In My Mailbox - August 2011

Today I FINALLY GOT INTERNET BACK! After the power came back on (after Hurricane Irene) the internet still wasn't working 'cause something was wrong with the router and I haven't had it since FRIDAY blah blah blah.... I also got a lot of books this month that I'll talk about now.

In my mailbox is a weekly meme (I do it monthly) hosted by The Story Siren where bloggers share which books they've gotten. (For time's sake I'm just going to list them this month, not do mini-reviews like I normally do - sorry!) This month I bought:

Delirium (Delirium #1) Special Edition by Lauren Oliver

Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2) by Andrea Cremer

Supernaturally (Paranormalcy #2) by Kiersten White

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

 Friend is Not a Verb by Daniel Ehrenhaft

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

Jane by April Linder

Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemistry #3) by Simone Elkeles

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (#1) by Ransom Riggs

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

Original Sin (Personal Demons #2) by Lisa Desrochers

The Day Before by Lisa Shroeder

Sweetly (Sisters Red #2) by Jackson Pearce










Happy reading!

- Nicole

The Weekly Post (August 21-27, 2011)

Best Book: The best book I read this week was definitely Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. The photography is SO cool, and the whole idea of it is so original. I really liked the fact that the MC was a boy, Jacob, and I also really liked how Jacob changed throughout the novel. I can't wait for the sequel!

Anticipated Book: One of the books I'm most excited about in 2012 is Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moscowitz. I love her second book, Invincible Summer, and I adore her on Twitter and her blog. The cover is awesome and the book sounds really original and cool.

On Writing: I've been working on my current WIP for a little over a month and it's just over 20,000 words. That's pretty slow for me, but the beginnings are the hardest part, in my opinion, so hopefully, if school and other obligations don't totally eat my soul, I'll meet my goal of having it finished way before the new year.

Favorite Blog Post: This week definitely goes to THIS post by YA author Saundra Mitchell (author of the awesome The Vespertine) about "the problem with boy books" in YA and feminism and other relevant things. Great post!

Song of the Week: Is one of my favorite songs of all time, and one I've really been drawing from for inspiration for the WIP.

- Nicole

My Favorite Authors - With Pictures!

For people who truly LOVE to read there are no worse questions than "What's your favorite book?" Or "Who's your favorite author?" Because you probably don't have just one answer. At least, I don't. There are so many authors I love and admire and okay, kind of want to be, but I do have five all-time favorites. It is one of my life goals to meet all five of them. So far I've met three, which isn't bad! In random order (because how could I rank them???) My favorite authors are:

Cassandra Clare - Author of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series (for me to consider someone a favorite author I have to love more than just one or two of their books.) I've been lucky enough to meet Ms. Clare twice at book signings.

Sorry the quality is a little bad. This was from the first time I met her in NYC on Aug. 4th, 2010

The 2nd time I met her on April 22nd, 2011

Scott Westerfeld - Author of the Midnighters series, the Uglies series, the Leviathan trilogy, Peeps and The Last Days, So Yesterday (those are the ones I've read and loved). I've also met him twice!

Incredibly bad picture of me with Scott Westerfeld, Oct. 19th, 2009

I met him again at Cassandra Clare's signing on Aug. 4th, 2010.

Ally Carter - Is the author of the Gallagher Girls series and the Heist Society series,  both of which I love SO much. I haven't met her yet. But I will. I WILL. *Insert maniacal laughter*

John Green - If I HAD to pick one favorite author, I'd probably say John Green. He and his work are just so brilliant. And the fact that he's one half of Vlogbrothers/founder of Nerdfighteria doesn't hurt :) I haven't met him either . . . YET. I must meet John Green one day. And hopefully Hank Green too.... Yes, I have weird dreams. He is the author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and the upcoming The Fault in Our Stars (all pre-ordered copies of which WILL BE SIGNED).

Sarah Dessen - Is the author of ten books. I'm not crazy enough to link to them all individually, but I have read them all. They're all amazing. Read them :D I was lucky enough to meet Sarah Dessen this summer. I wrote a blog about it HERE.

Sarah Dessen and me on July 22nd, 2011

Do you have favorite authors? Have you met them? Do you want to?

- Nicole

Makeover

So, um, I got bored and redesigned my blog. I liked the old one, but I think this is better. Then again, what do I know, I'll probably redo it again in another few weeks haha. Change is good. It keeps you on your toes. Any thoughts on the new design?

Alright, now I promise I'll leave the internet for today. I should be doing math homework anyhow.

- Nicole

Blurbing in YA

On Sunday I was at my local Barnes and Noble. I was scoping out the YA section; seeing what was new, etc. I saw a book that I'd heard a little about online, and everyone seemed to like. The summary sounded pretty good, but what really sold me was the blurb. The blurb was from one of my favorite authors and people EVER, and also from an author who I know doesn't blurb books very often. So obviously this book must be THAT good to deserve it.

I've noticed that certain authors' names appear on a lot of books. I won't name them, but there are certain authors (who I like) whose blurbs I just can't take seriously since it appears they blurb every new book in their genre. Whereas there are certain authors' whose opinions I trust so much (same with certain bloggers) that I'll buy a book based on their blurb/review alone. Especially if they hardly ever endorse books.

Does anyone else notice who blurbs what? Or care about blurbs? Does the person who blurbed a book matter to you? Share your thoughts! :)

- Nicole

The Weekly Post (August 14-20, 2011)

Best Book: I didn't have any new books to read this week (remedying that tomorrow!!) and I've been really busy reading books for school, but I did have time to reread the amazing Demonglass (Hex Hall #2) by Rachel Hawkins. I love this book so much. SO MUCH.

Anticipated Book: So it's only fitting that the book I'm anticipating most this week is the third book in the Hex Hall series, Spell Bound! The cover is gorgeous and I have a feeling it's going to be an amazing finale to the series. Team Archer!

On Writing: Despite how busy I am, the WIP is coming along well. It's at 18,000 words right now. Thanks to the amazingness that is Scrivener I've also been able to organize my notes and outline a bit ahead too, so I'm a happy writer :D

Favorite Blog Post: Kiersten White wrote an absolutely hilarious and sarcastic post about YA genres. You must check it out HERE.

Song of the Week: I'm listening to this one on repeat for the WIP right now.

 - Nicole

Scrivener and Spotify

I feel like I haven't been blogging enough, but my grandma is visiting from Australia; we hadn't seen her in three years, and one of my stepsisters is here from California and we hadn't seen her for five years, so blogging and writing and tweeting took a backseat :) Not to mention rushing to do tons of summer work now, since school starts for me on the 31st...

My work-in-progress is going really well, though! And I'm definitely contributing some of that success to several new programs I've fallen in love with. I learned about Spotify from one of Natalie Whipple's posts. It's like a hybrid of iTunes and Pandora - so basically a free iTunes with some commericials - and it's amazing! I made all of my novels' playlists on there. I highly recommend trying it.

And I've wanted the writing program Scrivener forever, but until recently it was only available for Mac. The Windows beta is out now, which is what I'm using, and it's every bit as genius as I knew it would be from watching the YouTube tutorial a million times. I write completely linearly, but it's still SO helpful when it comes to outlining and collecting notes and research. I am so in love with it and can't wait to get the real version when it comes out. I never plan on using any other writing program, if I can help it.

Sorry if this reads a little like a commercial :) I really love these programs and they've really helped me feel organized and inspired with my WIP.

- Nicole