April Book Haul

It's a bit amusing that I bought as many books in March and April combined that I bought in only February. There is an obvious reason for the easing up on buying and reading books for myself this month...namely Camp NaNoWriMo. That's why July will probably be a book-lite month as well. Still, though, I did purchase twelve books this month, mostly of the e-book variety.

I did not buy a single hardcover, but I did pick up three paperbacks, and strangely enough I bought those at the grocery store while picking up what I needed for my work lunches.

Anyway...here we go.

Okay, so I have had Timebound by Rysa Walker on my to-read list for a couple years now. It was the winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2012 and it sounded like an interesting time travel story. I've read about half of the book so far and I am really enjoying it. We the readers get dumped into the whole concept of time travel at the same time as the main character so we get to learn as she does, which is really nice. In fact, I'm enjoying this book so much that the sequel will be one of my purchases in May.

Second on the list is The Originals: The Rise by Julie Plec. This is a bit different because it is an adventure from the show that we don't get to see in flashback. Executive Producer Julie Plec has penned three novels that give us new insight to the Mikaelson family when they were in New Orleans in the 1700s. So instead of having a show or movie based on a book, this is a book based on a television show. I'm looking forward to reading these books, because honestly I've stopped watching The Vampire Diaries, but The Originals continues to impress me...maybe because they are mostly original characters and therefore the source material isn't being shredded for the sake of viewers.

Finally for my paperbacks I have The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks. Don't judge me, you guys. I guess Mr. Sparks is a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, a lot of his stories have numerous similarities, and most of the time the covers (especially the media tie-in covers) tend to all look exactly the same.** (see my pic below if you don't believe me). But I still get sucked into these books and I'll laugh and cry with the couple as they go through their journey together and apart. Plus, I've seen the trailer for this, and I won't see the movie before reading the book.

*look at all the couples face-to-face about to kiss*

Well, that's it for the physical books. Now to quickly run through the e-books.

- Empath by Becca J. Campbell
- Once Loved by Cecy Robson
- The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan
- The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr
- Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep
- Hunt by Rachel Vincent
- A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard
- Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard
- Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones

Empath was either really cheap or free and I do enjoy seeing how authors handle characters with empathic abilities, so this sounds interesting. I have read Cecy Robson's Weird Girls series, and Once Loved is the second book in a contemporary romance series she is writing as well. I picked it up for 0.99 so it's an easy purchase to make. The Faerie Guardian was free, and I do enjoy reading books involving the Fae/faeries. Recently I have been enjoying twists on classic stories with original characters thrown in, and The Diabolical Miss Hyde follows the daughter of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, plus it was on sale for 1.99! I own practically everything by Jennifer Estep, so when I realized I didn't have the final book in her Mythos Academy series, and that it was only 3.99, I simply had to pick up Killer Frost. It's funny because I have her adult series in paperback, but all her YA in e-book. That happens sometimes. I haven't read any Rachel Vincent in a while, and Hunt is a short-story/novella that leads into the spin-off to her Shifters series so I had to get it. And guys, I devoured the first book in Susan Dennard's Something Strange and Deadly trilogy, so I had to buy A Darkness Strange and Lovely and Strange and Ever After; I have to know what happens next! Finally, I love the Charley Davidson books and the first six books of the series were on sale the other day and the sixth one, Sixth Grave on the Edge was the only on-sale one I didn't own. Book seven is still around $10 for the e-book, so I'll wait a while on that and the eighth book is coming soon and will likely also be fairly pricey.

Well, there you have it...my book haul for the month of April. Because of scheduling it looks like I will have May's book haul post up June 3rd, so stay tuned for more bookish awesomeness.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: The Finish Line, and What's Next

I'm not going to lie...this has probably been my worst NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo session to date. I had such a difficult time focusing and hitting my daily goals. So many stressful parts of life seemed to converge and honestly made it to where I was either working so I could have money or sleeping because I needed to recharge. I was just drained. So...with two days left in this month's Camp session, I have about 11,000 words. I will consider myself lucky if I can hit 20,000 by the end of the day tomorrow.

But...I am not giving up on the project just yet. I have pushed my deadlines time and time again, and I'd really like to stop that cycle now. Frankly, I gave myself a couple extra weeks in my mental deadlines anyway, just in case this happened. Still, I will try and keep updates coming--either on Facebook or Twitter. My goal is to have 25,000 words added to my current WIP by May 13th. The hope is that those words will wrap up everything that has been left loose these past months, and then my trusty critique partners will get e-mails with the WIP around May 15th.

