Nerd Girl Reads & Writes

I Met John Green

2012-02-02T17:12:00.001-08:00

Two nights ago now, I went to the Vancouver stop on the Tour de Nerdfighting! If you are even a little bit of a nerdfighter, you know how funny and intelligent and genuine John and Hank Green are -- and that's exactly how this event was.

And if you've read The Fault in Our Stars and liked it as much as I did, you could probably guess how bittersweet and philosophical and deep John is -- and the night was that, too.

And I have pictures!

First, while waiting outside in the pouring, Vancouver rain, my sister and I spotted the van outside! Couldn't resist taking a picture in front of it.

It's hard to see in crappy iPhone quality, but those little marks on cartoon John and Hank's faces? Lipstick! :P Not mine, although I should have thought to bring something other than invisible chapstick.

Unlike most concerts/shows/readings, at this one, photos and video-recording was highly encouraged! Unfortunately I don't own a video camera or even a regular camera, and my sister's iPhone is the only smartphone in the family, so memory-capturing was limited. All I have to share is this picture:

And yes, a puppet show really was performed. And so was a cover of The Proclaimers's "500 Miles." It was awesome.

At the end of the show, John signs books. Yes, again. My copy of TFIOS was already signed, but I could not pass up the opportunity to meet my heroes and get John to actually write my name in my copy. Since the event was sold out, with upwards of 400 people crammed into the tiny theatre, and the line for the signing wound from the stage, up the aisles, out into the lobby, and looped back around into the theatre again, and then into spirals, I thought it would take hours. But I was standing in line barely twenty minutes. John and Hank stressed over and over that meeting each person would be very brief -- pretty much "hi," sign, goodbye -- in consideration for everyone at the end of the line, and these guys really pulled it together and made the wait very bearable.

And when I finally got there? Man, my heart was pounding. John has social anxiety, and he even wrote in the show programme that he gets very nervous and never knows what to say to each person, and that made me feel a lot better. So when I got up to the stage, opened my book and he read the post-it note with my name on it, I somehow knew just what to say.

"You're Becca?" he said.

"Yup!"

"Thanks for coming tonight!" he said.

"No problem!"

John smiled and leaned in to write my name and sign a J-scribble. Then my mouth opened.

"Um, my mom is here tonight, and her very favourite band is the Proclaimers, so she was really stoked you guys did that song!"

John looked up, looked me completely straight in the eye, and said, "Oh, no way! That's awesome. Say hi to her for me!"

So I said "No problem!" and he said "Bye! Thanks for making it out!"

And then I moved on and met Hank and he was also completely friendly and overpronounced the hard c sound in my name. And then he said goodnight and I said "Hope to see you again someday!" and he said "Until we meet again!"

And that was it. I hopped off the stage, found my mom and sister, and went home all glowing and happy.

Because you know what? I've met famous people before. I've met guys from bands and news reporters and one (very small-time) Disney Channel actor. And none of them have ever looked me in the eye the way the Vlogbrothers did. I've never come across two people who are more in-tune with their fans, who know how to make each and every person feel appreciated.

It was already true, but that night really cemented my eternal admiration for those guys. I'll always cherish the memories, and I'll be proud to show off this:

And say this:

DFTBA <3

Writing Every Day

2012-01-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

One of my New Years Resolutions was to write every day. No matter what. It didn't have to be a lot -- it could just be a few sentences. Just something to keep myself always moving forward.

I've done it every day this month. Some days it was just a couple sentences at the end of a very busy day, some days it was a couple hundred words. It is hard. There are some days when I want nothing more than to close the stupid document and never look at my own words again. But I force myself to type at least a couple words.

Sure, some days it feels like pulling teeth. But some days, even when it felt like the last thing I wanted was to write, I ended up getting on a roll and writing 2,000 words. If I had been easier on myself and let myself skip a day, those words might never have been written at all.

They aren't all perfect words. But they're words all the same, building the manuscript brick by brick.

So I guess I'm kind of a traitor

2012-01-18T17:32:00.001-08:00

"Traitor" might be a little strong. But... *whispers*... I've gone over to the dark side a little bit.

A few months ago, I purchased an ereader.

Dun dun duuuun!!!

"But Becca," you say, "you swore you were a paper book always-and-forever kinda girl! What gives?"

Well, one of my biggest weaknesses, that's what: shiny pretty things.

This shiny pretty thing:

And oh, it is so, so shiny and pretty. Smooth, matte, black outside, gorgeous crisp display... I love it.

And the act of reading on this gadget is so much easier than I anticipated! The page turns don't lag half as much as what people complain about, the text is super easy to read, and it's light as a feather. Seriously, it barely weighs anything. And even though it's black and white, the covers still look great! And when it's in sleep mode, it displays the cover of the book you're reading, which is a really cute feature that I love. Sure, sometimes I feel a little far removed from the book, not having something really, truly in my hands, but honestly? This way it's easier to stop obsessing about covers and formats and concentrate on what really matters: the story.

Do I still prefer paper books? Well, of course. Although my Kobo has a delicious new plastic scent all its own (think "new car"), I still love the way physical books smell. The way they feel and look so pretty on my shelves. And of course I miss the full glory of gorgeous covers, with foiling and shiny parts and such, but when I have two six-foot bookshelves full to bursting, I don't really have a choice but to buy more ebooks.

I'll still buy physical books, of course. Especially if they're new books in a series or books I really care about physically owning (favourite authors and such), but otherwise I'm going to try to buy electronic. Shelf space is at a premium around here, and cramming them all into this pretty little box suits me just fine.

Review: Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz

2012-01-17T16:50:00.001-08:00

I know Hannah. Not IRL, but in that interwebby friends kind of way. I promise you, that in no way affects this review.

And even if I were just writing this review to kiss ass, the review wouldn't be any different. Because I adored this book. Flat-out adored.

Hannah's books and I haven't always had the best relationships. Break, I had a couple quibbles with. Invincible Summer, I liked more, but wasn't totally in love. Zombie Tag, however, makes me feel like this.

/waltzes with book

And since my love for Hannah books seems to be growing exponentially with each passing release, this definitely bodes well for Gone, Gone, Gone, which I was already salivating for.

Anyway. Zombie Tag.

A while back, I used to be kind of leery of middle grade books. I mean, seriously, I'm like ten years out of their target audience. I used to kind of worry that I wouldn't enjoy middle grade books because I would feel too smart for them. Too sophisticated or something.

Well, with the amount of absolutely stellar MG books I've read lately, like Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me, I've learned that this is totally false. And, if you're an older person wary of MG, I highly recommend you read that book and Zombie Tag to experience a complete 180-degree change of mind.

This book has so, so much emotional sophistication packed into its pages I couldn't even believe it. The relationship between Wil and his brother, Graham, was so believable and fraught with emotion. Anyone who's read anything by Hannah already knows that sibling relationships are her specialty, and this one is my favourite out of any she's written. MG is the perfect place for her family-driven stories. Not that her YA suffers for the family relationships, but I feel like it really shines here, in a story for a slightly younger audience.

But a younger audience doesn't mean a stupider one. The world-building in Zombie Tag is, I think, genius. It feels like our regular world, but just enough twists are given for the premise to be believable. One character's parent is a zombie researcher. There are mentions of a zombie outbreak thirty years in the past. These are my favourite kinds of settings: everything's fantastical, but in the most normal of ways. It's reality with a tiny twist.

It's common knowledge among zombie film/literature enthusiasts that zombies work best when they're a symbol for something else. They often represent the soul-crushing conformity that humans sometimes give in to. Hannah's zombies are a metaphor for depression, one that hit me hard. They have no emotions. They're like regular people, but they have no feelings. They're bland, boring, they can't bring themselves to care about anything. On the surface it makes a humorous premise for MG readers -- zombies are sad instead of raging monsters, ha ha -- but the layers of emotional depth here make them so much more. I saw a lot of myself and people I love who have suffered from depression in the zombies, and that made it an even more meaningful story for me.

Zombie Tag is funny. It's cute. It has a killer plot with a great twist. It works perfectly for it's young audience, but it takes on whole new meanings for older readers, which I think every good children's book should do.

In short, you need to read this book. Seriously. If you don't, the zombies will get you.

Goals for 2012

2012-01-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

I wasn't really the kind of person to make New Years Resolutions until last year. And I accomplished that one! So now I feel like I should keep going, because I'm good at goal-keeping. Goaltending? Am I a goalie?

I'll take it. I'm in good company.

Louuuuu!

Anyway, here are my goals for 2012:

1) Read at least 10 more books than I did last year.

I'm not sure if this is going to be difficult or not. I'm kind of a slow reader.

2) Get through my TBR pile and try not to buy as many new books.

This will be hard. My TBR pile will probably keep me going throughout all of 2012. There are a few new releases that I HAVE to get (The Fault in Our Stars, of course, and a few others), but I'm going to try my best to buy the bare minimum of new releases. Once the TBR pile goes down, then I can go back to acquire the latest and greatest.

3) Buy more ebooks.

Physical books, as much as I love them, take up space. Space I don't really have. If I can buy more ebooks, I'll save space and money. Win win.

Of course, I will buy physical books I really want. Some books, especially sequels and books by authors I already own a lot by, have to be present on my shelf.

4) Write every day.

This is probably the most important goal. I want to write every single friggin day. Whether that's just a paragraph or a whole chapter. Doesn't matter. I want to keep my forward momentum. I don't want to get stalled or drained again like I did the past few weeks. Granted, I had valid excuses, but it never feels good to get stuck in a rut.

I think that's all the goals... here's to hoping I can keep all those pucks out of the net.

(I'll stretch the metaphor as far as it'll go; if you hadn't gathered, I'm a hockey fan)

2011, and looking ahead to 2012

2011-12-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

A lot of blogs have been participating in year-end favourites lists, and I've been reading them all with pleasure. I always like to see what different people enjoyed. I've wanted to participate myself, but due to some very sad, very difficult things that have gone on in the past week, I haven't had the energy nor the... enthusiasm I usually have. I don't want to say too much, as this blog doesn't get very personal very often, but it's enough to say that my family has gone through hell and back this week. I may or may not write a blog post about this issue, but until I decide what I'm going to do, I thought I would just write a quite wrap-up to say goodbye to 2011.

At the beginning of 2011, I made a resolution to do something I've never done before: keep track of all the books I read this year. As of right now, the number is 57. 52 of those were YA/MG. The adult books I read were either for literature classes or British mystery novels.

Out of 57 books, you'd think I could come up with maybe a top 10. But my brain power right now is zilch. During the year, as I listed the books I finished, I put a star next to them if they were particular favourites. I'm just going to tell you which books I put a star next to.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: This would probably be my hands-down favourite book I read this year. This book makes me feel all bubbly and happy inside the same way Disney's Beauty and the Beast does. It speaks to something inside me that just makes me glow. I can't define that. I can't label it. All I know is that any author who can do this to me immediately jumps to my all-time favourites list.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford: A very, very close second to Anna, this book also speaks to me in a way most don't. This book makes me feel like, somewhere out there, there are people who totally get me. These characters are my soulmates. I want to crawl inside this book and live there, with Beatrice and Jonah. I want to call in to old timer radio shows and go on imaginary magic carpet rides with them. Like my favourite movie, Ghost World, this book gives us the weird and wonderful and sometimes heartbreaking world we live in and makes it magic.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: How to Say Goodbye in Robot reflected the weird world we know, while 13 Little Blue Envelopes shows us the wider aspect of it. This book ignited the wanderer in me and basically inspired the trip to France and England I'm planning for 2012.

The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham: One of the few adult books I read this year, it's a murder mystery about an English village. While it isn't as deep and heartfelt as some of the other books I read this year, it does have something amazing going for it: sparkling characters that leap off the page with their chemistry. Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy (who are also my two favourite characters on TV) are gems.

Those are the standouts in my reading for 2011. In 2012, I'm looking forward to Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (of course), The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (also a no-brainer), and too many more to count.

Other awesome things from this year include the film Midnight in Paris and the music of Joss Stone, the Smiths, Jack's Mannequin, Matthew Good, and too many more.

I'm sorry for the understated and sober year-end roundup... but what can I say? I hope 2012 sees me in much better spirits. Happy New Year and much love to you all. I hope to be blogging more soon.

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

2011-12-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

image from Goodreads

I must confess: this is a review of a book I did not finish.

But there are reasons I did not finish this book and I think they need to be talked about.

I waited a long time to read Shatter Me. I was aware of it before it even had a title, before it had a release date, months and months before it had a cover. I read the author's blog and I find her such a charming person. Regardless of what the book was about or what the cover looked like, I knew I was going to buy it and read it anyway. I support authors like that.

And the internet made no small deal about this book! Probably everyone in the entire YA world was clambering for an ARC and, if they didn't get one, giving the early reviewers the stink-eye. There was a much-hyped book trailer, a much-hyped cover (revealed on MTV!), and some really early rave reviews. The stage was set.

So, does it live up to all that crazy hype?

My answer is no.

Let me explain. From the reviews I read, I knew going in the writing was going to be lyrical. I read a few excerpts that let me in on the style of the novel. In my opinion, it was too much. Way, way, way too much. Every other sentence has a long, rambling metaphor that is beautiful on the surface, but soon becomes too drawn-out and convoluted. At first you're going right along with it because it sounds pretty, but by the time you get to the end of the sentence the meaning is completely jumbled. You start the sentence with a dreamy expression, but by the end your face looks all "WTF?"

I love metaphors. I do. I use many of them myself. Markus Zusak said once in an interview that he thinks each page of a novel should have a gem. That's my theory on metaphors and other pretty devices, too. One per page is nice. One item of beauty per page is perfect.

One. Not ten. I swear, every other sentence of Shatter Me is one of those pretty sentences. It just gets tiring to read and slows the pace down to a molasses-like trickle.

I only got about a quarter of the way into the book before calling it quits, so that's almost too soon to comment on the romance, as it barely got started. But that's just it: I quit so early on because nothing was happening. Adam is the most boring character ever written, I really can't think of a thing to say about him, and Warner? Um, is he supposed to be a love interest? Because I got serious creep vibes. Serious creep vibes. If a guy seems to have put you in prison just to test your abilities and see how you'd react (um, V for Vendetta, anyone??), you do not get involved with him. You do not. I got predatory vibes from him all the way and I can't imagine how that could ever have changed enough for Juliette to want to get it on with him.

Juliette herself is fairly blah. She has the ability to kill people by touching them, apparently, but by a quarter of the way into the book, that ability is barely explained. Mafi skirts the issue, describing Juliette's feels about the power and how her parents and other people reacted to her having the power, but never fully explained how the power worked or what exactly it does. Do people drop down dead when she touches them? Or do they get sick and die gradually? Do they asphyxiate? Or what?

Despite all the hullabaloo, Shatter Me is so messy it's not even funny. It feels like trendbait to me. I never got the feeling that it was a real story. I could never really get past knowing the specifics of the novels creation -- knowing that Jodi Reamer represented it, knowing that it got released the same year as it sold (practically unheard of). I don't think you're missing anything at all if you skip this one.

Please, please, please watch this video

2011-12-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Aside from being beautiful and absolutely necessary, I think there are very valuable lessons for writers in this. Playing with expectations, perspective, and emotional impact...

Also, it's World AIDS Day. I have had a few family members affected by HIV/AIDS, so it'll be a special day of reflection for me. Bless you all.

I win NaNo!

2011-11-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

30 days.

50,213 words.

One girl. One boy. One murder. One almost-romance.

I'm so glad to have this thing over-with. Not because I didn't enjoy writing it -- I definitely did -- but because now I can go back to my other book. It beckoned me with its siren's call all through November and I missed it like the desert misses the rain. And now we can be together again. My NaNo novel can now spend lots of time in the bottom of the drawer to think about what it's done.

But seriously, it was a good NaNo. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone a little in writing a murder mystery, and it turned out well. I could see myself writing another, possibly even a sequel to this one -- and if you know me at all, you know I am not the kind of writer who writes sequels. So this may just have been a game-changing NaNo! But it needs so much revision, and I'm so tired of it, so it'll definitely be months before I pick this one up again.

