And for your viewing pleasure here's the view outside my basement bedroom window:
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
You Recommend Wednesday
Hey there lovely readers! Well, like most of the Midwest I'm snowed in for the day. Which makes today the perfect day for reading and blogging. :) So what do you all have for me? What's everyone reading these days? Me, I'm in a big Steampunk mood right now so that's what I'm reading.
And for your viewing pleasure here's the view outside my basement bedroom window:
And for your viewing pleasure here's the view outside my basement bedroom window:
Friday, January 28, 2011
Review: Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Infinity
Chronicles of Nick book 1
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin's Griffin
http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com
ISBN: 9780312599072
Release Date: May 25, 2010
(above info is for the hardcover)
from the author's site:
At 14, Nick Gautier is an average kid who runs with the wrong crowd. But on the night he decides to go straight and refuses to mug an innocent tourist, his crew turns on him and just as he thinks his life is over... a new one begins.
Kyrian of Thrace isn't just a vampire slayer, he's a Dark-Hunter and he introduces Nick to a world that he never imagined.
With new enemies who make his old ones look like wimps, Nick must either measure up or get sized for a body bag. It's kill or be killed and this kid who was born on the wrong side finds a strength inside him that he never knew existed.
Now if he can only find someone to help battle the demons that don't reside inside him.
Kyrian of Thrace isn't just a vampire slayer, he's a Dark-Hunter and he introduces Nick to a world that he never imagined.
With new enemies who make his old ones look like wimps, Nick must either measure up or get sized for a body bag. It's kill or be killed and this kid who was born on the wrong side finds a strength inside him that he never knew existed.
Now if he can only find someone to help battle the demons that don't reside inside him.
my thoughts:
I've loved everything I've ever read from Sherrilyn Kenyon (or her alias Kinley MacGregor) and Infinity did not disappoint. It did, however, surprise me. As she, herself, says on her site, every time you think you know a character you're going to learn that not everything is as it seems.
I read this one for the YA book club that I run, though I'd have read it anyway because I love Sherrilyn Kenyon's work. I had some familiarity with Nick because of reading the Dark Hunter books, but Infinity really gets inside his head. (I also learned I was mis-pronouncing his last name) I really felt for Nick throughout the story. I think to some extent everyone can relate to being bullied or having the people around you not listen to what you're trying to say. It's beyond frustrating and Nick's frustration comes through the page very clearly.
I can't wait for Invincible to come out. It's going to pick up right where Infinity left off and I definitely want to know what's going to happen next.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Eyecatcher: The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith
The Marbury Lens
by Andrew Smith
http://www.ghostmedicine.com
Feiwel & Friends
ISBN: 9780312613426
Release Date: November 2010
from the publisher's site:
from the publisher's site:
Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.
There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.
Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.
Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay.
But it’s not.
why it caught my eye:
This is another cover that caught my attention at work. It's currently displayed on a table, so I noticed it when I walked by. I'm intrigued by the premise and can't wait to take a look at it. So yes, I have yet another addition to my ever-growing wishlist. :)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
I'm back!!!
Hey there lovely readers! I'm sure you've all missed me. lol November and December were insane. Here's hoping January calms down so I can get back to our regularly scheduled blog. :)
If you sent me an email and haven't heard from me, I'll be working on responding to those in the next week here. Just bear with me while I get back into the swing of things.
Here's to a fabulous 2011!
If you sent me an email and haven't heard from me, I'll be working on responding to those in the next week here. Just bear with me while I get back into the swing of things.
Here's to a fabulous 2011!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Blame it on NaNoWriMo
You're probably not going to see or hear much from me for the rest of the year. I'll try to stop in when I can and post reviews as I get books read. However, for the month of November I'm participating in NaNoWriMo - that's National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated. It's going to be writing madness for the rest of the month. :)
After November is the madness that is December, also known as the holiday shopping season for those of us in retail. Again, I'll try to swing by, but December will be full of work, finals, research papers, and most importantly sleep.
So I'm apologizing in advance for my potential absence. If you send me an email and I don't respond, I'm sorry. Tweet me at @heathermriley or find me on Facebook (also Heather M. Riley) if you really need to get in touch with me. I'm usually pretty good about checking those on a daily basis.
