My Supposed Computer Free Weekend

I'm housesitting this weekend.  It's not far from where I live and I have a laptop, but I decided to use the weekend to get a lot books read that I'm behind on.  These are mostly nonfiction books on story structure.  Honestly, I only ever enjoy a handful of them, but people tell me I "need" to read them.  So once again, I'll be trying to improve my writing by infoloading my brain and not through trial and error (I'm a hands on learner).  That being said, this will be an early (for once) and quick blog, as I just stopped home when I was out running errands.  Hopefully next week there will be lots more books because of this weekend.

I think it's pretty obvious from my last few blogs that this week I read both Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  In Catching Fire, I really enjoyed how Katniss and Peeta were a team with opposing goal: keeping the other alive.  I love a lot of the new characters introduced in it and it's cliffhanger ending.

As for Mockingjay, I think I want to reread it before I weigh in on it.  One, because I want to discuss it, but I don't want to post spoilers.  Two, because I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it.  For now, I'll just say that I liked that we finally get to know and love Prim, but it is my least favorite of the series (this has nothing to do with who did and didn't die, I promise).  This may change, but I'll revisit it later.

Other than that, I read Getting Started As A Freelance Writer.  It was a little too sales-pitchy for my taste.  There are only so many times that I want to hear "I made over 670,000 dollars from writing last year and you can too".  Other than that, it was mostly about commercial writing--non-fiction magazine articles, writing copy, and direct mail.  The main idea is that if you want to be a writer, you need to write where the money is and run your writing as a business.  Ultimately, this guy writes for clients full time and then any other writing he does for himself (stories or novels) would be done after that.  Honestly, I have no interest in ghostwriting corporate speeches or writing magazine articles.  If it's all the same, I'd rather just work a steady job (even one where I'm not making 600,000 from writing) and write the kinds of things I want to write as a second job.  The short chapters on Short Stories and Novels had nothing that I wasn't familiar with just from reading writer and agent blogs.  The book sometimes felt dated (it was written in the 90s), and the face of publishing has changed a lot in the last decade, so I'm not sure how relevant a lot of the advice is.  He also said that he made a lot of money selling e-books on his website.  These e-books were created by ghostwriters who just recycled some of his older material.  It certainly  made me glad that I took his book out of the library instead of purchasing it.  The most useful section was how to "crack" magazines you are submitting to so that you get the right tone.  This included gauging target audience by evaluating advertising, knowing not only how long their articles are, but how long their paragraphs and sentences usually run, and how their articles tend to open.  It seemed to me that these are tips that can be applied to short story submissions as well.

That's all for now.  This week, Halo and Clockwork Angel are supposed to come out.  I'm excited.

Harry Potter Tuesday

Okay... today's is going to be short and a little lame.  I've been a little wrapped up with the Hunger Games (obviously), so today just a link to two fun HP games... Enjoy!

Defense Against the Dark Arts
Harry Potter and the Marauder's Map

Happy Tuesday.

Countdown to Mockingjay

Yeah, I'm a little excited about Mockingjay.  My copy was actually delivered, but it is in my building manager's office and I won't be able to get it until tomorrow morning.  In anticipation, I (like a few other awesome people I know) reread Hunger Games and Catching Fire.  I don't know why it took me so long to reread them.  I knew what was going to happen, how they would end, and still I found myself up entirely too late, turning the pages and not able to pull myself away.

So, while I wait for the morning to roll around so that I can go get my copy of Mockingjay, let's talk about what I think is going to happen.  Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect or what I even want to happen.  So I'm just going to address a few of the questions that I know will come up in the final book.  I'm leaving Peeta v. Gale for last.

-What has happened to Cinna?  I don't think he's dead.  He has betrayed Katniss the same as Haymitch, using her to instigate the revolution, but Katniss just hasn't realized this yet.  I think we will learn more about Cinna and why he supports the cause and it will be because of him that Katniss is able to reconcile with Haymitch and fulfill her part in the uprising.

-Will the uprising succeed?  Yes.  I think it will and Katniss will be a big part of it.  She is the mockingjay and she has an unbreakable will to live.  They are headed for District 13 and while Katniss will be at first resistant to the rebels plan, she will ultimately prove herself and become invaluable to them.

