Writing Goal Rewards

This week's Road Trip Wednesday is almost freakishly timed. YA Highway asked:

How do you reward yourself when you meet your writing goals? Answer for big goals and/or small goals.

       The reason why I say this is so freakily timed, is because I finally wrote The Big Ending today! Once I was done I thought, "Time to celebrate!" But found myself not really knowing how. I suppose that it's wasn't such a HUGE deal because I still have those damn 2-3 chapters in the middle to write that I initially skipped over to begin the ending not too long ago. 
       I'm sure I've said this before. I think it's important to let yourself write things that keep coming back to you, even if it's not in order. I believe that you keep thinking about That Scene for a reason! So you should get it out! This idea/personal writing rule of mine has sort of come back to bite me in the ass however, because today I wanted very much to cheer "I'M DONE! MY FIRST DRAFT IS DONE!" as I took a lap around my house, pumping my fists in the air while the Rocky soundtrack played in the background -- but I could not. Because of the rule I let myself follow, I am still not yet done. It's a strange thing to write THE END when you still feel that it is not, in fact, the end. So strange.
       However, how I feel right now still doesn't make me want to change my standpoint on that rule. I still think it's important to let yourself write scenes that really jump out at you.
       Anywho, back to the topic at hand. The weirdness I'm feeling right now should not detract from celebrating achievement of my goal to push through that 5k today to get those final two chapters DONE. My WIP class is going to be very proud of me this weekend. *beams* *clears space on paper for gold star* I've had a bit of a writing drought these past few weeks so even a few hundred a day has been good (when my norm used to be 2.5k a day). I thought setting a goal this week to finish those chapters was maybe even a bit too ambitious of me, but I was feeling pretty determined. :)
       So, how did I celebrate the accomplishment of meeting this weeks goal? I ate a cookie. What can I say? Positive reinforcement, it works!
       Oh, and I logged on here to write this. Celebratory blog writing! Wahoo!
       To celebrate my long term goal of actually publishing a damn novel (which may never happen, but hey, that's the dream) I'll most likely get the ISBN numbers tattooed on me somewhere. I'd thought a lot about maybe getting "scribo ut vivam" tattooed at some point, so I could possibly get the two done together. Maybe put the numbers right under the phrase? That'd be kind of nice. Maybe on my left wrist? We'll see. Someday. Hopefully.
       Normally this is the point of the post in which I quickly update on how the writing went this week, but it seems as though I have already done that!
       In my WIP class news I read a Very Important Scene this past Sunday and was more relieved than you can imagine when it got all the positive feedback it did. I didn't read an action scene for once! I read a conversational scene in which a lot of important information is divulged and the main driving force behind the trilogy is revealed. I was ecstatic to hear how much they loved what I'd come up with! If they didn't like the ideas/information in that particular scene, the whole trilogy would have been shot. *whew!*
       In other random news, (but not so random because I just talked about tattoos) I promised to post a picture of the Shakespeare tattoo I got last week once it healed a bit more. Here it is! If you missed the post last week, I got this quote in particular because I read it when I was just starting out high school and it really stuck with me. It's probably the one thing I live by more than anything else. Always be true to yourself. Don't ever let anyone change you into something you're not. As everyone knows, high school is That Time that shapes you very much into the person you will be in life. This is something I repeated to myself time and time again throughout those four years. You're always going to have people coming at you from all sides in life (especially in school during those detrimental years) and the most important thing to remember is to just stick to your guns and not let anybody sway you! Oh, and if you were wondering, this quote is from Hamlet, said by Polonius to his son, Laertes, before he heads off to school.
       
I guess that's all for now. :)


Happy writing,

Who Should Narrate the Audio Book?

