Mariella Hunt's Blog, page 50

proof copies, bookshelves, and review wars

Because I am determined to maintain good habits, here is another Monday blog post to keep you updated on my life. It’s tempting to consider a week uneventful, but when I look at my Instagram feed I see little things have been going on to create a big adventure.

I got a proof copy of Dissonance, but since I chose a matte finish and the cover was dark to begin with it doesn’t look that great. So I have ordered two others, with slight alterations to make the cover look better, and am praying they’ll be just right. Meanwhile I’ve been reviewing the interior and am quite pleased with how it looks.

Dissonance is now available on nook and Kindle for $2.99! Buy and help me start my coffee tasting career!

Brett and I wrote our first ever Review War on Garth Nix’s Sabriel. The first one was hosted right here at my blog, but the next one will be at his place in July. It was fun reading a book with someone else and breaking the standard book review mold.

With review wars, not only can you find out if a book is good–you get to take a side and see how certain things were perceived differently. I’m eager to write more of these and test myself as a reader and reviewer.

(Also, Garth Nix saw the post and favorited it on Twitter, which is definitely something!)

I finally got my new bookcase set up. And on the same day I bought a bunch of old books at a garage sale so it got full pretty fast. My room has always been a library, but even more so now. I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to read all these books.

My purple flower is growing and I’m fascinated to see how much taller the stalks have gotten. This is truly a beautiful time of the year. Warm weather and visits to the swimming pool made a satisfying week indeed.

You see, my life is very bookish. Even when I try to talk about other things it always comes back to books. I’m not complaining. Should I organize my new bookcase by genre, author, or title? Help me decide!

Books I’m reviewing this week:

The Selection by Kiera Cass
Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay
Cursed with Power by Lindsey Sablowski

Be sure to check back!

Filed under: life&lit Tagged: books, brett, flowers, literature, nature, photos, reading, review wars, sabriel, summer, the selection, ya, yalit

Review War: Sabriel

I’m about to come clean.

I don’t normally review books unless asked, because when honest I can be sarcastic. I have a journal of things that come to my mind as I read a book, things I couldn’t say in a professional review but have to get out of my system.

Never, ever trust a writer.

But all of that is going to change, because I am doing review wars with Brett–a new segment in which we choose a book to read together and, well, review it. If we both like the book, it probably isn’t going to be a war, but a long post of fangirling I guess.

We are starting with Garth Nix’s Sabriel, and with this book it’s pretty clear we perceived things differently.

For those of you wondering, Brett is an Aussie blogger whose beta group I hijacked. We stayed good friends despite my party crashing, but I really enjoy the title of Group Antihero.  He likes reading and Coldplay and one day he’s going to be published.

Go follow his blog because after this post you’ll find him a lot more fair at reviewing than me.

Hello, Brett.

Brett: Hi! Thanks for having me!

Brett: I’ll start us off!

Sabriel is the first book in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, and it follows a young necromancer called – you guessed it, Sabriel – as she ventures ‘over the Wall’ into the decaying Old Kingdom to rescue her father: a land where the Dead are coming back to life under the control of a malign influence.

It’s completely iconic for Nix – every second word is capitalized (Charter, Wall, Clayr, Abhorsen, Mordicant; even Life and Death get the capital treatment), and Nix has crafted a well-thought-out magic system that still hints at much greater powers nobody knows about.

The detail that Nix put into the ‘Gates’ of death, and how the seven Bells worked to control various aspects of Life and Death was all quite good. It’s rare that you see fantasy authors pay that much attention to magic, rather than just using it as a get-out-jail-free card.

Mariella, what did you think about Sabriel?

Mariella: What kind of a name is Sabriel? [/sarcasm]

The necromancy thing was cool, and the different kinds of zombie, for example that Mordicant who really needs some relaxing tea, and the nearly headless thing who was probably Nick’s great-grandfather–but more like the Baron in terms of personality.

However, something about the magic system seemed a little dull overall. Maybe it’s because I binge read Harry Potter in March and am biased.

I thought it excessive to capitalize All The Words (I know what life and death mean, do we need to capitalize them) but it is an old book. You can see how writing styles change over time.

Still, it got slow for me–really often. To be honest, the main reason I kept reading past chapter 13 was Mogget. He reminds me of Grimalkin from The Iron Fey, but if we’re being fair time-wise, Grim is a Mogget rip-off.

Mogget is this sarcastic cat spirit (or spirit trapped as a cat?) who put spice into the narrative with his indifferent, witty comments. If you ask me, the best thing about Sabriel (besides watching the Mordicant have a heart attack, if he has a heart even) was Mogget.

