What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading Hollow City, the second in the Miss Peregrine series. Now I've started on the latest book in the Pretty Little Liars series, Toxic. *sigh* Those books just keep coming and coming and I'm getting sick of them but I really need to know what happens!!! I'm also reading Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us which is really interesting, informative and scary!!

What I'm Writing
Before I took my blog hiatus, I worked my ass off to get two - three posts up a week. Part of the reason I stopped it because I just couldn't sustain that any more. I was writing my blog instead of writing my book and my book is the whole reason for my blog in the first place! So when I came back to my blog I decided I would post when I could and when I wanted to but not feel the pressure to have to post all the time, and it's helpful. So i'm still working away on my WIP, the one I finished and then completely rewrote. If all goes well I should have my first draft finished by the end of day!!! *cue applause* so fingers crossed!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Two things - adventure and summer. I'm trying to make the most of the weather by exploring the UK, seeing what's in and around London and heading out of the city for day trips. Last weekend we headed to Epping Forest and took a walk through the trees (unfortunately summer didn't come to the party and we had a picnic in the rain) but even still! For me, it was very inspiring as the scene I was about to go home and write involved a forest. How convenient!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
I'm still unemployed. It's VERY depressing. The UK job market is tough to crack into! So it's been really hard but I've been looking and applying for jobs an awful lot! I also have been making an effort to get out and do as much as I can (as given the job situation I don't know how long i'll realistically be able to stay in London...). SO a week ago I headed into Trafalgar Square where they put on this free event called West End Live. Stars from all the Broadway shows came out and sung numbers from their shows! It was so great! While Les Miserables and Wicked are my all time favourite, I loved seeing the performances from the upcoming revamp of Miss Saigon. The Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia songs got the whole crowd on their feet dancing. It was fun!!

I also went to a creative writing course with my man (who has finally decided to unleash his creative writing potential and write his own book!) The course was on intricate storylines and while it was interesting it was more geared at those who hadn't started writing their book and possibly didn't even have an idea in mind. So for me I didn't find it particularly helpful at this point in time but I think Jesse did. There was also a lot of workshopping which I wasn't a huge fan of.... just lecture me!

I checked out a performance of The Drowned Man which is put on by Punchdrunk of Sleep No More fame. It was really good! It had a similar style to Sleep No More - four floors of set, audience members wear masks and they're free to wander as they want to follow the stories they choose to follow. It was really complicated but a great show. If you've seen Sleep No More.... think bigger - bigger cast, bigger (and way more) storylines.... bigger. It was awesome

We also went to the Southbank Philharmonia Concert on Friday where they performed 'screen themes'. We're talking theme songs from the favourites - Indiana Jones, Ghost Busters, James Bond, Batman, Superman and so many more. Then they ended with a few songs from their new Abba album which had everyone up on their feet. Best Orchestral concert I've ever been to!

The week ended at Wimbledon where we sat for many hours watching an empty court in the rain (and totally not dressed for the cold!) but then finally got to see some quality action. We saw Serena Williams defeated by Alize Cornet. Wowza it was an epic game. Pretty sad actually too, I was cheering for Serena but almost everyone else in the crowd was going for Alize.

So that's pretty much me! How's your weeks been? I'm going to leave you with this little picture as I thought it was quite clever....

Book I've read lately

When I was in Africa (yes I promise I'll write a proper post of my adventures at some point) I spent a LOT of time on a truck driving cross country. In the last three weeks when we headed into East Africa we'd often spend up to 14 hours on the truck each day. It was kind of awful. It was SO hot and sticky, any bathroom breaks were squatting on the side of the road, and our lunches were usually a piece of plastic cheese slapped between two slices of cornbread. (Needless to say we all lost weight). Anyway, more on that another time. It was an amazing experience and I had the chance to read so many books. I'm not going to review them all but thought I'd give a quick run down here.....

