First of all, I’m excited to announce that I’m doing a giveaway! Launching a book in the middle of semester was perhaps a silly thing to do, as it meant I couldn’t properly promote it at launch time. But that’s all done with now, so here I am with two signed paperback copies of A More Complicated Fairytale to give away. It’s open to everyone, anywhere in the world, because if I restricted it to Australian entries I’d probably get maybe two. 😛 You can go here to enter. Good luck!
(If you want to know a bit more before entering, the Amazon and GoodReads links are both in the sidebar to the right)/;’
My goodness, this has been a good writing week. You can read a long ramble about the reasons for the sudden upturn in my progress in Sunday’s post, but suffice to say – you know how last Wednesday I was all like, “It’s taken me from November to now, but I’ve just reached 20k on Worlds Apart”? Well, I’ve added over 5k just this week. My aim for the ten weeks between uni semesters was to add another 10k, but I’ve upped that goal to 30k, which will bring me to a total of 50k by the time I return to uni. Fingers crossed I can keep up the momentum! I’ll still try to keep my WIPpets somewhat in sequence so as not to cause too much confusion, but at least I don’t have to worry about running out of material to share from now.
For today’s WIPpet I have five lines, which also happen to make up two paragraphs in my Scrivener file (and it’s the 25th). Quite a lot has happened prior to this scene, but all you need to know is that Princess Adelyn and Carrie Cortain had the royal guards catch up to them while they were trying to escape. Due to circumstances that would take far too long to explain here, Carrie has been taken by the guards and Adelyn has lost all of her memories of who she is, etc., and has been left alone in a giant forest. And yes, there is a reason she thinks she may be Carrie, but again with the “too convoluted to explain” thing.
The girl wandered the forest, her hands brushing against the rough bark of trees as she passed. She jumped every time she heard a noise. The pack on her back made her shoulders ache, but she kept moving. She didn’t know if it would be safe to stop, though she didn’t know where she was going, either.
The other girl had called her Carrie. Was that her name? She assumed so, though they had seemed to be in trouble. Perhaps she had been using an alias. Why didn’t she know who she was, and why was the other girl so keen for her to get away to the point of sacrificing herself? And who was Milton Nethercote, the man she was supposed to somehow locate?
If you are unfamiliar with WIPpet Wednesday, allow me to elaborate. It’s a blog hop where writers get together and share snippets from the WIP that somehow relate to the date (eg. my 2 paragraphs/5 lines thing for today). You can reach our link-up by clicking the blue guy in the right-hand sidebar. Please feel free to join in with us! We’d love to have you.
Now onto WWW Wednesday! This is a blog hop in which we answer questions about what we’ve been reading this past week. This is hosted by Sam over at A World of Words. You can join in by commenting on today’s post over on her blog.
- What are you currently reading?
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal. Ive only read the first 100 pages so far, but I’ve already witnessed the marriage of a twelve-year-old girl (thankfully, despite my fears, there is no wedding night described), and the violent miscarriage of another girl not much older (it’s set in the 16th century, so basically everything is awful) yeah. It’s going to be a bit harrowing, I think.
I also made a very decent chunk in the audio version of The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I got the email from my library that was available this morning, so I delayed leaving for work slightly and downloaded it. I’m already halfway through. I’m quite fussy about Alice in Wonderland retellings/adaptations, but I am actually liking this one. I think the fact that the Mad Hatter-equivalent character is not the love interest for once is helping. His connect to Alice/Alyss is entirely different. (I know that in Splintered, the Wonderland love interest was based on the Caterpillar, but I hated that book, so it doesn’t count :P)
- What did you recently finish reading?
I finished two audio book thrillers this week. The first was Disclaimer by Renee Knight, about a woman who has to confront her deepest, darkest secret when she is delivered a novel which clearly references said secret. It required a fair bit of suspension of disbelief, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It made me think. Second was Viral by Helen Fitzgerald. It’s about a girl whose worst moment ends up as a viral Internet video. It was good, and really drew attention to the woefully inadequate laws we have around video uploads and that sort of thing. But one of the two POV characters was quite unrealistic, I felt, which let it down a bit.
As Friday night was the beginning of my first weekend with no uni work, I spent it in bed reading The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood, which was a very quick read in the end. While there were some parts I didn’t especially like, the ending was really gripping!
I realised that I wasn’t going to get The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins finished by today, when it was due back to the library, so I gave up and returned it on Monday. However, I’ve put it back on my GoodReads TBR shelf rather than my DNF shelf in the hopes I’ll be able to come back to it when I’m in a better mood for it. It’s one that I do want to give a proper chance to.
I posted two new reviews this week, one for Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (3 stars) and one for World War Z by Max Brooks (3.5 stars).
- What do you think you’ll read next?
My next audio book is Reluctantly Charmed by Ellie O’Neill, which sounds cute and lighthearted and charming.
It’s not so much a case of reading next, but getting back to reading. The Edge of Darkness by K. L. Schwengel and A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab have both been sitting, started but not completed, on my Kindle, waiting for me to get back to them once I got rid of all my library books. Kingdom of Little Wounds is the last of my library haul for the moment, so I will actually be able to return to these.
Whew this was a long post! If you’ve made it all this way, you have my thanks. I’ll sign off now, and go and catch some of you on your owns blogs!
