January 2017 Book Wrap Up and Giveaway

At the end of every month, I wanted to do a vlog with a wrap up of what I've read, or more specifically, what titles I recommend reading and why. However, I have found myself continuing to read books that I feel "meh" about. Despite knowing that I should put them down and move onto a different read, I still finish the title despite knowing I'll probably never really enjoy it.

Thus comes the idea that perplexes me. I can go months and years without finishing a writing project, but I can't seem to permanently walk away from an already written book. There have been very few exceptions to this rule. Very few. If I reach fifty pages in, I can't stop.

I tend to research books before I read them. I check out reviews from people I trust, because books are a huge commitment for me. A recent book I read had a huge red flag review, but I still started it anyway. I continued to think, "I should just walk away" until the very last page,

I did read a book in January that I'd like to recommend. At first, I was upset by one YA Trope used toward the end of the book (perhaps I'll make a YA Gets Real post out of it). But as time goes on, I find myself remembering the description, the characters, and the writing, because it was all really strong. The dialect was hard to get used to, but Orleans by Sherri L. Smith is a fast-paced book that starts slow and then becomes chaotic, much like her depiction of Orleans itself.

When I finished reading it, I wasn't as big of a fan as I am now. The trope almost killed it for me, but perspective has made me appreciate it more.

I also wanted to provide a few more recommendations based on the books I read last year. You can click on any of the photos for a link to amazon.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Silly somewhat dystopian Lord of the Flies take on a beauty pageant. When I started reading this book, I thought, "Man, this is going to be a trip." It was, but in the best way possible. These girls learn to kick butt. Who cares if it might be a totally outlandish plot, I adored every single ridiculous second of it.





Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
A disturbing and psychological look at a boy who needs the most amount of help possible. Intense and gripping toward the end when it all slams together in a fast-paced near nightmare.






The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
You know how all those supernatural stories have other people in them that never get talked about? The ordinary people who somehow manage to still have a normal high school experience despite the insanity going on around them? In this quirky and lovely book, Patrick Ness explores the lives of those people, creating an extraordinary story out of the ordinary.




If you are looking for indie authors to read, I've enjoyed books by all of my fellow Scriptors. I cannot recommend any of their titles enough.

That's it for January. Hopefully February will have several more titles to recommend and more current reads. I'm hoping to break the streak of mediocre books with some amazing titles in the future. Also, YA recommendations are welcome! Leave a comment! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books, Cats, and a Giant TBR Pile

A photo posted by R. A. Desilets (@radesilets) on Jan 7, 2016 at 1:01pm PST

While I was doing my daily chore*, I had this horrible thought: how many of my books have I actually read? Stricken, I stared at my shelves and realized, "Oh... oh no."

The idea for this photo blossomed. I must have it. I must have this ridiculous photo in my possession to prove I have an awful book buying habit. Sure, I donate a lot of the books once I read them, but this TBR pile has been growing year after year while I still go to the library.

Why?

I've always been a deadline-oriented person. I procrastinate, but once the end is looming over me, I have to finish what I've started. Library books have deadlines; mine don't.

This is why I made the chore box*. It's also why I made a very specific "Create" box with the same concept as the chore box. I have to do one task a day before the day is over. It's a concrete, deadline-oriented task. I have one day, that's it.

A photo posted by R. A. Desilets (@radesilets) on Jan 7, 2016 at 1:40pm PST

Today, I pulled out "Blog." Today, I decided that wasn't enough and also did the photo project. Today, I'm also committing to 2000 words of editing. Why? Because completing one task makes me feel accomplished. It makes me want to do more. Seeing a list makes me panic and do less. But one task? Just one? Sure. Let's do it! It will go in the "Accomplished" box once I'm finished.

So, what am I going to do with all these books?

Read them, one at a time. My create box also has items for downtime, like reading, coloring, and journaling. Things that are necessary to continue being creative.

My goal for the end of the year is to make my TBR pile a little less intense. Expect another photo in a few months with an update on how the reading is going!

