Kaitlin's Blog

Kody Keplinger's A Midsummer's Nightmare Cover Reveal

2012-01-25T03:30:00.000-05:00

So everyone! Kody Keplinger's third novel, A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE, is arriving in a few months, and today, she is revealing its cover, with a giveaway and everything. In case you have not yet heard of this lovely book, here is its summary:

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorce dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancee and her kids. The fiancee's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

It sounds great, doesn't it? To win a signed ARC, visit Kody's blog and enter her giveaway! (By the way: bonus entry if you follow any of the blogs that are participating in her cover reveal.) And now, here is her cover, which is so perfectly summery:

(cover may still have some minor tweaks before AMN hits stores)

Now get yourselves to Kody's blog immediately, and enter to win that ARC!

Self-esteem is for everyone.

2012-01-19T11:09:00.001-05:00

I have been debating for a while—a long, long while—about whether or not to write this post, but finally, I just saw one “thin people are disgusting” Facebook meme (or whatever you’d like to call it) too many, and I can't hold it in anymore, so here we go.

I feel like this shouldn’t need to be said, but apparently, it does. Problems with body image and low self-esteem can happen at any body size. To anyone. You might hate your own figure and envy someone else’s, but they might hate theirs and envy yours.

Yeah this image makes me ragey.

That image to the left there? It’s my least favorite that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen it at least four times on Facebook in the last couple months. Giving the benefit of the doubt to whoever created this, and to all the people who are passing it along, I assume the message here is supposed to be that you should be happy with who you are and not try to diet yourself into an unobtainable version of perfection only truly achievable with lots of photoshop, and that’s a great message. But it’s not the message that I’m receiving, sitting here on my tiny little butt and looking at this.

What it does is remind me of the voice that used to whisper to me when I was younger: Your arms are creepy. Your knees stick out. People probably think you have an eating disorder. In fact, I was pretty obsessed, as a teen, with making sure no one thought I had an eating disorder. In retrospect, I doubt anyone paid my eating habits much mind. But they were always saying things. “You’re such a stick!” “Girl, you need to eat more.” “What are you, like 50 pounds?”

These things get to a person. I can’t and won’t pretend I know what it’s like to be a bigger person, because I’ve always been thin. And I also know that my experience is not the experience of all thin people. No one person’s experience is ever universal.

But man, rational or not, the weight stuff just got to me. My self-esteem was, like most girls, rocky in high school. Fortunately, the internet was a little newer back then, and no internet drawings were telling me that skinny girls are disgusting. (To be clear, I also don't approve of these sorts of drawings about heavier girls, but those seem not to venture to Facebook, as far as I've seen.) But now?

It’s just…it’s not okay. It’s not.

It’s not okay to tell someone they are gross because of their size. It’s not okay to say it straight out. It’s not okay to say it with passive aggressive internet memes. It’s not okay to tweet about the “skinny bitches” at your gym (I have actually unfollowed people before on twitter for saying stuff like that too often. I mean, everyone understands, right, that thin doesn't automatically=healthy? Good diet and a healthy exercise regimen are important for health no matter what you weigh). It's not okay to build up one group of people's feelings of self-worth by putting down another group of people. I know that this post is really thin-hate focused, but it applies to everyone. It’s not okay no matter who you're talking about. Words have an impact. This kind of thing might bounce right off one person, but it might lodge in the next person like a fiberglass sliver.

So I’m writing this post, because I tend to be a fiberglass sliver person. And I’d like to see women building each other up, not tearing each other down (because let's face it, ladies, we're the ones doing this to each other). I know it’s completely unrealistic to wish that women could all be each other’s loving healthy body image support systems, but I guess I hope that at least this post provides some food for thought. I am so for promoting healthy body image, but never, ever at the expense of others. Just something I hope everyone can think about a little bit.

Best of 2011: Most Anticipated of 2012

2011-12-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

It's the last day of Sarah's Best of 2011 blogfest. Today's topic is the five books we're most looking forward to in 2012. This is hard. I didn't expect it to be this hard. There are a ton of books I'm looking forward to next year. I have several friends with books (debuts or otherwise) coming out next year, and I'm excited about all of them. Plus there are millions of other books coming out that sound awesome, too. And sequels to books I enjoyed. So it was hard, and I changed my mind a lot when writing this list, but these are my top five choices at the moment I wrote this post. And since some of them don't have revealed covers yet, I'm going to not post pictures with this post.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard. I've already read this. And seen the illustrations. But I am so excited to get an actual, physical copy of this book with the drawings in it. It is going to be beyond awesome.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth. So much happened at the end of Divergent. How could I not be anxiously awaiting the sequel?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone sequel by Laini Taylor. Well DoS&B was on all my lists that it could possibly be on this week, so yeah. I'm just about dying for the next book.

Crewel by Gennifer Albin. I have wanted to read this since I first saw it on PM. It sounds so. awesome.

Wrong Side of Dead by Kelly Meding. I had to pick one that wasn't YA, didn't I? It's hard for me to find adult urban fantasy series that I want to stick with book after book, but I'm really enjoying this series.

Best of 2011: Recommendations

2011-12-29T10:43:00.000-05:00

Today's topic for Sarah Enni's Best of 2011 blogfest is the top five books we recommended to people in 2011. I really like this one, because it feels less restricting to me somehow than yesterday's topic (top 5 books of the year). Here are my five, in no particular order:

Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard.

This was easily the book I recommended the most in 2011. It's just a book that I feel like has something for everyone. The writing, the characters, the setting. It's beautiful and it makes my heart happy every time I read it.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

I have always, always loved fantasy. High (and epic) fantasy is where my heart is, as much as I love other genres. I don't know why. I just love it. And this series is easily the best in the genre I've ever read. Also, the TV show is such an amazingly done adaptation that I want everyone in the world to read the books and watch the show and have their minds blown by the awesomeness.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

It hasn't been out that long, but I've been telling people about it since I read it after getting an ARC at BEA. I knew from page one that I was going to love it, and it completely lived up to the high hopes I had from that first page.

Divergent by Veronica Roth.

I recommend this one a lot because a) it is awesome and b) people are really into this genre right now and I don't think anyone's dystopian reading life is complete if they haven't read this yet. Not only because it is action-filled like The Hunger Games, but there's also something about it that makes me think strongly (in a flattering way) of The Giver, which is one of the best books ever.

Shade's Children by Garth Nix.

In all honesty it's not specifically this book but ALL books by Garth Nix that I've recommended a lot this year. But this one is my favorite, and it's less well-known, because he wrote it before his popular Abhorsen trilogy. This is my actual favorite book of all time. So whenever there is an opportunity for me to recommend it to someone, I do.

Best of 2011: Favorite Books

2011-12-28T08:56:00.000-05:00

This was hard. I read a lot of amazing books this year, as I was reminded when I went back through my excel spreadsheet (and Goodreads) to see what I'd read. To make myself less confused, I had to block out books I had read before 2011, even if they came out in 2011. And not all of the books on this list came out in 2011, but it's when I read them for the first time. And this post is doubling as both an RTW post and a participation in Sarah Enni's best of 2011 series.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was not only one of the best books I read this year, but one of the best books I've read ever.

Hex Hall is one of my favorite books, so Demonglass, its sequel, had a lot to live up to. It was certainly different than the first, but it was still just as fun and action-filled. I have never read anything with such an awesomely-and-not-obnoxiously sarcastic narrator as this series.

So, I'm definitely one of Those People who didn't read A Game of Thrones until the TV series came out. I'd always meant to, but never made it a priority. Then I watched one episode of the show, and bought a box set of books 1-4 immediately. I also read A Clash of Kings this year. It is equally awesome. This series deserves all the praise it gets. However, I am sad that there are about 53.6 million different covers for this book, and none of them (that I could find) feature Khal Drogo. I did spend a really long time google imaging him to find one, though, so I guess we can call it a win.

I am actually not quite finished reading Froi of the Exiles yet. But I will be before the year ends. And the rest would have to really fall apart for me to want to rescind it from this list, and I know it's not going to. Finnikin of the Rock is one of my favorite books, so reading a sequel to it just completes my life.

A Monster Calls chewed up my heart, but in a good way. I don't even know what to say about it, really. It's beautifully written, a beautiful story, and has beautiful illustrations.

Best of 2011: Best YA Girls & Boys

2011-12-27T05:37:00.000-05:00

This is the second day of Sarah Enni's best of 2011 series, and today's topic is the top 5 girls and top 5 boys in YA this year. I actually found this challenging! I'm sort of particular about characters who actually stick with me. Plots and emotions and prose tend to hook me more than the actual characters. But I looked through the books I read, and picked out the characters who stuck with me the most.

Girls:

Alex from Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick.

She was just generally badass, and as a bonus, she wasn't cold and heartless in the process. She was just a really well-rounded and relatable character.

Karou from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

If I could actually become any character I've read this year, I think she's the one I'd choose.

Sophie from Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins.

Yeah, I'm including a couple characters on these lists who are in sequels that came out this year, even if I met the characters last year. (Or before.) Sophie is witty and hilarious and I cannot imagine reading this series with any other narrator.

Grace from Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard.

So I know that it seems like the obvious choice for a character to love from this book would be Mandarin. And yeah, Mandarin rocks. But the reason I love Grace so much is that I felt like I could be her. She is the awkwardness and uncertainty of that age, where you feel like everyone else has got it figured out but you.

Calla from Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer.

What I actually like about Calla is that she's flawed in a very realistic way. She was in Nightshade, and she kept it on in this sequel. She doesn't always make the perfect choices, but you always understand why she does what she does. And I like that. She's also a strong character, and I like that too.

Boys:

Balthazar from Afterlife by Claudia Gray.

This is definitely kind of cheating, because I've loved Balthazar for four books now, but I did read Afterlife this year, so I'm counting it. I don't know what it is about him, specifically, that I like so much, but Balthazar is one of my favorite characters in any book. Ever.

Will from Angelfire by Courtney Moulton.

Will is very badass, but also very sweet and very dedicated. Which makes him a particularly awesome YA love interest.

Otto from A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan.

Otto isn't a love interest in this book (although I like to imagine that maybe if the book had kept on, there could have been something there). He also isn't human. And he is a great character. My favorite from this book.

Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

This book definitely featured a bit of instalove, and yet, I did not care at all. Because I would probably instalove Akiva too.

Sean from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

I don't know what it was about Sean that I liked, but when I read this, I found myself looking forward to the parts narrated from his POV.

Best of 2011: Top 5 Favorite Songs to Write To

2011-12-26T08:02:00.000-05:00

This year, I'm participating in Sarah Enni's annual best of the year blog series. It was harder than I expected to condense my year in books into lists of five. But also very fun. There are tons of other people participating too; check out Sarah's post to find them!

Today's topic is: Top 5 favorite songs/albums to write to in 2011. I don't write to albums, so I'm going with songs for this topic. I looked through my playlists and thought about all the songs on there and how much I've listened to them, and I picked the five that I think I listened to the most this year while writing. They may or may not actually have anything to do with my writing, but I listened to them anyway.

Call Me and Diamond Eyes both by Shinedown. I thought maybe I should only do one song per band since I'm not doing it by albums, but Shinedown is my favorite band and I listen to them a lot.

Dragonfly by Shaman's Harvest. I came across this song randomly and then proceeded to listen to it practically on repeat for like five months.

King Nothing by Metallica. I know this song is ridiculously old, but for some reason, it just was really effective for setting me in a good writing mood.

So Far Away by Avenged Sevenfold. I'm also obsessed with several other songs on this album. But that's the one I've listened to the most.

Beautiful cover: IF I LIE by Corrine Jackson

2011-12-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

So it has been quite a while since I blogged. I'll try to pick up again soon. I'm participating in some fun end-of-the-year posts next week, so hopefully that will get me back into the spirit!

Now, I'm posting because my friend Corrine Jackson revealed the cover for her book IF I LIE today, and it is amazing! I love that the whole thing is grayscale except the title. I am so drawn to things like this in stores. Here it is, for those of you who haven't seen it yet:

And here is the book's summary:

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

It sounds amazing, doesn't it? I can't wait to read this one (but I will have to wait a little while! It's out August 28, 2012.)

RTW: All-Time Favorite Book Covers

2011-09-21T05:02:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I did an RTW! I have been a slacker. But I couldn't resist this one. And I should warn you, when you enter the YA section and a sea of black covers await you, I am the person who is lured in by such covers. Narrowing down my favorites was NOT EASY. But I tried. There are still a lot. In no particular order:

I like this one because it is creepy. I also really, really like the covers of her entire WAKE trilogy.

I actually don't think an online image does this one justice. It is even prettier in physical form. Also I love the cover of its sequel, RAGE.

I also think that this one looks even prettier in physical form.

This cover was just revealed! But I love it, I love everything about it. So it had to be on my list.

The other covers in the trilogy are pretty too, but this one is my favorite for some reason.

I don't know how it would be possible to pass this in a store and not at least pause to admire it.

This cover is so. creepy. It's half the reason I read the book.

I don't know why, you guys. I don't know what it is about this cover that I like, but when I was in late middle school, I saw this cover when browsing the book store, and it stopped me, and this became one of my favorite books ever.

So I could go on with a million other examples of covers I love, but I will stop there. What are your favorite covers? Share a link to your post on YA Highway!

RTW: Best book of July

2011-07-27T11:36:00.001-04:00

This is easy, and not just because I haven't read a ton of books this month. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor was not only the best book I've read this month, but one of the best books I've read ever.

Everything about it was awesome, and it's so completely unique. The setting, the characters, the writing, the plot, all of it. Also I loved that when weird mythological stuff happens in the normal everyday world, people notice. It adds a layer of reality to the book.

I could go on about it, but I won't. It's amazing. That's all.

What was your favorite read this month? Visit YA Highway to share!

RTW: Villains

2011-07-20T12:13:00.003-04:00

This week's RTW question asks: Who is your favorite literary villain?

Reading this question, two characters came immediately to mind. And they are both the same type of character: a sort of maybe villain.

First: Severus Snape. He's not too nice to Harry right from the start, and he's kind of a sketchball. I mean, sure, Harry can be kind of an entitled little pest, so I kind of liked that he had a few people who weren't fawning over him. But seriously you just never. knew. what was going on with Snape. He would do nice things, then he would do bad things. Dumbledore trusted him, but no one else seemed to--or seemed to even understand why. By the seventh book, I had grown kind of fond of Snape, because he'd been such a huge part of the books and he seemed like a person with a lot of really shitty decisions to make. Plus, it was fun to have that confusing emotional back and forth that comes from just having NO idea what to make of someone.

Second: Mrs. Coulter in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Mrs. Coulter is another one of those confusing characters. She does some really effed up things. And at first she seems pretty much like a straight up super villain, but as the trilogy goes on, you start to almost...understand her. I mean, she still makes effed up choices. (Stop kidnapping people, Mrs. Coulter!) But she's kind of badass. I can't say I ever truly liked her. And if we hung out, I would not eat or drink anything she gave me, and I would probably also not be alone with her because I'd fear she was going to kill me, but by the end, you realized that she did actually have a heart in there, and that her villainous behavior wasn't just for the sake of it.

So I guess I like ambiguous villains. The kind who aren't corrupt to the core, but maybe are a little more morally flexible than the average person might be comfortable with.

Who's your favorite villain? Visit YA Highway and share your link!

RTW: Inspiring images

2011-07-06T05:25:00.000-04:00

I like finding pictures of scenery when I'm writing. Sometimes I find them to help me describe something, when I have a picture in my head but want it to be clearer, and sometimes just because I like looking at pretty pictures of scenery. (I am also one of Those People who takes a thousand pictures of scenery while on vacation and hardly any pictures that actually have me in them.) In fact, I have a folder on my computer for each WIP, specifically for pictures, plus a folder for pictures that make me feel inspired but don't fit with any WIP--yet.

So here are some!

For my futuristic ice age WIP:

Source

High Fantasy WIP:

I stole this image from someone the last time we did an images RTW. It is perfect.

Source

Source: The super old computer game Myst

Source

I have about a million more for each, but I suspect that is plenty of images for you all to look at! What about you? Do you have images that inspire you while you're writing? Visit YA Highway to add your link and see what others said!

