Guys Worth Reading About: Recommendations

I love it when people give me new book recommendations (even though my bookshelves hate me for it, and my fiance is sick of piling them up in some resemblance of order). So today, I decided to give you all a few, and I gave you some that include what I like most about reading books really, great romance because of great guys. Here's 5 literary heart-throbs for you all to enjoy (and for my dude readers, I'll have a sweet chick version to come). So, here goes something: (Not necessarily listed in order of awesomeness)

1. Beck from Jana Oliver's The Demon Trapper's Daughter. AH! I really liked him, and this book. It's different, and even though I hadn’t heard anything about it before reading, I'm really glad I took the plunge. Completely worth it.

2. Finn Holmes from Amanda Hocking's Switched. Sigh. I really liked him. Go. Read. It's a good series, as far as they go (but I think I love Hollowland more, just by the way...also btw, Hollowland is $0.99.)

3. Dimitri Belikov from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. I seriously heart this guy, but I still haven't read the last two books in the series (though I do own them), mainly because of cold feet and time restraints. If you've read the series, I'm sure you can guess about the why behind the cold feet.

4. Bill and Eric from the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (I linked to the first book), although again I'm not vouching for the full series here. I am, however, FULLY vouching for the first four in the series, as I loved them whole-heartedly. I do own other books in the series beyond those four, and I hear they're quite good, but things happened in the series to make me less interested than I was before. I have to work on finishing them though since apparently they've gotten amazing again as of late.

5. Drake from the Aisling Grey series by Katie MacAlister. I haven’t read these books in a while, but I remember liking Drake and reading the first 3 books in a rapid fire succession. Also, I really like ImproperEnglish by her, if you all are looking for a contemporary romance. 

Have you read these? If so, did you like these guys? Let me know why or why not in the comments below!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "The Difference" by Matchbox 20. I have liked this song ever since I went on a road trip to one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I have just learned the title of it…yay for being on the ball. 

P.S. For those of you that are interested (please be interested?) I'm working quite furiously on my soon-to-be-released ebook, and I'm way excited about it. I announced that I'm releasing it soon here, and it should be up VERY VERY (very) soon. I'll let you know when it is available. (It's a YA paranormal/fairy tale-ish/ quirky romance of epic proportions...no werewolves, vamps, or angels present.)

Dream Harvesting: A How To

I've talked a lot on here about how I take a lot of my book ideas straight from dreamland. The dreams I have are vivid, and they always leave a lingering impression on me, even if I can't remember any of the specifics.

I'm sure some of you out there have been like me and have had a wonderful dream only to have it leave your mind by the time you try to write it down. Well, I wanted to use today's blog post to talk about some tips on how to get your dreams to paper so that you can use all that great material in your own writing.

1. If you want to make your dreams echo something you're currently working on--or, better yet, if you have a vague idea about what you want to write about but you know you need to explore it more, try concentrated thinking before you fall asleep. For the last 20 minutes or so before you officially conk out, try to solely think about the element you want to include in your book or your current WIP. This will make your dreams more likely to be in some way or another focused on what you'd like.

2. When you first wake up, use the tried and true method of having paper and a pen IMMEDIATELY available to you by your bedside. This is extremely important because dreams are fleeting, and your brain, from the moment you wake up, is practically re-writing what you remember of the dream you just had. That's not too horrible, but regardless of how much you self-edit your dream subconsciously, the most important part is to write EVERYTHING down that you can remember. Get these things down (listed in order of importance):

            a. Actions: Who did what and why

            b. Setting: this will probably be the most original part of your dream, and can be extremely helpful to you in your writing process.

            c. Feelings/vibe: make yourself describe the mood of your dream. This may help jar your memories of a and b.

3. Process your notes. What you've just written down may seem like gibberish when you read it over. In this step, fill in the gaps you've just made, elaborate on what you remember, and embellish what you've already written. That's the fun of the dream harvest process. The dream is the starting point. Keep your dream notes in tact and write off of them in this step, brainstorming real story lines from the little bits and pieces you've remembered. Where can you take these actions, settings, and vibes with a narrative? What cool ideas would this spark?

