Last night I spent an hour reading parts of Palace of Stone before bed. (Is that silly?) That made me so excited to share it! The book releases one month from tomorrow. I'll have that section of my site up soon. And now back to Princess Academy...
Chapter 15
Weather: Again we start with a description of the outside world, as it reflects the mood and thoughts of Miri and the girls. This may be surprising considering how often I pause to describe setting, but as a reader I often get bored in long passages about what someone/something/someplace looked like. Descriptive passages better do two things for me: show me something visual (without rambling) as well as tell me something about the character/s. If descriptive passages don't also move the plot along, I get antsy and skim them. (I LOVE Tolkein, but I do some major skimming in LOTR.)
Boots, pg 180: Oh beautiful footwear. Can you imagine what it was like to lack good footwear? I lived in Paraguay for a year and a half. The streets were either dirt or empedrado--lined with stones. The stones were not smooth, they were rough and jagged. I literally wore through the soles of my shoes, straight to gaping holes. I could feel those sharp rocks on my feet as I walked, and I was luckier than many to have shoes at all. I can imagine how grateful Miri was to get those new boots.
"She would find her own place": Where will that place be? I feel like the essence of growing up is finding that personal place, and often re-finding it. It's easier to be kind and forgiving of others, I think, when I remember that they, too, are on a quest to find their own place.
Short chapter! Let me get to some questions.
Some of you asked about Danland's religion. I hesitate to give story details that aren't in the text. We know they attend chapel every rest day, once a week, and worship the creator god. There are priests of the creator god in the lowlands who divined Mount Eskel as the home of the future princess. I wrote more details about what they did at chapel in earlier drafts, but I always cut a lot out of my drafts and that was a section that went under the knife because it wasn't essential to the story. The same thing happened in Palace of Stone. I find the priests and their religion interesting. Maybe someday the story will require more details.
Alysa asks, "do you keep a journal?" I do though not daily. I also have a writing journal, something I started doing 3 or 4 years ago. At the beginning of each writing day, I record the current word count/page number and what my goal is for that day, as well as kind of talk to myself about any problems I see. Not sure it would prove interesting reading for anyone else, but it's helpful to me as motivation and to record progress. I also keep a journal for my kids. Every month I write an entry in it, like a letter to them, talking about what they're doing this month, recording stories. That's a real treasure for me and I hope for them one day.
Rebekah asks, "I was browsing your website and you mention in a couple of places that there are other professions you can do from home besides writing...could you explain what these other professions are?" I think there are lots, but I'm not a very good career counselor. I just know of people who work from home. In college I did some contract tech writing from home.
Perri asks, "If you had the choice of marrying the prince or staying on the mountain, which one would you choose?" In Miri's cirucmstance, I would have chosen as she did, but at the beginning I didn't know that's what I would have done. It took experiencing the whole story for me to realize that would be the right outcome.
Reading your thoughts on Princess Academy just makes me more excited for when Palace of Stone will come out! I can't wait. Is there any chance you would ever come to Northern California? You have a lot of fans here!
Posted by: Ali | July 20, 2012 at 01:34 PM
Seeing your images of Palace of Stone on your tumblr was amazing for me, because now it feels more real; now I've realized that there really is going to be a sequel to PA, and in about a month I'm going to be reading it!
Posted by: Hannah | July 20, 2012 at 03:17 PM
I was so excited to see Baltimore make the list of tour cities, and my mother has already agreed - like it was hardly even a matter to consider - to drive me, so now I'm even more excited. Although I wish I could be at the Utah event with Libba Bray; you two are AWESOME together.
Posted by: anilee | July 20, 2012 at 06:44 PM
If only I had a way from Provo to SLC to go to get Palace of Stone next month! Sigh...I guess I'll just have to wait until the BYU bookstore has it, or the Provo library does, or my mom decides to buy it on her Kindle (which is linked to my iPod). Why must I wait for these things, why???
Posted by: Alison | July 20, 2012 at 08:11 PM
My BIL served two years in Guatemala and has said something very similar about shoes. Good shoes, purchased in the States before leaving, became very important. Those whose shoes wore out couldn't just run to the store and find good replacements in most areas.
Posted by: Heather | July 21, 2012 at 04:10 AM
I love the back of Palace of Stone... especially the nice swirly design thing under the blurbs.
Posted by: H.P. | July 21, 2012 at 06:34 PM
I love the first chapter of Palace of Stone, if it is the first chapter.
Posted by: H.P. | July 22, 2012 at 07:26 AM
hi shannon! in the last week, I've reread every single book of yours. it was lovely for me to go back to all these stories that I loved so much and haven't had time to visit these last few years in college. your books are always so full of real emotion. I can feel it coming off the pages. anyway, my question is after bloomsbury redid all the covers of your books, they released an edition of forest born in the nice illustrated cover like the original three. I was wondering if you knew of any plans to do the same with palace of stone or if it was only being released in the new cover style? I must tell you, the illustrated covers make me smile and I get sad thinking of the palace of stone being the only one in the new cover style on my shelf.
Posted by: trinime | July 22, 2012 at 03:51 PM
I just read the first chapter of Palace of Stone on the link on the side and now I don't know how I will ever be able to wait! What day is it coming out? I want to get it right away!
Posted by: lissie | July 22, 2012 at 04:52 PM
Question for you! If you had the chance to jump into one of your books and be a character for a week which character would you choose? I'd have to say I'd love to be Miri for a day or two... Or maybe my entire life :)
Posted by: Savanna | July 22, 2012 at 11:15 PM
To share with you a very good article!
Posted by: True Religion outlet | July 26, 2012 at 11:31 PM