NaNoWriMo

Yeah, NaNoWriMo is a weird word, but it's something that I have wanted to do for a while.  I think this year is the year I will finish a first draft in November.  I've got enough focus (no more switching between projects on a daily or even hourly basis.  One month.  One project.).  I've got an outline and a passion to write that draft.  And I've got someone who is going to do it with me.  

Go over, check it out, and if it's your thing, give it a try.  The best part about NaNoWriMo is that you know your first draft will suck.  And that's okay.  It's freeing when you realize that everything you write doesn't have to be ready for publication.  You can write whole scenes that are terrible and you can erase them later, but take that one beautiful sentence that you never would have otherwise written.

Even if you don't participate, write something without censoring yourself and just see what you come up with.

Trailer for: Saphique

Saphique is a little unique in that it is a sequel.  Seeing as it is unique, we're going to be doing this not on a Monday, since Monday is November 1st and I want to reserve it to kick of REREAD HARRY POTTER IN NOVEMBER.  So first the trailer for Saphique and then the trailer for Incarceron:



Not only does the trailer need to entice new readers by setting up the story without giving too much away from the first book, it also needs to tease fans of the first book.  It's going to be a little hard to talk about without the Incarceron trailer for comparison:



What I love about this trailer is it's simplicity.  The only thing we learn about the story is that the prison gives life and deals death.  It's fascinating and that's all we need.  Seeing the cogs spin round and round and the creepy soundtrack set the tone, then everything is brought to a finish with the amazing reviews the books received.  It's certainly enough to make me want to read the book.

For the Saphique trailer, we get almost the exact same thing.  The beginning is tinted red, the color of blood, which seems to raise the stakes for the second book, and then we learn a little bit more.  The character survived the first book, but he is no better off for it.

I like how connected the trailers are.  They sell the books without giving too much away and set the tone brilliantly.  If you hadn't read the first book, the second trailer may seem like it's giving too much away, but I don't think so.  There is a book and it has a sequel.  We can pretty much assume that if it is a prison escape book, in the first book the prisoner needs to break out, and in the second he has to break back in or go on the run.  It's just the nature of prison-break stories.

Week Three... On Recycled Paper

I told you to take a look at the British cover for book one because it would reappear this week... but this isn't the British edition.  I bought this in Toronto at Chapters (kind of like Borders except Canadian).  Notice that the book is titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and not Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone... also British cover art!

Inside, on bright, white, recycled paper, we get the school crest, and then they just launch right into the book. The chapter starts at pretty much the top of the page and there are no pictures inside this edition.

 On the back, a great rendition of Dumbledore.  I'm not sure if this is also taken from the British cover art.  I would assume so, but who knows?

I like his beard.

Trailer for: The Replacement

And The Replacement... I 'm writing this before I read the book because I think that is the fair thing to do.  But I'm setting this up for an auto post, so for all I know the book review may go up first.  Who knows?



That was the first trailer, released a few months before the second.  It's simple, but I think effective.  You get very little idea of what the story is about, but you don't need it.  The cover of this book is so creepy, it's what drew me in in the first place.  I love that the trailer plays with the cover, animating it and setting it to a haunted lullaby.  The trailer sets the tone of the book and then follows up with praise by authors in the same genre.



Trailer two is a good follow up to trailer one, giving us more insight into the story after our interest has already been piqued.  However, I hated the background music, and found the trailer less effective than the first.

Conclusion: Getting a sense of the tone is just as important as learning what the story is about.

Writing Book: How I Write

If you were following my progress for the readathon (which was awesome, in case you missed it or my three thousand posts and comments about it), then you know that one of the books I read during that twenty-four hours was How I Write by Janet Evanovich.  You'll notice in the picture to the left that the book is written with Ina Yalof.  If you open the book, you'll notice that it is also written with Janet's daughter/webmaster, Alex.  Why?  Because this book is essentially a website FAQ with some advice thrown in by Ina, a non-fiction writer.

If you're interested in Janet Evanovich, then I think it is a great book.  If you are interested in writing, then I have reservations.  It's weird for me to say that seeing as she is this huge best-selling author and I am some twenty-something in a studio apartment who hasn't even got her first manuscript to the point where it is ready to go out to agents.  I realize that, really.

But Janet's book didn't seem to go beyond the writing basics.  There were a few moments that made me think that she is just one of those naturally talented writers.  For example, she says "I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it [structure and plot stuff]".  Nobody is denying that she is talented, but talent is hard to teach.  And there are plenty of other books out there that go deeper into the mechanics of writing.  My favorites: On Writing by Stephen King, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, and The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.

There were also a few red flags for me. In part 3 at the end of the section on "structuring the novel", Janet says, "By the way, publishers measure a book's length by how many pages the manuscript runs, rather than by the number of words it contains."  This is the only place I have ever read this.  Everywhere else that this question is answered, the answer is: word count is what you should pay attention to, because is a pretty consistent standard no matter what margins, font, or type size you use.  Maybe publishers start paying attention to the pages instead of the word count when they start laying out the book for publication (I have no idea), but I doubt that will apply to anyone reading her book for writing advice.