1. Before I Fall - It got a little repetitive but overall I really enjoyed it. I love seeing a huge character transformation, especially when it's based so solidly in reality
2. If You Find Me - A heartbreaking yet beautiful story. I really enjoyed it and it's stuck with me too which is always a good sign
3. Gone Girl - Oh my GOSH yes. Such an intricate, complicated and incredibly clever story. Interested to see what they do with the movie. The ending infuriated me something wicked, another reason I love it. They didn't give me the ending I wanted. 
4. Calling Me Home - A stunning novel. I love split historical novels like this - half in the past, half today, and with a dash of the civil rights movement... it's a brilliant story and very well told. 
5. The Time Keeper - I think if I hadn't read this in a day it would've taken me a long time to read it. It didn't pull me in. It was kind of weirdly told... but I kept reading and I still, four months on, think about the story a lot. It has a lot of power in it, and I really loved that.
6. The Kindrily Series - I adored this series. I've only linked to the first book here, but all three were great. I really got immersed in the story of the characters and truly loved the plot and the mysteries. It's a shame it's not more widely known.
7. Ruby Red Trilogy - I've actually only just finished series this as I only had the first one on my kindle in Africa but I loved it. A great mix of teen drama, romantic frustrations and time travelling 'someone is going to kill us' type of drama. The story moves easily and hooks you in straight away. I love it. I want more! (I still REALLY hate the covers though)
8. A Bit Mental - Not fiction, not at all. But a really interesting memoir about a guy from New Zealand suffering from depression and what he did to help himself overcome it. Quite inspiring actually. 
9. Between Shades of Grey - Beautiful, stunning, heartbreaking story. I had no idea about the Soviet genocide and this really opened my eyes. So well written but it really does break your heart into tiny little pieces and only sellotapes a few fragments back together. 
10. Orphan Train - One of my favourite books this year. Reminded me a lot of my all time favourite book The Tea Rose. A really lovely story and the true meaning of 'started from the bottom now we here'. It really touched me. I seriously recommend this book
11. I'd Know You Anywhere - I'm still not entirely sure or convinced about this book. Great premise... it just didn't sit right with me
12. Where the Stars Still Shine - Oooh this book was nice. It wasn't as deep as many of the others I've put on here but I did really enjoy it. And I learned about sea sponges from it, which is kind of cool. It was a much better story than I was expecting
13. Pretty Little Things - Haunting, scary and sad. It's a good book but very disturbing. For the first time ever I did guess who the killer was though. I usually don't read crime books because I never know who did it until it's revealed even though everyone figured it out on page 9.... I figured this one out, I was pretty proud of myself. It was really well done though :)
14. If I Stay - I loved this book. Such a great concept and so well written. I'm really looking forward to the movie
15. Where She Went - A follow up to If I Stay told several years after Mia's accident and told from Adam's point of view. Really sad the state of things when the book opens but over the course of one evening things change a lot and it's really cool to read and see why things happened the way they did. Not as good as If I Stay, but I still really enjoyed it.
16. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children - I don't think I would have read this book if I hadn't been on a truck for so many hours, but I really enjoyed it once I got into it. It did take me a while to get into it though.... Great concept, very well told. Reading the sequel currently!
17. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - This book has had praise heaped upon it. I tried three separate times to get into it and it just didn't draw me in. I wish I could've loved it. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
18. Auschwitz: A Doctors Eyewitness Account - words cannot even begin to describe how disgusted I am with what the human race is capable of. And what we do in desperate situations can be almost as bad. This is a book that is ... very hard to read. For obvious reasons. 
19. The Luminaries - An author with my own nationality, oh how proud we are of Eleanor Catton. Unfortunately, hard as I tried, I just couldn't get past the first chapter. I tend to stick to YA novels and this is certainly not YA. Despite having been to the places written about in the book and being able to picture them with perfect clarity, for me the book is too complex! She's a genius, and I, am afraid, am not (so much so I can't even read the writing of said genius). I've heard from many it's a brilliant book. Obviously it is, but for me I found it too wordy, too descriptive and very slow. Like I said though, I didn't get past chapter one, things could change greatly in the following chapters! Maybe one day i'll try again.
20. Ender's Game - Maybe I wasn't in the mood but I just couldn't get past the writing style. I loved the movie and perhaps I was too stuck on that. I wanted to love it, but I just was so clueless as to what was going on for too much of the book that I got frustrated and stopped. Then I sat about wondering why I couldn't seem to get through one of the YA classics! Failure.
21. A Stolen Life - What Jaycee went through is awful, and reading about it in such detail is so uncomfortable yet I guess that human curiosity propels you further, wanting to know what other horrors lay in store. 
22. Flowers for Algernon - A classic, of course. Very powerful and an interesting story. A case, I believe, of science being pushed too far.
23. Out of the Easy - Oh wow. I adored this book. So brilliantly written. I wanted more. I still want more. I love love love this book. Such a great story, so much action and I loved Josie, the main character. Waiting in anticipation for Ruta Sepetys next book.
24. Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want To Know About Fast Food. - I never want to eat fast food again. Really interesting to learn about the origins of the insane food industry, but seriously. I've gone paleo and partially vegetarian and I don't even want to go near a McDonalds. Ew.
25. Just Listen - This feels like a much younger book and has less depth than many of the other books I've read but I still really enjoyed it. One thing I did feel though was that it was almost exactly (save for a few details) like that book Speak... the one that was made into a movie with K-Stew... seriously, it's like exactly the same. But I still enjoyed it.
26. Forgiving Ararat - Why can I just not get into some of these books that have good sounding plots?! I just got so confused in the first few chapters that I gave up. I'm sorry
27. Chosen - This book really appealed to me being a child of adoption and I was excited to read it. It was told in multiple voices and none of them sounded any different from the other... sentences were confused and the story was so slow moving I gave up before I reached half way. Such a great premise though.
28. Friends Forever - What happened? Isn't Danielle Steel supposed to be a writing super star? This book drags on and on. I managed to get to the end, but I don't know how. It was like watching someone mow the lawn. It moved slowly and big events (like main characters dying) seemed to only get a mention on one page, the next page the characters mourn and the next page they're partying at the local football game. I couldn't get past the writing either. Did DS really write it? A quick look on Goodreads shows I'm not alone in my opinion. Such a shame :(
29. This is What Happy Looks Like - This is a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon light hearted teen book. I likened it to the equivalent of People Magazine or Hollywood Life. We're not talking high quality and suspense, we're talking what you really need to give your mind a rest and take yourself away from the pressures of life for a while. and I really enjoyed it!
30. The Distance Between Us - Aww I liked this book. Another light hearted one, but throws in quite a few interesting twists along the way. I should read more books like this, they give me the warm fuzzies.
31. Steve Jobs - This guy was such a genius, yet such an asshole. The book was long. I started it the day I left Turkey to move to London and it took me a month to finish it (I wasn't doing a lot of reading but it did take a long time to read.) A really interesting and incredible story. What a life he led. I love his lack of fear and his brilliant mind. He may have pissed a lot of people off but my gosh he changed the face of our world. 

