On Life, Books, and Writing

Ballad, by Maggie Stiefvater

2009-09-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

I just finished Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater and let me tell you- the book reads like poetry. The entire thing is written with such care that you can't help but wonder at the work and pure talent that went into it. Shiver is incredibly beautiful and poignant and a truly sweet love story. With werewolves, so double the awesome! And Maggie's treatment of the werewolf mythology was very different from anything I have ever read, and quite brilliant.

So go buy Shiver.

But this is not a review post (though I will probably do one of those later), it is to broadcast Maggie's new book, Ballad:

He turned towards me. For a long moment, he stood facing me. I was held, anchored to the ground – not by his music, which still called and pushed against the music already in my head and said grow rise follow – but by his strangeness. By his fingers, spread over the ground, holding something into the earth, by his shoulders, squared in a way that spoke of strength and unknowability, and most of all, by the great, thorny antlers that grew from his head, spanning the sky like branches.

Then he was gone, and I missed his going in the instant that the sun fell off the edge of the hill, abandoning the world to twilight.

I'll say it again: poetry.

Here is the link to amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Gathering-Faerie-Maggie-Stiefvater/dp/0738714844/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3

I'm very much looking forward to this one!

Later.

Small exerpt from my book, just for fun.

2009-08-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

“That’s your costume?”
Molly looked down at what she was wearing, making sure that she hadn’t forgotten any parts of it. “Why, what’s wrong with it?”
Tony coughed. “Nothing... really. It’s just, rather conservative, don’t you think?”
“Why?” Molly asks. “Is there a written rule that female heroes always have to be scantily clad?”
“I could probably find somewhere-”
“No.” She says, turning back to the full length mirror hanging on the inside of her closet door. “I want to wear pants, I’ll wear pants. Seriously, have you ever tried to do a kick in a skirt? I already have a belt, I don’t need another one.” She smoothes out her hair from where it was starting to get frizzy under the goggles.
“Spandex then.” Tony suggests, leaning against the headboard of her bed.
“Pass. Do you have any idea how much shit I have to secret about my person? Can’t hide a heat-ray under spandex.”
“I thought only villains had rays.”
Molly glared at her best friend via the reflection of the mirror. “Fine. Can’t hide a two pound uber-turbo-charged hair dryer under spandex.”
“Y’could try.”
Molly gave Tony a look to indicate how little she appreciated his humour at the moment, and went back to surveying her outfit.

As you might be able to tell, it's about superheroes. But it's also about life and love and following your dreams, even if no one thinks you'll make it.

In a world where all superheroes have superpowers, Molly Maldonado is trying to break the mold by being the first certified hero without any. All while finishing high school.

...It's better than it sounds, promise.

A Poem

2009-08-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

I Tried To Find A Word Today, by Maitland

I tried to find a word today.
It would not come,
No matter how much I called for it.
It stayed, stubborn,
Stuck in the void between mind and page,
Until I gave up.
And then it found me,
In the middle of the night
It yelled at me
“Here I am!”
Until I got up
To write it down.
The words like to keep me on my toes.

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

2009-08-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

(slight spoilers, beware)

In Mary's world, there are simple truths.
The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village....

This book has possibly-quite-actually become my favorite book I have read in a good long while. Brilliant, it is the debut novel of Carrie Ryan, but you wouldn't have guessed it from the writing. The story is told in a manner that is both beautiful and descriptive, as well as straightforward enough that I wasn't pulling out my hair waiting for something to happen.

I have to admit something: I have an issue with female protagonists. I don't, as a rule, prefer to read books with them. Same goes for watching movies. But Mary, (the protagonist in The Forest of Hands and Teeth) I could read a hundred books with her as the lead and still be wanting for more. She is a no-nonsense type of gal, who is real enough to be realistic, and also awesome enough that I kind of really want to be like her, in a lot of ways.

The book itself is set generations after the zombie Apocalypse, (whom they call the unconsecrated) and is a tale of living and loving and never giving up on the things that you believe in. It pulls at your heartstrings the same time as it makes you want to yell with excitement. I truly loved the characters within this book, each and every one of them, and was truly sad when this book ended. Not to give anything away, but the ending... well, let's just say if some of these story lines aren't expanded on in the next book, I will cry. Unabashedly. Possibly in public.

