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Jenny Waldo
- Apr 14, 2015
- 4 min
Review: THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER
The Ballad of a Small Player is vivid in the way a dream is when you first wake up, before it disappears from consciousness. A novel about the thrill of losing, and the impenetrable wall between opposites that sometimes vanishes in an instant of luck. RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars. The Ballad of a Small Player is heavy on atmosphere. Locations are richly detailed, but the story is difficult to find through the haze of smoke. At the end of the first paragraph, we know all we real
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Jenny Waldo
- May 20, 2014
- 2 min
Photos, Books, Life…
Don’t go thinking I haven’t been doing anything just because I haven’t been posting here! Oh no! I think that’s one of the things that we forget as creative people because it’s the WORK that matters, what we PRODUCE that can be touched or watched or absorbed through one sense or another. But life happens. And I want to experience it. And I’ve also just been busy trying to slog my way through the producing aspects. So here’s a tally of what’s been going on and I plan to get
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 26, 2014
- 3 min
Book Review: PUSHING THE LIMITS
I have to admit, I was embarrassed to buy this book because the title and the cover looked so…cheesy. But my own YA novel “pushes limits” on things like sex and I wanted to see what was out there in the market. Honestly! I bought this for research…and then I fell in love with it. The synopsis of the story, below, is not why I fell in love with the book. The plot is fairly weak, a framing device to push the characters closer or to heighten tension. But what McGarry does in be
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 26, 2014
- 1 min
YA Writing Contest! “Dear Lucky Agent”
If you write YA, send in your submission to the Dear Lucky Agent Contest! First 150-200 words and two social-media postings to be eligible, otherwise it’s FREE!!! Here’s what I’m sending, from my YA novel AFFINITY: A ball the size of Diana’s fist knotted in her stomach and tightened with a pinch. Nothing felt right. She scanned the crowd of bodies before her, surging like a tide, pushing and pulling, turning and reaching. Diana’d come home eager to get back to normal life
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 5, 2014
- 2 min
BOOK REVIEW: PURE series
PURE by Julianna Baggott follows several characters but the main heart of the story belongs to Pressia, a young girl turning 16 in a world that’s been obliterated by an atomic bomb 10 years prior. Everyone on the outside of a Dome which served as protection for the “pures” are considered “wretches” and have some kind of fusing. In Pressia’s case, one hand has been covered by the doll’s head that she was holding at the time of the blast. Another character is fused with birds t
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Jenny Waldo
- Jan 2, 2014
- 4 min
Book Review: ALLEGIANT (DIVERGENT series)
I just finished ALLEGIANT, the third and final sequel in the DIVERGENT series by Veronica Roth. It would be a disservice to give away anything that happens to the major characters, but I have to say that Roth’s writing is as brave and convention-shattering as her main characters. She demonstrates that Young Adult fiction does not have to be safe and comfortable for its audience. Out of the series, I still love DIVERGENT the best because of the newness of the world and the u
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Jenny Waldo
- Dec 13, 2013
- 7 min
Writing Villains & Understanding Their Villainy
Cruella de Vil is such a great villain. Her image sticks in my mind throughout time as a creepy lady who scared the crap out of me. And the best part about her, and most villains, is the entertaining value of her villainy. She is sassy and flashy, visually exciting. While I don’t want her to get those puppies, it is also fun to watch her try. I don’t even like 100 DALMATIONS as a movie, but I love Cruella de Vil. Childhood is where we learn about good and evil. Where o
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Jenny Waldo
- Nov 1, 2013
- 1 min
NaNoWriMo Begins
National Novel Writing Month begins with a challenge to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Today is Day 1. I’m working on a sic-fi idea I’ve had since reading an article in the LA Times in 2003. Ten years later, I’m giving it a go. Okay, need to write! #NaNoWriMo #nationalnovelwritingmonth #novel #Writing
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Jenny Waldo
- Sep 30, 2013
- 2 min
MM: Walking Away
Today was my last day at work for the Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) as their Program Coordinator. It’s the first job I’ve ever quit without some other reason like “I’m moving to another state.” Moreover, unlike my predecessor in the job, Michelle Mower, who left the position because she was pursuing full-time filmmaking, I’m leaving for a full-time job that’s not in my field. It’s the proverbial day-job and I guess I had hoped that through my work at SWAMP I wo
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Jenny Waldo
- Sep 5, 2013
- 4 min
WW: NaNoWriMo
In 2008 (OMG!) I took part in the National Novel Writing Month “competition” where anyone who signs up is challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days, from the first minute of November 1st to the last minute of November 30th. I stopped at Day 18 with 85,000 words. This November, I plan to do it again! Here are the rules: Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30. Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in
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Jenny Waldo
- Aug 21, 2013
- 4 min
WW: Openings (the struggle)
So here’s the opening of my book, which is currently titled FIREPOWDER but will be getting a new title when I can think of a better one. It was originally entitled SOULMATES because that’s exactly what it’s about, but I’d like to come up with something less Harlequin Romance. PROLOGUE
Soulmates, they both thought.
