I Want Slippers Like That

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

My sister first discovered this book (when it was on the Rebbecca Caudill list, I believe?) and she fell in love with it. I never had a desire to read it.  I'm not sure why.  Perhaps because she's younger than me and I wrongly presumed that it was child's book. Wrong. I chose over the summer to expand what I read, taste the waters, discover books I may have never usually picked up. So I was going through my sister's bookshelves and I came across this book, which I had bought for her as a present. I started to read. And read. And read. I FELL IN LOVE! This is by far one of THE best fantasy books I have read. I treasure this masterpiece. And Jessica Day George uses SUCH beautiful wording that definitely inspired me to use my language skills better.

Basically the plot of this story, is that Creel's aunt wants Creel to marry into a wealthy family and then the whole family will have an easy life. So she leaves her at the mouth of the cave of the town dragon, expecting Creel to be rescued by a handsome prince, and married, thus leaving the family in luxury. Instead, she makes a deal with the dragon to get her freedom. And this dragon (rather than collecting the usual dragon gold) has a hoard of shoes. Creel bargains for one, and picks out the most beautiful blue slippers. The dragon is very tentative about letting her take these; evidently these slippers mean much to him. But a deal is a deal, and Creel leaves with the slippers to go find work in another city, the King's Seat. She meets a charming prince, and gets a job as an apprentice dressmaker, and soon realizes that her slippers are much, much more than just slippers.

Dragon Flight

is the thrilling sequel. "Dragons are rarely quiet." -Front Cover. Read it. AFTER Slippers. You won't regret it. I really can't say much about the plot of this one, because I don't want to give anything from the first one away, but if you enjoy the first one, you'll be craving this one the second you finish Slippers.

Dragon Spear

the unbelievable ending to a beautiful trilogy. Again, I can't say much about this one without giving away the first two, but AGAIN, if you liked the first two..... You will have no choice but to read this one. It's fantastic. I can only WISH that my writing will one day be this good, as well as my stories this creative. I can truly say I am now in love with dragons. I have one in the novel I'm writing, but it was SO enlightening to read this book. I loved it.

You know that feeling after you finish a series?

That "Oh my goodness, that was amazing but... but now the series is OVER?! FOR GOOD?!"

Yeah, I hate that feeling.

I loved this books so much I can't express it, but now I have that nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach. Like I lost family, or something. Sure, I can reread them, but it's never the same! You KNOW what's going to happen, you KNOW where all the cute, unexpected lines are. And you never get to know what happens past the last book! You can imagine something, but it's never quite as creative as the books! It's that "I've read their story, and their story is never going to change. And I'm never going to know what they're up to now."

Sigh.

In Need Of Advil and Water. And Rest, etc, etc...

So I am sitting at the library, typing furiously away on a laptop.  Furiously.  Not like 'mad scientist, finally have a breakthrough' furiously, more like, 'I am so mad at my story' furious.  Yeah, you know the kind.

First of all, I had to wait to get a laptop. No biggie. Then there was this little girl running around who was quite irritating to me.  I love kids, don't get me wrong.  But she rolled her eyes at me like she was so much better.  The kid can't be older than nine.  Anyway, I suppose I do look quite silly sitting on a stepping stool in the middle of a vacant children's book aisle, but that is because ALL the seats were taken here. Psh.  And then later she was just staring at my computer screen...which was quite disconcerting. :\ Anywhoo.

Second, some guy came in asking a librarian (who was on break!) about something, and he was being very cruel and giving her attitude and saying that if they didn't have it, 'the library sucked.' Like, seriously? Who does that? I'm sorry, if that were me in her shoes, I would have given all the attitude in the world right back to him.  Just because she's an employee, doesn't mean you can treat her like dirt.

Then, amidst all this, I was attempting to rewrite my chapter 3.  Make it much, much better. But no. It just HAS to be one of 'THOSE' writing days.  Where everything I write, I secretly hate. Where with every word I get more depressed because the wording is not as fancy as I wanted.  Where I question whether or not I am chasing the wind at being a writer. OH! How I abhor these days!  I swear, one of 'these' days will be the death of me. Sigh.

I plan to ride my bike home, take an Advil, have a big glass of ice cold water, and go to sleep.  This just isn't
working here.  And tomorrow I have to start yet ANOTHER rewrite of chapter 3, and I will have a hefty thesaurus by my side to use the fanciest words that no one ever taught me!  I will fight back!

Scary.

*Reads back over post*

Okay, sorry about that big complaining long rant.

Have a better day than I am!

Friendly Librarians On A Rainy Day

Hello Readers!