And lastly.... Good luck to all my fellow NaNoWriMo writers! Let's all hit that magical 50k!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Author Interview: Beth Fehlbaum
Happy Monday lovely readers! Today my guest is Beth Fehlbaum, author of Hope in Patience. And here she is:
I’ve been writing all my life. I wrote mostly poetry when I was a child and young adult. I really began writing short stories when I was going through recovery for childhood sexual abuse. It helped me process the excruciating pain I was in as I struggled to accept that people who were supposed to love and protect me had not chosen to do so. At the same time, I had also started working out (I used to weigh about 100 pounds more than I do now, and one of the first things I worked on in therapy was no longer stuffing myself with food to numb my feelings). I would read books while on the treadmill, and one day I went into my daughter’s room to check out her bookshelf to see if she had anything interesting to read. I saw a book called Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow, 2003).
Reading Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was an epiphany for me! Here was something unlike anything else I’d ever read: a gritty, realistic story for teens, told in a way that spoke to my heart. One day my therapist suggested I try writing a novel. It took me about 4 months of being stuck inside my head, unable to pull myself out of my own feelings of grief, disbelief, and rage. One day, I decided to try imagining someone else’s story. What if the main character was a teen girl who got out of her abusive situation much earlier than I did? What if the story focused more on her first tenuous steps into recovery, and how she carved out a new life for herself with the father she’d never known until CPS removed her from her home? That’s how I met Ashley Nicole Asher, age 15, and ended up creating the fictional small town of Patience, Texas.
3. Tell us a
bout your most recent/upcoming release?
Hope in Patience is coming from WestSide Books in late October, 2010. It’s already available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! Hope in Patience is the story of 15 year old Ashley Nicole Asher, who has been sexually abused by her stepfather, Charlie, since the age of 9. At the point that Hope in Patience starts, Ashley’s been living with her dad, David, stepmom, Bev, and stepbrother, Ben, for about six months. Some readers may be aware that before Hope in Patience, I wrote Courage in Patience. It was published by a company that is now out of business, called Kunati Books. Courage in Patience is the story of Ashley’s first tenuous steps into recovery from childhood sexual abuse, right when she is removed from Charlie and Cheryl’s home. The book I wrote when my therapist first suggested it was Courage in Patience. It’s still available from private sellers on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but it’s officially out of print. Hopefully at some point WestSide will want to reissue it. You don’t have to have read Courage in Patience in order for Hope in Patience to be meaningful to you, however.
Hope in Patience finds Ashley at a crossroads. She’s recovering from Charlie breaking her arm when he and Ashley’s mom, Cheryl, tried to take Ashley from Patience back to Northside, the suburb of Dallas where they live. Ashley has to face Charlie and Cheryl in court because of him breaking Ashley’s arm. Ashley’s mom is very devoted to Charlie, and this is a very hard reality for Ashley to deal with. She’s working through the pain with her therapist, Scott “Dr. Matt Matthews”, and using cross-country running as a way to relax and cope. Another reason she likes cross country is Joshua Brandt, a cute guy on the team that she admires from afar, but she doesn’t know what she’d do if he asked her out.
Ashley’s friends include Zaquoiah “Z.Z.” Freeman, whose family is one of the few African-American families in Patience. Roxanne Blake is 4’6” tall, and she has scars on her face from a car accident that killed her parents when she was ten. Roxanne’s boyfriend is Kevin Cooper, who is a gentle giant. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s crazy about Roxanne. T.W. Griffin quit the Patience Panthers football team, and his dad, the head football coach, is still angry about it. Krystle “K.C.” Williamson is newly arrived from Houston, and dealing with parents who think that K.C.’s being a lesbian can be cured by a quick trip to J.C. Penney’s to get some skirts for her instead of the jeans and Nirvana t-shirts she usually wears.
When a horrific accident occurs, Ashley is brought face-to-face with the reality of her situation, and she must decide whether to embrace the new life she has with her dad and his family, or retreat to hiding in the pine wardrobe dresser that is the closest thing to a closet she has in Patience. (When Ashley was a child, when she was scared or trying to keep Charlie from molesting her, she’d hide in her closet. She slept there most nights.) Hope in Patience is the story of hope triumphing over fear, and it is a story for everyone. It is a survival story.
