Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Straw, Jeff Kinney

Synopsis:

Greg's dad, Frank, is on a mission - a mission to make this wimpy kid, well, less wimpy.

All manner of 'manly' physical activities are planned, but Greg just about manages to find a way out of them.

That is until military academy is mentioned and Greg realizes that he's going to have to come up with something very special to get out of this one...

My Thoughts:

This is the second book of this three book series that I’ve managed to get my hands on and I can’t wait to go back and read book two.

Kinney is a total genius who blends an intelligent and well-observed narrative with funny and precise cartoons that complement the text brilliantly.

This is the perfect series for children who have trouble with reading or who struggle with reading longer texts. It’s also perfect for adults who want an easy read and just about everyone in between!

New Years Resolutions For 2010

As 2009 draws to a close, I've been thinking back over this year and forward to the year ahead. There have been some massive highs and deep lows this year for me but there are several things I'm proud of and several things that are still left to accomplish...

Things I'm proud of from this year:

1. Finishing my Masters degree.
2. Moving into a place of my own and being strong enough to live by myself.
3. Being with my Drummer Boy for another year <3
4. Loosing a little over a stone in four months. I did it healthily through a controlled diet and exercise and feel amazing!
5. Finishing my first novel.
6. Adopting my little cat and turning her from a skinny, jumpy little thing into a relaxed and happy creature :)
7. Being strong enough to walk away from people who are negative or constantly full of drama.
8. Not letting all the drama that did happen bring me down.
9. Finding a new job and not giving up when the job hunt was tough.
10. Reading lots of new books and constantly updating my knowledge of the industry.

Things that I want to accomplish next year:

1. Get an agent.
2. Get my first novel published.
3. Save up enough money to go on holiday for at least ten days with my Drummer Boy.
4. Finish my new novel.
5. Loose the last half a stone and get back into my size eight jeans.
6. Learn to speak Spanish fluently.
7. Make more time for my family.
8. Work on strengthening friendships that have slipped away in recent years.
9. Learn to play the guitar, at last!
10. Find a way to be less stressed and to enjoy life more.

A Belated Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm well aware that this is a very late blog but - in my defence - I was at my Nan's for Christmas Eve/Day so couldn't get online and then went to Dads, followed by my boyfriends (we'll call him Drummer Boy) for further celebrations. I got home this afternoon and have finally had some time to sit down and write to you all!

So, did you have a good one?

Mine was fun, although it was the first year that I've felt like an 'adult' and therefore sat watching as my cousins ripped through a mountain of gifts whilst I opened numerous cards with cheques and cash in. Don't get me wrong, cash is great (and we all know I need the money at the moment!) but it was odd to be counted as an adult instead of a child.

I was thoroughly spoilt by my Drummer Boy yesterday and I'm currently writing from underneath a Snuggie!! It has swiftly become my favourite gift of all time, I'm never moving from this sofa!

My little cat was very happy to see me after five days apart and she is purring very loudly from the other side of the sofa. My neighbour (we'll call her Kitten Girl) and a friend from uni (we'll call her Blondie) very generously kept an eye on her whilst I was away but I still felt very guilty for leaving her! But I'm pretty sure that all the treats and the new collar that I brought her have made up for it...

In other news, I've finally found myself a job! After four months of hunting, I've found a job in a nursery over in Bristol and I start on the 4th of January. Phew! I'm very excited to start and will, of course, keep everyone updated on how I do!

This week will be mostly taken up with thank you card writing, buying new work clothes, going through the massive file of stuff that I have to read for my new job and, more importantly, preparing for New Years Eve. Usually I avoid it and just spend it curled up with my Drummer Boy but this year, as I have a place of my own now, we decided to have a small shindig. Some friends of ours are coming over for drinks, music and Wii and it should be a good laugh, I can't wait!

Anyway, that's enough for now, I hope you've all had a very merry Christmas and enjoy your New Year!

Stay happy,

Writer Girl xxx

Skullduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones, Derek Landy

Synopsis: The third bone-breaking, belly-busting adventure in the series that puts the funny back in...um...funny series.

That didn't really work, did it? If you've read the previous Skulduggery books then you know what the Faceless Ones are -- and if you know what the Faceless Ones are, then you can probably take a wild guess that things in this book are going to get AWFULLY sticky for our skeletal hero and his young sidekick.

If you haven't read the previous Skulduggery books then what are you doing reading this? Go and read them right now, so that you know what all that stuff in the previous paragraph was about.

Done? Good. So now you're on tenterhooks too,desperately awaiting the answers to all your questions, and instead you're going to have to wait to read the book. Sorry about that.

