Finished NaNoWriMo 2012

Another November down! I feel amazing! After tearing at my hair because my book was at 40,000 words, and I couldn't seem to get the story to finish. I opened back up my book of outlines and it gave a small spark in me for three little plot twists I ended up adding in, and it made the stories final word count come over 90k. It's a sci-fi, so around that range in the wordcount is something good. I am filled with so much relief right now! I shall now put this manuscript to rest, and I will reopen it after Christmas, before I head back to university. In the meantime since this is a trilogy I'm working on, I'm going to see how far I can get into book two in the trilogy before I start preparing the queries about the new trilogy.

NaNoWriMo Update

It's near the middle of NaNoWriMo. I feel so much progress than I did last year. Last year I was getting 1500 words a days and I didn't finish until after Thanksgiving. 

I started this year on November first at the crack of dawn, at exactly 5am with a ten cups of coffee, and wrote 15,300 words in one day! That is a big accomplishment even for me. It was mostly the climax of the story I had been working on, and now I am working backwards. I now find myself at 40,000 words, and the story doesn't feel anywhere near completion. It's a bit in different spots as well. Plus I did not break up the chapters so I just have one really long story. On the plus side I showed yesterday my creative writing professor the first four chapters (even you can even call it that) and he liked the story, he said it just needs major editing required.

I just need to face that I am too wordy for my own good. I hope this will be the trilogy series I had been anticipated on writing. I am also really hoping I can at least finish the main story before Thanksgiving, we all know how hectic Thanksgiving is. If can finish this one before Thanksgiving then I can start to work on book two in the trilogy, and see if everything flows. This is a trilogy I have high hopes for because of the uniqueness I brought to the sub-genre and I hope someone sees it with potential. Once I finish this draft, I will put it to rest until January, and the time to shred it apart into a billion pieces until its perfect before sending it off to my critique partner begins! 

Good luck to everyone else with NaNoWriMo!

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Blue Bloods
When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society. The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?





This is another one of my favorite vampire series (yes I do like vampires, just not one particular series). This book series was like Gossip Girl which is one of my favorite novels. I liked how it was rich vampires living in Manhattan. The vampires don't live forever, but they do come back in life cycles. This was an interesting take on vampires. The writing was in third person limited, so it's like regular third person but it head hops and gives too much of the backstory in each chapter. The author is better off writing a whole prequel novel of the events before the series. This is an example for someone who wants to write third limited.I am a huge shipper of Schulyer and Jack. Sometimes the writing gets too dull and rushed. I am just upset with having to wait a whole year to read the final book in the series.

The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa

Have I mentioned how much I love fairies? I love the fairy trend. While some novels read the same thing, or plots similar to Twilight, I decided to read this series, and I am very happy I read all books straight through.

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

This was just a glorious book series to read, and the best series about fairies I have ever read! I loved Kagawa's writing, and the conflict with Puck. What I liked is how she put the whole Shakespeare spin into the story uses Shakespeare elements. The world building takes a little while to get into but the writing is what made me not want to put it down. I found Puck to be my favorite of the entire series. My favorite book in the whole series was book one, when Meghan discovers she's a fairy, however the whole teenage girl finding out she's a fairy gets pretty old when rereading it in different books all the time. I loved this series so much, and I heard Kagawa has a spin-off series from Iron Fey coming out this year. I look forward to reading more of her books.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. 

They were terrifyingly beautiful--too beautiful for words.
Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. 

They looked almost like wings.
In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.







This book series is about fairies and I just had to read it. It's been on my reading pile for while, and now I am going to read it.

The book series begins with a girl Laurel who moves to a new town and goes to a new school. Laurel sits in Biology class (another book copying Twilight) and gets tongue tie. Laurel soon discovers in the middle of her sophomore year that she is a fairy sent among humans to protect the gateway to Avalon. This book is about flower fairies, and it didn't even feel like a young adult book it's more like for middle grade genre. 