       It's Road Trip Wednesday again, and this week on the YA Highway blog the question is: if you got to choose a celebrity narrator for the audio book of your WIP or your favorite novel, who would it be and why?
       What's funny, is that I've totally thought about this question before. I've even celebrity casted my MCs in my head, ha, maybe I'll post those ideas sometime. :) 
       Iona in particular has a smoky voice, but it's never really commented on throughout the book since it's all from her POV -- & it's not really a natural thing to comment on someone else's voice -- so I don't think anyone would pick up on that fact unless I went out of my way to make sure they hired a smoky-sounding actress to read the audiobook! Ideally, I imagine Sophia Bush's voice <-- that link is to a YouTube clip of her interview on Chelsea Lately! Someone similar sounding would be absolutely perfect, as I imagine Sophia Bush would be a tad bit too busy to read for an audiobook recording..
       Okay, now that that is done with, here's the update on the past two weeks of my writing since I skipped out on last week:
       To be completely honest, I haven't gotten much done at all. I've managed to edit the scenes I had to bring in for my WIP class to critique.. and that's about it. 
       It's still taking a lot of effort on my part to really focus in on something because of everything that's been going on in the past few weeks since my grandmother's passing. I'm trying my best and I think I've been doing better these past couple days, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into my groove sometime soon. The most I've written in the past few weeks is a scene that actually doesn't have any place in the book at all. It's just of something I knew happened in their world a year or two prior to Prophetess that I felt like writing out. It was nice to write something for fun, just for myself, for once. I think I've also been feeling pressure lately when I sit down to write because I'm so close to finishing the first draft. I'm ridiculously scared to finish it, I think, because when I do everything will suddenly get very real.
       It also didn't help my writing any that I had a minor surgery done on my back at the beginning of this week, and all of last week I had to work since one of the girls at the bank had the week off. I haven't really had the time to sit down and force myself to get back into it! These are also the reasons for the sudden influx of book reviews because that's all I can really do at work, ha! :)
       I'd like to write a bit more today, but again I have to edit the hell out of these few pages I have to read for my class on Sunday. It's a very important scene with a lot of information, so I really want to do it right! Plus, I want to keep my good streak going.. They seem to have really enjoyed everything I've brought in so far! Well, I wouldn't actually say they enjoyed last week's piece because a few of the girls said they were actually scared to walk home alone after I was through reading.. I guess I write a good serial killer POV, lol. Not too sure what that says about me.. I think I've just watched one too many murder mystery/cop shows.
       In completely random news, I got my third tattoo this week! It's a Shakespeare quote that I've wanted to get since I read Hamlet in my sophomore year of high school. For those of you that don't know, I'm something of a Shakespeare groupie. I'd post a picture of it for you all to see, but I think I'm going to wait on doing such because I hate the way fresh tattoos photograph. They look all red and puffy in some spots! Yuck. This tattoo actually hurt, which completely surprised me. My first two honestly didn't hurt much at all, so I figured no tattoo would ever really bother me! Especially since I've heard a lot of people claim that the top of your foot is the most painful spot (other than the backs of your knees & elbows) to get a tattoo and that was my first one! My second one was on my wrist and that honestly didn't hurt much either. This third one is definitely bigger than the other two combined and it's placed on my shoulder blade. It hurt like hell and I was totally shocked. It actually still hurts. It's sore and I can't move around much.. Also, I have to walk around in racerback tank-tops because it needs to heal without having anything touch it and I'm absolutely freezing. :( On the bright side though, I really love the way it came out. :)


I suppose that's all for now! 
Happy writing,



Edit: As I'm sure most of you know, everyone had their super awesome comments erased on their most recent post due to the crazy Blogger meltdown earlier this week. For me, it was this post. I'm sorry if you took the time to comment & now have had it deleted! :(

Review: Divergent

       This will be an entirely spoiler-free post, because I mainly just want everyone to read my gushing about the amazing-ness that is this novel, & then go out and read it ASAP.
       Okay, so, Veronica Roth's Divergent was absolutely amazing. Amazing might even be an understatement. On a scale of One to Hunger Games, I'd say this was pretty damn close to the very, very top.
       Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
       In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
       During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
       Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance. 
       Sounds amazing, right? I wish I could really tell you all more about this book, but I'm afraid of saying something that might be a spoiler, and I don't want to ruin a single thing for any of you because I want everyone to experience this book the same way I did. It was just amazing. Everything was perfect, the characters, the world, the plot.. literally everything. I read it for the first time on Sunday, and since then I have actually read it twice more. I know I've read an exceptionally great novel when I'm left with the urge to go back and reread my favorite scenes once I'm done with the book, and at the end of Divergent I set out to do just this. I ended up rereading the entire thing, because every scene was my favorite scene.
       I want to gush on about all of my favoritefavorite scenes here, but I promised I wouldn't ruin anything, so I'm just going to insist that you all go out and read the book right now, and then come back here to discuss it with me.. Ha! :)
       500 stars to Divergent. :D


Happy reading,



       P.S. Did I mention that there is actually a character named Shauna in it too? She even spells it the same way! AND she's a totally kick-ass character, whom I loved. It was very cool.

Review: Bite Club

       I feel as though I am a terrible book reviewer. And for this, I apologize to any and all of you suffering through my reviews. I will get better at it.. I swear!
       Anyway, the book I'm reviewing today is Rachel Caine's Bite Club, the tenth book in her Morganville Vampire series. Here is the synopsis* from Goodreads: 

       After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble. 

