First Contest EVER!

Now that I have some super cool ARCs to hand out it's time to play, WIN THAT BOOK!!

And since I've never done a contest here on this blog it's going to be fun for both of us! Just wait. You'll see!

Today's prize is:

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

All you have to do is add up the following:

Comment +1 entry

New Blog Follower + 1 / Old Blog Follower + 2

Tweet about contest + 2 (please tell me your twitter name or leave a link)

Blog about contest + 3 (Please leave the link in the comments)

Help me spread the word about my blog and you get a prize! See how it works?

FUN FUN FUN!

The contest will end on June 20th and I will post the winner the next day.

Yay books!

Birthdays, BEA and Bears

Well hello there!
I know. It has been a while, but I mostly blame Blogger and perhaps the book I'm editing.



Today is kid #1's birthday! YEAH BIRTHDAYS! She now gets to hold up one of her hands, splay out her fingers and say, "I am FIVE!" And then her brother yells "FIVE!" When really he'll be "TWO!" next Wednesday.

Yes. June is a busy month.

But I'm going to do my best with the whole blogging thing. I've already warned you that if you see a post pop up and the screen is filled with random letters like, hhhhhhheeeeeeeellllllllpppppppmmmmmmeeeeee you know I either fell asleep on my computer because of late night editing or I've completely lost my mind because of late night editing.

And did I mention that editing is fun? Did I?

Okay. So a week or so ago (blogger hates me) I traveled into the rather large NYC to attend one extremely overwhelming day of BEA. BEA!! YEAH!
And it was such an amazing day. I got lots of books and met lots of people and got lots of books.
Oh, the books. Sigh.
And I got to hang out at the Chronicle booth and I took photos, I DID! But because the light in the Javitz Center is horrible and the Chronicle booth was bright and happy and beautiful the camera on my iPhone screamed when I aimed it at the booth and did not do its best taking photos.
Don't blame me, I'm a photographer remember? I'm a professional. I never take bad photos.
Anyway. I did get this one.





And looking back I wish I had grabbed more books because now that it's over I keep hearing about books that were at BEA that I didn't know were going to be there like, Lola And The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins and Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale.




OH! The frustration!

But I did get some other fabulous books. Wanna see?








And, no, I'm not reading them. Cause that would be bad.

Editing + Reading New Books = Chaos!

But I will pop back on here and give some away soon! Stay tuned!

BEA!

So guess what?
I'm going to BEA! YES! I KNOW!
I've never been before so I'm not sure what to expect. Any advice out there?

I'm very excited to take in the author signings and pick up some ARCs, but mostly I just want to meet people! So. If you're going, let me know!

Look for me and the fabulous Dawn Metcalf. We'll be taking it all in on Tuesday the 24th.

And if it gets to be a little overwhelming, or if my feet start to hurt, I'll just use it as an opportunity to people watch.

People watching is great fun.

Time to Edit

I spent my weekend stealing glances at my edit notes.
When they arrived on Thursday I printed them, read them all the way through and then promptly tucked them away where I could only see them from a distance.
I have to admit, they scared the hell out of me. But don't tell. Seriously, don't.

Now that I've had the weekend to, you know, ignore them, I'm feeling much better.

I'm so excited to get back into the world of Mystique. For the last few months I've been thinking about my other book, the book that is currently out in submission-land.
And time off is a very good thing.

My plan is to put together some brainstorming music, live inside my head for a few days and reread Mystique. I love when I can approach a manuscript with fresh eyes!
And then the writing begins. It will start off slow, and then take off once I feel like I know where I'm going and hopefully I will avoid that awkward, frightening period where I lose myself completely.
Believe me, you'll know if it happens. One day you'll see I've added a new post and when you click on my blog the entire screen will be filled with random words like, chompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchomp
chompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchompchomp
or,
icecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfun
icecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfunicecreamisfun

and you'll think, huh, Shari must have lost it. I hope she's okay.

But don't worry. I'll be back with a shiny and newly revised manuscript that is much better than I thought it could be. (Hopefully.)
And I will be stronger and smarter and probably five pounds heavier because I can't write unless I'm eating chocolate. Or cookies.
Oh. And by the way. Starting today I am pretending it's fall. And that Christmas is coming. And that I live in Maine.
(You'll get it later, I promise.)

Spreading The News

Covers are a big deal when it comes to books, right?

Well, fellow Apocalypsie Leanna Renee Hieber's new cover for Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul has just been revealed!
Check out her blog post here. This book sounds awesome!

And I have a feeling I will be sharing more fabulous covers very very soon!!

When The Hype Is SOOOOO Worth It!

Okay. I just want you all to know how very excited I am to share this book with you. I know. Two book reviews in a row. But it has to be done.

