What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

This week I read Side Effects May Vary  by Julie Murphy. It's a teen with cancer book. Like all teen with cancer books, it was very sad in parts and poignantly human in others.

The thing that makes this book stand out compared to all the other teen with cancer books I've read is that Alice, the terminally ill teen, is a horrible character. She's the classic mean girl that should be the villain of every story she appear in, not the hero.

It's hard to hate someone who is actively dying though. Maybe that means it should be hard to hate someone living too. I enjoyed Murphy's writing style and the duel narration/duel timeline style worked well in this story.

Over all I enjoyed Side Effects May Vary . Still, I think I would have enjoyed it more if there had been a slightly more likable main character.

What I'm Writing

I sent The Evolution of Emily off to beta readers last week. One person has already gotten me comments back, and given me some good ideas of changes I need to make. I want to wait until I hear back from more people before diving back into revisions.

So this week, I started a new project. My new WIP doesn't have a title yet. And right now, it's only 3k words long. I think it has potential though. I don't have any real goals for writing it this month. But anything I get down now will be a start when I start seriously thinking about this project after The Evolution of Emily is truly complete.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Last week I went to a screening of Rethinking Dyslexia . I wrote a longer post about my thoughts on the film here. It was an inspiring event. I hope Counting to D can be a source of inspiration for some of my readers. Watching Rethinking Dyslexia didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, but it did remind me that alternative thinking can be very entertaining.


Best line in the movie. Sir Richard Branson (the business tycoon) said, "When I was fifteen I accepted that I wasn't learning anything at school and dropped out. When I gave my headmaster the news, he said, 'You will either end up in prison or a billionaire.' Thank God, I didn't wind up in prison."

What Else I've Been Up To

The audiobook for Counting to D  has been in the works for a while now. I had been planning to release it May 1st. But it might pop up on audible a little bit earlier than that. Because it's done and fabulous. I have always loved audiobooks and can't wait to connect with listeners through my words.

It's really fun listening to an audiobook of a story I wrote. The actor I hired did an awesome job. She gave all the characters their own personalities, some in ways that were different than I imagined them in my own head. It's an exciting reminder that every reader, not only professional actors, add bits of themselves to the characters they read.

My characters can be lots of different things to lots of different people. I love that. And I love my audiobook too. I'll be sure to let you know when it goes live, but for now, plan on May 1st.


So what's up with you?