So I’ve started book 3 in The Raven Cycle. I am sorry to report that it’s every bit as interesting as the first two, and I was devastated to discover that the author is roughly half my age. However, this could explain why she has so much imagination left. There. Now I feel much better.

I finished the second book in the Raven Cycle in one day. ONE DAY. There are so many really, really original twists and turns that I would have used up all my imagination (as in forever) by the end of that one. So maybe the third book will be normal and dull. It would make me feel so much better, except for the part about paying $16 for it.

I just finished reading The Raven Boys, the first book in a cycle called The Raven Cycle, and I’ve ordered the second book, because I believe it is essential that I understand the ‘YA cycle’ concept. Ok, that is a total lie. I’m reading it because I want to find out what happens next. There is at least one more book (#3) in the cycle and it won’t be out until tomorrow and then only in hardcover. As I tend to read books I enjoy in 1-2 days I hope there aren’t, say, 30 more books in the cycle since I can’t find my library card.

I’ve discovered I actually enjoy revising, because it’s like working on an acrostic. You find the exact right word or phrase that you’d been looking for and everything works (in your twisted imagination, anyhow). If you don’t do acrostics, you’ll just have to find your own simile, as I am intellectually exhausted from finding this one.

Just discovered that a book I totally liked, not because it was profound or had a unique style (which is to say lots of adjectives and bizarre syntax), but because it was fun to read, was E-published. It has a beautiful cover and great binding and good quality paper and editing and proves you can turn out an enjoyable book without bothering with an agent or publisher! I’m still not going to try it.

I have now totally revamped the beginning of one of my novels, including the title. It is now “The Girl Who Saw Invisible Stars.” So even if you read before it you will feel like it’s a totally new experience! Which means you can read it again and have a new and better experience. Of course, if you haven’t read it yet, it will just be an experience.

http://www.wattpad.com/story/26371207-the-girl-who-saw-invisible-stars

After many, many tears I’ve finished The Fault in Our Stars. I highly recommend it, if you want to read a wonderful book that will make you consume large amounts of Kleenex. One thing that all the wonderful books I’ve read recently had in common is their authors copious praise for their editors. Does this mean a great editor might turn one of my novels into a wonderful book too? Absolutely not.

The Fault In Their Stars is such a wonderful book that I became depressed after the first chapter, realizing I would never write anything like that. Then I learned it was a NY Times #1 bestseller, and I felt much, much better, because it wouldn’t bother me at all if I never became a ‘Highlights for Children’ bestseller, so long as a book of mine was published by a company someone had actually heard of.

Now that a third agent has said they loved the storyline but the writing, not so much (they didn’t actually say ‘rotten.’ The term the last one used was ‘not compelling’), I have decided major changes are in order for the beginning two chapters. I honestly, truly believed that if they had read the next ten pages (or perhaps the next two paragraphs, because that’s how it works) they would have like it much better. So I’ve started massive revisions. Check out the first two pages. Don’t tell me if you think it’s worse. I will be sad.

In my quest to read at least one YA novel a week, I just read a very bad book. The action revolved around the main character’s amnesia; losing every memory of her past, even her own name because of a single brain damage-free, traumatic experience, a complete gimmick, since generally that’s not the way it works. The author used the word ‘shiver’ (in a passion sort of way) at least 742 times, and the females made the ones in Mean Girls look like Mother Teresa’s kinder younger sisters. I solved the mystery in chapter 2. And yet, I enjoyed it. Go figure.