THOUGHTS: Deadlines & Duties

Deadlines & duties; or better known as my adventurous commitment to writing 1,667 words per day for 30 days while dealing with a lot of other life commitments. How do I manage my time? What is more and less important during this month?

Let me go ahead and mention that as of right now I am 10,000 words behind on my word count. Does that make me any less of a NaNoWriMo-er? I don’t think so, because let’s get on thing straight: NaNoWriMo is hard!

Where have I gone wrong so far? Well, while 1,667 is totally a doable word count, sometimes life messes that up. I should go ahead and mention that time management is not a strength that I mention during interviews for jobs.

So this post is here to serve the purpose of helping others during this month as well as myself in all time management heavy endeavors I shall make thus forth in my life. My deadline is midnight, November 30^th, and my current duties are many. But is NaNoWriMo really just a goal, or is it more of a process to learn and to grow as writers?

November is a big month for me. It’s my first full month of a brand new job that has me working Monday through Friday 8-6, which is incredibly adult of me and I don’t usually do adult. It is also the one-year anniversary of my girlfriend and I becoming a couple, and it’s honestly the first time I’ve really had money in about a month or two.

It has been a crazy year, and the first month where this year isn’t innately crazy, I decide to go and make it a little crazy. This is the first year that I’m completely committed to completely NaNoWriMo. I’ve made commitments to myself these last couple of years, but this is the year. I had my story idea and very detailed outline prepped and ready for November 1^st. I may be behind, but I’m determined. Plus, I’m taking this first official year as more of a process trial run, so that I don’t feel completely overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed easily.

So what is this post all about? It’s my written commitment to finally be a NaNoWriMo winner for one. For two, it’s a tip to others and to myself on how to succeed during this crazy month of November.

Deadlines are important and should not be feared. They should be welcomed and loved like baby animals. While it’s great to have a schedule and maintain your time management, it’s also important to have deadlines and not to neglect your other duties during NaNoWriMo. This is so easy to do in the heat of writer’s frenzy.

I’m vegan (which involves a lot of cooking food for my meals), three beautiful dogs, a full-time job, bills, an amazing girlfriend, and a lot of TV shows to keep up with. I was bound to get behind on my word count this month. I had just hoped it wouldn’t happen till later on, or in less of an amount. But things happen. That’s the joy of a deadline. It holds you accountable even when life messes up your daily word count.

Sure, there’s a point when some people get so far behind that they simply cannot come back, but I am. The goal is to keep swimming even when you’re drowning. Writer’s block happens to everyone, and they still eventually recover. I’ve been through college, so deadlines definitely make me accountable.

And honestly, that’s what this post is all about. Different things work for different people, but we as writers and reading have to have something to hold ourselves accountable to both our paying and our recreational duties. No duty is more important that the other, but they have to be managed and taken care of in a certain order that only the owner of said duties knows.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

            Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.

            Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live.

            So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

            Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.

            Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming, Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And is Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

            I am actually astonished by how much I ended up enjoying Magonia. When the book initially began, I thought it was going to be one of those stories that have way too much extra fluff. A few chapters in, however, and I realized it was fluff but rather voice. Maria Dahvana Headley created such a unique and raw voice in this story that roped me in and didn’t let me go. The premise was gorgeous and ne: a girl drowning on Earth from the air because she belongs in the sky with a race of birdlike creatures straight out of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. It was beautiful and poignant and I’m gasping for breath waiting for the next book.

            While the voice and imagery was brilliant, the story did go off on some tangents a little too much. While I loved Aza and Jason (actually just all of the characters and creatures), I thought there could have been a little less randomness and a little more plot. I think more could have been done with the development of Aza’s life in Magonia. It just felt like she accepted the world too quickly. I would have liked for her to try and escape or plot her return to Jason somehow.

