This keeps happening to me. I start working on writing, thinking I have all kinds of time to get other stuff done later. So I'm writing writing writing, the plot is steaming along at the speed of a train, and then all of a sudden I glance at the clock, and it's several hours later than it had been last time I looked.
The last time I recall being aware of the time, it was about 1:30. Now it's 2:57, and I'm like where did that last hour and a half go? I'd meant to post a blog entry, and do some of that English class reading! Yet now I'm so deep in this chapter, I can't imagining quitting until I've finished it.
I totally love it, though. This is all the blog entry I think I'll end up posting today.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Book Review: Wicked Lovely
I don't know why it took me so long to get to these books. I really don't, because I was missing out! Of course, now I'm glad it took me a while because it means I don't have to wait as long for the next ones, and I've got the rest of the stuff in the series to read in the mean time.
I do intend to review some adult books and some steampunk books soon, too, since I've always been a steampunk author, and lately I've become an adult author as well :)
But now, Wicked Lovely:
From the first page, this book hooked me. There is a lovely, and very short, prologue about the Winter Girl, and then the book throws you into the action and literally doesn't let go until the end of it.
Normally I'd give you an idea of the premise, but I'm kind of assuming that everyone has at least heard of this book.
I loved Aislinn, and I loved Aislinn and Seth. In so many urban fantasy books, you get girl main characters who are either too badass to handle, or too meek and stupid to live to handle. Aislinn was neither. She has the Sight, which means she can see faeries, so there's a natural element of fear for her when going out. But she was by no means stupid. She stood up for herself when she needed to, which was so refreshing, but she wasn't stupid in her choices. She didn't just accept that the faeries wanted her for something. She fought it until she quite literally couldn't anymore.
Seth was... so yummy. He was one of those love interests that I simultaneously loved, and then mourned the fact that no guy is actually that great in real life. Plus he was all pierced and tattooed. Double yum.
There was one thing I found really frustrating about the plot, though I could understand why it was like that. Once Keenan (the Summer King) chose his next girl and potential queen, she couldn't be un-chosen. She was going to transform into some sort of faery whether she liked it or not. I hate not having choices. The good thing about this was it showed a really great side of Aislinn. Because she hates not having choices, too, and you can really see that in the second half of the novel.
I thought Keenan was a little creepy at times, too. He was so much better with Donia (the Winter Girl--a girl who loved him, but who wasn't his summer queen) than he was with Aislinn. I can see a love... square (in lieu of a triangle) being set up here that I'm sure plays out in Fragile Eternity (which I MUST buy.) Donia/Keenan/Aislinn/Seth.
Anyway, I give it 5 stars, because the tiny weak spots weren't enough to eclipse the pretty writing and fantastic story.
I do intend to review some adult books and some steampunk books soon, too, since I've always been a steampunk author, and lately I've become an adult author as well :)
But now, Wicked Lovely:
From the first page, this book hooked me. There is a lovely, and very short, prologue about the Winter Girl, and then the book throws you into the action and literally doesn't let go until the end of it.
Normally I'd give you an idea of the premise, but I'm kind of assuming that everyone has at least heard of this book.
I loved Aislinn, and I loved Aislinn and Seth. In so many urban fantasy books, you get girl main characters who are either too badass to handle, or too meek and stupid to live to handle. Aislinn was neither. She has the Sight, which means she can see faeries, so there's a natural element of fear for her when going out. But she was by no means stupid. She stood up for herself when she needed to, which was so refreshing, but she wasn't stupid in her choices. She didn't just accept that the faeries wanted her for something. She fought it until she quite literally couldn't anymore.
Seth was... so yummy. He was one of those love interests that I simultaneously loved, and then mourned the fact that no guy is actually that great in real life. Plus he was all pierced and tattooed. Double yum.
There was one thing I found really frustrating about the plot, though I could understand why it was like that. Once Keenan (the Summer King) chose his next girl and potential queen, she couldn't be un-chosen. She was going to transform into some sort of faery whether she liked it or not. I hate not having choices. The good thing about this was it showed a really great side of Aislinn. Because she hates not having choices, too, and you can really see that in the second half of the novel.
I thought Keenan was a little creepy at times, too. He was so much better with Donia (the Winter Girl--a girl who loved him, but who wasn't his summer queen) than he was with Aislinn. I can see a love... square (in lieu of a triangle) being set up here that I'm sure plays out in Fragile Eternity (which I MUST buy.) Donia/Keenan/Aislinn/Seth.
