The Future of Book Reviews on This Blog

The Vault of Horror (book) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The Future of Book Reviews on This Blog

 

Traci Kenworth

 

 

 

For some time I’ve been thinking about these book reviews and whether they take the blog in the direction I want it to go. I’ve decided that they don’t. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up on reading books or the vast genres out there. It simply means, I won’t be reviewing them on here any longer. When I cut my blog down to two posts every other week, I struggled with what to post about. I love books, but I’m not so sure I’m personally a good book reviewer. Usually, what I end up doing is giving an outline of a book, my impressions/opinion, and then leave the rest up to the reader as to whether to look into that particular book or not. I know there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just, I feel that a review should be something more perhaps. And honestly, I have a hard time doing one for a less-than-stellar book. I feel bad for the author, as a writer I’ve been there, made those mistakes. I always look for the good in books, just like I do people. I don’t want someone to pick up a book I’ve reviewed and think, “Wow. She was way off,” or worse, that I lied.

 

So, deciding all this left me in a quandary. Until last night when I figured out just what I want to do. Attract future readers to my site. I know, every writer’s goal. I had to step back and think, what do I write, who is my audience, how can I invite others to take a peek (and hopefully, stay). As you can see from my “About” page, I write Young Adult Supernatural Horror. In there, I also said that I wanted to shine “a light in the darkness” for my readers. Now, I don’t want you to think I’m going to post preachy sermons or anything. What I am going to do is explore horror. Where it came from, how it started, different stories including classics and biblical history, all the spectrums of what it is, how it affects us, why we’re drawn to it.

 

Thus, I’m hoping to open up conversations with all of you on how you feel about it and the topics at hand. I’ll probably even visit movie-land’s depictions of it. I’m excited about this adventure. After all, my stories are about “more than a good scare.” They’re about hope, friendship, love, and beating “the devil.” I hope you’ll come along for the new posts starting in two weeks. Until then, take care.

 

 

 

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Book Review: Writing & Selling the YA Novel by K.L. Going

 

Teen and Young Adult Fiction (Photo credit: Blue Train Books)

 

Writing & Selling the YA Novel by K.L. Going

 

Traci Kenworth

 

 

 

2008 Writer’s Digest Books an imprint of F & W Publications, Inc.

 

Author of Saint Iggy and Fat Kid Rules the World

 

 

 

This book is set up like a class schedule with such chapters as: Homeroom (Time to Get

 

Motivated), GYM (Tossing Around—and Running With—Ideas), and Lunch (A Plateful of Healthy Plot) to name a few. Your instructor teaches in a friendly, no-bones about it manner of what it takes to write a YA Novel. There are little activities/homework at the end of each chapter to use.

 

The Author in addition to writing award-winning books worked as a literary agent at

 

Curtis Brown, Ltd. She’s even inserted questions and answers from real teens today to get their perspective on the market, what their reading, and their likes and dislikes. I admit to reading this book more than once because I wanted to absorb every nugget of advice she offered. Setting this up to read like courses at a high school evoked images of the past for me, although I didn’t get a flushed face when I didn’t know an answer, or have to slink in my seat at the back of the class to avoid the superior looks of other students.

 

I felt right at home in this learning environment and I’m sure you will too. From

 

Structure and Decision Making to Point of Views to Finding Fabulous First Readers, it’s all here. I like that she delved into the the goings-on inside the business side of the novel at the end as well. I’ve learned characterization can be my most valuable tool in filling in a character and getting them to be larger-than-life to others. I’ve learned that Grant of Right specifies who controls each aspect of your book. I’ve learned  that some of the biggest pet peeves for real teens are how they’re portrayed (not very nice), that they’re tired of books who don’t show them as having good relationships with their family members but always has them at odds especially with a parent, and that there’s no balance between the pretty girl or the awkward and shy girl in a love story.

 

Knowing your audience is key and some of the answers really helped me look at my own

 

work and ask the same questions. So drop those pom poms into your locker, jot down a note on your erase-board, or grab your book for Chemistry. School is in session and it will be fun, fun, fun.

 

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Book Review #7

Book Review 7: Love on the Range by Jessica Nelson

Traci Kenworth

 

A Love Inspired Historical                                 2012

Hook: Obsession was the way in which madness lay.