Other red flags popped up in her section on the publishing industry.  She advises against copyrighting your manuscript as it will tell the publisher you don't trust them.  To me this is the equivalent of leaving your door unlocked when you go on vacation.  You don't have to flaunt your copyright, because it's not that you don't trust the publisher.  You're just taking basic precautions to protect yourself.  At another point, she warns against e-mail queries, which I just thought was weird.  Most of the agents who I want to query when I polish my manuscript accept e-mail queries.  None of them have ever expressed that they don't like them.  I myself read queries everyday as part of my job.  I hate mailed in queries, because nine times out of ten, I'm not interested in the query and I feel guilty that the writer just wasted 42 cents.  And just in case you're curious, I never feel guilty enough to request the whole script.  I'm much more likely to request a script off a weak electronic query because I know I won't be asking the writer to waste fifteen dollars mailing me a hard copy.  I've also heard that her formatting guidelines are incorrect, but that is something you'll have to check for yourself.

Overall, I didn't find this book very helpful and the red flags make me hesitant to recommend it to people who are just starting to pursue writing.  If you're a huge Evanovich fan, it might be a nice window into the working life of one of your favorite writers, but otherwise, pick a book that will go deeper into the topics that are relevant now.  (Your writing books don't need to give you website advice.  Worry about that when you sell the book.)

Break

I stumbled across Hannah Moskowitz's blog and found it both informed and entertaining.  Since Break is very high concept, her one sentence description of the book ("My first YA novel, BREAK, about a boy on a mission to break all his bones, came out with Simon Pulse in August '09.") was enough to make me read it within about two weeks of first reading her blog.  And I have piles and piles of books I want to read.

The pacing in Break is perfect.  I have a short attention span, but Break kept me in the story and connected to the characters.  The main character's relationships were real and complicated, which I appreciated, even if some of the other relationships didn't feel as fleshed out as I would have liked.  I cried at the end, but I didn't feel like the conflict was resolved.  Some parts of the ending felt forced, like the outcome had been set up instead of naturally growing out of the conflict.  But even so, the pacing and tension was there, so those aren't things you would notice if you weren't looking (and I'm always looking).

I couldn't find any information on film/television rights so I'm not sure if anyone has an option on this, but I could totally see this as a successful indie dark comedy.  Although, having a baby crying constantly in the background might make it a little hard to enjoy.

One for the Money

I'll be honest.  I didn't think I would like this book.  I expected it to be kind of trashy, poorly written, and heavily reliant on plot.  I expected it to be mildly enjoyable, but nothing to rave about.  I was wrong.

One for the Money is the first in the series that follows Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey born woman who finds herself working as a bounty hunger.  I was shocked by how much I identified with Stephanie.  She's out of her league, but just keeps going and constantly gets herself into hilarious situations.  I was laughing out loud throughout the entire book.  

The characters were well written, their relationships complicated and hilarious.  The situational comedy was on, the action was there, and the tension--both from the plot and from the characters--was perfectly sustained throughout the whole novel.  Yes, at some parts I blushed so hard that I had to stop reading, but I dove right back in about three seconds later.  I just got Two for the Dough out of the library and am dying to read it, but I'm pretty sure that this series is my new guilty pleasure.  


EDIT: I'd also like to add that the movie should be coming out next July (2011).  I'm not a huge Katherine Heigl fan, but she's good with comedy, and Jason O'Mara and Daniel Sunjata are going to be two super sexy love interests.  Yeah, I probably haven't been this excited about an adaptation since The Lightning Thief... and we know how that went.

Week Two... In Action

Week two... Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I bought the British Edition (having unexpected trouble with a link) at Heathrow and it was the only thing besides my wallet that I carried onto the plane that day.  I love the British covers because they always capture an action scene.  I'm not sure there is even a goblet on here and it's called Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and not Harry Potter and the Fire Breathing Dragon

Inside the back flap are the covers of the other books... the 7th book hadn't been released at this point.

Take a look at the cover for book one in the upper left hand corner.  We're gonna talk about it next week.

Trailer for: Nightshade

Moving on to Nightshade:



This one I actually found compelling.  The point of a book trailer is to encourage me to buy the book and this certainly achieved that goal.  I was enticed by blurbs from popular authors of the same genre, which, at least for me, does a lot to generate my interest in a book.  Then when my curiosity was peaked, I got just enough of the story.  One of the things that interested me about this book is the society of werewolves and the place of women within it.  The trailer didn't go in to it much, but that is probably for the best because of the limited time and space.  I would have preferred more of the story, but I got just enough.  The music and the animation suited the book.  A live action trailer would probably have ended up looking cheesy, because the paranormal isn't always easy to do without an insanely high budget or a massive amount of genius and time.  They follow up with he date to expect to see the book on shelves and a website where you can get more information on the book.

Overall, I think this trailer is effective.  It does what it sets out to do--namely generate interest in an upcoming release.

Writing Book: The First Five Pages

I took The First Five Pages out of the library to prepare myself for rewriting the first draft of my manuscript.  I may actually buy this book so I can read it again and use it as a reference during my next rewrite.  It definitely deserves a place on my bookshelf next to On Writing and On Writing Well.

