Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I found these prints in Savannah, and I absolutely fell in love with them—I have no idea why that bird is wearing a crown, but I love it.


2. My attempt at making apple cinnamon muffins this week resulted in an apartment full of smoke. It’s like I need to take a course in how to use an oven or something.

3. Just bought my copy of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer! Can’t wait to dive into this one—I’ve heard only the most amazing things. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those books that keeps me up until 3 in the morning.

4. I’ve joined an organization called the World Affairs Council of Houston, and they hold talks by experts in various fields. This week, I went to an awesome lecture on trauma surgery in warfare zones. You never know where you’ll get your ideas for the next great novel, right? :)

5. In preparation for my pseudo-NaNo (CLICK HERE to understand what I’m talking about), I’m going to cut down my blogging to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the month of November. Time for some serious writing, people!

Have a great weekend, everyone! Anyone have any random thoughts to share?

Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

Natalie Sterling is completely in control of her own destiny, and she knows enough to stay away from cruel and useless high school boys. But when Spencer, a girl she used to babysit, enters Natalie’s high school, Natalie is forced to reevaluate what being a feminist truly means. Spencer flouts her sex appeal to control every guy around her, and when Natalie finds herself entangled in a relationship with a boy she never considered before, she has to scramble to find balance.

This book got to me. I mean, it really got to me. I was tearing up all over the place. Siobhan Vivian’s writing is stark and powerful, and she gets inside the mind of a teenager better than most. I felt like I was Natalie: I knew all those insecurities and bad decisions and emotions. The contrast between Natalie and Spencer is the contrast of two very different types of feminism, and Vivian explores them both expertly. It truly did make me think about what feminism is and should be, and that stayed with me long after I had finished the book. I just can’t get over this book. You have to read it.

NaNo fail

Well, I officially have to face the fact that I’m not doing NaNo this year. This was the first year I really knew what it was, but since I’m right in the middle of my WiP and I want to finish it before starting any shiny new ideas, I can’t participate. At least, not traditionally.

I do, however, want to write at least 50,000 words this month. I want to join in with all you crazy writers who are stocking up on snacks and becoming recluses. I want to finish my first draft of the Birdie WiP by the end of November and feel like a NaNo winner. If I can spend this month writing, really writing, then I'm going to feel such a rush of accomplishment, and I just can't pass that up.

As for those of you doing NaNo, any advice for getting all of this writing done? Any snacks I desperately need to buy?

Goals!

Well, I didn’t quite make it to 15,000 words this week, but I got close enough that I’m happy with the work I did. Even while being distracted by a shiny new idea (soooo tempting), I got some good writing done, and the Birdie WiP is now looking like an actual book! I still have a ton of scenes to write, though. So this week, my goals are:

-Write 15,000 words. Because my inner editor has been going crazy while I’ve been writing this first draft, it’s only 40,000 words long at this point. But I’ve got a lot of plot left to write, and I’m hoping to finish writing by the end of November.

-Reevaluate the plot. I like what I have mapped out so far, but I want to make sure my characters aren’t taking the plot in another direction. If they are, I need to adjust the story and the climax, because I believe in character-driven plots and staying true to my characters.

So I’m hoping to get a lot done this week! Does anyone else have any goals, writing-related or otherwise?

Rocking Chairs and Hot Chocolate

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Rocking chairs on a porch. There’s no feeling of relaxation quite like that.

2. Making playlists for all of my characters. They always help me develop my character descriptions, and I tend to find new music I can’t live without.

3. Sunsets of orange and red and fire.

4. Nights of snuggling in bed and reading a good book until I drift off to sleep.

5. Hot chocolate with much too much chocolate in it.

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

Contest Winner and Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

Before I get to my five random thoughts, I’m announcing the winner of the signed copy of Alexandra Adornetto’s Halo! I printed out the names of all your entries, cut them up, and drew one from this bowl:

And the winner is (drumroll, please…)

SHALLEE!

Congratulations, Shallee! I’ve sent you an email asking for your address.

1. I’m being distracted with a shiny new idea, which is great, but I’m nowhere near being finished with the first draft of the Birdie WiP. I won’t let myself start focusing on the new idea until I’ve finished the first draft, I promise! But the new character and new story are so insistent…

2. I love reading about different authors’ journeys from writing the first page to getting published and everything in between. Kelly Dexter over at Nerdville Rhapsody told her story last Friday, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s a great read (CLICK HERE to see her post). Also, if you’re not already following her blog, you’re missing out!

