Megan Chance's Blog, page 31

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I did not want to read this book. Teenagers with terminal cancer? Uh ... no. I try not to cry whenever possible. I have spent my life avoiding like the plague any book or movie that even hints at terrible grief and sadness. However, my daughter came downstairs one night, handed it to me and said, "You must read this. I promise that you will like it."

Well, she was right. I read it and I did like it. I liked it A LOT. While I thought the dialogue sometimes felt as if it was trying to hard to be clever, that is a minor quibble. I loved the characters, and while I knew early on how this was all going to play out, the ending was stunning, heartbreaking, luminous and brilliantly uplifting.



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St. Patrick's Day!

I love St. Patrick's Day, if only because I use it as an excuse to eat one of my favorite things: Corned beef. There were years (those when I worked in a bar), when I despised St. Patrick's Day. The reasons for this I think must be obvious. But now that I no longer work in a bar, St. Patrick's Day has become, for me, the time to celebrate corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread and Guinness chocolate cake (picture below. I can only show you one side because the other has already been eaten).



This cake is, I must tell you, VERY VERY GOOD. Even for someone who does not LOVE chocolate.

I make this meal every year, in spite of the fact that my Jewish husband never fails to whine, "Why do the Irish get their own day?" I keep telling him the Irish are the lost tribe of Israel. He has never bought it.

So while the meal itself has always been enough of a reason to celebrate the Irish (and yes, in case you're asking, I do have a bit of Scots/Irish blood running through my veins), this year I have an even better reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day: the sale of my young-adult Fianna Trilogy to Amazon Skyscape. Set in the Irish slums of New York City in the 1870s, with Irish legends coming alive ... well, yes, I think I deserve to wear a little green. And I'll have another slice of that cake, thank you, and a pint of Guinness please.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kobo Releases

Due to popular demand, all of my classic historical romances are now available on Kobo. Here's a link to get you started:

Kobo ebooks

And, just in case you were wondering, I'm feeling marginally better today.

Now On Twitter

And ... just to inundate you with all things Megan Chance, I've now started a Twitter account, where I will be tweeting undoubtedly fascinating tidbits. Be prepared for brilliance ... :) And follow me, if you dare, @MeganSChance. At least so I won't feel so alone.

Break Blues

And so ... beginning last Monday was the official start of my between-book-break. It's been a while since I took one of these longer than a week or two but this time I am planning on at least a month. Time to catch up on all the chores around the house I haven't done, the housework I haven't done, prep for Passover and Easter, work on a couple of small projects, read and watch movies and do whatever else I can to feed the well.

Usually I'm good at this for about two weeks. Then I start to get antsy. A little obsessive-compulsive, are we? Yes indeed we are. But I can't help it--I happen to love my job, and I'm really looking forward to delving into research for the next book, which I will start doing probably just after the two week point. Maybe three weeks, depending.

In any case, taking a break does not mean I don't have an enormous amount to do, and so what happens nearly the moment I announce I'm on a break?

I get sick.

I suppose, if I wanted to look at the truth (which I'm not to anxious to do), this is my body's way of protesting. And don't think I don't realize the very strange coincidence that the very day after I turn in the new book, I end up with a cold. In any case, I suppose this is my chance to curl up with all those books on my TBR pile, a blanket and several cups of tea. Which I am going to do, starting ... NOW.

Announcement!!

And now, at last, the news I've been promising for the last few weeks: I have sold a young-adult trilogy to Amazon Children's Publishing for their Skyscape line (14 yrs+). The first one (as yet untitled) is tentatively scheduled for a spring 2014 release date. The series is set in New York City in the 1870s, among the immigrant Irish, and it has some very cool paranormal elements that revolve around Irish myth. I'm very excited about it; it was a lot of fun to write.

This doesn't mean I'm abandoning my adult historical fiction--far from it, as I just turned in a new manuscript to my agent. But I enjoyed the YA, and I do hope to continue writing that as well. It calls very naturally to my "big drama" tendencies. :)

I'll be posting more about it as stuff becomes available. Watch this space!

And also ... I am now on Twitter. Follow me @MeganSChance. I'll post the link here too as soon as I figure it out. :)

Time to Celebrate!

The new manuscript is DONE! It's set to go off to my agent on Monday, and I'll spend the next few weeks on pins and needles waiting for her opinion, but for now, it feels pretty good. Tomorrow: Emerald City ComicCon with my daughter (those who read my post about my experience last year will know how much I'm looking forward to standing in long lines to pay obscene amounts of money to take a picture with a TV star. Seriously, I am in the wrong business). But it will be a nice change of pace. And then ... I'm on semi-break, as in: I won't be working on a book, but I will be working on various other projects. And perhaps I'll go see Warm Bodies.

But tonight: a glass of malbec and my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies (my great-grandfather's recipe) to celebrate. Really, I don't require much. :)

Book Review: The Woman in White

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Really, really good. While it's a 19th Century novel, and written in that style, the writing is elegant and very straightforward for the time period. The story is full of twists and turns, and it never goes quite where you expect it to. Questions are answered that only lead to other questions, and as the threads tangle, the story becomes more and more imbued with a sense of impending disaster and helplessness that draws the reader onward. The characterizations are fantastic. Fosco--devilishly charming, insidiously clever, sinister and impossible to fight because one is never able to quite see what one is fighting. Fairlie--was there ever a more amusing and frustrating invalid? Marian Halcombe throws the stereotype of weak 19th century women to the winds. Strong, determined, smart.... And then there's Hartright, an ordinary man who finds himself possessed of an extraordinary will.

This is a first rate story told from many points of view--all distinct and wonderfully rendered. I'd give this a definite 4 1/2--don't let a fear of 19th Century literature stop you from reading it.



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Book Review: Sever

Sever by Lauren DeStefano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This one's a little below a four, but not much so, and I'm sort of grading for the whole series, which I have enjoyed. It's an interesting premise, where a genetic virus kills girls at 20 and boys at 25, and how that has changed the world as we know it. DeStefano's imagining of such a world is always creepy and devastating and interesting. The series suffers sometimes from a dragging pace, and a lot of capture/recapture, which grows a bit tiresome. But it is beautifully written, well-imagined, and emotionally powerful, so for those reasons it gets a four.



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Interview

Here's the link to an interview I did a few weeks ago with Bill Kenower at Author Magazine, where we talk about evil, empathy and Bone River. Bill and I always have fun talking. Hope you enjoy this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4jfzw8cVSU