Each chapter focuses on an element of the novel that is so often just wrong in rejected manuscripts.  From cliche adverbs to several chapters on common dialog mistakes, each chapter ends with helpful exercises to illustrate the point of the chapter.  What I liked best is that these exercises could be done with your already existing manuscript so that you understood exactly how it should be applied to your story.  The advice itself was insightful and went beyond the basics.

Maybe I just never paid attention before, but I had never heard or read setting presented the way Lukeman explains it.  Sure, I've heard that a good setting is practically a character itself, but I hadn't realized how important setting was until this book.  According to Lukeman, the setting needs to be involved in the action.  The exercises for this chapter didn't use your current manuscript, but they were still incredibly effective.  They started out simple: listing ten details in the room you  were sitting in.  The next exercise asked you to do the same thing, but with the idea that these details should all point to something specific about the occupant of the room.  Finally, Lukeman asked the reader to write a scene for each detail where that detail influenced the action.  It was a huge A-HA moment for me.

Hunger

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler was one of the books that I had on pre-order this season.  I was really excited to read it and, mostly because it's short, read it during the readathon.  The main story focused on Lisabeth's battle with anorexia.  The writing sucked you in with it's horrifying and realistic logic of anorexia.  The narrator's self-hatred was heartbreaking.

The fantasy element--Lisa becomes Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--wasn't as prominent as I expected, but I liked the characters--Death and the horse Midnight--much better than Lisa's friends and family.  I love fantasy, but this didn't quite work for me.  It seemed to only serve the purposes of the main story and, maybe I missed something, but the logic didn't seem to quite work for me.

The ending was realistic--she didn't realize she had a problem, go to rehab, and then it was all over.  She came back from rehab and still struggled, still had to fight against the self-hatred, only now she had hope because she had the support of those around her.

I would have liked to have seen the relationships get sorted through a bit more.  There were clearly some issues there aside from the anorexia, but, ultimately, I was satisfied with the story.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a novel about four desperate men who hold a subway train for ransom.  It is told from the points of view of everyone involved, from each of the four men, to the passengers, to the mayor and cops.  One of the most interesting things the book did was to not take an obvious side.  The story seemed to be presented in a way that we saw the whole thing and were able to make our own conclusions.  Understanding every single character in an intimate way worked for this story, but at the same time it didn't give me anyone to root for.  By the time I figured out who I wanted to succeed, the book was over and, like every single character in the novel, I was left unsatisfied.  And maybe that was the the point: No one wins.

The Next Four Weeks Will Be Me Geeking Out

Okay, so I probably don't need to say it, but I love Harry Potter.  When I dream about my fantasy library there is a secret passage to a secret library tower and that passage is lined with every edition of Harry Potter ever printed.  And the occasional movie prop.  And since I'm not a mega-billionaire, I'm going to have to reach this goal slowly, one book at a time.  Even then, I'm probably not going to make it unless I stop spending money on things like rent and other books.

So for the next four weeks, we're going to be celebrating some of the foreign (to me) editions of Harry Potter.  The (to me) disclaimer is because I will have a British edition in here and I guess you could argue that the American version is the foreign edition while the British edition is the original.  But who knows.

So, to start us off, we're doing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix... Chinese edition.  The first thing you'll notice is that the cover art is from the American edition.  The second thing you'll probably notice is that the book is so long they divided it into two volumes and plastic-wrapped them together.  That packaging was a nightmare.  The second picture is of one front and one back... sorry it's upside down (not really).

Inside is a nice little quote from JK in English and I assume it is translated into Chinese above.  This is the only English in the book.  For those of you not familiar with Chinese books (I'm not), the books open left to right, the opposite of American books which open right to left.

A chapter list, fun illustrations, also, I believe from the American edition... unfortunately I haven't read Order of the Phoenix in a while because my book is at my parents house and they like reading it so they always "forget" to send it out to me in Cali.

I don't speak Chinese, but my friend said that this is a character list.  An interesting addition.  I'd be interested to know if this is normal for Chinese books or if the publisher just thought it was appropriate for the massive amounts of characters in Harry Potter.

The illustrations at the beginning of a chapter.  Also, the pictures are all sideways.  I know that Chinese characters run up and down and not side to side, but I don't know how to edit my pictures, or at least I'm too tired to figure it out just now because I've been trying to get some advance blogging in so that I don't go three weeks without a post again.  Sorry.

And finally... pictures at the top of every page.

All right, Happy Harry Potter Day.

Trailer for: The Eternal Ones

So last week we looked at the high quality trailer for all five of the Penguin young adult books coming out this season.  Now we're going to look at the trailers for each individual book.  First up, The Eternal Ones...



Well, I certainly get a better picture of what the book is about, although not much.  The trailer is selling something generic and I get no sense that what draws these two together is more than love, lust, or fate.  There is no mention that they may have been together in a past life and in that past life Iain may have killed Haven.  The reincarnation bit is what is interesting and different about this novel and it's missing from this trailer.

I probably would have found this trailer more compelling if they combined the words only approach of this trailer with the video from the combined trailer of Haven looking in the mirror and then seeing herself in a previous life.

