What's Up Wednesday #3

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. It is run by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Jamie has a link at the bottom of her post with everyone who's joining in each week. 

What I’m Reading:

I'm currently reading Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Book 3 of 4. I’m really enjoying this series. I knew I would, I just waited a long time to start. I love all the characters. Especially the supporting characters. I find the world incredibly interesting and appropriately frustrating. I read the first two very quickly but have been taking my time with this one. I especially love that, thanks to the movie, I now picture Macon as Jeremy Irons and hear his voice in my mind. Oh, that man’s voice…

Also, I love that this book was co-authored. I’ve written plenty of research papers with a partner and it was always hell. Only with a few of them were we able to come close to sounding like one author. It’s hard! But these two do it so well. Granted, I haven’t read any of their other work, so I wouldn’t know if their individual author voices came through at any point. But, if I didn’t know before that it was co-authored, I would have been shocked.

I also recently read Blood Red Road by Moira Young. LOVED IT! I can’t wait to finish the books I’m on so I can read the second book in this series. It was a little hard at first to figure out how to read it because there are no quotation marks with the dialogue. It all just reads together, as if the MC, Saba, is telling the story directly. Unsettling at first, but I ended up liking it.

It’s funny, with the combination of the southern accents written into the Beautiful Creatures series and the Dust Lands series, my internal voice has developed a much stronger southern drawl than normal.

What I’m Writing:

My Ready, Set, Write goal for week 1:  

Write every day. 

No word count goals. Just write something, anything every day.

I plan on working on my novel every day. But, if I’m unable to do that, I’ll write something else. Write a blog post. Write in a journal. Work on world building and write that in a notebook. Just something.

I know that’s a really simple goal, and general good practice for a writer. But it hasn’t been my practice so far, despite telling myself over and over it would be. So, hopefully with more accountability, I’ll come closer.

But, realistically, there’s a good chance this goal won’t happen. And if so, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. As is normally my reaction to not meeting goals. I’m going to try to accept it as part of my process and something I have to practice and fail at in order to get better. As long as I write more days than I don’t, I will be happy. Eventually I’ll get to writing every day and then I can move up from there.

But I have to start somewhere, right?

What Inspires Me:

You. All you other bloggers out there. Everyone who writes and puts that writing up to be seen and read and felt by other people. Strangers.

You. All you who have joined Ready, Set, Write because you want to not only write, but you want to be part of something. Part of a group of people with similar goals but depths of differences and uniqueness. A group full of people who want to improve their writing, but won’t settle for just that. Who want to also help others do the same. People who want to connect and build friendships over huge distances. Who want to share encouragement and experiences and hardships and triumphs.

You 5 women who put this together. Who joined together to create a group which has a scope small enough feel attainable, but big enough to be meaningful. Even doing things unknown and maybe a little scary (I’m lookin’ at you, Erin, and joining Twitter; though I am sure there are other aspects of this that have felt scary and new to each of you). You who recognized the need we writers have to come together and support each other, and made a platform to meet that need.

All for the love of words.

I think that’s beautiful and inspiring. 

And I can’t wait to continue to be inspired by every one of you participating.

What Else I’m Up To:

Well, I’m trying to pull myself out of the funk I’m currently in. I did a load of laundry yesterday, so that’s good. I have a few things I HAVE to do today, so I’m hoping that will get me off my butt.

Next week, my sister and I are going to a private island in South Carolina with my best friend and her extended family. I went with her 8 years ago after I graduated high school and I am so excited to go back. I am much closer to more members of her family now than I was then, so that will be good. Monday is my birthday and we’ll spend a good portion of the day travelling. Then Tuesday is Sister’s birthday. And then Thursday is my niece’s first birthday. (We refer to Best Friend’s family as ours; so her sister’s baby is turning one). Lots of birthdays, all celebrated at the beach!

I can’t wait to relax on the beach and read and soak up some sun. And lay tons of kisses on those babies.  I plan on bringing my laptop and still writing to keep up with my goals and get a little blogging in. But, if I’m having too much fun to open that laptop up, I am bringing a notebook, so I will still get some writing done no matter what. 


What are you up to this week?

Source for Beautiful Chaos
Source for Blood Red Road

What's Up Wednesday, #2

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. It is run by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Jamie has a link at the bottom of her post with everyone who's joining in each week. 

