My favorite Goosebumps books

In an earlier post I said that Goosebumps were some of the books that helped me get into writing. It's been a long time since I've read a Goosebumps book (like I said, I would love for R.L. Stine to write an adult Goosebumps book and have a lot of his characters come together in a mental ward. Slappy can be one of the toys they use to entertain them, they can have a pet hamster like in monster blood, and Carly Beth can be obsessed with making masks). Anyway, I decided to list the Goosebumps books that I remember as being some of my favorites.

The Haunted Mask is the first book that I've ever read in only a day. Goosebumps books are so short that you can do that, but I would usually take a break when I reached a certain chapter and pick up later on. I think this was the first Goosebumps tv episode they aired too.

The Haunted Mask 2 was not only one of my favorite books, but one of my favorite episodes.

Who loves Goosebumps that doesn't love Slappy? For some reason I never read the first night of the living dummy, but my mom bought me this one when we went to walmart. I remember being drawn to the pink and green cover. I'm pretty girly, and I've always loved scary stories. This was the perfect mash up.

I also loved the complete monster blood series, but settled on this cover because it was the cutest. I am girly, remember?


There were a dozen more that I loved, but I can't remember a lot of them now. Hopefully seeing the new Goosebumps movie (starring Jack Black) will jog my memory.

Vampires Vs. Werewolves

In the book I'm currently editing (and hope to release sometime in August or September) there is a world full of supernatural creatures. My book focuses on a female werewolf named Anyssa, who is forced to become the alpha of her pack after the rest of her family meet a gruesome end. There are a few other werewolves who appear, but they are supporting characters. The book also includes vampires, but they have a lesser role (maybe that will change in the next book). I've been thinking recently about which I prefer, werewolves vs vampires, and the answer is werewolves. There have been interesting vampire stories, but I always prefer reading or watching the werewolf ones. Most of the time the vampires in the stories are so old, but the werewolves are usually the result of a bite. They are usually learning to cope with what happened to them. My book will feature both bitten and born werewolves, as well as an old vampire.

My blog does not equal my book

I don't know why I feel the need to post this. No one has questioned my blog or my writing, but I just wanted to make a post about my blog and how it differs from my writing. My blog is not polished. I have not read and reread my blog hundreds of times. I write my blog more from my emotions and need to connect with people who may like my writing more than anything else. My writing is polished. I've read and reread my own work many times. I've edited. I've thought about the story and if I like the direction it's going. I've written and rewritten chapters. I've deleted things or added them. I know it's not perfect. It's my first book, but I've put effort into it. Not that I haven't put effort into blogging. I try to blog everyday. I try to blog about things people might find interesting about writing, but my blog is different than my writing. There are typos, it's far from perfect, but if it helps me connect with urban fantasy readers than its all it needs to be.

Final Edits

I've been having trouble editing lately, so I decided to edit in order. I've never edited anything in order before, but I'm going to start over from the beginning and try to tackle a chapter a day. I've been in the final editing stage of my project for about a month, and I think it's because I'm unmotivated. The piece is already finished, it just needs to be looked over one last time. If I want this to release in August/September I can't afford to take any off days. I have to edit. I have to finish this project. I need to turn my phone off, free myself from all distractions, and finish this. I've been working on this for too long, and I care about it too much to just let it sit on my computer. It's time to finish it and upload it to amazon and nook. I have to avoid the internet, stay away from twitter and facebook and finish this.

No Weekend Review This Week

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to read anything this week. It's been a little crazy. I don't want to review anything I didn't just read, because my thoughts about the book won't be fresh and I won't be able to give an honest review. I did pick up the hunger games from the library and that will probably be my next review. I am also considering reading Joe Hill's Horns. If anyone has any other suggestions for me, please let me know. Sorry I didn't read anything this week.

To Be Read

I haven't had time to read recently, so my to be read list is growing. I thought maybe if I listed these books I would get through them a lot quicker.

Silence of The Lambs This book has probably been on my tbr list the longest. I've read all the other Hannibal books and plan to reread them, but I just never got around to reading this one. Silence of The Lambs was the Hannibal movie that I liked the least so I decided to read it last. I decided to take a break from the Hannibal books right before I read this one, and it's just been sitting on my books shelf for years.

The Hunger Games/All I haven't read any of the Hunger Games books, and I think now is a pretty good time to start.

Double Dexter I actually started reading this book and never finished it. I need to read the rest of the books in the series as well. I think I stopped reading this because I watched the ending of the show and was disappointed and needed to distance myself from Dexter.

