Robyn Jones's Blog, page 33

Leap Frog Follow Hop!

 
 So this is my very first hop!The Question: If you could be best friends with any character from any book who would it be and why? My answer would be Warren from Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. He's a hottie gay cowboy werewolf with heart! I think that explains it all.  

I can't get into my book!

 I'm in a reading slump! I finished Pushing the Limits after a run of fantastic YA reads. I thought it was time to traipse around in the land of grownups with one of my favorite characters. Kinsey Millhone from the Sue Grafton private detective alphabet series is cranky, emotional, and smart. Also she likes to be alone, I mean, she relishes in it. At the same, time she hungers for human connections. I hit I is for Innocent ready to dive back into her world of ordinary criminals with ordinary and terrible crimes. I hit a wall. I couldn't get my mind to focus. So I took a break.
I tackled Warm Bodies. Now, I am not a zombie fan. Sure I've seen too many of the Night of the Living Dead movies...and Resident Evil + sequels...and 28 Days Later (which shouldn't count because they weren't technically zombies)...and Dawn of the Dead (which shouldn't count because the ending pissed me off for-I'm still pissed!)...and one of my favorites movies happens to be Shaun of the Dead. But I maintain I'm not into zombies. Okay, there have been a few walking dead books in there too. Back to Warm Bodies. Yikes! I'm not ready to delve inside the mind of an introspective, soulful dead guy. So I took a break.

I pulled out Beautiful Disaster from my library stack. Why not go with a messed up, bad boy love story? I know why, because I only just regained my blind optimism toward the opposite sex. And I just got back into watching romantic comedies. Better not mess with progress. So I took a break.

I dusted off Bitter Blood, which had been shelved due to the first chapter making me growl. Never a good sign. But I'm a loyal fan of the Morganville vamp series, and I read something happens between Myrnin and Claire. Yes, I have found my pick. Let's hope it douses my slump.

Autism and...Vampires?

A while back I wrote a tiny blip of a story about a kid superhero. His power? Through his autism he had the ability to reach inside people, all kinds of people, and change them. See, I'd witnessed this power first hand with my oldest boy. The moment he was diagnosed, I knew all I had to do was get him in front of the right people and they would trip over themselves to help him. I never did anything with the story itself, mostly because it made me cry every time I read it. But it spawned this idea, what is autism really? Through all the challenges, the isolation, the God-seeking prayers, isn't there something magical about the way their minds work?

I went in search of this magical thing. I watched the way strangers reacted to Will, the way teachers lit up talking about him, the way little kids loved playing with a true-forever child, lastly I saw the way moms herded their children away from what they deemed the bogeyman, the big bad developmental disorder that rivaled all other disorders. So right there I had all the ingredients of the unsuspecting hero. Just so you know, the herding moms became the villains, what can I say, I'm a little bitter about their prejudice.

When I had all the pieces knitted together, I jumped into the choppy, terrifying, and exhilarating waters of fiction-paranormal romance to be exact, because how fun is that? The end result? Soul Walker and the three subsequent installments in the Touched Girl Series.

How has your life experience affected the way you see the world or the wondrous things you've created? I shared mine. Tell me your story.

JC's Book Haven gave Soul Walker 4 STARS!

"I started reading two books at the same time and this one just took over the minute I picked it up. I greatly enjoyed getting to know Anna and all of her quirks...The story is different and not one even similar to something I have read before. The main character is too set apart from anyone I have come across previously. Jones' voice is soothing and I came away from the book glad I had delved into Anna's head..."

Go check out JC's Book Haven for the full review, and stay to read up on other authors making their way through this crazy world that is the book biz.

Also, hop on over to PRUF Reads for my 4.5 Star review by texxie.

"...While Soul Walker is a paranormal read, a YA romance, there is a new twist on the heroine. Outside of the paranormal reasons for this and that, her gifts, her strengths, Anna is autistic. The fact that Anna is autistic, created a richness that blended so well, adding charm to a teen heroine in a genre where most are rendered fragile, needy and in desperate search of thee boy to 'complete them'..."


