A is for All the Money in the World

I'm taking two of my challenges and wrapping them into one post.  It's the A-Z Blogging Challenge and Emlyn Chand's Books that Made Me Love Reading Challenge.  For this month, I read All the Money in the World by Bill Brittain.

What I thought then:
This book captivated me.  Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  My little mind was enthralled.  It really taught me "be careful what you wish for."  And it made me think long and hard about what I would do with three wishes.  Firstly, I would tell the person who was granted the wishes not to grant it until I said, "Please grant the wish that I just told you about."  This way, I would avoid any stupidities (like in the book).

For my first wish, I would wish for:  A wallet that is indestructible and has magical properties (which I will explain momentarily) where only people related to me can use it - and if it is stolen, or lost, it will always find its way back to the people in my family.  Now, the magical properties would be:  Every time I, or a family member, thought about how much money they needed, it would appear in the wallet.  However, this money would come from places where people forgot about it.  Example:  twenty dollars falls down the drain and never gets picked up again?  It's mine now.  But all money pulled from the wallet will be cleaned, and in perfect condition (so if I end up pulling up old gold coins from somewhere deep in the ocean, I can totally have artifacts - and don't have to deal with stinky swamp money).  In the case that there is no money that people have lost/forgotten about, the wallet will remain empty until there is money/gold/silver that can be found elsewhere.  The money is not to be "stolen" from people that own it.

Yes, this is everything I thought of when I was little.  Because I loved the concept of "all the money in the world" or rather "not having to worry about it again," but saw the flaws in the wish and wanted to make it better.  My kid mind was all about it.  As for my second and third wish?  I would save them, because if the first wish fails in someway, I will definitely need my second wish to fix it.

What I think now:
It was still a fun read, and clearly I'm still thinking about what my three wishes would be.  Though Quentin's story is a lot less interesting the second time around - it was still very amusing.  My biggest problem with the book is no one ever questions why leprechauns exist.  I mean, there's a one-two foot man running around who is green and everyone just accepts it.  "Oh, that's just Flan."  ... That's just a little green man!!! No big deal?!  Really?!

The Concept of All:
A is for All, so I want to take the time to discuss this concept.  All is a pretty selfish term.  I don't think I would ever wish, or want, all of something.  It's too self-centered.  Can you think of anything that you would want all of?  All the oranges, tea, money, trees, land, paperclips?  What's the point in having all of anything if you can't share it?  Who would want all the paperclips in the world anyway?  The only thing that I could think of would be:  I want to see all the beautiful things in the world before I pass.  But that could take a long time, right?  Or maybe just, I want all my thoughts to be positive?  But then - if all your thoughts are positive, all the time, then how would you get negativity in your writing?  Your characters have to go through some kind of emotional turmoil to change?  And knowing everything - all the things in the world - that would be way too intense, right?  I think that I should keep the "alls" to someone else, because I'm "all" set ;)  But if you can think of anything that it would be helpful to have all of - please, start the debate!

Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to our two winners for the March Birthday Giveaway month!

Our first winner is: 

Krista R.

Our second winner is:

Oloore

I will be e-mailing both of you.  Krista will have first pick of the books, and Oloore will get second pick of the books once Krista chooses.  Congratulations to the both of you - and thank you for following!

Stay tuned for A to Z blogging month in April!  We will also have another giveaway - Hmm, I wonder what letter that will fall under ;)

There will also be some exclusive previews and excerpts from my novella The Unanswerable (a post-apocalyptic survival story).  Enjoy all the upcoming stuff, it's going to be a super fun month!

Monthly Recommendations

I am blogging A-Z starting tomorrow, so I figured I would post this one day early!  Here are my monthly book recommendations.  If you feel like purchasing any, you can follow my link.

Poke by Dalya Moon
YA Paranormal Romance
Zan has the weirdest supernatural power ever:  He sees the future of girls who poke him in the bellybutton.  It's usually a turn off, so he's never been with a girl before.  That is, until he finds Austin.  When she pokes him, he doesn't see anything.  This starts the love story where Zan immediately wants to be with her because there is finally some mystery in his future.  This was a fast-paced and very fun novel.  After I got over the whole "poking bellybuttons is a super weird power," it was really enjoyable.

You can purchase Poke from amazon.


Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
YA Urban Fantasy
While I admit there are some similarities to some bigger name books out there, I still really adored Leigh Fallon's characters.  It was a fun read, with tasteful romance, and the main character's love was far less creepy than some other YA stories out there.  Megan and Adam have reason to be drawn to each other inexplicably.  It's a cute, fast read, and I'm interested to see where Leigh takes it in the future.  I am hoping that the follow up has more deviations from the normal YA UF, but I will definitely read the next in the series regardless.  It was a lot of fun.

You can purchase Carrier of the Mark here.


My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
YA Paranormal
This was a fun read.  Rachel Vincent gives you just enough description to lead you into the frightening world of discovering your true nature (and who knew that bean sidhes could be cool?)  It's a great first novel in the series, and I am interested to read more.  Definitely on my recommended list.

You can purchase My Soul to Take here.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
YA Paranormal Romance
I feel weird calling this YA Paranormal, because I feel this more focuses on the unraveling of Mara's sanity.  A lot of people leave this book wondering, "Okay, what on earth just happened?"  But that is part of the charm, as the book leaves you with more questions.  It's the first in the series, and it definitely jumped into a good start.

You can read my full review here.
Or you can purchase The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer here.

In Edits

Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Cara Michaels may want my head on a platter for not updating my #WIP500 lately, but honestly, I can't really do it.  No, not can't.  I won't.

Why?  Because I have three pieces that have not been edited as much as I like.  So I'm reworking, rewriting, and keeping track of the new word count (which, yes, I will use, because it is technically still a WIP500), but my word count is... tiny.  Minuscule.

This is why I hate editing.  I feel like I need to be working on The Unanswerable or Kingdom of Obession, not bumming around in the first chapters of Rioss and piddling over my word choices.  I feel like Rioss and Soul Therapy and Ruhe already took so much of my precious time, that I really want to move onto the next shiny new object.

But shame on me.  Because I know for a fact that I sometimes call "Marc" "March" because of the numerous typos throughout Rioss.  And I know that Jessica goes on way too many internal ramblings without enough action/responses in Soul Therapy.  And Ruhe just needs to be longer, the scenes need to have more tension in them.  So here's my wrist slap.  Stay with it, stick with it, and edit it. 

Editing just feels so much like work.  But something that makes it easier?  I got new vinyl from M83, including Saturdays = Youth and Before the Dawn Heals Us (consequently, these are the first vinyls I have ever owned).  Which, for people that don't know me - M83 is my favorite band to zone out to.  It makes doing things that I don't like much more pleasant.  Each week, I am going to attempt to complete at least three hours to editing. 

And last night, I spent an hour curled up on the couch with two cats on each side of me, sipping on wine, listening to M83, and pouring over words.  Wasn't a bad set up, but I still forgot to submit my new word count to Cara Michaels (shame on me).

Birthday Post

My birthday was on Sunday, and I'm officially a quarter of a century old - which sounds older than it feels.

Don't forget about my March Giveaway!

This is a non-writerly update, because I do a lot of things in my life.  Writing is a major part of it, of course, but I also take photos and do random adventures.  On Saturday, my husband and I took the trip up to Charlie Brown Farms in Palmdale, CA.  It's this really kitschy kind of place that's a little outcropping on the side of the road.  It's actually really fun/silly.

I'm including a tremendous amount of photos (more can be seen on my flickr), because frankly, words do not do this place justice.

I was equipped with my Lensbaby Scout with fisheye lens, and I must say, I love the creepy effect.  Especially with the doll photos that I got, because it made them look ever so slightly disproportionate enough to really creep me out...  and I'm scared of dolls to begin with (being in that room full of them hanging was like a horror movie waiting to happen.

Though my husband and I probably won't go back any time soon, it was still a fun adventure.  The food was a little greasy, but the shakes (where there are over 100 flavors) were delicious and 100% worth the trip.  I even bought a small statue of a dragon (because, guys, I love dragons).

But anyway, if you have time, you should check out my whole flickr set because it was really, really fun to shoot up there.  I ended up making some miniatures look huge (like the skeletons - they were tiny), and I actually love that lens.  I hadn't really been able to test it out yet beyond a few photos I took at Christmas, but this solidified my love for the lensbaby.  I'm not trying to be a spokesperson either, but just look at those shots and tell me that they aren't at least fun.