Character interview with Sam, the swoony love interest in the INCARNATE Trilogy and GIVEAWAY!

Happy Birthday, INFINITE! Now who's ready to learn more about the swoony Sam? *raises hand* I'm so thrilled that he was able to stop by my blog today!!!

Goodreads Book Description: 

DESTRUCTION
The Year of Souls begins with an earthquake—an alarming rumble from deep within the earth—and it’s only the first of greater dangers to come. The Range caldera is preparing to erupt. Ana knows that as Soul Night approaches, everything near Heart will be at risk.

FLIGHT
Ana’s exile is frightening, but it may also be fortuitous, especially if she can convince her friends to flee Heart and Range with her. They’ll go north, seeking answers and allies to stop Janan’s ascension. And with any luck, the newsouls will be safe from harm’s reach.

CHOICE
The oldsouls might have forgotten the choice they made to give themselves limitless lifetimes, but Ana knows the true cost of reincarnation. What she doesn’t know is whether she’ll have the chance to finish this one sweet life with Sam, especially if she returns to Heart to stop Janan once and for all.

With gorgeous romance and thrilling action, the final book in the Incarnate trilogy offers a brilliant conclusion to the compelling questions of this fascinating world, where one new girl is the key to the lives of millions.

Interview with Sam from the INCARNATE trilogy

1. If you could describe Ana in five words, which words would it be?

Inspiring. Incredible. Surprising. Smart. Impulsive.  

2. What is your favorite instrument and why?

That depends. Often the piano is my favorite, but sometimes I focus on other instruments more.  

3. If you could go back and change one thing about your past lives, what would it be and why?

I wouldn't change anything. I've made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of things I wish I hadn't, but they've all been lessons I needed. Everything in my past has helped me become the person I am now.

But dying less frequently might be nice. 

4. What are your favorite and least favorite things about Heart?

They're the same thing: the community. I love having a community of people to call on for companionship and help, but sometimes they're too nosy or stubborn for their own good. Sometimes the community is more harmful than helpful, especially when it comes to newsouls. 

5. Other than Ana, who we know is your favorite person, who would you say is your best friend and why?

Stef, of course! We've been friends for so long. I can't remember a time when we weren't friends. We disagree on some things, obviously, but Stef is always looking out for me, and I am always looking out for him. 

6. Other than dragons, what is your greatest fear?

Losing the people I care about. (Sometimes those people are actually instruments.) 

7. If for some reason, you couldn't have music as a profession in any form, what would you do instead?

I would probably be dead. I really don't know what I am without music.  

8. If you composed a song for Ensconced in Lit, what would it be like?

It would begin with the fluttering of paper and low chimes, joined by a cello and clarinet. The piece would be soft, hypnotic, so as not to distract you from reading. It would be the kind of music you could listen to in the background, over and over.

Thanks so much for stopping by Sam! Ana is one really, lucky girl!

OK guys, enter to win your choice of Incarnate, Asunder, or ARC of INFINITE! $5 Amazon GC to the winner if INT!

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Review of INFINITE by Jodi Meadows + Giveaway of your choice of Incarnate, Asunder, or ARC of INFINITE!

Goodreads Book Description:

DESTRUCTION
The Year of Souls begins with an earthquake—an alarming rumble from deep within the earth—and it’s only the first of greater dangers to come. The Range caldera is preparing to erupt. Ana knows that as Soul Night approaches, everything near Heart will be at risk.

FLIGHT
Ana’s exile is frightening, but it may also be fortuitous, especially if she can convince her friends to flee Heart and Range with her. They’ll go north, seeking answers and allies to stop Janan’s ascension. And with any luck, the newsouls will be safe from harm’s reach.

CHOICE
The oldsouls might have forgotten the choice they made to give themselves limitless lifetimes, but Ana knows the true cost of reincarnation. What she doesn’t know is whether she’ll have the chance to finish this one sweet life with Sam, especially if she returns to Heart to stop Janan once and for all.

With gorgeous romance and thrilling action, the final book in the Incarnate trilogy offers a brilliant conclusion to the compelling questions of this fascinating world, where one new girl is the key to the lives of millions.

My Rating: 4.5 Couches

My Review: I've been waiting for a year to read Infinite by Jodi Meadows, the last installment of the Incarnate trilogy. I wasn't disappointed. I received this ARC from Harper Publishers in exchange for an honest review. I award this book 4.5 stars.

Infinite by Jodi Meadows takes off where Asunder left us. We are taken right to the action with Ana and Sam, as they frantically try to figure out how to prevent Janan for ascending. Ultimately, a small group of them have to leave Heart to try to figure out their ultimate plan. Will Ana sacrifice her chance for love and happiness for the greater good of all souls alike?

