The piece of advice that hit me was to write a little bit of your next thought so you wouldn’t be staring at a blank page tomorrow.  I knew I was going close to being done for the night but I kept thinking about where I needed the story to go for writing on Friday and poof, there was way more words than I expected.  Honestly I was just aiming for hitting half today and catching up but I made it.

Word Count: 30120
Song of the Day: Time to Waste by Alkaline Trio

The series revolves around Tory Brennan and a few of her friends.  They are all outcast they live out on an island while their parents work on another island.   The same island and scientific site was seen in Death du Jourif I remember correctly.  I want to say that Tempe took her daughter there but I can’t remember. Anyways, the kids stubble upon a secret experiment that involved animal testing on a wolf dog cub.  After saving the cub they suddenly start to realize that something is going on with them.  New powers, check? Scary people after them, double check?

The book started out with a bang and never seemed to stop. I could barely put it down.  Even though Tory was only a freshman in high school, Reichs made her very smart.  Actually all the friends were the smart nerdy types which gave the book the same intresting learning feel that we see in the Tempe books.  When something was going on, one of the kids would explain it to the others.  I loved that it was written on a young adult level without having the feel of a young adult book.  It did not feel like it was filtered down for a certain reading level or anything like that.

Another thing I loved about the novel was that it had multiple storylines going.  There was the question about what exactly was happen to Tory and her friends, what exactly the testing was for, plus a cold case murder. Every part of the story had me wanting more so I would read and read trying to get to the next little piece of the story.

Overall this was a great read. I would highly suggest this book to anyone looking for something a little different.  If you are into urban fantasy or young adult books, I would say this is right up your ally.  Personally I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series.  This is for sure going to be a series that I pick up every book the day it comes out.

I am realizing that there will be stuff I have to go back and correct because I’ve wrote things that go against each other.  I try to fix them as I go but a lot will have to be fixed in editting.  It kind of feels good not to sweat the small stuff right now.  When you don’t get hung up on it being perfect, writing seems to come easier.  I realized that with the last novel I completed too.  Getting the story out became more important and when I went back, I realized that I really loved what I had wrote.  Sure it needs fixing but it is a very good base.  I think that is what NaNoWriMo is all about.  Forcing yourself to get the story out.

Word Count: 10,780
Song of the Day: Fighting for Nothing by Meg and Dia

When I came up with the idea for my book, there was one particular scene that came to mind.  This is the one I’m starting to write.  It is exciting because this should be a fairly easy section to write because it has vividly been in my head for a couple of months.

All the main characters are there, the scene has been set, it’s time for some fighting. 

Word Count: 8683
Song of the Day: Lawyers by The Audition

Struggled a little bit today mostly because A) I was extremely tired from having a long shift on my first day back from vacation in combination with being tired from Bayside/Senses Fail last night, and B) I kind of wanted to go out to the club with my friend.

But I forced myself to write and I am happy with what I ended up with.  One of my characters took on a whole history that I had no expected at all.  I did some research today but I’ll do much more in the editting stages or possibly when I’m trying to add words towards the end of the month if my goal isn’t met.

Oh and the characters are totally talking in my head all the time.  Any writer knows that is a good sign.

Word Count: 5036
Song of the Day: Cold and Blue and Lifeless by Bayside

I’m still on goal which is awesome.  It was harder today because I was in a rush to get to the Bayside/Senses Fail show early but I still made it though.

Continueing on the writing a past and current story line, I wrote more about the past.  It seems to be going a lot better than the present.  That might change the direction the story is going but haven’t decided let.  The past is only a few days behind the current so maybe I’ll end up looping back on myself then can edit it the way I want it.  Does that make any sense?

So tired right now so heading to bed.  I have a super long day at work tomorrow but should definately have time at night to get up to date on writing.

Word Count: 3349
Song of Day: The Truth About Heaven by Armor for Sleep

So since Rachel Caine is due to be in Portland the end of October, touring for the newest book in The Morganville Vampires series, I decided to pick up all the books and attempt to get through them all before the new one.  There is currently eight.  I’m positive this isn’t going to be a problem because so far, they are hard to put down.