-Who will survive?  This is a big question.  I think it is even more important than it was in Harry Potter for quite a few important characters to die (I never quite bought that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all lived). Katniss may survive, but she may not.  The stories are written in present tense so there is certainly the potential for to sacrifice herself for the cause at the end of the story.  If she lives, the casualties of the ones she loves will be great, but I think there is the possibility of her being pregnant at the very end.  She has resisted creating her own family throughout all of the books and if they are able to rebuild the world, she will want to take that opportunity.  As for Gale or Peeta, I think at lease one of them will die, if not both.  There's a fair chance that Prim will die, but I don't think I could handle it.  It was bad enough when Rue died.  Katniss's mother will sacrifice herself at some point to finish what her husband started (because obviously he's dead because of a rebel plan, not because of a mining accident).  Haymitch or Cinna will die.  Finnick or Annie.  Madge might be killed in the beginning as a message to Katniss, but otherwise, she'll probably survive.  I predict lots of heartbreak for the final book.

-Gale or Peeta?  This one is hard.  I honestly, can't even commit to one team.  I tend to lean toward Peeta, but Gale makes me fall in love every time he enters the scene.  Both boys have proven their love to Katniss in very tangible ways (Peeta risking his life in the arena, Gale taking care of Katniss's family while she was gone).  But who will she choose?  Part of me worries that this will end up like Gone With the Wind, with Katniss as Ashley, Peeta as Melonie and Gale as Scarlett.  She has been with Peeta publicly for two books now (Ashley marries Melonie), but is secretly in love with Gale (Scarlet doesn't really hide her affection for Ashley, either).  In the end, I think she will choose Gale, but lose Peeta and at that moment realize that she has chosen wrong.  At that point she'll do something she thinks is impossible, risking her life, to prove to herself that she was ever worth Peeta's love.  I think that either Gale or Peeta will die and the question that then remains is if Katniss will ever be able to move on and build a life with the boy left behind.  Will she truly be able to love the one she's left with or will she feel that death has made the decision for her and she's just settling.

Okay, I'm beyond excited now.  Off to bed so that the morning comes sooner.  I'll check in on Thursday to see how I did, but I promise... no spoilers.

Quick Post

As the title states, this is going to be a quick post, because there is just so much that I want to do.  All of my pre-orders are starting to come in.  Scumble has arrived, although I haven't been able to read it yet, and quite a few others should be here within the next two weeks.

Maybe I'll talk about it more in depth at another time (I probably won't), but The Duff is the debut novel by Kody Keplinger.  The title (and I love the cover) is what drew me in.  There were a few technical problems (stilted dialog, overuse of cliches), but they were easy to overlook as the story developed and hooked me.  It was cute and I was actually disappointed when in ended.  But maybe this was because I felt like a lot of important things had been left unresolved: the narrator is inexplicably angry all the time (more than just an outspoken personality, it's unhealthy to be that angry), the father's alcoholism is basically brushed over (it's a lot harder to get back on the wagon the second time around, but the father's struggle really isn't shown), and the reformation of manwhore/love-interest Wesley is practically a given (I think quitting girls in favor of a monogamous relationship may be a tiny bit harder for Wesley to do and Bianca to accept).  It certainly tied up a lot cleaner than I expected.  I could get more into it, but I'm not going to.  Kody was 17 when she wrote this and I'm pretty impressed.  She's definitely there as a storyteller and her writing will only get better with time.

I re-read Hunger Games in preparation for Mockingjay.  I can't believe it's been so long since I've read this book.  I am unbelievably excited for Tuesday when my book will arrive.  I'm in the process of rereading Catching Fire, now (which is why this is such a short post), but tomorrow I will post about my predictions for Mockingjay.  According to Amazon it is on it's way.

Why do writers love Paris so much, anyway?

Like Sloane Crosley's first book of essays, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, How Did You Get This Number recounts humorous essays on life.  I don't always get the point, but I do always find her hilarious.  Actually, my favorite essays tend to be the ones where the humor comes to the center and the essay feels less like an essay and more like a humorous story one would tell a friend.  In I Was Told There'd Be Cake, I adored her story of moving apartments in Manhattan and her adventure as a volunteer at the Butterfly Exhibit.  In How Did You Get This Number, I enjoyed her exploration of searching for apartments and roommates and her adventures to Paris and Alaska.  This is a woman it would definitely be fun to drink with.

But reading Crosley's new book, I couldn't help but compare her to other writers.  Her new book entertains me far more than Chelsea Handler's Horizontal Life did.  And Chelsea Handler is a comedian, so I'm hoping that was just a case of a badly ghost-written book.  But mostly, I was seeing the similarities between Sloane Crosley and David Sedaris, both essayists specializing in darker comedy.  The most burning question being Paris.  They both wrote about hilarious experiences there, which caused me to think of all the other authors who traveled there or wrote about the city in their books.  Hemingway, Fitzgerald and the legendary expatriots, and recently, you can't have a character travel anywhere without Paris being a major stop along the way: The Van Alan Legacy, The 39 Clues, The Da Vinci Code.  

