Pledged

I recently read PLEDGED by Alexandra Robbins, and found it oddly fascinating. I’ll be honest. I am a Tri-Delt. There, I’ve said it. If you’re a Kappa please don’t start hating me.

I went to a small liberal arts college that took academics seriously and didn’t even have a football team. During rush we would joke that people had to get into the school before they could get into the Greek system. So my days with Delta Delta Delta weren’t exactly like the experiences described in this book. Still I had a hard time putting this book down.

Some scenes were so much like my own sorority experience that I was flooded with a rush of memories. Then there were other parts that made me serious question the sanity of these girls. This book was researched in 2002-03, not 1950. Can woman really still be that backwards? If my sorority sisters had been this insane I would have deactivated in a heart beat. But some of my sorority sisters were pretty insane, so maybe I wouldn’t have.

The unbelievable parts of the book tended to captivate me the most. As a YA writer, I’m always trying to figure out how kids these days actually behave (as opposed to how kids behaved back in my day). And the 19-year-olds followed in this book aren’t very far removed from the 16-year-olds that read and populate YA literature.

Are “mean girls” as real in modern high schools as pop culture would have us believe? After reading Pledged I’d tend to say yes. And when the mean girls grow up and head off to college, they all go Greek.

If you too have Greek letters hanging in your past, Pledged is a great trip down memory lane. As soon as I finished this book, I sent a bunch of my old sisters love notes. If you weren’t Greek, Pledged can provide insight into what sorority life is all about, but it might not be quite as fascinating. And you won’t start screaming, “Why did they wait so long before holding Revelation?” or “We never did that!” or “We should have hazed more, that sounds fun.”

When is it Time to Revise?

Before jumping into today's post, let's get to the givaways. Today's winner of my 5 free books for 50 followers contest is Marie Rearden, who won a copy of EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert. Congratulations Marie! On Monday, I'll give away a copy of EIGHTH GRADE BITES by Heather Brewer. So if you haven't entered yet sign up by either leaving a comment on my January 11th post or you can leave a comment here saying you would like your name added to the pot. Remember, you have to follow this blog to win.

Now onto the issue of mid-draft revissions.

I started working on a new project a week ago. I didn’t do any outlining before I started. I’m a total pantser, and I’m never going to change. I had a vague idea about what this book would be about, but no clear plot or story arch in mind—just a main character and a starting point.

This character started talking to me. So I started writing, and writing, and writing. In one week, I’ve written 35k words. The story is YA and I expect the final manuscript will be about 60k words. So I’m just over half way done. Half way through the rough draft in a week is awesome.

Now that I’ve written this far, I’ve finally figured out what this book is going to be about. I have a much better idea of where it should end and what has to happen to get me there. Here is the problem, my beginning doesn’t match my end. I need to kill off one of my main characters and plant a few new ones earlier.

So should I just push through and write the end knowing I’m going to go back and re-write the beginning as soon as I finish? Or should I step back, start over, and write a new beginning now so that my completed first draft will, you know, actually have the same characters the entire way through?

I can’t decide what to do. I really want to cut myself in half and re-write the beginning at the exact same time as I write the end, but I’m not that good of a multitasker. I’m not worried about finishing this book. It’s screaming in my head far too loud to ignore it for long. Even beginning a re-write now, I’ll probably have a completed first draft in a month.

Are there any other neurotic pantsers out there who have found writing strategies that work? What do you think I should do?

And the winner is…maybe you

Back on January 11th, when this blog only had 40 followers, I decided to give away five free books as soon as I hit the 50 followers mark. Well, I now have 55 followers, which is awesome. But only seven people entered my contest.

Giving away five free books to seven people seems weird. How do I pick which two people don’t get to win? A random number generator and whoever’s number comes up looses? So I’m going to give the books away one at a time, and open things up for more people to win.

The first book I’m giving away is ORDINARY GHOSTS by Eireann Corrigan. And the winner, selected at random from the seven people who left comments on my January 11th post is…Medeia Sharif. Congratulations Medeia!

Tomorrow I’m going to give away EIGHTH GRADE BITES by Heather Brewer. If you’re one of the other six people who’s already entered the contest, you are automatically entered in tomorrows drawings. But if you haven’t entered yet you can either leave a comment in this post saying you want to be eligible for the EIGHTH GRADE BITES drawing tomorrow, or you can leave a comment on my January 11th post and be entered in the next four drawings.