Gracelyn Riley can’t stop scanning the train platform for Special Agent Striker. Though her parents considered traveling alone unsafe even in 1918’s modern days, the threat of influenza loomed larger than their worries and encouraged them to send their daughter west. Once she learned Striker lived in Oregon, her plans changed. She’d wrangled a job with Women’s Liberator as a reporter and plans to do an interview with Striker to establish her independence.

A rancher sits down beside her. She plagues him with questions, mentioning Striker. He wonders if she always speaks to strangers. They argue about Striker, whether he’s the good man that Gracie believes. His name’s Trevor Cruz. She asks him about the wicked scar he has. It’s rumored that Striker has one. He says he got it on barbed wire when a kid. He lives in Burns where she’s going.

He admits he doesn’t believe in God. She’s shocked.

Trevor is business partners with Lou Riley, her uncle. He doesn’t want anything to do with Gracie but Lou insisted he follow her for safety concerns. A man had raised his suspicions but got off at an earlier stop.

Her mother doesn’t like Uncle Lou and her father has nothing good to say about him. She thinks he’s poor because he picked her up in a horse wagon instead of a car. She’s madly in love with Striker. Her friend, Connie, was rescued by Striker . The Mann Act of 1912 which was set up to protect young women from white slavery is being enforced by agents like Striker. Mary, Lou’s housekeeper, was rescued by Striker. Trevor is trying to keep her safe. Lou is his senior partner/agent.

None of the others put much stock in prayer either. Gracie discovers Trevor does believe in God, he just hates him. His father beat him unconscious, and his mother prostituted herself for drugs.

Gracie sneaks into town for word on Striker, but gets no help there. The town people protect Striker, they tell her. Meanwhile, Striker’s nemesis, Mendez is spotted nearby. Mendez is the one who kidnapped Mary and various other women and sold them to the highest bidder in Mexico.

Trevor’s father dies the same that he lived: mean as a snake. Gracie tells Trevor that God’s love is life to her. He goes to church with her and Mary. He is finding it hard to keep an eye on things and his Striker persona hidden. He felt a sense of community in the church.

Connie dies in Boston of the influenza. Trevor wonders if her death will change Gracie’s view of God. His mother arrives. Gracie mistakes her for an ex. Gracie doesn’t like or trust her. His mother arranged for Mary’s kidnapping. Trevor warns Gracie away from her.

After an altercation, Uncle Lou throws the mother out. He says she can stay with Trevor but is to stay away from Mary and Gracie. She spits on Gracie when Gracie tries to help her. When Trevor is thrown from his horse, Uncle Lou finds out he kissed Gracie. She admits she has feelings for him. Influenza has come to Oregon. The Great War is over. Lou warns Trevor away. He says her parents will be there tomorrow.

This is a nice, little read if you like inspirational. The story is straightforward and interesting. It deals with a time when women were just gaining the right to vote, work outside the home, and pursue their own choices. It was fun reading about a history that I didn’t know much about, how deadly the influenza was back then (super flu, anyone?), and characters that kept you rooting for them. I won this book from a website contest. The next book I’m about to read is also from another contest win. I find it lovely of the author/s to do these sorts of promotions, not only to help get the word out about their book/s, but to open up the opportunity to get to know a new writer.

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Another Miss

Picture of the author Diana Gabaldon during a book signing held in Fergus, Ontario (during the Scottish Festival) on August 11, 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another Miss

Traci Kenworth

 

Sorry, everyone, I didn’t get a book review in this week again. More life came into play. Between appointments, errands, and Spring Cleaning the book/s got pushed to the side. I will be back soon and plan to make book reviews a regular feature here. Some problems might occur when outside events come into bear and also depending on the length of the book. I.E. A Diana Gabaldon or Stephen King of good length may take a while, but I’ll try and read other things (non-fiction, craft books, etc.) at the same time. I’m working on catching up with the books I’ve stored away in to-be-read-piles all these years as well as current draws. I figure if I challenge myself enough, I can clear away a lot of non-keepers and get my bookshelves more maneagable.

How about you, what’s in your tbr pile as of late? Are you doing some “Spring Cleaning” of older books?

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First Book Review of 2012

First Book Review for the Year 2012

Traci Kenworth

Featuring: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

 

YA Supernatural Horror. Tor Teen.

 

“Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills people story.”

