Writing Wednesday -- What's New?

Hey guys. As I don't have the usual commitments I do today, I can afford to blog a lot earlier.

So then, what's new on the writing front? Well:


1) I FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT! YAY! Am now on my six week break before I start edits, as recommended by author Stephanie Morril. It's a lot harder than you think. My fingers keep drifting to the Microsoft Word icon... must... not... edit...

2) 2/3 through a short story about Slenderman -- or a variation, at least. I've turned fiction into local folklore, which of course the main character doesn't believe -- in the beginning, at least...

3) Trying to think of another idea for a writing competition I'm entering. I have one, but... it's a bit... random, let's say. One aspect of it is original and the other is cliché. It's hard to explain.

4) I have an official writing partner now! *waves to Abby*

5) Need to decide which of two projects to attack next. I'm leaning towards #1 now, which is better than last week at least. No doubt next week I'll be leaning towards #2. But "we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it" -- to quote my Favourite TV Show Ever, Ghost Whisperer.

6) Lastly (if this counts), I'm compiling a list of Original Quotes and one of Favourite Book Quotes.


That's about it, I guess. Still a grammar nazi, if anyone was wondering, and still finding mistakes in published books occasionally -- something which simultaneously drives me nuts and makes me weirdly happy, because it leads me to believe I should be an editor. Fun fun fun!!!

Let's see if I still want to be an editor when I'm on draft 8 of WIP and still not satisfied ;) It sucks to be a perfectionist.

(Belated) Book Talk: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Sorry this post is late! Internet went on Friday and yesterday we were out all day.

I have once again proved my theory correct. Every book I buy thinking, "well... I'm not sure whether I REALLY want this... but I guess I'll buy it. What the hey" -- I end up loving. Seriously. It happened with four out of my five favourite books ever -- and number five was a magazine freebie. I kid you not.

So now it has happened yet again, with Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This post is perfectly timed actually, because I literally just saw the movie, oh, ten minutes ago? I approve of the film, by the way, which is rare for me. They did the book justice.

Quiet, friendless freshman Charlie has spent his whole life watching from the sidelines. His first experience of high school is nerve-wrecking to say the least. Never had a date, never kissed a girl, never been to a school dance... Charlie is a wallflower, and while this allows him to absorb and understand the world, he has never experienced it. That is why Charlie sets out to "participate" with the help of his new friends Patrick and Sam, the latter of which Charlie might just have a teensy weensy *cough* HUGE crush on. Just maybe.

What makes this book really interesting is that it's all told through letters from Charlie to his "dear friend" -- whom he actually doesn't know. Confused? Read the book and you'll understand. The reason I didn't think I'd really like this book was that at first glance it struck me as too normal. I like weird books -- as you can probably tell from previous Book Talks. Where were all the ghosts? Where were all the werewolves? Where were all the secret societies of immortal Russian monks compelling witches from folklore to save doomed princesses and stalking girls to fulfil the prophecy?!?! A high school coming-of-age book? For me?

But I was so wrong. This is not an ordinary book. This is an extraordinary book. It gave me chills. The letter thing was really cool. The writing is beautiful, but not in the simile-and-metaphor way that usually comes to mind; it's beautiful because Charlie is so utterly honest. I got two amazing quotes for my collection from this book -- "we accept the love we think we deserve" and "and in that moment, I swear we were infinite" -- which I loved so much I took a picture of the page and set it as my top bar picture thingy on google plus. This book was an emotional rollercoaster. By the end I was feeling pretty bipolar to tell you the truth. The highs are high, but the lows... are very low. All in all, despite the slightly melancholy feel to some parts, still a great read.

Star rating: I'm going to cheat and say 4 1/2

Amazon's page:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perks-Being-Wallflower-Stephen-Chbosky/dp/147111614X

And while you're at it, see the film too!!

Triple Music Monday!!! (and quiz!)