Oh, and you have to be a follower to win.

Best of luck, and congrats again to Medeia.

Buying Real Estate in Books

For this weeks Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question:

If you could live in the storybook world of one book what would it be? (any genre)

Most people are answering with a resounding Harry Potter. I get that, going to Hogwarts would be cool. But I don’t want to be the same as everyone else, so I need to say something else.

In the land of fantasy, the Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke would be cool. The book plays with this idea fully as people are fictitious characters are constantly falling in and out of the pages of books. I’m not sure if I’d want to live in the fictitious land of Inkheart (the book within the book) but I would enjoy pulling characters out of the pages of my favorite novels.

Most of what I read is contemporary fiction. Since the books are basically set in this world, moving there wouldn’t be all that unusual. I recently read The Heights Society by Ally Carter. I have no ambitions of becoming a professional thief, but it might be cool to be a spy. So I’m going to go with The Gallagher Academy for my answer. I want to live in the adventurous boarding school of I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You and the like.

What about you? What storybook land makes you want to call your realtor?

Still Writing Like a Mad Woman

When I joked yesterday that I was having a NaNoWri Week, I was kind of joking--kind of. Now, I'm really starting to think that it might happen. I'm up to 32,000 words. It's been five days--five intense and wonderful days. According to the rules of NaNoWriMo "winning" involves writing 50,000 words in a month. I can totally write 18,000 more words in the next two days. I'm in the groove, baby.

Also, don't forget to enter my contest. As soon as I hit 50 followers, I’m going to give away five free books. I'm up to 47 followers, so if you’re an old follower, make sure and enter soon.

Status Update

I figured I’d post a quick Monday Morning Meeting with updates on where things are in my writing life.

1st, I now have 47 followers. I’m having a contest. As soon as I hit 50 followers, I’m going to give away five free books. So if you’re an old follower, make sure and enter soon.

2nd, I’ve been writing like CRAZY. On last Friday’s post, I said I’d started a new project. Well I wrote like gangbusters this weekend and I’m now at 25k words (for people who don’t think in word count this is about 100 pages in ms word). 25k words, for a project I started last Thursday.

Obviously, this project is rough. I keep coming up with new twists and dropping them in at willy nilly, so it will take some hard core revising to turn this manuscript into a coherent story. But still, 25k words in four days is exciting. Forget about NaNoWriMo, I’m having a novel writing week.

So what about you? Any major news you’d like to share with the world?

Attack of Shiny New Project Syndrome

Before I jump into today’s ramblings, I want to remind everyone to enter my contest. I’m giving away five free books as soon as I reach 50 followers. You don’t want to miss out on that!


That’s right, I’ve caught a nasty case of SNPS (that’s shiny new project syndrome).

Here’s the scoop. I’m currently querying my old wip, EXIT STAGE LEFT. And I’m supposed to be working on my new wip, BROKEN. I like BROKEN, a lot. It’s a great story, with great characters, and I like where it’s going. By the time I finish writing it, I think it will be a really good book.

But I’ve had a CRAZY work schedule lately. I’ve been traveling for work and generally having zero free time. So it’s really hard for me to find time to write. Whenever I do sit down to work on BROKEN, I just end up rereading what I’ve written before in an attempt to refresh my memory about where I’m at. It’s been months since I actually wrote anything new on it.

So one of my unspoken new years resolutions was actually to stop writing. Not forever, just until my work schedule eased up a bit. I’ve been trying to dedicate my limited free time to reading books written by other people. The idea being that once I did find myself with a little free time, I could jump back into BROKEN with new un-tethered abandon.

It was a good idea, until I started day dreaming about future projects. There is this one story that I really want to write. It’s going to be my greatest book ever—I just know it. Except I have no clue how to tell it. I’ve actually tried three times. I’ve written complete manuscripts of the same story in three different genres told from three totally different angles. And none of them have worked. I’ve really tried, and I want to tell this story so bad. I know it will work, somehow, and when it does it will be great.

So lately, I’ve been thinking about that un-writable story that’s been swimming around in my head for years. I figured I’d try it again after I finished BROKEN so I might as well come up with a strategy for my next approach. And then it hit me. I figured out how to tell the story. Or at least, I think I’ve figured out how to tell the story.