I've been up to so much this past month and I haven't blogged half as much as I should have. I have a ton of ideas for posts that should be coming soon. Especially one long overdue one which includes me having met a lovely YA author in person :)

Stay tuned! There's lots to come from me!

And if you won NaNo too, congratulations! How'd it go? Are you going to go back and revise your book, or does it get shoved in a drawer?

IMM & miscellaneous topics vlog!

2011-11-18T18:14:00.001-08:00

Hey! I made a vlog!

Here it is!

I would embed, but the video is too big for my layout >.< Anyways, I enjoyed making it, and I hope to make more soon!

NaNoWriMo Day 12: Yesss, Caught Up! Also, the Smiths

2011-11-12T17:39:00.001-08:00

I fell behind by a few thousand words over the past couple days. I'm not used to being behind during NaNo at all -- usually I can bully myself into writing even when I don't feel like it. But I worked a few long days and had a friend come to town for a short time and I skipped a couple days of writing. So unlike me. Luckily I was a day ahead anyway, so I only ended up being about 3k behind target, but still. It was weird for me.

But today I battled through it and got caught up! Yay! THE DEAD RINGERS currently sits at 20k! And of course it sucks. They all do at first. But there's potential. Unfortunately I got hit with a bad case of SNIA (Shiny New Idea Attack) in the first couple days, so I already have another manuscript brewing in the back of my mind that I have to write sometime, and my Camp NaNo novel still needs a lot of revision... ah well. Life of a writer, amirite??

Here's a song for you. I've been on a Smiths bender the past couple weeks... I'm pretty sure they're my second favourite band of all time.

NaNoWriMo, Day 1!

2011-11-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

So today is Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, as I'm sure you know. Unless you live under a rock. Which I'm pretty sure you don't, if you're reading this blog!

And if you've read this blog before, you'll probably be aware of the fact that I freaking love NaNo.

Well, I capped off Day 1 with 3,367 words. Definitely not as high as my Day 1 in Camp NaNo this summer, where I wrote over 6k. x_x no idea how I did it. But 3,367 is over twice the daily goal, so hooray!

My NaNo novel is titled THE DEAD RINGERS, and it's a YA murder mystery, which is definitely a departure for me. I adore murder mysteries, though, so I'm having a really fun time writing one myself.

I'll have a proper post soon (with pictures!) detailing what I did over the weekend! It was exciting! Stay tuned! Until then, happy writing!

Do You Hate Insta-Love?

2011-10-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Do you hate insta-love, the YA phenomenon where two characters meet and then declare their everlasting love for each other only a few pages or chapters later?

I know I hate it. But this post over on YA Highway made me think a bit.

Teenagers do stupid things. Being a teen is all about experience crazy emotions -- from ecstatic happiness to lowest-of-the-low depression. And insta-love is a part of that. When you were a teen, how many times did you get crushes on guys/girls just because they were hot? All the time, right? That's what a crush is when you're that age. Usually those crushes fizzle out fast, and you're on to a new one the next week. I still get crushes like this.

So many insta-love isn't that far from reality. Sure, my crush-at-first-sight experiences all ended in heartbreak, but maybe some everlasting love has really been forged out of a single look.

The issue I still have with insta-love, though, is that YA characters never see any consequences for their sometimes rash actions. In the real world, if you go ahead and declare your feelings to that cute upperclassman you've been talking to... chances are it's going to end in heartbreak, a few days of tears, and then a swearing-off of love forever. It's going to hurt.

It never hurts YA protagonists. They never get to a point where they think, "Wow, it was pretty silly to believe I'd actually fallen in love with this person. We're totally not going to be together forever."

YA romance is full of happily ever afters, and not enough growing-up moments.

YA is Full of Pretty People

2011-10-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you opened a YA book and read a description of someone's glossy hair, chiselled cheekbones, or flawless, porcelain skin?

Five minutes ago, right?

Now, when was the last time you actually saw a teenager who looked like a Burberry model?

You don't see many, do you?

Okay, I'll stop speaking in questions. But really, why is YA so full of pretty people?

Think back to yourself as a teenager. Or, if you are still a teen, think of yourself and your friends. Imagine walking down the hall of your high school. You see heavier girls wearing sweats and oversize t-shirts to hide their stomachs, and you see way-too-skinny girls doing the same to hide eating disorders. You see boys with cuts from their first times shaving. You smell the people who forgot deodorant that day.

My point is that teens are rarely polished and perfect. So why are YA characters so perfect? It's rare to see a girl protagonist who's bigger than a size 8 -- unless it's an "issue" novel where her weight is the "issue." And male love interests? We constantly get Mr. Perfect. Cheekbones that stick out a mile, sexy five o'clock shadow, tousled -- but perfect -- hair, and smouldering eyes. Edward Cullen, Patch Cipriano, Noah Shaw, anyone? It's so, so rare to get an actual, living, breathing teenage boy as a love interest, patchy beard, bad fashion sense and all.

And the biggest issue I have with this? Acne. The teenage years are full of unsightly red monstrosities. No one is immune to it, not even the rich girls with access to the most expensive skin regiments. And yet, open up your current YA read, and I'm willing to bet everyone has flawless skin.

I had chronic acne from the time I was 11 all throughout my teens. It's better now, but it's still there. I went through hell dealing with it, everything from my mom constantly treating it like a scientific experiment, to my former best friend using it as gossip fuel when she left me for other friends. And I know a lot of teens have the same experience.

But I've yet to see acne make an appearance in a YA novel, at least not as a serious issue. Maybe the occasional zit causing some angst, but never to the extent to which I know it can come to.

Is it too much to ask, to have more realism in our YA? Because not all of us are Pretty People.

Contest!

2011-09-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

The wonderful blog YAtopia is hosting a magnificent two-sentence pitch contest with literary agent Mandy Hubbard. If you have a completed YA or MG manuscript, I urge you to enter!

It's over here!

Why "Disturbing" is Good

2011-09-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

In light of Banned Books Week, and also just because I feel the need to talk about it, I'd like to talk about disturbing books.

Books get banned and challenged and not-recommended for all kinds of reasons. Sexual content is a big one, so are topics like drugs and religion.

The one I'd like to talk about is violence.

"Violence," to me, can mean different things. It can mean physical fighting. It can mean angry emotional intensity. It can mean blood and gore.

Last night I finished reading The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. It was a rip-roaring roller-coaster of a book, never slowing down for a second. The pages flew by. The plot was fantastic, the characters were fantastic.

And it disturbed me.

Oh, god, did it disturb me. There are so many things that could be disturbing about this book. Scary bad guys? It has 'em. Blood and guts? Oh yeah. Sad death scenes of characters that shall not be named? Has 'em in spades.

I'm not going to reveal exactly what it is that disturbed me, I don't want to spoil it. I'll just say that it was a scene where a character acted rashly, resulting in a death.

It wasn't a main character who died. It was the equivalent of Taxi Driver #3 being killed in a big-budget disaster movie. But somehow, the situation slid under my skin and stabbed right into the core of me.

I didn't know whether to burst into tears or slam the book shut and toss it against the wall. I didn't know whether I wanted to be violently ill or curl up in bed and sleep for days. I was paralyzed, physically and emotionally.

That scene shook something up inside me. Like the titular knife, that whole book slit me open and spilled my insides, stitching them back up after.

That is why disturbing books are good. They change you. They break your heart and put it back together. You heal from the pain, but you're different afterward. They scare you, but they teach you about yourself. Sure, maybe I wish I'd never read that scene in The Knife of Never Letting Go (it would save me a lot of heartbreak), but now I know how not to act. I learned that I could never stand to cause such intense fear and tragedy, like the character who killed did.

I know myself better now because of those disturbing book. I would recommend the experience to anybody.

My Novel is Lonely

2011-09-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a word of fiction in two weeks now. I put myself on a one-month hiatus to get refreshed, to read a lot, and to chillax a little bit.

But guys... one month is a long time.

I have to admit: I checked up on my novel.

It misses me.

I opened the document to ask how it was doing, and the characters gave me puppy-dog, please-come-play-with-us eyes. There were bloaty extra words in there that need cutting down. There is an entire plot that needs changing and delicious new scenes to write.

I don't know if I can last the whole month. But I want to last the whole month. So I'll bury my head in my TBR pile and tell my character to shhhh, I'll get to them later.

Teachers Teaching Cool Books

2011-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

So this past week, school went back in. Not for me -- I'm a disillusioned university drop-out at the moment -- but for my siblings. My little brother is now in grade 11, doing an alternative program because high school didn't work out for him. My little sister, however, has just entered high school in grade 8.

Beyond this being totally mindblowing (omg my little baby sister is going to be 13 soon!!! When did this happening?!!), it's exciting. She's growing up, yay! She's also a complete brat, but that's besides the point. She's always been a brat, heh.

It's also worrying. She's attending the same high school I went to, and she has the same Phys Ed teacher I had. I'm worried because that teacher bullied me and utterly obliviated my self-esteem in grades 8 and 9, and my sister's a little chubby like I was at the time. I'm crossing my fingers that either that teacher has changed, or that my sister is a hell of a lot stronger than I was and will fight back. She's a really tough kid, so I'm hoping she'll be okay.

Today she came home from school with a huge smile on her face, brimming over with excitement to tell me something.

"OMG, Becca, guess what book we're reading for English?!?!?!"

"What?"

"The Hunger Games!" she squealed. Literally squealed. "Right away I told the teacher that I've already read it and that everyone else was going to love it!"

What a little busy-body. It's so her to jump up and blab any fact that makes her look cool for already knowing something.

But it made me so happy. A teacher who teaches The Hunger Games instead of the dry and dull things some teachers choose?

I think my sister will be just fine.

Today I'm 20!

2011-09-06T18:43:00.002-07:00

Today is my 20th birthday!

*confetti*

Hello books for my birthday <3

I have a lot of strange feelings about this birthday -- shedding that '1' prefix and '-teen' suffix is kind of doing me a number -- but for now I just want to enjoy it. Probably a more whiny, angsty post coming up in the near future!

Looking Back on Camp NaNoWriMo

2011-09-01T15:23:00.001-07:00

Well, friends, I did it. I crossed the threshold of 50,000 words on August 15th, actually, but it took me until the 29th to finally type the words "The End."

The first draft of what is currently entitled THE BRIGHT FOREVER is almost 67,000 words long. Phew. I thought it was never going to end.

I think, for me, NaNoWriMo works best as "first draft in a month" rather than "50k in a month." Sure, 50k is what I aim for, but every single time I've competed, I've written solely for the purpose of getting to 50k. And then by the time I get there, the end of the story is nowhere in sight because I ignored the traditional beginning-middle-end structure. So when I hit 50k, the climax isn't even in sight. And then, upon hitting 50k, I immediately lose steam. The 16k between 50k and The End was some of the hardest stuff I've ever had to push myself to write.

But it's finished. Sort of. Actually, I had a Revision Revelation on my final day of writing, so when I start revising, most of what I wrote this month has to be scrapped.

*shoots self*

Oh well. I had fun. And it's a lot easier to start over with a finished draft than it is to start with fragments.

I'm going to take a month off from writing -- yes, a whole month. I don't think I've taken this long a break from writing since I was 10 years old. No, I don't think I can actually do it. But I really need to devote some time to reading, and to get some distance from all the projects I'm currently working on. THEN I can plunge into heavy revisions and heavy, heavy research for this stupid novel.

*dies of exhaustion*

Gushfest: Lola and the Boy Next Door

2011-08-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

I somehow stumbled into the luck of winning an ARC of my most anticipated book of 2011 -- Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. Having this ARC still feels like a dream to me, I wanted it that badly. Thank you so, so much to Leah Clifford for her BlogTV chat where I won it, I am eternally grateful!

Where to start, where to freaking start...

Like I said, this is my most anticipated book of 2011. I read Anna and the French Kiss earlier this year and it rocketed to the top of my list of all-time favourite YA books. It had heart, it had hilarity, it had the most relatable, loveable protagonist and the most swoon-worthy love interest... and it had two forthcoming companion novels.

(May I just say that I love the idea of companion novels? I've spoken before about how I'm often tired of every single YA release being part of a series. I like new, fresh stories and characters every time. But of course, I love the added excitement of catching up with old friends in overlapping characters.)

I was nervous for Stephanie Perkins's sophomore novel. What if it sucked? What if it totally lacked the spark that Anna held for me? Even worse -- what if I was just apathetic about it?

Safe to say I worried for no reason. Lola and the Boy Next Door is close to perfection.

Because I cannot really articulate all the things I love about it in a cohesive review, let's continue on in list form.

Things I Loved:

-- Lola has two gay dads, and they were real, honest-to-goodness good characters. Funny, nuanced, and they loved Lola so, so much. They were such good parents and fun to read about, to boot.

-- the setting. San Francisco was so vibrant and lovely in this book, and it made me want to go there even more. (Hey, maybe I should go -- it's only about a two days' drive from here!)

-- Lola herself. I was afraid I wasn't going to like her as much as I liked Anna, but I did. Where Anna had that manic nervousness that I could so relate to, Lola had such a magnetic confidence that I want to relate to. Lola is someone that I want to be. She's a great role model. Plus she has the best style the world has ever seen. Any character with Marie Antoinette as a style inspiration is all right with me!

-- Max. I know, I know, he's a douchebag. And I don't like him in a swoony way. I just loved how he was portrayed, how he seemed all right for the most part but would occasionally show his thorns -- and then it would hit you that he is not the right guy for Lola, not at all. I loved how Stephanie Perkins used him as a foil to Cricket.

-- Cricket. While he didn't have the same omg-I-love-him factor that St. Clair did for me, I loved his zaniness. And his awkwardness was so adorable that I wanted to cry. In a good way, if that's possible.

And finally,

-- Seeing what Anna and St. Clair are up to. They slipped into this novel so effortlessly. They really fit. It didn't feel at all like they were just shoved in to appeal to the the fans of their book. Even if you haven't read Anna and the French Kiss (and why the heck not?!) and don't know them already, you'll love them.

Stephanie Perkins has become one of my absolute favourite YA writers in what feels like overnight. I'm going to be buying a finished copy of Lola the day it's released, and it'll sit next to Anna on the bookshelf, awaiting the day Isla and the Happily Ever After can join them!

Lola and the Boy Next Door is being released September 29th, and I can't freaking wait for you all to read it.

I Has a Guest Post

2011-08-23T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hey, all!

While I'm still getting it together after a really busy few days, here's a guest post I wrote over at Brittany's blog. I promise I've got some good posts up my sleeves, but I hope this will tide us all over until then.

50k in 15 Days

2011-08-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

That title is no lie. I wrote 50,000 words in fifteen days of Camp NaNoWriMo.

Who's awesome?!

But, like most NaNo books go for me, the story's not done. I'm trying to do 2k a day now for a couple more days so I can reach THE END. And then take a break from writing for a little while, because I'm feeling a little burnt out. But probably just for a few days. A week tops.

But who am I kidding, nobody's reading this! You're all over at WriteOnCon -- right? ;)

Series or Standalones?

2011-08-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

Do you read Natalie Whipple's blog? If not, you should. It's fabulously entertaining and offers some great writing insight (plus Natalie's just so cute).

Today, she blogged about series and sequels versus standalones, and it really got me thinking.

I am in no way, shape, or form cut out to write sequels to anything I write.

I've tried. When I was younger, I wrote a couple sequels to other novels I'd written. That was back when I was still just writing for fun. Now that I write more seriously, I find it impossible to dwell in the same fictional world for too long.

It's not that I don't love the characters. I do. But a lot of the time I want to do something new instead of write about the same old people. And, in a weird way, it feels like I'm trying to involve myself too much in my characters' lives if I try to write sequels. Almost like I'm a mom trying to cling to her adult children. They don't need me anymore. They're independent. They can handle themselves just fine without me, thankyouverymuch.

Personally, I think YA needs more great standalone novels. Is it just me, or does it feel like every new book you pick up is the first in a trilogy? And how many times have you read a sequel to something and thought, "Wow, that was unnecessary"? I know I've done that. I would much rather read one solid, amazing book that packs a real punch than read three separate, but weaker books.

