CALLING ALL WITCHES

October is creeping up on us, and I am about to launch a month long blog feature of the scary kind.  The first week is devoted to witches.  I will be listing YA books starring witches. If you know of any, let me know. Take the...

 

 

Which Witch are You Quiz

 

 

 

and play

 

 

 

Witch Word Find

 

 

 

Tell all your friends and join us for the most legal fun you can have on the net.

 

I will also be putting up a short story I wrote, 2 pages a day for the entire month.

It will NEVER be published. This is just some scary fun.  If you love ghosts, creepy mansions,

gangsters, and haunted mirrors, I'll see you back here on October 1rst for....

 

 

The Woodlow Mansion

News on J.K. Rowing

I heard news the other day that Rowling is going to continue on with her story of wizards and witches in a new project.  This one will reportedly take place seventy years before Harry Potter and will focus on a character she says she's always loved, Newt Scamander.  According to examiner (dot) com, Rowling is going to be writing her first screenplay.  (that's right, a screenplay and not a book) about this character who grew up to write a textbook called "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

Warner Bros says this might just be the first of another series of films featuring the magical world.  It doesn't sound like it's going to take place at Hogwarts, though.  Rowling says the magical laws and such will be the same and will be familiar to readers of the series.

What do you think about this?

Are you eager for another film about Rowling's world or are you sick of them?

Isn't it CHARMING?

Like my one of a kind bracelet?

I found a woman who makes incredible bracelets with book covers. These are mine, some that are I published and others that will be soon.  I love it!!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/112015200/jewelry-charm-bracelet-harry-potter-book

Gifts for Writers

I've had a hard time finding special and unique things for writers, but I have managed to find a few. 

Café Press has several items for writers with funny sayings on them like pajamas, mouse pads, mugs, magnets, etc.  Here are a mug and mouse pad they had that just happen to have the title of my first book on them.

I also found a woman on Etsy who makes charm bracelets with book covers on them so I ordered one.  She showed me a sample of one she made for Rachel Caine, but I can't put it on here because I do not have permission from either party. Trust me, it looks awesome!

Other than that, the pickings are slim.  You can buy the usual things for writers like journals, pens, etc., but these are the coolest, most unique gifts I could find.  Do you know of anything else?  Let us know.

Review: Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

Summary:  Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland of America and nothing will stand in her way-- not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

Review:  This is the second book I've read by Amanda Hocking.  The first one didn't excite me enough to get me to buy the rest of the series, but this one was free so I decided to take a chance.  Remy is a kickass character (of course), but it' never explained how she got that way.  When the story begins, we're already in zombie-land.  I wanted to know about this girl's past, but we are told very little.  There is a lot of action, but after a while it got redundant.  This is the way it went: Remy and her friends meet a few people, go through introductions, and then the new people die in a chapter or two.  When we got to the third group, I was like, "I don't care what your names are because you're just going to die anyway." And they did. 

I don't know what it is about Hocking's books that don't rope me in like they do other people.  I've given it a great deal of thought.  She writes well (in my opinion), and I enjoy the stories as I am reading them, but I don't feel invested in the characters.  I don't care if they live or die.  I don't care enough to read the next book.  It bugs me because I just can't figure out WHY I feel that way about it.  Maybe it's because there isn't hardly any backstory on the characters.  Or maybe it's because Hocking is more interested in the action than in her characters.  I don't know.

I give her three butterflies for a story that kept me reading but didn't intrigue me enough to continue on with the series.

Agony of the Writing Process!!!!

Whoever thinks writing is not hard has never written anything longer than a Tweet.

I just got done slamming my fingers against the keyboard several times in a meltdown because I am trying to fix this damn book and the computer won't cooperate.  Nothing can make me lose my cool faster than problems while writing.  Well, maybe being stuck behind a bad driver.  This sucks!!!  Someday someone will invent a computer that will work without me having to beat the crap out of it... I hope..

HUNTER is currently in the revision stage, and I have been having all sorts of problems.  Why can't things just go smoothly this once?  And wait until I have to format this baby.  That's when I get ready to pull out my hair in chunks. 

While working on Hunter, I am reminded of how much writing is like having a baby.

1.  It takes a LONG time: You have to wait nine months for a baby, but sometimes books can take years to finish.

2.  It is PAINFUL:  The process is extremely painful.  I've gone through days when I think it is trash and just want to throw it away and start over, especially when my damn computer does not want to work right.  (I am getting ready to slam down on the stupid keys again!!!)  This is a brand new computer, but the freaking keys are getting stuck!!!!!

3.  Not everyone will love your baby like you do: This is difficult to deal with, people saying nasty things about your beautiful baby.  You just want to smack them.