This is pretty much exactly my process when I conduct my own dream harvest. Do you do something similar/completely different? Let me know what works for you in the comments, and if you haven't tried it, I am the first to say that I think that you should!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Save You" by Kelly Clarkson. So pretty. It's dark and slow, and one of my favorites by her. 

Tempo Tuesday Story Time

Today I’ve decided to completely give myself over to the muse that is music and do a Tempo Tuesday song list for us all to write by (I’m doing 5 songs, because…as I’ve said in the past, odd numbers make everything better for me.)

1. “Through Glass” by Stone Sour. I was OBSESSED with this song when it came out. I think I know it forwards and backwards and any in any other applicable angle. Mood: Quietly controlled confusion; asylum music

2. “I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” by Black Kids. Mood: Upbeat Upset

3. Paramore’s Cover of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” Mood: searching, wanting to be wanted

4. “Killing Me Softly” by The Fugees. I love literally any rendition of this song. Literally. Mood: Quiet Upset, desperation, love fear

5. “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” by Kesha. Mood: Angst, self-blame

Now to turn these into a short storyline, in the order in which I’ve listed them. (Note: I came up with the song list before I thought about making it into a narrative. It wouldn’t have been fun if the songs were picked/orchestrated to be a story, don’t you agree?)

Girl A in an asylum, unsure of why she’s there, falls in love with a Girl B. But Girl B loves Boy who befriends Girl A. Boy needs Girl A’s help to woo Girl B. Girl A refuses, but after a time, she just wants to be needed by anyone so she agrees to help Boy, if only to see Girl B happy. It’s killing her inside to see it or even hear about it, but she knows it’s her own fault for helping, so she’ll teach Boy how to get Girl B, even if she can’t see through the tears in her eyes to do it.

What do you all think? I’d love to see other people have a list and make a narrative out of it. I think I’ll keep Tempo Tuesday in mind to be a regular on this blog.  So here are the (self-explanatory) rules if you want to carry on Tempo Tuesday:

1. Shuffle around on your music player and come up with a list of five songs
2. List a mood or marker for each song just in case the reader hasn’t heard it before or doesn’t have time to listen to the video
3. Make up a story line using your songs as plot point inspiration.

Link to your own Tempo Tuesday in the comments. I’d love to read them!

P.S. I <3ed the comments left on yesterday's post. Everyone left really great tips on how to pace yourself when trying to reach writing goals. Very helpful stuff. Thanks y'all!

Tough Love: Writer's Edition

 A few weeks ago, the topic of jealous writers was floating around the internet as a debate. It came around the time John Locke became the first self-published author in the Amazon's Million ebook club (a list for people who have sold over a million books on Amazon). People were excited for him, or they said horrible things about him, spurring others to write posts about how you shouldn’t be jealous of others’ successes; you should be more interested in making your own.

I also tweeted things to that effect around this time, but I hadn’t listened to what I was preaching really. Not exactly.

I don’t get jealous when I hear about writers having amazing success; I get jealous when I read about prolific writers. The ones with 13 books under their belts and counting. The big names who write what seems like several books a month, the smaller names that actually do write several books a month. I am constantly in awe of these people.

Am I jealous because they have more ideas than me? No. I have a list of book ideas, a lot of which are actually fleshed out story lines. But the difference between them and me is that they’re writing theirs into stories, and I’m writing this, whining that they have more books down on paper than I do.

Well, it’s time for some tough love for me (and anyone who is in my shoes, either fully or tip-toe in). The people who are writing those books constantly are doing such because they are writing. Writing about writing, as much as I seem to enjoy it, does not a fiction writer make. It makes me a commentator. Not a writer. And I want to be a writer.

