Hungover

November 12, 201325 Comments

Cover of The Hunger Games

Yep, I am suffering a massive book hangover after my all-weekend reading spree. I still can’t believe that I stayed up all night reading Mockingjay, but it was just too hard to put down. After seeing the movie, I was actually a bit indifferent about reading the books. The movie left me with the impression they were leaving a lot out, but I was only mildly curious to find out what had been cut. I managed about twenty pages or so in the first sitting, but once I picked up The Hunger Games Friday afternoon and sat down to have a good (uninterrupted) read, I found I couldn’t stop.

Since I saw the movie before I read the books, my mental image of what things looked like in the first book was pretty much what I’d already seen. And every time Haymitch spoke up, I heard Woody Harrelson’s voice dripping sarcasm which, frankly, I thought was great. I’m not sure anyone else could have played him better. Same for Donald Sutherland as President Snow – he makes such a good villain!

Read no further if you’ve not already read the books. Spoilers abound. Sort of.

Apology

November 9, 201316 Comments

English: A map of the fictional nation of Pane...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please excuse my lack of presence over the last couple of days. I’ve become lost in Panem and hope to return shortly. Meanwhile, have a great rest of the weekend!

Are they real?

November 5, 201319 Comments

c. 50 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Are you working through lunch again?” the man asked as I pulled out my notebook.

“Yeah, but this is fun work,” I replied, smiling. I plopped the MS for The Lokana Chronicles down on the table.

He bent closer to inspect the title page. “What’s this? A novel?”

“Yep. And here’s the sequel,” I said, removing the MS for Remnants from my purse. It hit the table with a thud.

He took another look. “You wrote these?”

My waitress joined us. “You’re a writer?”

“Yep.”

Her eyes widened. “Wow! I always see you writing in your little notebook…”

“This is usually what I’m working on,” I said, smiling again.

I told them a little about my work and the man asked if he was part of my story. I said no. Then he asked,

Writing, then and now

October 26, 20134 Comments

My parents in our living room. Those lovely bookshelves went from floor to ceiling. 🙂

Well, once again, I didn’t get my post up on time. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing lately, although not on The Lokana Chronicles or Remnants. I’m taking a writing class online, and in our second class, we received a prompt. My homework was to work more on what I’d come up with for the prompt in class, and it’s been a challenge.

I got called into work yesterday afternoon and since I had to drive over there and drop the boys off anyway, I left in the morning like normal and spent three lovely hours at the library working on this new story. It reminded me of when I was younger, and I would take over the living room to write, or spread things out in my room.

There wasn’t really much to take over in the living room, since my sister lived with my grandparents and my dad lived at his desk in the dining room, but it was the space I wanted. Often a friend or two would join me and we would stay up till the wee hours of the morning writing and giving each other feedback. And also dancing to Gaelic Storm.

And now, an interview!

October 24, 201327 Comments

Will's Photograph As promised, I have an interview for you with the lovely Will Macmillan Jones, author of the hilarious Banned Underground books. It might have taken me a little longer than I first thought to get this posted, but what can I say? Writers are not necessarily the most organized lot. (Some may very well be, but I most certainly am not.)

KK: So, now that you’ve done it a couple of times, what’s it like to put out two books a year?

WMJ: What’s it like? Let me see…imagine being run over by a lawnmower, thrown in a washing machine, a tumble drier and finished off in an old fashioned mangle. It’s hard going. As you know, I don’t write especially long books, mainly for commercial reasons. But even so it is very hard work, both creatively and practically. But actually quite rewarding too. I can now look at my dressing table and see a line of my books. Yes, I’m really that sad as to have them on show in my bedroom, so that I can see them when I wake up.

KK: I see nothing wrong with that. In all honesty, I would likely do the same thing. 🙂 They say it takes three books to see success. Do you feel like that’s true? Why or why not?

