Thursday, July 30, 2009

Contest(not mine)

Over at KT literary, there's a contest for making cover art. I've played with this stuff before, and it's fun, so I figured I'd put one up. Plus, since I'm so picky about other people's, it's probably good for me to make my own and realize how superior real art departments are.
The rules and stuff are posted under the picture, and the link to the agency.


This one's really simple, because the picture was too cool for me to do anything other than crop, resize and change saturation(sounds like a lot, but isn't really. Speaking as someone who's had to help put out yearbooks, believe me. It's not)
These are the rules;

1 - Go to Fake Name Generator. The name that appears is your author name.

2 - Go to Random Word Generator. The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 - Go to FlickrCC. Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 - Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar (KT literary used snagit, I used picnik, which is free) to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in, as desired.

5 - Post it to your site along with this text.

And this is the site!
http://ktliterary.com/2009/07/having-some-fun-with-book-covers/

I suggest you try it. It's weirdly amusing.

Monday, July 27, 2009

It's happening again

Thirteen Reasons Why is a book you have probably heard of. That's for good reason. It's fabulous. But trolling through Jay Asher's blog, I found something quite sad. It was in the list of covers.
Yup. It happened again. I have fallen in love with foreign covers over my own countries' work. I know, quite sad.
This is our cover of this heart wrenching but beautiful book. (No, that isn't sarcasm. It really is that good.)


Now, this is an ok cover. It's actually pretty cool.
But look at the UK version. . . .

By the by, I happen to like the quote on the British one. I didn't notice it until it was this big, and I think the back or of the U.S. one says something similiar. . .But I like it. Just saying.
I like this cover better, too. But this is the Italian one. It either scares me or inspires me. Inspires me to do what? Who knows, but I kind of like it
.
I think the other two fit the story better, but it's still cool.

Hmm. Japan. Kinda bland, but it's really pretty.
Thoughts, anyone?
In case I offend anyone with my blatant foreign love, I'm sorry;
It isn't just books, and it isn't just me. A lot of my friends have this problem too. We love Chinese food best, or Mexican, or Italian. We had to do a project on someone interesting for English and I chose Coco Chanel. Most of us would rather visit London than New York. Some friends and I made up a scoring guide for guys, and accents gained them two points.
*Note. We were at a debate tournament, it was midnight and we weren't getting home till three. Some of our male teammates started being jerks, and we came up with a rating scale. It kept us awake. Yes, we are shallow sometimes and yes we have a lot of time, but we did have reason. And now the note is longer than the paragraph.*

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Email is quite evil

Why is email evil, you may ask?
Because it has kept me from a partial request.
Not only that, but a request from a really, really awesome agency.
So yes. Email is very evil. One month later, three tries after?
Finally, it worked.
Thank you, someone in the higher powers, because you have just totally and completely made my day by letting my email perform what it's supposed to do.
I'm too happy to be angry.
Okay, that's a lie. I'm still annoyed. But anyway.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Eight hours later

I have lovely parents, who, on the occasion of my last birthday, got me a new desk. That might sound very weird for a teenager to ask for, but I spend a LOT of time sitting at that thing. The one I'd had was . . . Well, as old as me.
So, a couple of months ago, I got this for part of my birthday.
I did not realize why my mother was so reluctant to help me build it. Sure, I thought it would be hard, but surely not that difficult.
Well. I was quite wrong.
Eight hours later, two diet Cokes, multiple scratches and a Starbucks later, it was built.
Eight hours.
Eight flipping hours.
But now that it's over, I'm happy with it. Not while I was building it; no, then it was a device that the devil had created just to tick me off. I was not meant to build furniture.
I mean, seriously.
It took two days, and eight hours of building, quite a few curses and having to spray the bloodhound with a water bottle so he wouldn't eat the plastic nail thingys to get it done. I prevailed, though, in keeping him from devouring the nails.
He did manage to get the packing Styrofoam though. Trails of white, fluffy, environmentally negligent pieces of packaging can be found throughout my house.
It's worth it though.
All in all, I am so very happy with the labors of over eight hours.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

I'm supposed to be good at this stuff

Give me a broken computer. I can usually figure out what's wrong. Show me the camera with a glitch-I can fix it.
However the STUPID comment button on any cool layout that refuses to work?
Yeah.
I have NO idea.
So that's my explanation for the now rather devoid of color blog.
Lame, I know.
But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what's wrong with the comment button lately. Clicking it over and over did not work. Hitting the computer did not work. Diving into the little html thing and minutely removing stupid little words? Yeah, that didn't work either.
Gah!
Computers just hate me today. I did revisions for like two hours. What happens, after two hours of idiotically not saving?
For some random reason, no one knows why, the computer just SHUT DOWN.
I give up.

