Aileen Erin's Blog, page 24

Book Review: WILD CARDS by Simone Elkeles

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An introspective Friday.

On Friday’s, I usually do five fun things. But today, as I was trying to come up with five things, only one came to mind. So here’s the one thing:

Introversion.

If you look it up in the dictionary, there’s a good chance you’d see a picture of me. I’ve always been known as “shy” or “quiet.” My mom had to coax me to speak as a child. I was often found hiding—under tables, behind my mother—until I was too old to do so.

It wasn’t until college that and I took a personality test that I found out that...

Writing Tip: Structure, Part One-An Intro.

If you’re anything like me, you read the title of this post and groaned. I know, I know, it sucks, but if you want to write a good novel, you need structure. You can’t build a house without a solid foundation, and you shouldn’t start writing a novel/story/anything until you have a solid outline. Trust me. I wrote two novels without any outline at all, and now I’ve written three with them. It will save your butt. Now, let me tell you why.

So you have an idea for a novel, and you just want to le...

Book Review: UNITED WE SPY by Ally Carter

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Friday Fun!

It’s Friday! Huzzah! So, without further ado, here are a few things on my mind as we move into the weekend.

1. I went to the Globe on Wednesday night and saw a totally crazy interpretation of Euipides’ The Baccahae called The Lightning Child.

This is me! At The Globe!

And by crazy, I mean that I’m pretty damned sure that the man who wrote it did so on a lot of hallucinogenic drugs. Like loads of drugs. There was signing and dancing and cross dressing and breaks for random dirty jokes and pop c...

Giving some much deserved love to books.

Hey there, readers. This week I’m taking a break from writing tips to gush about some books and series that I’m really digging right now. Sometimes one review/week just doesn’t cut it. Hell, sometimes twenty words just isn’t enough. So here are three books that I’ve read in the last week or so that I have to tell you about. So, without further ado, let the gushing commence.

1. Doon by Lorie Langdon and Carey Corp — Y’all, I just happened to find this one. It was all due to a sales-y email that...

Book Review: TANGLED SOULS by Jana Oliver

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Friday the 13th! Yikes!

1. It’s Friday the THIRTEENTH! Yikes, y’all. Anyone watching the Friday the Thirteenth movies tonight? Even though horror books are a little too scary for me (I think it’s the closeness and the way I get sucked into the story), scary movies are my fave! It’s chilly and raining here in London (shocker!). It might just be a good night for a scary movie. Maybe even this one:

2. My boxes arrived today. I know I’m not staying in London forever, but I’m here for the next 11-12months. So, we shipped...

Writing Tip: Write what you love.

Last week my writing tip was to write. Today, I’m qualifying that with “what you love.” The cliche is to “write what you know,” but that’s not always the best or even possible. What if you want to write about fairies but you don’t know any fairies? Who cares! If you’re passionate about a topic, that passion will seep into your writing and make it that much more awesome to read.

Who cares what you know when you start writing something. Research exists for a reason. Investigate the topic you wan...

Holy Friday, Batman!

1. What does the fox say?

2. Moving + Heatwave + no A/C = le suck.

That said, it’s all done. We gave away, donated, or threw away everything we could. Ten boxes are being shipped from LH’s office, and everything else is shoved into the luggage allotment for Virgin Atlantic. I’m now in a hotel, and enjoying their lovely A/C. Tomorrow, we head to London. I’m exhausted, but ready for our next adventure.

3. Which brings me to LONDON!

Every time I think about it, I get more excited. I’m sure this will...