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Showing posts from June, 2009

Along for the Ride Review

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Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen Summary: Riding a bike is only one of the many things Auden's missed out on. Even before her parents' divorce, she was cast in the role of little adult, never making waves, focusing on academics to please her demanding mother. Now she's spending the summer before college in the tiny beach town of Colby with her father and his new wife and baby. A job in a trendy boutique introduces her to the world of girls, their friendships, conversations, romances. And then there's Eli, an intriguing loner. A former star on the bike circuit and a fellow insomniac, Eli introduces Auden to the nocturnal world of Colby. Together they embark on a quest: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she's been denied; for Eli, to put a tragic episode behind him. Combine two lonely people with a charming beach town and an endless supply of long summer nights, and just about anything can happen. Review: When I went to the bookstore last week, I wa

New Releases

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I decided I needed to do something on Thursdays. I post on every weekday and I feel like I'm neglecting Thursdays. So from now on I'm going to feature a few new releases or do a book review. I found these books on the Barnes and Noble and teenreads.com new release lists. All summaries and pictures are from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Kiss and Hell by Dakota Cassidy Delaney Markham doesn't just see dead people, she hears them too. And FYI—communicating with tortured souls all day can really wreak havoc on your love life. Sans boyfriend, Delaney makes the best of her gift by holding séances to make ends meet—that is until one incredibly annoying ghost just won't go away. Besides being sinfully hot—in a college professor sort of way—all signs point to Clyde Atwell being much more than the ordinary spirit. In fact, he's a newbie demon whose first assignment is to take Delaney back down to hell with him. Yeah, like that's going to happen on the first date. Alo

Writing Wednesday

I'm so tired right now. I was up until 1 am last night on half a can of chocolate frosting and a bottle of Sierra Mist. I had an all night write planned, but it didn't happen. First it was writers' block and then I started looking at horses for sale in my area and found one that would be perfect for me and my mom. If we only had $2,800. I've been a bad person lately not posting on Friday and Monday. I developed an obsession with an old TV show that's as old as I am, the Nanny. I watched all six seasons in four days. They just don't make shows that good anymore. It's also on for one hour at 11 pm EST on Nick at Nite every night. My new TV obsession is Secret Life of the American Teenager, but I'm all caught up on that show and looking forward to the new episode Monday. I won't be able to see it until Tuesday unless my mom goes out though. She hates that show even though she's never even seen it. The season premiere -- which came out Monday and I

Writing Wednesday

It's Writing Wednesday again. I think. It is Wednesday, right? *checks date on computer* Yep. It is. :D During the school year what day of the week it is is important. Because, you know, on Tuesday it's three more days until the weekend. On Friday it's counting down the hours until that two days of freedom. But during the summer it's just, 'what day is it? Oh, really? Cool.' It doesn't matter if it's Tuesday or Friday or Monday because pretty much every day is the same. Wake up, do whatever it was you had planned that day, go to sleep. I watched Prince Caspian last night (yes, this is important. To me). I love that movie. Yes, I cried when they had to leave. Just like I do every time I see that movie. But I can't help it. Who doesn't love Ben Barnes? (unless you're a guy I suppose) ANYWAY getting away from Ben's wonderful hair in that movie... Andra - Rewrite is now on Chapter 11. I'm kind of stuck especially since I'm not 6 chap

Old Writing

Okay, I know I didn't have a proper post last Monday, but this time I'm going to have one. While doing some cleaning last week I discovered an old short story that I wrote for an assignment four years ago. The writing is very passive and isn't my best, but I wanted to share anyway. The Christmas Horse November 2005 The auction house bustled with the usual afternoon activity. Sitting in the front row of the seats were Rachael and her mother. As the next horse was led into the ring they both sat on the edge of their seats. This was the horse they had been waiting for. He was a big chestnut Clydesdale with brilliant white feathers on his feet and a large white strip on his forehead in the shape of a Christmas tree. The bidding had started and it was very slow. No one seemed to want the big horse. The bidding, after much time, reached $100. The price rose slightly as Rachael's mom and a man in the back row fought for the big horse. The price eventually reached $150. Rachael

