Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Mailbox Monday! (April 9, 2012)


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 Mailbox Monday will be hosted in April by Cindy at Cindy's Love of  Books.  In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren.  I got some nice wins and swaps this week as well as review books.  Come on in and take a look!




Girl Unmoored
by Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Apron Bramhall has come unmoored. It’s 1985 and her mom has passed away, her evil stepmother is pregnant, and her best friend has traded her in for a newer model. Fortunately, she’s about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ, Superstar. Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike (no one should look that much like Jesus unless they can perform a miracle or two), but suddenly he’s everywhere. Until one day, she’s stuck in church with him—of all places. And then something happens; Apron’s broken teenage heart blinks on for the first time since she’s been adrift. 

Mike and his grumpy boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store and Apron’s world seems to calm. But when she uncovers Chad’s secret, coming of age becomes almost too much bear. She’s forced to see things the adults around her fail to—like what love really means and who is paying too much for it.



The Day the World Ends
by Ethan Coen

From one of the most inventive and celebrated filmmakers of the twentieth century, and co-creator of such classics asFargoNo Country for Old Men, and True Grit, a collection of poems that offers humor and insight into an artist who has always pushed the boundaries of his craft.
Ethan Coen's screenplays have surprised and delighted international audiences with their hilarious vision and bizarrely profound understanding of human nature. This eccentric genius is revealed again in The Day the World Ends, a remarkable range of poems that are as funny, ribald, provocative, raw, and often touching as the brilliant films that have made the Coen brothers cult legends.



One Breath Away
by Heather Gudenkauf

On a bitter March day, as a sudden snowstorm envelops the small town of Broken Branch, Iowa, an unknown man with a gun enters the town’s only school and takes a classroom of children hostage. As awareness of the situation spreads, the panicked community is ready to do anything to protect their children, but can only watch and wait. 

As a teacher with a long career behind her, Evelyn Oliver is ready to enjoy retirement with her loving husband. But now, faced with a crazy man armed with a gun, terrorizing her classroom, she’d rather die than fail to protect any of her students. But why is he doing this? Evelyn’s been scouring her mind but doesn’t recognize the intruder. Maybe one of the students is the key? 

Holly Thwaite left Broken Branch and her family behind without a word eighteen years ago, vowing never to return. But after a debilitating accident leaves her recovering in a hospital in Arizona, she’s forced to send her children to her hometown to be looked after by their grandfather, the man she never wanted them to meet. Will Thwaite never understood why his estranged daughter, Holly, ran away all those years ago. But now that her children are in his care, he refuses to fail his daughter again. One way or another, Will is going to get his grandkids, P.J. and Augie, out of that school safely even if he has to go in and get them himself. What Will doesn’t know is that thirteen-year-old Augie is just as determined to rescue her little brother from the killer and help her classmates, even if it means putting herself in the crosshairs of the gunman. 

Police officer Meg Barrett wants to know who the intruder is and why he’s doing this. Whoever it is, there’s no excuse for this. Meg should know. She’s had plenty of hardships herself. But with innocent lives at stake, Meg is prepared to risk her own life to save these hostages, although it means disobeying orders and taking on the gunman face-to-face. 

As the standoff progresses and the snowstorm rages outside, anxiety and frustration start to build to dangerous levels. But everyone knows how precarious the situation is. One wrong move, even a breath, could have the most devastating of consequences.



Ebooks for review:


The Forsaken
by Estevan Vega

DON'T LET IT IN. 

The first victim has no natural wounds. No prints left behind. No lacerations. But the life has been gruesomely drained from the corpse, and a broken cross is now imprinted inside the skin. 

Left for dead a year ago by his former partner, reckless and medicated Detective Jude Foster now endures mindless therapy sessions in order to be given another chance at his life.When the chief of police discovers the first victim strangely killed in this sadistic fashion, Jude enters a dark world all-too-familiar. He knows he’s seen this method of murder before, but he never caught the killer. 

Could this be a copycat, or is it the one that got away? 

Forced to take on a new partner for the case, Jude must come to terms with the fractured memories of his past, attempt to keep his younger brother safe, and chase down a ghost killer who is collecting human souls. But time is against him. How many more victims will there be before the killer is satisfied? And will Jude Foster be able to survive this new hell or in the chaos, will he risk becoming something else entirely?



The Lost Ones
by Ace Atkins

Fresh from ten years as a U.S. Army Ranger, Quinn Colson finds his hands full as the newly elected sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi.  An old buddy running a local gun shop may be in over his head when stolen army rifles start showing up in the hands of a Mexican drug gang.

