Category: Friday Five

Friday Five

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 Five Up and Coming YA Books I Can’t Wait to Read! (And look – three are debuts!)

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (June 5, 2010 – Tomorrow!)… Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Okay, I’m definitely not the world’s biggest Twihard, but I’ve read the series and seen the movies and think the whole phenomenon is pretty cool. I find this book, a snap shot of one of Eclipse’s minor characters, especially intriguing. I’m interested to see what Stephenie will do without the romance aspect to fall back on.

 Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (July 20, 2010)… In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole. At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.

When I read Shiver last fall, I was totally and completely sucked in. Sure, I’ve read a million variants on Sam and Grace in YA romance, but there was something about their connection that I was totally able to buy into. Plus, the werewolf mythology is unique and actually sort of believable. I can’t wait to see where Maggie takes her series.

The DUFF: (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger (September 7, 2010)… Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “Duffy,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

I have to admit, the second I saw this cover—before I even knew what a DUFF was—I totally wanted to read this book. The bubble gum, the green eyeshadow, and the super bold title—jthey all caught my eye in a way that said READ ME. Now that I’ve learned the basic plot and read about Kody Keplinger’s enviable published-teen back story, I’m more than sold.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (September 21, 2010)… Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours. But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures. So much for normal.

I like this new spin on paranormal. Plus, the cover is beautiful and Kiersten writes a kick-ass blog that I follow faithfully. She’s so likeable (not to mention honest and thoughtful and helpful), I can’t help but be convinced that Evie will be equally awesome.  

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney (November 2, 2010)… Some schools have honor codes. Others have handbooks. Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds. Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way–the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds–a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers. In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl’s struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone–especially yourself–you fight for it.

I love books set in boarding schools (Prep, Harry Potter (duh!) and Looking for Alaska are some of my favorites), so The Mockingbirds immediately earned points there. This book sounds dark and serious and hard to put down. I love Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (from which this book seems to draw some inspiration). If The Mockingbirds is half as good, I’ll be a very satisfied reader.  

**All book blurbs were taken from Amazon.com.

Friday Five: What’s hot today…

ONE ~ I’m going to see Tim McGraw perform tonight! I can’t express how excited I am about this concert; I’ve wanted to see him perform for years. The icing on the cake: Lady Antebellum is opening! I’ve already gushed about how much I love them HERE. The cherry on top of the icing on the cake: My husband and I are spending a childless night together in Seattle. Hoping to relive my college days. 🙂

TWO ~ I started reading Ken Follett’s World Without End this morning. It’s been awhile since I read an “adult” book, but I’m a big fan of the epically fascinating Pillars of the Earth, and World Without End is a follow-up of sorts. It takes place in the 1300s and even though I’m only on page seven, I’ve already read about a thieving eight-year-old girl and her father, whose hand was chopped off because of his own stealing. What’s not to like?

THREE ~ I have a new nephew! Gabriel was born May 19th and weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces. My husband, daughter and I are making the ten-hour drive to Mountain Home, Idaho (you’re jealous, I know!) next weekend to visit the little munchkin. Look at those chubby cheeks!

FOUR ~ I’m obsessed with Savvy Authors. If you haven’t checked it out, you need to. Right now. There are too many features to name here, but I’ll try to list a few: workshops, word count/page number trackers, pitch fests, forums, chat rooms, expert resources, critique groups, agent listings, an auto critter… seriously. It’s an amazing resource with supportive and generous people. There’s a $30 a year membership fee to access all the good stuff, but I assure you, it’s well worth the money!

FIVE ~ One of my all time favorite TV shows is Sex and the City. I’ve seen every episode at least once and the movie more times than I care to admit. If you’ve never watched it (and aren’t easily offended), I definitely recommend it. Rent season one at Blockbuster or from Netflix and I promise you’ll be hooked. The movie’s sequel comes out May 27th and I’ll be there (with my mom, SATC’s second biggest fan!) to see it. Can’t wait to be reunited with Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda! **Plus, did you hear Aidan’s back?!

Friday Five

Happy Friday Readers! I think I might be an anomaly, but I LOVE the revising stage. Getting the actual story details worked out and then onto the page is much harder for me than going through and making the story better.  So today: My five favorite revision tips. Enjoy!

One ~ Cut the beginning and end. Leave the middle. Just like with sandwiches and pie, the middle is almost always the best stuff. My very first draft of Forget Me Not was—are you ready for this?—130,000 words. Ridiculous! I was able to cut about 30,000 of those words on my first round of revising because the beginnings and endings of my chapters contained a whole bunch of arbitrary details that were helpful for fleshing out the characters, setting and back story, but had very little bearing on the actual plot. It was super satisfying to highlight and cut huge chunks of random text and paste them into my Outtakes folder because 1) I needed to drop my word count in a serious way and 2) My story was SO MUCH better without all that extra crap! It was after that first major round of revising that my story started to read like an real book. *In case you’re wondering, Forget Me Not is now 79,000 words.  

Two ~ When revising, pay careful attention to your favorite parts, the parts you think are clever or funny or really, really good. Those are often the parts you don’t need. My Outtakes folder is full of witty dialogue snippets, gorgeous descriptions, and cute interactions that always make me smile when I read them. It was painful to cut some (okay, a lot) of them, but if I’m being completely honest, they didn’t add to the plot or characterizations. They had to go.