Brett: Mogget was certainly entertaining, but the plot was never too boring for me.

What’s wrong with Capitalizing Magical Words, though? Harry Potter – which you binge-read a few months back – took the opportunity to capitalize everything, including the flying balls in Quidditch (Quaffle, Bludger, Snitch), and every single spell (Accio, Counter-Argument!).

But Nix’s grammatical quirks aside, I will admit that the plot was simple and to-the-point. Sabriel is going to rescue her father from Death, but she has to find his physical body first. Along the way, she realizes that she knows very little about her true fate – to become an Abhorsen, a legendary necromancer who can defeat the Dead.

If I’m being critical, it can feel a little shallow at times – there’s not much in the way of plot twists or depth, beyond simply chasing down a ‘big bad’. But thankfully the world is so rich and detailed, that you just become wrapped up in the journey.

Mariella: WHICH ALSO BUGGED ME. Abhorsen has her in a fancy school and he’s paying her tuition every single year with these awesome teachers but he never thought to tell her basic things about her fate. I mean she learned the magic but clearly not enough. She had to chase him into the realm of the dead for instruction which I thought silly.

*clucks tongue* Abhorsen, you could have afforded to homeschool your daughter a little bit. Ah well.

Aside from Mogget, I found a great deal of the book to be dry until Touchstone turns up. (Another really weird name, ah well.) We finally get a real person with human emotions and struggles. Put him and Mogget in the same scene and I can forget how Sabriel has the emotional range of a mannequin. Maybe she’s around too many dead people. That’s gotta be it.

Brett:  You want to talk about emotional range? Touchstone was a wooden statue for two-hundred-years, and all he does is mope about what happened before he was turned into a statue! And Abhorsen had a reason for sending Sabriel away – the Old Kingdom was falling apart, and he wanted to protect her. Can you blame a father for keeping his daughter safe?

Mogget was quite entertaining, though I couldn’t help but draw parallels with Nix’s much later series, Keys to the Kingdom, and the character of Dame Primus. It soured my memory of Keys a little bit, seeing how the same character type was recycled.

But putting those few complaints I have aside, I think this is a pretty amazing book. It might not have the depth of other epic fantasies, but it certainly has that wonderful Garth Nix charm, drawing you into a dark, slightly disturbing world of magic and the ever-present rumors and insinuations about much more powerful magic. As a starting point for the Old Kingdom series, I think it’s quite excellent – I score it 4/5 stars.

Mariella: I have to agree that overall it was a good book, but only because of Mogget and Touchstone. Sabriel and her dad weren’t my favorite characters.

I really like the happy ending Touchstone got. He deserves it. And he has a chance now to find someone more interesting than Sabriel.

I give this book 4/5 stars. Because I did enjoy it. I just show it in strange ways. Brett has reviewed the book as a whole, while I kept getting distracted by Mogget and how useless most of Sabriel’s education was.

See? Follow his blog for fair, honest reviews :) *hides her reading journal*

Brett: Thanks for having me over for the first-ever Review War! I’m looking forward to us arguing over books again in the future.

If you liked this, stay tuned to both of our social accounts – @brettmichaelorr and @mariellahunt – so you don’t miss out on the next Review War!

If you’ve read Sabriel or any other Old Kingdom books, let us know what you thought in the comments below! Do you agree with me, or Mariella? Or do you have your own thoughts somewhere inbetween?

For all our visitors – thank you for reading!

Filed under: Book Reviews, Guests Tagged: book review, books, brett, fantasy, garth nix, literature, reading, review wars, sabriel

winning

Mariella Hunt:

So excited to be a winner! ♥

Originally posted on Susane Colasanti - Blog:

Ginormous congrats to the 11 winners of my 8th Annual Ginormous Contest! And thanks to everyone who spread the city love on Twitter. You guys freaking rule.

Here are the winners:

Bluedog649|Emily – @Bluedog649

Jennifer Y. – @2many2read

iHeartBigBooks – @iHeartBigBooks

Mariella Hunt – @mariellahunt

Roousy Camacho – @Simply_Roousy

Becoming Bookish – @BecomingBookish

Elise – @NerdgirlAZ

Erica Hubbard – @mimi_hubbard

Teen Book Hoarder – @teenbookhoarder

Lindsey Brown – @lindseyb423

Mackenzie – @ImMyOwnHipster

I also have to give a shout-out to Renee C., who rocks her dazzling artistic flair for every contest. How cute are these City Love earrings she made?