Feel free to add me on goodreads! I only rank books 4 or 5 stars -- 5 for favorites, 4 for highly recommended. So you can easily see the books I love. I read mostly YA, all genres.

* You can find more information about my awesome chore box on my Patreon page on a free post.

2014 Accomplishments and 2015 Goals

I set a lot of crazy goals for myself in 2014, which I realize was a little over zealous. But I still accomplished a lot, so here it goes:

• Wrote, edited, and published YA Dystopian, The Collapse (The Uprising #2).
• Wrote, edited, and published YA Contemporary, Girl Nevermore.
• Wrote, edited, and published short horror story, ZERO (which you can get for free by signing up for my newsletter).
• Started my author newsletter.
• Ran several book giveaways.
• Moved to a different state.
• Got a new job (which starts soon!)
• Read 50 books.
• Founded the independent author collective, The Scriptors.
• Finished NaNoWriMo for the fourth year in a row (by writing In a Blue Moon, to be published soon).

I think that's most of it, but overall a very productive year!

I'm excited for 2015, but I'm keeping my goal list a little shorter this year. I'm taking each day at a time, and I have a monthly calendar with each day's goals written out. It worked great for December, so I'm keeping it up for this year!

Here are my writing, reading, and personal goals for the next 365 days:

• Publish three books.
• Publish one novella.
• Read 55 books.
• Take five hikes to beautiful locations.
• Go on five photo adventures.
• Eat at five new restaurants.
• Complete NaNoWriMo for the fifth year in a row.

That's it! Seven goals. Of course, I can always stretch these goals. I can always add another book, hike, or random adventure to the mix. I'm excited for 2015, because I feel focused again and ready to take the challenges as they come.

Cheers to the New Year!

What are some of your accomplishments from the past year and goals for the new one?

Goals 2013

The clocked turned to 12:00 am last night, and I was still wide awake.  So I set about reading the first book of the new year.

Since today is the first day of a year, it seems appropriate to do the "this year's goals" post.  I accomplished a lot last year, in summary:  Published novelette "My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade", wrote novella The Unanswerable, wrote 55k of WIP Good Criminal Heart, made my first ten dollars on Examiner, finished Rioss, rewrote RUHE and had an awesome beta critiquing session.  And!  Had RUHE in the hands of two agents (both rejected, but after initial interest, which is exciting).

Goals by month:

January: Finish Good Criminal Heart, get 30k of Where We Collide edited.  Submit The Unanswerable to ABNA after a quick read through (not significant editing, just a quick one!)

February:  Finish Where We Collide editing and get it to my beta readers.

March: Make edits to RUHE based on beta's comments. Attempt the same for Where We Collide.

April: Rewrite Rioss (specifically the ending and adding several scenes to make the ending make more sense).

May: Get betas for synopsis, first five pages, and queries for both RUHE and Where We Collide then start querying (this will continue for the rest of the year, goal is 15 agents RUHE and 25 agents Where We Collide)

June: Edit The Unanswerable.  Get beta readers.

July: One last read through of Rioss now with new ending, then get betas.

August:  Edit The Unanswerable again - maybe hire an editor.  Or re-read it 10 times myself.

September: Start campaigning for the self-published release of The Unanswerable.  Make some early giveaways, cover reveals, get some bloggers to help me spread the word, etc.  Get betas for synopsis, first five pages, and queries for Rioss.  Start querying (will continue until I reach 30 agents).

October: Release The Unanswerable (perfect end of the world tale for the month of Halloween!)  Prep for NaNo.

November: NaNoWriMo!  Yes, I'm going to do it again.  Either The Underground, a semi-sequel to The Unanswerable or 2041, my silly sci-fi novel.

December: Wrap up any NaNo leftovers.  Start editing Good Criminal Heart.

I'm hoping to start 2014 with three fully-edited pieces, another self-published work, a new novel, and a partially edited novel.  Who knows, if I manage on querying the right person at the right time, maybe I'll even get a partner-in-crime (aka. an agent).

