Author: Sara

YALL Fest Interview-Lisi Harrison

Leave a comment

Don’t forget to check out the official YALL Fest Website and Twitter pages. This event takes place Saturday, pharmacy November 9th, page and includes so many awesome young adult authors, its mind blowing. If you have a chance to go to this FREE event, definitely do so!

Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 1.56.13 PM

Today’s YALL Fest Interview is with YA author, Lisi Harrison!

lisi-harrison-dc118ffc52a3eaca

Lisi Harrison is a young adult author who is most famous for her three series: The Clique, Alphas and Monster High. The Clique series has spawned 21 novels, and has also been adapted as a series of graphic novels as well. Lisi started writing this series after being approached  by MTV, where she was working, to write a YA series. She wrote it to show that the popular people don’t always have it going on. Monster High is also an extremely popular series, and has branched out into the web and toy stores everywhere.

Lisi will be one of the many authors in attendance at this fantastic event. Enjoy this short interview!

Q: What one thing do you need to have when writing?

A: A scented candle. Each book has it’s own scent.

Q: Describe your book in five words.

A: Popular freshman’s secret journals revealed.

Q: What is the hardest line to write-the first or the last?

A: The first. 100%

Q: Best writing tip you ever received?

A: Stop writing in the middle of a chapter instead of the end. It will be easier to start up again the next day.

Q: What is one adult novel you wished you had as a teen?

A: Stargirl

Q: Tell us five random facts about yourself.

A: I can’t run.

I have a tattoo with a type-o. Its supposed to say “creativity” but it says “dry”.

In college I thought it would be cool to get a tattoo in Chinese characters.

I was supposed to be on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. I changed my reservation at the last minute. Now every time I look at a clock, it says 9:11.

I can’t stand being asked about my “favorites”. I don’t have favorites. If I did, I’d forget what they are the minute you asked and would remember them the minute you leave. Its maddening.

I prefer to give six random facts

Q: Where’s your favorite place to write?

A: My office.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Pretenders #2: License to Spill

*      *      *      *      *

I hope you all enjoyed this interview with Lisi Harrison. Don’t forget to check out YALL Fest, and I hope that those of you in the area can make it out to this incredible event!

Book of the Week – The House of Hades

1 Comment

I was so excited to read this book, and have been waiting so long for it to come out that I decided, what a wonderful idea to start reading it as soon as it downloaded to my Kindle and stay up ALL night reading it. At 3 am, I finally finished reading it, my eyes were bloodshot, and I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

But I will tell you this: it was definitely worth, it.

Continue reading →

Book of the Week-The House of Hades

1 Comment

I was so excited to read this book, viagra sale and have been waiting so long for it to come out that I decided, what a wonderful idea to start reading it as soon as it downloaded to my Kindle and stay up ALL night reading it. At 3 am, I finally finished reading it, my eyes were bloodshot, and I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

But I will tell you this: it was definitely worth, it.

But don’t worry, I realize that its very very early in the release of this book to be posting this review, so its COMPLETELY spoiler free. I mean, this took me a painstakingly long time in order to make sure that I didn’t reveal anything to anyone.

If you DO want to talk about the book, send me a message, post on the forum, or hit me up on Facebook.

For now, enjoy this review!

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan 

12127810

Good Reads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository 

If you’re feeling crazy, you can head to Book Depository to buy a limited edition, signed and numbered copy for 85 dollars!

Genre: 

Young adult, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Greek Mythology

Part of a Series? 

Yes, the fourth novel in The Heroes of Olympus series

Please keep in mind that while there will NOT be spoilers for HoH, there will be spoilers for any previous novel, including those of Percy Jackson and the Olympians 

You May Like if You Liked: 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, The Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce

Age Recommendation: 

12+; I know that a lot of kids will read this book, but I will warn you, this book is a LOT darker than any of the previous books. Be aware of this with your children.

Plot Summary: 

From GoodReads:

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?

They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

The Bad: 

I wish I could have gotten a little more of Piper. Piper is one of my favorite characters, as you may have seen in my most recent Tuesday Top Ten. I think that she has way more to her than she thinks she does. She does have a moment where she really proves herself, and its seriously awesome. I just wish I could have gotten more of her.

The Good: 

The hardest part about doing this particular review is that I have to be spoiler free, since I have finished it before most other people. I started reading at at 10 pm, which was midnight EST, when it released. I finished it at 3 am. Most people couldn’t even go to a store and buy a book to even begin reading it.

So I need to be careful. Its only been out for two days and so I just want to make sure I tell you how much I loved it without spoiling it for anyone.

Bottom line: I LOVED this book, and it was way worth the year that it took to get here. The Mark of Athena leaves off on the most ridiculous cliffhanger EVER, which left me staring at the last page, thinking, “No. No way. There’s NO way he just did that!” Yeah, yeah, he did. And he enjoyed it too. Check out the dedication page of The House of Hades

photo

That made me laugh. I knew I was in for a good ride once I saw that, and you all will be too.

