Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Frannie doesn’t understand why the new guy in her school affects her so strongly, but she can’t help but be drawn to Luc. He’s come for a very specific purpose, though: he’s a demon sent to tag Frannie’s soul for Hell. Because Frannie has powers she doesn’t yet understand, Heaven and Hell are fighting for her soul. But as Luc and the angel sent to tag her for Heaven begin to fall for Frannie, the fight for her soul becomes much more complicated.

This book was a complete, drop everything and sit down page-turner. The story is told in the alternating viewpoints of Frannie and Luc, which I loved. Luc is such a complex character that trying to understand him from only Frannie’s POV would have made him seem strange and flat. The romance in the book is steamy fun, and though supporting characters weren’t all that memorable, the core characters kept me hooked. I loved Frannie’s stubborn personality and her awareness of her own flaws. Luc’s struggle to reconcile his feelings for Frannie and the job he was sent to do made me empathize with and ultimately adore him. I was absolutely addicted to this book, and I highly recommend it. Is there going to be a sequel? Because I can’t wait.

Characters in Control

I’ve finished my character profiles for the new WiP (finally!), and it’s been fascinating to really get to know my characters. I want to show that teenage girls are not easy to peg down, that they have several facets to their personality, because that’s how all the girls I knew in high school were. So I’ve set out consciously to make the four main girls in the Birdie WiP multifaceted, but it’s starting to seem like they’re the ones in control. The popular, pretty girl revealed that she loves hunting and can change a car tire, for example. The athletic girl is more interested in making a career out of her photography obsession. They’re all complicated and wonderful, and it’s like I’m not even trying.

My outline, of course, is in desperate need of alteration now that I’ve gotten to know these girls a bit better. They’re changing and shifting the plot in directions I hadn’t thought of before. How strange is it to be writing a novel and feel like you’re not in control? I’m absolutely loving this. Does this happen to anyone else?

Goals!

Yay! I managed to get some work done in New York along with having a fabulous time, so I met my goal of writing 10,000 words on the Birdie WiP. I’m finally getting a better sense of her voice: for some reason, she’s been harder to pin down than my other MCs. My goal this week is pretty simple, too:

-Write 15,000 words. I want to keep going on this manuscript, because from my outline, it seems like it’s going to be a fairly long one. As I write, I want to make sure all of my characters are staying the way I’ve planned them out to be. I’ve discovered that my characters often change as I write them. That’s fine by me: I think my characters are often better that way. But if they change, I need to update their character profile so that I can keep everything straight. This book is going to be so organized, you have no idea!

Anyone else have any goals this week, writing-related or otherwise? Does anyone else write characters who turn out completely different from who you thought they’d be?

Foggy Beaches and Stolen Sleep

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Fog on the beach. I went to L.A. last weekend, and I was just astounded by how foggy the beach got in the evenings. It was the most beautiful, peaceful, mysterious thing I had ever seen.


2. College football games! The reason for going to L.A. was to see the University of Houston Cougars take on the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. The Cougars lost pretty tremendously, but it was still amazing to see.

3. Koala bears. I know they’re supposed to be mean, but they’re just so cute! They look perfectly huggable.

4. Waking up thinking my alarm is going to go off soon only to realize that I have hours of sleep left. Best. Feeling. Ever.

5. Crossing things off my to-do list. So satisfying.

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?

The Great Blogging Experiment: Writing Compelling Characters

Instead of posting my five random thoughts today (my brain is so scattered right now that those thoughts would be all over the place anyway), I’m taking part in a blogfest designed by Elana Johnson, Jennifer Daiker, and Alex J. Cavanaugh . Called the Great Blogging Experiment, it entails a ton of bloggers posting on the same topic: writing compelling characters (CLICK HERE for full details and the list of bloggers participating).

So, what makes a character compelling to me? So, so many things, but five main reasons stand out: empathy, voice, actions, quirks, and growth. I’m focusing on main characters in my discussion of this, but it can apply to secondary characters and even antagonists as well.

-Empathy: A character does not have to be likeable, in my opinion. There are plenty of books where I think I would never be friends with the main character in real life. But I need to feel some empathy for him/her (let’s just go with “her” from here on out), and to feel that, I need to understand her motivations. If I understand where a character is coming from, I’m more likely to root for that character, whether I like her or not.

-Voice: The voice of a character is what draws me in. It’s why I love first person narration, though dialogue can establish voice just as well. It has to be unique and real.

