Next Read: The HOMESCHOOL LIBERATION LEAGUE by lucy frank

Next on my reading list/nightstand is The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank. This book came out last year, and I've been wanting to read it ever since I saw it in the window at Barnes and Noble.

"TO: Everyone I know
FROM: Nature Girl
------------------------
guess what??? i wanted you to hear it from me first. do not look 4 me at school 2moro or anymore. im homeschooling. i will miss you all, but NOT the place.


details l8r.


LYL, K"
-from the back cover

"KATYA just cannot go back to school, not after her summer at Wilderness Camp. There's no way her teachers would let her go on foraged-food-finding missions or eradicate invasive alien plants. Not to mention that she's been wondering about the mysterious violin-playing boy, Milo, who lives in her neighborhood but doesn't go to junior high. That's it, Katya needs to be homeschooled! 


Her parents are willing to give it a try, but Katya has to stick to their (just-like-school!) assignments. This isn't what she had in mind. She needs the help of Milo and new friend Francesca to come up with a plan to save her homeschooling experience. The three become the founding members of the Homeschool Liberation League--but will it be enough to convince Katya's parents that her ideas about learning might be just right for her?" -from cover flap

I've always been a homeschooler at heart (even though I went to a pretty decent public high school). I think it was junior high that convinced me school was inherently evil. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who thought so, either. I'm looking forward to seeing the principles of homeschooling immortalized in fiction. I just hope this book is not riddled with homeschool cliches and stereotypes.

If you're in between books yourself, please feel free to JOIN me, and when I post my review, we can have a delightful discussion.

Blissful Reading!

FALLEN by Lauren Kate: my review

Over the weekend, I read Lauren Kate's FALLEN:

"There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch every move.

Except Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, FALLEN is a page-turning thriller and the ultimate love story." -cover flap blurb

My reasons for ordering this book the moment I saw it were two-fold:

1) Somebody compared it to Twilight, which generally captures my attention.

and

2) The cover for its sequel, TORMENT, is absolutely gorgeous!!

What did I tell you? GORGEOUS!

So I ordered my copy of FALLEN and eagerly devoured it when it arrived the next day. Here are my thoughts:

It's not Twilight. It's really unfair to compare anything to Twilight, after all, much less something so entirely different. The only similarity is genre: paranormal romance.

FALLEN is written in third person from Luce's limited perspective. She's an unreliable narrator, being that she knows/remembers nothing helpful most of the time. But I prefer it this way, because I love finding out about a new world alongside my protagonist tour guide. Because the POV is third person rather than first person, it's lacking that intimate emotion and passion that made Twilight a midnight guilty pleasure. And that will be the last comparison I draw to Twilight...

Because FALLEN is beautiful for its own reasons:

• The setting is perfect for its plot. I could really feel the grittiness, the austere sliminess, of Sword & Cross's unkempt grounds. A graveyard at a reform school?! Oddly genius!

• The clues--this novel is craftily plotted right down to its minor characters. This reader got the feeling that nothing was insignificant, and it made for a compelling mystery.

• The details lend a sense of reality to the otherwise unbelievable premise. Lauren Kate obviously did her research, and also has a knack for painting a picture: "A faded composite picture with the words PULASKI COUNTY MOOSE CLUB OFFICERS 1964-65 was the only other decoration on the wall, showcasing a hundred oval faces, smiling modestly above pastel bow ties."

One thing I hope to see in the sequel is a stronger Luce Price. From the former-life flashback in the beginning referencing "her contemptuous side", I got the impression I was dealing with a feisty heroine. I was quite disappointed in the following chapters to find her more docile than contemptuous as the hero rejects her time and time again for her own protection. Now that she understands her own importance, I hope TORMENT finds her fighting for love to conquer all.

Join our NEXT READ here.

Dreaming of rejection...

Last month, I was catching up on my favorite agent blogs when I came across a funny story about an aspiring author actually dreaming about her dream agent. I thought, You know you're in too deep when you're dreaming about agents offering representation.