Last night, I got home from work at a reasonable hour, so I decided to start writing. I spewed out 8,000 words all over my computer. I wrote 8,000 words in one night, after not writing anything for months. And these characters are still screaming inside me head. I have to write this story—like immediately. I don’t care if I have a crazy work schedule right now. Who needs sleep anyway?

It’s possible that this new approach won’t work any better than any of my previous attempts. But I have to try. And, to be honest and maybe a little egotistical, I think it will work. I think this book is going to be pretty good. And I’m so excited. I love writing. I’ve always known I love writing. I just haven’t had anything to write about lately. And now I do again. And it’s great!

Dramarama

I’m having a contest. Head over to my January 11th post if you want to enter. The rules for this contest are pretty simple. As soon as I reach 50 followers, I’m going to give away FIVE free books. The winners will be selected from the people who left a comment on my original contest post.

I’m now at 46 followers, and only five people have entered my contest. Since I’m giving away five books—your chances of winning are really high. So please, enter my contest, why don’t you want a free book?

In hopes of enticing a few more contestants, today I’m going to recommend DRAMARAMA by E. Lockhart. This is one of the five titles up for grabs, and so far nobody has claimed they want it.

Two theater-mad, self-invented fabulositon Ohio teenagers. One boy, one girl. One gay, one straight. One black, one white. And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP. It’s a season of hormones, gold lame, hissy fits, jazz hands, song and dance, true love, and unitards that will determine their future—and test their friendship.

Since my WIP, EXIT STAGE LEFT, is also a YA novel set at drama camp, DRAMARAMA is close to my heart. It’s a charming story about overzealous teens who have are often more comfortable singing and dancing than they are discussing their real emotions. It’s a very fun read, that will make you laugh out loud. I highly recommend heading to your nearest bookstore or library to pick up a copy. Or you can just enter my contest and win a free copy that way.

My WIP in 250 words.

Before I jump into today’s RTW, I want to remind everyone to enter my contest. I’m giving away five free books as soon as I reach 50 followers. You don’t want to miss out on that!


Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

Head over to YA Highway to see what everyone else is saying.

This week's prompt:
Give a blurb for your favorite book or one of your own!

Here is a EXIT STAGE LEFT in 250 words, written by yours truly.

Jocelyn Davis has always been better at acting than living. She manages to land the roll of Juliet in the camp play, even though the only part she really wants to play is popular. Popularity has never been a problem for Hunter Richman, which kind of sucks because most of his friends are beyond annoying. But that new camper Jocelyn seems marginally interesting, so Hunter hangs up his rock climbing helmet to play the part of Romeo.

Jocelyn and Hunter make-out on stage, and feel confused about everything off stage. They begin to enter one another’s worlds as Jocelyn befriends the camps mean girls, and Hunter forms an unlikely friendship with Bradley, a gay guy cast as Mercutio.

The same day that Romeo kills Tybalt on stage, Hunter’s alleged BFF starts picking on Bradley. When Hunter comes to Bradley’s defense he is both physically assaulted and publicly humiliated. Hunter narrowly avoids banishment. But a few days later, Jocelyn discovers one of her new friends, Paige, has a serious eating disorder. When Paige is banished to the hospital, Jocelyn not only mourns her friend, she also questions her values.

Jocelyn and Hunter realize if all the world’s a stage it’s important to cast themselves in the best parts possible. And there is no part more challenging or rewarding than honesty. The choice to finally stop acting kills all hopes of a romantic relationship. But they discover breaking up doesn’t feel like a tragedy when it means falling in love with themselves.

Giving KidLit to Adults

Yesterday, I went to my cousin’s 33rd birthday party. I decided to give her a book, because I always give books as gifts. When I was wondering around Powell’s trying to pick something out I got totally overwhelmed. For reader’s unfortunate enough to not live in Portland, Powell’s is the largest independent book store in the world. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of books to choose from can be a lot to handle.

So I headed over to the YA section. I’ve read enough of the books in that room to feel comfortable. But what YA book does one give a 33 year old? I gave my mom CHAINS by Laurie Halse Anderson for Christmas. She loved it so much that it’s now making the rounds through the rest of my relatives. So middle grade historical fiction is okay for the 60+ market.

I settled upon THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusek. I’ve recommended it to other adults in the past and never heard of anyone disliking it. Clearly this book won the national book award for a reason, and is more than capable of transcending age barriers.

