Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

I rate this novel 3.5 out of 5

Ashley is stuck in a game of waiting. Waiting for news of Cole. Waiting for him to come home. Waiting for him to be taken away again. This is what happens when you decide to fall in love with a marine; it is the path in life you agree to trudge. And Ashley has excepted and embraced this reality, or mostly at least. Now however she is starting to change her mind about some things. Her job, her Master’s program, her future career, and now Cole are all looking a lot less permanent. Can two people stay in love when they are hardly together and growing apart every day? Ashley must face these questions and the consequences of her own choices as the story of collateral unfolds. 

Ellen Hopkins, acclaimed and widely known for her Young Adult books, is and probably always will be one of my favorite writers. Her unique poem novels tell stories in a way I have found irresistible since the moment I picked her up for the first time. Of course I have favorites, or ones that are less intriguing to me than the others. That being said, I have to admit that Collateral has fallen into the latter. 

It was a good novel, the story sucked me in, and I was pretty consistently glued to the pages as the book came to its climax. Hopkins' voice remains an informative and interesting narration. However, I was slightly disappointed in comparing it to her other novels. Perhaps the story was just not my thing, or it had something to do with my dislike of the main character. However my reaction stands: it was a good novel but it wasn't her best.

-Alissa Tsaparikos

Nano Day 27: 50,002 words!!!!!!!!!!

I did it!!!! I met the nano goal a full three days early!

My novel is half done, but I never felt better about things. I will keep writing as much as I can before the days are up and then keep going until the sequel to my first book is finished! I never thought  I could do it and I made so many excuses not to try. But I did it and I know I can do it again. I am so happy right now. I am the biggest fangirl of my own story, and I don't even care how sad that is.

Requiem By Lauren Oliver

I rate this book 3.5 out of 5

Lena is back in the Wilds, safe for the moment, but what was once a place of refuge is now anything but. The Wilds have never been kind to the uncureds who hid in it's wooded depths, but now there is more than weather and animals to fear: cureds are coming and they are determined to wipe the infected out. In their little group it's anything but easy, as Lena tries to stay alive long enough to fight for the right to love. But things would be a lot less complicated if Lena even knew which boy she was fighting for; Julian who followed her into the Wilds with nothing but blind faith and patient affection, or Alex, her first love brought back from the dead who wants nothing to do with her. 

Requiem as the third and final book in the Delirium series is a good one. It took me a little bit for me to get into full swing reading of this book, but once I did I was hooked. Though there is some repetitiveness to the narration, and a few editorial mistakes that I noticed, it wasn't too distracting and I still enjoyed the story over all. The split narration between Lena and Hana was also a very interesting move on Oliver's part. The inside view into a cured's mind was fascinating, and the experience of juggling between the stories really amped up the tension. I found myself glued to the pages as the story ran full tilt towards it's climax, and I do have to say I personally was pleased with the ending. Though this series is not the most arresting one I've ever immersed myself in, the story and the world it concerns is very thought provoking and interesting. It would be well worth any readers’ time to complete this series.

By Alissa Tsaparikos

Nano Day 26: 47,373 words!!!

and yes, it is 1 am but I still count it as day 26 so 

Nano Day 25: 45,003!!!

Only 5,000 more words and I hit nano goal!!! Not long now!

Too bad my novel will only be half done at that point....oooooooh well. Looks like I have some more writing ahead of me, but I've gotten a good start!

Nano Day 24: 42,897 words

Nano Day 23: 41,189 words!!

120 pages exactly!!! It's coming along!

Nano Day 22: 39,484 words

Today was a real struggle to get through, writing wise. I made it to my goal, just barely.

Nano Day 21: 37,777

I made my goal today with three words to spare and a ton of fear. The things I worry about as a writer, is it good enough,  does it sound like crap, am I wasting my time? These questions are plaguing me tonight. I pushed through it anyway. I'm still hoping for the best. No matter how crap it is, 110 pages is worth something

Nano Day 20: 36,072

Made my goal and a little over, but I found it difficult today.

Nano Day 19: 34,293 words!!!

Woooooo!!! I reached 100 pages!!!

Also I brainstormed and finally saw the end, and how to get there, clearly!!! It was a good night for writing!

Nano Day 18: 32,237

Nano day 17: 30,378 words

Woooooo over 30,000!!!! I have almost 90 pages! ^.^  Very happy. Now for some Once Upon A Time!

Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

I rate this book 4.9 out of 5

The summer King is missing, the Dark Court is weakened and unbalanced, Bananach's threat of War looms on the horizon. The future of all the faeries is at stake, but can anything be resolved without killing Bananach, a move that would doom them all? Everything comes to a head in this final end-cap novel for Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series, and it is a finale not to be missed.

Fantasy, especially the ever re-visited fairy tale, is often a hard genre to get a reader to take seriously. Mostly it has a very specific readership. However, I dare anyone not to be sucked in by Marr's Wicked Lovely series. Done out as an urban fantasy that tracks the intrigues and problems of the various fairy courts through a multitude of main characters it makes for a fresh and modernized take on an old topic. With each book the action and adventure outdoes itself, delivered with easy flowing narration and excellent characterization.

As the fifth and final installment, Marr's storytelling technique neither becomes repetitive nor ridiculous, a sad but frequent fate of series that have more than two or three books. Fairy stories are something that seem to be often overlooked or discounted as girly interests, but Melissa Marr gives this stereotype a run for it.

Though this is a review for the most recent book, I highly recommend the entire series. If you like fantasy and adventure this will be just what you are looking for.

*COMMENT ON FINALE ENDING* *SPOILERS AHEAD*

*proceed with caution*

My only critique was, as a final book I was left with two unanswered questions. Does Ash now owe Far Dorcha for the saving of Keenan? When she meets him earlier in the book she lets the Death Fey touch her face, thereby giving her the right to a request of him. However when she makes the request it is for Far Dorcha to help Keenan and Donia, whatever the cost. This insinuates that Ash could become in debt to the Death Fey, which is no small thing. However Far Dorcha merely walks away without saying if this is the case, and though it is all resolved, there is never any reflection on her having a debt or not.

The second unanswered bit of intrigue, what does Keenan owe the water fey for their help in the war? He promised them a favor and it seemed to be insinuated that the head of the water fey would like to drown him, good and properly unlike the first time.

Neither of these are very important details, but I still wondered about them. My questions do not however distract from what I consider a fantastic ending. I am still very happy with it and rather hope that the unanswered questions means an opening for another book. 

By Alissa Tsaparikos

Nano Day 16: 28,678 words and a comment on making it past the half way mark

When I went into NanoWriMo this year, I expected it to be hard. I thought that I might get behind in writing, that it would be a struggle to find time to write everyday, or that I would run out of ideas, or suddenly get a block that I just couldn't get by.  There were so many things about writing 50,000 words in a month that seemed tenuous and easily broken. My first novel, which amounted to a little over double the nano month goal, took four years to write and another year of editing to finish properly. I am STILL editing it now. I wasn't sure how writing the sequel, or at least the first 50,000 words, in so little time would go, but I was willing to try. I needed to prove that just because I graduated from school didn't mean I would stop writing. I wasn't going to give up my dreams.

I don't know why but I didn't expect it to go well, and as it turns out I was proved both wrong and right at the same time.

Against all my own odds and expectations, the writing has gone fabulously for setting down such lofty goals for a relatively slow writer. However, life in and of itself completely exceeded any premonition of how much can go wrong in a two week period. It was less a few bad days and more like all of them ganged up on me and mugged me in a dark alley before leaving me for dead.

There is always a lot to be said on "leaving it all at the door" to write. For most of my life I have made a myriad of excuses about why I couldn't write: school, illness, stress, this that and the other thing. There was always something. I have written a lot over the years, and I've been far from idle, but my productivity always depended on a time where there wasn't something else demanding my attention. I've known of Nano for about three years now, and yet never attempted it because I was so sure my college classes were more important. 

Now half way through with my first Nano attempt and I've realized the most important lesson from it I could have. It's the one thing every writer and writing instructor try to tell other writers, and yet for some reason we don't listen. JUST WRITE. It is never that easy, but life never is going to stop. I was an English major with an emphasis in creative writing, what could have been more important than pursuing the passion that led me to that degree in the first place!? 

In these last few weeks I have gone through just as much time consuming stress as I did while at school, but I've still managed to write. I went into Nano determined to win, refusing to allow myself the excuses. I learned that despite it all I could in fact generate large amounts of fiction that, though flawed and in desperate need of eventual editing, is still written out and now there to work with. I have been postponing the sequel to my first book for over a year, and now in two weeks time I have almost 85 pages of a story. 

