NaNoWriMo Update 2

Hope you enjoy.

I am thinking a about doing a contest with homemade candles and soap. If you would interested in that, leave a comment.

Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen

Rating:
Characters: 17/20
Plot: 17/20
Originality: 17/20
Writing: 19/20
Recommendation: 18/20
Overall: 88/100 or B
Sara Black is a new eleventh grader at Anton High. Anton High School is the most elite public school in the nation. In Anton High’s world of privilege, intelligence, and wealth, Sara can escape her family’s tarnished past and become whomever she wants. And what’s the harm in telling a few little black lies when it can lead to popularity? That is, until another it girl at Anton becomes jealous of Sara’s social climbing. With her balance evaporating, one small push could bring Sara crashing down.
I don't usually like books about rich girls. I think that I could relate to it, because Sara felt out of place and wasn't rich. She is paranoid about others finding out about her. I think that everyone has felt this way. Sara was a realistic character and had interesting aspects about her. Her choices were not always the smartest thing but that is how most teens are. Cohen also developed the mean girl, well. When I learned what was happening with Carling, at home. I wish that their was more of a romantic plot. I wasn't sure if their romance was going to last or was even that real. Cohen is a great writer. Little Black Lies is a dramatic and cute book.

Contest time!

I have a spare copy of The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard. Here is what it is about:
Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year, and no one—not even Julia’s boyfriend— knew. They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can’t mourn Julia openly, and he’s tormented that he might have played a part in her death. When Julia’s journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he’s desperately trying to forget her. But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?
It is a stunning book and you will enjoy it.
To enter: What is the biggest secret that you think that someone could keep from you?
Extra entries:
1. New or Current follower. +5
2. Re-post it in any social network or blog. +3 each
3. +1 for each referral and +1 on being referred.
This Contest is open till November 26th at midnight. It is only open to USA addresses only.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Rating:
Characters: 18/20
Plot: 17/20
Originality: 18/20
Writing: 18/20
Recommendation: 18/20
Overall: 89/100 or B
In the earlier years of the Civil War, there were rumors about the Klondike gold rush. Wagon fulls of newcomers came the Pacific Northwest. The Russian prospectors are anxious to compete. It is no surprise that they hire Leviticus Blue to create a machine that could drill through the ice. Dr. Blue creates a machine called the Boneshaker. The test of the machine causes for something to go wrong. Most of downtown Seattle is destroyed. A blight gas is released from deep in the Earth. If that wasn't enough, the blight gas causes anyone that breathes it in, to become a part of the living dead.
It is sixteen years later, a wall has been built to keep in the blight gas in. Blue's widow and son, Briar and Ezekiel live just beyond the wall. Ezekiel wants to learn more about his father, he goes on a quest to find out more about him in the city.His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.
I don't read many adult novels, but Boneshaker has cross appeal for the young adult audience. Briar seems to be awesome and a very strong women. She is unique. Ezekiel was interesting and a strong teen guy. The plot for Boneshaker was interesting and entertaining. I liked the fact that you weren't sure what was going to happen. I am also excited for the next book in this series. I haven't read many steampunks books, but Priest did an awesome job manipulating history and creating a great storyline. Priest is an amazing writer and creating great characters and plot. I recommend that you check out this book, if you like history with a bit of zombies, you will enjoy this.

Gringolandia Tour Stop

Gringolandia (ISBN 978-1-931896-49-8)
Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Release Date: May 1, 2009
Publisher: Curbstone Press
Pages: 250

Gringolandia tells the story of Daniel Aguilar. His father is a political prisoner in Chile. After years of imprisonment, Daniel's father is released. He noticed the damage that his father has after years of imprisonment. He tries to reach his father with the help of his "gringo" girlfriend Courtney, but soon finds himself in the democracy struggle of the country he thought he left behind.
Gringolandia is a very heartfelt and beautiful story. It is told in Daniel and Courtney's Perspective. It was an amazing way to see both of their perspectives. I also loved how vibrant the setting was. The plot was also interesting and like no book that I have read. It took such a serious topic and created a stunning book that will be in your heart for life. It reminds me a lot of Red Glass by Laura Resau.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review, the author of the award-winning reference book Our Family, Our Friends, Our World: An Annotated Guide to Significant Multicultural Books for Children and Teenagers (1992), the editor of Once Upon a Cuento (2003), a collection of short stories for young readers by Latino authors, and the author of the novel Dirt Cheap (2006), an eco-thriller for adult readers. For Gringolandia, she received a Work-in-Progress Grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

