School books that I actually enjoyed reading

I'd developed a love of reading (and writing) early on, so I was always excited whenever the teacher gave us our summer reading list. For me it meant more books, for my classmates it probably just meant more work. Anyway, here's some of the ones I enjoyed the most.

The first one is Bunnicula. I had to read this in sixth grade and don't remember much about it, other than it being about a vampire bunny. I was probably too old for the book at the time, but I still really enjoyed it.

The Giver is another book that I really enjoyed. It's about a future where people are forced into the jobs that are picked for them. One lucky boy gets to be the Giver, who is basically the only person with knowledge of a different world. It's kind of hard to explain without spoiling it, but it's a sci-fi book that I really enjoyed.

I really enjoyed the outsiders, and I am disappointed that I lost my copy in Katrina. I was planning to reread it. It's about a group of troubled teens who fight with each other over their social classes.

Lastly, there's Smack. I actually read this book on my own. I was later told to read it for one of my college classes. It was one of the best books I had ever read at the time. It's about two teen runaways who find themselves addicted to drugs. I had trouble putting this book down.

Casual Friday: Hannibal

Every time I watch Hannibal on NBC, I tell myself that I am going to go back and reread Red Dragon and the rest of the books, or at least re-watch the movies. I was a Hannibal fan before the tv series, and when it was announced I wasn't sure if I would like it. Every week it sucks me in. I can't wait to see the cat and mouse game Hannibal and Will play with each other. I know Will wasn't friends with Hannibal in the books, but I think the series and the movie benefit from their friendship. Hannibal is fascinated with Will, and why wouldn't he be? A man who has an the uncomfortable gift of being able to think like and understand killers? Will Graham is actually one of the best characters ever written. He tortures himself with his "gift", never knowing if he will snap. I've always wanted a peak into Hannibal's life, the time between Hannibal Rising and Red Dragon. I remembering wishing for a movie set somewhere in between the two. I like seeing this time in Hannibal's life, the time that has only been hinted at in the books and movies. These last few episodes have had me on the edge of my seat. I don't think I've ever seen a character as repulsive as Mason, he makes the Walking Dead's Governor look about as scary as Big Bird from sesame street. He does things to hurt children, and his sister, and he's so eerily charming while he does. I enjoy seeing him interact with Hannibal almost as much as I enjoy seeing Will and Hannibal, but I know his relationship with Hannibal is also coming to a close. I fear that Hannibal is about to find himself in jail, if not Mason would seek revenge. This means we will only see Buffalo Bill in flashbacks, and that Will may only have one more season left. I find Will to be such an interesting character that I don't want to see him go. I almost find him more interesting than Hannibal. Well, it's a great series and I'm sure I'll keep tuning in. 

Early Influences

When I went to elementary school, none of the kids enjoyed reading, myself included. When I was about in second grade, or the end of first grade, we had a book fair. I bought a book based on the cover and that it was cool to buy things at the book fair. I didn't read the book until I did something bad and got punished from my tv. That book was the Spanish Kidnapping Disaster. I don't remember much about it, other than the two sisters get kidnapped. An hour or so into reading it, my parents announced that my punishment was over, but I opted to finish the book. I read the book over and over until I outgrew it.

 

Around the same time I started reading for fun, I started watching Ghost Writer. Ghost Writer was an educational show aimed at children. I remember watching it and thinking about how I would love to be a writer, or how I would love to have a friend like Ghost Writer. There was an episode where they wrote a scary story, and I decided that I wanted to be a horror writer, although my mother thought it wasn't good for a young girl to write horror stories. I wrote about vampires, werewolves, and anything else that I found scary at the time. I'm actually still writing about these "scary" monsters, but now I write them into an urban fantasy setting.

 

Then came the Goosebumps craze. I'm fairly sure that I was one of the only kids at my school who read the books. I also watched the tv show. I remembered the first show being introduced by the Crypt Keeper and R.L. Stine. I loved the series, and would try to read the books before their television counterparts aired. I was also reading the Babysitter's club and Sweet Valley Twins at the time, but nothing could compare to my love of Goosebumps. I'd still watch the tv show if they were still making new episodes. I joined the summer reading program at my library and had to use a piece of paper to add in more books then the space allowed. Most of those books were Goosebumps.