(Although I do like the idea of companion novels -- sequels-but-not-really, like Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door. But maybe I just think that because Stephanie Perkins can do no wrong!)

What do YOU think? As a reader, do you prefer series or standalones? How about as a writer?

Camp NaNoWriMo Day Seven

2011-08-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

So in my last ecstatic blog post, I gushed that I'd written 6,000 words on day one.

Well, guess what?

On Day Seven, my wordcount is 28,043.

O.o

I've never written anything this fast in my life. I'm amazed with how easily this book is coming.

I say that now, but that must be because my brain is so frazzled from so much creative output. Believe me: in a few weeks/months, this blog will be full to the brim with revision woes about this book.

But oh well. This kind of rush is what I live for, and the reason I friggin' love NaNoWriMo, in all its incarnations.

Camp NaNoWriMo Day One Recap

2011-08-02T15:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Day One of Camp NaNoWriMo, the month where I go crazy and write a lot.

I wrote...

*drumroll*

6,084 words.

Oh. My. Gawd.

I don't think I've ever written so much in a single day. I'm extremely impressed with myself, and I plan to get to 10k by tonight. Think I can do it?

Because I'm feeling so jubilant... want a teaser?

I can't share too much, because sharing works-in-progress tends to mess me up, but here's the first line of THE BRIGHT FOREVER, my NaNo novel:

"I can't believe the sun really exists."

I think this book might be a weird one, guys XD

If you're participating in Camp NaNo, how are you doing so far? Even if you aren't a camper... how are you, in general?

Camp NaNoWriMo!

2011-08-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today is August 1st, and I'm starting Camp NaNoWriMo today! I'm so excited. This will be my fourth NaNo novel.

Are YOU NaNoing this month?

"Oh, You're a Writer? What Do You Write?"

2011-07-29T17:13:00.001-07:00

Today on her blog, literary agent Sarah LaPolla addresses this issue: you're talking to an acquaintance/someone you're meeting for the first time, and they find out you're a writer. They inevitably ask you, "What do you write?"

I hate this question.

Despite being very forthcoming about my writing on this blog, on the AW forums, basically anywhere online, I'm extremely shy about it in real life. I have fairly close friends who only have vague knowledge of my writerly affliction. If people know about specific projects at all, they only have the murkiest idea of what my latest book kind-of-sort-of is about.

When the "what do you write" question comes into the conversation, I freeze up. I wish I could just say "YA" and have that be that, but outside of the YA world, people have no idea what those two letters stand for.

I usually answer the question with "teen fiction."

The next question, almost every time, is "Oh, like Twilight?"

And I say no, not like Twilight at all. When they probe a little deeper and ask for what the novel is about, I say something along the lines of this:

"Oh, um, well, there's this family, and they have fifteen kids, and the sixth child is, like... not happy? So she starts, like, creating this fake online persona, and, like, then she's actually a man."

This gets me polite smiles and nods and quick changes of subject.

Which I'm glad for. For some reason, talking about writing is really hard for me. Even my mom, my cheerleader throughout the querying process, only knows the above vague summary. My two best friends have actually read my work, but besides that... I write in secret. Maybe because writing has been such an all-consuming passion of mine for so long that it feels too personal to let people in on it.

Real life people, that is. You online folks get to hear everything.

I suppose I'll have to break the code of silence and shout from the rooftops someday, but for now, I'm a secret agent writer, writing under cover of darkness.

That sounds so much cooler than it really is.

I'm Fine, How Are You?

2011-07-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

As my neurosis-soaked last post might inform you, I've kind of been in the revision cave lately. I think I'm going to give a final push on this until July 31st, and then on the first day of August I'm going to leap headfirst into a new WIP during my stint at Camp NaNoWriMo! I'm so excited for that. I'm a huge, huge fan of NaNoWriMo and I always wish I had the drive to do it during other months besides November. Lo and behold, NaNo answered my prayers!

So, tell me, what are you guys up to? I really want to know. I feel like we don't talk enough. By the way, you look great! :)

Wisdom from the Revision Trenches

2011-07-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been working on a revision of TKoGU. Among the (many) things I'm working on in this round is lowering the wordcount. THE KING OF GROWING UP is contemporary YA, a genre where normal wordcounts are between ~40k-65k, maybe going as high as 80k if you're a multi-published author. My wordcounts for this genre are usually around 50k, with FAKE clocking in at 64k.

But TKoGU, at the end of the first draft, clocked in at 90k.

Ouch.

My problem isn't that it's full of useless scenes and filler. My problem is that it isn't. Almost everything is crucial to the story, there isn't all that much plot fat to cut. I found a few scenes that could go, but mostly I've been skimming the prose itself to try to cut that wordcount down.

I try to play a game with myself sometimes while I'm editing. I try to cut as many words as possible, being absolutely ruthless. If a single word doesn't improve a sentence, it goes. If a line of dialogue isn't absolutely necessary, it goes. Watching that wordcount go down is thrilling, and I feel like I'm really accomplishing something. I got it down to 87k, which is an improvement, if only slight.

But today, while I was playing this weirdo game, I came across a chunk of the story where some dialogue needed to be tweaked to reflective new information that had come in earlier in the revision. A character needed to say a few more things for that information to make sense in this scene.

That required a few extra words. I was worried for a minute. Wasn't I losing my game if my wordcount went from 87,031 to 87,045? Maybe I shouldn't add those couple extra things, are they really THAT necessary?

Then I stopped myself. I just started thinking, "This is stupid. The story needs that dialogue to change. So what if it's a couple words longer?"

The exact amount of words doesn't matter a whit compared to the quality of words.

If I was adding a couple words, but they were good words and not just fluffy filler words, then that's totally fine. I'd rather have a story a few words above where I'd like it to be than a story that is perfect word-wise, but doesn't make any sense.

I hope my lesson learned helps someone out there. Anybody else play the silly wordcount reduction game?

Thoughts on Settings

2011-07-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Settings are one of the foundations of novels -- along with characters, themes, plots, etc. -- and yet I'd say it's one of the most flexible of those foundations.

I'm going to use YA novels as examples because, let's face it, that's what I'm into.

In some novels, setting isn't so important. A lot of YA novels have this typical suburban setting. It's Every Town, USA. These kinds of settings remind me of the cartoon Fairly OddParents, which takes place in Townsville. How much more generic can you get? Often these settings illustrate a very teenage way of thinking: all suburban dwellings are the same and cookie-cutter-ness is bad and it doesn't matter where exactly the book takes place because it could be anywhere and it doesn't really matter anyway because suburbia crushes souls. In these kinds of settings, the universalness (or flat-out genericness) is emphasized.

In other novels, setting is paramount. This story could only take place in this town. Instead of the generic aspects of the town being emphasized, the author draws our attention to the specifics. It's kind of a cliché, but really, in some novels, the setting is like another character.

There are pros and cons to both types of settings, of course, and examples in which each is effective. Courtney Summers' books have generic suburbia settings, as does Barry Lyga's The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, but it doesn't take away from the awesomeness of those books. The settings just aren't focuses. On the other hand, just try to imagine Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard and Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma without their settings... impossible. Their settings are so well-drawn, so specific and beautifully described, that they would be entirely different stories if they were set anywhere else.

I, as a writer, have gone both ways. I've written a few books where the settings were pretty much inconsequential. You could set the novel in your own hometown in your head, if you wanted to.

But these days, I've been thinking a lot about what type of writer I want to be, now and in the future, and I've decided that I want to be a very setting-specific writer. I want to set my stories in real places that you could actually go to. I love it when stories have that element. Knowing that, if I wanted to, I could get in my car and drive to Forks, Washington in just a few hours is really cool, and makes reading setting-specific stories so much fun. I want readers of my work to have that element of "this place really exists" that I find so exciting.

I want to be a writer of one setting in particular: Vancouver and its surrounding towns. I've lived here my whole life, I love this place, and I want to share some of its awesome with readers from around the world. I grew up (and still live) in Squamish, a small town outside of Vancouver, and my current WIP takes place there. I've found that I have much more fun writing real places than made-up places.

This way, instead of trying to keep a made-up town layout in my head, I can just plunk my characters down on Cottonwood Road, a three-minute walk from my house, and know exactly where they are, what the place looks like, what it feels like. When I mention a character's house, I know which house it is (and in some cases, I know who currently lives there). I can set the scene in vivid, true-to-life detail, and I know that the book benefits from it.

I'll cap this post here, but I have more thoughts on settings. Stay tuned...

Deathly Hallows, Part 2

2011-07-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night, at midnight. Because I'm just so whacky and crazy, I went in my pyjamas. The small-town movie theatre was packed with teenagers I'm now too old to have gone to high school with, but there were a few people I graduated with who were home for the summer.

I'm still trying to put this movie into words, and I don't really think I can. I kind of already went through the angst of "Oh my god no more Harry Potter" when the seventh book came out, so there was less of that feeling for me. Movies are almost never as good as the books, and that is definitely true in this case. Still... a lot of this movie pulled me apart at the seams. The death of Snape, one of my favourite fictional characters of all time. Snape's memories and reasons for every action he took over the course of the series. His doe Patronus.

The ghosts of Harry's loved ones surrounding him before he took that last step to meet his enemy.

I cried. A lot. The whole theatre did. There was utter silence, punctuated by sniffles and sobs people tried to stifle but couldn't.

Just thinking of finding a way to summarize all my feelings about this experience makes me freeze up. I just can't do. These books, these movies, these stories have been a part of my life now for eleven years, and to have another piece of the Harry Potter world wrap up is very hard. Because I can't say it any better, I'll leave you with the words of one of my random airhead Facebook friends:

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Book Titles that Remind Me of Songs

2011-07-06T11:41:00.001-07:00

I love when books are titled after songs. Sometimes it's on purpose, like these:

Whenever I see those covers, I get The Beatles' "Across the Universe" and U2's "With or Without You" stuck in my head. This is no doubt done purposely, to give the prospective reader a taste of the novel's tone. I haven't read either of these books yet, though, so I can't say for sure.

But it's kind of funny when titles remind me of things the author and publisher cannot have anticipated. Like how this...

Reminds me of this...

What the Heck?!

2011-07-04T19:42:00.001-07:00

An important part of revisions for me is outlining. Yes, I outline in revisions, after the whole manuscript is already rewritten. I'm a pantser, my methods are random and weird like that. Anyway, I put each chapter on a Post-It note, jot down a quick synopsis of everything that happens in that chapter, and stick it to the wall about my desk. I currently have two WIPs plotted out on the wall. This is a picture of it:

The pink, dark pink, and blue block of stickies is my outline of FAKE, which has gone through multiple revisions and is (for now) complete. The light pink is the original chapters in Jen's POV, the dark pink chapters are the ones in Orlando's POV, and the blue are the chapters that have been totally changed and revised. I just finished putting up the green block of stickies. It's for my newly finished first-draft, THE KING OF GROWING UP, which is just moving into revisions.

FAKE is 50 chapters. TKoGU is 37.

The weird thing is... TKoGU is 26,000 words longer than FAKE.

What the heck????? How did my much-longer WIP end up with 13 fewer chapters?? HOW??? And it's not even finished! I almost always end up adding words during the revision process, and I know that there are at least a couple thousand words that'll be added before TKoGU is ready for beta readers. This is so weird!! I would've thought that more words = longer outline. I prepared so much space on the wall for the TKoGU stickie block but... it just looks so tiny and empty!

Just goes to show... every manuscript is different. And some manuscripts are really, really weird and make you question everything you knew to be true about writing.

I Can Haz a Blog Award!

2011-07-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

The oh-so-awesome Christine Taylor over at The Writer Coaster has given me the Seriously Cute Blogger Award! Yay! Thanks, Christine. Your kind words about me and my blog are much appreciated!

Okay, that puppy is like, the sweetest thing ever.

To accept the award, I have to list five books/movies/TV shows I've watched in the past 12 months.

1) I read Beauty Queens by Libba Bray last month and oh my gosh is it ever awesome. I bought it thinking "Oh, yeah, this should definitely be in my TBR pile, I'll get to it sometime" but I ended up starting it that same day and finishing it really quickly. It was surprisingly deep, and the satirical elements were spot-on. I found myself laughing out loud and reading passages to my mom, too, which is definitely the sign of something special. Plus -- OMG -- there were no unhealthy relationships or passive females! And there was a romance with a trans character! And sexy pirates! Whooohooo!

2) For movies, the best thing I've seen lately is the Bollywood comedy 3 Idiots. It was an impulse watch, my family just found it on the Video on Demand and thought it sounded interesting, so it was really fun to watch it with no preconceptions. It was hilarious! I absolutely love foreign films because they bring such unique humour and situations -- Hollywood can become monotonous. Definitely recommend 3 Idiots if you're looking for a quirky, weird, and touching comedy.

3) I don't watch a heck of a lot of TV, but when I do, I watch British murder mystery shows. Midsomer Murders is my favourite TV show at the moment, as well as Heartbeat and, of course, Agatha Christie's Poirot. Either British murder mysteries, or old people shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart, or Antiques Roadshow. What can I say, I'm an old soul. More like geriatric soul.

4) Another book! I read Divergent by Veronica Roth a little while back, and I really, really enjoyed it. Dystopian isn't always my thing, and the book is pretty daunting (get it?) and huge, but I blew through it in two days. Although it kind of felt like mostly set-up for the sequel, I found I really loved the main character, Tris. Her struggle with selfishness and her discovery that it's okay to be selfish sometimes really spoke to me. I'm definitely going to pick up the sequel, Insurgent, when it's out.

5) I haven't read this book yet, but I would kill to and I just need a moment to squee about it... OMG THE FAULT IN OUR STARS SQUEEEEEEEEEILOVEJOHNGREEN.

...I'm a little excited.

Okay, now I get to pass the award on! I'm supposed to pick five bloggers to give it to, but to be honest I'm a little pressed for time and I can only think of one blogger right now who deserves it!

Aaronni @ Simply Aaronni!

Her blog is so cute and it's really fun to read how excited she is to be writing, editing, and starting her query-go-round. I met her on Absolute Write and I think she's awesome! Go check her out!

Discussion: Who is Your Favourite Author?

2011-06-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

I'm really curious about this question.

You see, I always feel conflicted when someone asks me who my favourite author is. Do I pick a perennial favourite, someone whose novels have been and are going to be major influences in my life for many, many years, like J.K. Rowling? Does the title of "Favourite Author" have to be reserved to some big, important writer? Is George Orwell more worthy of the title than someone more modern, like Maureen Johnson? I love, love, love Jane Austen (more than words can express), but I'm just as wild about Stephanie Perkins. Does one merit the title more than the other? Should I crown my favourite based on what makes me sound fancier, or based on which book is igniting my imagination right at this moment?

How about you: who's your favourite author and why? Do you have different favourites for different occasions? Do you fret about the question or just spit off the first name that comes to mind?

Have You Heard?!

2011-06-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

This just in: John Green's new book's title has been released! It is...

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

When I heard him say it on his live YouTube show, explain where it comes from and what it means, and when I remembered what it's about, my eyes watered. Yes, I'm crying already after just learning the title. I think this is going to be emotional.

Anyway, John has announced that he is signing 100% of all preorders of the new book! That's right: if you head over to Amazon.com, or any other book retailer, as long as you're ordering the American edition, you can own a book signed by John Green. This amazing thing was brought to us by an author who is more passionate about his readers than any other I can think of.

To make it nice and easy for you, and because I know you want to soooo bad, here's the link to preorder THE FAULT IN OUR STARS! Do it! I did!

PREORDER HERE!

The Dangers of Hype and YA Blasphemy

2011-06-25T17:39:00.001-07:00

If you're a YA enthusiast, chances are you've gotten wrapped up in hype at some point. You start hearing about a book all over various blogs. The buzz gets a little louder and Goodreads reviews start showing up, and they're all good. The cover is just sooooo gorgeous and the premise makes you want to torch all your WIPs because you know you'll never be able to think up something that awesome.

Then release day comes, or, if it's an older book, you finally get your hands on it and have time to read it. So you do. And...

...it's just not that good.

You feel bad. You want to cry. You expected so much, but the delivery just wasn't all you'd hoped for. The clouds didn't open up, a beam of sunshine didn't envelop you as you read, you didn't have any life-changing epiphanies while reading.