Just In Case Anyone Doubts Me

I made it until 5am!  I woke up over 24 hours ago.  And I'm proud that I made it.

Readathon Wrap-Up: You're A Wizard Harry!

There is nothing that keeps me up like Harry Potter (any of them!) on CD or tape or mp3 on iTunes.  There's half an hour left of this readathon.  I started One for the Money, laughed out loud a few times, but now it's time for me to go to bed... in thirty minutes.  My teeth are all brushed, my contacts are out, and I'm ready to just click off the light and go to sleep as soon as we hit 5am.

EDIT... They posted the Meme, but after the 24 hours... So I'm adding it below:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
The second to last hour, when I was so tired, but still trying to read a printed book.  It got much better during the last hour when I switched to an audio book (see above).

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
The books I enjoyed most were the one's with the quickest pace.  Don't Die Dragonfly was a good one for me.  It was easy to read, short, and had a perfect pace.  It was great for the second half.  One for the Money would have been a good one, too, if I had started it earlier.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
It would be nice to be able to track who is online and who isn't, so that you can visit the blogs of those still awake.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
The mini-challenges were a lot of fun and I enjoyed the dance videos.

5. How many books did you read?
I finished four, but there were 7 total that I was reading from (two books that I read parts of and an audio book for when I got tired or wanted to workout/clean/etc... obviously didn't finish the seven CD audio book)

6. What were the names of the books you read?
The Fallen by Celia Thomson
How I Write by Janet Evonovich
Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
Don't Die Dragonfly by Linda Joy Singleton


Read parts of:
One for the Money by Janet Evonovich
You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In the Morning by Celia Rivenbark


Listened to:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I'm not going to include Harry Potter in this decision, because I love Harry Potter.  But I most enjoyed Don't Die Dragonfly.  It was PERFECT for the readathon and I would have enjoyed it even if I had read it next week instead of yesterday.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In the Morning.... not what expected and not particularly interesting to me.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn't a cheerleader, but I may try it out next year.  All the cheerleaders were awesome.  Thank you so much!

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I can't wait for April!!

Readathon: Hour Twenty-Three

Hour Twenty-Three.  I'm amazed.  Also, this mini-challenge is a great way to keep my mind and fingers engaged and awake.  Because my book just isn't doing it, which means that I'm going to to try a switch before my last resort: Audio book and the elliptical.  But for right now, I'm dancing to metro station and feeling good.

So I'm making up a word using at least half the letters from my current book.  I'm using the one I'm switching to, because the one I just put down is "You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In the Morning" and just.... no.  So I'm using "One for the Money" by Janet Evonovich.

Here I go...

moonorfy

Which means...

tired to the point of incoherency.

And there we go....

Readathon Update

Alright.  I'm done with Don't Die Dragonfly and have signed on at lapl.org to request the second book in the series, Last Dance.  The LAPL has a new online card catalog, which is amazing!  AMAZING.  Unfortunately it's sort of like the room of requirement before someone explains how it works... it only seems to show up in the middle of the night when you have to pee.

And now I'm going to bounce around to an upbeat song (and hope my neighbors don't complain), while I make another iced coffee and get back to reading.  From the posts I'm reading a lot of people are sitting in uncomfortable chairs to stay up, but... I don't like being uncomfortable.  So I'm curled up in bed and I just shift positions between chapters.

Readathon Update

Less than five hours to go.  My body is pissed that I woke up so early, but I think I'll be okay for another 2 to 3 hours, because I'm usually a night owl and it's only 12:30am where I am.  I am hoping, hoping, hoping to make the full 24 hours.  I have to.  If I won the game of Sleep Deprivation in college (getting into college doesn't mean you're bright), then I can make it 24 hours doing something I love.

I took a break from Don't Die Dragonfly (which I'm LOVING) to finish up the non-fiction How I Write for a mini-challenge.  I forgot how much good non-fiction I actually own, because I get wrapped up in all my library books and novels and short stories and my own writing projects.  Now I'm just checking in to prove I'm still awake before diving back into my novel.  After that I'll probably try some Celia Rivenbark to soothe my short attention span.  After that, if my eyes no longer have the ability to focus, is to play computer games while I listen to Harry Potter in iTunes.

Alright, back to reading for me.

Readathon: Hour Seventeen--Ban This Book!

DISCLAIMER: This is for a Readathon Mini-challenge.  Just because the internet is forever, I want to make it clear that I don't approve of banning books and this post is a FUN mockery of those that think they have the right to tell other people what they can and can't read.

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler should not be allowed on bookshelves because it promotes sex, eating disorders, and godlessness.

"Tammy was disciplined when it came to food.  She could bring up a doughnut in thirty seconds."  This passage places binging and purging on a pedestal, especially with the main character musing: "Maybe one day, she would be able to control her body the way Tammy controlled hers."  It is an ill-disguised attempt at a bulimia how-to guide.

And the main character is constantly stripping her clothes off: not a good example for the girls who will be reading this book.  For example on page 78: "Lisa stripped off her flannel pajamas...Next came her underwear..."

