Books!

I realized I haven’t done a lot of reading since I went away to Ireland. I’ve read 4 really good books since January. Pitiful right? On the bright side it’s summer and I always do a ton of reading! So I’m happy I can just curl up and read. Plus I don’t have to stress about my manuscript because that’s off to the publishers and I’m crossing my fingers. So my schedule is wide open for reading. Which means I’ll probably have more blog posts on books to come. Right now I’ll tell you about 2 very good books.


This fist book is super creepy… but a good creepy. I picked it up in London. It was the first time I’d traveled without a book so when I decided to stay at the hotel for the night I figured I needed something to do so I stopped by a book store by the Gloucester Road station and Picked up Dancing Jax by Robin Jarvis. I originally bought it because I liked the cover…

Then I started reading it. And it’s rather creepy but a good creepy.


And what is this here book about you ask? Well it’s about a book. And not just any book, a demon book, called Dancing Jacks. Whenever someone reads the book they become a character from the book, and not all the characters are nice. Martain (a school teacher) is put right in the middle as first tragedy strikes then weird things begin to happen as more and more read Dancing Jacks. And it all starts with a group of thieves finding crates of books in the basement of a haunted mansion.


This is only the first part and the second book will be published next year. I’m actually looking forward to reading more because the way they ended the first book!! I love writing cliffhangers but reading them… grrr! I dislike the wait but I know it’ll be worth it since the first book was absolutely amazing. Not to mention absolutely British. They used terms and places that I had to look up a few times to understand what was going on but that just made me love it even more!

And now allow me to commence a rant on Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. As most of you probably know I’m a HUGE fan of Pat’s and I’ve been waiting patiently for this book to come out for a few years now. As I’m sure you could have guessed with my elated post when I first got the book. I had brought it with me on spring break and ended up reading about half of it. Then I stopped and waited till I got home to finish it since I was so sad I’d nearly finished it. I wanted to savor the book… and I did… and it was amazing! Everything about it made me so happy.

Wise Man’s Fear picks up where Name of The Wind left off. Kvothe continues to narrate his life first at University then at his travels. After mishaps befall him at the University he is advised to take a break from school to avoid a high tuition. Kvothe is left with few options till a possible patron comes into his life. Little did Kvothe know that the quest to gain a patron would lead him along a trying path. And an old enemy would make an appearance.


Annnd yeah… It’s everything that I could ever dream of in a fantasy book. Plus Pat is an amazing author. So you should read it, but as it’s the second book in a series you’ll want to start with The Name of The Wind first.
And that’ll be it for now. I’ll try to get around to other books soon.


Cheers,

Depression Solved

I’ve been depressed for over a month now. It’s been the worst month of my life! I don’t think I ever experienced such anxiety and depression before… and just when I saw that the end was a mere 3 weeks away… everything was suddenly solved.


What could possibly make someone such as me depressed? Simple. I waited patiently for many long years now for one thing. I diligently followed Pat’s blog only to be devastated to find that I was going to be out of the country for the release of The Wise Man’s Fear!!!!

Now it’s no secret the Patrick Rothfuss is my favorite author. I’m in love with The Name of The Wind and I waited and waited to hear news of Wise Man’s Fear. When Pat announced the release date back in the fall I was so excited! Then I got accepted to my study abroad program and immediately became sad as I realized that I would miss the release. I wasn’t sure if the release date was the same over here so I told my brother to bring it when he came on spring break and he promised me he would.

Then he didn’t and that’s when my depression set in!! to make matters worse I had to read all the good stuff Pat was posting about the book. So every time I was in city centre and by a bookstore I would go in and search fruitlessly for it. Until today!!!!

I was on my way out of O’Mahonys on O’Connell street, quite depressed, and I look to the left and what do I see? The missing piece of my soul that I have been searching for! The fear that I would have to wait till I got home to read it was banished and I snatched it off the shelf (yes snatched it was the last copy and I NEEDED it). My friend I was with just looks at me oddly as I hug the book to my chest and smile and start babbling about how I’ve been searching for this and how amazing Pat is and how amazing this book will be. The lady behind the counter also looks at me weird as she informs me a lot of people have been looking for the book. As I open my wallet to fetch the money I almost have a heart attack as I see that I have 2 €5 and I started panicking. I was €4.99 short! Freaking out I started looking in another pocket and found €3 in coins and I was about to ask my friend for a Euro when low and behold I could another and triumphantly bought my precious baby.
Look at how cute it is….

