Adventures in Crafting with Words

This post is pulling double duty today. First up, An Inconvenient Princess.  The youngest and seventh child - Penny - meets Rapunzel.    Only,  unexpectedly, Penny has no magic - unlike her siblings.  It's expected that the seventh sibling have some sort of abilities, but Penny doesn't, and it disappoints everybody who encounters her. When Penny goes searching for her twin, Anneliese,  she literally finds herself in a tree.  With a tiger in a tree blocking her from climbing down, she calls on Mortimer to help get her somewhere safe.  Mortimer sends her to a tower where she meets Rapunzel.   Once they escape, sorta, Penny finds herself in the arms of Arthur. Arthur, you may recall from A Goose Girl.  He is Conrad's cousin and the younger prince. Chaos erupts as the trio begin searching for Anneliese.  Cases of mistaken identity - Penny IS Anneliese's almost identical twin.  Kidnapping.  And...

Okay, I might be getting my money's worth with this free Kindle Unlimited trial.  I most likely will continue with the service after the 17th. I really didn't think about the fact I'm doing yet another retold fairy tale, but this book really didn't feel like a retold.  The Ugly Step-Sister Strikes Back is a delightful take at the story from another perspective.  Mattie has a complicated family history.  Her father is a famous artist who has been married 6 times!  The marriage from when she was two years old introduced her to her step-sister (also two) even though the marriage doesn't last very long.   When that former step-mother dies, her father invites Ella to live with them since they don't know who Ella's biological father is. Ella, thankful, does everything she can to show her thanks.  She has a job so she doesn't spend Bill's - Mattie's father - money.  She does charity work.  She even cleans the house even though they h...

I may have spent way too much time absorbed into fairy tales and what not.  I love fairy tales.  I love reimagined fairy tales. Okay,  I simply adore reading in general. A while back I purchased a Princess and the pea retelling - The Princess Companion .  This was shortly after the second book in the series was released, but as much as I enjoyed the first book I couldn't bring myself to buy the second. The Princess Fugitive - Book 2 - is a Little Red Riding Hood reimagining and it never was my favorite tale.  However, Cellier's twist made me wish I had picked it up sooner.  However, that hesitation also meant I didn't have as much of a wait between books either... Wait...dear reader you must be thinking,  wasn't your Into the Enchanted Forest partially Little Red Riding Hood?  Yes.  So?  Just because I used the tale doesn't mean I liked the source.  Crazy, I know.  Regardless, I signed up for a free Kindle Unlimite...

I know, you are probably waiting with baited breath, or at least pretending to, on information about that cryptic NaNoWriMo project.  Surprisingly, I haven't finished yet.  I don't have a title.  Or a cover - because of lack of title mostly.  So that reveal will have to wait. Some of you might even be waiting for an announcement about The Trouble With Chasing Aileen - The Hastings Sisters number 2.  - Soon.  I promise.  Final rewrites and Beta reads got caught in the middle of finals (for the Beta) and NaNoWriMo (me).  Now, to the point of the blog - Betas.  What are they good for.  (Absolutely nothing!) Joking.  Joking.  That's a dig at my current Beta who is only still around because she's my best friend and she's in college while dealing with a four year old.  Betas aren't perfect, after all.  They can't spend all their time reading over your manuscript.  Why?  It's my livelihood isn't it? ...

I first encountered John Green the spring of 2009.  Not literally, although that would be great.  I had just graduated college and still wasn't through the young adult stage of books. I grew up on The Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and a few other serial teen books that released one new book a month (written by a ghost writer) for over a hundred months. And I could eat one of those books in a day or two.  Again, not literally. The Young Adult books as we know them now didn't come out until my senior year of high school and college. And I love them! So I spent a fair amount of time going to the library and checking out books I didn't have to pay for past updating my definitely expired library card.  (At least 5 years expired.) And there I found An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns.  Consumed one by one in a week. And I waited for more.  Finally came The Fault in Our Stars. And Hank Green's YouTube webseries l...

There is just something about a socially awkward heroine... Add in the fact that she's been trained at a young age to be a jewel thief... fascinating. We start off in the middle of a musesum jewelry heist meant to help Marisol and her mother start over.  It quickly goes south when Petrov Rosinsky and his men hijack their burglary. With this book you have to have some suspension of belief. Cut to Marisol's first day at her sixth high school in three years - yup, our jewel thief is a high school junior! Before she even makes it into the school she's stopped by Nicky and graces us, Nicky, Will, and an unnamed third with her awkwardness... starting with her insta-crush on Will. Turns out he feels the same, literally pushing a guy out of a seat in front of him in their shared Pre-Cal class... all so Marisol would sit in front of him. Whatever he's feeling must be strong enough to overlook the back and forth ways that Marisol reacts around him.  Or he was just r...

