by Stephanie Morris

It’s hard to believe that it is already December. At college, the fall semester is drawing to a close. Finals loom. Christmas draws nears. And according to some sources, the apocalypse lurks just around the corner.

In between my studies, Christmas shopping, and my musings on the subject of doomsday, I’ve been reacquainting myself with my favorite books. However, as neither my school nor any shopping centers are within walking distance of my house, I have spent a good deal of time in the car—and I’ve taken my books, in the form of audiobooks, along with me.

The experience has been delightful. I love having stories read aloud to me. Let me share a few of my all-time favorite audiobooks with you. Maybe you’ll discover something new to read or listen to over the holidays!

10) Rebecca’s Tale by Sally Beauman. Read by Gerard Doyle, Emily Gray, Virginia Leishman, and Simon Prebble. This is a sequel to Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca. I listened to it on cassette and fell in love with the diverse talents of the ensemble. I enjoyed piecing together the book’s various mysteries, as well as hearing Rebecca’s tale told in her own voice.

9) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Performed by Stefan Rudnicki and an ensemble cast. I didn’t expect to love this novel as much as I did; I usually balk at science fiction. But Ender’s Game is amazing. Card’s prodigies are people in their own right—I could root all day for Ender and his sister Valentine and even appreciate the cold genius of their monstrous brother, Peter. The novel is full of consequences and compromises and visceral conflicts. The cast that performs Ender’s Game was surprising. While not every narrator has an equal part, and the narration occasionally feels uneven, each voice fit the story.

8) The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. Read by Alexandra O’Karma. This is an old, nostalgic favorite, one of the defining audiobooks of my childhood.

7) The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Produced by the BBC Radio and performed by an ensemble cast. Another defining series of audiobooks—or more properly, radio plays—from my childhood. There were sound effects and the narration was wonderful, and though the stories were abridged, the performances were lively enough that I didn’t mind.

6) The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Read by Jill Tanner. Another childhood love. Tam Lin is one of my favorite folktales, and I love how Elizabeth Marie Pope re-imagines it. Kate Sutton is one of my all-time favorite heroines, and the Fair Folk took my breath away.

5) The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. Read by Simon Prebble. I love Jasper Fforde’s imagination. The idea of characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes living mundane lives drew me to this book initially. Businessman Humpty-Dumpty, the homicidal Ginger Bread man, and Simon Prebble’s narration kept me there.

4) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Read by Jeremy Irons. Nabokov’s elegant prose plus Jeremy Irons’ voice equals audible chocolate. Jeremy Irons is truly the perfect narrator. He performs the “unreliable narrator” with conviction. The humor translates brilliantly (making this one story I could not listen to while driving), but the poignancy and horror of the story is ever present.

3) The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Read by Simon Vance. “Napoleon with dragons,” sums up the main idea behind these seven fantasy/alternate history novels. It is the one series about dragons that I love unconditionally. Novik re-imagines the world of Napoleon brilliantly. The dragons are a natural part of the societies in which they live (either among humans or separate from them), and are as thoroughly realized characters as any of the humans. Simon Vance has a distinct voice for every character.

2) The Giver by Lois Lowry. Read by Ron Rifkin. I listened to this story at least once a month for years as a child. The simplicity of Lowry’s prose and plot, and the profundity of her story, are breathtaking. I always found Ron Rifkin’s narration to be rather comforting.

1) The Bartimaeus Sequence, by Jonathan Stroud. Read by Simon Jones. Some days, just thinking about this series tickles me hard enough to make me laugh aloud. Jonathan Stroud’s skill at characterization, suspense, and worldbuilding are phenomenal, and Simon Jones’ narration is perfect. I’ve listened and re-listened to the first three books in this series (my favorites) so many times that I’ve lost count.

What books are you reading or listening to this holiday season? Tell us about some of your favorites!

Stephanie Morris is a WriterHouse intern, a college sophomore who majors in something new every week, an aspiring writer of Gothic horror and speculative fiction, and a voice actor. This post originally appeared on audiblecandy.blogspot.com. (Image courtesy of thanunkorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

by Stephanie Graham

How do you write a novel in a month? I’ve written two, and I still don’t know how. I could take a solid guess that most participants in NaNoWriMo have no idea how they do it, either. There are many different strategies, of course. Some people start planning out their stories, plot twists, and possible endings months in advance. Then you get people like me. My strategy for NaNo is simple: I fly by the seat of my pants.

Don’t get me wrong; outlining is great! For those of you with enough of an attention span to use notecards or a chart or any sort of thing—that is marvelous. I tip my hat to you, because I cannot do it. I tried to make notecards, and I made about two before I was distracted by something shiny. That’s probably what I love about NaNo: it is a giant ‘something shiny.’ Your novel is free to bounce from point to point with no sense of direction. Why? The great thing about NaNo is that it’s about writing. You don’t have to write a phenomenal novel. You don’t even have to write a somewhat-good novel. You just write. I refer to the 50k words written during November as the “Zero Draft.” It isn’t even a first draft! Somewhere in the nonsense filler about spoons (don’t laugh, I have used silverware as filler before) and all the love triangles, there’s a golden nugget. Think back to the gold craze that happened in history some time ago. People were sifting through dirt, mud, and all other kinds of unmentionables. They were convinced that somewhere in there was a speck of gold. One speck of gold could lead to another, and if they eventually found enough flecks of shiny substance, then it could amount to something. A NaNoWriMo novel is a lot like that.