My Thoughts:

This is the second Skullduggery book that I've read and Landy hasn't disappointed. Once again, the action is slick and fast and the reader feels closer to Valkerie here than in the previous book. The threat of the Faceless Ones looms large and, unlike your typical action/adventure novel for kids, main and important characters are injured and even die. Landy has raised the stakes once again and I can't wait to read the next one!

*****

*Cough, Splutter, Sneeze* Repeat until fade...

Hey,

Sorry for the pause in blogging, I've had a nasty case of the winter flu this week but I should be back up and running soon.

There may even be a blog tomorrow, if I can stop coughing for long enough!

Stay tuned,

Writer Girl xxx

Brigands M.C., Robert Muchamore

Synopsis:

Every CHERUB agent comes from somewhere. Dante Scott still has nightmares about the death of his family, brutally murdered by a biker gang. Dante is given the chance to become a member of CHERUB, a trained professional with one essential advantage: adults never suspect that children are spying on them. But when Dante joins James and Lauren Adams on a mission to infiltrate Brigands Motorcycle Club, he's ready to use everything he's learned to get revenge on the people who killed his family!

My Thoughts:

This is the second CHERUB book that I've read and once again I was struck by how Muchamore is able to weave several threads of a story together so effortlessly.

Dante is an interesting protagonist and he battles to control his desire for revenge with his desire to hold onto his humanity.

The Fuhrer is at first a terrifying figure who destroy's everything that Dante loves but by the end he is revealed just to be a weak bully who can only control things with his fists.

Once again, James and Lauren are brilliant supporting characters and this time we get further into their minds as they grow older.

The story is full of adventure and the pace is fast, moving swiftly from one piece of the narrative to the other.

The only negative for me was that by the end of the novel, the characters don't seem to have moved very far forward; the Fuhrer is still running the Brigands and hasn't been brought to justice for his many crimes, Dante is still alone apart from his baby sister Holly and James and Lauren slip straight back into their lives as soon as they get back to CHERUB. However, because of the charm of Muchamore's writing, you forgive this and look forward to the next book.

I enjoyed this book and will be going back to the beginning of the series to read them all.

****

Please note that this book is NOT suitable for younger readers as there is violence throughout and some strong language.

Genesis, by Bernard Beckett

Synopsis:

Anax is about to face her examination for the Academy, the institution which safeguards her society. The subject is close to her heart: Adam, a man whose struggle transformed the course of her country. But the examination by the panel will reveal new twists to Adam's history. Twists that will undermine Anax's assumptions about her country and who she is. But why is the Academy allowing Anax to open up the enigma at its heart?

My Thoughts:

I read this novel in one go because it gripped me from the very first page and wouldn't let me go until the end.

The text is very sparse and there isn't a single word that doesn't need to be there. Anax is both a sympathetic protagonist and an insightful narrator as she guides the reader through the complex twists and turns of the Academy.

At the heart of this thoughtful, brilliantly written novel is the single question: What does it really mean to be human?

Highly recommended for people who like to have something to think about at the end of a novel.

*****

Old Habits Die Hard!

Every writer has their own way of doing things, some like to plan every tiny detail of a piece before they start and others prefer to just wing it and see what happens. And almost every writer that I know, has their own rituals and habits that surround their work.

I know I do!

I'm the kind of writer that doesn't plan anything, I just start writing and see what comes out. This is odd because in every other aspect of my life I'm always quite controlled and usually have a list to hand. I've tried planning a piece before, writing a list of chapters and what they will contain and a character profile to match. This has never worked for me though, it's better if I just relax and let it happen.

As for my habits, I have a very specific way of working:

- I have to write at night, usually between the hours of 9pm-3am, depending on how good of a writing day it is.

- I always light candles and turn the lights off. This helps me relax and focus on what I'm doing.

- I always have music playing, usually quite loudly. For each major piece of work, I've always found a 'muse', that is either a band or artist whose music particularly inspired that piece. Sometimes the music is fitting - for example, when I was writing my teen fiction novel, I was struck by Taylor Swift's music - but sometimes it can be completely random.

- I always drink loads of water. I'm not sure if this is because it helps me stay awake through the night or if it's because it gives me a good excuse to get up and procrastinate every so often, but I always drink the most amount of water during the day when I'm writing.

- And finally, I always wear my pj's. This might seem an obvious thing to say, seeing as I always write at night, but it's really important for me to be completely comfortable and relaxed.

Like I said, all writers have different habits, ways of working and rituals and it is often a trial and error process to find things that work.

