Gone fishin'

I just wanted to quickly apologise for the sudden absence from the interwebs and let you know I'm still alive. (Just in case you were wondering.) I do have a very good reason for falling silent, but I can't tell you about it yet. Soon, my pretties. Soon.

I miss you all terribly, and I'm hoping to be back in full force soon(ish). In the meantime, please send me any positive vibes you might have lying around because I could really use them.

It gets harder.

When I first decided I was going to be a writer, I thought that the more I wrote, the easier this writing gig would become. And I continued to think this for quite a number of years.

Oh, what a fool I was.

In some ways, things have become easier. But in so many other ways, things have become harder. This last year in particular has been especially difficult. It's harder to be inspired. Harder to get the words down. Harder to edit. Harder to move forward.

It's taken me a long time to see this as a positive, but that's what I'm coming around to. It's harder for me to get inspired because I know if it's not something truly amazing, I won't put in the effort in. It's harder to get the words down because I now know how important each word is. It's harder to edit because I know I have to push myself to the breaking point to get the story I want. It's harder to move forward because I know how important it is to get it right.

These are all positives.

Some of you might be aware of the fact that I have 11 completed manuscripts to my name. Back when I was writing book 1 (in 2006!) I would have thought that by book 12 (which I'm currently working on) I'd be a pro. It would probably take me 4-6 weeks to smash out a first draft and then a couple of months to edit.

HA HA HA HA!

Truthfully, instead of becoming easier, they've become harder. A few years ago, I'd get a half-arsed idea for a book, leap into writing it without much planning, smash out a really quick draft, and think it was super awesome.

Spoiler Alert: They were never awesome.

Let's take 2010 for example. I always think of the year that I really started to grow as a writer. I also completed 5 manuscripts in this year alone. Yes, FIVE.
This might seem like a great feat, and they all helped me improve as a writer, but they were all far from being awesome.

Of those five books, two have been completely written off (although one of them does have a cool concept that I might use one day…). Another one was The Silagree which I spent most of last year editing (and I'm still not finished!). I also wrote the original version of The Opposite of Dead which I completely re-wrote last year, and Forever More, which I am currently in the process of totally re-writing.

Let me just sum up: 2 books were no good, 2 needed to be totally re-written, 1 needed a year of editing.

So, sure, maybe it was easier to get the part where I wrote THE END with these books, but what I was left with, was a total mess. I wasn't thinking about what I wanted to say with a particular story, what I wanted that story to be. I wasn't taking my time to think about what I was writing, and what I ended up with was an easy first draft that sucked. A lot.

Now I'm embracing the struggle to get a first draft done. It's harder, sure, but I am certain that the end product will be a lot closer to awesome.

Hopefully.

Who else is struggling through a first draft?

Time to be an adult.

Happy (belated) New Year's, guys! Can you believe it's 2012? Seems like only yesterday that I was partying like it was 1999 and worrying about Y2K. Wait. That was yesterday.

Moving on.

I'm not big on resolutions and goals because I'm a go-with-the-flow kind of gal. Also, I have a tendency to set super unrealistic goals. I look back fondly at the start of 2010 when I was so sure that all my dreams were going to happen that year. Agent, book deal, super stardom, the Oprah show. Which was ridiculous. I didn't know the first thing about writing a book let alone getting published.

Ah, the beauty of hindsight.

For 2012, I've decided to do things a little differently. I'm setting myself some goals/changes that I hope will contribute to my personal happiness and well-being. I'm not going to tell myself that I have to write x number of books and edited x number of projects.

I'm going to try to stop stressing myself out all the time. That's Goal Number One.

The only thing I have set myself strict guidelines in, is this year's reading challenge, which, let's face it, I usually fail. But not this year. Instead of saying I'm going to read x number of books or die (although I would like to hit 103 because that's a cool number), my goal is to make a certain percentage of those books are from outside the YA/MG shelves. Like, 25%.

Yes, more adult books. How scary.

Of the 98 books I read in 2011, guess how many were outside the YA/MG world?

Only four.

*hangs head* As much as I love children books (which you may have noticed is quite a bit), I'm completely horrified by the number of adult books I read. This needs to be remedied. Immediately.

I used to read SO MUCH in the adult/non-fiction categories, but this has fallen by the wayside in my mad romance with children books. So I need your help. I realise most of you probably read a lot of YA/MG too, but surely some of you have recommendations. I don't care what genre it is (okay, maybe not gory horror), what it's about, if you love it, tell me about it

To give you some background, some of my favourite adult books include:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Um, so yeah. Make of that what you will! And recommend some books. PLEASE. Help a girl out.

Why I read books.

Today is New Year's Eve and I've been reflecting on the last year and, in particular, all the books I've read. I thought it might be interesting to break down the books I've read into categories I've why I read them in the first place. There are SO MANY books out there, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the books I won't read, which makes it hard to pick the ones I will read.

In 2011 I read 96 books (Gah! Only 4 short of my goal) and I've broken them up into eight categories. Some books belong in more than one, but I picked the one that most fit it. Take The Scorpio Races for example. I have read a book by this author before, but the reason I read it was all the hype about HOW AWESOME this book is. (And it's all true.) On the other hand, Divergent got all kinds of hype, but I only read it because it was strongly recommended to me. (And I loved it!)