Currently, I am sitting at my local library typing madly away.  I have been doing this for several hours the past three days.  I know, I'm a dork.  But anyway, I have OFFICIALLY finished the new first chapter of Ember Sparks!  It is now much, much longer, which was rather unexpected.  It just sort of happened.  Monday when I was here, I was working on typing out all the ideas I had to add to it and such, and then Tuesday I was working on rewriting the first part of the first chapter which took two hours.  Then today I was back at it again to finish rewriting chapter one, and I have successfully completed it! 

But to be honest, this whole draft this is REALLY hard, because its like I've thought it all out already, written it down already, and now I want to change everything about it to make it more beautiful.  But it will all be well worth it in the end!

Honestly, I don't know for certain if I will keep this chapter the same until it's published, because you just never know with writing, but I am BEYOND happy with it!  It is truly some of the best writing I have done in this book so far, and I'd be happy showing off this pretty little chapter to anyone.  Not to toot my own horn, or anything of the like, but just because I am SO pleased with it! 

I also am TOTALLY trying to increase my use of fancy words in it.  Because I was reading Dragon Slippers, and now I am reading the sequel (expect reviews of the books once I'm done with the series!) and there is such beautiful language in it that I found it truly inspiring!

So, all in all, I feel as though I am growing and developing as an author, and hopefully I am.  I hope to one day see Ember all decked out in a shiny dust jacket.

An Extra Warning

Wow. Extras. A heart-stopping, fist-pumping, life-changing kind of book.

This book, like the ones in the series that came before it, is truly amazing and very, very inspirational to me. This book deals with a different set of characters set in the same futuristic world as Uglies, only three years later. This book was so creative, so completely a work of art. And I seriously can only DREAM of ever writing something as perfect as this.

Warning: This book is not only highly addictive, but for those with an overactive imagination, can be much, much more. I LOVE being freaked out. So I read a big chunk of this book at night.

Yeah, perfect thing to do to freak you out.

That night when I was lying in bed, my dog was right next to me, and I SWEAR that he was shooting something at me through his whiskers. I became thoroughly convinced that my dog is an undercover spy trying to kill me. Perhaps he is controlled the way they controlled the avatars in Avatar. And then, the insects outside sounded like robots. Yes, read this book at night and your imagination will run wild afterward.

And then I had one of THOSE days. You know the days I mean. Where you don't want to do ANYTHING other than sit in your pjs all day, on your bed, reading.

Oh my.

So my sister was on the phone with my mom, and I don't even remember WHAT my sister said, but it made me laugh insanely. I mean, deep, DEEP laughing. And then my sister said "That sounds inhuman!" Now, understand, there ARE 'inhumans' in this book. So what was my response? "NO DON'T SAY THAT! THE BOOK WILL HEAR YOU! THEY'LL HEAR YOU! THEY'LL COME GET ME! I'M GOING TO DIE!"

Yea, that was me.

My mom could hear me on the other end and she told my sister this, which my sister then relayed to me: "You need to get out of the house more."

But it was just one of those days!

It was great.

Bright Young Things

by Anna Godbersen

Author of The Luxe Series

This cover and information about the book was just released on Anna Godbersen's blog on July 26 and you can read the Prologue on her blog. It's set in the Roaring Twenties. Amazing.

I first fell in love with Anna's writing during the first book of The Luxe series. Actually, more like the first few pages. If you haven't read them, stop reading this blog right now and go read them. Go. You will fall in love. So, you can see how much I love her other series, so when I found out about this book the other day, I was BEYOND THRILLED. It made my entire day, and that is not an exaggeration. Reading the prologue was so great. It intertwines the history flawlessly. I specifically remember learning all about the Roaring Twenties because I found it so fascinating. So all the history references made me smile with pride. And I am SO THRILLED to read this!

One other note...

My book.

I did major brainstorming.

After reading Uglies, mine just was a whole other world. That world was 'Stupid, Cheesy Romance.'

So I decided to change that.

Of course, there will still be romance! Goodness gracious I am not THAT crazy!

But there are many, many things added to the outline that I will be working in probably for a long time. But it SHOULD add 200+ pages to the book! Yay! I am very thrilled. It will be a kind of whole new look for Ember. Hopefully a better look. Those few that were privileged enough to read the first draft will see how dramatically the book changes. I will reveal more later! Have a great weekend!

A Pretty Special Series

 Uglies. Scott Westerfeld.

This series blew me away.

It is a trilogy-plus-one, meaning that the first three books all involve the same characters that are continuous, but there is another book afterward in the same world and the same characters are probably mentioned (I have not read the fourth one yet) but it deals with different things or perhaps characters.