Basically I am working to get Project Death: Revelation and Project Death: Redemption out in print and to the readers. That is my continuing project that I will be focusing on through May and June. I have publication dates in mind for both books, but I'm not exactly going to announce those just yet, in case more unexpected delays pop up. I'm really trying not to continually disappoint my readers.

I really want to put out the best book possible and Thanos has given me all sorts of trouble with his book. He has been uncooperative, and then throw in work and general stress, as well as various issues at home, and writing hasn't been as productive as I would have liked. But I am determined to get everything polished up and out to readers soon. I just need to keep to the deadlines I have set myself. If I can then I should have more exciting writing updates in the next few months.

Speaking of writing, in July, Camp NaNoWriMo returns, and I am hoping to focus on the re-write process for Souls Unknowing. Like the Project Death series, this first book of the Souls trilogy was written while I was in high school. Needless to say, the characters and the story have stuck with me. The original version needed so much editing and work that it seemed ridiculous to even try to salvage it. Most of the plot was all right, and I liked the characters, but my writing has improved drastically in the past decade. So, hopefully I'll be able to get about 2/3 of the book completely rewritten.

I don't want to try to think much farther out in the year than that, but I'm basically thinking that my NaNoWriMo project in November will be to finish up the Project Death series by writing Project Death: Restoration.

Oh, and December 5th I will once again be participating in the local historical society's book signing event. The people behind it scolded me last year for not being there to sell books. I didn't have Revelation ready so I didn't RSVP, but they still set up a spot for me. I'd like to have both Revelation and Redemption there this year.

On the blogging front, I did spend some time figuring out what blogs/reviews I still owe you guys from the past couple months, and I will slowly be working on catching up with all of that, but I also went through and planned out a lot of my writing and geeky posts for the next few months, which should make my life a bit easier. Thinking of a blog topic can sometimes be frustratingly difficult.

Basically in May I'll be talking about some Basics of Writing. In June I'll be going through Souls Unknowing prep for July Camp, and that will also reference some writing thoughts and techniques. Then July will be Camp NaNoWriMo updates similar to the ones I had in April. Then in August it's a slight detour from the writing posts as I get really geeky and talk about getting ready for Comic-Con; Of course I will be at Chicago Comic Con August 20-23 and will have all sorts of updates on FB and Twitter, but there will be blog posts as well.

I guess that's all the future talk I can manage for right now. It's going to be a hectic and exciting few months, but I'm really looking forward to it all.

From the Stacks: Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

Today's From the Stacks review is Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard, which was an unexpected surprise. Seriously, I enjoyed this way more than I initially thought I would.

Sixteen-year-old Eleanor Fitt’s brother is missing. And when she discovers that the Dead are rising in Philadelphia and wreaking havoc throughout the city, she knows that her brother is involved.

So Eleanor enlists the help of the Spirit-Hunters. This motley crew, hired to protect the city from supernatural forces, is after the necromancer who has been reanimating corpses. Their skills can save her brother. But as Eleanor spends time with the Spirit-Hunters, and their handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. Now not only is her reputation at risk, but her very life may hang in the balance. 

In Something Strange and Deadly, the first book in a trilogy, Susan Dennard weaves together vividly imagined scenes of action, adventure, and gorgeous Victorian fashion to create an entertaining steampunk tapestry of humor, horror, and romance. Readers who love Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series will be intrigued from the start.

Overall rating: 5 stars

Let me start off by saying one thing: I am not a fan of zombies. Okay, yeah, in horror they work out quite well and such, but I remember trying to read a couple different zombie romance books in the past couple years and I just couldn't do it. 

But, I heard such wonderful things about this trilogy, and I follow Susan Dennard on Twitter and she seems completely awesome, so I pushed aside my thoughts on zombies (which was a bit easier thanks to an immense enjoyment while watching the show iZombie) and gave Something Strange and Deadly a chance.

I did not want to put this book down. It is no lie to say that I read this book in a couple of days, even while knowing that I should be writing for Camp NaNoWriMo, and that I had a stack of other books on my currently reading list. But the story and the characters and the concept were all so well done that I was sucked into the pages and could not find my way out until I reached the end of the book.

The characters practically jumped off the pages, and I even enjoyed some of the snobby wealthy characters. They are all just so well done. Eleanor is a strong heroine in character, but obviously she has a lot to learn when it comes to the Dead...and dealing with people such as Daniel, who was a delight even when he was being a pain in the butt. 

I should have guessed who the necromancer bad guy was long before the reveal, but I hoped everything would work out. The book ends with a decent enough wrap on the current story, but also leaves plenty of room and interest in the second and third books...which I will be reading in the near future. 