3. I’m attempting to become more of a cook, because surviving on salads and canned soup is getting old. This week, I made mac ‘n cheese with broccoli (I have to get my vegetables SOMEHOW) and pasta with squash, zucchini, and onions. Pretty good stuff if I do say so myself. I’m totally on my way to being a domestic goddess.

4. I have to figure out a Halloween costume! Should I be a teapot? A fire hydrant? Rachel from Glee? A Mockingjay? I need ideas, people!

5. I feel like I don’t say this enough, but I wanted to thank all of you for visiting and following my blog. It truly humbles me that so many awesome people take time out of their day to read my ramblings about the writing process and Friday Night Lights and ice cream. You all rock.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Anyone else have random thoughts they want to share?

Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted and Last Day for Contest!

Just a reminder that today is the last day you can enter to win a signed copy of Alexandra Adornetto's Halo! CLICK HERE to go comment on my review, and you're entered!

And on to this week's review...In this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Lucius blew his arms off in a chemical explosion and now has hooks for hands. He prepares to attend a new school and to guard himself from the rumors that will start as soon as people see him. What he’s not prepared for is Aurora. Still dealing with the death of her mother, Aurora can’t explain why she feels so drawn to the new boy, but she knows there’s more to him than her friends see.

This was a quick and intriguing read. Aurora is the kind of girl I want to be: determined to be nice to people until they give her a reason not to be. But she doesn’t let herself be trampled on. She learns to stand up to her friends when she thinks they’re wrong. Lucius is more wry than bitter, and his observations of the way people react to him show his real strength. I didn’t quite understand the instant connection between Lucius and Aurora (I guess I’m not a big believer of love at first sight), but their developing relationship is more realistic. Overall, this is an enjoyable and often thought-provoking fairy tale retelling.

How Writing is like Baking

I’m a spastic baker. I tend to print out a recipe, all nice and neat, and then proceed to ignore it. I add more cinnamon than I should. I toss in the amount of flour that “looks right.” I learn by trial and error. Sometimes I get horrible results. Salty pumpkin bread is really not that tasty, for example. But sometimes the result is amazing, and it’s always all mine.

Ok, so how is this like writing a novel? Because there are rules. Rules about how you’re supposed to write every day. Rules about what protagonists are supposed to be like, about how to structure a plot, about dialogue and descriptive and everything in between. Grammatical rules. Everything. But if you followed all those rules to the letter, you would probably have a fairly bland result. Instead, you need to find your own way. You need to write the book that you love, even if it breaks some of those rules. You need to write the way you want to write, not necessarily the way everyone tells you you’re supposed to write. Take the rules under advisement, certainly. They give you the bones of a good book. But tweak as you see fit.

And please don’t dump sea salt into your pumpkin bread mix. It’s just not a good idea.

Goals!

I managed to meet my goal of writing 15,000 words this week, so that was super exciting. There were a lot of hours spent in coffeehouses until I just couldn’t drink anymore coffee, but it was worth it. I did, however, cut about 20,000 words because I tweaked a character and changed some of the plot. The boy in my Birdie WiP (the love interest, of course) needed more of a backstory and more personality, so many of his scenes have to be changed around. This week, my goals are:

-Write 15,000 words. I know I can do it now!

-Reevaluate my characters. Do their relationships with each other make sense (especially now that the boy has changed)? Does the plot grow from their personalities organically? Do their actions reflect their personalities? I want these characters to all be clear and strong.

Here’s hoping for another productive week! Does anyone else have goals this week, writing-related or otherwise?

And just in case you didn’t see it, I’m having a contest! You can win a signed copy of Alexandra Adornetto’s Halo by clicking HERE and commenting. Good luck!

Farmers' Markets and the Hunger Games

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Farmers’ markets! I went to one this weekend, and I’m so very happy I did—the vegetables were just gorgeous.

2. Pumpkins. I bought a little sugar pie pumpkin to decorate my apartment. Now I have to decide if I want to carve it or paint it. Tough decisions.

3. Random trips to the ice cream store. Always a good idea.

4. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. I’m reading that book right now, and it keeps making me laugh out loud.

5. The hype about the Hunger Games movies. Can’t wait! I hope they’re as awesome as the books.

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

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Just in case you missed it, I’m having a contest! If you live in the US, you can win a signed copy of Halo by Alexandra Adornetto! CLICK HERE to leave a comment on yesterday’s post, and you’ll be entered!

2. I’m definitely not the handiest person, but I’ve been assembling some of my furniture (old and new) for my apartment, and I have to say that I haven’t had too much trouble. Today, though, I’m tackling my new desk, which involves using an allen wrench and a screwdriver, and I might be eating my words. I’ll probably get frustrated, throw the stupid wrench down, go to sleep, and finish it tomorrow with little to no trouble.

