Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Um... maybe.... um...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.





This Week's Topic:

What were your top five favorite books of 2011?

You have to understand how such a question makes my stomach clench and procrastination radar spring to alert. How do I decide? I read so many books... and liked lots and lots.... and decisions are not really my very best thing. (i blame my star sign... stupid scales)

For a while i was going to pick three but then the aforementioned scales stated questioning my choice. It went back out to 5... then 7... Sigh.

It shouldn't be this difficult.

Maybe I'll keep thinking.

What were your best reads of 2011?

=)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Shining brightly

I have a new idea.

it hangs there glimmering like the baubles on the tree. I'm too far away yet to tell whether it's one of the real beautiful expensive kinds or one of the Styrofoam ones my kids made at kindy that are covered in a smattering of glitter and a hodge podge of texta swirls that are supposed to be their name.

For the moment I think I'll stay over here because I don't want to know yet whether it's truly sparkly.

I'm living in the hope it is but that might fall over under closer examination.

How do you know when an idea is as good as it seems from afar? Is getting real close - like writing it close - the only way?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cheers, Ta.

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.





This Week's Topic:

What writing or publishing-related thing(s) are you most thankful for?

There are 2 things I am grateful for. The first is the great friends i have made in real life and online through my journey to learn more about writing and one day be published. It's a great community and I've met some of the warmest, greatest people both published and unpublished.
 
The second is the books. It's the brilliant books I get to read every day. I'm grateful someone believed in them enough to put them out there and others spoke about them or made a great cover or blurb or whatever made it catch my eyes.
 
I love the books.
 
What are you grateful for? 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Required Reading... but GOOD

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic:
In high school, teens are made to read the classics - Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens - but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curricula, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

Okay... so i had to read some Shakespeare (in yr 12 we had to do a spelling test cos of the sheer number of us who spelled the playwright's name wrong) as well as some Grapes of Wrath and Great Gatsby kind of books. I'm probably giving myself away as a geek but I think reading some of the classics a teen would never pick up of their own accord isn't all bad. As long as they're interspersed with some modern lit. I'm thinking Harry Potter and Hunger Games and selected books by the teacher who knows which stories will speak to her/his class.

I had a few awesome teachers. One had us read 'Looking for Alibrandi' by Melinda Marchetta and I still love that book. Another had us read 'Tomorrow When the War Began' by John Marsden. Two aussie writers/stories that made sense to us then (and I still like now).

What would you have teens read?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A little bit of superpower

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.




This Week's Topic:


What are your writing and publishing superpowers (drafting? beta-reading? writing queries? plotting? character creation? etc.) -- and what's your kryptonite?

My first inclination was to moan about my complete lack of any superpowers at all. But then I stop and think for a bit.

Maybe, just maybe I have one.

Maybe even two.

Neither is unusual particularly but completely necessary. I’m still going. Day after day I come back to the computer (or note book – whatever) and open the doc and write some more. When that story is done I start another. And submit eventually. And get rejected. And then I write some more.

Super-persistent with maybe a dash of Super-hopeful/optimistic.

We all are to keep going.

The other power is rarer for me… in a few stories I’ve found a groove. When this supergroove happens the words come out as fast as I can type them and I can get a story down pretty fast (considering how little writing time real life gives me).

But in general as much as I would love to be super-plotter or querier or anything I think turning up is the first step. And perhaps the hardest.

What about you? Are you super?

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Coach Smoach or Tell me what i need not what I want

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:


What kind of writing coach do you need? When you have to coach friends, what kind of coach are you?

I’m greedy… I need something of all different kinds of coach – from the harsh and exacting to the gentle and kind. And I think in my life and CPs I have most bases covered.

All positive - Family is great for compliments cos they love me and are nice and some of them don’t even read much. While they don’t necessarily push me to be my best, some days I wouldn’t keep going without one of them gushing in my direction. Yay! Love them.

My Cps run the gauntlet of the rest. I’ve cried from crits they’ve given… but I needed to get. They’ve either pulled me up with warmth or with no-nonsense.

But I think it’s important that behind the pull-no-punches crits I know there’s complete support and belief in me and in my writing. I don’t want toxic in my life.

It’s too short.

I would hope that I'm honest but nice... i like to be nice. But it's not nice to lie and say something is brilliant if it's not. I try to offer compliments where my CPs have rocked it (something they do often) but tell them where they haven't too so they can get even better.

