Books – Page 30 – Writing Wrongs

Take a YA vacation

Not going anywhere this summer? Need a good summer read? Have I got the books for you:

Here’s the deal: Aunt Peg, the New York artist and the person Ginny Blackstone depended on to make her life interesting, took off to Europe without a word three years ago. Aside from a few postcards, Ginny hasn’t heard much. Then she gets a horrible phone call that changes everything.

But the story is only beginning. Soon after, Ginny receives one little blue envelope from Aunt Peg containing a thousand dollars and some very strange instructions…

Maureen really captures what it’s like to be young, American, and in Europe–exciting, scary, and lonely.

Girl at Sea

This is the summer Clio has waited for her whole life. School is out. She’s gotten a great job. And she’s just met the guy of her dreams. Things could not be better.

It’s about time something remotely normal happened to her. Named after the muse of history, quasi-famous at eleven for making a board game with her father, touring the world in questionable style at twelve… it’s been an odd journey so far. Some of it sounds good on paper. Lots of things sound good on paper. It doesn’t mean they actually are…

Another travel story, only this time, mostly on a boat–with jellyfish (well, technically, the jellyfish aren’t on the boat). Anyway, this books is nominated for a Rita this year (and how excited am I that the YA category received enough entries to be viable–very).

Suite Scarlett

The Hopewell Hotel is small Art Deco “jewelbox” in New York City. The hotel has a grand past, but a somewhat dusty and broken present, with pigeons breaking into the rooms, chandeliers with more cobweb than glass, and constantly exploding toilets. Guests are rare, but it does have one constant set of inhabitants… the Martin family.

Scarlett Marin is the third of the four Martins. Scarlett is fifteen, blonde, and broke. Her friends are gone for the summer. And she’s got this one curl that exists just to stab her in the eye and blind her. Welcome to her life…

No traveling for the main character this time, but home is in New York, in a hotel, so it’s like a vacation for you. This one is the start of a series. Maureen did a great job bringing the story to a conclusion while still leaving enough threads open for the sequel.

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As for me, I’ve been pondering my wardrobe dilemma. The recommended conference wear is “business casual.” Okay, I work for a software company. Most days, I wear jeans and my Chuck Taylors to work. Any business casual I might own is several years old–and looks it.

I do have some cute capris I can wear that I can dress up with some cute jackets. Thing is, I hate sandals. I never get pedicures (yeah, I know, you’re surprised). I don’t want to pack extra shoes, so I’m thinking …. I’m thinking … of just wearing the Chucks. Anyone asks, I’ll tell them I got a foot condition.

Actually, I’ll tell them I hate sandals and see no point in ruining my feet.

Winning on Mother’s Day

Thanks to Random.org, I was able to draw a number without assistance from the smaller members of the household (who are still asleep). The winner of Oh. My. Gods.by Tera Lynn Childs is:

Marianne!

Hooray, Marianne! The book will wing its way to you ASAP.

In Mother’s Day news, yesterday Andrew and Bob sneaked off to Target under the guise of going to GameStop. This morning, I am the proud owner of what may be a metric ton of chocolate. Seriously. I have enough chocolate, all sitting in a very nice (faux) leather magazine rack/tote to last until next Mother’s Day.

Plus, a funny homemade card from Andrew. Plus, I know Belgium waffles are in my future (new waffle maker “hiding” in the kitchen, a bottle of maple syrup, and so on). Andrew so wanted me to sleep in this morning (I think so he can provide breakfast in bed), but everyone else gets up so late. I tried to explain that the early morning quiet is like a Mother’s Day gift.

Maybe I’ll sneak back to bed. Just this once.

OMG! Oh. My. Gods.

Look what I won:

Not the Greek god, or the pink running shoes (although I’m digging the pink running shoes), but the YA novel by Tera Lynn Childs.

And double-plus cool? It was Tera’s congratulatory email that alerted me to the fact the The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading sale had been posted to Publishers Marketplace.

Andrew is thinking he’d like to read this one, too. He was highly amused by the strategic placing of the banner and shoes (but then, so was I).

Since there’s so much good karma going around, and since Tera is sending me my very own copy, and since I’d planned to buy a copy anyway, I’m going to give one away.

Want a copy? Then leave a comment below. You have until the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. Mother’s Day, say around 0700 hours CDT (that’s seven a.m. here in MN), I’ll draw a name from the comments on this post. Want a taste of what you could win? Read on:

Oh. My. Gods.

If Phoebe Castro can keep her grades up and have another stellar cross-country season, her dream of attending USC with her best friends is only a track scholarship away. She’s made all her plans, so it’s a complete shock when her mom announces she’s marrying a mysterious stranger and moving them half-way around the world-to Greece.

