Ramblings of a Drifting Mind: books

Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Friday, November 25, 2011

Tangled Tides: War of the Underwater Worlds

Today is a very special day, and, no, I'm not referring to all the sales taking place for the time honored tradition that is Black Friday. No, I'm talking about the release of a very good book by a very awesome person: Karen Amanda Hooper's Tangled Tides. (In case you weren't here on Monday, you can read my review here.)

The cool thing about Tangled Tides is that it's not just about merfolk; it's about a number of mythical creatures, all fighting for survival. In celebration of her book's release, Karen is hosting a battle of sorts, a war of the underwater worlds that takes place all over the internet. Myself and other readers are choosing our sides and declaring them publicly, and if you want a chance to win a signed copy of her book (and why wouldn't you? I do!), you should choose a side, too. All you have to do is tweet about your favorite creature/who you're rooting for and include the hashtag #TangledTides to be entered to win a signed copy of the book as well as some other sea creature gifts. (For more information visit Karen's blog.)

While merfolk and selkies are the primary creatures, gorgons and sirens also play critical roles in the story. In order for you to make a more informed decision, Karen has posted brief descriptions of each creature on her blog. (If you've read this far, you've probably realized you have to go to Karen's blog at some point. It is her book after all. :)

Although I find them all fascinating and rooted for everyone while reading Tangled Tides, I have to admit that when it comes down to it, I choose merfolk. Why? you ask. Because they're cool . . . and they have Treygan.

Merfolk are all about the sunshine and the water. They have different jobs, and they even come color coded. AND merfolk aren't condemned to an eternity underwater, they can move freely between land and sea (if they know how to control it), and they can manipulate water. They're pretty awesome, if I may so.

All interior artwork was done by fellow writer/blogger Alexandra Shostak, who is also awesome and incredibly talented. In the book, merfolk are represented by the image at the right, which I absolutely adore.

If you're interested, you can buy the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or through Rhemalda; you can also add the book on Goodreads!

I choose merfolk. Whose side are you on?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Standalone VS The Series

If you read YA or MG (and I'm going to assume that you do if you're reading my blog), then you've probably noticed the same things I have. First (not really, that's just where I'm going to start) there were vampires, so many in fact that lots of people, and the market in general, became overwhelmed by them. I am going to call this the Twilight Effect.

The Twilight Effect kicked off a big trend in publishing not unlike dominoes falling. We saw a fixation on a new paranormal creature that resulted in an abundance of, for instance, werewolves. Like the vampires before them, they were suddenly everywhere, flooding the shelves at bookstores, becoming many teenagers' new obsession.

But this is not the aspect of the Twilight Effect I want to talk about. Not because it isn't worth talking about, simply because everyone else already has, and we all know that it will continue. People will fixate on one creature or genre until the 'next big thing' comes out. Rinse. Repeat.

The thing that has my attention these days is the abundance of series we have on our hands. It's almost like an epidemic in the fantasy and science fiction genres of YA. While we could blame this bit on JK Rowling, the Harry Potter books have been out for years without inspiring this mass desire for sequels. We can, however, thank Rowling for kicking authors everywhere into gear and bringing children's literature to a new level.

Now then: the series, and more specifically the trilogy. A good series is fantastic. It takes a lot of skill to craft multiple books with a self-contained plot and give each book a portion of an overlying plot arc. There are lots of characters to take into consideration, not to mention the MC's growth over, not just one book, but sometimes five or more. That being said, you can see how there can easily be a lot of problems with a series. They can go on too long, they can get saggy and dull in the middle, they can lose focus of what is important. They can stop being true to the characters.

And because of this, as a writer, you have to ask yourself if your story really has to be part of a series. Not all books do. If you're writing a trilogy because they're hot right now, and they are, then you're writing it that way for the wrong reason. You need to take a look at your story and decide if multiple books are necessary to tell the tale that you want to write, because if it's not then it's okay for your book to be a standalone novel. Really, it is.