And check out all 994 pages of it!!

So I’ve got a lot of reading to do. Plus….my depression on not being able to enter Pat’s photo contest is gone. I now have the book and it is going on spring break with me to Greece and Rome. True it might be half of my luggage weight allowance but it will be worth it!!

And now I bid the world good bye as I am going to stick my nose into this amazing book and not emerge until I have thoroughly dented into it!!

Cheers,

WorldBuilder and Apolo Ohno

Okay so this is just going to be a quickie because I feel the over powering need to get some serious writing done! Two things really… First off I love how Patrick Rothfuss has the means to make my day with a bog post. But seriously go check out his blog, T-Shirt designs are up to be voted on! I’m so excited! I’m tots def going to buy one when they come out!!!!! And since Pat is so freaking AMAZING WordlBuilder 2010 has started. Incase you’ve never heard of it head over to Pat’s blog… check it out. A quick blurb about it from me is Every year Pat gets a bunch of totally cool signed books and what not from famous authors. And for every $10 you donate you get entered into the lottery for these things. And Pat (along with other sponsors) will match the donations. And allt he donations go to the Heifer Project. Pat explains it a heck of a lot better on his site. So check it out and donate, cause I am!




And secondly I’m totally addicted to Apolo Ohno’s book. Go buy it! Incase you ive under a rock and haven’t heard of it. It’s call Zero Regrets; Be Greater Than Yesterday. And basically it’s epic and inspiring and the things that he says…… I could just rant on and on but I’ll spare you and just post a few of his quotes and you’ll get the picture all on your own.


“Zero regrets. It’s philosophy not just about sport but about life. School, business, academics, love - anything and everything. It’s complicated and yet not. You have to figure out who it is you want to be. Not what you want to be - who. There has to be a vision, a dream, a plan, then you chase it with everything you’ve got.”


“We need to work hard and dream big dreams and chase those dreams with abandon, with zero regrets.”


“Every one of us has choices, and the way we frame them and make them sets us on our paths”


Laters,

"Interview" With Patrick Rothfuss

Happy New Year all,



Today I woke up in a fantastic mood. New year. New start. New page count to start. Haha. Any how I was just looking at Patrick Rothfuss’s blog and I was reading two interviews that he did with Nnedi Okorafor and Joe Abercrombie and I totally thought that the questions he asked were amazing. And being the total dorky freak that I am I thought that it would be funny/cool to take some of the questions from the interviews he did and answer them as if he interviewed me. Haha. And yes it’s true I have no life… I mean I sit around and write after all. Read the real interviews here (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2009_12_01_archive.html) they are December 7th and December 30th. But you should also read all of Pat’s blog cause he pretty much kicks butt. Any how here’s my “interview” with Patrick Rothfuss.


Heya Taylor. Let's say you're at a party and you meet someone you wanted to impress. What sort of things about your writing career would you casually drop into the conversation to prove that you're awesome?


I’d probably start with the fact that I was a published author before I graduated high school and now as a college freshman I’m preparing the first book in my series for publication.


If you had to pick your favorite book of all time, what would it be?


That’s a hard question… so I think I’ll judge my favorite book by the ones I’ve read the most and that would be The Thief Lord and your book Name Of The Wind.


Really Name Of The Wind? What makes you keep rereading it?


It’s epic… haha. And it’s just addicting cause of the way you lay out the plot and the whole story within a story deal and your writing style is so eloquent. Plus Kvothe is a really nifty name.


Do you have a particular piece of grammar that you screw up regularly?


Then and Than always mixing up when to use Than. It used to be Fallow and Follow (cause I thought phonetically follow should have an A in it cause I say it fall-o… I know silly me) but I’ve got it just about straightened out.


I recently made a joke about Transition Putty on my blog. That being, of course, what we writers buy at Home Depot to smooth out our rough transitions. If you could have some sort of handyman tool like that, something like Plot Spackle or a Character Level, what would it be?


I could really do with some Epic Paint. For those bits where you need epicness but can’t quite come up with something cool enough so you’d just paint the epic onto the scene.


