Uncategorized - Lacey Louwagie (Page 3)

My Year in Disney Movies: Final Thoughts

Reposted from my A Year in Disney Movies blog, which was my primary writing project in 2015 (although I didn’t intend it to be!) Well, we’re halfway into the first month of 2016, there are no unwatched movies in Disney’s animated canon, and it’s officially time

Blogging

2016 - A New Year For Writing

It’s a new year, which means a new writing resolution. This year, I have only one: to put my middle-grade novel through another rigorous revision and submit it to an editor who has given me permission to do so. It also marks the end of last year’s writing

books

Bring it on, 2016 Reading Challenges!

For the last six weeks, I’ve sort of been obsessing over which reading challenges I will do in 2016. I was particularly interested in checklist-style challenges, such as “read a book written by an African American,” “read a book retelling a fairy tale,” etc. I like my challenges to

100 Normal Days

Last Friday, I was listening to the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast titled #Blessed, which was about the way women choose to portray themselves on social media. That prompted me to take the following photo and post it: Listened to this great podcast today about our tendency to make

Book Reviews

Retelling Book Review: Call Me Ixchel - Mayan Goddess of the Moon by Jamie Havemeyer

Call Me Ixchel: Mayan Goddess of the Moon by Janie Havemeyer My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book ended up being better than I expected it to be. At first, the book’s tone was really off-putting, trying too hard to be conversational and “modern” in a way that

book reviews

Fairy Tale Book Review: Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by

Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by Davide Cali My rating: 3 of 5 stars I’m going to let this conversation with my husband serve as my review: Him: This book is stupid! Me: Why is it stupid? Him: It has no point! There’s no moral. Me: It

Book Reviews

Writing Book Review: Second Sight by Cheryl Klein

Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B. Klein My rating: 5 of 5 stars The market is saturated with books about the craft of writing and the nuts and bolts of selling, publishing, and marketing your work.

Book Reviews

Fairy Tale Retelling Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I deprived myself of this book for far too long because I didn’t want to read any Rapunzel retellings while I was working on the second draft of my own. But this one was worth the wait. I loved

Book Reviews

Retelling Book Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Fairest by Marissa Meyer My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 Although I didn’t rate this book as highly in the others in this series, some parts of it really impressed me. In a lot of media, villains are treated in one of two ways: as exclusively evil

Jem

Retelling Movie Review: What REALLY Ruined the New JEM Movie

I went into the new JEM movie expecting to hate it. In fact, I even judged myself a bit for letting my curiosity get the better of me to support a movie that I was pretty sure was going to crap all over my childhood. Still, I couldn’t totally

NaNoWriMo

Resisting the Siren Song of NaNoWriMo

So, it’s that time of year again. The time to start thinking about writing novels in November. Even though I do not do NaNoWriMo every year, not a single November has passed since I first participated in 2005 that I haven’t thought about it. This year I told

Uncategorized

My New Writing Hut is Complete!

After being “in-process” for over a year, my husband and I finally moved into our “outdoor” office — a space twice as big as our shared basement office — where he can code and I can write to our hearts’ content.

Book Reviews

Fairy Tale Book Review: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

I’ve mentioned my fan-fiction days in past entries, as well as my childhood obsession with Aladdin. Well, it seems like my prayer to Disney finally arrived on sympathetic ears 20 years later, when Disney released this darker, more “adult” rendition of its Aladdin story, which releases today. My review

Uncategorized

Tips for Beating Writer's Block

The Stop Procrastinating App recently released the following info-graphic which details results of a survey of writers on powering through writers block. I’ve used almost all these tips at some point, and I’m still writing! (I do think writer’s block is sort of a copout — for me

book reviews

Published Journal Book Review: Let Me Stand Alone by Rachel Corrie

Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie by Rachel Corrie My rating: 4 of 5 stars I listened to this audiobook mostly while I was biking with my dog, so now I find that I “miss” Rachel Corrie when I go biking with a different audiobook. This makes

Blogging

Fairy Tale Book Review: Beauty & the Beast

I have been posting to this blog less this year than I used to because most of my blogging energy has gone toward my Year in Disney Movies blog, which has been a greater undertaking than I expected. Disney movies were so interwoven into the fabric of my imagination when

Blogging

On Being A "Finisher" Who is Bad at Endings

My work style is that of a “finisher.” This means that I feel uneasy until a project is completed — I don’t like “unfinished” business hanging over my head. This trait has served me well — at age 13 I was able to kick that common writing pitfall of abandoning piles

Book Reviews

Fairy Tale Retelling Book Review: Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 As this book began, I thought I would adore it. I really liked the tone, which was whimsical while still paying proper deference to the many fairy tale tropes woven throughout the story. This is definitely the most

letters to the editor

What's in a Name?

As a reporter for a national news organization covering legal news in South Dakota (and sometimes beyond), I’ve become much more attuned to what is happening in my home state than I ever have been in the past — especially when it comes to the state’s Native American population.

book reviews

Fairy Tale Retelling Book Review: The Rose Bride by Nancy Holder

The Rose Bride: A Retelling of “The White Bride and the Black Bride” by Nancy Holder My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was an interesting reading experience because I was not familiar with the source material for this book, the fairy tale “The White Bride and the Black Bride.

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My new writing space, and recommendations

I’ve been meaning to post a couple recommendations here for weeks, and now that I’ve got a nifty new writing station, I’ve decided it is time to do it! My new #writing station. A photo posted by Lacey Louwagie VenOsdel (@laceyvenosdel) on Jun 14, 2015 at 5:

Book Reviews

Retelling Book Review: Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s been so many years since I’ve read anything by Donna Jo Napoli — I think more than a decade — so I was pleased to find that she still “held up” after all this time, especially since I

Blogging

Is There a Place for Big Girls in the Church?

My monthly post is up at Young Adult Catholics — a plea for the Catholic Church to be a good parent and let its children finally grow up.

book reviews

Retelling Book Review: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book was not what I expected it to be. It was lighter on magic, heavier on Alaskan frontier hardship, but once I adjusted my expectations, I ended up enjoying the book a lot. It is one of

Fairy Tales

My Post and Giveaway on A Backwards Story

My post about What Makes a Good Retelling is up on A Backwards Story, along with a drawing to win a copy of my own retelling, Rumpled. Head over there to enter — and while you’re there, make sure to check out the other posts that are part of the