24 November 2010

VAMPIRE BOOK CLUB GIVEAWAY

Unfortunately I can't take part, as I don't live in Canada/US, but if you do, hop on over to the Vampire Book Club blog here to WIN A SIGNED COPY OF PARANORMALCY.

In Paranormalcy, Evie’s best friend is a mermaid. To enter the competition for a signed copy of Paranormalcy, leave a comment on their blog answering the question: If you could have any paranormal creature as a best friend, what would it be?

That's actually a really hard question...I might get jealous of a best friend with paranormal powers, if I didn't also have some ;)

WHAT KIND OF BEST FRIEND WOULD YOU PICK?

22 November 2010

2011 DEBUT AUTHOR CHALLENGE

Normally I pick up books quite randomly from the library, without really focusing on who/what I'm reading: I simply enjoy reading. But for 2011 I've decided to treat myself by buying myself a book every month. (This might seem a ridiculously small amount of books, but as I have so little money at the moment this really is a big treat for me!) Each of these books will be a YA book written by a debut author, and which I will review. The reason....

'The Story Siren' is hosting the 2011 Debut Author Challenge, and I will be taking part. All you have to do is read 12 YA/MG books by authors that are debuting in 2011, and you can take part in it whether or not you have a blog. If you want more information or to find out how to sign up then go here

So far, my planned books for the year are:

January: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White [Review here]
February: The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney 
March: TBC
April: Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton 
May: TBC 
June: TBC 
July: TBC 
August: TBC 
September: TBC 
October: TBC 
November: TBC 
December: TBC

I'll be updating my side bar as I figure out which books I will be reading each month.

Is anyone else taking part, or do you have any suggestions for debut authors?

20 November 2010

BOOK BLOGGER HOP

So this week's Book Blogger Hop question is....

"SINCE THANKSGIVING IS COMING UP NEXT WEEK, LET'S USE THIS HOP TO SHARE WHAT WE ARE MOST THANKFUL FOR AND WHAT OUR HOLIDAY TRADITIONS ARE!"


Even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here in the UK, I think it's always nice to think about what we are grateful for. For me, its family. Unfortunately I don't get to see them that often, as they live in Cardiff, Wales. Its only 3-4 hours drive away from London, but the petrol costs and toll bridge make it ridiculously expensive to travel there often. My sister has a two year old boy, who changes everytime I see him. I just wish I could see more of him!
Family are always there for you, no matter what silly things you do! And when you come home after a long drive, they're always there with hugs and food!

If you haven't joined or seen the hop, pop on over to Jennifer at 'Crazy-for-Books'.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving everyone, no matter where you are. x

15 November 2010

NANOWRIMO 2010

As we are exactly half way through November, I wondered how many people have taken up the 'NaNoWriMo' writing challenge? 

NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge, to write a 50,000 word novel during November. It doesn't focus on the quality of the writing, rather the quantity - prompting those to take part to write and write and write! The idea is to take risks and give yourself permission to make mistakes. There's a forum for everyone taking part to share ideas, progress and frustrations.

It sounds like a great motivator to try and 'pump' out a first draft of a novel, but unfortunately I'm ridiculously busy in work to be able to do it this year.

If you are doing it, how are you finding it? Is it hard work or a good motivator?

14 November 2010

IS SUBJECTIVE TEACHING RIGHT?

So six weeks ago I started a nine week creative writing course. Every Thursday evening I go along and  our small group looks at different topics to do with creative writing (such as plot, character etc - when I've finished the whole course I will post a summary blog covering interesting things I've picked up).

On our first session, everyone in the group shared the different genres they are interested in writing and work they've started. When it came to my turn, I described the types of books I enjoy starting with YA. My tutor immediately said, "Oh you're not into all this vampire stuff, are you? I can't stand it." Straight away, I felt my interests were demeaned and seen as a 'lower' form of writing. And probably only because of its current popularity.

During the last session we looked at some typical plot scenarios, and ended up discussing whether new stories can be original. The tutor chose the example of vampire novels to say how these plots and stories and just re-hashed over and over.

I would certainly disagree, having just read 'Of Saints and Shadows' (Shadow Saga #1) by Christopher Golden.  This takes a different angle to the vampire theory and has some unexpected twists at the end. (A fair amount of graphic violence, but a good read!)

Now surely there are a number of different genres that could be said to be 're-hashed', such as romance or crime - a crime's committed, a detective investigates, crime is solved...

I felt that he was picking on vampire stories because of his own particular dislike for them.

Since that first session, I haven't been able to feel comfortable reading out any of my work, or even felt able to like my tutor. Even though he has said we can give him some of our own writing to critique, I don't want to, because how can I trust that his own biases won't influence his feedback...?

I'm wondering whether I'm taking it all a bit too personally (which admittedly I often do), or am I right in feeling aggrieved at my tutor for imposing his own subjective view on which genres are better than others?

Do you think that a tutor of a creative writing class should be able to
express his own personal likes and dislikes of genres,
or do you think he should remain impartial in order not to
offend his students own writing preferences.

Thoughts please!

12 November 2010

BOOK BLOGGER HOP

Hello friends, I'm going to be good this week and blog. I was a happy bunny coming home today, as I had a lovely lovely letter from my new penpal BC at 'A Fairy's Playground'. I'm really glad to have BC as my new writer friend, and I can't wait to get to know her some more :)
So over to this week's Book Blogger Hop - which is a weekly event hosted by Jennifer at 'Crazy For Books'.




The Hop is a fantastic way to get your blog noticed more and visit some other cool blogs that you didn't know about before, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! If you want to join, visit Jenn at Crazy-for-Books!!

This week's question comes from Cristina at 'The Paperback Princesses':




"IF YOU FIND A BOOK THAT LOOKS INTERESTING
BUT IS PART OF A SERIES,
DO YOU ALWAYS START WITH THE FIRST TITLE?"

Hmmm, well it's definitely annoying to read a book and have lots of hints to a background story you know nothing of. But as my book budget at the moment is £0, I'm back to borrowing from libraries. Unfortunately they seem to love stocking the 2nd or 3rd or 4th in a series. Never the first. Why?! Well, today I actually stood in the library for a good few minutes debating whether to get Kat Richardson's 'Labyrinth', which is 5th in the 'Greywalker' series. Do you think they have the earlier ones in the series....of course not - that's too easy. So after much internal debating, and at the risk of looking like I was lost amongst the three short aisles, I decided that yes I would get it. If I like it then I'll definitely read the earlier books in the series. Its just a shame that I'll know what happens in the very end. I can only hope Kat Richardson writes a sixth book, and leaves me something to look forward to ;)