            While I loved the addition of Aza’s Magonian love interest, there was nothing there. It felt like there should have been a little more chemistry between them or just something. I felt him change, but I didn’t feel anything from Aza. Also, Aza welcomed her birth mother back into her heart way too easily. For a smart girl, Aza was not nearly suspicious enough about Magonia and this war brewing between it and Earth. While the synopsis told me of a war in Aza’s heart over which side of this war to be on, the book didn’t give me any of that tension.

            The last thing that saddened me was the lack of emphasis and beautiful writing on Aza’s ability to finally breathe again. I expected that moment to be lush and vivid considering the beauty of the rest of the book, but I was a little let down. She’s down on Earth, drowning, and then she’s in Magonia, breathing. There was not excitement and that’s what I wanted for our previously dying protagonist.

            Yes, I can go on and on like so many other reviewers about the amazingly fresh history and mythology of this book, but I won’t. Anybody who has read this can tell you it was an amazing book (me being one of them), but you’ll just have to read it for yourself. Now excuse me while I go find my heart, because some bird just gobbled it up and flew away.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

            Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls-school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it’s really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in sever different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real “pavement artist”—but can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

            Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she’s on her most dangerous mission—falling in love.

            You know when you read a book and you know that only a total teeny-bopper-hopeless-romantic-uber-girl should like such a book? And then you realize that you’re 23 and apparently fall under that category because of how much you adore said book? Well I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You is one such book for me. I won’t lie. I’ve kind of avoided the Gallagher Girls series solely because it seemed a little too girly-chick-flick-ish for me and because of my fear that I’d love it despite such reasoning. I read Ally Carter’s Heist Society and then I read her All Fall Down and they were both really good, so I decided to finally give this one a chance. And here I am, giving this book five stars because I absolutely loved everything about it.

            All the details that were overkill for The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, were on-point and just enough for this book. No detail was out of place or unnecessary, and that’s what I love about Carter’s work. She’s gives a lot of background detail and lingo like it’s everyday small-talk, but in such a way that there’s no overkill! It was perfect and I fell head over heels for the school, the world, and the characters.

            I wish I could have gotten to know Cammie’s classmates better because of the final exam. These were her sisters in a mission and I wish I’d known them like sisters. The stakes throughout the book could have also been higher, especially since the book is a part of a series. While I loved Cammie’s desires to be a normal girl, I still think there should have been more fear for the consequences. I was never worried that, assuming Cammie got caught, that she’d ever be expelled or given memory-erasing tea. I feared it more for her best friends, but not so much for the headmasters’ daughter. You feel me? There could have been a stronger motive behind Cammie’s desire to be normal of course, and there really could have been some sort of minute plot to carry on through this book and into all the others. These were all nit-picky things though because I though the book was solid. A little bit too stand-alone, but super solid.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Jack the Ripper is back, and he’s coming for Rory next…

            Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London to start a new life at boarding school just as a series of brutal murders mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper killing spree of more than a century ago has broken out across the city. The police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man believed to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him—the only one who can see him. And now Rory has become his next target…unless she can tap her previously unknown abilities to turn the tables.

            The Name of the Star is so much British boarding school love, so little time. Maureen Johnson put a lot of time and beauty into the details of the boarding school that Rory moves into in London. Did she spend a little too much time on the school details and not enough on the actual plot? That’s up for debate.

            While I really enjoyed this book, I definitely think the amount of detail that went into everything about the boarding school was overkill. I get it! Rory is living the dream. She’s moved to London and is living and going to school at a boarding school! I wish there’d been more exciting detail about London in general instead of so much focus on the school. Don’t get me wrong: I loved the school. Sign me up! But it was a bit much.

            As for other aspects of the story I enjoyed, there are the characters. While Rory’s classmates were kind of drab (other than the Hockey-loving Claudia and Rory’s roommate), I really adored the “Ghostbuster” squad. They didn’t get nearly enough time, detail, and characterization (because that all went to the school) and they were still way better than most of the people at the school. Give me Stephen over Jerome any day, because I feel like Jerome was an awful character and there was clearly no chemistry between him and Rory. I assume he’s not her forever love interest, and I really wish the Ripper would have just killed him because there was less than nothing between him and Rory and it was awful to read them get forced together. Boo (and her best friend, of course), Jazza, and Callum were all fine characters, but Jerome was the epitome of awful.

