Twins Crystal and Amber
have the same goal: to be the first in their family to graduate high
school and make something of their lives. When one gets pregnant during
their junior year, they promise to raise the baby together. It’s not
easy, but between their after-school jobs, they’re scraping by. Crystal’s
grades catch the attention of the new guidance counselor, who tells her
about a college that offers a degree in automotive restoration, perfect
for the car buff she is. When she secretly applies - and gets in - new
opportunities threaten their once-certain plans, and Crystal must make a
choice: follow her dreams or stay behind and honor the promise she made
to her sister.
Today, I'd like to welcome J.M. Kelly, the author of Speed of Life
to my blog. J.M. is here to talk about one of her hobbies, building miniatures.
When I'm writing a new book, there comes a
point where I'm so absorbed in it that I can't do any of my normal after-work
past times, like read, or cook anything fancy ... or clean the house. And that's
when I turn to visual arts. I wouldn't say I'm great at painting or drawing,
but it's fun to do and it's a release from words, plots, and characters. It
takes all my attention because it's not something I do regularly and it gives
my brain a break from thinking about the story.
One of my favourite things to do is build
miniatures. My college degree is in Theatre Arts and at university I had to
take stagecraft and scene design. We learned to build dioramas which I found
really fun. A few years ago, when I wanted to have a writing cabin constructed
for me, I first built a small one to scale out of foam core. I painted it with
kids' poster paints, mixing the colours like I used to do in Grade 7 art class.
You can see a video of it here.
My friend is an architect and she and I
took it out into the yard with her husband, the builder, and we positioned it
in different places on our property, deciding on the building spot and turning
it in different directions to get an idea of good placement, which was actually
pretty cool and not anything I'd intended to do with it.
I have such clear pictures in my head of
places I imagine and all of my books are like little movies in my head. Speed
of Life is so visual to me, and I hope it comes across to readers, but in
my head, I know every detail of the place Crystal, Amber, and Natalie live in,
so I decided it would be fun to build it in miniature.
First I laid it out on paper, planning to
build the whole house. But then I realized even at a small scale (1/2" to
the foot), it would be pretty big, so I decided to build only the
garage-bedroom that they share. I laid it out on a board that was big enough to
include the driveway, too. I had plans for that driveway.
Here are some pictures of it:
If you're looking at it in person, you can
see a lot more detail, but even these pictures give you a good idea of my
vision. Some things are more "representative" of what they are
supposed to be, and others look a little more realistic. This is because I'm
pretty much winging it and trying to have fun, not judge my abilities as an
artist. After all, it's something I do to relax. I figure building miniatures
is a lot like cooking…if you want a perfect cake, go buy one. If you want a
delicious, homemade cake with ingredients you know about, make one and who
cares if it's slightly lopsided?
I knit the bedspreads for the beds and the
crib, but I printed out tiny pictures to make the posters on the walls. It was
great fun choosing decorations for each side of the room depending on which
girl slept where. And I printed out a tiny picture of pampers to make the box
of diapers, cut up an ice cube tray to make Rubbermaid storage containers, and
used a scrap of old material for the rug. The rug covers a stain Crystal made
when she worked on a car part in their bedroom (it might look like I spilled
paint there, but I admit nothing). I'm not sure if the toothpick legs on the
crib could actually hold Natalie without collapsing, but they look okay!
The reason I included the driveway (and the
oil stain) is because like Amber, I have ambitions that there will be a cool
Mustang parked there. I bought a plastic model kit last spring that my husband
and I were going to put together, but do you know how many pieces those models
have in them? Probably as many as a real car, except they're tiny! I could
write another novel in the time it would take to put it together. I'm seriously
considering making a paper mâché car. Or possibly I'll just make some tiny
bricks and primer the model and "put it up on bricks." Everyone who
restores cars seems to have at least one that doesn't run, up on bricks,
somewhere in their yard. Why not Crystal?
I have a terrible time visualizing settings so these photos should definitely help me with picturing Amber and Crystal's bedroom. Thanks for dropping by, J.M.!
A bit about J.M. (as found on Goodreads): J.M. Kelly is the YA pen name
for the children's author Joelle Anthony. She loves the rain, which is
good because she was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and now lives
in British Columbia, Canada. She spent her childhood with her nose in a
book, often in the backseat of whatever old car her dad had at the time.
She's worked as an actress, a Minor League Baseball souvenir hawker,
the Easter Bunny, and various other not-so-odd jobs. Now she mostly
writes novels, but she still dabbles in sketch comedy, nonfiction
articles, and teaching writing to both kids and adults. She recently
wrote and starred in her first full-length play, along with her husband.
Books by Joelle Anthony include: Restoring Harmony, The Right & the Real and the forthcoming A Month of Mondays.
From Inside Jacket: Twins Crystal and Amber
have a plan: Be the first in their family to graduate from high
school, get full-time jobs, and move out of the hovel they've called home for eighteen years. When one of them gets pregnant
junior year, they promise to raise the baby together. It’s not
easy, but between Amber's job washing dishes and Crystal working at a gas station, they’re just scraping by. Car-buff Crystal’s
grades catch the attention of the new guidance counselor, who tells her
about a college that offers a degree in automotive restoration. When she secretly applies - and gets in - new
opportunities threaten their once-certain plans, and Crystal must make a
choice: follow her dreams or stay behind and honor the promise she made
to her sister. 