****Later that night-
I fixed it!*****
I think.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Pretty


That's really all that is to say.
Pretty. Good book. Well, the first one was. The second probably is as well.
Now, as someone with red hair, I think I have the right to be jealous. I want my hair to look like that!
On another note--
Oh wait, new note!!!!!
So, I just finished A KISS IN TIME.
And now I find that Beastly is going to be a movie too!
Wow. That is a LOT of books to movies.
But that's okay. I'd much rather watch my favorite books than many other stuff.
...Vanessa Hudgens, you say? Really? And Alex Pettyfer?
Hmm....
So this is her.
.
And this is him.

I like him much better.
I know a lot of people wanted him to play Jace for a City of Bones movie(not in the works. Just a fan favorite.)
Wow. Alex Flinn got a pretty cast.
Here's the link to the website;
http://www.beastlythemovie.com/
Well, I was going to talk about nail polish distracting me from my computer but I don't really feel like it anymore. Go look up the movie. Or Lesley Livington. Or nail polish, if you like.
It's sparkly, after all.

Revisions

I have found a synonym for hell.
Revisions.
Actually, that's not really true. It's kind of fun, playing with a manuscript. I like tweaking stuff to make a story better and I think I've finally hit the point where I can tweak a story no more. At least, not on my own. I'm searching around for a beta or two on various websites to get different opinions, and I'll keep tweaking, but I'm happy now.
Now, the hellish part comes with grammar. But getting it right is fabulous.
It's almost as good as cake or pretty nail polish.
Or this;

I LOVE fairy tale revisions, especially modern ones. Alex Flinn's BEASTLY was really good. I've only read about four chapters of this one, but it's fabulous so far.
My mom and I were at the bookstore today for quite a while, actually. I saw a lot of good books. It was interesting, seeing all of the books because now, I associate the agent with the cover. It was kind of odd, actually.
On another note; WINGS.
No, not like butterflies; as in fairies. As in Aprilynne Pike. As in this;

It's becoming a movie too. Guess who has been optioned for the main character?


Why yes. That IS Miley Cyrus.
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. It's great if she stars and does well, because the author will get great press and it will be a good movie. But I really hope Disney doesn't turn it into Tinkerbell fest. That would be quite sad indeed.

Monday, July 13, 2009

The Pretty People Are Taking Over

I spent yesterday watching Tyra Banks and a whole bunch of uber skinny, uber pretty girls prancing around the television screen. It made me want to look at makeup and clothes and such, and after shopping, I had to come home today and read pretty much every girly book I own.
Meg Cabot, Melissa Walker and Sarah Dessan all had their book's pretty thouroughly worn out by me today.
(Speaking of Meg Cabot, her blog today was beautiful. She speaks of cake. Cake, being completely not acceptable in the lives of America's Next Top Model, was nice to have reintroduced to my happy Missourian world.)
Anyway, this is what I read.

And this;

and then a Sarah Dessan book that I can't remember the name of.
But I heartily reccomend all three. Even the one I can't recall the name.
I do, however, want to play with makeup.

Gah, the hazards of reading books about supermodels. It's worse than watching tv, because on the television I can hope that they're not smart and awesome, just pretty. In books, they're smart and awesome AND pretty.
It's enough to diet. Well, until you read Meg Cabot's blog about cake, and then you realize that cake is not worth giving up. http://www.megcabot.com/diary/-check it out.
Melissa Walker's book are really good. Plus, she does Readergirlz blog, which is just as good. Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessan don't need explanation. Everyone knows that they're fabulous.
You know what else is fabulous?
This.

I will be watching New Moon purely for Taylor Lautner. I see no reason for a Team Edward. I have been pulled from indifferent purely over to the side of Jacob Black.
(Yes, I'm a drooling teenage girl. I can't help myself. I love the books, even with all the hype-maybe not as much as some-and I love this picture.)
So, yes, no reason for Team Edward. Except this.
Too many pretty people!!!!
Ack, I'm going to go watch Sailor Moon. At least its pretty people are just animated.
(Disclaimer: I have nothing against pretty people, except for deep burning jealousy. However, only the ones in movies. The ones in real life are just people and the ones in books are too awesome to be jealous of.)

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A few little things

I spent all today at debate camp. It was great. I was hanging out with some of the most intelligent kids around(excluding my rocket scientist sister. No, seriously, at one point she considered it.)
But it was funny. At one point we started talking about a TV show. It's a show that I watch, and it's been driving me crazy lately. I wondered if it was just me, but no. The girl's I talked to agreed with me.
It's called the Secret Life of the American Teenager. You might've heard of it. If you haven't, I can sum it up pretty easily-Teenagers hooking up, and having to deal with the ramifications.
Excuse me.
I am a teenager. I go to high school. I like painting my nails bright colors, and currently a stack of plastic, sparkly bangles adorn my left arm. I count calories sometimes and stay up late texting about Gossip Girl. There are times I spend too much time thinking about guys, sure, but it isn't my entire life. The show is mildly offensive in that our 'Secret Lives' seem to consist of nothing more than hooking up.
I'm not exaggerating. The show's last episode used the word 'sex' 52 times. It's a 45 minute show.
(Yes, I counted. It annoyed me that much.)
Believe me. As a student in a public highschool, things like that aren't talked about to this extent. Especially with parents. And members of the opposite gender. That's much too awkward.
Who knows, maybe the point of the show is being sarcastic about the stupidity of it all or something. But personally, I was offended . . . Just because we're teenagers doesn't mean we're stupid, hormonal idiots. Some of us have written novels; some of us have achievements that are crazy awesome. (Only the first part refers to me. I'm thinking of a couple other people with crazy awesome acheivements.)
Gah. I don't know. It just truly aggravated me. Why I watch the show, I have no idea. At least I'm not alone; the kids I talked to were just as aggravated.
Sorry if this offends someone who happens to lust after the show. It's just personally not my thing.
On the other hand, debate camp was great. . . There was a lot of hyperness and a couple of weirdo frat boys inviting us to keggers. I don't think they realized we were in high school. They also thought they were very gangster, which was interesting as they were a couple of guys at a local university, not dark, dangerous homeboys.
I'd hoped they'd get more mature after highschool . . . Maybe someday?

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Awesome books


Has anyone else read this book?
I assume at least a few people have.(If you haven't, shame. Go read it. Go. Now.)
I assume this because it's been optioned for a movie.
Now, for those of you that haven't read it, this book is amazing. It's creepy as any other teenage book I've ever read. Zombies are very rarely something you see do well in this market. This book, however, does a very good job of not only making them believable, but almost nightmare inducing.
Of course, that might just be because I have a very strange imagination. You give me the words 'Zombie' and 'Apocalypse' and I'm off into my own little world. When you add details, that world becomes very scary.
Anyway. Rant aside, it's a great book.
Why am I bringing it up?
Because it's been optioned for a movie!!!
There are two options for this movie, should it go through. It will be very good, and I will go home and sleep with the lights on so as to scare off the zombie hoardes. Or, it will turn into a slasher/hacker/gross CGI rich gore fest.
I will be very, very sad if that happens.
But it's a long time coming. In the time before that, I suggest reading the book.
And for once, I like this cover better than the ones from other cpuntries. I thought for a very long time it was a photograph because whomever painted it did such an amazing job.
So. Go read it.
There is one other book that I finished a while ago, but I can't stop thinking about. It's beautiful.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm one of those people who is very drawn by cover art. This is some of the prettiest art I think I've ever seen, and immediately made me go buy it.
(This is why marketing companies are so important. They work very well on people like me.)
Anyway. It's this book.

It's very beautiful, no? Beautiful story, too! I'm obsessed with Asian history and culture, and this book fed that problem nicely.
Adios!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Foriegn people are cooler

I have more cover envy.
Have you read Richelle Mead's VAMPIRE ACADEMY books? (No, not caps because I'm shouting, the italics won't work)
They're really good. They have fairly good covers, too.
These are ours.


These are Germany's covers. Excuse me for the weird spacing, they copied weird.



The third isn't on here, but it is by far the coolest yet.
This simply proves my theory. Japanese music is cooler than American. Spanish clothing is more interesting than American. And now, foriegn covers of these books are cooler.
American's are not very artistic. Nor are we very cool. I love my country, but it's just the cold hard facts.
Well, at least we can cook.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Insanity galore

You know what a horse is right?
Big. Furry. Heavy hooves. They do not come broken-they come wild.
They look like this. This is the breed of horse my family owns.I would like to know which human first decided that they wanted to jump on top of this wild, humongous creature, purely to get somewhere faster.
Good idea, sure.
But what kind of degree of crazy does that take? Dude, it's like me deciding 'Hey! Tigers go fast. Let's ride one!'
No. So not cool.
Anyway, I'm going to a horse show tonight(I went last night too. My sister rides)
I wouldn't go twice in a row, but it's Fourth Of July and should be mildly entertaining. Well-as entertaining as watching horses walk and run in circles could possibly be. My friend was gonna have a party but got grounded, so this is my best option.
I have debate camp on Monday, though! That will be awesomely fun.
(Yes, I'm a debater. This leads to almost as many stereotypes as living in Missouri does)
Anyway, for now, I'm going to get ready for the horse show.
Happy Fourth! Enjoy some fireworks.
Which, actually, is almost as insane as horses . . . Who decided setting off loud, dangerous booming creations was fun?
Hmm. Well, they're pretty.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Scary stuff

