Read 20 Books This Month
So, this looks as if it is quickly becoming a reading blog instead of a writing blog…but the two things go together so…whatever. Anywhos, I want to try to read twenty books this month. I know I can do it. I thought I’d put of a list of intended books here, and mark when I read them for my own benefit mostly. There will be...
Calling you out!
To Shannon “I haven’t made a post in over a month,” this is me (Caitlin, your “friend”) saying she’s had enough. I don’t care if you have biology and chemistry and are working on creating some sort of CAREER for yourself. I don’t care if you’re getting married in two months and need to...
2010 Debut Author Challenge
I wish I knew about this earlier! The Story Siren is hosting the 2010 Debut Author Challenge. In which you try to read a set number of debut YA books in 2010. The recommended goal is twelve. You have to read and review all twelve of your books. So, my list here will have links to my reviews, which I will post over at Goodreads. (huh. I...
Read 20 Books This Month
So, this looks as if it is quickly becoming a reading blog instead of a writing blog…but the two things go together so…whatever.
Anywhos, I want to try to read twenty books this month. I know I can do it. I thought I’d put of a list of intended books here, and mark when I read them for my own benefit mostly. There will be some crossover with the list for my debut author reading challenge.
And of course, if I stray from the list I will just add those books to it. So, without further ado, my twenty books for September:
- Firelight by Sophie Jordan
- Everlasting by Angie Frazer – own it
- Birthmarked by Caragh M O’Brien – own it
- Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink – own it
- The Search for Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi – own it
- Sapphique by Catherine Fisher – own it
- Ascendant by Diana Peterfreund
- Zombies vs. Unicorns by many people – own it
- Plain Kate by Erin Bow
- The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
- Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson
- Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers (maybe. I’m not too sure about this one.)
- Eon by Alison Goodman
- 13 to Life by Shannon Delaney
- Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
- The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta (this one is going to be difficult as I have to have it shipped in from Australia…)
- Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
- Sabriel by Garth Nix (this would be a re-read, but I haven’t read it in so long it would almost be as if I were reading it for the first time) – own it
- The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer – own it
- The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart – own it
Calling you out!
To Shannon “I haven’t made a post in over a month,” this is me (Caitlin, your “friend”) saying she’s had enough.
I don’t care if you have biology and chemistry and are working on creating some sort of CAREER for yourself.
I don’t care if you’re getting married in two months and need to plan some sort of party.
I don’t care if you have OTHER more important things.
THIS BLOG SHOULD BE YOUR LIFE.
Also, I miss our funny banter. Come back!
Read More2010 Debut Author Challenge
I wish I knew about this earlier!
The Story Siren is hosting the 2010 Debut Author Challenge. In which you try to read a set number of debut YA books in 2010. The recommended goal is twelve.
You have to read and review all twelve of your books. So, my list here will have links to my reviews, which I will post over at Goodreads.
(huh. I thought that I had read more debut’s already…looks like I’ve got a long way to go.)
- Matched by Ally Condie – READ
- Paranormalcy by Kierstan white – READ
- Firelight by Sophie Jordan
- Sea by Heidi R. Kling
- 13 to Life by Shannon Delany
- Everlasting by Angie Frazier
- The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff – READ
- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
- Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore – READ
- Nightshade by Andrea Cremer – READ
- Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brian
- I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore – READ
So, I have at least ten more books to read before December 31st. This should be fun. I’ll add more if I think of any.
Read MoreComic-Con Recap
Woah.
Woah.
That pretty much sums up Comic-Con in one word. If I had to use two I’d say, “FREE BOOKS!” It was so amazing.
I don’t even know where to begin describing my experience. Firstly, I met up (and was staying) with a friend I’d only previously known online and that in and of itself was pretty awesome. I was surprised at our lack of awkwardness. We had talked many times in the past, but still. I’m quite shy in person and I thought that was going to kick in and I would succeed in making the entire situation awkward. But, by some miracle I didn’t and we had a lot of fun.
…Unless Christine is reading and laughing to herself about how awkward it actually was and…well, I’m not going to dwell on that.
Then we went to San Diego Zoo. We saw koalas and pandas so that was awesome. Then we slept, which I hadn’t done in like forty hours or some such non-sense, so that was even more awesome.