Hey guys :)

To compensate for my loooong absence, I will be giving you three songs today. Yay! So without further ado:

Wherever You Will Go by The Calling -- I adore this song with all my heart. There really is nothing else to say. I just absolutely love it.

Defying Gravity from the musical "Wicked!". My favourite song from my favourite musical. What's not to love?

And lastly, Summercat by Billie the Vision and the Dancers -- this has been in my head for a week. Catchy. Very catchy. You have been warned!

And if you want some extra fun:

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/take-quiz.php?id=1306170946433152&a=1&

The Dreaming Anastasia quiz! Approved by author Joy Preble. If you've read the book, do it! You know you want to...

Book Talk: Sirens by Janet Fox

First, guys: I’m so sorry I abandoned you for so long. I was in the hospital but I’m okay now and blogging will resume as normal. Thanks for not overloading me with angry comments ;)

I got this book last year as a giveaway (thank you so much Ms Fox!), and WOW was it good. Set in 1925, Sirens tells the story of 16-year-old Josephine Winter, or Jo, whose father sends her to live in New York with some cousins in order to find a suitable husband. At least, that’s what he says. Jo, though, knows better: this is all just a cover-up, designed to get her away from Danny Connor, gangster extraordinaire.

Upon arriving in Manhattan, Jo is swept up in the glittering, bobbed-hair world of her cousin Melody. New York City isn’t so bad after all. This is the land where dreams come true, and Jo’s dream – making her way on her own, being self-sufficient and maybe, just maybe, becoming a writer – could finally be realised.

But Jo is harbouring a dark secret, one she must keep even from her parents. Her brother, Teddy, who faked his own death last year, is still very much alive, and she’s the only one who knows this. What she doesn’t know is: why would he have to pretend to be dead?

She is determined to find out, and find him.

Me and my mother never agree about books. Ever. But we both adored this one, so that speaks volumes about Ms Fox’s lovely voice and gripping plots. It is a real talent to be able to write something which appeals to both teenagers and adults alike. This is a great historical mystery with romantic elements, and Fox does a wonderful job in immersing the reader in 1920s NYC. She also made me fall in love with a character we never actually meet, which is scary. I’m still trying to figure out how on earth she managed that...

Star Rating: 5/5. Jo was a really interesting and thoughtful heroine, and Lou was a great character too. It just goes to show how there is ALWAYS more than meets the eye.

Find out what Amazon has to say here.

And of other news, one of my favourite trilogies ever, DREAMING ANASTASIA by Joy Preble is currently on sale in the Kindle store until the 23^rd of June. Dreaming Anastasia is $1.99, and Haunted and Anastasia Forever are both $2.99. That’s right! The whole trilogy for under ten bucks. You can’t afford to miss this, people. Joy talks about it more on her blog here, and if you want to know exactly what I think, this link will take you to my review post, and this link to an interview I did with her last year on my old blog to celebrate the release of book 3.

Help get Dreaming Anastasia onto the top 100 list!

AND -- last but not least -- if anyone has any questions they would like to ask KENDARE BLAKE, author of Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares, in the upcoming interview, please leave 'em in the comments section, and providing there isn't a ridiculous number like 37, I'll submit each and every single one. 

Now, I believe you have four awesome books to go buy, so I'll shut up and let you read those instead ;)

And the winner is...

The winner (and only entry) of the THE SWEET DEAD LIFE giveaway is:

*drumroll*

Christina Kit!!!! Congratulations!

Christina, I'm emailing you now with what to do next. Your free copy of a very awesome book is just a hop, skip and an email away! :)

And if you all enjoyed the interview, you'll be excited to know I'm pulling some strings for an interview with ANOTHER amazing author I've talked about here! Can you guess who it will be?

An interview with author JOY PREBLE and a GIVEAWAY!!! :)

TODAY'S THE DAY!

Today's the day where we talk to Joy Preble, author of the Anastasia series (dreaming anastasia, haunted, anastasia forever) and most recently The Sweet Dead Life, which I talked about yesterday.