What I’m Reading:

I’m really enjoying my break from school and work with a ton of reading. In the past week, I’ve finished 5 books (you can check out all the books I’ve read this year on my Book List page). The most exciting reads were Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night. I read the first one in a single sitting, without closing the book once. And the second in 3 (twice before bed and then woke up yesterday and read until it was finished). So, so good. I can’t even handle it. I loved that the POV switched back and forth from Aria and Perry (plus, I’m a sucker for reading romantic, lovey stuff from the guy’s perspective). I loved the independent friendships they each had with Roar and the Marked senses (you know, and the ritualized tattooing; love that!). There was just so, so much that I loved. At first I was a little weirded out because my grandfather’s name is/was Perry, but I got over that quickly. Just like recently reading the Mara Dyer series, I had to exercise a ridiculous amount of willpower to NOT just start re-reading them again as soon as I finished. Those really are my favorite kinds of books.

 

I am currently reading the Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch. I got it at a Scholastic book sale on campus about a month ago. It was one of my 8 new books I got for $28. It’s in my favorite genre, dystopian, and then MC is a boy, which I am excited about. I know that the majority of books are written by men with a male protagonist, but most of the books I read are written by women with female protagonists. So, I am always excited to switch it up. I’m 5 chapters in and enjoying it, for sure, but not loving it yet. Hopefully that will come as I get further and more characters are introduced.

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What I’m Writing:

AHH!! I finally was able to start writing my novel yesterday. I had planned on starting last Monday, the day after my graduation, but with packing for New York and spending time with the Sister (and last minute dress shopping for the niece’s Choir banquet, which resulted in finding half off brown riding boots! YAY!), I wasn’t able to. Then, I planned on finding a park in The City and writing a bit but it was rainy and cold the whole time I was there. Then I thought, Sunday, I’ll start Sunday. But alas, I slept all day Sunday (and finished An Abundance of Katherines and read all of Under the Never Sky). Then Monday…well, I went car shopping with Dad. So finally, after finishing Through the Ever Night, I started writing. And seriously couldn’t stop!! I wrote just over 5,000 words and 3 chapters. I am LOVING it!!!

I’m sure it’s going to take a ton of editing once the draft is done, but it feels right. If I am able to keep that pace up, I could finish at 70,000 words in 2 weeks. That won’t happen, I’m sure, but it’s a nice thought!

I’m going to try to keep most of the plot to myself until it’s written, but I’ll tell y’all what I told Facebook. The main character’s name is Quinn. It came to me months ago while I was planning but I never wrote it down because I was unsure how much I liked it. But any time I tried to change it, she just wouldn’t let me. There were a few close contenders, but they just didn’t fit. Her personality isn’t fully formed yet, but the other names I found, though I loved how they sounded, just didn’t fit her. So, Quinn it is. And her nickname will be Q. And I love that.

What Inspires Me:

I’m incredibly inspired lately by people, book characters, bloggers, anyone, embracing their flaws as part of themselves. I am LDS and there is a definite push towards perfection in the culture of the church, not in the doctrine and teachings of it. Growing up, any flaw I had was a source of shame and caused me to try too hard to a)not let people see any flaws and b)change it as quickly as possible. But all that did was increase my feelings of shame and self-loathing. Over the past 5 years or so I’ve been slowly learning to deal with my shame and change it and I’ve made a ton of progress. But lately, I’ve been really touched when I read about people, real or not, who accept their flaws and human-ness without shame and loathing. That’s not to say they aren’t working to become better, because to some extent, they are. They just don’t base their value as a person to be loved, on the existence, or lack of, flaws. I find that so beautiful.

I’m trying to accept myself more than I ever have. Even the bad stuff. And each step I take in that direction has been freeing. I want to be completely honest with myself about who I am, what I want, what I want to strive for. Each thing I do, I want it to be because I want to, not because of some outside pressure or expectation. I’ve learned a lot about inner-honesty as a therapist, and even more through the books I read, and I want more of it in my own life.

I want to share some of that on this blog as well. I’m working on some posts that will be more about me and my struggles than about reading. So, the content on here will vary a little more than it has so far. But reading and writing will still be a part of it all because those things have saved me over the past 9 months and are part of my story. So, I hope you’ll still be interested and follow along. I’m scared to be that real, but I’ve been working up to it for over a year, and I think it’s finally almost time.

What Else I’ve Been Up To:

Unpacking from New York, completing the rearrangement of my room, collecting graduation pictures from my family members, and NYC pictures from my sister. Mostly, I’m enjoying my time off. I’m going to spend my days reading and writing, with some apartment organization and cooking sprinkled in. Heavy on the visiting friends and family. I’m excited to just be me with no outside pressures. It won’t last long enough, but I’m trying to enjoy every second of it I have left.

This is the only picture I have from my graduation. We had to be there 2 hours early, which was ridiculous because we had to sit and wait to go into the Arena for over an hour. This was my reaction to having not enough sleep and being hot in the robes. See why I need to get pictures from the family?!

What about you?! What are you up to?

The Unbecoming and Evolution...

People.

Have you read the first 2 books of the Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin? AKA: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and The Evolution of Mara Dyer.