In fact, as a reader, I'm getting tired of series. I'm not going to stop reading them any time soon (most of my favorite books are part of a trilogy right now or a longer series anyway), but I would like to read a nice paranormal YA that ties everything up and ENDS. I would like to not have to wait a year or longer for the next installment of a story (Hi there, Sookie.). I would like to be in the position of yearning for more of a character and NOT GETTING IT. Why? Because sometimes it's nice to just wonder.

At the end of Z by Michael Thomas Ford (my review here), something BIG happens and you want to know more. You want to know what the character does next, how he will react, but the author deliberately chose to leave his readers in the dark. And I kind of love him for it. I can imagine a hundred different scenarios now of how his story played out, and none of them have to be wrong. I can get to know that character on a more personal level because of that ending, specifically because it's left open.

I think authors (mostly in the science fiction/fantasy genres) have begun to turn their backs on the standalone novel in hopes of big book deals and huge sales numbers, but there is power in a single book. You can write a series, and you SHOULD if that's what your story NEEDS to be complete, to get all the details out there, but you really shouldn't be writing a trilogy (or any other kind of series) unless it's vital to your plot.

Just because there's a trend bandwagon, doesn't mean you have to jump on it.

What do you think? Are trilogies and longer series over done? Would you like to see more single title books?

Friday, September 30, 2011

Brain Dead

I was going to post a review yesterday of Nina LeCour's Hold Still, but I had the GRE at 8 AM and then got called into work from 1-9 PM. Obviously the review didn't happen. Today I woke up late and have to be at work soon. So you have my apologies on the delays, but I promise you will get reviews of Hold Still, Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready, and Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore next week. With any luck I'll have Veronica Roth's Divergent up as well, but no guarantees on that one.

Go forth; have a terrific Friday; and enjoy the lovely weekend!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Writerly Wednesday

If you've followed the blog for a while, you know I used to do Work in Progress Wednesdays. Obviously I don't do that anymore. I would, however, like to get back to talking about books and writing and all things publishing so I think I'll dedicate Wednesdays to that. Not to say that I'll have reviews every other day of the week or anything, but who knows?

So that's that.

I'm excited to tell you all that I've jumped back on the revisions horse and am going to start Draft 4, Chapter 4 today. Hopefully I'll get quite a bit done. It's amazing how easy it was for me to just pick back up with Taryn in The Sandman's Apprentice. I got 2 chapters done yesterday, putting me about 4,300 words into this draft; if I keep it up I should be done in no time and can move on to the more nit-picky things like word choice and sentence structure. And then, my dear friends, I can ship it off to be read and start something NEW. Which I'm dying to do because half-formed ideas keep coming to me and I'm trying really, really hard not to develop them into something real. *sigh*

In reading related news, I read Divergent on Monday. I sat down with it and read it all in about 7 hours (It's nearly 500 pages of totally fantastic characters and wonderful writing.). Expect a glowing review sometime next week. And go check out Veronica Roth if you haven't already, because she's literally made of awesome. I've also started my first Sarah Dessen novel (Just Listen)so we'll see how that goes. Oh! and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is out now. WANT.

Alright, your turn: spill. Made any great writing/editing progress? Waiting for any particular books to come out? Reading anything you think is brilliant?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Moving Forward

As much as I've wanted to write lately, I haven't had anywhere to work. No where to spread out my papers, no where to set my computer. It's been obnoxious. So I've been putting it all off: the brainstorming, the drafting, the editing... Only now it's driving me nuts. I want to make progress, but I don't have the space. And I'm sick of it.

I want to be editing TSA. I want to be working on all the book ideas I have. I want to be querying.

Despite everything, I'm going to resume editing The Sandman's Apprentice. I miss it; I need to finish it; and I'm not going to let the lack of a desk stop me any more.