            Before I type out the words Jerome and awful together in any more sentences, I’ll digress. My favorite part of the book was the plot point of using people who’ve had a near-death experience and have been locked away in an insane asylum to hunt down ghosts. That’s not a bad idea at all! Either way, I really liked that part but overall the book was kind of a disappointment. I wanted to like it more than I actually did, and there were just a lot of things wrong.

            Firstly, there was way too much set up (too many details!). I seriously waited half of the book for something to actually happen, and when Rory finally became aware of her abilities she didn’t actually do anything with them. Then there were those extra chapters in different POVs that did absolutely nothing for the story. Plus, just because it’s an episodic sort of series does not mean that there shouldn’t be some overarching plot for the whole series (and so far there’s nothing). And finally, there was the fact that Rory expletive gave up at the end. Things were rough with the Ripper and she said, “Oh, just kill me!”. What a weak and disappointing character! I want a strong character that’s willing to do something, anything, to stop evil, but I guess that just wasn’t a part of Rory’s character chart. I honestly don’t think I can give this series another chance after the main character gave up, and that’s the biggest disappointment of all.

XOXO Tia

THOUGHTS: The Dos and Don'ts of Writing YA

 

            The amazing thing about writing YA is that it is a genre that is really blossoming as of late. There are so many new subgenres, styles, and motifs of writing that were not in this genre even 15 years ago. Times have certainly changed, and YA has become a genre for experimentation in a way. Similar to how teens are constantly experimenting with who they are, the genre has been experimenting with who it is. The genre is always changing just like it’s readership, but there are certain things that should and should not be found in YA books. Everyone is different, but I think this list is a good, comprehensive look at the dos and don’ts of writing YA.

THE DOS

1.     Have a strong, clear main character for the reader to follow through the story’s journey. Even in multiple POV stories where there are two or more main characters, they still need to be strong and clear.

2.     Make sure that at the end of every chapter there’s a slight cliffhanger, peak in the plot, question, new discovery, or something that won’t be cleared up until the next chapter. This keeps readers reading even though it’s five in the morning on a Monday, and they still haven’t done their math homework.

THE DON’TS

1.     I don’t care how amazing the world you have created is, or that you did detailed character charts for your main character’s whole family lineage. Don’t put all that in your writing. Story details have a time and a place, and if you have an awesome detail that doesn’t then you should nix it. Just because you know everything, doesn’t mean the reader needs to or even wants to.

2.     Long chapters are a big no-no. Young adults have busy lives. They’re constantly doing something, and nobody wants to stop reading if they’re not at the start of a new chapter. Plus, short chapters means readers feel more accomplished when they’ve read 15 out of 70 chapters more so than 2 out of 10 chapters.

3.     Please don’t start your book in anybody’s POV other than your main character’s. It’s confusing and a little jarring to be experiencing something exciting in one person’s POV and then find out that person is a secondary character and now the rest of the story will be in this other person’s POV. This, of course, is a little different for multiple POV stories.

Like my list of favorite tropes, this is one of those posts that will probably get updated when I come across more atrocious don’ts in my reading.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

            Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather’s ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.

            And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess’s classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

            Despite my unadulterated love for Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ writing, I was sincerely concerned that I wasn’t going to enjoy this book when I initially heard about it. I’m not really into politics and that sort of this, so this book was mentally out of my comfort zone. Good thing I read it, though, because it was really great if a bit awkwardly bumpy in places. Look at me, reading a political thriller of sorts. Oh my gosh! Am I turning into an adult?