This book is considerably darker than the books that we’ve seen before. We are left with this ridiculous seemingly impossible task: Leo, Hazel, Frank, Piper, Jason and Nico are racing to The House of Hades to get to the door, while Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus, with the plan to meet them at the Doors of Death. Both are crazy, dangerous, impossible tasks. Even though our heroes are demigods and they wield powers and weapons that are beyond this world, they are also just kids, and they make mistakes and their world gets hard and complicated. Demigods don’t usually get to live very long.

The journeys that each group takes are both incredible. The twists and turns, the warnings. The help they get along the way, the help that they may or may not be able to trust. The weapons that are used, and the obstacles they must all face. Its incredibly. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, or any better, or any more nerve wracking or entertaining, it does.

And all the characters grow so much in this novel. They are older teens, at the verge of adulthood, and in this book, you see them all grow up a lot. Everyone is faced with so much in this novel, and in different ways. Each character is tested, and the way they handle it is amazing, and you’re literally watching them grow up before your eyes. This is especially notable with Annabeth and Percy, the characters that we’ve known since they were children. I also think the growing up that Leo does in this novel is also HUGE.

I’m starting a thread on my forums, that you can access here, for those you want to discuss the books with spoilers and all that fun stuff. I hope to see you there, because I love this book, and its so hard to write this without wanting to burst out all the spoilers!

Rating: 

5 out of 5 Stars. Duh!

Recommended or Not? 

Yes. I mean, if you’ve already read the first three in the series, I’m sure you’re dying to read this one. So go out, buy a copy and dive in. It was definitely worth the wait. Now I just need to sit back and wait for the fifth book, The Blood of Olympus, which is set to release sometime in 2014.

*       *        *         *       *

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Book of the Week, and that you loved The House of Hades just as much as me.

Happy Reading!

Interviewing My Main Character

1 Comment

Hey ya’ll. How’s it going? I hope you’re all good on this midweek, viagra Wednesday afternoon :) Its raining here in California (I know!) so I’m enjoying a day inside.

I wanted to share a little something with you today. My dear friend, Hayley, who runs her own blog, Geek and Book Nerd, had to do these assignments for her creative writing class, and one of the ways she said we could get to know our characters better was to interview them.

Now I had heard that before, but I had never really taken it seriously. But as I scoured the internet for examples, and for ideas, I saw that it was a practice that a lot of people used, and I really was intrigued by it. Even better, Hayley asked if I could interview one of my characters for her site, and I gladly agreed.

I’m working on two books right now. Both of them are fairly short, maybe a couple chapters each. I’m waiting for one to say “PICK ME!” and grab me, so I can focus a lot of my energy on it, and then we’ll see what goes from there. But one of those novels is my untitled zombie novel.

I know what you’re thinking: seriously, another zombie novel?

And I’m not going to sit here and tell you, oh but mine is different because…well, it IS different. Its going to have the same feel as any other zombie novel but there’s much more to the zombies that we think. My novel follows Katy Valentine, an eighteen year old senior in high school living in Brooklyn with her dad, who is the police chief. One day, an outbreak happens, and suddenly everyone is getting sick, violently sick, and the death count is getting too high to even begin to deal with the bodies. Then the bodies start to animate, they start to move, and they’re fast, and they have a hunger for human flesh. It doesn’t take long for Katy, her dad and her insufferable next door neighbor, Nate, to escape the city, to her mother’s house in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. But its not as easy as it seems. They think they’re prepared because they’ve seen zombie movies, they should know how to deal with this, but these zombies are different: they’re faster, they’re intelligent and can communicate and they work together for their one goal: human flesh.

That’s basically what I’ve got right now. I’m still narrowing down the details of the build up, the escape, all of that sort of thing, but it takes a lot of work to do that. But this exercise that Hayley had me participating in was SO helpful, and I’m glad I did it. I also found a few other tools for help in characterization, so if you’re interested, let me know!

Here’s a sneak peek at the interview between me and my main character, Katy:

Sara: Tell us a little bit about yourself

Katy: Well, my name is Katy Valentine. I’m eighteen years old, and I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I would be a senior in high school, until they blew up my high school.

Sara: Why did they blow up your high school?

Katy: Uh, have you looked out a window lately? There’s kind of been a lot of zombies wandering around.

Sara: How do you feel about the zombies?

Katy: Well, at least all those gun lessons my dad made me take to ward off, I don’t know, potential rapists and murderers  is finally paying off. I mean, I still can’t quite shoot them in the head, but I guess I’m getting closer.

*      *       *      *      *

To read the rest of the interview, head on over to Hayley’s blog to check it out. You can also check out her own interviews with her characters, and also Megan from Luxen Army’s interviews as well.

Happy Writing Everyone!

Don’t forget to head to the forums to join in on the October Writing Challenge, and to discuss your own writing. I’d love to see some interviews between you and YOUR characters!