Readathon Update

Alright.  It's been a few hours since I last posted.  I tried reading How I Write, but I just couldn't get into it, so I ordered up some pizza (and some chocolate cake) and switched to Don't Die Dragonfly.  So far, I'm loving it.  I've got some coffee on to keep me going strong, but I thought I'd take a break to update and maybe do a mini-challenge.  Plus, I had to refill my coffee cup.

PS--all the kids that live here have been surprisingly quiet today.  With my luck, they'll be noisy tomorrow, when I'm trying to sleep in.

Readathon: Hour Fifteen

I can't believe we're at hour 15.  I ate some dinner (delicious delivery) and switched books.  I feel like things are going well. :)

So... a wordle of my blog:

Readathon: Hour Twelve

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now?

I just finished Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler.  And am about to dive back in to How I Write by Janet Evanovich and You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In the Morning by Celia Rivenbark.

2. How many books have you read so far?

Only two.  I'm a slow reader.  I don't know why I feel the need to apologize about it.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I can't even decide what I want to read.  I think next I'll choose between Don't Die Dragonfly and One for the Money.  But I might read Paranormalcy instead.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

No.  One of the pleasures of being a single twenty-something who lives alone is that if I want to eat dessert before dinner I can and if I want to spend 24 hours doing nothing but reading and blogging, well I can do that, too.  

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Just my own interruptions.  I can't drag myself away from my phone, but I've tried to talk about the readathon when I text.  Also the handful of life things: Shower, working out, dishes, smoothie preparation.  I'm dealing with them by trying to listen to an audio book while I do them.  I had to fix my portable speakers and am currently loading my audio book onto my iPad, but now for the next 11 or so hours I will be constantly reading except when blogging.  Not sure if that's insane or not.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I forgot how slow I read.  I'm impressed by how some of the other participants are tearing through their books.  :)

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

I think I have to think about this one more.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I think I'd pick different books.  The books were good, but they aren't the kind of books that draw me personally in.  I have too many library books out now, but I think next year, I'm going to stick to books I have already read that I know I can't put down, or books in series that I expect to have the same effect.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

A little.  But I suppose that's to be expected.  I didn't get much sleep last night, but I had my usual pot of coffee this morning and just heated up a pot of water so I can move on to tea.  I also tried to work out early this afternoon to add a bit of energy.  If I get too worried, I'll blast the AC or listen to the audio book on my iPod and take a walk.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Ask me this question in about 8 hours.  That's when I'm going to be exhausted.   I'm excited.  This whole thing had been a blast so far.

Readathon: Hour Eight - Love to Hate

Mini-challenge on the five characters I most love to hate.

Okay, a quick overview of why I chose these characters.  My favorite characters are the ones who do evil, but who could have so easily been good.  That's why Voldemort didn't make the cut.  We fear him, we revere him, but we never really see that one moment when he could have been good, but chose evil.  Don't get me wrong, Harry Potter could not be as big of a hero if Voldemort wasn't so big of a bad guy.  But the characters who draw me in are the ones who choose evil, even when it doesn't come naturally to them, the ones who do evil in the name of good.

Snape is on this list.  You could argue that, ultimately, Snape is a good guy.  I would agree with you.  But he is on this list because we don't know his true colors until the very end.  He is so fun to hate, because not only did he seem to choose evil over good, but there is always that doubt that he didn't.  There is always a small hope that he cares more about the mission than the glory.  And that is torture for a reader, because that means he is actually a more deserving hero than the protagonist.  But that is the best kind of torture.

Now, my five top love to hate:
1. Snape (Harry Potter)
2. Umbridge (Harry Potter)
3. The Inquisitor (The Mortal Instruments)
4. Murtagh (Inheritance Cycle)
5. Lord Asriel (His Dark Materials)

These five get my blood boiling or break my heart.  Sometimes both.

Readathon: Book 1

I can't believe that I've been reading for 7 hours.  We're almost a third of the way through the day and I'm already starting to worry that the day is going by too fast!  I just finished my first book, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, about a girl who discovers she is a cat person... with claws, night vision, and a whole society who wants to exterminate her race.  It was fun, occasionally cheesy, but that's okay.  Lots of action, lots of laugh out loud moments.  Not especially deep, but I don't think it was trying to be.  It was fun, and that's all I wanted from it.

My biggest issue was the prologue.... If it wasn't about the main character, then it was pointless... if it was, then the book never made it's way back.  It certainly wasn't a dream or something that happened before the story took place.  I'm actually really annoyed that they wasted my time with a thrilling prologue that probably won't come into play until book two or three.

Anyways, I'm going to listen to Harry Potter on audio book while I hop on the elliptical, then take a quick break for a shower before grabbing another book.  I'll be doing a mini-challenge when I get back.

Readathon: Hour Five Mini-Challenge

So, hour four had to do with indie books and I thought about entering, but I'm currently reading something by one of the major six and maybe when I'm done I'll start an indie book and post about it.

For now... here are just two piles of books in my apartment.  There are plenty more, but these piles were created especially for the readathon.

Pile one has library books and short reads that I thought would suit the readathon well.  Also, on top you can see my Kindle, which I've got a few new releases on that I'm hoping to get to today.  I'm also keeping the kindle close in case someone posts about the most amazing book ever and I absolutely have to read it right this second... well, it's 2010, the kindle exists and I can if I want.

