Writers' Chasm

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.   This week’s topic:  This month's Bookmobile selection, STARGLASS by Phoebe North, takes place on a generation starship. But the characters wouldn't be there if their ancestors hadn't left Earth with the hope of their descendants one day colonizing elsewhere.  Would you go on a generation starship, if given the opportunity? Why or why not?   At the time of writing this, I'm watching Star Trek: Into Darkness for the second time in three days. While I would prefer to be the person born on the ship so that I could have a chance of s...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.   This week’s topic:  Quarterly check-in: we did one in March and one in July. Now that we're 3/4 of the way through the year, how are you doing on your goals?     What? No. Not possible. We can't be three-quarters of the way through 2013 already, right?? Wow. Goals-wise, I'm back in school, which means I'm back to settling into my usual routine.    My reading goal for this year was 100 and, once again, I won't be meeting it. I'm up to 23 right now. I'd be higher, but I'm currently reading three books at the same ...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.    Next week’s topic:  If you could be any animal, which would it be, and why?   My answer to this question varies depending on how I look at it. If I read it as which animal would I be, the answer is a horse. Like a lot of young girls, I was bitten by the horse bug. Unlike a lot of young girls, I never grew out of it. I was about nine, a friend of my father's offered to let me ride his old gelding, and the moment I was up on his back, I was hooked. It completely broad-sided my mom--who was and still is a huge horse person--because, as she li...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.    This week’s topic:  What was the best book you read in July?   Reading-wise, July got off to a great start and finished with a not-so-great ending. I read four books, all of them within the first two weeks. I enjoyed all four of them but none of the really stood out to me, which makes picking one for this post a little difficult.  I'm going to have to go with...    When I bought this book, it was on sale at a Books a Million. I remembered it from a new release post the year before, when the cover caught my eye. I p...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.  Next week’s topic:  In this month's Bookmobile selection--OVER YOU by Amy Reed--the main character and her best friend try to escape their problems with a summer trip to Nebraska.  If you could escape somewhere (anywhere!) for the summer, where would it be? There are a lot of places I'd escape for the summer. I'm seriously considering saving up for a road trip the summer after my senior year of college (which will hopefully also be the summer before grad school). I've never been farther west than Wisconsin and I'd love to see...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments. This Week's Topic:   Quarterly Check-In: We did one back in March, so now that we're just past the halfway point of the year, how are you doing on your goals?     I can't believe it's July already. And I can't believe it's ten days into July! Where is my year going? It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating New Year's with my family.  Anyway, reading-wise I'm way behind with my goal of 100 books. I just hit 20 books read so far this year yesterday. I have to read about 13 books a month in order to make it and...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.  Next week’s topic:  In honor of National Pride Month , what's your favorite YA LGBT book? I'm going to pick a couple favorites. I can't choose just one, because I want both books on the list for different reasons. First up:   Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan I read it a few years ago in high school and loved it. I've had it on my list of books to buy ever since, I just haven't sat down and ordered it yet. It's a very sweet and beautifully written story.  Next:  Every Day  by David Levithan I wanted t...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.  This Week's Topic:   What's the best book you read in June?   I'm going to be honest. I finished three books this month and I don't feel right about putting any of them on this post. I've been in a reading slump and haven't read anything that I've really loved in quite a long time. So to cleanse my reading palate I decided to reread a book that I knew I would love. And that's the book that I'm going to choose for this month. I haven't actually finished it yet, but I'm close and definitely will before ...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.  This Week's Topic:  In our  Bookmobile selection this month, Amy Tintera's REBOOT, the main character has died and been reborn as a robot-like soldier. If you were reborn faster, stronger, and quicker healing, what's the first thing you'd do? When I thought about this topic on Sunday (which is when I usually schedule my blog posts for the week) I was at a complete loss. Then today I came back to thinking about it. My first thought was Buffy. I've been working my way through the series (I'm on season three now) and that'...

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. We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.  This week’s topic:  If you time-traveled to a post-apocalyptic future, what would you bring? This is a really tricky one, because for me it depends on what kind of post-apocalyptic future. Is it like Hunger Games or City of Ember or Forest of Hands and Teeth or The Water Wars? Will I be fighting for my life against zombies or attempting to survive outside of an isolated city or struggling to find enough food or water? In general, I would probably bring the basics. Extra clothes for varying climates, because there's no telling what the weather...