Imagine my surprise when I woke this morning with a vague memory of this: I dreamed I stumbled into an agent in my apartment complex parking lot. Two other agents appeared next to her and they started commiserating over "these clumsy authors." lol. Come to find out, one of them lives two doors down in my building! (not true, btw, just a dream) My dream-self giddily plotted another accidental run-in to fix the terrible first impression.

Then my seven-month-old's crying woke me from bizzarro-world, thank goodness.

Even in my dreams, I'm working through rejection. The funny thing is that I'm not actually submitting right now. A fresh look at my work made me realize it needs extensive revision. That, and I'm knee-deep in a writing project I like better. So why am I dreaming of rejection? All I can think is that my brain is trying to process all the snarky and benevolent publishing advice I'm reading on the blogosphere.

I just hope tomorrow night's processing at least ends in an offer of representation.

Twitter, revisited

Some additional things you should know:

#yalitchat happens on Wednesday evenings, and is a LOT of fun with writers, agents, and readers. Just search #yalitchat and you'll see everything that's being discussed. If you want to talk to somebody so that everybody can see, use the "mention" or "reply" feature. If you want it to be private, DM (direct message) them instead. I find this particular chat to be fun and helpful, but there are other chats, too. Usually, you can find them via writer and industry blogs.

The great thing about joining a chat-in-progress is that there's a steady flow of conversation and ideas, and you have a chance to be witty and quippy. People usually add you as a friend if they appreciated your contribution.

As far as garnering followers, I'm still figuring this out myself. Joining a chat seems to be a great way. I also retweet things I especially enjoy, and often the person I quoted follows me back.

Twitter etiquette: never reply to a stranger or DM them just to give them your links--unless they asked for it. :-) It's a big turn-off, and I've unfollowed people because of it. There are plenty of opportunities to tweet your links without this, anyway. The people who do this usually don't get many long-term followers. If somebody mentions you or retweets you, it's nice (but not required) to thank them, either publicly or in a DM.

All along, you'll get "spam" followers--people who have nothing to do with you or your tweeting subject, but just want you to buy their products. Just ignore them, unless they're offensive. Then I block them. If you ignore them, they'll probably unfollow you, but you're better off without followers like that!

If someone follows you who does share your interests--FOLLOW THEM. They're more likely to take an interest in what you're saying when you reciprocate.

My favorite published authors and agents on twitter are the ones who are friendly. They respond to a question of mine, or ask questions of their followers. e.g. "Writers, what would you like to know about the publishing process?"

The best way to use twitter is to correlate it to your blog. Whenever you update a blog post, tweet it--that's the obvious one. But people are getting really creative with it, too. You can have a twitter contest. The author of Gimme a Call started a twitter revolution when she invited tweeps to write letters to their high school selves in 140 characters. My fave was "Dear High School Self- Put the tweezers down! #gimmeacall." By getting everyone to use her title as the hashtag, people were (sometimes inadvertently) advertising her book! Publishers have had contests to win free signed books. One asked people to write a rejection letter to an author in 140 characters. Just make sure you tell them a hashtag (#) to use so you can search the responses!

Lead a discussion using the hashtags, too. Talk about what you #amwriting (a popular hashtag). Or make up your own hashtag and invite readers from your facebook page, blog, and twitter to contribute to a groupthink.

Those are just some of the ways I'm seeing twitter used successfully.

Follow authors (we always follow back), agents, editors, publishers (they are coming to twitter in droves). When you are looking at somebody's profile, you can see their LISTS on the side of the page. Agents often make a list of their authors, so you can actually click "follow this list" and now you have access to all of their tweets. I've done this on some aspiring authors' profiles who had an AGENT list. It's really helped me to discover more agents, which will be good when I'm done with my WIP and ready to submit. You can create lists, public or private. I keep my family list private, but my "Book People" list is followed by a dozen other people.

Find me on twitter: @Katrinalantznov

Interview: Devin O'Branagan about GLORY

Devin O'Branagan

I have the rare pleasure of introducing you all to a fabulous author and her newest book: Devin O'Branagan's GLORY is out at last! She's graciously agreed to give an interview so we can all get to know a little about her and her writing career.