What about you? What writing coaches do you need/have? Are you?


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I don't play well with others

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.





This Week's Topic:

What supporting character from a YA book would you most like to see star in their own novel?

I am one of those readers who tends to buy into the story through the main character. I'm pretty loyal. For example, following on from last weeks post I love the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and the rest of the series so I was thrilled when the series starring Bean (a support character) came out. BUT reading them I felt kinda guilty. These stories painted Ender in a different light, not bad really, just different. And I didn't like it. As the series moved from Ender I liked them more but couldn't fall for them the same way I did Ender's stories.

So I didn't have a million ideas for any supporting characters to get there own stories.

However, I do have a real soft spot for Hermione.


I would love to read about her going on after Harry's story finishes. But i think it would always feel like Harry's world to me.

What about you, any supporting characters you'd like to get their own starring role?

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sept-Ender

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:

What was the best book you read in September?

September wasn't a great month for new reading. Coughs and tummy bugs were rampant in our house. Sigh. 
 
Stress and illness lead to comfort reading. A few of my old faves were devoured. You know those great books you can pick up anywhere if a kid or dog loses your place and read on because you know it so well?
 
I first read my best September book when I was about ten I think. And have re-read many times. It's a joke with hubby cos the night we met we got chatting and I accidentally told him the ending. But then I figured it didn't matter cos I'd never see him again anyway.
 
He still teases me about how I ruined the book for him.
 
Enough rambling... (Really, is there ever enough? *grin*) The best book i read in September was
 
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  
 
I love it because it's a comfort read. I love it because it makes me cry. Most of all I love it because in Ender I have one of the characters who I have as a reader supported most strongly. I wanted Ender to succeed completely.
 
What about you? What was your best September book? Do you turn to a comfort read when life gets messy?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Play it again Sam...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:



What themes, settings, motifs, scenes, or other elements do you find recurring in your work?

Just the other day I was re-reading one of my first stories and discovered the lead up to a big turning point for the heroine (an emotional day followed by a dance of all things) was almost the same as in a new story. And they were completely different heroines and genres. Sigh. Lucky the first hasn't a hope of appearing from beneath the bed any time soon.

I also tend to have strong mothers for my heroines. Usually good (after my own who passed away ten years ago) and if they're not.... then they're really, really bad which is me in an effort not to write about my awesome mum.

My characters are often not real... um... graceful or coordinated. They say write what you know I guess.

I'm drawn to outcasts, people who don't quite fit in. Maybe cos those people aren't so trapped in 'the system' that they can see where it's not working/not fair.

What about you? You writing the same thing over and over?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

When you were young...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.




This Week's Topic:
What non-YA character would you love to see star in a YA book as themselves?

Thinking about this made me realize that most of my very fave characters are either teens or spend some of the story as a teen. Eventually one sprung (ie crept painfully slowly) to mind.

He's ageless in an ageless book. He has immense power and wisdom and an aura of authority. seeing him as a teen, perhaps uncertain, perhaps going through the struggles that would make him so awe inspiring when we meet him would be so interesting.

I'm talking about Lord of The Rings and I'm talking about Gandalf.

Imagine a YA book about Gandalf? I'd read it!

While I'm on LOTR i think Aragorn could be rather interesting too.

What about you?

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

It's haunted me

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
What was the best book you read in August?

The best book I read this month isn’t a YA but it’s rather brilliant.

It’s ‘End of the Night Girl’ by Amy T. Matthews.

Amy belongs to a writers group I attend. Here’s what the publisher Wakefield press says on its site:

Molly, a sassy Australian waitress, is haunted by the ghost of a murdered Polish Jew. The two young women's stories, each a compelling page-turner, combine teasingly in one as End of the Night Girl explores shadows cast by the Holocaust across decades, continents and cultures.

Wow, huh?

It sounds intense and I found it so, and amazing and emotional and thought provoking. It’s so wonderfully and skillfully told and it’s haunted me since.

I was lucky enough to attend the book launch (pic below) and am thrilled Amy has a real success story here in her first book.


What have you read that’s made you think this month?

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Can I get a cream for that?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
How do you beat writer's block?

