ROW80 take 3

Yep - My life is going to be getting extremely hectic with ELA exams, Regents, Prom, graduation, showers, bachelorette parties, and the end of school, and I have decided there is no better time to write. Yeah, sometimes people want me to high tail it to the insane asylum. Hey - I have never done what sane people do - so why should I start now?

So ROW 80! YEAH! My goals! Finish the first, roughest, unedited draft of The Owens Legacy: Redemption. It's my goal to do some drafting over summer so to do that - I have to get the thoughts to paper. I even have Ms. Kenzie Kaboom lined up to do my next two cover shoots with Ms. Maggie.  I have big goals for summer, but, um, no book. Yeah - I should get started on that. Wait - Michelle FOCUS - Set your goal a little bit more thoroughly. I am going to write 2,000 words per week. I am only going to post up on Sunday. I am going to blog on 15 ROWer blogs.

I think this is a very good goal for me, considering writing has taken a back seat to my school life. I will finish my sequel.

YIKES!

Seeking Guest Bloggers

Hey writing and reading friends - I am looking for some of you to do some guest posting on my blog. I thought of a few topics I would like to see published but am not limiting it to these topics.

Writing 
Drafting process
Reviewing process
What's it like to be the editor for a friend's novel
Self-publishing
Meeting people to edit
Meeting people to start a following

Reading
What's the current fad?
What makes something the current fad?
That genre between YA and adult
Steamy topics in YA appropriate or not?
Promotion of a specific author (can even be you)

This would be a great way to reach out to some people who haven't heard your name, get a few more followers, and would spice up your typical blogging schedule. Shoot me an email at mf060784@gmail and we can set something up. Maybe if a few people want to do the same topic we can combine or have a debate. OK - I'll stop being so excited and just wait for someone to email me.


Side note - completely unrelated - The Titanic trailer is playing in the background - heart that song. Going to go download it.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

I have been meaning to pick up this book on the sole fact that I LOVE THE COVER. I know besides being a fictional floozy, I am also a cover slut. I promise to start to go to meetings for this problem.


By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?


I read it and it was a solid story. It was not my favorite dystopia and I think the reason is because I was expecting something more to happen in the story.Before I get into that I want to talk about the good things.
Rhine is a really good character - as in a really good person - a girl I would be friends with. The sister wives is a unique concept, slightly creepy, but it is a dystopia. I liked Jenna the best though.

Linden - I really thought he was going to be a messed up, control freak. Not the case and I did think he was going to have a major character flaw. It really was just a 20 year old, living under his father's watchful eye, and was trusting. I felt bad for him. He lost a lot and I am predicting only going to lose more.

I am glad that Gabriel and Rhine's relationship doesn't get all steamy. And while sex was a main contributor to this story - it's done very discreetly. 


While I liked the characters, thought the set up for the chemical problem was solid, this was not action packed for me. It is basically Rhine plotting her escape. Which leads me into my dislike for Linden's father. He's a jerk, a controlling jerk - but I wanted him to be more of a controlling jerk. I wanted him to be threatening. I missed the action. 


And while I wanted it to be more action packed - I will be picking up Fever.

Hotties in the Media

One of my tippy favorite movies is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It's one of my rainy day, need noise in the background, movies - because I can recite it line by line. I love this movie for many reasons - but the number one is because it still evokes emotion in me, like when Miriam screams "Robin" near the end, I still get goosebumps. When Robin Hood says he would die for her, I swoon.

But back to the post. KEVIN COSTNER. He is such a hottie and such a bad ass in movies. I won't list all of the movies he has been - I don't have the time - but I will promote my two favorite (wait already promoted one.

There is just something about a guy with a bow and arrow.





Then there is Frank Farmer - The Bodyguard. I want my sister to stalk and hate me so I can get a bodyguard like that. Wait - I don't have a sister. I love how he just picks Whitney Houston up and takes charge. Holy smokin hott.

These are both movies from the early 90's - fully equipped with awesome soundtracks - I will always love you and Everything I do, I do it for you (that was my first boyfriend's and mine song haha). He looks young and hott and you want to know what he looks like as an older guy?

Old and HOTT. DAMN!