Horns I've been dying to read something by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son), and I thought I was going to read the graphic novel first. After seeing the trailer for this movie I knew I had to read it, and I'll probably watch the movie as well. I have it on hold at the library.

Warm Bodies loved the movie, but I heard the book is a million times better.

I would also like to read more by Richard Matherson. He's an amazing author, and his novels still hold up, even though they were written a long time ago. A lot of his books have been adapted into tv shows or movies.

Casual Friday: Hurricane Katrina

Part of being a writer is developing a relationship with your readers. I'm trying to do that by sharing these casual Friday posts that are more about me than they are about books and writing. Sometimes they are about tv shows, and sometimes they are personal. The one where I showcased my dragons was more on the personal side. Today I'm going to write about something I've never really written about, or talked about with anyone who didn't go through the same thing. Hurricane Katrina. I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't lose anyone in the hurricane, but I did lose all my stuff and have to move. The night before hurricane Katrina my dad watched the weather and said that Bob Breck said there was nothing to worry about. We all went to sleep, but when my sister and I woke up for Saturday morning cartoons the weather was on. They were making people evacuate. My parents said to pack some clothes. I had never been through anything like that, so I wasn't sure what to bring. I packed my clothes and make up, and probably something to entertain myself. We ran out of room in the car really quickly. When we finished packing we headed towards Texas. We had to stop at a gas station along the way, and when we finally got to stand up it was awful. My legs hurt, my body was stiff. It felt really bad. I had to walk around for a long time before I felt ok again. When we got back in the car we didn't stop driving until we got to Texas. We were going to stay in a hotel, but my aunt and cousins wanted us to stay with them. The trailer they stayed in wasn't little, but with so many people staying there, it got packed pretty quickly. There were also only two bathrooms, but we could only use one since my cousin had worn a hole in the floor in the other. I learned very quickly that trailers are not a good investment. I was glad to see my cousin, Jennifer, and meet her son for the first time. He was three, but since we lived so far I had only seen pictures. I haven't seen him since, but I still keep in touch with my cousin via text and facebook. We had a good time the first few days. We went swimming in a nearby lake, we watched movies, and just spent time catching up. Unfortunately, the effects of Katrina were always on our mind. We weren't allowed to go back to the place we had lived. There were people on tv looting, and one of my cousins made a negative comment about people living in Louisiana. She said she didn't know why anyone would be stupid enough to live there with the risk of a hurricane. That was the first time something that big had happened. We usually stayed for all the hurricanes and tropical storms and probably would have for this one if not told to leave! After about two weeks of staying together we started to get on each other's nerves, so my family moved into a hotel room. Lots of people were offering us free stuff, but a lot of the time the free stuff came with a catch. People wanted to use us to get donations, and one woman even wanted to fix me up with her son. There were some people who did actually want to help, most of them were from churches. I'd never been to church before Katrina, but we decided to attend a service because of the people being nice to us. I actually kind of liked the church. People were nice to us, they actually tried to make friends with us. Not too long after that there was an event where they were giving free clothes and shoes. Winter was coming up and we hadn't been prepared for what happened so we only had shorts and t-shirts. We went to the event and someone told us about section eight, so we signed up and got a voucher. For anyone who doesn't know, section eight basically is a set amount of money toward your rent. We also met a woman at the event, I think she was the one who helped us get the voucher. She was part of a church and had a house for rent. She basically forced us to rent this house. The house was older, with no heat and no ac. I already hate the cold, but I was miserable during the winter. The house itself stunk, and had bad plumbing problems. I don't think the shower worked properly. It was a nightmare, but at least we had a place to stay. Sometime after we got the house, they allowed people to go back to the part of Louisiana that we had lived in. My dad rented a uhaul and went back for our stuff. I don't remember what I asked for, but I know one of the things I wanted was a notebook that I had written songs in. I used to write songs and poetry around this time, and my songbook was the most important thing to me. I'm not sure why I left it behind, but my dad got it for me. He said there were some things missing from our apartment, and we figured out that the landlord had taken them. We'd gotten a foot or so of water in our apartment. About a month later the landlord told us we couldn't come back because we'd damaged the apartment. Hurricane Katrina had damaged the apartment, but the landlord just wanted to charge an outrageous amount of money for rent, which he did. The next people had to pay over a thousand for a tiny two bedroom apartment with one teeny weeny bathroom. In November we got a fema trailer and moved it to my dad's work. It was bad living there too. The ac broke, and we had to go to barnes and noble everyday. I got my first job, working at a fast food place. After Katrina places were paying good. I got a fifty dollar bonus each week. I will never work in fast food again, it was too stressful. The fema trailer was never meant to be permanent, so we moved to Mississippi. You might think that's where the story is supposed to end, but it's not. People from the part of Mississippi that we moved to weren't pleased to see people from Louisiana living there. At my new job I had to hear people talk about us all the time. Not to me as much, I don't know if it was because they thought I was pretty and accepted me, or if they just didn't say things to my face. Probably the latter. I remember this one lady telling a cashier at the store I worked at that people from Louisiana were uncivilized and she went on with this story about how a woman had taken the milk out of her cart at walmart and put it in her own cart because she didn't feel like walking to the back of the store. That was my breaking point. I said, "Excuse me, I'm from Louisiana. I don't steal and I'm not a bad person, I'm sure there are other people like me who are decent." The woman didn't reply, but she probably reported me.