-Actions: The actions of a character always need to be believable, even if they make you want to reach into the book and shake the character. Actually, I consider that the sign of a compelling character: when I’m so invested that I want to scream at her.

-Quirks: Everyone has quirks, even if they try to keep them a secret. I need to know what makes that character different from everyone else.

-Growth: Possibly the most important aspect, in my opinion, especially for main characters. A weak character cannot stay weak the whole novel, for example: somewhere along the line, she has to find her strength, or there’s no reason for me to be interested in her struggle.

So, there you have it! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Evie has spent most of her adolescence in the care of the International Paranormal Containment Agency, where she’s learned to track down rogue paranormals and subdue them. But she wishes for a real, teenage life, the kind she watches on television with her mermaid best friend. When paranormal creatures begin showing up dead, a strange new paranormal gets captured, and Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend starts acting more menacing, Evie’s world is thrown upside down, and everything she thought she knew about herself is thrown into question.

The main thing that drew me into this book was the voice. Evie is such an original character with a voice to match. Despite all the dire situations around her, she has a light, quirky sense of humor that makes all of it fun. She has depth, as well: her longing for a normal life and for a family made her a compelling and empathetic character. The plot hooked me, too: I can’t wait to figure out more about Evie’s purpose. I just have to wait for the sequel now.

Writing Rituals

I’ve developed a new habit: writing in coffee shops. It’s becoming the only way I get anything done. I get a coffee or a cappuccino and start writing, and before I know it, I’ve finished my word quota for the day in two hours. I don’t know why I can’t be as productive at home, but there’s something about sitting at a real table with a cup of coffee and people working all around me that makes me write nonstop. I come up with new plot twists and figure out more about my characters at a rate that’s ridiculously faster than when I’m sitting at home.

I think it’s about the lack of distractions. I use the Internet as little as possible when I’m at the coffee shop because I want to save my laptop battery as long as possible, so there’s no time checking emails or any of the other little distracting things that the Internet holds. It’s also about the atmosphere: with everyone usually busy on their laptops, I’m more encouraged to be busy on mine instead of staring out the window wondering what I should make for lunch or what I should do that night.

As long as it’s working so well, I’m making it my new ritual. I’m going to make myself get dressed every day I’m free and head to one of the awesome new coffeeshops I’ve found. I’m going to order a mug of coffee and nurse it for hours. I’m going to open up Microsoft Word and focus on it completely for as long as I can.

Does anyone else have any tried and true writing rituals?

Goals!

This week, I managed to meet one of my goals for the Birdie WiP: I finished the character profiles! At least for now. I’m sure I’ll be adding and changing details as I continue writing, but for now, they’re done. I didn’t get to write as much this week as I wanted to—I only wrote 5,000 words instead of 10,000—and this week looks like it’s going to be a busy one also, so I’m making my goals light.

-Write 10,000 words. Focus on finding Birdie’s voice and on the secondary characters. Right now, some of my characters are too similar, which makes it confusing to follow. But with my shiny new character profiles, I think I can fix that problem.

That’s it! I’m heading up to New York this week to visit friends from college, and so while there probably won’t be too much writing time, I am planning to spend some time in my favorite coffeeshops, so hopefully I can be super productive and get those 10,000 words done!

Anyone else have any goals this week, writing-related or otherwise?

Artsy Photos and Nectarines

Five things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Taking pseudo-artsy photos. This is the boardwalk in Charleston, SC—I couldn’t resist.

2. Um, okay, confession: Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift makes me happy. I pretty much love all of her songs.

3. Yellow rooms. They’re always so bright and cheery.

4. Cheesecake. Oooh, turtle cheesecake. Basically, any kind of cheesecake makes me happy.

5. Nectarines. All the good peach taste without the fuzz--what will they think of next?

Happy Monday! Anything making you happy this week?

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I’m dreaming of Savannah these days. The moss-covered trees, the beautiful old houses filled with character, the parks on every corner. That whole spooky, quirky atmosphere.


2. Tim Riggins cut his hair! It’s like a national tragedy or something. It’s for a new role, I guess, but he looks so different! (If you don't watch Friday Night Lights, then this probably means nothing to you, but it's a BIG DEAL.)

3. I had to sell my desk when I moved from Boston, so I’m on the hunt for a new one. Of course, I don’t even know what style I want—everything from old-fashioned to ultra modern catches my eye. I’m hoping to find something I can’t live without that will make me even more productive when I’m writing. An Ikea browsing trip is in my future.

