Sunday, May 31, 2015

Summer Mini Bloggiesta June 13 and 14




Just so you all know, we are having a very low key down sized Mini Bloggiesta in two weeks on June 13 and 14

There'll be no new mini challenges, but you can take this opportunity to catch up on old challenges and work on your own to do lists.

The sign up linky will be up next week at this time over on the main website. 

We'll have one Twitter chat at 1:00 pm MDT (3:00 pm EDT) on Sunday the 14th. (This is a change from the original post that went up last week. Please take note!)

I hope you decide to join in the fun and get stuff done!


Friday, May 29, 2015

Armchair BEA: Character Chatter



Today's topic for Armchair BEA is one of my favorites: Characters! (You'll notice on the tabs of my blog I even have my one special place for them!) But what is it love so much about characters? Why are they my favorite?

The adjectives that come to mind when I think of my favorite characters are: vulnerable, mysterious, brooding, intriguing, flawed, real, loyal, interesting, charming, feisty, unique, funny, smart, quirky, dark, and plain old cool.

Who fits these descriptions? (If you clicked on that tab above you'll get your answer!) But how about another collage of characters that have been immortalized by film? Or drawn by someone? Or as imagined by me or someone else? Good plan?




Top: Anne from Anne of Green Gables, Robin Hood from various, Kvothe from The Name of the Wind, Froi from Froi of the Exiles, June and Day from Legend


Second: Han from The Demon King, Hermione from Harry Potter, Cricket Bell from Lola and the Boy Next Door, Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice, Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities

Third: Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables, Tristan from various, Shallan from The Way of Kings, Mr. Thornton from North and South, Perrin from The Wheel of Time

Fourth: Gale from The Hunger Games, Jo from Little Women, Roar from Under the Never Sky, Leisel from The Book Thief, Kaladin from The Way of Kings

Bottom: Katniss from The Hunger Games, Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Ed Kennedy from I Am the Messenger, Samwise from Lord of the Rings, Aria from Under the Never Sky




Yeah. There's some pretty awesome characters that fit many if not most of those descriptions I've listed. Do you know them? Have you read them? If no, what are you waiting for?

And now, if  I could only figure out how to WRITE my own characters that fit this criteria!

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Armchair BEA 2015: Visual Expressions and Social Media



More fun with ArmchairBEA today! Check out the main headquarters here to find out all about it.


Storytelling

I love the art of storytelling. And I feel it comes in many forms. Books of course. And other visual forms like graphic novels and picture books and such. Poems yes. And actually storytelling too, you know, like when people get up and TELL a story. But I also think that almost all other forms of media tell stories. What are movies if not stories? And TV shows. If said it many times here that I think book lovers and avid readers are usually also pretty fond of TV and movies. Why? Because of the stories and the characters. It's the same, just experiencing it in a different way. Also, music. Do you think music tells a story? Either music with lyrics or music without? I think so. I think it totally does.  What about art? The Mona Lisa? How many stories have people told about her over the years? And photography? Oh my word. For sure!

I think I could go on and on with all the different visuals and mediums of media that tell a story. But the above are my favorite ones. And here's a visual to visualize the visual (and I guess I should say audio too!) mediums of stories!



Social Media

Now... switching topics! Social media! I love it. It's just way too much fun. I do tend give the new thing time and tend not to jump on board until something has been proven. It took me years to start blogging after I first thought about doing it. I watched the formation of Twitter and Facebook for a long time before jumping on board. Instagram I was a little more quick to join. Pinterest took me awhile too. Anyway, I use them all for different things:

Facebook is mostly for IRL people, friends in the neighborhood and family. Though several book bloggers have managed to be added to my friends list! I tend to keep my blogging and bookish life completely separate from Facebook. Anyway, Facebook makes me crazy most of the time these days and I find it more a place were people like and share random things and clutter up your feed with lots and lots of junk.

Twitter is mostly for following bookish and writing type people. And celebrities of course! I love Twitter, though it took me awhile to get the hang of it. Now, I'm not sure how we lived without it. Twitter is definitely my place to get news and see what's happening in the world.

Instagram seems to be a bit of a crossover. Some family, some friends and lots of bloggers and authors and a smattering of celebrities. I tend to enjoy sharing pictures here over Facebook, though I always cross post to Twitter. Sometimes I'll stick one on Facebook too, but not often. I love using Instagram and have been begging people to join lately.

