Trading Bookcases

Almost a year ago, I moved into the apartment I currently live in.  When this event occurred, I only owned two decent-sized bookcases (one six foot, one three foot), plus a mini bookcase (for my writing things), and a tiny bookcase extension that attaches to the top of my dresser.  When I moved, I moved figuring that I was going to buy another six foot bookcase eventually.  This happened a few months after moving in, but mostly what went on there were the old, childhood books that I was determined to get out of their boxes.

The rest of my books, however, stayed where I'd put them the night I moved into my apartment.

For a while, this was fine, because it was manageable.  And then many of the authors I love published new books...and books got sequels...and Half Price books had sales...and suddenly my original six foot bookcase got a little overflowing.

It's like a game of Tetris when I buy new books.

Today was deemed the day in which bookcases were going to get reorganized.  I've started reading so many books that are planned as trilogies or series, and I've gotten into reading so many different authors, that I know over the coming year, I'm sure I'll buy just as many books as I did the last twelve months.  After a couple of hours, I had a much better book situation going in my room.

Bookcase #1 (the one with the original mess)
The After Picture

Bookcase #2 (the one with all the childhood books and nothing else)
The After Picture

But best of all, my wonderful dystopian shelf has plenty of room for all of my dystopian-novel-obsessing.  It has the tallest shelf, so I can easily stack books on top of each other, plus it's not even full yet.  This is a great improvement from what it looked like before.

Dystopian shelf -- Before

New and Improved Dystopian shelf

The big test is going to be when I try to locate one of my books.  I'm going to guess that it's going to take me some time to get used to my new arrangement!

Hunger Games trailer

There are few movies that I get so excited about that I count down to the release of the trailers. In fact, I can't think of a single one outside of the Harry Potter movies (particularly the last ones). I love movies, as a whole, and I always have a few each year that I feel like I have to go see before they leave the theatres, but it's a rather rare occasion when I actively anticipate a movie's release. I've only been to the midnight premieres of the last couple Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the last several Harry Potters(and Batman Begins, but that wasn't entirely voluntary).

In other words, I love movies, but not nearly as much as some other people.

Next spring, a movie is coming out that I am so excited about I was DEEPLY upset that the trailer was released while I was at work. Deeply. To the point that I went and found high-resolution screencaps from the trailer, just so I could get SOME kind of glimpse as to what everyone was talking about on Twitter.

The Hunger Games.

Here's how excited I am for this movie. I have followed casting announcements and other movie news surrounding it since production was announced last year. I have fangirled each poster that has gotten released (and one time, when I went to see Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for the...third time...I actually got a Hunger Games poster at the movie theatre. That poster now hangs on my bedroom wall). I have freaked out about every movie still that has been revealed. When we found out the teaser trailer was going to premiere during the VMAs, I made a point to record the show, just so I could fastforward to where the thirty second teaser trailer was. I have speculated with everyone else, guessing when the first full-length trailer would be released...which movie it would be in front of.

And then, when we found out last week that the trailer would be premiering on Good Morning America this past Monday, I nearly had a heart attack. It was a bundle of mixed feelings--excitement, because of finally getting a full trailer...nervousness, for finally seeing what this movie will be like...and pure bitterness that it would be premiering only half an hour or so after I would get to the office and that I would be unable to see it until after I got home.

And yes...when I finally got to watch it...I watched it several times in a row.

My opinion? I think this looks phenomenal. I know some people are having issues with the fact that the stars are in their twenties, while the characters are in their teens, but I don't think it looks like an issue at all. I totally see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. I LOVE how epically creepy Effie Trinket looks. Peeta...could probably be blonder for my taste, but I'm not going to pass judgment until I see more of his acting. I love how the Capitol looks, especially in comparison to District 12. I CANNOT wait until the Reaping scene in the movie, because just this small taste of it at the beginning of this trailer gave me absolute chills.

And I absolutely, positively cannot wait until March 23 and the midnight premiere of this movie. I can guarantee that I will be there.

The Magic of Books

I've been taking a lot of flack over the last few weeks from my fellow Fiction Flurry bloggers about the fact that I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series for the five-thousandth time. The others are getting great amusement by trying to "confiscate" my books at group meetings and teasing me if I say something too British in an email. It's all in good fun, of course. I'm not offended or annoyed by it, not the least because they're not the only ones to pick on me over my nerdiness. But it has gotten me thinking.

I have a collection of books that I can re-read any number of times and never grow tired of them. It's a habit of mine that seems to baffle some people in my life (namely, my parents). I have been asked on numerous occasions how on earth I can read books so many times--doesn't it get boring? I already know what's going to happen. Some of the books, I can practically recite verbatim. When I re-read these books, I'm just as invested and I walk around with my nose stuck in them like it's the first time I'm reading them.