 

 

When I got too old for Goosebumps books, I found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. I think I check out just about every Fear Street book that my library carried and I requested that they get more. Now that I'm an adult, I really should consider reading R.L. Stine's adult books. I think reading R.L. Stine's books made me even more interested in reading scary books, since that's all I would read in my teenage years.

 

 

 

Now the books I read range all over the place. I love urban fantasy, but I also love books like Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Carrie by Stephan King is one of my favorites. I also love the Fight Club. Reading the books I read when I was younger opened me up to trying out so many different books as an adult.

 

Brandon Sanderson's lectures vs. my teacher's lectures

Sunday I found Brandon Sanderson's lectures on YouTube, and I've been watching a few of them. So far I've been finding them really interesting, and wishing he'd been my writing teacher in college. I actually took three writing classes in college, general writing one, two, and intro to fiction. General writing one and intro to fiction writing were taught by the same lady. Writing one went smoothly, I got praise for everything I wrote. I loved the class, or maybe I just loved getting praise for my writing. Every time she assigned us something she just approved mine with a glance at my notes and told me to get writing. It was an easy class, one that I excelled at. Then came the second writing class. It was taught by a man who thought we should already know enough about writing to write by ourselves. He gave us five writing assignments, telling us we could rewrite them for higher grades if we wanted to. I actually did rewrite one, I think I got a c or low b on one assignment so I rewrote it. Other than that, he just talked about his life for the entire class period. I didn't really enjoy the class, but I think he enjoyed reading my papers. I looked at things much differently than him, and he wrote on my papers that I made good points. When it came time to pick spring classes, I was so excited that intro to fiction writing had been added as a class to choose from. I choose the class as soon as I could, glad that it was offered as an online class. I was in the middle of moving and wouldn't be able to go to the school anymore. If I had known the class was mainly about reading I wouldn't have even bothered to take it. I was dirt poor, waiting for my financial aid to come in, and the teacher demanded me to get a book that I couldn't afford at the time. I told her my issue and she threw me out of the class. I had to appeal and get put back in the class. I couldn't believe this was the same teacher I'd had before. Seventy-five percent of the class was reading a book called micro-fiction. None of the stories were interesting, in fact, I wouldn't give that book to my worst enemy. When we finally got to write, she gave me poor marks because she didn't want to hear about werewolves. She said she found them boring. So I had to write other things. I got good grades on everything else I wrote, but this woman made me so angry that I considered giving up writing. I would have much rathered be in Brandon Sanderson's class, where he actually allowed his class to write.

Writting apps

Above is a picture of the 'writing page' set up on my phone. I decided that I needed this set up, because I'm not always home when the urge to write hits. My phone's background features my cute min pins, in probably the only picture I have of them together facing the camera. The apps that I use the most on this set up are drive, dictionary, and thesaurus. I love the fact that I can write something in drive and it's automatically on my computer. The ones I use the least when writing are slacker radio and write. Write is basically just a blank white piece of paper that just keeps getting longer. I downloaded it before I downloaded drive, but I find that I like drive more, as I can add more pages and separate what I need to. Slacker radio is just horrible for writing. I used to use it a lot, before they got video ads that you actually have to click off or it won't play anymore music. I use it for the gym sometimes, but even then it's distracting. It's made me lose my train of thought while writing, and I am about to ditch it at the gym in favor of listening to Brandon Sanderson's class lectures. I also only use blogger every now and then. I prefer to write in my blog on my computer, but it's nice to have the option of writing on the go.

Barnes and Noble

Today I went to Barnes and Noble, hoping to find a book that I couldn't put down, but I emerged empty handed. I love reading, but I haven't found anything worth reading lately. I did order Thirteen Reasons Why, but I wanted something to read now. Barnes and Noble was flooded with movie tie ends, and just things I didn't find that interesting. The books I actually wanted to buy were all in the 15 to 20 dollar range. I've been wanting to get my hands on Battle Royale, but I can't see myself paying that much for a book. I browsed the clearance area, but there was nothing of interest there either. I'm open to suggestions on what to read, since I currently have nothing.