Pinterest is a strange little thing. I have the weirdest random people following me there, How do they find me!? But this one seems to be more for an individual thing and not a connection thing. Rarely does someone comment or suggest or talk about something. We are just pinning away and maybe sometimes we'll repin each others stuff, but mostly not. Am I right? Pinterest is a place for ideas and looking at pretty pictures!

YouTube is fun too, but I don't connect with anyone there, even though I have a channel and post movies now and then. I don't feel the urge to joint the BookTube community, which looks like a fun place. But YouTube seems to be more a place to just watch stuff others do and have fun. It's like another TV channel now which is really quite amazing.

Goodreads is another fun place, and there's a little more connection going on there for me than some of the others. But still not a whole lot. Some likes now and then, some comments. I wish we commented more there. But oh, well. It's great for keeping track of books!

Google+ has been a little fun in recent months too, with communities and things. I like it there, but it does seem to be doing pretty much the same thing as Facebook and such. So I'm not sure what's happening there.

I've never understood Tumblr and haven't ever created one. I don't get SnapChat. Or Vine. But wonder about them sometimes.

What else is there?  Anyway, that's about all the things I know about! And that's about all I can handle dealing with for now!




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Armchair BEA 2015: Intro Questions and a Little Library Love



It's time for Armchair BEA again! I can't believe a whole year has flown by! Today it's Introduction Day. So I've picked five questions (oops maybe more) to answer. But, it's also Highlight Your Library Day. I did this awhile back, but I'll post a thought or two again. See below.

But first, here's a bit about me:

What is your theme song?
Right now? How about My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy. I have no idea what this song actually has to do with me except that I love it and think it's one the best rock song, head banging things out there right now. Which just makes me happy.


What is one book everyone should read?
Guys!!! How many times do I have to say this!?? THE BOOK THIEF! 



Sorry. I got a little excited there. :)

Share your favorite blog post on your blog. (aka written by you!)

I've always been partial to that one time that I talked about going to author signings.


What book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?

There's a book I downloaded on my Kindle called The Bronze Horseman that I heard is quite the epic love story. I'm so much in the mood for this, so I hope to get to it sometime this summer and see if I agree.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what author would you want to bring with you? Why?

GUYS! Sigh. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. . .



And why? Because then I could have my own personal "how to be an amazing writer " lesson. And we could sit there on the beach and write and learn and write and learn. Doesn't that sound awesome? Oh, and also, this:




Take a picture of your bookshelf and share it with us! :) (#ABEAShelfie)



You do realize I have over twenty bookshelves in my house, right? Which one would you like? Well, here's the one by my bed with books that I hope to read soon.

Library Love!

As for my library, well, I don't even know where to start. I work there, you see, which I means I pretty much love it and think it's awesome and all the librarians are awesome and the whole collection is amazing and... yeah. It's a pretty cool library. I posted this video awhile back, but just in case you missed it, here it is again:


Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Perfect Beach Reads



Beach reads. Never really sure what people mean by this because all books could be good on a beach. Maybe not Atlas Shrugs, or Ulysses, but pretty much anything else. Mostly what I think makes a good beach read is a nice romantic and/or adventurous quick and easy to read YA. So here are my suggestions from some recent favorites:

Top Ten Beach Read Suggestions

1. The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West
2. Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan
3. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han ( and its sequels)
4. The Selection by Kiera Cass ( and its sequels)
5. Defy by Sara B. Larson (and its sequel)
6. The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain (and its sequel)
7. The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey (and its sequel)
8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (and its sequel that comes out today!)
9. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (and its sequels)
10. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (and its sequels)

Seriously. If you take this list to the beach, you'll be loving your reading life!!!

What would you suggest I take, should I happen to find myself on a beach this summer?

See everyone's lists over at The Broke and the Bookish today!


Monday, May 25, 2015

Book Review Discussion: Paranoia by J.R. Johansson

Book: Paranoia by J.R. Johansson
Genre: YA SciFi
Rating:★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
For: Fun, Support Local Authors
From: I bought this one, but I can't remember where!

Short Synopsis: This is the second book in the Night Walker series about Parker who is a Watcher, which means he watches the dreams of whoever he makes eye contact with last before he goes to sleep. Much craziness happened with that in the first book. This second book is more about his struggle with an alter ego part of himself he calls Darkness. It's also about how he learns there are others out there that live inside people's dreams called Builders (the good ones) and Takers (the bad ones.) This one also deals with the disappearance of his dad that he alludes to in the first book.