 

I actually read a hundred-and-fourteen pages of this last year, but carried it over into this one. Let me start of by saying about the caption above: this book is anything but average. I truly would have finished this book in one day if I hadn’t been so busy with holidays and the rush of the New Year. I came at this book as a reader, a writer, and someone who wanted to learn as much as they could about it by studying it. That means picking it apart to help with my own writing, gleaning any secrets that I could, to make my own work better. I was both challenged and excited by what I learned.

Theseus Cassio Lowood, a ghost-hunter, is truly a character that goes through a major story arc of being so alone in his world to opening up to let others in by the end. In fact, most of the major characters go through their own growth. From Carmel, the prom queen, forced to tackle a part of life she didn’t know about to Thomas, the geek who’s forced to become a hero, to Anna, whose story we learn and come to fear.

Studying the inciting incidents in the story gave me a stronghold I hope for my own. From the beginning when stakes rise as Carmel and Thomas start to get closer to the truth about who Cas really is and what he does for a living. And we have Anna and Cas confronting each other, neither sure what to do about the other, both feeling an “attraction” toward the other. Cas has a hard time admitting he needs friends/allies. He wants to continue his old life of move, hunt, kill. Little does he know what life has in store.

Cas got into the ghost-hunting business when he was old enough, taking his father’s athame (knife) said to link him to it by a blood tie. His ancestors forged the knife, bled upon it, to put the spirits down. He belongs to the knife, and it to him. He doesn’t know what becomes of the spirits when he kills them and his father taught him never to ask. When he learns Anna’s story of how she was murdered, Cas can’t kill her. Instead, he frees her.

When his athame is stolen it weakens Cas and he must go through more changes to be reunited with it. Anna warns there is a darkness attached to the knife. More bodies start to appear with Anna freed and Cas must decide whether he believes Anna is guilty of their murder or not. And how he plans to deal with the growing horror. The resulting battle is fierce, tender, and explosive.

My thoughts on the book? I loved to see the knock-down, drag-out justice of Cas. I worry about events that are clues to a sequel book or books. This is a story that grabs you and makes you care about Cas and his friends. So worrying about them in the future is good. I was truly thrown by the twists and turns of the story and discovered the truth along with Cas. I knew something was up, of course, but couldn’t put my finger on what. And that’s the mark of an excellent book. I think Kendare Blake did an excellent job bringing the characters to life and the end was a smash. Not what you’d expect, but what you’d hope for with the people involved.

Overall, I give it a 4 ½ *, the ½ because I wanted a “happier” ending. Still, it’s a keeper and I’ll never forget the journey of this book. Stephen King says you have to learn to be swept away by a good book before you can write one, here’s hoping I learned the lessons from this one that I can use to improve my own.

So have you read Anna? What do you think, feel, like, hate etc. about it?

Next up: The Nine Lives of Chloe King  by Liz Braswel writing as Celia Thomson. Another YA Horror.

 

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Black Friday

Image by besighyawn via Flickr

Black Friday

Traci Kenworth

 

How many of you out there try and beat the traffic/and or people to the great deals that come along on Black Friday? I went last year for the first time ever, only I waited until about 7 a.m. to hopefully avoid getting mashed and mangled by the crowd. There was still a healthy amount of people out, and key items left, but yeah, missed the big splurge items.

This year, my niece gave me an idea I like: stay home and shop on the internet for the same deals you get at the door. You have to be there at the same time the sales open, of course, whether it be 10 o’clock or 5 in the morning. But—you save the running, no pushy neighbors, and less hassle getting to the cashier in time. Plus, when you have children—especially small ones—you don’t want to be out in that mess.

Has the internet changed the way of shopping forever? I think so. So, what I’m going to do over the next week-and-a-half is make a list of what I want at various stores and then be there when the items go on sale. I’ll be able to sip a relaxing cup of tea or coffee to keep me up those hours and know that I’ve saved myself some wear and tear.

So what do you do on your Black Friday? Shopping? Or do you skip until the last minute deals the night of Christmas?

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Medieval Times

Image via Wikipedia

Medieval Times

Traci Kenworth

 

I suggest if you’re ever in the area of one of these fairs, you go. It was an absolutely enchanting experience to walk back in time and see how things were done. We all dressed as our favorite medieval characters. Arwen, three pirates, a swordsman, and a noblewoman. I went as the noblewoman. I’m not sure exactly what I was suspecting, but it was well worth the visit.