About a month or so ago I learned that the first 100 pages of Divergent by Veronica Roth were online. Free! For me to read!
Now I have to admit my first thought was, why 100 pages? That seems like a lot!
And then after I read those pages I thought about how very cruel it was to release those 100 pages. SO. VERY. CRUEL!

I was totally hooked.

I don't know about you but I've noticed that lately there is a whole lot of book hyping going on.
I get all excited about the book and then it's released and it's okay, or good, or not so good.
But this book is sooo worth it!

I loved this book! LOVED! I finished it last night and I want to read it again. Yes. Seriously.
What did I love? Everything. Every last thing. I loved the beginning, middle and end.
And by the way... the end is amazing. AMAZING! I tell you! You want to know why?
Because it has one. You're not left hanging, staring at the last word on the last page thinking, wait! That's it? I have to wait a freakin' year for the next book? And then a few minutes later, while you're cursing the author and the editor and everyone involved in getting this book out into the world, you decide to bang your head against a wall because you're so sick of reading books where after two or three or five hundred pages you have no closure! NO CLOSURE!!!
Well. Let me tell you. Right now I feel like tracking Veronica Roth down (not in a stalkerish way of course, more in a friendly, "Hi! I loved your book!" kind of way) and giving her a huge hug and saying, "THANK YOU! You have renewed my love for trilogies! I can now go out and commit to a few more!"
A bit dramatic, I know. I get why trilogies are so successful. When you read a book you make friends. The characters develop inside your mind and become real and when you finish the book you don't want to walk away from these friends. You don't want to add them to your dusty and shelved pile of friends sitting on your bookcase. You want them to stick around a little bit longer, perhaps share a few more adventures with you. Right?
I love trilogies. I really do. But what I don't enjoy is when I feel like I've been manipulated into buying more books. I love when a story continues. Just give me a bit of closure!
I don't need to see her turn into a vampire after the first book, just don't leave me in the middle of the train ride home after surviving a televised fight to the death competition! I've been waiting to see her reunion with her family since the moment she volunteered to take her sister's place!
YOU KNOW?! That's really all I want!
Okay. I'm done.

Go read Divergent! No vampires. No cliffhangers.
Just a whole lot of awesome!

OH! You should all head on over to the Apocalypsies website to read my fellow Apocalypsie Jill Hathaway's interview with Veronica Roth.

I can't get enough of this book!

It's The End Of The World

I've been reading a lot of Dystopian novels lately. I'm sensing a trend. It all started with The Hunger Games — a book I never thought I'd love — and just today I finished Wither by Lauren DeStefano.

I have to confess, I'm really not an end of the world kind of girl. Sometimes it's a bit much all this dying and being trapped in a society that tells you what to do all the time. And it's not that I need my books to be happy and filled with love and laughter. I like romance and mystery and adventure but I mostly like my books to feel real, to be filled with sincere and thought provoking characters that I can't relate to but wish I knew in real life.
I L-O-V-E-D The Hunger Games. You wanna know why? I loved the characters and the writing and the emotion behind the writing and I especially loved that it made me cry. If you can make me cry, or feel something for someone who doesn't even exist, then congrats. Well done! Cause I don't cry easily with books. Movies? Yes. Books? Not so much.
And I didn't cry when I read Wither. But I sure was angry. ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY!
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to deter you from reading this book. It was pretty amazing. This debut from Lauren DeStefano is seriously intense. And congrats to her. She really pulled it off. I totally bought into this world. The writing was beautiful and the characters so real I'm still thinking about them.
But mostly I'm still angry. I've realized a good Dystopian novel makes me angry. It makes me want to buy canned goods and bottled water and hide, because when the zombies take over and then the robot aliens kill them off the rest of us are going to crawl out of our purity chambers and I'm telling you now, the world is going to be seriously messed up. MESSED UP, I say!

So. Um. Anyway. Go check out Wither. It's as amazing as its cover. And that's pretty dang amazing!

Random Wednesday

It's finally starting to look like spring around these parts. That is, the sun is out today and water has stopped dripping from the sky.
And with spring comes... Easter!
Kid #1 has been asking me for weeks, "is it Easter yet? Is tomorrow Easter?"
You'd think it was Christmas.
But here in Shariland we have an egg hunt on Easter and that egg hunt leads to a special surprise.
So. There you have it.
Easter is like a tiny Christmas wrapped up in spring.

Sometimes my cats hang out together, which is rather unusual because the larger cat (Hobbs) doesn't really like the smaller cat (Finn) in fact he pretty much bats him on the head a couple times each day.
But sometimes I walk into a room and find them doing things that make me blush, so I usually just turn around and leave. They also appear embarrassed. They look up and then they look away, neither of us making eye contact. Sometimes, to spare us all, I just pretend I don't see them.
(And in case your mind is conjuring up all kinds of kitty-love basically what they do involves inappropriate licking. Or maybe it is appropriate. Who am I to judge.)