Road Trip Wednesday: Best Book of the Month

2011-06-29T13:26:00.004-04:00

Well, I went to BEA at the end of last month, so my bookshelf is definitely not lacking. But I've also been busy, so I haven't read nearly as much as I should. Still, I read some GREAT books this month, but I will pick just one favorite:

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin.

I'm still reading this one, actually, but I'm almost done. I've been reading it since early May. It is a beast--1000 pages, and really, the thing doesn't have any wasted words, which is quite a feat at that length. So it's taken me a while to read, because sometimes my brain is too tired to absorb all the awesome. But it truly is awesome.

Also, if you've been watching Game of Thrones (which is a BRILLIANT book to TV adaptation; they stuck so well to the plot I don't even know how they managed) and don't want to wait until 2012 to know what happens next...

What was your favorite book this month? Blog about it and link on YA Highway!

Divergent Challenge: A Dauntless Post for a Dauntless Week

2011-06-10T00:03:00.000-04:00

I didn't actually seek out Dauntless this week, because it sort of found me before I could. Most of my Dauntlessness came earlier in the week, but writing this post itself is feeling kind of Dauntless right now.

Last week, my agent left agenting. It's hard for me to decide how much to say about this situation, because most of you probably already know who my agent was, and if you don't, I'm sure it's not hard for you to figure it out. And also, posting about something bad that happened with an agent, to me, feels like I'm airing some really personal business. So it's pretty scary.

So suffice it to say, this was all sudden, and ultimately revealed some not good things. I think everything is for the best and I am going to be fine, but it was at the beginning of the week when it really started to hit that I was suddenly agentless, and it was also the beginning of this week when I had to deal with the details of it. Which involved me doing some dauntless things: calling someone on the phone who I didn't know. I do not like calling people on the phone not in the least bit, and on top of that knowing that I had to be prepared to be stern, if need be (I didn't need to be). This was a nightmare scenario.

I also had to wrap my mind around the fact that I was on my own again, and that I'm going to have to query again. Coming to terms with that has been a little bit hard, but I do think I've reached acceptance now. I'm at square one, but not really. And while this was obviously a bad event for me, it's also shown me a resoundingly positive side to so many people, and I've felt supported and was reminded how much I truly love the YA community, as strange as that might sound. All the people who helped me or offered to help me or listened to me gripe this week, you can't know how much I've appreciated it, and you're all truly wonderful.

Also, unrelatedly, I made a really poor decision involving my television that I won't describe for you all but I'm lucky that I still have an unbroken TV and two unbroken feet. I realize that sounds like I tried to kick it. I didn't. I tried to move it. We have not yet upgraded to a flat screen TV. I think ours might weigh as much as I do. I wish I were exaggerating. So that was Dauntless in the sense that a Dauntless person would fearlessly take on their television, even against better judgement.

Were you Dauntless this week?

RTW: Outlines

2011-06-08T11:52:00.025-04:00

I am definitely an outliner. Usually, I have only a very vague outline before I start writing, but then when I hit somewhere between 5-10 thousand words of drafting, I stop and do a better outline that hits on all the major plot points and any individual scenes that I can really think of firmly. If I get stuck at any point, not knowing how to get from one plot point to another, I stop again and make an extra detailed plotline of all the scenes needed to get from plot point A to plot point B.

Sometimes things change. Okay, things always change. I've yet to have an outline that survives completely intact from beginning to end of a draft, but it's okay. Having it gives me structure and direction, otherwise I will meander and write 100k+ manuscripts that include massive logic gaps and probably multiple chapters of scenes that are in no way relevant to the plot.

How about you? Are you an outliner, or do you keep it all in your head? Visit YA Highway to add your link and check out what others said!

Divergent challenge: Candor AND Erudite!

2011-06-03T12:59:00.000-04:00

Obviously if there was a faction for procrastination, that'd be the one for me.

So I haven't posted for Candor week yet, and it was actually a successful week for me! Candor week was also BEA week, and as I sat for 11 hours on a bus to New York City, I thought really hard about how best to go about Candor week. Obviously it wouldn't be good if I went around spouting every thought that came into my head. So I decided to go with the spirit of Candor. I tried to be just generally honest and assertive, without going overboard. Instead of hanging back when I spotted someone I knew but hadn't met in person before, I went and introduced myself (Hi Phoebe!) When the line for an autographed copy of SHATTER ME was cut off RIGHT in front of us and we had to hightail it over to the Harper booth to get unautographed copies, and the woman wasn't sure she was going to get them out for us but another woman was getting them out and handing them to others nearby, I got a little aggressive (don't worry. No Harper people were harmed. And we got our books! Also: my aggressiveness was unnecessary.) And generally, I just tried to make sure I was assertive. And that's basically how I want to be in general. Sometimes I am better at it than other times. But it was definitely a successful faction week.

This week, Erudite. Well, I had a lot on my mind this week. I got married on Saturday. My husband (!) who is out for a few weeks at a time for his job has been home all week. Some other flustering things happened. So all in all, I didn't have time to even think about learning. So I guess Erudite was a fail.

Amity: it's not as fun as it looks.

2011-05-20T00:20:00.026-04:00

I determined about two hours after Amity week began that I am just not chill enough to be Amity. I mean, I can do some of it. Here's the definition from the Divergent fansite:

AMITY:

1. friendship; peaceful harmony.

2. mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship, especially between nations; peace; accord.

3. cordiality

It’s not just about banjos and apple-picking.* It’s about cultivating strong relationships and trying to understand each other.

So yeah. I do try to cultivate strong relationships and understand others, but I am just not...peaceful. It's not like I go around chopping off people's heads, but I do get annoyed and I am horrible at letting things go. I will always have the last word, even if it's just in my head.

I see Amity members as people who can let things just roll off them. I don't think they would argue, I don't think they would mutter snarky things, I don't think they would glower mutinously at their fiance when he didn't put his cup in the dishwasher. So yeah. Even more than Abnegation, this faction is not for me. I think I will do better with the final three. I'm ready for them!

An Abnegationy week!

2011-05-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

This was the first week of the DIVERGENT challenge Deb set up. And I did do some Abnegation-like things!

In DIVERGENT, one of the first things you learn about the Abnegation factions is that they rarely look at themselves in mirrors. So I decided to try that. It was, honestly, not that hard because I don't wear makeup or do fancy things to my hair, so I don't have a huge need to look regularly into the mirror.

I've also been helping out this week with the Help Write Now auction. In a very non-Abnegation manner, I am bringing that up mainly so that those of you who haven't yet visited will see it!

And this week (well, Tuesday, anyway) I started myself on a diet of sorts. Not a losing weight diet, but a cut those unhealthy snacks that are going to make you have a heart attack at age 35 sort of diet. I don't intend to eat only bland things like the Abnegation do, but that sort of self-denial is definitely part of belonging to the Abnegation faction. This was something I'd been telling myself I was going to do for a few weeks now, but maybe being Abnegation this week gave me the push. RIP potato chips. I will miss you. (Except every now and then when I cave which I am sure I will.)

Mostly, I spent a lot of time this week thinking about selfishness and selflessness. And when you should and shouldn't put others before yourself. So way to go, Abnegation challenge, for making me think!

DIVERGENT Faction-of-the-Week Challenge!

2011-05-10T18:47:00.001-04:00

So I know I'm totally a day late on posting this. But isn't that fitting? This week is Abnegation, and if I'm being Abnegationy, I wouldn't want to draw attention to myself by being ~first~ ...right? (Alright, fine. I have no excuse.)

In the spirit of Abnegation selflessness, instead of explaining what this is, I'm going to just direct you to the brilliant Debra Driza's blog, because she's the one who came up with this idea, and her post explains all.

All week, I am going to try and do Abnegation-like things, and then on Friday, I will post about them.

p.s. this book is awesome, and if you haven't picked up DIVERGENT yet, you really, truly should.

and this is completely separate, but since I'm writing a blog post already, if you're interested in winning a shiny ARC of SHUT OUT by Kody Keplinger (another book that rocks), YA Highway is giving one away!

RTW: Musical Inspiration

2011-04-27T10:10:00.000-04:00

I didn't used to make playlists of any sort for my WIPs, because I usually have a hard time listening to music while writing. It distracts me. But then I started to find it fun to figure out which songs might go with which manuscripts, and now I have all sorts of playlists. But I'll just link to a couple songs for each that go the best, in my mind, with each.

So Dead:
Life is Beautiful by Sixx: AM
I'm Alive by Kenny Chesney & Dave Matthews

Unthawed:
When You're Young by 3 Doors Down
Diamond Eyes by Shinedown

High Fantasy WIP:
Dragonfly by Shaman's Harvest
Burning Bright by Shinedown

Do you have favorite songs for your WIPs? Visit YA Highway and share your link!

RTW: Best Scar Stories

2011-04-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

As a child, I liked to play outdoors all the time, and as a result, I have a lot of scars. Most of them are pretty uninteresting. Scraped knees and elbows from falling down. A random, not-that-small scar on my leg that I do not remember getting. One on the back of my wrist from having a cyst removed, one from my c-section.
But I do have a couple good scar stories.

First, there is the one on my forehead. Sadly, it is not lightning-shaped. Nor does it connect me to an evil wizard (dammit!) It’s just a horizontal line, off to the side. I got it when I was around five. I was at my cousins’ house, and our babysitter, a really sweet older woman, was setting things out for us all to eat lunch, so the island in the middle of the kitchen had its extension out so we could all fit around it. Running back from washing my hands, I forgot about it, and because I was wearing socks, I couldn’t stop fast enough and I ran right into it (p.s. I am not this island’s only victim. But I was the only one that day.) I had to get stitches.

I also have a not particularly noticeable scar on the back of my hand, reminder of a lesson well learned when I was around eight. I was practicing with the calf I was going to be taking to the fair, and I did one of the things you are never supposed to do: wrapped the rope of her halter around my hand a few times for better grip. Something startled her, and she jumped and I fell, because the rope tightened. All I got was a scrape from a rock on the driveway, but it was still a good lesson learned.

And my favorite, even though it was caused by my own idiocy: I have a scar on my outside upper thigh that’s a good inch long and probably a centimeter wide at its widest point. I had brought out a ceramic dish filled with vegetable scraps to feed the chickens (not because I was just the most angelic and thoughtful middle schooler ever, but because my mom told me to), and when I got back to the glass door on the deck, I could see my sister on the other side, holding it closed. In a great use of my intelligence, I pushed down the handle and leaned my entire weight on the door to try and push it open. Of course, she let go, so it opened and I fell inside. The ceramic dish shattered and it cut me. We both got in trouble (after I stopped bleeding.)

So how about you? What’s your best scar story, or if you’re long-winded like me, your multiple best scar stories? Visit YA Highway to share your links!

RTW: Who's in your book?

2011-03-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

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. Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments on YA Highway.

I never have based a character completely off someone I know. But I do sometimes borrow specific traits or quirks. I gave a character in my WIP a fear of worms, borrowed from a college bestie (And I now know multiple people who fear worms! You silly worm fearers.) Most of the time, the parents in my manuscripts share something in common with my own parents—if only in their attitudes towards their children (I have a really hard time writing bad parents. I blame/thank my own parents for this). The school cafeteria in my previous WIP is, in my head, exactly the same as the one in my high school. One of the adults who appears briefly in my WIP has a personality reminiscent of the mother of one of my childhood friends, who always had this air of importance about her. I’m sure I’m not the only one who had a friend with a parent like this. I named a character after my sister, but gave said character none of my sister’s personality traits. I just got tired of naming people. I did use an expression earlier in the same WIP that my sister uses frequently: “Are you out of your tree?”

And probably most notably, I think often my characters take things from me. I work really hard not to give them my actual personality, but sometimes they have little life events in common with me. In my previous WIP, the main character collects insects and pins them to a board in her room. I didn’t have a board, but I had a piece of Styrofoam, and I collected insects as a child—although not quite so ambitiously as this character. In my current WIP, I gave my main character the memory of a scarring kiss based on awkwardness and a weird tongue, and this I definitely borrowed from my own memory bank, because how can I not share that teenage awkwardness with my characters?

I’ve definitely used more things than that, but those are the ones that come to me most immediately as I’m writing this post. Sometimes, people or things happen in your life that just need to be fictionalized. It’s only fair to the universe.

RTW: I would have given anything to be like...

2011-03-09T11:06:00.000-05:00

First, did you all enter the LIKE MANDARIN giveaway on YA Highway yet? For the full effect of this week's prompt, read the main RTW post on YA Highway, or better yet, read LIKE MANDARIN ;)

Well, I thought about this long and hard. And I concluded that I never had a sole Mandarin in my life. But there were a lot of times in high school where I would look at some other girl and think, what would it be like to be her? I don't know how I appeared in high school, but I felt like I was kind of awkward. I wasn't really any particular...thing. I was just sort of there. Not outgoing enough to be noticed by everyone, not weird enough to be one of those kids who just owns their weirdness. So from time to time, I would just latch onto a particular person in my mind, and wish I could be more like them.

There wasn't really a common thread between the girls I wanted to be like, except a pure confidence--or appearance of confidence--in who they were. In retrospect, I'm sure all the other girls at my high school felt awkward about themselves, just like I did, if not necessarily for the same reasons. But as a teen, I didn't think of it that way, and I thought that maybe someday I would feel confident like that too, and comfortable with myself. (Which, over time, did happen.)

Like Mandarin Release Day!!

2011-03-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

This book is so good, there aren't even words to describe its awesome. And today, it has been released into the world! So buy it. And if you need to be persuaded of its worth (why don't you just blindly trust me??) Kirsten has uploaded the first chapter to her blog. You will be blown away by how beautiful it is.

And in celebration, YA Highway is giving away lots of cool things (including some copies of the book!) so go ahead and enter!

Happy release day, Kirsten!! <3

RTW: Favorite Literary Couples

2011-02-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

This week's RTW asks: who are your favorite literary couples?

Well, that's not a tough one for me. Will and Lyra from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Because they're so young, there's an innocence to their relationship. And they're not thinking about each other all the time in the romantic sense, they just grow to care about each other. And long before there are any signs of romance, they just work well together, as two individuals, both used to relying only on themselves, who find that they need each other's help. Plus, the end--will put this vague semi-spoiler in brackets in case anyone wants to just skip over it--[[is totally tragic but you know they both made the right decision and you just want to snuggle them and tell them it will be okay.]]

So yeah. For me, no other couple I've ever read shines quite so brightly.

How about you? Visit YA Highway to see other people's choices, and add a link to your own!

RTW: In What Universe?

2011-01-26T07:06:00.001-05:00

This week's Road Trip Wednesday question is: If you could live within the universe of one book, which would you choose?

Because ultimately I'm going to be so cliche in my answer, first I'm going to tell you which ones I considered. I thought about the universe of HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins, but only if I get to be a witch and go to the school where Sophie goes (so I guess I'd have to be a misbehaving witch.) It just seems like fun. I also considered one (or several) of the many universes in the HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy by Philip Pullman. I want to befriend a giant armored polar bear! And meet strange creatures who don't walk but travel using wheels make of giant seeds! And have a daemon! And then I considered and almost chose the universe from the ABHORSEN trilogy by Garth Nix. It's creepy cool, with the wall that separates normal society from magical society. And all the different types of magic, and the eerie dead things that come up out into the living world and have to be banished back. Of all the things I've ever read, this trilogy has inspired me the most, so it only makes sense I'd want to live there, even if it's a little bit wild and seems to be pretty much in constant danger.

But then.

Then I spotted the seven Harry Potter books on my top shelf, sitting there all innocently, and I'm sorry, but who doesn't want to go to Hogwarts? Especially now that it's all safe and whatnot. Quidditch matches and spells gone awry and fun classes like transfiguration and charms. Delicious magical candy. Quirky teachers. Hagrid's various magical/semi-dangerous pets. Everything about Hogwarts--and all other wizard-related places--is awesome. It is magical and fun and the first time I read HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, I developed this little corner of my heart where I could pretend it totally does exist.

I'm going to keep pretending until proven wrong ;)

So what about you? If you could live in any book universe--contemp or magical or dystopian or other--which would you choose? Visit YA Highway to share your answer!

RTW: Favorite WIP lines

2011-01-12T10:41:00.000-05:00

This week's Road Trip Wednesday topic is: what is your favorite line from your WIP?