I'm a fan of Soul Walker's Anna Pierce, sure I wrote her, but she's been a part of my life for a while now, so in that writer-crazed head of mine, we're friends. And I get to share her story with you guys.

Owning your scars: robgirlbooks' Review of Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the LimitsWritten by Katie McGarry
416 pages
Published by Harlequin Teen 7/31/2012
(Borrowed from the library)
5 STARS!

Echo Emerson and Noah Hutchins, once opposites in the social climbing world that is high school, share more in common than they would freely admit. They both spend their lives hiding away. Echo hides in her clothes and lost memories of a terrible incident that left her body scarred. Noah hides from a devastating loss that can only be addressed with punk behavior, one night stands, and an excessive amount of pot. Like many YA contemporary romances their lives collide, but not from some twist of fate. Fate already kicked their butts. No, therapy is their binding force. Pushing the Limits takes you through the lives of two people who want to be on the other side of okay, but have to face healing first.

I love this book. You get to go back and forth between Echo and Noah, and never once did the author lose sight of their individual voices. It's easy to compare this style to the Perfect Chemistry series, first person, switching POV's, teen love and angst. But on a personal level, this story reached deep inside and propelled me through the pages like a wild fire through brush. Echo's scars she worked so hard to hide from the world and herself I understood so well. Going from bouncing through your life one day and turning away from your unrecognizable body the next changes you down to your bones. No matter what healing happens, you will never be the girl you were before. Her fight to be the old Echo was a painful for me to read. Mostly because I couldn't relate to that part of her story. Her need to be friends with awful people made me cringe more than once.

Noah's plight was different. He honored his visible scars, gave them top honors almost. His emotional wounds however, those he drowned with an I don't give a crap attitude. Oh, he gave a crap, which only meant more smoking pot, more girls in the back of his car, more barely passing tests.

Insert brilliant, all-knowing therapist here. Noah and Echo have great chemistry. Their back and forth flowed off the pages. Author Katie McGarry pulled tears and joy out of me. What more could I ask? Noah Hutchins is one of my favorite heroes now. I loved falling in love with the characters. McGarry is following up Pushing the Limits with Dare You To coming in May 2013. You get Beth's story in book 2. I already requested the library to purchase the book. Of course I did.

Becoming a Social Girl

Recently I opened a Twitter account. In November I started a blog. In December I published my first book. And for the last decade I've been swimming, drowning, and sometimes even splashing around in the sphere of motherhood. There are plenty of moms who stay connected to the world or become more connected once they have kids. My experience was the opposite. My world narrowed drastically along with my social skills. "Cool it with the whining," isn't the best line to win people over. "Chairs are for bottoms, not feet." Another great line for a stinker kid, not so much for anyone else.

Quick one liner commands and a trunkful of expressions I can't school no matter how hard I try make up the majority of my personality. Oh, and there's this one other little hiccup, nothing big, but to quote one of my favorite movies, French Kiss, "I'm an asshole, what can I say?"

So, now I have to be social, via media no less. I'm not a tech girl. I love my sci-fi movies. I love computer games (Lego games mostly). I'm a search engine queen. But texting, tweeting, facebooking...that's NEW. To date I've never sent a text. I have an answering machine instead of voicemail. My cell is seven years old and doesn't have a built-in camera.

I forge this new world of blogs and tweets with a sort of dewy-eyed glee and nervous girl apprehension. What are the do's and dont's? My mom taught me a great deal of etiquette rules growing up and especially right before going to college. But my mom's a wild woman, someone who teaches her kids the smartest ways to tell a person off, not how to make nice online.

My current reference manual I pass on to you guys, Molly Green: Writer. Her blog is jam-packed with tips and no-no's. I need more brain space to absorb all the information. Okay, all you tweeps and bloggers out there, go on, click away!

I'm eating all my dang candy!