So here’s what I am leaving you with: If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to write a lot, write a lot. Thinking about writing, dreaming about writing, staring off into the abyss and wondering about your writing future all equal the same thing in the actual writing world-->nothing. You can’t say you’ve done it if you’ve only thought about it.

And again, I am not yelling at you (whoever you are), I’m yelling at me. Because I’ve earned it. 

Anyone in my shoes? Let me know in the comments below or by email...I'd like to feel like I'm not the only slacker. 

Now to leave you with a song to write by, “The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert. It’s mainstream, and apparently was popular when it came out, but I only got into it recently, and I love the lyrics and flow.

           

Stolen by Lucy Christopher, A Review

My first book review. My little blog is really growing up. If anyone out there likes it, maybe I’ll give it a whirl again. So, do let me know, won’t you?

All ratings are given out of a total of 5. This review is my opinion, and you should, as always, use your own discretion when reading it (AND I encourage you to read everything for yourself to see if you agree with me).

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

 *

Christopher, Lucy. Stolen. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

Source: Checked out from library

For summary, please click picture above that will take you to the Amazon site. Thanks!

Cover ****

I love simplistic covers. They capture my attention more. I am always intrigued by a cover that can show so little but still make you want to pick it up. That’s definitely what happened with this cover. I am a butterfly person from way back, so I immediately felt drawn to it. The title page for this book is especially beautiful. It’s a two page spread of the title written in a similar font.

Plot: ***1/2

The premise for this book gets major points for being original. You know from the inside flap that the MC Gemma is going to be drugged by Ty and “stolen,” taken somewhere she isn’t familiar with. Not knowing what will actually happen to Gemma and between she and Ty is a major motivator to finish the book, which I did in a day and a half.

Style: ****

Christopher writes beautiful. The way she words things is especially well-written, but it isn’t so flowery that it brings you out of the story. Christopher lets Gemma’s words be believable yet poetic, and as a writer, I really appreciate that. However, there is one element that made the book interesting but was hard for me to get past when beginning the book, she refers to Ty as you, the reader. When Ty talks to Gemma, it would be said like “you talk to me saying,…” If that annoys you, I want to tell you I think it was worth the read. So stick through it.

Characters: ****1/2

Believability is huge with me. If I can’t think the MC or the MMC could be a real person, the book will fail for me. This book didn’t. I believed Gemma, and Ty, as confusing as he could be, was intriguing. He showed emotion, was hard to completely peg down, and he kept you flipping the pages, wanting to know what was next.

Stay Power: *****

When I finished this book, I wanted to give it a 3 1/2, but as I tried to go to sleep last night, I couldn’t. I kept thinking about Gemma and Ty, playing scenes over and over in my head. I don’t see them going anywhere soon, and the stars kept climbing as I kept noodling. This book has major staying power. You will be thinking about it one way or another after you finish it.

Overall, I’d say this book was a ****1/2 total. It was interesting; it kept my attention; I always wanted to know what happened; it had a beautiful cover; and it stuck with me even after I shut the book. I wouldn’t give it a complete 5 star because I reserve that for my all time favorites, but this is more than good, and I more than liked it.

If you’ve read it, what did you think about it, and if you want to read it, shout it out here!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, “Stab My Back” by The All-American Rejects

*I do not own this picture, or anything associated with this book. This image was taken from Amazon and clicking this picture will take you to the Amazon page where it was found. There, you can purchase this book (And I hope you do).

Why YA?

Why do I love YA?

I know that when I started reading YA, I read it because it was about the age group older than me. From what I’ve seen, that’s normally the kind of reading people gravitate to—they want to read about the age group they’re about to head into (or at least, that was how it was for me.) I never was into middle grade literature. I wanted to read about angsty 16 year olds when I was 12-13. I wanted to see my future, and I felt no need to see what people my own age were doing—in books that is.