Some days I feel extra vain and I have lots of favorites, and some days I want to murder every word. But there are a couple I particularly like, even on the murder every word says. And I like how pretty Kate's post looks with her quotes in fun-fonted images so I'm going to be a copier and do that too. (Plus I haven't had a reason to use PhotoFiltre in a while--I may have gotten carried away. But it could have been worse).

What are your favorite lines from your WIP? Share on YA Highway!

RTW: Five best books of 2010

2011-01-05T11:02:00.000-05:00

The handy spreadsheet I made last year of all the books I read helps me out with this topic. I don't have to dredge up memories of what in hell I read all the way back to last January. I read a lot of amazing books in 2010, but here are five of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK by Melina Marchetta. I adored Jellicoe Road, mainly because of the author's beautiful, beautiful writing, so when she came out with a high fantasy? Hell yeah I was going to read it. And it was amazing. The romance, the world, the characters. She didn't hold back. The world was brutal and real and I love this book.

2. HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. Technically I read this book in 2009 because I won an ARC from a random twitter contest, but I'm putting it here anyway, since it debuted in 2010--and I did read it twice more, in 2010. This book seriously has everything. I think it's one that crosses reader boundaries between those who prefer contemporary and those who prefer fantasy. It's SO incredibly hilarious, I literally laughed out loud more than once. But it also has substance. The plot's complex and the love interest, Archer, is one of my favorites of the books I've read recently.

3. HOURGLASS by Claudia Gray. I loved EVERNIGHT. And I loved STARGAZER. So it only makes sense that I would have loved this one too, right? This book was unique from the first two in many ways, but it was still so good. And the ending was seriously wow. And separately but relatedly I am so excited for the Balthazar book that's coming out after this series is over. *swoons*

4. MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins. It wasn't perfect, but it was certainly intense. There were some things I really, really liked about it, and I wasn't left with the feeling of burning disappointment I sometimes feel when a trilogy or series ends. And I was satisfied with where Gale ended up in the scheme of things (yeah, SO Team Gale). Plus, this was one of those books that just made people talk. Everyone was excited about Mockingjay. Everyone was reading it. Everyone had reactions and blogged and tweeted and forum posted about it. What is better than a book that no one can stop talking about?

5. BLUE FIRE by Janice Hardy. I loved THE SHIFTER, so I was excited about this one. Janice Hardy sure does know how to get her poor characters into tough situations where they have to make difficult choices to worm their way out. I love her world building--it's amazing. Something to aspire to, really. And I love the characters, their relationships, the fact that the MC, Nya, has to do tough things and is haunted by her choices, because I don't think anyone could do the things she's had to and not worry if they did the right thing. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this trilogy wraps up!

What were the five best books you read in 2010? Visit YA Highway to read what others said, and to link your own post! Alternatively this week, you can sum up your 2010 with a book title. (I found that too hard!)

RTW: What do I want from Santa?

2010-12-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

To get the full effect of this week's RTW, you should probably go ahead and read Lee's super amazing poem on the YA Highway post, but the gist of the topic is: What do you want Santa to bring you this year?

Well, I could be totally lame and say that there's nothing I need from Santa -- I already have a great fiance and child and the best friends ever -- but I can certainly come up with some material things I wouldn't say no to if Santa decided to bring them. (Shoot, I don't have a chimney! hehe.)

I've sort of wanted a Kindle for a while, and lately I've really wanted one. I'm never going to stop buying physical books, ever. But I can only own so many, and a Kindle would be great for reading books I want to read but don't want to own, and also for reading friends' mss.

I would also take any and all of the millions of books on my to-read list. What is up with all the new awesome books coming out before I can get to the old awesome books?? (But don't stop coming out, new awesome books!)

A new couch, maybe, because I haven't bought one yet for my new apartment.

A device that slaps me every time I chew on my sweatshirt strings. It is so gross and yet I CANNOT STOP.

The awesome red Wii! Obviously I'm not going to buy one because that's just stupid, but I totally think that people who already have Wiis should be able to exchange theirs for the pretty red one.

A million dollars. (What? I promise, I would spend it wisely!)

Share your own post on YA Highway, and while you're there (speaking of gifts!) check out our holiday giveaway if you haven't yet. Lots and lots and lots of prizes.

Things I'm thankful for

2010-11-25T07:11:00.022-05:00

Since it's Thanksgiving, it's obviously a great time to blog about some of the things/people I'm thankful for. So here goes, in no particular order and without explanation:

--The child.

--My family.

--My fiance.

--Amazing friends.

--YA Highway.

--My agent.

--Writing.

--Books.

--The Internet.

Hope everyone has an amazing holiday weekend!

RTW: Best book of November

2010-11-24T08:11:00.001-05:00

So ummmmm...I kind of didn't read any books in November. I could blame this on lots of things, but I'll just accept my failure as a reader and move on with it.

But, like Kate, I did some research this month, which means I read some nonfiction. (Sidenote: does the word "nonfiction" sound weird to anyone else, if you think about it for a few seconds?) A couple months ago, I bought the super awesome book, The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. I'm not going to lie, guys. It's pretty much the best thing ever. (And hey! Amazon classifies its reading level as "young adult").

I read it through once when I first bought it, but this month I've been reading parts of it more thoroughly because I am using some prehistoric-like creatures in my WIP. I've learned all sorts of irrelevant things, too. Aren't you guys glad we don't live in the time of six-foot cockroaches? I love learning things, but I hate feeling like I'm learning things (you know what I mean, I hope).

So if you are secretly or not-so-secretly harboring a love of prehistoric creatures, I really recommend this one. (Also it has pretty illustrations.)

What was the best book YOU read this month? Visit YA Highway to share your link!

RTW: The Wildwinds Made Me Do It

2010-11-17T09:07:00.000-05:00

This week's topic is super extra special. The first line of Kirsten Hubbard's LIKE MANDARIN (which you can win on YA Highway--have you entered yet?) is: "The winds in Washokey make people go crazy." This week's RTW prompt is to post about a time you did something completely crazy.

Well, I thought about it. I thought and I thought. I've done plenty of crazy things I'm not going to share with you all (sorry). And I've done crazy things that no one else would ever consider crazy but me. I've done things that are crazy in the middle school sort of way--deciding the bandstand at school was haunted and making a ghost club; getting lost in the woods; trying to get a creepy abandoned house unlocked late at night (it still freaks me out that we did that. That place is so scary you have no idea). Things that are crazy in an "I can't believe I stayed up that long" kind of way--driving straight from Ithaca, NY to Ashland, ME and then continuing on to Presque Isle like there wouldn't still be donuts if we waited until the next day; late night chats with friends followed by early morning classes; driving from Connecticut to Ashland overnight because it seemed like a great idea until the morning when we realized one of us was going to have to not nap and watch the baby.

But really the craziest thing I ever did? Deciding to date my fiance. The whole story isn't that interesting if you weren't there, but it's one of the most spontaneous decisions I've ever made. I barely knew him, was going back to school--seven hours from where he went to school--in a week, but those are the things that made me decide, what the hell, why not? If it didn't work out, we wouldn't have any of those awkward post-breakup run-ins. And if it did, then it was a risk worth taking. And it did work out. So there you go.

Want to share something crazy you have done? Visit YA Highway, add your link, get an extra entry to win an ARC of LIKE MANDARIN. And you don't have to be embarrassed by your crazy--you can blame it on the wildwinds.

RTW: Best book of October

2010-10-27T09:07:00.000-04:00

Sooo I didn't read all that much this month.

But I did reread THE GIVER, which I hadn't read in years. It had been just long enough that there were parts I didn't remember. As always when I reread something, I caught things I hadn't ever noticed before. When I first read this book as a younger kid, I was completely fascinated by the assigned jobs idea. Not that I wanted to have something like that implemented in my own world, but I wrote so, so many stories in middle school that revolved around ceremonies where people are assigned jobs. (The one I remember best is one where humans lived underground in what was basically an ant colony because they lived on a planet inhabited by huge giants who would squish them--like ants--if above. This was when I had been playing the game SimAnt a lot. The MC was assigned the job of aphid milker. At age 12, I wasn't too worried about how the science worked out...) But anyway, reading the book as I got older, I noticed the subtle things more. I won't say which part hit me the most intensely this time when I read it, because that would be a super spoiler, but wow. It was as good as it ever was.

I also read THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan. This is the first of his books I've read--I haven't tried out the Percy Jackson series yet, though I plan to!--and it was pretty good. Completely entertaining, loved the mythology (I <3 ancient Egypt), and the characters were fun. I'll definitely read more books in this series, when they're out.

What was your favorite book this month? Visit YA Highway to share!

RTW: Who makes me less unique?

2010-10-20T10:20:00.000-04:00

So this week's Road Trip Wednesday topic is not an easy one. At least not for me. The prompt: Who are your comp titles/authors?

Well.

There's a reason I avoided this entirely in my queries. It's not because I think I'm so insanely special and unique that no one else's book could possibly be like mine. It's not because I'm so humble that I don't think I can be compared in any way, shape or form to a published author. And it's not because I don't know how to compare books to other books. You might think I'm going somewhere with this, since I started this paragraph with "There's a reason," but you'd be wrong. Really it's just not as easy for me to objectively compare my own book to other books as it is for me to objectively compare other people's books. But I think it's good to have a general idea, so here we go:

So Dead:
Well, for the dead teenager trying to sort out her personality aspect, I think the obvious comparison for this one is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Our writing styles are very different and our plots are very different, but there are definitely some common themes.

Unthawed:
Because it has both post-apocalyptic and dystopian aspects, I'm going to compare it to Shade's Children by Garth Nix. So, I could/should probably choose something more popular and more current, but the obvious choice if I'm going to be popular and current is The Hunger Games and that's a little too popular. The thing about Shade's Children is that it has the really obvious bad guys who are, without question, the enemy, but it also creates an environment where the person you think is helping you might actually not be. I have that same kind of chaotic "can't trust anyone" vibe going on in Unthawed (all 8k of it so far, at least...) I will definitely not pretend I think I'm as awesome as Garth Nix, though.

So now that I've expended all my energy on two measly little comparisons, what are yours? Visit YA Highway to share!

RTW: Favorite first lines

2010-10-13T08:39:00.001-04:00

This week's Road Trip Wednesday topic is: A novel's opening is like a pick up line. If it's good, you might take it home. If it's bad... well. You know. What are your favorite first lines? How do your own WIPs start?

Let's start with mine, because I only have one--other WIPs are too drafty and will likely change. The first line of SO DEAD is: "Being dead is awesome."

Some of my book favorite first lines? It's hard to say because sometimes a book is freaking awesome but its first line...not so much. Or vice versa. But here are some good ones, and these are books that ended up being as great as their first lines--no sense leading people astray with kickass first lines that led to mediocre books!

THREE DAYS TO DEAD by Kelly Meding: "I don't recall the first time I died, but I do remember the second time I was born."
Yeah it certainly catches your interest, doesn't it? Dead? Born? What is going on with this character??

FEED by M. T. Anderson: "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

SHADE'S CHILDREN* by Garth Nix: "A razor blade gave me freedom from the Dorms."

ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine: "That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me."

THE SHIFTER by Janice Hardy: "Stealing eggs is a whole lot harder than stealing the whole chicken."

I could go on, but that's probably enough. I like each of those lines for a different reason. I think the main thing, though, is that they establish voice, and tell me that something interesting is going on. And when I read books, I want them to be interesting, you know?

What are some of your favorite first lines? Join us at YA Highway and share!

*Why haven't more of you read this book?????

RTW: Desert Island

2010-10-06T10:11:00.000-04:00

This week's road trip Wednesday topic is: You're packing for a month on a deserted island. What, as a reader and writer, must be in your backpack?

Well, if I'm packing for this trip in advance, obviously this deserted island is going to be somewhat prepared for me. So I'm going to pretend that my country-girl knowledge of how to not die while walking around in the woods will translate into knowing how to build a good fire (hey--I would be better at it than some of the people on Survivor!) and shelter and finding food. So I won't need to pack anything for that. Except maybe a few cigarette lighters, because they hardly take up any space, and while I'm figuring out how to effectively get my fire lit the natural way, it might be smart to have a backup plan.

I would also pack sunscreen. Because let's face it. I do not have the complexion for a desert island, and I hate being sunburned.

And then, I would pack a zillion notebooks. And pens. And also a giant plastic bag to store them in if it rains. Or, maybe wiser, I would use a waterproof suitcase (they make those, don't they?) I write by hand a lot anyway, so this would be no problem. But a month with nothing to do really except write or read? We're talking about a lot of notebooks, here. And a lot of pens. And maybe a couple of pencils, in case all my pens die.

Of course, I can't write ALL the time. My brain would explode from overwork. So I would bring a selection of my favorite books: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman; HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins; THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy; FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK by Melina Marchetta; SHADE'S CHILDREN by Garth Nix; and more if I had room.

What would you bring? Stop by YA Highway and let us know!

Queries, jealousy, and the internet is the internet.

2010-10-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

I feel like this is one of those blog posts that I should preface by saying: this all is just my opinion. Although I hope everyone who reads my blog knows that, actually, everything on this blog is just my opinion. It is my blog, after all!

And if you're thinking, "those things in the title of this post don't seem like they quite go together," you're right. I wanted to blog about three separate things, but none really warrant their own, individual post, I don't think. So here are my thoughts on three random, unrelated subjects.

Queries. Or more specifically, agents and interns tweeting about queries. There's been some quiet uproar (ha--is that an oxymoron?) on twitter this week about certain querying hashtags, and Kathleen Ortiz wrote a brilliant blog post touching on the difference between agents and interns tweeting about queries. I'm not going to throw in my own opinion on that particular facet because I am so unqualified to, but anyway. It's a good post. But here is my opinion, in general, on the query-related tweeting as someone who used to be in the querying trenches.

Querying sucks sometimes. The highs are really high, the lows are really low. I enjoy general posts by agents or interns or whoever on things like: querying trends, generalized reasons why they rejected something, general advice based on mistakes they've seen a lot of lately, and other similar topics. Statistics, like "I received x amount of queries, this many in this genre, this many in this genre, asked for y amount of partials and z amount of fulls" are also way interesting to me.

But I am so turned off by too-detailed specifics and also by teasing about someone's query or pages. I would have absolutely died inside if I'd seen myself tweeted about while I was querying. Because while yeah, the slush pile is, I'm sure, filled with a lot of scary stuff and letters by people who did zero research, there are also many people who did do their research and are trying so hard and putting this piece of themselves out there (in a private email, might I add) only to be publicly ridiculed. It's just not cool, and honestly, my opinion of someone can totally diminish if they are nasty and unkind toward queriers. Queriers may not be signed by anyone yet, and they may not be published, but that doesn't make them inferior human beings. I would imagine it's easy, when someone is seeing hundreds of queries a day, to forget that these are people sending the letters, with faces, lives, feelings, etc. But it's kind of important to remember. And I definitely think that the majority of the internet writing community, agents, interns and authors alike, are respectful toward each other, but not always. Unfortunately.

Jealousy. The ugly green beast. It attacks at the worst of times. Like when you're trying so hard to be happy for someone, but dammit, you want what they have! And with writing, there are lots of opportunities to be jealous. You're querying. They got an agent. You got an agent, but they got an agent faster! You've been on sub forever, and they got a book deal like *that*. You got a book deal, but they got a HUGE book deal. Your cover came out terrible, you wish you had theirs. They just posted pictures of the delicious baked goods they made, and you are OUT OF $%#$ING FLOUR!

I'm not sure that it's humanly possible to not be jealous. Ever. Of anything. But you can, and should, contain it. For me personally, there is no rhyme or reason to what makes me jealous. Sometimes everyone else around me is--or seems--jealous of something, and I'm floating away in "I'm so happy for this person that nothing else matters" land. Other times, I get a seething jealousy over something ridiculous, like, say, cookies. I think I'm naturally not a super jealous person, but it still gets me sometimes. However. You can't let it rule you. It is absolutely miserable to be around a person who is so perpetually envious that they are always unhappy. I like to reason through my jealousy, when I can tell I'm getting to an unattractive point of jealousness. Like, okay, she has cookies and I don't. Should this affect our friendship? If she stole the cookies from me, yes. This is an unforgivable crime. Otherwise, no. It should not. And if I want cookies, what am I doing to get some for myself? If I'm not even getting off my lazy butt to cook some, then how jealous can I really be, because obviously I don't want them that badly. If I'm missing an ingredient or just don't have the time that day, then maybe I should make a plan to bake cookies a different day. Problem solved. I know it's a simple example, but it works for lots of things, really, it does.

