Interview: Laura Kreitzer (& Giveaway)

This giveaway is over.

Stopping by today is Laura Kreitzer, author of the Timeless series. She's super sweet, and look at the description for Shadow of the Sun - doesn't it sound awesome?

Gabriella’s past is a mystery, but that never stopped her from achieving her goals. As a Supernatural Specialist, and far more intelligent than anyone her age, she was always ignored by her peers. Because of the isolation she has always felt, she put her life and soul into her job. Being a Supernatural Specialist hasn’t given her the divine intervention she always longed for, until one day a shipment arrives from Italy containing three dead bodies with an uncanny ability to regenerate. Gabriella is frightened and intrigued, but not as scared as she becomes when a dark creature attacks her.
As the bodies come back to life, the plot takes an unexpected twist that you won’t see coming. The supernatural world only begins to unfold before her as angels appear, her dreams start to haunt her, and the very past she has forgotten comes back with startling clarity. Romance blooms, escape plans are made, an assassin is out to kill her, and death is only around the corner. But what is more terrifying than all of it is the fact she is the chosen one, the Illuminator, the one who will save them all.

Just click read more to take a look at the interview. We talked about the Timeless series, the Iron Fey series, and Red Bull...

OH! And if you keep scrolling down, under the interview, there is a GIVEAWAY. Oh yes.

In My Mailbox - January 2011

Because I don't often get books in the mail anymore - unless, of course, I go shopping, but then I'm not getting them in a mailbox, am I? - I'm going to be doing IMM once a month just to keep everybody updated on what I got. (Besides, people keep asking me on Twitter if I've gotten any new books.) So might as well make this monthly!





Review:
The Lo-Down by Lo Bosworth
Shadow of the Sun (Timeless #1) by Laura Kreitzer
Soul Stalker (Timeless #2) by Laura Kreitzer
The Girl Who Was On Fire by Leah Wilson & co. (not featured)
Saving June by Hannah Harrington (not featured)
Darkness Becomes Her (God & Monsters #1) by Kelly Keaton (not featured)
Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper (not featured)

Bought:
Three Tragedies: Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth by Shakespeare
The Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone by Sophocles
Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O'Malley by Anne Chambers
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
Pride and Prejudice (2006) DVD (not featured)

Traded:
The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time #5) by Robert Jordan

Library:
Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time #13) by Robert Jordan

Giveaway Winner: CSN Giftcard

Congratulations to Tina, who won the CSN giftcard I have up for grabs! She wants to pick up some swivel bookcases; hopefully she'll be able to get them now.

The False Princess

The False Princess
Author: Eilis O'Neal
Series: ---
Publisher: Egmont
How Received: publisher ARC

Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia's led a privileged life at court. But everything changes when it's revealed, just after her sixteenth birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection. Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city of Vivaskari, her best friend, Keirnan, and the only life she's ever known.

Sinda is sent to live with her only surviving relative, an aunt who is a dyer in a distant village. She is a cold, scornful woman with little patience for her newfound niece, and Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks. But when Sinda discovers that magic runs through her veins - long-suppressed, dangerous magic that she must learn to control - she realizes that she can never learn to be a simple village girl.

I'm beginning to think Egmont can do no wrong when it comes to fantasy - or in general, actually. I've only ever disliked one book that's come out of this publishing house. But they've got the best taste in fantasy. If Brightly Woven wasn't proof enough of that, then The False Princess is.

I really enjoyed The False Princess. Sinda's a fantastic character - I loved her determination and spunk and personality. Kiernan made me laugh, mainly because he reminds me of some of my guy friends. (Granted, most of my guy friends don't have titles, but still.)

Some of the best characters were the minor characters. They weren't the best because I liked them, but because they were realistic. Sinda's aunt and Tyr, the boy she meets when she goes to live with them, were fun to read about because of their feelings about her. The magician that takes her in was fantastic; she was probably my favorite character in the entire story. She was quirky and funny and overall excellently well crafted. (She was also the only character that made me laugh out loud while reading.)

