Hello everybody! My apologies for being MIA on my blog. That usually means that I'm busy traveling or writing. I hope people will be happy to learn that it's the latter. I've been busy working on two different books (that's in addition to Better Off Friends which is coming in March 2014). One of the books is something that I've been wanting to write for a long time, so I'm doing that during my "free time" and not sure what will come of it. The other book is one that I'm pretty much bursting at the seams to tell you all about, but unfortunately I have to wait on that...
I've also been busy reading some great books. As those of you who follow my blog may remember, I did a reading challenge last year. I didn't make a resolution to read fifty books again, but did decide to keep track just for fun.
I did want to single out a few books. There are two books on writing that I read to help me with the one project that's very different from what I've done in the past: See Jane Write and Save the Cat. I've never read any "craft" books before and both were extraordinarily helpful. Save the Cat basically changed how I approached this one story. There's a "beat sheet" used in the book and I used that to replot the book and it helped make it so much better (I hope!). I highly recommend it to anybody out there who is stuck plot-wise or just needs to re-focus.
Also, there are two books on this list that haven't come out yet. Two Boys Kissing, by my dear friend and editor David Levithan, is just as inspiring and beautiful as you'd expect his books to be. And readers with a good eye will see why I FREAKED OUT in public while reading this one scene. That's all I'll say, for now. The other book is by debut author Emery Lord, Open Road Summer. I was asked to read this for a possible blurb, and I absolutely loved it and was honored to do so. Put this author and book on your radar now!
So below are the twenty books that I've read so far. I'm actually not that far away from where I was last year so I might just make it to fifty yet. Who knows! Crazier things have happened, like me trying to write two books at once!
- Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl*
- Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
- Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
- The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare*
- Just One Day by Gayle Foreman
- Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers by Dav Piley
- Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
- All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin
- See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit by Sarah Mlynowski and Farrin Jacobs
- Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
- Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan
- Bond Girl by Erin Duffy
- Legend by Marie Lu*
- Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg*
- Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (coming April 15, 2014)
- Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (coming August 27, 2013)
*denotes book club book
I'm currently reading Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters, then I have to debate between my insanely huge to-read pile. What's on your to-read list?
XOXO, Elizabeth