When these questions come up, I always think of a quote from one of these books that I love. It's from The Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray: "We sit and listen and are enthralled anew, for good stories, it seems, never lose their magic."

I think there's something magical about any book that holds that kind of intrigue over its readers. There's something to be said for a story that you can read over and over again and it never gets old. When I pick up Harry Potter, I read it like I've never read it before--I still stay up until the early hours of the morning because I can't put it down; I still want to know what will happen. I hope that the books and stories I write will one day hold that same magic over people.

Some of the books that hold this magic over me are:

1. Harry Potter (obviously)
2. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
3. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
6. The Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy by Michelle Zink
7. The Hollow trilogy by Jessica Verday
8. The Dawn Rochelle Novels by Lurlene McDaniel
9. On Writing by Stephen King
10. Grania by Morgan Llywelyn

Are you one of the people who can read the same story over and over again and never get bored? What books hold this magic over you?

Confessions of a YA Addict

Hi. My name is Erin.

(Hi, Erin...)

I'm nearly 24 years old and I...

I...

I love Young Adult fiction.

Whew! It feels so good to get that off my chest!

Okay, perhaps that was a bit on the dramatic side, but that's how it feels sometimes. I cannot tell you the number of times I've been trying to explain to someone a novel I'm reading, and I've finally just resorted to sighing and saying, "It's Young Adult." And then they stare at me like I'm a head case.

It doesn't happen all the time, especially not around my fellow book nerds, but it happens far too often to be ignored.

Usually, if I then go on to explain that I also write Young Adult, I'll get an understanding nod or whoever I'm talking to will at least stop staring at me like I'm nuts. Leading me to believe that it's perfectly okay to read Young Adult if you also write it--have to do "market research," after all--but it's a little strange for a twenty-something to read YA just because they like it.

A few years ago, my local library went through a huge remodel. To prevent the invasion of younger kids in the YA section, which had apparently been getting on the teens' nerves, they moved the whole section to the back corner of the library. They made it into a "cool" space for the teens to hang out, decking it out with restaurant-style booths, bright colors, and a giant glass garage door to section it off from the rest of the building. If I had still been in my teens when they'd done this, I would have been over the moon.





As it was, I was in my senior year of college.

The way the YA section had been set up previously, it had been sandwiched between the Large Print and General Fiction shelves. As someone who was no longer a teen, it was easy to be inconspicuous when the section was mixed in with everything else. No one ever gave me a second glance.

But there's something vaguely awkward being a twenty-something browsing the shelves in a neon-colored room with a garage door, set way back in the library away from all the other books, so I have to walk past all the people using the computers who give me funny looks as I head in the direction of the YA room. Don't get me wrong, no one at my library has ever said anything to stop me going to the YA room. In the long run, I doubt anyone even cares. But with people's tendency to stare and my tendency to over-analyze such behaviors, I've gotten into the habit of rushing into the YA room, searching out whatever specific author or title I'm hunting, and then beelining my way out of there as quickly as possible.

I hate doing this. I like browsing, but I dislike the awkward staring more. I've always loved reading YA, and I love writing it as well. There's something about the teenage experience that continues to fascinate me. I hate how there's this unspoken awkwardness toward an adult loving Young Adult novels. I hate that I feel so out-of-place in the YA room at my library now and how this very slight age gap between teens and me also puts a gap between me and the "real" adults.

What's the moral of this story? Read what you love. Ignore the awkard stares or the comments or the raised eyebrows or whatever it is you receive when you're judged for what you like reading. No one should make you feel out-of-place around books.

I have a goal to progressively spend more time in the YA room at my library, learn to ignore the stares. Perhaps someday I'll actually sit down and write in there. But while I'm still getting used to the YA room, my love for the genre is still there. That's definitely not going anywhere.

Interview with JENNIFER LAURENS

Today Fiction Flurry is lucky enough to be interviewing Young Adult author Jennifer Laurens about her New Release Overprotected. Thanks so much for chatting with us today Jennifer!
For those of you who haven’t yet become familiar with Jennifer Laurens she’s the author of Heavenly, Penitence and Absolution. And let me just say they are exquisite work! If you haven’t read them yet, run-don’t walk, to the nearest retailer and get a copy!

Personally, I can’t wait for you next book, Overprotected, to be released in April 2011.( It's available on Kindle,Nook and all e-versions - :)

Ashlyn: A lonely society princess living in New York City.
Daddy hired you to be my bodyguard.
Colin: Childhood enemy, now her protector.
Daddy thought I’d be safe. He thought I’d never fall in love. He thought he could keep me forever.Charles: obsessed with keeping her safe, keeping her his, he hires the one person he knows she could never fall in love with: Colin.
Daddy was wrong.

