BAD HAIR DAY: The Geek’s Back

BAD HAIR DAY by Carrie Harris (I really love the cover, it’s so eye-catching!)

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Genre: YA Mystery
Series: Kate Grable #2 (sequel to BAD TASTE IN BOYS)
Author: Carrie Harris

Recommended? Not really. It’s a quick read and funny, so if you’re into those things then…

I didn’t like this book as much as the first in the Kate Grable series (first one: BAD TASTE IN BOYS). It just didn’t have the same “must keep reading” pace the first one did. Worse yet, there weren’t really any zombies, so that’s a bummer. I do so love zombies.

This time it was werewolf-ish things, which I’m not fond of… werewolves are probably my least favorite mythological creatures. Kate was, again, doing dumb things. The first time around her reluctance to tell others about the drama she found made sense somehow, there were enough explanations, but this time… it was just silly. Why wouldn’t she tell people her mentor got arrested? Why did she have to do everything by herself when she had a cop on hand that would believe her instantly? Harris introduced us to this very nice, very helpful cop at the start.

And Aaron (Kate’s boyfriend/love interest)… I really was never sold on him. He’s too perfect. In the first book he wasn’t given much time, and they weren’t dating yet, so I didn’t mind. This time around, he was again pretty much spot-on perfect and their relationship was just… meh. I didn’t feel the passion and I didn’t really invest myself in the relationship. If it failed, I wouldn’t have cared. I like guys with flaws, there’s no such thing as a perfect person, even if it is just a book.

There was a girl in the book that “threatened” the relationship because she was all over Aaron and she was truly pointless. That was too much unneeded drama added, which didn’t do anything for the story. Plus in the end, her character made no sense. She did two complete 180s in the story in the span of, like, five pages. First she went, really, really, really crazy (beyond normal teen girl fighting-over-a-guy crazy), when there was no hint to her being that insane before–seriously, she tried to run Kate over with a car. That’s bat shit crazy and mega extreme. Then in a snap, she was all sane again and… interested in Kate’s little geek brother? What? HUH? Why? Her character made no sense and wasn’t needed.

Who the bad guy is was obvious from the start, and again his reason for being crazy made little sense. I just didn’t feel it. Yet again, Kate solves the problem by accident. I won’t say how, I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but seriously…? She lucked into the solution for the zombie problem (her medicine) and then lucked into her solution a second time? If she’s such a brainy girl, why can’t she just figure it out herself? I didn’t buy it. It was too convenient. It’s not like the story is very long, Harris could have added more–like, at least Kate figuring it out without pure chance–to make it more than just 200 pages.

Then there was another unneeded mild annoyance. I am by no means a Twilight fan. I couldn’t care less for that series (or the movies) but Harris really hits on it a lot. It was mentioned at least three times (snark about sparkling vampires, being team Edward, etc) and it just seemed unneeded. I remember it happening in the first book at least once. I’m unsure why Harris feels the need to throw it in there.

Looking over my review, I realize I didn’t point out anything postive. Harris is a good writer, she has a witty voice and obviously a clever person herself to come up with such medical centered plots. The pace was again very good (it was the concept and lack of character developments that ultimately hindered it) and she does pack in a lot of story in just over 200 pages, which is extremely impressive. I’m still a fan of hers, even if this book wasn’t as good as the first one. I enjoyed reading it and I don’t regret it, there were just things that were lacking.

If there is another book in this series, I’m not sure I’ll pick it up. If Harris writes a new, unrelated book I know I will read it. She’s a good writer, this book just wasn’t my type.

Welcome 2013: Please Be An Awesome Year

Welcome 2013, please be an awesome year. It’d be highly appreciated, I assure you. I’ve made my New Year’s Resolutions this year and I hope to keep them all.

I can’t fully control most of them, but I can do my best. I don’t want to reveal them all (I totally believe in jinxing myself!) but I will share a few. I wrote them all last night, sealed them up, and put them in a box in my desk drawer so I won’t be able to see them until I open them next year… and I don’t remember all seven off the top of my head. How bad is that? It was just last night.