So that's all I've read for now. I'm working on the second Miss Peregrine book at the moment and next up is 1984 (I'm going to see the show in August so want to read it before then), Elizabeth is Missing, While We Run, Sugar Salt Fat and Wheat Belly. So many great books! So little time! I need to go back to Africa so I can get through my book collection!!

What have you been reading lately?

What's Up Wednesday!

Wow, it's been a while since I did one of these!

What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other.

SO, without further ado....

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading the Kindrily series which I really enjoyed and am now starting on Sapphire Blue, the second book in the Ruby Red series. Although I don't seem to have a lot of time to read at the moment, I'm spending more time working on my writing instead :)

What I'm Writing
A week ago I completely gutted my WIP that I've been working on for a year and a half and pretty much started again. I kept the bones of the original wip but it needed a total make over so hopefully this will make it much better!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My photos from my travels. I had so many great ideas for new stories while I was travelling and so many of them are held within the thousands of photos I took. I honestly get lost in them every time I start looking through them. The life that many Africans live is somewhat similar to the life of my central character in my WIP (yet also very different), so I was able to really gain a lot of insight and inspiration from that. That and the gloomy London weather! (Summer, what summer?) A rainy day is always conductive for inspiration!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
Well I've just made my return to the blogging world after 9 months away. I wrote a post here about why i've been away and what I've been up to. More recently though, I've been working on cutting out grains and sugar from my diet, have been going to the gym, learning guitar and applying for job after job (with not a lot of success. Le sigh). I did go to a writing seminar on Monday night which was hugely interesting and i'll write a post about it soon :)

How is everyone in the blogosphere going? :)

Distractions

I'm TERRIBLE!

I was on such a great writing role, I had all these ideas kicking around in my head and then I got distracted. I got sucked into the world of The Game of Thrones.

Whoops.

I was going to watch it just when I had time (I was started from Season One), and for the first season I could see myself stretching it over a number of months. Then my co-workers started watching too so we'd have to watch a good number each night to discuss at work the next day. Then I simply got hooked.

I have three episodes left of season three, and after I've finished work and done the obligatory cake decorating for my cousin's third birthday party tonight I'm determined to finish.

The biggest problem however, is that I've TOTALLY abandoned my WIP. I'm so sorry. Terrible! I get distracted with things and those things become my whole world for a certain period of time until they come to an end (usually the end of a book or the end of the TV series so far, or until there is simply no more travel planning I could possibly do.)

Please tell me I'm not the only one?! Who else gets distracted, and what is it that usually distracts you?

Inspiration

If you could see my "to read" pile right now you would raise your eyebrows and wish me luck. Truly. There are so many incredible books out there just begging to be read. So many different types of stories, so many characters.... where do we find the ideas from?

The book I'm working on right now, I have no idea where the inspiration came from. I was explaining the plot to my brother-in-law the other day and as he is a total sci-fi geek he was very excited to inform me my story had "very strong elements of sci-fi". No way, not true. Okay maybe a little true, but not intentionally! Honestly though, I have no idea where this particularly story idea came from. It wasn't a life event that gave me the idea, and it wasn't an image or a TV show or anything of the sort... I had one idea and it just developed from there.

In the past six months there have been a number of events that have triggered that little light bulb in my head to light up. The "this would be a great idea for a book" light bulb. Then there are the plans I'm making for the future which I can already tell would provide a great setting for a story.

So I wonder, where do you find your inspiration? Do you write books based on events of your life, or your friends lives or do you find something entirely and completely obscure and go from there?

Review: Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Written By: A. S. King

Published By: Knopf Books

Published On: October 12, 2010
Pages: 336

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.
 
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?
 
Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.



I was recommended this book by a friend of mine who's judgement on books I trust immensely. If she goes on and on about a particular book, I'm 99% convinced that I'm going to love it. Vera Dietz was no exception.

The cover is simple yet effective, a design in which you don't often see on many modern books which I quite like. I love the way the lighter is forming the title and the green background is quite eye-catching. As you make your way through the book, you also realise the lighter is actually a very important part of the story.

The book is narrated by Vera as she moves on with her life after the death of her best friend, Charlie, who she hadn't spoken to in months after he had changed enough to cut out of his life. The thing that I really love about this book is how very real it is. As though this situation, and this life, could really happen to the average teenager.

