News

Hi all!
Or no one. I haven't been keeping up this blog at all in the past few months, but truth be told it's a little bit of a challenge to be a college student and a YA author.

Be that as it may, I have two little bits of news! I'll be updating the blog once a week now, because I am working on some new stuff and I may post some pieces of it here. Also, once the weekends hit I'm going to be looking for some book reviewers (and maybe reviewing some books on here myself). I just read a really adorable, almost magical story called Austenland, by the author of Princess Academy. Also worth mentioning soon is Poison Study (which I read because I saw consistently excellent reviews across the blogosphere).

The other news? I'm going to Paris next semester. That will likely lead to this blog getting pushed into some dusty corner for a while. So I'll try and keep up for the next couple months as best I can!

I have to say, I miss "being an author" a whole lot right now. It's so much fun, and through the book and the blog I've talked to some really great people and learned about some really great books. I've read more than one piece of advice on authors' websites, saying that it's a good idea to wait to write a book, that it's a good idea to live your life while you're young and write later on. And yeah, it's hard to do both and be consistent (at least, it is for me). But I wouldn't change having had this book published. It's helped me learn so much. So here I am again, for a limited time. If someone happens to take a look and wants to review my book (or know more about it, for that matter), email me or leave a comment!

(also look at this, it's funny and related to another excellent book)

http://www.karenhealey.com/2010/06/actual-fan-email-actual-response/

A Bad Bad Blogger (and a very good book!)

I've been the world's worst blogger this summer, but I had to poke my head out of my non-blogging turtle shell (did I ever mention that dialogue, not description, is my strength?) because KIRSTEN MILLER'S NEW BOOK IS OUT!
Kirsten Miller is one of my very favorite authors (and the reason I add "very" is because there are so many favorites that I have to classify them) and has just released her book "The Eternal Ones." I read an ARC that she was kind enough to send me in the winter, and I highly, highly recommend it as well as her Kiki Strike books (best read while eating Twizzler's pullnpeels). The tagline?

What if love refused to die?

It's beautiful, isn't it? It's really a great story, about past lives, love and mystery.
I have to admit that the idea of reincarnation scares me to no end. I've been pretty happy in this life, I see no reason to have another go around (especially if I come back as, say, an ant). But Kirsten Miller makes it sound so enticing, with a secret society that shows re-incarnates the way to their true selves, with a mysterious lost love guided only by broken memories. Haven goes from the South to New York to Italy and back, meeting a girl who chants a deals with snakes, avoiding mysterious men who are following her, finding out terrible secrets about her family and a man who was supposed to be helping her. She finds Iain Morrow, who's been haunting her mind with visions and dreams her entire life, and discovers that he is her reincarnated love, Ethan. Then she finds out that, in their last life, Ethan may have murdered her.
DundunDUNNNN.

Look, it's good. Just read the thing.

Anyway, I think I'm going to come back to the blogosphere. I'll probably start with some reviews (I'm fighting to finish Beautiful Creatures) because reading has helped me get back into the writing groove. Then I think I'll get back to talking about my own book and what I've been writing for the past few months. Because it's all beginning to come together...

Thanks for following!

Check out these links to Kiki and The Eternal Ones. Kiki Strike's website is worth it just for the creepy noises that sound when you first enter the site, but there's also an awesome blog of strange and cool things (and of course book/character info).
The Eternal Ones site has an excerpt and a trailer (and you've probably seen it all over the blogosphere lately!)

http://kikistrike.com/

http://www.theeternalones.com/index.php

Shade.

Cough cough.
Well.
Time to blow the dust off this neglected old blog. Poor little blog, left all by itself (sob).

Anyway, I've been gone, and I've also been lazy, so it's been a while! But, now I'm back, hurtling through the blogosphere once again! And there's nothing like a GREAT book to get things started. So before I get to my author-y stuff (translation, I have to get my followers back), I'm going to talk about Shade!

SHADE! The book by Jeri Smith-Ready. It was...it was just awesome. It was extremely well-written. It's funny, you'd think good writing alone would be something we could take for granted in the world of published books, but nope, you do come across a few bad ones.
Shade was NOT a bad one.

The story itself is a really fascinating concept. The main character, Aura, lives in the same universe we do (same shows, same countries and cities, same bands)...except for one thing. Everyone 16 or so and under can see ghosts, because of a Shift that happened just before Aura was born. It's so common to see the dead people, in fact, that there are government procedures meant to keep ghosts out of certain areas. Of course, the ghosts can only visit places they've visited in life...unless they turn to Shade. A Shade is a ghost who loses all control (kind of like turning over to the dark side) and can suddenly manipulate objects and people physically, and go wherever he/she wants...until the government traps it in an obsidian container.