My Response: I must say that the plot and the details of this dream world got a bit complicated for me in this book. To the point of not really caring. The Takers especially, I just didn't get what their deal was. Even though they are the crux of the conflict in this story. I was more in it for the romance, how the Builders can help Parker and finding out what's up with the dad. So, that being said, I liked some parts and was a little bored by other parts.

Bottom Line: A fun scifi story, bordering on horror even, that deals with the hard to understand dream world.

Let's Talk About: What would you think if someone sat around and watched your dreams? Isn't that the creepiest idea ever? I mean, Parker has to spend time often in his mom's dreams! Think of it!

Other Reviews:

 There's suspense everywhere, and quite a lot of danger and action, too. The pacing is great, and I just really, really enjoyed the book.  From City of Books

I loved getting to know the secondary characters better–Addie, Finn, Mia, and now Jack too. They added a lot to the story and to Parker’s motives. From Jenni Elyse

Every character in this story is so well developed that it's hard to pick a favorite. I do have to say that I was intrigued by the character Jack. I was THRILLED to see what the author is doing with this character. From Why Not? Because I Said So

The later chapters are filled with action, emotion and apprehension, and we reach the story’s end with a sense of finality, although I would really like to follow Jack’s story. From All in One Place

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Currently: It's a Lazy Sunday Afternoon




Listening: Smoke and Mirrors album by Imagine Dragons. Love.





Watching: I started Daredevil. Yeah. Good. You're all right. It's very good. Dark. But good. In a dark good kind of way. You know. And. Charlie Cox. :)

Reading: From now until the trip I'm going to read random things off my shelves. What a concept. First off, Twenty Boy Summer. Yeah. See, it's been awhile since that book was the buzz! And then while on the trip, I'm going to read random things off my Kindle. I can't wait to see what pops up there! And then in August, I'm going to read so many local author books it'll make your head spin.

Blogging: You know. I look at my blog and it just makes me tired. Maybe the little mini Bloggiesta coming up in THREE WEEKS will kick something back in gear. But then I'll just go on the trip anyway, so it won't matter. Maybe after the trip the blogging mojo will come back. Do you think? Oh, and this week is ArmchairBEA! I hope to participate a bit, but like I said. I don't know. I feel like I'm starting to run out of things to say. Sad sad sad!

Writing: I FINISHED MY BOOK! By that, I mean I finally wrote the 2000 words that it needed at the end to make the story complete. Or sort of complete. In a really cheesy sort of way. But. still. Done. And now, I continue working on draft three knowing that the book actually has an ending and when I get there. . . again. . . I can fix it.

Planning: TRIP TRIP TRIP! I've started the countdown big time. Three more weeks. I skyped my son today. He's in Paris at this very moment. Ah. That city. I can't even. But we'll be experiencing new and different cities and I hope they blow me away as much as Paris did. I really hope those of you that follow me on Instagram will be okay with lots of trip pics, because I plan to be less shy about that. I think there's a fine line there and I worry about that a lot. But. There will be pics. Which I hope is fun and not obnoxious.

Health Watch: I did the Zumba thing for four days this week. Then the weekend (including Friday) hit and it's been bad. But. Still, Even with the discouragement of the stupid scale, I keep on keeping on. I think because it's too much fun really. And besides. There's Beto.



Doesn't just watching that make you want to get up and dance with 'em?


But then I made.. banana chocolate cake, banana brownies, cinnamon monkey bread and now I'm eating ice cream. So there's that problem still.

Gardening: We planted some more stuff this weekend. Beans, peas, lettuce, beets. Already planted previously: tomatoes, peppers, squash (two kinds) and some herbs. I'm always amazed every year when anything at all grows. We'll see what happens this year!

MISC:

  • lots and lots of concerts and violin things this past week. Most of that is over now.
  • book club for Dune this past week. Fun!
  • movie watch for Dune this Friday!
  • Memorial Day tomorrow. SLEEP IN!
  • Lots and lots of rain. It's like we don't even live in the desert or something. 
  • Prep for trek for Toto in a week from now. Can that really be here already?
  • And, that's all I can think of for now. Life. It's crazy you know?

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Book Review Discussion: Erasing Time by C.J. Hill

Book: Erasing Time by C.J. Hill
Genre: YA SciFi
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun 
From: The library

Short Synopsis: Twins, Sheridan and Taylor, are sucked into a time vortex and are whisked hundreds of years into the future. There they meet science geek, and crazy word historian, Echo, who has his own issues. Basically, they ALL want to escape this wacked out city. Echo is the perfect person to help them because he can actually speak to them in their "old" English language and he's fascinated with their old fashioned "old 20s" traditions and culture. As they go about their adventure, the girls learn much about him and his sad story. There's also a secret they have that he ends up figuring out too.