If you haven't, stop what you are doing right now, go to a bookstore, and buy these books. Just get them both because you will want to read the second one as soon as you finish the first one.

Seriously, I am reeling from these books. I want to start reading them again and I just finished 30 minutes ago. I cannot wait for the last book to come out.

I was so not expecting these books to be this good. I got the first one for $5 from a Half-Price Books nearby. It sat on my shelf for 2 months at least. And now all I can think is: WHY did I not read this sooner? And:

WHY WOULD ANYONE GET RID OF THIS BOOK?! But I'm sure glad they did.

I will certainly be keeping mine forever. :)

But I have a bit of a conundrum however. The Retribution of Mara Dyer comes out on October 22.

Do you know what other book comes out that day? Allegiant. WHICH BOOK WILL I READ FIRST?!?! I'm already kind of stressing out about this.

Ugh. Go read. Now! :)

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What's Up Wednesday, #1

I'm back!! It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. But I am now done with school. Completely. WHAT?!?!

I graduate in 4 days. I'm so excited to wear that Master's Hood!!! I still have some work to finish up by the end of the week, but then I am done with everything I have to do for 7 weeks. I am so ready to get my post-Master's-break started.

I've been wanting to get on board with the new What's Up Wednesday meme started by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk a few weeks ago.

What I'm Reading:

For the past month or so I've been re-reading some less-exciting books to keep myself from getting sucked into books when I had massive amounts of homework to do. But! With finally being done, I've been able to read some amazing books I've been waiting to read. 

First, Cinder by Marissa Meyer. SO GOOD. I can't wait to read the next one.

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Then I read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin in 18 hours, with sleep and work and visiting the Best Friend in between. I could not stop. It was amazing. I am dying to read the next book and planning on forking over more money than needed to buy it from a store and have it tonight rather than get it cheaper online and waiting a few days for it to come. 

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I gave myself a graduation present in the form of 11 books bought with my Amazon Prime account. I ordered them late, late Sunday night and most of them will come today. I can't wait for them to get here! Here's the list:

~Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu

~Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, book 2) by Marissa Meyer

~An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

~The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

~The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

~Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

~Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

~Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

~Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

~Blood Red Road by Moira Young

~Rebel Heart by Moira Young

What I'm Writing:

Well, I'm not technically writing yet. But I am starting writing my first novel on Monday. I have been planning it out in my head and on paper for the past 5 months and am finally allowing myself to begin writing Monday. I told myself I had to wait til after my graduation to make sure I still get done everything I need to. I graduate Sunday and will begin writing Monday. I just realized however, that if I am going to start writing, I better decide on names for my characters, rather than just calling them MC (main character), Boy, Bad Guy, MC's Mom, MC's Dad, etc. So I started looking last night with nothing jumping out at me yet. That's what I'll be doing the next few days. Any ideas? What are some names you love that you haven't seen in any recent books? How do you find names for your characters? 

What Inspires Me Right Now:

Mostly, I'm inspired by the excitement of finally starting my novel. But I'm also inspired by rearranging my room to better fit my reader/writer lifestyle. I can't have an office in my apartment, but I can change where things are so one side of it is like an independent office. I don't have work to do today, so after I post this I'm going to do as much as I can on my own, then finish it up when Sister gets home later. I think the changes will help open my mind to writing. I'm especially excited to re-organize my books on my bookshelf. It is completely over-filled and I need a second one, but I doubt I will get one soon. But, I'm going to organize my books according to color. I've never done that before and I don't know how long it will last, but I'm excited to try it. I like my series together, but they are rarely all the same color. Even if it doesn't stay long, at least it'll make a fun picture! 

What Else I'm Up To:

I have the best sister in the world. Have I mentioned that? After I got home from my 18-month mission for my church, she took me on a cruise to celebrate being home. Amazing. Well, to celebrate my graduation, she is taking me to New York City! She has a work training there starting Monday that goes through Wednesday. So her flight is covered by her company as well as the hotel through Wednesday. I am coming up Tuesday afternoon and we are staying until Saturday. I've never been to NYC and I am dying of excitement! We don't have a ton of money to do a lot, but we are very laid back vacationers. I mostly just want to people watch and relax. See the city, but without spending much money. So, with that in mind, have you been to NYC? Is there anything you would recommend doing? Delicious restaurants? Bookstores? 

In other news, remember this post where I explained that my computer died and I would lose everything? Well, I did lose everything, but I finally got it back. It is such a relief to have it again. Part of why I didn't post was because I missed my little MacBook and didn't like blogging from my old laptop. I still have almost nothing on it. No pictures, no music, no documents. But I'm sure it will fill up again very quickly. 

So, what's up with you?

Note to Self - Shards and Ashes

A book review of Shards and Ashes, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong

Note to Self:

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In case you ever forget, Self, dystopian stories are freaking awesome. Or post-apocalyptic – there are distinctions, but sometimes they are hard to remember. Basically, thinking about what could happen if the world as we know it ended, or what could cause the end of the world, or just any crazy thing like that is oh so fascinating. If you ever doubt it, Self, don’t.

You love these kinds of stories. And there is good reason for that.

The thing you may not love as much?

Reading 9 short stories of you favorite genre. The stories are awesome. And then they end. And you’re left thinking…what?! How is that all?!?!?! I want more!!!!

And as frustrating as that can be, it really does show the quality of those short stories. Dammit.

I recently read Shards and Ashes, a collection of short stories about dangerous futures, written by 9 amazing, best-selling authors.  Who are these authors and what stories did they write, you ask?  Well….

Hearken by Veronica Roth

~ In the future, where death can come at any time and happen any where, people gifted with perfect pitch are chosen to become Hearkeners, or people who can hear and dictate a person’s song of life, or their song of death.  When Darya’s sister asks her to make a life altering decision to hear the death song of the mother who failed her in every way, she must face realities about herself and the life that formed her into who she is.

Branded by Kelley Armstrong

~ After the devastating results of the scientific modification of people’s DNA, living Outside means certain death. Unless of course, your boyfriend is actually a werewolf and the two of you are cunning enough to attempt an escape from behind the walls to join the Branded, just make sure the hybrids don't get you first.

Necklace of Raindrops by Margaret Stohl

~ When the only real currency that matters is in the form of beads of liquid, or raindrops, would you chose to save your beads to live a long, healthy life, or spend them and live the short life you have to the fullest? And what happens after the Jump that ends your life, anyway?

Dogsbody by Rachel Caine

~ Limited resources often necessitate sacrifices, even the sacrifice of thousands of children on a train leading to their death. When you are one of the few randomly chosen to live, do you stay hidden to survive, or rise up the ranks of the dogsbody’s with the hope of one day, with the fateful help of a long-lost friend, enacting revenge on the murderer responsible for countless deaths?

Pale Rider by Nancy Holder

~ What’s a girl to do when her search for batteries ends up with meeting a super-hot German boy who awakened an unknown power in you? Travel with him to a castle to solve the mystery of the magic, and the end of the world, of course!

Corpse Eaters by Melissa Marr

~ When a god, not one any religious books have told us about, shows up with lizard creatures that feast on corpse soup, Harmony decides that risking her life to fight the evil in her world is more important than anything else. Chris wants to keep her safe by leaving their hometown and ghostly memories for the un-occupied parts of America, but what can he possibly do to make her forget her quest for vengeance?

Burn 3 by Kami Garcia

~ The ozone layer is completely gone and living in the sun means burned, scarred, wrinkly skin; skin which some criminals, will do anything, or take anyone to get. When Phoenix’s sister goes missing, how can she hold the Skinners responsible, when the government knowingly turns a blind eye?

Love is a Choice by Beth Revis

~ The spaceship heading to a new world is kept safe through the twisted schemes of a dictator who knows that in order for their quest to survive, people must be kept under control; the smallest spark of rebellion could mean failure and certain death to the human species. When Mag decides the time for rebellion is now, Orion must choose between his love for her and his knowledge that in order for their resistance to succeed, they must bide their time.

Miasma by Carrie Ryan

~ The swamp plague is everywhere, along with the beaked doctors and their plague-eating beasts, and there is no beauty to be found. Except in Frankie’s eyes when she sees the beautiful flower gardens of the Oglethorpe family. With her sister on death’s door, Frankie will do whatever she must to keep her alive, maybe even accept help from a stranger who long ago fell in love with her eyes when she was mesmerized by the flowers.

I really enjoyed all of the stories, especially the thrill of reading some of the scarier ones late at night. This was my first collection of short stories and overall I was very pleased with it.

You know, other than the infuriating reality that the stories I got sucked so deeply into were only 30 to 40 pages long!!!

I really wanted more from all of them. Especially Hearken, Love is a Choice, and Miasma. I mean, there was only one that had a definitive ending, because the narrator died. And even that one I wished was longer! The other 8 all could have gone on.

Please, authors, PLEASE! Write more later!

I doubt it will happen though, because isn’t that the point of a short story? To write something incredibly engaging, give a little hook or hint as to what might actually be going on, then end semi-abruptly, making the reader remember the story forever and ever, always wondering what happened next because you only gave them 40 pages of mind-blowing goodness that ended with a crazy making cliffhanger that is never resolved?

That is the point, right?

FYI, these editors also have a collection of Paranormal short stories called Enthralled.

You can bet it is on my TBR list.

Because I am a glutton for punishment.

Ugh. 

(10 points to the first person who catches the reference I made to the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld).