alice cooper's so right

Schooooooool IS out for summer! Yay!

And this is the third day in a row I've posted! Double yay!

Today I played a mean joke on my coworker, who is totally afraid of zombies. I told him how completely awesome THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH is and that he had to read it, but I didn't tell him what it was about. I can't wait until he reads it. I mean, I thought it was scary, but I can't wait for his reaction!

Last weekend was great, full of chicken curry and WEEDS. I watched the first two seasons on demand from netflix. I wasn't sure I would like it because it's been labeled a sitcom and it's only a half hour long, but really it should be called a dramedy. And they pack enough awesomeness into each episode that they seem like an hour long. I've got seasons 3 and 4 on their way.

I've been thinking about inciting incidents. In THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, there's a huge inciting incident at the beginning of the book that draws you in immediately. My problem is that I always think the inciting incident is the actual story, whereas it should just get things rolling in an interesting way. So, yeah, I think my stories always start too early.

Ugh. Heartburn. Need TUMS.

Any thoughts on inciting incidents? Is that how a book immediately draws you in?

hilariousness

Good stuff.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Clearly, the fact that I finished Carrie Ryan's THE FOREST OF HANDS IN TEETH in a few short hours means something! I haven't done that since THE HUNGER GAMES. Seriously, this book is incredible!

I knew going in that it was a zombie book. What I didn't know was that Ryan's beautiful, layered tale would be truly allegorical. This isn't just a story of a young girl trying to get through each day in a village completely surrounded by the living dead; it's a story of a girl living in an oppressive society and longing for something more, something beyond her reach. It's a story of hope in the face of absolute despair. It's a story about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence. But it's also a story about priorities: How far will Mary go to get what she's always dreamed of?

Mary is such an interesting main character. I ached for her in the first few chapters, when everything seems to go wrong for her. But she has such internal strength; I cheered for her as she tried to sort through the mess that was her life. As the book continued, I realized that what Mary wanted was not so simple. By the end, I wondered if what Mary wanted was worth it. It would be interesting to see this explored in a sequel. I'm not sure if Ryan is working on a second... I'll have to go check her blog, which is linked on the right.

In a way, the book is about striving for your dreams and never letting anything get in your way. It's about how you deal with your problems. This is a book that will suck you in and then spit you out several hours later, wondering what hit you.

yay summer!

Hooray, I have all of my grading done! And I've got two great books to read this weekend: PRETTIES and THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. Reading and lounging around in the sun--this is what summer is all about!

I'm feeling a bit inspired to start working on MATCHED again. Some ideas are swirling around in that pregnant brain of mine. My goal is to get back into the 2k a day regimen that I did throughout November.

Shout out to my Fabulous Five Scribe sisters! I vow to be more active this summer! And some of them will have some fabulous news coming out soon, I hope!

TGIF!

I'm not dead! Really!!

Just a quickie post to announce that I am not dead, just busy doing pregnant lady stuff. We had our ultrasound on Wednesday and found out that we're having a girl! Amazing. Also, she does look a lot like Skeletor.

I feel weird about writing on my blog much because it would all be about baby stuff. As soon as I get back into writing mode, I will be back here a lot more.

I miss you all! More after a while...

visit AW today

Wow. If you haven't gone to AW yet today, definitely stop by.

stranger than fiction

Well, my creative writing class is gearing up for a Class Novel Writing Month (ClaNoWriMo) in April. To get in the mood, we watched Stranger Than Fiction, a great flick! It is so fun for the kids to see how the writer in the movie created a whole world, full of interesting characters. Tomorrow the kids will be inventing their own characters. I just hope no one actually has to undergo the tortures that the kids are sure to put their characters through! Poor Harold Crick.

As for me, I am reading yet another Picoult novel. They're addictive. It actually reminds me of when I was in middle school and had to read all of the Sweet Valley High books. Though they were formulaic, they were comforting. Not that Picoult is as simple as those books. She does tend to follow a formula, however. But if it works, it works. She's got me sucked in! Right now I'm reading The Plain Truth, about an Amish girl who may or may not have had a baby in a barn and left it to die. Her premises are so interesting. Awesome premise + ethical questions + driven lawyer with a soft side = Picoult.