Aside from the somewhat confusing drunken hallucinations of Vera seeing dead Charlie's ghost, the book is exceptionally well written. It was easy to get captured into the story within the first few pages and it very quickly becomes hard to put the book down. While Vera knows the true cause of Charlie's death, you want to keep reading so you can find out the heartbreaking truth of what happened on that fateful day.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a strong and powerful YA novel.
I would give Please Ignore Vera Dietz 5 stars

Review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Written By: Markus Zusak
Published By: Picador (Australia), Knopf (USA)

Published On: March 14, 2006

Pages: 576

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

It's been a couple of months since I read The Book Thief, and I've mentioned before how much I enjoyed it, so I thought I might as well write a review on it. 

There are many different covers out and about for this particular book but the image I've chosen here is the cover on the book that I own. I feel that it really represents the story. Death, the narrator, standing alone in a frozen almost dead forest. Then of course the splatter of blood. The mark of war. It's a very thought provoking image if you really look into it, and I'm sure English classes all over the world have a field day pulling it to pieces. (I used to hate that part of english.)

I had been recommended this book to read by so many people for the last two years. I had been roaring through my books at such a fast pace and I thought this would be the same. Not so. 

Firstly, the writing style is very different to everything else I'd been reading. It's narrated by death, so of course it's a different reading experience. You're not hearing about the story from someone who is actually in the action, you're hearing about it from someone who is on the outside, looking in. 

Secondly... you read the plot synopsis. You know it's set in WWII, and you know at some point during the book she'll be a part of hiding a Jewish man in her basement. The content of this book is heavy. There are no restrictions on who may die and who may live. Who may be sent to the war front and who may be beaten to a pulp in front of all the other characters. 

There are of course funny moments, charming moment and sweet moments. But it's a difficult book to read. That being said, it's very rewarding. It's a great story, very powerful and very serious. I love the occasional book like this but you really have to be in the right mind frame to read it. I should issue some form of warning. By the end of the book your heart may be broken.

Otherwise, it's a very thought provoking and well written novel. I would certainly recommend it, but you probably have to be into the darker, heavier books.

I give The Book Thief 5 stars.

Writers and Social Media - Facebook

A few months ago I was having a chat with one of my writer friends about utilising social media in the best way possible. She said she wasn't sure of the best way in which to market herself over these platforms, she never knew what to write on her blogs, and she didn't want her entire twitter feed to be an advertisement for her book.

I've been in the marketing sector for a few years now, and I've been doing tons of social media marketing. Most of the people I've come across seem to have a relatively good handle on managing their social media accounts but I thought I'd just write down a few tips for those who aren't quite sure how they should be managing their accounts.

I'm going to start today with Facebook...

Facebook

Facebook is probably the most popular social media platform and if you're a writer, chances are you'll have a 'like' page on Facebook. This is a really great place for connecting with your fans, giving them updates and including them in your authors life.

Facebook fans like to feel like they're part of things, they love getting little behind the scenes glimpses and being treated to a sneaky paragraph from your new book. Facebook is a great way to develop loyalty in your fans, and the best way to do this is to not freeze them out. They want to be included and acknowledged. Use your status updates to ask them questions, respond to comments they write on your wall - obviously if you have hundreds of comments coming in by the hour that's not entirely possible, but do the best you can. If you're responding to as many as you can then your fans will see you're really making an effort.

Encourage them to get involved, involve them in the decision making process when you can. If you have two covers to choose from and your contract will allow you to ask their opinion, then go for it. Ask them which cover they prefer. If you're writing a new book and struggling to come up with a name for your character, you could enlist their help? You might get some great ideas coming through. Your fans love to be involved in the creative process. Sure your publishers might change your characters name later, but in the meantime you've had this great brainstorming process with your fans.

Don't just post about yourself, post about other topics that your fans will care about, this might be something local in the news, this might be congratulating a fellow author on a movie deal, talking about the book you're currently reading that you love... these things are more than okay to post about.

Also make sure the content you're posting on your page is varied. You almost want your page to look like a magazine when you're scrolling down the page - photos, questions, videos, general status updates, links.

Make sure you're posting frequently. For Facebook you don't want to post too often and it depends where you are in terms of your writing - if you have a book coming out soon you're going to want to increase the frequency in which you're posting. You don't want to be posting too much in that you're spamming your fans newsfeed, but you don't want radio silence on your page. I would say four times a week would be okay unless you have a big launch on the horizon.

Even on days you're not posting, make sure you set aside some time each day to respond to comments on your page, and go around other common interest pages to 'like' and comment on their posts. By common interest pages I mean other authors and pages dedicated to certain books, and then book groups like I Love YA Fiction is on Facebook. Not only does this mean you're supporting others in the writing/reading community but you're getting out there more.

Be human! By this I mean make sure you're being real and genuine. Your fans do not want to see 101 posts telling them to go and buy your book. They want to know the person behind the book, which is why they're on your page in the first place. They want to see real human updates - "I just lost everything I was writing for the last hour! Never underestimate the power of 'save" and "Oops, I accidentally ate the entire packet of cookies... sorry, not sorry". - Whatever you're saying, be real. While they love your books, and love you're writing, it doesn't mean you have to be 100% focused on posts about your writing.