The first book, Uglies, was recommended to me by two different people. At first, I was kind of wary. I had no idea what to expect, and it took me a while to understand the gist of the story, and how it is futuristic and they have many, many cool things that we do not have. All very future-like things, obviously, since it takes place hundreds of years from now. Now, I have never read a formal futuristic book. But I LOVED this! I was warned that it may take a while to get into, but that did not happen whatsoever. After I basically understood it, it was breathtaking. And the chapter cliffhangers were always very good, but it wasn't until near the end that a HUGE cliffhanger that made me gasp came. I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't read these yet, but I HIGHLY recommend them.

Basically, there are different stages of life. Littlie, Ugly, Pretty, so on. Once the people of the city turn sixteen, they get an operation that turns them pretty. Tally, the main character, wants nothing more than to be pretty. She spends all her ugly time dreaming of being pretty. She meets Shay, the crazy best friend. Shay shies away from the idea of being pretty. Then, just before their shared sixteenth birthday, Shay tells Tally about running away and where she can run to so they won't get the operation. After a turn of events, Tally has two options: She can turn in Shay to the authorities and turn pretty, or she can stay ugly forever.

(OK, so the format from here on out may be a little weird because working with these pictures is very, very confusing. But anyhow.)

Pretties is the amazing sequel. I found this one even better than uglies which is relatively unusual for sequels. I thought the last one was good and I thought I was enraptured with the characters, but I could not have been more wrong. This was-surprisingly-even more engrossing with the characters. I got so attached to every character in this book, and many choices the characters made either made me smile with pride, want to hurt them, or really confuse me. Either or. This book was also higher on the action level and deviousness. And talk about cliffhangers.This one had much more intense cliffhangers, many of which made me gasp and spasm out inside. That's what I call a good cliffhanger. This book had many, and many surprises as well. Like Uglies, the cliffhanger it ended with was AMAZING, making you crave the next book and keeping it in the front of your mind until you have started the next book, which starts the cycle over again.

Specials is the thrilling third book in the trilogy. Not only was this my favorite, it was the most unpredictable. Just when you think you have it figured out, you don't. I will not say in any detail what this book is about because it will give away the first two. But this was definitely my favorite out of the series. It made me laugh out loud, cry, and want to never leave this amazing futuristic world. Just, wow. If I could write something half as magnificent as these, I would be more than ecstatic. (I would like to add that this one definitely has the coolest cover art.) Keeping me on my toes, throwing surprises, and such, this book kept me on my toes straight up until the end. The end made for what I consider a truly amazing book. It was one of those books you don't really know HOW you feel about the way it all played out. I had no idea what to think, honestly. At first, it was I LOVE THIS SERIES. But then, it became 'I may have just wasted a three book period of my life on these.' After seriously thinking it through and trying to figure out what I thought, I came to the conclusion that I loved these books. Despite some of the feelings I had, I realized not every story can end the way you want. Not every story will. And its the truly magnificent books that you still love and would recommend to anyone even if they didn't end the way you would have chosen. And Scott Westerfeld is an amazing author for that.

I am THRILLED to get the next one, Extras, which is the extra trilogy book. (Get it? Speaking of jokes, Pretties and Specials books are discussed here, and look at the title of this blog entry. Yeah, that's clever.) I don't think it's even possible that I will be disappointed by Extras. I will be a happy person once I get my hands on that one! Until then, have a great weekend! And read!

A Writer's Life = Total Insanity

WHOA!

I just watched Nim's Island for the first time.

I really didn't want to see it, was not very keen on the idea. But that is one of the CUTEST movies I have seen in a LONG time! Definitely went high on the list of favorites.

But one of the parts I loved most about the movie? That crazy, insane writer. If you have not seen this movie yet, I suggest you do. This writer lives alone in her house and has a phobia of, I guess, many, many things. Germs, and leaving her house.

She is hysterical! I love laughing, and try to do it whenever I can and she definitely had me laughing throughout the movie! Oh, my!

One of the things that struck me, her character of her novels was so, so, SO real to her! He would show up, looking exactly like any real person in a movie, and she'd have full conversations with him, standing right there in character garb. Of course, everyone around her thought she was crazy, which added another element of my own hysterics. It was just SO wonderful! I hope my characters will start to be like that with me after spending many, many more hours with them, which I plan to do.

Well it is late and storming here like crazy (I am rather frightened!), so I will be going! Have a great weekend!

A New Journey

FINALLY I have started looking at Ember again. And I honestly didn't realize how much I missed the characters until I started editing the first draft. And I have big plans for it! Several chapters will be added. Essentially, a whole new branch of the plot needs to be written in. Hopefully, this will make it more than the average love story novel. I sure hope so.