This is happening to me right now. I'm no stranger to the feeling of being let-down by hype, but right now it's on a much bigger scale. I'm delving into some of the older books of an author I like, an author that's considered YA royalty, and I'm just not enjoying them the way I'd hoped I would. From what some bloggers and reviewers say, it doesn't feel like I'm reading the same books they did. It makes me really, really sad.

It also makes me feel blasphemous.

If I tell anybody I don't like these books, the books everyone else seems to adore, will I not be allowed to join the cool kids' clubs? A lot of bloggers nowadays are scared to voice negative opinions on books because of that whole YA Mafia thing last year... if I write a less-than-glowing review of these books, will everyone hate me? Do I have to lie, pretend I liked it, fake a smile when I talk about it?

I don't think I should have to. I have legitimate reasons to dislike the books and I have a right to express myself, right?

At least, I think I do.

Have you ever felt like this? Either blinded by hype or scared to write a negative review? When I'm done reading all the books by this author, I want to review them all together in a vlog -- what do you think about that? Should I?

State of Sadness

2011-06-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

So last night the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 to the Boston Bruins, thereby losing the Stanley Cup.

I'm obviously upset. They're my team, they're my boys. It physically hurt me to see their eyes well up with tears after the last buzzer, and I had to swallow a giant lump in my throat during the presentation of the Stanley Cup to a team that has disrespected us throughout this series and treated us like dirt.

It hurts. To tie it into something relevant to this blog, it feels like rejection. It feels like jumping through hoops for so long, making it past the query stage, then past the partial stage, then to the full stage, and then... not being good enough. The Canucks were number one league-wide almost all season, highest in points, Western Conference champions, Northwest Division champions, President's Trophy winners. We have a Vezina Trophy nominee, a Hart Trophy winner and nominee, a handful of new Hall of Fame inductees, and our head coach and general manager are all nominated for awards.

We won everything but the Stanley Cup. Every honor but the highest.

For a writer, this is like having a great manuscript that you love. You're ready to conquer the world. Someone, an agent or publisher, loves your query. Reads your manuscript. But... "It's just not there yet."

You spend forever thinking about your failure, dissecting every word in the rejection. Thinking about every move and how, maybe if you'd tied your left shoe first instead of your right that day, the outcome might've been different. You're thinking you're just not good enough.

Well, maybe you're not good enough -- yet.

The Canucks are going to take the summer off to chill, refocus, shoot pucks on their home rinks. It's not going to be easy for them, working their whole lives to get to that Stanley Cup game and losing it in front of their home crowd, but they will bounce back. They'll be even better next season.

And so you, writer, will be even better in your next manuscript.

With practice, we get better, whether we're talking hockey or writing. If you keep working, keep up that passion, being so close to achieving that goal -- whether it's a 'yes' from an agent or a Stanley Cup -- will happen again.

And next time? You're going to win it big.

P.S. - Me and mine are all safe after the riots in downtown Vancouver after the game. I'm trying to think of the words to describe my dismay and embarrassment after what happened. It's just ridiculous, and I just want to say that no true Canucks fan behaves like that.

The Semi-Colon: Misused and Misunderstood

2011-06-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of critiquing and beta reading, and something I keep coming across is the incorrect use of semi-colons.

You know, this thing:

;

The semi-colon is among the least-common of punctuation marks, so it's not really a surprise that it's so often misused. And when something is a little bit rare, sometimes that leads to people wanting to use it more to look fancy.

Semi-colons are used to join related, but independent sentences. That is, you can't use it like this:

The house on the corner was enormous; with white shutters.

Or like this:

My hair stood up on end; as if I'd been electrocuted.

The sentences on either side of the semi-colon have to be complete sentences, with nouns, verbs, everything. If the sentences aren't complete, they could be joined by a comma, like so:

The house on the corner was enormous, with white shutters.

Or sometimes there doesn't have to be any punctuation:

My hair stood up on end as if I'd been electrocuted.

You can use a semi-colon to join two related, complete sentences, like this:

He looked at me with sad eyes; I wished I hadn't hurt him with what I'd said before.

But, even if you're using semi-colons correctly, I recommend using them very sparingly. They have a stiffer, more formal feel than other punctuation marks, and overusing them doesn't make you look smart: it just makes you look like you're a little kid who's discovered a new word and uses it all the time. Consider the voice and tone of what you're writing and whether or not a semi-colon fits in. For instance, a third-person narrator is more likely to use a semi-colon than a first-person narrator. I don't know about you, but I sure don't think in semi-colons!

I recommend scrutinizing your every use of a semi-colon, and making sure that it's 1) correctly used, 2) absolutely necessary, and 3) not surrounded by other semi-colons.

Funny How Things Change...

2011-06-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

I never used to be a sports person. I always hated gym class in elementary school (I mean, once you get to the age where you have to start changing into gym strip, things reach a whole new level of awkward), and in high school I was lucky enough to have a sadistic Nazi gym teacher who basically shattered my self-esteem. This woman was pure evil: she would be perfect nice if you saw her outside of school, but in the gym she would be doing things like dividing girls into teams based on weight (the "Twigs" and the "Trunks"), calling people fat to their faces, and setting up her grading system so that, if you didn't do a lap fast enough, you got zero -- no points for effort. It got to the point where I wouldn't even bother to run laps of the field anymore, since I could never do it fast enough so I would always fail anyway.

Needless to say, gym, sports, and most physical activity was ruined for me for a very long time. I'm still not a sporty person -- I prefer to lounge around and read than get physical -- but in the past year and a half, I've found my sentiments changing a bit.

At the beginning of the 2009 season, I really got into watching hockey. Every Vancouver Canucks game, there I was, watching the broadcast eagerly. I've only missed a handful of games the past two seasons, and only because I absolutely had

to. At first I was pretty confused and had to ask my dad lots of questions, but now I can rattle off statistics like a pro. I have the heights and weights and stats of most players memorized. I put my male friends to shame.

I never used to be like this. I used to scoff at every sport and bury my nose in a book. I still do that, of course, but I kind of learned something: the Vancouver Canucks are not all that different from YA fiction.

There are personalities. There are relationship dynamics

between players. There's chemistry and flair and straight-up style. Sure, maybe I originally came to hockey for the boys (I mean, want some Kesler? Or some Mason Raymond? Good God, how gorgeous can you get?)... but I stayed for the stories.

The way the Sedin twins play off each other, practically reading each others' minds? There's a story there. Alex Burrows's overtime goal that eliminated our rival, the Chicago Blackhawks? There's a story there. Manny Malhotra getting hit in the eye with a puck, everyone says his career is over, and tonight he could step back out on the

ice in a miracle recovery only three months later? There's a story there.

So, as we're plowing through the Stanley Cup Final, Game 2 tonight, and I'm gearing up to start a new WIP (about an NHL team), I have only one thing left to say...

Go Canucks Go!

Want a Teaser?

2011-05-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of in a blogging slump, if you haven't noticed. I have a few post ideas, but they all kind of require actual work put into them, and as I prefer to blog by the seat of my pants, I don't like having to plan things. I'd say I'm lazy, but I prefer to call it carefree, spontaneous, or any other synonyms for "lazy" that have pleasanter connotations.

So, while I cannot yet offer you a well-written, well-thought-out blog post yet (although I will soon be writing a review for the amazing book I'm reading right now)... would you like a Teaser Tuesday?

Yes?

Okay. This is from my WIP, The King of Growing Up (hooray for finally titling it!). Here we join our main character, Hunter, and his love interest, Taylor, on the night before Taylor leaves for L.A. I hope you enjoy it!

I eat a bag of chips for dinner with Assassin’s Creed on pause. Dad’s still in the garage, Mom’s still being cranky couch bitch, so I figure there’s no official meal tonight. I have no problem with a Dorito dinner. Unfortunately I look like a total slob when Taylor walks in.

He pauses in the doorway, taking in the sight of me in my boxers, slumped in a beanbag chair with a bag of chips. And then he sees the bouquet of red roses on the floor next to me.

“Uh, what’s up?”

I swallow my mouthful, put the controller down, and motion him closer. Taylor closes the door and sits down next to me, still looking confused.

“What are the flowers for?”

“I got them for you. Because I love you and I don’t want you to go.”

Taylor closes his eyes. “We’ve been over this, Hunter. I’m leaving tomorrow. You can’t pull this shit now.”

“I know that, I know I can’t make you stay. But...”

What the fuck am I trying to say? While I’m stumbling over my words, making half-starts on sentences I don’t know how to finish, Taylor pulls rose petals between his fingers. One of them falls off the flower and he rubs it against his lips.

“I’m going,” he says softly. “If you can accept that, we can have a really nice time tonight. If you can’t...”

I swallow. “I know you’re going. But... is this the end?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Damn it. Fuck.

Blog Award!

2011-05-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

I've received a blog award!

From Margo! Go check out her blog :)

Thanks!

Graduations, Proms, and Summers, Oh My!

2011-05-16T19:50:00.001-07:00

We're coming up on that time of year again, the year of endings and new beginnings. Graduation. Although I graduated high school two years ago, I still feel really nostalgic around this time.

Graduating was hard for me, all of it. Not just having to move on, make new plans, and become a grown-up (something I'm still decades away from, I'm pretty sure), the whole ordeal of graduation itself was hard. The stress of having to cross the stage in a stupid-looking robe with the entire town staring at me, being forced to spend almost a whole weekend with classmates I didn't even really like that much, and my actual prom night -- ugh.

My graduation ceremonies went like this.

-- on the Friday evening, we had the walk-across-the-stage ceremony

-- After that, a mocktail party.

-- After mocktails, casino night (not actual gambling, we had fake money, but still, boring as hell)

-- Saturday afternoon, another mocktail-type party

-- Saturday night, prom

When I say "prom," I mean that we rented out the local university (really swanky building), had a fancy dinner, then we played Wii on a giant screen, had a Velco obstacle course, mechanical bull, karaoke, photo booths, Tarot card readers, and just generally ran around all crazy -- in our fancy dresses and tuxes.

Sounds fun, but point I was so burnt out. I'm the kind of person that can have fun with a group of people for an hour or two, but I really need alone-time to recharge, and I just didn't get that the whole weekend. As a result I was completely miserable and spent most of "prom" by myself in the gardens outside or on the balcony, staring out across the valley at my small town and wishing I was somewhere else.

*emo alert*

And of course, after grad weekend there were after-parties and house parties for another month, since our grad stuff is held at the end of May and school is out near the end of June!

Anyway, I'm now writing a book where a graduation is the opening setting, and I'm aware that my prom/grad experience was probably pretty atypical. So I'm asking you: what was your high school grad like? Did you have the typical American prom, or did your school do something a bit different? If you read about a prom like mine in a YA book, would it ring true to you, or would it be hard to relate to?

Tell me your stories!

What a Day!

2011-05-13T23:31:00.001-07:00

Friday the 13th was not kind to me.

First off, Blogger was doing stupid things all day. There was the Blogger Apocalypse yesterday, and today the Google Reader kept re-posting blog entries that had been posted days ago. I'd get all excited to see a certain blogger had written a new post, then I'd realize that it was the same one from last week. I was about ready to punch something.

But my bad luck carried over from yesterday. I had a surgery on my left big toe (I have chronic ingrown toenails, I periodically have to have nails removed and parts of my nail bed scraped away... eugh!), and my pain meds just decided to stop working. I was up all night long, sleeping in short two-minute bursts before being awoken again by the pain. It only hurt when I was lying down, somehow, so I spend most of the night pacing around my house since it barely hurt at all when I was standing. No painkillers worked, and I took a lot of them. Probably too many.

I was able to take a short nap a bit later, but I'm basically running on no sleep and my body won't let the painkillers work. In short, this has been the worst day ever.

But... I managed to do some writing! :D Am I a complete freak for enjoying these horribly painful sick days because I can distract myself by torturing some characters, instead?

I hope your Friday the 13th was a heck of a lot better than mine!

My WIP and ways it likes to torture me

2011-05-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry my blogging has been kind of sporadic lately. Other things have been taking up my time and, to be honest, I'm not really sure what to blog about. I have a few ideas for posts but they all require time to put together, and I like blogging when it's spontaneous and doesn't need a lot of HTML and pictures and fiddling around with formatting. I prefer to just... type things.

Anyway, so one of the things that's been keeping me busy is this WIP of mine. Stupid thing. When I say that, though, I say it out of love. *cough*

I've been working on it since last summer. I still can't believe that. Sure, it went on a hiatus during NaNoWriMo, and another hiatus when I needed to focus on my revision of FAKE, but it's still the longest I've ever spent on a first draft. I'm almost at 65,000 words, which is longer than FAKE, but it's nowhere near done. It's just so complicated. There's the main plot, but there are all sorts of subplots as well. The story is about Hunter and the girl who becomes his ex-girlfriend, Hunter and his boyfriend, Hunter and his parents, Hunter and his relationship with his peers, Hunter finding his place in the world, Hunter trying to get out of his small town. There are just so many facets of the story, it's becoming kind of a monster. I love it so much, though, and I really believe in it, so I HAVE to keep on truckin'.

Revisions are going to be a pain, though. But aren't they always? ;)

Follow Friday (7)

2011-05-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hello! I haven't done a Follow Friday in a good while, and I feel like it today! Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View. The question this week is:

Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?

My answer:

Oooohhh... I think the character I'd most like to be is Hermione from (duh) Harry Potter. I would love to be that studious, but I'm just not! All throughout this past term at school, whenever I really had to buckle down and work, I'd tell myself "Be like Hermione!" to the point where I wanted to get a WWHD? tattoo on my hand! Alas, at least right now, I'm really not cut out to be the super academic type.

As for the character I'd like to date... gotta say Etienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss. He's just soooo dreamy and funny and he sounds like a complete blast to be around. I'm still going on about this book months after reading it! If you haven't, you're really missing out -- on a great read AND a very cute boy!

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else totally inspired?

I got up at 2am to watch the wedding, even though I had an exam at 9am. I'm so, so glad I did.

I fully expect and really, really want royalty-themed YA to come back into style. I think I'm going to be writing something along these lines very, very soon.

RTW: Music Stuff!

2011-04-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival hosted by the lovely ladies over at YA Highway. Today's question is:

If your WIP or favourite book were music, which song(s) would it be?

Aww, hell yeah.

Ask almost anyone, music and writing are very much connected. While I can't always write to music, sometimes it distracts me, there are always certain songs I listen to on repeat while I'm not writing to keep myself in the mindset of the story.

For my current WIP (which refuses every title I give it!), I'm drawing heavy inspiration from one band in particular: Something Corporate, my favourite band ever. I've talked about them on the blog before so I won't bore you with the details of my adoration, but there are a few songs in particular that encapsulate my WIP.

"Miss America"

"Miss America" really captures the sadness my MC, Hunter, feels after he is separated from someone he loves very much (vague, non-spoilery explanations FTW). Something Corporate has a lot of songs about separation, and this one is the one I've been writing to lately.

"Airports"

The other song I've had on repeat lately is "Airports," also by Something Corporate. This was from when they had just formed, the lead singer was 16, so it's pretty rough. It's a pretty rare recording -- the YouTube one isn't the one I'm used to hearing, I have an acoustic on my laptop I like better, but it's still good. Anyway. There's an airport scene in my WIP, one I've always wanted to write. Airports are some of my favourite places in the world.

Basically any song by Something Corporate has contributed something to this WIP. I wish I could post every one of their songs, but... let's face it, you wouldn't listen :P

My Advice to Young Writers

2011-04-26T14:57:00.001-07:00

I was one of those kids who always knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: a writer. Sure, I toyed with the idea of fantasy jobs (rock star, astronaut) and half-heartedly admitted to myself that I would need a day job, but I was always hell-bent on writing, ever since I was six years old. A lot of writers have trouble "coming out of the closet," admitting that they're writers to friends, family, and acquaintances. I was never one of those. I made sure everyone knew my writerly inclinations. Being so verbose about it made me open to a lot of criticism and strange behaviour, though.