What are your goals for 2013?  Good luck to everyone!  Let's make this year a great one :)

What happened to October?

There's this month.  It's called October.  I don't know if any of you have seen it, but I certainly missed it.  What happened to all the goals I was going to accomplish?  The days flew by, and I'm wondering what the heck happened to October.

Just to clarify it to myself, here's the story of October:

Last weekend I joined the army of the undead.  That's right.  My husband and I did the Run for Your Lives race.  No, not as runners.  Never as runners - are you kidding me?  I couldn't run to save my life.  But I can stumble around and scare the living daylights out of people.  We signed up to be zombies during the race, and as you can see, our makeup was... delicious.  Highly recommended for any zombie fans.  It's a lot of fun being dressed up in goop with good people by your side.

This weekend, we got lost in a corn maze.  By lost, I mean I kept peeking at the map so we wouldn't get lost because I hate getting lost.  My accomplishment was peeking less this year than last year.  Next year's goal is to stick the map in my purse and forget it exists.

We carved our pumpkins for the holiday.  I almost thought it wasn't going to happen this year, because like I said, the month of October disappeared.  Mine's the one with the moon and the cat.  Last year it was an owl, this year it was a cat.  I'm going to attempt to carve Jack Skellington at work tomorrow - we'll see how that goes.

Other than that... I did some critique partnering.  I've been reading a lot of 2nd and 3rd books in a series for the "Let's Finish What We Started" Challenge by the MA-YA group on goodreads.  On the fifth book now, Promised by Caragh O'Brien, and I still love the series even though that amazon review ruined the ending for me.  (Thanks person who wrote a huge spoiler in the title of your review.  You rock.)

My beta readers got me back Terrance so now I have to sit down and actually edit his story.  It shouldn't be that hard, sitting at only 15k to edit, but editing is always taxing.  I have one more person to send it to, but I want it to be polished to receive some final, last-minute insight - just in case I missed something huge.

NaNoWriMo is creeping up around the corner.  I'm not ready for you yet, November!  Stay over there!

Though, I must say, I've been outlining Anthony's story this week, and I love his character again.  Everything that felt trite the first time around is getting knocked out.  The biggest conflict is better than ever (his own self-consciousness) and the people in the story now accentuate it, instead of derailing it into another plot line entirely.  Oh, and my husband likes the new developments.  These all bode well, and I'm excited to get my hands moving across the keys again...  But I still hope I can finish Terrance by the weekend, else I might not be able to finish him in time for Thanksgiving my absolute deadline.

How about you guys?  NaNoing?  Ready for it?  Was October just as busy for you, or did you manage to find a weekend to breathe?

Harry Potter: Books that made me love reading challenge

When I was younger...

Are you kidding me? When I was younger, Harry Potter was essentially a god. Okay, fine, he wasn't really, but I grew up with him. I'm the generation that was just young enough to grow up with him and fall in love with every single character. I thought it was fantastic. The idea that someone could knock down your door and say, "Hey, I'm coming to whisk you away to a world of magic and mayhem - and on one of the greatest adventure you will ever see."

Now...
Because I read the book so many years ago, and have seen the movie much more recently, I remembered the movie better than the book. And although the book is still fantastic, I noticed some things. First, there are a lot more summaries than I remember, of conversations, of small side plots that don't need a huge explanation. I remember the dragon hatching scene being much more epic than it was (because I imagine the movie, not how it's described in the book). But J.K.Rowling was writing for Children - and she does some things flawlessly. Spoilers! Be warned! For example, setting Hagrid up to love dragons in the first chapter, when it doesn't even matter -- then. Setting up Professor Quirrell at every single location throughout. It was, and still is, brilliant. Though I remember my heart beating out of my chest when I was younger.

It's fast-paced, it's fun, and I still enjoyed it even though I am much older now than I was then. Oh - and Dumbledore provides necessary insight throughout, he actually says some very poignant things, that I don't think I really understood when I was younger.