Some of my 2013 Resolutions:

• Read at least a 100 books (genres to focus on: YA, contemporary, horror, steampunk YA, pretty much anything YA, actually…)
• Do something productive toward my goal of getting published EVERY DAY (things like writing, revising, plotting/outlining story ideas, reading, researching, etc)
• Get a literary agent this year! (‘Cause that’d be awesome)
• Start my career (as a recent college graduate, I have a job that’s OK but definitely not something I want to make into my career.)

2012 hasn’t been a bad year. It was the first full year I’ve been out of college. Sometimes I find myself regretting my decision to graduate a year early and not go to graduate school. But I didn’t graduate early or did go to graduate school I wouldn’t have been able to travel and intern in Australia and New Zealand for the first half the year. I made awesome friends and saw beautiful things. I did some ridiculous things that I never thought I’d do like swimming with jellyfish (so scared of those things!) and sharks at the Great Barrier Reef and jumping out of an airplane at about 14,000 ft over the Australian rain forest.

While all of that was amazing, I’m happiest about how much I’ve developed as a writer this year. I’d say I’m considerably better than I was this time last year. I’ve begun to reach out to other writers, attended my first writer’s conference, made some very good friends, and joined a few critique groups. The latter has really helped me see the errors in my own writing. I also finally figured out how the publishing world worked. At the start of the year, I was so scared of query letters, synopsis, and researching literary agents, but now I’m not. Granted, I still don’t like synopsis so much (but I learned the trick is to write them before you write the story!) and I’ve actually developed some love for writing query letters. And I love researching things. I really do, so the whole literary agent research work wasn’t so bad once I reminded myself that. It’s different doing research for something you love versus forced-research-college-stuff.

Overall, 2012 was a good year. I’m not really a big fan of odd numbers (I know, weird) so I’m weary of this oncoming year for no good reason. I do think that more good things are in store for this coming year. I hope that there are a lot of great things in store for you, too!

Good luck!

Holiday Hiatus

I’ll be back soon. Have happy holidays everyone!

 

Synopsis Help: Where To Go?

A lot of aspiring authors fear synopsis. I used to, too. I mean, how can someone expect you to sum up your work of 70,000 words in only 1,000? How can someone ask you to give away almost every twist and turn… and worst of all, the ending? HOW?

Then the even more dreaded question: How to I actually write one that doesn’t suck?

Many will tell you that it’s easier to write a synopsis before you even write your story. If you’re a plotter, then I’d say that’s the way to go. The first manuscript I wrote (after a billion revisions) ended up being around 90,000 words. I wrote the synopsis after all that and it was a dread experience. For TERRIFYING TORA, I wrote the synopsis before I even wrote the manuscript, and let me tell you, it’s ten times easier to revise a two page synopsis for any plot updates you decide along the way than to re-write it from scratch after you have a fully developed story. It’s a lot harder to figure out then what’s important and what can be left out. But if you’re not a plotter, well… you can’t really do that, can you?

You could go to a few nice boards that offer you a place to post you synopsis and get it critiqued. AW’s Writer’s Cooler and YACHAT (obviously, you can only use this if you write YA) both have spots on their boards for you to do that.

That being said… I wouldn’t really advise doing that. I’m about to sound extremely paranoid, I know, but I could never bring myself to do that — even if it could be very helpful. Why? Because your entire plot is out there for the whole word to see. I, for one, hate spoilers with a burning passion of a thousand suns. If anyone put effort into a search, they could come across your post and read it. Thus, they’d know how your story ends and how many people really will go through with reading a story where they know the ending…? Plus, if you’re querying agents and they decide to look you or your story up, they could easily fall upon that post as well and see how much help you got writing your synopsis. I’ve heard from some literary agents that they’re always weary when they come across things like this (either for first pages, query letters, etc) because it means the author needs a lot of editing help and they’d rather have one that didn’t.

(But I could always delete the post after I’m through being helped!) Yeah, I suppose, but chances are other people replied and they quoted your original text. (But I could ask an admin to delete the entire thread!) True, you’d kind of look like a jerk asking for all those people’s help then once they did go through the effort, you delete it all. (But wouldn’t it really help to get other writers opinions…?) Yes, I think it would.

