PaperHangover's Friday Fives blog topic for this week?
Best Summer Reads.
My list is a combo of some I've read (some of them, over and over and over again!), as well as a few I plan on reading soon.
What are yours? Ohhhh, I hope to find some new good books!
1. DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth
My vote for best read in 2011 (so far!) - read it in 2 days and I'm currently reading it again right now! See my review for more details.
Well hello fellow YAwesome writers!
I'm part of an a-mazing on-line writers group, The Write-Brained Network, or the WB for short. And within that group, I head up the Young Adult writers subgroup, YAwesome Writers.
So far the YA group is kicking butt and taking names (there are 31 members so far!), but I've done very little over the past few months, in regards to setting up activities for everyone.
With that being said, and based on how popular our group is, not to mention that of the YA genre (and not just for all of us that write it, but read it as well) I'd love to open the door to all of my fellow YAwesome writers, and see if anyone out there would be interested in forming a critique group?
I know many of you are already a part of other critique groups / beta readers, so who knows what kind of response I'll receive? But...I'd love to see if there is any interest!
I just found this great YouTube video over on Kara Lucas's blog.
I can honestly say, I so miss high school - and I'd go back in a heartbeat, if I could...and these kids are the exact reason why. Man, I love everything about the genre I write in and I guess in the end, I'm still an eighteen-year-old at heart.
Big cheers to the 2011 Senior class down at Clovis High School in Clovis, California for putting this together! And congratulations on graduation!
Yet another amazing topic to discuss today, from the great writerly peeps over at Paper Hangover:
What are FIVE excuses you have to be ready to give up in order to be a better writer?
This one was a tough one for me - hence my long-winded answers below. But sometimes it takes writing things out, to attack them face on. Grip them by the horns and slam them to the ground. And when you read my #5, you'll know why I took on this challenge of facing some of my excuses.
1. Maybe I'll never be good enough. Yikes, nothing like a biggun, right off the bat, right? But here's the deal: while I know this mostly isn't true, otherwise I wouldn't have spent 30+ years writing, there are those days when I absolutely, unequivocally, feel this way. What writer doesn't struggle with this internal conflict (aside from many others)? But like many things I do in life, I take on writing as a challenge. The more I work at it, the better it will become. But I have to work hard. Because the craft of writing only gets better as you go. And the amount of things I'm still learning, never ceases to amaze me. So while I'll have "those days" - I know I've had more that told me I will be good enough. Which means in the end, I like my odds.
Thursday, June 2, 2011: According to USA TODAY, the following list contains the top 25 best selling books (out of 150) - based on sales through Sunday, 05/29/2011. For the complete list of 150 books for the week or just to check out more information - plus reviews, book news and a searchable archive of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list - visit their website.
Note of the week: Finally something new to the list this week: The Warlock by Michael Scott, debuting at #13. Otherwise, we're looking at the same reads that have coveted the top 25 list for quite awhile now.
After checking all 150 books for the week, I'm still surprised to NOT see Divergent by Veronica Roth making the list. What is being pitched as a futuristic 'Fight Club' for teens, this title is well worthy of the top 10, but maybe it's just taking a while to get out there? I just finished it (in 2 days) and posted my review below this blog post - and by all means, it's a definite must read...right up there with The Hunger Games for me!
Legend:
Position This Week, Last Week, Title, Author (Publisher), Price
Divergent by Veronica Roth