Here's the breakdown:

Reasons

Author is a friend/someone I know online: 8

Recommendation: 19

Hype: 9

Already a fan of the author: 23

Liked the premise: 21

Felt like I should read it: 8

Re-read: 5

Other reasons: 3

The Felt Like I Should Read It category is filled with classics that I thought were important for me to read, such as, The Virgin Suicides and Ender's Game. The Other Reason category includes a book I read because I liked the cover, a book that was turned into a movie and I wanted to read the book first, and a book by an author I met who seemed cool.

I'm surprised to find that the biggest category is books by authors I'm already a fan of. But it is true. If I've read and loved a book by an author, I'll usually read follow-up books regardless of other factors. I'm very loyal like that.
It also seems that I don't easily buy into the hype which I think is mainly because I have a good idea of what books I'll like and which ones I won't. But I'm not always right. I really didn't think I'd enjoy Divergent, but then I loved it and there's a few books where I bought into the hype and then didn't enjoy AT ALL.

Out of interest, I also decided to work out how many of those 96 books I owned, borrowed, etc, so here's the breakdown for that:

Bought: 55

Borrowed from library: 31

Swapped: 3

ARC: 7 (I also bought 2 of these books once they came out, and plan to buy 3 more when they're released.)

This is proof that I buy WAAAY too many books! I also got another 21 books for Christmas. Oops!

And one final piece of bonus information: the author I read the most in 2011? It's a tie between E. Lockhart (I re-read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and the first three books of the Ruby Oliver series) and Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes, The Bermudez Triangle, The Name of the Star, Let it Snow.)

I'm curious about what makes other people read the books they do. Is it through recommendations or hype? Already a fan of the author? Pretty covers? Blurbs from famous authors? Let me know what you think.

Have a Happy New Year and I'll catch you all in 2012!

Faves of 2011: the covers.

Today is the final day of the Faves of 2011, and it's all about the shiny, pretty covers. So here are my top ten favourite book covers from books I read this year.

I am absolutely obsessed with book covers! What are some of your favourites?

Faves of 2011: random stuff.

Since I missed Day 3 of the Faves of 2011 in all chaos of packing for my trip, I thought I'd combine it with today's category. So I'll give you a few of my favourite scenes and then some random book highlights.

The Scenes

Best First Chapter: Across the Universe by Beth Revis. If you want an example of an awesome opening chapter, look no further. There was so much tension in this scene that I just about gnawed my lips off.

Best ending: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. This ending destroyed me. I was literally sobbing like a small child while I read it. And even though it's been a few weeks since I finished it, I still find myself thinking about it all the time. If you haven't got the message yet, I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Best plot twist/revelation: This a tie between August by Bernard Beckett and The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds. I didn't see either of the twists coming and they totally floored me. Love a good plot twist!

The Randoms

Best first sentence: Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Favourite book title: This is Shyness by Leanne Hall and I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells.

Can't believe I waited so long to read: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Seriously. WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?! One of those books that linger.

The book I'd give to my past self: Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. Teen Jade would have LOVED this book. If only.

The book that lived up to the hype: Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Perfection. Surpassed my incredibly high expectations.

The book I was *dying* to get my hands on: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. Thankfully I got to read it early, so I didn't have to wait as long!

Tomorrow is the final day of the Faves of 2011 where I'll be revealing my favourite covers of the year!

Faves of 2011: the characters.

Day Two of the Faves of 2011 is all about stand-out characters. If I had to pick just one book for awesome characters, I'd have to go with Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. I want to be friends with them all. Especially Tom.

Here are some of my other favourite characters from books read in 2011:

1. favourite female main character: Ruby Oliver from The Boyfriend List. I only discovered this series this year (which is odd because Frankie Landau-Banks is probably my all-time favourite female character) and I absolutely adore Ruby.

Lola from Lola and the Boy Next Door. I wish I'd been like Lola when I was a teenager.

2. favourite male main character: Four from Divergent. He is EXACTLY my taste. Perfection.

Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door. I'm not always a fan of the "nice boys" but he is the right amount of sweet and sexy.

3. best couple: Sean and Puck from The Scorpio Races. It's not a big, swoon-y romance, but it's as satisfying as it is beautiful. LOVE.

4. who I so want to be best friends with: Jack from Supernaturally. Such a fun, cheeky character. I ADORE him.

5. who I fell completely in love with (new literary crush): Tom from The Piper's Son. He's a perfect example of a good boy gone off the rails.

6. favourite villain: Divergent had some of my favourite villains ever. They made me really fear for the other characters.

7. best character twist: Tristan from August. Did not see that coming.

8. best kick-arse female: Tris from Divergent. That girl is bad-ass.

9. best kick-arse male: Four from Divergent. Am I getting the message across? I LOVE FOUR.

10. best YA parents award: Lola and the Boy Next Door. Lola's dads were freakin' awesome!

11. favourite sibling relationship: Invincible Summer. Love that family something fierce.

Who are some of your favourite characters of 2011?