Phoebe North's Blog, page 12

Wishes for the New Year

I had a pretty awesome holiday.

I got thoughtful, wonderful gifts: the Daria box set, a sewing machine, some wonderful books, a backpack that folds up teeny tiny. My family and I had delicious food, and I saw my wonderful friends on the Solstice, when we watched Flash Gordan and ate and drank and were merry. It was so good to be around people I love.

In fact, my year has generally been pretty awesome. I got an agent and sold my first novel. I wrote thousands of pages. I moved to the Hudson...

Top 5 Anticipated Reads of 2012

Welcome to the final day of the 2011 best-of blog circus! I hope you've had as much fun as I've had–these past five days have made me feel a little bit like a character from High Fidelity (the book, not the movie version; I could never be John Cusack). Up today, my top 5 anticipated reads of 2012!

5. Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

YA sci-fi by an author with big, gorgeous tattoos, a graduate degree, and multi-colored hair. How could I not be excited? Plus, the cover was just released, and it's...

Top 5 Recommended Books

Today in the best-of blog circus, I'll be covering my top 5 recommended books of 2011! These books weren't necessarily my favorites, but they're easily the novels that I talked up more than any others.

5. Divergent by Veronica Roth

Because of The Hunger Games, this was pretty much the year of the dystopian. As a YA author, I get asked about comp titles to big, buzzed books  a lot. If you recall my review of Divergent earlier this year, I didn't think it was perfect, particularly in the world...

Top 5 Favorite Books

Today as part of the 2011 best-of blog series, I'll be covering my 5 favorite reads of the year! (This is a time when those goodreads stats sure come in handy!) Hope you enjoy.

5. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

Swiftly is, of course, also my favorite book of all time. Every few years I reread it, thinking that I'll love it a little less. I especially expected that this year–I'm now an old, hardened, picky curmudgeon when it comes to YA (as many authors I've reviewed will tell...

Top 5 (Complicated) YA Girls

Welcome to day 2 of the 2011 best-of blog circus! Today I'm supposed to talk about my top 5 YA girls. But because I'm a rebel, I'm going to veer slightly off topic (please don't hurt me, Sarah Enni!). Instead of my generic favorite YA girls, I want to talk about something pretty close to my heart–my favorite complicated girls.

YA authors get a lot of duff when they give us "unlikeable" heroines. But what's a crabby witch to one reader is a complicated, vividly rendered person to another...

Top 5 Favorite Albums to Write To

Welcome to day 1 of the year end best-of blog circus! (Also, welcome to my birthday! Yay!) Up today, my top 5 albums to write to.

(Just a note that the music I love may contain dirty words and subversive ideas. Sorry, kids–when it comes to music, part of me is still a sixteen year old mohawked punk rocker!)

5. Now You Can See by the Thermals

On the surface, Now You Can See sounds like typical indie-punk. But take a closer listen to the lyrics: this is about evolution, the story (either) of a...

Sonic Probe Winner and 2011 Best of Blog Circus!

Happy Christmas to all you Christians and Santa-lovin' non-Christians out there! Just popping in for two quick announcements. First, the winner of the sonic probe for my big Doctor Who give away is . . .

Colin!!!!

Congrats, Colin! I'll be in touch shortly to get your shipping info.

Secondly, I'll be participating in a Best-of Blog Circus over the next five days, organized by the lovely in and incomparable Sarah Enni! Each day, stop by the following blogs to hear our favorites in writing music...

Happy Holidays!

This Entry was Written Before Coffee

I've been using Scrivener for my latest project. I'm still in in trial period, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy it. It wouldn't be useful to me if I hadn't recently come around on outlining. "Outlining's boring!" I used to say, "I want to get to the meat." I didn't want my plotting to be predictable, formulaic.

Funny thing is, I'm approaching the writing much the same way as I always have. I'm writing linearly, one scene after another. What outlining is doing, though, is helping me...

13 Days of Doctor Who: The Doctor as an Anti-hero

Banner by Studio D

Welcome to the 13 Days of Doctor Who, a blog tour counting down the days until both Santa and the Doctor make their annual Christmas appearances! I'm so psyched to take part in this Whovian celebration. Be sure to check Clara Kensie's tumblr blog tomorrow for the next stop in the tour–and the bottom of this post for not one, but two Doctor Who giveaways!

And now for the pseudo-Academic Whovian wankery!

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I did quite a bit of complaining this past season about the sexism of...