I had the honor of interviewing Lyn Miller-Lachman, I hope you enjoy.
1. What, or who were your inspirations for Gringolandia? How was your trip to Chile for research in 1990?
In the 1980s I taught English to refugees and students from Central and South America. Through them and through friends who had fled the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, I organized concerts of Chilean musicians whose songs protested the lack of freedom and human rights in their country. Many were living in exile, banned by the dictatorship from returning. Others, still in Chile, were forced to perform and to sell their recordings in secret while struggling to make a living in other ways and enduring the constant threat of arrest or death. I was moved by the heroism of these talented artists, and some of their stories were heartbreaking.
One of the musicians was expelled from Chile and separated from his young children, who remained behind with his ex-wife. Twelve years later, his son, then 18 years old, came to live with him. On tour through the United States, they stayed at my house for several days. Seeing them together gave me the idea for writing a novel about a son and a father separated for many years and then reunited after experiences that had so dramatically changed them both.
In fall 1989 I received a work-in-progress grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators to conduct research in Chile. Several of the musicians whose concerts I had organized in the U.S. invited me to stay with them. My husband and I went to Chile in January 1990, less than three months before the official transition to a democratically elected government. So it was during the final months of the dictatorship, a particularly dangerous time because it was their last chance to settle scores against those who had put them out of power, as well as their last chance to cover up the atrocities they had committed over the previous 17 years.
In the month we were there, police or soldiers stopped vehicles in which we were riding four times, checking IDs and searching the vehicle. They never gave a reason. The scariest of these took place on a deserted road near the coast. The person we were riding with-a popular musician who was one of the most outspoken critics of the dictatorship-had taken a short cut to his in-laws' beach house. I suspect that he had taken this route that day, rather than a safer, more traveled road, because we were with him and our presence protected him. Anyway, when the soldiers saw our U.S. passports, they let all of us go.
The people I met in Chile were enthusiastic about the idea that someone would be writing about them and telling their stories to people in the United States. All of them knew about the U.S. government's involvement in the 1973 military coup that brought the dictatorship to power, so the welcomed a writer who would reveal the consequences of that event to U.S. readers. They were very open in sharing their experiences and their culture with me. I interviewed dozens of people in Santiago and in the south of Chile, which is a very beautiful part of the country.
2. You had quite the bumpy road for getting Gringolandia published. What did you learn most from that experience?
In the year and a half before I won the SCBWI grant and went to Chile I had been working with an editor at a large publisher. During that time, I would send her drafts of the novel, she'd send back suggestions for revision, and I'd make the revisions. Somehow, there were misunderstandings or miscommunication, because shortly before I was to leave for the research trip, she sent back the manuscript and said she no longer wanted to work with me. Nonetheless, I interviewed people and took notes as if the novel were going to be published, and I suppose on some level I believed it eventually would be published. When I shelved the manuscript, I felt guilty about all the time and hope that these generous and heroic Chileans had invested in me. In the end, it took less time for them to get rid of a dictatorship than for me to get the novel published!
The lesson I learned from this is never to give up, as things happen for a reason. After losing the contract from the large publisher, I shelved the manuscript for 16 years and said I'd never write fiction again. But in 2000, I started writing an adult novel; like Gringolandia, it was a story that wouldn't let me go. After much persistence, a few semesters of creative writing classes, and many rewrites, the adult novel, Dirt Cheap, found a home with a small nonprofit literary publisher, Curbstone Press, and came out in spring 2006. Knowing that I now had a publisher and an editor who loved my writing, I took out that old manuscript I'd researched in Chile and gutted it-keeping only the basic premise, the three main characters, and one and a half chapters (out of 33). The original story was written in third person-I changed it to first person. I even changed the title. The new version is so much better than what I'd written years ago, so in a way, I'm glad it came out now and not then. Since Curbstone Press was established in 1975 to publish fiction and poetry on themes of intercultural understanding and human rights, it really was the perfect publisher for Gringolandia, and I truly feel that the version I gave my editor there was the best novel that I could have written.
3. What do you love about writing Young Adult?
I've taught full-time or part-time at the middle and high school levels for nearly 30 years. I enjoy teaching and being with young people. It's such an exciting time of life. You're trying things for the first time and trying to figure out who you are and where you fit into the world. And it's a time of rebellion against what your parents and society want you to be, as you get to decide what you want to do with your life.
Writing young adult fiction allows me to capture that, whether it's a first love, or an immigrant teenager's choice of whether he wants to hold on to a place that doesn't hold great memories, or someone angry about an injustice in his or her life, in school, or in society. In Gringolandia, my protagonist Daniel deals with all of those issues. But the biggest issue he faces is who he is-a Chilean, an American, or a combination of the two. He has terrible memories of the country where he spent the first twelve years of his life, especially of soldiers breaking into his home and beating and arresting his father. When he gets to the United States, he doesn't want to hear anything about the country of his birth. He hasn't even told his mother, but he's started the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Then his political prisoner father is released and rejoins his family in the United States. Although Daniel's father is permanently damaged from imprisonment and torture, he wants nothing more than to return to his country to continue the struggle against the dictatorship. So right away, you know there's going to be a huge problem between Daniel and his father, and how Daniel solves it will determine the person he will ultimately become and the life he will have.
4. What do you like about being editor-in-chief for MultiCultural Review? What are some of your favorite experience from being an editor?
The best thing about the job is seeing all the new books coming out each year, about all the cultures of the world. I learn a lot from them, and from the writers I work with. I also like shaping an issue, pulling together a variety of articles that touch on common themes, identifying those themes, and writing about them in my editorial or on my blog (web.mac.com/lynml), which often gives a preview of the upcoming issue.
My most memorable recent experience-which was both stressful and gratifying-was pulling together a debate involving a historical young adult novel that had been condemned by Native American reviewers and scholars for its inaccuracies. But I also wanted to give the author, who was not Native American but who lived in the community featured in the story, a chance to respond. And I wanted the entire debate to be a learning experience for anyone who's writing a novel about a culture to which they do not belong-in other words, anyone who's a cultural outsider. In all, four articles on this topic, along with my editorial summarizing the key themes, appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of MultiCultural Review. I'm very proud it how the issue turned out.
This debate is important because many books for teens are written by cultural outsiders-for instance, I am not Chilean but I'm writing about a Chilean family, and I am not Methodist, but Daniel's girlfriend, who narrates part of the story, is. People should have the right to write about other cultures besides their own, but they should also understand that there are right ways to go about it, and it's really easy to get it all wrong.
5. Is there anything that you would like to add?
I'd like to thank you, Sarah, for offering me this opportunity to be interviewed, and everyone who's reading this for your interest in my work. These were great questions, and I enjoyed thinking about them and responding to them. Please feel free to ask me any other questions, and if you miss me now, you may e-mail me later at lynml@mac.com.