Most people picked up the book because of quote from Stephenie Meyer on the cover, but imagine my surprise that Pike got her agent through Meyer because they are best friends, and you can read about it on her blog. I get this was a New York Times bestseller, but if you reread over and over of a human girl finding out she's a fairy or the long lost daughter of the king of fairies after a while it really gets old. Another take from Twilight is where you can feel the meadow scene. Pike's books weren't so bad. The first book in the series I wasn't too crazy about. You have to give her some credit for a debut it didn't take me until 300 pages into the novel before the plot started picking up. After you read the first book the story gets better in book two, three, and four, but I think the best book in the series was the final book Destined. I'm giving this series a lukewarm rating. 

The Modern Tales of Faerie by Holly Black

Tithe


Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death

This was an amazing book to read! I love Holly's writing. Filled with so much imagery and descriptions! Book three in the series was just to tie up the loose ends left in book one and two, but it does make some things about fairies a little creepy for me. I enjoyed this series, it keeps you cautious with wanting to turn the pages as quickly as you can wanting to see what happens next! I highly recommend reading this series!

Graceling Realm Series by Kristin Cashore

This is a book series twitter has been fussing about so I decided to read it all straight through.

Graceling

Kristin Cashore’s best-selling, award-winning fantasy Graceling tells the story of the vulnerable yet strong Katsa, a smart, beautiful teenager who lives in a world where selected people are given a Grace, a special talent that can be anything from dancing to swimming. Katsa’s is killing. As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his thug. Along the way, Katsa must learn to decipher the true nature of her Grace . . . and how to put it to good use. A thrilling, action-packed fantasy adventure (and steamy romance!) that will resonate deeply with adolescents trying to find their way in the world.

I did read all three books, Okay, Cashore's writing is really good, and the world building is fabulous. I did like the heroine, Katsa, she is so strong and fierce butt kicking warrior, reminds me a bit of Katniss from The Hunger Games but I find her to be just as annoying as Bella from Twilight. Katsa is the only strong heroine in the book, the other female characters are just weak. The beginning of the book just throws you into the action.  There are parts of the book that really bugged me. The author spends the majority of the book trying to sell these to the audience; dresses are the worst, femininity is wrong, men don't respect women, commitment ruins relationships, marriage is a tool of the devil. Katsa and Po, you really can't feel the love between them and the way Katsa treats her love interest is just horrible, like how she hits him then Katsa gives the cliche excuse how she's sorry? Don't abusers always say they are sorry and they won't ever do it again. You can't feel the romance between them, but then you also have the man hating feminist feeling when reading it. Po does change quite a bit in Fire and Bitterblue. This is suppose to be for young adults? This book series is not my genre.  

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

Matched 

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.






I decided to try reading another dystopian series. The Hunger Games was dark but showed an important lesson; the way our governments behave now, what makes you think we won't end up like that in the future, sending kids to fight to the death? I like the dystopian novels because it's not the same in every book, authors come up with such unique interesting plots. I prefer to wait to read a book series when the entire series is out.

This is not one of my favorite dystopian series mostly because it's pretty boring. Condie is a good writer but this story was so bland it took me ages to read.Condie's agent is also the agent of Meyer and Pike but this series did not have a good sales record compared to other dystopians. The government system decides who is paired with who. There was too much of the romance elements in this, and not enough of the dystopian of what it's like living in this government system. I felt like some elements in Matched were trying too hard to match up with the Hunger Games.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

I read The Host when it first came out. When Meyer was still growing as an author for her Twilight series. 

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed. When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

The book has a good plot. But it's the writing. Certain parts in the book tend to get bland. The book needed more editing, and the book was so incredibly long while reading it it felt like the story was just dragging on just to get the book to the 800 pages, and during those particular lagging pages, there were so many places that were bland, you find yourself skimming the book most of the time. Meyer's books the main characters lack personality. The fact that Meyer has a degree in English amazes me by how horrible her storytelling is. I heard this book is going to be a trilogy, so who knows how the next book will turn out.

Blog Tour: Colonization by Aubrie Dionne

Another wonderful blog tour for Inkspell Publishing! I have never really been much of a Sci-Fi person but I read the summary of this and I was immediately intrigued I wanted to purchase the book almost instantly.

