grandmother has been hospitalized after a terrible fall down the stairs.  All he wants is the familiar peace and quiet of Whiskey Beach, so he can work on his book, the one thing he’s been able to cling to throughout the whole mess, but Gran’s alluring housekeeper/yoga instructor, Abra Walsh, just won’t leave him alone. As Eli gradually lets himself befriend Abra, she helps him put his life back together and find purpose again, but the new life and relationship they are building are threatened when Abra is attacked by an intruder, and Eli finds a mysterious hole in the basement floor. Will Eli once again take a passive role in the chaos around him, or will he finally be able to regain control and  successfully navigate the threatening waves and find a happiness he thought impossible?

Roberts continues to use the particular mix of love, adventure and mystery that has proven so successful for her in the past.  Though the story is reminiscent of some of her other novels, like Carolina Moon, her use of a male protagonist is a welcome twist.  Whiskey Beach is full of entertainment and suspense, making it a perfect way to relax at the end of the day or on a vacation at your own beach getaway.

Rating:

Three Quills out of Four: A “good book.”

This book is lots of fun, but it falls short of the last quill because it wasn’t a “life-changing” read for me. Highly recommended for Nora Roberts fans and those who love romantic suspense. Not suitable for children.

Photo by Courtney G.

This weekend my roommate invited me to go the eighth annual Red Dress Gala, a local fundraiser for heart disease.  The theme was a black and white ’20s era design, reminiscent of The Great Gatsby.  I was more than happy to take her sister’s usual place at the table and get to wear costume jewelry and pearls to accent my little black dress.  The poor thing hasn’t seen much use in the past year.

Of course, I would have rather worn my floor-length red sheath dress with the rhinestone straps and matching the broach strategically centered to be the focal point of my bodice.  Sadly, though it last fit five years ago, the dress I once wore to my senior prom proved to be a few inches too small when I tried it on for size last week.  I would have felt a bit more like one of Gatsby’s crowd in it, but I guess after adding the glamor and flash of the accessories, I made a suitable Daisy Buchanan, or more preferably a Jordan Baker.

The gala was held in the student union at my University, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, never having gone before.  Happily, the cover band Everyday Life was great!  It seemed they were playing my song all night. They even played “Amarillo by Morning” with an added sax part that sounded pretty nice, and if they could cover King George and get my approval, then they were doing great.

The food was tasty, too, but no matter how hard I looked in the crowd on the dance floor, I could never seem to find anyone resembling a young Robert Redford or a Leonardo DiCaprio, though there were quite a few lovely evening gowns and three-piece suits out there twisting and twirling.  Still, all was not a loss.  I did come home with a new bracelet I won at the silent auction.  It’s made of several shades of blue and turquoise cultured pearls strung onto a wire that wraps around my wrist and hold its shape instead of fastening.  It was donated by a jeweler in town, and I managed to get it for less than half price.  So even though I went home sans my own naïvely romantic man who still hasn’t given up on the green light in the distance, I didn’t return empty-handed.  After all, it could have ended rather badly, involving a swimming pool or a yellow roadster, but we won’t go there.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as Nicky Ferranti and Terri McKay in An Affair to Remember. They just don’t make movies like that anymore…though Sleepless in Seattle was a fairly good tribute.

In keeping with my theme for the last two Fridays, I give you my Top Ten favorite movies that are so old you might not have ever heard of them.

An Affair to Remember (1957), Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. “We ought to take advantage of every moment…Don’t you think that life should be gay and bright and bubbly, like champagne?…Is there any reason why this trip shouldn’t be pink champagne?”
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, and Mary Bedham. “Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.”
Gone with the Wind (1939), Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. Vivian Leigh is the ultimate underdog, and the tragic ending to her love story still breaks my heart.
Waterloo Bridge (1940), Robert Taylor and Vivian Leigh.
Casablanca (1942), Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine.”  Yes, she did, and here’s lookin’ at you, Rick. I think this movie was the beginning of a beautiful infatuation.
Random Harvest (1942), Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson. A WWI veteran with no memory of his past and a singer fall in love, but are separated by an unhappy accident. It’s my favorite kind of tear-jerking love story.
All this and Heaven Too (1940), Charles Boyer and Bette Davis.  Doomed love set against the deadly backdrop of French royal politics, need I say more?
Separate Tables (1958), Rita Hayworth and Deborah Kerr.  Several characters’ stories are woven together when they are guests at a hotel at the same time. Deborah Kerr is amazing as a simpleton.
Backstreet (1961), John Gavin and Susan Hayword. One of my mother’s favorite movies of all time.  It makes me bawl every time we watch it, but I don’t mind because I get to look at John Gavin.
Where the Boys Are (1960), George Hamilton and Dolores Hart. This is another of the movies I grew up watching with my mother, and I have no problem with a young George Hamilton in short, black swim trunks.

Honorable Mentions:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Indiscreet (1958)
To Catch a Theif (1955)
Light in the Piazza (1962)
Woman of the Year (1942)
Pat & Mike (1952)

I could keep going–I love how glamorous and well-done films used to be, from the writing to the acting to the sets and costumes–but maybe I’ll save the other titles for a future Friday’s post.