Life doesn't stop. The tension that permeates my home has not evaporated. My loans from school did not go away. Graduating and getting my diploma was less the easy process it could have been and more a tooth and nail fight to get what I had rightly earned. The stress of having sick animals and taking care of them did not get easier but much much harder. Living across the world from the one I love is as heartbreaking and difficult as you would expect. I am strung out and worn down, sleep deprived, stressed. I miss my best friends and yearn to live on my own. I enjoy being at the library where I am an Assistant Librarian more than I enjoy being home lately. Life is not getting easier. 

But I wrote. Everyday I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote. Sometimes I worked back to back hours, working until 9pm write my goal and then got up by 7 the next morning to work the day shift the next day. I wrote anyway. I slogged through the shit and I wrote. 

The struggle is still there and is not going away. But now I know. I could lose everything. Life could hit me in every possible way over and over. And I would still always have my writing. Life can't take this story away from me. Even if I lose the words, which with the fickleness of technology is always a possibility, I'd still know I could do it, that I did do it, and if it came down to it I could do it again. 

I am a storyteller, and no matter what I do in life, where I go, what I lose or gain, I have the stories and the words to use them. And that counts for more than I can ever say. 

Keep nano'ing on my friends. I hope the fight to write is going alright for you

Nano Day 15: 26,978

It was a very long and stressful day. I am very surprised I made it to the goal today...

Nano Day 14: 25,278!!!!!!!!

Half way there!!!!!!

Still haven't written my review yet but since I got my word goal before 12am even with working until 9 tonight, I'm excusing myself.

Nano Day 13: 23,578

Reached my word goal and I should keep writing. I should also write a review for Darkest Mercy. I'm going to read fanfiction instead.....no regrets...

Nano Day 12: 21,836

Today was slow and still stressful, but I finished my writing goal and finished the amazing Wicked Lovely series finale Darkest Mercy, which was so great that I am now causally puking rainbows. Review will be up soon ^.^

nano day 11: 20,096

Posted this a bit late, technically in the day 12 area since I didn't log it in until after 12am, but whatever. I haven't gone to bed yet, therefore it is not the next day...because I said so...

Nano Day 10: 18,379

I wrote hardly anything today. It was a long and stressful day. My kitten got a shot that made him have a reaction and I spent three hours in the emergency animal clinic waiting to see if he was okay. I have to monitor him and give him medicine for the next 3 to 4 days, which is even more stress because darn it I love that little bugger like my own child (AND SERIOUSLY HOW DO PARENTS SURVIVE RAISING CHILDREN?).
Because of all the excess emotion and upset I'm also having my own panic attack. Three and counting today...
I don't like today. I think I'll try for another

Nano Day 9: 18,096

Feeling a little better today.
I made my goal for the day and even exceeded a bit.
The world is still filled with hope and I can be brave when things get tough, this I have to believe.

Nano update day 8: 16,252

Hello all

I skipped my update yesterday because there is a very stressful happening in my life at the moment. I did write to my daily goal yesterday, however I didn't even think to blog about it because of all that is on my mind.

I'll probably explain later when it all gets worked out, but for now, I'm just trying not to think about it.

cheers until next time

Nano day 6: 12,800 words

I've apparently hit a writing roll, going way over my word count. I could probably write more because I am not tired nor taxed in the least. But I'm suffering from an incorrigible and abrupt bout of laziness and have therefore decided to watch a movie and eat a pomegranate instead. woops...

Nano Day 5: 10,000 words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10,455 to be exact.

And I'm not going to overachieve this time even. Now I am going to relax.

Nano day 4 Update: 8,696 words

I skipped the day three update because I had a terrible headache and after finishing my word count goal went straight to bed at 9pm.

Today writing went smoothly enough but I was so beat from work today that it was less enjoyable than usual.

My biggest accomplishment came in the form of my best (and only non-writer friend) starting Nano late on day three and managing to write over 7,000 words in two days. Considering this bestie of mine hasn't wrote anything more than a couple pages before I am seriously impressed and proud of her. It seems we are all getting in the Nano spirit!