My Response: Very fun look at what our future might be like. Also, really fun to imagine being that far into the future and looking back at the crazy weird stuff we do now. I totally enjoyed that aspect of this story. I feel like I could have connected to the characters a little more. But I truly can't put my finger on what little thing might have been missing. It was a pretty science-y science fiction, so if that's your thing, you'll probably really love this one.

Oh, P.S. I wanted to mention that C.J. Hill is actually Janette Rallison (who I spent time with last week). She is known for her fluffy fun high school drama YA contemporaries, so when she decided to write science fiction she wrote under this name C. J. Hill, which is actually her mom's nom de plume.

Bottom Line: Fun romp into the future with a look at a world that really isn't that great!

Let's Talk About: What things do you think we do now, that people from the future will look back on and think is totally bizarre? Any thoughts on that?

Other Reviews:

I loved the ending and I seriously cannot wait to find out what's going to happen next!! Fans of Under the Never Sky and other dystopian novels will definitely want to pick this one up! From Literary Exploration

If you are looking for a dystopian a little off the beaten past, this is for you. You are looking for a story to make you smile, this is it as well.  From Bows and Bullets

And, man, is this world building crazy. From the moment we’re introduced to Echo and his father with their crayon colored hair and artistic facial art, the world is defined as an extremely altered version of our own. From Working for the Mandroid

Okay, and so there’s this TWIST in Erasing Time that I just loved and was totally thrown by. I mean, I expect I should have seen it coming (did anyone else?) but I totally didn’t and I loved that. From Hobbitsies


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

My #Storymakers15 Experience


Finally finally finally I managed to be brave enough to go to this writing conference! Again, it's one of those things I'd heard about for years but thought, eh, that's not for me. I'm "not in that tribe." It appears these things sometimes take time for me and I must ponder them awhile. I would have gone last year except for all the weddings I had to deal with. So last year, I committed to going this year.

I was so excited!

But when it finally came I was very nervous too. I talked my writing/blogging buddy Kathy into going with me, which was good, because then we could be nervous together. Isn't it awesome how that helps?

Our adventure started on Thursday with Boot Camp. Both Kathy and I were assigned the lovely Janette Rallison for a boot camp instructor. We came prepared with the first 15 pages of our manuscript, all polished as much as we could on our own. We knew we'd be reading them aloud so both of us had practiced on our families, with mixed results. No, they were good sports.

We arrived that day and were joined by two other aspiring authors. We found ourselves a little corner away from the main location where there was too much noise and proceeded to take turns reading our pages. Each one of us got about an hour of time, first with the reading, then Janette's critique, and then the critique of each of the other three in the group. Yes. Scary. But also really eye opening. It's amazing what others see that you don't see. It never fails to fascinate me!

Here's what I took away from boot camp regarding my story:
  • If there's going to be something to do with skinwalkers at some point in the story, I should hint at that right up front in the first chapter. 
  • Maybe I should even start at a different place? Some place more exciting perhaps?
  • The YA voice is good now, for the most part. I've manged to fix that though there are places were it slips into sounding younger too. Many places left to fix!
  • I talked about "hot farm boys" a lot in those first pages (trying to get that YA voice remember!) and Janette Rallison smilyfaced all those spots. She likes my hot farm boys I think. :)
  • My characters meet at church. In Utah. I tried to non-denominationalize the church, but it seems to throw people off. If they are in Utah, I guess it needs to be Mormon. But I didn't want to make it Mormon, you know? So. Dilemma.
  • So I could switch the setting, but it would really throw so many other things off. Dilemma.
  • Everyone seems baffled that a 17 year old girl would be interested in finding the diary of her ancestor. I'm baffled they are baffled. I guess I was a weird 17 year old myself and I think that this (and thus my character thinks so) would be cool.
  • But for the most part, no one blasted my actual writing. YAY! Progress I say! 
After more than five hours of this, it was time to go home! There was a party later, which I thought about going to, but ended up declining. Kathy went though and she can tell you all about it!

FANCY!

Friday I came back for classes. So much fun! And food! I'm not used to getting fed at these things. But get fed we did. A lot. And so much socializing. A lot. Every time I sat down, at a table, or in a class or anywhere, someone would ask: "What's your name? Where are you from? And what are you writing?" 

