Thursday, January 27, 2011
SCBWI
The good news: I'm going to New York again; I get to see the amazing Ginger Clark again; and I get to attend my first conference. Woot.
The bad news: I'm going to New York in the winter, where it is cold and wet (more so than it is here in Arkansas) and I will be radio silent here for a while.
See you on the flip side. : )
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Review: Across the Universe
Published: January 11, 2011 by Razorbill
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
2011 Debut Author Challenge
Description:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Review: Incarceron
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: January 26, 2010 by Dial (first published May 3rd, 2007)
Format: ARC
Source: Gift
Incarceron is a prison unlike any other: Its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness. The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.
Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can’t remember his childhood and believes he came from Outside Incarceron. He’s going to escape, even though most inmates don’t believe that Outside even exists. And then Finn finds a crystal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.
Claudia claims to live Outside—her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she’s doomed to an arranged marriage. If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know.
Because Incarceron is alive.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
An Award and One Awesomesauce Contest
Yes, so, THANKS FOR THE AWARD! It's pretty, and I like it. Naturally, there are rules, and I'm supposed to open up to you and share my feelings and yada yada yada. No really. Seven things. Okay. Do I have seven things left to tell you guys? . . .
Friday, January 14, 2011
A Vlog
I thought I'd drop in and actually SAY hi to you all this time, as well as talk about reviews a little and bring up SCBWI NY Winter Conference. But recording myself isn't something I do a whole lot. So I apologize for the blurring, the lighting, and the text message I get about halfway through the video. Enjoy, and please don't make fun of me too much. (If you don't want to watch, you aren't missing much...Just me.)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Review: Matched
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: November 30, 2010 by Dutton JuvenileFormat: Hardcover, 366 pgs.
Source: Gift
Description:
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Review: Z
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: September 7, 2010 by HarperTeen
Format: Hardcover, 288 pgs.
Source: Purchased
Description:
The First Rule of Torching: Cleanse with fire.
Josh is by far the best zombie Torcher around—at least, he is in his virtual-reality zombie-hunting game. Josh has quickly risen through the player ranks, relying on the skill, cunning, and agility of a real Torcher.
The Second Rule of Torching: Save all humans.
But luckily for Josh, zombies exist only in the virtual world. The real zombie war is now more than fifteen years in the past, and the battle to defeat the deadly epidemic that devastated his family—and millions of others—is the stuff of history lessons.
The Third Rule of Torching: You can't bring them back.
Charlie is the top-ranked player in the game. Since all the players are shrouded in anonymity, Josh never expects Charlie to be a girl—and he never expects the offer she makes him: to join the underground gaming league that takes the virtual-reality game off the screen and into the streets. Josh is thrilled. But the more involved he gets, the more he realizes that not everything is what it seems. Real blood is spilling, members of the team are disappearing, and the zombies in the game are acting strange. And then there's the matter of a mysterious drug called Z. . . .
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Review: The Replacement
Age Group: Young Adult
Published: September 21, 2010 by Razorbill
Format: Hardcover, 343 pgs.
Source: Purchased
Description:
Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Blog Fest Mashup
There are a couple blog fests going around today that I wanted to get in on, so I think I'll participate in both. The first in Katrina Lantz's New Year's Revision Blog Party. Katrina had the idea for everyone to share their revision plans, since revision can be a bit of a drag sometimes. So for 2011, here's what I've got planned:I want to have the 2nd draft of The Sandman's Apprentice finished before February. I'm already 20k into it and I'm hoping the final draft will be closer to 45k, which looks very doable.
I'll look back over draft two and fix all the things I know need to be fixed.
By the third week of February, I want to have my own revisions finished so I can send TSA off to others to read and crit. I really only have one or two people I can send it to, so I may be posting come February for CPs.
Hopefully, in March I can work on any- and everything I get feedback on and be completely finished before April.
So there you have it, that's my very loose schedule for revisions, and with any lucky I'll actually be finished a lot earlier than that. But I won't hold my breath. The story is the easiest thing for me to fix, so the technical aspects are what will be the most time consuming. Here's to a productive 2011!
What are your revision plans?
And now, for the other blog fest from Vicki Rocho: Eye Candy.So, because I love each and everyone of you, I'm going to try to get some eye candy that everyone can appreciate.
For the guys, the always lovely Kate Beckinsale.
Ladies, I give you Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is finally getting the recognition he deserves.
And now, some of the pictures that make me smile every time I look at them:
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