The Banned Underground: The SatNav of Doom

October 14, 2013October 14, 20131 Comment

The latest installment in The Banned Underground series, The SatNav of Doom definitely holds up to the standard set by the first four novels (you can read my reviews of them here, here, here, and here). Chock full of humor as always, I laughed my way through The SatNav of Doom at an admittedly slower pace than the previous books, but that was due to my overwhelming open house (and moving) preparation and is in no way a reflection on this fine novel. Indeed, settling down with Fungus and the gang for a rockin’ gig was a welcome relief from my moving stress. 🙂

The discerning reader will find many gems along the way to the Edern’s enchanted Fairy Hill hideout. From wonderful musical jokes to brilliant pop culture references, there’s plenty here to make you giggle, grin, and even guffaw. For example:

A memory of books

October 3, 201327 Comments

Yesterday morning I was running errands with Cricket and Thumper, and they wanted a story. I was at Sam’s Club, and they happened to have a bunch of Dr. Seuss board books for sale. Just the sight of them triggered a fresh wave of childhood memories – my dad hated Dr. Seuss, but not me. My sister and I both loved his books, and we kept checking them out at the library and insisting he read them to us before bed. I remember reading a wide variety of books with my mom, particularly from The Great Illustrated Classics line, but I mostly remember reading Dr. Seuss with my dad.

I think it was because he hated him so that we made him read those books to us. Either that, or he hated Dr. Seuss because we made him read the books so often.

We happened to own a copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and we read it so frequently that the spine is now falling off the book. I saw a shiny new copy yesterday next to the board books and was sorely tempted to buy one, but in the end, it remained on the shelf. I remember bringing home How the Grinch Stole Christmas from the school library and insisting on hearing it before bed one Christmas. And who could forget Green Eggs and Ham? Or The Cat in the Hat? Or Fox in Socks? Or The Lorax?

When I graduated high school, my childhood Sunday School teacher gave me a copy of Oh! The Places You’ll Go! I breezed through it, then put it aside. The whimsy of the illustrations still captivated me, but the message of the book didn’t really soak in. Not until I had graduated college, married, had a child of my own, and divorced, did the book really make much sense for me. I recognized several of the stops mentioned in the book, and adjusted my life’s path accordingly.

Books were a huge part of my childhood, and I can’t imagine life without them. What are some of your favorite books, from childhood or otherwise?

Lotsa news!

September 12, 2013September 12, 20132 Comments

First up, The Lokana Chronicles is up on Miss Snark’s First Victim as part of this month’s Secret Agent Contest. Click here to check it out! And if you follow me on Twitter, I apologize for the pitch spam, but the After the Madness Twitter Pitch Party is today and I’ve – belatedly – been pitching my book in hopes of snagging an agent’s interest. I missed out on Pitch Madness this time around, and I haven’t been too addicted to the #pitmad thread today, either, but both things are always a lot of fun and I wish all the contestants good luck (and all the winners congratulations). 🙂

Next, I was super excited to see this in my email yesterday:

I adore the Banned Underground books and have been anxiously awaiting the release of The SatNav of Doom ever since I finished the last book in the series. My screencap cut off some of the links, so here they are again: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, even a blog!

And last, but certainly not least…

Change is falling all around me

September 3, 201317 Comments

Beautiful fall color (Photo credit: blmiers2)

Can you believe it’s September already? Overnight, it seems like fall has struck. The grass in the ditches is suddenly golden, the temperatures at night are nice and frosty, and football is now everywhere I look.

I love fall. The colors are breathtaking, the temperatures are perfect, and fresh apples abound (I’m a sucker for the smell of fresh apples – nothing beats it). Fall is a time of change, though, and I don’t always do well with change, so reconciling my love of fall with my strong dislike of change will be interesting this year.

Whether it was the beginning of a new school year or the start of a new job, fall for me means change.

We are the champions, my friends!

July 29, 201311 Comments

campnano

I did it! I crossed the 50k line tonight! Well, I probably actually crossed it sometime this noon, but I typed across the 50k line tonight and validated everything tonight and holy crap, you guys! Fifty thousand words is a lot of freaking words!

Okay, so that’s my excitement for the night then. I know I can write another 50k because I’ve done it before (The Lokana Chronicles is roughly 100k) and that it will probably take that many more before my story is all done, but I’m just trying to focus on one thing at a time right now, especially since I was hoping to have this story nearing completion by this point in time. I can’t believe I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and I’m only half done. I had hoped to be so much further along than this! But I suppose that’s just the way it goes, huh? That that’s all part of being a mother/wife/friend/office drone/writer. There are only so many hours in the day and I only get one of them, sometimes two, to write.

But I’m greedy – I want more.

Luckily, my work schedule is about to get a lot less hectic, so that should help. Naptime will once again be writing time! And with school starting back up in just a few short weeks, perhaps homework time can be writing time, too? I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m going to celebrate my Camp Nano win by going to bed early tonight. I could definitely use the sleep. How has everyone else done with their Nano goals? If you haven’t done Nano, why not try it come November?