This is something I struggle with at times. It shows up as mega-procrastination... like way more than usual. I have to check other blogs, facebook, twitter, then all again. Get a drink. And then decide I probably don't have time to make enough progress to make starting to write worthwhile...

But it means I'm stuck.

The only cure is time. And making myself show up at the computer.

I give myself a little break. Do some of that houseworky kind of stuff i usually avoid. This lets me think about why I'm stuck. But without staring at the screen thinking about why I'm stuck. Usually this does the trick. if not i re-read, waiting for the bit that makes me feel a bit queasy... like i'm off track. Often I need to go back. Sometimes the problem is that I'm trying to push the characters in the wrong direction.

Sometimes my brain is fried and some exercise or kid time is all i need.

What about you??

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Not thinking, thinking.

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:

What is the most inspiring setting you've ever visited in real life? 


I love to travel but the three munchkins has dampened our range a little the last few years. There's a great mix in being on holidays. My brain relaxes and when i'm not 'trying' to think i can sometimes think best.
Cue a family holiday to an island about an hour off our coast, the lovely Kangaroo Island. The restaurants were nice, the accomodation luxurious and we all had a wonderful time. Hubby decided we should drive to as many points on the island as we could fit in. We got to see stuff and the kids got some nap time (otherwise they were go, go go).
Driving through the at times isolated bush i got to thinking.... about a group of people cut off on the island. How, why, when. And so my last story came to be.
What about you, any inspiring settings?

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

I'm sensing that reeks

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
The Five Senses. How you use them in your writing, how you are inspired by them, pictorial essays, that character with smelly socks, books that have used them well, the ones that are currently missing from your work, etc.

There are more than just sight and sound? Sometimes I wonder if I do remember when I read over a first draft whether touch, smell and taste exist. Using all the senses is something that i try to keep in mind when I'm writing but it doesn't always happen (it's not the only one).
THAT, I guess, it what edits are for. I tend to put a sticky note next to my computer screen as a gentle reminder. I agree this can help add depth to a scene.

For example, the rubbish bin in the alleyway where my hero is confronted needed the smell of rotting food among other yuck odors to bring it alive.

Texture/Feel is something i think i could use better too.

So much to think about. Is there any sense you don't use enough in your writing?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Books and Fire trucks

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
What was the best book you read in July?

Ohhh… best book of the month time already?

I read a few books this month in between getting organized for my son’s 4th birthday (honestly… a firetruck cake? Talk about pressure for not-great-cook me) but the stand out had to be Amanda Ashby’s Fairy Bad Day.

Simply, it's about a wannabe dragon slayer who gets asigned fairy slaying and needs to enlist the help of the boy who 'stole' her rightful slaying position.

I wasn’t having the best day when I read it and the humor and romance and greatness lifted my spirits. It was the perfect read for the cold wintery glumfish day.

One fire truck cake... it was scarily pink for a while but we got red in the end.


How about you, read anything perfect to lift your mood this month?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Some like it... bad...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
 Who are your favorite literary villains/antagonists, and why?

This one got me thinking... in a my head hurts kind of way. I discovered I am rather... um... judgemental with my villains. If they are bad then i dislike them. And that works for, say, Harry Potter where Voldemort is pretty straight evil. But then I thought further and thought of Snape. He's a villain for much of the books but that twists and turns.... and makes him appealing. So i think he'd not only rank as a fave but a prototype.

A villain i like needs to be well motivated and can do 'bad' things as long as they're ultimately.... good.
Note: I am much less picky in movies or TV... them bad boys often look so fine!

What about you? Any fave villains? Does it matter if you can see their hotness?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Inspire me

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:
 
Share some image(s) that inspire your WIP
 
I like to collect images of my main characters so i can see them easily in my head. And I like to have other fragments that inspire a mood or an aspect of the character.
 


But I think this image and those like them on the news fill my mind the most with this WIP. My brother-in-law and his young family live in Japan and we worried for them greatly, still do considering radiation issues.

What about you? Any inspirational piccies? Relatives living in scary places?
 
 
 

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Too late

So i wrote a great (ok... that could be a stretch but, ya know it's my recounting) post for Road Trip Wednesday. It was about my fave book of the month. Only, now (here in Aussie) it's July thanks to blogger locking me out for 2 days at random.

So, the book I was planning to rave about was 'on the jellicoe road' by Melina Marchetta. loved it, loved it, loved it.

