Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club (2 days late) :: DEC

I am definitely in holiday mode - I forgot to post on Friday for the book club. :)

I've read four books this month and that will probably be as many as I do read. Interestingly enough, these four books are all from writers I only know about through membership of this blogging community.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but I think I am going to have to go with ...

The Summer I Found You - Jolene Perry

I really loved this book, even if sometimes Kate was a teeny bit annoying. She had good reason to be a bit whiny. And I love how she acted around Aidan, always bluntly drawing attention to his lack of an arm and so on.

It was refreshing to read about two characters dealing with physical imperfections that you don't often find in fiction, particularly in romantic fiction. A girl with diabetes and a guy with one arm. Not your everyday 'fluffy romance' read. :)

I can't wait to read my next Jolene Perry book.

A to Z ~ Neverending Story, the

***Once again, I owe a lot of people comments - but I just spent 20 minutes trying to leave ANY comment, ANYWHERE, and I think I managed to leave one ... Kyra, that's yours. :P So I will have to return comments when my internet next feels like cooperating. Sorry. :( ***

This year my A to Z theme harks back to 2012's theme, in which I listed an A-to-Z of books from my GoodReads "TBR" shelf. This year I want to revisit that list and report on which ones I've read, and what rating I gave them. Where the book hasn't been read, I'll mention other books starting with that letter I have read since 2012. ;)

"N" ... THE NEVERENDING STORY
Status: Not Read

Some other "N" books still on my TBR:

Near Witch, the - Victoria Schwab.
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro.
Night Sky - Jolene Perry.
Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult.
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell.
Not Your Average Fairy Tale - Chantele Sedgwick.
Not Your Fault - Cheyanne Young.
Notebook, the - Nicholas Sparks.
Nothing Special - Geoff Herbach.

Recently read books [medium-size reviews]

 Dizzy - Nyrae Dawn & Jolene Perry

I think there should be a GoodReads star for "I loved it" that falls in between "really liked it" and "it was amazing". If there was I would give this book that star! I really did love it, and I will enjoy re-reading it someday as well. I think Dylan was definitely a hot character, and I really loved Ziah's personality. It was sweet to see the romance unfolding between them, and I tell ya what, there were some hot kissing scenes! The scene in the tunnel is particularly a favourite of mine. ;) So if you're a fan of contemp YA romance, I'd highly recommend this one. Thanks ladies :)


Riversong - Tess Thompson (free from Amazon)

Well, this technically is a romance I guess, 'cause it has a happy ending. But not just between the romantic pair - it's also between our main character and the entire town she returns to. I really loved this book. I enjoyed the often poetic writing style. The read was sadly marred by some formatting issues, mostly typos but also entire words missed out here and there. Thankfully they weren't all through the book, and Thompson knows how to use apostrophes. All the book really needs is a good proof read to be made almost perfect, I think. As for plot, I think the resolution of the Zac / Von issue was rushed a little bit, and I think Zac could have been portrayed as more angry/dangerous. Re: the religious aspect, I didn't realise this was meant to be a Christian book in part. Thankfully it wasn't preachy, and the one character who is overtly religious sort of makes sense, considering his background and so on. Also, the way he talked about God was nice because he found God inside himself.

Wicked Games - Jessica Clare (free from Amazon)

Before I started this one, I'd tried starting a few other freebies that just didn't grip me. But I started this and pretty quickly found myself bursting into snorting laughter and basically hooked on the story. It's definitely fluff in the sense that it doesn't try to tackle serious issues or bring about world peace. And yet I really had a good time reading it. I will say that the "happily ever after" was delivered extremely quickly - like, within 3 sentences at the end! But other than that, the storyline was amusing, and I loved main character Abby's sense of humour - and her sarcasm and bitterness too. In the end that bitterness wasn't portrayed as a flattering thing, but it sure made for great ratings (the book is set on a Survivor-esque reality TV show). The sexy scenes definitely grabbed my attention, and were well written and enjoyable. The early fights between Abby and Dean were classic. And I liked the take on this type of reality show. It was amusing to experience the POV of an extremely unwilling participant in such a show. So, to summarise = it's fluff but it's FUNNN-AY, and sexy/romantic too. :)

War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells

Yeah, I fiiiinally finished this, but don't let the extremely slow pace of reading fool ya. I loved this book. I did see the Tom Cruise movie of this story when it came out, and I am pretty sure I enjoyed it (though can't really remember much of it now), but somebody mentioned that they'd like to see a movie version that is set in the era the book was written in. i.e. NOT a modern-day take. And this was actually what I thought myself on occasion while reading the book for the first time. This book is set in an era where there are hardly any cars, and most people ride bicycles. There aren't mass-murdering weapons of war that humans can bring to bear on the invading aliens, and so there are slaughters of humans who are as puny ants in the path of the fearsome Martians. I definitely agree that a movie set in the era the book describes would have potential to be awesome. This is the first of H.G. Wells's works that I've read, and having read it I can say I would love to read more of his work.

NaNo '12 winner - now to finish the story!

I passed the 50k mark in NaNo back on day 15, and currently I'm at 88,329 words. I made a wild stab and guessed I might have 20k more to go in the story, but quite honestly I don't really know where I'll finish up at. What I'm pretty sure I do know is that my story will, as usual, be bloated and in need of some slash 'n burn. But at least I don't think it'll get anywhere near my most bloated efforts of the past, which have been known to hit in the region of 150k. Yikes!