4. Is anyone else loving the new series Nikita? It’s like Alias rebooted. I LOVED Alias. Plus, Nikita has Shane West—haha, amazing.

5. I have never successfully flown a kite. It’s on my list of things to do. I don’t think it will ever become a long-running hobby or anything, but it would be pretty cool to do it at least once, wouldn’t it?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for a long time, but when he starts dating her best friend Brianna, Sarah has to get rid of those feelings. There is an unwritten rule among girls: you don’t fall in love with your best friend’s boyfriend. Ryan, though, seems to feel something back for Sarah, and all of the sudden, Sarah has to make a choice between her fragile, queen bee best friend, and the boy she might love.

I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Scott’s novels, and I devoured The Unwritten Rule in a matter of hours. She has a knack for creating high school drama that feels real and draws you right in. Sarah is not the strongest female protagonist ever, but she has depth and realistic emotions. What surprised me, though, was the way I felt about Brianna. She’s the girl who gets whatever guy she wants, but she’s hiding her broken family and a deep fear of being abandoned. The way she treats Sarah is horrible, yes, but I couldn’t help but feel so sorry for her. Overall, this was a quick and compelling read.

Inconvenient Brainstorming

I think I’m becoming most productive while I run, but it’s so very inconvenient. I’m running almost every day because I want to start training for the half marathon at the end of January and because it’s the one part of my day where I spend any significant amount of time outside. While I’m running, I’ve started brainstorming ideas for the plots of my WiPs, thinking up character details or lines of dialogue I absolutely have to use, sometimes even being struck by some kernel of an idea for a new WiP that I’ll save for later use. I spend most of my run trying to remember all these details so that I can write them down when I get home, but some things inevitably slip.

The same thing happens when I’m about to fall asleep at night. Of course I haven’t learned to just keep a journal by my bed: if I have a thought I can’t lose, I have to get up out of bed, turn the light on, find a piece of paper and a pen, and jot it down. I’ve tried to repeat it in my head over and over in the hopes that I might remember it the next morning, but that never, ever works.

Does anyone else have their best brainstorming moments while they have no way of writing it down? Or am I just strange that way?

Goals!

Well, it was a very productive week, even though I didn’t do what I was supposed to. I was supposed to type up character profiles and get everything organized for the new WiP, the one I’m calling the Birdie WiP. I did type up an outline and I have most everything mapped out, but I had to start writing it: I couldn’t help myself, I was just too excited about it. It’s now 15,000 words long. This week, my goals are:

-Type up character profiles. Please, Meredith. You’ll need these.

-Write 10,000 words. Since I’ve got everything mapped out in my outline, I know what direction I want everything to go in, and I’ve already written several of the beginning scenes. I don’t much care what scenes I write this week—I’m not making myself write it strictly linearly—but I do want to focus on Birdie’s voice and make it as strong and defined as it can be.

Hopefully I can accomplish these goals this week! I know the writing will be easy, but I may have to come up with a reward for myself for finishing the character profiles. Any good ideas? Does anyone else have any goals this week, writing-related or otherwise?

Covered Bridges and Peaceful Golf

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Covered bridges. It’s like instant fairy tale atmosphere.

2. Candles that smell like fall. How can that not make you happy?

3. Chocolate pecan balls. The best kind of sundae ever.

4. Falling asleep on the couch with golf on in the background. For some reason, golf never fails to put me to sleep.

5. The Vampire Diaries TV series. I’m addicted to the Stefan/Elena/Damon love triangle. And Ian Somerhalder. So excited for this new season!

Anything making you happy this week?

Change in Blogging Schedule!

Hey, everyone! I’ve decided to change up my blogging schedule. Instead of blogging Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I’ll be blogging Monday through Friday and leave my weekends free to catch up on everyone else’s lovely blogs! The new schedule:

Mondays: Happy Things
Tuesday: Goals for the Week
Wednesday: Wild Card (usually about writing, but who knows!)
Thursday: Book Review
Friday: Five Random Thoughts

I also just want to say thanks to all of you awesome people who visit my blog! I started this without knowing quite what I was getting into, but I’ve come to love exploring the blogging world and getting to know all of you! There’s such an amazing writing and reading community here online, and I am so very lucky to be a part of it.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Bianca, desperate to escape the uncertainty of her home life, starts spending time with the boy she should want nothing to do with. Wesley is the playboy of her high school, and he informs her that she is the DUFF of her group: the designated ugly fat friend. According to Wesley, Bianca’s two beautiful friends hang out with her only because they need someone uglier to compare themselves to. As Bianca tries to discover her identity in this new, awful context, her relationship with Wesley takes a surprising turn, and everything that she knew about herself and her life is thrown into question.

