After having read very little in February, I tried to make up for it in March by reading a lot. A lot for a busy person like me, anyway. I read twelve books last month! The best part is, I thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. Nothing under four stars this month!
I read more trade books than indie books this month so I will only be posting reviews for indie books in the YA or adult market. The children's books I read are reviewed on my other blog.
Jade
by Rose Montague
Rating: 4 Stars
Review:
Action packed and fun! I loved the tone of this book and how Jade's true
nature is kept a mystery for a time. A real page turner.
My only
complaint is the pacing. It was a tad fast for my taste, I would have
liked to slow it down and see more of the initial spark between Jade and
Jane, let that romance build more.
Great read!
To purchase this title, find it on Amazon here.
Demon Within
by Julie Nicholls
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
I couldn't put it down!
This story was exactly what I look for in a
romance. The author took her time introducing us to each character,
leaving a bit of mystery to be discovered along the way while letting
the reader become emotionally invested in their own stories. The action
was exciting and the romance sizzling. Some twists were predictable,
others less so, but all done so well that it felt genuine.
A great read that hooked me, reeled me in, and left me wanting more.
To purchase this title, find it on Amazon here.
Five Seven Five
by C. E. Wilson
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
This story sucked me in from page one!
A colony that lives
underground. Strict enforces of the rules, rules that no one really
understands. A girl curious about the world above. A death that will
change everything.
I couldn't help but to root for White from the
start. Her character is flawed, headstrong, and endearing, everything I
love in a protagonist. The vivid details and original story line made
this book very hard to put down! Excellent read.
To purchase this title, find it on Amazon here.
Stake Out
by Lily Luchesi
Rating: 4 Stars
Review:
A great start to a promising series!
A killer on the loose, a doomed
romance, and paranormal creatures functioning in modern society make for
an exciting story. It has issues that usually accompany an author's
first book like head-hopping confusion and showing versus telling, but
the story itself shines through. I enjoyed the bit of mystery and
romance just as much as the action and fight scenes.
Very well done and can't wait to read the sequel!
To purchase this title, find it on Amazon here.
A few other books a read include Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Excellent book, can't wait to read the third and final story! The Sandman Volume 9, which, geezus, almost killed me with that ending. I also finished off a manga series I started reading many years ago, Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei).
All in all, it was a great month for reading!
November is coming fast and this will be my first year participating in NaNoWriMo! Exciting!
For those of you who have no idea what that is, here is a brief explanation. National Novel Writing Month is a way for authors to get motivated to write a novel. The goal is to write 50,000 words in thirty days. That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? It is a challenge but that is the point. Learning to discipline yourself. Getting motivated. Staying on task. Reaching daily goals. All while having fun!
You can make writing buddies, track your word count progress, ask questions or chat in forums, and so much more on the website. I had no idea how big this thing really was until I signed up for it. I remember seeing Twitter posts about it last year and hearing a few things here and there but now that I'm involved in it, I can't believe how huge this event is. Authors worldwide are chatting about it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media, asking advice, inspiring each other and prepping for a month of hell. Because make no mistake, it will be hell.
So why am I so excited? I am the type of person who is unable to keep a daily schedule since I had children. Usually highly organized, I have to sneak time for myself to write because in my world, it isn't a "real job" so it is always thrown on the back burner. Even after publishing five books this year, no one takes what I do seriously.
Well, that is about to change. This is my chance to put my foot down and set aside some daily writing time for myself that doesn't include me staying awake until the crack of dawn wearing myself out just to jot down notes on a story idea. Because this IS my job and more than that, it is my passion!
I am going to sit down and write a novel this month. Will it need serious editing when I'm done? Oh yes. Will the first draft make much sense? Probably not. Will I be pumping caffeine into my body the last few weeks to stay conscious long enough to finish? You better believe it.
Will I love every minute of it? Hell yes! I work best under pressure.
Participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Let's be writing buddies! Search my user name: authormariekrepps and let's keep each other going!
Ah, the month of love. Or the month where people in love go out of their way to make single people feel like crap. However you want to look at it.
I got a new cell phone for Valentine's Day (Yay!) and my husband and I went out to eat at Cheddar's, where I'd never eaten before. The food was good, I love my new toy, and all in all it was a decent Valentine's Day. (I gave my husband a PS4 and two games to go with it. He just about shit bricks when he saw it. He even did a little happy dance.)
I bought myself a box of Whitman's Samplers too and didn't hesitate to wolf those delicious morsels of nirvana-reaching bliss down in a matter of days. Let's just say, I like chocolate.