I've been thinking about it a lot, and I decided to post my advice for young writers here for the world to see. I'll start with a statement of the advice, and back it up with my personal experience. If you aren't a young writer yourself, pass it on to one you know. I hope it helps somebody out there.

1) Write -- a lot.

It sounds really, really obvious, but strangely enough, it's something people have trouble with. When I was young, my family went to my dad's company Christmas party every year. When I was probably about eight, one of my dad's bosses got a little tipsy and took a great interest in conversing with the little kids. He wasn't really listening to anything they said, though, until he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a writer. He flipped. Got so excited he sprang up out of his seat.

"That's great! Do you write?" he asked me. "Because you have to write to be a writer."

I said yes, I did write, I wrote a great deal. I briefly detailed a story I was working on.

"Wow," he said, shaking his head. "Wow! My daughter wanted to be a writer all her life, but she never actually wrote anything. Now she takes care of old people."

This conversation has always stuck in my head. It seems so simple: if you want to be a writer, you have to actually write. "To write" is a verb, which requires action. You can't call yourself an artist and never actually do any art. The only way to become a writer, or to become more comfortable in your identity as a writer if you're still "in the closet," is to write. I stopped writing for a while when I was nine and ten, and those are some of my most miserable years -- I wasn't doing what I was meant to be doing. If you're a writer, write. A lot. Which leads me to my next point.

2) You have to want it bad.

Some people, people who aren't writers and don't understand it, think that writing is a surefire get-rich-quick venture. It is not, in any way, shape or form, a path to easy money. I've been writing for more than ten years now and I've never made a cent. Why do I do it, then?

You have to want to write, for no other reason than that it makes you feel complete. You can't just be writing because people think it's cool, that you're some fancy genius scribbler. Your primary motivation can't be what others think of you. If the only reason you're writing is to get rich, be on a bunch of prestigious awards lists, and have droves of adoring fans, you're not going to get very far.

When you're a young writer, people are going to think it's cool. When I was fourteen, I started writing a novel that I really loved. I showed the first chapter to a friend. She showed it to our other friend, who passed it on to someone else. Before long, every chapter I wrote was being passed around the school, as I wrote it. People I didn't know, students years older than me, were coming up to me in the halls and telling me how much they loved the story, and what was going to happen to such-and-such character, and OMG so-and-so is awesome! It was hard not to let it go to my head. Having fans was pretty awesome, in a lot of ways. Heck, one girl even did her grade 10 book report on my book!

But there were a lot of negative aspects to the attention. I became "the writer girl." Teachers would expect a lot from me in class, since they'd heard (and read for themselves) that I was good at English. I was flooded with requests to write articles for the town and school newspapers, to be the editor of the yearbook, to do all this random stuff I didn't want to do. I had people requesting to read stories I didn't want to share yet, and getting huffy when I told them no. I got cold-shouldered by one girl because I killed off a character she liked. I got sneered at by a lot of bullies, who would sometimes read my work aloud in a mocking tone.

If you're going to be a writer, if you're going to tell people about it and make something so personal public, you have to be fully committed to it. So many things could have gone wrong for me. I could have taken on all the extra projects people gave me and not had time to write for pleasure. I could have caved to the pressure from my "fans" and sacrificed my integrity, writing exactly what they wanted. I could have stopped writing altogether, scared by the people who made fun of me. It was the love of the work that pulled me through, not the applause.

3) If you really want it, you have to make sacrifices.

I missed out on a lot. In high school, I would come home after school, sit down at my desk, and write for a few hours (I envy that dedication! I'm such a procrastinator now). Then I would eat dinner, do homework, mess around online, and go to sleep.

Meanwhile, other people my age were getting boyfriends, going to parties, and just being teenagers. I was kind of high-and-mighty about that stuff, saying I didn't care, that I'd rather be writing. And that was true, but there was a part of me that ached to be normal. The writing was more important to me, and I don't regret the decision to put it first, but I still sometimes think of the person I could have been had I gone out and done all that teenager stuff.

For me, the sacrifice was worth it, and it may be worth it for you, too. But think about it, long and hard. Nowadays, since I write for teens, I supplement my lack of real-life experience with imagination and second-hand stories. But when you can get some life experience, go do it.

4) Don't let the dream die.

I don't really have a personal story to explain this one. All I can really say is... don't stop writing. Not for any reason. I don't mean don't take a day off, that kind of thing is fine, but don't let anything stop you.

Pretty much any time you tell any "responsible adult" that you are a writer, they're going to tell you something along the lines of, "Oh, you better get a good day job, otherwise you're going to starve, ha ha!" I get this all the time. In high school I had people making fun of me for being this reclusive writer-type.

Don't let those people kill your dream. Do everything you can to keep the dream alive. Write all the time. Write stuff that inspires you. Write thinly-veiled fanfiction if it makes you happy. Keep gorgeous notebooks in your backpack all the time. Find a pen you really love. Doodle your book title all over your school work. Compose blurbs the New York Times will someday say about your book ("a little slice of genius" or "profoundly, exceptionally awesome" are my favourites). Read, read, read, constantly.

The world needs young writers and the fresh perspective they bring. Don't you dare give up.

That Enormous Stack

2011-04-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Long time no see! I'm still trying to get myself up on my blogging feet. Never fear, once summer hits I'll be back full-force.

If I'm not crushed by my TBR pile, that is.

These are the fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi YA books.

These are the historical YA books.

These are the contemporary YA books.

And that's not all. I also have one or two adult books and brand-new copies of the Wrinkle in Time series that I haven't gotten to read yet.

!!!!!

So yeah, I'm kind of swamped these days. My New Years Resolution was to read at least one book a week, with a total of about 53 for the whole year, and so far I've been pretty good with that. Technically I'm on track, but still, with so many books in the queue and with so many others coming out soon or out recently, I feel like I could be doing so much better with my reading!

Also, some more news: I've got 53,000 words of a first draft. It's not anywhere near the end of the story, and I have no idea how it's going to end, but it's a great start. I love the story, love the characters, and I'm so excited for where it's going.

I hope you all are doing just fine, too!

Oh No, My Sister is Becoming a Teenager!

2011-04-14T18:23:00.001-07:00

About an hour ago I had to give my sister a ride downtown. She's turning 13 in October and will be going into high school in September. It's always just felt like a fact to me, that she's pretty much a teenager, but today it really got pounded into my head.

First, she barged into my room and demanded that I give her a ride to the gelato place downtown. No 'please,' no 'thank you.'

Second, the entire ride there, she was doing her makeup in the visor mirror of my car. Garish green eyeshadow and way too much mascara, including on the lower lashes. Clump city!

Third, I told her I would drop her off around the block from the gelato place because there was never a spot to parallel-park in front of it. She blew a huge fit because it's slightly rainy, her hair is perfectly straight, and she hates having to walk anywhere, even if it's just for two minutes. Still, I didn't relent. I kicked her out in the rain a block away and gladly drove home.

But jeez, what a reminder! She's a total teenager. If she was my daughter I couldn't be more shocked and disturbed. I remember the day she was born in great detail! I still think of her as the baby my mom brought to visit my grade 3 class, before she had any hair.

You have to treat teenage sisters a lot different than baby sisters. As it has always been, everything she does bothers me. She has crappy posture, her expression always looks crabby, and she's just plain rude. She 'typs lik dis' on Facebook. She wears really crappy makeup. She is a total slave to trends and copies every single thing her friends do.

It's been a long time since I was cranky-for-no-reason, typed chatspeak and thought I looked great in caked-on makeup. It's been many years since I gave a crap what my friends were doing and started doing my own thing. I've grown up a lot. I have to remember that -- that she's barely at the beginning of the teenage phase while I've graduated out of it. I have to remember that she doesn't have the life experience I have yet. I have to stop picking her apart because, in time, she'll learn from her mistakes. She doesn't need me to point them out to her.

Instead I should be watching her grow up and trying to feed off her teenage energy, because I'm an old person now. I should be making fun of her love for Justin Bieber at every chance I get.

I write for teens -- she can be my link to their world. I have to try not to kill her. I could use her.

Top Ten Tuesday!

2011-04-11T23:32:00.001-07:00

I've never participated in this meme before, but I can't resist posting on this topic!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish!

This week's question is: Books I'd Love to See Made Into Movies!!

I know, awesome, right? But this list comes with the assumption that they would be made into good movies that don't butcher the book.

1) Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

And you thought I was finished raving about this book?! I'm soooo not done singing its praises. It would be so cool to see the cutesy, fun story play out on the big screen, and would be especially great to see Paris in all its glory (did I mention I LOVE everything about France?!)

2) Looking for Alaska by John Green

This would just be a massive fan-gasm to see as a movie. The rights are owned by a major production company, so it could happen someday. It's not my favourite John Green book, but it'd be cool to see what Hollywood could do with it.

3) Paper Towns by John Green

THIS would be my favourite John Green book! The whacky hijinks would be hilarious to see, and if they could find the perfect actress to play Margo Roth Spiegelman, I would just be in fan heaven.

4) How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

I looooved this book, and I think it would an amazing quirky indie movie. My favourite movie of all time is Ghost World, and I loved How to Say Goodbye in Robot because of their similarities. So if How to Say Goodbye in Robot was a movie, it'd be right up there in my favourites!

5) I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

Ahhhh... I can't even express my desire to see this book adapted to film. I actually attempted a screenplay adaptation for fun, but it was way too hard and I just knew I couldn't do it justice. It's just such a genius dark comedy, and I know it would be a movie where I'd leave the theatre feeling wonderfully empowered but incredibly sad at the same time. And for some reason I love that feeling.

6) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

It would just be so haunting and gorgeous and perfect. Plus it has the perfect movie premise already, doesn't it?

7) Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

It would be really cool to see what a talented director and cast could do with this story. I read it a year ago and I still haven't really processed exactly how I feel about it. That's how affecting it was!

8) The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Three words to describe the movie this would make: Intense. Terrifying. Beautiful.

9) The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Except that I would be way too freaked out to watch it all the way through.

10) Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger

It would be a really, really cute non-romance. I love this book.

So there ya go! :) Hopefully my blogger's block is gone now, too!

Apologies

2011-04-05T15:47:00.001-07:00

I am so, so sorry, guys. I haven't posted in over two weeks. I promise I'm not dead. School is about to wrap up and I've been swamped in research papers and portfolios. Today I'm going to be powering through an essay I've had months to work on, in true procrastinator form. I will be back blogging and writing in full force very, very soon! I'm working on some great posts I can't wait to share with you all :)

Blogfest: Show Me the Voice!

2011-03-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! Another awesome opportunity -- Brenda Drake is hosting a fabulous blogfest/contest.Find out more here! Basically, we post our first 250 words of our finished manuscripts on our blogs for critique and email them to Brenda. The top 20 will be judged by agent Natalie Fischer (whose blog is awesome -- check it out here).

Here are my first 250 words! The contest is all about the voice, voice voice voice, so let me know what you think of the delicious voicey voicyness going on. (Voice is starting to sound like a very strange word...)

The manuscript is called FAKE.

My father holds my diary open in his palm.

“‘Dear Diary,’” he reads. “‘Tonight at dinner I crossed my fingers behind my back while Dad said Grace.’”

I stare down into my lap. A cameraman breathes down my neck. I can feel the lens focusing on me like little bugs crawling on my skin.

“‘It felt good,’” Dad continues, “‘and Dad didn’t even notice.’”

I allow myself one blink. He wants me to cry, to repent, to beg for a light punishment. I won’t give him the satisfaction. I won’t give them the satisfaction.

“‘I’m too smart to be in this family. Not blind enough to believe what they want me to believe.’” He slams the diary shut. “Jenny-fer.”

He always says my name like it rhymes with “Lucifer.”

“What?”

“Look at me.”

I’ve never seen so many lines on his forehead. The light from the sunset filters through the blinds and highlights his puffy combover and his graying eyebrows. A camera pokes over his shoulder.

“What you wrote in this book is evil,” he says. “It’s very, very evil and I want an apology.”

Can’t see straight. The pressure in my chest warps my vision. Can’t even think. I stopped writing in that silly diary months ago. I’ve found a better outlet. I won’t make this mistake again. When I don’t speak, his eyes flash. His sausage-like fingers grip his desk. A vein twitches on his forehead.

“You need to pray,” he says, holding out his hands. “If you pray, Jesus will fix you.”

YA Pitch Contest!

2011-03-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

Yoo hoo, writers! YAtopia is hosting a pretty sweet pitch contest right now. Post a two-sentence pitch, your manuscript's first sentence, and get the chance to have your manuscript read by agent extraordinaire Ammi-Joan Paquette! Considering she's closed to queries at the moment, this is a fantastic opportunity.

Head over there now to check it out!

Fight Scenes

2011-03-19T18:13:00.001-07:00

I freaking love writing fight scenes. I find it very challenging, though. To write a good fight scene, you have to keep a few things in mind.

1. Variety

Verbs in fight scenes are really crucial, since that's basically how you're going to get all the action across. If you use the same verbs over and over again, like "punch" and "kick," it gets really dull really fast. Of course, you have to use those words a few times, but after one or two uses the reader will get that the characters are punching and kicking each other. I try to use words like "smash," "connect," "blast," and "puncture" to keep things interesting.

2. Choreography

You have to know exactly where in time and space these characters are fighting. What's around them? Is there anything lying around that someone could use as a weapon? How are they going to move around the setting during the fight? Is one character a lot stronger than the other, pinning his opponent down and pummelling him, never allowing him the chance to get a punch in? Or is the fight more evenly matched, more dynamic, with more back-and-forth?

3. Emotional Impact

This is by far the most important. Why are they fighting? Why is a physical fight the best way for these characters to interact right now? If these characters don't have a good enough reason to be fighting, we're not going to care who wins. If the issue could be easily solved with a negotiation, why are they beating the crap out of each other? It has to make sense. When two characters come head-to-head for a real reason, when there are real stakes and the emotions climax, that's when your reader is glued to the page. If the emotions between the characters have been slowing building, getting hotter and hotter, and they finally come to a head and everyone breaks out into the most animalistic kind of fighting, that's when the fight works.

Think of fight scenes as love scenes. Is there a connection between the characters? Is there a lot of build-up? Are the emotions coming to head in a way that makes sense? Is the choreography easy to follow? How graphic do you want it to be? Wow, fight scenes and love scenes have a lot in common! ;)

Do you like writing fights? Or do your characters solve their problems in more civilized ways?

New Direction?

2011-03-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

This past week has been tough for me. I've had a lot of homework, assignments, and other obligations to fill and I've hardly had any time to breathe. I haven't been able to read anything besides school books. I've only written a couple thousand words this week, which feels like torture when I have so many ideas and so much pent-up excitement about this WIP.

I've been thinking lately that I want to leave university. It was fun for a while, but now I have to force myself to finish assignments, torture myself into studying, and bully myself into even going to class. I have no passion for what I'm learning, no drive to do anything. To put it bluntly, I hate it.

I'm supposedly in a creative writing program, but nothing I'm reading or writing for school feels like it has any relevance to my life and writing career. Most of the program is focused on poetry (which I hate) and super pretentious literary short stories (which I really hate). I am in a children's lit class, which I like, but even so, it feels like I'm studying the very, very basics.

So I've decided that I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to stay in a program I don't care about. I don't want to have to force myself to care. I want to be doing something I love.

So I'm not going back next term. I'm going to slog this term out as best I can, then I'm going to work all summer, save up money, and probably go to France for a big chunk of September. That's the plan.

After that? I may go back to school, start a different program, but maybe not. Maybe I'll just work part-time and focus on writing. My parents won't be too pleased (Mom won't, Dad'll be fine), but I really think I need to stop doing things just because I feel like I have to. Besides, I'm going to school on my own dime. They can't stop me.

Am I crazy? Should I stick to my guns and follow those dreams? If anyone has any wisdom or advice to share, I'd love to hear it.

Teaser Tuesday!

2011-03-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't done one of these in a looooong time. This quick little blurb is from the newly-retitled A Summer of You (formerly As Long As I'm Lying). Here, our main character Hunter is on a road trip with his new boyfriend Taylor while rumours are swirling about them back home. Enjoy!