At the party, my cousin was excited about getting a book from me and curious what the book was about. None of the other adults at the party had ever heard of THE BOOK THIEF either. So I told them, “It’s a world war two book set in Germany. It shows the lives of the ordinary non-Nazi Germans. It’s interesting because while there are so many stories about WW2 this one addresses a part of the story almost never covered.”

Then I went on to say, “The cool thing about this book is that it’s narrated by death. Since it’s WW2, people are dying all the time. And death keeps showing up and observing the lives of the characters.”

“And this book is YA?” My cousin and her friends all sounded skeptical.

“Actually, it’s middle grade.” That’s the thing adults never seem to understand. Kids are capable of understanding complicated and interesting stories. KidLit isn’t lesser fiction. There is a lot of KidLit that’s totally ground breaking and amazing. Books like THE BOOK THIEF and CHAINS are just as good as any book in the “adult” section of the bookstore, and better than most of it.

I’m really glad that I gave my cousin THE BOOK THIEF for her birthday. Partly because it’s a great book that I’m sure she will love. But also because it gave me a chance to introduce the wonderful writing of Markus Zusek to a room full of ill-informed adults who claim to be literary.

I Heart You, You Haunt Me

Before I jump into today’s reading recommendation, I want to remind everyone to enter my contest. I’m giving away five free books as soon as I reach 50 followers. You don’t want to miss out on that!

I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME by Lisa Schroeder is a novel written in lyrical verse—a giant novel length poem. It’s beyond gorgeous. It’s the story of a fifteen year old girl haunted by the ghost of her dead boyfriend. It works as poetry. It’s tragic and sad and doesn’t fit into neat sentences and paragraphs.

The story opens at Jackson’s funeral:

I’ve never been
to a funeral
until today.

I see
dazzling arrangements of
red, yellow, and purple flowers
with long, green stems.

I see
a stained-glass window with
a white dove,
a yellow sun,
a blue sky.

I see
a gold cross,
standing tall,
shiny,
brilliant.

And I see
black.

Black dresses.
Black pants.
Black shoes.
Black bibles.

Black is my favorite color.
Jackson asked me about it one time.

“Ava, why don’t you like pink?
Or yellow?
Or blue?”

“I love black,” I said.
“It suits me.”

“I suit you,” he said.

And then he kissed me.

I’m not so sure
I love black
anymore.

It goes on from there, in the same weave of thoughts and dreams and spirits. Normally, I don’t even like poetry. But I loved this book. It works so perfectly as a poem, I don’t think prose could have captured the same level of emotion. Plus, ignoring standard sentence structure makes this book really short word count wise. So it’s an insanely fast read. It’s a book that you can read in an hour or two, then spend the rest of the week pondering.

I would recommend I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME to readers of all ages, even if you normally don’t like poetry.

The Sky Is Everywhere

Before I jump into today’s reading recommendation, I want to remind everyone to enter my contest. I’m giving away five free books as soon as I reach 50 followers. You don’t want to miss out on that!

Now for the good stuff. I don’t think it’s possible to say anything bad about THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson. Probably at least half of the “best books of 2010” lists I saw people posting at new years had this title at the top. The goodreads description of this book reads

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

I have to be honest, based upon that description, I was a little hesitant to read it. Nothing but glowing reviews for a book about a teen morning the loss of her dead sister—talk about a tear fest. Except it’s not. This isn’t a book about death. It is a book about life. Yes, Lennie misses her sister. That longing for what will never be again is present on every page of this gripping novel. Yet, somehow, this is a book filled with joy. Filled with life and passion and music.

Lennie’s uncle tells her that you don’t need to look up to see the sky, it starts at your toes. And even if her future holds nothing but the memory of her amazing sister and best friend, the sky is still everywhere. Life if is still everywhere. And this amazingly life inspiring books shows that life beautifully, not through a sappy tear fest, but through an honest and passionate song of the heart.

I cannot recommend THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE enough. I can’t describe how magical it is. You just have to read it for yourself.

What's My Line?

I know that I just posted my supposed answer to YA Highways “What’s your favorite line” question like an hour ago. But I changed my mind.

It’s really hard to pick one line. A sentence isn’t a story. But one of my favorite parts of my current work in process is getting to play with lines. EXIT STAGE LEFT is centered around a bunch of teens who are putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet. These kids have the entire play memorized, so they quote it all the time, when they don’t know what to say in real life.

