Today my first article for Let the Words Flow is up! It's called Murdering Your Darlings... With a Chainsaw. I talk about my brutal editing process, why it's actually not very brutal at all, and how you can learn to cut things without a second thought, too! Leave me a comment, please? :)

Whatever you want, wherever you go, whatever you do in your life, wherever you end up or wherever life takes you...

... do what makes YOU happy.

So I've been completely failing at nanowrimo--but only because I've been having such a good time editing. I would actually go through my days in classes and at work looking forward to the time I got home so I could open up those word documents and make my story prettier. You know, whether I did well or badly, it was a fun (!) experience, and definitely another opportunity to hone my slicing and dicing. I don't know how I got this way; long long ago when I didn't understand the word "revisions" I used to be afraid to even re-read what I had written, let alone re-write it. But there is something so exhillarating about knowing that you're making your story better... or at least that you're not afraid to murder your darlings. Revising isn't always the best part of the process, and creating that first draft will always remain what I live for, but I really think that all the changes and all the editing is fun. I kind of love it. :)

I, unfortunately, don't have time to do full book reviews right now, but I recently finished two GREAT YA titles, and I want to pass on the love to all of you.

A few weeks ago I won a contest on need_tea's blog, and as a prize she sent me a copy of one of the books she'd reviewed. I chose AS YOU WISH by Jackson Pearce.



The premise of this novel is that the main character, Viola, is visited by a jinn (read: genie) after she makes a wish because she's lonely and heartbroken, and they end up falling in love. It's a really cute story, and I loved the paranormal aspect to what could've been just another high school story. I also love that Pearce used jinn, because they're one of the less popular paranormal creatures (not that I don't love vampires, of course!) and I was happy to see them featured here. The jinn world she created was really unique, too. I didn't expect to find that kind of world-building in an urban fantasy high school novel, and it was a really nice surprise. I finished the book in a day because I couldn't put it down. It made me smile over and over.



Just a few days ago I was at Borders and I picked up EON: DRAGONEYE REBORN by Alison Goodman



I really enjoyed this one, it's another that I would read for long periods of time during the day. I loved the Asian culture, and the dragons, and the twist at the end. I thought I had it figured out, and I did have part of it figured out, but she still totally got me with this other component. It's technically high fantasy, but not at ALL in the way you think of high fantasy. Go pick it up. It's totally worth your money.

Today I'm guest blogging over at Carolina Valdez Miller's blog, Carol's Prints. She has been doing a series of character interviews (check hers out--it's HILARIOUS) and she asked me to interview one of my characters, so I picked Jesse, from MEMENTO MORI, but go check it out... someone else interrupts the interview... ;) Carol (Carolina is her writing name) is another person I met on Twitter (click to get to hers), and I've lately had the opportunity to e-mail with her, and she is the biggest sweetheart ever. She's got a killer story and a killer idea she's querying, and she's got a lot of talent, as well as a great sense of humor and well-developed characterization. She writes YA paranormal romance/fantasy <3 Keep tabs on her blog--she's going to be doing more of these guest blog character interviews. It's going to be a great time, I guarantee it!

I'm really loving this guest blogging thing. I definitely want to have someone over here to guest blog. It's way fun. :)

This entry is going to be a hodgepodge of a lot of different things that have come to mind over the last week when I was basically forsaking livejournal and Twitter for editing. (Speaking of Twitter, check out Let The Words Flow tomorrow for an article by seeyouupside on Twitter.)

And, I'm a big geek here, but since this entry got so long, I've actually titled the sections.

Criticism
The first thing that occurred to me, and I feel dumb for the fact that it took me so long to GET this, has to do with taking and giving criticism. I'll start with the taking, because that's what I used to think I was horrible at. And, I was horrible at it, but not for the reasons I used to think. I used to think that taking criticism well only meant that you didn't get defensive. That you listened calmly, and were able to read it and think about it rationally, and without wanting to bite the other person's head off and proclaim them the biggest idiot on earth if they didn't lavish praise all over you. And yes, that's part of it. Approaching criticism with an open mind is very important, but there's another facet to that open mindedness that I completely missed.