Papá coughs and turns toward my mother in the back seat. “Has the other one adjusted this well?”
She hesitates as if she too is surprised by the way he's asked the question. I think he should be proud of how we've done. Except for poor Tina.
“It's been hard,” Mamá says. “Daniel's helped a lot, especially with his sister. I thought he'd have the worst time, being older.”
“It wasn't that bad,” I mumble. I don't like to think about the first few months, when I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. I had no friends and sat alone in my bedroom playing the guitar my favorite uncle, Tío Claudio, had given me before I left Chile. My first soccer team changed all that. After a year or so, I learned enough English to avoid being a complete social and academic zero, and now I speak it with an accent that makes girls go wild.
“Well, don't get too comfortable,” Papá says. “We're going back to our country.”
My mouth drops open. “Marcelo,” my mother says in a low voice, almost a growl.
“As soon as I convince the rest of you to come with me.”
You're crazy, I want to say. After all they did to you, you want to go back? And what about our lives here? But I wait for Mamá to answer first, the way I've been raised to do.
“They gave you three days to leave. I assume you're banned from returning.”
Papá takes a final puff of his cigarette, drops it on the floor of Willie's van, and grinds it out with his good foot. “I have my ways.”
“Forget it. It's too dangerous.”
Papá glares at her, like she's not supposed to backtalk him either. I press my lips together as tight as I can and ease the van onto the interstate. I can't go back to Chile. Not even Mamá knows this, but I've written for the papers to get my U.S. citizenship, and when I turn eighteen, it's going to be official. I glance at Mamá through the rear view mirror. She looks helpless, confused, and small.
I turn the radio on low while Mamá and Papá talk about the situation in their faraway country. On the sports station they're still rehashing the Bulls game that finished a couple of hours ago. I listen until the station begins to crackle and fade. (from Gringolandia, pp. 27-28)

