Laura's blog

As per my book cover theme lately, I thought I'd do something... fun . I've noticed an annoying trend in YA book covers. Thing is, a lot of YA book covers look like more professional versions of the "selfie" made infamous by Facebook. A girl (it's almost always a girl) looks coyly over her shoulder, staring deeply into the camera...sometimes even with a duckface. It might be more Angelina Jolie than ridiculous, but it's still a duckface. See Exhibit A, slight pouty duckface, perfectly curled hair, flirty look, and all:   How does that dagger (if you even notice it under the title text) stay on her arm without cutting her anyway? This is the kind of photo I might post to Facebook to say, "Look how subtle and intriguing I am! You're attracted by my sexy air of mild danger (but not too dangerous, because that would be unfeminine and scare you away)." Kind of bland. Would you guess that that character is supposed to be an assassin? No? How...

Sorry I skipped last week's What's Up Wednesday! I was busier than usual. Here's what I'm up to: What I'm reading I am in nerd flip-out mode over William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. It's like someone took my two biggest nerd-loves and combined them. Also, it works really well. Star Wars starts off with a Prologue and text falling across a screen. This book starts off with "PROLOGUE. Enter Chorus. It is a period of civil war..." I also finished Needful Things , which was boring and did not live up to expectations. I read Girl Parts as well, and am still figuring out what I think about it before I write a review. On one hand, I like that the second half of the book is all about Rose learning how to take sexual agency for herself (rather than for others).  On the other hand, it seems like yet another book that says, "You need to have sex to be a whole person." This book was described as "hilarious" on...

This evening, I was reading along with the Twitter hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen. A quick summary: first and second wave feminism were dominated by white women -- in particular, upper middle class straight white women. Third wave feminism (current-ish times) tries to account for the differences of race, economic situation, gender expression, and orientation.  That's in its ideal form. However, the practice isn't perfect, and the #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag is about women of color calling out their feminist "sisters" on their racial hypocrisy. Like how white feminists assume white culture is better, as in this image: Mostly I read and RT-d, because, ya know, I'm white, so I kind of would have been missing the point otherwise. There comes a time when one should just shut up and listen. After a while, I opened a new tab and finished my review of one of my favorite books, Partials by Dan Wells. I had to look up an image to go with the artic...

I had a "DUH!!!" moment about my WIP last week. I was plotting which direction the re-writes should take and what needed the most work. And then it hit me with a great big and I was all like partly because it seems so obvious in retrospect, but mostly because it means I will have to rewrite to an extent which I have never rewritten before. I really have no clue how I managed to overlook this. Well, that's a lie -- because I made sure not to make this same mistake in another part of the WIP. I was oh-so-concerned that the friends-to-significant-others relationship should develop naturally. I was also oh-so-concerned that the just-friends relationship did the same thing. And the same for the sibling relationship, and so on and so forth. Basically, I was so concerned over all this side stuff that I COMPLETELY IGNORED what might just be the MOST IMPORTANT relationship in the WHOLE DAMN THING. I mean, it's not important in that it's meanin...

I have to confess that I didn't really set goals for this week. :( I have a friend's wedding coming up this Saturday and a week-long vacation to visit relatives after that, so I've been a bit preoccupied. However, I have been doing things! :) What I'm reading Needful Things by Stephen King. I just finished The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer and After the Snow by S.D. Crockett. They were both fantabulous and are now on my mental Favorites shelf. Needful Things is starting a bit slow, but I don't mind. Stephen King usually does that when he's writing about a small town. I personally thought the prologue was unnecessary, but I can see why he put it in there. So far, I'm enjoying the leisurely pace as I get introduced to the characters. What I'm writing Speaking of prologues, I just re-wrote the prologue for The Book. My intent was to clarify some points of confusion that my critique partner had pointed out, and to make the conflict cle...

It's Wednesday again, and this post is coming a little late. Sorry about that. First, let me check in with my writing goals: - 1 review so far - More of Contracted written - Still haven't transferred those pages from longhand to computer - Still need to start that Prologue edit. What I'm reading I'm finishing up After the Snow , and I'm about halfway through The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. I also got the Nook book of Mrs. Cavendish's Home for Boys and Girls . Sometimes there are those books that you need to stay up all night reading. That was one of them. Also I was afraid that I would have nightmares if I didn't finish it (I may have nightmares anyway).  I'm pretty sure it confirmed every suspicion I had as a child that there was a Great Adult Conspiracy and that Santa was really an evil taskmaster and if you weren't perfect and good, he would take you away and force you to work in his toy factory. (I at one point believed that his "e...

This week's writing goals: - Write 2 Examiner reviews - Do another page on Contracted - Transfer longhand pages into The Other Book (which I did not do last week) - Start editing  The Book as per CP notes Last week was not the greatest for meeting my writing goals. I did write a whopping 30 pages of Contracted and I resisted editing The Book , but that was it. I left everything else to the last minute -- but when I ended up doing yardwork literally all of Saturday, I couldn't finish them. The weird thing is, it's a lot harder to write 30 pages of new material than it is to write a couple of 500-word reviews and copy some stuff down that you already wrote. I don't know why I avoid these seemingly simple and quick tasks. I think I assumed they'd be simple, so I left them to the last minute. That's a major flaw I have -- leaving things to the last minute. "Know thyself" means being able to admit your flaws as well as take pride in your streng...