If you could punch one literary figure, who would it be?


Hehe this is probably going to offend a lot of people so I’ll just say why I’d punch this person and you can guess who it is. Vampire’s don’t sparkle. Nuff said.


Alexandre Dumas wrote his nonfiction on rose-colored paper, his fiction on blue, and his poetry on yellow. Do you have any little rituals that help you write?


I put on my “Writing Tunes” playlist. It’s a wonderful plethora of songs that inspire me and it changes every now and again to accommodate scenes and what not.


What's the best compliment you've ever received?


Okay so with my novel I had left a question sort of unanswered throughout the whole novel. And you know as the writer you know how it all plays out and I wasn’t sure if I was being as subtle and suave with it as I thought till one of my friends (who I met working at aftercare and is in middle school) asked me the question. I was sooo excited it made me really happy that I pulled it off. And I got to give her the “Well finish reading and you’ll find out” cocky response.


Which would you rather do: cut out 20% of your current book, or insert a wacky talking animal sidekick (a la Disney movie) into half the chapters because the marketing people think it would make the book sell better.


I’d probably go with the Disney character. Only I’d make it some random animal like a platypus or a llama so it would just be hysterical then I’d kill it halfway through the book and get back to the seriousness. Hahaha


That's all I've got. Thanks so much for the interview.


Thank you Pat this was mad awesome fun.





Oh goodness I’m such a dork! But I love it! Haha. I hope Pat doesn’t mind………
And I’d just like to say that I loved Ms. Okorafor’s response to the transistion putty question. She said “Natural-Looking Filler for those tough glaring gaps between the exciting parts of the story where crazy sh*t happens.” I can’t agree more slash I would love to have some right now… which I should be getting back to writing…


Laters,
T.V.

Top 10 Favorite Characters

Sup,

Okay so this post is going to be sort of fun for me because I’m going to tell you all about my top ten favorite characters of all time. Yes they are listed from most favorite to least favorite. Now this is what I’m going to do… you’ll get the character’s name, the author, and a little bit of why I like them.

1) Drizzt Do’Urden – R.A. Salvatore – I love Drizzt because he’s such an interesting person. He acts upon his emotions and what he stands for. Plus he’s got wicked sword skills and he uses scimitars how awesome.

2) Kvothe – Patrick Rothfuss - Kvothe is just such a dynamic character that you can’t help but love him. Even after all the things he goes through he’s still him and he uses his resources and wit to get him through tight spots.

3) Nazgrim – Micah English – here’s a quick side note this is a series on elfwood and not a published book… as far as I know – Nazgrim is so awesome because he’s self-centered and full of himself yet he has no issue helping others and the power that he has just makes or an awesome character

4) Malus Darkblade – Dan Abnett & Mike Lee – now who doesn’t love a backstabbing demon possessed dark elf? I love reading these stories because they have some amazing gory scenes and sometimes I just want some hack and slash! Plus there’s a plot to the murder which makes it even better and fun to read

5) Lestat – Anne Rice – now Lestat is a REAL vampire, none of the bullshit sparkling in the sun. he kicks butt and isn’t afraid to do what he wants to do. Plus he’s a vampire and I’m a sucker for a well written vamp.

6) Achmed – Elizabeth Haydon – okay assassins are awesome nuff said. Haha okay so Achmed is nifty because he always keeps his cool and knows what to do at just the right time. Plus he’s smart and the weapons he make are awesome as sin!

7) Dustfinger – Cornelia Funke – Dustfinger is a fire eater and that’s just soooo cool. Plus his character is so lovable and even though he’s not a main character he does so much to further the whole plot and he plays the hero in so any situations that you can’t help but love him

8) Magpie WIndwitch – Laini Taylor – yes the only girl to make my top ten list… why? Because she is strong willed and way smart. Plus she has not only the inner strength to do what she needs but also the outer strength where it’s hard to outmatch her with her combo of traits

9) Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle – dective stories aren’t really my cup of tea but Sherlock is so brilliant how he just figures it all out with so little and deducts so much.

10) Darren Shan – Darren Shan – again another vampire who’s kinda cool and old school sort of. Plus Darren is a teenager and he kicks soo much butt in the series and the ending is way cool and Darren just rocks cause ya he’s a vamp

And there you have it! Ta da! So I’ll post tomorrow updating you all on my writing!

