![]() ![]() But responsibilities don’t disappear just because I’d like to spend some quality time with my computer, which can lead to a lot of odd-hours work and a touch of guilt every time I turn on the television. TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?Īsh: Finding enough time! I’m the sort of person who needs to stay at it daily-I get antsy when I’m away for too long, and the story starts to become stagnant in my mind. I’ve found that while you can try to force a plot upon characters, it seldom ends well. Once you get to know your cast, some of those carefully plotted chapters begin to unravel. Of course, there’s always room for improvisation in writing, and characters tend to surprise you. If nothing else, plotting helps me memorialize ideas for scenes I may not write for months, and it’s always nice to go back to your notes and have one of those, “Oh yeah, right,” moments when you think you’re stuck. I may not map out every moment in the story before I begin, but I like to have more than a notion of where I’m headed and how I’m getting there. ![]() TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?Īsh: When I first tried my hand at long-form fiction, I was a pure pantser-I had ideas and general thoughts about scenes, but I felt my way along. ![]() I wrote my first novel at nineteen, and I was hooked. When and why did you start writing?Īsh: Thank you for having me! I’ve always loved reading, and writing gradually became an extension of that. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Josie was a great character and it was fun to see where the story took her.Īlso, we are doing a GIVEAWAY of this book! On the 27th of September, we will put up a post titled " An Unexpected Role Giveaway". Ryan is a boy from school who seems to follow her everywhere and is annoyingly certain that her boyfriend has something to do with the robberies that are plaguing Coral Island.Īs the mystery continues to unfold, tragedy strikes, and Josie must decide if she believes in God, who she stands behind, and who she is. Josie is convinced he is going to ruin her summer. Everything is going perfectly- until Ryan shows up. She spends day after day on the beach, becomes best friends with her elderly neighbor, and gets a boyfriend. These moments are unfortunately incorporated into her mother's novels, which are then published for all of her school to see.Įmbarrassed and needing to escape, she leaves home to visit her aunt on Coral Island and resolves to spend a perfect summer on the beach where no one she knows can find her. Josie, a clumsy teen and theater nerd, has an abundance of mortifying moments. ![]() ![]() ![]() But the passion doesn’t last long, and later on, in the movie, it’s become apparent that Hardin is adamant about the idea of dating. Before they know it, the two start flirting with each other and eventually kiss in the water. ![]() Hardin suddenly enters and the two share a lingering moment before Tessa snaps out of it and leaves.įor the next couple of days, Hardin persuades Tessa to come with him to a lake house. She bluntly refuses and escapes the party, accidentally wandering around Hardin’s house. The group suggests playing Truth or Dare, and Tessa is dared to lock lips with Hardin. There, Tessa gets to know the rest of Steph and Tristan’s clique, which just so happens to include Hardin Scott, a mysterious boy she met in her dorm room. Steph invites Tessa to a party at a frat house, to which she reluctantly agrees. ![]() Nevertheless, Tessa gets along with her new friends and settles down at her dorm. Unlike the studious Tessa, Steph and Tristan are all about the party scene. Upon her arrival, Tessa is greeted by Steph Jones, Tessa’s roommate, and her girlfriend, Tristan. On the day of her move-in, she’s accompanied by her caring yet rather controlling mother, Carol Young, and her high school sweetheart Noah Porter. After introduces Tessa Young, a high school graduate who’s just about to start her first day at Washington Central University as an undeclared economics major. ![]() ![]() This dialogue-rich narrative, told from Shani’s simultaneously biting and sincere first-person perspective, expertly conveys two romantically unconfident girls’ hesitancy to act on their feelings despite boundless chemistry. Even as Shani’s feelings for May grow, however, she fears taking another chance on love. Their relationship is civil at best, but when they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve, their antagonism thaws. Despite the hiccup, Shani dives headfirst into her internship until a dog-walking gig puts her face-to-face with Jewish May, the girl she almost ran over. ![]() ![]() That gets off to a rough start when, trying to navigate snow-laden streets, she and her mother almost run over a pedestrian with their car. Determined not to think about how her girlfriend broke her heart, she plans to focus solely on her paleichthyology internship at the Smithsonian. Shani is intent on leaving her disastrous first semester at college behind her. ![]() Queer, Jewish Shani’s winter break is derailed by unexpected romance in this frothy enemies-to-lovers holiday rom-com by Arlow (Almost Flying). ![]() ![]() It’s a reference to Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay, a poem the lead character, Ponyboy Curtis, read to Johnny. The “Stay Gold, Ponyboy” quote comes from a letter written by Johnny, toward the end of the novel and movie. The book and movie’s portrayals of gang violence, abusive and dysfunctional families and criminal activities was controversial, but the book developed a cult following among 80s teens. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio and Patrick Swayze. I read it when I was in second grade and struggled with understanding how you could be considered to have long hair when all it did was touch your collar, so it made more sense when I read it again when I was 12 or so. The movie was a who’s who of young Hollywood, with C. I’m not sure about the rest of North America, but the book was on the 8th grade curriculum in my part of Canada in the 80s and became a popular 1983 movie. This turned the sticker into a more clear reference to S.E. Stay gold, Ponyboy quoteīeside the Stay Gold sticker, someone (else?) scrawled, “Ponyboy”. I tried, but Google doesn’t reveal any links to electrical companies, heater suppliers or the like. And I noticed this odd bit of urban graffiti.