My name: This is hard question, as I've lamented before. I decided to own up to the nickname. Which was on my name tag, but in small print. Which would then throw people off since I'd say Suey but that didn't match my real name, so I'd hold out my tag and point to the small print nickname. Sigh. Why did I have to make things complicated and create this alter persona years ago?? :)

Where I'm from: TEN minutes away! Which was actually unique because so many people travelled from all over the country for this conference. Wow. Impressive. But being from ten minutes away is pretty dang boring. Sigh.

What I'm writing: The only thing I knew how to answer for sure here was. . .YA! Yes. YA for sure. After that, it's always a garbled mess. Um... speculative you could say, romance for sure, sort of paranormal (shhh, I didn't say that out loud), with a touch of horror even. But definaltey romance! I'm writing one that's set in the 80s! So, that's maybe historical now? Or maybe contemporary?. I don't know. I'm writing YA for sure though. Sigh.

The questions were hard.

Learning about writing a page turner
from Jennifer Nielsen
my favorite class of the conference.

But the classes! I learned how to get the most out of the conference experience (talk to people!), I learned how to write a page turner (make your characters suffer!),  I learned the guidelines for writing romance (always end it happy!), I learned about POV (don't change it up mid-sentence! Oh, and make sure your character is noticing what he or she would actually notice, not what you the author wants them to notice!), I learned about what people who read the slush pile look for or don't look for (basically, stuff they like, something with a good voice and an awesome hook!), I learned about showing and not telling (get rid of thought verbs like see, hear, feel, know, think, etc.) I learned so much stuff!

Meanwhile I was texting my son in France as he ventured out for a weekend on his own and how had managed to get there to Lyon, but was wandering around after dark in the rain trying to find his hotel. But still, I tried to concentrate on the craft of writing. 

And then, AND THEN, after dinner, we were treated to the most amazing keynote speech ever by Martine Leavitt. She said so many things that spoke right me and guess what. Every single other of the 700 people that were there felt the same way. It was seriously amazing. It brought tears to my eyes and everyone else too I think. When she was done, we all flew to our feet and clapped forever. 

After that there were several things they called mingles, but I was so beat, I had no energy left to mingle. My head and neck and eyes hurt like never before. So I party pooped out again and went home. 

Saturday Kathy was back! Our first class was an author chat. Several authors were "chatting" in different rooms, and we choose to listen to the debut author chat which included our new friend Amy Finnegan, and also David Powers King, and Charlie Holmberg. It was a fun chat and we enjoyed hanging with them. 
Charlie, Amy and David

In another chat that I did not go to, which included Brandon Mull, Jennifer Nielsen, J. Scott Savage and James Dashner, we learned afterwards some stuff that happened. Namely,  that James admitted to almost quitting years ago. He knew he had to face J. Scott at a Storymakers conference which was happening soon after that. He knew he couldn't quit. He knew these people were behind him. He knew had to keep going. We heard he got choked up and the room went deathly silent, everyone weepy with him.  But.. as you know,  he didn't quit and look at him now. It's a crazy amazing story.

After that we went to Character leads to Plot leads to Character and learned that there is not one or the other that dominates, but that both of those elements tie into each other. Then we went to a Deep Editing class where we learned words like symploce, polysyndeton, anadiplosis, anaphor, asyndeton, epistrophe and the best one...epizeuxis! (Which, by the way, I used at the very very top of this post!)  Then we learned how to archetype our male characters, which was totally fun. Is he an alpha? A charmer? A gentleman (yes!), an adventurer, a guru? 

So much fun!

I only bought two books to add to my collection.

Then it was the massive author signing. I spoke to Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Jennifer Nielsen, Amy Finnegan, Janette Rallison, Julie Daines, Angela Morrison (who tracked ME down saying is THIS the famous Suey? LOL!) , Jennifer Moore, Josie Killpack, Sara Eden, and Ilima Todd. To name a few. :)

Then I went home and crashed. 

But you know what? I've managed to write a bit each day since then because Martine Leavitt said if you only get one sentence a day, you are doing it! 

And now that I've finally experienced this conference, I must say, I'm still trying to decide if I fit in. Is this really for me? Am I REALLY a writer? Can I REALLY do this thing? But I think if I can get out Martine Leavitt's speech and read it whenever I'm wondering this,  I can and I will believe in myself and say without a doubt, yes, I AM and yes I CAN!