I don't want to say too much in the synopsis, because this final installment is chock full of really great reveals that all of us have been wondering for ages. Let's just say that every character you've loved in this series gets their due. Ana really comes into her own, Sam continues to be one of the most loveable characters in YA, and other side characters come in different forms, which really enhances the world building.

I really felt the book came into it's own around page 100. It was good up to then, don't get me wrong, but after that point, it became increasingly difficult to put it down. I loved how we got to learn more about dragons, sylphs, and phoenixes. There is one particular reveal that I loved because I never suspected there was more to it. But Meadows never forgot, and it's pretty amazing.

I really liked the ending, but it almost seemed too perfect. That said, it was really satisfying and beautifully written, so I just went with it. If a writer can get my doubting self to just disappear, that's pretty awesome.

In a world chock full of ending YA trilogies, this one stands out. It started strong and ended stronger, with a great middle installment, so as a whole, it was really great. This is hard to do. I feel like several trilogies have failed on one book or another, or disappointed me in some way. The Incarnate trilogy didn't, and I'm thrilled to add it to my very short list of must read trilogies.

Overall, a fantastic and worthy ending to the Incarnate trilogy with great characters, prose, and plot twists. Everyone needs to get their hands on this book as soon as it comes out!

Now enter a giveaway to win either a paperback of Incarnate or Asunder or ARC of INFINITE (US only) OR $5 Amazon GC if the winner is INT! 
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Tune in tomorrow to hear from Sam, the swoony love interest who's gonna visit!  

Happy Birthday, Meredith! To one of the best bloggers in the entire universe! :-)

Dear All: 
Today is Meredith's (Pandora's Books) Birthday! She has been an amazing blogger and friend.


Top 5 Reasons I love Meredith of Pandora Books
5. She is so generous. Whenever I've asked her for anything, she's always says yes, and jumps at the chance to help others.

4. She loves books. She's one of my favorite people on the twitterverse because we can chat about anything and everything, and I'll never get bored!

3. She is super creative. She loves taking an idea and taking it a step further to make it new and exciting. She's truly a blogger to watch.

2. She's very supportive of other bloggers and authors. She will do all she can to promote any of us just because she wants to!

1. She's an amazing friend. She kept hounding me to send me a wishlist of books that she could send me for Christmas, but I didn't want her to get me anything, so I didn't send her a list. Instead, she sent me this really amazing Christmas card, which was my favorite of the year. I'm so incredibly lucky to have her as a friend.

Everyone wish Meredith a happy birthday today because she seriously is that awesome! On Twitter, use the hashtag #aMERzingbday !!!!

Favorite YA Read of 2013: Review and Giveaway of These Broken Stars by Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman

Goodreads Description: It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

--

A timeless love story, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a sweeping science fiction series of companion novels. The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

My Review: I won a copy of this ARC from Disney Publishers, and I haven't gotten a chance to read it until now. What a mistake. This is by far my favorite YA read from 2013.

These Broken Stars, written by the duo Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, takes us to space aboard a massive luxury ship, similar to the Titanic. We immediately meet our two main characters-- Tarver, a solider, and Lilac, the daughter of the richest and most powerful man in the universe. Right away, something happens to the ship, and the two of them are stranded on a deserted planet left to forage and survive on their own without help. Slowly, something happens between them, beautiful and fragile. And in the end, Tarver and Lilac will have to make the difficult decision of giving up the wonderful peace they've found with each other to find their way back to civilization.

Any plot synopsis won't do this book justice. The way Lilac and Tarver interact is perfect. The prose is gorgeous. The world building is immense and believable. And I even went along with the science, because it's clear that these two authors have done their homework. Just fantastic. I can go on and on about the lush description, the pitch perfect characterization, and the most successfully done dual POV I have seen maybe ever in YA. I actually wonder if each voice was written by a different author, because the two voices are very unique, and I never wondered whose perspective I was in. Each scene is deliberate, ramping up the tension and the stakes, and ultimately, having us care about these two characters so much that one heart wrenching plot twist is entirely a shock to the system. I had to sit stunned for a day before I could continue, and then devoured the pages until the end to see what happened.

Overall, this book is a gem. I can't think of a single criticism, and my inner writer is salivating with jealousy. I can't say enough how people must read this book immediately. It's beautifully written, described, and characterized with perfect pacing. My favorite YA read of the past year, and I'll be waiting impatiently until I can get my hands on the next installment.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Enter the giveaway to enter an ARC of These Broken Stars, Hardback copy of These Broken Stars signed by Meagan Spooner (but addressed to me, sorry!) and a sticker with Amie Kaufman's signature, or $5 Amazon GC if winner is INT!
 
