In My Mailbox - March 20th, 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren to show what books you got over the past week.  This post will include the past two weeks.

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner

ISBN:  1400074568 (ISBN13: 9781400074563)

Release date:  September 16th, 2008

Publisher:  Waterbrook Press

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I recieved this book from the publisher for review.

“We understand what we want to understand.”

Leaving a life of privilege to strike out on her own, Lauren Durough breaks with convention and her family’s expectations by choosing a state college over Stanford and earning her own income over accepting her ample monthly allowance. She takes a part-time job from 83-year-old librarian Abigail Boyles, who asks Lauren to transcribe the journal entries of her ancestor Mercy Hayworth, a victim of the Salem witch trials.

Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. As the fervor around the witch accusations increases, Mercy becomes trapped in the worldview of the day, unable to fight the overwhelming influence of snap judgments and superstition, and Lauren realizes that the secrets of Mercy’s story extend beyond the pages of her diary, living on in the mysterious, embittered Abigail.


The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is?

Lights! Camera! Fiction!: The Movie Lover's Guide to Writing a Novel by Alfie Thompson

ISBN:  076242401X (ISBN13: 9780762424016)

Release date:  June 12th, 2006

Publisher:  Running Press Book Publishers

Synopsis from Goodreads:

How many times have you watched a popular movie and thought, "I'd like to write something like that," or "Even I can write better dialogue!" Here's your chance to learn how to write a novel...by watching movies like "Speed," "The Sixth Sense," "Clueless," "Die Hard," "While You Were Sleeping," and more! For the first time, a professional writing instructor and movie buff will take you through the steps necessary to craft your own commercial novel using techniques found in your favorite films. What can Hollywood's biggest features teach you about writing? How to watch movies with a writer's eye. Infusing character traits into scenes and plots. Using material goals to show internal motivation. Techniques for making scenes do double duty, including foreshadowing and flashback. What is a credibility gap, and how you should bridge it.

Plus: Three 'tricks' for fixing holes in your plot, characters or anything else in your story. Thompson guides you frame by frame through the ins and outs of writing a hit, in a text that is packed with "Quick Tips" and "Quick Fixes." This is an indispensable reference work that will have you polishing your prose—and preparing it for publication—in no time!

I won this book in a giveaway over on Wordplay.  I also won a CD about inspiration while writing and a couple of bookmarks.  I may even write a review for the CD.  It's a great CD to listen to if you're a writer.