4. Do you plot out in advance, or just start writing and see where things go from there?
It’s a combination of both. I know what the ending will be, and I know the major plot points. I map out a basic idea of what is most important to me to communicate through the story. As I write, it may change, or I may drop some plot points if they do not contribute to the strength of the story. For example, with my current work in progress, the third Patience book called Truth in Patience, I intended to include a sub plot of church burnings, based loosely on a series of church burnings we had in the East Texas area last spring. However, once I began plotting out the book, I realized that the church burning story would take away from Ashley’s story—so out they went.
One thing I heard from readers about Courage in Patience was that anytime the story took them away from Ashley, they were mildly irritated—which is great because it means that they connected to her so strongly, they didn’t want to leave her storyline. I listened to them and kept that in mind when I wrote Hope in Patience. When I get stuck, I ask myself what happens next. Sometimes it’s quite surprising!
5. Many authors have told me that their characters talk to them, or sometimes even have different ideas of where the story should go than the author. Do you hear your characters?
I do hear them in my mind; they usually sound like the people I had in mind when I crafted the character. My characters are usually combinations of people I’ve known, but not always. Marvella Brown, for example- the Patience High School secretary and mischief maker—I have no idea where she came from, but I know exactly what she looks and sounds like!
6. Who is your favorite character (of your own)?
Oh, gosh, that’s like asking a mom to say which of her children is her favorite! I love all of them , with the exception of Charlie, because of what he put Ashley through.
7. What hobbies do you have when you’re not writing?
I am traveling more and more, since all three of my kids are going to college out-of-state. Around the house, I like to garden. I have a flower garden every spring and summer. My husband and I planted a bunch of pine tree saplings a few years ago, and I nurture those. Because we live in the woods, we have a lot of wildlife come up to eat, and we enjoy watching them. We have two dogs that I like to walk, and I just enjoy nature. I also like doing things that support the East Texas Crisis Center, which provides services and shelter to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and I’m on the Advisory Board of Survivors in Action, which likewise provides help to abuse victims. I also support Lavender Power, a support organization for abuse victims and survivors, the Texas Freedom Network, and the Human Rights Campaign.
8. If you had not become a writer, what would you have done instead?
I’d have stayed a teacher, because I love it so much. I also really loved being a stay-at-home mom when my kids were small.
9. Where can authors find you online?
My website is http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com ; I’m on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ beth.fehlbaum ; and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bethfehlbaum
10. Your turn. What question do you have for readers of Want My YA?
What is most important to you when you read a novel? Is it characters? Voice? Whether its told in 1st or 3rd person?
Thanks so much for stopping by Want My YA today. It was great to be a part of your blog tour. :) I hope everyone takes a moment to check out Hope in Patience. It sounds like an inspiring read.
Have a great blog tour, and readers, don't forget to leave a comment and answer Beth's question.
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
I’ve been married for 25 years to my high school sweetheart. We have three grown daughters who are all off pursuing their dreams of being a college professor, writer, and nurse, respectively. During the school year, I teach 5th grade Language Arts in a bilingual education program in a small district in East Texas. I live in a house our family built several years ago, right on the edge of the Piney Woods of East Texas. I write books during the summer and whenever I can carve out the time. I love both my jobs!
2. What got you started writing? What brought you to YA?I’ve been married for 25 years to my high school sweetheart. We have three grown daughters who are all off pursuing their dreams of being a college professor, writer, and nurse, respectively. During the school year, I teach 5th grade Language Arts in a bilingual education program in a small district in East Texas. I live in a house our family built several years ago, right on the edge of the Piney Woods of East Texas. I write books during the summer and whenever I can carve out the time. I love both my jobs!
I’ve been writing all my life. I wrote mostly poetry when I was a child and young adult. I really began writing short stories when I was going through recovery for childhood sexual abuse. It helped me process the excruciating pain I was in as I struggled to accept that people who were supposed to love and protect me had not chosen to do so. At the same time, I had also started working out (I used to weigh about 100 pounds more than I do now, and one of the first things I worked on in therapy was no longer stuffing myself with food to numb my feelings). I would read books while on the treadmill, and one day I went into my daughter’s room to check out her bookshelf to see if she had anything interesting to read. I saw a book called Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow, 2003).
Reading Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was an epiphany for me! Here was something unlike anything else I’d ever read: a gritty, realistic story for teens, told in a way that spoke to my heart. One day my therapist suggested I try writing a novel. It took me about 4 months of being stuck inside my head, unable to pull myself out of my own feelings of grief, disbelief, and rage. One day, I decided to try imagining someone else’s story. What if the main character was a teen girl who got out of her abusive situation much earlier than I did? What if the story focused more on her first tenuous steps into recovery, and how she carved out a new life for herself with the father she’d never known until CPS removed her from her home? That’s how I met Ashley Nicole Asher, age 15, and ended up creating the fictional small town of Patience, Texas.