Some other winning things have been going down this week. Like fresh watermelon juice is finally in season! You know my addiction to summer fruit is fierce and unwavering. All winter I crave berries and melon and peaches and plums and nectarines and cherries so hard I don’t even know what to do with myself. The struggle is real, people. I’m…

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Filed under: Stray Thoughts

Wrong About the Guy by Claire LaZebnik

This contemporary twist on Jane Austen’s Emma features the signature wit and swoon-worthy romance of beloved author Claire LaZebnik’s other fan favorites Epic Fail, The Trouble with Flirting, and The Last Best Kiss.

Ellie Withers is definitely not spoiled, so she wishes that George Nussbaum would stop implying that she is. It’s not her fault that her stepfather became a TV star and now they live in a big house and people fawn over her wherever she goes. She doesn’t even like being fawned over. Fortunately, her two closest friends understand her a lot better than George: Heather Smith loved her before she even knew who Ellie’s stepfather was, and handsome Aaron Marquand has a father who’s just as famous.

With Aaron back in town and very much in her life, Ellie feels like things are just fine—or would be if her mother hadn’t hired George to tutor her. George has a habit of making Ellie feel a little less sure of herself, a little less on top of the world, a little less right about everything. It’s almost like he wants her to be a better person than she is.

When Ellie’s plans for her family, her friends, and even her love life don’t turn out the way she imagined, she begins to wonder if maybe she could stand to learn a thing or two after all . . . and whether it’s possible—or even likely—that the perfect person to teach her is the last person she’d expect.

Goodreads | Barnes and Noble

Wrong About the Guy was a pleasant surprise. Progressing through the novel, I realized it’s about far more than just a guy; it’s about family and loving people despite their imperfections.

Ellie Withers is a fun character. On the outside she appears self-centered and careless; getting to know her better, we find she’s actually an endearing girl who loves her friends and family in her own quirky way. She isn’t always thrilled about how her life changed when her mother married a television star, making her down to earth but not perfect. These traits balanced well.

One thing I liked about this book was the presence of a functioning family. They have problems you’ll find in a family, struggling together to cope with these challenges. These days, most YA books feature a teenager whose parents are absent from her life; this book is different. In Wrong About the Guy, we do see Ellie’s mother and Luke and her little brother, Jacob.

It’s good to shift the focus sometimes, because not all teenagers distance themselves so quickly. YA often makes it seem obligatory to walk away from Mom and Dad, but not everyone is like that. I asked Claire some questions about the subject of family in YA, so check back in a couple of days.

Give this book a try! It’s a heartwarming read and one you’re bound to remember.

Filed under: Book Reviews Tagged: book review, books, claire lazebnik, contemporary, literature, reading, wrong about the guy, ya, ya contemporary

cats, Sabriel, and my coffee tasting career

Because books are my life and this blog is titled life, literature & coffee, I figured I’d make a periodical to keeps you up-to-date on two of those things while I wait to become a coffee taster. Every Monday I will try to update you briefly on life and reading.

Dissonance is now available on nook and Kindle for $2.99! Buy and help me start my coffee tasting career!

I really wish I could write a long and rambling review on Brett’s novel I just finished beta reading. But he wouldn’t even drop a spoiler when we were waiting to beta it. Suffice it to say that it’s in my journal as one title I’m glad I had the chance to read. I’m sure you’ll all enjoy The Bureau of Time when it’s published.

Which it will be.

I’m also reading Sabriel. She always seems to be running away from things–but I keep reading because the talking cat is just about the best thing ever. He almost makes me forget the three cats stalking my guinea pig, Robinson, when he goes outside to play.

My brother caught a picture of one of these cats, and it has such a cocky grin on its face that I have to share.

He turned his back on us and left when he realized he was being photographed in the act.

Also I’m finally reading The Selection. I’m only on chapter 5 so don’t have many thoughts to share yet. Goodreads has mixed reviews on it which generally makes me feel optimistic about a book.

Next on my list is Everything That Makes You by McStay. I know because my reading journal says so.

Also, book review coming up on Wrong About The Guy by Claire LaZebnik. It was a fun read.

There you go. Life and Literature.

I’m off to drink some coffee.

Filed under: Life, life&lit, Literature, Reading Tagged: cat, coffee, Dissonance, ebook, guinea pig, kindle, nook, photography, reading, writing

the first week of being published

A week ago, on May 29, I forced myself to stop dancing around the decision and began taking the steps to publishing Dissonance. Now it’s on Amazon for $2.99, and will be on Nook soon; the paperbacks are being worked on. I’m still in a bit of a shock.

If you have a Kindle, you can buy Dissonance right now by clicking here.

I would never, ever have been able to make it this far without great friends to support me. If you’ve been here the whole time, or we only met when the really scary publishing stuff was happening, thank you for being here. 