At the same time, an abused-child case leads Quinn and his tough-as-nails deputy, Lillie Virgil, deep into the heart of a bootleg baby racket and a trail of darkness and death. And when the two cases collide, Quinn and his allies are forced to realize that, though they may be home from the war, they are now in the fight of their lives.



Some Kind of Fairy Tale
by Graham Joyce

It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected phonecall from his parents, asking him to come round. It pulls him away from his wife and children and into a bewildering mystery. 

He arrives at his parents house and discovers that they have a visitor. His sister Tara. Not so unusual you might think, this is Christmas after all, a time when families get together. But twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back and as the years have gone by with no word from her the family have, unspoken, assumed that she was dead. Now she's back, tired, dirty, dishevelled, but happy and full of stories about twenty years spent travelling the world, an epic odyssey taken on a whim. 

But her stories don't quite hang together and once she has cleaned herself up and got some sleep it becomes apparent that the intervening years have been very kind to Tara. She really does look no different from the young women who walked out the door twenty years ago. Peter's parents are just delighted to have their little girl back, but Peter and his best friend Richie, Tara's one time boyfriend, are not so sure. Tara seems happy enough but there is something about her. A haunted, otherworldly quality. Some would say it's as if she's off with the fairies. And as the months go by Peter begins to suspect that the woods around their homes are not finished with Tara and his family...



The Book of Summers
by Emylia Hall

Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel. 

Inside is a letter informing her that her long-estranged mother has died, and a scrapbook Beth has never seen before. Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and mementos complied by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent in rural Hungary. 
It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries; her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hungarian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the year Beth turned sixteen. 

Since then, Beth hasn't allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.



Books Won:


Hold Still 
by Nina LaCour

An arresting story about starting over after a friend’s suicide, froma breakthrough new voice in YA fiction dear caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can’t.

Devastating, hopeful, hopeless, playful . . . in words and illustrations, Ingrid left behind a painful farewell in her journal for Caitlin. Now Caitlin is left alone, by loss and by choice, struggling to find renewed hope in the wake of her best friend’s suicide. With the help of family and newfound friends, Caitlin will encounter first love, broaden her horizons, and start to realize that true friendship didn’t die with Ingrid. And the journal which once seemed only to chronicle Ingrid’s descent into depression, becomes the tool by which Caitlin once again reaches out to all those who loved Ingrid—and Caitlin herself




What Would Emma Do?
by Eileen Cook

Thou Shalt Not Kiss Thy Best Friend’s Boyfriend...again...
There is no greater sin than kissing your best friend’s boyfriend. So when Emma breaks that golden rule, she knows she’s messed up big-time...especially since she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about everyone else...and especially since she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now her best friend isn’t speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things totally weird, and Emma is running full speed toward certain social disaster. This is so not the way senior year was supposed to go.
Time to pray for a minor miracle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Emma to stop trying to please everyone around her, and figure out what she wants for herself.


Heft
by Liz Moore

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene s unexpected phone call to Arthur a plea for help that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken s The Giant s House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

Swapped:


The Night Season
by Chelsea Cain

With the Beauty Killer Gretchen Lowell locked away behind bars once again, Archie Sheridan—a Portland police detective and nearly one of her victims—can finally rest a little easier. Meanwhile, the rest of the city of Portland is in crisis. Heavy rains have flooded the Willamette River, and several people have drowned in the quickly rising waters. Or at least that’s what they thought until the medical examiner discovers that the latest victim didn’t drown: She was poisoned before she went into the water. Soon after, three of those drownings are also proven to be murders. Portland has a new serial killer on its hands, and Archie and his task force have a new case. 

Reporter Susan Ward is chasing this story of a new serial killer with gusto, but she’s also got another lead to follow for an entirely separate mystery: The flooding has unearthed a skeleton, a man who might have died more than sixty years ago, the last time Portland flooded this badly, when the water washed away an entire neighborhood and killed at least fifteen people. 

With Archie following the bizarre trail of evidence and evil deeds to catch a killer and possibly regain his life, and Susan Ward close behind, Chelsea Cain—one of today’s most talented suspense writers—launches the next installment of her bestselling series with an electric thriller.


11/22/63
by Stephen King

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed forever. 

If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? 
Would the consequences be worth it? 

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. 

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. 

Explore the Possibilities...


Gone
by Lisa McMann

The conclusion of the paranormal teen series, Wake. Janie is spending her summer with Cabel, but deep down she's panicking about how she's going to survive her future when getting sucked into other people's dreams starts to take its toll.

What books came home to live with you this week?

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Common English Bible Tour






The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available for purchase online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in 2012, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).