I didn't believe that I knew better for my story than anyone else. If someone told me to delete something, I deleted it, without thinking twice about whether I was helping, or hurting. I accepted line edits without argument, immediately implemented any and all plot suggestions, even made characterization changes, without first thinking about whether or not these suggestions would really improve my story. In short, I handed the reigns over to whoever was giving the criticism, and gave them creative control over my work.

It wasn't until a friend of mine who I really trust read something that had been critiqued and said "I can pick out where this has been edited, because it doesn't sound like you" that I realized what I had done.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I feel like it's something I need to say, so that other people can read it, and understand this one thing that it took me so long to get: YOU know what's best for your story. Not your mom, not your critique partners, not your college professor or high school English teacher. YOU.

And you know what, when I finally did get that, my stories got better. I approached the critiques I received with an editorial eye, just as I would my story. I tossed out the ones that didn't work, modified the ones with problems, and cheerfully implemented those that were insightful and correct. I'm actually a faster editor now that I'm not trying to force my plots and characters into molds that they just don't fit. So I hope if there's anyone out there reading this, struggling with this same thing, that you learn to trust yourself, because even if you're just starting out, you really do know best for your own work.

World building and history
So you know how a lot of authors need to have maps printed in the front or back of their books because their world is so extensive? I feel like I need to have a 1,000 year timeline printed in mine (the hypothetical ones that only exist in my head, of course.) I don't know if I've said this definitively or not, but all of my fantasy novels I've written, and all the ones I have planned, are set in the same world. They are all stand alone novels, featuring different characters and different times in my world's history, but they are all set in the same place. But, between them, I have all these historical events that happen explaining changes (both large and small) in the culture, the magic, the class structure--which would take pages of unnecessary info dump to explain. Hence, I want a timeline. Hahaha. For example, between PHANTOM BEAUTY and MEMENTO MORI (a gap of about 100 years) something happens to their entire magic system (telling you would be giving away ANOTHER plot I have in mind) but it totally flips how everyone sees magic. In PHANTOM BEAUTY, they're all afraid of it. The low class uses small spells sometimes, because they have nothing else to lose (the classes are VERY divided in my world) and sometimes the upper class secretly tries to use it for political or monetary gains. But everyone is absolutely afraid of it (because of events that happened centuries earlier.) BUT, in MEMENTO MORI, something's happened between the two novels, during their industrial revolution, and now magic is a fluid thing--passing from one person to the next, recognized for the power it can hold over technology, or to enhance technology.

Age and writing
This last one just comes from having a really weird and coincidental week. I get told, as a matter of course, that I'm really young (20) and that I have my entire life to seek publishing, and that I should just concentrate on university right now. This has been happening ever since I stopped hiding my dream from everyone (which is something I'll be discussing later this month on LTWF, hiding--so watch out for it! I'll let you know when it goes up). I'm very used to people reminding me of my young age, and asking me what's the rush. (There is no rush, is what I tell them. This is just the path I'm choosing at the current moment.)

I know a lot of you, my livejournal friends, are my age or younger, and a lot of you are writers. And, I don't know if this is true for you or what, but when I was your age, and even now, I really wished for someone to tell me the opposite. So, I'm going to be that person. Look, your age doesn't matter. I don't want you to miss out on life because you're closeting yourself in your room writing all hours of the day and night, but neither do I want you to miss out on your dreams.

