Waiting On Wednesday (8)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme run by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Days of Blood and Starlight
by Laini Taylor
Publication: November 6th, 2012 by Little, Brown & Company

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.

(Goodreads)

I must admit that I loved the first one (up until a certain point) and hope that this is even better than the last!

What's your WoW pick?

A Rather Happy Day, I Would Say

So, at about midnight, I finished writing Sever.  It's completed at 83k, and I've already got ideas to add into the second draft.  But I'm not touching this lovely thing until August.  Good thing I've got my idea written down.

Now the time has come to search for a new project to work on.  I've got three right now, all of them still needing to be planned.  But, as usual, I shall give you guys little two sentence summaries.

Wrath - Paranormal Romance

When sixteen-year-old Luz Gray discovers she wasn’t even supposed to be born, everything snaps inside, only to cause her to lash out at any passerby—human or not. With the help of soldier-boy Wesley, she will learn that not everything in her life was a waste, even if the Gods have constantly been toying with her life since the day she was born.

Tricks (working title) - Dystopia

Lilias lives in the year 3012 where the continents have reformed and monarchies are the popular way to reign. With the discovery of her own royalty, she and her little sister, Angel, go to live in the palace, only to learn that Angel is more fit for the crown than Lilias—so says the power hungry Royal Advisor. Lilias refuses to let her homeland crumble anymore and swears that she will fix the land no matter what.

NeoHuman (working title) - Sci-fi

For the past twenty-four hours, the human race has prepared for the NeoHumans arrival. When this alien species arrives, Effie and thousands of other young women and men are whisked off to another planet millions of light years away. They are promised a new life on a planet that isn’t bound to die, one that faces no natural disasters. It is a paradise, and these people are special enough to live there. Except for Effie—she’s bound to die in three weeks time.

 So far, only NeoHuman has yet to have a nice, working outline.  The other two are near completion, and I soon plan to start working on Tricks.  In a few weeks, I'll probably know which one of these I'll be solely focused on.  I hope I can finish one of these in a month.

Until then, ta-ta, peoples of the internets.

Birthday Giveaway

Because this is my first giveaway, I thought I'd just leave it with something I know how to do: critique YA manuscripts.  I've been wanting to host a giveaway, and so now I can.

There will be three winners. First winner will receive a full manuscript critique.  Second winner will receive a 100 page manuscript critique.  Third winner will receive a 50 page manuscript critique.

And, if I reach a certain amount of followers, I will add another winner.  Like, if I reach 75 followers, I'll add in another 50 page critique.  More chances for you guys to win a critique.

The manuscript must be YA and written in English.  Winners will be revealed the day after the contest ends.  Each winner will have 72 hours to email me (I'll let you guys know what exactly to do in the post).  Failure to reply will result in the choosing of another winner.  And be warned: I'm going on vacation a few days after the contest ends, so I will have time then to read.  Get your manuscripts in while I have wi-fi (this will be in the winner's post, too).

Please enter via the Rafflecopter thingy below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Sweet Evil

Sweet Evil
By Wendy Higgins
Published: Mary 1st, 2012 by HarperTeen

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

(Goodreads)

I'm going to start off by saying that I loved this book.  Devoured it in only a few days.  It was a real surprise.

At first, I was pretty skeptical.  Anna wasn't my favorite main character, at least, not at the beginning.  But as I kept reading, I started to like her voice a lot more.

I enjoyed all of the characters.  I think Kaidan was the man reason why I liked this book so much.  It'd been a while since I had read about some sexy boy like him.  So, that's probably one of the major things that had attracted me and made me read it so much.

The dark side was really nice too.  Anna going all bad-girl wasn't very interesting to me, but I liked how all of the others worked.  They were all pretty good.  Well, all of the characters were good.  They were developed.

The take on angels and demons was interesting too.  Along with all of the history with the Dukes.  I didn't really like Kaidan's father, but that could have been because I didn't really see his motives.  Maybe there wasn't really a motive, or it could've been because of his nature, or whatever you want to call it.  But he was hated, which I'm sure was the intention.

I can't really think about what it was that had bothered me, if anything. (Okay, that's a lie.  I don't remember what I was saying just know.)

Overall, I like the book, and am interested in what will happen next.  One thing I would have liked better is if Anna had really just given up on Kaidan and had gotten together with what's his name (is it really bad that I can't remember his name?).  Anna and Kaidan have a thing, but she's a little too obsessed with him and it really really annoys me.

Right now, I'd rather this between 3 to 4 stars.

Because I am a lazy person...

Actually, that isn't a very good title.

Moving on from that, because I have hardly anything to do this summer besides read, write, and drive, I thought I'd get back into critiquing things.  It's been ages (okay, since inkpop went poof, so a few months, right?) since I've critiqued anything.  So, I came up with a little idea: what if I host a giveaway, offering three prizes?  First prize would be a full manuscript critique.  Second prize, 100 page critique.  Third, 50 page critique.  If a lot of people like the idea (not a lot; maybe, oh, five to ten?), then I'll go ahead with the giveaway.

Plus, everyone holds giveaways after they reach their blogoversary, right?  Might as well hop on the bandwagon.

If you want to have a say in whether or not I should hold this giveaway, go and vote in the poll off to the side.  It'll be up until my birthday Monday, so you've got about a week.

And those inkpoppers who received a critique at least once from me know how I roll.  I try to be as thorough as possible, and will help out with grammar as well as character, plot, plot holes, etc.  I may as well do something for the next few weeks!

Peace out for a little while!  I'll be posting some reviews as soon as I finish the Need series.

... I think I've said that already, in a previous post...

Blogoversary?

Today is my blogoversary.  Kind of exciting, I guess, but I haven't really kept up with this blog enough.

This post will actually focus more on my WIPs.  Like how Sever has reached 30k.  I'm actually doing well with Camp NaNo, but not so much with Writing Hell.  And then I have another new idea.  But that isn't surprising, because I always seem to have a new idea.

Well ... be prepared for some reviews, because I'm almost done with the Need series by Carrie Jones, and I've also finished a few other books that I need to get to reviewing.  Yay for summer!

And that's really it.  I'm off to daydream about characters and maybe get to writing in the afternoon!

Writing Hell 6.1

First day of Writing Hell, and I plan to get that 5k written on top of the 2k for a different project!

The Reborn
Starting word count: 2782
Ending word count: 6487

Yeah, already gotta catch up, but I shall manage to reach at least 20k for The Reborn this week!

Excerpt:

The boy stared at me. He stood a step lower than me and was still taller than me. I looked up into his eyes. There was annoyance in those eyes, and something else. Something I couldn’t quite figure out. Not until he spoke.

“What are you really doing here?” he asked. He leaned against the wall a few feet away from me.

I glanced toward the person he had been talking to. The guy smile and, ever so slowly, held up his hand to flip me off. I let out a short laugh; it was far louder than I expected, even startling a few people around the school entrance.

“Your friend over there is very friendly,” I said, turning my attention back to him. “And I’m here because the Abbess wants me to be here.” I paused for a moment and hopped off the stone. He towered even higher as I stepped up to him. “Why does it matter to you?”

His upper lip twitched, his face having gone feral. “Your kind doesn’t belong here.”

“Ha. And what exactly is my kind?” I asked, tilting my head up. Our faces were inches from each other.

Hope you guys are doing well with Writing Hell!  Or Camp NaNoWriMo, for those who're doing that.  At least I'm staying on task on that.