Books Read in 2010 - April

The end of the month brings the book list! It seems perhaps I slacked off a little this month in comparison to others, but I guess I've just been busy. Still, I averaged 1 book every 1.13something something days.

Exceptionally good reads this month including Going Bovine and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I highly recommend the both of them. Here goes the list:

Tantalize – Cynthia Leitich Smith
Boy Meets Boy – David Levithan
Going Bovine – Libba Bray
Kitty and the Midnight Hour – Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Goes to Washington – Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Takes a Holiday – Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand – Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Raises Hell – Carrie Vaughn
Boneshaker – Cherie Priest
Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green & David Levithan
Hunting Ground – Patricia Briggs
Hex Hall – Rachel Hawkins
Darklight – Lesley Livingston
Sandman Slim – Richard Kadrey
Evermore – Alyson Noel
Blue Moon – Alyson Noel
Leaving Paradise – Simone Elkeles
Perfect Chemistry – Simone Elkeles
Art Geeks and Prom Queens – Alyson Noel
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart – Deb Caletti
How to say Goodbye in Robot – Natalie Standiford
Silver Borne – Patricia Briggs
Are We There Yet? – David Levithan
Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Teaser Tuesday

I know, I've been ignoring you folks lately. Just been busy, but I have been writing. Look! Here's the proof!

The classroom door opened to reveal our school guidance counselor, Ms. Laury.

“Can I speak with Ian please?” she asked the teacher. My stomach fell. The class snickered and people asked me what I did already as I stood. Clay grabbed the edge of my shirt. As I looked back, he gave me a reassuring smile which I couldn’t return. Our new friend Mei-Li kept her eyes down. At least she was pretending to mind her own business. I liked that.

“Let’s go Mr. Quinn,” my teacher hustled me along. Ms. Laury gave me a smile and held the door open for my exit. Closing the door behind me, she led me a little ways down the hall where people couldn’t watch us out their doors.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Now Ian, before I start I want to let you know that everything is going to be OK.” My stomach was no longer resting in my knees. It had fallen to the floor. It’s never good when someone starts out a conversation with words like that. I tried to swallow past the lump that sprouted in my throat.

“Just tell me what happened,” I said.

“There’s been a little accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“…Your father hit a mailbox. He’s OK,” she stressed. “The car is a bit of a mess, but he’s OK. Your mother is at the hospital with him. She just didn’t want you to worry if you got home later and no one was there.”

It’s horrible to say this, but relief flooded through me as I heard it was my father and not my mother in the accident. I bet it had something to do with the copious amounts of JD I saw him pour in his coffee this morning. Asshole. I hate to say he deserved it, but he kind of did. I hoped it might wake him up a little to his…problem, but I doubt it.

“OK Ms. Laury. Thanks for letting me know.” She placed her hand on my arm.

“If you need to talk Ian, please don’t hesitate to come to me.” I felt kind of bad for her. There was never anyone in the guidance office. Not for a lack of issues around here, but no one would admit them to a school official, that’s for sure.
“Thanks Ms. Laury.” She patted my arm again before turning to head back to her office.

Teaser Tuesday

Did you guys think I had forgotten you? Forsaken you even? I would never do that! I've just been busy busy busy! I wanted to be able to share a little more of the new WIP with you though, so here I am!

An excerpt from Heavyweight (I am SO digging on that title for many reasons). As always please feel free to comment!

The second bell peeled and we broke away with a hand in the air and an exchange of "see ya later". Bio class was half full already. A couple of teammates had taken up residence in the back corner. I loped over to an empty seat where the familiar sounds of my friends rating the girls in the class greeted me. So crass are teenaged boys. They tried to get me to play along, but I didn't take the bait.

We bullshitted about our summers while the teacher took attendance and handed out the fifty pound text book we'll be using. He explained we're going to be doing a lot of dissecting this year and the if anyone has a queasy stomach, they better get over it right now or opt for a lab partner who'll do all the cutting. My head jerked up at the mention of lab partners. A feverent wish came over me for the teacher to do the picking, but it's dashed when I hear him say we've got two minutes to pick someone. My teammates are already pairing up. My arm stretched out to tap one on the shoulder when I felt myself being pulled away by the other. Shit. This could not be happening. Eyes wide with panic, I glanced over my shoulder to see that Maggie was the one doing the pulling. My gaze swung back to the guys who were smirking and helplessly shrugging their shoulders. Traitors. Fucking traitors. Every last one of them.

"Maggie, this isn't a good idea," I sputtered. She pouted her shiny pink lips at me.

"Why not?"

"Uhh it'll be easier to study with the guys before and after practice." Please oh please let her see the logic in my statement.

"Our practices end around the same time. We can meet up after just as easily," she said. "We can go to your place to study."

"NO." No fucking way was she ever coming to my house. No one comes to my place. Not even Clay. Not anymore.

She looked shocked at my vehement refusal. Sighing I ran my hand through my messy titian colored hair.

"It's just not a good idea Mags." Anger stormed briefly in her dark blue eyes. She swung around and looked about the class. Turning back to face me, hands on her hips, she raised her eyebrows.

"Welp, looks like there's no one left, so you're stuck with me anyway." Shoulders sank in defeat as glancing around showed me she's right. Dammit. This will not make for a good year.

A deep breath helped calm me. Not much that can be done about it now. I'll just have to try and make the best of the situation. Head down, I trudged along behind Maggie as she lead us to the last empty lab table. We barely got settled when the bell went off.

"Got to jet," I said scooping up the new fifty pound paperweight before dashing out the door. Please God, don't let her be in any more of my classes.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

I don't write reviews. I find it hard to explain the story without giving away too much, but I couldn't not write something about this book.