So, now I'm off to light the candles, get the music pumping and write some pages...500 words a night is a must!

See you soon,

Writer Girl xxx

The Undrowed Child, by Michelle Lovric

I'm not planning on reviewing all of the books that I read - I read at least four a week so that would take far too long! - but just the best and the worst.

Here is my first...

Writer Girl xxx

The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric

Synopsis: It's the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems, among whose delegates are the parents of eleven-year-old Teodora.

Within days of her arrival, she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets and librarians turn fluidly into cats.

A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once and for all quickly ensues. Only Teo, the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby, can go 'between-the-linings' to subvert evil and restore order.

My thoughts:

This is a highly imaginative novel in which Lovric has effortlessly created a whole world that the reader feels comfortable and safe in.

Teo is an interesting protagonist who doesn't take on the clichéd role of the 'feisty female' but instead takes us on a learning curve as she goes from being a lonely, isolated child who feels unconnected from everything to one who is in the middle of the action and who finds that there are others like her.

Renzo also changes throughout the novel as he goes from being pompous and quite irritating at the beginning to being a genuinely sympathetic character by the end.

The novel is fast paced and full of action but also manages to have quiet moments that bring the reader closer to the story and the characters.

I loved the mermaids in particular, they are refreshingly brash and a move away from the Disney versions of sugar-sweet beauties that have become the norm.

Bajamonte Tiepolo is a brilliant antagonist as he is creepy and gruesome but also pathetic and desperate and the reader gets to see all sides of him.

There were some flaws however. Teo and Renzo are supposed to be eleven but some of their language felt more like that of a thirteen or fourteen year old. And the beginnings of their 'romance' also felt uncomfortable given their age. I felt like we never quite got to the bottom of Teo's story and I wanted to know more about her real parents as it would have made her feel more solid. And I wanted more of a spectacular ending to the battle as it is what the whole book had been building towards, I felt it fizzled slowly out instead.

However, overall I thoroughly enjoyed Lovric's first foray into children's literature as it is interesting, well written and never speaks down to its reader.

I will be keeping an eye out for her next children's book and would highly recommend this one!

*****

The Waiting Game...

Ever since I was a child I've been terrible at waiting. So why on earth did I decide to try to get into an industry that is 95% about waiting?!

I sent off the first three chapters of my manuscript to Agent A at the beginning of October and was amazed to get a response three days later asking for the full novel. I sent it off straight away and got confirmation that it had arrived the following week (that was the week of the postal strikes and I live in the back of beyond so it wasn't a surprise that it took so long to make it there). I then got an email from the agent herself a couple of days after that saying that she was reading it that week.

And then...I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

And then I waited some more.

It's been four weeks now and I'm not sure if the silence from the agent is a good thing; does it mean that she is considering it and talking to other people about it? Or has she already turned me down and the letter just hasn't got here yet?

Only time will tell. And until then I guess I'll just...wait.

Writer Girl xxx

P.S. Take a look at this blog: http://grace-beautifullyawkward.blogspot.com/ it's written by a very good friend of mine, she's the one that got me onto here in the first place! Her blog is all about art and she really knows what she's talking about! X

Hello!

Welcome to my blog!

Well, seeing as this is my first blog on here, I thought that I'd use it to introduce myself and what I do!

I'm Writer Girl, I'm 22 and I've just finished a Masters degree in Writing For Young People.

I have been addicted to books since I was tiny and can usually be found with my nose in one! All though school I loved English and it was my strongest subject by a very long way. Luckily I had a brilliant English Literature teacher who encouraged me and I eventually got into writing. After doing two A Levels in English I ended up on an English Literature degree at university. I took a Creative Writing module by chance in my first semester and the rest, as they say, is history! I changed my degree in the second year to make it an English Literature/Creative Writing one and then followed it with a Masters degree.

As part of my MA I wrote a teenage novel called Emerald which is based around a friendship between two teenage girls that goes very wrong. It is very dark and was not what I expected to write but it's what came out and I'm very proud of it.

I also write picture books, fantasy fiction and short stories and hope to one day be able to make a living from it. However, at the moment I'm unemployed and looking for work! But that is very often how it goes!

I sent Emerald to an agent a few weeks ago (we'll call them Agent A for now!) and was asked to send my full manuscript a few days later. I was very excited as I had expected a flat rejection and am now waiting on tenterhooks for a final response!

This blog will be about my progress as I go through the process of getting agented and published as well as general chat about my life and occasional bits of creative writing.

Thanks for taking a look, I'll post every few days.

See you soon,

Writer Girl xxx