Phoebe’s stuck on a secret island in the Aegean attending the super-exclusive Academy, where her new stepfather is the headmaster and the kids are anything but your average students-they are descendants of the Greek gods, super powers included. That’s right, Greek gods are no myth! If Phoebe thought high school was hard, she knows this is going to be mortal misery.

Securing that scholarship seems like Phoebe’s only ticket out of Greece, but training and maintaining her grades will be grueling, even without a sabotaging stepsister from Hades and a gorgeous guy-what a god!-who just might be her Achilles heel. One thing is for sure-summoning the will to win and find her place among the gods could be Phoebe’s toughest course yet.

The Greek gods get a makeover in this romantic odyssey of mythic proportion.

Leave a comment if you’d like to (possibly) win a copy.

We interrupt this blog…

For an announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance’s debut THE GEEK GIRL’S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING, the story of a self-confessed debating dork whose practical joke lands her a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, where she realizes that if there’s one thing worse than blending into the lockers, it’s getting noticed!, to Jennifer Klonsky at Simon Pulse, by Mollie Glick at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

If anyone is interested, I’ll be glad to elaborate why it took nearly two weeks from hat tossing to being able to announce the sale. But. Later. I should be able to form coherent sentences later.

Book Giveaway

Chris over at book-a-rama is holding a book giveaway contest.

Linda Wisdom author of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover will be making a guest appearance here at book-a-rama on April 11, I’m going to give away my gently used (by me) copy of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover to ONE lucky reader.

So, go on over and enter, by April 4th. Sure, it means my chances to win are slimmer. I’m sure you can deal with that guilt.

The (non)interview: Marianne Arkins

Today, Marianne Arkins and I are chatting about her debut novel One Love for Liv, which is available from Samhain Publishing.

I wouldn’t call this an interview. More of a chat, where I ask Marianne the tough questions about writing and publishing, involving DNA, non-headless models, and the best way to waste time.

Charity: First things first, now that we have the cover front and center. Is it me, or does model portraying Geoff (lower right-hand corner) look like the result of combining the DNA of David Hyde Pierce (Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier) and Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills 90210)? Your thoughts?

Marianne: LOL… okay, that’s really funny and a little scary to think of Niles and Steve mixed together. But, honestly, you may just be right. ((shivers))

Charity: In a related question, while I’m thrilled you have models with heads on them for your cover art, was it difficult/weird to adjust your mental image of Geoff and Mike?

Marianne: Ack, YES!! The absolute biggest problem I had was the people chosen for the cover. The artist, Dawn (who has the patience of Job) and I went back and forth on it. Oddly, I wasn’t as married to the image I had of Liv as I was of Mike. I was content with the woman she’d selected for that, even though she really wasn’t the same as I’d chosen on my collage.

Eventually, we decided to go for an illustrated “comic” cover because of that, and she came up with one that was spot on (I wish I could share it with you … it was AMAZING). Unfortunately, it was vetoed by the powers-that-be who explained that those types of covers really didn’t sell well.

I sent Dawn a cover to another book that I loved, and she used that as an idea of what to do with Liv. I still don’t think Mike is right, but he certainly is handsome. And I’ve gotten several unsolicited compliments on the cover, so she must have known better than I did!

Marianne’s collage for One Love for Liv

Charity: Although now that we’ve tossed up your collage, I’m thinking the cover artist was spot on where Geoff was concerned. Wait a minute! Is that Ian Ziering in your collage? And speaking of collages, excellent visual aid for writing or simply a lovely way to procrastinate? Do you have any other (unusual or otherwise) prep work that you do for writing?

Marianne: I do think that the artist did a great job with Geoff’s image. With the exception of the receding hairline, he’s really spot-on. I love having a collage… I’d originally seen the idea on Jenny Crusie’s blog, but didn’t have time, patient, inclination or magazines I’d need to do a real one. Then this terrifically talented person I know (*cough*Charity*cough*) showed me how I could work one up in Power Point, and I’ve never looked back.

[Chairty: It’s true. I have mad PowerPoint skillz.]

I really do think creating one helps to boils the story down to some basics. With Liv’s I tried to focus on the characters and their differences: hence the spa, and the beer and pizza. Of course, beer and pizza is an important part of the book. I know my editor fell in love with Mike over that scene in the book.

Charity: I think I’ve heard you mention that you like quiet when you write, but are there any songs you associate with Liv? Would you ever be tempted to make a novel playlist?

Marianne: I love music, but not while I write, because I tend to really focus on the words and the stories in the songs. So, yes, I write in utter silence. Even slight noises like the stove clicking (as it is now) can be terribly distracting. It’s one of the reasons I do the majority of my new writing in the morning before anyone (including potentially noisy neighbors) is awake.

