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Showing posts from April, 2013

Blog Hiatus

It's that time of year again--end of academic year craziness--so I'm going to take a blogging hiatus for the next few weeks so that I can concentrate on getting everything in on time. Be back soon!

New Releases: This is What Happy Looks Like, Moonset

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This is What Happy Looks Like  by Jennifer E. Smith When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?    Moonset by Scott Tracey Legacy of Moonset #1 After the terrorist witch coven known as Moonset was destroyed fifteen years ago—during a secret war against the witch Congress—five children were left behind, saddled with a legacy of darkness. Sixteen-year-old Justin Daggett, son of a powerful Moonset w

RTW: Kickstarter Book-to-Movie

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic. This Week:  The Veronica Mars Kickstarter success makes us wonder, what YA book would you raise $2 million to see a movie version of? This was a tricky one for me because there are a lot of YA novels that I love that actually are being made into movies ( City of Bones, Divergent, The Book Thief) and I tend to be really wary of my favorite books being made into movies.  I've literally been dreaming about Tamora Pierce novels being made into movies for years so those are my number one pick. I'd be happy with Song of the Lioness , but I would really love to see the Immortals series on the big screen ( Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, and Realms of the Gods). I think they would make beautiful m

College: It's the Final Countdown

It's here. The final stretch before finals week. In my opinion, this is probably the hardest few weeks of the semester. Not only are their papers to be written and projects to do and presentations to be given and tests to take, but the weather is warming up and it's getting harder and harder to settle into actually working. Here are a few tips to make these final weeks a little easier. Keep a list of all major projects and their due dates. I have an Excel spreadsheet of classes, assignments, and when they're due. Each day I take some of the assignments from the column and add them to a different column: everything I'm supposed to finish that day. It helps me to stay organized and on track. Don't procrastinate. This is probably the hardest thing, especially at this time of year. I can honestly say, though, that even though you may still have two or three weeks before a project is due, those weeks will go by fast. Plus college assignments have a nasty tendency to

RTW: Fictional Tour Guide

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic. This Week:  If you could visit any country with a fictional character as your guide, who would you pick and where would you go? First things first. For my guide, I pick the Doctor. Which one is a little trickier. I love Nine, Ten, and Eleven. Probably Ten. Where I would want to go is an impossible choice. I'd want to go anywhere, though preferably not London at Christmas. There's danger involved in any adventure with the Doctor, but there's no need to tempt fate. Greece with Annabeth. I can't imagine any better way to see Greece than with an actual daughter of Athena. And a few others, because it doesn't say it has to be a real country. I'd like to see Tortall with Daine and Numai

Camp NaNoWriMo

From the same amazing people who bring us National Novel Writing Month, there's Camp NaNoWriMo . Like NaNo, the goal is to write a novel in a month. It's great motivation for those of us who are too busy during the month of November to participate. There are two of them: one in April and one in July. There are only four weeks until finals so I unfortunately won't be able to participate in April's, but I do have every intention of doing Camp NaNoWriMo in July. Good luck to everyone participating!