Thursday, September 29, 2011

Head Over to YAtopia Right Now

YAtopia is holding a two sentence pitch contest with my dream agent Mandy Hubbard. If you have a finished manuscript, get your two sentence pitch ready and enter to win a chance at a full manuscript request. I'm heading over now. Good luck to everyone!

I'll even make it easy for you. Click below:
http://yatopia.blogspot.com/2011/09/pitch-contest-with-agent-mandy-hubbard.html

Update: I filled out all the information required, put my two sentence pitch in and for whatever reason Blogger isn't letting me leave the comment. It keeps saying: Cookie value is null for FormRestoration. Yeah. Whatever that means. I tried commenting on other Blogs and I keep getting the same fail message. So good luck to everyone else.  


Thursday, September 22, 2011

New to My Bookshelf.

Last week I tried to post the list of books I bought when I went to my local Borders for the last time but my Amazon Associates feature wasn't working. Of course a week later it still isn't working. I've uninstalled it. Reinstalled it. I have no idea how to fix it. Anyway, I said I would post the newest editions to my bookshelf so here they are.(Sorry for the awful format) Have you read any of them? Or do you have them on your to be read list? 






Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions Point of View.

Before you begin writing any story you need to establish how you want to tell it. What point of view you are going to use and if you are going to write it in past tense or present tense. Yesterday I had this discussion with my awesome critique partner, Kelley. The question was how do you choose which direction to take? I think this is one of the hardest parts of writing. You need to choose the one that is going to be best for telling that particular story. But seriously how do you actually know what way is best?

What I do before I take one of my ideas and run with it is I think about it. I spend time thinking about characters, dialogue and plot. I think of the story from all points of view, first, third and multiple and try to figure out which way will convey the story best. Sometimes it comes to me immediately other times it doesn't. I have several ideas on the backburner because I'm not sure how I want to proceed with them. I don't want to go into any of my ideas without being a hundred percent sure because let's face it, I don't want to get halfway through, realize I should have chosen a different path and have to scrap what I have already done.

Do you have a method in choosing point of view? How about what tense you are going to use? I'm curious to hear what everyone has to say. I also want to know if like me, do you think this is one of the hardest parts of the writing process?

Friday, September 16, 2011

The Hunger Games

It took long enough but I finally finished reading The Hunger Games. I felt like I was the only one left on the planet who hadn't read it yet but after a quick poll on Twitter I realized I was not alone.

For the few of you that don't know what The Hunger Games is about, a quick overview from Suzanne Collins website:
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used to be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.


As I mentioned in previous posts it took me a while to get into the story. The beginning was slow but I understand the story had to be set up before you could fully understand the games. Once I got to page 102 and Katniss shot the apple out of the pigs mouth I was hooked.

I loved Katniss. She is independent, strong and intelligent which is so unlike many female characters in YA books today. The fact that she took her sisters place in the games shows a great deal about her character.

Peeta I fell in love with the minute he burnt the bread so Katniss would have something to eat. Because I am a sucker for a good romance I was rooting for Peeta and Katniss from the beginning. However, Suzanne Collins had me guessing every step of the way as to Peeta's true feelings. Was he really just putting an act on for the cameras or did he genuinely love this girl from the first minute he laid eyes on her. The anticpation to finding out the truth was what had me clinging to every single page.  

The other characters came to life on the page. I was able to picture all of the contestants in the game and even though they were in an arena to fight to the death where only one could survive I wanted the rules to change.

(Sorry if the review is vague. I don't want to give too much away for people who have yet to read the book.) 

I wasn't going to read the second book in the series right away but after getting to the end and knowing there is more to the story I couldn't resist.

I also can't wait to see the book come to life on the big screen. They have great material to work with and I hope they are able to do the book justice. I actually think they casted it really well I just hope that Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson have good chemistry. No scratch that. I hope they have amazing chemistry.


And to go completely off topic here. Are there any Vampire Diaries fans out there? If so how good was last night's episode?

Currently Reading:

Thursday, September 15, 2011

What is your opinion on E-Readers

Remember a few posts ago how I said I couldn't get into The Hunger Games? Well, now I'm into it. It was slow moving in the beginning, a little too slow for my taste, but after page 102 I couldn't put the book down. I still haven't finished. I only have about fifty pages left but by midnight, knowing I had work in the morning, I forced myself to put it down. The review will be posted tomorrow. Finally.

In other news: I went back to my local Border's yesterday. As the countdown to closing day nears it only gets sadder. I bought another 9 books, somehow I missed them when I was there last, and spent $29. My mom I basically had to force to the register where she handed over 27 dollars for 31 books. It wasn't even the amazing deal that she got that caught my interest it was the comment from the girl at the register. After handing over the money my mom said, "I guess I can put my Nook down for a while."
The girl responded with, "Now that's what I like to hear," a halfhearted smile forming.
That's when I realized that the Nook that my mom loves is the reason this girl is losing her job. I couldn't help but ask, "Is the Nook the reason for this?" I just needed to hear it from her.
"Yeah," she said nodding her head, a sad look overtaking every single one of her features.
This is a Border's I have been going to for as long as I can remember. The girl at the register has been there for several years and I left wondering about what she'll do next and if she will ever own an E-Reader.

I'm kind of on the fence about the E-Reader's myself. My mom raves about hers. It's convenient and you don't have to worry about finding a place to store all those books. Still there is something about holding a book in my hand and being able to flip a few pages ahead when I get impatient or a few pages back when I get confused. And my mom argues that you can do that with the E-Reader but it's not the same. I don't know. Am I being too reluctant? Do you have an E-Reader? If so best thing ever? Or do you miss holding an actual book in your hands?

And because I always post the books I buy:  Um...My Amazon Associates sidebar is not working. Guess I will save it for later.  

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

YA Confidential

If you haven't already checked out YA Confidential then what are you waiting for? Right now they are celebrating their launch with a contest and tons of prizes up for grabs, including agent critiques and ARC's. Click the link below and enter to win.

 http://yaconfidential.blogspot.com/2011/09/launch-celebration-win-crit-from-agent.html#disqus_thread

~Good Luck~

Monday, September 12, 2011

Adding to My Bookshelf

I'm not exactly thrilled that Border's is closing, but I am thrilled at the amazing deals I got on books that I have been putting off buying because they have been too expensive. I saved $156.94! That is more than half of what I wound up paying in the end. I bought sixteen books, nine of which are hardcovers and spent a total of $69.40. I didn't exactly have the money to spend but you know what, I couldn't resist so I charged it. I bet you want to know what books I got at such an awesome price. Of course I'm going to tell you.
Fixing DelilahGirl PartsWithering Tights (Misadventures of Tallulah Casey)Supernaturally (Paranormalcy)
Vixen (The Flappers)Sean Griswold's HeadLinger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, Book 2)Delirium
Hex Hall Book OneCandorCrankAirhead #3: Runaway
Imaginary GirlsToo Good To Be True (Hqn)The House on Olive StreetExposure


Are any of these on your To be Read List? Have you read any and if so thoughts?