Colonization
Finding a new home has never been so dangerous. Andromeda has spent all seventeen years of her life aboard a deep space transport vessel destined for a paradise planet. Her safe cocoon is about to break open as Paradise 21 looms only one month away, and she must take the aptitude tests to determine her role on the new world and her computer assigned lifemate. As a great-granddaughter of the Commander of the ship, she wants to live up to her family name. But, her forbidden love for her childhood friend, Sirius, distracts her and she fails the tests. The results place her in a menial role in the new colony and pair her with Corvus, “the oaf”.
But when Andromeda steps foot on Paradise 21, her predestined future is the least of her worries. Alien ghosts from a failed colonization warn her of a deadly threat to her colony. And when Sirius's ship crashes on the far ridge in an attempt to investigate, she journeys to rescue him with Corvus.

Andromeda now must convince the authorities of the imminent danger to protect her new home. What she didn't expect was a battle of her own feelings for Sirius and Corvus.Can she save the colony and discover her true love?

About the Author

Author Bio:  Aubrie Dionne writes science fiction fantasy with romantic 

elements. Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, 

Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora 

Wolf. Her books are published by Inkspell Publishing, Entangled Publishing, 

Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She’s also a professional flutist in 

New England.

Please visit her website: www.authoraubrie.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2964057.Aubrie_Dionne

Twitter: @authoraubrie

Blog: http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

Interview with Author

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I'd always made up stories to go along with the music I played in orchestra and then later on in my flute lessons with my students. I'd written one book in high school, but I'd always wanted to be a concert flutist. Then, my flute students started telling me my stories were so good I had to write them down. I tried my luck at a YA epic fantasy called The Voices of Ire and had limited success. But, I loved writing, so I just kept turning out more books, getting better with each one and here I am today! 

What inspired you to begin writing?

Music and some of my favorite movies have inspired me the most. I grew up watching the original Star Wars movies over and over again and reenacting scenes in my backyard. I alos loved The Goonies, Star Trek The Next generation, Labyrinth-David Bowie rocks as the Goblin King, and The Last Unicorn-why she chose to go back to being a unicorn I can only guess. 

How do you get your ideas for writing?

They come to me while I'm doing boring stuff, like walking the dog, commuting to work, folding laundry, in the shower, doing dishes. Wow, I do a lot of boring stuff, huh? 

What made you come up for the idea of Colonization?

I had just finished writing Paradise 21, the first book in my New Dawn series, published by Entangled Publishing. I wanted to know more about what happened to the people on the ship when they reached the planet. But, when I started to write, it came out through a teen's perspective, so it couldn't possibly be book 2 in my adult series. So, I created a YA spin off that will be its own series. The Paradise Reclaimed series was born!

Are the character's based on people you know?

All of the characters are bits and pieces of me. Even the bad ones! As for people I know, I try to stay away from that in fear of getting sued. LOL

Will there be more books after Colonization?

Yes, there are two more books in the Paradise Reclaimed trilogy: Reconnaissance and Alliance. Recon. is told through Nova William's POV and Alliance is told through Lyra Bryan's POV. 

Any future projects you'll have being released?

Yes, I'm just finishing up a contemporary romance called My Maestro in which a flutist in an orchestra falls in love with the conductor. I submitted it to Entangled Publishing's Bliss line, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Do you have an advice to aspiring writers?

Keep writing! I've gotten better with every book I've written. It took me four books to get an agent, so what would have happened if I quit after three?? Keep at it and write everyday. It's like practicing an instrument! 

Thank you Aubrie for the lovely interview and wishing you all the luck with your new release!

Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs

While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse. To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape. But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back..




Being an avid fan of fantasy books, this book quenched my thirst for wanting to read something new and unique! I loved the writing. I loved Greta a very strong heroine which we need in today's YA literature. The book reminded me of a darker version of Alice in Wonderland! I love the adventure along with all the twists written across the pages. Very wonderful book and I hope there will be more books in the series.

Character for NaNoWriMo Project

I'm one of those writers where I need a visual of my characters before I begin working on my new writing project for NaNoWriMo, so these are the people I pick that resemble my characters the most. ( I DO NOT OWN THESE IMAGES)