I loved the magic in the story. The fact that she had to train it, like a muscle, to get stronger makes me happy - I LOVE when magic is written like that. The plot line was also faaaantabulous. There were enough twists to keep you guessing but not so unexpected that it seemed unreal.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10. Another must read for fantasy fans.
Brightly Woven or The False Princess?: I have to say that I love both, so it's really up for whatever plot you think is better. The boys in both are equally awesome, too.

Movie Adaptions: The Thief Lord

The Thief Lord was required reading for me when I was in middle school, so when I saw that there had been a movie made of it - even if it WAS long ago - I HAD to sit down and watch it. I loved the movie adaption of Inkeart, Cornelia Funke's other bestselling novel, and so I thought I'd give this one a go.

Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious character who calls himself the "Thief Lord." Brilliant and charismatic, the Thief Lord leads a ring of street children who dabble in petty crimes. Prosper and Bo relish being part of this colorful new family. But the Thief Lord has secrets of his own.

If you're in the mood for a cute children's movie, I'd recommend it - it's overall very well done, and there are some definite moments that I giggled. One of my favorite things about it is that I can watch it with younger siblings and still get a bit of a kick out of it.

Have any of you seen it? Read the book?

Thoughts On: College in YA

College seems to be underrepresented in YA fiction. Considering how big a deal it is to most teenagers, you'd think there would be more of it.

I'm partly talking about just mentioning college at all. The age range for YA is large enough that you can have books with thirteen to fifteen year olds that aren't thinking about it at all. But once you hit sixteen, at least in contemporary, it should be mentioned once or twice.

One of the reasons I loved Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann, which I finished the other day, is that the main character's attempts to get into college played a part in the story. Even though it wasn't a main plot point, she worried about it like any high school senior would. She asked her friends where they were going and got excited when she got a letter in the mail. It wasn't huge, but it was there, and it made the story all the more realistic.

Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst takes place entirely on a college visit. It was one of my favorite books last year; I absolutely adored it. (If you haven't read it, go read it.) This was one of those instances where everything came together so well. You believed in the alternate Princeton as much as you believed in the real Princeton, and you were excited to see if Lily would be accepted early or not. It did a fantastic job of using college as a setting, even though it was a visit.

On the other hand we have Kindred by Tammar Stein (which I couldn't finish; I'll be doing a blog post on that soon) which is actually set in college. There's a sub sub sub sub sub genre of fiction called "new adult" which, apparently, ranges in age from 18-21 and would therefore take care of college fiction. I say bogus on this subgenre and stick it in YA with the rest of the YA stuff. Let's face it - we're still young adults. I'm 18 and in college and proudly a young adult. It's still very much a part of our lives - and even if we're not 18 or 19 and in college, you could be 16 and 17 and looking for insight into college. (Or, like Brent from Naughty Book Kitties, 15 and just freaking out over it even though it's years away.)

Right in the middle is the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. I mean, the series is bloody brilliant to begin with, but within the series, Jessica grows up and leaves high school to go to college in the book. It's bloody genius. You're introduced to college and the life that goes with it along with Jessica. You get to grow up with her. I love that.

I'm not saying college needs to be in every YA book. Clearly it has no place in most historical fiction or science fiction and even fantasy. Even contemporary fantasy can get away with not mentioning it - I mean, let's face it, if there's magic or something fantastical in my world I would never worry about college ever. I'd be far too preoccupied. - but it's nice when it is mentioned, and I wish it was done more often. I don't care if the character is applying to schools or visiting schools or in college or grows up into college, but I want to see it.



PS: You'll notice that this is my seconds "thoughts on" post. It's nothing consistent or anything; I'm not going to be posting weekly. Only when I have something I think I want to talk about or will generate interest. Besides, if I talk about these things in real life one of my friends is bound to hit me.

Waiting on Wednesday: Darkest Mercy

Because we all have something we're waiting for.

Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey.

Aislinn tends the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.

Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the faery courts, and in the final conflict, some will win…and some will lose everything.

