Minecraft and Living in Your Own World!

Hello all! As you can see above I do enjoy playing some Minecraft. In fact, I've been doing it quite a bit while reading at the same time. It's a skill I've learned that not many can posses ;). One thing that I find really fun about Minecraft is that I can create things that I'm writing in my story. Buildings, areas, etc. I read on absolutewrite that apparently a lot of people build their characters and what not on Sims, which I ALSO love, but I have yet to try that! It's really fun to be able to walk through a place that I've only made in my head. Seeing it also comes in handy when writing. It's just a really fun way to help my writing, and be a distraction when I need it! I think it'd be really awesome to do it in Second Life, but I don't have that either.

Anyway, I've been editing my WIP progress lately and it's turning out a lot better than I expected! I've added on about twelve pages and I'm not even half way through. The best part is that this is just my first read through so that I can change it from past to present. In case I didn't say specify in my my old post about past or present, I'm going with present. The story just reads so much better now that I've made the decision and I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

On a different note, I'm going to be applying to Grad school soon, EEK! I'm really nervous about this and my sister keeps telling me I need to work on my writing sample, which I know I do, but it's a really scary thought! I can't believe that it's coming so soon! My senior year of college is going to go by so fast I won't know what hit me. Before long, I'll know whether or not I'm in an MFA program and my entire life is going to change. I'm just a wee bit stressed here!

What's going on with your life out there? Inform me! Distract me! I like hearing from others! =]

RTW 183: Best Book of May

This one was really hard for me. Last week the RTW was what book really swept you off your feet. For it I talked about Recipes for Disaster by Tess Rafferty. The thing is, it really did sweep me off my feet, AND I read it in May. However, I didn't want to do the same book, or put the same link up, so I'm deciding to not give all my praise to one book and do another that I really liked that I also read in May!

I'm a little torn here. I've read plenty of good books in May, but it's hard to choose one to talk about. I think I'll go with a different approach and talk about one I won on Goodreads, SURPRISE THERE (sarcasm), that is a Middle Grade book. Hold up, before you roll your eyes and close your browser, read the rest of this post, hear me out!

I normally don't read middle grade novels because, well, they don't appeal to me. Don't go yelling at me, "It's because they're for middle grade aged readers!" Bologna! If Young Adult books were only read by YA aged readers, well, you can only imagine! But, I won the book The Dreamcatcher Adventures: Greedy Jack Wallace by Adam C. Veile and let me tell you, it really surprised me at how good it was! Veile even signed the book and sent me a personal message on goodreads to top it off!

Anyway, the book is about a boy who faces things most kids his age face, girls and bullies, then moves onto him dealing with things like foreclosure on his house. Veile has managed to intertwine subjects usually meant for adults into a kids book so that they can relate too. It's sad that in today's time kids that age actually have to deal with things such as this. Blake, the main character, even talks about what it would like to live on the streets!

The storyline was actually really compelling, and even managed to address things like death in a way that younger kids can understand while not being completely freaked out. The idea of the dreamcatcher that Veile uses is something really unique that I had never heard of. Blake is so realistic, you'd think the book was written by Blake himself. The suspense, yes there's suspense!, is so good I actually found myself not able to stop reading!

There's so much more that I could say about this book, and if you have any questions feels free to comment, but I would like to keep this post shorter than book length. I find myself actually interested in reading the second book when it comes out. (The first cleverly set up a storyline in passing conversation that could be stretched into a series.)

I highly recommend this to anyone that would like a quick read or even to those of you who have kids, you could read it to them if they're younger or have them read it. Definitely worth picking up!

Have any of you ever been surprised by liking a book in a genre or subject matter that you normally don't gravitate towards?

Editing and Scrivener

Hello all! How are you today? Grand I hope!

It stormed really bad here (Southern Illinois) last night and I know it stormed bad in a lot of other places too. So, I hope everyone out there stayed safe through the night!

On a lighter note, lately I've been editing my novel (and by lately I mean I've been doing it more adamantly after taking a break after Nano). This is only my first read through and I'm editing it from past to present tense, which is proving to be more difficult than I originally thought.

I've done about 20 thousand words and I have about 45 thousand words left to edit. And this is only my first read/editing! I haven't even added in the, at least two or three, scenes I want to add in. This editing process is no joke people! I'm sure most of you already know that though.

My question is, you people out there, do you use Word, Scrivener, etc. to edit your novel? Right now I'm using Word but I have only read good things about Scrivener, and to me it seems to be the most widely used by writers. I have also read it has an insanely long tutorial that most people skip. I am interested in buying Scrivener but I'm not sure if it's worth the money!

At least it has a cool logo!

Are there any other editing programs out there that are, in your opinion, worth looking into? I'm open minded and willing to look at new ones, just have to inform me!

Also, with getting closer to being half way done with my first edit, the idea of a query pops in my head. Yes, yes, I know that I still have a long time before I should even be worrying about it, but hey! A boy can dream! The idea of a query also freaks me out! Namely because I've read online that if an agent passes on a query, it's a general rule not to query them on the same project, even if the query is different. What if all the agents hate it!? I guess it'll just be time to move onto the next project, eh?

Anyway, what do you people out there use to edit? How do you go about writing a query and not being so stressed/scared?. Let me know your secrets!

