Author: brimarinowrites

Favorite Author Feature: Kiera Cass

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In 2017 I shared Favorite Book Features on my favorite books. This year I’d like to start a new series—features on my favorite authors! I’m going to return to my favorite books shelf and look into some of my favorite authors. I’ll share about their books I’ve read and why they’re an awesome author. First up is none other than Kiera Cass!

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My new blog series will look into some of my favorite authors!

Kiera Cass is the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of the Selection Series. She graduated from Radford University and lives in Virginia with her husband and two kids. In addition to the Selection Series (The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, The Crown, and two story collections set in the world of The Selection), she is the author of The Siren. She also has an untitled book coming out sometime this year.

The original trilogy of the Selection series are my favorite books behind Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The books are about America Singer, a girl who was born low into the caste system of Illéa, the country that was created after the United States ended. But all of that changes when she is whisked away to participate in the Selection, a competition to win the prince’s hand in marriage. These books are romantic and suspenseful. Plus it is an amazing dystopian story, which is my favorite genre. I can’t recommend these books enough. You can read my Favorite Book Feature on The Selection here.

I did not enjoy The Siren as much as I did the Selection series, but this book is still full of Cass’s beautiful writing and is an interesting retelling. While the Selection series is based on Cinderella and the book of Esther in the Bible, The Siren is based on the Little Mermaid. It follows Kahlen, a siren who is forced to serve the Ocean and who falls in love with a human. Cass first self-published this book before the Selection series was published, and it was updated and republished in 2016. I met her when she came to Dayton on tour for this book.

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I met Kiera Cass in 2016 when she came to Dayton on tour for The Siren.

Kiera Cass is one of my favorite authors for several reasons. First of all, she just blew me away back when I first read The Selection with her twist on the dystopian genre. She made a beautiful romance novel, based on one of my favorite fairy tales and one of my favorite books of the Bible, and set it in a dystopian future. Dystopian books have always been my favorites, with the revolutions and the ordinary people stepping up to save the world. The Selection does not disappoint. Reading this series (which I’ve done five times) is like getting a hug from your best friend. I turn back to them over and over again.

The other main reason I love Cass is because of our conversation when I got the chance to meet her. I had recently become a Christian and was going through a period in which I wasn’t writing anything because I didn’t know how to anymore. I really admire how open Cass is on social media about her faith, and so during the Q&A I asked her how she handles being both a writer and a Christian. She told me to stay true to my faith and write what I’m most comfortable with. As a person, she is really nice and encouraging. She remembered me and my question when I went through the signing line and continued to talk to me. The very next week I started writing Somewhere Only We Know.

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Kiera Cass’s Books (minus Happily Ever After, because my sister-in-law is reading it!)

Kiera Cass will always be an important author to me. From this blog’s very first post to Somewhere Only We Know to starting a new book now, I will never forget her advice and her books. I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Have you read any of Kiera Cass’s books? I’d love to know what you think!

My 5 Favorite Writing Quotes

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I love quotes. I think the main reason I love Instagram is because of the way people can display quotes and Bible verses on beautiful images. Quotes can encourage. They can be something to look to when you feel stuck or uninspired.

I love turning to quotes about writing when I need a little boost of encouragement or inspiration. The following quotes are my favorites:

  1. “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
    This was my first favorite quote about writing. I discovered it back in high school when I first got serious about writing. I love it because it explains that need to write that people feel. I have something to say to this world, and writing is how I say it.
  2. “A word to the unwise. Torch every book. Char every page. Burn every word to ash. Ideas are incombustible. And therein lies your real fear.” – Ellen Hopkins
    This quote about censorship inspired a book I have on the back burner. I love it because it is so true—you can never take away the power of words.

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    I love this quote by Ellen Hopkins about censorship
  3. “The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.” – Vladimir Nabokov
    I think this quote is a beautiful depiction of how it feels to write. When you are into a story and the words are flowing, it truly does feel like the words are already there in invisible ink, just waiting for you to uncover them.
  4. “Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” – Barbara Kingsolver
    I love this quote because it reminds me to not let others influence my writing. It can be tempting to try to write a book just like the latest bestseller, but that’s not what I have to say and those aren’t the stories I have to offer to the world.

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    This quote by Barbara Kingsolver is a great reminder
  5. “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” – Colossians 3:23
    This last one is not exactly a quote about writing, but I apply this Bible verse to my writing life. Writing is the work I’ve been called to do. And I shouldn’t be writing for some worldly reason like fame. Instead I will work willingly for the Lord.

I hope that sharing these quotes might help inspire you with your own creative projects.

What’s your favorite quote about writing?

What I’m Reading: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

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The past couple months I finally got around to reading a series I had heard about for a long time. I’ve wanted to read these books for a while, and I finally had the time to do so thanks to Hoopla Digital providing the audiobooks.

Retelling the stories of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White, Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series takes the fairy tales I love and makes them even more incredible by turning them into science fiction stories in which Cinderella is a cyborg. These books and Cinder and her friends reminded me of the show Firefly, with the ragtag crew aboard a spaceship and the heists they try to pull off. But they’re even better than Firefly because they’re all based on fairy tales.

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The Paperback box set of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Set in the future in New Beijing, Cinder forms allies with Scarlet, Cress, and Winter and tries to overthrow the evil Queen Levana of Luna. The four books—Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter—each focus on one of the fairy tales, but they build on top of one another as each character is introduced to the series.

While I didn’t care for the character of Scarlet or the second book in these series that focused on her, I loved this series as a whole. Cress, who is based on Rapunzel, was my favorite of all of the girls, but that’s probably because Rapunzel’s story is also one of my favorite fairy tales. These books are just so imaginative in how they combine a dystopian revolution with the fantasy of fairy tales.

I think retellings are amazing. I’ve written about how some of my favorite stories (Wicked and A Little In Love) are retellings. Taking a story that already exists and putting your own spin on it is a fun and sometimes easier way to write. If you come up with something truly creative—like Cinderella being a cyborg—that idea can explode into a whole series of books.

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Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

I finished listening to the audiobooks of the series at the end of 2018 and received the box set of paperbacks for Christmas. Now I’ve been reading Stars Above, a book of stories set in the world of the Lunar Chronicles!

Have you read The Lunar Chronicles? What’s your favorite book series?

My 2019 Writing and Reading Goals

~ brimarinowrites ~ 1 Comment

The beginning of a new year makes me reflect on the work I’ve done over the past twelve months and plan ahead for what I’d like to accomplish in the following year. So today I’d like to share my writing and reading goals for 2019.

Being a stay-at-home writer, I struggle with motivation. I have gone through many iterations of schedules and reward systems to try to figure out the best way for me to stay motivated and get work done. But the problem with doing this is that it became more about hitting the hours and achieving the reward than about doing the work God has called me to.

So now my goal list on my cork board only has one item—to write the book I’m working on. Because that’s all that matters

I’m not putting a timeline on it, because that system doesn’t work for me. I can’t rush this. I simply need to remind myself each day that I’m writing for God and that he’s called me to do this work. Motivation comes naturally when I realize I’m working for the Lord.

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (Colossians 3:23)

As far as reading goes, I crushed my 2018 goals. My goals were to read 35 fiction and 10 nonfiction books, totaling 45 books. I ended up reading 43 fiction and 17 nonfiction books, for a total of 60 books.

I’m going to up my goals, but keep them under the totals that I read this year so I don’t push myself too far. The only reason I read as many as I did is because of audiobooks, but I’m going through a phase right now in which I’m not really listening to them and I don’t know how long this phase will last.

So because of that, my goals for 2019 are to read 40 fiction and 15 nonfiction books, for a total of 55 books. I do hope to read more than that, but I don’t know if that’s realistic if I’m not listening to audiobooks as often.

2019 Writing Goals
What are your writing and reading goals for the year?

In 2019 I want to keep things simple and focus on the reason why I’m doing this work in the first place. God called me to be a writer. My purpose is to write stories for and about women finding hope despite pain. And that’s enough for me.

What are your writing and reading goals for this year?

One Word—My 2019 New Year’s Resolution

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I love the hope that the beginning of a year brings. At the start of each year, I like to make new plans and goals for my life. But instead of making traditional New Year’s Resolutions, for the past several years I have chosen one word.