The internet is the internet. I have formed some of my best friendships on the internet, so I am not belittling it at all. But it's the internet. You're not hearing a person's tone of voice, not seeing their accompanying gestures as they communicate. When they're IMing you, they might also be fighting off an attack from a vicious toddler or cleaning up dog puke. Maybe that thing they tweeted sounded totally hilarious in their head, but without inflection, it comes out flat. And, although our internet community might feel so small when we're in it, it's actually massive. And sometimes people belong to more than one little internet niche, which makes it even more massive. So that passive-aggressive tweet that feels it's casting a giant spotlight over you may actually not be about you at all. It's important to remember how vast the internet is and how many people it revolves around before you ever let it ruin your day. I know I forget how huge it is all the time, personally. (Although I suppose, if you're someone who thinks EVERY tweet/blog post/forum post is about you, either it is and you've got some issues you should work on, or it isn't, and you've maybe got some different issues to work on...)

So that was long. And maybe boring, but I hope not. And maybe nonsensical, but I hope not that either. Just some things that were in my brain and wanted to come out, and did!

RTW: September's best book

2010-09-29T10:54:00.000-04:00

I didn't read a whole lot of books this month. Time sort of got away from me, I guess! But I did read one particularly awesome book this month, and that was BLUE FIRE by Janice Hardy. I reviewed it on YA Highway just last week, so I won't repeat myself, but I've been excited for this book since last October when I read THE SHIFTER, so I'm very, very glad it didn't disappoint. Of course, now I'm impatiently awaiting the third, but that's a good thing!

What was the best book you read this month? Visit YA Highway to share your link and see what others said!

RTW: Historical Era

2010-09-15T11:27:00.000-04:00

This week's Roadtrip Wednesday question is: If you could travel back to any historical era for research purposes, which would you choose?

I really like history. You could set me in many, many different time periods and I'd be happy--as long as I got out before I got killed by the plague or a spear or something. But I have a few particular favorites:

Prehistoric Times

I don't know that this will shock anyone. They had the coolest animals back then. Some of them predated humans, but there were still cool ones when humans were around, too. Everything was so different back then. Everything was giant and dangerous and wild. And we really know so little about it compared to all the other time periods.

Medieval England

I know the plagues should turn me off, but this is a wicked fascinating time too. People were so...feral. They did crazy things like bleeding each other out to get rid of the demons causing illnesses, and they had the most insane, horrifying torture devices (actually there were horrifying torture devices all over medieval Europe and beyond). Even royalty were dirty and unsanitary. And what must it have been like to be a peasant? You weren't going to live that long, and you were going to work very hard and life all around was kind of uncool. It'd be interesting to see what it was like to be one of those grungy people living in that dirty world. Also, I have kind of a thing for castles--dungeons, in particular, and also hidden passageways of any sort.

Ancient Rome

I took this picture--please excuse my amateur photography skills

I have been obsessed with Rome for a long while, too. I don't know what to say about it really, it's just mind-blowing. They did horrible things to people too, I mean, gladiator fights? But I am pretty sure if I lived back then, I would be one of those psychotic people who swoons over the gladiators who win a lot. It's just somewhere I would have loved to see at the height of its glory.

Herculaneum

Right when Mount Vesuvius erupted. I would actually like to go a bit before the eruption, because no thanks to being made into an obsidian sculpture, but I would also like to go just slightly after, and see what it all looked like. Everything was buried under the lava, and I mean, holy crap! What must it have looked like, when the lava first cooled? So scary. And I wonder if there were signs a few days in advance that some people noticed and others passed off as nothing. I would also accept Pompeii as a location to visit, but when I was in middle school, we read a book about Herculaneum that was facts and pictures of preserved stuff, interspersed with this fictionalized story of right before it happened (thanks Mom, best fifth grade teacher ever!) And obviously I found it fascinating, if I still remember it.

Colonial New England

For real you guys, this picture of (part of) my parents' barn came up when I googled it!

Because I live here. Because it'd be way cool to go back to the late 1700s/early 1800s and stay in my own house, back when it was a B&B. It would also be way cool to see places like Salem, MA (during the witch trials--as long as I didn't get burned at the stake or drowned or anything) or Boston in its early days, or Plymouth when settlers first arrived. Everything from the 1600s to the 1800s is very interesting to me.

Those are, by no means, the only historical times that interest me, but (other than colonial New England which is basically just self indulgent) those are the times I'd want to write books set in, so that's where I'd go. How about you? Where would you go for the sake of research?

Visit YA Highway and let us know!

Goals

2010-09-10T15:46:00.000-04:00

In less than a week, I will be turning twenty-five. A quarter century. (I know, doesn't it sound scary when you say it that way?) I'm actually feeling pretty zen about this, which might surprise you if you saw how I reacted to turning twenty.

Since sometime in my early twenties, I've had three main before-thirty life goals: get married, have a baby, and have a house. More recently, I added selling a book to that list, because, why not be optimistic? Now, I have the baby, I'm getting married in March, and we'll see about the rest.

I hadn't thought too hard about this until lovely fellow YA Highwayer Lee Bross said something about making a five year plan on twitter. And they I thought, a five year plan? What a perfect time to do that. So I sat down, and I made one.

I like having goals because without having something to work towards, I tend to be a little all over the place. So now, I'm going into age twenty-five with new goals, one of them being not to worry so much about my age anymore.

RTW: DUFF kits!

2010-09-08T09:17:00.000-04:00

In honor of the release of THE DUFF by our very beloved Kody Keplinger, we're packing our DUFF kits for this week's road trip.

What are DUFF kits?

"...comforting little collections that you can use on a relaxing night either alone or with friends. Things that are purely comfortable and fun and require zero pressure to be the prettiest in the room or the smartest or the funniest."

How do you make one? Put together:

1. Your favorite (very caloric!!!) drink
2. Your most comfy and old shoes

3. Movies featuring your favorite male actor
4. Your favorite junk food
5. Your most comfortable piece of clothing

(^I stole the above explanation of this week's RTW from Kate.)

So here is mine!

1) Chocolate milk. It's not just for twelve year olds.

2) My oldest shoes are pretty much the opposite of comfy. I'm not that into shoes in general, but I like giant fuzzy socks!

3) Pirates of the Caribbean for the deliciousness that is Johnny Depp, or The Princess Bride (Bonus! Love interest named Westley!)

4) Uh oh. I have to have a favorite junk food? I keep fluctuating between cheese curls and popcorn (with lots of butter--I don't do this the healthy way) and plain potato chips and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. OH and brownies with the ice cream. I could make all of those things into one big snack, right?

5) My pajama pants (which I may or may not be wearing right now...) and one of my many tank tops.

What would you put in your DUFF kit? Let us know at YA Highway!

RTW: Best book of August (spoiler free!)

2010-09-01T09:44:00.000-04:00

This month, I'm kind of cheating, and I'm going to do three books.

The first is a predictable choice, and I'm sure MOCKINGJAY will be getting tons of RTW love this month (how could it not?!) I don't really know what to say about it, aside from this: while there were things I disliked and things I wish could have been handled differently, I found it a satisfying conclusion to one of the best trilogies I've ever read.

Awesome book #2: ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allison Moulton. It was really cool to read this book in ARC form. And Will easily joins my list of absolute favorite love interests. (And this is not a long list!)

Awesome book #3: HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. I won an ARC of this book in November, and I have now read it four times, the most recent of which was on my flight back from LA at the beginning of August. This book manages to be effing hilarious while also having a kickass plot. The fact that I've read it four times should tell you something.

So what was your favorite book that you read in August? Visit YA Highway to share!

My blogging fail...

2010-08-26T17:22:00.000-04:00

I have blogged very little this month, and I feel bad about that. Not because the world is on the edge of their seats waiting for my next post (I'm not Hyperbole and a Half, after all), but because I like to blog regularly.

Moving and revising--plus regular life activities--are taking most of my energy right now, but I expect to be blogging more regularly again in September.

BUT I did post a review of ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allison Moulton on YA Highway today, and I guest blogged for Adventures in Children's Publishing yesterday (and very much appreciated them asking me! I've never guest blogged before). So I haven't been totally MIA.

And I hope to also be a better blog commenter again in September too. Hold me to it!

RTW: What does your character hide in their underwear drawer?

2010-08-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

...or other secret location.

We borrowed this prompt from Carolyn Mackler's presentation on creating characters, which several of us attended at LA SCBWI, and loved!

This was harder than I thought it would be, to be honest. Some of my characters are just not that into hiding things, others have nothing they need to hide. But here we go:

From SO DEAD:
-Olivia: I'm sure if I dug deeper I could think of something else, but the first thing that comes to mind is the letter she hides in her diary (in the story).
-Grayson: Anything he felt he needed to hide, he would destroy or throw out. Having a secret item hidden somewhere in his room would make him too uncomfortable.
-Olivia's brother, Taylor: His room is so messy that his mom avoids it whenever possible, but I think he would probably hide things like condoms and boy magazines in his underwear drawer, just in case (and maybe an issue of Cosmo he bought to try and learn more about girls...)

From UNTHAWED:
-Emma: Doesn't have many possessions to hide, or really any privacy at all. But she does hide poison inside a mattress.
-Dusty: A book he stole. Haven't figured out exactly where he'd hide it, though (again, lack of privacy in this world) but he's resourceful. He'd find somewhere.

What about you? What would your characters hide in their underwear drawers? Visit YA Highway to link your post and read others!

Revisions and Kitchen Nightmares

2010-08-05T18:59:00.000-04:00

I know this sounds random, but I swear it isn't. And I also know that I've kind of blogged about this topic before, but not with such an awesome analogy.

This morning, my fiancé and I watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, and as I watched some of these people who clearly knew they needed help (otherwise, why did they try to be on the show?) refuse to see the problems Gordon Ramsey pointed out to them, I thought, this reminds me of something. What was that something? Revisions.

The restaurant owners know they are struggling. They come on the show on the brink of having to shut down. There are few (or no) customers. Usually the reason for this is pretty obvious. Their food tastes like regurgitated cat food. Their kitchen is effing disgusting. They are unable to communicate properly with each other and get food out in a timely manner. etc. Watching it, even knowing nothing about how to run a restaurant, usually these things are glaringly obvious to me right from the start. And they are very obvious to Gordon Ramsey, who is experienced and knowledgeable enough to be in a position to give these people excellent advice. Some of them are dying for it, are eager to take his advice and improve their restaurants.

And yet.

Almost always, someone doesn't want to listen. The chef refuses to believe his food isn't The Best Food Ever. The owner refuses to accept that they don't need 147 items on their menu. Or pretends they just cleaned the walk-in fridge last week, despite the rotting food inside it. And as an outside observer, it's so hard to understand why. You think they're just being arrogant or stupid or both. At least, I always have.

And then today I thought about it.

Truthfully, I tend to take suggestions from betas (and my lovely agent!) pretty well. Sometimes there are suggestions I decide not to take, and sometimes suggestions feel overwhelming at first, but I can't remember the last time I got truly pouty over a suggestion. Most serious writers are like this, I think. We are the people who get advice from ~~Gordon Ramsey~~ our agents/editors/betas and do the best we can to ~~keep our restaurants from failing~~ make our mss sparkly perfection. Some of us have trouble accepting the truth at first and ~~call Gordon Ramsey horrible names~~ gripe about how much work we have ahead of us (privately, I hope). I think this is fairly normal. Sorting through all the advice for what we can and cannot use is sometimes quite a feat.

But then, others of us diva out entirely and tell Gordon Ramsey he is an idiot and we are perfect before slamming out of our restaurant *forever* passive-aggressively attack agents/editors/betas/human-kind via twitter, forums, or other public venues while refusing to take any advice because our manuscript is perfect and everyone Just Doesn't Get It. These last people are the ones who keep shows like Kitchen Nightmares on the air. Some of you feel bad for them (I usually do, unless they're an epic douche), some of you just roll your eyes at them, all of you are oh so glad you don't work with them.

So I guess what I learned this morning was that criticism pops up everywhere in life, and that learning how to use it is valuable whether you own a restaurant or write a book. Or maybe I already knew this. But until today, I had never so clearly seen the parallel. We writers aren't so unique in our struggles after all! Which is kind of a nice thought.

RTW: Best book of July

2010-07-28T07:26:00.054-04:00

As we do each month, this week's topic is: what was the best book I read in July. I read a lot in July. And good books, too. So picking The Best was pretty hard. But as you can assume from the giant picture on the left, I decided on THREE DAYS TO DEAD by Kelly Meding. It's not YA! I feel like I'm cheating on my genre, but I don't feel too guilty.

I've been interested in this book for a while. It's pretty, and the author is an AWer. I like to keep AWers' titles in mind when I'm book shopping, because let's face it: AWers are cool (at least, most of them).

The main reason this book won out as best book I read this month is that I took it with me on vacation and ignored everyone while I got enthralled. The characters are awesome, the writing is smooth, the plot is layered and interesting. I had no idea what was going to happen in the end and how/if the MC would manage to overcome the whole only allowed to live for three more days thing.

There was a lot of world-building to be done in this book; a multitude of paranormal creatures, people with abilities, explaining how this works while (most) humans have no idea. Yet it was woven in really well, with very few exceptions, and despite the fact that her world and creatures were very unique, I didn't have any trouble remembering the details that I learned.

So all in all, it was gripping, gritty, and just plain good.

What was your favorite book this month? Visit YA Highway to see what others said, and to link your own post!

Destination: Los Angeles!

2010-07-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, I am off to LA for the SCBWI conference. And I'm excited! Admittedly, more about meeting the awesome people, but still. I will learn things. It will be fun. Many a picture will be taken.

I hope I see anyone who reads this who will be there!

RTW: My Best Posts

2010-07-21T08:24:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't been a very good blogger the past couple weeks. I'll be better after July (I hope). Anyway, this week's RTW topic is: give us a link to the best blog post you've ever written.

Now, I don't actually know which one is my "best". And I'll admit, I didn't search through every one I've ever written, but I picked three that got a lot of comments--which can sometimes be as good as (or better than) posts themselves:

Respecting your Betas

Beauty and the Truth

Agents See your Online Diva Moments

Evidently, the posts I like best are the ones where I get on my soapbox. And by the way, I still think the one on beauty is probably the best post I've ever done, and not just me--fellow YA Highwayer Kristin Otts started the idea and it spread around the internet for a few days, which was amazing. Alright, so those are mine, what about yours? Visit YA Highway to link and see others' greatest posts!

RTW: My ideal writing desk

2010-07-07T06:37:00.001-04:00

Obviously this post calls for lots and lots of pictures, because that's more fun. And we're assuming, of course, that I've suddenly started growing money--I paid no attention to cost in my lustful desk and desk supply wishes.

First things first: the desk

From Staples

And a comfy and awesome chair, something of this sort:

From Office Max

A badass and also cool looking computer:

From Alienware

And then of course some boring things, like: a really good printer, notebooks, pens, etc.

And a super cool desk supply organizer:

From Staples

And a cool lamp:

From metaefficient.com and Amazon.com

There ends my bloggerly fun for today. I spared you pictures of the exact notebooks and pens I wanted in my ideal world, and maybe that's for the best...

Visit YA Highway to see what my cobloggers and others said on the subject, and to link to your own post!

I hate [insert genre here]

2010-07-04T22:08:00.000-04:00

We all see it sometimes. In forums, on blogs, on twitter. Sweeping generalizations, often backed up with fake statistics, like "90% of all YA is the exact same, and [insert insult here]."

This actually makes me really sad. Okay, so you're not into paranormal romance (this genre seems to be the one that takes the hardest hit, because of--I'm assuming--a couple famous examples with passive MCs). That's fine. But be respectful to all the people who write amazing, gorgeous, unique paranormal romances. Or whatever your hated genre of choice is. Just because you don't enjoy it doesn't mean it's all bad.