Three ~ Conversely, if you find yourself skimming over certain sections every time you do a read through because they bore you to tears, take a second to seriously consider whether you need those parts. If you do, then find a way to rewrite them in a more dynamic way. If you don’t, cut! If you the author aren’t enthralled by every word of your manuscript, then why in the world would an agent or editor or reader be?  

Four ~ The FIND function on your computer is one of the most important tools for revising. My first FIND search was for all words ending in –ly, otherwise known as adverbs. I cut a lot of them, but not all… I like a well-placed adverb here and there. The adverbs I did cut were either unnecessary or redundant. Other FIND searches I ran: seems, just, was, suddenly, pulled (my fabulous critique partner claimed I used that word way too much, and after searching for it, I was alarmed to see that she was very right!), and I love you (because it loses its punch when overstated; Mason and Faith only say the words a few times). I also searched for my characters’ names, especially Mason and Faith, because again, thanks to my critique partner, I discovered I was overusing them.

 

Five ~ When you think you’re completely done with all revisions, change your font to something drastically different from Times New Roman and read through your entire manuscript again. My eyes and brain were so used to reading Forget Me Not, I’d practically memorized it. Changing the font forced me to slow down and read more carefully, making the little mistakes I’d somehow missed the first thirty-five times jump of the page.    

Friday Five

Today: My five favorite writing/publishing blogs… my MUST READS!
One:  Editorial Ass – Information on everything from querying and contracts to trends and advances from an anonymous individual in publishing.

Editorial Ass: I work in publishing and I like to read things. Herewith: free association on books, nice things I ate, publishing, editing, and other nice things I ate.

 Two: Kidlit – Everything you need to know about writing, querying, and (hopefully!) publishing picture books, middle grades and YA novels.

A site for writers, readers and fans of children’s literature written by Mary Kole, associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency!

Three: Nathan Bransford – If you’re an aspiring writer and you’re NOT reading Nathan Bransford’s blog, you’re missing out on a wealth of information presented in a fun and witty way.

I'm a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown Ltd.

Four: Kiersten White – Her debut novel’s coming out in a few months and she’s proof that perseverance pays off. Plus, she’s funny and candid and an average mom & wife who’s about to be published. There’s hope for all of us!

I'm a YA writer represented by the wonderful Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary. My first novel, PARANORMALCY, will be published by HarperTeen in September, 2010, with two sequels to follow. Which makes me all sorts of happy.

Five: Rachelle Gardner – Honest advice for both aspiring and published writers. She posts info you don’t even realize you need until you’re reading it. Lots of great guest bloggers, too.   

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent at Wordserve Literary

Friday Five

So, I’m planning to make my Friday Five a regular feature. Today… five things that are making me very happy this week! 

Number One: My husband and I, after years of hemming and hawing, finally signed up for Netflix! Full of excitment, I packed our queue full of new releases and TV series we’ve never seen. Since I’m a newbie, said queue was a complete cluster with zero organization, though I didn’t know any better. When we got our first DVD delivery on Saturday I was all kinds of excited, until I saw that we’d received Six Feet Under SEASON TWO, discs one and two. Yeah, seeing as how neither my husband nor I have seen Season One, we didn’t want to start with Season Two. So, feeling like a bit of an idiot, I sealed those discs right back into their convenient little envelops and tucked them into the mailbox on Monday, then immediately organized our queue. Imagine my surprise and delight when on Wednesday (a mere two days later!) Six Feet Under Season One, discs one and two arrived! Talk about quick turnaround! So, I’m a satisfied and happy customer and an official Netflix convert.
**In case you’re wondering, Six Feet Under is kind of awesome… I highly recommend it if you haven’t see it! 

How has it take me so long to jump on this bandwagon?!

 Number Two: I’ve read two amazing and completely different books this week – 

 

And 

 

Click on the covers to visit the authors’ websites to learn more. Next on my reading list? An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. 

Number Three: The new season of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey starts Monday! I’m a total Bravo junkie and will watch pretty much whatever they air, but RHONJ happens to be one of my all time favorites. If you didn’t see Teresa’s table flipping fiasco last season, you must YouTube it immediately. Seriously, these women are so completely over the top, but there’s something about them (with the exception of Danielle, I think) that’s genuine and intriguing and oddly endearing. If Dina, Caroline, Teresa, and Jacqueline lived in my neck of the woods, I’d totally want them as friends!   

 

  Number Four: Tomorrow night I get to go see him: 

 

 

Jason Aldean

Sing about:

 

Big Green Tractors

And them: 

 

Brooks and Dunn

  Sing about:

 

Red Dirt Roads

 I’m just a little excited!

 Number Five: Last, but certainly not least, my precious girl who makes me happy every day of the week. After receiving a form rejection email yesterday, I told her I was feeling a little sad. She replied, “That’s okay, Princess Mommy. I still ‘lub’ you.” How could I possibly stay in my I’m-the-world’s-biggest-failure funk after something like that?  

 
 

Isn't she the cutest?!