This word guides me through each year, in my goals and in my faith journey. You can check out my past words here and here. I think that choosing a word is better than making resolutions because people often go all out on their resolutions in January, only to give up by February. Instead, you can pick one word to guide you and be a gentle prompting throughout the whole year.

A few months ago, God gave me my word for 2019: ENOUGH

One of the main reasons I need to focus on “enough” this coming year is because I went through trials in 2018 that caused me to ask if God really is enough for me. The answer is—of course he is! But I had to learn this lesson the hard way through my dog’s illness. I’m going into 2019 knowing that God is enough and I will go to him with all of my problems.

Another reason I’ve chosen “enough” is because I’ve often felt like I was lacking, both when it comes to food and with stuff—I eat too much dessert to try to feel better. When the holidays come around, I can’t stop myself from eating every yummy thing in sight. When I see a sale, I have to take advantage of it. Yes, I need those new stickers or books or whatever—This thinking needs to stop. I have enough. God has provided me with enough to eat and enough things to survive and enjoy life. I just need to realize I already have enough.

Lastly, I think at some point we’ve all thought that we’re not enough. Not good enough. Not smart enough. Not thin enough. Not pretty enough. Not whatever enough. But that’s not true. We are who God says we are, and he thinks we’re pretty great. We’re made in his image, after all, and he chose to die in order to save us. If that doesn’t mean you and I are enough, I don’t know what does.

Once I’ve chosen my word each year, I make an inspiration board. I use scrapbook paper and stickers and washi tape and Bible verses and song lyrics that all relate to my word to decorate my board. Then I hang it next to my dresser so that I see it each morning and remind myself of my word. Because I love to craft, this is an easy way for me to keep myself inspired. Here’s my board for 2019:

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My Inspiration Board for my 2019 Word of the Year: Enough

It’s important to focus on your word throughout the year, and one of the ways I do this is by reading books related to the word. This year I want to read Full by Asheritah Ciuciu and Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, both of which are about satisfying your needs with God, not food. I also want to read Living Well, Spending Less by Ruth Soukup to help me spend less on stuff I don’t need. Lastly I want to read Enough by Sharon Jaynes to help me remember that who I am in God is enough. I can’t wait to dig into all of these books!

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Full by Asheritah Ciuciu, Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, Living Well, Spending Less by Ruth Soukup, and Enough by Sharon Jaynes are all on my reading list for 2019.

My goals this year are to learn that God is enough, to acknowledge that I have enough to do what I’m called to do, and to accept that I am enough in Christ. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me in 2019 with “enough”!

Do you chose a word to guide your year? For the past two years, my friends and I have gathered together to discuss our words and make inspiration boards together. Pray about a word, get together with some friends, and make something that inspires you!

Writing/Work/Life Balance

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Despite the importance of writing/work/life balance for writers, I haven’t written about this topic before because it had never been an issue for me.

I’m very blessed in that my husband earns enough at his job that I can stay home to write. I babysit as a way to bring in some extra money, but lately it has gone from a small part of my week to a half-time job. I love having all of these extra babysitting jobs. I get to hang out with so many wonderful kids each week and the extra money is helping me to pay off my student loans. But now I’m discovering just how hard it is to write when you have a job.

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How do you schedule your writing time?

When I first started these extra jobs this fall, I still tried to do my normal amount of writing work each week. All that did was make me feel like a failure when I simply didn’t have enough time to get all of my reading and writing done each week. Feeling discouraged, I’d try harder to get everything done the next week, only to feel worse when I once again couldn’t meet my goals.

Things got worse and worse over the months, even though I actually started writing my book. But in November—thanks to being around fifteen different kids each week and their germs, and in addition to all of the writing stress I had put on myself—I got back-to-back colds and had to force myself to stop and evaluate.

Once I stepped away for two weeks, I could see the answer clearly: I was simply trying to do too much. I talked through it with my husband about all the things that were important to me to keep doing (the babysitting, the actual writing, reading fiction, blogging) and things that maybe I could step back on (reading writing craft books (at least in their entirety), some social media).