Agents are terrifying.
Seriously, totally terrifying. It's a bit odd, researching them; I always kind of feel like a stalker. But the really scary thing is that they don't anything about me and yet hold all the power to make me either very happy or pretty miserable.
Sigh. Waiting is difficult.
I wonder if it's any easier when you're older? I want this so badly now, though-waiting until I'm thirty or even just twenty is so far away. I think teenager's are underestimated a lot of the time, though. . . The website Query Tracker has a LOT of teenager's on it, and they're queries and first few pages, at least, look really good. I'm not the only kid who's trying for this, which is exciting. I feel a bit less strange knowing I'm not the only one(don't get me wrong. Even if I was the only one, I'd still be doing it. I don't believe giving up to really be an option in this case.)
You're still here?
Wow. Good for you.
Well, I'm stepping of my soapbox now, and onto happier things!
I was asked to list some entertaining blogs. Well, I'm reading through Ally Carter's blog, and I suggest it. It's really entertaining. Meg Cabot, of course, is an amazing blogger and Maureen Johnson is hysterical.
Happy news, happy news...
um......
North Korea is firing off missiles?
No, not happy.
My Sister's Keeper was utterly ruined by playwrights? (So I've heard)
No, not happy . . .
Well.
The weather is spectacular.
I am so not good at this happy thing.
Here, maybe the puppy will make you happy.

And if this breed of puppy is not your thing, maybe this kind is.
All right. I hope your happy now because I am totally tainted.
Too many Twilight references for three posts total.
I bid farewell before a picture of Alice or Edward shows up.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Perseverance is key

As mentioned in the side bar, I have queried a few literary agents for the story I very recently wrote. I got a partial request from one. The lady was very nice before I sent her the partial. She said she would give feedback. Before I sent it, I was very excited, because even when the rejection came, maybe I'd have something to go off of.
Yes, well. I have a rejection. But it was a form rejection(aka the same thing sent to everyone else.)
This mildly scares me. I am hoping it has more to do with the fact she is an uber busy woman and not that she thinks my story is beyond saving. It does not bother me that it was form, necessarily; it bothers me that she said she would give feedback and it did not happen. It is not anger I feel, but only fear.
Sigh.
Perseverance is key.
However, perseverance currently lies in sending out more queries. I am not quite sure my nerves can handle this.
So chocolate is nice too.
On another, happier note;
Cassandra Clare updated her blog. I had not seen the Polish cover for City Of Glass, the book I mentioned in the blog like ten minutes ago(for the double posting, I apologize. But after finding a rejection in my inbox, I felt the need to talk to my computer as none of my friends will answer their stinkin' phones)

I have one question-Why does the American cover not look like this?
Why do I not get to look at THIS on my desk? These are some of my favorite books. They never live on the shelf because I'm always rereading them. I want this on the cover. I want to be having a bad day and pick up a good book with an adorable guy on the cover.
I mean, come on. Can you blame me?
Not that there's anything wrong with the current ones. But I like this one better.
There is something very Final Fantasy about this cover. It's beautiful. If I get a book published(when I get a book published. Perseverance. That is key) then I want my cover to look like this.
Or maybe this;

I mean, wow. It's so beautiful. All of these covers are, and the latest book of the Luxe series was the best yet.
This, I think, is the prettiest dress. However, I am biased to purple.
I have one last note. Kevin Jonas is engaged, according to AOL.
We are in economic recession. Two weeks ago, AOL told me that Korea would be bombing America between July 2 and July 11. The car companies are reviving.
But no. Much more important-Kevin Jonas is engaged.
For some reason, I find myself aggravated. For another, deeper, darker reason, I did not click on the other stories of AOL. I conformed to the masses desires. Instead of reading about Obama, I read about . . .
The Jonas Brothers.
God help me.

So hey

Well, as said by the title;
hey.
I'm Sam. I'm making a blog partly because literary agents recommend them, and partly due the fact I just want one.
I also want to be an author. I'd like not to go utterly insane in the process of publishing, and preferably I'd like to do well soon in the whole 'get an agent' area. While I'm walking down this happy little road of dreams, I'd like a vampire boyfriend too, please.
See, look? Like this one.
























Now, I admit. I am not necessarily taken with Twilight. It is a fabulous book, but all the hype is seriously aggravating. But even I will agree, he is adorable.
No? I can't have him? Is that rabid fan girls I hear, ready to hurt me?
Oh. Well. I don't want that. So I guess I'll have to do something different.
This will suffice as well.(From Cassandra Clare's awesomtastic City of Bones)

No? STILL? These fan girls are rabid creatures!
But--ok, ok. Fine, then.
I guess I'll have to live with this;

Sigh. I guess I'll survive.