Whoseywhatsit Thursday: Fall Writing Prompt

It's time for another Whoseywhatsit writing prompt, from yours truly. This week's topic ...

FALL

It's finally cooling off in southern Cali (although I fear it won't last) - so I'm all about wearing jeans and boots, watching our palm trees change color (just kidding!) and prepping for Halloween and all the fun fall activities.

You have up to 250 words to get your character in a fall state of mind - develop a flashback, write a poem, try something new, whatever you want. Post those words below and then comment on at least one other person's writing. (You don't need to necessarily critique it, this isn't polished writing people!)

Ready. Set. Go!

(And here's mine ...)

The candles flickered in the hallway, casting dancing shadows along the walls as we raced past. Maria grabbed my hand and pulled me along, both of us giggling behind our masks. My pulse still raced from the dance we'd completed mere minutes ago. A standing ovation had ushered us out of the room so we could change into our costumes and join the throng of people milling about the estate.

"Did you see him?" I asked, ducking my head toward hers so Bianca and the other girls wouldn't hear.

"Who?" Maria asked, leading me over to the table of sweets.

"The boy. Over by the fountain. With the dark hair?" How could she not have noticed him. It was all I could do not to stare and trip over my own feet.

She shook her head. "Is he still here?"

"I don't know." I grabbed a pastry and nibbled at a piece. "But I intend to find out."

Just then, the feather-soft touch of fingers raced up my bare arm and a voice spoke in my ear. "Care to dance?"

TBR Tuesday: Time Between Us

Not only do I love books with elements of the paranormal, but I LOVE a heart-wrenching love story.  So when I read the description for this book and saw all the advance praise it's getting, I knew it had to go on my TBR list.  And lucky for me, it comes out TODAY!

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

Fresh, exciting, and deeply romantic, Time Between Us is a stunning, spellbinding debut from an extraordinary new voice in YA fiction.

"A beautifully written, unique love story." -- Melissa Marr, New York Times best-selling author of The Wicked Lovely series 

“A warm, time-bending romance… [that] will have readers rooting for the couple that keeps daring fate.” -- Publishers Weekly

"Time Between Us is the very best kind of love story -- heart-pounding, intense, and unputdownable!" -- Elizabeth Scott, author of Bloom and Perfect You

"The story will hold readers with its twists and turns, present and future; its love, sadness, and anger; and especially, its surprising secrets." -- Booklist

Anyone else adding it to their must-read list??

Whoseywhatsit Thursday: NEW OASIS SISTER

Yes, we call each other sisters. Heck, I talk to/email/tweet/FB my Oasis sisters more than I do my own. I like the theory that we can choose our own family, and I'm lucky to have these girls in mine.

Since the Oasis' first post, we've had a regular visitor to this blog, to our personal blogs, and an all around cheerleader and helper-outer. (It IS a word. Hush up, it is too! :-P ) She's beta read for a few of us, too. When it comes to the Oasis for YA, and us Sisters, the first person that comes to mind as being in our extended online family, its J.L. Spelbring. 

So, this Fall, we're bringing her into the Oasis family!!

For those of you who don't know her, J.L. Spelbring has a very active blog. She has a spring 2013 release with Spencer Hill Press, too. According to her official bio, J.L. lives in Texas, where she wanders out in the middle of the night to look at the big and bright stars. Besides knocking imaginary bad guys in the head with a keyboard, she enjoys being swept away between the pages of a book, running amuck inside in her own head, pretending she is into running, and hanging out with her kids, who are way too cool for her. Her novel, Perfection, will be released in May, 2013

 

What about Perfection? Well, here's the blurb:

The personification of Aryan purity, Ellyssa's spent her whole life under her creator's strict training and guidance; her purpose is to eradicate inferior beings. She was genetically engineered to be the perfect soldier: strong, intelligent, unemotional, and telepathic.

Only Ellyssa isn't perfect.

Ellyssa feels emotions--a fact she's spent her life concealing. Until she encounters the epitome of inferiority: a dark-haired boy raised among renegades hiding since the Nazis won the war a century ago. He speaks to her telepathically, pushing thoughts into her mind, despite the impossibility of such a substandard person having psychic abilities.

But he does.

His unspoken words and visions of a place she's never visited make Ellyssa question her creator. Confused and afraid her secret will be discovered, Ellyssa runs away, embarking on a journey where she discovers there is more to her than perfection.

You can find J.L. here at the Oasis, on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and her SHP author page. And you can find out more about her upcoming dystopian release on Perfection's page on Goodreads.

Please give Judy a big welcome to the Oasis for YA family!