3. I’m trying to figure out how to decorate my walls: right now, I’m leaning towards a captain’s wheel. Or maybe an old map. Something different and interesting and unique. There are tons of antique/junk stores in the area by my favorite coffee shop, and I must go on a scouting trip soon.

4. They’re releasing the Boxcar Children Mysteries series in e-book format! I used to LOVE those when I was a kid—I found children living without parents fascinating. There was even a brief period of time where I started collecting sticks in case I ever wanted to run away and build some kind of shelter (no joke). Thank goodness I never actually did that. If an allen wrench can make me mad, I can’t imagine I’d have much fun trying to build a shack out of sticks.

5. Did anyone else cry at the footage of the Chilean miners being rescued this week? It’s such a powerful story. Of course, there’s already a book deal in the works, and I’m sure a TV movie isn’t far off.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto and MY FIRST CONTEST!

Bethany, Gabriel, and Ivy, three angels, come to a small town to fight the forces of evil. As part of their disguise as humans, Bethany, the youngest and least experienced, attends high school. She’s supposed to feel detached from humans, but Bethany seems to feel more than her angel brother and sister do. She makes friends with Molly and begins to fall for a boy, Xavier, with a tragic past. As her attraction to Xavier grows, the threat from the evil side grows in the town, and Bethany may be the only one able to stop it.

This book was absolutely impossible to put down. I loved the twist of the girl being the immortal angel, and Bethany became a protagonist I couldn’t help but root for. She struggles to hide her human emotions but learns that maybe it’s those emotions that make her strong. Despite her immortality, being an angel makes Bethany a naïve and sweetly believable teenage girl, and her first love makes her even more relatable to readers. Xavier is a sweetheart, utterly devoted to Bethany, and I adored the connection between them. Overall, this book was fun and sweet and a perfect happy read.

To celebrate reaching (almost) 100 followers, and because I loved this book, I’m giving a signed copy away! To enter, leave a comment on this post between now and next Thursday, October 20th. To get extra entries:

+3 old follower
+1 new follower
+3 for tweeting (leave a link to your tweet)
+5 for blogging/sidebarring the contest (leave a link)

Add up your entries (including one for your comment), and I’ll randomly select a winner! Due to shipping cost, this contest is only open for US residents. Good luck!

Why I Write Young Adult Books

I never really thought I would write young adult fiction. I read mostly classics when I was a teenager: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, that whole crowd. My only real exposure to young adult fiction was reading Ann Rinaldi and a few other authors when I was about nine and ten.

But a little over two years ago, I started getting hooked on books for teenagers. It started with Harry Potter, really, and then I had to see what Twilight was about, and then I found Sarah Dessen and I was a goner. There was no way I could read anything else. There’s just something about books for young adults: something about the intensity of the emotions. About the search for identity. About the fun and the angst and all those crazy friends.

So when I had my first book idea, it was about young adults. People just beginning to discover who they were and just beginning to discover the world they lived in. I can’t get enough of exploring these characters, and at least for now, I won’t be writing anything else.

What do you write? Why is it important to you?

Goals!

Ok, well, I definitely didn’t meet my goal of 15,000 words this week. Moving took up a lot of my time. But now I am mostly unpacked, and I’m ready to focus back on the Birdie WiP. Hopefully. This week, my goals are:

-Write! Write a whole lot. 15,000 words. Maybe more. This is going to be a super productive week, people.

-Show, don’t tell. I have a terrible problem with giving too much exposition, and also with having my characters say exactly what they’re feeling. I want to focus this week on showing the feelings and the backstories through dialogue and actions. Like if Birdie is uncomfortable meeting a new person (which she will be soon), I don’t want her to say, “I felt uncomfortable.” I want to show her fidgeting, having trouble coming up with something to say to the person, etc. That gives the reader such a better connection to the character.

What about you? Any goals this week? Any advice for showing and not telling?

Scarecrows and Cloud Shapes

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. The Scarecrow Festival in Chappell Hill, Texas. It’s an arts and crafts fair in a historic town, and it’s always entertaining, even if I only ended up buying kettle corn.



2. The feeling of having everything unpacked and in its place after you move. Ok, my new apartment is still a complete mess, but I’m almost organized. Sort of.

3. Lying on the grass and figuring out what shapes the clouds are making.

4. Lemon poppyseed muffins. I really need to learn how to bake them: that might be my new fall treat.

5. That little touch of cool in the air that means fall is finally coming!

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

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I’m looking for a chair for my new apartment, but I can’t find anything I love for a reasonable price. I’d love something quirky, like this chair that was in my hotel room in Savannah:

2. Does anyone else ever realize they know the most random things? I was flipping past a Yankees game on TV, and I knew Posada’s first name was Jorge. Why do I know that? Why is that the piece of information committed to my memory when I can’t remember friends’ birthdays sometimes?