Series: Wicked Lovely (#5)
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: February 22 2011

This series has been fascinating, and hopefully this last book won't let us down. (The end of the series! It's always a startling, sad, and happy point.) Besides, that summary combined with the title, just makes me want to read more.

Hunger Games: Casting Choices

A while back, when The Hunger Games movie first got picked up, I made a list of potential actors/actresses I wanted as the characters.

The list has changed quite a bit since then.

Take a look. What do you think?




Katniss
Kaya Scodelario; Hailee Steinfeld

Peeta

Hunter Parrish; Alex Pettyfer

Gale
I actually have no dream cast for Gale anymore. Whoever is casted will be casted.

Haymitch

Hugh Laurie; Robert Downey Jr.; Gary Oldman

Rue

Yara Shahidi; Jamia Simone Nash

Foxface OR Avox Girl

Molly Quinn; Emma Stone

Prim

Elle Fanning; Abigail Breslin

Mrs. Everdeen

Keri Russell; Sienna Guillory; Jodie Foster

Effie Trinket

Kristin Chenoweth. Nobody else. End of story.

Caesar Flickerman

John Barrowman; James Marsden

Cinna

Hugh Dancy; Neil Patrick Harris

Castle Monday

No, no, this isn't a new meme in which I post pictures of castles. (Although that does sound like a lot of fun.)



No, I mean, it's Castle Monday! ABC's Castle has another episode today - one that many Castle fans are particularly excited for - but I wanted to bring the awesome that is Castle to the light of fans.

Castle follows Detective Cate Beckett. No, I mean, that's the plot - Richard Castle, a bestselling novelist, follows the detective, who is the inspiration for his latest series of novels. There's lots of drama and romantic tension and great home life on Castle's part. One of my favorite things is the occasional poker games with other bestselling authors - James Patterson makes every game.

It's a fanastically fun show, and I absolutely adore it - I highly recommend checking it out.

Cryer's Cross

Cryer's Cross
Author: Lisa McMann
Series: ---
Publisher: Simon Pulse
How Received: publisher ARC

Release Date: February 8, 2011

The small town of Cryer’s Cross is rocked by tragedy when an unassuming freshman disappears without a trace. Kendall Fletcher wasn’t that friendly with the missing girl, but the angst wreaks havoc on her OCD-addled brain.

When a second student goes missing - someone close to Kendall’s heart - the community is in an uproar. Caught in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety, Kendall’s not sure she can hold it together. When she starts hearing the voices of the missing, calling out to her and pleading for help, she fears she’s losing her grip on reality. But when she finds messages scratched in a desk at school - messages that could only be from the missing student who used to sit there - Kendall decides that crazy or not, she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t act on her suspicions.

Something’s not right in Cryer’s Cross - and Kendall’s about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

I am on a creepy book marathon.

Seriously - I followed up the Escape from Furnace series with this. I think I need a fluffy romance novel now just to prevent the nightmares of the two combined.

Cryer's Cross is as creepy as catching your neighbor peering into your window at midnight. Don't read it before you go to bed. Don't read it if you're easily scared. Don't read it if you live in a small town. And most of all, don't read it if you have a desk with carved in graffiti.

Lisa McMann has this amazing ability to tell a story and do it without loads of description or random sidebars or tons of subplots. She's a very straight forward storyteller, and it's one of the reasons I like her. You have the characters - all of whom I love; the relationships were mapped out fantastically - and the plots and a few subplots (in this particular story, the friendships, the romance, and the colleges) without all the added fuss.

I'm writing this review as I finish reading it, which probably influences how I'm writing this - I'm still thinking about the book and it's huge (majorly huge) creeptastic factor and how I wasn't expecting it to be what it was. It's got a great plot twist about what you think is taking the kids, and I liked it. I didn't love it - mainly because it IS majorly creepy - but it was a nice (er, creepy) surprise for me.

The one thing that I wish I had learned more about was the backstory of some of the side characters - you'll know which ones I'm talking about when you read them. It seemed kind of jammed in there at the end, and if their story was really that influential, I feel like we should have gotten hints at the beginning.

