The 13 Best Books I Read In 2013

It actually just happened to work out that I had exactly 13 favorites, so that was exciting!

2013 Year End Road Trip #5 - YA Highway

It's that time of year again. Time to reflect on the months we've lived and loved. Time to look back on 360-odd days of AWESOME YA! (YA Highway's Year End Road Trip series is a five part series in which we tell you about our favorite YA moments and invite you to do the same.)

My answers aren't strictly YA, and these are books I read this year but not necessarily books that came out this year. Here we go!

Best in YA films/television: Catching Fire for sure. It was much better than the first movie. I was extremely excited for the host but it was a huge disappointment :(.
Best Music to Write To/Be Inspired By: Right now "Arms" by Christina Perri is inspiring me while I write the scenes between my main character and her love interest.

"I'll never let a love get so close.
You put your arms around me and I'm home."

Best YA/Pop Culture Tie-in: I can't think of an answer for this one :(. 

2013 Year End Road Trip #4 - YA Highway

It's that time of year again. Time to reflect on the months we've lived and loved. Time to look back on 360-odd days of AWESOME YA! (YA Highway's Year End Road Trip series is a five part series in which we tell you about our favorite YA moments and invite you to do the same.)

My answers aren't strictly YA, and these are books I read this year but not necessarily books that came out this year. Here we go!

Best "I Want To Go To There" Setting in a Book: The first thing that came to mind was the cave in The Host by Stephanie Meyer, which seems completely absurd since it wasn't supposed to be a place anyone would want to go. Otherwise, I would of course have to say Hogwarts and Hogsmead.
Favorite female YA Character: I'm torn between Tris from Divergent, Wanda and Melanie from The Host, and Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars. :)
Favorite male YA Character: Gus from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 

2013 Year End Road Trip #3 - YA Highway

It's that time of year again. Time to reflect on the months we've lived and loved. Time to look back on 360-odd days of AWESOME YA! (YA Highway's Year End Road Trip series is a five part series in which we tell you about our favorite YA moments and invite you to do the same.)

My answers aren't strictly YA, and these are books I read this year but not necessarily books that came out this year. Here we go!

Best Guilty Pleasure Book: The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
Books Not Normally In My Wheelhouse That I Still Enjoyed: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
Best Book Cover: The Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

Writing A Query=Fun

Is it strange that I'm having more fun writing my query letter than finishing my first draft? Ever since I found this website, I can't seem to stop writing and revising. I wonder how I can infuse this passion into my manuscript...it's a lot harder to write 300 cohesive pages than it is to write one.

2013 Year End Road Trip #2 - YA Highway

It's that time of year again. Time to reflect on the months we've lived and loved. Time to look back on 360-odd days of AWESOME YA! (YA Highway's Year End Road Trip series is a five part series in which we tell you about our favorite YA moments and invite you to do the same.)

My answers aren't strictly YA, and these are books I read this year but not necessarily books that came out this year. Here we go!

Best "New To Me" YA Author: Veronica Roth.
Best Sequel: Crossed by Ally Condie
Best Debut: I think Divergent was the only debut I read this year, so that would win.
Most Anticipated Book Releases in 2014: All That Glows by Ryan Graudin.

Merry Christmas!

Some highlights from my day:

Last night we made cookies, and this was the only reindeer whose legs didn't fall off :). 

My dad has a heat lamp in his office, and Andie loves to lay in front of it. 

My Christmas themed nails. The nails on the other hand are their bodies (santa suit, elf suit, etc). 

Andie, wearing her reindeer outfit and chewing her Christmas bone in front of the fire. 

I tied my gift tag onto her collar :P. 

Christmas morning cheese danish, a tradition in our house!

And finally, here's a painting I've been wanting for forever! I'm so excited to hang it above my bed :D. 

What I'm Reading Wednesday- The Book Thief, Ella Enchanted, Divergent

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I've heard so much about this one, and I'm finally off the holds list at the library so I get to read it. (Ah, the holds list. How I hate/love thee). I'm really intrigued by the narrator, and love the places where Death inserts its thoughts. However, I'm not yet to the point where I feel compelled to read more and find out what happens next, so hopefully that happens soon!

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

This is another book I'm listening to on audiobook, and another book I read when I was in middle school. I don't like listening to books I haven't read before, since it's easy to miss things (especially if my driving is distracting me, haha), so I tend to pick books I read a long time ago for audiobooks. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Still re-reading this one slowly!

Let It Go - Frozen

Well, Disney's writers have done it again. Frozen's cast of characters were all extremely unique, especially Elsa. The song in this youtube video was actually my favorite part of the movie: her transformation/when she became free.

