Sunday, December 11, 2011

Review of Jenny Pox

Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, #1)Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I bought this book for the Kindle on a recommendation of a friend, and I was far from disappointed. It was a gripping story of love and loss, filled with appealing characters and intricate plot. It made me want to talk about the plotlines with my friends and loved ones. The romantic scenes were very well written and full of emotion. Though, I have to admit that sometimes the gore was a little much for me. (weak, pregnant tummy.)

All in all, I very much enjoyed this book, and will absolutely be reading the sequel.



View all my reviews

Monday, December 5, 2011

Olympia Heights: The PantheonOlympia Heights: The Pantheon by Amy Leigh Strickland

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Amy Leigh Strickland's Olympia Heights: The Pantheon (only 99 cents on the Kindle for a limited time!) is a wonderful, action-packed, teenage-hormonal adventure that introduces a group of high school students who find out that they're reincarnations of Greek Gods. The characters, though many and introduced in a rapid succession, become individual and easily recognizable (not to mention likable) by the end of the book. The action is realistic and believable, and the danger becomes more and more personal and important as you turn each page.

Speaking of turning the pages, I couldn't stop! The action and dialogue keep the reader engaged, and the lessons taught by the characters merits and mistakes stuck with me all the way through. I must say, I'm interested to see where the friendship between Penny and Peter goes, and if any feelings eventually develop between Jason and Celene. Zack's plight to either win back the jealous June or go on on his own to spread his seed is also rather interesting. I was a big fan of the comedic Lewis, and would love to see more interactions between him and Diana.

All in all, I'm very interested in the series, and can't wait to read more! I hope all of my friends read and enjoy the book very much. It would make a wonderful stocking stuffer this Christmas for anyone with a youthful heart and a spirit of adventure.



View all my reviews

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Project: Sequel to NaNoWriMo Novel

I've opened a new NeoOffice document and will be starting on my next novel in this series. It's a little sad to be leaving my main character from the first book behind, but I feel that I've created enough new and interesting characters that the feel may shift, but the readers will still be interested and engaged.

I'm aiming for 60,000 words this time, and I imagine that I will surpass that goal, simply because my outline is much longer and more in depth than the last one was. I'm flying a little less blind this time around, and we'll see if that reflects in my "Draft Zero" for the next book.

Still waiting for my parents to finish Draft Zero of Book 1 so I can send it to my Alpha Readers. My father is taking his time with it! I'm not planning on re-reading it until at least after Christmas, giving some time to sit between the writing and initial editing.

Keep writing!

Saturday, November 26, 2011



So, I finished my novel for NaNoWriMo this year, printed it, and my mother has already read it. My father's working on it, too. On top of finding out if we're carrying a boy or a girl at Thanksgiving made for some interesting conversations over turkey. (It's a girl, by the way. My daughter will have a little sister come March.)

I've very nearly completed the outline for book#2 in this series, which will probably end up being around 4 novels. The next is going to be quite a bit longer than the first, and I'm starting on it... asap! I know that the Supernatural genre is beaten like a dead horse, but I can't help myself. Modern-Day, Supernatural/Fantasy tickles my fancy. They say to write what you want to read, right?

Hopefully the next will roll out as quickly and easily as the first did. Looking forward to next year's NaNoWriMo!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

NaNoWriMo: Week 1 (boring post)

I mentioned in my introduction post to this blog that I probably wouldn't be writing all that much during the month of November because of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, or http://www.nanowrimo.org/, also #NaNoWriMo on twitter.com), but I found myself wanting to chart my progress here where I can use more than 140 characters at a time.

(If you only want 140 characters at a time, you can follow my twitter, @MissyKirtley. If you are a part of the activity yourself, you can add me as a friend here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/missykirtley )

As of this moment, I have 27,232 words on my way to 50,000 by the month's end. After only one week of writing, I consider my word count to be fairly impressive. Though, I'm a little terrified that I'm already 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through my outline. Am I going to be able to make it to 50k if I've already nearly finished my way through the story?

Also, my beginning chapters (though I haven't actually divided into chapters yet, simply chunks of writing) are in dire need of assistance. One of the main rules of NaNoWriMo is to keep plodding along, and write as much as possible, without taking the time to go back and re-read, re-write or edit along the way. It's killing me that I haven't had the chance to go back and fix some of the horrible mistakes I made in the first 3-5,000 words I wrote on this project.

Here's my plan: Since I'm so far ahead at the moment (over half-way through my word count at only one quarter through the allotted time) I'm going to continue rolling through until I reach the end of my outline. If, at that time, I'm within a couple thousand words of my 50,000 word goal (not likely) I'm going to add an epilogue and call it a completed "Draft Zero." If I'm still several thousand words shy, the plan is to go back and re-work my beginning, adding more plot early on and more backstory for my main characters. Hopefully that will bring me to my goal.

The other fun thing about this month is the unbridled creativity that flows through all of the NaNoWriMo participants. I've already started to take notes on what my next novel in this series is going to be. I have my next main character, my next villain, and my next subplot. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew with this, but I believe that I'll be able to churn out another novel (Draft Zero, at any rate) in January. And by then I may be ready to go back and start re-writes and edits on my current NaNoWriMo project.

Lofty Goals. We'll see how they go.
Missy

Thursday, November 3, 2011

New blog. I won't be writing much here over the course of November, as I'm working on a project for NaNoWriMo.

You can follow my twitter @MissyKirtley, or my NaNoWriMo account.