But besides that, I really did like it - I mean, I'm going to have nightmares now, but I think that's part of the fun.

Overall Rating & Final Thoughts: 8/10. CREEPY.
Wait, what?: I was humming this song the entire time I was reading this.

Cryer's Cross comes out in stores February 8. Don't forget to check it out.

Cover Reveal: Bloodborn by Karen Kincy

Karen only sent the cover to ten bloggers, and I was privileged enough to be one of them - and omigod, gorgeous! I have to say, I much prefer the cover of Other, the first in the series, but this one is still amazingly eye catching.

And look at this summary - it sounds FANTASTIC.

It isn’t working. The doctor said it would, but it isn’t, even though I keep taking the pills, and I keep seeing Dad sneak into the bathroom and count how many are left. As if I would stop taking them. As if I would let myself become a beast.

Brock Koeman lost his brother to werewolves. Now he’s in danger of losing himself. Bitten by a werewolf at sixteen, he fights the transformation, taking the excruciating pain as a punishment for his mistakes. With the help of a risky drug called Lycanthrox, he’s managed to stay human for two full moons. But he knows he can’t last much longer.

Hungry for revenge, Brock vows to kill the silver wolf who bit him. But Brock’s ex, the fiery Cynthia Lopez, still cares about him enough not to let him do anything suicidally dangerous—never mind that Cyn gets her thrills from danger herself. Together again, the heat between them rekindles, but Brock feels like a beast beside her beauty. He can’t stay with her; he can’t ignore the werewolves howling outside his window. When he hunts down the pack, Cyn doesn’t sit on the sidelines. She’s right beside him as they get taken hostage and start running with the werewolves, the police hot on their tails. Brock has to get a grip on who he truly is—before the wolf within kills him, or someone else does.

Are you excited for this book? I know I am!

Giveaway: CSN Giftcard

This giveaway is over.

One of the many bookcases available on CSN's website.

First official giveaway of 2011! CSN is being generous yet again to you lovely WORD readers - what is this, my third or fourth giveaway with them? But hey, they're great people with some great products.

By products I mean bookcases.

The rules are simple - and for convenience sake reiterated below. You have until January 29 at whatever time I feel like ending the contest (probably midnight; I'm normally up) to enter using the form below. The winner, either American or Canadian, will win a $75 giftcard to buy whatever you want from CSN's 200+ stores.

But knowing you people, you'll probably want a bookcase.

So check out the CSN website and pick out something that you'd like to buy - I'm curious as to where the giftcard will be going!

Quick Recap:
[1] $75 giftcard to CSN Stores
[1] winner in U.S. or Canada
ends January 29

How To Win:
[mandatory] choose a product you're interested in from the CSN website
[mandatory] fill out the form below

Friday Feature: Bookcases (24)

Who said storage had to be boring?





So I found this super epic Tumblr. I mean, Tumblrs are pretty epic to begin with, but this one is SUPER FANTABULOUS AWESOME.

Because it's all about BOOKCASES.

Check it out!

Friday Fronts - Bad Taste In Boys

I would never pick up this book. Because it creeps me out slightly. But I love the fact that it does.

I mean, LOOK AT THIS COVER. Those lips are... distracting. Haunting. Kind of mesmerizing. Like she kissed snow and it froze to her lips. Or like they were candied up, just waiting for somebody to rip them off her face.

And they picked the perfect font to go with that image.

Guest Post: Alexander Gordon Smith

Alexander Gordon Smith, author of the Escape from Furnace series, stops by again today - after last week's interview - to talk about the writing process.

Beneath Heaven is Hell. Beneath Hell is Furnace.

Furnace Penitentiary: An underground hellhole. A place of pure evil with walls soaked in blood. Murderous gangs and vicious guards rule the darkness. Horrific creatures steal people away in the dead of night. And the impossible - escape - is the only hope.

