November Notes and College Chronicles Prequel!

I know most of my recent posts have just been updates, but I have a few more things to let you all know, lovely readers, before we move on to meatier posts. Thanks for having patience with me. :)

The day I bought fake tattoos and Augusta and I made ourselves into The Chosen Ones

First of all: don't forget to enter the giveaway for a paperback copy of Sixteen! Open to all countries; ends on Saturday, November 8.

Next up: so far, the Inkshares project for World of Shadows is not going well at all. It's disappointing, I'll admit, but I wasn't really sure what to expect, so it's not a huge deal. If I don't make it to my goal, I'll just go back to my original plan of self-publishing World of Shadows through the same process I used with Sixteen. Either way, it will be on virtual shelves before 2015 ends!

Third: Disclaimer: Yes, I am completely mental. But I decided on the day it started to go ahead and try NaNoWriMo again this year. For those of you unfamiliar with this month of insanity, check out the website. The book I'll be working on is another book in the Once Upon a Dream series (which World of Shadows kicks off). It's a loose Rapunzel retelling currently called My Mother's Shadow, though the title will probably change eventually.

I went to an awesome Halloween dance as Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the only photo of how I actually looked at the dance, because it was literally freezing all night and I clung to my thick winter cloak for dear life until my roommate and I arrived at the dance.

Then we have this: I've shared my plans for college studies and my future after graduation with you all before. Basically, the plan was (1) go to school, (2) become a teacher, (3) go teach in a missions capacity overseas. That plan has been changed. I'll probably go into more depth in a future post, but right now the main point is that I'm changing my major to English Literature. I hope to use this degree to go work overseas with missions and organizations and then write about it, be it for their website, newspapers, fundraising efforts, anything like that. So there will still be a service/missions focus, and I'll still be overseas, but with a writing rather than teaching focus, and probably with more traveling and visiting different groups rather than working for one long-term. In other words: more writing classes! Yay!

Finally: College Chronicles is going well! I have a handful of videos shot, and I'm editing them for posting. Video-blogging is definitely a new and strange frontier for me, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with practice. Today I'm sharing a prequel with you all, my lovely readers! This was shot at the Willy Wonka Halloween Dance last weekend.

I'm Not Dead

Hello, my lovely readers.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I took an undecided, unannounced blogging break. I could explain about my real-world health problems, college crisis, schedule craziness, or high school senioritis. But I don't feel like making a laundry list of the issues driving me in circles this past month. Instead, I'll just say I fell off the blogging bandwagon and didn't really care about getting back on. I'm back now, so let's focus on the happy stuff.

Like my best friend's birthday on March 29. The best friend I based characters in my book Sixteen about. Speaking of Sixteen, something else very important occurred on March 29...

My book is now available for sale! In paper!

So, yeah, go buy it if you want. I'd love a review once you've read it, if you're feeling particularly generous.

Oh, and a bit of other news: since I've been finding it so hard to stick to blogging, I've decided to scale back the blogging schedule once again. This will probably only last until after graduation in late May, since I always feel like blogging more often in the summer. For now, though, I'll be popping in on Wednesdays and only on Wednesdays. I may or may not have a new series coming up next week... haven't decided yet. Just keep your eyes peeled ;) If I do go ahead with it, it's going to be huge. Life-changing. Trust me.

So, Google Plus Comments...

You know those Google Plus comments? The Blogger comment feature intended to be more interactive? The setting I've been using for several months now?

I hate them.

First of all: for the many, many readers out there whose comments I have not responded to: I am so sorry! Apparently, Google+ Comments doesn't send me emails when I get new comments on my blog posts. In fact, I don't get any notice whatsoever.

Second: on several occasions, to make up for the whole no-email thing, I would drop by the blog myself to check for comments. Unfortunately, the comment box decided more times than not to just eat my comments and send them, invisible, into the black holes of cyberspace. Multiple times. Eventually I would just give up and leave my blog without commenting.

Third: I realize that there are quite a few readers here who don't have Google+ and, therefore, couldn't comment. Considering the second point above, even those of us who do have the right profiles struggle with the comments. I feel your pain.

Fourth: When I decided, a long while back, to get rid of Google+ comments... IT COULD NOT BE DONE. It was my third or fourth attempt (plus a lot of interwebs research and Googling) before I finally figured out how to turn the stupid things off and go back to regular comments. Apparently my having two separate Google accounts (an old one from middle school that I used to use for everything, and the new one I set up for professional/writing/blogging purposes) also makes anything that has to do with Google+ or YouTube that much harder. Arg. (I also really hate that Google+ and YouTube are practically combined, but that's a rant for another day.)

Fifth: To those of you who did manage to comment, and have those comments successfully posted, during my Google+ comments stint... I'm terribly sorry, but all those comments have been deleted. You can't transfer comments to or from the Google+ setting. Which is another reason I am frustrated it took me so long to figure out how to disable them. So many loyal readers, so many lovely comments -- all of them, gone!

Sigh.

Here's to a more peaceful and interactive commenting community in the future of this blog.

Cover Reveal: Sixteen In Print!

SIXTEEN IS GOING TO PRINT GUYS.

Sorry for the screaming. But my FIRST BOOK TO EVER BE PUBLISHED IS GOING TO BE IN MY HANDS IN ACTUAL PAPER. With a proper - GORGEOUS - cover.

I love it. My writer's group loves it. My mom... doesn't love it. But eh, she's not the target audience. DID I MENTION I LOVE IT?!

All credit goes to http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com/

And here's the full, with back and spine...

Lookie, lookie! I have a logo for my publishing house.

Why the Absent Parent(s)

Everyone who sticks around in the young adult book world has noticed this by now. Writers, readers, and bloggers everywhere have started questioning this practice, now dubbed a cliche. Yet nobody seems to know why it even happened, and few can come up with interesting and compelling ways to relieve this syndrome without damaging a good teen story. I speak of the Absent Parent(s) Syndrome -- and I think I've figured out why it's around.

First of all, look at what Absent Parent Syndrome is. The parents are dead, divorced, always working, in another state, etc. They overlook or misinterpret signs that anything is different in their teen's life. They play little to no part in the story. While the teens care deeply about their parents, as far as the book's concerned, parents are often the least important character.


Compare this to younger fiction. Kids' and middle grade books often place at least one parent in key roles. Even when the parent is only in one scene, something they say or do has great bearing on the rest of the story. They guide the characters, teach lessons, help mold the story. Cut parents from a young adult story, and you have an orphaned main character; cut the parents from a children's story, and you have a completely different (often weaker/hole-riddled) book.

Compare it to older fiction. Adults, while independent of their parents, are quite mindful of them. Perhaps they long to live up to their parents' reputation; perhaps they're fearful of letting parents down; perhaps they struggle to live their own lives while taking care of an ill parent. The parents may be present as a story character, or it could just be their memory -- whether as a great teacher and guide or as someone who left the character scarred -- but they always have a part, just as in children's books.

I think the reasoning behind this is in the real-life mindsets of children, teens, and adults. Children depend on their parents for everything, and see the world through the lenses their parents instill. They're blind to their parents' faults in many cases until later in life. The world revolves around the parents; they've not yet reached the age of thinking or providing for themselves. Adults are fully independent, usually with their own spouses and children eventually. They've balanced out after the hormones and insecurities of teenhood, and have found the right balance of freedom (thinking for themselves, being an individual) and family (considering others' opinions and preferences, making decisions for a group rather than just self).

Teens, on the other hand, stand on the ragged edges between the two. We must think for ourselves for the first time, and decide what beliefs from our childhood will continue with us in life. We must learn to provide for ourselves -- get a job, pay taxes, manage our money, make choices with the head rather than the hormones. All at the same time, we still live under the rules and decisions of our parents. In an attempt to learn to be the independent adults we know we must become to succeed in society, we tear away from our parents. Often this is where rebellion, anger, and misunderstandings stem from.

Many of us feel like the responsibilities of an adult are expected of us (getting a job and doing it well; paying for a car and its maintenance/gas), while the freedom of a child is all we receive in return (being told when to go to bed; having our eating habits monitored rather than letting us eat what we want, when we want). I realize that most parents almost always have the best intentions. While some of us try to keep in mind that living under someone else's roof and eating their food means following their rules, we often forget these things in our frustration. Not to mention hormones and the emotions they cause really are as confusing to us as they are to our parents. In the swirling mess that feels like our lives, we often tend to cut off others as much as possible to try and figure things out in our own topsy-turvy heads. No one feels this knife of separation as keenly as the parents who raised us.

Basically: Absent Parent Syndrome is cliche, yes. It's become a trite trope of YA fiction. But only when you dig to the heart of the matter can you as a writer find ways to begin fixing this problem.

Book Tour: Lies

Excuse the extremely late hour of this post, please, because I've been in bed with a sinus infection and bronchitis for a week and a half now and completely forgot I was supposed to post this.

Lies by Oliver Dahl

Available March 11

About the Book

Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers during the Salem Witch Trials (1692) knows that something is wrong. After a horrifying encounter with Tituba, her friends were cursed. Miraculously untouched by the effects of the witch, Ann acts bewitched as well, in an attempt to accuse and hang her friends' torturers. This tragic experience of guilt, abuse, power, and love gives a first-person view into the spine-chilling months where neighbor turned on neighbor at the word of a little girl.

Learn more about the book and join the countdown to publication!

Excerpt from my interview with the author:

What inspired your book? How did it all start?

In my American History class last year, we were reading in our textbooks about pre-colonial America, the 1600’s or so. While reading, I was appalled to see that the Salem Witch Trials were mentioned once. The textbook summarized the events and moved on in one paragraph. I had always been kinda fascinated and horrified by the Salem Witch Trials, and to see them almost blown off in a class textbook was... shocking. We’re talking about an event that hugely inspired our modern judicial system--an event that speaks boldly about human nature, and the affect of extremist religion on people’s lives. So I decided to write a book. It’s a fictional novella, a firsthand account by Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers of the Salem Witch Trials. I would like to think it will shed much more light to people on that fascinating time than the brief paragraph in my history textbook.

What is your goal in writing and publishing this book?

Having published two books before, I want this one to be different. It’s not only about different things -- but in an entirely different genre as well! (My two previous books are modern YA/MG scifi/fantasy). But at the same time, there are similarities, like the possible existence of fantasy elements in real life, which I absolutely love. This book will be the best quality book that I have ever written, let alone released. The quality and professionalism will be like the best of traditionally published books, and will hopefully compete as well in the marketplace.

Read the rest of the interview.

Drop by the other tour stops and say hi!

Feb 20 - prettylittlepages - review
Feb 24 - kitnkabookle
March 5 - thebookconnectionccm (Interview)March 5 - thebookconnectionccm (1st Chapter Review)
March 6 - emilyrachellewrites
March 7 - thepagewalker
March 7 - virtualwritersinc
March 8 - zarahoffman.com
March 10 - missalexandrinabrant
March 11 - TheDreamersAdventures
March 11 - JanelleLeonard
March 12 - prettylittlepages
March 14 - booksandneedlepoint
March 17 - heathermauthor
March 20 - swipethepages
March 21 - readerswritersconnect
March 25 - celticladysreviews

Book Review: The Frost Chronicles

The Frost Chronicles by Kate Avery Ellison
In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead.

Book One: Frost
Book Two: Thorns
Book Three: Weavers
Book Four: Bluewing
Book Five: Aeralis

(Note: there are also two novellas, Brewer and Fugitive, that take place between books four and five. I am totally buying them, but since I haven't done so yet, they're not included in this review.)

Amazon Summary (Book One):

In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead—and Lia Weaver knows this better than anyone. After monsters kill her parents, she must keep the family farm running despite the freezing cold and threat of monster attacks or risk losing her siblings to reassignment by the village Elders. With dangers on all sides and failure just one wrong step away, she can’t afford to let her emotions lead her astray. So when her sister finds a fugitive bleeding to death in the forest—a young stranger named Gabe—Lia surprises herself and does the unthinkable. 

She saves his life. 

Giving shelter to the fugitive could get her in trouble. The Elders have always described the advanced society of people beyond the Frost, the “Farthers,” as ruthless and cruel. But Lia is startled to find that Gabe is empathetic and intelligent…and handsome. She might even be falling in love with him. 

But time is running out. The monsters from the forest circle the farm at night. The village leader is starting to ask questions. Farther soldiers are searching for Gabe. Lia must locate a secret organization called the Thorns to help Gabe escape to safety, but every move she makes puts her in more danger. 

Is compassion—and love—worth the risk?

My Thoughts:

I have finally found an author who measures up to the marvels of Cidney Swanson. Surprisingly - or perhaps not? - she, too, is an indie author. Other similarities between the two: their breathtaking book covers drew me in where the back cover copy left me skeptical. Both women focus more on series than standalone novels. Finally, both write in forms of the speculative genre, be that science fiction or dystopian.


