Category: literature

Teaching Creative Writing to Middle Schoolers

On By angeliquejamailIn literature, middle school, poetry, teaching, WriteSpace, writingLeave a comment

Early in my career I spent several years teaching Creative Writing at the middle school level, and I loved it.

Don’t get me wrong: I love teaching Creative Writing at all levels from elementary school to published adults — and yes, I have and do teach it to all those age categories — because teaching Creative Writing is my jam almost as much as writing books is. (And some days, more so.)

Look, middle school is a rough time of life for pretty much everyone, even the kids who don’t show it. (Sometimes, especially them.) At that stage of development, a lot of us feel things really deeply. We absorb things readily, sometimes indiscriminately. We process the world around us through an intensified lens and at varying, different speeds. Life can be lived in the polar extremes.

This makes us, at that stage of life, primed for creative expression. Our minds and personalities have not yet grown out of the world of emotional metaphor, even if cognitively we struggle with abstractions.

Honestly, what better time to begin Creative Writing classes?

I’m thrilled to report there are still a few spots open in Writespace’s Up and Coming Writers of the World series, which begins on Sunday, February 5th and goes through April. This low-stress, ungraded, three-month series is geared toward middle school students and will be conducted on Zoom, so as long as you have an internet connection, you can take it from anywhere!

Here’s the format: on a Sunday afternoon at the start of each month, an author and teacher will guide students through an introductory class on a given genre (listed below), and then over the next four weeks, the students will work one-on-one with a mentor from the Creative Writing program at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts on their writing. There will be a reading at the end of the series.

Behold the schedule:
* February 5th — Introduction to Fiction, taught by Angélique Jamail (That’s me!!)
* March 5th — Introduction to Playwriting, taught by Kathryn Peterson (She’s great!!)
* April 2nd — Introduction to Poetry, taught by Angélique Jamail (Yay for National Poetry Month!!)

If you know any middle school-aged kids who have an interest in writing, consider signing them up for this program. It makes a great gift, and it’s also a way to tell those kids, in this very difficult landscape we call the world, I see you. You and your art and your ideas have value. Writespace’s classes are among the most affordable of any high-level instruction you can get, and they offer scholarships.

Click this link to register, but do it soon! We’ll see you there.

2022 Romance Titles Ranked By Heat Level

On By angeliquejamailIn books, fiction, literature, romanceLeave a comment

Once again, because it is a popular follow-up to my annual Books I Read lists, I’m including a list of the category romance titles I read this past year and ranking them by heat level. For those who might be unfamiliar with that term, it essentially refers to the sensuality level or raciness of the story. There are several different technical, helpful guides and explanations for how to rate such things if you go looking for them online, but I’ll summarize the widely accepted definitions below.

Something to remember here: I’m not including any titles that could easily or more appropriately fit into a different genre, such as fantasy, even if those stories contain strong romantic subplots. This ranking list is strictly for titles that don’t really fit anywhere else.

Also, once again, I’m including an explanation of the usually accepted five heat levels within the romance genre. Again, these categories of romance have been well established for a while now, and these are the ranking guidelines I use. You can no doubt find other ways of ranking them or other descriptions of them, but these are the descriptions I go by, so please bear that in mind.

Here are the five levels of heat, in order, with very brief descriptions:

*  MILD — Sweet like a Hallmark Christmas movie, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these titles to my adolescent children or even mature middle schoolers who were genuinely interested in the genre. In many examples of this heat level, the most titillating thing that happens might be kissing and the occasional cute innuendo.

*  MEDIUM — Generally equivalent to a PG-13 movie in that intimate situations or scenes are there, but they aren’t graphically described and won’t likely make people (who like the concept of kissing books) uncomfortable. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend books like these to high school students who genuinely liked YA romance. (Please note that not all titles in this heat level will be YA.)

*  HOT — Sometimes called steamy, sexy, or spicy, this level includes most category romance books and offers a wide range of description of intimate activity and the language used to describe it; the titles I’ve included here also represent a wide range within this heat level.