I am not a propopent of any one version over another.  I have many versions of the Bible in addition to this new Common English Bible.  I have a KJV (King James Version), ASV (American Standard Version), NIV (New International Version) and probably others - but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.    One of the things that stood out to me the most with this version, was that instead of Jesus being referred to as the Son of Man, he is referred to as the Human One.  I find this a little weird.  


If you are going to study the Bible, in my opinion, you should be using a wide variety of sources to gain the most understanding -- and most of all, be praying that God will have you see from the readings what he wants you to see.

Friday, April 6, 2012

March Challenges Update


I have been sitting here this evening feeling like I have been forgetting something.  Then I ran across a couple of new challenges that are just starting and realized that I haven't updated any of my challenges for the last couple of weeks in March - and hadn't done a March Challenge Update page!


So - here is the monthly update for all my reading challenges - completed challenges are in red.

Miscellaneous Challenges:
Excellence in Reading  - 3 books (off of list of 60)
Speculative Fiction Challenge - 4/6
New Author Challenge - 19/15
Read to Me Picture Book challenge  -28/400

Library Centered Challenges:
Dewey Decimal Challenge 2/5
Non-Fiction (Non-Memoir) Challenge 2/5
Library Challenge 3/12
Around the Stacks Challenge 2/20 Genres

Location Specific Challenges:
Reading the Winter Olympics 3/15
Southern Literature Challenge 2/4
Where Are You Reading Challenge 10/50 states

Title and Cover Specific Challenges:
Antonym Reading Challenge
Find the Cover/Coversuch 10/17
Read Your Name Challenge 0/8
What's in a Name Challenge 2/6
Color Coded Reading Challenge 1/9
Rainbow Reading Challenge 3/12
A to Z Reading Challenge 16/26

Prizewinners or Lists Reading Challenges:
1001 Books to Read 1/5
Alex Awards Challenge 0/3
Reading the Awards 0/5
That's What You Think Challenge 1/6

Cozy, Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenges:
Cruisin Thru the Cozies 3/6
Cozy Mystery Challenge 3/6
Mystery and Suspense challenge 9/12

YA Reading Challenges:
YA Reading Challenge 4/12
YA Contemporary Challenge 1/?
YA Audiobook Challenge 0/12
Just Contemporary Reading Challenge 1/6
Completely Contemp Challenge 1/3

Dystopian and Paranormal challenges:
Vampire Reading Challenge 0/5
Paranormal Romance Reading Challenge 2/5
Paranormal (No Vamps) Reading Challenge 4/5
Witches and Witchcraft 1/5
Immortal Challenge 1/?
Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic 0/12
Read Dystopia Challenge 0/3
The Dystopia Challenge 0/5

Series Reading Challenges:
TV Addict Reading Challenge 0/4
1st in a Series Challenge 5/6
Welcome to Cedar Cove Challenge 0/12
The Dark Tower Reading Challenge 0/8
Stephani Plum Reading Challenge 1/?
Sookie Stackhouse Challenge 0/4
Rizzoli and Isles Reading Challenge 0/9
Kinsey Millhone Reading Challenge 0/?
Dean Koontz Reading Challenge 0/3

TBR Reading Challenges:
Mount TBR Challenge 1/12
Unread Book Challenge 2/?
TBR Pile Challenge 2/10
Read Your Own Books Challenge 1/5
Off the Shelf Challenge 2/5
Free Reads Challenge 19/5
Ebook Challenge 10/10
Ebook Reading Challenge 10/10
Books Won Challenge 0/3
ARC Reading Challenge (The Eclectic Bookshelf) 18/21
ARC Reading Challenge (So Many Precious Books) 18/24

Romance Reading Challenges:
Speculative Romance Challenge 2/6
Romantic Suspense Challenge 1/4
Romance Reading Challenge (Eclectic Bookshelf) 5/?
Romance Reading Challenge (the bookworm) 7/5
Reading Romances Challenge 6/?
Harlequin Silhoutte Reading Challenge 1/6

Sykosa by Justin Ordonez (Book Review) along with an author interview

Be sure to read all the way to the bottom to check out the Giveaway details!!!




Title: Sykosa  -- Part 1: Junior Year
Author: Justin Ordonez
Publisher: TDS


About the book: Sykosa (that’s “sy”-as-in-“my” ko-sa) is the story of a sixteen year old girl who is trying to reclaim her identity after an act of violence shatters her life and the lives of her friends. A year removed from this act, Sykosa's struggles are complicated by her meddling best friend, Niko, who has started to war with other girls for social supremacy in their school, and by her first love, a boy named Tom, who also happens to have saved her in the violent act. Using the backdrop of the biggest party of the year, the book places Sykosa and Tom at Niko's high-class cottage in Coeur d'Alene for a weekend of unsupervised badness. During such, Sykosa will have to confront her lingering pain, resolve her feelings for Tom, and decide if this is the weekend they should have sex for the first time.