RTW 182:What book swept you off your feet?

Awesomely hilarious.

The book that really swept me off my feet was Recipes for Disaster by Tess Rafferty.

Now I know what you're thinking, who is Tess Rafferty, right? Yeah, I said the same thing. In fact, when I woke this book on Goodreads in a giveaway, I didn't even remember entering into the contest. I can't say how happy I am that I did win it. Tess was once a writer for the show, The Soup, and it really shows through in her writing.

I've read food memoirs (the cover says memoir but don't let it fool you, it's a food memoir) in the past, Toast sticks out in my mind whenever anyone says food memoir, but this one was different. Tess goes about food in a way that is not only honest and true, but hilarious. She always seemed to have a positive way to look at things even if they were unbelievably terrible. She focuses on having dinner parties and makes them seem horribly stressful and extremely fun at the same time. She also gives advice on how to cook for picky eaters (picky by choice and picky by food allergies) that will come in handy to anyone who cooks for someone with food allergies. For example she is allergic to most fruits and vegetables, something she talks about a lot during the memoir.

Her tips, and recipes, that showed up at the end of each chapter were hilarious and totally doable, many of which I plan on trying out (all with alternatives for food allergies). The entire time I was reading this memoir I felt more as if I were talking to a friend rather than reading a book. Her positive attitude and ability to make extremely stressful things seems fun have made me want to start having dinner parties of my own! I recommend this book to anyone that likes to laugh, cook, or drink (there is a lot of drinking involved).

Long time, no see!

Oh, hey!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but please, don't start sharpening the pitchforks and gathering the townsfolk! I have a legitimate reason! I recently moved into my apartment with my boyfriend! Moving is not easy, as I'm sure a lot of you know. It took a lot out of us and the reason why I have not been updating is because we are still without internet. I will be getting it on Wednesday though and I plan to go back to every Friday posting as before.

Because I have not had internet, or cable for that matter, I have managed to get quite a bit of reading done. I finished three books in four days! I mean, it wasn't like I was reading some super intellectual, heavy stuff, but reading is reading. And I managed to edit a chapter of my WIP in those four days so that was nice also. I am very excited about all the stuff I will be talking about coming up so make sure you check in on Friday, and possibly on Wednesday depending on what the Road Trip Wednesday is.

How have all of you out there been doing? Swell I hope!

One Life to Live: Revival

So, I have a thing for soaps. And I will admit, when One Life to Live premiered on Monday, I was one of the first to watch it. I'm not ashamed of this at all. I've been watching it for about seven years now, on and off through college. It started with my grandma and then my sister getting me into them, so they have a bit of sentimental value behind them.

One thing about soap operas that I'm tired of, which I've talked to my sister about, is the stereotyping that comes with it. They assume all watchers are white women who have no jobs and stay at home. I'm not exaggerating. A reporter at the NYtimes essentially said that. A person my sister knows said to her "people who watch soap operas don't contribute to society and live vicariously through the characters." It's comments like these that make people who watch them seem... well... crazy.

Sometimes, yes, soap operas can be dramatic, but so what? The average person I know, or come into contact with, on a daily basis have lives more dramatic than that. I'm rambling a little bit, let me get back on track...ish. I will admit the story line this week was a little weird, but hey, they're getting back into the groove and it'll pick back up. I'm excited to see what's going to happen next and plan on watching it faithfully!

Judge me if you'd like, I think they're fun.

Genre Writing

If you can't tell, I like GIFS... and Spongebob.

I've been thinking a lot about what I write lately. A couple of different things have popped up that have really got me thinking about the fact that I write Young Adult. First was over Winter Break when I started looking up MFA programs that I wanted to apply to. I knew most of the programs wouldn't have any kind of YA type things but I wasn't prepared for the fact that almost all reputable programs say specifically no genre writing. This really got me down. But I've talked to my sister, who is getting her PhD at University California Riverside and my personal mentor, and she helped me realized something. Just because I don't get into my program off my YA writing does not mean I can't still write YA.

Another thing that happened was I recently applied for a position at the schools undergraduate literary magazine Grassroots. For my interview I had to bring them a writing sample. I know most people look down on YA writing as not real writing, so I decided to bring in one of my non-YA works. This also made me realize, and I will restate, most people look down on YA writing. For all you YA writers out there, you know this stinks and is a common thing. It really is a bummer that most people see YA writing as not real or not good.

The third thing that happened that made me think about it was an article I read on YA Highway's blog. It asked the question, do you read outside your genre. My answer is yes. I have to. Because of my school classes I am required to read almost exclusively things that are out of the genre that I write. I think this is good for me though. It really helps me improve my writing. However, it makes me realize how little YA is read in college and the fact that it really isn't credited well.

I know I have led you down a long and depressing road of what seems like anti-YA but I have a point. The thing is, if you're out there and are like me, feeling like YA isn't looked upon well, then what I have to say is, forget them. Really all that matters is you're writing, right? You're doing what you love, no matter what genre. While I think it is a good idea, and very important, to read other genres, just remember to stay faithful to what you love. Don't let someone else persuade you that your writing will never be good enough because the characters aren't the right age, or the fact that your setting may be a little fantasy. Do what you love, and forget the rest.