Beautiful Books #1

The lovely Cait and Sky are organising a new three month event/link-up called Beautiful Books. I'd tell you all about it but since I'm absolutely terrible at explaining things- I'll just link their posts here and here. Today I'm going to be answering the fifteen questions about my NaNoWriMo novel which currently doesn't have a proper title...


1. What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Usually I get plot ideas first for my novels, but for this one the characters just attacked me one day and wouldn't leave alone until I wrote them down. I'm definitely a plotter- almost my entire novel is already planned out.  

2. Do you have a title and/or a “back-cover-blurb”? 
No and no. I usually leave these things until last because I'm really, really terrible with coming up with names and like I mentioned...explaining things isn't really my forte.

3. What wordcount are you aiming for when your novel is finished?
I have no idea - it could be anywhere between about 70,000 and 150,000. It's a big story. 

4. Sum up your novel in 3 sentences.
A girl and her family move to a new country and the main girl discovers sometimes you can't just run anyway from your problems. She also learns about friendship, love and fitting in. Oh, and a REALLY old curse.  

5. Sum up your characters in one word each.
I have quite a few characters so I'll just do the main few. Coralie - determined. Kiki - wild. Bria - sweet. Nathaniel - marvellous.  

6. Which character are you most excited to write? Tell us about them! 
This is sort of a hard one to pick. I love Coralie- she's probably my favourite character of mine ever, but I also really love Nathaniel (who is just beautiful) and Sarah (Cora's friend) because she's based on one of my best friends.  

7. What about your villain? Who is he, what is his goal?
His name is Leo and I cannot tell you his goal because then that ruins the entire book. I can tell you this - he's really not nice, and in a way that means nobody could ever actually like him. We're talking like Umbridge level of dislike here.

8. What is your protagonist’s goal? And what stands in the way? 
Cora's simple- she just wants to be happy and for her family to be safe. Obviously, Leo doesn't exactly want that.  

9. What inciting incident begins your protagonist’s journey?
Incidentally, it's Leo that forces Coralie on her journey. 

10. Where is your novel set?
Copenhagen in Denmark, because I love Europe too much.

 11. What are three big scenes in your novel that change the game completely?
Oooh, this is a hard one. I can't really mention any of the big scenes without ruining the whole story! 

 12. What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else do they come in contact with or become close to during the story?
Cora has some really great relationships with her family - they are definitely some of my favourite scenes to write, but I also really love me some Cora/Nate or her friendship with Bria and Sarah.  

13. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?
She's much more confident, more determined, more fierce but I just love her a lot already.  

14. Do you have an ending in mind, or do you plan to see what happens?
After the characters, the ending was pretty much the next thing I planned. There's also going to be a sequel, but I don't know whether it'll be a duology or series yet. I don't have endings for those.

15. What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impressions are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?
My main dream for this book at the moment is to actually finish it. I have a track record of starting novels, getting a few chapters in and then never touching them again. Ultimately, yes I would like to be able to publish it but that's a long way off. I'm hoping that any readers I may have would see Cora as an interesting character, but also as a good role model - I think that's very important for a YA audience. 

So that's the basics of my unnamed story. Since I haven't actually written it yet, it's kind of hard to describe everything in detail as of right now. I will actually be doing updates here throughout the whole of NaNoWriMo, if you're interested :) Thanks for reading!

5 FANDOM FRIDAY #1

Hi guys, today I'm participating a new link-up thing! As you can see by the title of this post it's called '5 Fandom Fridays', and it's hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick. If you want to find out more about it, I'll link both of their introductory posts here and here. The topic today is 'Geeky Clothing Items I Need In My Closet Immediately', so let's go!

1. LITERALLY ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING CAPTAIN AMERICA
So I've developed this serious obsession for Captain America lately that totally has nothing to do with Chris Evans...nope, nothing at all. I actually already own a hoodie that I pretty much never take off, but I need more stuff...obviously!

2. Slytherin stuff
I have a few Slytherin things already, but not enough! I'm really not fussy what it is, just as long as it's Slytherin.

3. Sherlock stuff
In the same way, I'd like some more Sherlock stuff. I have to say, those shoes and the jacket are totally my favourites. I would LIVE in them.

4. Book Purse
So I know this is technically an accessory, but come on- just look at their beauty! Can any of you honestly say you wouldn't buy one of these? I'll just leave the Etsy link here...

5. Jamaica Inn jewellry
Yes, this is an accessory too. Basically, Jamaica Inn (by Daphne Du Maurier) is an amazing book and I love it very, very much and I would give my soul to own any of these. Again, here's the Etsy link.