Ooh nice snippet 🙂 It raises lots of questions, that’s for sure.
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Yay! I’m so happy for you and your massive writing surge 🙂 Great news and long may it continue.
While I thought Disclaimer was well-written and well-structured, I got so irritated by the main character not just telling someone, anyone, what happened, my annoyance overcame my enjoyment! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Here’s my WWW: https://clairehuston.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/www-wednesday-25th-may-2016/
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That was one of my issues! It took me reading another review that said it’s structured in such a way because the reader can’t know just yet for me to figure out why it was dragging out like that. Not to mention, apart from a very small number of details, there didn’t actually seem to be that many similarities between the actual events and those in Stephen’s book.
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Yay you have books on your list which I’ve read! 😉
I’ve read both Disclaimer and Viral, both I thought were over-hyped. I totally agree with you about Viral too, some of the things the mother did were just so unrealistic it was almost laughable!
Thanks for visiting my WWW – https://bookboodle.co.uk/2016/05/25/www-wednesday-may-25th
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Haha, yay! You and I are often so disparate with our choices. I must have been fortunate because I had only heard of these two from some WWW blogs (possibly yours!) and didn’t witness any hype, which was probably a good thing! They were both fine, but nothing mind-blowing. Re: Viral – I also thought a woman in the mother’s position, even if she was middle-aged, would be Internet-savvy enough to have a basic understanding of viral videos, Facebook, etc, without having to constantly ask her daughter everything.
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Seems it was only a matter of time before we found some common ground…although not with the most amazing books!
I suppose with these types of books there has to be a certain amount of suspended believability (if that makes sense) so there is a book 😉
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Your snippet makes me want to know more! It’s good to know that others read several books at once. I haven’t come across any of the books you’re reading/have read, but they all sound interesting, even if some are harrowing, and for others it’s hard to suspend your disbelief!
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I’m usually pretty good at keeping myself to one or two books at a time, but I’ve just kept flooding myself over the past month or so. Reading in both print and audio does help, though.
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Great snippet! I’d like to know the answers to her questions, too. 🙂
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Hi Emily,
Happy to send you a copy of The Last Days of Magic so you can read it on your own schedule. Just message me with your shipping address on Twitter or Facebook.
https://twitter.com/MLTompkins
https://www.facebook.com/MarkTompkinsBooks/
Thanks for your interest in the book!
Mark Tompkins
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Hi Mark, wow thank you! That would be fantastic! I’ll send you a message on Twitter in a moment – I hope international postage is not a problem. My handle is @keysandopenmind.
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I’ve been wanting to read A Gathering of Shadows for a long time!! I hope you like it. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!
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I’m impressed you managed to put down A Gathering of Shadows. I don’t think I could have stopped reading after I started 🙂
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I actually felt like I was still settling back into the world when I put it down. I remember thinking the first one had a bit of a slow start as well (which is why I only gave it 4 stars when pretty much everyone else gave it 5), so maybe it’s that again.
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It probably is a little slow. I figured it was my impatience at Kel and Lila in separate stories 🙂
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Possibly a bit of that, too! As awesome as it is that Lila became a pirate. :p
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Nice snippet!
Disclaimer and Viral are both on my wishlist, but I have read mixed reviews about Disclaimer so I’ve been putting it off.
Here’s my WWW https://chocolatenwafflesblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/this-week-in-books-may-25th-2016/
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Wow… I should get involved with the WWW Wednesday hop JUST to get a list of new books to read. I’m always at a loss when I go to the store or library. What should I choose next? Stuff like that. And I find Goodreads too much to ‘process’ at a time. This hop seems a nicely balanced mix.
I was curious–can’t you renew books from your library? I’m CONSTANTLY renewing books these days (I always overindulge).
So who is this Milton Nethercote she’s supposed to find? And can he help her find herself?
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I love WWW! I hear about so many great books through it.
I can renew, but not when there is only one copy and it’s a new release and has a queue of people waiting for it (I think there were 7 holds behind me). Sometimes if there are multiple copies and you smile sweetly at the librarian, they will override that, but I knew that wasn’t going to work this time. Kingdom of Little Wounds is renewed though, as it was also due back this week and I’ve only just started.
She did know who Milton Nethercote was, except then her memories got wiped. Again. (He’s a very powerful magician who they think can help her get them back but finding him is difficult because he’s in exile)
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Great snippet! Now I want to know if she figures out who she is.
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Talk about busy – good luck getting through everything! Although I’m impressed you were able to put AGoS aside, even if it was for library books and those pesky return dates – I resented every second I had to put that one down.
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You’re the second person to say that, but while I was about 15-20% into it, I felt like i was still settling back into the world, so I was okay with putting it down. I remember taking a little while to get into the first book but then really loving it by the end, so I guess it might be the same thing going on again.
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I really enjoyed Disclaimer and it made one of my books of the year last year, true it required a little suspension of belief but I did love the premise.
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Interesting snippet. It certainly raises a lot of questions.
I hope you enjoy Edge of Darkness. 🙂
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Interesting snippet–how odd it must be not knowing who you are or where you are going. You’ve created a lot of tension in a small paragraph!
I loved Edge of Darkness–I look forward to your review.
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