My thoughts:  Well, if you read my post yesterday, you will remember that I said this was not a book that I would normally pick up, but that it had hooked me in and now I couldn't wait for the second book.  I will try to tell you a little more about it now.


Sykosa was pretty messed up from the act of violence that she had experienced her sophomore year.  It overshadows pretty much everything she does every day.  When she is having a bad day, she can feel the blackness overtaking her -- a blackness that she really hasn't shared with anyone.  Nobody really talks about what happened, and if they try, she always manages to avoid it. 


Niko is her best friend, and while you don't really know yet what role she played in this traumatic past, other than she was Sykosa best friend then as well, she has a pretty messed up home life that she has had to deal with.  She is pretty much unsupervised at home and this has enabled her to become a wild child, hosting pretty radical and much talked about parties.  


I wasn't sure about Tom in the beginning - I thought he was just another lust-filled teenage boy - but he is more than that.  He really seems to care about Sykosa, but is having a hard time expressing it.  He is also dealing with the violence of the previous year -- violence that left scars on his physical body, but I believe there are other scars there as well, and these are why he has a hard time expressing himself to Sykosa.  She hasn't been willing to talk with him about it either, so while they seem to care about each other, there also is a partial wall between them that they can't seem to cross.  


I do need to note though that this book is targeted at an 18+ audience.  It is strongly propelled along by talk of sex and masturbation -- though not a lot of action -- just a lot of talk.  After talking with my own 17 year old daughter today about the book, she leads me to believe that this is pretty typical for teens these days -- especially the guys -- though in this book it is usually Sykosa talking or thinking about it. 


This isn't one of those books that leaves you with a good feeling at the end of it.  I was left feeling a little disturbed that this is what kids were dealing with today -- but was also intrigued and very curious as to what the "Part 2"  might bring.  

~I was provided an ecopy of this book by Novel Publicity Blog Tours in exchange for my unbiased review.~



Please enjoy this interview with Justin Ordoñez, author of the YA novel (for 18+ readers), Sykosa. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.

 

1. Who or What is a Sykosa?

Sykosa is a sixteen year old junior in high school. She’s the main character of a novel I’ve written by the same name. For a quick rundown, she attends a prestigious preparatory academy, is part of the school’s coolest clique, “the Queens,” and she has started dating the boy she’s secretly been crushing on for a year, Tom. It’s taken a year to start dating him because A) there was this SUPER HUGE thing that happened during her sophomore year, and it delayed things and made being intimate with Tom difficult, and B) she kinda starts seeing stars around him and loses the ability to behave in any type of serious manner.

2. Why is Sykosa different from other novels?

It’s different because youth driven literature has become full of metaphors for danger that seem to have split into either science fiction or fantasy. (Before I go any further, I like both genres, so I’m not being a snob!) Sometimes, it feels like instead of dealing with real problems, it’s easier to have kids use magic. And instead of facing real contemporary issues, kids should fight aliens or something. These metaphors are meant to represent real life, but I fear they’ve slightly crossed over into a bit of denial about contemporary Americanism, which is a hard topic to write about since our country is in an identity crisis, and has been for about 11 years. Sykosa is an attempt to counter-act this trend. When I was young, I read books about young people that blew me away like One Fat Summer and The Outsiders. These books felt real, and it felt like I could slip into them at any moment. The writing was gritty, it was unapologetic, it was brilliant. I just don’t see many of those around, and I wanted to write one, and I wanted to write one with a female protagonist.

3. Why did you chose cross-gender writing?

Toward the end of the my high school education, I was allowed to split my school day from my normal, traditional education and a newer style, self-directed educational program. I took an English class where my English teacher, someone who I’m still friends with to this day, gave me only one assignment for an entire semester, and it was, “Perform a deep self-evaluation of yourself and your writing and come up with one goal for what you’re going to improve on.” At the time, I was seriously into writing, and had taken to writing a few books per year, but most of them were in the first person, and they were just me talking about myself. The issue was that I had been in a serious car accident the year prior and I had injured a friend in it. (He fully recovered, but never forgave me). I had tried to write a first person story about myself many times since the accident, but I was constantly failing because I was dealing with some lingering self-loathing and guilt. As a way to get away from it, I decided I wanted to work on a story I had been thinking about for a while, but that I never started writing for one super scary reason.

The main character was a teenage girl.