Pile two is just in case pile one doesn't work out... It's in two stacks on one of my book shelves, which is basically my third back up pile, I suppose.  There are two pictures because my phone is my only camera and it wasn't as blurry close up, but then I lost half of the top pile.

Alright, all for now.  I just drank the last cup of coffee in my 5am pot and I'm going to go back to reading.  I've got about 100 pages left in my current book.... yes, still reading The Nine Lives of Chloe King.

Readathon Update

Two and a half hours in and I know I just posted a mini-challenge, but I realize that I haven't really posted much else here about the readathon.  So just a quick update.

Still reading The Nine Lives of Chloe King.  I'm a slow reader and the blogs have taken more time than I anticipated, so I started on page 37 this morning and am now on page 99.  So thats... 62 pages?  Also, I took some time out to shave my legs, because it just makes the reading experience better.  Really.

So far I've tried every mini-challenge.  They have actually been totally fun and I think they will be one of my favorite parts of the readathon.  Because the reading all day thing.... just feels like normal. Not a bad thing at all.

I've tried to comment on one blog from the Mr. Linky's for each mini-challenge.  I'm not an official cheerleader, but I'm all about reading.  Someone posted a picture of biscuits.  They were in a can, but still.  I want the flaky, buttery goodness I know they will bake in to.

Readathon: Hour Three - 6 word celebration

A six word celebration to describe the readathon... this is one of the harder challenges.  It's my first time and I've only been at this for a little two hours.  I'm sure my feelings will change as the hours click by.  Right now I'm enjoying this quiet solitude that will soon be shattered when all the kids in my apartment complex wake up and start kicking soccer balls at my window.

So six words for now:

Totally content... don't wake up, kids.

Readathon: Hour One Mini-Challenge

Alright, I'm ready to read.  I hear the coffee pot beeping and pretty soon I"ll have some sort of delicious breakfast.  Twenty-four more hours to go and it feels like I woke myself up in the middle of the night.

Okay, mini-challenge before I start:

1. Where are you reading from today?
Los Angeles, CA.  More specifically, my couch.

2. Three facts about me:
I love coffee.
I cheat at scrabble.
I want a puppy.

3. How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours.  Too many to count if I want to get any reading at all done.  Plenty, plenty, plenty.

4. Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (ie. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I just want to have fun and make it the whole twenty four hours with the majority of my time spent reading and the rest of my time spent commenting on people's blogs and doing mini-challenges.

5. If you're a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I'm a first-timer.

And now, off I go.  I'm starting with The Nine Lives of Chloe King.  I'm already a few chapters in, but I might switch in an hour or so.

Readathon: Strategy and Preparations of a First Timer

So, I'm pretty excited about the readathon.  And I guess this blog post is going to be an attempt to get out all my extra enthusiastic energy.  WEEKLY GEEKS had a challenge with a few questions to answer about preparation for the readathon, so that's what I'm going to do.

* if you are participating in the read-a-thon or not.
I think it is obvious that yes, I am participating.  I'm excited.  Romo is participating too.

* do you have a strategy?
Kind of.  I'm going to try to stick with short, easy-to-read, and highly entertaining books and stay away from denser, "literary" fiction.  I'm going to be totally flexible about what I read next.  I have novels, a book of essays, and a budget to download an e-book to my kindle if I decide that I absolutely have to read a certain book that is not currently in my apartment. I was thinking that it would probably be Incarceron, but it is NOT AVAILABLE for kindle.  Which means that I won't get to read it for the readathon.  So I'll have to see what people are reading and blogging about.  But I'm excited about the freedom to purchase something immediately if something catches my eye on a reatathon blog post.

* do you have a stack of books prepared to read from?
Yes.  I have lots of stacks of books.  I took out a bunch of library books, and grabbed some off my bookshelf.  Then I went through today and pulled probably another 25 more, just in case.  I have stacks of books everywhere.  Most likely to be read... and there are too many, so I'm going to apologize now for being lazy and not linking or including authors... are: Hunger (there are a few, so the one on the sidebar), Break, One for the Money, a few essays from You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In the Morning, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Don't Die Dragonfly, Paranormalcy, Sherlock Holmesy, The Giver, An Abundance of Katherines, Daniel X, and just stacks and stacks more.  I definitely will not get to all of these, but I like to have options.  I'm the girl who brings two suitcases for a week long trip.  What can you do?  Oh, and I've got an audio book for when I shower, cook, and work out.

* will you try to read as many books as you can or as many pages as you can?
I'm not particularly worried about either one.  I just want to stay up the whole time, read 90% of the time and check out some awesome blog posts and blog myself the other 10%.

* do you have special food and snacks planned?
Kind of.  I have a lunch and dinner prepared already.  And I am going to prepare breakfast and snacks tonight.  I'll probably drink lots of coffee and tea, which I do normally, but I'm always looking for an excuse to drink more coffee.  I'm going to try to eat healthy, even when I get really tired, which is when I like to eat donut-like snacks.

