Review: The Anatomy of Curiosity (The Curiosities #2) by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

First, I have to say thank you to the publisher, Carolrhoda Books and Lerner Publishing, for sending me an ARC of this when I emailed and requested it last spring.  At first I was feeling bad that I didn't get to it until right before it was going to be published.  But as I have been starting to prepare for NaNoWriMo, reading this at the same time was really helpful!  The writing tips that each author gave either with their stories, or in the in-between sections when they'd all chime in on some writing topic, were very useful and gave me definite clues on how to work on my writing this year.  While the first Curiosities book, had more stories in it, and this one only has three, one from each author, the stories are longer, and the way they are done is more helpful in seeing the process of writing.  Each of the authors chooses one aspect of writing that they feel they are the most comfortable with to talk about with their story.  And I definitely agreed with them for the most part, based on their books that I have read.

The first story in this book is one by Stiefvater.  Stiefvater's aspect is characters.  And as I end up loving all of her books because of the wonderful characters, usually as my favorite part, I will definitely agree that she is very strong with this.  Her story is about an old woman, who is something more than an old woman, something dangerous maybe.  The other main character is a teen girl who has been asked to go sit and read to the old woman, that it will make her happy.  Her daughters ask her to do this.  There is something strange about the whole situation, but the girl, Petra, feels very comfortable with the woman, Geraldine.  While Petra tries at times to figure out Geraldine's secrets, they stay pretty well hidden.  Until one day when there is another person in Geraldine's home, a boy, one that doesn't look a lot older than Petra, but still is a little older.  Petra has no idea why this boy is there.  He is just sitting by the door every times she shows up. Soon enough his presence will lead to secrets being blown out into the open, and Petra will learn about who she really is.  Stiefvater goes on to point out parts in the story and how they add to the character, and she will mention at those points what things could be done differently, and sometimes why she doesn't do them that way.  I'm so excited to try out some of her tips while I write my story this November. 

The second story is all about world building, and the expert this time is Tessa Gratton.  If you have read any of her books, I think you will definitely agree with this.  Especially her United States of Asgard books.  In fact, I'm hesitant to read Riordan's new book because of how much I loved the world Gratton built using the same types of myths.  Gratton's story has to do with a kind of alternate world where magic exists.  In this world there has been a war, and the terrorists are able to set up bombs using magic.  The world is so different from ours.  In one of the main character's worlds woman are in charge.  This is the world of Rafel.  He is in the military, and gets sent out to help find and defuse these magical bombs, and each person must work with one of the magic people of a tribe that lives in between the warring lands, and the person he gets matched up with is Aniv.  It is the women in Aniv's culture that have the magic and are able to do the defusing.  After working together, Rafel begins to have feelings for Aniv.  But Aniv has more of a secret, one that may change the way Rafel looks at her and change his world.  A beautiful world created here by Gratton, but I do have to point out that she also creates great characters.  One thing she does talk about with her characters in the little tips she puts throughout the story is how they will help promote the theme and build the world.  While I'm still a little unsure how to come up with such vivid worlds, I have some ideas now on how to use the other parts of my writing to help develop the world.

The final story is from Brenna Yovanoff.  She talks about ideas.  What to do with them?  How do her ideas start?  Are they the same in the final story?  Her section is done a little differently from the first two.  She doesn't just write the story and give us tips along the way.  There is a story, and it does have tips along the way, but she also does some different bits at the beginning.  Gratton talks about how something that happened to her when she was young has always kind of rolled around in her brain giving ideas about possible stories.  She shared an original type of story written about this experience, and throughout it pointed out things that she had changed and why or how she had changed them. Then we get the more final copy of the story, and after that she points out how the things were changed between the two, and why she feels the changes worked.  I feel Yovanoff's part may not have had some of the more solid tips about how to write specifically.  But, that doesn't mean her part was any less useful.  Reading how she went through the realization of an idea from start to finally getting it into the story, and all the different steps in between, that is very helpful.  Seeing her talk about how parts, big parts, were just completely tossed out and changed as she went through this story definitely helped me when I'm writing to know that I need to just get things down, and go back and then fix the things that don't work.  And that it's okay if parts don't work, that doesn't mean the whole story is bad and has to be thrown out. 

Such a great book for anyone who wants help with their writing or maybe gets what they feel is writer's block.  I will be sharing it with all my friends who are writers, as well as with students at my school who are writers themselves.

Review - The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

This review is a long time coming.  I received an ARC of this book back at BEA in the summer of 2012.  I kept it somewhere that whenever I had just a bit of time to read, I could pick it up and read.  Which makes sense as it is a collection of short stories.   These are three authors that are kind of favorites of mine.  Maggie Stiefvater I knew from reading her book Shiver for one of the Missouri state book awards, and then loving the whole series.  When she visited Kansas City, the first time I saw her, the other two, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff both just happened to be at the signing as well.  I had read an ARC of Brenna Yovanoff's first book, The Replacement, and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, not knowing she would be there, I didn't bring it to get it signed.  I hadn't heard of Tessa Gratton until then, but as she lives in Kansas, right by Missouri where I live, she was there, and they had her book, Blood Magic, for sale, so I bought it and got it signed.  Of course I got my picture taken with all of them at that time, I believe that was fall of 2011.  Then they were all three signing this book at BEA the next summer.  So once again, I got all their signatures, and pictures with them.  The even cooler thing about the picture below?  Well, I was contacted and paid to let a publishing company use this photo in a biography for Maggie Stiefvater.  I'm still on the lookout to find a copy of it.

So, my review.  Well, these stories really made me wish that I could be a part of a writing group like this.  It seems like such a great way to pull out your creative side and just write.  And what was even more fun was all the little doodles and extra writing on each page by both the author of that story, as well as the other two often adding their own thoughts.  And some of the stories either went on to be full length books, or more likely were kind of inspiration for a future novel by one of the three.  The stories were definitely a great way to kind of get a good feel for each of the authors' writing style or voice.  I'm going to pick one favorite story from each author to tell a little bit about.

1st is the story by Tessa Gratton that led to The Lost Sun, the United States of Asgard series she is now in the midst of.  The title of this short story is:  Berserk, which of course has to do with Viking warriors.  The story tells the tale of a young girl who watches as her family is killed by trolls.  A berserker comes along and finds her burning the house, as well as her family, as the culture does with their dead.  And while he wants to take her to safety, she tricks him into following the trolls and helping her to get her revenge.  One of my other favorite stories of the book is also by Ms. Gratton, Date with a Dragon Slayer.  And in a way is a bit similar in the Norse types of themes.

Okay, I think my favorite by Maggie Stiefvater is The Deadlier of the Species, a zombie story.  It's a bit unique for a zombie story, which only makes sense for this author.  The cause of the zombies is a little parasite that must be in water or it will die when not in the host, or zombie it seems.  I love the way Ms. Stiefvater writes her characters, the banter, and even the horror of this story doesn't keep her from doing that.

Finally, my favorite story by Brenna Yovanoff in the collection is titled Neighbors.  This is a story about a ghost.  The ghost of a child.  And they don't necessarily understand that they are a ghost.  It's a short quick way, maybe not quite so shocking and scary though, of telling a story similar to the movie The Sixth Sense.  You may or may not see the end coming.  But it's still a good telling.  Ms. Yovanoff is pretty good with ghost stories.

Those are just a few of the stories, and there are others that I really liked just as well, but I didn't want to tell about all of them.  I actually feel as I looked back through to pick which ones to talk about, that I may have enjoyed many of Tessa Gratton's stories the most.

P.S. - Check back this week, as I've now passed 1900 followers on GFC, so I see another giveaway in the future!