I guess I feel differently about this because I let academics and trying to be "popular" in high school really suck up all my time. I didn't give writing or music (the two most important things to me in the entire universe) much of a chance, because I heeded those words when people told me I had forever, and that I should stop rushing. And I have to tell you, completely candidly, that that was the most miserable I have ever been in my entire life. I'm glad I broke out of that pattern of making excuses, because you can waste your life away making excuses. After high school, after college, life doesn't get any less busy. You're always going to have to learn to balance everything. If you're ready, if you've got a revised manuscript, a kickass query and a great synopsis, I don't see why you should sit on those things until you've reached an arbitrary age, or an arbitrary milestone. Go for it now. You don't want to be 45, or hell, 85, and looking back saying "I wish." You don't have forever, but you do have right now. Life is far too short to wait for anything.

Normally Mondays kinda suck, but this monday happens to be pretty exciting for me (even if I do have a lot of homework).

I'm guest blogging about steampunk over at my friend Sara McClung's blog! She's a writer I met on twitter--super nice, almost done with her first novel, and she's very dedicated. Keep an eye on her--she's got a lot of talent and a great idea. I'm very excited, because I've never done a guest blog before! :) So, click here if you want to read my take on steampunk, examples of what it is, different kinds of steampunk, and a bunch of book recommendations.

Also, sjmaas and seeyouupside started a wordpress blog for fictionpress writers seeking publication. There are writers in every stage, from published, to agented, to querying, and we'll be posting about everything--the writing process, getting reviews, twitter, revising, querying, etc. We've been keeping it secret so far as we worked everything out, but today it launches! You should check it out. Be sure to scroll through the blog entries--the first official entry is by mandywriter, but below that are all of our introduction posts, so be sure to scroll down and read them. I've also never been part of a group blog before. Haha, it's a week of firsts for me.

What is it about editing that makes me neglect my livejournal?

Actually, it makes me neglect everything. I was editing instead of participating in yalitchat on twitter last wednesday, I haven't been on facebook except to update my status to "I love popcorn", and it's probably for the best that I don't get many e-mails as a matter of course, or I wouldn't be able to respond to them all :P

Editing/revising is going REALLY well. I opened up an old project that I was kind of afraid to touch, and it just made sense. It's not a bloodbath, exactly, but there is some serious plastic surgery going on here. It's really fun. I'm always a little afraid to start serious revisions, but once I start, I remember how awesome it is to know you're doing the right thing for your story, and making it way better than it was before. I'll probably have to go through it at least once more after this (I'm actually predicting twice, because I want to make sure it's everything I want it to be) but I am so excited for the finished product.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo (here's my page), even though finals week happens RIGHT in the middle of November. Ah, well. At least I'll have like a week and a half after that to hermit myself in my apartment and just WRITE for days. My own personal goal is only 30k, so I'm not aiming to win or anything. But I've had these three novel ideas for a while, and I can't decide which one to write. But I really want to start something new, so hopefully by Nov 1 I'll have decided which novel to begin :P I'll tell you what they are: the high fantasy I sometimes mention, another steampunk (featuring a supporting character from MM--the most badass person probably in the entire ms) or another opera story that happens a few years before PB.

Yesterday, me and one of my oldest friends went to a Renaissance festival. We got lost (really lost) on the way, but once we were there it was a blast. I got a wax mold made of one of my hands (lol it just looked too cool to pass up) and I got the geekiest necklace. It's a dragon's claw, holding a cat's-eye marble. I almost bought a dagger (a real one--sharp and everything) but I stopped myself. Trust me, if the rapiers hadn't been like $100, I would've bought one. (If you haven't noticed by now, the Renaissance festival wasn't exactly historically accurate. We kind of decided that if it happened between the 10th century and the 18th century, it was fair game :P especially consideringn there were Vikings and knights Templar walking around.)

On the way back, we listened to Nightwish in the car... and we may or may not have sang along. Haha. I have a really bad cold--I can't even breathe through my nose--so I was pretty much a disaster when it came to hitting all those high notes.

