The Prolific Novelista

Insurgent is a Sequel Steeped in Blood

May 19, 2012 by Kiersi

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

This book gets: ♥♥♥♥ out of 5

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth – The latest installment in Roth’s wildly popular Divergent series lives up to its “sequel” title with vigor: it starts exactly where Divergent left off, with the faction of Erudite having effectively declared war, and only a few of the Dauntless to stand in their way.

But Jeanine’s attack on the Dauntless compound may have more levels of complexity than either Tris or Tobias ever expected. The faction leaders of Abnegation and Amity are hiding important information, and Tris’s pursuit of the truth may cost her everything.

Insurgent is a tale of details and mysteries, and unfolds more like an adult action-thriller than a dystopian YA. It treads steadily in the footsteps of Catching Fire and Mockingjay (the second and third books in the Hunger Games trilogy), where a sharp-minded teenage girl puts together the pieces of the puzzle long before any of the adults get around to it, and as a result, she subverts them at every turn. (more…)

Category: Book Reviews | Tags: action/adventure, book review, Divergent, Insurgent, thriller, Veronica Roth, YA | No Comments
White Girls, Dead Girls, and Fancy Dresses

May 17, 2012 by Kiersi

Kate Hart: Uncovering YA Covers: 2011

I wrote a controversial post some time ago regarding young adult book covers that have been announced for 2012 called All the White Girls, where I suggested YA authors need to get their shit together and start writing books about something other than white chicks in flowing dresses. I found it immensely disturbing that not a single book on the Top 25 YA Books of 2012 featured a cover photo of anyone besides a white girl.

A bunch of commenters suggested the problem lies with publishers and not authors, as cover designers in YA are rarely faithful to the look, ethnicity, race, or whatever of the book’s protagonist for which they are designing.

Today I discovered this post by YA author Kate Hart via my twitter peep E.C. Meyers. Kate breaks down over 600 YA covers from 2011, scientifically, in a number of fascinating and revealing ways, including how often you might find a headless, dead, or back-shot model on a YA cover. (more…)

Category: Commentary, Industry, Publishing | Tags: book covers, diversity, white girls, YA | 3 Comments
The Selection is Formulaic, Yet Entertaining

May 17, 2012 by Kiersi

The Selection by Kiera Cass

This book gets: ♥♥♥ out of 5

The Selection, Kiera Cass – With this tagline, it’s fairly straightforward to guess what Cass’s The Selection has in store for readers: “35 Girls. 1 Crown. The Competition of a Lifetime.”

For every girl but America Singer, the Selection is an opportunity of a lifetime: an opportunity to compete with 35 other girls for Prince Maxon’s heart and become crowned princess of Illéa. But entering the Selection for America means leaving behind her love for a boy from her hometown, Aspen, who is a caste below her.

When America is pressured to enter and manages to win a spot in the Selection, all her expectations of the castle, the king and queen, and Prince Maxon are shattered. Now America has to compete to stay in the race for the sake of her lower-caste family, but constant rebel attacks on the palace and America’s growing attraction to the prince may undo her plans. (more…)

Category: Book Reviews | Tags: book review, dystopian, follow the formula, Kiera Cass, The Selection, YA | 4 Comments
We Were Summer and Winter (Part 2)

May 16, 2012 by Kiersi

We Were Summer and Winter
(Part 2)

A short story

(If you’re new, start with Part 1.)

We did three more shows, and none were as good as our first. Ms. Gilbert was too kind to push for a between-show rehearsal to clean up our act, but the sudden change in our chemistry didn’t go unnoticed by everyone else.

“Are you guys fighting?”

“Did something happen?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Nothing happened. The stars just haven’t aligned, I guess.” (more…)

Category: Writing/Free Reads | Tags: first love, Free Reads, short stories, We Were Summer and Winter, YA | 2 Comments
We Were Summer and Winter (Part 1)

May 15, 2012 by Kiersi

We Were Summer and Winter
(Part 1)

A short story

No one could say how long Dillon and I had been friends. His mother and my father had worked together since before either of us were born—I was a November baby, a winter child, while Dillon burst out screaming sometime in July, a summer child. We were always that: summer, and winter.