* do you have a special spot all set up for reading?
Again, I'll be taking care of this tonight.  I'm going to make sure my whole apartment is cleaned.  I am going to set up my couch all cozy-like so that I can read and keep an eye on twitter/blogs any time I need a short break or any time I want to blog about what I'm reading.  I'm also going to clear off my kitchen table so that  I can read while I eat, and maybe do some reading in the bath or on my exercise ball.  This actually isn't much different from where I normally read.  It's just going to be clean.

* will you get your Saturday things done on Friday so you can read guilt free?
Yes, I did the shopping yesterday and am doing the cleaning tonight.  Sunday I'll do laundry and bills.  Anything else can wait until next weekend.  But it's not a big deal.  I lead a simple life.

* if you have others living in your household, do you have to work around their schedules too?
I live by myself, which is something I had to get used to at first, but which I am ultimately grateful, because I can totally do things like the readathon guilt free and and without any distractions.

Beware! No Really...

As is pretty obvious if you read my blog... I like Twitter.  A lot. One of my favorite people to follow is R.L. Stine.  You may remember him from fourth grade when he ruled reading time with Goosebumps!  Then as you got a little bit older, he kept you up all night with Fear Street.  He's still putting Goosebumps out and has a handful of other series, but I want to make note that the links are to random books in the series.  I had some trouble locating the books I grew up on.  I loved these books.

One thing I must tell you is that I grew into my sense of humor.  When I was young, I was a strong-willed, uppity thing who thought that scary was scary and funny was funny.  One of the things I love about R.L. Stine and that I can really only appreciate as an adult (note: not all kids are as thick as I was) is the beautiful balance of comedy and horror in Stine's books.

All this to introduce a book of short stories edited by Stine called Beware!  And I'll say it now... the intro will probably be longer than this paragraph and that's all I plan on writing.  The collection included some comedy pieces with some horror elements (Joe Is Not A Monster by R.L. Stine and two poems by Shel Silverstein), as well as some terrifying stories with a few comedic moments.  There were tons of twist endings and a handful of retellings (I'm saving Stine's version of The Judge's House by Bram Stoker for the next time I go camping), but most importantly just good stories.  I enjoyed the excerpt from Roald Dahl's The Witches, but most of the stories were brand new to me.

I still haven't broken down yet to buy Zombies Vs Unicorns, but this collection is another nudge in that direction.

Dewey's Read-A-Thon

I just signed up for a 24 hour read-a-thon that will have me out of bed--or at least awake--at 5am!!!  This Saturday.  Check back here for lots of updates, and check out the site if you want to participate:

I'll be spending Friday preparing.  So much to do to make this work and make this awesome!  I've already started pulling books!

JK on Oprah

JK on Oprah part one:

The highlights:
-JK says that she should never have become as famous as she did because she got so many rejections and was told her book wasn't very commercial.
-She has material in her head to write more books.  She doesn't think she will, but she could if she wanted and she's not ruling out the possibilities.

JK on Oprah part two:

The highlights:
-"I'm very frustrated by fear of imagination.  I don't think that's healthy."
-Money isn't actually a superpower.
-Religion looks for answers outside the self, while magic (even though she doesn't believe magic is real) expresses the view that you can change things yourself.


JK on Oprah part three:



The highlights:
-Being rich doesn't make you a good dresser.
-Oprah and JK would both have to be complete idiots to end up poor.
-Writing helped JK figure out what she believes.


JK on Oprah part four:



The highlights:
- The books are what they are because of JK's mother's death.  Much of Harry's journey is about death--what it means and how it affects those left behind--and JK's love for her dead mother is on every page of the books.
-The dementor's came from JK's battle with depression.


JK on Oprah part five:



The highlights:
-Nobody has ever been successful without failing first.
-Michael Jackson wanted to do Harry Potter: The Musical... she said no.


JK on Oprah part six:



The highlights:
-Love is the most powerful thing in this world.
-JK is pretty close to happy according to Dumbledore's standards.
-They discuss an article on Michael Jackson that said he never realized that Thriller was a phenomenon and he spent his whole life chasing to get it back.  They both realize the importance of being proud of what you've done and moving on.
-JK doesn't feel any pressure that she needs to top Harry Potter.  Harry Potter is Harry Potter and anything else she does is something else.
JK's best compliment, from a 20-something girl: "You are my childhood".

Book Trailer Monday

So I'm a dork and this blog is all things bookish.  This is also another easy way for me to keep blogging on the regular.  It's something that I enjoy but not something that will overwhelm me with pressure when I have a looming self-imposed deadline.  I'm also curious about the effectiveness of book trailers, so I'm going to try to examine one every Monday.  For now, this is just an experiment.


This week, a combined trailer for five books coming out from Penguin: The Eternal Ones, The Replacement, Nightshade, Matched, and Saphique.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Granted, for a book trailer, this is pretty high quality all around.  However, I'm not sure this would entice me to read a book.  Certainly, I want to read all of these (The Replacement is actually sitting on my kitchen table on a stack of books, because my whole apartment is just bookshelves and stacks of books), but I'm not sure that this is particularly effective.  The only reason I even know what any of these books about is because I saw this trailer within an article that told me the premise of each book.


My prediction is that this trailer will really only be effective with people who are already aware of at least one of these books.  Otherwise, all you see is emo kids and looking up each book individually... too much effort.  Good thing each of these has their own book trailer as well.