But it made me want to share Nightwish with you guys. They have been my favorite band ever since a friend (the same one I went to the Renfest with) showed them to me sophomore year of high school. Ever since, I've basically been pushing and shoving them on everyone I know, sending songs and commanding that they listen. I have almost every Nightwish album, except for the first one, and I've also got a lot of the special versions of stuff that went with Japan releases and singles. I'm so obsessed with Nightwish, in fact, that a bit of gossip about the band's break up actually inspired a novel :P (it's the other opera story I mentioned above.)

This is "Ghost Love Score" and it's probably one of my favorite songs in the entire world:


I can't resist another one. This is one of the instrumentals of a song from their latest album "Dark Passion Play"--this album is the first with their new vocalist. It's also the first time they've really released the album twice--once without any vocal tracks. I love it way too much. This song is called "Amaranth":


I hope you've all had a good week! I'm really looking forward to next weekend. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and my town/uni has this HUGE party. They shut down the main street in the center of town all night Saturday night, and everyone dresses up and basically the entire 20,000 person uni shows up and wreaks havoc. I'm really excited about my costume. I'm going to be Elphaba from Wicked <3. I'm painting my face green, and I'm even dying my hair black (temporarily). So... what are you guys going to be?

Since everyone was really intrigued by the fact that I live in a haunted town, and by the centerpiece of our hauntings, the old abandoned insane asylum, I went out and took pictures this weekend. I'd been looking for somewhere to take photos of the autumn foliage anyway, so this provided the perfect (and creepy) opportunity and place.

Without further ado, the old insane asylum, rumored to be haunted:
( Not for the faint of heart... )

If you want to see high resolution versions of the images, you can go to my deviantart, where I've uploaded the big ones. Sorry I'm not a better photographer.

Anyway, now that you've seen it, can you see why I'm itching to write a story about it? I have to tell you, the stories about the hauntings are even creepier. If anyone is interested in stories about hanging trees, moving gravestones, or decomposing bodies in the attic of the asylum, I would be happy to tell them to you.

I recently realized that I haven't done any sort of writing update in a while, and that is what this blog is supposed to be for. So, what have I been doing? Well, editing has been my first priority--editing various projects of mine, which has been going really well. I know exactly what I need to be doing, exactly what to fix, and I'm really pleased with my character arcs. I've also been working on polishing synopses and queries (by the way, a HUGE thank you to every single one of you who helped with the query--it shaped up so nicely because of all your comments. And it was SO nice to hear that so many people thought I had an intriguing sounding plotline. I have the best f-list ever.) Plus, my fab critique partner gave me some really great edits on a project not too long ago, and I'm really excited to get started on those. There are times that editing can be a little daunting, but thinking about how much better the end result will be makes the entire process worth it, and makes me itch to get started.

I've also been thinking a LOT about new projects, and literally the only downside to this is that I have so many ideas, I don't know which one to pick. In November, I'm doing KazNoWriMo, which is a slightly smaller version of NaNoWriMo hosted by the absolutely fabulous kaz_mahoney! (by the way, her book THE IRON WITCH just sold to Flux not too long ago--it sounds SO good, it's already on goodreads, and you should all check it out. Comes out in '11) Since for NaNo you have to start a new project, I figured Kaz' is perfect for me. I'm really excited, and I think I've already got my idea mapped out. I may start it sooner, just because I am so pumped about this idea. I don't want to give too much away, but it is another steampunk, and though it is in no way a sequel or prequel or companion to MM, a few of MM's characters may appear ;-) Oh... and I think I'm going to try a REAL love-triangle this time. I'm not even sure which of the two guys is my mc's true love! We'll just have to see who she picks...