So without further ado, let me welcome one of my absolute favourite authors ever, the awesome Joy Preble!

*crowd goes wild*

1) When we talked last time for the Anastasia Forever blog tour, you said Tess Edwards was the most like you, but which TSDL character are you closest to?

I guess I’d have to pick Jenna. She is definitely the ‘mouthpiece’ for my worldview, although not always. Jenna and I are different in many ways, but I she does occasionally express opinions that I agree with.

2) What's your favourite of your books so far, and which was the hardest to write? Why?

All my books are my favorites when I’m writing them! To answer the opposite of what you asked, THE SWEET DEAD LIFE has definitely been the easiest to write in terms of first drafts. Jenna’s voice just begs to be written. Everything else has been fairly equal, give or take whatever is happening in my life at the time.

3) If you could only read one more book for the rest of your life (torturous thing to consider, I know, but IF) which would you pick? Why that one, over all the others?

Gah! I can’t answer this question. I simply can’t. But if I have to... for you, my favorite fan in Kent England!!... I would say the final Harry Potter. Not because it’s my favorite book of all books, but because it would remind me of all the other volumes and thus be like 7 books in one. While I’m wasting away on that desert island or whatever.

4) When you torture your readers/characters, do you feel remorse or a stereotypical-British-accented-movie-villain glee?

Glee, mostly. Occasionally I feel bad for them. But mostly it’s kind of fun. To paraphrase my master Joss Whedon: You give your readers what they most want for your characters and then you rip it away as painfully as possible. That’s what makes good storytelling.

5) If you had never discovered writing, what do you think you'd be doing right now? (you can't say teaching english to high school students, that's cheating)

If I’d worked harder at math, there is a great possibility that I would be a vet or a physicist! Also, I originally had plans to study occupational therapy! In fact, I was accepted at U of Illinois to do just that. And then I told them no and became a frivolous English major at Northwestern. The rest is history.

6) If you had to be one of your characters, with every detail of their life, past, friends, family, fears, hopes, dreams, etc, who would you live as?
Wow! That’s some question there, Hannah! In the TSDL series, I would probably pick Jenna’s bff Maggie. Which would match my choice for the ANASTASIA series, which would be my fave girl Tess Edwards. I guess I write fictional bff’s the way I’d like a life to be! In the upcoming THE A WORD (Soho Press, May 2014) I would pick someone you won’t meet until then -- a rather difficult angel named Bo Shivers. He has had quite the life. I know this because I gave it to him!

7) What was your inspiration for The Sweet Dead Life? Has it evolved at all from the original spark?
Well, the actual inspiration for TSDL was my editor, who emailed me and my agent one day in the spring of 2011 and said, hey, I’d like to work with you again (he’d moved to Soho Press by then). Do you think you could write a book about a stoner dude who bit the dust in the a car accident in his beat up Prius and came back as his possibly dying sister’s guardian angel? Cause I would love to see you do that.

And I said, Hell yes. Because you never say no to brilliant ideas.
And then I said, what if I set it in Texas and sent him sample pages and then we began pitching it as FALLEN meets VERONICA MARS meets PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and other Judd Apatow movies. And the rest is history. Except for the part where we argued over the title. But we both agreed that THE SWEET DEAD LIFE was perfect! Beyond that, the only real change is that the book developed as a more serious and sweet story of family and love and sacrifice and the healing power of kolaches.

8) Jenna Samuels has her brother, Casey. Who would you say is your guardian angel?
You know every time I’ve had my palm read (which is not often, but things happen when you’re in New Orleans or at the Renn Fest), I’m always told that I have guardian angels around me. Of course, the cyncial part of me says they say that to everyone. That said, the surprisingly serious answer would be that my mom passed away over 10 years ago and I often think that she’s watching my success and cheering me on. Beyond that, I would also pick my editor for this project because he is such a pleasure to work with.