įirst, someone had adhered a sticker that says Stay Gold. I popped into the washroom to touch up before I headed for dinner with friends. ![]() This weekend, I dove into a local store on West 4th in Vancouver to escape the cold. ![]() ![]() ![]() Stay gold.” – quote from The Outsiders found under a heater in Vancouver. ![]() ![]() ![]() Kandra store their cognitive system throughout their entire body, and can form an organ which functions as a brain to think. Instead, they wear their own bones from before they became kandra. ![]() The members of the First Generation do not wear True Bodies, as the kandra did not originally know how to make them. Combined with the ability to heal and create stronger muscles, kandra can be extremely powerful warriors though not all of them want to be one. Some kandra build bodies for combat purposes, these bodies can be made of metal to be stronger and heavier and can have sharp bones to use as knives. A True Body does not have to be human-shaped, but most are. ![]() Some True Body forms are quartz, and kandra show off their True Bodies by creating translucent skin that allows the stone to sparkle faintly in the light. ![]() When in the Homeland, most kandra use a True Body, which is a set of false bones that are crafted by a kandra artisan. When impersonating a specific person, a kandra will use that person's bones and reshape their body to look exactly like that person's. While mistwraiths are simply gelatinous conglomerates of various creatures, kandra can actually absorb a body and take on all of its characteristics. Unlike the mistwraiths, they are sentient, courtesy of two Hemalurgic spikes implanted in them. Physically, the kandra resemble mistwraiths in their natural form. ![]() ![]() ![]() But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. ![]() Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she's ever known. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire's greatest threat. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. ![]() Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.īut on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death. Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. ![]() ![]() Most writers struggle to straddle the line between two genres, but Folk’s plain yet striking prose allows her to insert sci-fi plotlines seamlessly into contemporary fiction. By mixing the classic eeriness that short stories offer through sudden immersion in an unfamiliar world with the perils of modernity, Folk carves out a breathtaking style of her own creation. In her debut collection of short stories, Out There: Stories, writer Kate Folk combines the onslaught of modernity with the age-old form of short stories perfectly. Whether readers are consuming the writing on the screen of a tablet or in the pages of a book, the short story can endure as a cornerstone of literature in the digital age. ![]() It has a distinct vagueness that allows the reader to fully find him or herself in its sparse words, no matter how out there the plot or characters may be. ![]() ![]() There’s a certain element to the short story that makes it more accessible than the novel, apart from its brevity. The short story is a form that remains tethered to its forebears despite modern advancements in literature. ![]() ![]() ![]() But Jupiter appears to Morgan and once again ensnares him into his service. The city rats, now led by Jupiter's former lieutenant Morgan (who survived his fall into the sewer water at the end of the first book), prepare to go to Deptford and slaughter all the mice there. The Deptford mice soon reach the horrifying conclusion that the spirit of Jupiter has returned to seek revenge by smothering the world in eternal winter, and they have no idea how to defeat him this time as he is already dead. Several troubling events begin to occur: the psychic bats leave the house's attic, the Starwife's magical Starglass is stolen, and there are reports of a bloodthirsty rat army growing in the city. The Brown siblings, Arthur and Audrey, have returned from their disastrous stay in Fennywolde where, to prevent her being hanged as a witch, the latter was married to Twit. ![]() It is winter and Yule festivities are underway in the Skirtings, the mouse community of the old empty house in Deptford. The book continues the story of the young house mouse Audrey and her friends as they attempt to banish the spirit of the evil cat Jupiter once and for all. In 2002, it was published by SeaStar Books in the United States. ![]() ![]() It is the third book in The Deptford Mice trilogy, first published in the United Kingdom in 1990 by Macdonald & Company, London. The Final Reckoning is a dark fantasy novel for children by British author Robin Jarvis. ![]() ![]() ![]() To end what the Blood Queen has begun, Poppy might have to become what she has been prophesied to be-what she fears the most.Īs the Harbinger of Death and Destruction. Ancient primal powers have already stirred, revealing the horror of what began eons ago. Book one in the My Pack series Abandoned as a baby and forced to grow up way too fast, Kitten has learned to live and survive by her own unique code. Together, Poppy and Casteel must embrace traditions old and new to safeguard those they hold dear-to protect those who cannot defend themselves. ![]() Not if she has any hope of building a future where both kingdoms can reside in peace. With the strength of the Primal of Life’s guards behind her, and the support of the wolven, Poppy must convince the Atlantian generals to make war her way-because there can be no retreat this time. Nothing will stop Poppy from freeing her King and destroying everything the Blood Crown stands for. ![]() The magnitude of what the Blood Queen has done is almost unthinkable. Armentrout comes book four in her Blood and Ash series.Ĭasteel Da’Neer knows all too well that very few are as cunning or vicious as the Blood Queen, but no one, not even him, could’ve prepared for the staggering revelations. Armentrout comes a new adult fantasy novel series, Blood and Ash. Published in September of 2020, The War of Two Queens is the fourth instalment of what is a six-book series, titled The Blood and Ash Series. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. PDF The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4) by Jennifer L. The War of Two Queens is a romantic fantasy by American author Jennifer L. ![]() |