Rebecca's YA Book Club Blog Hop--The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Diviners by Libba Bray

 I have long wanted to find a local book club. Unfortunately, the ability for me to attend even one more physical commitment has hindered this desire. Also, most gather around the coffee table book clubs don't read a ton of YA in any given year.

SO

I've decided to try and start an online book club that is exclusively YA and I'm going to try and run it Blog Hop style.

I hardly think it's important that I've never run a book club OR hosted a blog hop (seriously, I've never done either of these things so any advice it totally welcome here.)

I am totally banking on my love for YA and reading in general to show me the light as we go--build the plane as I'm flying it so to speak.

This is what I'm thinking, a monthly book club that starts a new book on the first of every month and ends on the last. You can link your blog in the Linky and on the last day of the month, post your comments about the book and we can all visit each other and have an online discussion, comment style, about the book. Clearly, we will probably need to have huge spoiler alerts for anyone not participating--I hate a spoiled ending!

Here is the book for January 2013: The Diviners by Libba Bray

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What Rebecca Wants--2013

I am dispensing with the resolution list and going straight to the:

 Rebecca's Want List--2013

1. To lose 10 pounds. Cliche, I know, but good glob Rebecca, stop eating cookies and Cold Stone--okay?

2. To Finish MIDHEAVEN. This one actually needs to happen pretty quick...I kinda told my publisher it would.

3. To Finish DAY OF THE DEAD. Sort of the same as the want listed above except I kinda told my agent I would on this one.

4. I want to pay off my student loan by the end of January. This is totally happening, I have been working like a dog to make this a reality. 

5. I want more blog followers. This is basically because, in reality,  I am no more self-actualized than a 13 year old girl looking for a lunch table. So if you're looking for a blog to follow, click that button on the right. And if you're not, CLICK IT ANYWAY.

6. I want 3 book sale reports at RMFW (Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers) in 2013. I have two...I want one more.

7. I want DAY OF THE DEAD to sell before June. This makes #6 a reality.

8. I want to vacation on a beach in the summer of 2013. This one sorta relates to #1, I would like to rock a bikini this year. But even if I am unable to give up cookies and Cold Stone, I want to lie on a beach in a one-piece suit with a cellulite hiding butt cover.

9. I want to go to Vegas in February. I LOVE playing craps and roulette.

10. I want to attend the Pikes Peak Writer Conference in April....there's a certain editor attending that I have serious stalking plans for. I'm just kidding...there are several editors I plan on stalking.

P.S. I want to become a better person that has less material, self-serving wants. When I am 10 pounds skinnier, I'm certain this person will reveal herself to the world sporting a smoking hot black bikini. She will then Tweet pics of herself lying on the beach.

What do you want MOST in 2013??

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What Did Rebecca Read In 2012?

What did I read this year? (these probably aren't in order)

Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mocking Jay
Night Circus
The Tiger's Wife
Freedom
Graceling
Fire
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
The Book Thief
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
The Twelfth Enchantment
The Raven Boys
The Book of Elsewhere--The Shadows
The Fault in Our Stars
Gone Girl
Personal Effects
All the Broken Pieces
The Diviners (Currently Reading)

19. I may have forgotten one or two, and this doesn't include any non fiction, but I thought it would be more--I think it should be more. 

Next year, I will read more.

What have you read this year? If you blog about it, put your link in the comments, I would love to come check out your list!

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8 Things I Love About Being a Writer (And 2 I don't)

It's that time of year again, the winter break from school. This basically means that once all the gifts are distributed and opened, I'm writing every day as much as I possibly can before my eyeballs glaze and the words blur. So it's getting late here and I'm looking over today's crop of word widgets that took up space in the current WIP and I'm feeling kinda grateful. 

Here are 8 things I love about being a writer (and 2 I don't.)

1. The new idea. When it just springs on you out of nowhere. Jotting the notes, saving that pure first thought with no idea or care, yet, as to just how you might execute it. The excitement of something new.

2. The flow. When time stops existing because you are in the thick of your own story. Very similar to reading for me, the words pour out of you without too much prying.

3. The plan. I'm a biwriter, half planner half pantser. My plans are rough and yet calculated around the main plot points. Now getting from point A to point B, pure pantser. Making that road map is one of my favorite things about writing.

4. The daydream. I'll admit it, I daydream about one day selling big numbers of books to readers who love my work. It's a fun dream, like thinking about all the things I would do for my family if I every won the Powerball.

5. The conference. I once compared attending a writers conference to a lost soul finally finding its tribe. We all manage in our day to day worlds, but when we gather at conference time, our peoples come together and raise the freak flag. I never feel so much like I truly belong somewhere as I do when I'm surrounded by other writers.

6. The know. When I read a book or watch a movie, and I see what the writer is doing beneath the story. Even better, when I think I'm being a smartie and they fool me! 

7. The time to. This is right now. No work for two weeks and every day my only job is to write this book. I like to pretend it's always this way.

8. The growth. When words pile up in my WIP. They are so measurable, we had 39,987, we now have 42,659. At the end of a session or a day, I can actually measure my productivity--this makes me very happy for some reason.

Now, the 2 things I don't like.

1. The wait. Lord help me, I hate to wait and there is nothing in publishing that is not about waiting.

2. The rejections. I've learned to take them in stride, but I still don't like taking them. Hey, I know what, how bout all you editors just say yes then we'll hold us one of those auctions. That would be so much nicer, don't you think?

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Book Review: ALL THE BROKEN PIECES by Cindi Madsen

ALL THE BROKEN PIECES, CINDI MADSEN

TITLE: ALL THE BROKEN PIECES
PUBLISHER: ENTANGLED TEEN
AUTHOR: CINDI MADSEN
PUB DATE: 12/11/2012

Lucky me, I got my hands on one of Cindi Madsen's ARCs for her new release ALL THE BROKEN PIECES. I prefer to let readers know what I thought of the book, not just rehash blurbs (especially when I know the editors and authors work so hard on the ones that already exist!) so here is the book description from the publisher, Entangled Publishing, my thoughts are below.

What if your life wasn’t your own?

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

MY THOUGHTS:
Saturday, November 24. That was the day I started this book, it was also the day I finished it. Despite the fact that I had created lists for the lists of things I needed to do both for my job AND for my house and family, I was physically not capable to doing ANY of those very pressing things because I was buried deep, so deep, in this book all day.

This was not my plan.

At first, I was simply going to start this book I had promised to review. Just crack the spine. Get past the first chapter or two. Get a feel for the author's voice, the tone of the book, an idea about the story line.

HA!

I didn't come back for SIX hours. I didn't come back till I FINISHED. To say that Cindi hooks you right from the start is an understatement. The mystery and pacing are perfectly handled and make it exceptionally difficult to put this engaging, well written book down. I was completely into finding out what happened to Liv while also worrying that the information might destroy the new life she had managed to construct. I had many, many theories about what the climax would be and I will say that what actually ends up being "the truth" is not anything even remotely like what I had been anticipating--BRAVO.

Cindi Madsen has written an engaging, fast paced, YA mystery that will keep you turning pages until the surprising end.

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