Anyway, I give it 5 stars, because the tiny weak spots weren't enough to eclipse the pretty writing and fantastic story.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I have changed my ways...
I used to be one of those people who hated to outline. I had a basic idea of plot: where it began, where it ended, and maybe the BIG things to get the characters from A to B. But outlining? Bah! I turned my nose up at that crap. It staunched the creative flow, forced you into a straightjacket of plot that might not end up working. Psh, who wants that?
Well, apparently I do. And here's the part where I get to be wrong.
I'm doing a major revision to Memento Mori. HUGE. I'm turning my YA steampunk into an adult steampunk. That means, among other things, adding 30k words to the story--which means adding sub-plots, extra twists, and more detail. Not to mention, every couple of chapters, one gets so long that I have to split it in half. Or I know I need to add a chapter in between two (which means they get awesome names like Chapter Eight and One Third.) The romance and one of my characters is getting a COMPLETE makeover, I added another secondary character, and a different secondary character is going to show up a LOT more in the second half of the book (and, to complicate things, she used to "court" my main guy, and she cheated on him--which means they despise each other.)
You think I can do that without an outline? Nope, I can't. It's too complicated. There are too many things for me to remember all at once if I don't outline, and the whole thing would probably end up a disgusting gloopy mess that I just had to take even more time to fix.
The way I outline revisions, though, is pretty interesting. I separate all my chapters (can't concentrate if they're all in a big document) and then I read through them, with track-changes on. I only delete big things (stuff that makes me go "holy CRAP what was I thinking when I wrote this) and I leave myself loads of comments (like, "this is anticlimactic," "make this dialogue more sexually charged," "what the bloody hell were you THINKING with this scene? oy!")
Then I make a master document where I keep all my ideas for changing the plot. So, I'll write "In chapter 16, instead of X, have them do Y and complicate it with Z. Also, make sure character A shows up here."
This process, while it sounds like something Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator might have come up with, actually has been working really well (or so I hope.) Which means... when I write my next novel, I'm making an outline. Probably not a chapter by chapter outline, but one that hits all the high points of the plots, the reasons why these things happen, and has background info that I need to add to understand certain things. Plus, it's going to be an adult novel, and I'm already not sure the plot can be contained in one book. If that's the case, I most certainly need an outline.
I think this next book idea (other than potential sequels to Memento Mori) is technically "feypunk" but... we're just going to go with urban fantasy. Too many punks out there. I still maintain that steampunk and cyberpunk are the only 2 we really need--the other 9 or however many can be absorbed into or described by other genres.
Well, apparently I do. And here's the part where I get to be wrong.
I'm doing a major revision to Memento Mori. HUGE. I'm turning my YA steampunk into an adult steampunk. That means, among other things, adding 30k words to the story--which means adding sub-plots, extra twists, and more detail. Not to mention, every couple of chapters, one gets so long that I have to split it in half. Or I know I need to add a chapter in between two (which means they get awesome names like Chapter Eight and One Third.) The romance and one of my characters is getting a COMPLETE makeover, I added another secondary character, and a different secondary character is going to show up a LOT more in the second half of the book (and, to complicate things, she used to "court" my main guy, and she cheated on him--which means they despise each other.)
You think I can do that without an outline? Nope, I can't. It's too complicated. There are too many things for me to remember all at once if I don't outline, and the whole thing would probably end up a disgusting gloopy mess that I just had to take even more time to fix.
The way I outline revisions, though, is pretty interesting. I separate all my chapters (can't concentrate if they're all in a big document) and then I read through them, with track-changes on. I only delete big things (stuff that makes me go "holy CRAP what was I thinking when I wrote this) and I leave myself loads of comments (like, "this is anticlimactic," "make this dialogue more sexually charged," "what the bloody hell were you THINKING with this scene? oy!")
Then I make a master document where I keep all my ideas for changing the plot. So, I'll write "In chapter 16, instead of X, have them do Y and complicate it with Z. Also, make sure character A shows up here."
This process, while it sounds like something Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator might have come up with, actually has been working really well (or so I hope.) Which means... when I write my next novel, I'm making an outline. Probably not a chapter by chapter outline, but one that hits all the high points of the plots, the reasons why these things happen, and has background info that I need to add to understand certain things. Plus, it's going to be an adult novel, and I'm already not sure the plot can be contained in one book. If that's the case, I most certainly need an outline.