I do mention some artists in “One Love For Liv”: U2 (a nod to a certain person I know) and Led Zepplin. Liv needed a musical education in the novel, because she’d primarily been exposed to classical music in her life. But a playlist? I can’t imagine what I’d use, to be honest. I don’t really associate specific songs with this story. Classical music and classic rock would have to be the mix. Yep, a little odd. But so is the story.

Charity: I know you’ve mentioned being surprised that One Love for Liv was the first novel you sold, since you had several others completed. Thing is, I wasn’t surprised. In fact, I knew you had something with Liv from the very first scenes I read (and I know you’ve revised since then). Did you ever have a whisper go through your mind that maybe this one was the one?

Marianne: Maybe. I do know that I kept returning to it, even when I’d pretty much decided that no one would want to publish it because it was a little off center. Of course, I can’t seem to write anything that falls neatly into any one category. “One Love For Liv” is categorized as romantic comedy by Samhain Publishing, but I’m not sure I’d call it that. Certainly, it has some pretty odd situations, but it’s not as “comedic” as, say, Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I tend to think of it as a romance that doesn’t take itself seriously more than flat out comedy.

* * *

There you have it! I want to thank Marianne for being gracious and answering my weird questions. If you want to know more about Marianne’s writing process, what her writing space looks like, and the other real writing questions, visit her blog tour page for all the real interviews.

Booking Through Thursday: Format

Booking through Thursday this week:

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

I was surfing around some of the responses and was delighted to discover I’m not the only one who likes trade paperback. I like the size. Mass market feels claustrophobic to me and hardcovers are heavy.

And since we’re in recovery mode from The Jonas Brothers concert last night, that’s about all I have to say on the great hardcover/trade/mass market debate.

123 meme and One Love for Liv

I’ve been tagged (a really long time ago, well, a week, in any case)! Chris over at Book-a-Rama tagged me with the 1-2-3 meme (and a nice award as well):

1). Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2). Open the book to page 123
3). Find the fifth sentence
4). Post the next three sentences
5). Tag five people

The closest book? The one in my inbox, which is One Love for Liv by Marianne Arkins. Here’s what’s five sentences in on page 123:

She set out two salmon steaks on sheets of foil, then seasoned them carefully according to the directions. She only hoped she got the right amount. Some of it called for a “pinch” or “to taste”.

Ha! Clearly a woman after my own heart. Yeah, what’s up with a pinch and taste? Sure, we can put a man on the moon, but we can’t figure out measurements for such things. Because let me tell you, salting to taste certainly means something different to you than it does to Andrew. Trust me on that one.

I haven’t read the rest of the scene yet to find out how the salmon steaks turn out. Maybe Marianne will stop by and let us know.

I’m going to tag Anno, Jen, Judy, Marianne (yeah, I know you’re boycotting memes), and Mary. Totally voluntary, too. No meme-angst here.

Booking Through Thursday: When all the love is gone

Hey, I had to do this one today, since it comes from Chris over at Book-a-Rama. Go, Chris!

I had a post ready for today, but I liked this suggestion from Chris even better, so … thanks, Chris!

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

For me, there are two issues. The fall out of love one and the burn out one. If I really love an author, and want to keep that loving feeling, I ration his/her books. I don’t glom. True, if it’s someone trying to establish a career, I’ll go out buy his/her book (release week sales can be crucial), but I might not read it for a while.

Then there’s the fall out of love issue.

Exhibit A:

The Body Farmby Patricia Cornwell. I put this one down when I was about one third of the way through. Never went back. In fact, I’d say this was the start of not reading mysteries in general for me, and in particular, serial killers. Sorry, I’ve reached my lifetime quota for serial killers.

Exhibit B:

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. About the time Bella decided to jump off that cliff (highlight to see spoiler text), I decided I was done. Now, I’m into teenage and/or teenage vampire angst as much as the next person (or quite possibly more), but there’s angst, and then there’s angst. Thing is, I really enjoyed the back-story and vampire lore in the series, but I don’t see myself reading the remaining books any time soon.

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday:

This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. ~ Virginia Woolf

I do read reviews, book blogs (like Book-a-Rama), and librarian blogs all in search of new books to read. I don’t put a lot of store in Amazon reviews, although I might look cross-eyed at a book that doesn’t have a lower star rating. A book with a really strong voice is bound to piss someone off–and sure, that someone could be me. More often than not, the review reveals more about the reviewer than the book.

And I admit that sometimes reviews might keep me away from reading the third/fourth in a series I was feeling meh about anyway (*cough*Stephenie Meyer*cough*).

But with so many books and not enough time (even if all I did was read, there still wouldn’t be enough time), I need some way to sort through all the possibilities out there. Reviews are a starting point, but certainly not the end point.