Tag: Creative writer

Books Worth Rereading

~ Nicole Horlings ~ 2 Comments

I’d like to give a shoutout to Brianna from Brianna’s Books and Randomness for creating this tag, and Genevieve from Gifted and Chilling, where I discovered this tag.

So here’s some more information about my book tastes.

1. A childhood favourite that you could read 100 times and still love.

Oh, there are numerous books that fit well into this category, but I’m going to have to go with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, because I recently finished rereading The Hobbit, and am currently working my way through The Fellowship of the Ring. It has been a few years since reading these books, and while I knew that I loved the story, I had forgotten how much I also appreciate Tolkien’s writing style. I love the rich description that fleshes out his worldbuilding, and the level of humour that I rarely hear anyone talk about. Honestly, the “Good morning” conversation in The Hobbit is one of my absolute favourite passages.

2. A book you DNF’d but would be willing to give a second chance to.

This one would be RoseBlood by A.G. Howard, a Phantom of the Opera inspired retelling. I was really intrigued when I picked this book up in Chapters, and made an impulse buy to get it. Although I was excited when I started reading it, the way that the book switched between the two protagonists was jarring, especially since one was in first person, and the other in third person. I suppose the intension was to keep it less confusing for the reader, but I got pretty annoyed. I’m still interested in seeing where the story goes though, so I can see myself giving this book another try.

3. A newer favorite you would reread.

I’m going to cheat and mention two series: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. I have actually reread the first book from each of these series. I reread Cinder because I bought it before I had any of the sequels, and when I finally got them, felt that it would be best to have the story clear in my head before continuing with the others. And I reread The Raven Boys after first listening to the audiobook while commuting to and from school. I had gotten the CDs from my local library, and I had just started the second book when the CD player in my car stopped working, and thankfully with its dying breath spat out the CD for The Dream Thieves.

4. A book you hated and never want to read again.

I was forced to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad in high school, and I did not enjoy it at all. The plot was confusing, and I didn’t particularly like the writing style.

5. A classic you read in school but want to try again.

I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle in university for a children’s literature course, and didn’t totally love it at the time. Since the movie has come out, I wouldn’t mind seeing that, then rereading the book and seeing if I like it better.

A classic that I didn’t get the chance to read in high school but plan to read is Animal Farm by George Orwell.

6. An author you would reread anything from.

I have been impressed with Carrie Hope Fletcher‘s writing. My best friend is currently borrowing my copy of On the Other Side. I really like the way that she does magical realism.

7. A series you want to reread for the fun of it.

I am going to cheat and do two three four for this one. (I enjoy too many books to be able to choose between them easily.) The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, Septimus Heap by Angie Sage, The Green Rider series by Kristen Britian, and the good old classic Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I deeply enjoyed each of these when I read them before, and they have all greatly inspired me to write my own novels.

8. A book you’ve read but want to listen to the audiobook.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. This audiobook sounds super interesting since it’s performed by a full cast, and I adored reading my physical book of the book.

What Have I Been Up To?

~ Nicole Horlings ~ Leave a comment

Hey everyone!

Over the winter, I took a fairly big hiatus from doing any writing. At the end of February, I got myself back into writing by getting back into the Carrot Ranch Literary Community. This is a fantastic community of writers who are truly supportive, and who read each other’s work in addition to writing their own. Each week we are given a new prompt to react to, and we have to write a response that is exactly 99 words. Our stories are collected and posted as a weekly anthology. I’ve been really enjoying writing these short stories, and learning to really prioritize what words I use to tell my story, since I have so few to use. I have been posting these stories on my short story and poetry blog.

I have also recently discovered the MindLoveMisery Menagerie, another writing community with daily prompts. I haven’t written too many stories based on the prompts from there yet.

This month I created my own poetry challenge for National Poetry Month. I am publishing a poem on my blog every single day in April, based on a series of prompts that I previously made, based on the theme “A Fairy Forest In Spring”. I have also invited others to join in the challenge on my Facebook page. My friends who have joined have been coming up with some pretty fun and interesting poems.

I am also planning to participate in the Haldimand Public Library Poetry Contest, which has the theme “Community” this year. I have a couple rough drafts for poems, which I need to edit before I submit them.

Once April is done, and I’m done writing poetry at such a high rate, I hope to finally return to working on my novel.

Future Projects

~ Nicole Horlings ~ Leave a comment

Despite trying to keep my attention on only one long project, my novel Faeblood, I can’t help but keep thinking up new exciting projects that I want to bring to life one day. Once I’m past the rough drafting stage for Faeblood, I might consider working on one of these while I work on editing it.

Escape (working title) is going to be a standalone fantasy novel set somewhere in the Wexlan Empire, possibly at an earlier point in history than when Faeblood takes place, perhaps even before the empire is fully formed. I have actually gotten a good ways into a rough draft for this novel before, and spent several years working on it, alternating between it and Faeblood. The one major issue holding me back from making real progress forward despite all of the time that I spent on it was that I didn’t know where I needed the plot to go, or how I wanted the story to end. When I return to this project, I plan to spend a decent chunk of time plotting out the major moments in the story, so that I actually have a road map to follow when I return to actually writing it.

The idea for Escape came from a short story challenge on the writing website Jottify (a site that no longer exists). The challenge was to write a story under a thousand words about winter. I wrote Flight, a story about a girl fleeing from a pursuer in a snowy forest, who meets a stranger who recognizes her, and aids her in her escape by using a magic teleportation spell. My fellow Jotters loved the story, and several really encouraged me to build on it and write a longer story with the characters. And so Flight became the prologue for my novel Escape, a story set three years after the events of Flight.

I have some strong ideas for what I want to do with this story, and what themes I want to explore in it. I’m going to have a lot of fun writing when I reunite with Azaira and Darenth and explore their story again.

Gothica (working title) is another standalone fantasy novel set in a different area of the Wexlan Empire, at a different point in history. I’ve put far less work and planning into this novel, but I have some strong ideas for it. This story will probably take place later in the history of the empire than Faeblood. The city where Gothica will take place will have some decently advanced steam technology. The protagonist, Larzia, will journey outside of the city to search for a coven of witches, hoping to learn how to do magic from them. Larzia will learn whether the coven will accept her into their circle, and whether it’s even possible for her to learn magic at all.

The Gate in the Forest is going to be a middle grade mystery adventure novel about a group of kids who research and later explore a mysterious abandoned gated mansion in the middle of the forest. Although this story may seem to be more of a contemporary novel at the beginning, there will be fantasy elements in it, especially when the kids learn more about the mansion and its history.

The Bard’s Story is going to be a middle grade fantasy adventure set in a land where society is separated into various groups. Each group has control over a certain type of magic, that they alone can use (e.g. fire magic, ice magic, love magic, story magic…) The protagonist will be the from the Faction of Bards, the group that is able to use story magic, so she will be able to magically tell stories that feel so real that the listeners believe that they’re actually in the story. During the story, she will begin to question why her society is organized the way that it is. The themes that I want to explore in this novel are friendship, arrogance, rivalry, and believing that you are better than others.

Poetry anthologies: I love poetry, will continue writing it, and so I will put out collections of my poetry at some point. I plan to organize them by certain themes, like poems about nature, or fantasy inspired poetry.

Short story anthologies: I have fallen completely in love with flash fiction, and my collection of stories continues to grow. I will most likely also publish collections of my flash fiction based around certain themes.