Instead of writing what the book was about, I'd rather write about how it made me feel. Not as in the book made me: happy, sad, etc., but literally how it made me FEEL for the characters. How do you know great writing is great? When you feel that same pain in your stomach as the character is feeling, when you cry when the characters cry, when you feel sick to your stomach over the character's nerves.

I don't care if you don't know a single person of the gay persuasion or you grew up a hermit in a cave in northwest bumblefuck, everyone can find something to relate to in this story. I found enough to make me feel slightly uncomfortable even (did John Green find my secret diary?).

It's an outstanding tale and both Mr. Green & Mr. Levithan did an amazing job with their respective Will Graysons. Please be sure to put any prejudices behind you and pick up this book. You might be surprised at how much you have in common with some of these characters.

Finally I have to conclude with these words: My name is not Will Grayson, but I appreciate you Tiny Cooper.

Sneak Peak Friday

So in case you didn't notice, there was no Teaser Tuesday this week. I wasn't feeling it, so I did a post on writing habits instead. Since I feel a little sad I didn't deliver earlier this week, I've deemed today Sneak Peak Friday! Why Sneak Peak? Welp, yesterday I finally finished the rough draft of Red Dust; my 105k+ word soft sci-fi monster I've been battling with. It's now sitting in the drawer, or technically on the hard drive, for a week or so before I start the editing process. My muse was so happy with the completion of that story that she jumped up and down and all around inspiring me to start work on another idea that has been brewing for a while. I did some research and made some decisions and the beginning just came to me. I don't think I've ever had an opening flow as smoothly as this one has. That's why I want to share it with you. Give you a sneak peak into the start of what I'm tentatively titling: Heavyweight.

This story will have a whole set of firsts for me: first time writing in first person, first time writing from a male POV, first time writing about a sport, first time writing about a gay relationship. I'm really excited to work on it and see what becomes of it. I hope this peek into it excites you guys into wanting to read more. Please let me know what you think!

Some might think that a locker room full of half naked teenaged athletes would be any gay boy’s dream but, I assure you, it’s not. It’s actually more of a nightmare. Especially when no one knows that you’re gay. While I’m not planning on outing myself anytime soon, you never know what’s going to happen. If word got out that I prefer guys over chicks…well, I could just hear it now:

“He slapped my ass in the locker room!”

“I swear he was checking me out at the urinals.”

“Dude, he got hard when we were changing into our singlets. “ “You looked?!” “Hard to miss it in those uniforms…”

Uhh yeah…that last one is true. What can I say? I’m a 17 year old guy with raging hormones, just like every other guy in my school. Sometimes I can’t help but peek. Luckily I can play it off by saying Big Willie has a mind of his own. Typically the guys just nod knowingly and then launch into their embarrassing boner stories. Crisis averted.

Anyway, I’m pretty shy by nature so I try to avert my eyes when guys are changing and I keep my hands to myself, except when I’m taking someone down on the mat. Hard to be a wrestler and not touch someone. The guys made jokes about my shyness for a while, but they’ve gotten used to it over the years. They even tell the new guys not to flash me, which is kind of them yet disappointing at the same time.

Habits

Today's post is on habits. Now I'm not talking biting your nails or how you have to drink your morning OJ before brushing your teeth (the other way around is quite gross I assure you). I'm talking, of course, of your writing habits. I'm always interested to see how other writers work.

Do you need to have complete silence to write or do you work with a soundtrack?

Is morning the best time for your creative juices to flow or does the darkness of night inspire you?

Do you lock yourself away from the world in order to get into your story or do you take to the public areas for your background?

What about outlining before writing or do you just dive right in?

How about rituals? Sacrificing small animals to the God of Words or merely pleading with your muse to be more helpful for a change?

Maybe I need to adopt some more habits myself. I prefer to write in public but can also do so at home. Music is most welcome unless I'm having a particularly hard time with a scene. As for the time of day? It's more about when the ideas/inspiration hit me. I don't advocate the sacrificing of small animals, but my muse could stand to kick it up a notch.

What say you, fellow writers? How do you get through it? What are the habits, rituals and fail safes that keep you going? The world of aspiring authors want to know!

Follow up...

Oops! Almost forgot to give answers to last week's creative writer award. Here goes!

1. The only two articles I ever wrote for my high school newspaper ended up in the yearbook. - TRUE I was never officially on the paper staff, but my senior year English teacher asked me to write a couple articles. How they ended up in the yearbook I'll never know.

2. I write Smurf erotica under a pen name. (It's hard when there's only one female smurf!!) - FALSE It would be hard though and I think you'd all understand why a pen name would be needed...

3. I spent the night in Amsterdam's Red Light district. - FALSE While I did visit in the evening, I did not spend the night there. It was a little creepy being a woman there when the alleyways are so narrow. Ew for horny guys rubbing up against you just to walk by.

4. I speak two other languages (conversationally) besides English. They are Spanish and Japanese. - TRUE This has to do with my undergrad degree in comp. lit & languages. I was one class short of a minor in Japanese. I can get by with either language if need be.

5. When I went to Vegas three years ago, I got married but had it annulled the following day. - FALSE Considering who I was dating three years ago, Thank God this is false.

6. I'm hard on cars. I've gone through six of them in the past four years. - FALSE I've had my current car for about 10 years now. It's been hit by many people/things, but it keeps on going! It's a trooper.

7. I climbed Mt. Fuji on a dare. - FALSE It is a dream of mine to climb it one day.

8. At the age of 27, I tried out for American Idol, but didn't make the cut. - FALSE I did have an ex who wanted me to try out though. I probably should have just to be able to say I did.