The next morning we got up ridiculously early, hopped the bus to the convention centre, picked up our badges, and got in line for Hall H. In getting in this line we walked right past about 5 people that we knew without realizing it. And, by the nature of the line, we must have kept walking by them over and over again. I got this great picture of Christine in the line with the fold out diagram of the Exhibitors Hall and a list of all the booths we wanted to visit…you know, I’m just going to post the picture, if she doesn’t like it, she can ask me to take it down.
After a long while in line we were let into Hall H with the first wave of people, which we didn’t think would happen as we got into the line very late. We were there to see a particualr panel but we got to see all these other awesome people as well. Bruce Willis, Karl Urban, Jeff Bridges, and that’s only the tip of the ice berg. And then, at the right time, JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon took the stage and I nearly died. It was so awesome.
The rest of the weekend passed in a blur of free things (books!), long lines(some of which we were kicked out of), random celeb sightings (Seth Green!), and panels(more books!)! So, pretty much the best weekend of my life. Christine and I were pretty sure we got about $200 worth of free books each. This included at least three that I was overly eager and excited for. So, another tick in the best-weekend-ever column.
We spent a lot of time in the Exhibitors Hall gathering free things, searching for free things, standing in line for free things, and (occasionally) buying things. Once I even paid money to stand in a line. That was fun.
I can’t wait for next year when we make our second trip, armed with all the important things we learned this year. It’s going to be so very Double Rainbow.
Oh, I also saw Nathan Fillion. I do so love Nathan Fillion.
Here’s some of the free stuff we got!
Goals and stuff
So.
It’s been awhile. I would apologize, but I don’t think anyone reads this blog so there isn’t anyone to apologize to. Except for myself. I had goals. I had a self-imposed deadline that there is no way I’m going to make.
And just a few minutes ago I read this blog here about having goals as a writer. And it has inspired me to not only recommit to a new goal regarding finishing my draft, but also commit to some other goals.
1. I will finish this draft of my book by August 31st or die trying. By the same date I will also finish that other I’ve been working on. Shannon, you know the one. People are getting upset, I’m getting upset and I just want it to be over with. Which is so not the right frame of mind to tackle this goal with, but none the less, it will happen. These two things encompass a lot of writing. Next month is going to be busy and will be a test in self-discipline that, at the very least, will be very good for me.
2. I will blog at least twice a week. Why? Mostly because I just enjoy doing it. And writing a blog post is so very different then writing a story, I like looking at the different styles of writing. It’s an interesting contrast.
3. Because I want writing to be my career, I want to shape myself into someone agents and publishers and editors want to work with. And, at this stage, I think this is two-fold. One is researching. Finding out all one can about the publishing industry. Follow agent blogs, follow author blogs, listen to what publishers are saying they want. Not that I would tailor my writing to them, but I do want to have a good idea of where my writing fits into the industry. The second part of this would be to apply all that knowledge. Listen to the advice writers and agents give to aspiring writers. If I ever get to the point where I feel I can start querying agents, follow their guidelines, know what genres they represent and don’t waste their time. Create a good work ethic for myself. All of this for the goal of being someone these people want to work with.
4. Love what I’m doing. I wrote the first draft (or as I like to call it, the complete piece of crap) for NaNoWriMo and so bucketloads of fun. If you ever sign up for NaNoWriMo I encourage you to go full out. Go to as many Write-Ins as possible, stay up all night in your regions chat room, ask everyone you meet what their novel is about. I met so many amazing people and we had such an awesome time. I wrote a piece of crap, but I loved it. When I sit down to write, I just don’t wanna. I get distracted by Youtube or Facebook or something. And I’m not enjoying it at all. I feel like the story and the characters and the conflict are finally coming together and I just don’t care. I want rediscover my love for this story, and for writing in general. I want remember that writers are artists that use words instead of paint and create something wonderful.
5. I want to push all of this out of my mind for FIVE days next week while I go to San Diego for Comic-Con. I just want to have an awesome time.
Read MoreFinding Time
I wrote the title for this post two days ago and haven’t found time to work on it since.*
I’m so behind on my schedule for finishing the draft of my novel by the end of the month. I’m supposed to be on chapter ten…I just finished chapter 4.
*bites finger nails* I don’t know how I’m going to make it.
NOT THAT I’M GIVING UP!