Odd as it might sound, I was intimidated by the fact that the main character was a woman. So I faced my fear and said my goal would be to write women better, and I proceeded to work with several teachers and several female students to help me craft a female character that was realistic, yet met my vision of her as well. This challenge stuck with me into my adult life, and it eventually found its ultimate form in Sykosa.

4. How will I know I’m a fan of Sykosa?

I’m glad you asked! Sykosa.com has tons of stuff to help you determine if this book is right for you. Below you’ll see some humorous diagrams I’ve made, but at the website you can read an excerpt of the book, watch the book trailer, read character profiles and really get a solid understanding of Sykosa’s world.
5. What kind of stuff influenced you to write Sykosa?

The primary motivators for Sykosa were Buffy The Vampire Slayer and It by Stephen King. It so happened, in 2001, I moved in with a woman I was dating. She was a fan of Buffy, so I had to watch it and became a fan myself. While most people were probably drawn to the vampire killing, it was the last thing I was interested in. I thought Whedon created an interesting cast of personalities and analyzing them was something I enjoyed. At the time, I was reading It. What I liked about It was the small town, insular feel to the novel, and how the inhabitants of this town were able to show a “front” of values, but were secretly hiding and allowing evil to proliferate all around them. From these two things came Sykosa, a girl who does not have any super powers, nor does she kill any vampires, but she did have a traumatic event happen in her life, and she’s struggling to deal with it, and its made no easier by the fact that her small, insular parochial school has decided to ignore the incident.

6. What is your most favorite and least favorite part of Sykosa?

The most favorite part is easy. It’s Sykosa’s best friend Niko, who just gets my blood pumping every time I have to write her. I love Sykosa, she’s definitely the main character and the story would never work without her, but I could sing Niko’s praises all day and all night. She’s such an interesting young woman and to see how she’s developed over the years as I’ve written the story has been a real treat. When someone first reads Sykosa and then decides to talk to me about it, I’m secretly waiting to hear them mention Niko. It’s never the first thing they say, it’s never the last, it’s always sandwiched somewhere in the middle, “By the way, this Niko—I love her!”

My least favorite part… Wow, that’s hard to answer, isn’t it? In the middle of the book, there’s a section called an Interlude, which is a story structure that Stephen King used in It, and that I borrowed as an homage to it. There’s a section where Sykosa, Niko and her mother are driving in a car together. I swear, I rewrote it fifty times—maybe more—and it’s never read right to me. It just never has.

7. What kind of writing schedule do you keep?

Let’s put it this way: I recently heard a story that there are “cat writers” and “ox writers.” I’m an ox writer. I put in the time, every day, whether I’m feeling it or not, whether its terrible or not, even if I know I’ll just end up deleting it, I push through it and I do it anyway, and somewhere along the way, it ends up coming together as a story.

8. What’s the coolest story you have from writing Sykosa?

Sykosa is interesting in the sense that it took me a long time to finish it. The first couple years I was writing it, I was really just writing stories about the characters, feeling everyone out, figuring out how they fit together, but there was no plot holding it together or pushing anything forward. In 2003, I seriously debated quitting, as it had been the hardest piece of writing I had ever taken on, and to be honest, I was somewhat used to overcoming challenges easily and without a lot of adversity. And while I usually worked on the book on my bus ride to and from work, this one beautiful, sunny day, I decided not to. I sat on the bus and kept the binder of writing closed on my lap. When the bus stopped at Pioneer Square, a homeless black woman sat next to me. She noticed the book, then said to me, “So you’re writing a novel?” I couldn’t tell how she knew that, but I said, “Yes, I am.” She asked me what it was about, but I’m terrible at talking about my work, so I gave her the gist, “teenage girl” “high school” “likes her boyfriend” etc, etc. The conversation lasted one stop, when the bus opened its doors, the woman reached out with her hand, put it on my own (which was clinging to the book like I was protecting it or something) and she said, “Justin, I want you to know, God blesses this book. He blesses it, and you can’t quit.”

I had never mentioned to her that I was quitting it.

I started working on it after she left the bus, and I never spoke or saw her again.

True story.

9. Do you have any tips for people who are struggling with writing or want to take it up?

I do. First off, keep struggling. It’s a worthwhile struggle. There’s a lot of be gained from writing. And for those who want to take it up and for those who are already writing, I can’t stress this enough: Draft. And by the I mean, write in drafts, don’t sit in a chair and challenge yourself to make it perfect now, write it perfect now, but instead write in drafts. If something only gets 5% better, that’s fine, cause it’s just one draft of what will be many, and eventually, that 5%, that 3%, that 7%—it adds up and you end up with a really good story. But, if you try to knock it out of the park every time you step up to the plate, you’ll swing the bat a whole lot, and you’ll be tired and exhausted when you’re done, but you won’t have a ton to show for it. That’s when most people quit. They think, “I can’t do this” or, “I don’t have the talent.” They don’t understand they’re doing it wrong, that’s all.