In my great, lost post I also explained how the Aussie RWA do a June Challenge a bit like NaNo and i signed up for 40k... which left little time for reading. But if i don't read i wilt... so i made time. I also managed 40008 words on the WIP and i still love it.

Happy me!

Nearly school hols here. What do you have coming up? Has blogger picked on you lately?
=)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Come on up and take a guess...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic:
I give you an off-the-cuff blurb of a book, any genre, and you guys try to guess the book.

 
Ok here goes... um....

An eleven year old orphan learns he's a wizard and discovers he is the key to finally defeating super-bad-nasty guy who was believed vanquished.

=)
Too easy? What about...

A girl volunteers for a reality TV fight to the death in an arena to save her sister.

Anyone know these? Interesting to note that these are both pretty simple, maybe I need to look for that in the WIP.


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

In the name of...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:

What is the strangest/weirdest thing you've ever researched?


I've looked up a range of stuff... hmmm... the strangest...

So far the one that got me the strangest look when someone walked in was my research into home made tattoos. Combine it with the fact i've been wanting a tattoo myself and hubby thought i'd taken cheap to a new level. I hurried to reassure him.

Other interesting and hopefully useful stuff includes antique shops in San Fransisco, number of people on a spaceship, how to engage students and psychology of slavery. It does kind of fit together.

Kind of.

What's the strangest thing you've researched for a WIP?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Inspiration

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This Week's Topic:
Who in your life has most inspired your writing?


There are two ways an inspiring person can impact my writing:

1) All round inspirer
This person is generally inspiring, making me want to be better in life in general. I have a lot of these great people around me. My hubby, the kids in their fresh take on the world, my women - my sisters and mother in law and closest friends (inside and outside the writing world) - who all manage in some way to rise above the day to day to be special, strong, inspirational.

2) Writing specific
This is for those teachers who believed in me, those brilliant authors who've left me striving to match them (no matter how short i feel), and my CPs/beta readers who literally get into the dirt and help me dig something out of the mess i write.

Of course, many people have a foot in both halls of fame.

But none more so than my mother.

Despite her death ten years ago, she still inspires me. Firstly as a woman who raised her family with such strength, who was the kind of person who, the moment you saw her, you wanted to be her friend. And then as my best cheerleader. I CAN be whatever i want to be. As long as i work hard enough. She believed I could do anything.

And then there was the way she raised me to be a reader. More than that, a devourer of stories. One of my earliest memories is snuggling close while she read to herself (after her stories to me), i couldn't wait to be able to enter the world on my own.

Then, of course, there's the moment. I was about thirteen. She read a story I'd written. And she cried. She felt it. And I will never forget.

Who inspires you?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Letting go

I have been revising my story after leaving it sit for over a month. I'd done edits as I went and had some feedback from my CPs, but something about it was bothering me and I knew I needed space to see what it was.



Space included a trip to the magnificent Flinders Ranges
and an amazing hot air balloon ride over the mountains at sunrise.


The space worked... kind of. I wasn't fulfilling the promise of the start because I'd rushed my ending. I managed to tweak a few things, completely change something else and now I think it's the better.

But I want to *know*...

How do you know when the story is done and it's time to let it go into the world (more CPs, beta readers, agent etc)?

=)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Scar stories

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same.
 
This Week's Topic:
 
What is the story of your best scar?
 
Scars are like memories written in blood. I have a few... not too many which maybe tells its own story of cautiousness.
 
One brings back my childhood and the family across the road... who later moved around the corner but never really from my life. They had big dogs my whole early childhood. Obedient, well-behaved, good and maybe kinda scary German Shepherds. When I was about 11 they got, of all things, a toy poodle. The thing couldn't have been much bigger than a man's boot. Turned out the thing had brain damage that transformed it into a red-eyed fiend (maybe the eyes were my imagination) and it would leap out at random and attack. One day it got my hand and i was shaking but the thing was like a cartoon, swinging back and forth in the air, not letting go of the webbing between my fingers. It had to be put down not long after. The small mark reminds me not to judge a dog by its size. Ouch!
 
What do your scars tell you?

Saturday, April 2, 2011

All kinds of Awesome!!

Bragging alert!

Am so completely happy to share that my fab CP recieved the call email. She sold her gorgeous christmas romance to Carina Press.