Writing at the Speed of Life
I’ve literally just hit the 100,000-word mark on my latest work in progress – it’s the novel that will hopefully follow the Escape From Furnace series, although it’s totally unrelated to Furnace. I started it in November last year, and have been writing in a white heat through the holidays. Not because there’s a deadline – there isn’t one, really, other than a ‘get it to us as soon as you can’. It’s just the only way I seem to be able to write. Like Pringles, once I pop, I just can’t stop (I hope you have Pringles in the States otherwise that reference is going to sound very strange)!

I’ve always written fast. I can’t plan a book – at least that’s what I tell myself, it’s more like I won’t plan a book. I haven’t got the patience for it. I just want to throw myself into the story and start living it. I want to be there with the characters, in their shoes, not really knowing what’s going on or what’s going to happen. I always think that planning is a bit too much like playing God. You’re deciding everybody’s fate way up front, you’re laying down the train tracks of destiny before the characters even know who they are. It isn’t like that for everyone, of course – there are so many amazing writers who plan out every detail and still brilliantly capture the immediacy and unpredictability of the action. But for me the idea of seeing it all before it happens, of having the plan there in front of me, doesn’t work. It doesn’t seem fair on your characters.

There’s something amazing about being in the same psychological space as your characters. Of not knowing what’s around the corner. I often have a very rough idea of what I might want to happen, but when you know your characters like you know yourself, when you know everything about them, then they have a habit of going rogue, of doing things their own way. That’s probably my favourite part of being a writer: that point where your characters truly come to life, when they refuse to do what you tell them. Alex, the main character in Furnace, was like that. It got to the point where I felt like I was just transcribing his actions as he lived them, nothing more than a stenographer. Sometimes I couldn’t write fast enough to keep up with him.

The Escape From Furnace books were Alex’s story, not mine. It all began with him because he was a version of me that had lived in my head since I was a teenager – a version of me who took a few more wrong turns. I kind of grew up with this alternate me in my mind, but whereas I got to grow older and live my life, he never did. So the books evolved from him finally being allowed to tell his story. I knew from the start that he was a criminal, and I knew he’d go to prison, to the worst prison on earth. But other than that I had no idea what might happen. It was as much a mystery to me as it was to Alex. I wanted us to discover it, and to fight it – whatever it turned out to be – together.

It seems crazy now, looking back. But I had a good reason. I realized that if I knew in advance what was going on in Furnace and, more importantly, how (and if) Alex was going to escape, then the book might lose some of its edge, some of its dramatic tension. If I wrote like this then I’d know how he was going to get out, and what happened to him through the series, and I think some of that awareness, that relief, might leak into the story. Readers are sharp, they sense things like this. If I’d planned his escape before I’d even properly got to know the character then it might feel like a cop out. Readers would know that everything was going to be okay because it would already be written into the text, invisible but unmissable.

So I just rolled with it, I just started writing. I threw myself into Furnace the same way Alex had been thrown in, without hope and without a plan. Because I’d done it like this, I felt as desperate as he did. Time was running out for him because the Blood Watch and the gangs were closing in. Time was running out for me because I was getting through the book and I still didn’t know how he was going to get out. I didn’t even know if he was going to escape!

I’m not going to say what happens, of course, because I don’t want to spoil Lockdown for anyone who’s planning to read it. But that sense of urgency, of desperation, of utter hopelessness was real (for different reasons too, which I’ve talked about elsewhere on this blog tour) because I didn’t have a plan. I was just another kid caught up in this hellhole trying to do the impossible, trying to escape.

I think writing fast is the key to the book’s pace. It’s unrelenting, it’s non-stop, because I wrote it like that – three weeks of days when I’d look up and realize I’d been writing straight for twelve hours! When you write on the edge it genuinely feels like you’re there in the story. You haven’t got time to think about what’s happening, the same way you don’t always have time to think about it in real life. You have to act, and worry about the consequences later. Occasionally things would happen that I didn’t want to happen, but I didn’t edit them out. They were part of the story, part of Alex’s life. He couldn’t go back and change them, so neither could I. Believe it or not, the finished version of Lockdown – other than a bunch of corrected typos and some major grammar patches – is the version I submitted. Nothing in the story was altered. I wrote it at the speed of life, because that’s the speed Alex lived it.