In other news, reviews to come next week. I'm working on 4 of them and reading Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore, meaning that'll be review number 5.

So how is everyone? Read any good books? Come up with any amazing book ideas lately?

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Books sans Reviews

I've been talking about giving you guys some reviews, but I don't think that's going to happen, not because I don't want to, I just don't feel like I could give all of you good enough reviews now that it's been a while since I've read most of them. Instead, I'll just tell you what I've read lately and give you a little tidbit about whether I liked it or not and a link to Goodreads, more like a mini-review than no review at all. Sound good? Great. Hope you see something you like!

1. City of Glass, Cassandra Clare - Loved it. Every bit as intriguing and wonderful as the first two books in the Mortal Instrument series. Still a tad predictable, but plenty of surprises to keep you on your toes. Super excited to read the final book in this series and begin the prequel series that starts with Clockwork Angel.

2. Radiance, Alyson Noel - I found the concept very cool and enjoyed the first bit, but I thought the character development was VERY rushed; yes, it is a short book, but if your snotty preteen is going to completely change into an understanding, caring, and enlightened individual it needs to be believable. I didn't buy it, and it ruined the whole book for me. Am hesitant to read anything else by this author since I have heard her other series, based on the same family, also fizzles out.

3. Sookie Stackhouse Books 1-11, Charlaine Harris - Absolutely wonderful. I read all 11 books out so far (of which there will only be 13 total), and I loved everyone of them. I was a little concerned the writing and characters would get stale, and I had heard that some of the books were infuriating, but this only seems to be the case if you're actually waiting a year between each book since many details can be forgotten. Also, Harris has a tendency to leave some major things out between books, making you wonder if you've missed something only to be fully informed of what occurred later on. An interesting trick, and one that I'm not terribly fond of, but it doesn't ruin the series at all for me. Loved every single book. On another note, the books have little in common with the show (True Blood), just FYI.

4. Parasol Protectorate Books 2-4, Gail Carriger - This series may be the greatest thing since tea was discovered, and I really like tea. I cannot say enough good things about the writing and the plot and the characters; they're all fantastically crafted. I love the chemistry between the characters and the relationships between them all, good and bad, and I absolutely love the world-building: paranormal, historical, steampunk? Yes, please! I will admit that book 4 wasn't quite at the same level as the first 3, but I only say that because it's written a little differently than the others; the characters and plot are still positively wonderful.

5. Bad Taste in Boys, Carrie Harris - This book is actually going to get a review since it's a 2011 debut and was fairly recently read, but I wanted to go ahead and tell everyone that it's super awesome, totally adorable (despite the whole zombie thing), and hilarious.

6. Nerd Do Well, Simon Pegg - I don't do a whole lot of non-fiction, but I'm currently reading Simon Pegg's autobiography and absolutely loving it. Pegg is behind such hilarious films as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Paul, as well as staring in Mission Impossible III as a nerdy IT guy and the new Star Trek reboot as Montgomery Scott, AKA Scotty. If you like Simon Pegg, you'll want to read this. (And I usually don't advocate books I'm not even finished with, so that should tell you something.)

Monday, June 6, 2011

WSJ vs YA

By now I'm sure you've all heard of this little article here. And by 'little' I mean long, ugly, and not something I agree with, but that's the author's opinion, and she has every right to it. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, please go read it now and come back. I'm not going anywhere.

...Finished? Good. So now that we're all on the same page, I'd like to take a minute to express my own opinions and then point you in the directions of a couple of other things to read.

Contest Alert!

I have been meaning to post. Really, I have. Between playing catch up since SCBWI New York and school and the massive amounts of snow that keep dropping on us, I just haven't managed to make it (or anything else for that matter) work. So I'm coming to you now with something good to get back in your good graces: a contest.

You read that right, a contest.