Monday, May 18, 2015

Book Review Discussion: The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West

Book: The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West
Genre: YA Romance
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: Bought from Amazon

Short Synopsis: When Gia has last minute issues at prom (for instance her boyfriend just dumped her,) she asks a random dude sitting in his car in the parking lot to fill in for her. Because she's really worried what her friends think. See, they don't believe she's really had a boyfriend. So this random guy fills in and does an amazing acting job. Then they pretend to break up at prom and he's off the hook. And that's the end of that. Or is it? Yeah, stuff keeps happening that brings them together and you can probably guess what happens next!

My Response: I got this book from Amazon, dropped everything and read it that day. Don't you love it when that happens? :) So much fun. The story is simple but each of these characters have things that need working through and it's fun to watch them take that journey. As always, I loved the characters and Mr. Random Parking Lot Guy aka. The Fill-in Boyfriend is especially swoon worthy.

Bottom Line: Fun, read-it-in-a-day sort of book!

Let's Talk About: Do you have an author whose books you'll drop everything to read the minute you get your hands on them? An author whose books are great comfort reads and who's stories just make you happy? So, who is that author and what do you love about their books?

Other Reviews:

I don’t know what it is about Kasie’s books, but they just hook me in and I’ve never not read one of her books in more than a day. From Mostly Book Obsessed 

I felt so bad for Gia that she had those issues with her friends, that she didn’t have people she could trust. But I loved the new friendships she was making, they were so much better for her and more likeable. From This Blonde Reads

However, it's much more than a cute, fluffy romance novel for the summer. It is a slightly intense self-discovery novel with romance.  From Feminist Reflections

The Fill-In Boyfriend will make your heart melt with the budding romance, amazing characters, and an inspirational message! From Dark Faerie Tales

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Currently: Foggy Brain Edition


                              CURRENTLY



Listening: To the album Sun by Thomas Bergerson. Guys. I love these songs so much. Seriously. I need to convert someone to this love. Who's it going to be? Jenni? I nominate you!



Watching: The only TV I watched this week is Survivor. But there's no one to root for since Joe was voted off a few weeks ago. So. Why am I still watching? Because these people are crazy!!!

I did finish the first season of Reign and ah!!! The ending! I can't wait for season 2 to show up on Netflix along with season 2 of The 100 and season 2 of Sleepy Hollow and season I don't know of Once Upon a Time and Vampire Diaries! I hope they will be here in the summer and I can binge watch them all!

Reading: It was the Bout of Books this week, but all I managed was to finish the two books I was reading currently when the week started. But that's better than nothing! I finished Dune and Erasing Time. You can see my Dune wrap up here. Review for the other one to come soon.

Writing: Oh boy. Well. I will do a separate post about my experience at Storymakers these past few days, but to prep for that I had to spiff up my first 15 pages of my story and get them critiqued. And now... I need to start it all over again. Like. from scratch. So... yeah. Writing. DANG, it's hard! Anyway, I blame my foggy brain on the past three days. CRAZY!

Blogging: Plugging along. The Dune RAL has pretty much ended, though we'll have a couple of other events which you can join in on through Twitter. Bloggiesta for June is in ONE MONTH! It's going to be VERY low key. And, I feel like I've been doing a lot of Utah author promoting lately. It seems to be a thing for me. I hope you don't mind it!

Eating: Terrible. Not eating much. Small amounts, but terrible stuff. Eating is the hugest pain. Seriously. BUT... (this should be in an exercising category but it's related so I'll put it here) I have been keeping up on Zumba. EVERYDAY (less the weekends)  for FIVE weeks! ZERO pounds lost!!! GO ME!! :)

Planning: This week I'm planning book club, and many concerts for kid four, and Zumba every day, and starting my book over again, and  I can't remember what else.

Worrying: About everything. As usual. Kid two and kid three are having fun on their respective adventures. Two weeks down, a bunch to go! One month from today our own European Adventure Take Two starts!
JJ at some waterfall in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador.
Dev (center blue shirt) at Cannes France during the Festival.

Well. On to another week. I'm so tired. Wish me luck.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Dune Read Along Part Three Discussion



Well. We did it! Dune is done! The discussion questions for part three are over at Kami's blog.

Don't forget our chat tonight at 9 pm MDT. (It'll be a miracle if I get this posted before that time! Update: I didn't.)

Book club is this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. MDT. We'll (mostly Jenni) tweet the discussion for those interested. (It'll be a miracle if anyone else besides Kami, Jenni, Jenny and I read it! But we'll see!)