Smith-Ready does an AMAZING job blending her eyes into an otherwise normal world. Her writing and weaving seems effortless. That is something I'm still learning to do, and I sure do love to see it in books. By the time you're a few pages into the book, you start thinking "Oh yeah, I know everyone can see ghosts, it's because of the Shift." What's amazing is that Smith-Ready never COMPLETELY explains the Shift, and yet it's perfectly established. She has made this story so real, and also relatable.

And Aura? Well, she's with an amazing guy, Logan, who is in an Irish rock band (think Flogging Molly), and he's about to be offered a record deal as well as screw her brains out! (Ahem, sorry for the blunt language.) The problem? Logan gets too smashed to do it, and upon trying to sober up, he accidentally kills himself. I won't explain how, because YOU HAVE TO READ THE BOOK.

Not to fret, though. Aura can still see Logan, and so can a lot of his friends. His older siblings and parents, however, cannot, and are torn apart by his death. They plan to file a lawsuit for something like wrongful death, which means Logan's ghost must testify and Logan has to stick around a while. He visits Aura each night, and she's as in love with him as ever...for a little while. But when Aura starts moving on, she faces a unique problem: How do you break up with a ghost?

And this isn't even the whole story. There is ANOTHER sexy (Scottish) guy, and confidential information about the Shift, an event shrouded in mystery!

The dialogue in this book was another aspect that really struck a chord with me...it flowed so naturally and realistically, as did most of the story (which you'd think would be difficult given the ghostly subject matter).

I'm leaving so much stuff out, but I am so excited about this book. I can't wait to read her next one.

Europe

Hello all! In just a couple of days I'm taking off for a big trip. I'll be writing and photographing, but blogging doesn't seem likely. I just wanted to post this so that those of you who ARE looking over my blog don't think that I have deserted it! I'll be back, and I'll have some posts ready!
Also, I just started "The Secret Life of Prince Charming" by Deb Caletti. I love discovering great authors, and I'm also looking forward to reading another book by one of my faves, Laurie R. King.

Thank you to those bloggers who will be reviewing my book soon! You are absolutely wonderful.

My next post will either be concerning one of the afore-mentioned books, or it will be about the two main characters in "A House Afire", Phyllis and Sid. Sid wins some over, but others find him a bit too questionable. My response? Well, I'll be posting it sometime in June.

Thanks for following!

How To Say Goodbye In Robot, The Mark, and The Six Rules of Maybe

Sometimes, the best thing to do to get back in the swing of writing is read. I didn't realize how excited I would be to come back from college and be able to just read recreationally, to read books that weren't, well, text books or ethnographies or filled with math problems.

This week I read three books, and all of them were VERY good, very inspiring. I can't say any one was better than the others, more that some things just appealed more to me, I suppose. I think my favorite was "How To Say Goodbye in Robot." "The Six Rules of Maybe" had a much happier ending, but "Robot" was offbeat and somehow completely hilarious even though it was sad and bittersweet.
"How to Say Goodbye in Robot" was about a girl dealing with a lot of changes in her life, moving to a new school yet again, and meeting someone of an even higher weirdness caliber. It was about making important friends. It was full of insightful observations and hilariously realistic high school moments and dialogue. I loved it. My favorite thing about the book, I think, was the late night radio show that the main character, Beatrice, found herself listening to before bed each night. Random characters called in to talk, and sort of formed their own little family. My favorite was Don Berman. This book is darkly funny and intelligent, and just painstakingly...real, I suppose. Real about unhappy things, like moving on. I also really love the title, which stems from Beatrice's emotional mother calling her a robot at various times when she doesn't seem to be feeling anything.

"The Mark" was the second book I read, about a girl who can see a glow around people who are about to die. It was different than I expected it to be, but still excellently written. If you just find Jen Nadol (it might be Jenn, sorry) reading the first chapter on youtube, you'll be able tell that it's a good book, and what a great idea, too. The end might seem a little hokey, but I think that's really only because of the way the rest of the story is so convincing, and a reader can so easily suspend disbelief. I really enjoyed the mystery of the book, the independence that the main character, Cassandra, learned, and I liked the way that Nadol wrote about philosophy and tied that into the way Cassandra thought about her ability. It really was great food for thought, and I'm quite sure that sequels and threequels are on the way, so that's exciting too!