In fact, I'd wager that if you think all YA is the same/terrible/clichéd, you are probably not reading enough YA. Because yeah. I've read some things that made me wonder what publishers were thinking. But I've also read some things that were so good I wanted to read them again and again and again. My copies of THE GOLDEN COMPASS and several others have been read so many times they're falling apart. I actually had to get a second copy of THE GOLDEN COMPASS so I wouldn't abuse my poor first copy anymore. There are so many books out there. So many amazing books. Making decisions about entire genres based on one or a few books is just...painful to watch.

There's a difference between personally disliking a genre and deciding that every book in that genre sucks, and forcing this opinion on everyone in sight. Every time I see something like this, I feel like I've been poisoned a little. Maybe that sounds like an exaggeration, but that's honestly what it feels like to me. Every writer in whatever genre is being disrespected all at once, whether they deserve it or not.

So I guess I don't know what the point of this post is, except to say, I wish I could one day venture out into the online world and witness a little less bitterness, and a lot more love.

RTW: Best book of June

2010-06-30T06:59:00.000-04:00

I'm really liking that we have this monthly consistent topic. It's making me be sure not to neglect reading! This month, the best book I read by FAR was FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK by Melina Marchetta. It's not just one of my favorite books of the month, but one of my favorites ever. Before I say more, here is its synopsis, courtesy of Barnes and Noble's website:

Finnikin was only a child during the five days of the unspeakable, when the royal family of Lumatere were brutally murdered, and an imposter seized the throne. Now a curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere’s walls, and those who escaped roam the surrounding lands as exiles, persecuted and despairing, dying by the thousands in fever camps. In a narrative crackling with the tension of an imminent storm, Finnikin, now on the cusp of manhood, is compelled to join forces with an arrogant and enigmatic young novice named Evanjalin, who claims that her dark dreams will lead the exiles to a surviving royal child and a way to pierce the cursed barrier and regain the land of Lumatere. But Evanjalin’s unpredictable behavior suggests that she is not what she seems — and the startling truth will test Finnikin’s faith not only in her, but in all he knows to be true about himself and his destiny.

So. I am madly in love with fantasy, especially of the high and epic sort. And there are nowhere near enough of these in YA, in my opinion. This book had some minor problems, of course, as do all books. But it was so good overall that I don't even care. I loved--LOVED--that she kept with the awesomeness of the genre while also carving out her own little spot. I didn't feel like I was reading a book I'd already read. I didn't know what would happen when I turned the next page. And I was never bored. I think it could appeal to people who aren't as into this genre, too. The language felt legitimate for another world, while still maintaining readability.

I sent this one on its merry way to the lovely Amanda, but I will definitely buy a copy at some point, because I know I'm going to want to read it again.

What was the best book YOU read this month? Visit YA Highway to share, or to see what others said!

RTW: FML

2010-06-23T08:17:00.000-04:00

This week's topic should be pretty hilarious: if your favorite literary characters used fmylife.com, what would they say? I can't guarantee mine will be hilarious, but I can guarantee that some of them are. I tried not to be spoilery. And not all of these are my ~favorite~ characters (particularly the ones at the bottom).

My favorite literary characters would be separated into people with actual problems:

"I really hope I don't die or get black lung in this coal mine before someone manages to overthrow the government. FML." --Gale* (Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)

"When I left my crazy mom with the neighbor and went on a little romp through other worlds, I'm not sure I thought it through. Now I have this daemon I'm going to have to pretend is a pet, and there's that dude I kind of accidentally killed, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get sent to foster care. FML." --Will (His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman)

"Everyone in this world is dead except children. And me. FML." --Shade (Shade's Children by Garth Nix)

People whose problems are a little more standard, but you can still empathize with:

"I have to massage my stepsister's smelly feet, because if someone gives me an order, I have to listen. FML." --Ella (Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine)

"My boyfriend is going on about all his conquests again. And how misunderstood he is. If I have to listen to any more, I might stab out my eardrums. FML." --Ginny (Harry Potter by JK Rowling)

"I am the only good character in this series. Why do I appear on so. few. pages?? FML." --Murtagh** (Eragon by Christopher Paolini)

And the ones with problems so lame you want to laugh at them. Or slap them. Or something:

"Too many boys like me. And my boyfriend won't make me a vampire unless I marry him. I'm fine with an eternity as an undead creature, but MARRIAGE? FML." --Bella (Twilight by Stephenie Meyer)

"No one understands me. FML." --Harry*** (Harry Potter by JK Rowling)

Visit YA Highway to see what others have said, and to post your own link!

*I had a way better one for Gale, but opted for not spoiling Catching Fire for those of you crazies who haven't read it yet.
**What? You think I've read three books of that series for Eragon? No, I've read them for the brief Murtagh appearances FOR SURE.
***I do adore the books, but I like to tease poor Harry.

Respect and betas

2010-06-18T09:50:00.000-04:00

Because I'm apparently feeling inflammatory today. This has been sort of festering. It's not because of anything that happened to me personally, either, so don't take this post as some kind of...rant at someone who I feel has 'wronged' me or something. Being a beta reader has been good to me. And I think I've blogged something in this vein before, but I don't think it can be said enough.

But I have a fear that sometimes as writers, we can be a little egotistical. We have to be, to an extent. If we don't feel that what we've written is good, it may as well go in the drawer because no one else will like it, either. But the problem arises when our ego gets in the way of being able to take criticism. Every beta you have has something valuable to say. Every. Single. One. It doesn't matter who they are. Were they more critical than all your others? That doesn't mean they're wrong. Maybe it means they're just an intense beta. Some people are more intense at critiquing than others. Even if you feel like they didn't enjoy your ms, or didn't get your characters, that doesn't mean their feedback isn't valuable.

Obviously you can't take every piece of advice. Some of it's conflicting, some of it just isn't going to work. But discounting an entire critique? The idea of it makes my stomach hurt. Beta reading takes time. A lot of time. This person (or these people) invested themselves in trying to help you. Whether their criticism is hard to swallow or not, everyone deserves the respect of their opinions being considered fairly.

I don't know how that will come off being read by others. And probably the majority of people who read this blog do love and respect their betas. But like I said, this issue has been festering in my mind, and I couldn't not blog about it.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-15T07:27:00.023-04:00

Thanks for reading, everyone! Your comments are great :)

Contests and things

2010-06-14T14:18:00.000-04:00

There are a whole hell of a lot of contests happening at the moment. So...I'm going to link a few (there are many MANY more than these, but I am lazy and didn't want to hunt for them all.)

First, YA Highway's BEA ARC giveaway is still happening. You have until Sunday the 20th to enter, and there are some seriously kick ass ARCs up for grabs.

Sumayyah is having a contest on her blog and I really want to win this one because the prizes are so cool and unique.

Jill Wheeler is having a 100 followers appreciation contest, also with really great prizes that I am salivating over (literally--there's chocolate.)

And Jenn Wood is celebrating having 50 followers with a book giveaway of her own, and I haven't read any of these books yet, so obviously I want them!

I promise to blog about something interesting this week. I have a few topics floating around in my head, just have to sit down and work on one.

RTW: How do I know when...

2010-06-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

...a project will work out, and when it won't.

To be completely honest, there's a point at which I sort of make my projects work out. It goes something like this:

Step one: Kaitlin has a sparkily idea.
Step two: Sparkily idea blossoms into sparkily premise.
Step three: Kaitlin attempts to turn premise into actual story.
Step four: Kaitlin starts writing.
Step five: Kaitlin gets hopelessly stuck somewhere between 10 and 10,000 words, and has to step away from ms for a few weeks (or sometimes months) to figure out what is wrong.
Step six: Kaitlin figures out the problem. Creates an outline (usually), and continues writing.

Ever since I started writing seriously, if I don't stall out on step two, I don't stall out at all. I stubbornly think through that crazy little idea until it works. It may not closely--or at all--resemble what I started with, but it will work. I will make it.

Because if I haven't gotten blocked up on step two, then the idea feels viable to me, and I get invested. If I can't turn the sparkily idea from step one into a premise in step two, then it wasn't that sparkily to begin with, and I toss it away, never to think of it again.

How about you? To see how other people know when to give up on a project, or to link your own blog, visit YA Highway! Not to mention that we have a giveaway going on at the moment, where you can win some kick ass ARCs straight from BEA, including THE DUFF by YA Highway's own Kody Keplinger, and the much buzzed about MATCHED by Ally Condie. And those are not the only good ones, oh no they are not. So get your little behinds over there and enter. And participate in our Road Trip Wednesday, while you're at it, of course.

It was hard...and then it wasn't.

2010-06-07T20:09:00.000-04:00

My current WIP is high fantasy, as probably most all of you know by now, since I've mentioned it plenty before. High fantasy/epic fantasy was my first love...or maybe my second love, since I guess I have to admit that my first love was books with animal MCs (Redwall series, hello!) or horse books (I may or may not own books 1-18 in the Thoroughbred series). So, of course, it was thrilling when I got the vague idea for this WIP. But also scary, because while it may not be the most popular genre right now in YA, it's no small corner of the market. LORD OF THE RINGS fans are die hard. Do I really need to give more examples? (Should I admit that I've only read THE HOBBIT? Please, no one stone me for that.) It's a genre with so many tropes attached to it, that it's hard to have an idea that doesn't step on any toes.

Or at least, I thought it was.

I spent a really long time--probably too long--agonizing over how to make sure my WIP stood out from all the others, while still sticking to what makes the genre great. I rewrote the first five hundred words about seven times before I got a beginning that stuck, because I couldn't make myself settle onto exactly what I wanted to happen. Until finally I gave my setting a really hard look, decided on something that felt for sure unique, and went with it. The rest fell into place, and I stopped worrying as much. I reminded myself that it was a first draft, and who cared if it wasn't as unique as it needed to be? I could refresh myself on the genre later, and fix any issues.

Then a week or so ago, FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK arrived in my mailbox, and I was dying of excitement to read it, but was also afraid to. What if my WIP sounded similar? What if some of the plot points were outright the same?

Well, of course, I started reading anyway, because who could resist that beautiful cover and that beautiful epic fantasyness and Melina Marchetta's beautiful writing? And it wasn't scary. Any similarities were superficial (like how Finnikin & co are doing a lot of journeying, as are my characters). Nothing to be afraid of at all! Not to mention that FINNIKIN, in turn, stands out in the genre itself. Nothing about that book is tired.

Now I know it's just one book. But it reaffirmed my belief that no matter what your genre, no matter how 'done' something is, you can always find your spot. Maybe my WIP will turn out amazing, maybe it will fall flat on its face. But I feel confident, at least, that it is its own. It's good to remember that no matter how many books there are, there will always be room for more.

The day the outline died

2010-06-03T09:08:00.029-04:00

I'm pretty much a die hard outliner. Usually. I like to give myself some vague points to work off from the start, and then once I get 10,000 words or so into the WIP, I sit my butt down and make a super thorough, point by point outline. Sometimes it changes, but at least I have it, and I know what the hell I'm doing.

But not this time. This WIP refuses to be outlined. I tried several times, sort of like how I tried writing the first 500 words several times, and failed spectacularly. The first 500 words finally worked out, but I gave up on outlining. I have a little list of Brilliant Plot Points I've thought of that belong later on, so that I don't forget them, but no outline. And it's actually working. It's sort of eerie. I'm probably jinxing it by writing this post. But there's so much happening in this WIP that I'm finding it easier to just go with it.

Is there a point to this? I thought there was, but maybe not. I guess I just wanted to point out that sometimes, mixing things up works. Fun as it may be, writing isn't always easy, and sometimes your tried and true methods fail you. Branching out of your comfort zone is scary sometimes, but it's not impossible, and it can really help get you over that block.

At least, it did for me!

RTW: Best book of the May

2010-06-02T08:28:00.000-04:00

Okay, I was a bad bad book reader again in May. In my defense, I did write tons. It's a thin defense, I know. I'll work on it. So,while I did reread Catching Fire near the start of the month, I think giving it my best book of the month post is kind of cheating (it's just unfair to other books. It's not their fault they can't live up to the wonder that is this series) so I'm going to pretend I read it in April. And in that case, the best book I read this month is a completely random, really old book: Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman. I used to love this book, according to my mom (I remember reading it in sixth grade or so, but didn't remember anything else about it). She brought a copy of it to me the last time she visited, and I read it a couple weeks ago. The summary, from Karen Cushman's site:

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man—any rich man, no matter how awful.

But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call—by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest.

Can a sharp-tongued, high-spirited, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and an unimaginative, greedy toad of a father? Deus! Not if Catherine has anything to say about it!

It's very entertaining. The MC is fourteen (and this is historical fiction; medieval times), and the book is written in the form of her diary. She's spunky and hilarious. It's just a quick, fun read. Amazon says it's YA, in my super (un)professional opinion, it's more like upper MG, but is definitely worth reading if you like voicey things and historical fiction.

Visit YA Highway to see what my lovely co-bloggers read this month, and to link your own! Also, our anniversary giveaway is still going on, if you haven't entered it yet. The prizes are kick. ass.

And while I'm posting, because I'm too lazy to give it a post of its own, and because obviously posting it on twitter and facebook weren't enough: I got engaged this weekend! At the spot in that lovely photo above (I wish I could take credit, but the boy took that picture.) It's in the forest behind my parents' house in New Hampshire, where a sawmill was built (Brandon was standing on the sawmill's foundation for this picture, so it's not in the photo) in the 1700s, by the same ancestor who then built my house in 1790. And there's your random Kaitlin's family history lesson for the day. Good job picking the spot to do it, boyfriend...errr, fiancé.

As if one wasn't cool enough...

2010-05-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

By now I think most anyone who reads this blog knows about YA Highway's amazing epic super awesome anniversary giveaway. If not: we have three days worth of giveaways this week. From ARCs to some of our favorite recent releases to agent and writer critiques to random other awesomeness. Visit, if you haven't. (Day two is open internationally, even!!)

And, like I said in the title, as if one wasn't cool enough, THREE of YA Highway's members are also doing giveaways on their own personal blogs. So go visit Michelle, Kristin, and Kirsten for even more chances to win prizes.

Two for Tuesday

2010-05-25T15:29:00.000-04:00

So this two for Tuesday, a meme created by Kate Hart. I wasn't going to do it this week, but now I'm going to. It's: how my afternoon sucked, and then how it got better again.

1) how it sucked: I decided to go to the library, for the first time since I've moved here. There are lots of reasons I've procrastinated it, the main one being that I was turned off that it doesn't have an actual parking lot, just on-street, metered parking (25 cents for fifteen minutes!) But today I decided I really wanted to go. So I went. And their on-street parking? There's not much of it. And it was all filled. I won't rage on about the frightening journey I had to go on to get back home (because of course there was no easy place to turn around, either), but suffice it to say, it's 85+ degrees out today, and my car doesn't have AC. I brought water for Michael, but didn't think of it for myself. We also stopped at B&N on the way home, because I wanted to buy a book to make myself feel better, but their YA section is kind of lacking. Actually, there were TONS of good hardcovers, but I can't justify spending $17.99 on a hardcover just because I'm sad the library didn't work out today. So after taking Michael around the kids section for his own amusement, I poutily returned home.

2) how it got better: when I got home, there was a happy little package sticking out of my mailbox: Finnikin of the Rock, sent to me by Michelle (and she sent chocolate, too!) So now I'll have something to read, and I feel a little bit less pouty about the library. (Still mad, just the sting is out now).

...and on an unrelated note: drop by YA Highway this week, because we're having an anniversary celebration, and it, of course, includes kickass prizes. Prizes start tomorrow, the celebration starts today!

RTW: tattoos!

2010-05-19T11:01:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be both serious and very not serious in this topic. You'll have to guess which is which. I hope it's obvious (it better be obvious). This week's topic is: What tattoo would you get to celebrate your book's success or to represent a favorite book?

This is, of course, assuming you would get a tattoo. But even if you wouldn't, pretend! I am a fan of tattoos. I only have one for now, but once you get that one, there's a constant undercurrent of wanting more. So I could easily see myself getting a book-related tattoo if I were to get to that exciting point where I had one actually getting published. And before I start, my deep philosophical thoughts on tattoos: you should, of course, give it a lot of thought before you etch something permanently on your body, but sometimes the meaning of a tattoo is simply that it has no meaning at all. Your body is your canvas, not anyone else's, so all that matters is that you love it (and won't be embarrassed by it when you're old.)