Now, to help you manage all of this you want to have some best practice guidelines.

Firstly, keep your posts succinct. Aim for between 100-200 characters. Nice and short. No one really wants to have to click that 'see more' button to read your five paragraph status update. KISS - Keep it simple, sweetheart.

Create an editorial calendar. This is a really great tool to have if you're pushed for time, or if you know you're going to be pushed for time. For example if you're in the editing phases or going on a book tour. Spend a few hours ahead of time making this calendar. Decide which days you'll be posting on. Plot out any key dates that you're aware of coming up - eg. Dad's birthday, book tour launches, a certain author's book is coming out. Then go through and create status updates for each of the days. Eg.

11th March - Post a photo of my writing space with the comment "Settling into my writing cave for the afternoon"

14th March - "Today is my Dad's birthday - Happy birthday to the most incredible dad a girl could have"

17th March - Post youtube video - "Check out the trailer for Minnie Mouse's new YA book, Cats"

21st March - Heading out on book tour tomorrow! Check out the link for our locations and times, and make sure you stop by to say hi!

23rd March - Take photo of book signing and post on Facebook with "Was really great to meet you all in Neverland today!"

You get the general gist. Where possible, plan ahead, create your calendar so you can keep up with Facebook and keep in touch with your fans.  It'd make life so much easier for you and will help keep you/your brand out in front.

Post at the right time. You want to experiment with this a little bit, but see what time your Facebook followers are most active. Then try and post your updates around that time of the day. That way you'll get more engagement in your posts and your posts will be more likely to appear in your fans newsfeeds. (Facebook have changed the visibility of pages in newsfeeds, so the more you're active on Facebook, the more visible you'll be. You can also encourage your fans to hover over the 'like' button and click the "Get Notifications" so they don't miss a single post)

Monitor Facebook insights to see the reach of your posts, and see what type of post is getting the most attention. Interestingly, photo posts receive 120% more engagement than the average post, so when possible include a photo with that status!

So that's about all I have to say on Facebook! I hope that's helped a little! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!

Ciao for now :)

Are books dangerous?

When I was at university I took a paper that examined the impact of television on its audiences. There were studies that suggested the material that was shown on television had such an impact on those watching that it could alter their personality. The researchers of these studies believed many television shows made audience members more fearful of the world and strangers. They also suggested that the violence shown on television made people more violent in their daily life.

They even had statistics to show how many more gun incidents had occurred after gun related drama on television and how many terrorist attacks were of a similar nature to those shown in television shows and movies. The researchers were basically saying people copied the violence they saw on TV.

These studies were largely conducted from the 1950s to the 1980s when television was relatively new. Now, books are obviously much older than television yet in the past fifty or so years it seems they've changed somewhat, content wise. We see a lot more sex, drugs, violence, and profanity in all mediums now. I think the internet has really changed the way we conduct ourselves as citizens of society. We're a lot more uncontrolled and open and this is bleeding into film, TV and books.

For the most part, books aren't really controversial. They generally don't make the news ... well unless it's 50 Shades of Grey of course.  But overall, books don't have a bad rap. They're that traditional form of entertainment that could be seen as "good" and "pure". When you read, your brain is working, unlike when you watch TV which requires less brain cells than sleeping (or so said my anti-tv, anti-microwave room mate from my college days).

So what I'm wondering is, do you think books have the potential to have the same effect as what these researchers believed years ago. In fact, do you believe this could still be correct about television? Especially now that we have the internet. Do you think the content of books could be dangerous and action provoking? Could the violence in books give readers ideas of violence? Or do you think books are just opening our minds to the world of imagination?

This is just a thought that kept me awake last night.

Sandy Hates Books

Two days before the hurricane hit New York City I walked around the DUMBO area of Brooklyn. I walked past the Powerhouse Arena bookshop. Inside there was a group of people having a Halloween party. The books were positioned all over the shelves looking shiny and new, and the people inside were having a great time eating snacks and drinking champagne.

Two days later, the entire DUMBO neighbourhood was underwater. The beautifully restored carousel I love so much which sits on the banks of the East River was left unable to be used after the mechanics were destroyed by sea water, and as water poured into the Powerhouse Arena, many books became causalities of Sandy.

Two weeks to the day after I was last there I walked past the Powerhouse Area once again, on my way to take pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge (which I couldn't do, power is still out in the park so the whole area is closed down at night). As I walked past the shop I noticed a number of garbage bags sitting on the sidewalk. On closer inspection I realised they were filled with water logged books.

It made me so sad to see all these books which had to be thrown out after the storm, and as we're a reading and writing community, I just wanted to share these pictures with you. The shop lost hundreds of books, their computer system, their security system and the water even broke the door.

Despite putting the books up high off the ground on the Sunday before the storm, the water levels were much high than they ever imagined. What's worse is they don't have flood insurance. The shop is having a fundraiser  THIS SATURDAY in NYC to help recover after the hurricane. It's a day of reading, refreshments, book signings and book browsing (See last photo). As well as that, if anyone wanted to make a donation or anything I'm sure they'd be very appreciative. 