*  NUCLEAR — Expect graphic descriptions and possible forays beyond vanilla.

*  EROTIC (ROMANCE) — This heat level pushes boundaries, most definitely; the characters’ emotional journeys are lived through explicit sexual activity, but (unlike in erotica) the emotional journey and the external story still retain primacy — as does the all-important happy story ending.

And here are the titles I read this past year, ranked by me:

MILD:
None this past year, although if I were including other books from my reading list that didn’t fit exclusively into category romance, some of them would probably be here.

MEDIUM:
Cinder-Nanny by Sariah Wilson
Roommaid by Sariah Wilson
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

HOT:
Sleeper by Kayley Loring
Charmer by Kayley Loring
Trouble Maker by Kayley Loring
Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
All the Feels by Olivia Dade
The Love Interest by Kayley Loring
Munro by Kresley Cole *
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Good Vibrations by Kayley Loring
A Very Bossy Christmas by Kayley Loring
A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn
A Very Friendly Valentines Day by Kayley Loring
So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn
Hello Darling by Kayley Loring
It Takes a Villa by Kilby Blades
The Reunion by Meghan Quinn
The One Night by Meghan Quinn
Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

NUCLEAR:
Get Off Easy by Sara Brookes **
Switch It Up by Sara Brookes **
In the Rough by Sara Brookes **

EROTIC (ROMANCE):
Get Off Easy by Sara Brookes **
Switch It Up by Sara Brookes **
In the Rough by Sara Brookes **

* Munro by Kresley Cole is the latest installment in her Immortals After Dark series, which overall is most definitely in the nuclear category. However, Munro was published after quite a long hiatus from the rest of the series, and I don’t recall it having the same timbre as the previous books. Proceed with caution in case my memory is faulty.

** I suspect that with this trilogy by Sara Brookes, how a reader perceives the heat level is going to be largely determined by the individual reader’s experience and taste. All three books could fit into either or both heat levels.

2022 Reading Year In Review

On By angeliquejamailIn books, children's books, children's literature, fiction, literature, nonfiction, poetryLeave a comment

This year’s Books I Read list is the longest it has been since I started keeping track of it, by far. For instance, I came down with an illness at the start of the summer that had me unable to get out of bed for a solid week, and in that week I read ten books, which had been my previous goal for how many books to read over the summer. I plowed through them — I tend to read at a fairly quick pace — and then kept right on going.

This is a partial grouping of the books I read this past year. My Kindle is on the top of one of the piles because a lot of the books I read were on that. Also, some books aren’t pictured because I accidentally left them at school over the holidays. Oops.

This year, I found myself reading voraciously anything that put me in a good mood, because reasons. Therefore you will find a lot of books on this year’s list that are just really fun, including — but not limited to — laugh-out-loud romantic comedies (which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite genres).

I also dove into a bunch of series this year, so you’ll see a lot fewer individual authors on the list than book titles. The breadth of my reading diet was also, therefore, not as wide as I normally strive for. (I’ll do better next year.) One thing I found interesting is that some series were excellent all the way through, and some were…less consistent.

One thing I’m always curious about is how an author maintains a contiguous storyline over multiple books, especially since I’m working on a series like that myself. But I’m also interested to see how series set within the same “world” (whether it’s the real one or not) work when each book is a separate storyline but shares characters. (We see things like this quite often in category romance, where different characters play supporting roles in their friends’ stories and then get to have their own protagonistic moment in their own book. And yes, I’m working on a series like that, too, though not in the romance genre.)

Also, because I am sometimes a completist, if there’s a book I want to read that’s in the middle of a series, I will read the books that came before it first. (See also the note above about the two types of series I’m studying the mechanics of.)

As always, I’m leaving off my list the titles of any books I did not finish reading. Likewise the titles of any manuscripts I read which are not yet published. This year I am including, however, books I read which I had read before in a previous year. There are some titles I revisit, either because I love them or because I’m studying them for craft/genre reasons or because I’m teaching them.

See below the list for a partial breakdown of genres.

Sleeper by Kayley Loring
Charmer by Kayley Loring
The Night She Went Missing by Kristen Bird
Trouble Maker by Kayley Loring
Bloodwarm by Taylor Byas
Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
All the Feels by Olivia Dade
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Still Mine by Jayne Pillemer
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
The Love Interest by Kayley Loring
Munro by Kresley Cole
Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Binti: Sacred Fire by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
Boogie Knights by Lisa Wheeler
Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
Uncertain Resident by Tova Hinda Siegel
Tethered to Stars by Fady Joudah
Unbroken edited by Marieke Nijkamp
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Blood Countess by Lana Popović
Good Vibrations by Kayley Loring
A Very Bossy Christmas by Kayley Loring
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn
Shutter by Taylor Byas
The Author Wheel Quick Guide to Productive Writing Habits by G.C. Boris and M. Haskell
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper
A Very Friendly Valentines Day by Kayley Loring
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Hello Darling by Kayley Loring
Cinder-Nanny by Sariah Wilson
Get Off Easy by Sara Brookes
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holmberg
Lady Mechanika Volume 1 by Joe Benitez
It Takes a Villa by Kilby Blades
Roommaid by Sariah Wilson
The Reunion by Meghan Quinn
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Switch It Up by Sara Brookes
The One Night by Meghan Quinn
In the Rough by Sara Brookes
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton
Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
The Two Rabbits and the Great Texas Freeze by Anna and Sophia Nguyen
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Sh*t My President Says by Shannon Wheeler
Original Love by Molly Peacock

And here is the promised, but brief, breakdown by genre — only broad strokes this year, though.

46 fiction titles
5 poetry titles
3 nonfiction titles
2 graphic novels/memoir
3 children’s books

As I do every year, I’m offering to give you my opinions, for what those are worth, on any of the books listed here. Just ask if you want to know. (Also, if you want to read my formal review of Kristen Bird’s The Night She Went Missing, click here to read my essay that was published by Literary Mama.)

At some point in the next week-ish, I will do my annual Romance Titles Ranked By Heat Level list as well, since that seems to be very popular here on the blog.

So. What have you been reading? Anything you’d like to recommend? Have at it in the comments!

Authors Are Small Businesses, Too

On By angeliquejamailIn books, Christmas, fiction, Finis., gifts, holidays, HOMECOMING, literature, poetry, THE MILK OF FEMALE KINDNESS, THE SHARP EDGES OF WATER, writingLeave a comment

Hello! Here in the U.S. (and perhaps other places too?) today is Small Business Saturday, one of a series of themed commerce days that launch us from Thanksgiving into the full brunt of the Christmas Shopping Season. It is what it is.

That said, did you know that authors are, in and of themselves, small businesses? Small business owners, I suppose would be more grammatically accurate (if not practically so), but the point is that we are entrepreneurs as well as artists. That is a big part of the job of being an author. Not everyone likes it. It’s not the art form we signed up for. But again, it is what it is.

If you are looking for a delightful stocking stuffer (“Take two, they’re small!”) or gift for someone who enjoys reading, you might consider one of my books. As of now, we have no supply chain problems. (Yay!) You can order directly from me (send an email to forest.of.diamonds@gmail.com) and I can ship it to you usually within 1-2 days, or you can order from any bookseller (online or brick-and-mortar).

At the moment, I have four titles available:

Finis. (fiction, Book 1 of the Animal Affinities Series) — Click here to read the first two chapters.

Homecoming (fiction, Book 2 of the Animal Affinities Series) — Click here to read the first two chapters.

The Sharp Edges of Water (poetry) — Click here to read a poem from the collection.

The Milk of Female Kindness: An Anthology of Honest Motherhood (international anthology of writing and artwork for which I am one of the lead contributors)

I’m happy to sign books and get them to you ASAP. (You will pay shipping.) If you order them before December 15th, there’s a much better chance you’ll have them in time for Christmas, if that’s your thing.

Leave a comment here on this blog post or email me at forest.of.diamonds@gmail.com to order them from me directly, but again, you can get all three of my own titles just about anywhere. (If a bookstore is out of stock, have them order it from Ingram.) The Milk of Female Kindness is available through me directly or through Amazon.

Thank you for supporting your local indies!

Fond Regards, Marcus Sedgwick

On By angeliquejamailIn books, literature, Marcus Sedgwick, teaching, writing3 Comments

I was astounded and saddened yesterday to learn of the death of Marcus Sedgwick.

For those of you who didn’t know of him, he was a celebrated author with a list of accolades as long as a swan’s stretched neck. I did not know him well — and in fact spent only one afternoon with him several years ago — but he made a distinct impression on me, enough that learning of his unexpected passing gobsmacked my day.

Many of you are aware I teach Creative Writing at a prestigious high school. One benefit of my program is that we bring in a lot of excellent authors to work with our students, and I met Marcus when he was touring in the US to promote his novel Saint Death and visited my school. We had a lunch and book signing, and then he came in to work specifically with just my high school students. The lunch and signing were pleasant and lovely, and he was pleasant and lovely, but the real impression he made on me happened afterward, in the brief open time between the lunch and my class arriving.

Our librarian and the local bookseller who was sponsoring his visit and one of the parent volunteers escorted him to my classroom, where I was alone and preparing for the next session. He was a youngish man, I thought — in fact only a few years older than I am — but he was walking slowly, with a cane. Our librarian had alluded to some “health concerns,” but I didn’t know what they were. But Marcus was cheerful with a charming British cadence in his voice, gentle and kind in the way that everyone who has mentioned him over the last two days has said. As he sat in a desk at the front of the room, the ladies escorting him said, “It was nice to meet you today. Angélique, he’s all yours!” Then they disappeared from my doorway, and I realized we had almost twenty minutes to fill before my students came in. The small talk lasted about two minutes.

Then I asked if he would like a cup of tea. His face brightened. “You have tea? I would love one, thank you.” I brought over the box of teas I keep in my classroom (several varieties, all high quality brands, because I love tea and don’t see how anyone makes it through a work day without it) so he could select the kind he wanted. (He chose a mint/tarragon blend with no cream or sugar.) Then I left briefly to make the tea while he pulled his presentation up on his computer.

Even after making sure all the technology worked and everything was in order, we still had some time left before my students arrived. That’s when he turned to me and said, “I understand you’re an author, too. What do you write?”

Reader, I was stunned.

It would be a logical assumption to believe that at a school like mine, the person teaching Creative Writing would be an author. In fact, quite a few of our English teachers are also authors. In fact, quite a few of our faculty in other departments are also authors. And by most metrics outside of the school where I teach, I am considered a successful author.

But among all of the dozens upon dozens of authors I’ve had visit my students over the years, he is almost the only one ever to ask me if and what I write. I felt seen in a way I didn’t realize I hadn’t been before. There are countless ways in which I am sometimes invisible to the people around me, but on that day, I was not, and the comfort of that feeling, like a sliver of light, has never left me.

So seeing the news yesterday was kind of tough. I wish the warmest feelings of comfort to his family and friends, whose loss is no doubt immense. May their memories of Marcus bring them peace.

 

 

The New Issue of SONIC CHIHUAHUA Is Here!

On By angeliquejamailIn literature, Sonic Chihuahua, writing, Zine Fest Houston, zines1 Comment

The latest issue of my zine, Sonic Chihuahua, has dropped. (Get excited!)

If you’re in the Houston area on Saturday, November 12th, you can get this and many of the still-available back issues at Zine Fest Houston, where I will once again be a featured zinester. (I’ll also have my books and stationery available for sale that day.) Click the link for all the details. (Note: I will be there until only about 4:30 p.m. due to another show that evening. Busy day!)

Here’s is the official Table of Contents for the new issue:

* The Pep Rally I Cannot Forget
* NeriSiren’s Coffee Grotto
* pumpkin cream cheese muffins (seriously!)
* convo with renaissance man Olen Rambow
* voting information
* a Top 5 List not to be missed!
* fiction and art

Fabulous changes are coming in the year ahead. (Get excited again!)