Week in Short

So I'm bringing back my Friday posts and changing them to 'Week in Short.' Must read of the week: Nathan Bransford's database of his posts on writing, revising, publishing, and many other helpful things here . Monday: High point of the day occured in the evening when we had a big thunderstorm complete with tornado warning and the threat of 60 mph winds and quarter-sized hail which never actually fell. Didn't even rain. Improved chapter four drastically. I wasn't satisfied with one of the scenes, but it is much improved from its previous suckish state. Only one post that I wanted to share from Monday. Follow the link to the wonderful world of GraphJam. Tuesday: Mom forced me to sort through a small tote full of old papers. I uncovered two of my old stories. One I'm saving to share on Monday and the other one I'm either going to burn its so horrible, share it with the world when I'm published someday, or keep it for laughs. Lots of wonderful posts on T

Writing Wednesday

Hmm this week is going by very slow. I bet the time goes by really, really slow until July 15th (HBP release) and then starts going really fast. Exactly what I don't want to happen. Ah well. It's been a quiet week around here. Just been cleaning and writing and catching up on my beta reading. Andra - just finished chapter five rewrite this morning! Going to start on chapter six probably tonight if I have time. My ultimate goal is to have the whole thing rewritten, beta read, and polished by July. That gives me twenty days. Depending on whether I actually go anywhere and how much cleaning my mom makes me do, it's possible. I'm trying very hard not to rush it, but it's hard knowing that I'm probably going to be gone for two weeks in August with limited computer access for checking my inbox. Shipwrecked and No Kissing - been debating putting these two on the shelf. Shipwrecked because it's so juvenile and NK because if Shipwrecked was that way, it probably wi

Another Monday

It was a long first two days off school involving a graduation party and three baby girls ranging from 3 to 6 months that I haven't seen since February. Babies don't seem to like me. Small children on the other hand are attracted to me like I'm some sort of magnet. (We have a lot of younger kids in our family and they all come to me.) On top of the exhaustion of all that, my writing muse seems to have gone on vacation. Seriously, if you see her please send her home because I'm getting sick of not writing. I'm too depressed to write and not writing makes me more depressed. It's like a neverending cycle. I'm hoping I feel better soon.. Though I'm seeing my baby niece and her baby cousin today again so that's not likely. Not to mention the fact that I only passed my physics exam by 3%. I got 100% on it first tri so I have no clue what happened there. My teacher's a bad teacher, end of story (and he's not my scapegoat, it's really his fault,

One Year Anniversary

It seems like I never talk about horses on here. Probably because I haven't ridden in about 8 months. :( But today I'm going to. It just hit me. It has been exactly one year since my horse had to be euthanized because she colicked. Lady was my first horse and the only horse I've ever owned. I'd had her for a year. We'd been through ups and downs together during that year. She gave us a couple scares with minor injuries and taught me how to sit a buck and how not to complete a flying lead change. Despite the fact that she had the roughest canter in existance, she also had the smoothest jog I've ever ridden. She gave me two falls, one that I laughed off with ease and one that scared me worse than any other I had taken before. The Sunday before she died I rode her and cantered. I'd been rather wary of cantering her lately, but I felt brave. And she did great. Not one buck and I actually managed to sit it the entire time. I looked forward to showing in 4-H that

Writing Wednesday

TWO MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL! I can't wait until these two days are over! I'm already taking time away from studying the presidents to write this post. But we have an hour of study time tomorrow before we even take the exam, so it's not really that vital. Andra - I finished polishing chapter two, sent chapter three to my beta, and am hoping to finish rewriting chapter four tonight. Ahh the joys of rewriting. My enthusiasm is slowly wearing off. Shipwrecked - is on hold for Andra's revisions. Plus I'm still waiting on two more betas. Assassin's Wife - I almost did some work on it yesterday, but I can't seem to get up the enthusiasm for working on it. Plus I need to chart out how the government works for my world. No Kissing - Haven't worked on this one for a while. Probably should try to get some work done on it. Jump - My enthusiasm is slowly wearing off, but I'm going to do some work sometime. I figure my WIPs will pick up a lot more when I finish rewrit