And we'll watch the mini series on either Friday or Saturday May 29 or 30. Leaning toward Friday right now. (Sorry, my schedule is messy at the moment!)

But now... here are my answers.


1. What are your overall thoughts? Did you like it?

Well, I liked parts. And the premise and world is really fun and interesting. But I really really disliked ( I hate to use the word hate, but I'm nearly there with this one) the writing style. I've just been to a writing conference all weekend and Frank Herbert pretty much does everything we are taught (at least nowadays) NOT to do. But back then in the olden days, maybe no one cared.


2. Do you think you could ride a giant worm?

No. Mostly likely not. But it might be fun to try!


3. Paul's relationship with his mom, Jessica, dramatically changed and evolved over the course of the book. How did their relationship change and why do you think it did?

Paul became The Dude (oh, I mean DUKE.. and that other thing) and now he's the big wig and seems to look down on his mom. Yeah, that bugged me. I think they should work out how to be partners in crime.

4. What do you think about Paul's lack of emotion?

Well, he did cry at that one guy (Jamis?) funeral, which pretty much freaked everyone out. And I did seem to catch some emotion with regard to Chani, but I longed so much to see more. So so much more. I think he figured that because he was now The Dude, he shouldn't/couldn't/wouldn't show any emotion. But I think it would make him a better leader if he did.

5. Now that I've finished, I feel like I'd pick up on a lot more of the details and things if I read it again. Do you think you'll reread Dune? If this is a reread, did you catch different things this time around?

No. I think this'll be it for me.

6. How do you feel about the political arrangement at the end? Do you feel bad for Princess Irulan or Chani?

I do feel bad for both of them. Awful arrangement. Terrible. Crazy. Sad. All of it.

7. Will you read the rest of the series?

No no and no. I have too many other things I'd so much rather read! I am happy that I re-read this though and have remembered all the things.

8. Favorite character and why?
No one really stood out to me as someone I totally loved and/or connected to. I felt much lacking with the character development. Stilgar was cool. Chani was interesting. The Baron was disgusting.

9. What did you think about the quotes at the beginning of each chapter? Did you read them? Were they interesting? Were they helpful?
I did read them. I actually quite liked them and thought that those things would almost make a better book. I liked that it gave us insight into Princess Irulan's character just a touch.

10. Did you have fun during the Read Along? Was there anything we could have done better? Would you have read this book if you hadn't joined?

Read alongs are always fun! Thanks to all who joined in with us! What should we do next???! :)

Friday, May 15, 2015

Cover Reveal and Author Spotlight for Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage

Today I'm pleased to share with you the cover a fun new middle grade book by one of my favorite authors, J. Scott Savage. Please meet: 

Mysteries of Cove Book One: Fires of Invention


This book will be released in September, so you can be sure to hear more about it then. In the meantime, here's a few more fun tidbits:


Author Note:

Like many of my books, the inspiration for my new series Fires of Invention came from the collision of two ideas. The first time the story occurred to me was while I was watching the musical Wicked with my wife. The moment I walked into the theater and saw the huge mechanical dragon above the stage, I thought, Wow! I have to write a story about that! A few weeks later, I was talking with my nephew, who is probably the most creative kid I know, but whose inventiveness often gets him into trouble, and I thought, What if a kid who had the talents of my nephew lived in a world where creativity was against the law? What if the kids were building . . . a steam-powered dragon? Bam! I had my story.

Powered by great feedback from my agent, Michael Bourret, my good friend and author James Dashner, my publisher, Chris Schoebinger, and the song “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons, I wrote the entire first draft of the first volume in the series, Mysteries of Cove in four weeks. This book is unlike anything I have ever written. There are elements of City of Ember, Dragon Riders, and Hugo in it all mashed up together in a world I fell in love with from the moment I started writing.

I think what’s most exciting to me about this book is that it’s about giving yourself the freedom to imagine. To take chances. Too often we limit ourselves by only trying things we’re confident we can succeed at when what we need to do is give ourselves permission to fail. Often it is when we attempt things with no idea of how we can possibly pull them off that we achieve our greatest successes.

Book Description:

STEAMPUNK! Plus Dragons!

Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and "invention" is a curse word. Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion-an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they've ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on-and quite possibly their very lives.

Author Bio:

J. Scott Savage is the author of the Farworld middle grade fantasy series and the Case File 13 middle grade monster series. He has been writing and publishing books for over ten years. He has visited over 400 elementary schools, dozens of writers conferences, and taught many writing classes. He has four children and lives with his wife Jennifer and their Border Collie, Pepper, in a windy valley of the Rocky Mountains.


