Welcome to the latest Monday “Movie” NaNoWriMo Style!
Did you hear the starting gunshot — we’re off! NaNoWriMo 2020 has officially begun! If you are an old pro at NaNoWriMo, you have most likely planned your story, plot, and characters so that you could hit the ground writing on November 1st. (If you haven’t, it’s still not too late to start!)
It’s Nov 2nd.
Here we go.
Now I don’t know about you, but the strain of writing ~1,667 words everyday has already hit me and its only day two. When I open my word document and prepare to get through the next 30 days of this month, it helps to know that other writers have gone through this exact same process and had incredible success.
If you’re feeling the pressure now that November is here, read about the NaNoWriMo Success stories below to learn how you can get motivated and become a success story of your own!
Don’t forget to click on the video to see the amazing trailers for these stellar books over on my YouTube Channel! – Romine’s Reviews!
First up…
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
A love story by Rainbow Rowell, the New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park.
Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one half of a pair any more – she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She’s horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she’s experienced in real life.
Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She’s got a surly room-mate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realizing that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible . . .
Fangirlby Rainbow Rowell comes with special bonus material; the first chapter from Rainbow’s irresistible novel Carry On.
Here is the SCOOP! ~
Best-selling author Rainbow Rowell wasn’t convinced that NaNoWriMo would work for her, but when she finished Fangirl, she was pleasantly surprised by how must of her first draft made it into her final story.
“I wasn’t sure I could write that quickly. And I was skeptical about writing anything good that quickly. I ended up being really surprised: I kept almost every word I wrote during NaNoWriMo.”
That 50,000-word pile I made wasn’t a mess at all. It’s some of the bravest writing I’ve ever done, and it includes my all-time favorite character, a guy I think I would’ve second-guessed to death under normal circumstances. NaNoWriMo helped me push past so many of my doubts and insecurities and bad habits. And I think that’s partly why I love Fangirl so much now—because I remember how swept away, I felt when I was writing it” – Rainbow Rowell.
More at rainbowrowell.com.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.
Here is the SCOOP! ~
Author Eric Morgenstern went through several NaNoWriMos to write The Night Circus. Her persistence lead to a New York Time’s best seller whose film rights were sold to Summit Entertainment in 2011.The movie adaptation is being produced by Harry Potter producer David Heyman and Jeff Clifford.
“In 2003, I tried doing NaNoWriMo for the first time, because I’d always wanted to write but had never been good about sitting down and actually doing it. I had ideas in notebooks but nothing concrete. I tried. I failed. Burnt out around 15k. In 2004, I tried again. I made it to 50k that year. That novel is not a novel, it is a sprawling mess of post-apocalyptic… something. In 2005, for NaNo #3, I had no plot but lots of atmosphere, and when I reached the 30k mark and had no idea where to go with it, I sent my characters to the circus. In 2006, I spent NaNo working on that circus. I ended up with something interesting, but not novel-shaped. In 2007, I did another 50k worth of work on the circus.
Throughout 2008 I took the 100k+ of circus… stuff and attempted to shape it into a novel. I don’t know how many drafts it went through. Four, maybe? It started to have something resembling a proper shape in the beginning of 2009.”– Erin Morgenstern
Erin Morgenstern is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
In Mary’s world there are simple truths.
The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?
[STAR] “A bleak but gripping story…Poignant and powerful.”-Publishers Weekly, Starred
“A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line.”-Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan
“Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary’s world is one that readers will not soon forget.”-Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of City of Bones
“Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora’s box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”-Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange
“Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down.”-Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy
Here’s the Scoop!~
New-York Times Best-Selling Author Carrie Ryan planned to write 1 book a year for 10 years to see if she could become an author. Before NaNoWriMo, Carrie focused on writing books that she thought would sell. NaNoWriMo gave her a month-long opportunity to just write what she loved and the product, The Forest of Hands & Teeth, was marvelous.
“I’m not sure I’d have ever written The Forest of Hands and Teeth if it weren’t for NaNoWriMo. Back at the start of 2006 I decided that I wanted more than anything else to be an author and I gave myself 10 years to achieve that goal. Essentially, I figured that if could write/revise/submit a book a year, then if after 10 books I hadn’t made it I could re-evaluate. NaNoWriMo had given me this freedom to just take a month and write. On a project that probably wouldn’t sell. And using a brand-new voice.
If I lost one month out of the year on a project that would never sell — so what? I *loved* writing Forest and in November I got to indulge in that. I got to experiment on a new voice and story without feeling like I was diverting from the course I’d set for myself.” – Carrie Ryan
Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of a lot of books. She use to be a lawyer. Happily, she is not anymore. You can keep it that way by reading her books:
If you like zombies, try the Forest of Hands and Teeth series.
If you like clever, fun adventure fantasy for 8-12 year olds, definitely read the Map To Everywhere series (co-written with her husband, John Parke Davis).
If you like cold calculated revenge involving hidden identities and lots of secrets: Daughter of Deep Silence.
If you or your kids like multi-author, multi-platform series like 39 Clues and Spirit Animals, try Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer — it’s produced by the same publisher (and has vikings and true history!)
If you like true-crime stuff (both fiction and podcasts), check out her upcoming release, Dead Air, a serialized thriller co-written with Gwenda Bond and Rachel Caine.
If you’re pretty sure you won’t survive the zombie apocalypse, you’re in good company. She won’t either.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Over 10,000,000 copies in print worldwide
#1 New York Times Bestseller
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller
A Newsday Favorite Book of 2006
A USA Today Bestseller
A Major Motion Picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz
Jacob Janowski’s luck had run out–orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was the Great Depression and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. There he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but brutal animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this group of misfits was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
Here is the SCOOP!~
With a #1 book on the New York Time’s Best Sellers List, a movie adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattison, and a Broadway-bound musical, Water for Elephants is probably the biggest success story in NaNoWriMo history. Knowing that millions of other writers were in the trenches with her gave author Sara Gruen the push she needed to finally write her critically acclaimed novel.
“I needed to start a book and was suffering from a well-known syndrome (somebody needs to coin a name for this disease) that is characterized by the complete inability to open one’s file.”
NaNoWriMo worked because misery loves company, and I knew that thousands and thousands of other people were out there beating their heads on their desks at the same time” – Sara Gruen
Sara Gruen is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of five novels: AT THE WATER’S EDGE, APE HOUSE, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, RIDING LESSONS, and FLYING CHANGES. Her works have been translated into forty-three languages, and have sold more than ten million copies worldwide. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS was adapted into a major motion picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Rob Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz in 2011.
She lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and three sons, along with their dogs, cats, horses, birds, and the world’s fussiest goat.
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