FF: Let’s start with a bit about your background…

JL: I'm a SoCal native now living in Utah with my husband of 27 years and 6 children, one of whom has autism.

FF: What can readers expect out of this new story?

JL: This is not your cliche "bodyguard" novel. It's really a coming-of-age story about a young woman fighting for independence, about a family living a life of pretense, about real love gone overboard into obsessive love. It's character complex and highly emotional. It's the first story I ever wrote, and it occupies a special spot in my heart for that reason. I wrote 3 different versions of it! ( not three drafts, three complete, different versions ) before finally choosing this POV to settle upon to tell the story.

FF: I know your novels are more than just teenage angst and love, so what is the driving theme in this one?

JL: There are several basic themes in Overprotected: what is real love? What is right? When are our fears justified? How far is too far to go when it comes to love, family and control?

FF: I have to take the opportunity to quote you: “My life experiences have worked into all of my novels. Some more heavily than others, but parts of me are in each story. I love stories rich in family drama, where family members overcome obstacles through love and miracles.” Any specific examples related to Overprotected you’d care to share?

JL: I'm an only child, and Ashlyn ( the heroine ) is an only child. Her family is loosely based on my cousin's family: only child raised in NYC on Park Avenue. My mother was very protective of me growing up, to the point where I battled feeling obligated to behave certain ways to please her, versus allowing myself to participate in what other teens my age were doing during that time of my life.

FF: How did you come up with the idea for Overprotected?

JL: As I mentioned above, this was my first book I wrote. They say "Write what you know" and, since many of the themes in the book are familiar to me, I strung them together with an unusual love triangle between a girl, a boy and the girl's father. I loved the unusual nature of that kind of love triangle -- but not in a perverted way -- her father loves her too much.

FF: Was any part of this novel difficult to write or research?

JL: Probably Ashlyn's realizations of her parents' marriage. My parents separated when I was 16 and, like Ashlyn, I was mature enough at that age to realize ( and see ) they'd be happier separated. Still, it's not easy seeing your parents marriage ( with all of it's weaknesses ) crumble.

FF: Can you tell us more about your current projects?

JL: It's another early story of mine I'm re-writing for YA.

FF: Any teasers about what you’ll be publishing next? Only that it's another intense story.

JL: I love writing my characters into deep love and plenty of challenges.

FF: Lastly I’d like to blast a few personal tidbits out to our readers.

A must when you are writing…music. I create a soundtrack for each novel and I listen to it 24/7 while working on the project. Drives me family nuts :)

Book you are currently reading …I keep Endless Love by Scott Spencer open and on my NOOK constantly. Other than that, I pick and choose reads carefully because of time restraints.

Favorite quote…"No other success can compensate for failure in the home." David O. McKay.

FF: Everyone here at Fiction Flurry would like to send a big THANK YOU to Jennifer Laurens for this opportunity to interview her. Good luck on your upcoming projects Jennifer!

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff ARC review

Title: The Replacement

By: Brenna Yovanoff
Published: September 21st 2010 by Razorbill
Details: Hardcover, 352 pages
Special Note: ARC Review

Mackie Doyle seems like everyone else in the perfect little town of Gentry, but he is living with a fatal secret - he is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now the creatures under the hill want him back, and Mackie must decide where he really belongs and what he really wants.

A month ago, Mackie might have told them to buzz off. But now, with a budding relationship with tough, wounded, beautiful Tate, Mackie has too much to lose. Will love finally make him worthy of the human world?

My Thoughts:

The entire town of Gentry knows that their human children are stolen and murdered by monsters, but they seem to be okay with the sacrifice in order to keep their town the happy place it is. This novel creates a intriguing world that is full of mystery.

Mackie Doyle is one of the creepiest main characters I've come across in a while, but I will say he is very likable and he won me over very easily. Mackie has this venerability that makes you root for him even though he's not quite human and placed in a crib to replace a human baby that had been stolen and sacrificed. While the creatures under the hill may be evil, Mackie isn't, and strives to just be "normal". Iron, even the slight amount in blood, causes Mackie to go into a toxic shock type syndrome, which adds to the struggle to live in the human world.

This novel is a great YOUNG ADULT (YA) mystery. The kind where you have to figure out exactly what Mackie is why these creatures under the hill suddenly want him back.

If you like creepy YA told from a male first person point of view with a little bit of romance sprinkled in, this one's for you.
 
**See More YA ARC and Book Reviews at my blog READING, WRITING and WAITING**