3. I am utterly devoted to Ben & Jerry’s Cheesecake Brownie ice cream. Seriously. It’s an addiction.

4. One of my favorite activities is browsing Anthropologie. I rarely let myself buy anything, because it’s super expensive, but I love getting style ideas from all their eclectic stuff.

5. Does anyone else watch the show Life Unexpected? I’ve just seen one episode, but I may have to watch the whole thing. I love the mix of teen and adult storylines, and the characters drew me in. Because I really need yet another TV show to watch…

Anyone else have any random thoughts? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Lenah wakes after one hundred years of sleep during which she transitioned from a fearsome vampire leader into the human girl she always wanted to be. Her vampire lover, Rhode, sacrificed his own life to give her this human one, and Lenah is determined to stay hidden from the members of her coven who are searching for her. Disguising herself as a student of the Wickham school, she learns what life in high school is like: cool, quirky friends, mean (but maybe just misunderstood) popular girls, and crush-worthy boys. Lenah falls for Justin, but she doesn’t know how to tell him who she used to be. And if her coven finds her as human, they won’t stop until they’ve made her a vampire again, and she’ll lose everything.

I thought I was tired of vampires, but no, totally wasn’t. Lenah is a complex and compelling character, despite all of her centuries as a bloodthirsty, ruthless vampire. Justin is definitely swoon-worthy, and I fell in love with Lenah’s friend Tony, too. I also loved the angle of a girl who used to be a vampire, and Lenah’s struggles hooked me from the very beginning. Lenah’s voice (and Maizel’s writing) made me want to dive into this world—just beautiful. Even if you think you’re over vampire books, take a look at this one. You won’t regret it.

The Absolute Terror of Sending a Query

I never thought clicking the send button could be so terrifying. I mean, really. I’ll have checked over my query letter about a hundred times and then, just as I’m about to click that send button, I start thinking that the word in the second sentence is absolutely the wrong word to use. As in, why would I ever use that word? Seriously? So I start flipping out that the entire query is wrong, just plain wrong, and the agent will take one look at it and press the reject button. Or whatever it is.

I revamp my query about five or six times, and then I end up going back to the original query. EVERY TIME. I really should have learned my lesson by now. And that word in the second sentence? It’s freaking perfect. So I stare at the email a few more minutes and then, before I can think anymore about it, I click the send button, wincing the whole time.

Is anyone else as freaked out by this whole process as I am? Or am I just that crazy?

Goals!

To new followers: hi! And to explain, I’ve been working for a few weeks on a new WiP, one that I call the Birdie WiP. Every Tuesday, I post my writing goals for the week.

I didn’t quite make my goal of writing 15,000 words, but I did write 12,000 and worked some more on character profiles, so I’m not too disappointed. This week, my goals are:

-Write 15,000 words. I can do it, I swear!

-Pay attention to growth. I’m getting into the middle of the novel, and I want to focus especially on the emotional arc of the story. I’ve established the characters and many of their backgrounds, and now the main characters are starting to change. Learn. Grow. I want to pace their growth well, so I’m mapping out the story and making sure everything fits.

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

Rapunzel and Purple Nailpolish

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Awesome window displays. This was in Bergdorf Goodman windows when I went to Manhattan: it's Rapunzel! Well, kinda.

2. Pride and Prejudice. The book, the movies, everything. Elizabeth Bennett is one of my favorite protagonists of all time.

3. Really, ridiculously large coffee mugs. They make mornings so much happier.

4. Easy A! Oh my goodness, go see that movie right now. It’s hilarious. And spot on.

5. Bright purple nailpolish. Especially when chipped. That’s about as close as I’m going to get to being a rocker chick.

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

New York Photos!

Ok, instead of my usual five random thoughts, I’m going to do a photo essay of my trip to New York last week. Because there were so many pretty things!

I got to work on my WiP in the main New York Public Library building (the one with the lions!):

I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn Heights, so I got to have this view of Manhattan across the river in the morning (we took our coffee and bagels and ate on the promenade, and it was HEAVENLY):

We went to the arts festival on Governors' Island, so we saw this band:

And this awesome view of the Statue of Liberty:

I don't miss living in New York, but it sure was fun to visit! Does anyone else have good New York memories? Or did anyone have a spectacular week this week for a completely different reason? Happy Friday, everyone!