Leave a comment with an email address below and be entered to win a SIGNED copy of Gringolandia! (Open Internationally) Thank you to the author for this wonderful opportunity A winner will be picked tomorrow. So be sure to comment.

Also, be sure to check out the other stops of the tour!
Oct 29 Kelsey at The Book Scout http://thebookscout.blogspot.com/
Oct 30 Lilibeth at ChicaReader http://lilibethramos.blogspot.com
Nov 2 Reggie at The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really) book http://theundercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/
Nov 3 Mariah at A Reader’s Adventure! http://mariah-readingadventure.blogspot.com/
Nov 6 Sarah at Sarah’s Random Musings http://sarahbear9789.blogspot.com/
Nov 9 Faye at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm http://fayeflamereviews.blogspot.com
Nov 10 Melaine at Melaine’s Musings http://melanies–musings.blogspot.com
Nov 11 Melaine at Melaine’s Musings book review
Nov 11 Hope at Hope’s Book Shelf http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com

Thanks to Jo Ann Hernández at BronzeWord Latino Authors for setting up the tour. You can find her at http://authorslatino.com/wordpress

Books Read in October:

185. Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines
186. This is What I Want to Tell You by Heather Duffy Stone
187. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
188. Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
189. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
190. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
191. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
192. Struts & Frets by Jon Skovron
193. I'm a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
194. Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
195. Break by Hannah Moskowitz
196. The Cupcake Queen by Heather Helper
197. Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin
198. After The Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr
199. The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz
200. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
201. The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp


Reviews posted from these books: 8 of these books so far, a few are planned to be posted later.
Books from Library: 4 books
Books for Review: 7 books
Books borrowed: 0 books
My Favorite: Ballads or Before I Fall. They were both amazing and I am still thinking about them.
My Least Favorite: After The Moment... I think that this book could have been wonderful, if I could relate to the characters more and so much went down in this book that it was confusing.
Update:
100+ Reading Challenge: 201 read.
V.C. Andrews: Read Good Trash movement: 3 read. 8 to go
Debut Authors '09: 47 read

NaNoWriMo Update #1

I hope you enjoy the randomness...

Waiting on Wednesday(Week Thirty-Two)

Title: Very LeFreak
Author: Rachel Cohn
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: January 12, 2010
Very LeFreak has a problem: she’s a crazed technology addict. Very can’t get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there’s any chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her supersecret online crush, she’s going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?Rachel Cohn makes her Knopf solo debut with this funny, touching, and surely recognizable story about a girl and the technology habit that threatens everything.
I love Rachel's books and this one looks so cute!

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Rating:
Characters: 19/20
Plot: 16/20
Originality: 19/20
Writing: 19/20
Recommendation: 19/20
Overall: 93/100 or A
Tricks is a story of five teens that find them in a place that they never though that would be. Each characters comes from a different background and had their own journey there. Their stories are all intertwined and create a large story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching...for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all the wrong reasons.
Tricks is a powerful book. The characters are like those that I know. I related to aspects from pretty much every character. They were definitely three dimensional. I cheered for their them and cried for all of their sadness. I felt that the plot moved a bit too slow for some of the characters and was resolved rather quickly. It was a original look on teen prostitution and how people get in to it. I love how Hopkins makes sure to keep the story real and edgy. Hopkins created a wonderful book that I think that you should check it out. At the end, you will be thinking "What if this happened to me?" and will want to read more.

Incarceron trailer

I want this book so much!