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Writer's Corner: The First Step: Just Getting the Words Down

Dear All:
I'm so excited to continue to share with you my adventures in writing my first novel, which I'm still working on!

How do you go about writing a novel? It's definitely something I'm still figuring out!

But I didn't have the faintest idea how to even start even though I've reviewed many, many books at this point, and I edited several full length novels for other authors. But I made a couple of decisions right away.

First, I decided to write what I knew. Part of the problem with my other unfinished stories was that I'd get bogged down in the inconsistencies and issues with the world building, become really frustrated, and stop. So I decided to write a novel set in present day about medical school, something which I'm very familiar.

Second, I decided that I would start making a habit of writing every day, rain or shine, busy or not busy. So I would wake up an hour earlier before work to write.

Third, I was going to send a chapter to my sister almost every day so that I'd have a goal every day. And someone to remind me that I was behind on my quota, so I would have someone built in to answer to.

And that was it. I basically had the inkling of a story in my head, a couple of characters in mind, and I wrote. And wrote. And wrote.

The first 10K I wrote were the hardest to get through. But once I hit that goal, it was like I hit my stride. It became easier to write more each day.

After two months, I had written 60,000 words, more words than I had ever written in my life. My sister, who had been reading along with me, told me she felt it was finished. I was stunned. How could it be done? I hadn't even gotten to the part of the story I REALLY wanted to tell.

I was just so disappointed. How could this have happened?

I decided to let it sit for a month. I felt so unsettled. I wrote a ton of words, but I felt like I hadn't really written a book.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized my problems. First, I didn't write with an outline. That's the problem with doing a really long freewrite. Second, I had no idea how time passed in novels. I started off thinking I could write through four years in one novel, which was absurd. I shaved it down to a year, and it quickly became four months, and in that abbreviated time, my plot no longer made sense. 

Problems aside, I think writing that 60K was not wasted time at all. During that time, I finally figured out what I wanted the book to really be about.

Those of you who've written before, have you run into any of these problems? For those of you who haven't written, have you ever thought about what goes into writing even a first draft?

Thanks for tuning in! Next time, we'll talk about Nanowrimo!

Writer's Corner: A History of Writing and Why I Started Finally Writing My First Novel

Hey, everyone! Happy New Year!

I'm excited to share my first post on my writing experiences.

Starting my first novel was really daunting. If I'm completely honest, it's pretty much taken my whole life up to this point to actually start the novel.

I started writing when I didn't even know how to write yet. I would fill page after page with scribbles of a pencil, pretending to write the next great novel.

By the time I was eight or nine, I started writing short stories. I usually wrote about my current crush or MacGyver (who was my crush for a long time. Let's face it! He was one of the hottest characters in the 80's!) I quickly branched off into fantasy and science fiction. The stories were usually totally ridiculous and revolved around soap opera type of relationships in a spaceship. 

I also went to Duke Young Writer's Camp when I was in middle school. It was really fun and creative, and taught me to be excited about developing stories and plots. I vaguely remember writing a science fiction novel about an alien named Lena.

In college, I took several fiction writing classes my senior year, one of them from the now very famous Adam Johnson, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winner, The Orphan Master's Son. I wrote several full length short stories at that time. The main problem with most of my stories was the fact that I had almost no description. The only thing I liked to describe was food. So people would salivate when they read my stuff, but they also felt like they were watching characters exist in a white box. I learned that even though I personally don't really care for description, there's a balance for everything.

After that, I cultivated a graveyard of abandoned novels that I started and stopped, most about a page long before I lost interest. I have about ten pages of a novel that's vaguely reminiscent of Divergent, a novel about a medical dystopia, a novel about an enchanted necklace, and the start of a contemporary novel about four friends in medical school. This went on through medical school and residency. During this time, my best friend bought me a notebook to start writing my first great novel, but somehow I couldn't get started.

It really wasn't until I started blogging in earnest last year, participated in the Writer's Cramp, and met a lot of authors who are now good friends, that I realized I should really do it. Plus, my best friend kept emailing me repeatedly, telling me I better start!
 
Finally, my sister told me that neither she nor I had the attention span to write a book. Because I'm just that stubborn and reverse psychology really works on me, I told myself, "Now, it's ON!" I was determined to prove herself (and my own doubting self) wrong.

And I did :-)

Have you guys ever written a book? Have you had trouble getting started too? What have your experiences been like? If you haven't, are you interested in writing a book? Why or why not?

My next post on Writer's Corner will be about how the writing process actually went!

Right now, enter another giveaway! Win a book off my giveaway shelf (US only) or a $10 Amazon GC (INT only).
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