BR: Beautiful Dead: Summer

So, while my copy of Summer was coming in the mail, I quickly re-read Arizona to catch myself up. And I found that while I absolutely love these books when I first read them, rereading them it's as great. Maybe because I already know the mystery, so it's not as entertaining and I'm not enthralled, or maybe because the writing isn't very good...


Beautiful Dead, Summer
By Eden Maguire



But when I finally did read Summer last night, I couldn't put it down! These books, while still dealing with the popular Paranormal romance stuff, are done in a unique way. I like the combination of mystery and paranormalcy, even as I want to beat sense into Darina.

The twist and turns were more exciting, and more intense, than I anticipated, and I was quite pleased. The ending was hurried, however, and I wished we could have seen more of Summer's reconciliation with it all. I hope she's at peace... you don't really get a clear understanding (or maybe I read it too fast).

And is it just me, or is Eden Maguire's writing getting better with each book? Good for her. )

Oh, Phoenix. How will you end? Because we all know it's going to suck. Beyond measure. And I'm not looking forward to it!

 

(Okay, that's a lie... I can hardly wait for Phoenix. I just don't want it to end, because it's going to be a sad, sad day in the life of Darina.)

 

(Also... I still hope she's seeing Raven. Because she promised Arizona, and I have a feeling that if Darina isn't keeping it, Arizona is going to come back and give her a swift kick in the toga...)

My Writing History

I suppose there were signs early on that I was destined to be a writer of words, a teller of stories, and, of course, a deeply random person.

In first grade, during free time, I would cut up little pieces of paper and staple them together, writing squiggly lines of "writing." When my teacher asked what I was doing, I informed her that I was making books for my teddy bears. WIN.

My first memories of profound story telling happened during the first month of 4th grade. While sitting at my table making "All About Me" posters, I proceded to tell my group a story with crazy twists and turns for about twenty minutes. They were enthralled, and confused, and listened until the very, very end. I only wish I could remember what it was about. Something about an orphan girl...?

7th grade was my first written story. For our end-of-the-year compliation of all the quick writes and poems we'd done, our last assignment was to write a 3-5 page short story. Mine? The 18 page masterpiece of "The Elves Of Enkanto," where the beautiful young Jade and her best friend, the elf named Daven (the name of my crush at the time) find a magical key and have to save Wizard Limey from the evil Katherine (the name of the popular girl whom I hated). All major characters have some sort of green name (Jade, Limey, King Emerald, the dog Green Leaf), or are stolen from Homestarrunner.com. Oh, and I dedicated it to David Bowie "for he was the most awesome person in the 80s." My teacher was quite proud of my insight and use of literary techniques. At least, that's what she wrote on my paper.

I was seventeen before I did any more story-writing. I had gotten sick, and was realizing that I was going to have to spend my Junior year at home, recovering. I was bored and dperessed and lonely... and was having really weird dreams due to medicine. My dad had his old work laptop sitting in the upstairs office for anyone to use... After having a weird dream about people with silver and golden hued skin, I warped it into a 20 page dystopia story, and my writing took off from there. For the first few months, I'd sit in bed writing on the laptop (which I affectionately called Crappy Comp) for hours upon hours, but I was embarrassed. Everytime I heard someone coming, I'd throw my blankets over the computer and pretend I eas reading. It wasn't until weeks later until I let someone see me with the laptop. I'd written at least 4 short stories by then, and was completely dedicated to my craft.

I have now completed one novel, Let It Be, which I throroughly despise. It's nothing like it started out as when I first wrote it at seventeen, and it's a crappy Young Adult Romance about Immortals and child abuse. I absolutely hate it, and am thoroughly embarrassed by it, but it's my first completed works.

I have lots of other stories I work on periodically, but as I am switching my genre of books I read, I've found that I am liking my stories less and less... and am trying to switch them from cheesey YA to regular adult like fiction and literature. We'll see.

And then I blog. Oh, do I blog. My regular, day-to-day blog is hollysthoughts.com. Check it out, yo.

And that, my friends, is my abridged wtiting history.

In Which I Whine

Anyone want to give me free books to read?

I'm out of things to read
and I need more
and Barnes and Noble (although my favorite place on earth) is so far away (and expensive)
and the library is lame and doesn't have anything good and the books smell funky, besides.

I need boooooooooooooooooooooooooooks.......

BR: Allison Hewitt Is Trapped

I read a zombie book.



Allison Hewitt Is Trapped
By Madeleine Roux



Alright, don't judge.

So, typically I'm not a zombie apocalypse fan in the least, but when I saw the cover of this, and saw that Allison Hewitt is trapped in A BOOKSTORE... you know me. Had to read it.

 And actually? I really liked it! It's written as Allison's blog during the beginnings of the Zombie Apocalypse... also a great love of mine (blogging)--- and is highly entertaining. The book swore like a drunken high schooler, but aside from that, I thought it was positively excellent.

What I Read In February

(it's a small, small lot this month)

(I don't recommend the book version. We'll see about the movie version. It was terribly written, and the story was... okay. Nothing more.)

Read: 2/10

Read: 2/15

Read: 2/26

Read: 2/28

So... yeah, regular fiction is taking much longer to read. While I am greatly enjoying these books, I miss being able to read an entire book (or at the very least half) in one night like I often did with YA. I don't think I'll hit 100 books this year, which kind of saddens me. However, I'm not spending money on books like crazy anymore, which I'm sure make everyone involved happy.