Why I shouldn't take breaks from writing.

It's taken me awhile to get back into the editing mood. Mainly because editing isn't as fun as writing. I don't like to skip days writing, so I usually try to either work on editing or writing something new. I feel like when I don't I'm wasting my time. After taking a break from writing, when I finally got back into editing (I only took a two and a half day break), I looked at my document and thought: That's a lot of text. Today is the first real day I've taken a look at my text and made sure everything within that chapter is in place. The way I edit is, I reread the chapter, edit it, make sure everything makes sense and nothing is overlooked. Make sure it goes well with what happens in the other chapters. After all that I move on to another chapter. Tomorrow's my day off, and I have a busy day. I don't know if I'm going to have enough time to edit, but I hope I do. I want to get everything ready to be published by either August or September.

My book shelf

This is my book shelf. It's a little messy and covered in dust. I haven't added my new books. There's really not much room. A few of the books are missing (I let other people borrow them). I don't have as many books as I would like. I do read a lot of library books, so I don't buy books very often. The books on top of the book shelf are drawing books and a Bible. I also have a few magazines. My actual books range from thrillers to comic books.

Water Park

I wasn't going to blog today. I didn't do any writing or editing, in fact, I went to a water park. I spent the entire day there, until the park closed, and now I'm tired and I'm probably going to go to sleep right after posting this. Anyway, when I went to the water park I tried some new things, I also chickened out a few times. I climbed the steps and got the the front of the line and left. I also went on the worst ride that I have ever been on. I screamed seven times total at the park. I rode on bumper cars for the first time ever and had a lot of fun.Why am I writing about it? Because it was an experience, and writers learn from experience. Even if it's bad, it's still something we can write about. Sometimes when something bad happens to a writer they use writing to cope with it. I know I've had to use writing to cope with things.

Do I need a website?

Right now I'm not getting a lot of views, but I think if I had a website I might get a few more. I don't really know how to build a website, but I'm sure if I found the right book I could. I read that having a website makes it easier for search engines to notice you. I'm not sure if the search engines are picking me up now, but I think it would be nice to have a bigger audience. I just don't know if having a website is better than having social media.

Weekend Review: The Mythology of Supernatural

I think I should start this review off by saying that this book was not endorsed by anyone from the Supernatural show. It is something I think every Supernatural fan should have in their collection. This book is basically an explanation of the symbols, and some of the characters in the show. It stops at season five, so there's nothing about leviathans, which I would have loved to read about. I have googled a lot of the monsters on this show, but this book tells me a little more than I learned through google. The only complaint I have is that some of the monsters aren't included. There's no mention of the woman in white or bloody Mary. This book seems to focus more on angels and demons. There's not much else to say about this book, since it's the type of book you leaf through when you want to find out more about a monster you're watching at the time that you're watching it. It is a great book, and I do recommend it to anyone loves Supernatural.




Five Out Of Five Stars

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Work vs. Writing

I just got out of work a few minutes ago and feel like my brain is non functional. I tried to work on writing, but for some reason I never can after my work day. I can write as much as I want when I'm done working, and I'm pretty sure I could finish writing an entire novel if given the chance to write at work (which is why I keep a notebook with me at all times). Today I encountered someone who I thought was a great inspiration for a minor character in a grim reaper story that I'm writing. In the grim reaper story, my main character hates her job. I thought it would be awesome to write about the different types of characters she runs into, which means drawing from some of my own experiences. I thought it would be easy to just sit down and write a few paragraphs after work, but I was wrong. I'm not sure why, but it's like working drains all my energy. I might have to start taking naps after work so that I can write.

