What's On Your Reading List

Oh! I'm so excited. My very first post!!!! 

And it gets to be something great! I get to talk about a book I want to read. YAY!

For my first To-Be-Read Tuesday, I've chosen a book that I can't wait till the release date.

From the first time I read the blurb and saw the cover, I knew this was something for me. It sounds great, and the cover is just creepy. I am a fan of creepy.

So, I would like to recommend DOLLHOUSE ASYLUM  by Mary Gray--expected publication Oct. 8, 2013 by Spencer Hill Press.

I know, a whole year from now. But, I'll wait, impatiently. 

See, it is a creepy cover!

And here's the blurb. 

A virus that had once been contained has returned, and soon no place will be left untouched by its destruction. But when seventeen-year-old Cheyenne wakes up in Elysian Fields--a subdivision cut off from the world and its monster-creating virus--she is thrilled to have a chance at survival.

 

At first, Elysian Fields,with its beautiful houses and manicured lawns, is perfect. Teo Richardson, the older man who stole Cheyenne's heart, built it so they could be together. But when Teo tells Cheyenne there are tests that she and seven other couples must pass to be worthy of salvation, Cheyenne begins to question the perfection of his world.

 

The people they were before are gone. Cheyenne is now "Persephone," and each couple has been re-named to reflect the most tragic romances ever told. Everyone is fighting to pass the test, to remain in Elysian Fields. Teo dresses them up, tells them when to move and how to act, and in order to pass the test, they must play along.

 

If they play it right, then they'll be safe. 

 

But if they play it wrong, they'll die.

 
What do you think? Does the blurb sound interesting to you?

Writer Wednesday: "How do you do it?"

That up there is my Note Card Outline of Doom for the book I'm working on now. It stretched from one end of my dining room table to the other. As I stood on the chair with my camera, trying to get the entire thing into frame, I had a wild thought that it kinda looks like a spine...granted, there's a few protrusions... But tell me you can see what I mean?

This plot = story spine equation dovetails into my post today. "How do you do it?" Since I've sold a book to a publisher, I've had this question from starting writers. It's related to everything from as general to writing a book, to plotting/outlining, to editing/revising.

The first thing I tell someone is it's all in the semantics of the word and the writer. How one relates to the other. There are as many right ways to write a book as there are writers to do it. What works for me now didn't work for me at the start, and I certainly can't say it will work for anyone else.

I used to be a pantser with plotitudinal tendencies. I had a general idea of where to start a book and where to end it, and some key scenes in-between, then I cobbled them together and pantsed from point to point. Somehow that all changed. Now I outline viciously, not every scene, but at least every chapter. I speak to writer friends who discovery write, and don't know what their next scene will be because their characters haven't decided yet. And I think, "That used to be me..."

It wasn't until a newbie author, sent to me for a recommendation by my agent, asked the type of question above that it really got me wondering. How do YOU do it? Are our Oasis visitors pantsers? Plotters? Do you write from a "What if" question? Do you know your endings? Have you changed your game like me?

Let's chat about this. Maybe we can help each other, and someone else, too. Put lots of "How I do it" answers or people to see, maybe give a test drive, even.

What's On Your Reading List?

For today's To-Be-Read Tuesday, I've chosen a book that has recently come to my attention. I knew the moment I read the blurb I just had to have it.

Meet Jane.

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. 

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. 

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. 

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey. 

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

Title: Ironskin
Author: Tina Connolly
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Released: October 9, 2012
Pages: 304

Purchase: Macmillian site, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Add to your Goodreads list.

What do you think is most intriguing about this blurb? Or what's missing?