One of the biggest excuses I’ve heard for not participating in NaNo is: “I have no time.” That doesn’t matter when it comes to NaNoWriMo. Believe it or not, it’s easy to balance your commitments along with a 50k novel (of course, it helps if you explain to your co-workers why you scribble furiously in a notebook every break you get).

I have multiple strategies for fitting writing time in with life. The great thing about these strategies is that you don’t have to pick just one. Experiment, find out which ones work well for you, and try to relax. NaNoWriMo is also about fun. The two schools of strategy that I’ve found for NaNoWriMo are this: Set Aside and Squeeze In.

‘Set Aside’ is a great strategy for those who want to take a moment to concentrate only on their novel. You find a space to write. It doesn’t matter whether it’s solitary or a room filled with people, or if it’s loud or quiet. What matters is that you came there to write. Set aside an hour or two each day to go to your writing space (might I recommend Writer House?) and just write. One of my favorite strategies is to chunk out about three hours after a work day to go to the Writer House. I spend the first hour staring at the wall, brewing coffee, and allowing myself to be distracted by every little thing. Then I spend the next hour concentrating as much as I can on writing. Finally, I start to get sleepy and my writing gets a little strange, but oftentimes my best writing happens in the final hour. The point is that you set aside time to concentrate on writing. It will help your wordcount and, best of all, it will help relax you. Writing may at times be rather masochistic, but it’s also quite relaxing at times.

Another great strategy is ‘Squeeze In’. ‘Squeeze In’ is for the writer on the go, the entrepreneur, the full-time mom, the awesome student, and the general busy individual. For this strategy, you should carry a notebook with you at all times. I know many people are loathe to write by hand, but for ‘Squeeze In’ the point is to get down as many words as you can, when you can. Fifteen minute break? Jot down an awesome exchange of dialogue. On the road? Well, if you’re driving then please keep your eyes on the road—passengers, write away! You could even write in the bathroom if you wanted, though I would recommend keeping those strategies to yourself.

The clock is ticking closer, and I need to figure out how I’m going to begin this November. I’ve already gone over the recommended length for a blog post, but when it comes to NaNoWriMo, I just can’t stop. Try to write whatever, whenever you can. This isn’t about perfection, this is about having fun.

Stephanie, a member of WriterHouse, shepherds curious students through the wonderful process of college application, while she herself has no clue what she wants to do with her BA in English. She’s content at this time to spend her time writing, drawing, and getting distracted easily. She also has a massive weakness for stuffed animals, which she deemed important enough to put in her biography. (Image courtesy of Aeracura: A Blossoming Life)

by Sophia Volpi

November is National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, a month-long writing challenge (though I prefer the term “quest”) to write 50,000 words of that novel you’ve been meaning to write. Yes, you. I didn’t really believe I could do it, either, but the folks participating in NaNoWriMo have so much fun I thought I would give it a shot – and I did it. 50,000 words in 30 days!

A man named Chris Baty issued the first challenge in 1999 to twenty other folks, six of whom finished 50k in 30 days; last year, there were 256,618 participants worldwide and 36,843 winners. The Charlottesville region reached 850+ members this year, a hugely diverse group that includes long-time Cville residents, UVA freshmen new to the area, parents, professionals, middle schoolers, and retirees – anyone who wants to write a novel and is willing to try is welcome.

Common writing wisdom is that it’s better to write alone, but something magical happens in November when writers get together. The inner editor that stills our fingers over the keyboard is sent away, ‘perfect’ is replaced with ‘good enough,’ which will survive to be edited to perfection later, because waiting for perfection means never putting anything down at all. Writers compete in “word wars” where the prize is a “hurray!” for writing the most in 5-10 minute increments, but, really, everybody wins. Novels that existed only as dreams or wishes start to come to life. Plot twists are discussed over cocoa or coffee, writer’s blocks demolished by the encouragement of others facing the same problem.

Writer House has been a NaNoWriMo sponsor since 2008, offering a quiet place to write to NaNoWriMo participants through the entire month of November, whether Writer House members or not. The Charlottesville NaNoWriMo crew meets in other places, for computer-crashed commiseration breakfasts and made-the-daily-wordcount celebrations downtown, but the core of our events (and our best word wars!) happen at Writer House.

See you there!

For more information, see:

The official NaNoWriMo site: nanowrimo.org
The official Cville NaNoWriMo region: http://nanowrimo.org/en/regions/usa-virginia-charlottesville
The official Writer House site: writerhouse.org
Cville NaNoWriMo on twitter: https://twitter.com/cvillewrimos
Cville NaNoWriMo on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cvillewrimos

Sophia Volpi is a software developer by day and knitter/writer/crafter/coder by night. She is a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liason for the Charlottesville region (along with Louise Ball) and has been since 2009.