I've been reading a lot of books this month. No really, a lot. I started off by finishing a manga, Death Note Volume 1. I'd been meaning to read this series for years and finally got around to it. I hope to read the rest pretty soon, there are eleven more volumes and I know I'll enjoy them as much as the first. Next, I finished reading the September/October 2014 volume of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction that my brother subscribed me to as a birthday present last year (thanks Kyle!). It always takes me longer to read a compendium of short stories than it does a full length novel because I like to sit back and dwell on each one for a while before moving on to the next. As with most fantasy and science fiction magazines, I found these short stories to be well written and often containing better plots than full length novels I've read.
I stayed up an entire night earlier this month to read Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole. It was a great read but honestly, not one of her best. It was hot and steamy, to be sure, but it felt a bit rushed compared to her other works. Her original Immortals After Dark series is better, methinks. On Valentine's Day I finished reading The Walking Dead Compendium 2. Oh, how I love those comics! The drama! The gore! Awesome stuff that I can't get enough of.
And then on the 19th, I read two books in one day. They were pretty short so it was no biggie. I had ordered Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama Volume 6 and it finally came in the mail. This is a manga series I started years ago and adored. I don't often watch shoujo anime but I will read the crap out of a shoujo manga. And as expected, it was wonderful. Funny, cute and heartwarming, just as I expected. The other book I read that day was called Curses and Kisses by Channing Harris. Another sweet, humorous story about Valentine's Day and the poor chick who's cursed to have a horrible one every year. It was pretty short but packed full of steamy fun.
So yeah, lots of reading and the month isn't even over yet. I plan on completing at least two more books before February draws to a close. The shortest month of the year just might be my most productive when it comes to checking books off my to-read list. That says a lot considering I'm also beta reading for someone and editing my own novels pretty much every day. Not to mention those four kids running around raising hell and stealing my heart. I like to keep myself busy!
By the way, I'd recommend every book in this blog to you guys. Check them out!
Yes, it's a pretty long title for a blog post, I know.
There are plenty of problems we can easily see in another author's writing as we read them. It's catching these things in our own works that we may have a problem with. I am just as guilty as the next guy so don't be offended; I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I'm pointing fingers at EVERYONE. (he he)
When a story has more than six main characters, it's so easy for a reader to confuse them all. Especially if they have similar speech patterns, sense of humor, etc. Let's say you introduce Bob and Ron as good friends first thing in a story. You describe their physical differences at the beginning and go from there. Two chapters and a lot of dialogue or action or whatever from now, will I really remember which one is a redhead and which is a blonde? Which is tall and lanky and which is slightly shorter? Most likely not.
Now imagine that we have to try and remember this for multiple characters. I tend to introduce new characters smack dab in the middle of my stories so, yeah, now you have someone new to try to keep up with. So let's make this easy on the reader, shall we?
Remind us of what they look like. Remind us of their quirks. Is everyone in the room a blonde? Which one is the jokester? Which one cracks his knuckles constantly? This may seem like "well, duh" advice but like I said, it's easier to catch such things when reading someone else' story. When we read our own, we already have a mental picture of that particular character that immediately jumps to mind. We made them. We know them best. We can see every detail clearly. Our reader, however, may not.
An easy way to do this is to stop using a character's name so often. Referring to a character by name only becomes old fast. I see this a lot when I beta read and it kind of drives me nuts. Here is a little paragraph as an example of what I suggest not to do:
Ron knocked on the door with vigor. When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, Bob looked up.
"Should we get to it, then?"
Ron sipped slowly and said nothing. Bob continued to stare at Ron in earnest. After another moment of sipping, Ron met his gaze.
"Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked.
Not bad, but it could be better. This is what I would do differently.
Ron knocked on the door with vigor, swatting the dark locks from his eyes as he did so. He cursed his long, curly hair and swore to himself that he'd see the barber before the day was out.
When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, the farmer looked up.
"Should we get to it, then?"
Ron sipped slowly and said
nothing. His old school friend continued to stare at him in earnest. After another moment
of sipping, the guest met the shorter man's gaze.
"Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked.
Most of what I write has only a few main characters. One or two have about a dozen who pop in and out of the story. Either way, I like to reiterate certain things every once in a while not only for memory's sake but to keep the story more interesting. And though I use their names, I may not always need to for the reader to know who I'm talking about. Referring to someone as "the redhead" or "the vampire" for a few paragraphs is perfectly fine if they're the only redhead or vampire in that scene.
Again, pretty basic and obvious stuff but keep these things in mind when you're going over your first, second and third draft. Ron said, Bob said, Ron said, Bob said is not going to keep a reader interested for long. And which one was Ron again?