Casual Friday: Finding Carter

 

Mtv must have high hopes for this show, because on the previews they say 'this season' on all of their previews. This also made sure to show ads for their show on just about every other station. The idea behind the show seemed pretty interesting to me, so I checked it out. After watching the third episode, I'm still not sure what to think about it. Carter is a teen who has a close relationship with her mother, who turns out to be her kidnapper. She's sent back to her real family, and at first she hates them all. She soon begins to bond with her little brother and father, and capture the attention of all the male characters at her school. I really hate watching shows where all the males are attracted to one female. Carter hates her 'new' mom, and often acts out by doing drugs, dating boys she shouldn't, and partying until she passes out. Her relationship with her father is what I find most interesting in the show. He's a writer who promised her that he wouldn't write about her, but he is anyway. I bet that's going to play a huge part in the finale. I bet her mother is going to ask her if she wants to run away with her, and she's either going to say yes because of the book, or it's going end on a cliffhanger, where we don't know if she went with her mother or not. 

Query Letters

I haven't sent a query letter in years, but I've been thinking about them a lot lately. A query letter is something an author sends to a literary agent to get them to represent their work. A lot of publishing companies won't give you the time of day if you're not represented. I learned that the hard way when I was about eighteen and I noticed that Final Destination books (I still have the books, but they are more like collector's items for me. I haven't even read some of them.) were being published. I thought that I could do that, that I could write a book about Final Destination. The publishing company basically told me not to bother them unless I had an agent. When I got a little older and took a few writing lessons, I decided to try writing a query letter. I was taught to think of a query letter like a resume. I googled what to include. Things like word count, a summary of the story, and a general background about myself were suggested. I wasn't even done with my story yet and I was sending out letters. I included bits of the story with the agents that required a writing sample. The weirdest query I ever sent was through a submission form that asked me questions about my book. Each time I got either an auto-response that said no, or a personal email that said no. The worst one that I received was one which referred to me using my character's name. I gave up on querying shortly after that and started writing a new story. I wasn't sure if it was the letter or the story itself that caused me to get rejected. Probably both. I didn't know how to sell myself, and I didn't know how to sell my work. I probably still have no idea. Why would someone pick my book up out of the dozens they have out there? What's special about my work? What makes me stand out? What makes my work stand out? I think my ebook is pretty interesting, so how do I let other people know how interesting it is? I'm not considering writing a query letter now, even though I think my selling skills have gotten a little better, but I am wondering if the outcome would be different now.

Writing for yoursef vs. writing for your audience

I recently read an article about a woman who was told she couldn't write a character the way she wanted because it wouldn't sell books. This is part of the reason I decided to self-published. I can't imagine being told to change a character that I feel strongly about just because people might not read it. I know you have to write for your audience, but unless your character is offensive you should be able to write the way you imagined them. There's a character in the book I'm about to release, his name is Miller and he talks differently than any of the other characters, but he adds to the story. He owns a bar for werewolves (and sometimes vampires) to hang out. He's a werewolf himself, and I can't imagine changing him. A lot of times I find myself writing about characters I can relate to, and I'm sure it's the same with many other authors. I have written about characters that are different than me, but to make them real you have to make your audience releate to them. Since I'm self-publishing I haven't thought about my audience too much. That's probably because I don't have an audience yet. I'm not out there selling books yet. I don't know how people are going to react to my characters yet. I haven't been thinking about the marketing part of publishing as much as I should. Will people still be interested in reading what I write if they know it was written my way and not a publisher's? I don't think publishers bad, they offer great things, like editors and simple suggestions that could make your story better. I just don't like the idea of someone being able to tell me that I have to change an entire character. I don't understand why anyone would have to change a character if it doesn't make the story any different.

Word Count

I had been avoiding doing a word count on the novel I'm about to release. Well, it's more like a novella. I know it was going to be short, but I had no idea how short. 16,884 words 89,861 characters. Is that even a novella, or just a short story? How can I justify selling it? I've worked really hard on it, although I did let life get in the way. I know the word count may change since I am still doing edits, but I don't think it'll change that much. The average novella is 30,000. It's still a story, it's still complete. I just don't think I can add words unless they add to the story. I do have a few parts I'm going to edit, a few things I've decided to add, but I'm not sure how many words that will add up to. I'm just so nervous about my novella. I should have googled word count before I started writing, but I didn't want it to effect my story.