Let me recount my week so far.

I told a neighbor about Dissonance the day it was published, and this neighbor just so happened to have a Kindle. Well, I don’t have a Kindle. I have a Nook. So I asked him to show me the book on his Kindle if he bought it. Guess what? He bought it a few days later and called me over so I could see what Dissonance looks like on a Kindle.

These are neighbors I’ve known since we moved to this house. We’ve been neighbors for eighteen years and they didn’t know I was a writer. Not only that, though–I never thought I’d be seeing my work in their Kindle. That they’d be reading my words. And it sank in how certain it is, how set my vocation is as a writer.

It always has been.

Some of my family want to see the book cover but don’t have eBook readers, so at Walgreens I had a few prints made that I could write on and send to family until they can buy the print copy. And it’s just so beautiful in every format–on the computer, as a photo, even as a poster (because I couldn’t resist making one.) Syd Wachs, your work is beautiful and you will never understand how grateful I am for the time you put into it.

So this poster happened to be the same size as a fancy photo frame my grandma bought me two years ago. I didn’t have any 11×14 pictures to put in it, and just kept it hanging around with the Eiffel Tower cardstock thing because it was pretty. I figured I’d save it for a wedding photo or something, but then realized–this is just as important. So now my book cover is on the wall.

Here is a collage of my Thursday.

It’s basically been me staring at my Amazon and Goodreads page, then at my book cover, in slight disbelief that I. am. an. author.

Soon I’ll have to snap out of it and write another book.

But it’s been a beautiful week of seeing a dream come true. God is good. And you guys are awesome for having been around to encourage me.

If you have an account on Goodreads, please follow me on there. Oddly it’s the thing I’m most proud of having achieved–but the Amazon author page isn’t too shabby, either. And if you know people who like to read, tell them about this book–word of mouth is my best friend right now.

As we speak, I’m getting ready to order the proof paper copy.

And when it arrives, I’ll probably cry again–like I did when I saw my book on Amazon.

And those are happy tears.

Thank you. xx

Filed under: Life, Writing Tagged: amazon, books, Dissonance, indie, indiebooksbeseen, literature, publishing, reading, self-publishing, writing

Finding Faith: A Book of Poems by Faith Owen

Over the years, I’ve met amazing people with many stories to tell.

Some are gifted at poetry in a way I’m not; I’m blessed to call a few of these people friends.  Faith is one of these friends. We’ve known each other forever, and I even got to meet her once. 

She has compiled her life experiences so far into a book of poetry and I am glad to feature it now. I asked Faith to introduce herself and tell you about her book.

Follow Faith on Tumblr, and be sure to take a look at her work!

-Mariella

Finding Faith is a collection of poems I wrote over a four year period. They’re almost completely in chronological order.

It’s a survival story, a story about how I not only found myself but reasons to live.

I like to think that poems, like other art forms, are comparable to mirrors. As you read you see yourself in them. While the book is my story, I published it so others could make it their own.

As humans, we’re here for each other and it’s important to talk about things that are hard to talk about. The more we talk about them, the easier it gets. I’m a lot more open about my experiences since publishing this book, and I hope it helps others to open up more.

I plan to publish another poetry book within next year. All my earnings from this book will go into making the next one, so please think about getting a copy for yourself–and maybe as a gift for someone else.

–Faith

buy it on Amazon here

Filed under: Guests, Reading Tagged: books, faith, friends, guest post, literature, poetry, promo, reading

eighth annual ginormous contest

Mariella Hunt:

Guys! I loved this book! Participate in the contest!

Originally posted on Susane Colasanti - Blog:

TGIM, friendly neighbors! And welcome to June! Now that summer is pretty much here, I thought this would be an excellent time to get our summer reading on and bust out my Eighth Annual Ginormous Contest. For those of you joining the ginormous party for the first time, every year after a new book release I give away a ton of my author copies to contest winners. But this year is by far the most ginormous.

This year I’m giving away 30 BOOKS.

Oh, you heard me. You have the chance to win a total of 30 books. There are 20 eBooks and 10 hardcover books up for grabs. All City Love.

That’s not the only difference. This time around I’ve decided to shake things up a bit. I’m going for 10K followers on Twitter. If 10K followers are reached by June 10, I will send all 30…

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Filed under: Stray Thoughts

cherry trees and June dress month

We have a lot of cherry trees in the back yard. Every summer I enjoy sitting outside watching them change from green to red. There are two old trees that were here when we moved in, and a few younger ones that just started sprouting a few years later. Maybe one day we’ll be able to call this place an orchard. I don’t even like eating cherries, but they’re an important part of my childhood.

