Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

My journal page from reading Beautiful Creatures.  I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the series.  The writing is beautiful, the characters are engaging, and the plot hooked me.  I definitely recommend this book.

Have you read this book?  What did you think?

What I'm Reading This Week #7

Books:

image source: amazon.com

I tried to read The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club.  I really did!  But I couldn't do it.  Everything about this book bothered me.  It doesn't feel like it was edited.  It tells instead of showing.  I had to put it down and move on.

image source:  goodreads.com

So I picked up Messenger by Lois Lowry.  I just started this book yesterday, so I haven't read very much, but already I feel like it is a better fit.

image source:  amazon.com

It's a really fun book, and it already has me doodling more.  The idea is to use visual language to take notes, instead of just words.  I used this philosophy while taking notes at my last meeting.  It worked really well for the topic we were discussing.  I am interested to see how it works in future meetings and taking notes on readings.

Online:

Ask not what your readers can do for you
An list of ways authors can improve the reader experience

Editing
A selection of articles to help guide the editing process.  I will be checking these out once I have completed my first draft.

What are you reading this week?

WOTW: Hirsute

Hirsute:  adjective, hairy

From The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara:
"I had no other U'ivuan women to compare her to, nothing to tell me whether they were all this hirsute or Eve was an exception."

WOTW: Priapic

Priapic:  adjective, of, relating to, or resembling a phallus

From The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara:
"It was disgustingly priapic, about eighteen inches long and fat as an eggplant, and that particular sugary newborn pink one finds only in tropical sunsets."

WOTW: Tansu

Tansu: noun, a Japanese chest of drawers or cabinet

Found in The People in the Trees by Hanya Yangihara:
"Inside, the house was very much the same way: in one corner of the entryway sat, incongruously, a Japanese tansu of blistering, puckered camphor."

Writing Update ROW 80 Weeks 4 & 5

So I would love to say that I have been staying on track and meeting my goals, but I would be lying.  I have been slacking big time.  I am not putting aside time for writing.  Even when I know that I have time that could easily be used for writing, I ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me to just write.  I distract myself with something else, like tv or crochet or a good book.  It is way too easy to distract myself recently.

Here's the Update!

1/26/14:  110 words of ZF; 312 words of a writing prompt from the POV of my MC

1/27/14:  278 words of ZF

Yeah, that's it.  In the last two weeks I have written a total of two days and did not meet my goal either day.  The writing prompt was actually really helpful and may become part of the book during revisions.  We'll see.  Here's hoping next week will be better.

WOTW: Effete

Effete: adjective, affected, overrefined, and ineffectual

Found in The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara:
"West sighed and blotted the corners of his mouth with the point of his napkin, a gesture both contrived and effete, as well as ostentatiously, obnoxiously Anglophilic."