Whitney update- Week 2

It's been a good week-- very productive. I wanted to pat myself on the back or reward myself with chocolate until I realized how far I still have to go. Still...

Current books read: 12

I'm pretty sure that if I can keep up this pace, I'm going to finish. YAY! But I don't want to be counting my chickens before they're hatched... or pages before they're read. Anyway, I'm SO excited with the stuff that I've read so far. It's going to be pretty hard to choose when it's time to vote.

Here's an interesting article about some excellent books that WEREN'T nominated.
http://segullah.org/book-review/whitney-2010-nominees/ I can think of a few books that I loved that I really wanted to make it that weren't there either.

Also, here's an awesome giveaway on my pal Sue's blog that you won't want to miss!
http://borrowedlight.blogspot.com/2010/02/giveaway-compaq-cq10-mini-netbook.html

Wanna see something REALLY scary?

Does anyone remember the episode of Friends where Joey and Rachel are telling each other about their favorite books? Joey says that his favorite book is The Shining and Rachel says that hers is Little Women, and they decide that they're going to trade. Joey warns her that The Shining can get pretty intense, so if she starts to get scared she should just do what he does; put the book in the freezer for a while.

I just read a book that was incredibly well-written.

Compelling characters, check.
Gripping plot, check.
Believable dialogue, check.

I really, really liked it-- couldn't put it down. But I have to say that 75% of the time I was reading it, I was horrified. Because it was that disturbing; not in a gory way, because that's not my thing, but disturbing in a way that twists things that you thought you understood and forces you to look at them differently. I seriously considered putting it in the freezer for a bit, but I kept reading because I was mesmerized. It stayed with me even when I was finished, haunting me. But in a good way... I think.

I love books like this-- books that you have to stretch a little to wrap your brain around. Books that make such a powerful impression on you that you find yourself recommending them to everyone you know. Of course, this can occasionally backfire. I told one of my work friends that she simply MUST read Hunger Games. I walked by her desk one day to find her with her nose buried in it, and she was CRYING. I felt like a terrible person. She said that she really liked the story but that parts of it were just too much. So I have to be sensitive to the fact that we all have different levels of what we can cope with.

So, I'm curious. What books do you love because they made a lasting (and sometimes disturbing) impression on you? Which books do you have to put in the freezer?

Whitney reading update

Forced reading. (That's an oxymoron, by the way.)

Greetings! I am coming to you live from where I work, a.k.a the only other place I'll be going until I finish my self-imposed Whitney reading. It sounds like torture, doesn't it?

Riiight.

Can I just say how nice it is to actually have a reason to look forward to February now? It's always been my least favorite month, but as of recently, there's been a silver lining. Now it comes complete with permission to gorge myself on books I've been meaning to read but haven't managed to fit into my schedule yet. It's like a shiny present; infinitely better than a box of Valentine's Day chocolates.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to vote in all the categories, but there might be one teeny, tiny snag.

I'm significantly behind. Last year I had a much bigger head start when the list of nominees came out. Still, I'm going to make a SERIOUS effort. I'd love to vote for Best Book of the Year, but that means I'd have to finish all thirty books before April 3rd. It's a worthy goal, but perhaps not a very realistic one.

So, I thought I'd give you the occasional report on how it's going... as long as you promise not to laugh too hard if I fall short. Plus, it's an excuse to blog!

Here goes...

Current tally: eight books read. (And yes, that includes mine.)

Comments? Encouragement? Raucous laughter?

Has the keyboard always been this loud?

I'm skipping the blog today. The computer screen is blinding me with it's unnatural brightness, and my fingers are sluggish. In fact, the darn keys seem to have switched places overnight.

I'm afraid it might be ice cream poisoning. Does anyone know of a good cure for a Ben and Jerry's hangover?

And now, a rare glimpse at the...past?

Remember that TV show about the guy who got tomorrow's paper a day early? I've decided that perhaps my blog could be a bit of a novelty as well. Except I'm not going to dabble in fortunes or predicting the future-- I'm going to boldly go where no blogger has gone before and reveal...

(drumroll please)

The past.

I know what you're thinking. Anyone can report the past, right? But it's still quite a challenge for some of us because I guess I forgot to mention something rather important this week. With all that whining I was doing about having nothing interesting to blog about, I missed the perfect opportunity.

Santa Maybe was nominated for a Whitney Award in the romance category!

See, I wanted to shout it from the rooftops last Friday, but I made myself wait so that I could perform this most important task of making sure that everyone was firmly grounded in the past. For a full list of the Whitney nominees for 2009, go here. http://www.whitneyawards.com/2009finalists.html There are some incredibly awesome books just waiting to be discovered!

Oh, and by the way, if you drive a Toyota, you might want to be careful because apparently there's some sort of problem with the brakes. Updates will be provided when they are no longer useful.

The Mark and a blog contest

Something really cool happened to me recently. I was lucky enough to get to read an upcoming release from a new author at Cedar Fort and invited to write a endorsement for the cover. The book is called The Mark by M.R. Bunderson, and I really enjoyed it-- YA romance and suspense and an otherworldly twist all wrapped into one. The release date is March 8th, but if you want to get a sneak peek, you can read the first chapter and synopsis here. www.marilynbunderson.com/books/the-mark

By the way, I got to meet Marilyn at Authorpalooza yesterday, and she was so down-to-earth and nice. I'm really excited for her and I hope she has as much fun with her first book release as I did with mine!

Which brings us to the second part of the blog-- the contest. Marilyn Bunderson is having a series of giveaways to celebrate the release of The Mark that you don't want to miss. Right now, she's giving away a copy of My Fairy Grandmother. So if you want a chance to win, go here. www.mrbunderson.blogspot.com And make sure to check her blog for some other really cool books she's giving away.

That's all for now. Congratulations, Marilyn! :)

Authorpalooza!

I will be signing books at Authorpalooza on Saturday, February 6th at the Sandy Barnes & Noble from 1-4 PM! (Thank heavens because I was having a really hard time coming up with something to blog about, so this was about to be the shortest New Year's Resolution ever.) For more information about all the cool authors who will be signing, go here. http://ldsauthorevents.blogspot.com/

Oh, and a surprising blog from an agent about what's hot right now in the publishing world...

Amish fiction. Really?

http://ow.ly/13bPi

My New Year's Resolution

Yes, I realize that it's February 1st, not January 1st. I'm a little behind this year.

Can anyone guess what it is?

Hmmm, that might be kind of fun, actually. I think I'll give a mystery prize to the person who guesses what my belated resolution is. If no one guesses it right, I'll start giving hints. In fact, I'll give you a little hint right now: given my past history, this resolution probably won't last very long, despite my good intentions.

Guess away-- I promise I won't be offended. :)