Maybe I'm just attracted to Paris and notice it more, but it seems to me that it is getting more than it's fair share of attention.  Every single one of these books was set in multiple locations, but every single one had major scenes in Paris.  It wasn't just a stop where the characters kept on running, it was a place where they had the courage to engage.  The only reason for this that I can think of is that somehow, if the character failed, it would be more tragically romantic if it happened in Paris.  For all we Americans end up making fun of the French, we just couldn't take the harshness I associate with places like Germany and Russia (writers never seem to like them as much as France or maybe even Italy).  We keep poking fun at France, but only because I think they are the most like us: soft, if you get close enough to poke them.

She's definitely grown as a writer.  Her essay on heartbreak was, erm, heartbreaking.  But her humorous exploits of buying stolen furniture in the same essay worked to both balance the heartbreak with humor and reiterate the themes of her essay.  I can't wait to read more from her.

It may not be the elder wand, but you'll like it

Harry Potter Tuesday!  Alivan's has been around for a while and honestly they make me geek out.  And who wouldn't when you can get your own hand made WAND!  Yes, that's right.

Here are a few of my favorites:

From the majestic collection...

Or, a little less expensive, the classic collection....

They've also got a great selection of brooms and robes.  Check them out.  Definitely the place to go for geeks who don't want a plastic toy, mass-produced for Wal-Mart.

I put the dead in deadline

Sorry for the lack of blog last week.  My best friend from New York was in town and I was busy procrastinating with him.  Then on Tuesday, I realized I had another self-imposed deadline that I was about to blow past without even starting the project.  I wanted to rewrite my Teen thriller by tonight.  That did not happen, but I"m close.  I'm on page 70 and I rewrote a good majority of the thing. But, in my defense, I hadn't really budgeted my time realistically for said deadline.  I underestimated how extensive the rewrite would be and only gave myself two weeks as well as NO BREATHING ROOM between projects.  I expected myself to switch from writing a 63,000 word manuscript to a 90 page screenplay at the drop of a hat.  It didn't happen.  I needed a few days to cool off after finishing the first draft of my novel manuscript and then I needed a few days to read my first draft of the screenplay and really digest what needed to happen in the second draft.  I was in a rush to produce, produce, produce and underestimated the importance of taking the time to do it right.  The point is that I've given myself another week.  It's a week I need to make this draft anywhere near decent, even if I would have preferred to be done already.

On to reading... I've been excited for the new Sloane Crosley book of essays How Did You Get This Number and have been on the wait list at the library since before it came out.  But I finally got my hands on it and I'll have a whole post about it on Thursday.  And since it is already written, that is a promise I know I can keep.

I finished The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan.  It was exciting to read about the next generation in her world.  It is something that I think works well for this series, because in a world of zombies the next generation is never guaranteed.  So being able to see Mary from The Forest of Hands and Teeth having survived as long as she did and influencing a new generation was more fascinating to me than it may have been in another world.  And it certainly set up quite a lot more stakes for the entire series.  The next book in the series, The Dark and Hollow Places (which I've pre-ordered!), has another new set of characters, but I'm just as excited to read it as if it were the third book about a character I love.  This fascinates me because I can't think of another example of this in my life.  The Named (Guardians of Time) switched narrators in every book, but it was the same core cast of characters, fighting the same war.  In each book I was always sad to see the former narrator go, while at the same time excited for the new narrator's point of view.

At the recommendations of the same 12-year-old that recommended that I should continue Fablehavan, I read The Looking Glass Wars.  It was a fascinating concept--setting the record straight on what really happened in Wonderland: Alyss was princess and rightful queen of Wonderland, but her Aunt Redd took over, forcing Alyss to escape to the real world.  Now as the Alyssians fight against Redd's tyranny, Alyss has to figure out how to lead a world of imagination when she lost all hers growing up in England.  I read (and love) a lot of books where we are up close and personal with the one main character, but being in every single character's head was a kind of fun that I had forgotten.  It made the book worth reading even when many of the characters seemed once dimensional (the main characters; the minor characters were surprisingly well fleshed out).

Lots of reading and writing this week. I took a bunch of writing books out of the library, Beautiful Creatures (which is supposed to be as good as HARRY POTTER!) just came in, and my first pre-order of my crazy fall pre-order season has shipped!  Next week, you will all hear whether Scumble is a worthy follow up to Savvy AND whether or not I made my new deadline.  I can't wait.

Keep Harry Alive

I've only recently remembered how much I love Harry Potter.  I don't know how I forgot.  There was a time when I wanted to get "Dumbledore's Army" tattooed down my arm in big Gothic letters.  Even now, I only kind of wish I were joking.