Casual Friday: The swag/yolo/selfie generation

I don't understand this current generation, the one that stops walking in the middle of the mall just to take a "selfie". I was recently on my way to work and there were two young men walking as slowly as possible with their pants sagging halfway to their knees. They got angry when I passed them up, and started to curse about me and say negative things about me. That's fine with me. I'm not interested in whatever it is that they are doing. They aren't the type of people that I would ever befriend. I honestly can't see what's so cool about the way they act, the selfies they take, or their general attitude about everything, which they've dubbed swag. When I was there age (I'm well aware that I still look their age), I used to read books and do other nerdy things. I kept to myself and didn't have a negative attitude. I wrote poems and did other productive things. I'm embrassed to admit that I got into an arguement with one of them about a week or so ago on twitter. She was a Beyonce fan who thought Jay Z should have beaten Spolnge or whatever her name was. I don't think a man should ever put his hands on a woman. He could restain her, he doesn't need to hit her or beat her. She said that she'd seen penty of fights and thought if a woman wanted to hit a man she should be hit. I don't think a man should hit a woman, I also don't think a woman should hit a man. I don't think anyone should hit anyone! I'm against real life violence, although I don't have a problem with violent tv, movies, books, and video games. Those are fiction. In real life we need to be kinder to each other, and stop having these negative attitudes. The negativeness isn't doing anyone any good.

It's time for me to sit down and write a blurb

Nothing gives me writer's block more than when it's time to write the blurb. For some reason it's hard for me to write about what my book is about. I know what it's about, I wrote it, but for some reason the words to describe it won't come when I am sitting in front of that blank document. Why is it so hard? Is it because I don't like talking about myself, therefore, I don't like talking about something I've created? Is it because my book is so packed with awesomeness that it's hard to put into words. Maybe it's because I don't know much about marketing, which means I'm not sure what would sell the book. Whatever it is, I need to get over it. I'm editing the final chapters and the book will be ready for publication soon. I feel like I should have done this sooner, so that I would have more time to edit the blurb. I just can't wait until it's done and I have a blurb to represent my work.

The problem with basing a character on someone you know

In my soon to be released book, there's a character named Trevor. Trevor is not one of the main characters, but he is important to the story, and he's based on my ex-boyfriend. A long time ago I dated a guy who treated me so badly that I knew I wouldn't get over it unless I did something. I started writing a story with a character based on him. This is the only character that I have ever written based on someone I know in real life, and I don't plan to write about anyone else that I know. I also told the ex that I was writing about him, and he didn't seem to have a problem with it. He said he wasn't going to read it, even though at that time we were in a "good" place again, but he said it was cool. I stopped during a small frame of time when he was back in my life. I guess I couldn't write a character based on someone when I had fresh emotions towards them. I started writing about zombies, and didn't look at this story again until I got stuck on the zombie story. When I looked at this story again, I realized that this story was good! It was the kind of story that I would like to read, so I started working on it again. I edited what I already had, and then started adding new parts. I realized when I edited it the second time that the story was too personal. There were things I'd written about that I would have been horrified to release to the world. I had to really look at Trevor's character and fictionalize it more than I had. I had to think about his motives and come up with a reason for him to want to hurt his ex-girlfriend. I also had to alter their past relationship so that it no longer mirrored the one I had. I had to think about my own ex-boyfriend and wonder if he would have done the same things that Trevor did. Thinking about my ex while writing this was the worst part. You think about all the pain you endured because of that relationship. What I thought was a way to get rid of my pain actually ended up causing me a little bit more pain. I think it would be different if I was writing a character based on a friend, but I would still have to think about that friend in terms of motive and how they would behave. I think it's actually harder to write about someone you know, instead of someone you've made up. I don't regret including a character based on someone I know, but I don't foresee myself doing it again.

Doubts

As a writer I often find myself doubting my work. I think all writer's do, even Stephan King. I think I let my writing doubts hold me back sometimes. Instead of stopping to think about the words on the page I find myself staying away from the computer. I hate when this happens, but I find it hard to get back into the groove of writing. Sometimes I end up staying away from the computer for a week or so. I think this is why I haven't finished anything sooner, that and work. I feel myself questioning if I am good enough or if I should just give up. To give up would be giving up on my dream and the moment I do that will be the saddest moment of my life. Sometimes I wonder if anyone will read what I write, and honestly, it would mean the world if even one person read what I had to say. I know a lot of writers go through this, I just wanted to put it in writing. I thought if I got it off of my chest, it would help me. Maybe I could get rid of some of those doubts.