So here I go, with what I would get if one of my three most recent WIPs made it to debut status:

Unthawed. I would, of course, have to get a mammoth. But not just some pretty design I found on the internet. Only my own beauteous drawing skills will do. As pictured. (If you click on the image, I think you can view it in its full size where you can actually see it. I had to hand draw because on the computer was going badly, and it's in pencil so my camera struggled--hence also the strange coloring that makes it look like parchment or something.) Because mammoths, well, they're just cool. Even if they have very little to do with the story (okay, nothing to do with the story except a brief appearance at the beginning. They are still awesome.) And somewhere subtle, of course. Like...across my entire upper back.

So Dead. Since the book involves the Afterlife, what with my dead-returned-to-life MC and all, I would have to get some kind of badass Afterlife depiction tattoo for this one. Yes, I know the Afterlife as I describe it in the book looks nothing like that picture (which is related to, or directly from some version of Dante's Inferno). But it's so cool. (Or maybe I just really can't think of anything at all I could get that goes well with this book specifically.)

New WIP. I found this one easier than the other two. Because there actually are tattoos in it, so it makes it easy to figure out what I would get to represent it. One of the love interests (that's right, I'm love triangling it in this one) has tattoos written in a fictional language (fictional as in I made it up, not fictional within the book's world) up his spine. The way I picture the language looking is closest to Arabic of anything else that actually exists. So I could get phrases written in Arabic up my back. (I can hear my boyfriend's brain exploding from miles away at the idea of me getting a tattoo that big.)

In all actuality, despite how much I seriously do love the Arabic tattoo idea, I would most likely get a tattoo in celebration of, but not actually related to, my books. I think 'because I have a book coming out' is as good a reason as any to get a tattoo. The next one I want for real is something along the lines of this cross. (Without dragons, though. But I do like the way they're twisted around it, so I think I would add something else to replace them.)

So that's it for me. What would you get? Visit YA Highway to see what others have said, and to add your own link!

Awards x2 and blog contest

2010-05-17T07:22:00.003-04:00

First: Kathy Bradey is having her first ever blog contest. Go on over there and enter it. Or, you know, don't, so I have more chance of winning her prize. (Just kidding. Go enter!)

And I got one more blog award, so here it is:

This award is from Medeia Sharif. Her blog is awesome, and you should visit, if you haven't.

I'm going to pass it to Kristin Otts, because a) I like her, and b) she wrote the most amazing post about body image and accepting yourself, and inspired others to do the same. That's worth a blog award, I'd say!

Blog awards

2010-05-15T14:51:00.005-04:00

I've gotten three blog awards this week, so I figured I'd better post them & pass them along before I forget about them!

This first one is the "Creative Writer" blog award. It comes to me from Michelle Schusterman, who, in case you didn't know it, is kick ass. I'm supposed to come up with six lies and one truth about myself without telling you which are which. This is actually harder than I thought. Sorry they're kind of lame.

1) I'm slightly allergic to pollen.

2) My favorite flavor of jelly/jam is grape.

3) I'm scared of house centipedes.

4) The first thing I ever decided I wanted to be when I grew up was a veterinarian.

5) I have owned three dogs.

6) My sister is two years younger than me.

7) I used to sleepwalk as a child.

And I'm passing this award on to Rebecca Rogers and Blue Lipstick Samurai (you get called by your blog name when you keep your real one anonymous! hehe), because I bet they can come up with some fun, creative lies.

The second one is the Happy 101 award, which I've received before, but I'm posting it anyway. Because it's pretty and has cupcakes on it. I'm not going to pass it on, though. (It's MY blog, I make the decisions!) This one comes from Kathy Bradey, who is awesome and somehow manages to keep up with how everyone's doing, despite being on the opposite side of the world from most of us!

And the third one is the A is for Awesome award, from Rebecca Rogers. She and her blog both rock, and if you haven't visited, you should!

This one, I'm passing along to Amanda Hannah and Kathy Bradey, because...well, the award is kind of self explanatory. They are awesome.

A Friday Five of obnoxious childhood writing phases

2010-05-14T08:53:00.007-04:00

So I know this is really not the point of the whole Friday Five thing but it makes it more fun (also my list could get really long if I don't give myself some sort of limitation).

I was writing away happily in my notebook the other night when I randomly started reminiscing about the strange writing phases I went through as a child, when I did things I thought made me Really Really Cool. So for your entertainment, here is a random sampling of the ones I remember best. And one note: none of my childhood writing was done on a computer, unless it was for school. I have piles and piles of notebooks to prove this. Yes, I still have (almost) all of them.

1) The doing strange things with letters phase. This is when I crossed my Zs in the middle. Wrote my As about six different ways. Decided it looked cool to write everything in capitals, or everything in lower case. Wrote in minuscule handwriting so I could fit as many words on a line as possible. Wrote in giant handwriting and made each letter take up two lines rather than one. Dotted my Is with hearts or circles. Used semi-colons wherever possible because I thought it made me look really grown up. Spelled my name 'K8lin' (seriously some of my longtime friends still write my name this way. I wrote it on EVERYTHING. Even homework, in 7th&8th grade. My teachers were very indulgent. Maybe because I was a good student.)

2) The end-of-line splitting phase. I hope to God at least some of you know what I mean by this. I mean when you're writing, and you have a multi-syllable word coming up toward the end of a line and the enormous thing is just not going to fit, so you can either move the whole word to the next line, or con-

serve space by splitting it with a dash. But I didn't follow the rules for this, oh no. I did it wherever possible. I mean seriously I would write words like t-

his. It confused even me, but I thought I was being the epitome of cool because I was fitti-

ng as many words as possible onto one line.

3) The rainbow phase. When I wrote in marker. And not only that, but I wrote using my entire package of markers. I'd do one color for a couple pages, then switch. Then switch again. You know what happens when you do this? You end up with a page that has dark blue on one side, and yellow on the other (I really did use yellow) and you can't read the yellow very easily because you can see the dark blue through the other side.

4) The elaborate cast of characters phase. So for this one, I went upstairs to get my notebook (labeled on the front "The Longest Story I've Ever Written!!!!!!!!" and all those exclamation marks have circles rather than dots at the bottom) which I knew had a character list in the front of it. There are about thirty character names listed, and then below that, it says "See green attitude ntebk for a complete character listing etc. (pg 41)" ...um, yes, I did write page numbers on all my notebooks, too. So I found the "green attitude" notebook. Two things about what I found there terrified me. a) my character list is two and a half pages long. b) my handwriting was as good then as it is now. At the end of the character list, there's a circled "68" so I'm going to trust twelve-year-old Kaitlin and assume there are sixty-eight characters. Oh dear God. Also, I'm feeling really brave, which is why you'll find a picture of the first page of the character list, even though I'm so embarrassed by it that I think I might actually be blushing. (Also featured: the rainbow phase, and crossed Zs). I am fully aware, by the way, that the ages of my cattle are very strange. What can I say? The genetically engineered kangaroos did it.

5) The let's describe gory things in way too much detail phase. I went through this phase several times. But when I was younger, I thought it made me pretty badass to have limbs being chopped off or people living in squalor (I liked to write really historically inaccurate historical fiction set in medieval times when I wasn't writing about cows) and describing it all for pages and pages so whoever read it would be truly, thoroughly disgusted. Even though I didn't like letting people read my not-for-school fiction. But I imagined it.

This was an embarrassingly fun way to finish off my week, and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

RTW: whose tweets would I follow?

2010-05-12T07:02:00.000-04:00

So this week's topic is kind of cool (and random). Which literary characters I would follow on twitter. This is trickier than it sounds! I immediately wanted to just pick all my favorite love interests (hello, Gale, Balthazar, and Brigan!) but I don't actually think any of them would tweet entertainingly. So after some serious thought, here's who I would most likely follow on twitter:

*Regina, from SOME GIRLS ARE by Courtney Summers. Because she would be snarkily hilarious.

*Nick, from THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan. Partly because at least one of my favorites from my hot guys list has to make it. But also because I'm sure if he were actually convinced to tweet, he would tweet sarcastic, inappropriate things.

*Fred and/or George, from HARRY POTTER by J.K. Rowling. Do I have to explain?

*Luna Lovegood, also from HARRY POTTER. Because she's so strange. I would love to hear her advice on how to protect myself from all the imaginary things she thinks are real. (What if some of those things ARE real??)

*Sophie, from HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. I laughed out loud about a million times while reading the book, so I can only imagine.

Who would YOU follow on twitter? Hop on over to YA Highway, where you can share and see what others said!

Teaser Tuesday

2010-05-11T07:20:00.004-04:00

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Quickly, because this is important

2010-05-06T12:30:00.003-04:00

I wanted to link to the Do the Write Thing for Nashville blog. They're auctioning off some super awesome stuff. And it's for a great cause!

RTW: Pictures

2010-05-05T08:59:00.011-04:00

This week's topic is pretty fun. Photos that inspire your WIP. To be completely honest, I generally tend to find images after I write something, because I prefer to find an image that matches the vision in my head rather than the other way around, but I have my little collection saved on my computer from my BFF, google images.

Unthawed

To sum it up roughly: YA speculative fiction set in a future ice age. Maybe the best setting I will ever have in a WIP. We've got some ice formations, some mammoths (so, they were only featured in one brief scene. Whatever!) and an ice tunnel.

So Dead

Really hard (for me) to find pictures for. It's not setting heavy, and I don't like to try to find pictures of my characters. I did find one picture that satisfied me, though.

New WIP

It has a title, but I'm only 95% set on it, so it's just WIP for now. Googling images actually helped me with this one because it has so many settings. Mainly forests and cliffs. I just picked a few faves, because I may or may not have about thirty related pictures on my computer...

Okay, so I would have to really stretch to relate that last one to my WIP (it's technically a treehouse!) but it's so amazing I am including it anyway. It looks better bigger, and you can see it here.

Visit YA Highway to see my co-bloggers' inspiring pictures, and to share your own!

Beauty and the Truth

2010-05-04T10:44:00.006-04:00

I was going to do Kate Hart's Two for Tuesday this week, but then this amazing post by Kristin Otts came up, so I changed my mind. She said at the end of her post:

So, lovely readers, I have a challenge for you. I challenge you to help me start a wave of positive body image - a celebration of pimples and glasses and freckles and curves.

Post a picture of yourself - sans makeup, fashionable clothing, or a fancy-schmancy hairstyle. A picture of yourself in your PJs, hugging your teddy bear, making a stupid face. A picture of YOU.

It won't be perfect, but that's the beautiful truth about people. None of us are.

And I am in love with this idea. I also am incapable of just posting pictures and shutting up, so here I go:

I'm a size three. I weigh less than 110 lbs. Sometimes I get the impression I'm supposed to be ashamed about this, but I'm not. This is the size I'm supposed to be, and even though I don't like every little piece, I've come to a place in my life where I like how I look.

People--women in particular, let's not lie to ourselves, girls--can be harsh. Can be judgmental. Can decide things about you from one little glance. A lot of it is insecurity, and it has to stop. We would all feel so much more beautiful if we stopped comparing and judging and tearing down those we are not like. A lot is said about the terrible things that are said/done to bigger girls, but words hurt people of all sizes and shapes and looks. People throw around phrases like "skinny bitches" to describe all thin people, as though your size automatically makes you a bad person. There's a facebook group called "curvy girls are better than skinny girls". I'm sure there are more like it, and probably some that go the reverse, too. Personally, I get a lot of questions about whether I eat, how much I eat, demands that I eat more. This rolls off me now, on a personal level, but it is something that digs at my soul. No one of any size should have to sit there at lunch in the cafeteria and wonder if they're eating too much/too little, or whether they can go to the bathroom alone, or if that will make their friends think they're puking out what they just ate.

Even the prettiest girls don't always feel pretty. No one should be made to feel too fat/too skinny/too perfect/too ugly. Everyone has the right to feel how they feel, and no one will be able to feel free of the weight of judgment until we all stop hating each other for stupid, stupid reasons.

There are men in the world who are so attracted to slender girls. There are also men who are so attracted to curvy girls. Whatever size your body is, whatever shaped nose you have, however weird you might think your toes are, own it.

It starts with one thing. Do you love your shoulders? Your nose? Your eyes? Focus on how great that one feature is, instead of focusing on what you hate about your other features. Eventually you'll start to love more and more things. Even if it's stupid things. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend has never given a second thought to what my elbows look like, but I like them, and that makes me feel good.

Everyone is unique. Own your uniqueness. Love it. Love yourself. That's where it all begins.

And here's me, in all my unmakeuped glory. I actually never wear makeup, so this is not unusual. But this was also pre-shower, so my hair is good and frightening. I took two, because I kind of look unhappy in the first one. (It's harder than I thought to take a picture of myself!)

Ooh! And look--two pictures of me=TWO FOR TUESDAY. In all seriousness, though, it is so important to a) respect yourself and b) respect others. Don't just assume your words won't hurt someone because according to your version of the universe, they have nothing to be hurt about. And don't let anyone tell you what you're supposed to look like. You need to make yourself happy. No one else.

New blog layout and an award

2010-05-02T20:55:00.003-04:00

Yep I spent much of my weekend (and Friday) redesigning my blog. I did adore my old template--it was gorgeous!--but I wanted something plainer and cleaner so reading the blog will be easy on the eyes. Plus, I feel a little proud because I did it myself this time--that's my blood, sweat, and tears you see in there.

...you don't see any of those things? Okay, so maybe there was no blood or tears, but it's pretty hot out so there is some sweat.

Anyhow, since I was posting, I decided it was high time I did an award post, since I got a blog award a couple weeks ago. The Superior Scribbler award, courtesy of the super awesome Jennifer.

Here are ~the rules~ that come with this award, and my random commentary, just because I feel like it:

*Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends. (I'm going to cheat, see below)

*Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award. (Done, and can I just say again, Jenn rocks.)

*Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award. (Whatever I'm supposed to link to where it says 'this post' was lost well before this got to me, so you'll just have to live without.)

*Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog. (Yay this part was easy!)

Okay, and now for who I'm going to give it to. I'm going to cheat, like I said above. I'm only going to give it to one person, because ALL the blogs I follow are awesome and I struggle when I have to try to pick too many.

Soooo I'm passing this award to Michelle Schusterman, because she and her blog rock (by the way if you're reading this on Sunday, you might not be able to see her blog right now. But soon, soon.) She is remodeling her blog this weekend too, so, you know, we are one.

RTW: Best book I've read this month

2010-04-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, confession: I have been a total reading slacker this month. I have done a few beta reads, and I did a lot of writing and editing, so I certainly haven't been idle with my time. But yeah. I'm a little bit ashamed of my lack of published book reading this month. And I'm going to kind of cheat. Just this weekend/the early part of this week, I reread LIRAEL by Garth Nix, keeping a close eye on how he does world building. It TOTALLY counts as a book I read this month, because I did read it, but it's probably not fair to the poor other (two) books I read this month because it's already one of my favorites.

But whatever. It rocks. It's actually the middle book of the ABHORSEN trilogy, but the first book, SABRIEL, could have stood on its own. The next two take place twenty-ish years later and go together. The awesome thing about LIRAEL is that everything about the book is so vivid, and it takes place in a completely different world than our own, but he doesn't need 700 pages to get the story out. It's just awesome. That's really all.

Everyone should read it ASAP. (Maybe start with SABRIEL, though, even though it's not strictly necessary that you do.)

So what was the best book YOU read this month? Wander over to YA Highway and share!

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-27T07:25:00.001-04:00

Thanks everyone for your comments!

Contest alert!

2010-04-26T11:08:00.002-04:00

This is convenient, because I've been wanting to fit in a congratulations on my blog to the lovely Veronica Roth for her super amazing book deal. I haven't read DIVERGENT, but I am one hundred percent certain she deserves it. I mean, she made the awesomesauce award, after all. The awesome is built right in! So anyway, if you haven't yet congratulated her...do it.

And while you're there, enter her contest, which has the most unique and awesome prizes EVER. And follow her blog--she writes great, thoughtful posts that more often than not make me laugh, too.

They're watching...