We got to see the King and Queen and their court, though my pictures of them were rare and too distant to get the real impact. We saw knights joust, pirates fight for their gold, highland games, and listened to medieval songs. The food was extra greasy but delicious. Then there were the plays. Hopeless Romantics used the audience to act out Romeo and Juliet in a comical way (yes, it can be done and was quite enjoyable.).

I have to say my favorite was the jousting. It was done with such authentic detail that it was magical. You got to cheer on your favorite knight (Sir Garwin) and jeer the least favorite and cheater (Sir Aric). Poor Sir Garwin lost but he had charmed the crowd so, we cried foul as he did when Sir Aric was pronounced champion. Let me tell you, I would not want to be wearing that heavy armor (especially in the heat). It was bad enough in our period clothes. Afterwards, we got to greet the knights and their horses.

We watched the village fool do numerous tricks. Including shooting fire from his bare hand. It was amazing and not something for the faint of heart. Gypsies read your fortune. There were more booths than you can imagine with trinkets, jewels, costumes, swords, candles, masks, and on and on. They even sold the full knight’s armor. Most vendors were willing to give out cards for later date purchases.

You can be assured I will go to this next year and many years after, it was that fun. It was nice to relax in an era that inspires you to believe in magic (Yes, there were also faeries, elves, wizards and the like.) and the noble heart. We went during pirate week, but there are many different variations: knights and dragons, for instance. There’s even a knighting ceremony held.

So if you’re ever able to get to one of these fairs, I encourage you to go. The simplicity and romance of the times is enchanting (though I wouldn’t have wanted to live in the actual times, I enjoyed visiting it). I think it will even lead to a story or two.

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By the Roadside…

Cover of Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)

By the Roadside

(Observations on life, books and the like…)

Traci Kenworth

 

Living where I do, in Amish country, is simple, easy, and a bit breath-taking. You see some quaint things you don’t see every day in the city. I think it’s part of the charm. Yet, more and more residents are having to move on due to the economy. It’s heart-breaking to get to know people and then have to say goodbyes. I love the neighbors I have and hope and pray that nothing makes them have to leave. But twice now, one neighbor has put up a for-sale sign. It makes me wonder if the house will stay empty, what the new people will be like, how we’ll get along.

My daughter is dealing with the loss right now of one of her best friends. They grew up together and now as they enter their teen years, they’ll do so apart. I wish I could stop the change from happening but I realize it’s part of life. I went through many friendships that ended at some point due to moves. But these days, it seems to be more frequent, and less of a sure thing to keep friends forever. Even my son has gone through several losses. Why you can’t protect them from the hurt, you can encourage them to take the risks, the chance that things will become more stable somewhere down the line.

I suppose this is why I like books/TV shows/movies etc. that show the turmoil that comes with life. It’s an expression of where we’re at in life. Hopefully, they give us the hope, the will, to go on, to face that mountain. Books like The Hunger Game series paint a dark landscape, absolute chaos to be sure, but they also show the perseverance, the strength, of the characters who deal with it. When we as parents try to block our children from reading the books they want to, we’re showing a lack of confidence in them to sort through what their reading and take away from them the experience, the joy of being able to read, the thoughts of what they would do under the circumstances. I’m not saying ALL material is suitable for children i.e. ADULT material, but we need to foster in our children the desire to learn. And if picking up Twilight, or another book of this type, gets them to read, I say let them.

How else are they going to travel that road to adulthood?

In my youth, I read everything from romances to horror. My daughter’s read Stephen King. It hasn’t warped her mind or sent her on some rampage. It’s helped her see that fears can and are meant to be worked through. Controlling your children is never the answer. Instead, give them the opportunity to read and come to you with questions, concerns. It’ll encourage more communication and respect for both your children and you. I know as parents we like to think we’re protecting our children, but sometimes in our efforts, we stifle them.

Just give them the chance, the voice they need and I think they’ll surprise you.

The road may be rough but we’ve got each other to make it through. And that is what matters most of all.

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Update 2:

I am 199 pages into Daughter of the Forest. I am switching now to the non-fiction books to get my chaps in for the weekend. I will be running an errand this afternoon, so not sure if I’ll return in a couple hours for the next update but I will get back to reading afterwards as soon as I can. I am really liking Daughter. It involves a woman’s gift to be one with the animals in the forest and a dangerous grizzly bear bent on the destruction of the same woman and the village she has been kidnapped to.

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