Fall Into Reading 2012: Wrap-Up

Fall Into Reading 2012Hard to believe it’s December 21 already and time to write my Fall Into Reading 2012 Challenge Wrap-up!

Back on September 21, I set a challenge to read 8 books which would finish out my 2012 Reading Challenge on GoodReads as well.  In October I didn’t think I had much luck meeting the goal because of NaNo.  But I not only met the goal, I exceeded it by reading 14 books.

The Books

Cinder
Man, Oh Man!  Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks & Cash
Rock Your Plot: A Simple System for Plotting Your Novel
All Bets Are Off
Bound By Honor
Fatal Shadows
Bound by Law
A Dangerous Thing
Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money
The Hell You Say
Death of a Pirate King
The Dark Tide
Ice Hockey Made Simple: A Spectator's Guide
Ethan, Who Loved Carter

The Wrap-Up

Looking over the 8 books I thought I’d read over the three months, the only one in common with this list is Cinder.

Four of the books I read over Thanksgiving weekend. FOUR. And once I started Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English series, I couldn’t stop until I finished all five.  Ethan, Who Loved Carter I read in a single night. Once I started I couldn’t seem to stop.

Of these 14 books, my favorite was The Dark Tide, largely because it was the last one in a 5-book series and I was very happy with how it ended. 😉  It’s a mystery series, and I’ve never really read mystery before. I know why now…I’m not all that fond of it as a genre.  The characters in the books, however, had me captivated from book 1, page 1. I am looking forward to reading more of Josh Lanyon’s books,  perhaps even the mysteries because I love the way he writes characters.

In January I’ll do a full wrap up of all 56 (and counting??) books I read in 2012.

Six Sentence Sunday: Dinner With the Family (December 2, 2012)

I can’t believe NaNo is over already! This is my final Six Sentence Sunday for my NaNo Story, Shots on Goal.  (At least until revisions, maybe?)

This is another scene from Brett’s point-of-view. Every Sunday, he and his sister Sharon are expected to attend dinner with their parents.  Brett is also tasked with various  manual labor jobs around the house.

“Pop, it’s not like when you played. We train full time in the off-season, too.”

“When I was your age –” he stabbed the air between them with his fork “– I was still pulling my full weight at the farm during the off-season. Least you can do is help around the house once a week.”

Sharon sent Brett a sympathetic glance, but it only lasted a second before she had to remind one of her children that Sunday Dinner demanded “our very best manners, always.”  Brett felt somewhat better knowing that the impossible standards were shoved upon both of them, even if they were old-fashioned and sexist.

The tentative summary that will be re-written after revisions:

Brett has just weeks left on his contract with his minor league team to prove he deserves a spot in the NHL when a wrong move aggravates an old injury. When he learns the figure skater he’s admired from afar is also a skilled massage therapist, he sees a chance to save his dream.

Jeremy loves dancing on the ice, but his dream to be a professional figure skater died before it began.  To keep his massage therapy business alive, he’ll need to take on more clients, which leaves less time for preparing for the upcoming skating competition.  So when Brett offers to pay Jeremy double for his treatment, saying no is difficult even though Jeremy usually refuses to treat male athletes. Especially huge hockey players who sneer at gay figure skaters.

As Jeremy’s hands work their magic over Brett’s muscles, Brett must break through Jeremy’s walls and convince him  he’s not the homophobic jerk he appears to be…while also hiding his injury from his coach and his sexuality from everyone but Jeremy.

Hope you enjoyed the little snippet. Be sure to check out the other Six-Sentence Sunday participants!

Six Sentence Sunday: NaNo Week 2 (November 18, 2012)

During November, I’m participating in Six-Sentence Sunday and sharing some of my NaNo story.  I had been planning to write a young adult novel involving a robotics competition.  Then 12:01 AM November 1st, after the magic of Halloween had come to an end, I suddenly decided I didn’t want to work on that story after all.

Instead, I decided to pick up on an old short story I had wanted to write a couple years ago and expand it into a short novel.  It’s an adult romance, not young adult.

(And remember, it’s NaNo — that means it’s fast-drafted and unedited!)

He had Brett now, and Brett was three hundred times better than Seth. A better kisser. A better talker. Brett could even skate, dammit!

Not a better dancer, though, Jeremy thought as Brett leaned against him, making him stop his movements. Or wait … was Jeremy leaning against him?

(Jeremy is a little bit drunk. Heehee.)

The working title is Shots On Goal  and the tenative summary is

Brett has just weeks left on his contract with his minor league team to prove he deserves a spot in the NHL when a wrong move aggravates an old injury. When he learns the figure skater he’s admired from afar is also a skilled massage therapist, he sees a chance to save his dream.

Jeremy loves dancing on the ice, but his dream to be a professional figure skater died before it began.  To keep his massage therapy business alive, he’ll need to take on more clients, which leaves less time for preparing for the upcoming skating competition.  So when Brett offers to pay Jeremy double for his treatment, saying no is difficult even though Jeremy usually refuses to treat male athletes. Especially huge hockey players who sneer at gay figure skaters.

