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Hello fellow writers, bookworms, nerds, and otherwise awesome people! I hope March has been treating you well so far. If it hasn't, fear not. I have arrived to supply you with a list of good books, writing tips, and random facts to brighten your day. *turns on Superman theme song* Let's get started! 

Recommended books of the month:

  • Scout's Progress by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - a talented yet insecure woman tries to flee her clan and overbearing brother by learning to pilot a spaceship she won in a game of chance. This is the 6th book in the Liaden Chronicles, but you should be able to jump right in. Great characters, impressive world-building, and uplifting themes. I'm in love.
  • 1984 by George Orwell - brilliant and thought-provoking dystopian about Big Brother and the concept of individuality. 
  • Dark Disciple by Christie Golden - an ex-sith and a jedi team up to assassinate Count Dooku. If you want to see how anti-heroes are written, then read this. In case you're wondering: yes, this book is canon. It also happens to be the book of the month on my blog. Post coming at the end of the month.
  • Teddy's Button by Amy Le Feuvre - adorable and touching lamplighter novel that teaches us how to be brave and stand up for what's right. 
  • Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott - a scientific and mathematical work of fiction that is easily the most unique novella I have ever read. It's a satirical work on social status where the characters are all geometrical shapes living in the two-dimensional Flatland. It's amazing, clever, educational, and funny.
If you have questions about the age appropriateness of any of these books, feel free to get in touch with me. I'd be more than happy to give a brief overview. 

Writing Tip of the Month: Allow Your Writing to Suck



We've all  been here: you look at a piece of your writing and think, "Oh my gosh. What even IS this?" Your story isn't just bad. No. It's surpassed bad. It's "sneak out in the dead of the night to burn it " bad. Exactly how are you supposed to salvage this?

Well, here's the truth: You can't. You can't fix it. Sometimes you write something and it just sucks. You're going to have to throw it out and start over.

But here's the good news: Just because you wrote something sucky doesn't mean that you're a sucky writer. It doesn't even mean that your idea sucks. It just means that you tried to write something and did it in a way that didn't turn out so well.

We're always going to mess up characters, botch storylines, and completely obliterate the art of writing. But that's okay. It's part of the learning process. In fact, messing up is one of the best things that can happen to a writer.

I've written and horribly ruined 8 drafts of the first chapter of my book. This doesn't mean that I'm not any good. It just means that I've found 8 scenes that my book shouldn't begin with. Each time I write it wrong, I get that much closer to finding the way to write it right. Is it annoying? Yes. But it's not the end of the world.  

So this month I have a challenge for you: Allow yourself to suck. Allow yourself to laugh at how bad you just were. And then allow yourself to shake it off, turn the page, and try something new. It might suck again. But it might end up being something beautiful. 

This Month:

 
March is the month that  my blog will finally reach 200 subscribers. How epic is that? I currently need 1 more person to be willing to jump on my blogging bandwagon. Though, at this point, it's really less of a wagon and more of a crazy train. I should be able to find 1 more crazy person floating around, right?

I'm currently working on re-formatting parts of my blog. So far I plan on changing my "writing tips" tab to include thumbnail images rather than just links. I'm also working on making a drop-down menu in a few of my other tabs, as well as changing my favicon. I might re-do my blog header and switch my fonts up a bit. What do you think? If you have an ideas for how to make my blog more user-friendly, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you.
 

Fun Facts

 
J.K. Rowling does not actually have a middle name. Her full name is Joanne Rowling. Anticipating that the male readership would be scared away by the fact that Harry Potter was written by a woman, her publishers suggested that she adopt a pen name. Rowling decided to use the initial "K" as her second initial because her grandmother's name was Kathleen. So while her pen name is Joanne Kathleen Rowling, shortened to J.K. Rowling, she actually has no middle name.

And all this time I just thought that her parents must have had a good sense of humor. 


 

Helpful Tip:


If you're like me, you probably don't have enough money to keep up with your reading habits. But sometimes there are books you simply have to own rather than borrowing them from the library (or a friend). Here are some great used book sites to help you find novels on the cheap:

AbeBooks.com 
Half.com 
Book Outlet 
Thrift Books
And, of course, the used section in Amazon
"I was gonna put it in a box!"

Think you know where this quote is from? Email me, leave a comment on my Facebook page, or this page on my website with the book/movie title. I'll release the answer on my website three weeks from now (the 28th), along with the number of people who got it right (The Nerds) and the number who got it wrong (The Newbs). Which group will you be in? Test your nerd powers! Use the Force, not Google.

To see where last month's quote was from, click here
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Hannah Heath
1726 Kurtz St
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