The three other ideas in my head are also clamoring for attention, so who knows if I'll change my mind about my KazNo project before we hit November. I'm going all over the place with genre, too. One idea is for another opera story, then I've got the high fantasy I've mentioned a couple times, and I've had this idea for a horror novel for quite a while, and last week in class we read Doctor Faustus by C. Marlowe, and it gave me an idea that would REALLY amp up the horror story. It would take the cliche out of having a horror story set in an insane asylum--HOWEVER, I live near an abandoned insane asylum, and you BET it's haunted! So I really hope to incorporate that, too. Actually, my entire town is haunted. Writing material everywhere I turn. :)

Other than that, I ordered THE TROUBLE WITH KINGS by Sherwood Smith after spending the weekend re-reading CROWN DUEL for the thousandth time (can I say how much I ADORE that novel? I think I've read it at least once a year since I bought it when I was 14.) Also, really excited to get my hands on LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld. It sounds like the perfect blend of YA and steampunk, and hopefully it will really put a spotlight on the genre. I've been a steampunk fan for a while, now, and I'm so glad it's gaining popularity.

Anyway, time for me to get back to something involving writing or editing! I hope you're all having great weeks!

So today, I was stuck in the car with an hour more to drive. My bag, with my pens, paper, moleskine, etc. etc. was on the floor of the passenger seat--and I was in a BIG car, so it was out of reach. Not that I would've been able to write down anything coherent while driving, anyway. BUT I needed to write something down, because an idea sparked and I didn't want to forget it. The only thing I had at my disposal was one of those HUGE sharpies.

So, I wrote all over myself.



When I ran out of room on my wrist, I moved to my ankle. I crossed my left ankle over the opposite knee, and scribbled the rest of it down while BARELY looking at what I was writing.



Yes, I did blur a couple of the words in photoshop, because they give away plot points, but the gist of the note is "E is upset when ***** **** doesn't work. Witch mocks E a/b **** *******."

You all won't believe me, but sharpie (and any other kind of ink) washes off me REALLY fast. If those notes haven't washed off in the shower tonight, I'll be very surprised.

I came up with a title for my steampunk! After scouring Poe poems ("darkness there, and nothing more"), making every combination I could think of out of the most used words in my manuscript (thank you wordle, and kaz_mahoney for the suggestion to use that site), laughing over titles like It's Raining Corpses with sjmaas, and tearing my hair out in chunks, it ended up being something I think about a lot, but I had never thought about in tandem with this novel.

So, what is it?

I'll give you the biggest hint in the entire world. Ready?

"Remember you are mortal."

EDIT: Since you guys don't want to guess, I'll just tell you. It's MEMENTO MORI--so theinkymuse, you got it right. :-P I might later explain more fully my reasons for selecting this, but, in short, there's a theme of mortality and killing people who aren't yet meant to die throughout the novel, as well as rather a lot of corpses.

After having finished the steampunk, I didn't know what to do with myself this weekend. The obvious answer would be homework, but why would I start that on Friday (or... ever) when I have all day Sunday to do it? So I picked up CLOCKWORK HEART by Dru Pagliassotti, something I bought over a month ago, but was afraid to read while I was writing my own steampunk.



It was so fantastic that I spent all day Saturday reading, and I left a party early so I could come home and finish the book (stayed up until 2:00 AM finishing even though my eyes were drooping and I was half-asleep already.) This book was the kind of book that was so fantastically crafted, it made me simultaneously despair for my own writing, and smile that I'd found something this good.

If you couldn't tell by that description, I absolutely loved this book. It's a steampunk on the science fiction side of things (rather than the fantasy side, which is what I wrote and what WICKED GENTLEMEN by Ginn Hale is) and the world building is gorgeously done and really clean. I loved reading about their world--and it was all set in a city, which makes me really happy, because I love urban settings. Anyone on my friend list who wanted to know more about steampunk, or who was looking for recommendations, this is a very good book to read just to understand some of what steampunk is. Also, it's just a very good book.

And, I think the romantic elements made my heart leap more than it did when I was in middle school, and I realized for the first time in my life that my Big Crush liked me back. THAT'S how good it was. There are certainly a lot of good romantic sub-plots out there, but this one was one of the best I've read in a while, simply because the two main characters worked so well together. None of it was forced, neither of them were too flawed or too perfect, and I didn't feel like Pagliassotti was throwing situations at them simply because those situations would induce them to make-out. It's not hard to get a 4/5 romance rating out of me, but, ironically enough, it's near to impossible to make me take that next step up and give a romantic plot a 5/5. Well, this one gets a 5/5, hands down, no argument.