As Jeremy’s hands work their magic over Brett’s muscles, Brett must break through Jeremy’s walls and convince him  he’s not the homophobic jerk he appears to be…while also hiding his injury from his coach and his sexuality from everyone but Jeremy.

Hope you enjoyed the little snippet. Be sure to check out the other Six-Sentence Sunday participants!

Friday Finds: 3 Romances: 1 Contemporary YA, 1 Paranormal/Gothic YA, 1 LGBT; 2 Writing Craft (11/16/2012)

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted by Should Be Reading and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

Some weeks I add several books to my list. I’ll be limiting my Friday Finds posts to 5 books each week. Those that don’t make this week’s list will be on next week’s. So many books, so little time!

Shrapnel by Stephanie Lawton

Goodreads

Summary:

It’s been six years since Dylanie and her family visited a Civil War site and the place came alive with cannon fire. Problem was, no one could hear it but her.

Now she’s sixteen, her dad’s moved out, her mom’s come out of the closet and Dylan’s got a spot on Paranormal Teen, a reality TV show filming at historic Oakleigh Mansion. She’ll spend a weekend with two other psychic teens—Jake and Ashley—learning how to control her abilities.

None of them realized how much their emotional baggage would put them at the mercy of Oakleigh’s resident spirits, or that they’d find themselves pawns in the 150-year-old battle for the South’s legendary Confederate gold. Each must conquer their personal ghosts to face down Jackson, a seductive spirit who will do anything to protect the gold’s current location and avenge a heinous attack that destroyed his family.

Dangerous Ground by Josh Lanyon

Amazon.com | Goodreads

Summary:

Special Agents for the Department of Diplomatic Security, Taylor MacAllister and Will Brandt have been partners and best friends for three years, but everything changed the night Taylor admitted the truth about his feelings for Will. And when Taylor was shot a few hours later, Will felt his reluctance to get involved was vindicated. For Will, the team and the friendship have to come first–despite the fact that he hasn’t failed to notice just how…hot Taylor is.

Taylor has been in love with his partner and best friend since they were first partnered. There isn’t much he wouldn’t do for Will–but he doesn’t know how much longer they can stay teamed feeling the way he does. Still, he agreed to a camping trip in the High Sierras–despite the fact that he hates camping–because Will wanted a chance to save their partnership.

But the trip is a disaster from the first, and things rapidly go from bad to worse when they find a crashed plane and a couple of million dollars in stolen money. With a trio of murderous robbers trailing them, Will and Taylor are on dangerous ground, fighting for their partnership, their passion…and their lives.

Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias

Amazon | Goodreads

Summary:

Karl Iglesias breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader. Based on his acclaimed classes at UCLA Extension, Writing for Emotional Impact goes beyond the basics and argues that Hollywood is in the emotion-delivery business, selling emotional experiences packaged in movies and TV shows. Iglesias not only encourages you to deliver emtional impact on as many pages as possible, he shows you how, offering hundreds of dramatic techniques to take your writing to the professional level.

Mugging the Muse by Holly Lisle

Amazon | Goodreads

Summary:

Want to Get PAID for Writing What You LOVE?

In this collection of thirty-one essays, workshops, quizzes, Q&As, and how-to-do-it articles, novelist Holly Lisle — who went pro with her award-winning first novel, Fire in the Mist, in 1992 and who’s been writing full-time ever since (more than thirty novels published by major publishers, and still writing) offers help, comfort, and wry practical advice to the beginning fiction writer looking for answers.

In the second edition of this book, Holly walks writers through Preparation, Practice, Writing & Selling, and Frequently Asked Questions, offering end-of-chapter exercises, workshops, and free downloadable worksheets designed to get the individual writer or members of writers’ groups working productively with publication as the goal.

In this newly updated writing course, you will discover:

Why you want to write…
What you want to write…
Who you want to write for…
How to write only what you love and what matters to YOU…
How to make your work good…
And how to get paid for doing it.

Writing is a learnable skill, not a magical process only those touched by the Book Fairy, or the Muse, can ever reach.

If you want to write fiction, you can.

Unmaking Hunter Kennedy by Anne Eliot

Amazon | Goodreads

Summary:

After a car accident–an event he considers a prank gone bad–pop star, Hunter Kennedy is forced to hide out with his aunt in small-town Colorado. He’s supposed to rest, heal his scars and attend high school in disguise until the press dies down. But he only wants to get back to work.

Worse, the girl who’s been assigned to make him over into a geek is a major geek herself. Vere Roth is a chattering pixie, a blushing tornado and a complete social disaster. He’s never met a girl who’s never-been-kissed, believes in romance and thinks Hunter’s a ‘nice’ guy.

Funny thing is…Hunter is nice around Vere because she’s his first real friend. He also can’t seem to stop sharing his secrets or keep her out of his heart. Knowing he’d never deserve a girl as sweet as Vere, he resigns himself to the friend zone, and helps his new bestie with her own makeover.

She tortures him daily for ridiculous guy advice on how to snag her life-long crush. A guy Hunter thinks is totally wrong for Vere, and sadly, one who has taken note of Vere’s transformation.

When Vere asks her best friend for some kissing advice, Hunter can’t resist…

And that’s when things get out of control…