In Glass House we meet Claire.  The sixteen year old college student is tormented at school so moves off campus and find out how scary the town really is.  The story was fairly high action which made it a fast read.  I definately did not see the ending coming at all. 

The second book involved some bikers, one that happen to be the father of Claire’s rommate Shane, rolling in and trying to take out all the vampires.  Again, this was a high action book.  Caine keeps giving us hints about Claire being very important to the vamps for some reason so that makes it super easy to want to go straight into the next book as well.

The books so far just have a tiny bit of romance.  I like that was is there seems very age appropriate.  I realize this is a young adult series so I actually really like that Caine has the boys be concerned with Claire’s age.  It is kind of refreshing after seeing so many YA books where sex is a big deal and ends up happening.  I’m aware that I’m early in the series and it might end up happening but so far I like how Caine is portraying teen sex.

Caine’s take on vampires isn’t anything entirely new but there is points that make the story different.  There is a lot of mystery behind the main vampire so I’m excited to see what will come of that.

Okay, I think this didn’t end up as short as I was going for.  Oh well.  I just started in on Midnight Alley so expect another review soon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_journal_book_review

To be honestly, I haven’t read a newspaper in some time so I can’t really comment too much on their lack of reviews but I do think it is a good thing that they are adding more.  My hope is that they cover a wide range or things.  Along with that, hopefully they don’t just got for what is selling well.  There is a place for reviewing those but it would be awesome to see some underrated writings getting more visibility.

The question that actually came to mind when reading this was where are people getting book reviews these days?  I don’t know that I have read a single one written by an actual journalist in years.  Without many exceptions, the book reviews I read are online from regular people. 

My favorite site to get reviews from is Shelfari. 

http://www.shelfari.com/

This website is awesome.  It is basically sharing what books you are reading, talking about them, and all sorts of stuff pertaining to books.  Everyone on their is definately a proud book nerd.  I like that when I read a review, I can see what else the person has read.  I can see if they read and liked the same books as me and therfore can tell if their taste is similar.  It was actually through reading some stuff on a group page (Vampires, Witches & Were’s and all that………….Rated NC 17 ) that I came across a couple people talking about the Succubus books by Richelle Mead.  I also decide to read the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine based on reviews.  Most people on their really seem to think out their reviews too, even if they are only a sentence or two long.  On Amazon I sometimes get the impression that people are just writing stuff to be annoying.  I haven’t ran across much of that on Shelfari.  Plus you can put your bookshelf on your website (scroll to the bottom of my main page to see mine) which is super awesome.

I also like when I came across people doing reviews on their blogs.  I need to start linking more of those on here because I also forget to make note of blogs I like so can’t find them again.  If someone takes the time to blog about books, I take their opinion seriously.  Sidenote to this, if you have a book blog, let me know! Now that I’ve mention making a link’s page, I really want to do it.

Besides that, when I do pick up magazines or newspapers with book reviews, I read them.  I always love to hear about books no matter what. 

So where does everyone else get reviews from?  Do you even read reviews before reading books?  Do you read them afterwords?

          What I’m realizing now is that I have a long way to go.  It is sad to realize but at least I am getting somewhere.  My first draft had 106 pages.  My second one, hopefully by the time I finish, should be around 150.  I am extremely happy with what I have but the fact still remains, that isn’t enough.

          It is hard to face because part of me says not to push the word count just to push it.  But on the other hand is the reality that for the genre I’m going for, or most adult fiction, my book is so short that it would get passed over easily.  I want to get to 250 but I’m struggling with how to do that.

          At least I am getting there though.   The hard part, coming up with the story, is behind me.  Now I just need to find a way to really make it complete and perfect.

          And of course there is still the matter of a title.  I really, really liked The Beautiful Blood but decided it was way to close to The Lovely Bones so I’m still thinking.  I have post its all over the wall by my bed with ideas.