More Chapters FOR YOU!

I've just added through Chapter 25 of the Birthright. Check it out, I'll be adding the rest throughout the week and putting this baby to bed. I feel good about it as a first effort and learned a lot. Not sure if I'll get around to editing the sequel.

Particularly if no one is reading... ;)

The Demon's Lexicon...

...Is still haunting me. When I finished it late last night, I didn't think it would. The twists and turns spun throughout the narrative was very compelling, and then there was, of course, the ending.

But why its still haunting me is because I'm left in awe of what an amazing undertaking it is to make a technically unlikeable character so likeable. And now that we know the playing field, where will she take us and how can we reconcile ourselves to this protagonist? Or is he even a protagonist after all (I think he is, and the very fact that I ask this question, is how this book raises the bar for YA fantasy)?

YA writers everywhere...the game just got interesting.

And check out the author: http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/

The Forest of Hands and Teeth - better than the hype!!

How often does a book measure up to the hype? Seriously, like, never. Mostly because it is far too easy to find people who are willing to say good things about your book. Even if it's crap. Even if it's crappy crap.

There has been a lot of hype about The Forest of Hands and Teeth on the writers blogs and I have to say, it was beautiful. It fuses the notion that while a biological apocalypse has infected the world there are some who remain uninfected and they try to somehow create a future in a world that seems very nearly extinct. They don't know if there are others who have also survived, or if they are the last of humanity. The main character is flawed, it is her end and her beginning. The world in which she lives is complex and believable.

Now bear in mind, this is a story about a post apocalyptic world in which there is the ever present moan of Zombies and from everywhere in the village, you can see them, eyes glazed over, as they press against the chain link fence hungry for the humans they can sense lie just beyond the perimeter...

Creepy and I totally bought it. All of it. It was perfect.

A tribute to BSG...a Sci-Fi Haiku

I loved you, B.G.

You were always smart and hot!

May you rest in peace.



Frak, now what am I gonna watch?

New projects loom...

Well all, (and by all, I mean my husband, the 2 people who have be kind enough to comment on my posts and my one follower (thanks Jenn *XO*), it is time for an update on my project list!

Following a successful NaNoWriMo experience where I wrote 50K crappy words as a sequel to the Birthright, I promptly, closed said file, never to look at it again. I believe pretty whole-heartedly (albeit conveniently) that I need quite a bit of time away from that story and since I've lived in 'that' world for a few years now, it is time to created a new one.

My favorite faery tale of all time is Sleeping Beauty. While the original fable is quite gruesome, and the disney version is a bit too much with the singing animals and all, my affinity for the story lands somewhere in the middle of the two poles of the spectrum. (I would be referring to the faery spectrum, in case you are wondering) I prefer my princess to error more on the side of sappy true love, and I can do with a great deal less of the Prince pillaging her while she sleeps....see historical versions here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty.

YIKES.

When I decided to rewrite Sleeping Beauty as an Urban fantasy, things became a bit dicey since there are a TON of Faery's in this particular fable, and I an a Faery ignoramous. So I am currently and happily reading modern faery tales and plotting a gerat and epic Mortal/Faery war, complete with a halfing Princess and heir to both thrones and her banished Unseely Faery Prince and true soulmate. Don't worry, there will be quite a bit of killing, an evil twin, a best friend with whom she is also in love, and many many dark secrets, twists and turns.

Thanks to Michelle who is my Faery mentor, there to ensure that I commit NO Faery phopahs. Because THAT would be embarrassing...

Oh and soon, I will post more chapters of the Birthright. They are complete (minus one more edit (and by one more edit, I mean one more edit by me before I can no longer look at it with any sense of objectivitey))!!

2009 Books to be devoured...

I am highly anticipating a few books from emerging authors in 2009 (one from a published author) and I think this might be the first year I've anticipated books much like most, i.e. lay people, i.e. people who 'don't have time to read', anticipate movies...

How sad that must be, to not have time to read. Or worse, to not want to read, not ache to read. But then I confess, I have an unusually rich imaginary life...not something I readily admit at dinner parties, but am apparently happy to admit to the blog-o-sphere...but I digress...

So here it is, the 2009 MUSTS:

1. In the Forest of Hands and Feet, Carrie Ryan
2. The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan (who is my new best friend, by the way, she just doesn't know it yet) (Into that world Inverted http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/)
3. Fragile Eternity, Melissa Marr
4. Faery Rebels - Spell Hunter, RJ Anderson
5. The Prophecy of Days, Christy Raedeke (this is actually a 2010 release, but this books sounds frickin' cool) (now in truth, this author could write crap and I would buy her books because she is a fellow Oregonian, but she doesn't write crap, she is funny and you should read her blog Juvenescence (http://raedeke.blogspot.com/) (not to put more pressure on you to be clever Christy!)

NaNoWriMo 2008......DONE!

Mission Accomplished.........hehe.....

I did it, finishing with the following stats.

11.30.08
NaNoWriMo 2008 Stats!!!

* No. of Dutch Bros Lattes? : 28 (I am officially sick of egg nog lattes)
* No of words? : 50,907
* Now what? I haven't touched it in a week. I'm taking a break to write something else, then I'll move on to editing!