Authors who use kickstarter

I'm not sure how I feel about authors who use kickstarter. There are things the author needs for the book, like a cover, ads, and editors that they have to pay for themselves. I've never visited an author's kickstarter page, so I'm not sure if they offer any prizes, and I have never personally used kickstarter. I don't even know if I've ever been to the site. I'm not sure why, but I think there are better ways to raise the money for your book, other than kickstarter. You can put ads on your blog/websites, you can sell things that people might want to buy, or you can do what I did and get some affiliates. So far I only have one, and I'm not sure how well I'm going to do with it. I have bills and I work an almost full time job, and on top of that I'm going to be going back to school this August, so I'm just as busy as other authors. I just feel like asking readers for money will make them less likely to read something I've written. I'm not sure how I would feel if I read a book and someone told me that kickstarter made it possible. I've already watched a movie that kickstarter made possible, but I feel like writing is different. It's free to write, but there are still things you need as an author that you can't do on your own. I think it would be easier to do a few giveaways to promote your book, reach out to reviewers, and ask your friends to go over your book to double check for errors.

Weekened Review: Sweet Valley Confidental

I knew this book wasn't going to be the greatest thing I'd ever read. Even when I younger I only thought of these as a fun light read and only picked up these books when there was nothing else to read. I did really enjoy the first few senior year books when I was in high school, but I knew none of the Sweet Valley books had actually been written by Francine Pascal. Sweet Valley Confidential is the only Sweet Valley book she's actually written, and after reading it I wonder if she would have written all the books like this. I probably only picked this book up because of the memories that came with it. After reading it I'm not sure what to think. The characters don't behave like real people. Elizabeth meets a man and declares him her friend after having two drinks with him. Jessica, the other twin, says like more times than anyone I've ever encountered. Everyone from high school still keeps in touch and they all live in the same town they grew up in. Some of the characters have been changed, things like hair color/eye color/the way they acted in high school/etc. My biggest complaint with the book is the relationship between the siblings, Jessica and Elizabeth. Jessica steals Elizabeth's long term boyfriend, which causes Elizabeth to go live in New York. Elizabeth has to come back for her grandmother's birthday. After some fighting she decides to forgive her sister. I can't even began to understand this. Why would the twin sister want to steal her sister's man, and why was she forgiven so quickly? Almost everyone gets a happy ending. I did like the idea behind the book, going back and reading about characters I read about as a kid, but that's about all I liked. On another note, I really wish R.L. Stine would do this with Goosebumps. It would be really cool to see a few of the people together in the same mental ward or something, thinking the mystery meat in the cafeteria was monster blood, and hiding from Slappy. Carly Beth would stay in her room with a mask made out of duct tape attached to her face, afraid that everyone would think her new face was hideous.




One out of five Stars

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Updated my blogger profile

I just wanted to post a short note that I've updated my blogger profile. It's shown on the side of my blog. I didn't changed much about it, but I am getting better at writing about myself. Maybe I'll be able to write an about me for the author section of my books now. I've also added a link to a website where you can buy books. I'm an affiliate, which means I make a small percentage of money for each book you buy through that site. I thought it would be a good way to help me fund things I need for my own books, such as covers and editors.

Casual Friday: Sailor Moon Crystal Episode One Review

I don't watch much anime. Death Note is probably my all time favorite, and the reason I want to watch more anime. I think I was more open to watching anime as a child, since Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors were some of my favorite shows (along with Power Rangers and V.R. Troopers). Sailor Moon usually came on at around two p.m., when I was still at school. I remember talking to my friends about the show, and when one of us missed school we would have to fill the others in on what happened. When I got older I googled Sailor Moon and found that the Japanese anime was much different than the American one. I know a lot of people looked for the Japanese versions, but I didn't. I had already moved on to Death Note and Black Blood Brothers. I even tried watching an episode of that anime Vampire Hunter D, or something like that. The main character's name was Dracula spelled backwards. Alucard. Anyway, when I heard about the Sailor Moon remake I knew I had to check out. I was warned by twitter that it wasn't based on the 90's anime, it was based on the manga. So far I've only watched the first episode on crunchyroll. Warning to those who are interesting in checking it out, there are subtitles. Anyway, it had some elements that I remember, like Sailor Moon being immature and getting poor grades. The episode starts with Sailor Moon having a dream that makes her late for class. She's dreaming that she's a princess dancing with a handsome stranger. She goes to school, on her way tripping over a cat with a crescent moon on it's forehead. The cat later becomes her guide. The episode itself was short, and seemed to be aimed at a younger audience. I'll probably check out a few more episodes to see what I think.