My TBR Pile is Growing

I started receiving request for reviews (woohoo!)  I love reading, beta reading, and being part of critique groups.  I think it only makes my own writing stronger, but I also love helping other people.  And when I like a book, I love to spread the word about it.

But I think I really outdid myself.  I swear, I have to make a syllabus for my life or something - with due dates and the whole messy lot.

I'm behind on examiner.com posts (I still have to post my review of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness and Hunt by Patti Larsen - but at least I just got The Between review up!).  Which were all fun books, and recommended...  And to top it all off - September approaches!  Meaning that I have to read the next book in the "Books that made me love reading" challenge.

And I'm completely behind on my TBR Pile Challenge.  Okay, not behind really.  I set out to read 10 books on my TBR list.  I've definitely done that, but I haven't actually submitted any posts about them (I'm super lame, I know!)

You can see the picture for the list of books.  They were all sitting on the shelves.  Which, let me tell you something:  My library is awesome.  If they don't have a book, they can get it for me - they can order it on loan from another library in the Los Angeles county area, and poof!  Like magic, I get an e-mail saying it's in.  How's that for awesome?

Here's the thing I hate:  They never really have books that I want on their shelves.

Not today!  The library got a total YA revamping - and these four books that have been on my to-be-read list for entirely too long magically appeared on the shelves!  I couldn't believe it!

So, I'll be reading/reviewing for the next few weeks... and hopefully I'll find some time to finish my third draft of RUHE so that my beta readers can finish beta reading.

Also, I should mention how much I adore Patrick Ness's interview on YA books getting age ratings (he's against, for various reasons).  And I agree with him, but he's very articulate about it.  You should check it out!  I already loved his writing, but now I also like his style.

Matilda

For this month, on the Books that Made Me Love Reading Challenge, I read Matilda by Roald Dahl.

What I thought then:
Matilda was a nerd, just like me.  She was a nerd and was capable of so many good things in the world - that it must mean that being a little bookish is okay.  I wanted to be more like the precarious child, I wanted to read more and emulate who she was.  And I think that really helped me read more often, because she was so enthralled with books.  I said to myself, "I want to do that - I want to read every book on the children's section."  And I remember that I did start picking up library books at random, but I never did get through all of them.

What I think now: 
Matilda is a little bit evil.  She's like a child version of Dexter.  Matilda plays tricks and pranks on people that deserve it - on people that are downright bad people.  Dexter has the same kind of philosophy right?  But the main difference is:  He is 100% a sociopath.  Matilda -- well, she just wants to get people back and live a good life (where other good people also get to live good lives).  But it is vigilantism, right?  I still love Matilda, and I still love her story.  I think it's a great book and speaks a lot about "Good things should go to good people."

Also, the illustrations are still hilarious, I don't care how old you are - that newt is precious!

Next month, I'll be reading Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Books that Made Me....
love reading Challenge.

And it continues - I still somehow find the time to make this work, even though I'm on tighter and tighter deadlines with reading, writing, and everything.

When I was younger, The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a cute tale with the beautifully crafted pages by Eric Carle.  I still love the artwork, but essentially the book tells me "eat a whole bunch, get fat, hibernate, and then you'll be beautiful." 

It really is strange to go back to these books - and I will be taking a giant leap forward from the infantile level into chapter books for the next post (either Bunnicula or All the Money in the World).  Eric Carle definitely made me think that everything could be beautiful and that everything would turn out okay.  His artwork was like a baby blanket, and I suppose in a way it still is.  I love the simplicity of it, but the gloriousness of his textures.  (Yes, I said "gloriousness").

Regardless, I'm not as cynical about this piece as I was The Runaway Bunny.  It's so short of a book that I almost don't really know what to say about it.  This post is already longer than the words themselves.  But yes, grow up, be fat and happy, eat too much sometimes, and fly away.  Ah, to be young again and be able to eat piles of cheeseballs without consequence!

Anyway, I look forward to moving up to chapter books because those really shaped me as a reader and a writer.  Be on the lookout for more "Books that made me" posts in the future!