            First off, big spoiler in this paragraph, I’m going to mention a few of the things that turned me off and out of the book’s world a little. Now I realize that I am one of zero (and I do mean zero because as of right now I’m on the fence and holding my utter judgment until after book two), but I was not a fan of how Tess’s sister became Tess’s mom. It’s not that I didn’t love the plot twist, because trust me I loved it and the story potential is brings, it’s simply that I did not like how it was revealed. It just seemed so mundane. Blah blah, things are falling apart, I don’t want you not to know that I’m really your mother, blah blah. I thought there could have been more build up, or hey (better yet!), Tess could have figured it out on her own! Gasp! How does she come up with this?

            More on her figuring things out on her own, though. When hearing about this book, I really thought that I was going to get to see Tess become a fixer for this “high school” scene. I wouldn’t have even minded more “cases” being thrust upon her before the big conspiracy case. There just needed to be more of her becoming a fixer alongside her sister and then there needed to be a cross and some links between cases. The way that occurred in the book just seemed flat. It was a nice variation to the usual to kid in high school trope but I don’t think it was executed well enough to be an acceptable differentiation.

            The last thing that bugged me was how quickly Tess forgave Ivy for leaving her with her grandfather and for stopping writing letters. I would be livid if that sort of person uprooted me from the life I love to move to Boston and live with them. I’d never forgive them, even if they did tell me a huge secret that really “changes things”. I understand that tragedy brings people together, but to me Ivy was a bully that tore Tess from her home. Considering Tess’s key character trait of despising bullies, her forgiving Ivy so quickly just didn’t ring true.

            Now on to what I loved about the book: which is a lot! As I mentioned before, I’m not a huge politics fan but this book had me hooked. The more of the conspiracy that got revealed, the more I got invested. I would have liked if Tess could have figured out some secrets before her sister, but in the end she really got to determine her own fate and figure things out on her own (which I loved).

            Tess was a dynamic character for sure, and I loved her interactions with her friends and I adored Henry. Now there’s a ship for which I’ll knit a sail! But characters are never something with which I’ve seen Barnes struggle. She can build great characters that I will fall in love with inevitably and no matter what.

            One thing I was a huge hopeful for in the beginning was the maybe love triangle between Bodie and Adam. I thought it was so inventive to have a love triangle with the sister rather than the main character. In that instant, the book really felt like a TV series with the clear life of Ivy and then the life of Tess. An almost split POV story, if you will, and I thought it was going to be amazing! But then I was denied that joy by Ivy lackluster “love-type” emotions for Bodie. Finishing the book, however, I’m still hopeful that there’s a love triangle in Ivy’s future that I’ll get to read all about.

            And yes, there were the twists, thrills, and all other Barnes amusement park rides. There’s never a dull, untwisted moment in the book, and never a person without some sort of ulterior motive. But I’m guessing that’s just D.C. and I can’t wait for more.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz

            What’s your worst nightmare?

            For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams.

            And for seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Ivy doesn’t even like scary movies, but she’s ready to face her real-world fears. Parker’s sympathetic words and perfect smile help keep her spirits up…at least for now.

            Not everyone is so charming, though. Horror-film fanatic Garth Vader wants to stir up trouble. It’s bad enough he has to stay in the middle of nowhere with this group—the girl who locks herself in her room; the know-it-all roommate; “Mister Sensitive”; and the one who’s too cheery for her own good. Someone has to make things interesting.

            Except, things are already a little weird. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing.

            By the time Ivy and Parker realize what’s really at stake, it’s too late to wake up and run.

            Well it has certainly been awhile since I’ve been able to actually read. Depressing, I know. Things have just really gotten out of hand in my life, and I’m slowly trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what the heck I’m doing. I can’t promise regular postings right now (I’ll definitely let you know when I finally find the correct puzzle pieces for the puzzle I’m working on right now), but I’m going to try and stop being a stranger. I made this blog as a commitment promise to myself and I don’t know if anyone will read my words and appreciate them as I do, but in the end this one’s for me. Now, onward to the review of this wonderful book by one of my all-time favorite authors.

            You know that one book that you read late into the night because you absolutely had to finish it? No not that one, the one that scared your grown self just enough for you to have to sleep with the lights on. So far, I’ve only really had two books do that to me, and they’re both written by one Laurie Faria Stolarz. The first is a book you may have heard of called Blue is for Nightmares (if you haven’t heard of it then I have no idea how you’re still alive). The second is titled Welcome to the Dark House, and just so happens to be the book that I’m here to talk about. Well, rave may be a more appropriate term.

            A big issue that a lot of work in the horror is running into these days is the advances in technology that have truly shaped and transformed the newest generations. The classic horror pieces involve going into the woods and no one hearing you scream. Nowadays, however, that’s becoming more and more difficult because of cell phones and social media. Writers of horror have to come up with more imaginative ways to get their victims into horrific situations than the easy, peasy no cell reception method. And trust me, it’s harder than it seems!

            The thing I really enjoyed about Welcome to the Dark House, aside from the wide array of unique characters, was the way in which Stolarz created her own horror monsters and then literally brought it to life. The Nightmare Elf happens to be quite terrifying and very original. I kind of scoffed at the name of the monster, but by the end I was truly terrified (hence the sleeping with the lights on bit). Stolarz introduces her characters into a house of horrors. There are the horror buffs and there are the scaredy cats. These characters work to both amplify the terror of the Nightmare Elf and discredit it, which are both important in horror because they keep things suspenseful. Is the Nightmare Elf real, or is it just a part of this contest? Neither the characters nor we truly know until the very end.

            Another thing I enjoyed was the twist of magic. Sometimes twists like that can make a book take a turn for the worst, but it helped build the intensity of the fear at the end. This whole contest revolved around the director of a slew of horror films, and how, in a Willy Wonka-esque style, he invites a group of teens who’ve written essays over the things that scare them most, to live in the iconic house of one of his movie horrors. The book overall deals very well with the technology of this age, but then it hinders the characters in the most perfect way when that technology is taken away.

            Lastly, the characters. I really enjoyed the variety and depth to the characters, and different point of view each chapter definitely worked in favor for the book. What I enjoyed more was that while I liked the characters when reading their POV chapters, I hated them when reading chapters in other peoples’ POVs. I think that’s what really made this book great. Each character’s chapter was completely different and I was able to truly immerse myself and become the different characters with their different thoughts and options. So while I understood why Ivy was so scared in the house, I still thought she was weak and pointless when I was reading Darth’s chapters, and vice versa. Each character was vastly different, and I hurt when they faced their fears. I loved every character despite their flaws, because I was able to really connect with all of them.

            However, this book did have its flaws. The ending was ridiculous. The necklace? Really Parker? I understand you were weak, but come on. It wasn’t believable, but there just had to be that sort of ending. I didn’t like the ending because I didn’t feel like any one of them really faced their fears in a gratifying enough way. I get that it was all a con in a way, but it didn’t work. I know this may sound like spoilers, but it’s not. Also, while I appreciated Ivy’s fear as a dose of reality in the story, I also thought it made her a weaker character. She was scared at the beginning and she was scared at the end. I don’t feel like she grew as a character, and neither did any of the others for that matter. Plus, her and Parker just fell for each other after one night. No way, Jose. The book seemed a lot like a movie, and that’s why the two are different things. Books are supposed to be in-depth and show more growth, whereas movies show just a snip of the whole story (a.k.a. the most eventful part). I’ll definitely have to read the sequel to see if I can really love this series, or if I’ll just like/appreciate it, because right now I see a flat character and an terrifying Nightmare Elf whom I’d enjoy reading kill the former. I loved how the book started out with Ivy’s fear, but I just wish she’d been more than her fear, and that’s ultimately why this book got such a low rating despite the fact that I stayed up all night reading it. 

XOXO Tia