I think this next book idea (other than potential sequels to Memento Mori) is technically "feypunk" but... we're just going to go with urban fantasy. Too many punks out there. I still maintain that steampunk and cyberpunk are the only 2 we really need--the other 9 or however many can be absorbed into or described by other genres.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Book Review: Incarceron
A couple weekends ago, I finished a truly fantastic YA novel: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I hadn't read a Catherine Fisher novel since I was about 15, when the first of her Oracle series came out, and now I feel like I was totally missing out!
Incarceron was fantastic! I actually bought it because I thought it was some spin-off of steampunk--I mean look at the cover; all I knew about it was that there was this vast prison that was more like a dystopian world and that it was alive. But when I finished, I realized it was definitely more science fiction, which was even better, honestly, because the twist at the end had my jaw dropping, and that kind of twist wouldn't have happened in a steampunk world.
The plot centers around two main characters: Claudia, and Finn. Claudia lives in the outside world. Her father is the Warden of Incarceron. Their entire world is stuck in a backwards Era that's meant to emulate times long since past, and keep the world from changing. She's fighting against an arranged marriage that her father is forcing her into. Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, but he has a unique tattoo on his wrist, and strange dreams, that make him believe he came from Outside the prison. Except for one problem: the prison is sealed, there is no way in, or out.
Claudia and Finn both find these structures that are rumored to be "keys" to the prison (if there is a secret way out) and that gives them a way to communicate with each other. The plot follows Claudia trying to find Incarceron, and Finn trying to find the way out, as well as diving deeper and deeper into the conspiracies that created Incarceron in the first place.
Honestly, this is the best YA book I've read this year, and last year. I absolutely adored it. I could not put it down; I spent an entire day reading because I had to know what happened next. The worldbuilding was probably the best part--I'm green with envy at the idea of the prison Incarceron. Plus, the idea of a technologically advanced society being shoved backwards in time by scared monarchs? Brilliant! Not only that, but the interior of Incarceron was so unique--there were cities, forests of metal, chasms and caverns--it was fantastic. It wasn't just a prison.
My favorite character was actually Claudia's father. At first he seems frightfully one-dimensional, but he grows into something really interesting. He is especially impressive because he doesn't spend that much time in the pages--a lot of what the reader learns about him is from Claudia. But when he does appear, he's great, and the farther along the book gets, the better his character is.
The one thing that makes me sad is that I know I'm rooting for the wrong romantic pairing. It's supposed to be Claudia and Finn in the next book, I mean I knew that before I even started the book, because why else would it focus on a girl and a boy together? I won't tell you which pairing I want, because it might poison your ability to fully enjoy any sort of romantic happy ending. Heh. I guess that means, in my case, at least, I thought the romantic tension was done better between two other characters than between Claudia and Finn.
I highly highly recommend this book. Go out and buy it RIGHT now! It actually came out, with its sequel, several years ago in the UK, but it was just recently released in the US. Which means that the sequel isn't out until December. However, being the sneak that I am, I ordered an import of the sequel. Yep, I have it right here, sitting on my bookshelf. :)
Incarceron was fantastic! I actually bought it because I thought it was some spin-off of steampunk--I mean look at the cover; all I knew about it was that there was this vast prison that was more like a dystopian world and that it was alive. But when I finished, I realized it was definitely more science fiction, which was even better, honestly, because the twist at the end had my jaw dropping, and that kind of twist wouldn't have happened in a steampunk world.
The plot centers around two main characters: Claudia, and Finn. Claudia lives in the outside world. Her father is the Warden of Incarceron. Their entire world is stuck in a backwards Era that's meant to emulate times long since past, and keep the world from changing. She's fighting against an arranged marriage that her father is forcing her into. Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, but he has a unique tattoo on his wrist, and strange dreams, that make him believe he came from Outside the prison. Except for one problem: the prison is sealed, there is no way in, or out.
Claudia and Finn both find these structures that are rumored to be "keys" to the prison (if there is a secret way out) and that gives them a way to communicate with each other. The plot follows Claudia trying to find Incarceron, and Finn trying to find the way out, as well as diving deeper and deeper into the conspiracies that created Incarceron in the first place.