“God, I wish I had a lot of alcohol right now.”

I say it with a laugh so he knows it’s a half-joke, but Taylor throws his arms around me so hard I stagger backwards. I hug him back, rocking him back and forth.

Just a few weeks ago I was a loser who barely graduated high school and had nothing to worry about. Now I’m kissing a boyfriend who won’t tell me his secrets, having rumors spread about me back home, and thinking about how to tell Dad about all this when I should just be enjoying this silence.

“Fuck it,” I say. “Just fuck everyone. Let’s go swimming.”

Taylor grins.

Songs on Saturday! (8)

2011-03-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! On certain Saturdays I like to share a song that's been influencing my writing lately. This week's song is...

"California" by Wave

Don't judge me, I know it's ancient. Don't judge the song by the music video, either, or the dorky boy band singing it.

This week I've been writing a road trip. It's insanely fun. My two characters are escaping -- not to California, to the Okanagan region of BC, but still -- and this song is perfect. The carefree but somewhat desperate lyrics, the lazy but introspective melody... perfectly expresses the state of mind these two characters are in.

I've especially had fun writing this part of the novel because they're road trip route is the same one I take almost every summer. I have some crazy stories and favourite places along the way and it's really fun to work that in.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday!

2011-03-04T18:53:00.001-08:00

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy For Books!

The question this week is:

Who is your all-time favourite book villain?

My answer: I friggin' love Voldemort. What's not to love? Not only is he super-scary when he's actually in a scene, even when he's not physically there you still have this creepy crawling-under-your-skin feeling whenever he's mentioned. He's a villain that brings an atmosphere of doom the second you say his name (or avoid saying his name!). He's also very sympathetic. You feel bad for what he's become. He's also the perfect foil for Harry, since they're so alike. They represent the paths the same person could take. Very psychologically interesting. I love it.

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This week's question is:

What embarrassing thing have you done on cold medicine?

My answer: Uh, this is a weird one! I've never been on cold medicine. There's no cure for a cold, so I figure taking medicine for it doesn't really do anything, it'll go away on its own anyway. I don't take medicine for relatively minor illnesses. But, when I have fevers, I wake up at night and stalk my mom. She's woken up many, many times in my life with me standing there by her bed staring at her, in a feverish delusion. It's kind of funny.

Blog about your dog!

2011-02-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

I got the idea for this post from Lindsay at Lindsay Writes.

This is my shih tzu, Jimmy.

Doesn't he look like an Ewok? Or something from Jim Henson's Creature Workshop.

Jimmy is almost 5 years old, I think we got him the year I turned 15 (which means, holy crap, I'm turning 20 this year). Jimmy is the sweetest little thing in the world, with the biggest personality. This picture was taken by the photographer who took my graduation pictures. We were taking pictures in the living room, and suddenly Jimmy popped up in front of the camera making that face. It was perfect (and to be honest, I was happy to have the spotlight taken off me).

I could go on and on about my Jimmy but I won't bore you. Maybe someday I'll write a children's book about him.

I'm seriously considering it.

200 Followers & The Oscars!

2011-02-27T15:52:00.000-08:00

200+ followers?

Seriously, 200+ followers? More than two-freakin-hundred people are interested in reading the random-ass stuff I post on this blog?

Consider my mind blown.

Thank you so much, everybody, for following. I will do my best to provide you with interesting material and make clicking that little 'Follow' button worth it!

In other news, who's watching the Academy Awards tonight?

*raises hand super high, lifting her butt out of her seat like Hermione when she's eager to answer a question in class*

This year, once again, the Oscars have a personal element for me. My second cousin, Craig Berkey, is nominated in the sound category for his work on True Grit. He works on all the Coen Brothers' movies and this is his second nomination! I'm hoping he wins tonight -- but as they say, it's an honour just to be nominated. Listen for him when they announce nominees for sound!!!

Anyway, I'm off to my annual Oscar party... ta ta!

Follow Friday (6)

2011-02-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! Welcome to Follow Friday. It's hosted by Parajunkee's View.This week's question is:

Share your fave television show! Tell us a bit about it...

My favourite TV show is Midsomer Murders, a BBC cozy mystery show. It's about a detective, Chief Inspector Barnaby, and his sergeant who solve murders in the English countryside. It's brilliant.

Barnaby is the disgruntled-looking fellow on the right, and the rather dashing chap on the left is Sergeant Troy. Troy was replaced a few seasons back by Sergeant Scott, who I like but not as much as Troy :)

Anyway, it's a great show. Amazing characters. I love British murder mystery shows (Poirot and Miss Marple are my other favourites) because the main characters are continuous throughout the series but the side characters are different from show to show, so you get to see your favourite characters interacting with new suspects and witnesses every show.

What's YOUR favourite TV show??

Switching Gears

2011-02-23T19:06:00.001-08:00

Thank you for your excitement and good wishes, everybody! You'll hear all about what happens, never fear!

Now that the revision has been sent off to meet its fate, I'm back to working full-force on As Long As I'm Lying (which is just a working title). I'm about halfway through the first draft.

First drafts... they're both insanely beautiful, with all their unlimited potential, and hideously ugly, with all their spelling and grammar flubs and absolute plotlessness. Switching the gears from 'polish-polish-polish' mode to 'messy first draft' mode is hard! My brain is still of the mindset that everything I write has to be perfect, every i has to be dotted and every t has to be crossed.

I think I need to write a detailed letter to my brain, instructing it on what to do.

Dear Brain,

This is a first draft. The characters are going to be all wonky, especially in the beginning. And that's okay: we don't really know them yet. The voice is going to inconsistent. That's okay: the POV character is still a total stranger. The description is going to be clunky. That's okay: we're not at the stage where it needs to be perfect yet.

Once we've gotten to those marvellous words, The End, that is when you can get back into this editing-frenzy you've got going on right now. I'll really need you in that mode then. But for now, please tone it down. Please just take joy in the messiness of this first draft. Please laugh at my clunky, terrible descriptions and adverbs instead of beating me up over them. Please try to have fun with creation instead of getting way too serious over it.

Sincerely,
Becca

PS - but please don't take away my ability to spell correctly. Without it, the editing stage will be that much harder for you.

I Did It!

2011-02-23T00:12:00.000-08:00

Guess what I did today?

I finished my revision. 100% straight-up finished it.

Guess what I just did, two minutes ago?

I sent it back to the agent who requested it.

*insert NERVOUS FREAK-OUT here!*

No, I'm actually totally stoked. That's it, it's done. It's as pretty and shiny as I can possibly make it. It's time for it to go out in the world again.

Who am I kidding, I'm nervous as hell. I will definitely be checking my email every ~~five minutes~~ five seconds from here on out.

Showing Some Love

2011-02-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Hello, my pretty little followers!

I know you're all dying to know which of the facts from the first Crusader challenge was a lie, so here it is...

The lie was a lie. Clever, huh? I've never kissed a boy behind the garden shed at midnight. I wish. Everything else was true... especially the part about fuligulinely bloviating. Thank you to Rachael Harrie for adding those words to my vocabulary!

Anyway, today I wanted to spread some love to a very special type of person. The writer's best friend. The beta reader.

Many writers are scared stiff of showing their writing to others. Other writers live for the feedback, both praise and constructive criticism. I'm an odd, in-between writer. I'm completely unafraid of total strangers reading my stuff - they don't know me, they can't judge - but friends? A little harder. Family? Totally impossible. So when it came to a certain point in my writing where I needed to "test drive" my manuscripts, I was a little stuck. I wanted my friends to read my stuff, but they weren't totally objective and many of them don't know much about the craft of writing. My family would be totally useless because they'd only say nice things.

Enter the beta reader.

So I headed over to the Absolute Write beta readers forum (what, you aren't a member of Absolute Write?! What are you waiting for, go join!) and hooked up with a couple of fellow writers. A reader of this blog also offered her beta-reading services. Those three godsends gave me more insight into FAKE than I'd ever have gotten on my own, plus they gave me a chance to see what a real reader's experience with the story was.

Whether the reader gave me an overall opinion on the novel as a whole or dissected each sentence, they each did me an enormous service. The manuscript is in the shape it's in because of them. I'm so glad to have had their help, and to be able to return the favour on their fabulous manuscripts. DJ, Taryn, and Aleeza... I luv you guys!!

Then there was one last reader: my best friend, Jamie. He's the toughest critic I know. He is not the type to sugarcoat anything, not even to save his BFF's ego. It takes a hell of a lot to impress him, so when I had him read FAKE and he finished in a single day and sat down with me for an hour and half to talk about it, I knew it was there, at that professional level where I could even dream the word "finished." He's read a ton of my manuscripts and has been nothing but amazing about it. There's a chance he'll get a novel dedicated to him someday.

If you have an amazing beta reader, remember to let them know just how much they mean to you!

First Crusader Challenge!

2011-02-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

Info about the First Crusader Challenge is here... it's a crazy one.

Here are my random factoids:

Secret: I love hockey... but I mostly watch it for the hot guys. Especially Mason Raymond.

Lie: I've never kissed a boy behind the garden shed at midnight, nuh uh, not me...

Interesting quirk: I keep books with me all the time. I carry them around with me from room to room.

Annoying habit: My fuliguline ability to bloviate at length.

One of my best character traits: I'm sharp as a blade and quick as a rabbit.

One of my favourite things in the whole world: retro My Little Ponies.

I may have revealed something about me that isn't strictly true... can you guess what it is?

Have fun posting your own challenge!

Revision News

2011-02-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

To all my new followers:

HELLO!!! I'm so glad to meet you and to share a little piece of the interwebz with you.

Anyway, here's some exciting news:

I'm almost-kind-of-sort-of-getting-close-to finishing my revision!

The reason I say almost-kind-of-sort-of-getting-close-to is because, well, it's fun, but also because I'm not entirely sure it's real. It feels like I've run an enormous marathon and I only have a few yards left but I'm scared I'm dreaming and that I actually still have a couple hundred yards to go. So I won't say I'm almost done yet, it still feels too precarious. But I do only have 1 major thing left on my editing hit list, so I can promise you that I will be done next week because it is Spring Break and I have the week off to work on it!

So, once the revision is done, it gets sent back to the agent who requested the R&R. Then I wait.

Gah! I'm so nervous/scared/excited!

I'm also a little out of it since I have to wake up at 5am on Thursdays to get to school, and since I spent all of yesterday doing projects and putting together portfolios for school that I left till the last minute. I'm trying not to be such a procrastinator but unfortunately it's in my blood.

Anyways...

RTW: Title Stuff!

2011-02-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival hosted over at YA Highway. Check it out to read all the other posts!

This week's question is:

How do you pick your titles?

Titles are super important for me. I need to have something to call the WIP, even if it's just a temporary title. And, oddly enough, I almost never use my titles when I'm talking with other people in real life. I use them online all the time, but to my friends and family it's always "that story" or "that story that has the (plot point)."

Anyways, I thought I'd share the stories behind the titles of the WIPs I'm working on right now.

FAKE: This title came with the territory of the story. In the social networking world, specifically Nexopia or MySpace, people who take on personas and are exposed are called, well, fakes. If you find out that the hot guy you've been talking to online is actually some old man in a basement, you say "Oh, he was a fake." And since the novel is about these fakes, it was a natural title. I put it in all-caps because it's kind of accusatory. I'm mean to my characters that way. But this title has been really great. It comes into play in the plot in a bunch of different ways and thematically it's surprised me quite a bit.

AS LONG AS I'M LYING: This is a new title. Up until a few weeks ago this WIP was called How to be Ruthless, but then I realized that that title doesn't really make sense for the story. As Long As I'm Lying just kind of came to me, but it doesn't really mean anything either. I think I'll have to change it again. Which one do you guys like better, if you care to tell me?

Some titles give me no trouble and come right away. If a title doesn't fit, though, like As Long As I'm Lying, chances are finding a new title will be VERY difficult. I hate those finicky titles, though. /Sigh.

Oh great, it's Valentine's Day.

2011-02-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

I hate Valentine's Day. It's just a huge money-grab, plus it encourages bad relationship stereotypes (guilt-tripping, selfish girlfriend, emasculated wimpy boyfriend). Luckily today is my day off from both school and work, so I can huddle in my house and avoid the hearts and flowers.

However, I do have two awesome recommendations to make, and since they're both romance-themed, I thought I'd share them on this silly holiday.

The first is a song I discovered yesterday. It's by Hedley, a band I've never been overly fond of, but they are local and successful so I have no problem supporting them. Anyway, this song is adorable. I listen to it with a huge smile on my face the whole time. Plus the lyrics are pretty genius. I have a feeling it's going to inspire me a lot when I write love scenes in the future.

"Sweater Song" by Hedley

The other recommendation I have is for the sweetest, most romantic, most cutesy book I've probably ever read.

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins.

Yeah, you've probably heard of it. For good reason: it's incredible. Stephanie perfectly captured what it feels like to have a crush on someone you shouldn't and what it's like to be shy and nervous in a new place. Anna is the most hilarious protagonist ever, and unlike many YA girl protagonists, I really like her. She's completely relatable, and I found myself wishing she were real so I could be friends with her. And the love interest, Etienne/St. Clair? Omg don't get me started. My best friend and I have this, ahem, standard we look for in boys and it's summed up by the love interest from Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries, Michael Moskovitz. Whenever I have my eye on a boy, I tell her "he's pretty much my Michael Moskovitz."

Well, now? Now I sometimes switch it up to "he's pretty much my Etienne St. Clair."

That is how much this book rocks. It's impacted the way I creep on hot guys. It's a big deal.

I'm so excited for Stephanie's new book, LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR, which will be released later this year!

Anyway, I'll leave you with this picture of me spending Valentine's Day alone with ~~the gorgeous Etienne~~ a book. Happy V-Day, everyone!

Follow Friday (5) - Romance Hero Types

2011-02-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hello! It's time for another Follow Friday, which is hosted by Parajunkee's View!

This week's question is:

What is your favourite romance hero-type? Stereotype wise. Do you like strong silent type or brute macho man?

Well, I guess out of those two I'd choose the strong silent type, but I really like the sensitive, tall, skinny, emo type. An example would be Michael from Courtney Summers' Some Girls Are - loved him. And Etienne, from Anna and the French Kiss. Wow, I'm sounding like a broken record on that one. But really. I like funny heros, heros with talents (piano, languages, writing, etc.). But I'm not too fond of the manly-man type. How about you guys?

Rachael Harrie's Crusade

2011-02-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

Blogger Rachael Harrie is hosting this Platform-Building Crusade -- and it sounds like it's full of awesome. Basically, it's a way to link a ton of different blogger/writers together, get everyone some new followers, and make friends. There will be activities all the Crusaders will do and it just sounds like it's going to be a really good time.

I will be joining in on the fun, and I think you should, too!

All the information is here.

15 Novels in 5 Years...

2011-02-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

Trunk novels. Most of us have them. To me, there are two levels of inactive manuscripts: trunked and abandoned. I have many of each, and I was inspired by Alex Bennett's blog post today (click here) to give you a tour of my past work. If anyone cares ;)

Well, I started writing little stapled-together stories complete with illustrations when I was six. I wrote my first story in my friend Maggie's kitchen. It was entitled "Lost Sheep Come to Me." Except that I wasn't great at spelling yet and I spelled "come" as "cum"... ahem. Moving on.

Nothing really interesting happened in my writing career until I was thirteen. I was writing a lot of fanfiction at that point (who wasn't?), and I had just finished writing a 50,000-word School of Rock fanfic when an author visited my French class. It was then, when the author said that her novel was 35,000 words, that I realized something special: I had written a novel. A whole freaking novel. I revised the fanfic to make it original (i.e., changed all the names and that's it) and was convinced I'd soon become a publishing phenomenon.

I didn't end up submitting that book, which was entitled Something Hardcore, and thank God. It was awful. I wrote a sequel, too, called Kerri's Turn, which was less awful but still BAD.

Then came a book called Roadies and Rockstars, about a girl who is a roadie for her brother's rock band. This was okay. I actually have pretty fond memories of this story.