It was a word she associated with silly girl fantasies, but now came to mean so much more. The existence of both a soul and a mate pointed toward s
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Jenny Waldo
- Aug 14, 2013
- 4 min
WW: The Idea
I am often asked, as a writer and as a filmmaker, where ideas come from. It’s a question that I have a very strong reaction to because, where do ideas NOT come from? Who doesn’t have ideas? And that reminds me that people think and live and breathe in different ways. I think visually; I have to SEE it. I also have words, dialogue, arguments, rants, and other verbal insanity running through my head at all times. And when there aren’t words there are songs from the radio.
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Jenny Waldo
- Aug 8, 2013
- 4 min
Writing Wednesdays
I’m doing this one kind of late today. It’s a busy busy time for me this month and this is the first moment I have to spend some time of this… I’d like to applaud the work of Maggie Stiefvater, whose writing I have come to love. I don’t always fall for authors. I usually fall for particular books and don’t care to read other works by that author. As a writer myself, I can see how horrifying this is, but at the same time it’s all about the art and not the artist. But I thi
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Jenny Waldo
- Aug 5, 2013
- 6 min
Movie Mondays
I’m starting a new initiative to get this website rolling! Welcome to MOVIE MONDAYS! I will also be having WRITING WEDNESDAYS and PHOTO FRIDAYS. Check in each week to see new posts regarding these topics. So for my inaugural Movie Monday post, I want to focus on learning to make movies at film school versus on the job. Today, August 5th, is the first day of a Teen Filmmaking Camp run by the organization I work for Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) which is a great r
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Jenny Waldo
- Apr 12, 2013
- 4 min
Book Review: LEGEND
LEGEND by Marie Lu opens with high stakes and high suspense and remarkably manages to build up from there in an action-packed thrill ride that kept me hooked from page one. The story is told by one of two main characters who alternate each chapter, Day and June. Day is a criminal, a poor kid from the slums rebelling against the system and currently the government’s most wanted. June is a prodigy, the only one to ever receive a perfect score on her aptitude tests, graduating f
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Jenny Waldo
- Apr 12, 2013
- 3 min
Book Review: PRODIGY
PRODIGY by Marie Lu is the sequel to LEGEND. It begins right where the first book ended and continues the upward trend of high stakes and suspense through another action-packed thrill-ride. The story is told by one of two main characters who alternate each chapter, Day and June. Day is a criminal, a poor kid from the slums rebelling against the system and currently the government’s most wanted. June is a prodigy, the only one to ever receive a perfect score on her aptitude te
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 11, 2013
- 1 min
Execution
The black hood lowered
Over the round sky
Blocking out the light
My eyes strained
At the artificial midnight
My body instinctively knowing
It should be day
Outside
I’d never seen lightning like this
Alien blasts of
Blue-white light
Echoing through the air
And I was surprised to see our world
Still standing in their wake #poem #poetry #Writing
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 1, 2013
- 1 min
Acorns
so satisfying
the crunch
acorns
underfoot #poem #poetry #Writing
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Jenny Waldo
- Mar 1, 2013
- 1 min
Ode to Morning
The fog lay a thick band onto the grass, a crowd of people standing shoulder to shoulder. I couldn’t see but over their heads. Red and blue bands arced across the sky. Red where the dawning sun hit the clouds and blue their shadowed underbelly. The golden yolk rose from the ground, trumpeting its rays and painting the world before it priceless. Horses stood still in their fields, cows still lazed on their bellies. Their eyes watched the passing cars whose lights cut through t
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