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Into the Dark Series Final Contest

One last promotion for the Into the Dark series by Bree Despain! A fun contest! Here's all the details and info from Bree herself:

********************


My big news: Yes, there will be a third book in the Into The Dark series! Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Books, will be publishing Book 3 (most likely in Fall 2016). That means Haden and Daphne will get the ending to their story that I always envisioned!


I cannot tell you how excited I am!!! So to show you, I am celebrating with a contest . . .

One lucky winner will receive the Grand Prize:
Have a character named after you in Into The Dark Book 3.
A Cupid's Arrow Ring.
And because Daphne and Haden love music so much: a $25 iTunes giftcard.

Three runners up will win:
A Cupid's Arrow Ring and an Into The Dark swag pack.

All you have to do to enter is solve the following anagram and then use the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

A SHARE UNTOLD

Hints:
3 words
Reading THE ETERNITY KEY will help you solve the puzzle.
Daphne's gifts. 

Rules:
U.S. Residents only.
The contest is open for two weeks (so if you need a little help solving the puzzle, you have enough time to read THE ETERNITY KEY).
The winners names will be posted here on the blog on May 28th. Winners will have 30 days to claim their prize or else their prize will be forfeit.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Launch Parties: Bree Despain and Chantele Sedgwick

This past Saturday was a fun bookish day. TWO launch parties for a couple of my favorite Utah authors happened at the cool and quaint bookstore, The King's English. First up was Bree Despain, for her latest The Eternity Key. (Check out my review here.) You've been hearing a lot about this book since I've been part of the ambassador posse Bree put together to help promote this book especially due to some publisher issues. She told us the whole story and it's quite the saga.

But it's out now and the third one will be published too! Yay for that!

Reading from The Eternity Key.

Jenni Elyse shares a laugh with Bree.

Kami was there too!
She'd signed this for me already.
But she signed it again. :)


An hour of that one was over, it was Chantele Sedgwick 's turn to launch her book, Love, Lucas. (Check out my review here.) It was awesome to be there to cheer her on!

Reading from Love, Lucas.

This time it was just me and Toto!


After that we bought Mother's Day presents at the bookstore and went on our way. What a fun day spent at the bookstore!


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Want to Meet



Well, this list doesn't change much over time. And I'm guessing it'll be very similar to many other lists today. But yeah, here are some authors I'd love to meet!

Top Ten Authors I'd Love to Meet

1. John Green of course. Please. Some day.
2. J.K. Rowling of course. Because wouldn't we all?
3. Suzanne Collins of course. Because she is awesome.
4. Sarah Dessen. Because she just seems so fun and cute, just like her books!
5. Neil Gaiman. Who was just here the other day and I didn't go. :(
6. Meg Cabot. Wouldn't she be a blast though?
7. Neal Shusterman. I just think he's so cool!
8. Melina Marchetta. Because I LOVE HER BOOKS!
9. Veronica Rossi. Because... ditto.
10. Markus Zusak. Because once is not NEARLY enough. Can we do it again please!


This prompt truly makes me realize how many authors I HAVE met and how cool that is. Maybe I can knock a few more off this list before it's over!

Be sure to write up a list and link it over at The Broke and the Bookish today!


Monday, May 11, 2015

Bout of Books Bookish Survey




Hey everyone! I hope to read a ton of books this week with the Bout of Books Readathon! They are getting things kicked off with this little survey found at Writing My Own Fairy Tale.



1. How do you organize your shelves?

I have a little classics section, and a little fiction section, and a little MG section, and a little non fiction section and a bit YA signed books section, and a book hardcover random books section, and a little Markus Zusak shrine, and a little children's classics section, and a couple of little prize winning shelves, and a Dr. Suess section, and Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew section, and . . . 

A glimpse of part of my shelves when I was
in the processes of organizing them
once upon a time.

2. What is one of your favorite book that’s not in one of your favorite genres?

Mystery is not one of my favorite genres, but The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is one of my favorite books, and in fact, I heard it called once the first mystery. (Or something like that.) Anyway, it's a mystery and I loved it!




3. What is the last 5 star book you read?

The last book I gave 5 stars too was The Golem and the Jinni which I loved!


4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon?

I'm excited to finish Dune for the Dune Read Along, and then I'd like to read Paranoia by J.R. Johansson, and Dead Zone by Robison Wells.


5. What book do you recommend the most?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak of course. :)


Happy Reading everyone!

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