Author Appreciation - The Many..

A week is not nearly long enough to discuss all the great authors out there I enjoy and appreciate. As this is the last day of our week honoring them, I'm going to fit a bunch of them in here!

At the top of my list is one Miss Hannah Moskowitz. Why is she at the top of my list? Because I'm simply amazed at what this 18 yr old published author has accomplished. She's exactly where I wish I had been at that age: a fantastic book on the shelves, another due out shortly, several other manuscripts to show her agent, etc. On top of all that, she's a college student and an amazingly friendly, helpful, down to earth, funny gal. She also has a great voice for her characters. If you haven't read her book Break yet, I highly recommend picking it up. Thanks Hannah for well..just being you I suppose! Keep up the great work!

The next slot is going to go to Cassandra Clare. She's another fantastic YA author who does an amazing job with world building and voice. I read her Mortal Instrument books right after I finished the Twilight books and then I recommended them to everyone I knew because I felt they were great and ought to be as popular as Twilight was, if not maybe more so (Sorry Stephanie Meyers, as much as I love Twilight, Jace beats out Edward for me, hands down!.) Beyond being a great author, she is another who seems really down to earth and not above talking to her fans, offering information and encouragement. I admit I was a bit star struck when I had a conversation with her about cover art. Thanks Cassandra for putting out great stories and for being friendly to me. I cannot wait to read Clockwork Angel!

The next two authors kind of go together for me. I learned about Holly Black and Melissa Marr around the same time and picked up Marr's Wicked Lovely and Black's Tithe in the same shopping trip. I hadn't read anything involving faeries before these books and I found myself hooked and heading back to the book store to get the companion novels for both series. Since I'm a Jersey girl, I love Holly Black for setting some of her stories in my home state. I feel this extra sense of belonging when I read a story and know of the places the author is talking about (that broken down carousel is in Asbury, right?). Melissa Marr's great works really taught me about all the different kinds of faeries and got me out of the notion that they are all pretty and nice like Disney tried to tell me. She also has an amazing fanbase and is quite active within it, which I love. So thank you ladies for my journey into the world of the fae and I am so excited to read more works by the both of you!

This post could go on and on, so I am going to just list a couple more authors I adore and a line or two why:

Suzanne Collins: Hunger Games & Gregor the Overlander. Fabulous and captivating. Need I say more?

Scott Westerfeld: Sci-fi for girls? A retelling of a war story I actually enjoyed!? You sir, are a hero.

Tamora Pierce: I wish my characters could be as bad assed as Becca Cooper.

Maureen Johnson: I had put myself into the paranormal so much, I had forgotten other great genres are out there. Thanks for the reminder with your great works. You're also hysterically funny.

John Green: Nothing makes me cry like your books...but they also crack me up and give me a look into what life for a teenaged guy is like. Thank you for that.

Not YA authors, but definitely worth mentioning:

Charlaine Harris: How can one not be sucked in by Sookie and the fantastic blonde viking? Also, I swear if I ever have a boy child, I'm naming him Quinn.

Patricia Briggs: Even after Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse books, I never realized how much I loved werewolf stories until someone recommend your Mercy books to me. Even in such a saturated genre, your works stand out at the top.

There are dozens more out there I could mention, but I've taken up enough of your time! Thanks to each and everyone of you for creating such interesting and compelling stories that have made my heart hurt and laugh, that have made my mind swirl with the possibilities of my own stories being displayed on shelves next to yours, for bringing me into a world I had forgotten and hadn't realized I missed so much.
Thank you all.

Author Appreciation - Lisa Schroeder

There are a lot of great YA authors out there today that have really inspired me to get back into writing and reading, and I will go over many of them tomorrow, but today I wanted to dedicate a post to one specific author, Lisa Schroeder.

When I really got myself back into the YA scene, I kept hearing from people that I needed to pick up this book I Heart You, You Haunt Me. I checked it out online and thought it looked like something I'd like so I added to it my list of books to read. I remember when it came in at the library. I brought it home and put it at the top of my pile to read first. I grabbed it later in the day and curled up on the couch. When I opened to the first page, I have to admit, my smile slipped away a bit. A poem? UH OH. Poetry is so not my thing. I thought, well, maybe it's just the opening and then it changes to a standard format. Nope. I flipped through and it was just pages and pages of skinny one sided text. I was briefly disappointed, but I told myself I was being stupid and I should give it a chance. So many people had gushed to me about how great a book it was. So many people couldn't be wrong! I turned back to the beginning and started to read. Two hours later, I was closing the book with a big smile and that special little sadness one feels when a great story is over. I immediately rushed to put another of her books, Chasing Brooklyn on my to read list. Her verse style writing really pulled me into the emotional state of the characters and kept enough of the background information to make the plot move, without forcing me to plod through the sometimes unnecessary extras that make their way into a story.

