The Sapphire Flute

I was so excited when Tristi Pinkston approached me about reviewing some of Valor's new books! She let me pick which books I was interested in reading and reviewing, and Karen Hoover's debut novel, The Sapphire Flute, was at the top of the list.

I would like to say that even though Karen is a friend of mine, and I got a free book out the deal and everything, I've tried really hard to be unbiased in my assessment of the book. So that's my disclaimer. :o) Now, on to the review.

The Sapphire Flute is the story of two girls - Kayla and Ember. Both are young women who are just finding themselves. At the beginning of the book, Ember is beginning to discover that she can do magic, and Kayla is given guardianship of a magic flute. Both girls have to fight against the evil C'Tan.

The first thing I noticed about The Sapphire Flute was how compelling the story was. It kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next. Unfortunately, that fell a little short in places, especially near the end. Because of the way the two story lines were interwoven, there were times when I should have been compelled to keep reading, but I wasn't because we had switched to the other story. As I got to the end, I was prepared to stay up until the wee hours of the night because I was so wrapped up in the story. However, because the story switched away from the climax of one of the storylines and back to a storyline that felt resolved at the time, I actually put the book down a few pages in to the chapter and decided to read the rest the next day. So the pacing could have been tighter, especially there at the end.

That's a pretty small complaint, though, compared to how wonderful the book was as a whole. There was so much fun magic throughout this entire book. Between the mages and the spells and the shapeshifting and the warewolves and the dragons, there was always something exciting happening.

The characters were also very well written. I felt I really got to know them, and I thought Hoover did a wonderful job giving each of her two heroines a distinct identity. She also created a very convincing villain.

The Sapphire Flute is only the first in a series of seven books about Rasaan, and it definitely felt wide open for a sequel at the end of the book. However, it didn't leave me hanging on a cliff the way a lot of YA books that are planned series have been doing lately. The conclusion felt satisfying, but I'm also anxious to read more.

Another thing I absolutely loved about The Sapphire Flute is that it's a very clean read. I would have no qualms letting young adults read this young adult book, which is something I wouldn't say about many of them that are coming out these days.

Basically, I'd recommend The Sapphire Flute to just about everyone who loves a good book. Here's a link, in case you'd like to order it off of Barnes and Noble. Happy Reading!

More Kewl Kontests

I spent about 3 seconds trying to come up with a word to replace "more" that I could start with a K, but gave up pretty quickly. Because, really, finding ways to spell things wrong just isn't a good use of my time.

But I did want to blog about some contests going on at Elana's, Suzette and Bethany's, and Kimberly's blogs. Mainly for the extra points I'll get. :-D

Elana's giving away some awesome books signed by the authors, Suzette and Bethany are giving away a partial manuscript critique by Suzette's agent, among a few other kewl prizes, and Kimberly is giving away some of her favorite things, including an autographed copy of her book. So check them out.

I Wrote THE END!

I said this on Facebook last week, but thought I should take the time to write a little announcement here on the blog.

After a full decade of writing books, I have now officially finished a first draft of one of said manuscripts!

The beginning of the end for me actually came in a roundabout way. I sat down to outline what was going to happen for the rest of the book because I was kind of stuck. So I started writing in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, fleshing out dialogue and scenes as they came to me, and going back to more of an outline when they didn't. And suddenly, I knew how it was going to end. So I wrote the final scene. And then I wrote "The End" - what a great feeling!

That last bit needs more re-writing than most of what I write, but that's totally okay with me! I'm a lot better at re-writing than I am at writing anyway. :o)

So with that experience under my belt now, I'm going to go ahead and write the first draft of Free Agents that way. I want to have at least the first draft written by the time I meet with Nephele Tempest at the Storymakers Conference in April. I signed up for a pitch session with her, and that's the book I want to pitch, so it would be good if I have a better idea of how it's going to turn out. So even if the first draft is only a Quasi-Draft, it's better than nothing. I only have 6 weeks, so I better get cracking.

Blog Contest!

It's not my contest, it's my friend Elana's. But it's so fabulous, I just had to share.

Okay, so that's not exactly true. I agonized. Do I share the news and risk others reading my blog and entering and lowering my chances of winning? Or do I keep it to myself and lose 5 points toward my entry?

In the end, I decided to take the 5 points to better my chances of winning. :-D

The reason this contest is so fabulous is because if you're among the top 5 winners, a real live literary agent will read your query letter and review it on their blog.

I know!

So, hop on over to Elana's blog, and enter to win. Oh, and you could also possibly win a free copy of Elana's ebook, From the Query to the Call, or even -- and maybe I should have said this first because it's so rad -- some huge post-it notes!

And if you don't win, go ahead and buy Elana's book anyway. It's a great book, and your purchase also buys you a free query review from the master queryer herself, the fabulous Elana Johnson.