I’m still aiming to finish by the end of the month. And I give so many reasons why I’m so behind. Good movies came out. It was Canada Day.** I’ve read a lot of good books (Good lord I LOVE Melina Marchetta. There are not enough words of praise in the English language for her.) There’s work and family and friends and responsibilies.
But really it all comes down to that one thing that all human beings suffer from. Procrastination.
I love Youtube. I really, really love youtube. I can never watch just one video. I mean not when there’s Vlogbrothers and Natalie Tran and other wonderful things. And twitter is awesome. It’s like one big constantly updating chatroom except you get to control which people/conversations you see. And reading the blogs of authors and agents! I love them so much…seriously, our links page does not do any justice to the amount of blogs I read.
So, when I’m not at work or with friends or family I waste time on these things instead of using this precious time to write. I need to fix this. I need to give myself a reward system, or a time system or something.
Any suggestions? I am still determined to finish by the end of the month….even though I’m going away for almost a week…and a friend from England is going to be in town. Sigh. It’s going to be difficult but I’m going to do all I can.
* It then took me about two days to write up the entire post…*kicks summer*
** I’ve never understood why American’s don’t name their July 1st equivalent (July 4th), I like being able to say “Happy Canada Day.” It’s weird hearing them saying “Happy 4th.”
Read MoreTabby Tabooo
C: I think religion is like sex, as far as YA literature is concerned. Don’t put it in your story unless the story needs it. I don’t care how edgy you want your novel to be, if the story doesn’t need it, don’t do it. And if you do put it in, it doesn’t matter how you handle or how awesome your writing is, people are going to be upset. Unreasonably upset. And there isn’t anything writers can do about this. You put controversial subjects in your novel and there is going to be, well, controversy.
But, there is a right way to do it, in my opinion. As stated above, the story has to need it. Readers, no matter how young they are, can always tell when a subject has been thrown in for no reason, or just to make them “think.” And then it wont make them think, it’ll just make them not read your book.
An awesome example I read recently is in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. One of the Wills calls a girl a <bad word> that I had never seen previously in YA fiction. But it didn’t even phase me. I was absolutely thinking the exact same thing about her. She needed to be called that.
S: Well put. I feel like Mrs. Weasley calling Bellatrix a “bitch” in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was similar. “Bitch” was probably one of the least offensive things she could have called her–and I’m not sure any other word would have conveyed the same level of mama-bear intensity.
I think fantasy, even more than science fiction, offers a great way to deal with “difficult topics” because you can call them something else, make them more or less extreme, and take them out of our modern complex, and then—WALLA! Baggage free themes!!!!
C: I don’t know if they’re baggage free. Though authors are free to dress-up the “difficult topics,” call them something different, and use them in unconventional ways, they are still the difficult topics and people are going to recognize this.
S: I suppose when I said “baggage free,” I meant it in a ‘relatively speaking’ sorta of way. In the Hunger Games you have all of those great tyranny/oppression themes, and you can talk about them without being all “the conservatives are crap,” “liberals are weak,” etc. etc. By setting them up in a different time period, with a different set of politics, she can emphasize different aspects of the themes, much more easily than if she were writing a contemporary book. Same with the whole racism theme in Harry Potter.
I feel like taking on a difficult topics in YA is much harder straight up. You have to address them directly, like in Godless mentioned above, where a group of teenagers makes up a religion, or in Judy Blume’s books, where sexuality and coming-of-age tend to demand the sex in the plot.
Otherwise, you seem to be in the mind field, side stepping the pitfalls… which is not a nice place for a writer to be.
C: Some YA books are all about taking on difficult topics straight up. The Hate Lise is a good example. The main character and her boyfriend made a list of people they would kill, and then the boyfriend brought a gun to school and started killing them. It’s a very touchy subject and the book has to embrace every aspect of it head on to be at all truthful. (By the way, AMAZING book. Read it.)
That being said, it is only about this one difficult subject. It doesn’t bring up politics or religion or war. I do feel that in a fantasy setting you can throw groups of difficult subjects into the mix. While when writing contemporary fiction that deals with an ISSUE it is, generally, the only difficult theme used in that story.
S: I think this is one of the reasons I absolutely adore good fantasy and science fiction. They speak about humanity in ways that fact sometimes can only skirt around.
C: While that isn’t my most favourite thing about fantasy and science fiction, I do enjoy it.
S: Oh, fine then.
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