Release Day--Everneath by Brodi Ashton

After much waiting, Everneath by Brodi Ashton is finally out. And you guys have a chance to find out what I did (and posted about here) last July, when I had a chance to read the ARC.

Book Description:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen. 

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

I loved the way the countdown of Nikki's six months and required return to the Everneath added to the tension, while other chapters flashed back to show us what led up to her decision to follow Cole. Because, you see, Nikki chose to go.

It got to where I almost had a love/hate relationship with chapter breaks. I wanted to know what was going to happen next, but at the same time I wanted to know what led up to her being in that situation--I wanted it all. NOW. Brodi does a wonderful job of feeding the information to the reader, letting out little bits of information to help us feel for Nikki and sympathize with her since you know exactly where it's leading her.

And Jack rocks!

If you follow Brodi's blog (she's hilarious--love her!), you will find the tone in this book very different from her blog. This book totally sucked me in. And made cry.


If you're looking for my Favorite Character Blogfest post (it goes through the 25th), you can find it here.

What I've Been Reading

Don't forget to check out the

Banned Book Giveaway Hop here.

As much as I complain about not having enough time to read, I have been getting through some books.I'm usually listening to an audiobook, so I can have something going while I'm doing mindless things at home like laundry, cleaning, or yard work. My hubby likes me to read to him, so we've frequently got a book going together, though those take us a while since he tends to fall asleep rather easily (he's got Fibromyalgia). Then I'm usually reading a book myself, either before I go to sleep (when I'm not critiquing) or when I'm on my treadmill or exercise bike.

So, here's what I've been reading (or listening to):

Seeking Persephone is a prequel to Courting Miss Lancaster which I reviewed here. These are Regency Romances by Sarah M. Eden, whose writing I love dearly. She's got a wonderful way of creating conflict riddled with humor. And her characters! I was crushing on Adam after reading CML, but we get to learn so much more about him in SP, that I just love him even more. Sarah hinted there might be another book in the series. I can't wait to visit these characters again. 

I had an opportunity to read the ARC for Everneath by Brodi Ashton, which I LOVED! You can read what I said about it here. It comes out in January 2012.











And another ARC I got to read was Shifting by Bethany Wiggins. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It comes out on September 27th. You can read about it here.

I've read the first two books in this trilogy, and the final book comes out in October. I hesitated to start it since I heard about the first book right after the first Hunger Games book came out. I didn't want to start a new trilogy. But then I was so disappointed with Mockingjay, I wasn't sure I wanted to risk be disappointed again. But Dan Wells did such a fabulous job with his I Am Not a Serial Killer series, that I decided to give this series a chance. We'll see in October. 


I enjoyed Watched by Cindy M. Hogan. I'd definitely want to keep track of any children I sent on summer field trips after reading this book!










I loved Laura Josephsen's book Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School). You can read my thoughts on it here.                    

Hubby and I have been reading this series together (we're on the third book). It involves the brother of one of the characters we meet in The Saint Squad Series--see below (love these books about Navy Seals).

 Hubby and I have one more book to go in this series after we finish The Deep End.

 This book is the first in the Runelord series by David Farland. I really enjoyed it. David is the "father", so to speak, of the online critique group forum I'm a member of.

I recently listened to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (who died before the book came out) and her niece Annie Barrows again. I just love this story and the way it's written using letters or notes. The unique voice of each character is so well done. Some of the characters I wish I could meet in real life and just hug!

This books provides one of those places I wish I could go to and live.

I hate getting old. I was thinking I hadn't read this one. Guess what? I have. Oh, well. I liked it the second time, too. It's the sequel to her book Masques, which I read earlier in the year. What can I say? I love Patricia Briggs's books. 

Entwined by Heather Dixon is a charming retelling of the fairytale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells is a really interesting book, very different from his I Am Not a Serial Killer series. Because of that, it took me a few pages to get into it just because it was so different from what I'd expected. It's a farce and has some very silly moments. Talk about a comedy of errors!

From the product description on Amazon:
Wrongly imprisoned, Frederick Whithers is desperate to commit the crime he's already being punished for: defrauding the bank out of a vast inheritance. He fakes his death to escape, but when he's seen climbing out of a coffin everyone assumes he's a vampire; when he shows none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, they decide he must be the most powerful vampire in the history of the world.

Half horror and half farce, Frederick's tale is an ever-growing avalanche of bankers, constables, graverobbers, poets, ghouls, morticians, vampires, vampire hunters, not to mention some very unfortunate rabbits. With a string of allies even more unlikely than his enemies, can Frederick stay alive long enough to claim his (well, somebody's) money? And if he can't, which of his innumerable enemies will get to him first? 