Ideally I'd like this story to be 85-95k at most, but to be honest I don't even know what the "recommended" wordcounts are for NA novels. Anybody got any thoughts on that? I know that people have always told me, "It should be as long as it needs to be", but honestly, a 200k YA romance is probably going to raise a few eyebrows for the wrong reasons...right? ;)

Anyway, my new goal is to finish the story itself by November's end. This way I will achieve one of my other 2012 goals, which is to rewrite my DAPHNE novel completely. Overall I can say I'm pretty happy with how I've gone, though there have been moments during November when I've been rather appalled at the absolute crap I've been writing. It's okay, though - that stuff will be fixed in revisions!

How have you gone during November with whatever you've been working on?

P.S. I read my first Jolene Perry novel
(that link is to my review which contains spoilers, beware!)
over the weekend,

and now I want more. MOOOOORE! :)

P.P.S. "Baby Faces Blogfest" sign-ups below (for info on this blogfest, check here).

Ways to help your author friends

Nope, this is not my post...but I want to mention Jolene Perry's post on this very topic. Because it made me realise I needed to tell some people that I haven't forgotten their books!

I have a bunch of books from blogger writer friends that I have yet to read (including Ciara Knight, and my friend Carmen Rane Hudson). I just want all of you to know that I will be reading them! I will be leaving reviews on GoodReads (and anywhere else you want me to leave them!) once I'm done. It's really hard for me to prioritise my reading, because I have so much of it to do. My TBRRN shelf (to-be-read-right-now) is rather packed. Then I have an entire other bookcase full of TBR books. None of that includes the eBooks I've got stashed, ready to have at.

But I will get there! So just remember you are not forgotten!

Lovin' the Language Blogfest

Yep, time for another Blogfest!! This time Jolene Perry at Been Writing? is hosting, and here's what she says about the blogfest's requirements:

"Pick any five lines or any five SHORT excerpts from one of your WIPs. If you're feeling shy, and don't want to share from your own work, share from something you LOVE." - Jolene Perry

So for my excerpt I decided to go with one of my BuNoWriMo projects (I've been working on a fair few...). This one is tentatively titled JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE, and I opted to choose 5 short excerpts from it, as per the rules above.

So here are my excerpts:

1.
     The banshee rushes at me in a blur of movement, almost too fast to see. I duck out of the way in time, but only barely. Her shrieking is incredible, a sound to threaten the eardrums and set the teeth on edge. No...not teeth. I don't want to think about teeth.

2.
     In the warehouse, we eat shitty beans and mouldy bread for dinner. Not all that appetising, but hey, it's food. There is no meat—couldn't find one single supplier this week that had anything to offer that wasn't rancid. There's not much conversation, either. Everyone's feeling solemn this evening.

3.
     Gwen doesn't look at me, and I don't look at her. Nobody is looking anywhere but straight ahead. Raids are a pretty common occurrence, but things have changed a lot since the early days. In the early days, we were curious, careless. Reckless. We've learned our lessons since then.

4.
     "You…don't touch," the banshee says, and I realise she's talking to me. Her glowing eyes are darting between me and Lazar, and I know what she means. I'm not to try and tackle her to the ground, attempt to rescue him in any way. As if I could tackle her on my own.

5.
     "So," Lazar mutters, after my laughter has petered out and I've been silent a few long moments. "You know you're fired, right, Mason?"
     I sigh loudly, then nod. "Yep. Kind of figured…"
     We sit in silence for a time, and then Lazar speaks again. "And…anything you want to tell me?"
     I look at him, and see him tugging at his own shirt, indicating himself.
     "Oh. Yes. You're fired too, Sir."

And now it's time to read everyone else's! Thanks Jolene for a great Blogfest idea! :)

Some upcoming blogfests & a contest

Hi all, quick entry today just to advertise some upcoming Blogfests:

June 15th - Qurious Quirks Blogfest

1. On June 15th, post questions or a small writing prompt relating to quirks on your blog and challenge others to answer in the comments. You must accept your own challenge. You can answer using one of your characters, someone you know in real life, or yourself.
2. Go to at least two other blogs and accept their challenges. I will repost the Linky at the end of my own blogfest entry on June 15th.

- Brooke R. Busse

June 20-22nd - Favourite Book Challenge Blogfest

1. Pick your top five favorite books
2. Between Jun 20 and 22, write one line of what each book is about and then write one line of why you liked it. Think of it like a twitter pitch for other people’s work. Semi-colons are cheating, but you can use them anyway.
3. Go to other blogs and discuss the books.
4. If you do not keep a blog, put your challenge in the comments on the day of the event.

- Teralyn Rose Pilgrim

June 27th - Lovin' the Language Blogfest

1. Pick any five lines (yes, it can be a few short lines that roll together. That's okay, and is probably what I'll do) from one of your WIPs. If you're feeling shy, and don't want to share from your own work, share from something you LOVE.

- Jolene Perry

So there you go, some fun blogfests in works!!

In other news, my fellow writer/blogger Jenni Merritt is having a Race to 100 contest, wherein as soon as she hits 100 followers somebody gon' get a prize! I follow Jenni's blog already of course, but I do highly recommend that the rest of you follow it too! Jenni's a great chick!

And that's all I have to say! No really, I'm serious!!