4th novel: Ambulance, about two boys on opposite sides of the poverty spectrum who fall in love. Oh God, this book. I started writing it when I was fourteen and worked on it for FOUR years. It was passed around my high school chapter-by-chapter and made me a minor celebrity (super embarrassing!). It's finally trunked - I love the characters, the setting, the romance - but it has no story. Someday I'll go back to it and give it a real plot and I know it will be awesome.

5th novel: Roses. A kind of half-hearted novella about gay boys. Finished the first draft, then never touched it again.

6th novel: The Tulip Boy, about a seriously mentally ill stalker. Really, really weird and experimental and I hate it now.

7th novel: Jack and Angel never actually had a real title, so I just called it by the names of the characters. Another one about gay boys. This is a recurring motif in my work :)

8th novel: Ghost. Sequel to Ambulance. Sucked.

9th novel: Skull. Another sequel to Ambulance.

10th novel: Didn't have a title, but I wrote it for NaNoWriMo 2008. About a girl superhero.

11th novel: The Superhero Effect, a superhero dystopia written for NaNoWriMo 2009. I worked on this for quite a while before trunking it about a year ago.

12th novel: The List of Heroes, sequel to The Superhero Effect, trunked as soon as it was written.

13th novel: FAKE. The One. The one I've queried, the one I've gotten requests for, the one I'm revising for my resubmission now.

14th novel: An Elegant Noise, written for NaNoWriMo 2010, about a girl who falls in love with a lesbian mermaid. I liked writing it, but it will never go anywhere.

15th novel: As Long As I'm Lying. About a boy who falls in love with his girlfriend's brother. I'm working on the first draft.

What can we learn from all this? That I'm a loser with no life outside writing. Nobutseriously.

Writing is a major lifestyle choice. A lot of people can't handle it. I was always socially awkward, so it was really easy for me to devote myself to such a solitary pursuit. When I tell people I've written 15 novels, they freak out. Ask how I could possibly do it at my age. Well, it's a calling, not a hobby. It's just what I do.

Another thing: I didn't start my journey towards publication until my 13th novel. I was researching and learning about publishing the whole time I was writing, but I knew my writing wasn't ready. Too many people fire off their very first novel and expect to get an agent and publishing deal the next week. The truth is that writing takes a ton of practice. Your first novel probably isn't the one that's going to make it big. And that's okay! If you're practicing, you can only improve.

Now, back to revisions for me!

Follow Friday (4)

2011-02-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Today's question is:

What is the book you are currently "pushing"? (pushing as in trying to get people to read it)

I'm currently pushing Anna and the French Kiss. It's... seriously, I can't even describe the awesome. I really have to write a review soon to express just how I feel about this book. Let's just say it's amazing!

Who Do You Write For?

2011-02-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

I'm skipping my creative writing class right now. Shh, don't tell!

Except that it's university and no one gives a crap if you go to class or not.

Anyway, there is a specific reason why I chose to skip this class. A specific, writing-related reason.

My creative writing class is taught by a guy, probably mid-forties, who lives in East Vancouver (an area that used to be really seedy and is now really trendy), who is a poet and not a fan of fiction at all.

Let me just say that there is nothing inherently wrong with being a poet. I don't mind some poetry and I really like some of it. But this teacher... he's the kind of poet whose work often consists of a blank page with the words "Listen... [huuuuuuge blank space] are you there?" and that's the whole poem.

So, in short, he's a really pretentious guy and he teaches us really obscure, pretentious poetry. And since it's a creative writing class, he wants us to write and workshop our own really pretentious poetry. We're not allowed to bring in anything else because the teacher "doesn't like genre fiction." That's what he'll say, even if you explain to him that it definitely isn't genre fiction.

I hate this pretention. I can't stand these full-of-hot-air poets who ramble on for pages and pages (or just one stupidly empty page) about completely esoteric, random nothingness. You know why I can't stand this?

Because they are writing for other writers, not for readers.

I can't think of a single person I know who reads this kind of poetry for fun. Hell, most people don't read the kinds of short stories and novels I've read in college for fun, either. Is this because most readers are stupid and can't appreciate a really deep, meaningful piece of writing? I don't think so.

I think it's because readers want to have a good time while they're reading. They want to be swept along on a ride, they want to feel exhilarated. They don't want to have to slog through lines of meaningless B.S. and complicated metaphors. They don't want to read reams and reams of what is, really, just a writer showing off their skillz.

I write YA. I write for readers who want characters with heart, whose stories they can get swept up in. And who says writing can't be both accessable and deeply meaningful? Just because it's easy - and yes, FUN - to read doesn't mean it's useless mainstream crap. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a perfect example of this. (Fangirl review post coming soon!) And there are poets succeeding with writing like this, just check out my favourite poet ever, Shane Koyczan.

If the people you're writing for are just other writers, and all they're going to do is pick apart the mechanics of your piece and try to figure out what it means... really, what's the point?

I write for readers. Pure and simple.

And that's why I'm sitting here in the library between a girl eating a muffin and a guy who smells like chicken, instead of in class.

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-02-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

I has an award! It was given to me by Lacey of Lacey in the Sky with Books. Thanks Lacey!!

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave the award

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Pass the award on to 15 bloggers you discovered and like

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know they've won

Seven things about me:

1. I'm terrified of driving by myself for distances longer than ten minutes or so. I commute to college, which is about an hour away, so I have to find commuting partners and hitch rides with my dad. Riding with my dad means I have to go in an hour and a half early, leaving my house at 6am, but I don't care because it means I don't have to drive!

2. I went to France with my French Immersion program when I was 15 and it was amazing. Returning to France is one of my biggest goals for the near future. (I may have the chance to go in July for a MONTH but it costs $4,000... which is money I don't have).

3. I'm extremely shy in real life and as a result have a non-existent social life and a huge fear of rejection xD Only social rejection... query rejections don't phase me. Odd.

4. I have a sixteen-year-old brother and a twelve-year-old sister.

5. I hate writing poetry.

6. I'm ADDICTED to Diet Dr Pepper.

7. I can't walk in high heels at all.

So there you go! All you ever wanted to know about me, haha. Now I have to pass the award on to 15 people.

1. Aleeza @ Aleeza's Wild Hopes and Dreams

2. KT @ So... There's This Thing I Do. I Write

3. Bookworm Porn

Except that I could only think of 3. Oh well, my apologies! Think of them as extra-rare and special awards! :P

Have an excellent day!

New Year's Resolution Check-Up!

2011-01-31T12:40:00.000-08:00

Today is January 31st... we are one month into 2011. How has this new year been treating you? Home life's been nice, made some advancements at work/school? That's great.

So... how about that New Year's Resolution?

What resolution, you say?

You made one. You and I both know it. What I want to know is, are you keeping it?

I've never made a resolution before. I'm a regular goal-setter, especially when it comes to writing, but 2011 is the first year in which I made an active decision to try to better my life. My resolution was to read at least one book per week, because it really pisses me off when I don't make time to read and end up working on the same book for weeks.

And... I've kept it. So far I've read 6 and I'm working on number 7. I'm also not going to stop myself from putting a book down when it doesn't interest me, and I've done that once. I feel really good! It feels like I'm zipping through my TBR pile, and you know what that means? I can add more amazing books to it. Cue Valley Girl accent: OMG Book shopping!!!!!!!

Comment and tell me about your resolution's status!

I guess it's just one of those days...

2011-01-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

I recently noticed that the beginning of FAKE, the novel that's with beta readers right now, is, to put it lightly, f'ed. It basically makes no sense. We have no idea who the main character is before she's dropped right into conflict. Genius Beta Reader #1 suggested that all the scenes with MC #1 in it are basically the same, and Genius Beta Reader #2 picked up on this, also, so I decided to go back to the beginning to fix it.

And of course, now I'm totally stuck. /Sigh. So I went to Subway, thinking that a 5$ Footlong would solve everything. It didn't. Now I'm back at the desk, staring at my Post-It Plot Wall in despair.

Hopefully something happens soon.

Wow

2011-01-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

Look at this.

Just... wow. Me want. I love rings, and with this one I would always feel like I was wearing some super-special time-travelling artifact or something!

Steampunk jewelry is amazing. Steampunk anything is amazing.

Follow Friday (3)

2011-01-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This week's featured blogger is Marie of Mission to Read.

This week's question is:

What is your favourite school subject?

In high school it was always English. English, English, English. Wow, that's a funny word. I was all about English class. It was easy for me, and all I had to do to get in the teacher's good books was tell them I was a writer. Gotta admit, I had all my English teachers wrapped around my finger. But now that I'm in university, I'm not digging it so much. I'm probably going to post on this in the near future so I won't say much. Anyway, my favourite subject in university is history. I have this amazing history prof, an older British lady with the driest, best sense of humour in the world. Her class is so much fun.

Sorry that all my posts lately have been memes! I think I have a writing-related post coming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

RTW: Which Book Universe?

2011-01-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday every Wednesday, with a new question every week. This week's question is:

If you could live within the universe of one book, which would you choose?

Harry Potter. Of course. What self-respecting kid-lit reader wouldn't give almost ANYTHING to go to Hogwarts, to play Quidditch, to cast magic spells? Really, if I had one wish in all the world, I would wish for the Harry Potter universe.

Font Lovin'

2011-01-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is Britney Spears on my blog. Deal with it.

Anyway, being a writer, I have a weird fascination with fonts. But is it just me, or is the font her name is written in GORGEOUS?!

I would kill to have that font on a book cover of mine.

Follow Friday! (3)

2011-01-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Whoo hoo, it's Follow Friday again! The question this week is:

Who do you cheer for?

Ohhhhhhhhh you may not want to get me started ;) I'm a big NHL fan, and I cheer for my home team, the Vancouver Canucks, #1 in the Western Conference and only just came down from #1 in the league. I'm actually so full of love for this team. We've got the best guys, skill-wise and personality-wise. The Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler, Roberto Luongo, some of the best names in the NHL. We're looking Stanley Cup-worthy this year, too!

Actually, the game is on in just a few minutes. See you :)

Thoughts on Matched

2011-01-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

image source

I was completely unprepared for this book.

How many of us have had the hype surrounding a book colour our expectations? All of us, pretty much? Since this book had so much buzz, my expectations were two-fold.

The first set of expectations I had were, since this book sold for such an astronomical amount (can't remember the exact amount, but it was a seven-figure advance at auction), it must be amazing.

The second set was... but since dystopian is the hot thing in YA right now, what if publishers just found something they knew would sell a billion copies and cracked it out, not caring about the quality?

Since I'd read so many incredibly mixed reviews, I really didn't know which side of the expectation scale Matched would swing to until I actually read it.

My verdict?

Holy crap, it's amazing, guys.

There will inevitably be comparisons to The Hunger Games, since that's the biggest dystopian out there right now, but I'm serious when I say that, for me, Matched blew THG out of the water. I was lukewarm at best towards Katniss; I love Cassia. She's sympathetic in a way that Katniss never was. Cassia is the everygirl. She isn't an extraordinary hunter/gatherer, she isn't even rebellious and revolution-minded until the last quarter or so of the book. She's average in every way, until a perfect storm of events happen to turn her into a heroine. I loved this.

The love triangle is even fantastic, and I'm not a fan of them in general. But here it's really believable. We can easily see that Cassia loves Guy #1 as a friend, and because of that wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life with him. But Guy #2 really sets her on fire. There is no dilly-dallying between the two of them, agonizing and angsting and carrying on.

I was also caught off-guard by the sheer poetics of Ally Condie's writing. The writing in Twilight is overwrought, the writing in THG is nondescript, but Condie's writing is lyrical, experimental. I never thought literary style would work so well in a sci-fi.

Long story short... I'm really, really excited for the sequel, Crossed, due in November 2011 I believe. Ahh. It's going to be torture to wait.

5/5.

Songs on Saturday (7)

2011-01-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

Songs on Saturday is a meme-ish thing where I tell you want song I've been reading/writing to this week :)

Well, this week my song-on-repeat has been:

"Mr Right" by A Rocket to the Moon

I saw this band when they opened for Hanson back in September, they put on a really good show. Anyway, if you ignore the annoying girls in the music video, this is a really sweet song. It reminds me of a certain character from FAKE, Sawyer. It totally describes his feelings - if you switch around pronouns so the song is addressed to a guy. Close enough, though, right? It always astounds me how much a single song can help you understand your own characters so much better.

Anyway. What songs are on repeat for you this week?

Follow Friday! (2)

2011-01-13T19:44:00.001-08:00

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

Today's question is:

What makes up your non-human family?

My answer: My beloved but dim-witted shih-tzu Jimmy, my lovely kitty cat Pumpkin, and my semi-tolerated mean girl of a cat, Amber. I've had an assortment of hamsters over the years, too, but I'm done with them because they make me feel guilty for not playing with them enough, and then I end up having nightmares for years into the future that they're haunting me. I'm kind of crazy.

Hello new followers! I'm always happy to follow back!

RTW: Favourite Lines

2011-01-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

I've never participated in Road Trip Wednesday before, but as I'm a big fan of YA Highway and snowed in (over a foot, couldn't commute to school today), I thought I would since this topic is a fun one.

What is your favourite line from your WIP (or a book you read recently)?

Yay! I love beautiful lines from books. I picked one from each of my manuscripts and one from a book I didn't write (but wish I had!)

From FAKE:

"He says my name like it rhymes with 'Lucifer.'"

From the newly retitled AS LONG AS I'M LYING:

"The notes all roll together, making more sound than I knew two human hands could create."

From the amazing THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak, which is almost entirely composed of gorgeous sentences:

"She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it."

Jeez, it's hard to pick just one line out of that book. I just picked a pretty one that jumped out at me as I flipped pages. Then I teared up, remembering it. Sigh...

In other news, FAKE has been sent out to the beta readers. I can't make any more changes until I hear back from them, so I'm forced to work on AS LONG AS I'M LYING again. Hooray for exciting first drafts!

Thoughts on Bloodthirsty

2011-01-08T17:14:00.001-08:00

My New Years' Resolution, to read at least one book per week, has been successful so far. The second book I read this year was Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney.

The premise of this one had me from the start: boy pretends to be a vampire to get girls. I knew I had to read it as soon as I heard what it was about. Flynn Meaney hit premise gold with this one! What with the vampire mania, it's so timely it's crazy.

With that said, sometimes the publication of books gets rushed because of a timely premise. While Bloodthirsty was a crazy-fun read and I literally laughed out loud at a lot of parts, there were a few areas I felt could have been improved upon.

Sometimes the dialogue could be a bit stilted. A few odd lines were just weirdly written and it pulled me out of the book to be like "...what?" But the main thing about Bloodthirsty that was a little bit off was the fact that everybody just bought the fact that Finbar was a vampire.

It drove me a little crazy. I mean, it's very believable for a nerdy, skinny, allergic-to-the-sun kind of kid to pretend to be mysterious and intriguing at his new school to get lucky, but is it really plausible that the vampire novel-crazy girls would wholeheartedly believe that he was a vampire? Sure, I've met mysterious guys and kind of thought to myself "OMG what if he's a vampire/werewolf/badass faerie?" But it was always a joke, I never actually believed that said guy was a supernatural creature. Apparently all the girls in Bloodthirsty are dumb as stumps, though, because they totally buy it and act like idiots about it.

Is it a great work of literature? No, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to read, I did really enjoy it. If you can get past some of the silliness, it's pretty good, and the ending revelation is surprisingly insightful.

I give Bloodthirsty a 3.5/5.

May I also just take a moment to thank Poppy, a YA imprint of Little, Brown, for bringing us such awesome books these days? The DUFF, Bloodthirsty, Jane... the list goes on.

Follow Friday!

2011-01-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

What book(s) have you discovered lately from someone's book blog?

Anna and the French Kiss is something I've been inspired to buy lately from all the rave reviews I've read everywhere... this is a hard question to answer since I read so many blogs and get so many of my book recommendations from other bloggers' reviews. Almost every YA book I read I first heard of on a blog! Aren't we YA bloggers such great sources of information and book-love?

My Beef with GLEE

2011-01-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

A lot of you probably watch Fox's GLEE. It's an enormous hit centred on musically-inclined teens in their school's glee club who sing classic rock and contemporary Top 40 hits that pertain to their real life situations. This show has pretty much taken over.