I think this book would make a hilarious play.

Okay. I really need to quit complaining that I'm not getting any reading time. 
Obviously I'm doing better than I thought!


So what have you been reading?

Anything I should add to my Goodreads list?
I haven't reached 100 books to read yet.

"Everneath"

I'm seriously dying today. I received an ARC of Brodi Ashton's book Everneath, when I got home from work yesterday. I started it after listening to the  Authors' Advisory Conference Call last night, which is hosted by Robin Weeks. It's because of Robin that I had this opportunity to read the book.

I read until a reasonable hour, though I kept thinking about the story. When I woke at 2 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep (because I was thinking about the story), I tried to go back to sleep. But I kept thinking about the dang story, so I finally gave up and got up.

I loved it. I won't say more now, but I've got to have my own copy. Why is January so far away?

I am going to be so worthless at work today.

Critique Groups

I'm sure all you writers out there have heard of and/or participated in a critique group. I've heard some tales of some wonderful groups, but I've also heard some real horror stories. When I was at Life, the Universe and Everything conference (LTUE) in February a couple of New York Times list authors mentioned how destructive they'd found them to be and no longer participated in them.

Late last year, I posted on Brodi Ashton's blog asking about how her critique group had found each other (her group is one of the wonderful ones that meets in person). Well, Robin Weeks who also follows Brodi kindly let me know about her online critique group at David Farland's Writers Forum. Dave is a wonderful supporter of writers as well as a well-known author in his own right. He teaches classes on writing, and I think he's been at all three conferences I've attended in the last nine months. Members of his Writers Forum who were attending LTUE were able to get together at a local restaurant for dinner. It was lots of fun, and I got to meet in person several people I'd conversed with online.

Anyway, when I joined Dave's writer's groups I found there are a number of individual groups based upon genre. I applied to join two of them. One was for the romance genre, since my finished ms is a romantic suspense. This group is not very active right now, but the two ladies there are very supportive.

I also applied to Robin's group for YA fantasy. This is a very active group, and I've learned so much already. As I detailed last fall, I signed up for a college creative writing class ($770 in tuition for 3 credits) hoping to learn more about the craft of writing. I knew within a week this class wasn't what I was looking for and dropped it. I learned more in a month with the Pied Pipers critique group than that class would have taught me.

Critiques can be frustrating. There's no getting around it. But they have to be honest, or they're a waste of time and effort on both sides. The frustration isn't always about how people are critiquing your writing. It's also about figuring out how to make something work in your book. I can have a number of my friends (who aren't writers) be beta readers for me. They can give me input on how the story is working, but they can't necessarily tell me WHY it isn't working. My fellow critique group members can. And their input has been very insightful.

But critiques need to be about what works as well as what doesn't. Sometimes it's too easy to get caught up with finding the errors. As with our children, we need to catch the writer doing it right.

Now, as the writer, I must realize that I can't please everyone, even in my critique group. But I should seriously consider what I'm being told and decide how best to use the input to improve my book--or not. A funny thing happened with my first submission. None of my beta readers had ever had any doubt about the gender of my MC. Yet two of the critiquers in my group got the impression she was a guy and that totally changed how they looked at everything. Considering the number of people who have read the beginning of my book, that's a good 10% of the people who could potentially think my MC was a gay guy. It was an easy fix for me to make, but one I wouldn't have considered without their input.To me, that's priceless.

The things I'm learning from this critique group doesn't t just come from critiques on my writing but on the critiques I read on other members of the groups. I'm learning what I should be looking for, how to be a better critiquer myself. I'm still really new and raw at it.

I know a very talented woman, who's written two books. I've read comments she's made in an online forum, and she's intelligent and writes very well. I imagine that her books are really good. But I'll never get the chance to know because she won't let anyone read them. Anyone.

When my oldest daughter decided to run for student body president in the 6th grade, she made a comment to me that was very profound and wise beyond her years. It's something I wish someone had told me when I was in younger. She said she could never win if she didn't try.

Well, she did try, and she did win. Did I ever mention she's my hero?

How about you? Do you have a critique group? Do you meet in person or online? What's your experience been?

Blogging Challenge F(ilms)

Today's topic is about a few films my hubby and I have watched recently.