And that’s why I would recommend you join a critique group or find a few writer buddies. Publishing Crawl did a post about that recently. There’s other resources out there for synopsis help, too. What follows is a list of sites that I’ve always found helpful. Enjoy:

• Synopsis Example: Ides of March (Writer’s Digest)
• Synopsis Example: Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (Writer’s Digest)
• Miss Snark (Blog filled with helpful tips and tricks)
• How To Write a Synopsis by Andrew Jameson @ AW Water Cooler
• How To Write a One Page Synopsis by Susan Dennard @ Publishing Crawl

There are a lot of other resources out there, but these really helped me when I was first trying to grasp writing a synopsis. I hope it helps some of you, too.

How to Write Irresistible Kidlit

Cover of Writing Irresistible Kidlit by literary agent Mary Kole (http://kidlit.com)

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Genre: Writing Tips
Author: Mary Kole (Literary Agency) (Personal Website) (Kidlit.com)
Recommended? Yes. If you want to write YA or MG, I really, really, really recommend it.

I’ve read a lot of How To Become An Awesome writer type of books. I’ve also attended conferences, webnairs, and followed a lot of writer blogs, and out of all of those great tools and resources, kidlit.com has always been a favorite of mine. It’s run by literary agent Mary Kole. At my regional SCBWI conference, I was lucky enough to attend a seminar hosted by her and meet her briefly. It wasn’t the first time I heard about her book (she’d mentioned it on her website) but it’s where I finally got to order one. I really loved it, even though I’ve read all the archives of kidlit.com, I felt I learned plenty of new things or insights. The book is broken down into the important things you need to know when writing for the YA or MG marketplace.

It starts with an overview of the Kidlit Market then moves to describing the MG and YA reader’s mindset. I’d like to think I’m well educated with both, but Kole gave insights I hadn’t thought about. She then talks about the importance of a Big Idea in stories, the foundation of storytelling, how to make a great YA or MG character, how to structure plots, and she talks about advanced skills (such how imagery, voice, theme, author authority and authenticity.

In case you haven’t considered the traditional publishing route, the last chapter breaks down everything you need to know about it. The role of literary agents, the query letter, submitting your work, and a few more bonus tips and tricks. Again, I’m well versed in those areas but Kole brought a new point of view and a very interesting one since she’s a literary agent herself.

Reading this book was fun. It forced me to think about my own writing and gives exercises to help you find problems with my plot or characters. Editors, YA and MG authors, and other literary agents give bonus tips and insights throughout the book as well. Kole reinforces everything she says by showing examples from popular YA and MG books. She gives plenty of time to both sections of the kidlits.

Wrapping Up The Year: Top 10 Books for 2012

Doctor Who Xmas 2012 Promo Shot

Doctor Who has really nothing to do with this post, but I was looking around for something “December 2012”-ish and the Doctor Who promo shot for its Christmas special just spoke to me. We all know the Doctor loves books (except for those written by Amelia Pound in the past maybe…).

As all of you know, it’s December. Crazy, right? The year really ran away from me. Since it’s nearing the end, everyone seems to be doing top ten book lists. While I’d love to provide one, I just couldn’t. So I’ll direct you to the good ones instead.

Goodreads has announced it’s Choice Awards YA List. No surprise Veronica Roth and John Green dominate it (as they should, love their books). The wonderful Publishers Marketplace has announced their list as well:

Fiction

1. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Yay for a home town girl!)
3. This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz
4. The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers
5.  Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain
6. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
7. Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon
8. A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers
9. The Round House, Louise Erdrich
10. Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter

Kansas City Star has a list of the top 100 Books of 2012, while Newsday has it’s own top 10, and Book Page has a Top 50 of 2012. New York Times annouced it’s top MG & YA of the year as follows:

New York Times Top Middle Grade (left) & Young Adult (right) books

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t make my own top 10 list for this year. There are just so many books that I haven’t read yet (which just adds to my already massive To Read list…).

