Monday, August 24, 2009

Blog awards: I'm majorally thrilled!!

So, I opened my email earlier today to preform a rather nasty task (emailing someone I don't like) to find that I had been nominated for a blog award.
I'm super thankful, and even more surprised. Plus, I am now totally over the whole nasty email business.
I've posted the award and such below. :D



Here's the rules.
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.
5. Nominate other Bloggers.
6. Post links to the blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

So let's go down the list!

Thank you so much to Sara Tribble. I've been reading your blog and it's amazing interviews for a while now. It was a major excitement to me that you'd looked at mine and thought it worthy of awarding. Thank you so much! I've linked to you in the seven below instead of up here, because yours is a blog most definitely worth awards.

Seven Things You May NOT Know:
1. I am in highschool debate, and totally, utterly love it. I'm a major geek.
2. I can't focus without music in the background.
3. Math and I do not understand each other. If I had my way, I'd take English all day and never take another course in Advanced Algebra.
4. The first chapter I ever read? Harry Potter.
5. My fingernails are never devoid of polish. Never. Not ever. I'm that obsessed.
6. I have two dogs, and together, they weigh over two hundred pounds.
7. Like most people that read a lot, I read abnormally fast. I am constantly having to tell my teachers that yes, yes indeed, I did actually read what I was meant to.

And now for the Nominations!
Sara
Maggie
Cipherqueen

I only put three for now because my computer's being a freak and won't follow to have the sites. I'll put more later. :D
There you have it! Feel free to take one or both awards and follow the rules!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

My fatal flaw

You know how every mythological hero has their fatal flaw? Achilles heel, Harry Potter and his compassion(Not a myth yet. But mythic proportions when you measure the awesomeness.)
Yes, well. I'm no hero, but I do have a flaw of my own.
It lies in shoes.

By Delman Jules, NP. Sigh. They're so pretty. Sadly, though, I seriously don't have the cash to spend on shoes that expsensive. I just spent about an hour looking through all the pretty shoes though. Should you be interested, the link is as follows.
http://couture.zappos.com/n/es?&d=722118709&order_by=age_asc&page=2
If you are like me, and have a masochistic streak, then by all means. Go look at the shininess. Blame Meg Cabot. She mentioned it first on her blog.
Moving on.
This book is truly amazing. It took me a bit of time to get into it, but I really enjoyed it.

I love historical fiction and this was done really well. Plus, the cover is amazingly gorgeous.
(Pretty shoes, pretty book. Are you seeing a pattern?)
Anyway, I loved it. It's set in the Elizabethan era, in Elizabeth's court. Utterly fabulous. I highly recommend it.
Random note: One of my friends asked me why I only post good reviews about books. It's not because everything I read is amazing. It's just that I think it's pointless to put something negative about a book. Someone worked for hours on that. I'm not going to say that it's terrible, because it isn't. I just personally didn't like it.
Okay, random note and small little rant over.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Nerves, more nerves, and guess what people? NERVES

So I got another partial request.
This one is from a rather fabulous agency, and now, I'm nervous.
Very.
I haven't sent it yet. Partly because the upload thingy isn't working and I don't have the bandwith on the computer to try and force it. There's a code to upload, which expires in like a week. Hopefully the bandwith will be back by then.
Now, I will blog about my nerves.
...
That's really all there is to say.
I'm really nervous.
After the one agent telling me my characters needed help, I've spent roughly . . . a million? Or a trillion, perhaps. . . . hours working on them, and it's still a tiny bit rough.
Or a lot, I'm still not sure. But it's tighter, definitely. I don't know that there's a whole lot more I can do until the computer gets back up. I had my sister read some and tried to have a friend reread it, but her computer didn't work. Sigh.
I need something shiny to distract from the nerves.
Let's see.
We have this.

A lovely baby monkey.
Yes, yes, adorable, but oddly, looking at it makes me sad. Sad is not better than nervous.
There's him, Peter off of Narnia.

But quite sadly, that reminds me of one of my characters. Actually, that's who I pictured when I wrote that particular character. DANGIT, nerves are back!!!
Hmm, what is not nerve inducing. . .

That might work. Though there's another character in that one, too, that reminds me of one of my people. Not as much, though.
If Gossip Girl fails me, though, I have something else that might just work. It can't be a book, because that will make me feel inadequate just about now. So, yes. I think this might do it instead.