10. When you’re not writing, you’re…

Singing karaoke. I go once a week with some close friends of mine. It’s a fantastic release, also you get feedback from an audience, which you sometimes miss from writing, and you can forget how exciting it is to share your work with others. My favorite song to sing right now is Gaga’s “You and I.” Gaga has got a great voice that she can make raspy if she needs to, and I’ve got a voice that can match the raspier songs, so I think I do her proud. Otherwise I’m singing the Killers, Kings of Leon, Oasis or Lauryn Hill.

 

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Sykosa eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.

All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!

To win the prizes:
  1. Purchase your copy of Sykosa for just 99 cents
  2. Fill-out the simple form on Novel Publicity
  3. Visit today’s featured social media event
  4. BONUS: Leave a comment on this post*
Leave a comment, win $100:

One random tour commenter will win a $100 Amazon gift card. Just leave a comment on this post, and you'll be entered to win. For a full list of participating blogs, check out the official tour page. You can enter on just my blog or on all of them. Get out there and network!

About the book: YA fiction for the 18+ crowd. Sykosa is a sixteen-year-old girl trying to reclaim her identity after an act of violence shatters her life and the lives of her friends. Set at her best friend’s cottage, for what will be a weekend of unsupervised badness, Sykosa will have to finally confront the major players and issues from this event, as well as decide if she wants to lose her virginity to Tom, her first boyfriend, and the boy who saved her from danger. Get it on Amazon.

About the author: Sykosa is Justin Ordoñez's life's work. He hopes to one day settle down with a nerdy, somewhat introverted woman and own 1 to 4 dogs. Visit Justin on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway! (Apr 6 - Apr 12)

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop 
April 6th to 12th



A new website has come to my attention called Gone Reading International.  It markets a line of great products for book lovers and readers, and donates 100% of the after-tax profits to fund new libraries in the developing world.  How cool is that! So I have decided to offer up a prize, winner's choice, of one item worth up to $20 from Gone Reading International!  You can check them out and leave a comment if you see something you like for an extra entry in the giveaway.  

They have also allowed me to pass on to my readers the opportunity to purchase something for yourself at a 25% discount through the end of April - just use the coupon code BANP25!  They have everything from T-shirts to bookends to car window decals and posters about books and reading!  Come to think of it, I should leave some hints laying around for my family to find - they always tell me I am so hard to buy for!  This website would be a gold mine for them (and for me!)

It is easy to enter - just leave your name and email address in the rafflecopter entry below.  You can also follow me through GFC, linky, or email for another entry.  You can follow me on Twitter and tweet as well.  

This giveaway is open internationally and will end on April 12th at midnight CST.

Don't forget to check out the list of all the other giveaways going on during the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway!  Good Luck!




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Gods and Fathers by James LePore (Book Review)

Title: Gods and Fathers
Author: James LePore
Publisher: The Story Plant


About the book: Matt DeMarco is an accomplished Manhattan attorney with more than his share of emotional baggage.  His marriage ended disastrously, his ex-wife has pulled their son away from him, and her remarriage to a hugely successful Arab businessman has created complications for Matt on multiple levels.  However, his life shifts from troubled to imperiled when two cops -- men he's known for a long time -- come into his home and arrest his son as the prime suspect in the murder of the boy's girlfriend.


Suddenly, the enmity between Matt and his only child is no longer relevant.  Matt must do everything he can to clear his son, who he fully believes is innocent.  Doing so will require him to quit his job and make enemies of former friends -- and it will throw him up against forces he barely knew exited and can only begin to comprehend how to battle. 

My thoughts:  Initial reaction on reading the first few pages - I couldn't wait to keep going!  It was one of those books that the minute you have any free time you want to pick it up because you have to know what is going on.  I liked that it was fast paced, meaning there was always some action going on, but that the passage of time seemed likely.  It didn't all happen in a week but was spread out from January to March.

I liked Matt right from the start, even though he had anger management issues that flared into some bad consequences.  I think it was because he didn't accept things that he felt were wrong, was loyal even when it wasn't deserved, and he wasn't afraid to take a hard stand against things that could even get him killed.

I think Mr. LePore did a great job of delineating the good guys from the bad guys without actually telling you who they were.  He let you come along for the ride as Matt started to figure out on which side everyone stood.

There were so many different ways that the story could have played out, just depending on what choice the players would make in each situation.  I will be surprised if anyone can predict the ending to this one!  If you have read it and did, or do read it and figure it out before the end - then my hat's off to you!  I loved the ending.