Casual Friday: Ok, it's about writing...

I know I said I wouldn't post about writing on Friday, but I decided I need some advice on a piece of writing. It's a zombie story that I started writing and then stopped writing in favor of the werewolf book that I am currently writing. Part of the reason that I stopped writing it was because I found the werewolf story and it was a much better story, the other reason is because a former friend of mine told me that he thought this was the most horrible thing he'd ever read.


Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think:

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3198109/1/Zombie-Bite

Query letters

Before I decided that self-publishing was the route for me, I tried to find an agent. I made a lot of mistakes looking for an agent, mainly trying to find an agent before my work was finished. I don't think I ever told any of the agents I emailed that my work wasn't complete, I just figured having a deadline would help me rush the story. I was so poor at the time that I saw the idea of an advance as a tiny miracle, so I guess that's part of the reason I was so eager to get my work out there. I probably ended up in a few slush piles by sending out my unedited mess of a project. I remember querying Nancy Yost twice. She was the agent that I really wanted. She represented some of the authors I liked reading and I thought that my work fit the same catagory. She said that my query letter was nice, but my project wasn't for her. I was crushed, but now I know what a mess my work was. I got some other responses from other agents, but most of them didn't stick with me. There was one agency that responded and adressed me by my character's name! I thought that was disrespectful, and that's when I gave up querying. I haven't sent a query since 2009. I don't know if I kept any of the responses, but I probably didn't. I felt so disappointed each time I got a response and it was negative, but in all honesty, my work was nowhere near ready. I needed to grow as a writer before putting my work out there for the universe to see. I still need to grow as a writer and will always need to grow. Anyway, I found one of the old queries that I wrote and decided to share it here.


In the short time that I’ve been querying literary agents, I’ve learned a little about sending query letters. Query letters are a lot like job interviews, while I’m not going to get every job I apply for, I have to prepare myself as much I can, in hopes that each letter I send might be the one that gets me “hired“. I’ve gotten form rejection letters before, but I writing is a lot like trying on clothes, if the story isn‘t a good fit for the author it‘ll show in their writing, and honestly what I previously queried probably wasn’t a right fit for me yet. I needed time to grow as a writer and find a story that was right for me. I think I’ve finally found my right fit, a story I couldn’t get out of my head until I sat down at my computer and wrote it. The title is the story is Angel’s Blood, and it’s about a half-vampire, half-angel, who struggles to maintain control as she seeks revenge for her sister’s death. I think the reason this character was so interesting to me is that she’s always having an inner struggle, since, despite being half-angel she has to earn her place in Heaven, of course, she’s already dead, but she can’t pass on until it’s her time. Here’s my synopsis, told from my main character’s point of view.

Casual Friday: Video Games

As it is now, my blog isn't personal. There's almost no information about me, other than a few tv reviews. Since my blog is mainly about writing, I'm not really building the relationship I need with the readers I want to attract. Someone who just stumbled across my blog would have no reason to care. My blog lacks personality, and not just because it's dull and grey. I need to fix the layout to something that reflects who I am as a person, or at least looks better than what I have now. I'm not very tech savvy, so I guess I should feel lucky that I have a layout at all. Anyway, I've decided to do something I plan to call casual Friday. I'm going to try to post every Friday (I can't make any promises, life does get in the way), and post about something that's not related to writing. I'll post book reviews, tv show reviews, video game reviews, and just talk about whatever is on my mind. Today I had planned to post about the controversy going on over at Nintendo, but quickly decided against it. Posting an opinion on something like that is like opening up a can of worms. No matter what I would have said someone would have attacked me, or asked me to explain why I think the way I do. They would have tried to "prove me wrong". That's just the way the internet is, so instead I'm going to review the last video game I played: Kingdom Hearts Dream, Drop, Distance for the 3ds. I love Kingdom Hearts one and two, but have mostly stayed away from the games not on the playstation. This particular installment of Kingdom Hearts was nothing special. I found myself growing bored within the first world. The things I did like were cute little dream monsters that took the place of Donald Duck and Goofy, the park core element, and that's pretty much it. You got to play as Sora and Riku. Sora got to wear his classic red suit. I didn't find the story very interesting, but it could be since I stayed away from Kingdom Hearts so long. There are two new characters brought in, but I didn't care enough to stay turned for their backstory. Instead of flying a ship through worlds, you fly through as Sora or Riku. Flying the ship used to be a fun part of the game for me, but for some reason I couldn't get into it with these characters. Sorry Kingdom Hearts, this was not your best installment.