I absolutely have to applaud Susan Dennard for staying true to the danger presented by the Dead and having some characters die, some characters become injured, and not just miraculously having every hero survive unscathed. I'm really trying not to do any spoiling (even though the book is a couple years old). Anyway, what I want to say is that I immensely enjoyed reading this book and will be reading not just the rest of the trilogy but also any other book released by Susan Dennard in the future.

Why are you people giving me good zombie books and shows? I was fine ignoring zombie culture until you give me these addictive adventures. Grr.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: About Writing Communities

There are so many topics to discuss when it comes to the writing and publishing processes, and I'm sure I've repeated most of them, because they are important and my process has evolved and grown as I have. One thing that has never changed for me is the importance of having a community of other writers and artsy type people around.

When I first started seriously focusing on writing back in high school, I had a friend introduce me to this site called fictionpress. I lot of people have used it, and it can be a brilliant resource. Well, I don't know how much anymore, but it used to be amazing. I would post up chapters of novels and would get all sorts of great constructive reviews. That support--even the really short reviews that just said "OMG...need the next chap"--was so helpful to keep me writing. It was really great motivation. Then fictionpress added in a new feature, forums, and all of a sudden it seemed like most people wanted to do short little RP-type stories instead of reading and reviewing actual stories. So I pulled all my stories down and left the site.

I'm still basically trying to find a replacement I really like. Well, a digital replacement anyway. My friend-group has typically always included a few other writers and they are good for in-person writing discussions. Digitally, there are sites like Critique Circle and Wattpad, which both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I like that on Critique Circle you have to pay credits to post up chapters, and you earn credits by reviewing the chapters of others. That's nice. But after you've left the newbie zone, it can be a lot harder to get those reviews. And sometimes the line to get a chapter in the review area can be a couple months long. With my writing and publication schedule I don't have that kind of time. Yes, there is an option to buy a subscription for CC and open up my own little zone just for my stuff, but will that be a worthwhile expense? I don't know.

Wattpad is all free, and you can post a novel a chapter at a time, but I wonder how effective it really will be in the long run. I've heard of a lot of people using it and liking it, but I don't have much experience with it myself.

Then, of course, right now I have my Camp NaNoWriMo cabin. Every session I manage to find a few people who are active in the cabin chat threads and since they are also in the middle of NaNo madness we can all support and encourage each other. Which is really great, but then the month ends and mostly we lose contact with each other. I don't know...maybe it would be worth it to find a place where we can gather online year-round and help each other out with more than just random help. Maybe we can form a beta-reading and editing group. That could be cool.

My local NaNoWriMo group is amazing...when we are all able to get together. A few years ago it felt like we would meet every week, or maybe every-other-week, year-round, and it was awesome. While we didn't always write, we always motivated each other to do more writing upon getting home. We went bowling, geo-caching, we flew kites...basically it was inspirational adventures where we could just hang out and also talk about writing, editing, publishing, the whole shebang. Now I feel like I'm lucky to see some of the group every few months. I miss the camaraderie.

Obviously, you can see my point with all of this rambling. Communities are important, and they help on so many different levels. So many people say that writing is a solitary job, and in some ways it is, because you have to lock yourself up somewhere and just write, but it is also incredibly social. Talking to other creative types helps to break free from any writer blockages and makes the whole experience feel a bit richer.

If you can find a group of fellow writers, poets, artists, creative types then I highly recommend it...whether that is a digital group or a local group, it is super helpful.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: Mid-Month Music Inspiration

With some stories I have very specific playlists, ones that will jump around in different genres and/or different artists, depending on what is needed for the scene or chapter. I believe I have written some posts on the topic of writing music before--Project Death circa 2012, and Souls Unknowing playlist--, but today I want to talk specifically about the music of my Project Death series, and even more so on the music that helped me when finishing Project Death: Revelation.

All right, well the post linked above with the old playlist for Project Death still mostly works, and since my iTunes has upgraded a few times and lost my saved playlists, I'm glad to have this, but obviously new inspirational writing songs (for me) have been released the past few years. When I was in the final stages of editing Project Death: Resurrection I listened to the Kamelot album Silverthorn on repeat, and the beautiful, haunting, and dark music really helped me channel what I needed to be focusing on at that time, as well as helping me think on what could happen in the future.

While finishing up the second book, Project Death: Revelation, I still listened to that Kamelot album a lot, but I found myself majorly inspired by the new Epica album, The Quantum Enigma.