I started watching GLEE last year, when my sister purchased the first half of the first season on DVD. I was hooked after just the pilot episode. The characters, how fully-developed! The drama, how suspenseful! The music, how catchy! I felt like I was taking a huge breath of fresh air. The teenage characters, even the adult ones, were turning stereotypes on their heads. There was a gay kid, a kid in a wheelchair, pregnant cheerleaders that were more than 2-dimensional mean girls. This show was breaking new ground.

That first season, although a little lacking near the end, was great. I downloaded a bunch of the music ("Don't Stop Believing" is now one of my all-time favourite songs), watched every new episode, and debated with my sister over who was better for Rachel, Finn or Puck. I was having fun.

Then came the second season. Suddenly, I was looking at everything differently. I don't know if the show changed or if I changed, but suddenly I was catching different undertones.

A few minor things in certain episodes started to bother me.

First thing, when Kurt had a crush on Finn and it made Finn uncomfortable. That's fine. That's understandable, I'm sure it happens in real life all the time. What made me uncomfortable was the fact that, the way the show portrayed it, Kurt was to blame. He had to apologize to Finn for being in love with him.

For a show that presents itself as really accepting of LGBT characters, this felt wrong to me. Why should Kurt have to apologize to Finn? It's not his fault who he ended up having a crush on.

Another thing that bothered me about the show's portrayal of LGBT teens was the brief, weird scene where cheerleaders Brittany and Santana are making out and then spend the episode making each other jealous by dating guys. What?! In no way was this elaborated on in later episodes, either! At first I was ecstatic: "whoa, lesbians! I'm in love with his show!"

And then... nothing. The fact that there was some kind of romantic/sexual relationship between Brittany and Santana was never brought up again.

I was deeply offended by this. Along with the way the show made Kurt look like the villain for loving Finn, the message I got from this was that teens can be gay, but gay teen characters can't have romantic relationships.

Come on. It's 2011. I think the world can handle some gay teen lovin' on primetime TV. You don't have to go all-out, it's true, but wouldn't the show be infinitely more realistic (and lauded for being so awesome) if there was just a little action for the LGBTs?

The other thing was Artie's disability and how there are miracle "cures" for this on the show. I'm talking about how he was able to take a few steps with a walker on the Christmas show. Again, it implies that there is something wrong with this character that needs to be fixed. Paralysis is, in most cases, irreversible, and paraplegics can and do get along just fine in the world. There is nothing "wrong" with them.

Why does this show present us minority characters like LGBT and paraplegic teens, and then treat them like works-in-progress, people who need outside help to become "proper" people? I'm sick of it, and will not be watching the show's future episodes and seasons until their representations improve.

I'm Back!

2011-01-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

Why hello, everyone! It's 2011, as I'm sure you already know. I'm back now from an unannounced blog hiatus. I was housesitting for a family friend who forgot to give me the password to their wireless internet, le gasp, so I was unable to be online 24/7 as usual.

Anyway, 2011. My resolution (the first one I've ever made) is to read at least one book per week. I feel like I've been slacking on my reading and that has got to stop. My TBR pile is gigantic and really needs tackling! So that probably means a lot of book reviews coming up on the blog. I also have a shitload of really good post ideas, so you should be seeing some of those soon, I hope!

How was your holiday season? Did you make any resolutions? Remember that stating them makes you more accountable ;)

PS - I also finished my big-giant-huge edit of FAKE and am doing one more read-through before it will be ready for beta readers' eyes! I'm looking for more readers to help me whip this thing into good enough shape for agents' viewing pleasure, so if any of you would like to help me out, comment!

Revision Blues

2010-12-18T21:18:00.001-08:00

THESE REVISIONS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME!

If you're a new follower, you may not know the whole epic saga... basically, I had a phone call with an amazing literary agent and she loved my manuscript, but thought it needed more developing. She gave me lots to think about, and since every one of her editorial ideas was spot-on, I really want to please her. Of course, the improvements are what's best for the novel, too. I've been working on it for the past three months and today I'm hitting a rough spot.

Oh no, what if I don't weave in this teensy bit of information here? Does that through this other scene off-balance, into unbelievability territory? Does this POV character sound different enough from the other one? Will the whole thing suck if I don't find a place to develop this aspect of the character? *insert hair pulling and tears here*

I might just be nit-picking. The revisions I've done really are awesome, and all this stressing is just over throwing the manuscript into "phenomenal" territory. I really want her to read it again and think, "Whoa, this author hit it out of the park!"

Any tips? Anyone want to be a cheerleader?

Book Blogger Hop!

2010-12-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books.

The question today is:

What do you consider most important in a story: the plot or the characters?

My answer: Definitely the characters! If the characters are lacking, the plot will be, too. Although you can't have a plotless book either. I define plot as "what happens to the characters," so basically as long as you have characters you're going to have plot... but I digress! Stellar characters are most important!

Books in 2010!

2010-12-13T14:47:00.001-08:00

Everyone is doing a post like this, but I'm bored and procrastinating studying for my history exam tomorrow. I also just have a lot to say about the books I've read this year! I'm going to concentrate on books I read in 2010, not just books that were released this year. I got this survey from Audrey at holes in my brain.

BOOKS OF 2010

Best Book of 2010: Wow, might as well smack me over the head with this question. I read so many amazing books this year, and 2010 isn't over yet. But I'm going to go ahead and give it to ICE by Sarah Beth Durst. This book took me by storm and is now one of my absolute favourites. I'm so sad that it's not more well-known.

Worst Book of 2010: There were a few books I didn't read all the way through because they just didn't click with me, but the one that I did finish that I thought was bad was HUSH, HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick. Even though it was written by a fellow Becca, the anti-feminism, pro-rape plot developments in this book were, I thought, just offensive.

Most Disappointing Book of 2010: I'm going to get some hate mail over this one, but - MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins.

Most Surprising (in a good way) Book of 2010: This one's a tie between PAPER TOWNS by John Green and THE LUXE by Anna Godbersen. I discovered John Green this year, and I was totally unprepared for how hilarious and deep this book was. As I wrote in my review of THE LUXE yesterday, I completely underestimated this book by passing it off as just an old-fashioned Gossip Girl. It was so much more!

Most Recommended-to-Others Book of 2010: As it has been for a few years now, I AM THE MESSENGER and THE BOOK THIEF, both by Markus Zusak. I'm constantly pushing these books all over the place, I should be credited as Markus Zusak's publicist!

Best Series Discovered in 2010: Oooh... probably The Agency series by Y. S. Lee. They're so fresh and exciting, and have helped rekindle my love of mysteries. I literally shed a few tears last night when I found out the next one won't be out until 2012. 20-freaking-12!!!

Favourite New Authors Discovered in 2010: Perhaps Kody Keplinger, of THE DUFF fame. I think she's going to continue being a fixture on the YA lit scene for a long time. John Green, too. Anna Godbersen. Lauren Oliver. So many.

Most Hilarious Read of 2010: HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. So very funny, and totally original!

Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book of 2010: THE CHOSEN ONE by Carol Lynch Williams. I read it in a few hours, could NOT put it down.

Most Anticipated Book of 2010: MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins and ASCENDANT by Diana Peterfreund.

Favourite Cover of a Book read in 2010: Probably the cover of David Levithan's LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW, even though it makes me really sad to look at.

Most Memorable Character of 2010: For me it was Margo Roth Speigelman of PAPER TOWNS. I've never wanted to be a fictional character so bad!

Most Beautifully-Written Book of 2010: Wow. ICE. LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW. THE CHOSEN ONE. Take your pick. All of those were so beautiful it almost hurt to read.

Book that had the Greatest Impact on you in 2010: Again, wow. PAPER TOWNS perfectly captured some of the feelings I had about my graduation, and that really put things in perspective.

Book you can't believe you waited until 2010 to read: Haha! THE LUXE, hands-down! I can't believe I'd ever turned my nose up at it before.

There we have it! But 2010 isn't over yet, I still have plenty of books in my TBR pile that may change the above answers! ;)

Sometimes I'm not so good with the words...

2010-12-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

My sister, Grace, is 12 years old and a fellow YA lit lover. I pass on everything I read to her, and often we'll sit on my bed late into the night and talk about books. Last night, after a particularly lively discussion about what might happen in Rachel Hawkins' upcoming DEMONGLASS, the following conversation took place:

Grace: Wow, we're nerds.

Me: Yeah, but better that than... lying outside. On the ground.

Grace: ...what?!

Me: I dunno, I was just trying to think of something worse than being a nerd.

Grace: And you came up with that?! You're a writer!

Me: Aww... writer fail.

Thoughts on The Luxe

2010-12-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished reading THE LUXE by Anna Godbersen. This book has been out for a while, I think it was published in 2007, and I'd seen it around on book store shelves but was always hesitant to pick it up. It was the cover - almost too beautiful. It had to be disguising an awful book, right?

Or so I thought. Last month I caved and bought the book to read while supervising my little sister's birthday party. I read the prologue and first chapter, and then set it down. I read it casually, here and there, for a few weeks until really getting into it last week.

And OMG. What a ride.

The adage "don't judge a book by its cover" goes both ways. Just because a book has the most gorgeous cover ever, don't assume it's only there to cover up a sloppy, awful book! Sometimes good books get amazing covers, too!

I was completely sucked in. THE LUXE is about two high-society sisters in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, Elizabeth and Diana Holland, who rule the social scene. Their father has recently passed away, and it's becoming ever more clear that to save their family financially, Elizabeth has to make a good marriage. The pressure is on.

I don't want to say much more than that - there's a lot I could spoil very easily. There's so much drama (New York rich girls, hello?), the tension makes the book impossible to put down. I'll admit that I wasn't really sold on it in the first quarter of the book, but let me say that this: once you make it 1/3 of the way in, THE LUXE will not let you go!!!

The characters are what make it so amazing. Writers and readers are always harping on about how the characters are the most essential component of a novel, yadda yadda, and I agree with them, but I never really got it until this book. The five main characters, Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope, Henry and Lina, are so incredible real. I loved all of them, but that's not to say they don't have flaws. They have huge flaws, but are unbelievably loveable because of those flaws. I feel the same way about these characters that I feel about my best friend - I don't like how she obsesses over her boyfriend and is never punctual, but I love her anyway. These characters lie, cheat, keep terrible secrets, but I love them because they're so real.

I care so deeply about what happens to them that I rushed out and bought the second book, RUMORS, yesterday... and I'm almost halfway through now. Why didn't I buy books 3 and 4, too?! How could I have been so stupid?!

I also have Anna Godbersen's brand new novel, BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS, in my TBR pile, and I'm so, so much more excited for it now!

5/5, for shizz.

Songs on Saturday (6)

2010-12-11T18:36:00.001-08:00

This week's song is a blast from the past. I've been listening to it basically since it came out in 1998, hearing it on the radio even now. But just recently I've noticed how profound it is, how much hope and solace are in that chorus.

"Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins

It's been on repeat for me this week, and it corresponds so perfectly with the wistful, sad-but-hopeful ending I've been revising in my manuscript.

What songs have you been listening to on repeat this week?

Teaser Tuesday!

2010-12-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Being absorbed in my revisions and unable to think of doing anything else, I decided to do a Teaser Tuesday for ya. I haven't done one in many moons!

This is from FAKE. So, in this excerpt, main character Jen's older sister Carrie is back from being a missionary in India. Since Carrie's been gone, Jen has realized that she is transsexual. She told her younger brother, John, this and was promptly disowned by him, so she's hesitating about telling her secret to her favourite sister.

“It’s so good to be home,” she says. “I missed you so much.”

We collapse in a heap on my bed, and rest in silence for a moment. I smile, breathing in her delicious Carrie-ness.

“I missed you, too,” I whisper. “How was the mission?”

“Fine,” she sighs, her eyes closed. “India is amazing, Jen, but I’m exhausted.”

We lay there, just listening to each other breathe. I’m so, so happy she’s here. I can’t take the smile off my face. Finally Carrie sits up, cross-legged.

“Tell me everything that’s happened since I left!”

I open my mouth but the words are like lead in my mouth. Not lead -- more like rusted iron keys. The big old-fashioned kind. And my heavy heart is the lock, and if I explain myself to her, give her the keys, she’ll open me up. I can’t do that. Not yet.

Remember what happened with John.

“You go first,” I say. “Dad sent you away because he caught you kissing a guy?”

“Oh, yeah.” She laughs, sweeping her voluminous hair over her shoulder. “It was kind of random. He was Marianne Helmsley’s cousin, just in town for a week, and we hit it off. Sucks that Dad caught us.”

Whoa, info-dump. I blink.

“So, you’re seeing this guy?”

“No way. I haven’t seen him since then. But there was this guy I met in India. He was also a missionary. But he’s Mormon.”

“Dad is going to murder you, you know that, right?”

“Well, not murder.”

“Near-fatal wounds, at the very least.”

She shrugs, leaning back against my pillows.

“I don’t really care,” she says. “It’s just for fun. Anyways, what have you been up to?”

Again, the rusted keys pile up behind my teeth. I can almost feel them clanging and bashing up against each other. I swallow hard, tasting blood.

“Nothing.”

“Pfft, yeah right! Look at your face! You’ve got a secret!”

That teasing tone has crept into her voice, just like when we were little. I wipe my face of all emotion and fake my innocence.

“No, seriously, nothing. Just the usual. School and stuff. Being violated by cameras in my own house. The usual.”

She narrows her eyes in suspicion, but she grins. I’m off the hook for now.

“Okay, whatever,” Carrie says. “Do you want to go have fun, then? Do something crazy?”

I drown in relief. Once an idea has taken over Carrie’s head, she’ll be distracted for a while.

Just for a while.

First Line Battle!

2010-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

After the cover and jacket blurb, the first thing we encounter with a book is the first line. Not all first lines are created equal - there are almost as many ways to start a story as there are stories to tell! So, because I was bored, I decided to grab two random books out of my gigantic TBR pile, read the first lines, and compare them. The reason I'm comparing the first lines of two books I have not yet read is so the judging is totally blind and I know nothing of the story other than the line I've read.

Competitor #1: Jane by April Lindner

Jacket copy: Forced to drop out an esteemed East Coast college after the sudden death of her parents, Jane Moore takes a nanny job at Thornfield Park, the estate of Nico Rathburn, a world-famous rock star on the brink of a huge comeback. Practical and independent, Jane reluctantly becomes entranced by her magnetic and brooding employer and finds herself in the midst of a forbidden romance.

But there's a mystery at Thornfield, and Jane's much-envied relationship with Nico is soon tested by an agonizing revelation from his past. Torn between her feelings for Nico and his fateful secret, Jane must decide: Does being true to herself mean giving up on true love?

First line: "The chairs in the lobby of Discriminating Nannies, Inc., were less comfortable than they looked."

My reaction: Modern take on Jane Eyre? I am so there. No bells and whistles in this first sentence, but it sets the scene. You can pretty much picture exactly where the main character is, what she's doing (shifting around in the chair, trying to get comfortable?) and why she's there, all in one neat, tidy little sentence. When I first read it I thought it was lack-lustre. Nothing fancy happening, no shocking proclamations or anything. But after a little more thought... this is actually pretty genius for what it accomplishes in such few words.

Competitor #2: Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

Jacket copy: Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Gray escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star...

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined - and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for... and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.

Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall - together and apart.

First line: "It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer."

My reaction: Wow, is that line ever classy! For me it conjures an image of some beautiful woman, smoking a cigarette glamourously and telling us this scandalous story. That's my favourite thing about it, the retrospection of it. You can tell that this story will be told by someone who was a participant in the events, and that they are looking back on these events now with a lot more insight than they had at the time. This will (probably) set the tone for the way the whole story will be told. I love the word "effervescent," too. That word might feel really out-of-place in a lot of YA novels, but it totally fits the mood, tone, and time period of this book.

The winner: Bright Young Things

Although I love the instant setting Jane's first line gave us, I'm afraid I'm a sucker for the more intricate language and sophisticated tone of the first line of Bright Young Things. I'm still really excited to read both of these books, and will definitely be posted reviews when I've finished!