2010-04-19T11:10:00.002-04:00

I have a fear that this post may sound condescending, and that's not my intent. So I'm going to preface it by saying that I am not perfect either, and I just want everyone to be successful and I don't want anyone to shoot themselves in the foot. And that this post is definitely inspired by a lot of potential foot-shooting I've seen lately, which scares me.

The internet is kind of a new frontier for a lot of us, even if we've been using it for a long time. I advanced from AIM to forums sometime during college, and things like twitter are even newer than that. Forums are amazing for networking, friendships, so many other things. I've talked about it before, I won't go into it again. But there's also a downside. While you may feel like you're only chatting with your friends, anyone can see everything you type. Twitter, too (unless you're on private.)

I say this, even though it's been said many times before, because I worry sometimes. I lurk around Absolute Write a lot more than I actually post. I see the things people say. I read tweets, and can often figure out what they mean even if people think they're being cryptic.

And I'm not the only one.

Everyone knows (I think/hope) that agents visit Absolute Write. How could they not? At the very least, the Bewares and Background Checks subforum is going to come up for most any agent, if they google their own name, or that of their agency (I just googled 'Fineprint Literary Management' and AW is the first search result after Fineprint's website and blog). You don't think that once they find B&BC they might wander around the rest of the forum a bit? I would.

And on twitter. You know when an agent tweets something like 'omg this vampire ms is amazing' and you have a friend (or yourself) who has a vampire ms out with said agent, you start to excitedly speculate? You don't think agents can read into your 'cryptic' tweets of frustration just the same way? Sure, they're not necessarily following you. I'm certainly not being followed by every agent I've ever queried. But does that mean they might not look you up if they're curious? Do you want to scare them away prematurely because you come off as overdramatic, even if you aren't?

Not that you can't ever tweet or blog or discuss on forums how disappointed you are about rejection. No one likes rejection. It sucks, and it's one of those things that really never stops sucking. I don't think any human being on the planet could fault someone for feeling frustrated. But there's a difference between expressing frustration appropriately, and going into an all-out rage fest.

If you're feeling like doing a rage fest, there are appropriate places to do that--instant messaging programs, email to friends, talking to significant others or siblings or parents or whoever.

I think I've made my point. We all say dumb things sometimes, whether on purpose or by accident. (I mean, I say dumb things often.) But it is so so so important to remember that the internet is public. The whole world can see your words.

Make your impression a good one.

THE DUFF ARC giveaway!

2010-04-17T07:10:00.003-04:00

The very first ARC giveaway of THE DUFF by Kody Keplinger is happening at YA Highway. It's easy to enter, and you will love this book! It's easy to enter and so worth it to be able to say YOU were the first one to win a copy.

RTW: Best writing advice you've ever received

2010-04-14T09:09:00.003-04:00

So...I thought this was going to be an easy question to answer, but when I actually sat down to write this blog post, I realized, not so much.

I attribute most of my writerly growth to an accumulation of advice--the little things like "watch out for passive sentences" to the big things like "be patient"--and it's hard to pinpoint one piece of advice as The One.

But then I remembered that there is a quote from J. K. Rowling that I really like. She said: "I wrote about characters I was deeply interested in."

It sounds so simple, so obvious, but I've had WIPs fizzle out before because I just wasn't into them. And it's not the plot that's the problem. Plot can be made more exciting. Getting bored? Explode something. Lock your MC in a cellar. Have someone get slapped across the face. You know, whatever.

But if you don't care about what happens to your characters, no one else will either.

So I don't know if I can honestly say I'd use that same piece of advice as my "best ever" if I wrote this post again tomorrow, but it's good advice nonetheless.

Visit YA Highway to see what my fellow highwayers wrote, and to post a link of your own!

And as a side note, if you'd like to see some of the craziness we get up to, and maybe join in with a little crazy of your own, see Kristin Miller's post from yesterday about the wonder that is produce.

The YA community & more cover love

2010-04-12T09:24:00.004-04:00

First of all, Kody Keplinger unveiled the final cover for her book, THE DUFF, which will be out September 2010, and the cover is fabulous, so go check it out if you haven't yet.

And now. I gush a lot--maybe too much--about the writing community. The friendships (okay, when I typed that I couldn't help but hear Emilia sing it while making her adorable little heart hands) are so strong, it's almost unbelievable. Twenty, or even ten, years ago, no one would've thought you could bond so thoroughly with people you may or may not ever meet in person, but you really can.

So I wanted to blog about the YA community, because while other groups of writers might be just as close, it's the YA writers who I know best. And I think they're so amazing! Not only my group of lovelies who I blog with at YA Highway, but there are other cool groups like OPWFT and the YA Rebels. And people who hang out in the various YA chat threads on Absolute Write. And who tweet. They're all so amazing and hilarious and wonderful. I love talking to people on IM, on twitter, via email. Love beta reading for people who I didn't know very well and finding out that they're a super cool person. Reading everyone's blogs. And not to be left out are agents who rep YA (not that agents who rep other stuff are uncool, but, you know.) They're hilarious and amazing too. As are book bloggers.

I wish I could be BFFs with every last person in this wild little community we have, and of course that isn't possible, but I figured a post in tribute to everyone's awesomeness was certainly due. I have so much fun with all of you, and I hope you all continue to be the amazing, brilliant people that you are, because you all brighten my day. Every. Single. Day.

An adorable contest & other happiness.

2010-04-09T10:52:00.003-04:00

The lovely Becca Rogers is having a contest on her blog, and the prizes are pretty cool. Various artistic things, plus journals. Go enter it! You never know--you might win something.

Also today, Emilia Plater made an epic video about her love of the publishing industry in honor of No Whining Week (started by Colleen Lindsay--#nww on twitter). And in doing so, she pretty much embodies what's most awesome about the publishing industry: the people. If you haven't watched it, you need to ASAP.

That's all. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

RTW: No Whining

2010-04-07T08:46:00.002-04:00

This week's topic is inspired by Colleen Lindsay's no whining week on twitter. So I am going to write some good things about the publishing industry. Visit YA Highway to post your link, and to see what my lovely amazing co-bloggers had to say!

So what is awesome about publishing?

1) It has given me something to strive for. I'm a SAHM, which is a full-time job in itself, as I'm sure many of you know. But writing has always been that thing I do instead of watching TV--or while watching TV. It's honestly gotten a lot more fun (about 97% of the time, anyway) since I decided I wanted to work toward getting published. Obviously I'm not there yet, but it's still a blast.

2) The people. Oh my God have I met some amazing people in or related to the publishing industry. Just visit Absolute Write on any given day--the YA subforum in particular--and you'll see. I won't be dramatic and sappy, but I don't know where I would be if it weren't for the wonderful people I met there. And that includes every single one of the YA Highway ladies, who go so far past being people I blog with. And outside of writers, there are so many agents and other publishing people who are also just genuinely awesome people.

3) Books!! There are books out there for everyone. And books rock.

I could probably say more loving things about the publishing industry, but I might start to ramble. So: the end!

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-06T12:40:00.003-04:00

Thanks everyone who commented :) I'll leave the bottom non-teaser part up, though, because the sentiment still stands:

congrats to the multitude of people who I adore who have gotten agented lately! And good luck to the wonderful amazing people who are on submission right now. I won't list names for fear of leaving someone out, but I can't wait until all of your amazing books are on shelves!

Dear immune system: I love you

2010-04-03T13:08:00.003-04:00

What? The title of this post doesn't seem to have anything to do with writing? That's because...it doesn't. But every time I get (and recover from) a cold or other illness, I'm reminded of how great my immune system is.

And why is my immune system so great, you might wonder? Well, I'm sure it's partly to do with genetics and luck (yes, luck.) But I owe significant thanks to some large furry beasts called cows. (Ok, so that picture on the left there is a water buffalo. In Italy. But isn't it cute?? I'm also in Italy on the right. I just didn't have any pictures of my beautiful Jerseys on the computer!)

I think the cows can probably share credit with chickens and cats and horses and dogs and slimy things I found in the pond. But growing up on a farm around the animals and the dirt and the nature was very good for my body. It had to build up an immunity to all sorts of strange things.

The point of me blogging about this? Partly because I came across the awesome picture of myself patting the even more awesome cow and wanted to use it somewhere. But mostly because I am thankful for where I grew up. But just because other people might not have grown up on a farm like me doesn't mean it's too late! Go outside. Pet an animal. Play in the mud.

Enjoy nature, just because it rocks.

RTW: If writing made me rich

2010-03-31T13:48:00.004-04:00

Yep, this week's topic asks what I would do if I became megarich off my writing. Beware, my dreams are pretty simple.

1) I'd take care of the boring stuff. Paying off the rest of my student loans, putting money away for Michael's college education, put a good chunk away for retirement (or more than a good chunk, depending on just how rich I am.)

2) A new car. This is a priority. I hate our car. I don't need anything too fancy. My ideal car costs around $40,000--a Chrysler 300c. (I would also like a Bentley but I'm not sure I'd ever be alright with spending that much on a car...) Maybe I would let my boyfriend get a new car too (or a 4-wheeler or snowmobile at the very least). I would definitely pay off the one we have now, regardless.

3) A house! Okay, maybe that picture is a little fancier than what I'd want/need (although I wouldn't say no...). Probably something more like this. We definitely want a log home, and I would buy a pretty big plot of land if I had the money to. Because I would like to have a couple horses, definitely chickens. Maybe more. It would depend on the land and on the money.

4) I'd take a couple of good vacations. I really want to visit Rome again, and probably I would let my boyfriend choose somewhere he wanted to go, too.

5) Give something to my parents. They've spent a lot of money on me over the years. And to charities that matter to me and to my boyfriend.

The end.

What would you spend your money on? Wander to YA Highway and share, or just read what other people said!

Road Trip Wednesday: Career

2010-03-24T08:30:00.002-04:00

This week's topic is: which author's career would you most like to emulate?

This is a really hard topic for me, because I waffled around a lot when thinking about it. First, I narrowed it down by thinking, who don't I want to be?

I started with the one-hit wonders. They might come out with more books, but for now, that's exactly what they are. J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. I love Harry Potter as much as the next girl, but I don't want to be either of these authors (or others in their category--Dan Brown probably counts too) because they have such an intense uphill battle the next time they write something. I would not want to be under this immense pressure, because for many fans, nothing either author writes will ever live up to their debuts. I don't want that for myself--even if I thought it was possible.

Then I decided there's also another type of author I don't want to be: the branded superstar. James Patterson, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, etc. These people have had long, successful careers, but I don't want a career that closes me--for the most part--into one genre. (I guess you could argue that YA is a genre, but there's a lot of room within it).

So then I thought, who do I want to be? I couldn't really settle on any one person who I was fully satisfied with wanting to emulate, but I decided to settle on Garth Nix as a rough example. He has had a long, successful career, and I feel confident when I pick out one of his books from the store that I will enjoy it. That's sort of how I would like to eventually (and ideally) be. Quietly successful, putting out books regularly but not so quickly that they all start blending into each other.

What about you? Wander to YA Highway to see what others have said, and to post your own link!

Two for Tuesday

2010-03-23T13:23:00.004-04:00

The lovely Kate Hart started this last week, for those of us who aren't doing teaser Tuesday for one reason or another, and it seemed fun. All you have to do is post two of anything that are somehow related.

In my epic coolness, I chose: awesome castles. I like castles and ruins and other such things. I think Kate intended for these to be cooler/more exciting but I...don't care. heh.

This first one is, of course, "Dracula's castle". Its actual name is Bran Castle, and it's located in Romania. I'm not sure why this one was the one to get the label of Dracula's castle, because it's not the only one linked to the legend (and Bram Stoker probably knew nothing of any of these castles). The common theme seems to be having some relation to Vlad the Impaler, the totally disturbing dude (do I need to explain why, or does his name explain it?) who supposedly inspired the Dracula character. Vlad likely used this castle when he was doing his evil deeds in Transylvania. Hence its reputation.

The other castle is nowhere near so cool (in my opinion), but it looks cool. This castle is called Eilean Donan, and it's in Scotland. It's on a little island and connected to the mainland by a footbridge! (I find this cool. Be quiet, if you don't.) I purposely chose the creepiest looking picture I found--it's actually not creepy looking at all. Apparently it gets used in movies a lot, and according to a random website I found, you can rent it on a day-by-day basis. (Anyone want to go in on it with me?)

There you have it, my two for Tuesday.

The awesomesauce award

2010-03-22T10:35:00.002-04:00

Vee Roth is pretty awesomesauce herself, and for some reason, she decided I was worthy of this super adorable award she created. Here are her rules for passing this puppy on to others:

"Rules if You Get Sauced: (Yes, I amuse myself.) Basically: define awesome, and then name 8 people you think fit that definition. You don't have to pass the award on if you don't want to. This is really just for my own amusement.

Awesomesauce: the quality of being awesome with ease, ie: just as spaghetti sauce flows easily from the jar, so does the awesome flow easily from them.

Awesome: Awesome, in this case, means one of two things (or both):
A. They make me choke on whatever I'm eating on a regular basis because they're so freaking funny.
B. They generally exude an air of cleverness, wackiness, or badassry."

...So. I thought long and hard about my eight. And here they are:

1) Lee: Because I swear she's secretly a teen. And because she's always up around the same time as me in the morning, so I have someone to talk to while all the west coasties are still curled up in their little beds. Her website also has one of the coolest looking banners I've ever seen.

2) Vee: That's right. I gave her back the award she created. I dare you to tell me I can't! She cracks me up on twitter and her blog is hilarious, and I remember her being one of our earliest participants in YA Highway's Roadtrip Wednesday. Which, let's face it, makes her pure, undiluted awesome. (Also I intentionally put Lee and Vee in a row because I like how they rhyme.)

3) Leah: Her blog is pretty stellar, but more importantly, she watches Legend of the Seeker. And tweets about it. I feel justified in my obsession with that show since I know someone else shares it!

4) Jamie: Her blog posts make me giggle, but they're helpful, too! Also, she deserves to be awesomesauced just for having blogged once about the horror that is men in skinny jeans (seriously, ew, boys. Don't do this.)

5) Michelle: There are a lot of reasons Michelle is awesome. I won't list them all, because I'm scared it will go to her head...but really. She does so many cool things! Just look at her blog, and you will see. Plus, you will also see her way too modest announcement that she's just landed a fantastic agent for her totally incredible book.

6) Kathy: This is a girl who, hardly knowing me at all, took the great brave leap and volunteered to beta my manuscript. That's right, volunteered. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

7) Leila: Because she always manages somehow to be both hilarious and eloquent at the same time. She's really going to have to explain to me how she does this.

8) Sage: She is a mod at AW, with the dangerous task of having to keep an eye on the ever-hormonal young adult board. And she does it really well. I also admire her perseverance, and I love how honest and straightforward her blog is.

So there you have it, my eight! Bask in your awesomeness, lovelies :)

Beta love and books

2010-03-15T06:52:00.006-04:00

I'm going to start with books. Or a book, to be more accurate.

An order from Amazon came in last Wednesday, and I finished HOURGLASS by Claudia Gray on Friday. It's the third book in a series, so obviously I'm not going to say too much. Most anything I wrote would probably contain spoilers, but I am still thinking about it so obviously this book needs to be blogged about. So a couple of spoiler-free comments:

1) I fully expected to love this book. I loved the first two, so it only makes sense that I would. But I did not expect to think it was the best of the three. I thought STARGAZER was so great that I didn't figure this one could top it, but it surprised me and made me feel things, and that was awesome.

2) I read the first two books back in June or so of last year, and since it'd been so many months, I was sort of starting to forget how awesome Balthazar was. He and Gale (THE HUNGER GAMES) are pretty much tied at the top of my what fictional character I would most like to meet in real life list. I could say more things but I don't think I need to scare anyone.

Ok that's really all I've got for non-spoilery, so moving on...

I also really appreciate and adore everyone who read/is reading SO DEAD (finally! A permanent title, thanks to Michelle and her brainstorming skills) for me. So...

....you ladies rule!

Present tense

2010-03-13T12:20:00.003-05:00

I've thought a lot about present tense lately. Mainly because I've been completely immersed in editing my WIP--which finally has a permanent title: SO DEAD (thanks to brainstorming from super awesome Michelle)--and it's written in present tense. I'm currently reading WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson, which is in present tense. Not to mention recent beta reads, and other books I've read since the start of the year.