And so I've decided to bring Harry back, at least in my own life:  the boy wizard I started reading about in middle school and finished in college.  That's almost half my life.  More if you don't count the parts that I only half remember (that would be infancy and college).

I've already mentioned that in November I will reread the series back to back, the way I did for months on end before the release of books four through seven.  And now I'm going to celebrate him every Tuesday.

So to start us off, a literal interpretation of the new Harry Potter trailer.

The Mortal Instruments

People find out that I like to read and then insist on giving me reading suggestions of "great" books that I'm "guaranteed to love".  I used quotes for two reasons.  One, these are words that are used in every single book recommendation, and two, this rarely turns out to be the case.  Generally speaking, people who don't read don't suggest good books.  Only one time has this not been the case and I suspect that this particular friend reads more than she lets on.  But I can't be sure of that.  Now, because her recommendation turned out to be one of my favorite series, I have to listen to all the bad recommendations so that I'm not risking missing out on something phenomenal.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, that series is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.  City of Glass ended the trilogy when it came out back in March of 2009.  But it was okay, because Clare announced a NEW series, set in the same world, but in Victorian London.  I may have mentioned the first book, Clockwork Angel, which I've had on pre-order for quite some time.

It was enough to be excited about, but then Clare announced that a fourth book would be coming out in The Mortal Instrument series.  I pre-ordered City of Fallen Angels within ten minutes of her tweeting that it had an Amazon page.  Then, yesterday, she made a huge announcement... not only would there be a book four, but there would be a book five and six as well.  Really.  I can't be more thrilled.  So, obviously, I won't be spending less on books any time soon.  Six books, two series, and three more years of anticipation.  This is the closest I've ever come to how I felt the year before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released.


The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel - August 31, 2010
The Mortal Instruments: City of Fallen Angels - April 2011
The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Prince - September 2011
The Mortal Instruments: City of Lost Souls - May 2012
The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Princess - November 2012
The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire - September 2013

Clare has released a handful of excerpts and tweets about the upcoming books, but I have resisted them all.  I read the excerpts for City of Glass and it made the wait that much harder.  We'll see how much longer I can last.

Getting In Cars With Strangers and Self-imposed Deadlines

I feel like I usually read more.  Now that I'm blogging about my weekly reading, I'm embarrassed that my reading count is so low.  It's like failing a diet on national television.  But in my defense, I spent the last week reading three books at once, which means that I have two books I'm almost finished with and another that still has a ways to go.  And I've also been writing a LOT.

I wrote about an edgy young adult novel I was working on.  On June 6, I reported that I was at just under 18,000 words.  Now, eight weeks later, I have a complete rough draft at 63,000 words.  Granted, I haven't read through the whole thing even once and I have a list of notes I've been keeping during the writing process that already has 21 items on it.  This  list will only grow as I let the manuscript sit until I'm ready for the heavy rewriting that is the next step.  For the next two months, I'll be back to screenplays.  I've got two rewrites and a first draft planned.  Ambitious writing goals.  We'll see if I make it.  Although, for one of the rewrites, I'm still waiting for notes.  If I don't receive them, then I won't have a problem making my self-imposed deadlines.

So this week, I read (among other unfinished books) the second book in the Fablehaven Series, Rise of the Evening Star.  It's a fun book, younger than I usually read, but the characters were less annoying in this one than they were in the first.  What struck me most was that the two main characters meet a stranger, sneak out of their house to meet him, and then get into his van.  OBVIOUSLY he was going to turn out to be bad.  There is no way anyone would publish a book for kids where getting a van with a creepy man turned out to be a good idea. But luckily, the man was only trying to gain their trust until the second time he tried to lure them away, but they realized he was bad before leaving with him again.  What did we learn here, kids?  Give strangers the benefit of the doubt.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the book.  It was little bit predictable, but that might be because I'm 24 and the target audience is 8-12.  I enjoyed how the characters worked really hard to do good and then realized that they actually helped the bad guys.  It worked to bring every character's trust into question, which is something that the story needed and relied upon.  The reveal at the end, although not a complete surprise, will ensure that I read book three.

I've got a pile of books that I'm excited to read as I spend the next week catching up on reading and beating out my first rewrite.  But mostly this week, I've been thinking about how sad it is that there will never be a new Harry Potter book.  As excited I am for Mockingjay this month, it doesn't come close to how I felt about Goblet of Fire, which means that it's not even in the same universe as my excitement for the Deathly Hallows. So after looking at the list of books coming out soon, I've decided that November will be a good month to celebrate Harry Potter and reread the whole series.  I'm dying to read them now, but I have so many things on pre-order and I want the time to read the series back to back.  I used to read them over and over again, but I haven't read the series as a whole since Deathly Hollows was released.