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:  What's the best book you read in May? I expected to get a lot more reading done now that I'm home and don't have classes to study for, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. It was a hands down, easy choice this month... Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler is my choice for May. It's a sweet book with great characters and I loved the hockey and ice skating elements. I also really liked the idea that your dreams can change and just because you have the opportunity, doesn't mean you have to take it.  And the cupcakes sounded amazing, too. It makes me really wish that I could bake that well so I could give some of them a shot.

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:  What's been your most surprising read of the year so far---the book you weren't sure about going in that really swept you off your feet? This is a tricky one because I haven't really had any books this year that I wasn't sure about sweeping me off my feet.  The books that have surprised me the most this year are A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords because I was expecting insanity, but not that level of insanity. It's been a few months now and I'm still recovering from the events of Swords. Kings was the first book I have ever physically thrown across the room (I love my books too much for throwing) and Swords is the first book I have ever physically thrown acro...

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:  What authors would be on your dream author panel? Conference season is here once more! I have never been to BEA or ALA (or any conference, for that matter) and, sadly, that doesn't look like it's going to change this year. Someday! If I had to pick my dream author panel, I think it would have to include John Green ( Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns) , Veronica Roth ( Diverent, Insurgent) , Lisa McMann ( Wake, Fade, Gone, Cryer's Cross) , Elizabeth Wein ( Code Name Verity , which if you haven't read it you really should. Seriously), and David Levithan ( Boy Meets Boy, Every Day) . I just think they would be a fascinating group to listen to talk about ...

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:  What book is your 'one that got away?' (What book have you always been dying to read but still haven't yet?) Considering that my to-read shelf on GR is rapidly approaching 500 (488 right now), this could be a long list.  The first books to pop into my head are the entire trilogy of Demon's Lexicon, Demon's Covenant and Demon's Surrender.  I own Lexicon and Covenant and I've read the former, but ever since I decided to just read the entire trilogy together, I haven't been able to find Surrender in a bookstore. There's Eona by Alison Goodman, which I've been wanting to read ever since I devoured Eon years ago in high school. There's Between Shades o...

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...

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...

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 W eek's Topic:  What was the best book you read in March? Books read: 3 (almost)  I'm going to cheat this month and pick a book that I haven't actually finished yet (but will likely finish today, and will definitely finish before Sunday). Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare Infernal Devices #1 This is my second time reading CA. Clockwork Princess arrived in my mailbox on Saturday and I've been working on this one since I came back from break trying to prepare. I meant to reread both this one and CPrince before Princess arrived, but sadly that didn't happen.  I will say that reading this book knowing what I know from Prince makes it even better (and, dare I say, ...

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:  Spring cleaning! What do you hope to "clean out" from your writing? What habits/tropes/words, etc do you want to eliminate? There are a lot of things I hope to clean out from my writing. Writing-wise, I need to be more careful of cliches and using the same sentence structure repeatedly. Character-wise I need more diverse hair and eye colors for my main characters. I tend to favor characters with brown hair and brown eyes. Sometimes redheads and a few blonds. I've found websites listing different hair and eye colors that I like to use for reference if I'm struggling to diversify.  When it comes to writing habits, I need to stop rushing through essential scenes in order to get to scen...

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:  Quarterly check-ins! We're already 1/4 of the way through the year--where are you on your reading and writing goals? Where did the time go??  Reading Goal: 100 books  Where I should be: About 16 Where I am: 5  Clearly it is not going very well. In my defense, I did finish up A Clash of Kings in January and read A Storm of Swords in February. I'm hoping to do some catch up reading over spring break and then really get trucking when summer rolls around. I'm probably getting A Feast for Crows this week, though, so we'll see how long that lasts.  Writing I didn't set any writing goals for this year, other than just to keep writing. My writing kind of dropped off last sem...

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:  What's the best book you've read in February? Number of books: 1 (Clearly, I am failing epically at my goal.)  A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin   This book...is insane. For those of you who haven't read them, this is the third book in A Song of Ice and Fire . It's fantastic, possibly the best so far. It kind of destroyed me. When I got to the ending, I screamed, threw the book across the room, and curled up in a ball around a pillow. I read the last 300 pages in one day, ignoring the fact that I had homework that I really needed to do. I'm still amazed at this book. There were some huge shocks for me. Some characters I hated that I actually came to like. ...