How much do I love this book? A lot. Like a whole lot. Bianca’s voice was so fresh and so real that I felt like she could have been a friend of mine telling me her story. And though I hated Wesley at first, he grew on me. What really got me about this book, though, were the emotions driven through it. Bianca feels the insecurities that most teenagers feel, and the disintegration of her home life tore at my heart. And it’s not only Bianca’s feelings that got me: Wesley has plenty of his own issues, as do Bianca’s friends. This book gives such a realistic, heartbreaking, hilarious portrayal of high school and high schoolers trying to find their way. It definitely lives up to the hype.

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Vail, Colorado has officially entered my list of favorite places in the world. It was just beautiful—I’ve never enjoyed taking a walk so much. And in the mornings, I would slip out onto the balcony with a cup of coffee and write in the cold mountain air as the sun rose. I miss it already.



2. I’ve started rereading The Mortal Instruments series this week, because I loved Clockwork Angel and wanted to dive back into that world. I’d almost forgotten how much I love Jace (the main boy, for those of you unfortunates who don’t know, who is snarky and sweet and complicated and utterly lovable). Literary crushes are so very fun. Do any of you have some?

3. I got to meet Jen from Unedited (CLICK HERE to see her amazing blog) last night! So cool to meet a blogger in real life, and she’s a total sweetheart.

4. Jen and I are both going to the Sophie Jordan signing here in Houston tomorrow. I’ve heard such amazing things about Firelight—I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy! And I’ve heard fabulous things about Sophie Jordan as well, so it should be an all around awesome time.

5. I may actually become someone who writes in coffee shops. I’ve found an independent coffee shop/bar here in Houston that’s just perfect: in an old house with comfy mismatched chairs and everything from Frank Sinatra to foreign pop playing on the speakers and amazing cappuccinos. I’ve gone a few times these past few weeks, and every time, I’m amazed by how much work I get done. I’m thinking of writing this coffeehouse into my current WiP, I love it so much.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Anyone have any random musings today?

The Shiny New Idea

Is there anything more exciting than a shiny new idea for a novel? When you are just meeting your main character and discovering a plot that makes your fingers itch to put pen to paper? I know I feel this way about every new story idea, but I can’t help but feel that this one is the best ever. The one that I will be the most excited to write. The one that will have the best writing I’ve ever written. The one that will definitely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, be published.

This feeling will change, the way it always does. I’ll start to get exasperated with my main character. One of my supporting characters will overshadow her. The plot will start to seem bland and unoriginal, and I’ll have a week-long agonizing brain session before changing the whole darn thing. I’ll have more days than I can count where I think it will be better to abandon the whole thing before I waste any more time.

And then, finally, after a very long time, I’ll get that original feeling back. I’ll start loving my main character again (though she’ll probably have changed dramatically from my original conception of her). I’ll have a plot breakthrough that makes me write thousands of words in a week. I’ll stay up into the wee hours of the morning because I can’t bear to stop writing. I’ll finish that first draft, celebrate with a day off, and then get back to the grim business of revising, which will make me question the book yet again.

It’s quite a ride, this writing process. I’m ready for it this time, at least.

Peach Cider and College Football

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Finding random stores along the highway. This one was in South Carolina, just sitting on the road. They had pie! And peach cider! I had to stop and go in.

2. Planning out all the cool things I’m going to do here in Houston. There are going to be nights at the ballet, salsa lessons with a friend, and possibly a running club, among other things. And I get to meet Jen, awesome blogger at Unedited! So much fun to be had.

3. Thinking about how I’m going to design my new apartment. Most of my things are in the blue/green color scheme, but I’m going to try and throw some red in there. Should be interesting.

4. Nights where I’m so tired that I fall asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow. It’s usually the sign of a good and busy day.

5. Buying canned pumpkin and getting ready for some fall baking! My favorite fall weekend afternoon is putting on a college football game and making pumpkin bread. I’m so excited!

Anything making you happy this week?

Goals!