Honestly, this is the best YA book I've read this year, and last year. I absolutely adored it. I could not put it down; I spent an entire day reading because I had to know what happened next. The worldbuilding was probably the best part--I'm green with envy at the idea of the prison Incarceron. Plus, the idea of a technologically advanced society being shoved backwards in time by scared monarchs? Brilliant! Not only that, but the interior of Incarceron was so unique--there were cities, forests of metal, chasms and caverns--it was fantastic. It wasn't just a prison.
My favorite character was actually Claudia's father. At first he seems frightfully one-dimensional, but he grows into something really interesting. He is especially impressive because he doesn't spend that much time in the pages--a lot of what the reader learns about him is from Claudia. But when he does appear, he's great, and the farther along the book gets, the better his character is.
The one thing that makes me sad is that I know I'm rooting for the wrong romantic pairing. It's supposed to be Claudia and Finn in the next book, I mean I knew that before I even started the book, because why else would it focus on a girl and a boy together? I won't tell you which pairing I want, because it might poison your ability to fully enjoy any sort of romantic happy ending. Heh. I guess that means, in my case, at least, I thought the romantic tension was done better between two other characters than between Claudia and Finn.
I highly highly recommend this book. Go out and buy it RIGHT now! It actually came out, with its sequel, several years ago in the UK, but it was just recently released in the US. Which means that the sequel isn't out until December. However, being the sneak that I am, I ordered an import of the sequel. Yep, I have it right here, sitting on my bookshelf. :)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Rare books!
I'm back from what turned out to be a completely accidental month long hiatus! What happened was that I somehow had a midterms week that managed to stretch itself into 3 and a half weeks of papers and tests and projects. So it was either give up blogging, or give up writing, because my free time was limited. You see which one I chose not to give up. :)
Today is exciting, however, because my fantastic CP Sara McClung and I are doing a double post! The theme is really old books. (By the way--she is having a March Madness contest, and the prizes are wicked cool and there are a LOT of them, so you should enter!)
A couple weeks ago one of my classes went on a little trip to the library's rare books collection. Honestly, I thought it was going to be really boring and I was gearing up to spend an hour playing solitaire on my phone. But it turned out to be really cool, because the librarian didn't talk for very long, and then we actually got to touch the old books. I held a bible in my hands that was handwritten and illuminated in the freaking 1300s!!! How cool is that?
I can't remember when this next one was made exactly, but it was way back when they made paper, and they added symbols into the paper that we had to use a blacklight to see. I feel like it was at least 500 years old... sorry, I was too engrossed to take notes. :-P
In this particular class, we spent 6 weeks learning about and discussing Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. The library archives had a very early edition of that poem (from the 1730s) so I had to take a picture.
The whole trip (I really want to call it a "field trip" but I don't really think that you have field trips in college) was excellent. We got to see quartos and folios, and the inside of the bindings. None of the books we looked at had been mass produced--they were all from the time when one would buy the pages from the printer and then take it to the binder, and get whatever kind of cover was prettiest.
I have been busy with writing stuff, too. The most notable is that Memento Mori (my steampunk) is getting a massive revision that so far has been about a 75% re-write.
Have a fab day! :)
Today is exciting, however, because my fantastic CP Sara McClung and I are doing a double post! The theme is really old books. (By the way--she is having a March Madness contest, and the prizes are wicked cool and there are a LOT of them, so you should enter!)
A couple weeks ago one of my classes went on a little trip to the library's rare books collection. Honestly, I thought it was going to be really boring and I was gearing up to spend an hour playing solitaire on my phone. But it turned out to be really cool, because the librarian didn't talk for very long, and then we actually got to touch the old books. I held a bible in my hands that was handwritten and illuminated in the freaking 1300s!!! How cool is that?
I can't remember when this next one was made exactly, but it was way back when they made paper, and they added symbols into the paper that we had to use a blacklight to see. I feel like it was at least 500 years old... sorry, I was too engrossed to take notes. :-P
In this particular class, we spent 6 weeks learning about and discussing Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. The library archives had a very early edition of that poem (from the 1730s) so I had to take a picture.
The whole trip (I really want to call it a "field trip" but I don't really think that you have field trips in college) was excellent. We got to see quartos and folios, and the inside of the bindings. None of the books we looked at had been mass produced--they were all from the time when one would buy the pages from the printer and then take it to the binder, and get whatever kind of cover was prettiest.
I have been busy with writing stuff, too. The most notable is that Memento Mori (my steampunk) is getting a massive revision that so far has been about a 75% re-write.
Have a fab day! :)
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