"Seventeen year old Glory Templeton’s blood holds the cure for a deadly pandemic-plague and she embarks on a quest to save humanity. When evil forces conspire to stop her, three supernatural beings are assigned to be her guardians. Forbidden love, ancient secret societies, mysterious astronomical monuments, vampires, witches, angels and demons all contribute to the high adventure that tests the character of this remarkable young woman. The legend of Glory begins!'Twilight meets The DaVinci Code...' www.GloryLegend.com"

Hi Devin!

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about your wonderful work!

Your novel, Glory, has been embraced by libraries and book groups alike. It is clearly a hit among fans. How did you come up with this idea,

Early last year I was just beginning to write the sequel to my comic chick-lit novel RED HOT PROPERTY, and I called my literary agent to ask if she had any suggestions for the book that would make it even more successful than the first one. She laughed and said, "Put a vampire in it." Then she stopped laughing and said, "Seriously, Devin, have you ever considered writing a vampire novel? Why don't you give it a try? " My first two novels published by Simon & Schuster were horror novels and so I had confidence I could handle the genre. Interestingly, a recent review of GLORY stated that it is a blend of both my previous genres: horror and chick-lit. And it is.

and what inspired your naming of Glory and her Australian Shepherd, Hallelujah?

RED HOT LIBERTY, the sequel to RED HOT PROPERTY, has a patriotic theme, and when I shifted gears from writing it to writing GLORY, I carried over that patriotic energy. I had been researching the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" prior to considering names for GLORY's heroine and her dog. ("Glory, glory, hallelujah!") As I developed the plot for GLORY, I became aware of the underlying spiritual theme of the book, and the names worked exceptionally well.

Is there a message in the novel that you hope your readers will take away from reading it?

Life isn't about us, but we are about life.

Glory grew up on a farm. Is that something from your personal experience? Where did you grow up?

I had a bohemian gypsy upbringing and there was never a place I called home. However, my grandparents had a farm in Michigan where my mother and I occasionally spent time between various adventures. I drew from that experience.

What inspired you to begin writing, and when did you realize this was your calling?

I was reading at three years old and wrote my first story at five. I was born to write.

Who is your favorite author? What is it about his or her work that you love? Is there one author you would consider your mentor?

I read anything and everything and everyone. I learn from every book I read, whether it is well-written or not.

What books are you reading now? Any new authors who have caught your interest?

Right now I'm reading non-fiction books related to conspiracy theories as research for RED HOT LIBERTY.

Though there are many fantastic elements in your story, there's also some stunning realism as far as details like the disease that has attacked her father, and almost everybody else. Was it difficult to maintain this balance between fantasy and real life?

No, it was easy. I personally believe that there is much more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in my philosophy. For me, life is very much a blend of possible realities.

What was your favorite part to write?

The scenes featuring Hallelujah the intrepid demon-fighting Australian shepherd. She rocks!

The cover of Glory is compelling. Who designed it? Did you get to contribute to the decision?

An excellent graphic designer named Sue Campbell created the cover, and she did accept my input.

Can you tell us some of your latest news? Maybe share some of your current work in progress?

I am once again working on RED HOT LIBERTY, a comic chick-lit novel that is the second in the RED HOT series about the misadventures of plucky single mother, Molly O'Malley. Molly is a real estate agent whose newest client is Liberty True, a rebel patriot who invites Molly to a different kind of tea party and drags her, kicking and screaming, into the revolution. The website is www.RedHotLiberty.com

I am also beginning to develop the second installment of the GLORY series.

Did you learn anything from writing Glory and what was it?

I learned that writing in first person is much more difficult than I presumed it was. (GLORY was my first project written in first person.) I really struggled to find Glory's voice. It forced me to grow as a writer.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Read, write, and persist.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I hope my books touch their hearts. It's why I do what I do!

Thank you for your time! Readers go to www.GloryLegend.com to pick up your copy! (Are signed copies still available? How would readers obtain these?)

Personally autographed copies of GLORY are available via the novel's website at www.GloryLegend.com

Autographed copies of all my available novels may be obtained via my author's website at www.DevinWrites.com

Fabulous!

Readers, enjoy this book trailer for the novel, GLORY.

Plotting...buwahahahaha!