I’ve created a very sketchy outline for the new WiP, which I will now call the Birdie WiP. I’ve been jotting down notes and ideas for it for months, so I have fairly good character sketches at this point, but I don’t have enough of a plot. I don’t have enough of a hook. So, this week, my goals are:

-Find that hook! This book won’t be worth writing if I get bored with it halfway through, and I need some plot twists to write. Or at least a real plot :)

-Type up and organize my character sketches. I’m determined to make this WiP my most organized yet, with everything I need readily accessible and clear. We’re talking possible color coding here, people. I’m going all out.

-Flesh out and finish up the outline with the new plot. I will never follow this outline completely, but it’s a necessary place to start, and it will give me such a greater sense of where I want this novel to go.

I can’t wait to start writing the first draft of this one, but I’ve got to take care of the outline and character sketches first. I’m hoping for some patience this week.

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

When Phe discovers her dead sister’s journal, she finds that her sister had been planning to attend a boarding school in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts. Following a series of troubling dreams, Phe decides to go there herself, and she soon finds a town that’s hiding more secrets than she could have ever imagined. Helped by the mysteriously magnetic Zach, she pries into those secrets and tries to discover why so many people died in the town in the 1700s, and why the town’s inhabitants all seem so very…different.

I got sucked into this book from practically the first paragraph. Well, actually, I got hooked by the dedication, which I don’t think has ever happened before. Anastasia Hopcus dedicates it to her mother and writes, “You are my Giles, my Lorelai, and my Keith Mars all rolled into one.” Um, AMAZING. A fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars (with an apparently awesome mom) definitely grabs my attention.

I quickly began a big fan of Phe, too. She’s a girl with very real feelings and reactions, and she has a good head on her shoulders. She can handle the scary situations thrown at her, and her voice is the perfect, slightly sarcastic voice of a real teenage girl. This book scared the heck out of me, in the best possible sense: the plot twists kept me on tenterhooks the whole time, and Phe’s visions of graveyards and cellars with chains gave me actual goosebumps. Balancing out the scary parts, the love story kept me hooked, as well. Zach is a total cutie. I read this book in one night, because there was no way I was going to put it down, and I highly recommend it.

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. There are so many good young adult titles on sale right now! Thank goodness teen book prices are so much lower than adult prices—I’ve been buying way too many hardcovers recently! When I get back from Colorado, my first task is to get a library card.

2. I’m heading to Colorado today for a random Labor Day weekend trip. I’m not the most outdoorsy person, but I’m really looking forward to hiking around in the mountains and maybe whitewater rafting, which I haven’t done in years. I may even try to go horseback riding. I used to take lessons and even became an adequate jumper for a while, but I’ve always been a little too nervous on horses. We’ll see if I’ve outgrown that yet.

3. On the subject of weaknesses, I hate balloons. Anything that makes a loud noise suddenly, really. It’s gotten to the point that I can barely stop cringing when I’m in a room with balloons, and I nearly had a meltdown when some reenactors shot off cannons on Boston Common as I was walking by one day. It’s ridiculous. Loud noises are not going to hurt me. Well, the cannons might have, I guess :)

4. One thing I learned from the road trip was how much I love Southern food. I can now add sweet tea and biscuits and gravy to my list of favorite foods. I know I grew up here in Texas, but for some reason, I managed to miss those two.

5. Oh my goodness, it’s almost fall! I can’t wait—it’s my favorite season. Followed closely by spring. I guess I like the seasons of transition, which probably says something about me, but I don’t know what.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation/Road Trip

I’ve had a couple of days now to process the road trip that I just did from Houston to Boston and back again. I’ve been looking over the almost 1,000 pictures I took and organizing my notes about each place. I loved it. I mean, I REALLY loved this trip. I loved seeing the scenery meld and change from state to state. I loved encountering new towns and walking or jogging around them, trying to learn their secrets. I let myself get lost in the residential parts of different towns, not just the tourist parts, because I wanted to get a true sense of every place I was visiting. And I drove. I drove 4,429 miles. And considering the fact that I haven’t really had a car the past six years (didn’t need one in Boston or New York City), I find that mind-blowing.

Now I’m turning to the road trip novel I want to write and beginning to outline, which is one of my least favorite but most necessary writerly tasks. The main character, Birdie, goes on a road trip around the country, and I now have some great memories (and some really funny stories) to draw from.

So thank you, sign on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. I’ve come back a firm believer in living your dreams.

I just have to plan my western U.S. road trip now. :)