It's so sad, and I really feel for the owner of the store. Please watch the video I've embedded at the end of this post which shows just how badly the store was hit.

Here's a video of them cleaning up after Sandy

The Favourite Part

In the last week I spend 33 hours traveling. On four buses and a train. I don't know what was worse. Two buses were night buses, and anyone who has ridden a night bus before knows how horrible it is to try and sleep in a bus overnight. Unless you can fall asleep at the click of your fingers (I used to have this talent, I'm not sure where it's disappeared to...) then you arrive at your destination looking like you've walked off the set of The Walking Dead.

During some of these long trips I was sorting out my kindle. In two weeks I'm going to be embarking on a two month road trip across the United States before I move back to New Zealand. While I'm hugely excited about this trip I also know it's going to involve many, many hours of bus rides (unfortunately it's the cheapest, and most uncomfortable, way to travel). My kindle will be my best friend (not that it wasn't already).

And just slightly off topic here, I know some of you are very anti kindle, but I must stress, for me they don't replace books. I still love getting the hardcopy books, being able to flick through the pages, pour over the cover, easily flick back and forth.... but it was becoming difficult to lug heavy books with me along with my laptop, gym gear, lunch and other daily essentials on the train for an hour each way to and from work. I got a kindle for my birthday and now it goes everywhere with me. It's so lightweight and slim it hardly takes up any room, and it's meant I've started reading so much more than I used to. I've even convinced my FH to buy one which he's quite excited about.

So anyway, I was organising my collections in my kindle for hours, shuffling books around, making new 'collections' and new lists of what I want to read next when I started thinking about the whole 'book reading process'.

I was trying to figure out which part of reading a book is my favourite part.  It could be the beginning when you have the whole book full of adventure to look forward to; the middle where you're wanting to know what happens next and can't quite put the book down but you've got plenty of the book left to look forward to; the climax, when you won't let anyone talk to you because you must...keep....reading!; or just after the conflict has been resolved and the book is wrapping up, when you know you're finishing this adventure and you're almost ready to pick your next book.

I asked my FH what his favourite part is, and he said "half way through when you know there's no turning back, when it's pulled you in and you have to finish the book to know how the story ends." I do love that part too, but I'm not sure if that's my favourite part, my favourite is at the climax near the end, when the tension is so high and your head has gone all buzzy and you can't think of anything else but what is going to happen in the book. There's also the knowledge that the book is coming to and end soon and you're going to get to pick out your next book soon.

So what is your favourite part of the reading process? Is there a time when your favourite part lets you down? Perhaps it's when it's not enough of a page turner, or when the book drags, or when it doesn't quite give you the satisfaction you were looking for.... thoughts?

Images that inspire

When I was 14 I had to have surgery. I had another at 15, another at 17, two at 18 (one was for appendicitis), another at 20 and then countless other procedures in between (I was such a healthy teenager, ha!). The recovery times for each of these surgeries varied significantly, but for the most part they always involved some form of lying in bed for at least a couple of days. After my first surgery, my parents got me a bunch of DVDs and brought one of the TVs into my bedroom during my recovery. The only problem was, after the anesthetic I was too sleepy to be able to focus on anything other than music and staring at the ceiling.

For my next surgery, my parents bought me a bunch of CD's and before I went into the hospital I printed out a selection of images and arranged them on my bedroom wall so I would easily be able to see them from my bed. 

These pictures would be of places I wanted to go around the world, vibrant cities, European villages, tropical beaches, the Northern Lights, rainforests ... they'd be pictures of places where in my mind I could escape to and pretend I was there instead of lying in bed trying not to pull the stitches in my stomach.

These pictures would inspire me, I would create a world around me which could be completely different than the world I was living. As I started traveling around the world, I would buy postcards in each town, village, city or country I would visit. I stuck them all over my bedroom until I had each wall filled with pictures of places all over the world. Some could think I was obsessed with traveling. This is partly true, but primarily these pictures gave me inspiration.

I could stare at these images and write an entire novel in my head (let's face it, I had plenty of time up my sleeve!). It was a really good way to exercise my brain and to stretch my creativity beyond what I thought I was capable. Many of those ideas have never seen the light of day, however the WIP I'm currently working on is a product of one little idea that came to me during one of those recovery periods. The story was never formulated in my head, but I had this image of a girl, and her surroundings were so curious and interesting... and she looked slightly different than most people I know. I think only one scene played out in my head, but that scene stuck with me, and all these years later I am finally telling her story.

Now, whenever I go to write I think of those images, or I ask Google to give me some more inspiration, and those images will help create my story.

What images inspire your writing? Here's a few of mine....

Photo by Dirk van der Made

Photo by Makemake

 

The stunning Niagara Falls! Photo is my own :)

Rarotonga, one of my favourite places on earth! Photo is also my own

RTW: Books from school

Another Wednesday, another Road Trip! Road Trip Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by YA Highway!

This week's RTW comes as the kids of America are heading back to school. So the question - What's your favorite book that you had to read for a class?