Now, my answer to this question obviously has changed. I’m older than a teen. I’m older than the average YA protagonist by 4-5 years, give or take 2-3. Technically, I should be reading New Adult and beyond to see what I should be looking forward to (or what I should be doing now). But I’m not (most of the time). I am YA, all the way. Ha.

I love YA now because:

I can read about a protagonist that doesn’t have to worry about bills, life, marriage (some books excluded). Life is open in front of these protagonists, and they can shape their lives with tragedy, misadventures, romance, magic, or whatever they feel like.

Yes, there are parents involved, but like it’s been discussed in other YA lit circles, the parents in YA today are often M.I.A. So that can be worked around…

Everything feels magical about that time of your life, even if yours was less than fantastic. You have your first kiss. First dance. First trip into the under magic world. You know, all of the biggies. Why not read about how others had their firsts? I eat that stuff up.

Because the protagonist doesn’t have bills, children, etc, they can have adventures. They can be as mature or as immature as the author wants them to be. Wherever they are on the maturity scale is believable.

Lastly, (and even though all of my points semi-overlap with each other), this point speaks to why certain people have been bashing YA—the sheer theatrics that authors can put that age group through. Horrible things can happen, and often do, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it’s an amazing thing. YA now can show teens any situation, literally. And nothing is sugarcoated. The genre runs the gamut from innocent/sheltered to buck wild crazy, with games to the death, mental disorders, kidnapping, and magic in between. Whatever a teen/person of a particular age wants to read, chances are, nowadays someone is writing it. OR they can write they’re own and publish it themselves (like moi, very VERY soon).

It’s an amazing time to read YA, and I will continue to spend too much money and fill my arms too full from the library YA section.

Psst, send any good YA recommendations my way please. Anything that kept you up reading, I want to hear about in the comments, or by email. :)

Now to leave you with a song to write by, “My Heart Is the Worst Kind of Weapon (acoustic)” by Fall Out Boy. Love it. 

Writtle Me This: A Survey

I wanted to do an interview of sorts. I've read some good ones lately. So here's some questions I'll ask myself, and I'd love y'all to write your own answers in the comments :)

When did you start writing?

Um...we had a lot of assemblies in my school. One a week actually, and I entertained myself with writing during these assemblies to keep myself busy. I kept all the snippets in this one book, and I recently found that book. Lol. Good times, lemme tell you. Writing kept my friends and I entertained then, and it gave me a passion to daydream story lines from then on.

What is your favorite genre to read?

I am a YA junkie. I fell in love with reading when I was 11 in the YA section. The section was slim pickin's compared to what is available now. (I would have killed for the selection we have now back then). But, lately I've also been into non-fiction too. Makes me feel like I'm learning something (without tuition rates).

What is your favorite genre to write?

I would say YA, but really, I have interest in doing New Adult as well as YA in the future. I don't really see me branching out of that age group (from 13 to 25) with both male and female protagonists. And more specifically than that, I know I'll always have romance in whatever I write. I'm a sucker for romantic drama/tension.

What is your favorite TV show? Does it echo what you like to read?

I love reality TV show competitions. Right now, I love Platinum Hits, Master Chef, The Voice. Platinum Hits makes me want to learn guitar and grab a notebook and write longhand.

I wouldn't say it echoes what I like to read really. Except for the Hunger Games series, I haven't had much interest in reading about competitions, BUT, there is a competition of sorts in my upcoming YA self-published novel. (woot)

Does music influence your writing? Do you listen to music while you write?

Yes to the first and no to the second. I love listening to music before I write. Hearing about how creative people can be makes me SO excited to be creative myself. So before I write, I love to have a listening session.

I can't listen to music when I write though. Hearing other people's words in my head hinder me from creating my own. Shrug, I won't count it out though in the future.

Just to clear things up, I always end with a song to write by, which may not make sense when you hear I don't write to music, but these are songs I use to get in the mood to write scenes. They're my warm-up jams.

Now to leave you with another song to write by, “I'm Not the Enemy” by Lina. I used to like this song more, but it's still a nice mellow song.