       There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare- knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other-or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire- accompanied by her friends and frenemies-to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville.

       A vamp vs human fight-club sounds totally intense, right? Rachel Caine delivers an action-packed story once again that left me wanting more. I'm always wanting more after one her books. I can't help but long for the Shane/Clare Michael/Eve happiness that will it never come! And yes, I know that happiness equals boring, but a girl can dream, right? Rachel, if you're by some miracle reading this, I beg you to consider writing just a short story of pure joy for the four of them. Maybe even a novella. No? Okay, fine. [insert pouty face here]
       Some would think, after a certain amount of books in a series, that plot-lines would run thin. I've read a few series that kept pushing their expiration date -- you know the ones. Where the story just keeps getting crazier and crazier? When you find yourself wishing, even though you love the characters too much to really part with them, that the storyline stopped about two or three books back? Yeah, those ones -- but this series, is definitely not amongst those. I think Rachel could write fifty** books and I still wouldn't tire of the world, or any of the characters in it.
       I don't suggest anyone actually read Bite Club without reading it's predecessors first, because, even though the world is throughly explained as it is in each novel, the conflict won't really affect anyone not already attached to the characters. I was hurting the entire time for Shane and Clare, but someone who hasn't gotten to know them throughout the last nine books, definitely would not. So please, if you haven't already started the series, get on that! 
       I personally am not a huge fan of vampire books/series, but this and Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries are two that I fully enjoy. I actually planned on simultaneously reviewing the latest novel in that series, Dead Reckoning, which also came out today. After much deliberation I decided not to review any book on here that did not fall in the young adult category -- and any of Charlaine's books, my friends, definitely do not fall in the YA category. Trust me on this. If you're not ready to watch the popular HBO series based off her books, then you are not ready for the actual written series. I think, in many ways, that books can actually be far more graphic than any visual representation could show. Does anyone else feel that way?
       Sorry, back to the review at hand!***
       The conflict in this book pretty much hits us right away. Sometimes we get an entire chapter of joking and happiness between the foursome. In this book, we get less than five pages. So, so sad. But riveting none-the-less.
       A flyer comes to the Glass House promoting a new self-defense (against vampires) gym, and Shane, of course, is all over it. Clare is alerted that something is rotten in the state of Morganville once again, when Michael, Eve and herself find her lab partner murdered in his dorm room. But really, when could a town infested with people looking at you like you were a walking blood-bag not have something rotten going on? Yes, I called the vampires people. I couldn't not call them that when I thought of Michael. Of course they're people! Just, less emotionless people. I think. Maybe.
       There's a newcomer to the town as well, and she is B.A.D. news for Clare/Shane and everyone else involved. She is way, way worse than Ysandre ever was. Her name is Gloriana, Glory for short, and she's one of the only vampires alive that can compel others the way she does. When she's really turns on the juice, there's no way to stand a chance against her. Not even Shane can resist her charming ways. Of course it is she that's behind the new underground fight club that forms.
       Oh, and did I mention that Bishop is back and ready for some serious revenge? And that MIT keeps calling Clare wanting a decision made about leaving Morganville and attending class there the upcoming January? And that Clare still hasn't told Shane about his father being the brains of the town and all that? Yeah, that all happens too. Also, a completely unexpected character I never thought I'd see again returns to thicken the plot as well. And Gina is crazier than ever.
       I quite liked the ending. Everything wrapped up nicely, yet still left some questions unanswered, just the way I like it. ;) Who wouldn't enjoy watching Clare & Myrnin kick some major vamp ass? I obviously have to comment on the fact that there were quite a few shifts to Shane's POV in this book, first person, and I believe (if I haven't lost my mind) that this is the first time it's happened in the entire series. I loved getting inside his head, even if it was just to read his sad/damaged/snarled thoughts.
       Overall I loved it and recommend the entire series to anyone who has not already started on it. I will admit that I had some issues with the first book or so because of the weakness of the main character, but Clare is a completely different person now. Sometimes I even forget the person she was when everything began, she's come such a long way. So, if she is one of the things that is putting you off from reading more, suck it up and push through because I promise it doesn't last long!


       Bite Club. Rachel Caine. Out May 3rd. Go buy it, people.


Happy reading!





* Am I the only one that can never spell synopsis correctly on her own?
** Fifty might be an exaggeration. Or not.
*** See, I only went off on a tangent for just a few mere sentences. I am getting better at this reviewing thing!