This is a tricky one because I did read some amazing books at school. Some classic, some contemporary, some plays like Hamlet, some that I should've loved but found really hard to read like Wuthering Heights and some that I recommended to everyone, like The Tomorrow Series. 

The other reason this is a tricky question, as although it's only been seven years since I left high school, it still feel like a really long time, and I'm having trouble remembering some of the books from the earlier years. However there are some that stick out.

The first is one I would consider to be one of the best books I've ever read. I should say I hated it with a passion when I had to read it. Oh how I hated it. It's long and it's very serious.... it's almost painful. But it was worth the slog. The book is called One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

 

The book is literally that. One day in this man's life. This man, Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner of a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s and the book describes an ordinary day. It's a tough read, because it's pretty close to the truth but it's very moving and insightful. The author of the book was imprisoned in a labour camp from 1945 to 1953 for writing a derogatory comment in letters to friends about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, so obviously had first hand experiences of the hardships. This is one of the best books I read at school simply because of the impact it had on me. Almost ten years later and I still list it as one of the best books I've ever read....

The next book I loved was The Secret Life of Bees

In New Zealand, we don't get taught a lot of American history in school. We may brush over a few aspects like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and we may talk briefly about the Civil War or the Revolution, but we don't really study American history. In one of my classes as a 14 year old, we did, however, study the Civil Rights movement. I am a history geek, you may be able to tell. I became obsessed with learning all about the Civil Rights Movement and so enjoyed this book a lot, which we had to read as a way of getting a feel for the segregation and atmosphere of the time. Anyway, to put it simply, it's a great coming of age story about a young girl who finds herself living among a group of African American women and helping them run their honey business.  It's a great book.

Other books I feel deserve a mention - Mister Pip, The Halfmen of O series (love love love), The Handmaid's Tale (another that I only appreciated later), The Whale Rider - All these are New Zealand books! Oh also To Kill a Mockingbird and The Lovely Bones.

I'm sure there are heaps more but these were definitely some that left a lasting impression! What are yours?

 

RTW: Best Book of August...

Wednesday already? Holy moly, the weeks are flying by! So for those who don't know, Road Trip Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by YA Highway!

This week's question...

Best book in August?

I can't believe it's nearing the end of August. Time is really flying! Feels like just yesterday I was writing about the best book of July!

This questions was a no brainer for me. While I've read a couple of interesting books this month, the one that has really captured me is Hourglass by Myra McEntire. 

I'd heard a few good things about this book in the past and when I came across it while looking for some new books for my kindle, I thought I might as well give it a try. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I got grumpy when I reached my subway stop on the way to work and had to stop reading! 

I found the book to be well written, captivating and it wasn't infuriating as some novels are with their love stories and ways of presenting the conflict. You are given enough information to be satisfied while still wanting more yet you're not left totally in the dark feeling frustrated by the whole situation.

Here's the plot

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

There's a nice mix of romance, suspense, intrigue, drama, heartbreak, comedy and each chapter leaves you wanting more. It's obviously not a completely novel idea but the way it's presented is very original. I also love the fact it's set in Tennessee... I haven't read many books set there! It's cool. There are some time travel/ability style elements in it and sometimes I find hard to fully grasp the concept of time travel and how everything fits on the time and space continuum but it was really well done. Well written and captivating.

Now I'm on to the next book in the series and it's just as addictive. In fact I've started road reading again (three points if you know the book I got that term from!). When you live in NYC road reading is really not a smart idea. sigh.....

Fandom and the WWW

I wonder what it would be like to entirely grow up in the age of the internet. When the 'WWW' took off I was around thirteen but even then it was really just email and a few good websites here and there. It wasn't until I was 17 that the internet seemed to grow arms, reach out of our computer screens and pull us all in. It seemed like within a year the online world had exploded.
MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Blogging, YouTube, Wikipedia then finally Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Linkedin.... I could go on...

Cyberspace has completely changed the way we live. In fact, I think back to 'the days of old' and wonder what people used to do with their time, before we all became computer zombies. I know I played a lot of sports, I went to dance classes, I went to drama classes, I played music, I read books, I went for bike rides, I baked and cooked, tended to my vegetable garden.... oh and I went to school of course! Now I look back and wonder how I found the time for all that!

 

I mean really, now I have to go to work where I sit in front of a computer, and I go to the gym just to make sure I get some physical activity, I cook my dinner, I write on one of my various blogs, I Skype friends, waste time on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, read other blogs, read the news, repeatedly check my emails, brainstorm ideas for my MS, write MS, brainstorm more ideas and then repeat. This means the majority of my day is spent in front of a computer - obviously a terribly healthy lifestyle!

The thing is, I know this is the lifestyle for a good percentage of the population. In fact, most teenagers I know check their emails and social media profiles before school, during school and after school. Many still do extra activities such as arts or sports but when they're home they can generally be found 'cyber socialising' - sitting on Facebook - chatting, posting on people's walls and Facebook stalking.

One of the big changes I've noticed in the last six or so years if the change in fandom.

I think the best way to illustrate this is to use a personal example....