The first was I Am Number Four based upon the YA SciFi novel by Pittacus Lore (pseudonum for Jobie Hughes and James Frey). I haven't read the book, so I can't compare the two, but we enjoyed the movie. It wasn't high film art, but the story was entertaining; the actors were nice to look at; and there was romance, creepy aliens, and explosions. What's not to love? And if you want to read a hilarious take on one of the explosions in this film, you'll have to check out Brodi Ashtons's post here. It's toward the end of her post.     I Am Number Four Trailer

The second film we saw was Beastly, based upon the book by the same name by Alex Finn. I first saw the trailer for this movie on Stephanie Perkins blog. I was intrigued by it and ordered the book. It's a quirky retelling of beauty and the beast, though the characters in the book are younger than in the film. And, yes, the cute kid from I Am Number Four also stars in Beastly.

It's the story of self-centered though gorgerous Kyle who makes the mistake of getting on the wrong side of a witch. She curses him to become the beast on the outside that he is on the inside. Kyle must find someone to love his ghastly exterior within one year or stay that way forever. There were changes, obviously, between the book and the film, but I thought they were true to the story--and some changes in the film I liked better than what happened in the book. The true jewel though is Neal Patrick Harris, who plays Will, Kyle's blind tutor. I want to see the movie again just to see Neal. Beastly Trailer

The film we saw this past weekend was Sucker Punch. I don't know if it was based upon a book. (The female love interest from Beastly, Vanessa Hudgens, is in it). It's the story of a girl, Baby Face, (played by Emily Browning of Lemony Snickets fame), whose mother has just died. The girl is confronted by her vile stepfather, who is angry his wife left her wealth to her two daughters. Disaster strikes when Baby Face  tries to save her sister from the psycho stepfather. When she's locked up and scheduled for a lobotomy, she has five days to escape.

It's a surreal kind of film full of dark themes and stylistic fighting. The fight scenes include an interesting array of orcs, and dragons, WWI gas filled dead soldiers, and futuristic vehicles--to name a few. And it delivers a sucker punch ending--you can decide for yourself which of the definitions in the link describe it once you've seen the film. Not really my taste in movies but worth a viewing once.

One of my complaints was one I have with almost all fantasy chick fighting. They always show the girls/women half clad, while they're out there hitting and kicking and punching and climbing and flying. With narry a scratch, cut, or burn. Right. That'll really make me believe. I can guarantee that all that pretty exposed skin will end up cut and scarred and won't be so pretty after just one really good fight.    Sucker Punch trailer

Life, the Universe and Everything (LTUE)

What a fun three days! I can definitely say that I enjoyed this conference (symposium) better than any I've attended for my work. Hmmm. How can learning about writing and getting to hear some of your favorite authors talking about their craft be more fun than, say, taking minutes ... or annexations ... or (heaven forbid) records management?

But seriously, I enjoy my work related conferences because they help me do my day job. And LTUE did that, too, though for a different job, my part-time job.

Robin Weeks drove down and stayed with me, and we worked as "Gophers" for the conference--the staging room for the Gophers was called ... yes, the Gopher Hole. The head Gopher was named Toad.

Really.

He's a great guy. Gophering wasn't an onerous job. We signed up for different sessions (so many more options than we provide for my work conferences--my education committee would literally die if they had to get speakers for that many breakout sessions). We were responsible for making sure there was water and cups for the presenters/panelists, taking roll, and giving the 5-minute warning. It gave us an opportunity to chat with the panelists, though Robin's a lot more confident than I am about approaching them. I'm certainly not shy, but I haven't got the chutzpah she has.

At the end of the three days, they have a Gopher Bash and awarded a prize to the most helpful Gopher. The young man who won the prize (a size 5X T-shirt donated by Howard Tayler [comedic webcomic known for Schlock Mercenery] or Dan Wells [best known for writing I Am Not a Serial Killer] and who both cohost Writing Excuses with Brandon Sanderson [not able to attend]--can't remember if Howard or Dan donated the shirt). Anyway, the winner was a very slender young man, and the young Gophers decided to see how many of them could fit in the shirt:

The Symposium

There were so many attendees! I heard they had 1,300 people. It's held on the BYU campus, and students can attend for free, so it's a wonderful opportunity. The cost is minimal at $20 if paid in advance or $25 at the door. (that's for all 3 days).

James Dashner of the Maze Runner trilogy fame was one of the two keynote speakers. Hilarous man. He was on many panels and brought a lot to the discussions as he talked about his journey to being published. What really struck me was how dreadful his first book signing went. It made me think of Natalie Palmer's experience, though she's already learned how to make those go better. It was funny, when James gave Brodi Ashton a shout out but then teased her about needing help deciding which agent to go with (yes, she had several wanting to represent her).