3. Tell us a
bout your most recent/upcoming release?Hope in Patience is coming from WestSide Books in late October, 2010. It’s already available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! Hope in Patience is the story of 15 year old Ashley Nicole Asher, who has been sexually abused by her stepfather, Charlie, since the age of 9. At the point that Hope in Patience starts, Ashley’s been living with her dad, David, stepmom, Bev, and stepbrother, Ben, for about six months. Some readers may be aware that before Hope in Patience, I wrote Courage in Patience. It was published by a company that is now out of business, called Kunati Books. Courage in Patience is the story of Ashley’s first tenuous steps into recovery from childhood sexual abuse, right when she is removed from Charlie and Cheryl’s home. The book I wrote when my therapist first suggested it was Courage in Patience. It’s still available from private sellers on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but it’s officially out of print. Hopefully at some point WestSide will want to reissue it. You don’t have to have read Courage in Patience in order for Hope in Patience to be meaningful to you, however.
Hope in Patience finds Ashley at a crossroads. She’s recovering from Charlie breaking her arm when he and Ashley’s mom, Cheryl, tried to take Ashley from Patience back to Northside, the suburb of Dallas where they live. Ashley has to face Charlie and Cheryl in court because of him breaking Ashley’s arm. Ashley’s mom is very devoted to Charlie, and this is a very hard reality for Ashley to deal with. She’s working through the pain with her therapist, Scott “Dr. Matt Matthews”, and using cross-country running as a way to relax and cope. Another reason she likes cross country is Joshua Brandt, a cute guy on the team that she admires from afar, but she doesn’t know what she’d do if he asked her out.
Ashley’s friends include Zaquoiah “Z.Z.” Freeman, whose family is one of the few African-American families in Patience. Roxanne Blake is 4’6” tall, and she has scars on her face from a car accident that killed her parents when she was ten. Roxanne’s boyfriend is Kevin Cooper, who is a gentle giant. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s crazy about Roxanne. T.W. Griffin quit the Patience Panthers football team, and his dad, the head football coach, is still angry about it. Krystle “K.C.” Williamson is newly arrived from Houston, and dealing with parents who think that K.C.’s being a lesbian can be cured by a quick trip to J.C. Penney’s to get some skirts for her instead of the jeans and Nirvana t-shirts she usually wears.
When a horrific accident occurs, Ashley is brought face-to-face with the reality of her situation, and she must decide whether to embrace the new life she has with her dad and his family, or retreat to hiding in the pine wardrobe dresser that is the closest thing to a closet she has in Patience. (When Ashley was a child, when she was scared or trying to keep Charlie from molesting her, she’d hide in her closet. She slept there most nights.) Hope in Patience is the story of hope triumphing over fear, and it is a story for everyone. It is a survival story.
4. Do you plot out in advance, or just start writing and see where things go from there?
It’s a combination of both. I know what the ending will be, and I know the major plot points. I map out a basic idea of what is most important to me to communicate through the story. As I write, it may change, or I may drop some plot points if they do not contribute to the strength of the story. For example, with my current work in progress, the third Patience book called Truth in Patience, I intended to include a sub plot of church burnings, based loosely on a series of church burnings we had in the East Texas area last spring. However, once I began plotting out the book, I realized that the church burning story would take away from Ashley’s story—so out they went.
One thing I heard from readers about Courage in Patience was that anytime the story took them away from Ashley, they were mildly irritated—which is great because it means that they connected to her so strongly, they didn’t want to leave her storyline. I listened to them and kept that in mind when I wrote Hope in Patience. When I get stuck, I ask myself what happens next. Sometimes it’s quite surprising!
5. Many authors have told me that their characters talk to them, or sometimes even have different ideas of where the story should go than the author. Do you hear your characters?
I do hear them in my mind; they usually sound like the people I had in mind when I crafted the character. My characters are usually combinations of people I’ve known, but not always. Marvella Brown, for example- the Patience High School secretary and mischief maker—I have no idea where she came from, but I know exactly what she looks and sounds like!
