Jo Boone Reads and Writes

Newsletter #6

YOU CAN BUY ALL THREE COMBINED SERVICE BOOKS NOW!

Jo Boone Reads:

When I’m commuting to and from my day job, I usually like to sing along to music. It puts me in a good mood. But sometimes for a change of pace, or because I need to bump a book up the TBR list (for example, if it’s this month’s book club pick), I’ll listen to an audiobook. I like audiobooks, but…I also really, really like belting out Jax or Taylor Swift or (lately) something old school like the Smithereens (much to my daughter’s horror). “But that was yesterday girl! Yesterday girl! Yesterday girl! And you’re my yesterday girl! Yesterday girl! Yesterday girl! Yesterday girl!” while my daughter side-eyes me from the passenger seat and says “This song is kind of weird.” And I happily sing “I’ll do what you say, doesn’t matter anyway!” Fun fact: I’ve seen the Smithereens live. You know you’re jealous. Or you would be if you knew who they were.

Anyway. For a while I had dropped my Audible subscription, because I ran up a lot of credits that I had not used, because singing! Then there was an audiobook I wanted, and the cheapest way to get it was to re-up my Audible subscription and use a credit. Now Audible is once again sending me notices that I am accumulating credits but not using them.

So, I went and browsed a bit, and found the audiobook of The Martian, read by Wil Wheaton. I actually own the paperback, but it’s such a fat book. Why do people write such fat books? I would nev—(cough)—what I mean to say is, it was going to be a while before I got around to it. My audio TBR list is shorter than my Kindle or dead tree TBR, though, and a long book is a lot less intimidating in audio. So, I started the book.

Short version: It’s good. It deserves all of its accolades and its movie and everything. It deserves Wil Wheaton reading the audiobook. It’s better than its movie (despite what you hear, that’s not always true. For reference see “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber vs. the movie by Ben Stiller). It’s sciencey and nerdy and gripping and moves fast enough to breeze past the plot holes. And! There is bonus audiobook content, which is a thing I do enjoy.

Even shorter version: This is a fun book that is even more fun as an audiobook, and I will probably pick up more books by Andy Weir and more audiobooks read by Wil Wheaton.

New Book Goodness!

I have a story in an anthology that comes out this month! Look for “Catch of a Lifetime” in the anthology Remnants of Empire, available July 16 from Chris Kennedy Publishing! The three novels that establish the shared universe of Entecea are already out; you can check those out, too!

Jo Boone Writes

I learned a new word this past weekend: “snowflaking.” Apparently this is a style of writing in which an author writes scenes as they come to her, and sets them aside; then when she has the whole story in her head, she backfills all of the scenes in between. I had heard of “pantsing”—writing by the seat of one’s pants, that is, starting at the beginning and writing the story straight through. I had heard of “planning”—where a writer creates a detailed outline, sometimes down to the scene level, before beginning to write the story. And of course, there’s the in-between “plantsing” in which a writer does a little bit of both. I always figured I was a plantser; I have to have a certain amount of the story firmly envisioned in my head before I can begin to write it. But now I think I may be a bit of a snowflaker (not to be confused with a snowflake!): Just tonight while I was walking, a scene came to me and I had to write it down. It takes place late in Book 4, and I’ll have to backfill up to it. I seldom write whole scenes, though; more like snippets of dialog or bits of description, and some summary text.

So, right now Book 4 is in the early stage, where fat snowflakes drift lazily down from the gray winter sky, and you can put your red mitten out to catch one and admire it while you hold your breath. They’re coming slowly now, but the storm is building; soon enough, the air will be thick with dancing white flakes, and I will catch them and mold them into Book 4.

How’s that for Christmas in July?

Until next time,