Now maybe you're wondering why I picked to single her out this week. Maybe you're thinking I'm going to try my hand at verse writing. HA! I love how she does it, but it's definitely not something I could pull off, nor would I attempt to. I chose to discuss Ms. Schroeder because I admire her courage and perseverance. Novels written in verse are not a very common occurrence these days (although thanks to her website I've found more to enjoy!) and I think it probably took a lot on her part to defend her style and to get it out there to the public. All aspiring writers need to have courage and a strong backbone to continue to push forward through rejections and criticisms to get our babies out there, but when you opt to do something a little out of the ordinary, I think that job is much more difficult. I also want to thank her for opening my eyes to the fact that stories do not have to follow the same format as everything else out there in order for it to be enjoyable and interesting.

So many thanks to Lisa Schroeder for writing amazingly emotional stories, turning me on to novels written in verse and for taking a chance on something out of the ordinary which turned out to be extraordinary.

Brief Interruption..

Just because I have to gush a little and be excited for my first blogging award!

Fellow aspiring author and lovely follower, Liz Czukas has honored me with the above Sunshine Award! Thanks Liz!!

Here's what is needed to accept the award:

◦Put the logo on your blog in your post.
◦Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
◦Link the nominees within your post.
◦Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.
◦Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.


I do promise to comply and do these things, but I will say I'm going to at least wait until Author Appreciation Week is over before I spread the love, so stay tuned to see who else is worthy!

Thanks again Liz!

Author Appreciation - Stephen King

To continuing to show love to some of my favorite authors could not be done without discussing the king of horror novels, the one and only Mr. Stephen King.

I couldn't begin to tell you the number of strange looks and double takes I had gotten through my childhood years when I was seen reading a King book. From a young age I was always able to separate fiction from reality, so horror books and movies intrigued and entertained me, rather than leaving me scared of the dark and things that go bump in the night. King always has an amazing voice for his characters, making them compelling and easily able to draw you into the story. It always amazed me how he could write such complicated and intricate stories, like The Stand, keeping all the characters and their own little subplots straight while still being able to have them lead to the main plot. It makes my head spin to even try to think about how he managed that.

I loved that he could keep pumping out all these great books while keeping them different enough so I didn't feel like I was reading the same thing over and over with different character names. He certainly has quite an arsenal of stories running around in that head of his. I especially loved when he came out with something different from the norm, case in point: Eye of the Dragon. I love that book sooooo much! It showed me a much more comical side of King.

So to an author who could get me to read a 1000+ page book in under two weeks at the age of 12, an author who made me realize how damn creepy and scary clowns really are, an author would made me first brave the adult reading section of the library, I tip my glass to you and offer a hardy thank you!

Author Appreciation - Carolyn Keene

So the first author I'm going to discuss this week..is kind of an odd choice considering she doesn't exactly exist. Let me go back a little and give some personal details on why this is my choice before we move on.

Even as a child I was a voracious reader. I was using all my allowance, birthday monies, etc. towards books. While there were several books of the Sweet Valley variety, peppered with Babysitters Club, my main brain food of choice were Nancy Drew books. My mom had started me on the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden books and I graduated to Nancy, Bess, George and of course Ned. I just couldn't get enough of Nancy and her adventures. The best? When she teamed up with the Hardy Boys! God I was in heaven with those books. Double the size, double the "crime" fighters, double the action and hi-jinx!

While I don't write mysteries, a certain aspect of the writing style has stuck with me in my own endeavors. I am speaking of the end of chapter cliff hangers. They are the reason I would breeze through the books so quickly. I'd HAVE to keep reading to see what happened. Just one more chapter would turn into two and three and four! I loved the anticipation of that and I try to put it into my own writing.

So enough of skipping down memory lane. Let me explain Carolyn Keene for those who don't know. There kind of is no Carolyne Keene (hence why it might seem odd for "her" to be my choice). Ms. Keene is actually a pseudonym for the ghostwriters who penned the many Nancy Drew books. I had no idea growing up that there were such things as ghostwriters and pen names, etc., but I still love that all the different authors stuck to the format and kept Nancy pretty much the same for me.

Therefore, my hat's off today to the many different authors posing as Carolyn Keene. For helping nurture my love of reading, for the cliff hangers that kept me up at night with a flashlight and for fooling me into thinking there was only one person writing all those books!

Author Appreciation Week!

As you can see, today starts Author Appreciation Week! A week dedicated to letting our favorite authors know how much we appreciate all the hard work that goes into crafting their stories. As an aspiring author, I know it's not a simple thing to get your ideas onto paper in a coherent and entertaining way. It takes a long time between an idea and a final product. There are outlines, research, first drafts, beta readers, edits, rewrites, etc. The process is long and tedious so that the readers can have the best experience possible with the stories they dive into.

The idea for this great week was the brain child of author Heidi R. Kling. Stop by her blog and drop her a line or thank her for coming up with a great idea!

Keep checking back as I will try to post something everyday this week to thank some of my favorite authors!

Post of a different color - Book photos

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here, but besides being an aspiring author, I'm also an amateur photographer. I thought I'd use my other skill to show you guys about my reading habits. They say it's important to know your genre and to read all you can. I take that advice to heart and here is the proof!