Friday, October 25, 2013

If I Were a Bookstore

If I were a bookstore

It would be round
like the shape of two elbows, resting on the arms of a chair,
linked by the open pages
of a book.

Organization would be key.
On one side would be the sunshine books.
Like the morning,
Like the summer,
Like the heat rising off the asphalt,
Like skin, bronze,
Like the fairground,
Like the beach,
Like a veranda with a cold glass of lemonade,
Like a journey,
for good measure,
through the amazon.

On another side would be the misty books.
Like British accents,
Like broomsticks and potions,
Like thick, woolen overcoats,
Like memories and tears,
Like rosy cheeks,
Like steam rising from a cup,
Like cloaks and pixie dust,
Like umbrellas and fire places,
And for good measure,
Like Scottish accents, too.

On another side would be the shiny books.
Like helicopters,
and cities lit up like the stars.
Like indestructible space ships
and EXPLOSIONS.
Like galaxies,
Like fathomless beings,
Like unforeseen variables,
Like a volcano,
for good measure,
just before the apocalypse.

And in the middle,
for a measure better than most,
would be everything else.

Because a good book
can always be
something else.


*This is an original poem by Kateri Ransom and is made possible by Random Words and Thoughts that Come out of Kateri's Mouth Corp. Haven't heard of it? That's because I made it up. Just now. Just like this poem. Happy Friday, everyone!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Latest Three: Stiefvater Takeover Edition


It's time for The Latest Three: Maggie Stiefvater Takeover Edition. For those of you who don't know, Maggie is probably one of my favorite authors living today. I couldn't really pinpoint the title of "Favorite Author" to one name, but if I had an ongoing contest, she'd be a main contender. To be clear, Shiver was her first book I ever read, but the way things worked out, I didn't get to the next two until now. So, I re-read Shiver and finished up the next two, which resulted in...
The Latest Three!!!

Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater

Linger, Maggie Stiefvater

Forever, Maggie Stiefvater

So I will not be giving a review of each individual book for the main purpose that doing so will undoubtedly lead to those icky things called spoilers. Instead, I will merely refer to this series in a general manner.
Like this...
In general, I thought Maggie did a really wonderful job with this series. I'd still say that The Scorpio Races is my favorite of her books thus far, and I probably like The Dream Thieves better than this series as well (despite the fact that the second book only just came out), but that just means that Maggie's been improving with each book she's come out with. Not bad at all, not bad at all.
One of the several things I like about Shiver is that the name of the book literally encompasses the feel of the book, and to me that is not only really cool, but also really important. I love when you glance at a title, and, in a perfect book world, a book cover as well, and get an instant feel for the tone of the novel. But it's even better when the writing of said novel actually matches up to that tone you had originally anticipated, had ached to be true because it looks like it's EXACTLY the kind of book you want to read RIGHT NOW!
I've gone through a lot with this matter, if you can't tell.
Watch out for the main character, Sam Roth's, development throughout the series. He's probably my favorite character in the book, besides Ulrik (but that doesn't really count for reasons I won't actually divulge at this time).
The imagery, the poetry, the luuuuv scenes. There's a lot of heartache and angst and questions on identity and humanity. A really deep read with a nice flavoring of Maggie snarkiness.
Also!
Super excited to hear there's a Cole/Isabel sequel coming out in the spring, entitled Sinner. Can't wait. Isabel is probably my next favorite character and Cole comes close behind her.

Up next for The Latest Three: A (partially) spooky Halloween Takeover

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Na-No Talk and Some Good News!

Management asks that you please ignore the lack of posts here within the blog.
We thank you for your understanding.

...

So the once a week blog post thing isn't quite working out as swimmingly as I had hoped it would. Partially due to the fact that I got some variation of a little bug several different times since school started. As well as taking the time to make some decent headway on editing. (I'm nearly through the first ten chapters!)
Heading into October, I am gearing up to become a bit friendlier with NaNo this fall as I'm putting my current editing project on the back-burner to collaborate with my better book-ish half, Emily, on an Anastasia Romanov re-telling. I'm handling most of the outlining, which is getting done this month, and we're teaming up starting Nov. 1st. With me still trying to chip away at editing and her working on another project of her own, it sure is going to be a busy month! But collectively I think we should hit the mark, and it'll be a big leap for me from last year where I believe I got just upwards of 10,000 words done. Hey, I was finishing up the first draft of the story I'd been working on for six years. You can only do so much at that point. 
Other than that, I'll be a bit busier because I got another job!!!
I have two jobs now, can you believe it? Went from nothing to nearly 30 hours a week in less than two months. However, I'm really super stoked about this one. It's at a clothing boutique downtown called Chapala and Parker. Small, quaint, chic, elegant, and not ridiculously overpriced. Plus with the first job I got, which allows me to catch up on writing blog posts at work, ahem ahem, I'd say I have a pretty sweet deal going on. I mean, seriously, I already got free clothes!!!

Well, that's all for now folks. I've got a Latest Three (Stiefvater takeover edition) coming your way soon and some other fun ideas I have in the works as well. See you soon, and for those of you who this applies to, happy Pre-Na-No-ing...
and for those of you that that doesn't apply to, happy...
PUMPKIN!!!