Editing, a necessary evil

Right now I am working on the final edit of my soon to be released book, but I'd rather be writing book two. I already have book two outlined and I've already written a little bit of the first chapter, but I keep telling myself not to work on it. Editing is more important. If I take my focus away from editing I might never get my focus back. As much as I'd rather be writing, I have to edit. I don't want to end up with a bunch of unfinished books. This morning when I was editing, I found something that I should have found in the first edit. One of my characters is named Andrew, he's the FBI agent who is originally paired with my main character, Anyssa. His name wasn't always Andrew. Anyway, this morning I was reading through and happened to find a use of his old name. I changed it, but I was surprised it was still there. Maybe I wasn't searching for errors hard enough, or maybe I was reading his name as Andrew. It doesn't matter why I left the mistake in, what matters is that is was left in. I, like many other authors, have a fear that my writing won't be good enough. I think about it being too long, or too boring. I wonder if other people are going to like it, or if it's the kind of story I would want to read. I wonder if my grammar is on par, or if my blog and twitter make people want to avoid reading my book. I try not to dwell on those things. I've been focusing on my book lately, and not this negative stuff. It does cross my mind, like every other author, but I try to ignore it and focus on the positive.

Would I be writing if I didn't think I could make a profit?

One of the good things about my job is that I get to interact with people everyday. It's also one of the bad things about my job, but anyone who has worked with the public can understand. Today I met a woman who is an artist. I used to do a little painting, so we ended up talking for awhile. She told me she didn't make enough with her art to support her family, but that didn't matter because she was living her dream (she also had her husband to support her). The conversation lead me to think about myself and if I would still be chasing my dreams if I didn't think they would be profitable. I think I will always chase my dreams, even if they don't make me any money. Even if one person, or no people read my book. I just can't see myself giving up writing. I read an article the other day about a man who put his book for sale in the kindle store and expected to instantly make "millions". It's great to daydream about a life where I could just write and wouldn't have to have a job where I go to a place for eight hours and do work that's tiring to my body. I just don't think that will ever happen. I have to go back to college and get a job where I'm not standing around for eight hours, but I still plan to write. My job takes away a lot of time that I could be writing/editing/marketing, but it's necessary. In my dream life I would be writing for eight hours a day (like Charline Harris). I would have my own house, one that I paid for with the money I got from writing, and I would be able to buy the things I need and want without saving up for months or waiting until tax season. That's all just a dream. I'll consider myself lucky if one person reads my writing, not because I think my writing sucks, but because that person took the time to read something I wrote. I'm going to keep writing, even if I don't make a penny from it.

Book Bloggers

Part of self publishing is promotion. You have to promote yourself. I haven't been doing a lot of that since my book isn't out yet and I'm not sure when it will be. I'm not sure I know how to promote a book that isn't out yet. I haven't even written the blurb for it yet. In some ways writing the blurb is harder than writing the book. I guess because I'm too close to the project. A long time ago I remember reading Rachel Vincent's blog. She said that she didn't write her own blurbs. I was surprised, I'd always thought the author wrote those. I also found out an author doesn't really have much control over their books or how they are marketed after the rights have been sold to a publishing house. Anyway, maybe now is the time to reach out to book bloggers. I know it takes them awhile to sort through their emails and requests, but maybe I should at least start looking at book blogs. I need to find the blogs that review urban fantasy books about werewolves, and other things (I have plans for non-werewolf books too). I wouldn't mind doing some interviews after my book is released, so I need to look at those sites too. If any book bloggers happen to come across this blog and are interested in reviewing my book (no release date so far), please let me know.