Plotting: The skeleton without which exquisite, fleshy prose sags.

I have to say a big THANK YOU to @KayCassidy for introducing me to the Hauge 6-point plot structure.

The other day on twitter, she mentioned that it changed her writing life. Now I have to confess, it is changing mine, as well! From my first attempts at writing (just butt in chair, pummel through writer's block) to my more recent (stream-of-conscious, first-person nanowrimo project), I've struggled through problems with plot. I always say I'm an idea girl. Coming up with what people call high concept ideas for novels is easy for me. I have about a dozen truly original, mostly fun concepts tucked away in raw synopsis form. But when it came to writing the high-stakes parts--rising action, climax, CONFLICT--I bumbled. Well I am bumbling no more!

Thanks to Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society, I can now plot just about any story that pops into my mind. Rather than sticking my fabulous ideas in a paragraph-length blurb, I've begun writing an entire synopsis/book proposal for each idea, based on the six-point plot structure. I number the elements on six notecards:

1. Setup

2. New Situation

3. Progress

4. Complications/Higher Stakes

5. Final Push

6. Aftermath

Then I force myself to adhere to these guidelines in creating a full, fleshed-out premise and plot. The size of a notecard makes brevity necessary, a great thing if you're outlining for a book proposal or one-page synopsis. Last, I transfer the six paragraphs (without numbering them) into a word document.

Ta-da!

I have a synopsis, formerly one of the most difficult parts of the writing process, for me. Knowing that I have a full idea, complete with character names, conflicts, and resolution, makes writing the story a much more flowing process. It also takes a load of stress off, since I won't have to condense an entire novel into a synopsis after I've written it (you know, at that point where you think leaving minor characters and subplots out of the synopsis is a crime). If I get a request for a synopsis from an agent, I already have a document that merely needs fine-tuning before I send it out.

Having the synopsis already written does more than provide the crux of my proposal. It also helps me while I'm writing.

Writer's block is so much rarer now than when I began seriously writing two years ago. Knowing the story from beginning to end provides me with a framework, with guideposts that keep me from getting totally lost. I still have plenty of flexibility to change characters and subplots as so inspired, but if I accidentally write myself off the page and into Neverland, I can retrace my steps and get back on course.

Foiled again, no more. Now I must return to my plotting. Buwahahahahaha!!

POWERLESS by Matthew Cody: my review

UPDATE 5/26/10: This blog has been linked by KT Literary's BLOG and the AUTHOR HIMSELF! Everybody's talking about HOW EVIL IS TOO EVIL? What do you think?

Here's my original review:

I've never been much of a mystery reader, except for Mary Higgins Clark books in junior high, so I confess to being more gullible than most. All my friends said they "totally knew" the Sixth Sense secret before the end of the movie. I got to the end and was still baffled!

Still, I recognize a mystery artist when I see one--generally after the plot is explained at the end of the book/movie. That was the case with the book Powerless.

Matthew Cody is a mystery artist. From the point of view of the protagonist--an ordinary boy who loves Sherlock Holmes--the reader investigates the Case of the Missing Super Powers. At several points, I was sure I knew who the bad guy must be. But this book is twisty. You don't know what you don't know until the end, which is just plain masterful writing.

This tightly plotted mystery made me laugh and empathize. It even scared me a little. Well, the bad guy is pretty scary!

Things I loved:

• That this story is told from the POV of a regular kid surrounded by superhero kids.
• That the story of his grandma's cancer brings a dose of reality to the otherwise completely fantastic premise.
• That Daniel is tough, but honest and sensitive--in other words, a great role model for kid readers.
• That all the characters act like real people.

What I didn't love: the finality of the antagonist's actions. This does make it true to life (life's not fair, etc.), but it also left me feeling pretty down. This is one of those great debates in children's literature: should the bad guy be really and truly bad? After all, kids know there is good and evil in the world. Matthew Cody seems to side with C.S. Lewis:

"Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened."

Myself, I sometimes believe this, and other times want fairy stories where no harm is permanent and it's all a good trick in the end.

Overall, a fantastic book, and one worth adding to your children's home library. It is certainly one I expect my boys to read time and time again.