Monday, August 30, 2010
Review: Cinders
Age Group: Adult
Published: June 23, 2010 by CreateSpace
Format: Paperback, 182 pgs (novella)
Source: For Review
Cinderella's happily-ever-after isn't turning out the way she expected.
My Thoughts:
Cinders is a fantastic continuation of the beloved Cinderella fairy-tale, but if you're looking for cute little talking animals and happily-ever-afters, you're looking in the wrong place. Michelle Davidson Argyle has given us a new look at Cinderella and just what happened after she married her prince. Things aren't all great, and magic could be the problem.
I think the thing I loved most was that there was never a definite answer to Cinderella's problems. She married the Prince and was trying to love him, but she constantly thought of another man and was always wondering if the Prince's love for her would still be there if the magic wasn't there. And in the end nothing gets tied up with a pretty pink bow. It was real and like fairy-tales used to be. Yes, I;m looking at you Disney.
It's heartbreaking and beautifully written and I wouldn't change a word of it. The characters were well developed, and Cinderella definitely grows into herself as the story progresses. The only thing that could have been different would have been the ending, but a happy ending wouldn't have been true to the real fairy-tales and to the story at all.
Cinders is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.
Visit the author online.
Buy the book online: Amazon
Thursday, August 19, 2010
It's not you; it's me.
But I'll also be having another contest, like, sooner than that. Hopefully that one will be next week, and will come with a review, and possibly an author interview. :)
Moving on. If you're my friend on Goodreads, or a regular follower here, you'll have noticed I haven't reviewed anything lately and possibly that I've been reading the same two books for weeks now. It's not that I don't like them. I just can't bring myself to read them, and it's been bugging me lately. A lot. And I realized the other day that it wasn't the books at all, though I never really thought it was; it was all me. As much as I wanted to read them and as great as they are, I just couldn't. I still can't. Because right now, my brain just really doesn't want to read a long adult book.
I've always read adult books, always. YA and MG have been most of what I read but the adults have always called to me, too. So why can't I read them right now? These books are great. I want to read them, but apparently I just need to submerge myself in some younger perspectives for a few days and hope it helps.
Does this ever happen to you? Are there ever any books that you've started but you just couldn't finish right then? Or any genres or age groups you've had to step away from for a little while? This is new to me, and I feel really bad for the two books that just keep staring me down. I keep sighing and telling them that it really isn't them, but I don't think they believe me. I'll make it up to them later.
Also, it's really hard to find time to read published books when you're trying to write one of your own, reading for an agent, and taking a class that sucks up all of your time. Luckily, Spanish ended last Friday so I've slowly been regaining lost time. Will be reading again soon! Speaking of, I have a full MS I need to finish. See you all later!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
What's this? A new post?!
Okay, I don't know what that was, but it's after 2am (please excuse any and all typos and incomplete sentences/thoughts) and right now everything's kind of funny. So we'll just move on. If you follow my Twitter, and I don't know why you would but anyway, you know that I've been rather blah lately. Now as Jade has a new mantra for me (#nomoreblah), I've been forbidden from the levels of lackluster, no motivation living. Unfortunately, I still feel like I have absolutely nothing worth saying. Heck, I can't even finish a book to review these days, which by the way makes me feel horrible.
ANYWAY, I'm finished with Spanish for the summer. WOOO!!!!! Sorry, it kind of sucked the life out of me there for a bit, and by that I mean it really ticked me off almost every day. But it's all good, because it's over and my life is returning to normal and I have time again! Mind you I still have, like, 7 partials to read, so if you haven't heard back from AA and you know who that is, it's totally my fault (ignore the fact that she's been out of office for a bit).
Have I mentioned it's like 2:20am? I have sleeping problems. It sucks. So yea, umm, I swear I had a point. OH! That's right, if any of you have topics you;d like me to talk about or attempt to talk about or if any of you want to guest blog or something leave me a comment, because right now I seriously feel like I could just go on and on without saying a single thing of importance . . . but I won't.
I will, however, ask if everyone had a lovely time at WriteOnCon. Did you learn a lot, meet new people? I myself didn't get to attend much and I was completely absent from the forums (yay life!), but I LOVED all of the posts, chat recordings, and vlogs. Such a wealth of information. A huge thanks to the ladies who put it all together. If you're reading this,
THANK YOU!!!
It was a wonderful conference, and I certainly learned a lot. You all are awesome.
And now, it is 2:28 and I am finally ready for bed. Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope no one had a horrible Friday the 13th, personally it's always been a good day for me. Anyway, enjoy your weekend and, hopefully, I'll see you all again soon!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Author Interview: Kiersten White
As promised, today I have the pleasure of interviewing Kiersten White. You might know her from blog Kiersten Writes, which is made of awesome just like she is, or perhaps you've heard the name alongside the title of a little book called Paranormalcy. Regardless of whether or not you already know her, you should. I'd tell you to go check out her blog and come back, but I know you'd just get lost in the wonder that is the Yeti-Leprechaun love story, so you'll just have to go look at it after the interview. : )
About Kiersten:
"I'm a YA writer represented by the wonderful Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary. My first novel, PARANORMALCY, will be published by HarperTeen in August, 2010, with two sequels to follow. Which makes me all sorts of happy . . .
About Kiersten:
When not lost in a Word document or cyberspace, I spend time with my wonderful husband and two rather adorable children. I prefer mountains over beaches (a bit of a problem when you live in San Diego), Dr Pepper over Coke (but should probably quit drinking either), and parenthetical statements over dashes (but only in theory--clearly I use dashes more often)." -- from her blog made of win.
Check out her website, or visit her on Twitter.
On to the interview!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A Question and an Answer
First of all, sorry I never got around to responding to all of your comments. I promise I read them all, and I'm happy to say there are quite a few books you all are reading that I've never heard of and will have to look up. Oh, and there's a new background again because my old one expired and I got tired of looking for it...
Now then, there was a great question asked the other day by Alexandra Shostak, who has a great blog by the way, in the comments of a query post, and I wanted to answer it on the blog. She said, "It's interesting to hear that some previously published authors are querying agents. I always wondered how that worked, Amanda. Wouldn't they already have agents? Or, if not, why, and would that be a red flag at all for a prospective client? (Maybe they're difficult to work with, for example?)"
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