Do I read like a writer?

The other day I was checking my twitter and noticed a post by a writer. The post was in response to something one of her followers had asked her, and her response was that she sometimes couldn't enjoy a book because she read like a writer instead of a reader. I hadn't thought that there was a difference. I thought people just read like readers, since they usually were reading something they hadn't written. I decided to think about the books I read lately, and the reasons I enjoyed or didn't enjoy them. First Grave on The Right was simple, I didn't care for it because all the male characters were good-looking and so was the main female character, plus there was no real plot, or the plot was put on the back burner in favor of describing these great looking men. Right now I am reading the Sweet Valley adult book, and I notice little things I may not have noticed when I read the teen books as a teenager. The actions and way these people speak are unbelievable. I don't mean crazy, I mean no one says like in every sentence. I will get to the behavior part this weekend for my weekend review. My complaints for these books were things I might not have noticed or paid much attention to if I wasn't a writer myself. A book that I recently enjoyed was White Trash Zombie (I've reviewed all of these books or plan to, so check the items tagged with weekend review if you want to read more about these books). When I was reading White Trash Zombie, I kept thinking that the pacing of the book was perfect. There were parts that had nothing to do with the mystery of who turned Angel into a zombie, but I was still interested in those as well. The book was far from boring, and I plan to pick up the rest of the series, the first of which I kept wishing I'd written myself. Most readers will just put down a book they don't like, without wondering why. If you ask them why they might be able to pinpoint a reason, or they might just say that it was boring. I no longer read like a "normal" reader. I read like a writer.

Pen Names

Yesterday someone asked me about pen names, so I decided to write this post. A pen name is a name that a author uses for many reasons. In the case of writer's like Stephan King it's because he's releasing so many books at once. In cases like the one with J.K. Rowling, it's because you want to distance yourself from the other work you've done, not because that work is bad, but because you're writing something different. Some writers are told to adopt a pen name if they decide to write a different genre. I can understand because many authors are known for writing within a certain genre like romance, horror, or mystery and anything they write will be assumed to fall into that genre. A lot of authors use pen names for privacy, and that's why I wanted to adopt a pen name. It's harder to pick a name for myself than I thought it would be, so I ended up not picking one. I hope readers will respect my privacy anyway. I plan to write urban fantasy and science fiction, so hopefully I won't have too much trouble marketing my books. Another reason a write could use a pen name is to appeal to a certain audience, which is why J.K. Rowling used her initials when writing Harry Potter. Her literary agent thought boys wouldn't read the Harry Potter books if they knew a woman wrote them, so she had to use her initials. A lot of female authors used male pen names before women were allowed to write, or if they were writing things like horror, which were usually written by men.

Ghost Writers

I wanted to write a post on what I think about ghost writers, and no, I don't mean that show I used to watch as a child. I mean people who write books for other people. They get paid for it, but they usually don't get any credit. I think I read a sweet valley high book once that had the name of the ghost writer inside. I thought that was weird that someone would want to take credit for something they hadn't written. I soon found out that all of the Sweet Valley books were ghost written. I don't remember if that affected my love of the trashy little novellas, but it did add a lot of plot holes. Now that I'm an adult I've picked up the adult Sweet Valley book, the only one actually written by Francine Pascal. I'm actually reading it now, and wondering if that's the way she intended the twins to be. Is that how she intended the other characters to be? How many of the ghost written books did she actually read? I don't think there's any way she could have written an outline for each of those books. She does mention some key things that happened in some of the books, so I know she's read a few of the ghost written books. I also have a strong belief that the last few Sookie Stackhouse books were ghostwritten. Why do I believe that? The first book is nothing like the last book, in fact, a lot of the last few books don't seem to hold that same magic. It's not just the romance I have an issue with. I do have an issue with that, the two characters were barely interacting anymore. If they would have gotten together sometime during the first three books I would have believed it, but to end up together out of nowhere? I also had a problem with the villain, who just seemed to be there so that everything could get solved quickly and wrapped up with a nice little bow. Then there's the thing that annoys me most of all, the thing that makes me think these last few books have been ghost written. Sookie can no longer read Sam's mind! It's shown in the first few books that she can read shifter's minds, it's just harder. In the first book Sam is flirting with her and tells her to read his mind. In the last book she can't, there's no explanation, although an easy one would have been that Sam died and came back to life, but we're given nothing. This book disappointed not only me, but after searching google I'd say most of the internet. This is a reason that you should never use a ghost writer. Why would you even want to put your name on something that someone else wrote? I'll never understand that. Why should you get money for someone basically writing a fan fiction with your characters?