Congratulations Rach!!

Raising many a glass to you, my friend! Wishing you even more success in the future!

=)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

People keep sneaking in...

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same.
 
This Week's Topic:

Who have you written into a book? Be honest.

Ooooh this is an interesting one and something i'm wary of doing. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. recently, after much begging, i used my sister's names in a story but only as secondary characters who are completely unlike them - apart from being nice. The closest i've come is when a doctor friend (was my bridesmaid actually) treated my daughter in emergency (We live in a city of 2 million and she was on call at 3am in a public hospital - it IS a small world). My next story had a wonderful, kind doctor with her name.

Usually i try to steer away from real people but I think it's impossible really. A part of me is in every character and they are influenced by the people i know and love/dislike.

What about you?
=)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I wanted to be like...

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week is in tribute to the release of Kirsten Hubbard's book Like Mandarin.


From Kirsten:

In Like Mandarin, 14-year-old Grace Carpenter would give anything to be like 17-year-old Mandarin Ramey -- the bold, carefree wild girl of their small Wyoming town. Many people I've spoken to experienced that sort of longing as a teen -- a longing to be like someone else. A friend, a sister, a celebrity, an acquaintance, a cousin, a teacher or, as in Grace's case, a girl you thought had no idea you existed. I know I did!



 
This Week's Topic is:

 


Wow, this topic strikes at a timely moment. As a teen, there were two people i wanted to be 'just like'. The first, my oldest sister. At 11 years older she was all growned up and seemed to know everything (still tells me she does) yet she still took time to hang out with me. Me!

But that had been the same since I was born.

When I was 13 my mother re-married and we moved into his house. My two older sisters lived out of home by then, as did his two sons. But his daughter... At 9 years older than me and the complete opposite of me (super-cool, dropped out of school to work, did i mention super-cool?) she had the type of personality that made a shy, awkward teen want to hide in a corner. But she didn't let me. We became friends and she talked to me about her problems (I'd like to think I was wise... LOL) and told me about her big nights out. Sigh. I felt confided in and special. Even when she moved 13 hours away I would go to stay with her in my holidays. Sadly, we lost contact when my mother passed away and I got married. Thanks to the wonders of the internet we've been catching up a little recently and I was floored to learn yesterday that she is very ill. Her kids aren't even grown.

So, I'm happy to say proudly, when I was a teen one of the people I would have given anything to be like was my step-sister.

=)

Who did you want to be?

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

RTW - Choose your own Question-venture

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same.
 
This Week's Topic is super interactive:
What do you want to know about writing and getting published?

My question... is how to choose which idea to write?

I am an eternally awful decision maker and struggle to decide what to write. each idea will take a long time to finish and I'm worried about the time investment if I can't pull it off to be as cool as it sounds in my head. At the same time, I can't switch up easily. Sigh... I seem to waste time trying to decide.

Thoughts?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Couples magic...

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week's RTW topic is:

Who are your favorite literary couples?You know -- the ones you like by themselves, but LOVE together!

This one got me thinking.

My instant reaction was Ron and Hermione. Sigh... So real, so much build up, so believable... love it. No sappy there. Lots of laughs though.

And then I thought some more... and stalled a bit. There are so many that I'm struggling to pick the best of them. I love smart girls and bad boys, super cool girls with shy guys, the outcasts who find each other... too many to choose.

What about you?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Universe of a book

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week's RTW topic is:

If you could live within the universe of one book, which would you choose?

This was really fun. Maybe cos my reading these days is darker (not such a great place to live) I immediately went back to my childhood faves. Also because my oldest is just learning to read and I can't wait til she can discover this series. I remember the wonder of it... if not a heap of the story.

I would like to live in the world of The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.


And the Harry Potter world might be cool too... as long as I was a talented witch and He Who Can Not Be Named was defeated.

What about you?
=)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Road Trip Wednesday: Favorite lines

Each week, YA Highway hosts Road Trip Wednesday, a blog carnival in which contributors discuss a topic on their blogs and invite readers to do the same.

This week's topic: What is your favorite line from your WIP (or from a book you read recently)?

This is an interesting one and I've been fascinated jumping from blog to blog and reading other people's responses.

From my just 'finished' story:
We are not in this together.

Wow, i think that pretty much sums up the whole story!
=)