When I was nine I loved the Spice Girls. I loved them so much I glued their pictures to my bedroom wall (needless to say my room needed to be repainted a few years later...). I knew my closest friends liked the Spice Girls too - we played their CD during lunchtime at school and we all had their posters in our bedrooms, whenever they were on the cover of the latest tween magazine we'd all buy them and read them during our breaks. We'd buy the branded lollypops and go to the Spice Girls film we'd watch any TV appearance that was broadcast and we'd pretend to be them for dress up parties and talent quests.

I knew the Spice Girls were big, simply because of how much publicity they were getting. In shots of them touring the UK and the USA you could see the hoards of fans lining the street to wave at them and flash the trademark 'Girl Power' sign. Plus they were on the radio ALL the time, so of course they were big.

When I was nine there was no internet to connect with other fans, to access the latest Spice Girls photos or to create fan websites. Now, however, things are hugely different.

Think of Justin Bieber. In fact, he's a great example because he found his fame online. We all know the story, how he posted videos on YouTube, gathered a huge number of fans, got discovered, and became a massive sensation. The fans banded together online, creating fan sites, tribute videos to their hero, declaring their love for him and generally hyping each other up. Creating a whole new level of fandom.

Check out these passionate fans!

Justin himself contributed to this. He uses Facebook and Twitter as a platform to really connect with his fans, make them feel like they know him, like he's not some unobtainable super-human. He shows them through the internet that he is just like them, that he's not a super-human and that in fact anyone can achieve their dreams if they believe they can. The fans love this even more, creating even more hype. Add that to the insane marketing team he's got who also know how to use the internet to their advantage and suddenly you've got yourselves some pretty intense 'Beliebers'.

I've seen the same thing happen with many young celebs of Justin's age - Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers.... just to name a few. Then you've got the other super celebs who may not utilise the social media platforms the same as the 'ex-Disney kids', but who's fame has spread hugely due to the fiercely passionate fans like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

The reason I singled out Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart for the last example is because they bring me to my next point. Part of the reason their huge success is because of the film they were in - Twilight (obviously). As everyone knows, Twilight started as a book which developed a fan base in much the same way. Once Twilight (the book) was released, the fan base steadily grew, largely due to the ever growing presence online of the fans. As more fans caught onto the books, the fandom grew. Websites and facebook pages popped up all over the place, online quizes were made and by the time the film was released fans were choosing whether they were 'Team Jacob' or 'Team Edward'.

Naturally you'll find zillions of things like this..... from here

and this.... from here

The internet has changed so many aspects of our society. The fact the internet has made fans more intense and more passionate is really cool to see! It's especially great for books. I feel through the fans, with how passionate they become for the stories and the characters, that the love of books is being revived. Look at Twilight again, and The Hunger Games series - granted the movies helped them along but there was already a huge following before the movies were even announced. We had very passionate fans all over cyberspace, writing fan fiction, talking about the characters, the story, arguing over plot points, discussing casting choices.

We've got the last few books of Harry Potter as well. Harry Potter obviously started well before the internet came along, but with book six and seven being released during the age of the internet, as well as the last few movies, then of course Pottermore, the Potterheads have managed to make their presence known online too.

This pretty much sums up this entire post... from here

The internet is a great place to see how stories are impacting others. Through reviews and general chitchat online you can see how novels will spread. In fact I predict the next big YA series will be the Divergent trilogy. It's a great series and already I can see YA readers going nuts over the story. It's nice to see the hard work of the authors paying off by through the passionate fans.

Obviously it can be a harsh place as well.... for celebrities and authors, you need a thick skin - particularly when people rip your ideas and stories to shreds. Overall though, I feel the internet has really helped to spread the joy of the stories we love, to be a place where you can know that you're not alone for loving that band or that movie or that book. It's a great place to be able to join together to discuss your favourite character and plot line.

We love the fans! Here's a little online fandom piece of cleverness to wrap your brain around.... enjoy :D

Buzzy, huh?! From here

The marvel that is the internet

I've spent the last week waist deep in other writers blogs, reading about their lives, their techniques and what makes them tick.

There's a lot of information about on how to write a book, how to develop a character, how to create conflict and how to remember ideas.

It's all very useful and interesting to read but I have noticed a good portion of the writers contradict each other into what they find their best technique is to crafting their 'ideal' story.

Is there really a 'right' way of doing things? Is there really 'rules' that should be followed? I don't think so. I think that's what makes writers so special. They march (or write) to the beat of their own drum. They lose themselves inside their head. They have control of their own worlds and that's what makes them so special.

That is one of the biggest joys for readers - to get lost in these worlds that have been created, away from boundaries of right and wrong, away from rules and formalities.

The internet's a marvel though, isn't it? To be able to completely watch the whole process of a writer, start to finish, through the blog posts. To see little glimpses of a world, of a manuscript over a period of time, and to then see the finish product of all that hard work.

It's a valuable tool to be able to talk to people from all walks of life who you otherwise may never have connected with about the things you have in common. To compare notes and talk about various writing techniques and ideas from opposite sides of the globe just blows my mind!

Of course the only negative is being a total and complete computer zombie who spends her whole life wide-eyed staring at the screen....

Regardless, you can learn a lot by wading through people's blogs in whatever industry you belong to.

I love it!