I can’t say we cared for one another much as toddlers, because I doubt toddlers care for much besides their mothers and their juice boxes. We likely flung our poop like monkeys and bit each other’s ears. Of course, the only moments captured on camera are sweet ones, like splashing in the bathtub or napping with uncanny peace in an oversized bed. (more…)

Category: Writing/Free Reads | Tags: first love, Free Reads, short stories, We Were Summer and Winter, YA | No Comments
Podcast: “Gimme a (Storytelling) Beat”

May 12, 2012 by Kiersi

In today’s podcast, Jon Yang and I discuss:

-The fundamental elements of good storytelling

-Ways to engage your audience

-How to keep those pages turning

What do you think makes a good story? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Profilic Novelista - Gimme a (Storytelling) Beat

Category: Podcasts | Tags: Juice, podcast, storytelling, Superman | No Comments
Learning from the Best

May 11, 2012 by Kiersi

A Friday round-up.

Relaxing with some yerba maté, Argentinian-style

It’s been a truly fabulous two weeks staying with my parents in Colorado. The high-altitude sun has turned my skin a nice medium-brown, and I’ve finally gotten a chance to spend quality time with my two best guy friends from high school–the ones who made me who I am today and taught me that it’s okay to be a girl who likes to do guy stuff.

I decided to put off my blog post about writing racial and ethnic perspectives in lieu of a more relaxing Friday Roundup. Here are the links that made my week.

A Writer’s Guide to The Hunger Games - Though updates have mostly ceased, writer/blogger Jenna Cooper breaks down the first 8 chapters of The Hunger Games into categories of “what you can learn”: how Collins utilizes dialogue, characterization, tension and more to keep the story moving right along. Learn from a master storyteller!

An in-depth review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone – This Ain’t Livin’ dives deep into the plot of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which I reviewed earlier this week. Check it out for a slightly contrasting opinion, and a great analysis of the Chimaera social stratification. Reminds me of India.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Friday Roundup, Laini Taylor, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games | 3 Comments
The First Draft: A Writer’s Best Friend

May 9, 2012 by Kiersi

Okay, so you’ve decided to write that novel. It doesn’t really matter if it’s your first novel or your thirtieth, but you have a premise, possibly some plot points and a climax planned out, and you’ve made the decision to just sit the hell down and write it. Good for you. Actually, awesome for you. Just remember one thing:

The goal is to write. Not to write perfectly, or to write brilliantly, or to write the next Harry Potter; just to write. Just to get that novel down on paper, if only to feel victory coursing through your veins, to let yourself know, “I can do it!” (more…)

Category: How-to | Tags: first draft, how-to, the art of writing | 4 Comments
Don’t Miss Daughter of Smoke and Bone

May 7, 2012 by Kiersi

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

This book gets: ♥♥♥♥♥ out of 5
(A perfect score!)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor – No matter your age, gender, heritage or creed, you will love Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Taylor writes brilliant prose, dynamic and painstakingly life-like characters, dialogue that can potentially cause obnoxious outbursts of laughter, and all the while weaving a tale that cannot be put down. Plus, it has monsters.

Aqua-haired Karou straddles two lives: one as a seventeen-year-old high school student attending an arts academy in Prague, and another as the adopted daughter and errand boy of a mysterious, faun-like Chimaera named Brimstone, who runs an inter-dimensional shop dealing in teeth. Yes, you heard me: Chimaera. Inter-dimensional shop. Teeth. (more…)

Category: Book Reviews | Tags: book review, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, fantasy, Laini Taylor, monsters, pacing, YA | 3 Comments
It was probably two a.m.

May 6, 2012 by Kiersi

It’s two a.m., maybe closer to two-thirty, maybe past two-thirty, and I’m driving back to my parents’ house in my dad’s new car. What a responsible family guy car, I think whenever I drive it. A four-door sedan, an up-and-coming car maker (this is important), and—he won’t admit it out loud—a stylish exterior. The color is copper. It looks nothing like copper. He got a piece of marketing material from the car company that was personalized with his name. So intrigued by it, by its personalness, he opened it. I love this about my dad. He is so genuinely curious. He has held onto that lovable trait all these years, one of the few.

Anyway, he opened it and inside was all this shoo-shaw marketing garbage with glossy color photos. He pored over it. He read out loud a passage about how Magellan’s discovery of South America (side note, I’m pretty pissed the Wikipedia page for Ferdinand Magellan is not the first result for the Google search “magellan”) was really attributable to the hard work of a Basque captain—Basque things always being a point of interest for my dad, as our family is some ubiquitous percentage Basque at all times—as my mom rolled her eyes. What a success for marketing. (more…)

Category: Writing/Free Reads | Tags: cars, cops, late night, short stories, short-shorts, stupid, thriller | 2 Comments