So, what are some of your favorite reads of 2012?

Bad Taste In Boys: Geek v. Zombies

Cover found at Library Thing

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Genre: YA Thriller
Author: Carrie Harris
Recommended? Yes. Zombies + Strong Heroine Geek + Fast Pace = Awesome.

BAD TASTE IN BOYS has been out for a while. For whatever reason, I never picked it up. I don’t know why, I always thought the cover was interesting. I guess it was the title that turned me off. Eventually I actually read the synopsis for it and realized it wasn’t a contemporary romance YA (which, I thought it was for some reason) but it was really about zombies! Awesome, right? I think I’ve mentioned before my weird little obsession with zombies. I just can’t get enough of them. This is the plot from Goodreads:

Someone’s been a very bad zombie.
Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steriods are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe–not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She’s got to find an antidote–before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town  . . . and stay hormonally human

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick the book up is how small it is. Including the acknowledgment, dedication, and other necessary pages, it’s around just 220 pages. The story itself is only 202 pages. That intrigued me right away, could an author really put together a compelling story with real characters in such a little word count? Harris apparently could.

Granted, Kate really is the only developed character. All her friends and Aaron (her love interest) are only in the story for short periods of time, since Kate does most of the action/heroing moments by herself. Jonah, her little brother, gets a good chunk of time and he is amusing. Personally, I don’t mind not getting to know the others that well. Kate is more than enough to carry the story. She’s engaging, so clever, funny, and a total geek — which I loved.

The pace in the book is pretty fast. The soon-to-be-zombie-problem is hinted at almost right away and comes into play by the second chapter. The roller coaster ride continues strong throughout the book and once it’s resolved the book doesn’t dillydally around, it gives a nice ending and stops.

There were some dumb moments. Kate keeps a closed mouth about a lot of the weird things that are going on when she could just tell someone (like her dad or the police) and maybe some of the drama could have been avoided but… where would the fun be in that? Harris gives good enough reasons for her not to go telling everything about the problems right away, and there are zombies so you have to pull away from reality a little to enjoy the book. Another thing that bothered me a sometimes was how stereotypical some of the teens were… like the dumb jocks and perfect homecoming queen friend. I know stereotypes tend to be true, hence why they are always around, but still, they’re bothersome. And Aaron doesn’t seem to have a flaw, aside from bad taste in a best friend. I really enjoy it when the love interest isn’t perfect but, like I said, though he was mentioned often he was really only in the book six or seven times. Kate, thankfully, isn’t the stereotypical geek and has a few flaws.

BAD HAIR DAY is out now and the second in the series. Like any strong series, the first book could totally stand alone. It closes with all the important things wrapped up, but it does give the reader a desire to see what happens to Kate next.If you like zombies, or you’re looking for a quick, enjoyable YA read, I’d recommend picking up a copy of BAD TASTE IN BOYS.

Libraries Are Awesome: LEVEL 2, CREWEL, & LANDRY PARK

Everyone pretty much already knows that libraries are awesome, right? I happen to live in a lovely county that has a lot of libraries and they are all very, very nice. I was away for a while (college… then that year in Australia) and just recently got my library card back. I’ve kind of gone crazy with it lately. I have ten books checked out now and a couple on hold… but they are all really good books and I’ve been dying to read them. If only there were more hours in the day! (Or, preferably, I didn’t have to work…)

OK, aside from the amazing selection at my library, yesterday they hosted a panel (Drama & Dystopians) which had two YA debuts. Really, it was three because the person who set it all up and was asking questions — while a librarian — is also a debut YA author herself. Her book is coming out later than the other two, though. Which is unfortunate… because it sounds really good.

The first debut author was Gennifer Albin author of CREWEL. I already saw her (and got her to sign my copy of CREWEL!) in an earlier author event. CREWEL was amazing to read and while I was listening to her talk about it last night, I kept thinking how much I wanted to re-read it. Luckily, I will be able to do so with a little different twist to it. At the end of the panel, they pulled a few names to give away early copies of LEVEL 2 and the new British release of CREWEL. While I would have loved to read LEVEL 2 for the first time, I was equally happy to get the British copy of CREWEL. It’s just so fun to see how different a British book is from an American one–all the weird spellings and formats.