This was my second book that I have read by James LePore, the first being a short book called Anyone Can Die, that contained three short stories.  I enjoyed that one as well and am looking forward to what Mr. LePore will be writing in the future.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Partners in Crime and The Story Plant in exchange for my unbiased review.~

Publisher/Publication Date: The Story Plant, Feb 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-161188029-8
300 pages

Sykosa by Justin Ordoñez (book excerpt and giveaway)

I just finished this book yesterday. Though the main characters are juniors in high school, this is definitely an 18+ book. I would be putting it mildly to say there are a lot of references to sex in it. Though it is not something that I would usually pick up, it hooked me and now I have to wait for the second book to come out! I will be reviewing it tonight or tomorrow.

  Warning: Excerpt below contains adult subject matter and some profanity.


Sykosa
by Justin Ordonez

Please enjoy this excerpt from Sykosa, a YA novel (for 18+ readers), by Justin Ordoñez. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.

 First period. American history.

Who knows which is worse. At this hour, it’s too early to care. Luckily, it’s never too early to bitch and moan. And she would do so, save her teacher is already on it. He’s up at the board—in shock that not a pupil noticed how his cuff smudged all his bullet points. Like wrist trajectory were her problem. That’s a math problem. And math problems aren’t her problem for another two hours. Yawn. He’s still going on—something about full attention being on…

Her fingernails.

Fingernails, you see, are better than lectures.

Particularly these lectures. Particularly this class.

She wishes nail polish didn’t break the Academy’s Personal Code, then her fingernails could be pretty colors, and she’d feel like a pretty girl. They should let her do her nails in class. It’s no different from doodling. It also increases hygiene, and in high school, that’s nothing to scoff at. She may paint her fingernails this afternoon, just for fun, then remove it and—

Hang on. Her teacher said something will be on a test.

Never mind, she already knows it.

Anyhow, if she does do her nails, she has a problem. She doesn’t know what to do. However, she does know she doesn’t want to do something she’s already done. If she’s gonna do her nails for one night, then it’d be nice if it were a departure of some type. Alas, her brain has no ideas. Being pretty is hard! Yet, she likes it so very much. That does it. She needs to talk to Niko. For one, Niko’s her best friend. Two, Niko’s gifted in the department of being glamorous. And luckily, Niko’s her neighbor, so she drafts a note that she passes across the table.

What should I do with my fingernails?

Niko reads the note in delight, then dies of boredom.

I thought you were gonna share good gossip or something.

No, I want to do my fingernails.

Do something slutty. That’s always good for a thrill.

That’s a good idea.

Niko always has good ideas. Niko’s brilliant!

She wishes she were Niko.

And Niko wishes she were Sykosa’s breasts. That’s me, Sykosa! Well, technically, it’s my breasts. Breasts are an urgent topic for Niko, seeing as her prime puberty years have passed, and to Niko’s horror, she’s all As in the bra and all Ds on her report card. That’s harder on a girl than people think. And it’s why Niko collapses her cheek on her hand, then inconspicuously stares at those far-bigger boobs. Niko thinks she does it for a second or two. In reality, it’s seven or eight. Now, before anyone makes any assumptions, Niko’s not gay. She’s about as boy-crazy as a girl gets. To the point that she collects boyfriends as if they were Girl Scout badges.

And to be fair, this breast-staring is harmless.

Though every girl has her limits.

Hers have been exceeded. Not by Niko, but by Tom. He also has his cheek in hand, his eyes overcome by her chest—for what is maybe ten or eleven seconds.

Unlike Niko, he’s thinking of her as if she were some toy.

He may be right.

In the only snowstorm of the year, as the Academy froze under the sickly sweet smell of a dysfunctional oil furnace, she retreated behind the two bell towers of the Academy chapel. And on that very day, this very boy—in his ski jacket laden with those sticky tags they put on bags at airports—stumbled onto her smoking self and put his tongue in her mouth. It was a bold move. And it impressed her. They didn’t need to “talk.” Besides, it woulda fucked up the moment. I get shy fast. Accordingly, she kissed him until her heart beat so hard she became faint. It meant something. This feeling. She caught her breath. They sat beside each other. Seconds later, she wished they hadn’t stopped, so they restarted, then kept at it.

This time without the tongue.

Niko steals the note, then writes a new one.

Why is he looking at you like that? Only I’m supposed to look at you like that!

Niko’s the type who admits her faults shamelessly. While it’s slightly backward, Niko does so not as a deterrent from such behaviors, but to enable them. She rarely complains. Because that’s Niko. And somehow that excuses everything Niko does. That said, she supposes she’s predisposed to Niko’s jealously over her body, perhaps to the point of flattery. You see, this Tom-thing is nothing. Or if it is something, it’s certainly not enough of something. Not enough for her to buy a prom dress.