6. Who is your favorite character (of your own)?
Oh, gosh, that’s like asking a mom to say which of her children is her favorite! I love all of them , with the exception of Charlie, because of what he put Ashley through.
7. What hobbies do you have when you’re not writing?
I am traveling more and more, since all three of my kids are going to college out-of-state. Around the house, I like to garden. I have a flower garden every spring and summer. My husband and I planted a bunch of pine tree saplings a few years ago, and I nurture those. Because we live in the woods, we have a lot of wildlife come up to eat, and we enjoy watching them. We have two dogs that I like to walk, and I just enjoy nature. I also like doing things that support the East Texas Crisis Center, which provides services and shelter to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and I’m on the Advisory Board of Survivors in Action, which likewise provides help to abuse victims. I also support Lavender Power, a support organization for abuse victims and survivors, the Texas Freedom Network, and the Human Rights Campaign.
8. If you had not become a writer, what would you have done instead?
I’d have stayed a teacher, because I love it so much. I also really loved being a stay-at-home mom when my kids were small.
9. Where can authors find you online?
My website is http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com ; I’m on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ beth.fehlbaum ; and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bethfehlbaum
10. Your turn. What question do you have for readers of Want My YA?
What is most important to you when you read a novel? Is it characters? Voice? Whether its told in 1st or 3rd person?
Thanks so much for stopping by Want My YA today. It was great to be a part of your blog tour. :) I hope everyone takes a moment to check out Hope in Patience. It sounds like an inspiring read.
Have a great blog tour, and readers, don't forget to leave a comment and answer Beth's question.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Eyecatcher: The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
The Exiled Queen
by Cinda Williams Chima
Disney Hyperion
http://www.cindachima.com
ISBN: 9781423118244
Release Date: September 28, 2010
by Cinda Williams Chima
Disney Hyperion
http://www.cindachima.com
ISBN: 9781423118244
Release Date: September 28, 2010
from the author's site:
Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, hunted by the powerful Bayar family, Han Alister makes a devil’s bargain with the clans. If they sponsor his schooling at Mystwerk Academy at Oden’s Ford, he will become their magical sell-sword against the power-hungry Wizard Council.
Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, hunted by the powerful Bayar family, Han Alister makes a devil’s bargain with the clans. If they sponsor his schooling at Mystwerk Academy at Oden’s Ford, he will become their magical sell-sword against the power-hungry Wizard Council.
Han and his clan friend Fire Dancer undertake the dangerous journey south through war-torn Arden. Once in Oden’s Ford, it doesn’t take long for the smoldering feud between Han and Micah Bayar to kindle into flame. After several attempts on his life, Han knows he has to find a way to defend himself.
In the magical dream world of Aediion, Han meets the mysterious Crow, a wizard with a long-standing grudge against the Bayars. Crow offers to tutor Han in wizardry in exchange for his help. Han agrees, once again forced into a bargain he hopes he won’t regret.
Meanwhile, Han’s friends Fire Dancer and Cat Tyburn struggle with their own demons. Dancer is determined to become a clan flashcrafter, despite his charmcaster status. Cat carries a load of guilt, as the only survivor of the slaughter of the gangs in Ragmarket and Southbridge.
Resuming her disguise as gently-born Rebecca Morley, Princess Raisa ana’Marianna travels with her friend Amon Byrne and his triple of cadets to Wien House, the military academy at Oden’s Ford. There she hopes she will find both temporary sanctuary from a forced marriage and the education she needs to succeed as the next Gray Wolf queen.
Much of Raisa’s education takes place outside of the classroom. As she mingles with students of all classes from throughout the Seven Realms, she forges the kind of friendships that don’t happen amid the cut-throat politics of the Gray Wolf Court. She also struggles to deal with her attraction to Amon—an attraction he seems determined to discourage.
When Han Alister asks the girl he knows as Rebecca to tutor him, she agrees. The streetlord turned wizard with the complicated past fascinates her, and he makes it clear the interest is mutual. But Han blames Queen Marianna and the Bayars for the loss of his family. As their relationship deepens, Raisa suspects that if Han knew her true identity, he wouldn’t want anything to do with her.
why it caught my eye:
Aside from the beautiful cover on this one, The Exiled Queen is a title I've been waiting for since I finished reading The Demon King. Cinda Williams Chima writes great fantasy so I can't wait to get my hands on this one. I swear my wishlist grows by the day. :)
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