I’ve heard some about LEVEL 2, it’s a debut that sold in a major deal to Simon & Schuster. How amazing is that? It’s a thriller set in the liminal place between our world and heaven, about a 17 year-old girl who spends her days reliving her memories from the security of her pod until she gets broken out by a boy from her past life. I cannot wait to read this book! The author of LEVEL 2, Lenore Appelhans was the other debut author at the event. Her experience with the querying/selling process was similar to Albin’s. They both got stellar agents fairly quickly, then sold the books within a week of sending out proposals to editors. Both of those aspects of the publishing process are highly unusual, but it’s always fun to hear about. Both Albin and Appelhans are represented by agents from Foundry Literary + Media (which sounds like a really stellar agency).

This is the British cover for CREWEL. Isn’t it beautiful?

Bethany Hagen put the panel together. She wrote LANDRY PARK which has been pitched as “Gone with the Nuclear Wind”. She, too, has an agent at Foundry Literary + Media (keeps sounding better and better, doesn’t it?) and sold LANDRY PARK in a major deal to Dial. Hagen talked some about her book and even read from a part of it. It sounds amazing.

Even though the panel was called Drama and Dystopians, I don’t think that any of these books are just dystopians. It’s just a trope within them, like how not all books that have romance are romance books. CREWEL was pitched as Mad Men meets Hunger Games (which I didn’t get when I read the book) but it’s not either of those stories. It’s so different from Hunger Games that, aside from strong female leads and a evil authoritarian government, nothing else really is the same. And those evil authoritarian governments? They couldn’t be any farther from each other and how they formed. LEVEL 2 is more speculative fiction than dystopian, from what I hear, but I haven’t read it… though I’m dying to. CREWEL is more sci-fa/drama and while I haven’t read LANDRY PARK, I wouldn’t restraint the story by labeling it as a dystopian either.

See, aren’t all that libraries offer amazing?

GEEKS, GIRLS, & SECRET IDENTITIES

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Recommended? If you’re looking for a funny, action packed, book then this book won’t disappoint you. Plus, there are a ton of comic book references that are fun to find.

Mike Jung spoke at my regional SCBWI conference. He was funny, energetic and a debut author with a very impressive story (and editor! Arthur Levine — the American editor of Harry Potter!) so, of course, I had to pick up the book. I loved hearing him talk about how he became an author — those are always my favorite parts. It wasn’t instant. He rewrote Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities quite a few times — like, completely sometimes. Originally it was told from Polly’s POV, now it’s in Vincent’s. Even though I generally don’t read MG, Jung won me over. If he was that funny in person, I couldn’t wait to see what his book was like. And, really, I’m not a fan of funny books, so the fact that he made me want to read one was pretty remarkable.

Synopsis from GOODREADS:

A SUPER funny, SUPER fast-paced, SUPER debut!

Can knowing the most superhero trivia in the whole school be considered a superpower?

If so, Vincent Wu is invincible.

If not (and let’s face it, it’s “not”), then Vincent and his pals Max and George don’t get any props for being the leaders (and, well, sole members) of the (unofficial) Captain Stupendous Fan Club.

But what happens when the Captain is hurt in an incident involving BOTH Professor Mayhem and his giant indestructible robot AND (mortifyingly) Polly Winnicott-Lee, the girl Vincent totally has a crush on?

The entire city is in danger, Vincent’s parents and his friends aren’t safe, the art teacher has disappeared, and talking to Polly is REALLY, REALLY AWKWARD.

Being the only girl in my family, I’m very familiar with comic books. My brother particularly love them, so I had no choice but to read them, too. Well, that’s not true. I could not, but I was always boyish growing up (all boy cousins and only brothers will do that to you). I found myself highly amused with all his comic book tie ins (like the school names, Xavier, and such). Aside from that, the voice, the plot, and the funniest of it all pulled me in. I understood Vincent, Jung really nailed a MG boy. He reminded so much of my brothers at that age. And the little boys I tutor at the library.

