The Selection by Kiera Cass

Dystopia is a very good genre to read. Every book in this sub-genre is different, you're not reading the same plots over and over again. 

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. 

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.




I enjoyed this book. The writing felt like I was reading a book for middle school kids, too juvenile, but the story idea was intriguing. The book reminded me like I was watching the bachelor and re-reading The Hunger Games. Then the book ended on a very unnecessary cliffhanger as to prove a point that the book is a series. Hopefully the next book in the trilogy The Elite the plot gets better.

Preparing & Surviving Through NaNoWriMo

Every writer knows what it means when the month of November us just around the corner; the time to write the novel you have been wanting to write for ages, but never having the time to write it! Now is the time to write the story you have been itching to write for such a long time.

Are you a first time writer? Nervous about to do NaNoWriMo for the first time? I know exactly how you feel. When you sit down to write your first novel, it's terrifying. So I've put together a post to help you prepare and get through the month.

1. Have your characters ready
Keep in mind who your characters are. Their physical appearance and their personality. If you have a hard time trying to visualize what they are suppose to look like, use pictures of actors who you would pick for the role in your book if it was made into a film. Once you have your characters and feel their emotions, it's much easier to write them.

2. Write a small synopsis or Outline of the book
Some of my writer friends will write a detailed synopsis about the main plot first which would be around 30,000-40,000 word, then the authors would work their way backwards writing the events leading up to the main plot twist. I find myself sometimes writing the main plot first then working backwards in the story. Do what you think will work for you. 

3. Write, Write, oh and Write
If you have not picked up Stephen King's books for writers, it's highly recommended that you buy copies and read them. King's advice is when writing the first draft, don't look back. That's the key to NaNoWriMo folks, once you begin writing that manuscript, keep writing, don't go back and edit, don't stop until it's complete. Even if you feel like every word you are writing is absolute crap, that's okay, that's what months of editing are for. Spend the entire month of November writing that book until it's complete. There are writers who have to go back and edit as they go complete a chapter, but that takes up too much time and you will soon see yourself already at the end of November before you have even finished your manuscript. You spend so much time perfecting those three opening paragraphs  you will never get to finish the story. Your best bet as a writer is to finish writing the whole manuscript, then that way you can at least say to yourself, "There, I finished my first novel." 

4. Set a word limit.
Most writers I know will set themselves a word limit they will write each day to achieve their final word count. An average goal is to write 1500-5000 words a day. I set myself a goal to write 5500 words a day. Since most of my completed novels finish at roughly 55,000-60,000 words, after months of editing I get to about 80,000 words.

5. Rest your eyes
Once you have completed your manuscript and thrown confetti in celebration. Close the document and do not open it for one month or two. After enough time has passed, open the document and edit. You will see the manuscript with fresh eyes, and you will be amazed at how much needs to be corrected. You may be grossed out looking at it, but I promise, take one month and fight to prevent yourself from opening the document. After a month, open the document and edit it away. The time spent away from your manuscript will also give you some different ideas as to what to throw into the story. A literary agent once said "Sometimes you have to force yourself to close that document and not look at it for a while."


With NaNoWriMo coming up I hope some of these advice and tips will help you. I use this advice and it helped me write my first novel last year complete at 55,000 words by writing each day 5,000 words. NaNoWriMo is the perfect way for a new author to get their foot into the writing door! Hopefully some of these tips work for you!

Manuscript Word Count

So when I first finished my Young Adult Urban Fantasy story, I didn't realize that it would be considered too long to sell to a publisher, let alone an agent. My friend, whom I showed the manuscript to first after I finished revising it, suggested that I split the book into three and make it into a three book series, or trilogy. She told me a publisher, or an agent will be more than willing to take a good books series. I remember Twilight was a really thick book, as well as the Harry Potter books. 

After what my friend told me, I started to get even more curious and decided to investigate. I got some really good information from this website Fiction Factor, she even mentioned how as a debut author my story, which I completed at over 100,000 words, is something that an agent and publisher would not read. Mostly because of tight editing schedules, and after Twilight was released not many editors will take on a story that long. Another source that gave me this good information was Agent Query. Also the blog Literary Rambles had a really good post.

1 page            250 words 

100 pages      25,000 words 

200 pages      50,000 words 

300 pages      75,000 words 

400 pages      100,000 words 

500 pages      125,000 words

After reading that I think I will follow the advice my friend, and that website stated and split the book into three, a trilogy. The final word count after revisions was 175,000 WORDS! So what I can do is read through the whole thing all over again and see where would be a good place to split the book.

Tigers Curse by Colleen Houck

So I finally found some time to read this book series that everyone is ranting about, and I was a bit curious because everyone has a specific reading taste and everyone has their own views on books. My friend Shilpa said this is something refreshing to read from all the vampire books that are taking up space at the bookstores.I bought all three books so that way I could read them straight through. I'm picky, I like to wait until all the books are out in a series before I read them. I like to read them straight through, because I get so anxious waiting for the next book to come out. Alyson Noel's series The Immortals did that to me, I was so impatient waiting for the next book in the series to come out, I was going nuts. That's one thing with me and my books I read, I like to wait until the entire series is out then read it because then I just go to the next book.

Tiger's Curse

Passion. 

Fate. 

Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Basically Tiger's Curse is a paranormal Romance series that follows a young girl falling in love with an Indian prince who is cursed. It's such a magical book and I really liked it.

This book series is a prime example of something unique and original to the paranormal romance that was self-published and made a big success among young readers. I thought the premise was unique but it lacked some things in the Indian culture it was more of something that Disney would make into a movie. It was a pretty good book.