Have you ever been listening to a song from an album and a certain line or verse will pop out at you, standing out from all the rest as completely relevant to what you are doing? It happens to me all the time, and especially while finishing up Thanos's story. So...I've decided to share some of those special lyrics with you all.

Also, if I can without revealing anything too spoiler-y, I will try to explain why those particular lyrics connected to the story in such a powerful way.

As time goes by I hide the truth

Cannot stand myself with a broken shell

Give me relief

Let me believe between sweet fiction and reality

As time goes by I try to choose

Don't know where to roam in this private hell

Give me relief

Let me believe between sweet fiction and reality

- "The Second Stone" by Epica

When it came to getting through the second book, I had to deal with the issue that the book both took place 100 years earlier, as Thanos transitioned into being Death, and in the present day following the events of the first book. Delving into Thanos's mind and memories showed how for so long he had needed to hide the truth from so many people and how those secrets ate at him. I could tell that all he wanted was to be able to have everything out in the open, so these particular lines spoke to that part of his past so well.

See through the veil

Our perspective on life

Defines everything we reach

Most of us will aim for

All the certainties

Beyond the veil

Our perspective on death

Can manifest in many ways

Some of us stay fearful

Til the end of days

As we believe in what we see

We all assume that this is real

- "Sense Without Sanity - The Impervious Code" by Epica

Obviously, when you are becoming Death, you sometimes muse on the topics of both life and death, and many of the characters in the series spend some serious thought on the topic. Do you play it safe in life? Do you risk everything? Are you scared of dying? Or is it just another adventure? All those thoughts make this song really stand out to me.

Together we'll be strong

To defy all that can't bring us down

United standing strong

You will not fight alone

Don't drown in a sea full of sorrow and pain

United standing strong, here is where you belong

Your angels will whisper

Nothing is what it seems to be

Search with your heart and you'll find the key

You'll see

- "Omen - The Ghoulish Malady" by Epica

Not only do these lyrics speak to the dynamic of Thanos and Tamesis, but also to Thanos and how he still occasionally struggles with the problems associated with being Death. He wants to have Tam at his side, but who he is and what he does makes it all dangerous. I know that I've had people wonder if and how the two will get past the issues keeping them apart, and a lot of that has to do with Thanos really searching for the answers.

A thousand signs declined

That traveled through light

Translate this mystery

That covered my eyes

Accept approaching fear

And courage appears

Death is a certainty

It's growing near

Letting go is fateful

- "Canvas of Life" by Epica

Guys, this is one of my favorite songs on the entire album. I can't really speak to why this is important to the story, but it is highly relevant to the last few chapters. Obviously talking about it further would reveal major spoilers, so I won't ruin it for anyone.

I still listen to The Quantum Enigma while writing the third book in the Project Death series, but I've been doing a lot of listening to the new Nightwish album as well--Endless Forms Most Beautiful. And at the beginning of May, Kamelot will have a new album out, called Haven. I'm guessing Haven will probably have some songs relevant for me finishing book three and working on book four. We'll see. 

Anyway, I guess that's enough on the updates for this week. For those participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, we are at the halfway point of the month, so hopefully you aren't too far behind. If you are (like me) then we can catch up together. If you're ahead...well, go you! That's exciting. Let's all get cracking in the second half of the month. We can achieve our writing goals. I know we can.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: One Week Down

Wow...the first week of April has flown by. I guess I can blame it on the month starting with a 3-day weekend due to Easter. That also made that first weekend a bit difficult for writing, but I managed to get some words on the page, even if it wasn't quite what I needed to be up to par for my goal of 50K.

I will say that the difficult part of this is that I am working on the third book of the Project Death series, while simultaneously editing and going over continuity in the second book. It is a lot to digest at once, and there are certain scenes in the second one that I've had to play with and add to so that the story is more developed and makes the most sense. In fact some of those scenes have been necessary to finish before I could really and truly focus on my work for the third book.

Okay, so I don't want to make this a super long post, especially since I really would rather get back to writing. Mostly I just wanted to make it clear that I am not dead, I haven't forgotten about this blog, and I'm still getting words down, on the page and on the screen.

Based on the goal of 50,000 words in the month of April, I need 1,667 words per day to stay on track. Going by that math, after day 7, my overall count should be 11,669. Right now, I am clocking in at just under 6,000 words...so a tiny bit behind.

I'm hoping to catch up over the next couple days...or maybe even over the weekend. It's going to be tough, but I think if I squeeze in all the writing time I can spare that everything will work out.