In other news, if all goes well and I meet my daily goal again I will hit 10,000 words tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

I rate this YA novel 5 out of 5

            Within The City there is the Carnival of Souls. It is a place where pleasure, pain, and money, are     bought and sold and the rule of the daimon Marchosias extends over all it's inhabitants. In this order of cast and protocol Kaleb and Aya, two daimons from very different casts, fight for a chance to change their destinies. However their fights and lives are more entangled than they ever could imagine. And then there is Mallory, a girl who has grown up in the human world, taught by her father that witches like him are to be trusted, while daimons from The City are the sworn enemy. It is all she has known in her life filled with training and running from the daimons that seek what her father stole from them long ago. If only she could find what had been stolen and return it, then maybe their lives could settle down. Maybe they could be a normal family. But the mystery of the stolen object is one with the power to change her whole existence and everything she has come to know. 
            Carnival of Souls is dark, bewitching, and utterly entrancing. In the same way Marr developed an entire world and hierarchy for the fey in her Wicked Lovely series, she does it again with the same fantastic results in this newest series beginning. 
            Told from multiple points of view, the reader watches the story unfold from all sides, no part of the story neglected or left half told. It is a rich and refreshing narration that a reader looks forward to in this novel, the action violence and romantic intrigue balanced perfectly.
I highly recommend this new series, and any of Marr's other books to readers. Though working, participating in NaNoWriMo, and keeping up with a decently active social life, I still managed to finish this book in a matter days. 

by Alissa Tsaparikos

Nano day 2: 5,106 Words and the First Plot-Twist of the Month

I know when a writer uses the term plot-twist they refer to what is happening in their stories. However, sometimes I like to apply it to life. And boy did I have a plot-twist happen to me last night, though admittedly it did have to do with story I am now writing

I was sitting back, feeling pretty happy about my word count, skimming a few paragraphs. And then it hit me. My whole first novel, the one this sequels, was written in 1st person. I had written these first 9 pages in 3rd. OH THE CALAMITY. 

But then I thought about it and I decided to roll with things. As I said in my first update, things were going really well, just kind of rolling out. If it was going so smoothly, and felt so right, maybe it wasn't a mistake. Or maybe I'm just lazy and don't want to go back and change it all. However the case may be, I wondered about whether or not my first part of this story, the finished first novel, was flawed by being done in 1st person. It has always vaguely felt like the story was lacking something and merely chalked it up to the story line or my own writing style being at fault. However maybe the POV was somewhat to blame. I did originally narrate this story (whilst orating it to friends in it's very very beginning) as 3rd person. It was what made sense seeing as it was from the different points of view of four main characters. When I did my first draft attempt at the beginning (about 15 or 20 pages) I did the whole account in 1st person. For a bit I floundered. wondering if it was possible to do a four person narration all in 1st. The conclusion I came to was yes, though characterization was that much harder beings as it had to be that much more unique going from one character to the next. And so I wrote. 

So while I made the attempt and eventually finished, I'm starting to wonder which was the right choice. I have decided to leave it up to my readers. 

Below is a snippet from both the 1st and 3rd POV. Please leave comments and opinions. Any little bit helps.

Both are from the character Lucian's point of view.

From A Servant and Her Princess

• I was halfway done packing a case when Will walked into my room. Turning, I stepped in front of the bag, somehow self-conscious.
  His eyes narrowed. “Going somewhere?” He asked it casually, but there was something dangerous in his voice.
  “Yes.”
  “And where might that be? Not after the servant is it?”
  “And if it is?” I asked, not even trying to vale my wariness.
  Something hung between us and I wasn’t sure what he would do. This was a different person from the boy I had grown up with. This man was hard, bitter. This man did not like me at all. He stood motionless, no visible reaction on his face. He turned to leave and facing away from me spoke slowly. “And if I forbid you to leave – forbid you to choose that woman a second time?”
              His implication of power over me, power he had never threatened or used over me before, made me flush red with fury. No one would keep me from doing as I wished and he knew this better than anyone. Was he aiming to make me become an outlaw? “Are you going to make me stay?” I asked just as calmly, not belying the maelstrom of anger and frustration wreaking havoc within.
              Will seemed to sag then, as if the challenge was too great. He turned to leave but stopped at the doorway. “Think carefully about your next actions Lucian. You have always been my closest friend and confident, but my trust can only be spread so thin. Make you decision now. Leave if that is what you feel you must do, but know this, if you leave you will not be welcomed back here. A friend divided, sly, and tricksome as you are is no friend at all. And before you rush off to go save the love you so desperately want, ask yourself if it really is the right thing. By all means I cannot make up your mind for you, but it seems to me you have hurt that girl enough to last her a lifetime. I imagine yours if the last face she wants to see for as long as she lives. In fact, didn’t she say just that the last time you saw her? A reunion with her will only cause a world of hurt for everyone involved and those left behind,” he paused, looking at me imploringly. “Just think for once Lucian, really think. After all the grief you have caused her, if you really care for her you could give her the greatest gift of all now and let it go. Make it so she never has to see your face again, the face that betrayed her,” and then he was gone. 

