Reading, Pitch Wars, and Everything In-Between

Since we've last chatted readers, a lot of things have happened. Nothing big and life changing, but little and somewhat life changing. Maybe less life changing and more of life helping? Either way, I've been up to things and thought I would pop in for an update. I am going to attempt, key word is attempt, to update this blog every week. It might just be little status messages like this, if you like those sort of things, or it might be writing advice or it might be about a book I decided to binge in the last week. Or even a TV show or a movie that I thought should be on everyone's radar. Yeah, it might not be all that interesting to read every week but I think a fuller blog is helpful.

First off, I've been reading a lot. I've upped my reading goal from 24 to 30 to now 50. I'm six books ahead of schedule to hit 50 by the end of the year and there's two readathons coming up. There's the Creating & Co RIP (read in peace) and then ebookathon that starts right after that. As for past readathons, I did the NEWTs readathon because I'm a geek and love all things Harry Potter. It's similar to the OWLs one I talked about in April, but you could only do the subjects you passed during the OWLs. So I had five subjects to read, with only finishing one up all three levels (Acceptable, Exceeds Expectations, and Outstanding), but I read 9 books in the month of August. That's a new personal best so I'm happy about it. As for books that you should stop reading this and just go get a copy of are Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman and Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. The first one is a prequel to Practical Magic and I loved it. Devoured it in a few days and fell in love with the Aunts all over again. Not sure about Vincent, even all these weeks after I'm done with it, so go read it and tell me what you think. For the second, also a binge read of 3 days, and it was just so nice and refreshing a read. It was a mystery wrapped around this Real Housewives (season 1 NYC) vibe that I was just digging and couldn't put it down. I felt the emotions of so many of the characters on so many levels and that was a very nice connection.

My September reading plans are to just read what I feel like reading. At the moment, it's a lot of adult because I'm feeling burnt out on YA. I'm currently reading Daughters of the Night Sky, which is about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment that's entirely of women called the Night Witches, and I'm kind of liking it. I'm only 18% done and I want to give it a bit more to settle in before I DNF or put it aside for a while. I also want to finish My Lady Jane which is historical fantasy riff on Lady Jane Gray's life. It is so good but I put it aside for NEWTs. Going to pick it back up again to finish so I can read My Plain Jane (Jane Eyre retelling) for an October spooky read.

On the writing front, it's going slowly but steady. I'm querying Mystery of the Dark as often as I can, along with submitting it to Pitch Wars, so we'll see what happens. I'm having a lot of fun connecting with the greater writer community on Twitter and Facebook so that feels like the bigger win to me. On the non-querying front, I'm working on Lady of Arrows, which is a Robin Hood retelling, as well as Of the Sky, which might turn into a romance with fantasy elements instead of the other way around. Oops. It's a standalone, which is amazing because I never really write those, so this is a very nice change of pace from what I'm used to. Seriously - Mystery of the Dark is 6 or 7 books, Lady of Arrows is a duology, Hidden Scions is going to be a trilogy at least, and Watchers, if I ever get to it, is like 12 books. Easily. I think I'm going to try and have more standalones, if I'm able to. It's a lot more with just deciding it and letting the book figure out what it's going to be.

That's pretty much it. I'm always over on Twitter in case you want to interact with me and I hope everyone has a great week. Until next time, take care and happy writing!

The Ultimate Book Tag

Hi everyone! I watch YouTube a lot and sometimes the people I watch do tags where there's a set of questions that everyone answers while they film their video. One of my more favorite YouTubers put up a book tag for Riverdale and I thought of doing something similar for the blog. In stumbling around Google, I found the Ultimate Book Tag by ChapterChicks that I thought would be fun to do. So, we'll get started. If you decide to do the tag, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog as I'd love to see your answers. 

The Ultimate Book Tag

1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?: I used to all the time but it's less now. I'm not sure if my body just got used to me reading in the car thanks to being on my phone all the time or what. 

2. Which author’s writing style is completely unique to you and why?: For me, it's a tie between Stephen King and John Irving. Stephen King has a style that sucks you into a book, no matter if it's a horror story or something else, and just holds you in until you can't read anymore or the book is over. John Irving has the older storyteller vibe from ages ago that makes you just want to sit down and listen to everything he has to say. A Prayer for Owen Meany is an excellent example of this and you should go read it if you haven't already.

3. Harry Potter Series or the Twilight Saga? Give 3 points to defend your answer.: ...well, fine. It is going to be Harry Potter.

1. It is not in first person and, while Harry is the focus, you get more of a view of what the other characters are doing. In Twilight Saga, it is all Bella all the time and there are points where you just have to reach in and strangle her for all she's doing. 

2. I like magic and magical schools.

3. I have never cried like I have cried over the death of characters like that series. I'm not just talking Dumbledore and Snape, but a lot of other characters. I call book 7 the book of death considering the death count there.

4. Do you carry a book bag? If so, what is it in (besides books…)?: No, but I have a big messenger bag. The book in there right now is The Fire Pit by Chris Ould. Other than that, I have my wallet, my phone, and usually my iPad or Kindle to read other things on if I want to.

5. Do you smell your books?: ...People don't smell their books? How weird.

6. Books with or without little illustrations?: It depends on the book. I like it when books have maps, which I'm not sure counts or not with the illustrations.

7. What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn’t quality writing? (Ex. I read Twilight before I read HP and thought the writing was amazing but read HP and now think Twilight is a little bit of a joke.): My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. There was just so much with that book that was so wrong. The parents not seeing reason, the ending that came out of nowhere, and... it is the first book that I cannot even with. Now, I have a rule that there are great authors out there that have that one or two books where they're just wrong. It was a great idea but it just falls flat, so I have to try at least two books by the same author before I put them on my never read again list. I tried Nineteen Minutes and... yeah, no. Her writing is nice but the quality of plot was just wrong. So, she's not my cup of tea, which is sad, but that's where I am at the moment.

8. Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share!: Mom likes to tell the story where I had to have Three Little Pigs read to me or I would throw fits and not go to sleep. That's about it.

9. What is the thinnest book on your shelf?: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.

10. What is the thickest book on your shelf?: Three way tie between complete version of Chronicles of Narnia, complete version of Lord of the Rings, and the Mists of Avalon. 

11. Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future as being an author?: I do, with both questions, and, hopefully, it'll be this year that I am finally an author. 

12. When did you get into reading?: My family likes to joke that I was born reading, so it's been from a very early age. I did not teach myself how to read, but my mom did, and she loves reading. So she passed it onto me. 

13. What is your favorite classic book?: Hmm... this is a tough question. I have way too many classic books that I like. If you were to tie me to a chair with a gun to my head and I could only pick one, it would have to be Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. It introduced me to the idea that not all heroes are good with the antihero. Until I read that book, I thought that all protagonists were straight and narrow good guys. The idea of the antihero blew my brain and I've been loving the idea ever since. 

14. In school was your best subject Language Arts/English?: It was one of my bests. I also was amazing in math and science but got my BA in English Literature. Now I see plot holes everywhere. 

15. If you were given a book as a present that you had read before and hated…what would you do?: Say thank you and go to Half Price Books to turn it in to get another book.

16. What is a lesser known series that you know of that is similar to Harry Potter or the Hunger Games?: In the idea of a magic school type place, I would say the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey is a good place to start. I'm not sure for Hunger Games.

17. What is a bad habit you always do in writing?: I am horrible at describing places. It's called white box syndrome and I'm working on it.

18. What is your favorite word?: Coccyx. I have yet to use it while writing. 

19. Are you a nerd, dork, or dweeb? Or all of the above?: I'm me and awesome, so it doesn't matter? 

20. Vampires or Fairies? Why?: Both, but fairies are more powerful.

21. Shapeshifters or Angels? Why?: Both but angels are more powerful due to that backing from God thing. 

22. Spirits or Werewolves? Why?: Both but werewolves are more powerful because they're in the living world. Spirits have to cross over and can only do so with the aid of someone who has spirit magic, related to them, or both. 

23. Zombies or Vampires?: What kind of zombies are we talking about here? If we're talking the Max Brooks kind, then zombies. If we're talking about Anne Rice vampires (or my own), then vampires. This is too broad of a question. 

24. Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?: Forbidden love! Love triangles just make me work out how they would be a threesome or more because why not. Honestly. There's not enough time in the world to limit love to just one person. 

25. AND FINALLY: Full on romance books or action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in?: Action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in. I used to be the person who loved to read full on romance but my tastes have changed. 

So, that's that! I hoped you liked reading my answers and I tag anyone who wants to join in on the fun. You can either link me to your own post or answer in the comments. Until next time, happy reading! 

What I'm Reading in January

source: fanpop

Alright, so let's get to what I'm reading in January! Now, this is not going to be everything I'm reading in January. I sometimes swap books in and out, depending on how they're holding my interest, and I might move something I started reading in January to finish in a different month. With that out of the way, let's get into what I'm reading.

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - A couple goes to find their son that they haven't seen in years and there's a tag of dragons with it. I loved Never Let Me Go and my friend Amanda recommended this, so I'm thinking it's a good follow up read of the author.
• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green - My friend (and editor!) erin basically went, in all caps, you have to read this. She's rarely ever wrong on good books when John Green is involved, so we'll give this one a shot too.
• Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris - This, while sounding amazing, might end up on my DNF (did not finish) list. I read Chocolat and it is not one of my favorite books. I always like to give an author another try before I swear them off completely due to incapability in narrative and other things. The only author that I have not given a second chance to is George R.R. Martin and he knows what he did. 
• Unmentionable : The Victorian Lady's Guide To Sex, Marriage, And Manners by Therese Oneill - This is my research book of the month. I like reading one book where I break out a notebook and take notes about it for a future book setting.
• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton - I still don't know how I haven't already read this book. When I was a teenager, I devoured so much of his work and multiple times too. So this will be a nice throwback to my teenage years.
• The Devil In The White City : Murder, Magic, And Madness At The Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson - I've been told I need to read this for a few years now. So I'm going to read it already. That's the long and short of the story for this one.
• Mrs. Sherlock Holmes : The True Story Of New York's City's Greatest Female Detective And The 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated A Nation by Brad Ricca - My friend Katie recommended it to me for reasons that I don't remember. Or maybe I saw it on her Facebook or Goodreads feed and thought it sounded good. Either way, it's on the list to be read this month.

So that's the reading list for the month. It seems like a lot, but considering how I want to pick back up how I used to read, it doesn't feel like too much. Time will tell and I wish you all happy reading!

The 2018 Books Post

This is the dump post for books that I will be reading in 2018. As I love lists, I'm going to be segmenting what I read into the following: to read, rereads, finish this year, read, did not finish, and move to 2019. The last will be used more as we get into the later part of 2018 as I've got a long list of things I want to read along with rereads. I'm going to try to do a mix of new and rereads, but we'll see how that goes. Also, these are not in any order. They're more in the "oh, that one" type order. Also, this list will probably grow throughout the year.

To Read
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
The Fire Pit by Chris Ould (book 3 of Faroes)
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Mrs Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca

Rereads
The Martian by Andy Weir
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

Finish This Year
Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

Read

Did Not Finish

Move to 2019