I think the only problem I had with it was certain somewhat manufactured descriptions of one of the main characters, and the way the book ended. The final chapter was more like an epilogue, and I think what happened in it was too abrupt. It would've been better in a sequel. She's writing a sequel now, though she didn't plan to write a sequel to this book, but (very small spoiler alert) [even still, it would've been better to leave that sort of romantic resolution up to the reader, as I didn't get the feeling that they were THAT set on being with each other forever when the chapter previous ended. However, that's more of a personal preference (not having a completely resolved romance) than anything, so....]

Anyway, this one comes highly recommended from me, and is definitely going on the special bookshelf in my room, rather than on the huge ones in my office, so that I can re-read scenes or read it again, or possibly just stare at it and remember how happy it made me.


*My favorite quote from the entire book. It makes sense with all the meaning that's layered on the title. I have extreme title envy right now. Extreme.

First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who read my teaser and left me a comment about it. I honestly wasn't expecting very many people at all to read it or to give me such nice comments (and a huge thanks to sjmaas for posting about it on her blog). It gives me more courage in a number of writing-related arenas (not excluding having the spine to post more teasers).

In news of the (still untitled) steampunk, I finished chapter 10 and wrote chapter 11 while I was on the plane. I knew those long flights were good for something. I've got 31k words, and no idea how long it's going to take me to finish the plot, but I'm excited to see where it takes me.

But the most exciting news I have is that I was in LA this past weekend visiting Sarah (sjmaas) and I had SO much fun! She and her fiance Josh (and I must say they are one of the cutest couples I have ever met) drove me around California. We went to Santa Barbara, took the PCH (and had an interesting incident in which we thought fog was a forest fire), went to a party in the hills, went to the beach, and I was even lucky enough to be privy to some wedding stuff!

Anyway, behold some pictures under the cut! I still can't find my camera cord, I'm going to go out and see if I can buy a new one later today, but these are some of Sarah's pictures :-)

( Enter if you dare )

College starts the day after Labor Day, which means I have a day under two weeks left of summer. Let's hope I can really crack down and get the steampunk finished! I think it's totally possible for me to do 30k in two weeks, if I really put my mind to it. All right. Ready... set...

I realized that I've never posted any of my writing for you, my lovely livejournal friends, to read. I just broke 15k words in the steampunk, so I thought I would share part of the opening scene.




( Meet Chase... )


The entire story is in third person limited (so far anyway) from Chase's POV. He's a train engineer, with a bit of a hero complex (which gets him into some troublesome situations) and a few interesting magical abilities. My steampunk world is something of a mix of post Civil War era USA, and Victorian England... and it has my favorite form of magic: necromancy.

Anyway, if you read it, thanks! And I hope you enjoyed it ;-)

So, this weekend I was in a suburb of Pittsburgh at a family reunion (we have one every year,) and I managed to convince some of the family to go to the mall with me. We stopped at Barnes & Noble, and they had PRADA & PREJUDICE, so I bought a copy. I also snapped a picture, because I know the author, Mandy Hubbard, likes getting photos of her book "in the wild"--I did get in trouble with a store clerk for getting out my phone. Apparently you can't photograph copywritten material, even if you know the author wants the picture :-P I had to wait for him to walk off to take it, and as SOON as I clicked the button, he walked back in the aisle. I think he was checking on me. I ran off to the childrens' section and started talking about books with my niece and nephew.

Anyway, I finished the book today! It was so cute, and there was a specific moment at the end of Callie's time in 1815 that gave me those "sqeeeeeeal!" kind of chills. :-) I also liked the message the book and Callie sent the reader--that you should be happy with yourself, and not bother with the pressure to "fit in" or be popular. Also, that you can get a boy's attention by being yourself, not by being what you think he wants. When my niece hits 12 or 13, I'll definitely be buying her a copy.