9) We're all just dying (pun completely intended) to know: What's next for Joy Preble?
Well for now what I can say is that THE A WORD, which is the sequel to TSDL, comes out in May 2014. Hopefully I will have more news soon.

10) BONUS FUN ROUND! Answer the very first thing that comes into your head:
Edward or Jacob?
Jacob. Definitely Jacob.

Gale or Peeta?
Gale. And someday I will convince Suzanne Collins how right I am about this!

Guardian Angels or Immortal, Spell-casting Russian Monks?
Ha! I love my guardian angel world, but I will always have a soft spot for spell-casting Russian monks! Oh Ethan. I kinda miss you some days.

Breakfast tacos or kolaches?
Tacos, actually. I loves me a good breakfast taco with egg, potato, bacon. No cheese though. But salsa!

Cowgirl boots or ballet shoes?
Definitely cowgirl boots!!


You can visit Joy here:

http://joysnovelidea.blogspot.com

And here:

www.joypreble.com


And now for the part where I GIVE AWAY FREE STUFF!!!

One lucky commenter will receive a totally free copy of The Sweet Dead Life!

To enter and show your loving support, just post a comment below with name/nickname and an email address I can contact you at if you win. Alternatively, if you're uncomfortable with giving out your email for all to see, you can leave a comment with your name and then EMAIL ME at readerwritercookiebaker[at]gmail[dot]com, letting me know who you are in the comments. If you win, I'll email you to let you know, and then put you in contact with the Soho publicist so she can mail you your prize. Winner will be picked out of a hat by my sister to eliminate any possibility of bias.

Giveaway will run until FRIDAY the 31st of May, and a winner will be announced on SATURDAY the 1st of June. If the winner hasn't contacted me within a week, I'll pick someone else, and so on until somebody replies.

I am obligated to keep this US only. It's just due to high p&p costs, and I'm really sorry. If you have a US-dwelling relative or friend who won't mind receiving your book for you if you win, then internationals can still enter. Otherwise, you can still read The Sweet Dead Life, you just have to buy it yourself. It's definitely worth it though ;)

Good luck all! I wish I could give a free book to each and every one of you!

THE SWEET DEAD LIFE RELEASE DAY!

Hey everyone! You might be wondering where I've been recently, and the answer is: hospital. Yeah. So that's why there has been a significant lack of posting lately, and please excuse any typos that result from me using my good ol' friend, the blogger phone app. I won't bore you with the details, but worry not, I'll live.

HAPPY THE SWEET DEAD LIFE RELEASE DAY EVERYONE!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12561585-the-sweet-dead-life

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616951508

"I found out two things today. One, I think I'm dying. And two, my brother is a perv."

14-year-old Houston resident Jenna Samuels has been having some very weird symptoms, not that her mother pays much attention to this -- or anything. Not since her father walked out without much more than a scribbled goodbye note and a coupon for Tex Mex. When she collapses, her brother, Casey, drives her to the hospital in their beat up old Prius, only to crash and, well, die.
Jenna comes to in the hospital, where she is greeted by none other than Casey. Except it's a newer, shiner, zit-and-flab-free version. Casey has become an "A-word" (the truth is too painful to say).
If that wasn't enough, Dr "Chesthair" Renfroe discovers something else: Jenna is being poisoned, and it's up to her, Casey, and (suspicious) angel Amber to find out who is the source of this flummoxing chicanery, and why anyone would want her dead...

The critics have loved this book, and so do I. It's a really sweet story about family, angels, and kolaches, and Jenna's voice is funny and easy to empathise with. Ms Preble had set the bar phenomenally high with the Anastasia series (http://readerwritercookiebaker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/book-talk-dreaming-anastasia-series-by.html?m=1) but she has done it again!