Writing Science Fiction

I'm writing a Sci-Fi story set in the year 2190. It's been so much fun to work on because, really, almost anything goes.

Right now, the story is quite technology-driven. In building my world, I'm constantly asking myself how today's technology might evolve throughout all those years. What will cars be like? What will fashions be like? Etc.

So when I get an idea of, say, the transportation system, I have to make my characters go somewhere so I can write about it. In order to make it really interesting, though, they have to be going somewhere important. It has to move the story forward. As I'm writing, I know my critique group is going to nail me if they're just going on a joyride for no real reason.

So far, between the basic story idea I have, the rough synopsis I was forced to write last year, and the technology I've been able to come up with, I've managed to push the story through to a certain point. But I keep getting stuck. What's going to happen next? How exactly is this all going to work out?

So, at LTUE this past weekend, I got some more ideas, and I'm fleshing more story out with even more detail and cool extrapolation of what the world will be like so far in the future. Unfortunately, I still don't really know what's supposed to /happen./ This has always been my biggest problem in writing.

Any ideas? :o)

A Few Tasty Tidbits

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend at LTUE. I do have to admit that not every moment was pure revelation, inspiration, or even, well, consciousness. But it was still a great conference.

Here are just a few of the things I picked up from some of my favorite classes for you to taste test:

1 - If you want to write a strong character, they have to MAKE DECISIONS.

2 - When writing young children, their thoughts shouldn't be far different from their words. If they think you're weird, they will say, "You're weird." If an adult thinks you're weird, they'll say, "Nice to see you again."

3 - Don't think that just because you didn't like a book that it's crud. It's okay to like something someone else hated, and it's okay to hate something someone else likes.

4 - Science Fiction and Fantasy are hopeful, optimistic genres. They demonstrate clear lines between good and evil, and that good triumphs over evil.

5 - Readers don't want to read about how Washington REALLY works. If it's too close to reality, it's boring.

6 - In Fantasy, you can deal with hard topics and more edgy material head-on without it affecting your readers as much because the whole world is fake, so they don't feel as much danger of it happening to them.

7 - By using fairy tales in your writing (either retellings, or even just using an icon like a glass slipper), you can evoke a lot of meaning and reaction in the reader with much less words, because they already know the story.

8 - And last but not least, everyone who came before Columbus was NOT an idiot, and they didn't believe the Earth was flat! In fact, they were the smart ones and Columbus was the idiot. He was just lucky America was here or they all would have died out there in the ocean because the world was too big for their food supply. :o) I actually knew this about Columbus already, but it's so interesting. Brandon Sanderson was talking about this in the context of blowing apart our perceptions. 90% of SF&F books are not crud, as is sometimes believed, just like the people in Columbus's time weren't idiots.

9 - Oh, and of course, it's a little scary to be in a room full of people who all know the Klingon language on sight. :-D

And, that's it. It's not everything I learned, but it's a few of the things that struck me as the most interesting and/or thought-provoking. :o)

My Current Fitness State, Goals, Etc.

Because it's not /all/ about the writing. :o)

So, I'm working on getting healthy and fit, and I thought I'd share some of what I'm doing because I've found a few things that I think are great.

First of all, I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma years ago, ever since I had pneumonia in 10th grade. But I actually cured it by doing Body for Life a couple years ago. By doing the 20-minute interval program, and just pushing myself a little more each workout, I was able to get not only my heart and muscles, but even my lungs strong and healthy. After that, I started running 5K's. It took me a while to work up to actually being able to run 3 whole miles without risking passing out right on the road. But it's an awesome feeling!

I decided to branch out last year and started biking and swimming. I ran a little "wimp's triathlon" last March and that was really cool, but it merely whetted my appetite to run a /real/ tri. I was training toward that end when I biffed it big time on my bike up on the trail in May. I then proceeded not only to fall off my bike, but off the wagon as well. I gained back all the weight I had lost, and lost a lot of the muscle I had gained.

However, I'm back in the swing of training, and I've actually committed to running the Women of Steel Triathlon in May. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.

I also joined in a community weightloss blog run by the fabulous Tristi Pinkston. That's been helping me get back on track when I go astray - having some accountability to people. I've also garnered a lot of advice and ideas from the other members of the blog. One of which is my "new big thing."

It's called the Leptin Diet. It really makes sense to me, and seems to have some good science behind it. There are basically 5 rules:

1. Don't eat after dinner.
2. Eat 3 meals a day allowing 5-6 hours between meals. No Snacking!
3. Reduce Carbohydrates. (But do not cut them out -you need a 50/50 ratio)
4. Don't eat huge meals.
5. Have a high protein breakfast.

Here's a slightly humorous and quite informative video that explains the diet pretty well:



So, that's it. Eat well and exercise. Groundbreaking, right? :o) I'll report back in at some point in the future with how things are going.