So that's it- my first 5 Fandom Friday! I hope you all enjoyed it and if you participated, link your post below! Also, sorry that I don't have Etsy links for everything - I had most of them saved on my computer already :(

Ten Author Facts About: Taherah Mafi

1. Her name is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable and her family is originally from Iran.

2. She has four older brothers and was born in Connecticut.  She currently lives in Orange County, CA and has a season pass to Disneyland.

x3. At age five, she wanted to be a chemist and grew up “living in the library.” Harry Potter is one of her favorite books because she was the same age and grew up with Harry

4. She went to a small liberal arts college and never took a creative writing class.  For her, writing a book was always something that seemed like it was too difficult. Tahereh says “Writing is such a solitary pursuit that you often have to be your own biggest fan and cheerleader.  I know writers who had to wait for 10 years or 20 years before they were published.  I needed to keep myself motivated so that I could hang in there.”

5. She is an obsessive writer who would lock herself up in her house for weeks and literally wake up, write and fall asleep.  Repeat.  She wrote ‘Unravel Me,’ the second book in the series, in two weeks.

6. She wrote five manuscripts and received hundreds of rejections before coming up with Shatter Me.  Her advice for people who want to be writers is to never give up.  “I have been there many times.  The only difference between successful and unsuccessful writers is time.  So don’t give up too soon.” 

7. She loves to do things with her hands including cook, draw and doodle.  One of the things Tahereh is known for is “defacing” her books, where she draws, writes a quote or just goes crazy on the white hard covers.  This practice started one day when she was just sitting around and took the jacket off one of her author’s copies.  She saw that the cover was plain white and just started to draw on it.  She put the photo up on Twitter and it received so much positive reaction that her publisher asked her to do a few more for a giveaway.  It has now become her “thing.”

8. She is a picky eater.  When one of her friends found out she was coming to Manila, she was asked if she would try balut. She replied “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

9. She has the same agent as Stephanie Meyer.

10. On the fans in Manila, Tahereh says: “The readers here are so passionate and it is very difficult to describe but I have never been to a signing where people were just so into it and screaming.  You can ask ‘Who is Team Warner?’ and people would scream.  They are just so genuine in their interest that you just want to squeeze and hug each one of them.  And it is very flattering to the author.”

Source: http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2013/03/10/917688/10-things-you-did-not-know-about-tahereh-mafi

Rearranging My Bookshelves!

I'm warning you all right now, this is going to be a very, very, very long post so I suggest you go and get yourself a cup of tea and something to snack on before you get started. Are you ready? ( I can't believe you actually made a post about this my dearest. She's right folks! Hold on for a long ride! - C)

I've been meaning to properly rearrange my bookshelves for ages now, but usually I just move about five books around and tweet about how I'm rearranging my bookshelves. However, last Saturday- I actually, finally, did it and this is going to be my (not so) little post about it!

So this is my main bookshelf before I attacked it, as well as my little 'immediate TBR' shelf. I should mention that all of these books are my TBR pile...yes, I really do have a problem.

First I moved all my library/books from a friend off my shelves as well as some other things- like my two awesome cameras, my insane collection of bookmarks and this cute reading sign thingy. My shelves looked slightly better after that...

Then I decided I was going to put all the books I was 'currently reading' (see books that have a bookmark in) into the little shelf. So I took out all those books from my shelves, as well as the ones already in my 'immediate TBR' shelf.

Then I took out all the other books in that shelf. As you can probably imagine, by this time I was already surrounded by books. In fact, when my brother came in to see why I was yelling out some rather inappropriate words (because books being dropped on feet is not fun), he asked when I was going to sacrifice a goat and summon the book devil.

I decided then that I was going to write down all the books and the page I was on, which ended up in with the books being organised by size and then the number of pages I read. For example, I've only read 12 pages of Stray so that's on the bottom but I've read 359 pages of The Sweet Far Thing.

Unfortunately, not all the shelves are the same size in this bookcase so it meant that I had to mix it up a little. Also, The Fellowship of the Ring refused to fit anywhere so it kind of got dumped on the top there.

I decided to keep these three out because, ONE- I'm currently reading Heir of Fire and World After, and TWO- there's no way they could have fit. And then I had a little bit of a freak out...where I regretted ever starting this so I tweeted about it and tried to make Chami feel sorry for me. (That didn't exactly work out). (It hurt me more than it hurt you - C)

I ended up picking out the books on my October and RYBSAT TBR so they could take prime place on my shelves. And I played a little game of 'Spot the Allen & Unwin books' which is something I do waaaaaaay more often than I should.

Then there was some more sitting back and regretting my choice and some 'WHY DO I HAVE SOME MANY BOOKS?' (and if my brother asks, some more book devil summonings). Slowly, I started to move things around and the pile on my floor wasn't so bad anymore! (Who knew I ever had a floor?)

Finally, these were the only books I couldn't find anyway (sure, I had to get creative with some of them) but luckily most of these already have homes in other bookcases.

And the final result...

I'm sorry it's not the world's best photo but by that time it was already six o'clock at night and I had no natural light left. I will be doing a shelf-by-shelf bookshelf tour soon (I'm not even going to try going book by book)...hopefully. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this post and let me know how you organise your shelves!

DISCUSSION: Libraries

As fellow book people, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I saw that libraries are the worst. Not in the usual ‘they’re so boring, blah blah’ way but in the ‘I already have enough books to read. Why are you doing this to me? WHHHY?’ kind of way. 

Hi, I’m Ely and I have a library addiction. (Now you all reply ‘Hi Ely’ in your monotone voices. Okay, GO!) I haven’t been to the library in three days, but I was on the library website three minutes ago looking as to whether any of my books have come in yet, even though it’s a Saturday and books don’t come in on weekends. It’s starting to take over my life.

Until about two years ago, around the time Chami and I started this blog, I got a library card after ten or so years of not having one. I used to borrow books from school in that time, but you could only ever take three out at a time so it was never a big deal. Then came the library card. Suddenly, I could take out as many books as I wanted and I could order books in from other libraries. I’m sure you can all imagine how this went.

That was my second library haul. The first time I went with Chami, and I got about 15 books out. I couldn’t even carry them. 

See, the things is...I can’t resist my library. I own about 400 books already, most of which are unread but I keep going back to that library, most of the time for books I don’t actually need. Currently, I have seven books out from the library and another seventeen on hold. Yes, that’s the level of crazy that I am on. 

I thought I’d share the books I currently have from/are on hold at the library. Firstly, the ones I have – Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke (2014 release), Perfect by Ellen Hopkins (because I NEEDED it after Impulse), On the beach by Neal Shute, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour book store by Robin Sloan and After Darkness by Christine Piper (all of which were recommended to me by the wonderful Brit) and then Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini and Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood (both of which I have actually started). 

Now onto the ‘on hold’ ones. Capricornia by Xavier Herbert, Reluctantly Charmed by Ellie O’Neill and Lyrebird Hill by Anna Romer (again, recommended to me by Brit), The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones, Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, I know why the cadged bird sings by Maya Angelou, Dark Places and Sharp Objects by Gillan Flynn (for reasons I am not entirely sure of), Gone Girl also by Gillan Flynn (because of the movie), The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (because it’s on my Top 14 to read and so I can understand Belzhar), Watchmen by Alan Moore plus two volumes of Captain America (because GRAPHIC NOVELS), and finally Toxic Heart by Theo Lawrence, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure by James Dashner (because I want them, but I don’t want to pay for them). 

This is what happens when I put myself on a book buying ban. You see this? It’s baaaad. Anyway, now it’s time for us to go around in the circle and you can tell of your terrible library addiction.

My October Reading Goals

Last week, the Top Ten Tuesday post was Top Ten Books On My 'Fall' TBR List which got me thinking. I don't usually pick themes for my monthly TBR's (when I actually do them) but October is a special month. It's Halloween, and while it's not a big deal here in Australia, I thought it would be a good month to have a theme for. It's not surprising to anyone as to what my theme will be- we're talking paranormal/creepy books.

October is also a month of exams for me (okay, I only have two but that's two more than I want) so I don't expect to read all of the books I've mentioned below but I just wanted to give myself some options. I know that I'm probably going to read other books too.

1. Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake - Ghosts, and it's supposed to be relatively scary (?). (Actually, this one wasn't bad. - C)
2. Antigoddess by Kendare Blake - The back of this book tells me that the content is too violent for people under the age of 15...let's see.
3. Grishma by Kelly Anne Blount - I don't actually know what this is about, but we got sent it for review ages ago.
4. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr - I've owned this for four years...I think it's time I read it. ( DON'T! THE REST OF THE SERIES DOENS'T FOLLOW THE FIRST BOOKKKKKK - C)
5. Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James - Rebecca sounds so lovely on Twitter and everyone adores her books.

6. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff - Maggie Stiefvater reviewed this...need I say more? ( My face is a face of -_- Ely - C)
7. Mice by Gordon Reece - I've owned this one for years as well, it's time.
8. Hereafter by Tara Hudson - I bought this one for $5 so I don't have very high hopes for it, but I want to get it read.
9. Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black - Yes, this was a cover buy.
10. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter - Friends who don't read a lot tell me that this is good.

11. Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow - I've had this one for ages too. ( Ah, I read this one but I never finished this series! - C)
12. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson - I LOVED the first book, but I'm terrified to read this one as the third one isn't out yet.
13. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin - See above.
14. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - No, I haven't read this yet. Yes, I know I should. (I know this isn't really 'creepy' but I just wanted to include it)
15. Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza - I think I've owned this for about a year now, so I think I should probably read it.

Fun fact - I already own all of these books which means, no buying for me! I don't really know which one to start with, so if you've read any of them tell me which was your favourite. *prepares to be bombarded with comments about Mara Dyer* Anyway, those are my October Reading Plans, now tell me about yours!