Adult vs. Young Adult

For the past few months, I've struggled to find books I find interesting at Barnes and noble. I did read the Better Off Dead books by HP Mallory lately, but they were such a quick read. bought a few books that kindle suggested to me, but none of them interested me. I also tried reading the Veronica Mars novel (I'm a huge Veronica Mars fan), but that lacked the magic of the series (and so did the movie). I could read books like the Mercy Thompson series, which I haven't finished, but I want something new. I don't normally read young adult. I've tried, but a lot of the books I picked up were poorly written. I did read the ya series by Jesi Lea Ryan lately. I loved both books. It made me think that maybe there are some ya books I should give a chance. I remember being intrigued by the book 13 Reasons Why, and more recently an Alice and Wonderland series that I spotted on a ya table at Barnes and Noble. Today I happened to walk past the book section of walmart. There was a book To All The Boys I've Loved. It's not the type of book I normally read, but I picked it up and read the back. I quickly cracked it open, intrigued by the premise (it made me think of my past relationships and the things I would have said in letters if I knew they weren't going to read them). I was shocked. It didn't seem like a ya book, or not one like I'd read. I knew there were good ya books, The Outsiders, Smack, Speak, etc., but I thought all modern day ya was like Gossip Girl and twilight. I did enjoy the Jesi Lea Ryan novels, so I might pick up a few more ya books. I haven't seen many new adult books that interest me lately. All the ya books on the market remind me of Wolf Within and it's potential to be a great ya book if I edit the heck out of it.

Wolf Within

I think it's time I address wolf within, the story at the top of my blog. Wolf within is a story I wrote when I was in school. I actually wrote it for an assignment. I don't know how I feel about it now, but back when I wrote it I felt like I could make it into a book. I spent so much time in that world, I actually wrote a few chapters. I think with some editing it could be a good YA book, but I haven't looked at it in years. My writing style is different, my thought process is different. When I look back on that piece of writing I think about what I would do differently. For now it just shows me how I've grown.

Pen Name?

I've thought about pen names for a long time. I know a lot of authors have them. Probably most authors at this point. There are many reasons authors chose to have pen names, privacy being one of the top reasons. I wondered for a long time if I should have a pen name. The idea of a pen name seemed promising enough. I don't really share much about myself with people I do know, it would feel funny sharing myself things about myself with people I didn't know. There was also the fact that my last name is unspellable (yes, I know that's not a word, but it sounds trendy) to most people, which would make it harder for me to sell books. I bounced around a lot of names, but in the end I couldn't imagine being called anything else. I wondered if maybe I should just change the last name. I couldn't think of anything I wanted for a last name. The characters I write about seem to name themselves and I can't even think of a name to go by so I can still have my privacy. In the end I decided to go with my first name and only the first few letters of my last name. Maybe someday I'll change my mind. Maybe someday I'll think of something I want to be called, maybe before I publish my first ebook, but for now I can't think of anything that fits me.

McFail

I'm a huge fan of Spiderman, and just comic book heroes in general, so yesterday when I saw the post about gendered Spiderman toys I had to check it out. I was kind of shocked to find that the toys were pink and heart covered. Why can't the girls have action figures? When I was little I remember having some gendered toys, but summer movies usually were gender neutral. I remember getting every power ranger toy, and even buying some of the special action figures they offered. If they just included a Gwen Stacey action figure they could appeal to males and females without offering pink sticker books. I can't even tell what some of these things are. Also, it's worth noting that I read an article about Pokemon toys coming to Mcdonalds and Mcdonalds offering another option for the girls. Really? Pokemon is gender neutral. They could have an option for kids who don't like Pokemon, but they shouldn't genderize the toys.

Goodreads.com

I joined goodreads.com years ago. I liked finding new books on there, and I even won two of the giveaways. Now I can't even get on the site. It might be my computer, but everytime I try to get on a sign in box for facebook appears. The site doesn't sign me in, and the box keeps popping up over and over again. It's ashame that I can't get on goodreads. I think the site is such a great tool for both readers and authors.