What would that be like?

There were so many great sessions. Following are some of the words of advice I wrote down:

• Critique groups can be wonderful, but they can also be crippling. Put your work in the hands of people you trust. -- James Dashner
• Let yourself be jealous because it makes you ambitious. -- James Dashner
• Don't write just what's hot in the market. -- Tyler Whiteside
• Attend writers conferences -- Tyler Whiteside and James Dashner (and others)
• Critique groups should include people who like and read your genre. -- Mette Ivie Harrison
• Write more than one book before trying to publish because once you start marketing you have so little time to write. -- Anna Del C Dye
• The average number of books sold by self-publishing authors is 16.
• For a killer opening you need a first sentence that makes the reader want to read the first paragraph which makes the reader want to read the first chapter.
• When writing strong women, they don't have to 'kick butt' in a physical sense but can be strong as problem solvers, be proactive, stand up for what they believe, act with strength in spite of their weaknesses.
• Pay it Forward -- be supportive of other fledgling writers. Don't say negatives things about other writers' works. If you don't like them, don't say anything.
• If you write a childrens' book and schedule school visits, it's good to to plan a book signing in a location in the area of the school within a week of the visit.
• Romance works when the reader buys into the characters and believes in them as a couple. In a sense, the reader needs to fall in love, too.
• Don't sacrifice your story for reality.
• Don't quit.
• Don't think you've got it made when you start selling.
• Don't let rejections get you down. Go out to dinner with every 10th rejection.
• Finish that first manuscript.
• The best way to get out of the Slush Pile is to get into it in the first place.
• Network - be nice to everybody
• There's no one right way to write a story.
• The writer's job is to write the best story ever; let the editor fix the punctuation.
• Favorite new word: "suckify" by Elana Johnson
• A pitch to an agent is short, emotionally driven, interesting, full of conflict, about someone, your book in bullet points. It is NOT rambling, every plot point, bland, without conflict, about the 40,000 people who live in the world you've created.

And the best word of advice from James Dashner: The first thing you have to do to be published is be born.

ETA:

A quote by author Dave Farland that I posted on Facebook got a response from a college professor friend of mine:

"You can learn a lot of bad habits in college writing classes." --Dave Farland

Bert commented (bolding is mine):

as a college writing instructor, I agree...

Academic writing is suitable for the academic world, just as legal or business or military writing is suitable for a particular audience. The beginning lesson for any writing class OUGHT to be understanding audience and purpose.

There's a time to express oneself and a time to realize "This isn't about me," but there is never a time to forget the audience.

I thought that was brilliant.

Anatomy of a Tale

I've been trying to work on WIP #3, but my recalcitrant WIP #1 keeps calling to me. One of my critique group members suggested I take a break from it for a month and work on something else, saying I might be able to view it differently when I go back to it.

But it won't let me alone!

As I've been stewing over how best to approach a reshaping of my tale, I need to accommodate the various plotlines and the three distinct parts of the story. I'm told I need to move the beginning closer to the triggering event, which is all well and good, but I need to include the stuff at the beginning because that includes a triggering event as well. *sigh* That implies a lot of jumping around.

Now, bear in mind, I tend to be a rather lineral person. My real world has order. I function best with order. Life happens in a linear way, and I cling to the stability of that straight forwardness. In my day job, one of my responsibilties is election official. I'm not talking about being a poll worker, who helps you on election day. I'm talking about the one responsible for the entire party.

The one who can get sued if I screw up.

So it should be easy to see why my mind thinks in terms of order. For example, I dang sure better have published the legal notice--in the specific time required by state law--identifying the time and place for the test of the electronic counting equipment, or one of losing candidates could challenge the entire election. You can't re-create an election. You can hold another one, but it's really a different election. Not everyone who voted in the thrown out effort will necessarily vote again, or be available to vote again (might have moved, died, be in a coma), or others may vote who didn't the first time, or some voters may have forgotten who they voted for (believe me, it happens) or changed their minds.

So I think it's understandable why I have this orderly mindset. Maybe that's why I so thoroughly enjoy works (like Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings) where the author cleverly blends flashbacks into the current, ongoing tale.

I think I may have found an approach to work around my disability in regards to WIP #1 thanks to Robin Weeks comments in yesterdays post, Brodi Ashton's revision post here, and Ian Bontems' planning post here. I think I know how to approach this now.

Thanks, guys!

ETA: I've been able to have a nice 'chat' with my good friend Donna Hosie about this issue, and she provided great input on it, helping finalize my decision and my approach. You rock, Donna!