I'll be posting an INTERVIEW with the one and only JOY PREBLE tomorrow as part of the TSDL blog tour, but we just have to do something to celebrate the official release day! Therefore, I have decided to share the questions I'll be asking tomorrow with you today, and you can read the answers tomorrow :)

1) When we talked last time for the Anastasia Forever blog tour, you said Tess Edwards was the most like you, but which TSDL character are you closest to?

2) What's your favourite of your books so far, and which was the hardest to write? Why?

3) If you could only read one more book for the rest of your life (torturous thing to consider, I know, but IF) which would you pick? Why that one, over all the others?

4) When you torture your readers/characters, do you feel remorse or a stereotypical-British-accented-movie-villain glee?

5) If you had never discovered writing, what do you think you'd be doing right now? (you can't say teaching english to high school students, that's cheating)

6) If you had to be one of your characters, with every detail of their life, past, friends, family, fears, hopes, dreams, etc, who would you live as?

7) What was your inspiration for The Sweet Dead Life? Has it evolved at all from the original spark?

8) Jenna Samuels has her brother, Casey. Who would you say is your guardian angel?

9) We're all just dying (pun completely intended) to know: What's next for Joy Preble?

I will see you back here tomorrow, guys! Save the date, you'd better turn up. Its will be fun fun FUN!

And don't forget there will be a GIVEAWAY of one copy of TSDL for one lucky person!!!!!!

Due to high postage costs, the publishers have requested that this be kept US-only, however if you have a friend/family member who lives in the US who won't mind accepting the copy on your behalf and mailing it to you, I'm sure that would be just fine. All you have to do is comment, so there's really no excuse for US residents to not enter. Who would pass up a free book? And believe me, this one you will love. It is not to be missed.

See you back here tomorrow!!!

Book Talk: The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot

Hiyaaaaa!

Wowza am I ever excited for this post. So without further ado, let's dive in:

The Mediator was my first true literary love. Meg Cabot and my father are simultaneously to blame both for my passion for reading and my fascination in the paranormal: specifically, ghosts. Without this book, I wouldn't have found a whole lot more other great books, and I wouldn't have the same adoration I do for my favourite hobby. It nothing short of changed my life.

Susannah Simon never been quite normal. Well, would you be, if you could see ad speak to (and were constantly plagued by) the dead? It's an awful weight to carry, and feels more like a curse than a gift, but badass old Suze has always gotten by fine.
That is until, upon moving from NYC to sunny Carmel-by-the-Sea California for her mom's re-marriage, she stupidly crushes on Jesse de Silva -- a hundred-and-fifty-year-old ghost who lives in her new bedroom and was most likely shot in her very house. (Not that he ever talks about it.)
And if those weren't problems enough (did I mention her three step brothers? Yep. More problems. Go figure. Story of her life.) there's a murderous ghost haunting her school, and Father Dominic (catholic priest, principal and fellow mediator) has very different ideas about how to deal with her, forcing Suze to take matters into her own hands...
Well, she never has been one to sit on the sidelines.

Suze is on my list of top-5-fave-protagonists, and Jesse on my list of top-5-fave-book-guys. He is just too cute! I could eat him up with a spoon.

I. Adore. This. Book. Series. In fact, I borderline worship it. It is pure, undiluted, sheer awesomeness.

Star Rating: THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!!

Books in the series:

Shadowland/Love You to Death
Ninth Key/High Stakes
Reunion/Mean Spirits
Darkest Hour/Young Blood
Haunted/Grave Doubts
Twilight/Heaven Sent

(first name is US title; second name is UK title)

I really, really, really love this series. The voice is addictive, the plot fast-paced and clever with great twists, and the characters are too loveable for words.

AND THERE'S GOING TO BE A BOOK SEVEN!

Check the Facebook fan page! (that I can't embed for you because my phone won't let me. Sorry! And yeah, I gave in and blogged from the app. My laptop is going through a slow phase.)

Now everyone go read it because I swear you won't regret it!

Au revoir, mes amis :) a bientot x