If you want more frequent updates during the writing chaos of Camp NaNoWriMo, you can follow me on Twitter @DanielleThamasa or on Facebook via my author page.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: Off to a Pretty Good Start

I was actually originally going to title this as "Off to a Great Start" but that would be just a bit of an over-exaggeration. While I am doing decently, getting close to hitting the daily word count, I'm not quite there. Still though, I am super glad that I am actually writing every single day, and for longer than just a couple random minutes.

Right now I seem to be getting in about an hour or so of writing every day before work, and even though it is writing by hand, I am managing close to 1000 words, which is really good for pen and paper scribbling. If I was able to take my laptop with me then I would definitely hit my 1667 word goal for each day.

But that's why they invented the weekend, right? To have more time to catch up on all the words that eluded you through the week?

Well, that's the way I look at the weekends, at least during NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo sessions. This weekend is no exception. In the first two days of Camp I wrote 2700 words, which is only about 600 words behind. But then, due to traveling on day three, I didn't actually write.

So here we are on day four, and I need to write 4000 words today to be completely caught up. That's not an impossible task. A few times I have managed to write 10000-13000 in a day, when properly motivated (typically by use of the Write or Die app).

I'm with my best friend and another self-published author, Signy Cullen, this weekend, and we definitely plan on having a writing session at the local Panera. Plus whatever we manage to do just at her house.

I'll have more of an update on my Camp writing progress for my regularly scheduled writing blog post on Wednesday, but for now I can say that I have almost finished the first chapter of Project Death: Redemption, the third book in my series, so that feels pretty darn amazing. I'm starting to settle into Jules's mind and voice, and I think it's going to be a really good book.

March Book Haul

I know. I know. Technically today is supposed to be a book review post, but I've slowed down on the reading a bit in order to get ready for Camp NaNoWriMo. Plus, since I've spent the past couple months having a post about the books I've purchased during the month, it's about time I share my March Book Haul anyway.

Compared to last month's book haul, this will seem a bit small. I only purchased eleven books, three of which were paperback. I guess we should jump right into the list and then we can go about our regularly scheduled Fridays, right?

First up, the paperbacks:

So, I finally got around to reading some Jim Butcher, namely the first of The Dresden Files series, and I really enjoy Dresden's voice. It makes the story pretty fun to read. About 2/3rds of the way through the first book, I decided that I wanted to keep reading, which meant buying book two: Fool Moon and book three: Grave Peril. A wizard living in Chicago, and helping the police solve crimes. Yep, sounds like the kind of thing I like to read...and watch. (Also, the show is fun too, but I can see how it differs from the books. I'll just enjoy them separately without trying to compare/contrast).

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder was one of my most anticipated books from the first part of the year, and I'm so glad to have it with the rest of the Chronicles of Ixia (the three Study books, then the three Glass books, and now the start to the Soulfinders books). Anyway, I have to wait to read this because I'm still struggling to get through the Glass books, but I will get back to you Yelena and Valek, I promise. Opal Cowan isn't as interesting a narrator as Yelena so the Glass books are not my favorites--in fact, I've still only managed to get through the first.

That's it for the paperbacks. As usual, it's now time to list off all my e-book purchases.

- A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
- Endless Knight by Kresley Cole
- Colorworld by Rachel Kelly
- Teleworld by Rachel Kelly
- iZombie, Vol. 1 by Chris Roberson
- Beyond the Veil by Pippa DaCosta
- The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
- The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox

I love it when a book on my to-read list pops up as being on sale for my NOOK. That was the case with Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons. Plus, I love reading about dragons so it should be pretty good. I thought that Kresley Cole's Poison Princess was pretty decent, and so I'm curious to see what's next for Evie and the other Arcana characters in Endless Knight. Again, I think this one was on sale so that's great. Next up is Colorworld and Teleworld by Rachel Kelly, and yes guys, I do already own these as signed paperbacks, but I enjoy them so much that I always want to have them on hand in case of a re-read. Plus it helps to support an author who is self-published, which I love doing. Most of the time I don't read a lot of comics or graphic novels, and I typically avoid zombies, but before I watched the pilot of iZombie, I really wanted to have an idea of what it would be about, so I picked up the first volume. Guess what? This is one of the few times I prefer a show or movie to the source material. The last three on my list all sound decently interesting, and I downloaded Beyond the Veil, The Rest Falls Away, and The Accidental Demon Slayer for free, which means that even if I don't really enjoy them, at least I'm not out anything. But if I do enjoy them, then the authors have several more books I will be able to buy. This is why having the first book for free can be quite helpful to attract new readers.

That does it for my March Book Haul blog post. I'll have more book review posts up in April, as well as Camp NaNoWriMo update posts. Thanks for stopping by everyone.