I discovered a cache of promising indie/self-published authors while attending the FB Book Release Party of Megan O'Russell's latest book -  How I Magically.... The Tale of Bryant Adams (to be read and reviewed soon). So many books captured my attention, one of which was I Am Amyara by Hannah Earl.  The premise caught it so  quickly I couldn't wait a couple of hours to see if I'd won the giveaway and went ahead and bought it! (I did win the giveaway, by the way,  which was surprising because I never win giveaways, but I'll get Book 2 instead of book one. Female readers of the Percy Jackson series will enjoy this one. We meet Sophia Pappas and her sister, Callidora, in the middle of a life-threatening car accident.  We don't know the cause until later, but this car accident plays a big role in Sophia's - and Callidora's - life. Turns out Sophia is the daughter of the Greek God Eros! No, he isn't a chubby baby that shoots arrows at people; an...

I first encountered Sarah J. Maas on fictionpress.com. She was a popular author on there with a very popular first draft of Throne of Glass. I couldn't ve happier for her when the final draft of ToG was published. It's the dream most authors have. This book review is not about ToG and its sequels.  I'm still working on them.  This review is for The Court of Thorns and Roses. When I first started reading I got Beauty and the Beast vibes.  Not the cartoon B&B either but the original tale with the three sisters and merchant father.  But with Fae. You can see the set-up as it's happening.  A mix of modern and fairy tale. Old and new.  Modern sensibilities about relationships and proper sensibilities about relationships mixed in one. Yes, that was a subtle hint towards the main character, Feyre, having a friends with benefits relationship amid people arranging marriages for money, to get enough food to eat. To using marriage to g...

I've been waiting a while in order to post my review about The Collector's Society Series by Heather Lyons.  Mostly because I was waiting for the series to be complete.  Partly because I've been so busy with outside factors.  Cleaning out my grandparent's house for example.  Taking my mom to her Cardiac Rehab three days a week for another.  First: The Basics The Collectors Society consists of 4 books - The Collector's Society, The Hidden Library, The Forgotten  Mountain, and the Lost Codex (There's also a character encyclopedia.) What happens when the stories we all know and love become actual timelines where the characters can travel between our world and various stories? Meet The Collector's Society lead by Abraham (Brom) Van Brunt.  You might recognize him as Brom Bones from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Headless Horseman).  As the Librarian calls him - Brom is the Head of the Organization. And meet his Sons - Victor Frankenstein J...

This is where my ability to remember stories and plot lines come in handy.  I was about to write the blog for this middle grade level book when the previous blog post occurred.  We're all home now, things are settling in, and I can go back to writing and blogging. Learning to Fly (Dana Burkey) is the first book in the TNT Force Cheer series.  It follows 12 ("But I'll be 13 in January") year old Maxine "Max" during the summer.  While playing with her neighbor Peter and his younger brother, Kyle, it starts to rain so they decide to go to the indoor trampoline park.  While there Max (don't call her Maxine) spots some girls her age practicing flips and other cheer stunts. Only Halley and Lexi aren't the typical cheerleaders - they belong to a gymnastics cheerleading squad.  All of those competition squads that do flips and flying stunts and dance rountines? Yeah, that's TNT Force. They start showing Max some of their stunts and Max ...

Oftentimes how I pick my next read - or review - isn't complicated.  In this case I was scanning titles on my kindle.  I don't often go into the Young Adult section on my kindle.  There are mostly big names and I'd like to support the new, not-big-names authors.  But The Yearbook by Carol Masciola caught my attention.  It might have been the cover.  It was definitely the blurb. Lola, an orphan in foster care - a group home at that - manages to find herself in the library reserve room at school.  She took over a job of throwing out fire and water damaged books out of self-preservation - she's trying to hide from someone.  In the room she finds an undamaged yearbook from 1924. Falling asleep, she finds herself transported during a Fall Dance in 1923.  There she meets Whoopsie, Thumbtack, and Peter the professor.  Not wanting to leave her new friends and the feeling that she's finally found where she belongs, Lola goes back to get ...

It's been a few weeks since I've written a blog post of any kind.   I've been diligently working on my own manuscript and it's getting closer and closer to being finished. There...  moving on. Gryphon's Heir written by D.R. Ranshaw has been on my kindle for weeks.  It was a big part of my #gymandbooks routine, but getting about an hour read at a time takes a while.  It became a habit that took a little while to break.   This is decidedly a 'boy' book.  There is no obvious romantic interest; actually, this grabs my attention even more because I'm already trying to decide who Rhiss (Rhissan) will end up with at the end.  (I am a hopeless romantic after all.)   World creating is extremely important, even more so when creating your own world for your characters to live, work, and love in.  I believe that Ranshaw did a superb job of creating his world.   More on that later. When we first enter the story we...

Sometimes time catches up with you.  I haven't finished a single new book this week.  Not a single one.  My intended review for this week is - according to my kindle - 36% read.  That actually kind of disturbs me because sometimes reading, for me, is like breathing.  I need it. Like with writing or creating something out of jewelry findings or polymer clay.  The urge to read and create are fundamental urges for me; necessary for life.  At 31 years old it might seem silly to be chasing a dream with very little financial stability, but there you have it. My dream is to write and I'm going to try it.  Anyway, I first encountered this book when I was a junior or senior in high school (2001 or 2002 - it definitely wasn't 2003 because... well... I'll finish my story.) I was in theater class (which was not taken my last semester of high school, thus the not 2003 part) and one of dear friends, at the time, surprised me by suggesting a book....