Laters,
T.V.

Book Reviews!

Hi all,

Okay so I decided to do something different. I read Patrick Rothfuss’s and Laini Taylor’s blogs on a regular basis and I saw that they both did this. They would review one of their favorite books and I thought that was so way cool. So I wanted to do one too. Then it came to the question of what book to review… now that’s a tough one because I have so many favorite books. So I decided to make it easy and review Rothfuss’s “Name of The Wind” and Laini Taylor’s “Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer” since they are both HUGE inspirations for me because I want to be just like them in a few years! So here it goes…

The Name of The Wind

Okay this book was actually recommended and lent to me by my friend Ryan. Best thing he has done in my life because it’s a really amazing book. I read it in like two or three days because it’s so darn addicting! I wanted to reread it but I had to give it to my older brother so he could read it and get the book back to Ryan. So I went out and bought it. Anyhow…

Kvothe (“pronounced nearly the same as "quothe."”) is the main character and since it’s the first in a trilogy you only get a dose of his early life and you’re left hungering for more. The book opens in The Waystone Inn where you the innkeeper Kote and some towns people talking about the Chandrain. Their conversations are interrupted when Carter comes in with quite the tale to tell about being attacked by huge spider thingys. Kote takes one look at the one Carter brought into his inn and knows exactly what it is. That’s when he leaves the inn to go find more of the Scrael. And it’s in that scene that you find out the Kote is more then a simple innkeeper. It’s also where the whole story starts because Kote runs into someone who knows who he is. Chronicler insists that the great Kvothe tells his tale to him so that he can write it down. And that my friend is where you delve into Kvothe’s life.

It’s written in first person. Now let me tell you usually I hate first person books. But Patrick Rothfuss his writing is so fantastic and precise that I didn’t care it was first person because it was written so eloquently. But the fact that it was eloquent did not make it any harder to read. I found it easy to read and understand and Rothfuss develops Kvothe in the most amazing ways that makes him one of my favorite characters of all time! Plus Rothfuss has a really unique voice throughout the book that makes it even more lovable. Plus here’s another amazing thing about Mr. Rothfuss. The Name of the is published in six countries…. Correct me if I’m wrong. So ya go out and buy Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss and read it cause it rocks. And I’m waiting patiently for the second book The Wise Mans Fear to come out (there is no release date yet).
P.s. Check out Patrick’s site:: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer

So I spend the summer on LBI and the Ocean County Library is amazing so I spend a lot of time there. And one day when I went I was on a quest for a good book. And I saw this one and I was totally intrigued because I love faeries and anything faerie like. So I picked it up and read it in a day. Yes it is that good.

Magpie Windwitch is no ordinary faerie. She doesn’t live in Dreamdark with the rest of the faeries instead she travels the world with her group of crows to fight and kill devils. Magpie is also the granddaughter of the West Wind (I think that’s way cool). So one day when they are out hunting a particularly nasty devil they find something very bad. They try to follow the devil but that doesn’t work because the devil left no trail so they had to make guesses and search the world for traces of it. It’s not long before the clues of this mysterious devil show Magpie that she must return to the place of her birth. So it’s off to Dreamdark for Magpie and her crow friends. But when they get to Dreamdark they find that things are much worse then they first thought. The devil that they have been hunting is the legendary Blackbringer. So how does one kill a devil that was thought to be a child’s tale? That’s a question Magpie Windwitch must answer.

Okay so I loved this book it was a fast read because Laini Taylor does a fantastic job of writing in easy sentences. Now that’s not a diss it’s quite the opposite. Because if you have hard sentences then only people who can understand hard sentences without reading them twice will like the book. While Ms. Taylor does a great job of writing a book that a wide range of people can read and enjoy and that’s what I want my books to be like. Plus the story line is so enchanting and surreal yet tangible… if that makes any sense. Oh and she has three books out. I hope I can get to a bookstore soon to pick them up. Cause they both look realllllllly good plus it’s Laini Taylor. So check out any of her books Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, Faeries of Dreamdark: Silksinger, or Lips Touch: Three Times.

And another p.s. check her sight out! http://www.lainitaylor.com/

So I think that’ll do it for now.. hope you liked it! Read the books cause they rock!

Laters,
T.V.