And I'm still working on The Secret Garden (I'm meeting Dickon tonight, and I'm quite excited about it), although I honestly do not know where I put my Grimm's Fairytales. Although I only read the first fairytale before I lost it. Kinda sad, seeing as there were at least 50 stories.

Anyway, at the beginning of the year, I set the goal of only 75 books this year, as compared to 100 last year (although I got to 136, I believe was the number), seeing as I have a lot more going on in my life as I did in 2010 (well, at least parts of 2010). But with these books being, well, heartier, it's taking much longer! Are you seeing the fact that I read a total of 5 books this month? Granted February is the shortest month of the year, but seriously? 5? Not cool.

So I suppose I should log off and get reading...

My Adventures in Regular Literature

So far in my adventures with regular, adult literature (as compared to YA genre), I've had great fun. The only cons are:

A) they cost way more money-- why is that? I can't buy as many books now, and I'm really rather upset about it, and

B) it takes so much longer to read them, seeing as they actually have literary value to them. Wait, that's not a con; literary content rocks. Just kidding, I'm going crazy.

Okay, but one of the reasons I moved on from YA to regular literature (among many, many things, mostly being the fact that I'm no longer 15, and haven't been for a while, and have finally matured to the point where I think YA basically sucks) was because I was sick and tired of everyone exploiting the series concept. If I ever come across another series I'm going to shoot myself or jump off a bridge or something. (Well, actually... I'll just be super pissed and will most likely scream or at least shout in frustration). Thanks to YA overusing the series concept in order to make more money and completely overlook the good-story/decent-writing/anthing-of-literary-value aspect (okay, this obviously doesn't apply to ALL series, but most), I can't stand series and sequels and people not being able to write a stand-alone book...

...And what do I find? The very second regular-fiction book I bought, I realized upon finishing it, had a sequel. Bahahaha--- just my luck.

Actually, it was lucky, because The Illuminator rocked, and The Mercy Seller was just as good. They were intest-grabbing, and history-oriented, and randomly religious. Definitely some of my new favorites. Also, The Mercy Seller was merely a continuation of the story of a minor character form The Illuminator, and her life years after The Illuminator took place, so each book could, for all intents and purposes, stand alone. Which I can deal with quite well in an adult-like fashion appropriate for my age. I deeply enjoyed them both--- I couldn't say which one I liked better, because I just don't know.

Basically, the premise is: (in The Illuminator) Finn is an illuminator who--you guessed it-- illuminates the Bible and other religious things for the Church in the 1400's, right at the time where real-life John Wyldcliffe is spreading the radical idea that everyone should be able to read the Bible for themselves, not just listen to the corrupt Church's interpretations of it. Going against the law and all better judgement, Finn begins copying the banned texts and Wyldcliffe's Bible, risking not only his own safety, but that of his only child, Rose. Meanwhile, we read about one Lady Katherine, and her two sons, whom Finn and Rose come to live with, and all their intertwined relationships and craziness thereafter. Also includes nuns and their cats named after harlots, a really awesome dwarf, and a "simple" kitchen maid who gets along randomly well with bees.

The Mercy Seller takes place something like twenty-five years later, documenting the life of Anna (Jasmine)---who is born towards the end of The Illuminator--- who is suddenly left with radical (and illegal) views about religion and no one in the world she can count on. She travels to England with a band of gypsies for a while, inherits a severely handicapped boy with a love of music, and falls in love with a priest pretending to be a mercenary... which, obviously, is all sorts of trouble. My beloved Finn and Lady Katherine also play secondary parts; I enjoyed visiting my old friends again, even as they were growing old, too old for the mischevious lives they lived in the first book. I would have liked the ending better if we had gotten to see more of the relationship blossum into love instead of tolerance, instead of having it alluded to in the epilogue. But that's just me. 

Props to Brenda Rickman Vantrease! (I can never remember that name, haha)

 ---I also just learned that she has another book, The Heritic's Wife, which I look forward to reading once i get enough money to actually purchase it. (I assume it has to do with the same historical/religious issues as both The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller? I hope so). The cover is gorgeous, too, which, as we all know, is something everyone judges a book by.

PS-- I'm still working on all my classic literature. Or, you know, some of it. I actually forgot I was working on Grimm's Fairy Tales, to tell the truth, so I obviously haven't made it very far in that. However, I am reading The Secret Garden, which I'm suddenly realizing that I've read sometime before... I can't remember what happens next on any given page, but once I read something, I remember it. I hate that feeling! Ugh! Why can't I just forget a story after a few years, and enjoy the surprises it holds when I read it again? I mean, it has to have been ten years or so since I read The Secret Garden. And yet... grrrr.

What I Read In January

It's a little late, but whatever. I'm busy. It's also not a great picture. Oh well.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte*

The Lost Saint, Bree Despain

The Dark Divine, Bree Despain

The Shwa Was Here, Neal Shusterman*

Firelight, Sophie Jordan

Tempestuous, Lesley Livingston

Shadowspell, Jenna Black

Glimmerglass, Jenna Black*

Jessica's Guide to Dating Dark Side, Beth Fantaskey

Impossible, Nancy Werlin

The Hollow, Jessica Verday**

The Haunted, Jessica Verday**

 
 
*Favorites