"The Six Rules of Maybe" is the book I finished this afternoon. It was really just...beautiful. There was a lot of time spent inside the main character's mind and heart, but it was never tedious or irritating. It was interesting, and some of it rang very true. The main character is Scarlet, her sister is Juliet. Juliet is older, the one who seems favored by their single mother, the perfect one. Juliet comes home unexpectedly married and pregnant, and that's when the trouble starts. Scarlet falls for Juliet's incredibly good husband, Hayden, while Juliet seems to be falling away from him, further as his baby grows inside her. Scarlet turns out to be a very caring, loving person, who has made it her responsibility to take care of everyone, but she finds out that maybe through caring for others, she's been neglecting herself. She also finds out a lot about her family. It's a long, full book, and a superb read. Parts of it had me laughing out loud for like, five minutes, just little insights Scarlet would have and little things she would say or do. There were a lot of smaller characters who made the book even better. Wacky neighbors and misguided friends, an adorable dog.

All of these books are good choices. If you're looking for a more thrilling, mysterious sort of series, go for "The Mark"; if you want something new and eccentric with some biting humor and tears thrown in here and there, go for "How to Say Goodbye in Robot"; and if you want something uplifting, a story about a family who experience some problems and come away from them even stronger and wiser, if you need that happy ending, read "The Six Rules of Maybe."

Now that I've finished those, I think it's time for me to do some writing of my own. Before I go, though, I have to add that most of the books I read over the past week, these and the two I reviewed in my last post, were books I saw on blogs. So thanks again, book bloggers. I keep thinking "We need more good books," but then it turns out that a whole bunch of them are already out there!

(Also, I mentioned "Demon Princess: Reign or Shine" in my last post, but it was incomplete- I just wanted to say that the book was fast-paced, funny, and, well, fun! I can't wait to read the next one, "Reign Check.")

More books! More book blogging! I'm back on the radar!

Goodness, I've been gone a long time. Hopefully I can coax some people back to reading my blog!
I haven't been doing a whole lot of author-type stuff lately, though the Book Pixie was nice enough to let Phyllis post on her blog! http://thebookpixie.blogspot.com/2010/05/character-guest-post-phyllis-house.html

So, for a while there I was thinking that maybe Angels are becoming the new Vampire, but lately I've noticed that Mermaids are starting to make a comeback! Such cool stuff in the world of books. I think I'm going to stick with my firebreathing girl for the time being, but who knows? Anything could happen.

I don't usually do a lot of talking about other books here, but I thought I would talk a little bit about the two latest books I've read/am reading. I just finished "Break" by Hannah Moskowitz, which I'd been wanting to read since January!

It was a good book, a quick read, and it inspired a lot of thought. There were parts where I became a little confused, though. I'M POSTING ABOUT THE END OF THE BOOK.
SPOILER ALERT AND STUFF.
DON'T READ PAST THIS LINE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
Okay, I think I'm covered now.

When the main character, Jonah, who's about 17 and has been on a quest to break all the bones in his body, is admitted into a mental facility, well...it seemed like that all happened really fast. I mean, don't get me wrong, it happened really fast in "Girl, Interrupted" too. But is that really all it takes? One talk with a psychiatrist and BAM, institution?
Also, would a high school principal really take the time to find a troubled student at a hockey game? Would the staff of a mental facility really accuse a patient of hurting other patients within 1-3 days of being there? The staff of Jonah's mental institution seemed almost eager to accuse him when other patients began to follow his example; wouldn't they investigate it further before throwing him into isolated confinement with what sounded like gusto?
That part of the book bothered me, if you can't tell. Also, this was probably implied, but I wish someone had stated outright that going outside or fresh air had gotten Jonah's brother, Will, to stop crying. Maybe I didn't read the book thoroughly enough; that DOES happen, and frequently in my case. Otherwise, I would definitely say it's a worthwhile read, and a very interesting idea. I just felt that at times it went by too quickly, like Jonah suddenly is being called crazy and then he starts to BE crazy? I had a lot of questions, and one of the questions I asked most was "Does this really make sense?"

The characters were great, though. Jonah and his brother, Jesse, were both very interesting, and the descriptive language was excellent. I would definitely read more from Hannah Moskowitz.

Now onto the book I'm in the middle (well, more like the beginning) of right now. Demon Princess, Reign or Shine. The title is straight and to the point, and so far the pace is fast! I'm loving it; it's fun, smart, cute, and somehow not completely ridiculous. I'm betting it'll be a great read.

Okay, so more posts will be coming. I know I made a list of future posts a while back, and all will come to fruition over this summer. Now, on to getting some readers back...