The Divergent Challenge: Candor

Last week, the husband and I took a trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Our actual anniversary is next month, but we'll be at ALA, and besides, it's too hot to camp in southwest Oklahoma in late June. Why the hell would we go to southwest Oklahoma for our anniversary? WIP research. Because my husband loves me.

So we went to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge and camped for a week. No electricity, no kiddos (thanks grandparents!), limited phone access, and aside from the night we retreated to a hotel because of tornadoes all over the state, no internet. We didn't even listen to music, despite driving 1500 miles.

We did make room for Kermit, however.



What does this have to do with Candor? (Or, alternately, what the hell is Candor?)

1. the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness.

2. freedom from bias; fairness; impartiality.

3. a faction in Veronica Roth's stellar YA novel, Divergent. See also: Faction Challenge, courtesy of Debra Driza. 

A week together with no distractions = very clear heads. You can't lie to yourself after a few days of sleeping outside, letting the wind almost push you off mountaintops, eating simple camp meals (and accidentally sharing them with ice chest-robbing raccoons). I laid out an entire outline for my book, and finally got my head around some of the themes that stretch themselves through what I hope will be a trilogy.

But mostly, we made big plans for the future. My Candor challenge was sharing those plans with my parents over the weekend, and it went fine. (Hey kids! Did you know, even when you're in your thirties, you still crave your parents' approval? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!)

Hopefully I can share those plans with you guys soon-- maybe by the time we reach Dauntless week. But in the meantime:

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