But what spurred me to actually want to blog about it was keeping a loose eye on some of the entries in this month's Secret Agent contest on Miss Snark's First Victim. Just because I'm a curious stalker like that. Anyway, I noticed some comments that deemed a particular passage unlikeable for the pure fact that it was written in present tense. And it's not like it's the first time I've seen that attitude toward present tense. Honestly, I used to think I didn't like present tense, although this attitude went promptly out the window when I started actually reading things in present tense.

What I saw, though, that interested me was this questioning as to why a person 'needs' to write something in present tense. I've seen this question come up on Absolute Write, too. And it's a strange question, to me, for writers to be asking. Like asking why it 'needs' to be in past tense, or first person, or third person. It is what it is. But just for the sake of it, here is why I decided to write in present tense:

I actually started this WIP in past tense. I really never envisioned myself being able to write present tense very well. Figured I would just confuse the hell out of myself. The first chapter was in past tense, but something just wasn't quite right. So I thought, what the hell, I may as well try it, and switched over, and it just...worked.

With present tense, there's sort of an immediacy that the story really needed. I'm not saying you can't create an immediacy with past tense, because you can. But present tense is Happening Right Now, and sometimes a story is just meant to be told that way.

So I guess my hope is that people will consider the merits of a particular style, even if they, personally, aren't into it. Not just because I wrote a present tense story and want people to like it (which, obviously, I do) but because if you write off present tense as a whole, you are missing a TON of amazing stories.

RTW: Favorite reading/writing sites

2010-03-10T08:11:00.004-05:00

This topic is a little tricky because there are a lot lot lot of sites/blogs I find useful/awesome for one reason or another, but here are some particular faves:

Goodreads. This counts, right? It's pretty much pure awesome. I mean, I get to see what other people are reading, and say, "oh yeah! I wanted to read that!" and then put it on my to-read list, and it's just so handy. I'm not the best at keeping up with it all the time, but it's really fun, and I love seeing other people's reviews and such, too.

Absolute Write. Admittedly I've become more of a lurker than a poster, but seriously. I don't think there's a writing related question you can't find the answer to on this forum. There's even a thread about whether you slouch or sit up straight when you write. I'm telling you. Everything.

Melissa Marr's blog. She answers questions about her books, writing, whatever people ask. And it's both interesting and informative.

Kristin Nelson's blog. This was the very first agent blog I ever stumbled across. She covers a wealth of topics, and she doesn't mince words.

Janice Hardy's blog. She blogs so often and it is always interesting and helpful. And sometimes makes me laugh.

The Rejectionist. Purely for the entertainment value. Hilarious.

What are your favorite sites? Share your links at YA Highway.

Others' success doesn't equal your failure

2010-03-09T08:24:00.003-05:00

Alright, so yeah. I know it's Tuesday and everyone else will be blogging their lovely teasers, but not me today!

YA is thriving right now. I think everyone pretty much knows that, but in case you need proof, there's the fact that Harper Teen was willing to give a seven figure advance to a debut YA trilogy. Things like this should be an awesome thing, for those of us who love reading--and writing--YA.

But sometimes, I think we forget that because someone else got something--be it an agent, a book deal, or even a crazy scary huge advance--it doesn't mean we won't get it too. You can't waste all your time seething at others for being successful. It doesn't benefit you. That hate doesn't make your book better (in fact, it's quite possible it makes it worse...) Does it really make you feel better to make snarky comments about what a book you haven't read will 'probably' be like, based solely on your opinion that all popular books suck? It shouldn't. Because they don't.

If you feel you deserve it as much--or more--than whoever has it, then prove it. Work hard. Write an amazing book. Won't successes of your own feel better than moaning about the successes of others?

This blog post is probably crossing into a territory where it sounds like a rant, but it's not, actually. More like tough love.

Be excited, because each success only helps YA thrive more. And isn't that really in all of our best interests?

Blog awards

2010-03-05T08:50:00.005-05:00

It's easier to keep track of them if I don't lazily forget I received blog awards until months later, so...

The sunshine award came to me from three different places: Madeline-Rose, Kathy Bradey, and Kody Keplinger. These lovely ladies are little rays of sunshine themselves!

The rules of this award:

1. Put the logo within your post or on your sidebar.

2. Share the love and pass the award to 12 other bloggers.

3. Link the nominees inside of your post.

4. Comment on the nominees' blogs to let them know you've just given them props. :)

5. Give a shout-out to the person who nominated, and post a link to his/her blog as well.

The whole awarding it to twelve other bloggers thing is just so not happening. I just don't like awarding that many all at once. So I'm going to take off the ten and do two...

1) Medeia Sharif because her blog actually is bright and happy looking.

2) Veronique Pettingill because look at that blog! It's freaking gorgeous and I feel like I should hire her if I ever make a website.

This is the happy 101 award, from Medeia Sharif. I am a fan of this award, because with it, I'm supposed to share things that make me happy. Good way to start out a Friday!

1) My family--baby, boyfriend, parents, sister, and extended.

2) My meese! They always brighten my day.

3) My dog. Hell, all dogs.

4) The smell of fresh rain.

5) Writing.

6) Reading--and books in general.

7) Beating my boyfriend at Mario Kart (just kidding...kind of).

8) Baked goods. Especially cake.

9) Forests.

10) Farm animals.

11) Good news. And it doesn't even have to be my good news.

That's probably enough. Even though there are obviously billions more things that make me happy than those! So I'm going to be consistent and give this to two people as well:

1) Amanda Hannah because she is my smiley little ray of awesomeness, and she lets me stroke her characters without getting (too) creeped out.

2) Corrine Jackson because her blog is wicked cool and she's super hilarious.

RTW: Procrastination

2010-03-03T07:59:00.001-05:00

In non-procrastinator form, I'm actually writing this post a week in advance.

But normally, I am all about the procrastination. It's one of my best, and most practiced, skills. In college, I used to write essays and study for exams at the last possible moment. The last semester I was there, a friend and I made a habit of writing our papers for a class we had together the day they were due, and walking up to turn them in at five (that particular teacher always cancelled class the day a paper was due. It's like she knew exactly how college students' minds work.) We'd check in with each other every hour (or sometimes half hour) and if we were making good progress, we'd reward ourselves with a snack or an episode of Friends or something.

Now, most of my procrastination is done using the internet. It's actually kind of scary how much time can just slip past while I fiddle around on twitter, Facebook, gmail, blogs and Absolute Write. People just have so much to say, and I love reading it all.

Hours can also be wasted on Wikipedia. I mean, you look up a fact about one species of dinosaur, and suddenly you're skipping around to pages about eighty-six other species of dinosaurs, and then oh but what about mammoths and then wait--how big is an elephant compared to a mammoth? Have to wiki that. (sidenote: I like that spell check doesn't underline 'wiki'.) And it just spirals out of control.

And, of course, I'm one of the millions who've been sucked into Farmville and a couple other Zynga games on Facebook. Gotta harvest those crops, can't let them whither!

My boyfriend and I just got a Nintendo Wii a couple weeks ago, which has been a total wish fulfillment experience. I never had any gaming console when I was a kid, but my cousins did. I didn't get to play all that much, and I was always envious because it looked so fun. It was, of course, necessary for us to buy the N64 version of Mario Kart from their little Wii points store thing, so between that, Wii Sports Resort, and Super Mario, yeah, there's some distraction.

I also get completely sidetracked from life if I'm reading a book I'm really into. Be it beta reading or an actual published book. Just a couple weeks ago, I beta read something that I could not. stop reading. and neglected my poor boyfriend entirely for a couple days.

Those are all things that distract me from writing or doing household chores, but writing can also be a form of procrastination in itself. Dishes need to be done? But nooo, I'm only, like, two pages away from finishing this chapter! And if I don't write it while the baby is napping, I'll never get it done. (This is one of many excuses to procrastinate dish washing, my least favorite task.)

So those are some of my forms of procrastination. How about you? How do you procrastinate?

Don't forget to stop by YA Highway to link your post and read what everyone else has to say!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss, and cover love for Kirsten

2010-03-02T18:46:00.003-05:00

So first of all, how can I not blog about Dr. Seuss's birthday? I loved his books as a kid, I love reading them now to my kid. My boyfriend has a small obsession with Horton Hears a Who (he made me buy the movie!) All in all, we're a Dr. Seuss loving family. As all families should be! I learned some good life lessons from those books!

Fellow YA Highway blogger Kate Hart posted a way better homage than I ever could, so go there now! (I totally want that purse...)

Second, and just as importantly, Kirsten Hubbard got to share something truly awesome with the world yesterday: the cover of her March 2011 debut, Like Mandarin. And it's gorgeous! This book has a happy little place in my heart, because Kirsten was the first of my writerly friends to get her book deal, and I can't wait until I can walk into my local bookstore and see this amazing cover--containing an even more amazing book--on shelves.

See you all tomorrow for Roadtrip Wednesday!

Reading in 2010

2010-02-28T14:08:00.002-05:00

So I am in the midst of waiting for my first ever made from scratch brownies to cook, and I decided blogging might be a good way to pass the time. I've been feeling a little like a blog slacker lately.

The other day, I was perusing the lovely blog of Kate Hart, and I noticed her 100 book challenge list on the side. Now I'm not brave enough to do the 100 book challenge, because I think it might take the fun out of reading for me, with all the pressure! (Although I think it's a cool idea. And one day, maybe.) But what's cool about Kate's list is, it doesn't just include published books, but beta reads too (mine included!)

After I saw it, I started to wonder how many books I read a year, if I include beta reads. So I've decided to keep track of how many books I read in 2010, and at the end of the year, I'll share my stats. Because I find that sort of thing interesting.

Not sure this post quite counts as unslacking, but good enough!

By the way, this took me so long to write--because of distractions, not slow typing--that my brownies came out of the oven. They look and smell delicious, so I'm thinking success?

RTW: If I could be any character...

2010-02-24T07:28:00.004-05:00

This week's Roadtrip Wednesday question is: if I could be any character in a book, who would I be?

This is harder than I originally anticipated. Leila's post on the subject kind of exemplifies the process that went on my brain when I was trying to decide.

I think I've settled on Fire, from Fire by Kristin Cashore. It would probably suck a lot to have men chasing her around all the time, and monsters trying to kill her. But she has really cool hair. Wouldn't it be fun to have bright hair that looked good, not fake? And more importantly: she has Brigan.

My slight love of Brigan is second only to my less slight love of Gale in The Hunger Games, and let's face it: being Katniss would really suck.

Fire also does lots of interesting things. I think it would be cool to live in her high fantasy world with castles and epic battles and all that fun stuff.

So that's my kind of short, kind of lame answer. Want to see some others? Visit YA Highway to see what my co-bloggers said, and to link your own!

Teaser Tuesday

2010-02-23T06:56:00.005-05:00

Thanks for the comments everyone!

RTW: my favorite place to read and/or write

2010-02-17T06:27:00.000-05:00

My bed.

It's snuggly and warm and convenient. I do probably about 90% of my (non-beta) reading there, and a fair amount of writing, too. I do a lot of rough drafting and outlining in longhand, so I can do it wherever.

Reading and/or writing before bed has been a going to sleep ritual for me since I was a teeny little thing. From grade school upward, masses of notebooks and regular books were stacked beside my bed, so I guess it's kind of always been my favorite place to write.

But I do a lot of writing at my computer desk too (for obvious reasons) so I've grown fond of writing there too.

Guess I'm not all that exciting, but there you go.

What's your favorite place to write? Go to YA Highway to see what others have said, and link your post too!

Blog awards

2010-02-13T07:26:00.007-05:00

I've been kind of hoarding these. Not intentionally, I just never remember to post about them. So now I have three to post about and pass along.

First is the Honest Scrap award. It came to me from both Kristin Miller and Becca Rogers ...It's from December, but we'll try to forget about that. For this one, I'm apparently supposed to share some true things about myself, so let's see. I'll try not to be boring.

1) I had the best childhood ever. No, seriously. I grew up on a farm, had a mom who stayed home until I was in first grade, a younger sister, and three boy cousins who were always over at our house, so it was kind of like having three extra (awesome) siblings and an extra mom--in a good way. There were lots of fields, lots of animals, lots of woods, lots of places to play.

2) My house (well, now, my parents' house since I don't still live there) was built by an ancestor of mine in 1790, and hasn't left the family since. It was the first built in the town (long before it was a town!)

3) I like to eat saltines and chocolate chips as a snack sometimes. It sounds gross, but it's so good.

4) I'm only just learning to cook without burning everything. It's actually more fun than it looks.

5) I'm very grandmotherly when it comes to cell phones. I get confused when there are two many buttons. I don't want one that does too much, because I get overwhelmed, even though I don't struggle with any other technology.

6) I (sometimes literally) cringe when I see a misused 'to/too/two'. Also, 'these/those ones', which is technically so incorrect, but has sort of found its way into the mainstream and seems to be accepted now.

Those are all the random facts I can think of at the moment. So I'm going to pass this along to three people.

-Rachele Alpine

-Amna

-Medeia Sharif

On to the next award. The Humane Award, from Kristin Miller. Also in December. I'm glad she thinks I'm humane. That can only be a good thing, right?

The three people I'm passing this one along to:

-Kirsten Hubbard

-Emilia Plater

-Veronique Pettingill

And the groovy blog award, from Medeia Sharif. I am quite a fan of the fact that my blog could be considered groovy.

The three people who're getting this one:

-Kate Hart: Because, well, you just have to take one glance at her crazy awesome blog to see why it's groovy.

-Kristin Miller's food blog: Because there is nothing groovier than food. She takes beautiful pictures of her awesome creations, and it makes me drool a little.

-Kristin Otts: Because she did some really hilarious things with Bella and Edward dolls (I made that sound disturbing. Really, you need to see her posts, you will laugh so very hard). And she posts interesting, insightful things regularly.

(I felt like I should explain my choices for those groovy blogs rather than just link them!)

So...there. I'm caught up. Thanks to the lovely wonderful awesome people who awarded me these!!

RTW: Favorite moment of affection in YA

2010-02-10T08:25:00.003-05:00

This was actually a really hard topic for me. Because it wasn't limited to romantic affection. There are so many great moments of affection in YA--between parents and children, siblings, friends, lovers, etc. But in the end, my favorite was a romantic one.

This is from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, the third book of the His Dark Materials trilogy. If you haven't read it...you should. Immediately. I don't think this is a very spoilery quote, but if you're worried, maybe skip it. Can't say I didn't warn you! It's from very, very near the end, and may or may not make sense if you haven't at least read The Golden Compass. Also, this scene makes me cry every time I read the book--not for this piece, but for other, sadder things. (Also I could have quoted a really longggg piece, but I just did the end of the scene.)

Will put his hand on hers. A new mood had taken hold of him, and he felt resolute and peaceful. Knowing exactly what he was doing and exactly what it would mean, he moved his hand from Lyra's wrist and stroked the red-gold fur of her daemon.
Lyra gasped. But her surprise was mixed with a pleasure so like the joy that flooded through her when she had put the fruit to his lips that she couldn't protest, because she was breathless. With a racing heart she responded in the same way: she put her hand on the silky warmth of Will's daemon, and as her fingers tightened in the fur, she knew that Will was feeling exactly what she was.
And she knew, too, that neither daemon would change now, having felt a lover's hands on them. These were their shapes for life: they would want no other.
So, wondering whether any lovers before them had made this blissful discovery, they lay together as the earth turned slowly and the moon and stars blazed above them.

So mainly why I love this: because combined with the whole scene, it's bittersweet--sad and happy. Also, as a couple, they are pretty much the embodiment of everything that's amazing about first love. And Will was my first literary love, back in the day when I was closer to his age (no one try to argue with me that this book is MG because of their ages! It is so not.)

It's just sweet, and subtly written. Sometimes, the best love isn't in-your-face love.

So what's your favorite moment of affection in a YA novel? Head on over to YA Highway to see what my wonderful co-bloggers said, and post a link to your own!

NYC publishing tips: the movie...on YA Highway!

2010-02-04T20:14:00.001-05:00

This is pretty much the best video ever made. Go to YA Highway right now and watch!