The other day kid #1 told her ballet teacher and her entire class that I punished her younger brother for dropping food on the floor.
You see, kid #2 has recently started throwing his yogurt to the ground instead of eating it.
Now kid #1 would never do this. She values yogurt far too much. But apparently her brother enjoys watching things go "splat."
And no punishment was involved, it was more like I left the yogurt on the floor so it could think about what it had done and kid #2 gazed down at it from his highchair, crooning to it sadly, "Oh no, yogurt! Oh no!"

I've decided it's very important that I get out of the house more often. Even if it means walking around in circles and then returning.

My sanity is far more important than checking my email every five seconds.

Shari Goes To The Movies

Last week I saw two movies. TWO!
I know. I can't believe it. I LOVE going to the movies. One of the things I inherited from my father. But I don't go very often anymore. Sigh. I know. But don't cry for me. I'll be okay.

So. You wanna know what I saw?


<---This

AND...


<---That


And let me tell you. I have a lot to say about these movies.

So. Let's begin.

I love Jane Eyre. And lately I seem to be obsessing over it. I read Jane by April Lindner over the holidays and I watched the BBC 2006 mini-series version of Jane Eyre, which I loved!! (My favorite BTW)





And then last Sunday I dragged my husband to see the newest movie version of Jane Eyre.
Now. This movie certainly took it's sweet time getting to a theater near me, but I'm not going to hold that against it. I loved it! LOVED LOVED LOVED
But I will say that I would have preferred a longer ending.
I know my husband will disagree. He was quite pleased when the credits began to roll, but I was not. I wanted to see the happy, you know, the kid, the love, the family Jane always wanted and finally has... We all know how dark Jane Eyre is. And the movie does a fabulous job of portraying that.

Conversation between me and my husband on the way to the theater:

Me: "So... do you know what the story is about?"
Husband: "Kind of. It's pretty much going to be a bunch of people in dark rooms talking to each other, right?"
Me: "Um. Yes. And some other stuff."

And he was right. This film is pretty much shot by candlelight (which makes it awesome! And creepy and romantic!)

Needless to say, I loved it. I thought everyone did a fabulous job. The acting was great. The scenery beautiful and dark, just as it should be. I was only disappointed at the end. And that's a good thing. Always leave them wanting more, I say.

Moving on...

So. A few days ago we went to see Hanna.
And in case you're wondering, I think you should all go and see this movie. It's so fun to watch. The story is kind of a side note in this film, it's more about the action and music. And that's okay. Sometimes you just need to sit back and let the visuals take over. Story lines are so overrated. Right?
And I absolutely love the director. He is responsible for my happy movie, you know the movie you go to when you're sick or sad or in serious need of some Mr. Darcy?
Yes. He directed Pride and Prejudice. Enough said.





So. Big thanks to Mr. Joe Wright for making these two lovely films that are very different and fun, in their own ways.
One is relaxing and LOVE.
The other is... um, very, very different.

Yay movies!

Bring On The Distractions

I've entered submission-land again.
You know, that one place where everyday you wake up to dark clouds and lightning until hopefully one day you get that phone call and then suddenly the sky clears and tiny bunnies prance about in your yard? Yeah. That place.

So to keep myself from dwelling on things I shouldn't be dwelling on I must fill my days with distractions.

For instance: Why do my shoes have a tiny, zipper pouch on the side? What am I supposed to keep in there?






And why do the trees in my neighborhood still believe it's winter?
Don't they know it's April?









So today I went out and bought the final season (season 5) of Friday Night Lights on DVD, because screw you NBC for taking so stinkin' long to air the episodes. I mean, seriously! By the time the season begins on April 15 I will have finished it! And I hate football, BTW. I really, really do. But I love this show. I even find myself enjoying the football scenes (which are few) and wishing there were more of them. I know. It takes some serious writing for me to get excited about football.
And while I was at the store I bought chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.
I will be sitting on the couch eating chocolate while I watch FNL, doing my best to keep from thinking about the people who are reading my book or if they've stopped reading my book and why they stopped reading or what made them stop or worse yet, what I did, or didn't do, to make them stop reading. KEEP READING, I TELL YOU!!
I know. Writing makes you crazy. At least it makes me crazy. Although, I always suspected I was a little bit crazy before I started making up stories.

So when I'm not watching FNL or eating chocolate, I'm listening to music. Music helps with the crazy. Right now Frightened Rabbit, The National and Sufjan Stevens are on the playlist.

Oh. And I'm also brainstorming the next book.

Hmm. I'm beginning to sense a pattern.