I only hope that one day I have the talent to write characters as complex as these.

FYI: E-Books From The Library

For those of you who had no idea this existed (aka me, about three months ago), most public libraries now have ebooks. This means that if you have some sort of e-book reader (Or a computer, if you don't mind reading on one. Or a smart phone.) all you have to do is get a library card, and you should be able to go online and check out e-books for free.

They work much like regular books, there's a certain amount of time you can check them out, only one person can check a copy out at a time, etc. I love my library's system, because I can put a certain number of books on hold and get notified as soon as a copy is available.

Thought I'd share this advice for others like me who love to read but don't have $50+ a month to spend on books!

Murder Your Darlings

I first heard this phrase when I was reading On Writing by Stephen King.

"Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings."
-Stephen King, On Writing 

At first the advice didn't make much sense to me. Why would I want to kill the best parts of my story? But I think I finally understand.

Last month I was about 30,000 words into my first draft of TGITP (aka the book I'm currently working on), when I realized that about 20,000 words in the middle didn't need to be there. Now, don't get me wrong, I needed to write them. They showed me where my main character needed to end up, and they taught me a lot about the world she's living in. However, they didn't add to the overall story. It was tough, but I ended up cutting them and finding a much better, much quicker way to get her from the inciting incident to where the story really begins.

And now I think I understand what it means to murder your darlings. I certainly had darlings in those 20,000 words. In fact, I had two very real darlings who were characters that I axed, as well as a few plot points I was excited about. To me, murdering your darlings doesn't mean killing off the best parts of your story, it means killing off the parts that, although you may love, don't add to the story you really need to be telling at that moment.

What does your character hide in their underwear drawer - or other secret location?

The inspiration for this post came from a post on YA Highway (yeah, haha, I realize that it's over three years old).

I've always kind of scoffed at questions like these, because they felt superficial to me. I would think, "Yeah right, like that's going to tell me anything new about my character". However, I figured I might as well try it (after all, I have struggled in the past with creating characters who aren't flat).

Wouldn't you know, I had a sudden flash of insight into my main character, and it turns out that including a moment like this in the first few chapters of my book is exactly what I needed to show (versus tell) something from my character's past.

I guess the cliche "Don't knock it 'til you try it" is a cliche for a reason.

I Thought I'd Introduce You To The Love Of My Life

Her name is Andie.

Sorry if you thought this post would be about my boyfriend, but no, it's about my adorable, frustrating, lovable dog, who is currently sleeping on my feet as I write this post. She is one-and-a-half-years-old, and her favorite pastimes include rolling over, waking me up early, and ripping toys to shreds. 

Time left in my life - time it will take to read all the books on my "to read" list = sigh.

This post was prompted by the addition of four more books to the aforementioned list.

What I'm Reading Wednesday- The Longest Ride, The Giver, The Grapes of Wrath, Divergent

I have a feeling this will be a regular feature (as long as I remember to keep up with it), seeing as how often I read.

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

It's been awhile since I've read a Nicholas Sparks book (though I was obsessed with them my sophomore year of high school) and I'm struggling to get into this one. I'm still at the beginning though! So far I'm very intrigued by the changes in pov and tense.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

I'm currently listening to The Giver on audiobook. I usually listen to audiobooks in the car, when I'm cooking, or when I'm getting ready for the day or for bed. This one is actually a re-read for me, because I'm so interested in dystopian fiction recently (and I haven't read it since...sixth grade?).

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

I'll be honest, I've kind of stalled on this one. I'll let you know when I start reading it seriously again...and since I have a large list of books to read, I don't see that happening any time soon. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

This is actually a re-read for me too! I only read it a little over a week ago, but I read it very quickly and I wanted to go through it again and really soak it in. Actually, Veronica Roth is the one who inspired me to start this blog. After I read Divergent I looked her up, and it was so interesting being able to go back and read her blog from before she was a published author. I'd really like to be able to do that myself, one day, and well...here we are!

Say "Yes" to Everything

As of now, I don't really think of myself as qualified to give advice about writing. So until I do, I see this blog as a space to share any interesting tips or advice or thoughts or ramblings or anything at all that I've found about writing! I'll start with this:

“What’s the worst mistake a writer can make?” she asks. “Thinking too much. Don’t think. It’s not about thinking. You think when you edit. When you create, say yes, yes to everything.” 

I found this quote in the post Mistake #122 from What Not To Do as a Writer. Enjoy :).

DO Something, DO Anything

I stole this from Veronica Roth's blog, and she stole it from Janet Reid's blog, who stole it from Sean Ferrell's blog: