Book Tour: Paper Crowns by Mirriam Neal

I have utterly thrilling news! I’m talking run around the house squealing and jumping up and down news. One of my absolute favorite writers on this planet HAS A BOOK PUBLISHED. Not just a book, but one of the most delightful books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten to know the amazing Mirriam Neal through my dear writing group. I was given the complete honor of reading her novel, Paper Crowns, in its earlier stages, and I can honestly say I’ve never read a book with such whimsy and beauty. Not…

Continue ReadingBook Tour: Paper Crowns by Mirriam Neal

That Time I Got Over 100 Books in Two Weeks

So things happened in April. Delightful things. And by that I mean BOOKISH things. (What else would be delightful? Books = Life. Duh.) You see, our library had a sale to which I obviously had to attend. . .three times. It took place for the whole second week in April, and each day the price on the books got lower and lower to the point that they were practically giving them away. As my dad said, I was worse than a kid at a candy store. Our library is pretty small, so I honestly wasn’t expecting much. But then I…

Continue ReadingThat Time I Got Over 100 Books in Two Weeks

‘Tis a Writer’s Life (Tag)

A while back (and by that I mean. . .in Janury) the amazing Jameson @ Lovely Whatsoevers (doesn’t she have the sweetest blog name?) tagged me for the Writer’s Life Tag. A tag about the writer’s life? Obviously I had to do it! Because, ya know, sometimes I consider myself a writer. *she says as she’s sprawled out alone in her room with her laptop blogging and drinking coffee* Yeah. Only sometimes. . . #thewriterslifeistheonlylife Ahem. Shall we? Questions Write-fuel: What do you eat/drink while writing?Being as how I literally have a cup of coffee in my hand while typing…

Continue Reading‘Tis a Writer’s Life (Tag)

My Favorite Story Elements

Last week I posted about being brave and writing the things we personally love. That got me thinking: “What do I love to write about?” Well, that’s a good question. And since I love lists, I decided to make a list of story elements I love to read and write. It’d be very useful to have a handy list of some of my favorite story things to keep in mind whenever I’m plotting a new book. Then I thought, why not post the list? Because, hello? books and lists are like my favorite things. So! Convoluted PlotsOn occasion, I enjoy…

Continue ReadingMy Favorite Story Elements

On Writing the Brave and the Crazy

Back when I was a little baby writer, I had this weird thing in which I always “played it safe” with my stories. As in, I never wrote anything outrageous. I stuck to what I knew, kept to the clichés, never made anything different or interesting or unique. You can probably guess by now that my old stories came out very bland, and often pathetic copies of Lord of the Rings and Narnia. I can’t really tell you why I never ventured out and tried crazy, original ideas. I guess I was scared. I was scared to tackle tough issues…

Continue ReadingOn Writing the Brave and the Crazy

The Circle of Creativity

We’ve all had it happen, that exhaustion of the imagination, the drought, like someone took a straw and sucked up all the creative juices right out of us (okay, that was a weird analogy, but we’re going with it). I have it happen to me all the time, way more than I’d like. I just don’t want to write. Every word is forced, and comes out horrible and flat because of it. Every second staring at the blank page and blinking cursor feels like agony. I’m like butter scraped over too much bread, as Bilbo would say. A lot of…

Continue ReadingThe Circle of Creativity

What I Learned from The Lunar Chronicles

For the last couple months I’ve been enjoying a book series, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. And by “enjoying” I mean flailing and screaming and crying and fangirling and all around obsessing. It has kind of been my world. As I writer, my brain automatically soaks in writing lessons while reading. Subconsciously, I’m constantly asking myself questions as I read like, “Why do I love this part so much?” “Why does this feel slow?” “That was such a good scene, what type of wording was used?” It’s a curse of the writer, we can’t help it. So since I…

Continue ReadingWhat I Learned from The Lunar Chronicles

Thank You

He took all the pain. All the agony. The stripes, the nails, the suffering. He took all the blackness of the world. Him so pure, so beautiful, untainted. Perfect. But He took on every bit of it anyway. But I don’t deserve it, I whisper.“I love you,” He says.But I deserve death.“I love you.”But I mess up so much.“I love you.”But. . .but. . .but. . .“I love you. Forever. Unconditionally. I love you, My child.” He calls me child, when I should be nothing but a slave to the darkness. He calls me beloved, when I’m so filthy. When…

Continue ReadingThank You

Beautiful People – Larke {March 2016}

It’s time for me to join up with Beautiful People again! *confetti* If you haven’t yet (which most of you probably have, I’m always behind), do leap or skip or hop or jump (or walk, that’s fine, too) over to Sky's post or Cait's to join in yourself. We’ve had a lot of awesome editions these past few months, including Beautiful Books and last month’s Valentine’s edition, but this go round there’s no special edition. Just ten questions to interrogate our characters with and get our brains whirring. And, honestly, I’m quite excited about it. I love all the fun…

Continue ReadingBeautiful People – Larke {March 2016}

Writer: Stamped on Your Heart, Poured in Your Blood

Just this past week or so a realization hit me. Something I really wish I had learned a long, long time ago, but something I think all writers struggle with. I believe we writers far too often measure our self worth by that title of “published” or “not published”. I certainly have. I tend to think if I ever get published I’ll have “made it”, but while I’m unpublished I’m a nobody. Just a person holed up in her room thinking up silly stories. “I am nothing until I’m published,” I tell myself. Over and over again. But you know…

Continue ReadingWriter: Stamped on Your Heart, Poured in Your Blood