I’m doing a personal challenge called June dress month. I have a lot of dresses I love but have never worn; I’m a little bit self conscious about taking pictures of myself. These are two things I want to change, because my dresses want to be worn! My first picture isn’t even a dress. It’s a skirt I forgot I had. But to me, it counts.

My hair was a bit frizzy yesterday, but that’s okay. It’s looked worse.

Since my blog is titled life, literature & coffee, I need to talk about life a little bit more. I don’t want to spam you with pictures of dresses all month though. I plan to write up a series of posts about my friends, life in the Treasure Valley, and maybe even my guinea pig/baby.

Which makes it a wonderful chance to finally do the Creative Blogger Award. Brett nominated me–thanks! I get the chance to tell five creative facts you might not know about me.

There are some rules that come with the Creative Blogger Award, rules that need to be passed onto the bloggers I’ll tag at the end of the post.

Nominate 10-15 blogs and notify all nominees via their blogs/social accounts
Thank and post the link of the blog who nominated you
Share 5 facts about yourself to your readers
Pass these rules onto the nominees

1. I am always dabbling in sketching, but then quitting. I have a bucket full of watercolors and I never use them. It just seems overwhelming to try and take on a new hobby from scratch, even though I want to so badly. One day I’ll find the motivation.

2. I like to pick at the piano. I’m not good at reading notes but if you give me enough time, I can learn to play a song by ear or via Youtube. Two songs I’ve memorized are Come Wake Me Up by Rascal Flatts (the intro) and Flapper Girl by The Lumineers (also the intro.)

3. Every two months or so the poetry Muse will visit me and I’ll write one, but poetry really doesn’t come natural to me. I’d rather read it than write it, and even then, I often feel like there’s a rule about reading poetry I’m missing out on. I guess I just haven’t found the right one yet.

4. I love interacting with other creative people, even if we don’t practice the same art. I’ll look through a photographer’s portfolio for hours and fawn over a painter’s work. I just think it’s amazing how human beings can make such beautiful things in so many different mediums.

5. Now that my book is published, I need to get creative with something new–marketing. It hasn’t even been a week yet, so I don’t have a set marketing plan, but hopefully soon will get everything together.

The Nominees…

I nominate Gabrielle, Leonie, Monique, Rachel Lynn, Kayla, and Kristia. I’m sure a lot of my blogging buddies have already done this one, but if not, feel free to do it! I’m eager to learn your 5 facts!

Filed under: Life Tagged: art, award, brett, fashion, junedressmonth, kayla, kristia, music, nature, photography, sketching, summer

Dissonance is now available on Amazon!

Hey guys!

I’m excited to announce that you can now purchase Dissonance on Amazon as an eBook. It’ll be out in paperback hopefully this week, and I’m going to put it on nook too–I’ll let you know when this happens.

When I saw my name on Amazon as an author, I literally started to cry. I’ve been waiting so long for this. I’ve edited so many times and really believe I’ve made this book as perfect as I could. I hope if you have some free time, you’ll give Dissonance a chance; maybe you’ll like it. Allie’s story is (I’ve been told) heart-wrenching, engrossing–I kept two people up with this novel before it was out, which is definitely a good sign.

Click here to find it on Amazon! It’s available as an eBook right now for $2.99 so if you buy it you might help me get a cup of coffee so I can start on my next novel. *wink wink*

If in doubt, read Kayla’s review of Dissonance on her blog! I really appreciated her comment about Allie’s behavior:

Allie’s reactions are normal. She reacts the way a fifteen year old girl would. She freaks out at appropriate times and she starts screaming at the exact right moments. She acts like a human girl, which is sometimes what I miss in books. Mundane reactions to things.

It’s important to me because I really want my characters to act realistic. I hope you think the same way if you read it.

If you read Dissonance, please let me know what you think! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you stick around for my next adventure in publishing!

About the novel:

Buy now!

Fifteen-year-old singer Allie Grant lives crippled by her illness. Though kept in isolation, she’s never alone: A spirit named Song lurks in the silence of her bedroom.

When Song reveals its dark nature on the night of her recital, the show ends in tragedy. Verging on death, Allie’s taken in by an uncle she’s never met. Julian claims to be a Muse with power over music and answers that’ll heal her.

It isn’t long before Allie suspects her uncle has a secret that’ll change her very identity. But with days left to live, she might fade without learning the truth…like the finishing chord of a song.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: amazon, books, Dissonance, dissonancenovel, fantasy, indiebooksbeseen, ireadya, literature, reading, self-publishing, yalit