Featured Author – John Rowe Townsend

I am taking a blog holiday, but what I’ve done, is go through the archives and pick a few somewhat random posts that I thought you might like to see again. Enjoy! Today’s Featured Author is John Rowe Townsend. I had the great joy of meeting him and his...

Short Publicity Blurb – Restoring Harmony

The year is 2041, and for Molly McClure, her life is pretty much the same as it’s always been. She was only six when the Collapse of ’31 happened, ending life as the world’s population knew it. When she is forced to leave the comfort of her home and small island in...

I’M ON AMAZON!!!!

I know I just posted a thing about how you should support your indie bookstores, and you should, but I AM ON AMAZON!!!! and you can pre-order my book!!!! No cover art up yet, but yesterday I wasn’t there at all! This is really going to happen, isn’t...

Slush

I check out blogs. I read comments. And do you know what I seem to see over and over, despite the evidence to the contrary? New writers still seem to believe it’s who you know that will land you that agent or that publishing deal. Over at The Debutante Ball,...

The Circus is here!

Ever want to run away with the circus? Well, an old time circus came to our island last night. Amazing! Check out a gorgeous photo here and read more about it. Ideas are brewing…

Real Life & Liars by Kristina Riggle

Since Need To Read is on a summer hiatus, and this is adult fiction, I thought I’d just write about it here on the main blog. I won this book in a contest over at The Debutante Ball. I was a little nervous about reading it because A) I’m hoping to become...

School Library Journal Review

ANTHONY, Joëlle. Restoring Harmony. 307p. CIP. Putnam. 2010. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-0-399-25281-5. LC 2009029501. Gr 6 Up–This dystopian tale features a resourceful, spirited, and immensely likable heroine. Molly McClure, 16, has lived her entire life on a small island...

Coffeehouse Angel

If you’ve been hanging out here for any length of time, you’ll know two things about me. I only write about books I really love here on Need To Read, and every time Suzanne Selfors writes a book, I have no choice but to write about it. She’s quickly...

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince – The movie

I know you read the book, but if you haven’t seen the movie, then my comments will definitely spoil it for you, so in order to make sure you really want to read this post, you must click here and know that I am warning you now, I give things away about the movie...

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince, the movie

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE MOVIE BELOW!!!!! So I left the island, which in and of itself is a big deal, to see this movie and while my expectations wanted to be high, I was a little dubious after #5 (do NOT get me started on how much I hated that movie and how they ruined...

The Countdown Begins!

It’s official! I have a pub date for my book Restoring Harmony. It is May 13, 2010. Yay! I have also handed off the final edits to my editor. All that is left are the copy edits and then it is out of my hands. We’ve even done the catalogue copy. It’s...

SOS – Save Our (indie) Stores

As you might know, I’m originally from Portland, Oregon. I know things are hard all over for indie bookstores, but this notice in Publishers Marketplace distressed me enough to bring it to your attention. Portland, OR-area bookseller Stephanie Griffin closed her...

I’m guest blogging today

I am excited to say that I did a guest blog today over at Darcy Pattison’s website. She teaches the best workshop on novel revision ever! And she now has a book out too. Anyway, read what I have to say about the road to publication here:...

Summer Vacation

Hiya! Just a quick note to say that Need To Read is on a summer hiatus. You’d think that I’d be reading more, not less in the summer, and I actually am, but I’m not really reading things that apply to NTR. I am reading some adult fiction, some ARCs...

Friday Five Pictorial

I realized that not only have I not posted in a while, but it’s been ages since I did a Friday Five, so I thought why not now? And why not add pictures? 1. This is how I spent Canada Day. Oh, heck, who am I kidding…this is how I spent most of the week! 2....

Find a nice boy…get a good job…

I was just doing my morning blog reads. I don’t check out very many because my eyes do not like to read on the internet, but I do stop by Editorial Anonymous on occasion and there was a post there this morning from someone just getting started. From the post, I...

Tried and True or Tired?

I just read a (nameless) ARC that has made me pause and think for almost two days! It has a stunning first chapter that got me hooked immediately. However, after about three or four chapters, I could’ve plotted the entire book on paper without any problem. I...

Staying True to Your Character

I want to say right off the bat, this post is strictly about using certain terms that are true to your characters, NOT about political correctness. I grew up in the seventies. They taught us in school (and probably at home) that the word negro was out, and we should...

Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart

I know Ruby Oliver is not the title of the book, but I’m going to blog about the first two books in the series. I’m still hoping to be on the ARC list for the third one, but I don’t know if I’m going to be lucky or not. The titles are: The...

Copy editing & regionalisms

I am reading a couple of great YAs which are part of a series. As I read, it got me thinking a bit about copy edits and regionalisms in language. I have one more round of line edits before Restoring Harmony goes into copy edits, but they’re on my mind. My editor...

The Perils of Paradise

The perils of living in paradise are wonderful writing distractions like this: Click to see it larger. The husband wants me to state for the record that while he took this picture, it is a SNAPSHOT TAKEN WITHOUT THE PROPER LENSE AND DOES NOT REFLECT HIS PHOTOGRAPHY...

The End…it couldn’t come soon enough

I just read most of the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously. Previously, I thought THE EVENING STAR was the worst book I ever read, and I guess it still is because at least I finished it (it took me months though). This is the worst book I almost read all of....

Congrats, Snapper!

My husband has been known to say about me and my writing, “I’m so proud I’m gonna pop.” Yeah…he’s a Southerner so he says things a little differently than everyone else. As he claims, “We’ve got language, the rest of...