Christmas is over and I still have treats in my fridge. With resolutions around the corner, the yearly question becomes start now on eating healthier or stuff your face (I'm sure there's an in between there, but I'm not a girl of moderation when it comes to my mother's fudge!).

Here's the compromise. Exercise. And to make yourself feel even more productive on the whole self-improvement project, workout without spending a dime.

Walking is free. Malls open early, so find yourself one and watch out for the regulars.
Dig out your old workout DVD's.
Peel off the many layers of discarded clothes and get yourself on your fancy unused treadmill.
Sign up for a free one-month trial at Netflix and sample the various exercise shows they have available.
Check out your local TV station, because most air a regular local exercise show.  
Sign up for a free month trial Amazon Prime membership and sample their shows.
Go to the library. This is my go-to for all things book/media related. My favorite DVD's are the Biggest Loser titles. I never watched the show, still don't, but I have a thing for Bob (Bob Harper-southern accent-big smile when he tells you fifteen more).

So, I'm eating all my dang candy!

First 4 chapters of Soul Walker FREE at Amazon

If you like vamps, first love, and off kilter protagonists, try Soul Walker. Purchase a FREE sample of the book. If you like it, buy it, write a review, hit the like button. Go on. Click away! If you want me to click you back, leave me a message on my blog, http://robgirlbooks.blogspot.com/. Or find me at goodreads.

Vision Quest, Little Critter, Sweet Dreams, Mockingjay: Books that messed me up

Certain books are like Barry Manilou songs, but worse. You can't shake the catchy tunes and if you're like me with no musical memory at all, you sing one line over and over. Here are a few books that stuck to me in unique (mostly unpleasant) ways.

Lovers of 80's movies instantly associate Vision Quest with a young Matthew Modine and a seductive Linda Fiorentio. But did you know it was originally a book by Eastern Washington author Terry Davis? I went through a phase of reading outside my norm, and this pick certainly qualified. I also thought at the time it would be great to get insight into the thinking of a male character. Not just a male character, but a teen boy. I've wished away certain reveals, certain fantasies I felt like a total Peeping Tom knowing. Despite my love for all things Zen, some things you simply can't unlearn.

I still have my favorite childhood book, Just for You (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer, though it has now been through two boys, a neat one, and a crayon stinker one. The stinker loved the book as much as me, especially the part where Little Critter says, "I ate my sandwich just for you, but not my crusts." Since then the kid hates crusts. Grrh.

Sweet Dreams by Sue Porter wrecked me the most. My youngest had been the easy one at night; slept till the sun told him it was again time to be hyper for twelve hours...until this book! "And in the shadows there is a monster." The three year old looked up at me, "What monster, mom?" Hell. My older one became the easy one at night after that.

Suzanne Collins had me with The Hunger Games. I love YA, dystopian, underdog rising to the top stories. But the finale of the this massive trilogy pissed me off for weeks. I was so mad at the character development of my beloved Katniss in Mockingjay, I gathered up the books and hid them behind other books. I had to go on a re-reading purge to get enough of the story and imagery out of my head so I could move on.

Are there any books out there that put Mandy by Manilou on auto repeat in your brain? Note: Joss Weadon's Angel is the only one who makes me love that song (Angel Season 2, Episode 1).

Why I absolutely love Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Kresley Cole comes from the world of adult paranormal romance which means her Y/A is filled with complex characters. Her romance scenes overflow with tension and excitement and a sort of impatience that pushes the main characters into clawing to get closer rather than playing too many games. After reading the prologue I knew everything in my life was going to revolve around finding time to read more until it was time to stalk the author's website for the next installment. I want more. I love and hate that feeling, maybe love more than hate. This book has just jumped the line for favorite Y/A dystopian craziness. As weird as it sounds my mind kept flashing to playing the Lego Batman computer game. I think because of the Tarot card aspect which was so damn creative of Cole. Check out Poison Princess, it's addictive.(Note: violent, gory at times, end of the world strife type of stuff, no actual zombies or vampires-but something in between, and a lot of self-reflection on the part of the main character-not too much in my opinion)