From An Adviser and His King

• Anger started to mingle with his initial shock and Lucian pushed up off the ground and placed himself directly in front of his friend’s path, giving him no choice but to look Lucian in the eye. “And what of my defending the honor of you and your wife.”
              Will sighed heavily and looked away from him. “The honor of your King and Queen doesn’t seem to have been the first priority in your life up to this point.”
              Lucian tensed at the jab, felt his fists ball reflexively. But it had been years since they were children who could settle an argument with a playful brawl and if Lucian was honest with himself he wasn’t quite sure that he and Will were even a shadow of their former selves. What had happened to those children he wondered.
              Forcing himself to relax his pose Lucian backed away a step or two and tried for a soft expression. “True my mind mighten always have been on Kings and Queens, or Princess and Princesses. But you know I could never stand by and listen to someone abuse my friend.”
              He wasn’t sure if there was any hope of his friend forgiving him, but if anything could remind Will of their closeness it would be through a memory of every time Lucian had come home bloodied and bruised but with a smirk on his face. Will would always ask who had done it, but Lucian would never tell. Sly and vindictive he could be, but he wouldn’t boast about beating ruffians to a pulp who spoke unkindly about the, at the time, young and bumbling Prince. Lucian always thought Will might have known, but until that moment he hadn’t acknowledged it before.
              Will did not smile or joke but his posture softened and he let out a breath that sounded quite a lot like defeat. Lucian bit back a smile. Will had remembered. There was still hope for their friendship left. Honesty seemed to be the key to at the moment so Lucian decided to take a chance.
              “I’ve missed my friend,” Lucian said, his voice low.

It's November First

And just about every writer knows what that means....NaNoWriMo!!

I am participating this year for the first time :). I spent just about every November since I found out what NaNoWriMo was making up excuses about why I didn't have time and other yadda yadda , but no more! I have joined the fast foray of scurrying fingers on keyboards for the next month to produce a first draft of my next novel.

My first NaNoWriMo will be spent constructing the sequel to my first finished novel A Servant and Her Princess. I've spent a lot of my time wondering whether that novel was a waste of four years writing. I have only had two dedicated readers. One of these was a professor at my Uni who helped me work through and do the biggest editing job of my life. I used that novel as a Senior Writer At Work project, the final creative writing class credit I needed for my major. However after that, no readers I asked were really biting, so I wondered if I should give up on it. The novel itself needed a sequel to end properly, a sequel I had not written. I went back and forth on whether the endeavor was futile and if I shouldn't even bother finishing it. Why finish something if it was going no where to begin with? As the first approached I decided to use a more recent project as the one to be written this month. I had made my decision, even posting the title, summery and snippet of the story to come on my NaNoWriMo page. And then 15 minutes before November 1st I knew I wasn't choosing the right path. I logged back onto the page I had created 40 minutes ago and edited my new novel info. The story to be written would be the sequel to my first novel. And then I went to bed.

Now why would I write a finish for an already possibly dead end novel? Well, the easy answer is that I'm not going to give up, not ever. I do a fair amount of down talking on my own writing, but I have to admit, no matter all the flaws of my first novel, I love it. I love the characters with their juvenile behavior and the plot with all it's holes, I love it all. It is a flawed thing, but I worked very hard on it and it is the first finished novel generated by me and only me. I learned a whole heck of a lot and both me and it came a long way from the seventeen-year-old who started to write a story she had told her friends for fun.

Yes I want to get published some day. Yes I want my stories to be read and shared by more than me and my friends. But I don't think it is the most important thing anymore. Sure it is a very big life goal, but it isn't everything. The story, my creativity, THAT  is everything to me. As long as I have those things I will always be fine and always carry on. Being published would be great but as I've iterated many times before, there are many authors I have read that are unpublished and absolutely amazing and their writing brilliant. Not being published doesn't mean a damn in the face of the greatness that is their story. So sure, maybe this story and it's sequel won't be published, maybe it will be written and finished just for me, and that is absolutely fine by me. Because I learned so much writing the first, and I think I will learn even more finishing the second.

I have no regrets about my decision. I wrote my first 1751 words (84 over my daily goal!) in less than two hours. Everything just flowed out. I hadn't even really made a concrete plan on where I wanted to go with things, but like the first time, the story just began to happen. I am absolutely sure it is going to get harder every day and I will have many points where I want to give up, but I am still happy with this choice because I feel like this story wants to be written.

I would go on even more on the subject, but it is November 1st and it's time to write!