Except, none of them know a superhero. That would have been cool. Polly’s a big player in this book–and as a girl who is generally extremely critical of female characters–it means a lot that I liked her so much. She was intense, strong, clever, and believable. I adored her. I totally wish I was as badass as she is when I was her age. Plus her story, her tie in with the plot, was brilliant. Who would have saw that coming?

This book’s an easy read. Not just because it’s MG, but the plot keeps going and never lags. It wasn’t a challenge to finish it in one day. I’m glad the ending leaves open a possibility for something more. I’d like to see where Vincent and Polly’s story could continue to. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any future books by Jung. He’s made a fan out of me.

The Next Best Thing

This is the first meme I’ve done on this blog, but it seemed like fun and I got tagged (by Larua Wardle) so I decided why not?

What is the working title of your book?

TERRIFYING TORA

Where did the idea for the book come from?

It’s going to sound a little silly, but I work with cash at my day job and sometimes when I turn my back on the customer to get out the cash I can’t help but think ‘Man, it’d be so easy for them to just shot me or something right now‘. I’m generally not a paranoid person and doubt that will ever happen to me, but my mind tends to jump to rather horrific situations from the most mundane tasks. Not out of fear, probably out of the fact that I read/watch a lot of horror/deadly stories.

Anyway, that idea just came alive one day at work. I thought it’d be interesting to have a character that always had horrific thoughts invading her head, thus Tora Kuragawa was born. I wanted a new story to write for NaNo 2012 and the rest of the plot just flowed out after Tora got into my head.

What genre does your book fall under?

YA Paranormal Thriller/Suspense

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This is really hard for me. I never think about actors/other people when I’m thinking about my characters… So, this question took the longest for me to figure out.

Tora Kuragawa would be a young Aoi Miyazaki (like, Virgin Snow Aoi Miyazaki):

The second main character is Delaney Gunvald and I really can’t think of anyone, and after doing some searching, the only one I can think that would sort of work would be a teenager Chris Hemsworth:

Guy would be Logan Lerman, just imagine him constantly having a really bad case of bedhead and then you’d have Guy:

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

One sentence…? That’s so hard. Here’s my best go:

As a victim of an unnatural death, sixteen-year-old Tora Kurosawa is stuck in the In-Between and is forced to play the reapers’ game: conquer her death and let go of her life and they’ll let her crossover, fail to do so in seven days and she’ll be banished to the Netherworld for an eternity.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Represented by an agency. I’ve always thought of going the traditional route. Not that there’s anything wrong with self-publishing, it’s just not for me.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About seven days. I didn’t realize until I was done how fitting that is (since Tora only has seven days to save herself). It was for NaNo2012 and I had a pretty thorough chapter-by-chapter outline so I didn’t have to wonder what to do next? Now it’s time to revise, revise, revise. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I would say it’s like ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD / GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by Kendare Blake in the horror quality of the book and because of the Gunvald family.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Kendare Blake, I really loved her books and it inspired me to try something horror-esque. Also ASHES by Isla J Bick, which also has a lot of horror in it and just the burning desire to keep reading until the very end of that book stayed with me. Except the ending really irked me (freaking cliffhanger…). THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers is a thriller/suspense (with zombies, which is awesome) inspired me as well. I really loved it. Summers’s voice is just so there and the pace of that book was remarkable. I loved it from start to finish. I would also say POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil. I loved her voice in that book and it was probably the first YA Paranormal Thriller that I consciously read because of the genre.

Plus, the classic Stephen King (CARRIE, IT, THE SHINNING). One of my favorite horror writers.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Tora can’t control where her soul stays, if someone thinks about her hard enough she’ll be pulled to them. Her parents never bother to mourn for her, but a stranger cries for her constantly. A boy that she saw right after her death, the boy that let her die. At least, that’s what he (Delaney Gunvald) believes. The only other person who pulls her is her murderer, where she is forced to watch him torture other innocent girls.

And now I get to tag some people…

Delancey Stewart
Jennie
Jessica Nichollas