Of course every book has flaws. The Frost books had a few typos, and the fourth book had a couple of minor inconsistencies with the rest of the series. (Example: a book referred to as The Winter Parables in the other books was called The Snow Parables in book four. Not a huge deal.) The author kept mixing up peak/peek and, more commonly, pour/pore. The first book got a bit sensuous, but that actually faded out for the most part. (Not the romance - definitely not! - but the toeing-the-line-between-okay-and-not.) There was one random curse word in one book, which I think just missed editing. (Today's cursing didn't really fit the story world.) Other than that, though, the writing was spotless. Glorious vocabulary, a perfect blend of showing and telling, a strongly designed story world, unique and individual characters...

Speaking of characters, they're basically the heart of these books, and most definitely the best part(s). Whether you like a person or not, you come to love the author's brilliant depth and voice for each unique person, no matter how small their role. Who can Lia trust? Why is he acting like that? What does she want? Everything comes down to motivation, just as it should, and the motivations here are not lacking.

There is a love triangle that develops a little less than halfway into the series... but oh, how beautifully it was written. I have never seen a triangle so masterfully done - for a Hunger Games and Matched fan like me, that's saying something. This series leaves those books in the dust. Both boys are equally matched to the girl and both would be great choices, emotionally and logically. Both of them have lives outside the girl. No matter what, the triangle is neither pushed too far aside as to become pointless, nor honed in on to the point where it becomes irritating. Lia keeps her head through everything. In fact, she's probably the strongest, most sensible heroine I've met.

Actually, Lia's strength of mind annoys me sometimes. It was worst in book four, if I remember correctly. In her attempt to protect those she loves and stay true to her loyalties, she doubts anyone who has ever not been on her side. At least four times she had absolutely no faith towards characters that were clearly (to me, anyway) not as evil as she made them out to be. As Gabe eventually points out, "Is there anyone you do trust, Lia?" (That might not be the exact quote.) At least the other characters were both as aware of and annoyed by this major trust issue as I was.

I wish I could tell you about everyone in this book. Ann, the soft and sweet best friend. Gabe, the mysterious fugitive. Adam, the unreadable loner. Jonn, the crippled but capable twin. Ivy, the irritating younger sister who grows oh-so-much. Borde, the strange scientist. Korr and Gordon and Raine and the Mayor and Claire and Cat and Stone and Everiss...

Some character-driven stories are a bit lacking in the plot department, but nobody will ever be able to accuse the Frost Chronicles of this. The twists! The turns! The development! While I sort-of agree with another Amazon reviewer - the fifth book felt like it lacked something in plot - the majority of the storyline was just stunning. I laughed, I cried, and I never knew what was coming. Seriously. As a writer, I've gotten used to finding every book I read a bit predictable. I've learned to distinguish what's coming up before the average reader. We talk about that in my writers' group a lot. But even though there was enough foreshadowing and hints laid out beforehand, I got my predictions shockingly wrong. Every. Single. Time. This person's the bad guy! That place is where they'll end up! He's going to die! She's going to turn out to be this big secret thing!

I'm surprised I never got annoyed with the *BUZZZ you're wrong!* moments. I guess I was too enthralled with what actually ended up happening to care that I had no idea where it was going. Each book in the series gives enough answers for you to feel like the book ended, but leaves enough questions to pull you right along to the next book. If I had an issue with any of the books' setup, it would have to be the openings. They never picked up exactly where the last book left off, and they felt a bit abrupt. It was hard to get into the first couple of books. It got easier with each book. The last book had a prologue, which none of the others did. I liked it, but it didn't seem to quite fit the flow of the series - I'd prefer if it were just chapter one.

The last book was also the only one with an epilogue, but that fit perfectly. Without that epilogue, the entire series would be left incomplete. After such a long ride with these characters, it was nice to ease out of the story world. All loose ends are tied together. The epilogue's almost entirely telling, but it works. It's like the older Grimm or Anderson fairy tale style, back before showing was a thing, or like when someone tells you a story orally. Even though it broke all the writing rules, the epilogue was probably one of the best part of the series.

The Frost Chronicles, my lovely readers, are a glorious example of escape reading with morals. I may or may not be experiencing book hangover... and my expectations for modern teen literature have certainly been raised impossibly higher. Traditional publishing's got nothing on Kate Avery Ellison.

I won a free copy of the first ebook of this series through LibraryThing. Upon my request, the author supplied the other four ebooks for free in exchange for a single series-wide review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.