Writing Goals: Revision

Lately, my mind has been on revision a lot.  Rewriting first drafts is hard and that is something I've just started to realize.  Which means I've had to revise my goals.  And that's okay, because I'm learning by doing so.

Let's look at the 2010 goals that I wrote back in January.  It's September now, so I can pretty much tell you which ones have been completed and which ones are likely to be completed.

1. Finish a specific family comedy screenplay (COMPLETED)
2. Finish a specific teen comedy screenplay (NOT COMPLETED)
3. Finish a third screenplay that I hadn't yet come up with when I wrote the list (COMPLETED)
4. Finish the draft of my YA novel (COMPLETED)
5. Finish the draft of MG/YA fantasy novel (NOT COMPLETED)
6. Write 10 short stories (HAHAHAHA... NOT COMPLETED)
7. Read 25 books for fun (COMPLETED)
8. Read 10 books for craft (NOT COMPLETED)
9.Go to the gym at least 3 times a week.... (NOT COMPLETED and not going to talk about this one, because I bought an elliptical)

Okay.... so as you can see I pretty much have a one track mind.  And I have only completed about half of my goals.  But there are three months left.  This is a lot of writing.  It doesn't take into account the two weeks that my car broke down and I was too busy trying to buy a new one to write OR read.  It doesn't take into account the times that I had out of town visitors and it would have been rude to write instead of see people who I may not get the chance to see again for months.  It also doesn't leave ANY room for rewriting, which is where things get GOOD.  What's the point of writing a first draft if you aren't going to go back and make it worth reading?

But what HAVE i done?

Well, I finished the first draft of the family comedy script.  Then I wrote a first draft of a teen thriller.  That's TWO first screenplay drafts.  One of them I am just finishing up the rewrite of.  And let me tell you, rewriting that sucker was harder than writing the first draft.  I've spent about two months on it, more than twice as long as the first draft took.  Granted, two of those weeks were the weeks where my car died, but still.  I learned more about rewriting from the last two months than I ever expected.  Part of the reason it took so long is because I kept trying to keep things I loved about the story and make them work, when deep down I knew I needed to cut them.  Next time, hopefully, I won't try so hard to keep things that I know don't work.

Even though I've pretty much dropped the teen comedy script, I have a Family Action Comedy that is all beat out.  I'm hoping to finish it this year, but it may not get written until January.  I am dying to write this script, but I know that I don't want to end 2010 with a handful of first drafts.  The goal right now is to get a screenplay and a novel manuscript into a polished finished format so that I can work on getting agent(s).  As awesome as I'd like to think I am, first drafts aren't going to do it.  So changing my goals has more to do with keeping the end goal of being able to support myself as a writer than it does about doing what I want and ignoring the deadlines that I have imposed upon myself.

Probably more satisfying that any screenplay has ever been for me was finishing the first draft of my YA manuscript.  Granted, I finished with about two pages of notes for things I needed to concentrate on when I do the rewrite, but I finished the first step in writing a novel.  I know there is a lot of work left, but most people never even get this far.  I've got a few more novels outlined that I'd like to work on, but I had to put the fantasy novel on hold.  Maybe it would be okay to switch between it and my finished manuscript if I wasn't trying to write screenplays as well, but I've realized if I try to do too much, then nothing gets done.  I can handle maybe one manuscript and one screenplay.  Right now, I'm pushing it: I'm trying to handle one manuscript and two screenplays, with the knowledge that the screen writing process is going to go a lot slower if I'm alternating two different scripts between novel manuscripts.

And I wanted to write 10 short stories.  From this blog, you can see that I've become extremely interested in short stories.  I'm fascinated by them.  I enjoy them.  Unfortunately, I don't really think in stories that are short.  I try and inevitably, the stories either fall flat before I even get to the major conflict, or they develop into something that I know will require a novel to tell.  As much as I would love to be able to write a short story, and I may try to finish one here or there, I am no longer putting pressure on myself to write them.  They don't come natural for me and I'd rather focus my energy on the novel or the screenplay.  And that's okay.

As for the reading... if you read this blog, you know that I've probably read double the number I set as a goal.  And I've still got three months left.  As for books on craft, I think I have mentioned maybe five on the blog this year and have two more than I want to write about.  I have one on my counter waiting to be read, and one that is pretty dry that I've been working on since the beginning of summer.  And I have a whole shelf of writing books that I'm still trying to finish and a handful on request at the library.  So yes, I expect to meet this goal by the end of the year.

This was a much longer post than I intended.  But I guess the point is that it's been really helpful for me to make goals.  I work much better with deadlines and it makes me feel like I've achieved something.  On the other hand, I've learned how important it is to keep in mind what the end game is and be willing to change or sacrifice smaller goals for the greater good.  I've grown so much as a writer and a reader this year and it would be silly to think that the goals I set for myself nine months ago are still 100% relevant.

Now, I go for final read through of the second draft of my teen thriller.  Then, I get a week off for reading before diving into the rewrite for my manuscript.  I'm going to try to build up some blog entries, too, just in case my book world sucks me in.