If 200 words can count as a “line”, then this is my new answer to the what’s my favorite line question. This isn’t the best scene in the book, nor is it the best scene in the play. But sometimes “I forgot my lines” is a pretty good line, so I’m going with that.

As I walked across the gym floor, I wracked my brain for the perfect opening line. I knew she was timid, but Juliet was too. I caught hold of her hand and kissed it tenderly before stating, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”

Jocelyn looked up from her private world and smiled. “Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.”

I reached up and caressed Jocelyn’s cheek. “Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?”

Jocelyn’s face turned crimson. She broke eye contact and gave an embarrassed giggle before saying, “Sorry, I haven’t memorized that far yet.”

That was a lie and a half. I’d been to enough rehearsals to know Jocelyn knew all her lines. She was even good at saying my lines when I forgot them. The truth was that we were four lines away from Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss, and this chick was wearing a chastity belt.

RTW and More

This week for Road Trip Wednesday the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question, what is your favorite line from your own writing? The line “It feels like home.” appears in EXIT STAGE LEFT in two different places. I’m not sure which of the two occurrences I like better, but I’m pretty sure that is my favorite line in the book.

If you’re curious what other people’s favorite lines are, head over to YA Highway and check out what other people are saying.

Since my favorite line is only four words long, I decided to shove a book review into this post too. But before I get to the glories of Kim Harrison, I want to remind you to enter my contest. I’m giving away five free books as soon as I reach 50 followers. You don’t want to miss out on that!

I recently read, EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISE by Kim Harrison. Since it’s the second book in the Madison Avery series, I figured it would be more useful to give a review of the first book in the series ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY.

This is a paranormal series about fallen angels. Trying to break out of the overcrowded Vampire market, several books about fallen angels have turned up in the last couple of years. I’m not a huge fan of FALLEN and even less of a fan of HUSH, HUSH. In both of these books the human/angel relationships are beyond creepy. Sparkly vampires may be sort of annoying, but having fallen angels stalk humans and bend there will in to some weird unhealthy version of romance sits with me all wrong.

ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY isn’t a romance. There isn’t an interspecies love story or a predatory super-being. Instead, this story addresses the issue of fate versus free will. Some celestial beings are trying to stop the fateful deaths of the innocent by killing the wicked before they turn evil—murdering Hitler as a little kid would be holy, right? Other angels, the fallen angels, don’t believe in fate but instead believe in free will. If Hitler hasn’t killed anyone yet, then it’s wrong to kill him.

One unlikely teen, Madison Avery, is accidently killed in the cross fire of this celestial war. But she doesn’t die. She grabs onto the angels power source and becomes a new player in this heavenly battle. As a walking dead teenager, Madison has to answer for herself what is good, what is just, what is right.

This isn’t a “religious” book. The heavenly hosts may have ties to Milton, but they’re not pulled from the old testament. Still, this story mixes fun adventure, death and mayhem, and valuable questions about the definitions of good and evil. Reading HUSH, HUSH left nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. But ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY forced me to think and left me wanting more. Which is why I just read EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISE. And now that I have, I can’t wait for the third book in the series to be released. I would recommend the Madison Avery series to anyone itching for a fun, thought provoking, paranormal read.

Free Books – Oh My

I won a contest. I know I’m in total shock too. But I won a free copy of the audio book of FLIGHT by Sherman Alexie from Jennifer’s awesome blog YA Audiobook Addict. Since I just won a contest, it inspired me to have a contest of my own. I had a couple of contests last summer, but it’s been a while. And there are more books in my house than will fit on the shelves, so I might as well give a few away.

Here are the rules for this contest. You have to follow me. I just got my 40th follower. So I’m going to close this contest when ever I reach my 50th follower.

Since I like things that are divisible by ten, I’m going to give away five books to five lucky winners. If you are an old follower all you have to do to enter is tell me which book you want in the comments section. If you aren’t a follower yet, you have to hit the “follow” button over on the right hand sidebar, then enter which book you want in the comments section. It’s that easy. Once I have 50 followers, I’ll announce my winners.

The titles up for grabs are:

Ordinary Ghosts by Eireann Corrigan (A charming “boy book” about a teenage boy who brakes into his prep school over winter break to track down a few personal demons.)

Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer (The first book in the sucktastic Vladimir Todd series. Forget about team Edward and team Jacob, I’m on team Vlad.)