So as this year ends and a new one begins, I’m definitely going to be trying some different things with my schedule. It’s important to always be evaluating and iterating your writing process so that you can make the most of your time and do your best work.

Making more adjustments to my writing schedule—and focusing more of my time on the actual writing as opposed to all of the extras—will help me to find more balance between my babysitting work, my writing, and my life in general.

For a great resource on work/writing/life balance, I would recommend you check out Sarah Werner’s The Write Now Podcast. I always feel refreshed after listening to her show and ready to get to work!

If you’re a writer, how do you go about scheduling your time? Have you found a writing/work/life balance that works for you?

Mars: My WIP Research

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I’m keeping my work-in-progress (WIP) mostly secret at this point because I’ve barely begun to actually write it. But I will say that it is set in the future and it is about a Mars mission. Because of this, I’ve spent the last couple of months doing a lot of research on the red planet and space travel. I learned a ton of cool facts about the possibility of one day having a human colony on Mars, and today I wanted to share some of my research with you all.

My book will be about the people and reasoning behind a mission, rather than actually being set on Mars, so that it where my research was focused. I did learn some cool things about the planet itself—like how days are 40 minutes longer than on Earth and are called “sols,” and how the colors of a Martian sunset are reverse that of Earth—but mostly what I was interested in was why and how we could get there.

So here’s some of the most interesting concepts and facts that I will be including in my WIP:

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A rocket from the National Museum of the United States Air Force
  • It takes a lot of people.
    Every single book I read and movie I watched showed that so many people are involved with any kind of work in space. Scientists are needed for every specialty that you can think of, from engineers and mathematicians to dietitians and psychologists. People from all backgrounds and all areas of science will be needed for a Mars mission.
  • It’s going to happen a lot sooner than I thought.
    The idea of humans living on Mars seemed to be way off in the distant future to me, and so I first set my book towards the end of the century. However, I discovered in my research that getting a person on Mars is probably going to happen a lot sooner, maybe even in the next decade. Most people predict we will have an a colony by the 2030s. This changed the time period in which I will set my book.
  • Private space agencies will probably be how we get there.
    The main reason we haven’t already made it to Mars is because the money isn’t there. But private space agencies like SpaceX may be the answer to that. It costs a lot less to use one of SpaceX’s rockets than to for NASA to build one themselves, and so that may be the answer to getting to Mars sooner.
  • It’s only possible to get to Mars about every two years.
    Because of the way Earth and Mars orbit the son, the planets are the closest—and therefore the cheapest/easiest to travel between—only every 780 days. When I started to try to plot my book, I had to figure out what months of the year would be potential launch windows throughout the century so that I could make my book accurate. I had to ask my engineer husband to help me with this, and he used a spreadsheet to quickly give me potential launch windows.
  • The further away something is, the further back in time you’re seeing it.
    I don’t know why, but when I came across this piece of research it fascinated me. When you look at a star that is, say, 400 light years away, you’re seeing it as it was 400 years ago because that’s how long the light took to reach you. This concept took my breath away and I’m probably going to do something with it in my WIP.
  • It takes a certain kind of person to be an astronaut.
    The actual requirements to be an astronaut are relatively simple. According to NASA’s website, you have to have a bachelor’s degree in a science field, have professional experience or enough hours as a pilot, and pass their physical. But you have to be a certain kind of person to actually be an astronaut. Potential astronauts are tested many different ways to see if they’re physically and mentally up to the task. The most prominent feature of astronauts that I noticed while doing research was that they’re all resilient. You have to be resilient in the depths of space. You have to work the problem and do what it takes to survive. All that I learned about astronauts will go into how I craft my characters.
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A spacesuit model from the National Museum of the United States Air Force

The Nation Museum of the United States Air Force is a mere five minutes from my house, and when I first started on this WIP, I went by myself to the museum with a notebook and pen and sat in front of all the planes and rockets and thought about flight and space. I couldn’t believe how far we’ve come in the mere 116 years since the Wright Brothers first took flight. And I can’t even imagine how far we can go in the next 120 years. I’m really excited to write this book and explore.

What’s the most interesting fact or concept you’ve discovered while researching for your writing?