See the official Sonic Chihuahua page here for submission guidelines and subscription rates. Woot!

I Had A Review Published In Literary Mama!

On By angeliquejamailIn books, Kristen Bird, Literary Mama, literature, writing2 Comments

So today the new issue of Literary Mama came out, and it includes a review I wrote for Kristen Bird’s debut novel, The Night She Went Missing.

Literary Mama is one of the oldest literary journals featuring the work of writer-mothers in existence. Every issue features poetry, reviews, profiles, fiction, and non-fiction. 

In case you’d like to check it out — and I so hope that you will — here is the link to my review of Bird’s excellent novel. Please feel free to share it widely.

And while you’re over at Literary Mama’s site, be sure to read the whole issue. It’s filled with excellent work, as always!

 

A FIRE TO LIGHT OUR TONGUES

On By angeliquejamailIn A FIRE TO LIGHT OUR TONGUES, books, literature, poetry, religion, spirituality, Texas, writing7 Comments

Hello! I have some very exciting news! Two of my poems, “Magdalen” and “Epiphany,” have just been published in A Fire to Light Our Tongues: Texas Writers on Spirituality. This anthology had a long road to publication.

It began before covid times and one of the women fiercely behind the project actually passed away before she could see the book in print. But it is out now, and filled with poetry on the ever-shifting nature of spirituality and how we interact with it, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Other poets featured in this book include Naomi Shihab Nye, Rich Levy, Robin Davidson, Robert Okaji, and Kevin Prufer, just to name a few. The anthology contains two parts, “Pandemic Time” and “Contraries,” and within “Contraries” are the following themed sections:
Belief and Doubt
Good and Evil
Love and Hope
Known and Unknown
Truth and Beauty
Joy and Gratitude

This is a beautiful book, and I hope you’ll give it a look. You can even get it, at least for a time, at a 20% discount with the code “TCU20” at this link to TAMU Press. (Don’t use the quotation marks when you put the code in.)

I’m seriously excited about this. We’ve waited a few years for this book to finally come out, and it has definitely been worth the wait!

SONIC CHIHUAHUA Volume 3, Issue 3 Has Arrived! (And So Has A New Page Here In Honor Of It.)

On By angeliquejamailIn literature, Sonic Chihuahua, writing, zinesLeave a comment

The new issue of Sonic Chihuahua is here! Subscribers should see it hit their mailboxes this week. If you want to be on the distribution list, let me know.

There are all sorts of goodies in this issue, including poetry, art by Han and Megan Martin and Aeryk Pierson, the thrilling conclusion to the “Embracing My Inner Goth” essay series, an interview with author Tanya Aydelott, and her recipe for a delicious one-pot pasta dinner. Plus more! So much more!

ALSO…

I have created a new page here at Sappho’s Torque just for the Sonic Chihuahua. You can find it here. It will contain a listing of all issues: their colorful puppy-pile pictures and official tables of contents. Check it out if you have a moment and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

 

Charlie’s Angels Raffle and Livestream

On By angeliquejamailIn books, cancer, cancer research, Jayne Pillemer, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, literatureLeave a comment

Hey there! I want to show you something excellent:

These are the tickets so far for the raffle I’m doing this week in support of Charlie’s Angels, my family’s campaign to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Get your donations in before tomorrow (Wednesday) night so be included in the raffle. Each $25 donated gets a ticket — which means if you donate $100 you get four tickets, and if you donate $250 you get ten, and so on. I’ll be doing a livestream Thursday evening to pick the winner of this raffle, who will receive a signed and personalized copy of Jayne Pillemer’s gorgeous children’s book Still Mine.

Click here to read more about the giveaway and to read more about this incredible book, including photos of the cover and interior.

And click here to be taken to my LLS campaign page where you can donate directly.

And thank you so much to everyone who has already donated — and to everyone who will! So much love.