Do you have an early 90's star that was hott or still is? Leave it for me!

30!

No - I'm not 30 - I have two more years.

30 is the number of copies I have sold of my book! AHH! OK, I know - 30 doesn't seem like a ton on the grander scale, BUT seriously 30 people have purchased my book! (AND I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!)

30! :) INSERT HAPPY DANCE!

I know that mostly, maybe all, are people who know and love me. People have known me since I was a child, a baby, a tomboy, and a nervous new teacher, a brand new college student and all those awkward moments that I don't feel like sharing with you.  I will say that these people have laughed, cried, and given me a lot of inspiration to achieve what I want and dream of and supplied me with a lot of writing material for many more books.

So this post is for my family and friends.

THANK YOU!

Thank you to my dad, mom and brother.
Thank you to my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Thank you to my grandparents.
Thank you to my childhood friends, college friends, and adult friends.
Thank you to my friends' parents who turned out to be second dads and moms to me.

Want a chance to win an e-copy? Enter here.

The HUnger Games Take Two

This is my first time I am going to review a book a second time on this blog. I have re-read multiple books since I started this blog, but I am trying out an experiment. I am going to review and then I am going to look at the first review AND THEN compare the posts.  This IS GOING to contain spoilers.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister Primrose, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before — and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.


The Hunger Games Take Two.

This time around I was excited for certain moments in the book, such as: when Peeta says he has a crush on Katniss, the flaming dress, the first kiss, and the first time they get to see each other after the games.

When I knew Peeta was going to confess love, I couldn't read fast enough to get that page.  I have yet to decide if Peeta just decided to confess or if Haymitch realized Peeta loved her and told him to confess to help them out. But I paid more attention to Katniss's reaction. The way Collins describes her blush and the way she avoids eye contact - I just thought it was very sweet of the typical hard Katniss.

Second time around the feelings of dread. OMG.
First and most heartbreaking, the calling of Prim's name. I mean, I know Katniss goes in. I've read the book, but just the way Katniss feels and how she volunteers at tribute, really endears her to me and I think more so this time around because I know what she is going to go through. Katniss has moved up on my heroine list - I hate to say it - maybe more than Rose, but let's not get ahead of me.

Second, Rue. This time I really paid attention to Rue. I don't think I realized how instrumental Rue was in igniting Katniss's anger toward the Captiol. The flower F@CK you burial enraged me this time. That poor, pixie-like child and with that rage came my hatred toward the Captiol.

Third, I don't know why I didn't remember it, but when Peeta realizes that Katniss has been pretending the whole time. I was heartbroken for him, devastated. I don't think Katniss did it on purpose like she was deliberately toying with him. I do believe she really cares for him and I think could be falling for him, it was still heartbreaking. Oh and when they are just stepping off the train into District 12! Well, I am re-reading Catching Fire.

Gale - hm. He was not a big part of it for me this time. hm.

One thing that stood out more to me, the mockingjay and how they were part of Katniss's past, Rue and Katniss's relationship, and what the bird symbolizes to Katniss's character and the society.

OK - so I am going to go look at my other post and see what was different. Feel free to do the same.

PS Who is excited for this movie?

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop!

I am participating in the Lucky Leprechaun Hop! I wanted to say thank you to Kathy at I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Cindy Thomas for hosting this awesome hop.  The basic idea is you hop along ALL of those blogs on the linky list - enter in their giveaways - and keep on hoppin'. 


Recently, I released my self-pubbed, debut novel: The Owens Legacy: Revelations. 


When telepathic twins, Piper and Ryder Owens are dumped at Evermore Academy, they thought that the only thing they’d have to worry about was Piper staying out of trouble long enough for them to graduate. They will not, for any reason, be separated. But someone at Evermore knows about their secret and wants to separate them permanently.

But then Piper’s Achilles Heel shows up: a good looking guy. Victor Mira is everything Piper is supposed to avoid, yet she feels drawn to him in a way she never imagined. But Victor is hiding a dangerous secret too, and what he knows could be the one thing that could divide the sisters. Forever. 


What's up for grabs? 3 e-copies of my book! Fill out the rafflecopter below and you're done.