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Showing posts from March, 2013

Review: Through the Ever Night

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There's nothing better than possibility living up to potential. Take books, for example, though movies work too. The first book of Veronica Rossi's distopian YA fantasy series,  Under the Never Sky, was brilliant. The characters were complex, strong, able to roll with the curve balls the author threw at them, and not whiney!  I can't over-emphasize the importance of whine-free leads in any book, but especially one starring teens. Ms. Rossi created believable flaws for her characters to overcome, and the story held up beautifully, even on the second read-through. Just in time for the sequel. When the sequel  to a book or movie you loved comes out, especially a full-paperback-priced-even-though-it's-a-kindle one, there's a hope/fear/anticipation combo going into it. Will the sequel live up to the standard set by book one? Will the possibility for greatness actually be realized? Or were all those pent-up words and amazing ideas that went into the first book th

The choice to write

I've been talking about this a lot recently, to English classes full of teenagers, to book clubs of women my own age, to anyone who wonders "how did you write a book?" I had to choose it every day, sometimes every hour or even every minute. I still do. When I think about the laundry piling up in corners of the boys' room becoming a habitat for the things that go bump in the night, I have to close the door and choose to write. Or the raised garden bed I emptied of the litter box-- I mean sandbox -- that mocks me and the shriveling herbs I bought three weeks ago to plant in it, I have to park my booty at the computer and pretend the wheelbarrow of chicken poop is still just "aging." To say nothing of the car that kids are leaving snarky messages on, or the leaves that need raking because they cover the dog and chicken poop exactly long enough to be stepped in by said snarky children. I have to choose to write instead of managing all the things that come with