To conclude: Buy this book. Buy it for your friends, your classmates, your co-workers, the nice lady at the bakery. Read it, you will love it, I promise. Because really, what's better than zombies and paths-you-are-not-allowed-to-go-down-by-order-of-creepy-nuns?

5/5 stars. definitely.

Dull Boy; a review

2009-08-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

Maybe I need a costume.

Trust me- I don't want to wear a costume. Skintight spandex isn't really my thing, the ski-mask-plus-bathing-suit combo didn't exactly inspire confidence when I tried it on (please forget I even mentioned that), and where am I supposed to find a leather jumpsuit? But at this point I have to consider all my options.

And before you start thinking I'm a complete freak, I should probably admit something:

I have superpowers.

So starts Dull Boy, one of my favorite reads this year. Not only because it deals with superheroes (whom I love, and that are the central theme of one of my books) but also because it's a very stirring and frankly honest coming of age story.

The main character, Avery, is an often awkward teenager who finds he has superpowers and doesn't really know how to go about dealing with them. He is at some points embarrassing, but in a good way- the way that any real person would behave in a given situation. Not absolutely suave and confident, but rather hesitant and unsure of what to do, and I found that incredibly refreshing. I fell in love with Avery's character, and the others in the cast as well. The supporting characters were all incredibly well thought out with intricate back-stories and their own desires and reasons apart from the main character.

I would totally recommend this book, not just to the YA intended audience, but to adults as well. The storyline was well-paced and the dialogue was perfectly natural and interesting.

4/5 stars

Emotional connections between characters

2009-07-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

I love to write. It is one of my greatest joys in life. I love to create people and places and situations and connections. I really do.

But I also hate it. Because sometimes I know what I want to happen, what I want someone to be like, but when I go to put it down on paper, I don't know. It doesn't come out right. Or at all. It's flat and lifeless, and a character whom I love and cherish and want to be awesome, is just not at all anything I thought they were.

And I don't know why this is! I can see them, hear them speak, but I can't for the life of me write them the way they are in my head. They morph into something I don't want them to be, and that I can't fix.

It pisses me off. It's like trying to draw something... a tree, when you're not an artist. You could be looking directly at a tree at the time of sketching, but the result may not look like a tree at all. And it's frustrating, because you can see the tree, you know what you need to do, but you just can't do it. And there's no real concrete answer why it seems impossible to put that tree limb at the correct angle when the original one is two feet in front of you. I hate it so much.

I'm saying this because I'm writing right now about two brothers, twins, and their reaction in a certain situation. And I can write those two just fine, they are like best friends to me, I've been writing them for so long. So I have their personalities and speech patterns down very well.

But for some reason beyond my comprehension I cannot write a believable brotherly bond between them. They love each other, one is quite protective of the other, but I just cannot get that down on paper like it is in my head. Whatever I write just comes off as flat, or fake, or overly dramatic. Not believable at all.

I cannot write this connection between these two characters like it is in my head, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips as to how to get over this. That is, if anyone will read this entry, which I seriously doubt. But hey, if you do, and feel like commenting, start a discussion! It will make my day and take my mind off of my frustration.

Later!

p.s. I wrote this in one go and haven't gone back over it. I have terrible grammar and spelling skills, and I tend to repeat points needlessly. I apologize.

Hello, Void

2009-07-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to put down here yet, as I've just started. However, I thought that if anyone manages to stumble upon this, my little niche I've carved into the internet that I will call my own, and wonders to themselves, "self, what have I stumbled upon?" I thought it best to clear thing's up a bit for you.

I'm no-one in particular, with bad grammar skills, and a very strong love of commas that borders on the obsessed. I'm also a writer, trying to get published. Possibly not such a good combo, but hey, I'm an optimist.

In the meantime, I continue to write, and read, and live.

So here I will be posting on those things, as well as I will be reviewing a lot of books. Which I guess still counts as reading, but I just wanted to be specific on that, since the majority of my posts here will involve a book review of some sort. Mostly YA, mostly Fantasy, but not always.

If you want to see a review here of a particular book, tell me. I will do my best to see it done.

Thank you for reading this, unless of course you didn't, in which case it doesn't really matter anyways.

Later!