Teaser Tuesday: Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey (August 28, 2012)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 


He rakes is fingers through his hair again as he paces toward the windows. “Is he really the Danny you knew?”

 

~ pg 111, Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:

After her boyfriend is killed in a car accident, high school student Wren Darby uses her hidden powers to bring him back from the dead, never imagining the consequences that will result from her decision.

Book summaries from Goodreads. Amazon links are affiliate links.

New School Year Resolutions

Resolutions and goals

Source: creepyed

 

I tend to make resolutions three times a year at transitions in my life: the New Year, the start of summer, and the start of the school year.  They usually revolve around home management with the occasional weight loss goal thrown in if I’m really feeling ambitious.

Today is the first day of school for my son, so I reviewed my list of goals for the summer to see how many I actually accomplished.

On my Things To Do: Around The House list, I completed 1.5 items out of 10. ( The half item was “sell old cloth diapers” — we made the effort to sell them but haven’t sold them all yet.)

My Things To Do: Writing list fared only slightly better: 3 out of 13 items.  Two of those items related to getting this blog started up.

So what are my new goals now that the School Year has started? 

Well, a few weeks ago I did start a new task schedule/management/tracking system that seems to working for me.  It’s all about working on those basic routines.

So my first goal is to continue using this system.

I’m also going to make it a point to take baby steps.  Obviously I still have these Summer Lists to complete. But instead of looking at them as one big list, I’m going to focus on one thing at a time.

My current goals over the next couple weeks:

  • Home: do one item from the Things To Do: Home list each week.
  • Blog: Maintain a regular blogging schedule, at least 3 posts a week
  • Writing: Write out character profiles for the major characters in Brotherly Love

It’s going to be haaard sticking to those goals and not doing more and burning out by the end of September.

Especially the writing one. But it needs to be done. I need to pull my characters out of my head and onto paper so I can  restructure the plot so I can get writing again so I can finish the 2nd draft! YAY!  I’m really itching to jump back into the writing, but I know it will just create more mess to clean up later if I don’t make my plan now.

Am I the only one who makes these kind of goals multiple times a year?

Friday Finds: August 24, 2012

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted by Should Be Reading and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

 

Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula by Elise Stokes
Amazon | Goodreads


Fourteen-year-old Cassidy Jones wakes up the morning after a minor accident in the laboratory of a world-renowned geneticist to discover that her body has undergone some bizarre physical changes. Her senses, strength, and speed have been radically enhanced.

After exploring her newfound abilities, Cassidy learns that the geneticist, Professor Serena Phillips, is missing and that foul play is suspected. Terrified that her physical changes and Professor Phillips’ disappearance are somehow connected, Cassidy decides to keep her strange transformation a secret. That is, until she meets the professor’s brilliant and mysterious fifteen-year-old son, Emery. An unlikely duo, they set out to find Emery’s mother, who is key in explaining Cassidy’s newly acquired superpowers.

Their lives are put at risk when they find themselves embroiled in a dangerous, action-packed adventure. Soon they are forced to confront a maniacal villain willing to do anything – including murder — to reach his own ambitious goals.


Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Amazon | Goodreads


Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.


The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman
Amazon | Goodreads

As a literary agent, Noah Lukeman hears thousands of book pitches a year. Often the stories sound great in concept, but never live up to their potential on the page. Lukeman shows beginning and advanced writers how to implement the fundamentals of successful plot development, such as character building and heightened suspense and conflict. Writers will find it impossible to walk away from this invaluable guide—a veritable fiction-writing workshop—without boundless new ideas.


Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey
Amazon | Goodreads

After her boyfriend is killed in a car accident, high school student Wren Darby uses her hidden powers to bring him back from the dead, never imagining the consequences that will result from her decision.


If I Lie by Corrine Jackson
Amazon | Goodreads

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.
Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Book summaries from Goodreads. Amazon links are affiliate links.

Road Trip Wednesday: What’s Your Novel’s Love List?

Photo by jamarmstrong

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks a writing- or reading-related question.

This Week’s Topic is: Inspired byStephanie Perkins’ post on Natalie Whipple’s blog, what is your novel’s “Love List”?

I started writing a list of words that make me excited about writing my story (Working Title, Brotherly Love).  You’ll notice not all of them are positive words. They’re just words that when I think about them, I feel like, “Yes! I need to finish this book!”

 

I’m going to keep this paper in my purse so I can read it whenever I need a boost. I’m sure there will be more words to add later as well.