Why do you think he is looking at me like that?

Because you * him.

Not to delve too far into the well of note-passing dynamics, but she—and the Queens—use secret codes in case of confiscation. “*” means fuck, in all forms and conjugations. She has not * Tom. She has not * anybody. Her lips quiver at the *. It feels like something she’ll put off until she is thirty. Simultaneously, she also feels like it could happen in the immediate future.

Sometimes she just “knows.”

Gross.

Afraid?

No!

But, she is afraid. Everything is too complicated. It should not have to be. She goes behind the chapel. He goes behind the chapel. They make out. Simple, right? It’s not. Regardless, if even that must be complicated, then certainly the concept that she wants to go to Prom, thus he should ask her to Prom and then they should go to Prom is simple, right? It’s not. You see, he has this best friend, this confidante, this main focus, this everything—and her name is not Sykosa, but Mackenzie.

Or as you will soon find out: “M.” That’s what he calls her.

 

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Sykosa eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.

All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!

To win the prizes:
  1. Purchase your copy of Sykosa for just 99 cents
  2. Fill-out the simple form on Novel Publicity
  3. Visit today’s featured social media event
  4. BONUS: Leave a comment on this post*
Leave a comment, win $100:

One random tour commenter will win a $100 Amazon gift card. Just leave a comment on this post, and you'll be entered to win. For a full list of participating blogs, check out the official tour page. You can enter on just my blog or on all of them. Get out there and network!

About the book: YA fiction for the 18+ crowd. Sykosa is a sixteen-year-old girl trying to reclaim her identity after an act of violence shatters her life and the lives of her friends. Set at her best friend’s cottage, for what will be a weekend of unsupervised badness, Sykosa will have to finally confront the major players and issues from this event, as well as decide if she wants to lose her virginity to Tom, her first boyfriend, and the boy who saved her from danger. Get it on Amazon.

About the author: Sykosa is Justin Ordoñez's life's work. He hopes to one day settle down with a nerdy, somewhat introverted woman and own 1 to 4 dogs. Visit Justin on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Story That Made Me Smile (Guest Post) by Julie Anne Lindsey


The Story that Made Me Smile

I’m an author. Writing is a business. A smart author examines the market carefully, looking for where there’s room for a fresh voice. I do this now. I look at what I love to read and ask myself where it fits into the current marketplace. Is it too crowded? Can I finally write that story about the sparkly vampire I have in my heart? No? Hmm. *taps chin* Then where can I slide in and fill a need? I even have a spreadsheet now. No joke. It’s serious business over here. Now.

This is now.

Then wasn’t like Now. At all.
Then was the time when I wrote a crazy story about an angel-faced suburban woman who killed people with her cupcakes. By day she volunteered for local charities. By night, she bumbled haplessly, fudging her every attempt to teach anyone a lesson, give them a touch of a tummy “thing” or just show off her mad skills. Quite the contrary.  She is a mess.

I liked Then a lot. I wasn’t encased in the business of it all. I was free to try anything. My one and only goal: make someone smile. Mischief makes me smile, so I added several healthy doses of that, tossed in enough irony to make me drop my chin and sprinkled it all with wine. In the end, I’d created a snowball of a story. One I love all the more today for its confidence to be unique in an overcrowded book world.

Ruby and Charlotte are the best of friends, and they accept each other – body count and all. They stand together. Work together. Plot together : ) In the end, I hope they get the heck out of Dodge because, let’s face it, they aren’t criminals. What they are is endlessly inept and the dearest of characters I hope to never meet, or at least never cross.

If you’re in the mood to let loose and smile at the inconceivable, try my sweet ladies. But don’t try their goodies. You have been warned. LOL Death by Chocolate is available now on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. I hope it will make you smile : )

Death by Chocolate

Ruby Russell has reached her limit. When she discovers her hipster husband has a dirty little secret, she whips him up a Viagra-infused-chocolate mousse punishment, but in the morning, her husband's a stiff. Armed with a lifetime of crime show reruns and Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD, Ruby and her best friend Charlotte try to lay low until after Ruby's son's wedding, but a nosy therapist, meddling minister and local news reporter are making it very difficult to get away with murder.
















About Julie:

I am a mother of three, wife to a sane person and Ring Master at the Lindsey Circus. Most days you'll find me online, amped up on caffeine & wielding a book.

You can find my blogging about the writer life at Musings from the Slush Pile

Tweeting my crazy at @JulieALindsey

Reading to soothe my obsession on GoodReads

And other books by me on Amazon


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