An Award and One Awesomesauce Contest

I was recently given the Stylish Blogger award by Brooke Johnson. For those of you who know Brooke and follow her blog, you know she's pretty awesome. I know her in person... well, before she graduated early and ran off with the man she loves. Who does that?! I dunno, whatever. :P Anyway, if you don't know her, you should definitely swing by her blog and get to know her a little. (I feel like I'm endorsing her: Meet Brooke. She's Awesome. Because I said so.)

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? . . .

2011 Debut Author Challenge

Kristi over at The Story Siren is hosting the 2011 Debut Author Challenge in which lots of book lovers come together in an attempt to read as many debuts as possible throughout the year (12 minimum). This year, I will (try) to be one of them.

Here's the starter list of 2011 debuts I want to get my hands on:

XVI by Julie Karr
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard
Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker
Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Possession by Elana Johnson
Luminous by Dawn Metcalf
Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
Wildefire by Karsten Knight
The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
Banish by Gretchen McNeil
Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

And those are just the ones I've been looking forward to for months. :)

Will you be participating?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Why hello there!

What's this? Another new post? It's a miracle!

I know. I know. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. It's harder than you'd think. Sigh.

Anyway, I finally got to start writing again. I'm on draft 2 of TSA, and boy did I miss it. I broke 12k the other day; I was seriously beginning to wonder if it would ever happen (pushing 13k now - WOO!). I've got some big goals for this one over the break: finish draft 2, edit, send to some readers, edit, send to a couple of agents. We'll see if that happens. But I'm certainly going to try!

On a slightly related (if you think in terms of publishing and books in general I suppose) I had to stop reading for Awesome Agent because of school, which totally sucked by the way (school AND not being able to read for AA). But since she's made of pure awesome (hence the name) she's taking me back, at least for the break. I've already looked at one partial and have another to read for her today. I love this business, and knowing that makes the thought of moving from Arkansas (don't judge me) to New York that much easier. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing than bringing my own and others' books into the world, except for playing my instruments, but that's an even harder job to get into. O.O

Books. There are so many that I haven't had a chance to read and so many more that have come out. It's crazy. I'm going to do so much reading over the break, because I have at least 3 books that I have to review that desperately need to get read. Sigh. Sometimes I fail at life.

And on that note, have any of you had any success while I was away? Book deals? Agent signings? Do tell!

(Did I mention how much I missed all of you?)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Contest of Awesome

In celebration of my 100, 125, and 150 followers and my 21st birthday, I'm having a contest. An awesome contest.

The Rules:

1) You must be a follower.
2) You must comment on this post.
3) Honestly, that's about it, because this contest is open to everyone! (So long as you live somewhere the Book Depository ships to.) :)

Extra Entries:

+1 for being a follower (automatic)
+1 for commenting (automatic)
+1 for telling me your newest favorite book and
+1 for telling me why you loved it
+1 for Tweeting about the contest*
+1 for linking on your blog *
+3 for an actual blog post*

9 total possible entries

The Prizes:

There will be TWO prize packs.**

ADULT:

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Stray by Rachel Vincent

YOUNG ADULT:

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Contest Ends: Monday, October 11th (10/11/2010) @ 11:59pm

You have two weeks to enter.

* I want links people.

** If you win and already have these books, I will more than likely swap them out for something else.

GOOD LUCK!!

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT

Psst. Since I've been all over the place with my updates on here, I'm actually getting on to tell you to check back later for something awesome. Because the contest I've been wanting to hold since, umm, May (?) is about to go down.

There will be multiple ways to earn entries.
There will be winners from all over the world. (Why hello, Book Depository.)

There will be multiple winners.

There will be less money in my bank account.

So tell your friends and check your watch, because I'll be back in 6+ hours with contest details and a list of prizes!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

CONTEST

So, I have a lovely signed copy of this pretty book here:

And I'd like to give it away, because I totally have one for myself. : )

ANYWAY, if you live in the US or Canada (I'm cheap right now, sorry everyone!) then you're eligible for this. I'm not going to get all kinds of fancy and give you the chance to have 20 billion entries, so you get one entry per person.