My hate for Rose in this scene will overwhelm any other feeling.I mean, seriously. She should have just moved over.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I don't think I've ever cried that hard

For a book, at least. There have probably been instances with my sister, or with a certain idiotic boy. Anyway, that's as far as THAT particular line of thought is traveling.
Back to this tearjerking book.

It's called If I stay, by Gale Forman, and is about a teenage girl who gets in a carwreck with her family. She's in a coma, but her 'spirit' is walking around, looking at her remaining family, her boyfriend, her best friend . . . and she's forced to decide whether or not she wants to stay on Earth, or die
Oh, my goodness.
I'm a booksnob. Normally, I won't pick up anything bigger than two hundred and fifty pages. I figure if I'm going to read, then I want to spend at least two hours(about the time it takes to finish the above mentioned number) reading it. This book caps at maybe . . . I'm not going to guess, let's go look in a tab.
Oh, it's like two hundred. Well, still, it's shorter than I'd normally pick up. Generally I'm in the 300-400's.
Anyway, back to the point.
It was so good. I cry at a lot of books, but this was the first all summer, and one of the first that made me cry multiple times. I think Kira-Kira managed it a couple years ago, and My Sister's Keeper made me bawl my eyes out. But I cried like three times in this one.
Wow, that isn't the best recommendation, I suppose.
But go read it anyway! I cry easy, maybe you won't.
(You probably will.)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Excerpt city

Well, not really a city. But it's an excerpt, at least. This isn't the story I'm querying for, it's one I'm in the middle of working on. This is just a random scene; it isn't attached to a chapter yet, but I like it. It's an exchange between Sophie, the main character, and Carter, her annoying fiance. This is the first time she sees him as anything more than an idiot.
Comments are lovely. Good, bad, whichever. Telling me to go crawl alone in a hole, that'll work too. However, I will bring my pen and paper with me.
Let the excerpt commence!

“It bugs you that much, huh?” he asked, raising one perfect eyebrow. “I never got just how much it bothered you. But every time you look at me and start feeling even partly okay about us–even platonically!–the glamour just shuts you down.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, or even what to think. It wasn’t like that was the only reason he got on my nerves.
“Why, then?”
I glared at him. “The fact you’re residing in my head has quite a bit to do with current annoyance.”
He leaned forward, elbows on knees. His eyes turned into lasers, piercing me to the pits of my squirming soul. “Indulge me, then,” he said softly, drawing out the words slow and steady. “Why do I annoy you so much?”
Hesitation took hold of my tongue. I mean, it wasn’t like I hadn’t been writing lists for half of my life, because I had! There were plenty of reasons! A lifetime of reasons! I’d known Carter and I were just not meant to even be friends since . . . since . . .
Well, since eighth grade, actually.
That was when it got really bad, when I got my first boyfriend. My parents had laughed and told me that it was pointless, if cute, for me to date humans. I really hadn’t understood the whole ‘engagement’ thing up until that point.
Actually, before that . . . We’d kind of been friends.
So why was I so pissed now, just by looking at him?
“I don’t like being told what to do,” I said slowly. “And the marriage crap is the bossiest thing anyone’s ever pulled on me.”
He nodded. There was something calculating in his indigo eyes. It struck me, reluctantly, how pretty he was. Not just pretty. . . but . . . like, attractive.
“Don’t,” I warned as surprise flickered over his face. “Just because I think you’re cute doesn’t mean anything. Believe me. I think Dimitri’s cute too, and I’d rather kiss a frog.”
He grinned. “Good to know.” There was a moment of silence before he prodded, “other than the marriage thing, what else?”
What immediately came to mind was too embarrassing to say, but his lovely new ability made it so that I didn’t have to. This is why you never save anyone’s life.
Confusion took over his features, an irritating confusion. “I’m too ‘perfect’?” he said, fingers forming quotations around the words.
Oh, good. Now I had something to add to my hate list. People who make quotations with their hands are annoying, aggravating and pompous.
I glared at the nearest wall, resolutely shutting my mouth. The chorus of a Christmas carol found it’s way into the roadways of my head. Maybe if I sang it silently for a really, really long time he would get annoyed and leave.
If only I was that lucky.
“Perfect,” he was musing. His eyes flicked up and down over me. “I really don’t think you’re allowed to make bias’s off of that when you’re awfully perfect yourself.”
The second stanza of Jingle Bells died in my head. I turned my glare to him. “Don’t patronize me, princeling.” I forced as much acid as possible into my words.
He drew back, finally sitting up straight. I found myself watching his hands, unable to look at his face. Sonora had painted his nails a while ago. Chips of sparkly green polish still remained, his personal badge of being a good brother.
Perfect. Yes, he was. Charming, smart, smooth, handsome, caring . . . even lets his little sister paint his nails! I wasn’t finding any of that appealing, like I probably should. It just made me feel inadequate, and stupid that I cared so much.
Why should I care? There was no point. He would beat me on any front.
“Well.” Carter’s voice broke through my self pity. “You need to come with me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Careful, that’s bordering harassment.”
His eyes flickered in confusion. I half smiled. He didn’t understand perverted jokes, I could add that to my list, too. As he heard my thoughts, he made a face and stood. He offered me a hand.
I ignored it but got to my feet anyway. He walked with me over to a door and pulled it open. I turned away in annoyance as I saw my face reflected. He’d made me get up to look a mirror.
“I know what I look like, Carter.”
He caught my shoulders, grip gentle but strong. “No, I don’t think you do. Look.”
I fidgeted, training my eyes anywhere but the mirror. I’d been avoiding those since I was roughly nine years old.
“You have beautiful hair,” he was saying. “Most fey would kill for it, and I do mean that literally. Painters have spent years trying to find the balance you have in your cheekbones. And your eyes? You’ve got Ogre green but fayrie shaped, and it’s stunning.”
I stared sullenly at the reflection. With him standing at my shoulder, his argument didn't hold up very well.
“You’re clever,” he continued. His voice was fayrie beautiful, melodic and soothing. “You’re kind, and you’re funny. If anyone in this room is perfect, Sophie, it isn’t me.”
I glanced over at the cat, sitting primly upon her velvet chair. “She is beautiful,” I murmured, but the joke fell flat.
He chuckled. “You still don’t believe me.”
I found myself looking at him in the mirror instead of me. He was the pretty one, I had to admit. His white gold hair, his indigo eyes . . . sharp cheekbones, beautiful smile. All of it . . . He was just so pretty.
It's a terrible world when a boy is the pretty one of your relationship.
“You forget something,” he said quietly, and I remembered with a jolt that he could listen to my thoughts. “Ironic, considering how much it bugs you. It’s an allusion, Sophie, one I’ve upheld for years. I think, though, it’s one that you need to see me without.”
And under my incredulous stare, the image next to mine, reflected in the mirror, began to change.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Thank god for JK Rowling and Tamora Pierce

I love Harry Potter. I grew up with the books, and by the time I hit eighteen, I don't think the movies will even be done. It's a huge part of my childhood, plus she totally revamped YA fiction. JK Rowling is seriously one of my heroes.
The latest movie, which I've seen twice, has led me to a terrible realization.
In the books, I like Harry and Ron, as I should.
But then in the movie, this terrible occurence happened.
No, I didn't make the compilation, that's from some facebook site. I'm not that obsessed.
But he is quite adorable.
Hey, I'm fifteen. I'm allowed to be boy crazy.
On to the second part of the post.
Tamora Pierce. I assume you know who she is.



Two of many amazing books.
She's another hero author. Last year, she gave me few quotes for a journalism story. (Which the journalism teacher didn't put in the paper. I got a 98 on it, so it wasn't that she didn't like it. Eh.)
But anyway, it was really cool of Ms. Pierce, and when I was upset about writing--stuck in the whole 'everything is crap,  why am I doing this, I have no talent--and for whatever reason, it helped. So I wrote her a thank you email, not expecting a response.
Yet I got a super nice one. It was encouraging, it was helpful, it was just really great. She didn't have to do that at all. Seriously, I went and started jumping up and down with my sister about the awesomeness of it.
These are authors that have changed my life. Authors that have shaped my future.
They're the authors I want to be like.
Anyway. More later.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

New books!!

Some the next books in a really, really AWESOME series are coming out! Yay!
First, the Jacky Faber series, which you may or may not have read. They're historical, lyrical, and seriously hilarious. L.A. Meyer puts so much detail into them, and it's so believable. I've been reading these four . . . several years, and I've yet to get bored.
The newest!

It's so pretty!
Next a series you probably know, but may not have seen newest cover:
Tempted, from the House of the Night books!!!
I suggest looking at the cover on the HofN website. It's really cool closeup; the guy in the background looks really creepy.
Also, if you're on the website, look at the yearbook. I just kinda clicked on it, but looking at the picture of people that match what the author's picture is fun. I don't know who those people are, though. Friends of college student Kristen Cast, maybe?