Here's the picture that I got in trouble for taking:

I officially finished draft one of my second fully completed book, PHANTOM BEAUTY, (third, if you count DoM, which I do not) about an hour ago. I created the file for chapter one on May 17th, so it took me a little over a month (!) to write it, even while I was in school for most of that time. It's almost 49k words, which feels so short to me, considering that KotF is currently 70k (and after draft 2, before I cut it down and removed a really stupid sub-plot, it was 86k.) But that means lots of fleshing out room (and boy, does it need that.)

Anyway, if you couldn't guess by the title and by the post I made about the Palais Garnier, PHANTOM BEAUTY is something of a Phantom of the Opera retelling. There's also some Beauty and the Beast mixed in, a la the Phantom is ugly because of a curse, not because he was born that way. He's also not the villain, but the love interest, so anyone who wanted Christine to end up with the Phantom, you'll really like my story. I changed a lot of the names from PotO to keep that story from overpowering the BatB elements, and the original elements (though no other name fit the Phantom but Erik--and random, but I noticed in the entire PotO musical, they only ever call him Phantom or Opera Ghost--never by his name.)

Now the only question remains: what next?

6/24/2009 3:07 PM Edit:

I made fake book covers for myself instead of studying for finals. :-)

Ohhhhh my god... If I could only paint a picture this vivid with my words.

So, even though my ever-growing stack of books I've purchased but haven't read has 29 books in it, I went to Borders yesterday and got 2 books: WIT'CH FIRE - James Clemens, and GOING TOO FAR - Jennifer Echols.

Last night, instead of writing or doing my homework or watching Hamlet (substitution for doing my homework) I read GOING TOO FAR. It was an easy read, it only took a couple hours, but even if it had taken longer it would've been hard to put down. I don't normally bother with books that don't have a fantasy or sci-fi element, but I loved this. (and it has a great cover, too!)





Loosely, the plot is about a blue-haired girl (her hair color seems very important to the plot and is mentioned constantly) who gets in trouble and rather than going to juvi, gets stuck spending her spring break with a 19-year-old cop.

I only had a couple problems with this book: neither of them knew anything about each other even though they'd been in the same Spanish class in high school and lived in a small town, and the fact that Meg (the protagonist) somehow mistakes John (love interest) for a 40-year-old when he first arrests her. She may have been drunk and scared and on the verge of a panic attack, so I wasn't expecting a full physical description, but mistaking a teenager for a middle-aged man was a bit of a stretch.

Other than that, the dialogue was awesome, the tension was very well done (I had about 50 OMG PLEASE KISS moments) and both characters were likable. It wasn't implausible to believe they loved each other after a week (usually I have severe problems with falling in love that fast and it's one of the things that can ruin a book for me) because literally 80% of the book was just between them, and it felt like they spent way more time together.

John's Big Secret was obvious to me pretty much from the beginning, but Meg's caught me completely off-guard. Didn't see that one coming at all.

Anyway, it's really cute and it's a quick read. Usually I regret branching away from my fantasy obsession and tasting the real world setting, but not this time. It was a nice change.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars and definitely recommend it!

This is one of the creepiest animals I've ever seen. Called Thylacine, or a Tasmanian Tiger, even though it's really a marsupial wolf. It's extinct (or so they think,) and the last ones known were alive in the 30s in captivity. So I guess now there's like this urban myth that they're running around in the forests of Tasmania. I will not be visiting the Tasmanian woodlands any time soon.

Today I got my copy of KINGS AND ASSASSINS in the mail! Not only was it free, and is it signed, but it's personalized!!! I didn't do anything special to get it (just entered a random drawing contest) but I don't care; it's the first book I've ever had personalized to me and I'm excited!

Plus, I just can't wait to read it.