I have also cut dialogue, added dialogue, and  changed some full paragraphs. I get the feeling that when I'm all done with it and its in a shiny dust jacket, that it will be much, much different than the first draft is right now. But that's okay, because I am making it even better!

I also have been writing poetry pretty aggressively, but now I will be focusing on my book. I will TRY to send them into Poetry Magazine sooner rather than later, but they will be sent in with no expectations other than them being rejected.

So. Back to my little fantasy world!

Rejection Number #25453

Well, not really.

Only number 2.

But still.

Another four poems of mine Poetry Magazine will not be publishing.

Well I'll send four more and see what happens....

A Music-Filled Endeavor To Write and Purchase

Oh, my. This heat is killer! I have mini desk fan pointed at me right now AND a ceiling fan going full speed an it is still uncomfortably hot in this house.

Well, it is the beauty of summer!

Speaking of summer, mine was supposed to be filled with rewrites and edits of my book! Has that happened. No. But it will! Oh, yes it will! I am grasping with the tips of my nails at the hope that I WILL have time! I have to!

Drivers Ed ends Friday so I will be getting a lot of time back with that. You know even though it IS only an hour and a half in the morning, there is a LOT of studying outside of class. Yesterday, I LITERALLY did not do anything but study all day. Today was my last test and so I finally feel like I have my life back. July is a busy month, but with school out of the way maybe it will start to feel even more like summer finally.

I will throw myself into Full Crazy Writer Mode the second I get the chance to devote myself to it.

I will be writing a lot of poems, first off! DEFINITELY will be doing a lot of rewrites and editing for Ember. And, I've decided I may just start doing book reviews on this blog. The next book I plan to start reading today or tomorrow is Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. It's the second in the Uglies series, so I'm very excited. I'm considering having that one be my first book review on here. We'll see.

Also, I have been searching high and low for songs that fit in with the story of Ember. Stephenie Meyer has a playlist for each of her books, and they all have AMAZING songs on it, so I've been looking for some for Ember. If you have any ideas or songs you think might work based off what you know, let me know.

On a musical note (pun intended), music is the one thing that has gotten me through all this studying and going to school and not being able to write. I have fallen in love with many more bands and songs. As of this second I am listening to "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam. And since I want to keep typing, I will allow myself to go off on another rambling.

Some of my favorite bands that I have fallen for are Mayday Parade, We The Kings, Boys Like Girls, Kill Hannah, and Breaking Benjamin. And I feel that I will be broke because of this music affair. Not only do I want to go to a concert of all these bands, but I have been looking on their sites and they have some very cool t-shirts and hoodies and I have more than a few I want to buy.

And I don't believe I've mentioned this before on this blog, but I am a big Chicago Blackhawks fan (and yes, I am from Chicago) so when they won the Stanley Cup I was PSYCHED! I was so proud and Chicago was in an absolute uproar. So, not only will I be broke because of my bands, but also because there is a lot of Hawks stuff I am planning to buy.

Psh.

Drama, Storms, Driving...and the Desire to Write! EXCLUSIVE: Letters to Stories

Whew!

There is just so much going on! I didn't know how long it would take me to get back to a blog! That, and I haven't known what to blog about but it just feels so good to be back!

So on the topic of not knowing when I was going to back, life has been busy. Busier than I ever remember it being and I'm not even in school anymore. Okay, fine maybe not busier than I ever remember, but you get the emphasis.

Drama? Check.
Storms? Check.
Reading? Check. (A movie for a book is coming out soon, so naturally, I had to reread it.)
Driver's Ed? Check.
Writing? Sadly, not yet. How depressing! I have not had any time to work on my book at all. This summer was supposed to be all about writing! What happened? Life. It got in the way. I don't imagine that I will be able to do rewrites and more drafts until perhaps mid-July at best. If not, probably the start of August.
But I WILL be working on it, hopefully sooner rather than later!

On a completely unrelated, moot, I-just-want-to-blab note, I finally saw Letters to Juliet! I know, I know. It has been out for over a month. But I just saw it Sunday. So shush. It was SO good! I have truly been missing movies that amazing for some time. Sure, I'll admit it was a predictable, chick-flick type deal, but I've always been a sucker for that kind of stuff. And any girl looking for a fairytale ending with her handsome prince (like Ember!) would love the movie, no matter the cliches it fits into. That doesn't make it any less amazing. Stories (movies and books alike) are never entirely different from any other thing made. Sure, things can be predictable! There is no question about that! My English teacher helped my classmates and I to appreciate this: Every story has been told a thousand times before. That's why you don't read or watch movies just to see the ending. The part you have to enjoy is the execution, the way it's done. That's why people tolerate the same things over and over. Sure, there are exceptions, but essentially, every story has been told before. You just have to appreciated the differences in the way it's told.