Dramarama by E. Lockheart (A great comp title to my WIP. Theater Kids at camp, what more could you ever want?)

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (If you’re snowed in this winter, read about someone else’s vacation instead.)

The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin (If you’re feeling extra mature, try reading Chick Lit instead of YA, it’s an amazing concept I know.)

Anna and the French Kiss

If the title and cover didn’t give it away, ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkens is a YA Romance. It is about a seventeen year old girl named Anna who leaves her friends and family in Atlanta to spend her senior year at the School of the America’s in Parris. In addition to finding yummy crapes in Parris, she also finds a delicious teenage boy.

I liked this book a lot. It was a fast read that kept me entertained from beginning to end. When I reached the end, I wanted to judge this book poorly. There isn’t anything ground breaking or earth shattering about it. It’s just a cute love story, no more, no less.

Except that isn’t really true. Anna is a complicated character. Leaving her friends and family to move to Parris wasn’t easy for her. And she deals with more emotions than infatuation during the story. Also Anna’s new French friends, along with her old American friends all have complex lives and personalities too.

There is nothing even remotely “edgy” about ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. It doesn’t push any boundaries. But it does entertain. And it has an authenticity sometimes missing from “cute romances”. This book isn’t going to change the way you see the world or force you to think about heady issues. All it will do is put a smile on your face.

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is like a mini vacation to Parris, filled with romance and a breathy carefree ease. If you want a book to blow your mind, read something else. But if you want to relax into a touching and well written love story, I recommend ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS.

Achieving Goals

Back on December 30th, I did a post on my new years resolutions. While admitting that I didn’t have any real “resolutions”, I stated that “There are lots of thing both personally and professionally that I hope will happen in 2011.”

One of the biggest goals I had for 2011 happened yesterday. It fell into the “professional” category. By that I mean my day job, not my writing life. Since this blog is focused on writing and book reviews, I try not to blog about my other life. So I will simply state that there are now new initials after my name.

Achieving this goal has such a huge impact on my future. I was hoping beyond hope that it would happen soon. Now that it has happened, I don’t even know what to think. I now have to figure out what my new life will be.

I know that it’s good though. It’s very good. And achieving this goal during the first week of the new year, makes me even more hopeful for good things to come later in 2011. So many things have been hinging on this one event. Now that it’s happened, there is a world of possibilities in front of me. I’m excited.

Steam Punk

I recently read BLAMELESS by Gail Carriger. This is the third novel in Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series. It’s a very fun steam punk series about a peternatural woman attempting to control the supernatural aristocracy of Victorian London.

When my husband asked me what I was reading and I told him “steam punk”, his response was “you should start writing in that genre.” For some reason my husbands support for the genre makes me like it a bit less. You see, I somehow managed to marry a guy who collects rusty metal. Seriously, there are multiple steam engines in my back yard at this very second.

I’m living steam punk—except in a way less cool manner. My husband isn’t a werewolf and my BFF isn’t a vampire. I just somehow fell into a group of people that find antique machinery super fascinating. Antique machinery is a little bit fascinating, like it’s cool in a museum, just not in my living room.

I love reading paranormal, but have no current ambitions to ever write it. If I do ever dive into the paranormal realm, maybe it will be in the subgenre of steam punk. It just pains me to think attending an antique machinery show could be research for my next book. Regardless of what my back yard tries to tell you, I don’t love rusty metal. Really, I don’t.

Top 5 of 2010

For this weeks Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking, “What are the best 5 books you read in 2010?”

Back in mid December, I put together a top 16 list. Since I read about 160 books in 2010 it was my top 10%. It was really hard to narrow my list down to only 16 titles. And now you want me to cut it down to 5. Yikes, this is hard. Okay here it goes in preference order from five to one.

5. Heart of a Sheppard by Rosanne Parry – This is a great middle grade book. It’s about an eleven-year-old boy living on a ranch in Eastern Oregon. Both of his parents are fighting in Iraq, and all three of his older brothers are away at school (in Eastern Oregon the high schools are all boarding schools because the ranches are so far apart). So the stories hero is forced to become a man as he helps his grandparents keep the ranch afloat. This is the best story about the effects of war on families I’ve ever seen. Rosanne Parry is a great local writer and I would recommend her debut novel to readers of all ages.

4. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore – I love Christopher Moore and read a half a dozen of his books last year. A Dirty Job is my favorite, because it’s just so off the wall hilarious. The farcical manner in which he makes the grim reaper a merchant of death, selling souls in a pawn-shop is just too great to pass up. Anyone who enjoys paranormal will love all of Christopher Moore’s books. He pokes fun at the genre in a way that rings true and entertains without falling into weak parodies.

3. Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner – This is the probably the funniest book I’ve ever read. It’s a “boy book” which can be hard to find. But there is no reason why teen girls wouldn’t love it too. Heck, I’m an adult female and I was laughing hysterically the entire time. Shakespeare (that is the narrator’s name) is a smart, funny, honest, teen with the most charming wit I’ve ever seen in a YA novel.

2. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson – Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my all time favorite YA writers. She’s never written a book I didn’t absolutely love. Wintergirls is my favorite of all her books, because the voice is so amazing. The narrator is kind of crazy. She has a very serious eating disorder and is so malnourished she could die at any time in the book. The loopy only half functioning mind of a starving girl comes out in an oddly beautiful and poetic manner. I believe that this book can and will save lives and I would recommend it to every teenage girl on the planet.

1. Little Bee by Chris Cleave – This book shows the worst of humanity and the best of humanity at the same time. It’s not YA, but that doesn’t mean teens can’t read it. It’s a really intense read that changes the way the reader sees the world. Or at least it changed the way I see the world.

Paranormalcy

Blogging about the literary world means that I spend a fair amount of time reading other literary type blogs. I love reading blogs by pre-published authors who later become published authors. Even though I don’t KNOW these authors, I still feel like we are somehow friends and that I was with them during every step of their writing journey. So when their fabulous books finally come out, I’m not just a fan but a cheerleader.

That’s how I feel about Kiersten White. Her blog is awesome. It also has 1520 followers, so I’m guessing if you’ve managed to find my blog, you’ve been reading hers for years. I started reading Kiersten’s blog when she was busy submitting Paranormacy, and I cheered along with her when she signed her contract, released the cover art, sold her foreign rights, received her first ARC, and finally reached her publication date.

Then I sort of got busy and didn’t run off to the book store to buy her book. This made me feel terrible. I still love her blog. I still love her. But I hadn’t read her book. Bad, Kate. You are a horrible friend/fan/cheerleader. I finally resolved this problem on New Years. I spend most of the weekend curled up on my brand new couch reading Kristin’s amazing debut novel.

I LOVE Paranormalcy. I have loved Kiersten for years, so this didn’t surprise me. All the great humor and spunk that Kiersten puts in her blog is all over her novel. She is so talented, and I’m so happy that her writing career is doing well. When Supernaturally comes out next fall, I promise I wont take four months to get around to reading it.

If you haven’t read Paranormalcy yet, stop procrastinating. It’s a great book. It’s funny and exiting and impossible to put down. Good job Kiersten, we all love you, or at least I love you.

Bonding Over Books

On New Year’s Eve, I went to a party with lots of kids. I’m pretty sure my husband and I were the only adults at the party who didn’t have children in toe. All of the children were under the age of 8, except for one 11 year old girl. This 11 year old found the younger kids a bit tiresome and snuck off with her library book looking for a quite place to read.

I stumbled upon her and we started talking Middle Grade literature. It’s amazing how far the words “I love Percy Jackson” can take you. After a couple minutes of chatting this girl was convinced that I was the coolest person at the party. We exchanged book recommendations and talked about our favorite characters. She told me that many of the kids at her school don’t seem to have imaginations at all, and she thinks she may want to be like me when she grows up—and write stories of her own.

Eventually, I left the girl to her library book and returned to the adults at the party. Her dad made a comment to me that really struck accord. In recognition of his daughter’s love of books, they gave her a one book a week allowance. She was aloud to buy 52 books per year. After that she had to go to the library. I was friends with this girl’s parents before, but now I love their family even more.

I remember being required to read one book per week in fifth grade. It was part of my homework. My teacher even made me write a weekly book report to go with it. Giving a book a week allowance makes the task of reading a prize instead of a duty. And the library supplement makes it even better. Yes, you can and should read more that 52 books per year, but we need to set a budget.

I read 162 books in 2010. And I’m sure I got more than 110 of them from the library. I really love my library. But I think I might have learned something from this charming 11-year-old and her family. For 2011, I’m giving myself a book a week allowance.