Weekend Review: Veronica Mars book and movie

I didn't get a chance to read a complete book this week, so I decided to review something I read awhile ago. I'm a huge fan of the Veronica Mars tv show. I didn't fund the kickstarter, I just couldn't afford to, but I did go see the movie. I also picked up the book. I'm pretty sure this is one of the most expensive non-comic book books that I've ever purchased. Going to the Veronica Mars movie was a movie going experience that I've never had before. People filed in, some wearing their kickstarter shirts, others with buttons or pins showing their support. I know some of them traveled a long time to see the movie, even though I'm sure some of them had a digital copy at home. When the movie started everyone was silent, no one left to go to the bathroom or get a drink refill. The movie itself unfolded somewhat like a fan fiction. A lot of characters are thrown in just to show that they were once a part of the tv show. I found the movie to be lacking, and thought the pairing of Logan and Veronica was lacking in this movie. They no longer seemed to have the same chemistry, but from season two onward it was as if they only existed to make each other feel awful. The best part of the movie was Dick. He was actually sort of funny. The mystery wrapped up to easily, but maybe that was because there wasn't a whole season to expand upon. Things with Weevil went unfinished, and that was my main reason for picking up the book. I wasn't able to finish the book. Characters do things that are out of character for them, like Mac quitting a good job to go work for Veronica and her father. Old characters were name dropped for no reason. This book did not explain things for someone who was not a Veronica fan, and the price of the book was fifteen dollars. I don't plan on reading the other books in the series. If there was another Veronica movie I'm not sure I could watch it either. The charm of Veronica Mars was lost somewhere between the time they decided to kickstart the movie and the time the movie made it's way to cinemas.





Three Out Of Five Stars

Casual Friday: My Dragons

There's a picture of a dragon in the header of my blog, but I never really explained anything about it. When I lived in Mississippi I used to go to a little store where you would pick something out to paint. I usually picked the dragons, so the picture in my header was painted by me. All the dragons below are also painted by me:

Man Vs. His Own Stupid Comments

I'm sure most people have heard about Adam Richman's comments. He's the star of man vs. food and he told someone who commented on his instagram post to go run a warm bath and get the razor blade, or something along those lines. The whole reason for the internet fight was for him using a hashtag that promoted eating disorders. When a fan told her that it was offensive he lashed out at her and her friends. He didn't take it seriously. He started out by making light of something that a lot of people struggle with, and then he attacked strangers online. He could have just said he didn't know the word was offensive and removed it, but instead he chose to attack. I can understand that he struggled with his weight, but that's no reason to attack anyone. When you're in the public eye in any way you have to choose your words carefully. In Mr. Richman's case, it cost him a show, but saying things without thinking could cost people their careers, friendships, and in some cases their safety. We've all been in internet fights, and probably didn't think before speaking, but everyone needs to think more about the things they say online. It doesn't seem like words can hurt someone when they are typed out on a screen, but sometimes they can. When comments are made like the ones Mr. Richman made, they belittle people who are struggling with issues like suicide and eating disorders. I'm in shock that someone who was struggling with issues of his own made those comments, but I think this is an example of why you shouldn't say certain things online. Even if you aren't famous you can still hurt others and yourself. I recently read about a girl who lost her job for posting things online. She didn't name her workplace, but she still got fired. There are also things you just don't discuss because it would cause a fight. If you goggle hobby lobby and scroll straight to the comments of anything that comes up and you'll see a prime example of that.