Rules:

(1) You must be a follower.
(2) You must leave a comment, preferably with some content in it other than, "Woo! Great contest!"

I'd like to get to know you all. So if you've never spoken up before, introduce yourself. If you have, tell me how things are going: have you read a good book lately, made any progress on your MS, or have you been so incredibly busy that it's not even funny?

That's it. Not hard at all.

ENDS: Next Friday (9/10) at 12:00 AM EST (I'll stay up an extra hour for all of you.)

PRIZE:

1 signed copy of Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle (my review here, and yes this week is brought to you by Cinders for the most part).
2 Cinders bookmarks
2 business cards for Michelle Davidson Argyle

I'd appreciate it if you spread the word about this, mostly because Cinders deserves all the attention it can get. AND if I see my link popping up everywhere, I *might* be persuaded to give out extra entries in my next contest which will be coming up later this month. Hopefully.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

It's not you; it's me.

So I never mentioned that I passed my one year blogiversary. I think it was back in June, maybe July. Clearly I care. Anyway I'll be putting a contest together sometime over the next month or so since I'll finally have money again in another week and I'll be moving back to school. Don't ask me why that last one matters; it just does. The contest will be a combination of celebrations: 1 year on the blog; 100, 125, and possibly 150 followers (by then); and my birthday (which is near the end of September).

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!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Umm, hi again.

I have got to stop telling you guys I'll have something up by a certain day. Because, seriously, I hate breaking promises. But here I am, without a review. Again.

Life has been more than a little crazy lately. But I keep having things come up, or I'm not scheduling my time properly and things aren't getting done. I was going to have a review up for you today, but yesterday I didn't get up until noon and then when I did I spent most of the day in bed feeling sick and being barely able to move because I was so drained of energy.

And since I'm off to visit my brother for a few days to celebrate his pending divorce, I hope to be up and running again next week. (I always have free time when we visit my brother, and I told you guys things were crazy.) Anyway, without a doubt I have another awesome interview for you guys, and I'm working on another after that.

In the meantime, I'd like to know what all of you are reading regardless of age group and genre. So let's have it. What have you been reading lately?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tantalizing Books

Okay, so I won a contest over at Andrea Cremer's blog, which means I got a signed ARC of Nightshade in the mail last week. SQUEE!!! It's beautiful, and sadly I've been doing a bunch of other stuff and haven't started it yet. But I've flipped through it and it is SO cool. I'll have to start it soon, it's bugging me too much to let it continue staring me down.

So, for those of you who don't know about it, here's a little about the book:
Cover:

(OMG Isn't it gorgeous?!)

Published: October 19, 2010 by Philomel (3 more months!!)
Format: Hardcover, 464 pgs
Description:

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.

See what others are saying about Nightshade by Andrea Cremer on Goodreads.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tantalizing Books

I'm a bit worn out at the moment, so instead of searching through the MS and trying to find a suitable, non-spoilery teaser, I thought I'd share a few of the books I've got on my bookshelf that I'm desperate to read. So, in a way, this is a teaser of some still to come summer book reviews. :)

Reading

Right now, I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife. It's amazing and beautiful and I really like it. But it's a bit of a slow read for me, not because it's boring/dull or anything like that but because I'm savoring all the little details in the story. Why am I telling you this? This isn't a review or a spoiler or anything. This is a confession.

New York Revisited

Hello Everyone! As you all know I went to New York the week before last with my good friend Katie to job shadow Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown Ltd. and Jordan Hamessley of Grosset & Dunlap/Price Stern Sloane (imprints of Penguin). We spent two days at both places, though our time at Penguin was cut short due to things beyond our control; however, what little time we did spend there was still very insightful.

New York was fantastic, and I'm more sure than ever that I want to make the move next summer after graduation to be a part of publishing. So, how about some pictures to catalog the trip? :)

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