Ever just watch a movie and think - I know I have read this somewhere .  That is this movie.  Where have I read this before?  Where have I watched this before.  A plethora of ideas pop into my head.  The Ugly Truth with Heigl and Butler.  Various contemporary romances that I've undoubtedly read.  The Kiss That Launched 1000 Gifs - Sheralyn Pratt Charlie All Night - Jennifer Cruise I imagine there is several more.  I'd have to go through my kindle book list into order to be able to tell and the first book listed (Pratt) was read months ago.  I seriously read books like I breathe air, consuming them mostly on a daily basis.  It's an expensive hobby.  I guess that's what Kindle Daily Deals ($1.99) or sales are for.  So, a few weeks ago I started watching this movie.  It hit a cord with me.  I couldn't help wondering exactly where I'd read this movie from?  Which book was it?  Sadly, there is no...

I have a weakness for a few things.  String cheese (with a dairy allergy on top). Chocolate. Cupcakes. Yarn. Books. Books. More books. My particular guilty pleasures are romance novels and retold fairy tales.  How many different ways can Beauty and the Beast be retold? How many endings does the original Sleeping Beauty have? (I've found 4!) Does Cinderella ever get her Prince? Ella by Jessilyn (love the name, btw) Stewart Peaslee caught my attention with its stunning cover and enticing blurb.  Dare I let it jump ahead of my book review reading list? I'm only posting them on Tuesdays so... I can probably write more than one a week and get a back log going.  So, while suffering from a sinus infection brought on by West Tennessee tree pollen - pesky Bradford Pear Trees - and too many string cheese sticks I'm going to pick comfort over adventure.  Let's see how it goes.  ______   The Prologue nearly brought me to te...

As all good indie authors we know it's a great idea to support each other.   There's no telling what sells are supporting. Bills. Food. Children. Pets. So you tweet and retweet and at some point buy the book.  Without returning it because indie authors know that every little sell means either 30 or 70 percent of profits and we don't have the marketing that traditional publishers can give authors. At the same time we are hoping, wishing, to get discovered. That it will be one of our stories that hits it big and turns us into the next Amanda Hocking. So, I bought the book of one of my best retweeters.  We often retweet the others book tweets and try to get the other new readers. I haven't had a single conversation with this author, but I know I can rely on her when I need something spread.  So, I sadly let her book sit on my kindle's carousel.  Which is crazy. I love dragons.  I started sculpting polymer clay because of dragons. That's bette...

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman teetering on the verge of thirty is in want of a husband." The book starts with a a parody of the famous line from the book this novel was inspired by.  And that's not a bad thing.  Are all women in want of a husband at thirty? No. Especially not Elizabeth Scott. She's happy with her dog. Men, especially wealthy men... well, I'll let Teri Wilson's words tell you. "There was something about capturing the unwanted attention of a very powerful, very married man who couldn't take no for an answer that made her appreciate the unconditional love of her dog in an entirely new way.  Dogs were loyal. Dogs didn't get people fired. Dogs understood the word no." So, we have dogs - I love dogs even though I'm allergic to them,  so I settle for books with dogs - and then we have wealthy British men named Darcy.  So, we have two aspects of this book that I adore. We get parts of Donava...

I have a love-hate relationship with books that are a part of a series, despite writing one myself. What if I've invested all this time and the last book sucks?  (I think many of you are thinking of a book series or two where you simply hated the endings.) What if one of the books drags down the tone of the others? ( *coughs* See above parenthesed note.) What if it take an extremely long period of time - I mean years - between a the previously released volume and the next installment? That's why, as soon as I find out a book series isn't completed, I'll stop reading it. Wait? What? I stop reading, collecting each volume - with the possibility of checking the ending as I collect them - until all planned books are released. I'm currently seriously doing that with at least 2 series that aren't quite mainstream but should be. I'm an indie author and I'm going to support them.  The first book in the 'The Crown of Tremontane' series pulled me i...

Cheesy right?   But it's a lovely way to pass a weekend. For weeks I've had Unleashing Mr. Darcy on my DVR.  Mostly because it has Ryan Paevey and is based, if loosely, on Pride and Prejudice . Paevey is a joy to watch on General Hospital.  And to look at. Yum. Guess my surprise when the opening credits revealed that the movie was based on a book!  Naturally this bookworm looked it up. Unleashing Mr. Darcy by Teri Wilson.   There were several other retolds by her as well, but this book is going to be wedged between finishing Agent of the Crown (McShane) and a Hunger Games fanfiction.  But this isn't about the book.  It's about the Hallmark movie. Starting out I liked Elizabeth "Liz/Lizzie" Scott.  She was a teacher. She had morals. She had standards. And then she met Mr. Donavan Darcy.   I couldn't figure out exactly she was rude to him during most of their meetings.  While her life was falling apart, with direct corelatio...