The Female Author

When I was younger I thought it was important for me to be beautiful. It was more important to me than being smart. I thought all women had to be pretty, and that's probably because Disney princess movies drilled it into my head. When I got older I found that looks played a big part in the way women were treated, and I never found myself being taken as seriously as a male would have. In fact, in high school I remember some boy in my class said that he believed women should stay home and take care of the house. I found that female students were expected to take classes like Home Economics in high school, while the male students got picked on for doing the same. When I entered the working world I found that I got paid very little. I got paid less than male workers who had easier jobs than I did. I know the same would be true no matter what job I got. A few years into my adult life I got a job working at an automotive place. My job was to sell tires and oil changes to the customers (sometimes I changed oil as well). Sometimes when I was working and a female would stop by she would ask for a male to talk to about her car. This wasn't to see what the problem was, or to do anything physical to her car, these women just didn't trust that a woman was smart enough to know anything about tires and oil. Every time a woman would do this I would go find the man who knew the least about cars and bring him out, tell him that the woman didn't think I could help her because I was female, and let the two of them talk. More often than not, the woman got confused. Women make rude comments to me. I was often the only woman in that department so they felt the need to make rude comments. I still don't understand why a woman would try to hurt another woman like that. Clearly I needed a job, my dream was not to sell tires for my entire life. What does this have to do with writing, or being a female author? Well, last night I was on twitter and I got a couple of new followers. I followed them back, and within a few minutes there was a message in my inbox. It was a man pretty much demanding me to add him to facebook and instagram. As of right now, I only have a personal facebook and instagram. I told the man that and he responded with what I'm sure where lyrics to a Nikki Minaj song. It occurred to me that he didn't want to read what I'm about to publish, he just wanted to see more pictures of me. I realized that all female authors, or just females in the public eye must get the same treatment. We are judged by our looks and not by our actions or intellagence. If I looked different would I still have as many followers? I remembered how angry I was at an article I'd read not too long ago about way women's book covers are designed. Most are either pastel and girly, or have two figures in a romantic embrace. Those are the covers that are meant to draw us in, and stop men from reading what could be a very good book. Most men aren't going to go to Barnes and Noble and pick out books with those covers, even if the story is meant for both sexes. This almost makes me want to upload books with blank covers. I know the cover is meant to draw people in, but why does the cover have to consist of pink and purple fluff just because a woman wrote it? I remember how mad I was at J.K. Rowling for writing a book under a man's name. I didn't care that she had a pen name, or that she was writing something different to draw in new fans. I was mad that she took a man's name. It was like saying a woman wasn't smart enough to write that book. A woman who made people fall in love with her words in the Harry Potter universe was ashamed to write under a woman's name. A woman can, and did write that book. She should be proud of herself for writing a book, not hiding under a man's name to get people to buy the book. I had looked up to Ms. Rowling until she did that. Female writers should be taken just as seriously as male writers, and to make that happen we need to start buying more books written by female writers. We need to step outside of our comfort zones and give a chance to the women who have probably had to work harder then men to get their book published. We need to pick up those pink and purple fluff covered books and walk proudly to the corner with the intent of purchasing that book. Please read more books by female authors.

Favorite Books

I read a lot, maybe even more than I write, but I only have a few books that I consider my favorites. Today I basically had a lazy day, which consisted of me watching the entire third season of the UK's Being Human, but I still wanted to blog.

 

Carrie is the first book I think of whenever I think about my favorite books. It's the first Stephen King book that I've ever read, and the one I've liked the most. There were at least a dozen different covers, but this happens to be the cover of the one I own. A friend bought it for me at a used bookstore after hearing me talk about the book so much. Some of the other covers are so beautiful that I would love to own them. I've seen all four Carrie movies (Carrie, Carrie the Rage, the tv one, and the remake), I would love to see the play as well. I think Carrie is a book that everyone should check out.

 

I guess I'm going to break the first rule by talking about this book. I actually read the book and watched the movie around the same time. I think I actually made myself read the book first so that nothing would be ruined. It's the most quotable book that I've ever read, and the book itself made me think and look at things differently. I liked the movie too, but I think I prefer the book.

 

After reading I am Legend I picked up Stir of Echoes, both are good books and I plan to read more by Richard Matheson. The main character is the last man in a world filled with vampires, which makes him legend (like the vampires used to be). I wasn't sure how I would feel reading something written so long ago, but this was one of the best books I've ever read. It's the best vampire book I've ever read. I found myself being beyond disappointed when watching the Will Smith movie.

 

 

I wasn't aware that this was a tv series when browsing through the barnes and noble website. I was looking for something to read and stumbled across this. I bought the first book, not knowing what to expect. I read the book in one day, ordered the next three books, and read this again while waiting for them to come in. The first few books in the Sookie Stackhouse series are great, but the quality of the rest of the books steadily declined. I watch True blood every so often, but I prefer the books about the telepathic waitress.

 

My favorite comic book, the Crow. I love comic books. I collect the 30 days of Night series, and I would love to collect the other Crow comics. I only have the original, the one the movie was based on. I saw the movie first, and shortly after I purchased the comic on eBay. The comic is slightly more violent than the movie, but I don't really have a problem with violence.

 

 

Honorable mention: The Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay