Insane Writing Week: Day 0

Oh, please >_________>

Today, I was out all day at a school function. I did get a teensy bit of writing done when I got back, but it was literally a minuscule amount. And I'm seriously doubting the quality of it. I also failed to finish Mrs. Dalloway, which I'd told myself to finish today, even though I got through about five pages throughout the course of the entire day. I know, I know. I'm so good at meeting goals.

On the other hand, Hayley told me that we could extend this challenge to two weeks since I have some stuff due at school and it's kind of stressing me out. Believe me when I say that I am very, very good at stressing.

Today's word count

25563 / 45000 words. 57% done!

Word count from earlier today

24827 / 45000 words. 55% done!

So, 2%. I guess that's better than nothing, huh? I must speed up if I'm going to reach the 1,500 a day I'm shooting for (originally 3,000, but that was before the introduction of new stress factors). Also, I am starting this challenge earlier than planned, so these boring posts will end next Sunday. Probably.

Nicole's Week of Insane Writing

Exams are over! :D


That was an insanely stressful, homework-and-exam packed week. And I've never been so glad for a week to be over, I think. Since I am trying to complete a novel within 6 month (and failing pretty badly so far), Miss Hayley has challenged me to write 21,000 words within next week--that's 3,000 per day. She has also promised me a SURPRISE PRESENT if I manage to reach this word count by the end of the week, and will also make an embarrassing dance video for Nicole's blackmailing pleasure if Nicole completes the novel entirely (I will keep this and show it to Hayley's future in-laws and her children).

So you guys can track my Insane Writing Week and participate if you have novels of your own to finish as well! This entire week will be devoted to Insane Writing and Nicole will be doing an update each day. Yes, you get to read her exciting exciting blog posts!

24827 / 45000 words. 55% done!

This is my current word meter, and the challenge will start on Monday. So get ready for a week of crazy writing and I need to get that video off Hayley! I'll be Tweeting via the hashtag #InsaneWritingWeek so remember to join me on Twitter as well! See you all!

ARC Review: Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Series: Nightwatchers #1
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Goodreads//Amazon
I don't do dangerous.  Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha-that's me. But I just couldn't pass up a surprise kiss from my number-one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me...something strange. Now I feel hungry all the time, but not for food. It's like part of me is missing-and I don't know if I can get it back. Then there's Bishop. At first I thought he was just a street kid, but the secrets he's keeping are as intense as his unearthly blue eyes. If he's what I think he is, he may be the only one who can help me. But something terrifying is closing in, and the one chance Bishop and I have to stop it means losing everything I ever wanted and embracing the darkness inside me.... NIGHTWATCHERS When angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising...

I don't normally do angel books. After the last two I read, Halo and Hush, Hush (both of which I gave one-star ratings to), I vowed never to touch one again. But I read the synopsis for this and I thought it sounded fairly interesting, and that I shouldn't discriminate against YA angel books. So I decided to give this a shot. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't quite as bad as I expected, although not exactly my ideal, but I will definitely be hanging around for the sequel and more of the awesome demon in this story, Kraven.

There are a few things that didn't make sense, and I'd like to get them out of the way first. The book starts out with a kiss from Stephen, Samantha's crush, who approaches her at a nightclub and asks her if she wants a kiss that will change her life. Now, I don't know about you, but if a boy approached me (no matter how hot) and asked me if I wanted a kiss that would change my life forever, I wouldn't just blink at him and nod. If he's never talked to me before, never shown interest in me previously, I'm not going to fall head-over-heels for him all of a sudden. There must be an underlying reason, and possibly a bad one. Samantha claims to be uber-careful, but I don't think that's the case, and she didn't have the sense to reject Stephen's kiss, or at least ask him what he meant by the kiss changing my life forever.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. Our dearest protagonist decides that it's 1) a sensible idea to kiss this boy who has 2) never in his life noticed her before, and 3) completely overlooks the fact that it could be dangerous. If only more fictional characters acted like real, sensible people!

Another huge problem with the story is that the angels swear. If I remember correctly, not only does Bishop call Natalie a b****, but he also tells Kraven to 'go to Hell', something I'm pretty sure an angel would not say. The fact that Samantha decided she didn't really trust the angel also didn't make sense; I'm pretty sure that, given the choice between placing my trust in an angel or a demon, I would pick the angel. Samantha, however (and imagine me saying this in an extremely patronising tone), decides that the angel is probably pretty untrustworthy, and defies him at every turn.

And I thought she was meant to be smart.


Also, the insta-love. The 'romance' between Samantha and Bishop started out as an INSTANT ATTRACTION, which annoyed me to no end. The book really took instant attraction to an extreme, and I didn't like that at all. I sometimes feel that the concept of the Grays being intensely attracted to kissing was created to justify this otherwise inexplicable insta-love. I never really fell for the Bishop/Samantha romance; I always felt as though it was shallow and staying at the insta-love level in which it started.


Now that we have all that out of the way, here is the good: I absolutely adored the complexity of Kraven and Bishop's relationship, and although I wouldn't necessarily picture Kraven as the average devil, he was my absolute favourite character. I do hope Michelle Rowen decides to narrate the next book from his point of view--it would be really cool. He was hilarious, witty, kind, at times, which is why I don't think he was a great devil, and I really loved him. It would've been cool if he were the main love interest, without a love triangle, of course.

Most of the characters were okay and I did like Natalie, one of the meanie-poops, because she had motivations behind her actions and she had stories to offer...she was just an interesting character, you know? Many of the characters in the story stayed one-dimensional and very flat, and I feel that only the villains had real complexity. I never exactly connected with Samantha, I really disliked Carly, and I found Bishop hard to figure out but nothing more than that; I never felt for him as a love interest.

Overall, this book disappointed me a little, but it didn't make me rage or excessively headdesk. While I feel as though there are many areas of improvement and the characters left much to be desired, it was a rather fast-paced ride, and I will probably be sticking around for the sequel to wherever it takes us after that semi-cliffhanger ending. Two and a half stars; I made it sound worse than it actually is.

A free copy of the book was provided for review purposes (and received with thanks!) but did not influence this review in any way.

New Design

Warning: abundance of exclamation marks in post below!

You guys, we have a new design. And our fabulous makeover is all thanks to Misa, whom you might know from The Magic Attic Reads and her fantastic design blog, Paper Wing Design Studio. We've been good friends for a while on Inkpop, and I was beyond amazed when she made us this beautiful design.

If you're looking for a design, check out Misa's stuff. Seriously. She's efficient, patient, talented, and basically everything you want in a designer. Teenage Fiction applauds her! *pops champagne bottle*

We also want to apologise for the lack of reviews lately. Yes, we realise that our content has been pretty terrible lately, but it will all change once exams are over and Hayley finishes her assignments!

Tell us what you think about the design or Tweet Misa @CatchingWishes. You know you want to!

Joint Follower Appreciation Giveaway with Lexie!

As some of you may or may not know, Lexie from Still Waiting for Books to Come True and myself made friends a couple of months ago over Twitter, although I'm guilty of stalking her on Inkpop long before that >:) Now we've decided to make a Joint Follower Appreciation Giveaway to thank all you amazing people! Anyway, I won't bore you guys for too long, but I just wanted to mention how amazing Lexie and her blog are, and if you haven't seen the blog yet, you must check it out.

So basically, a massive thank you to all of our followers. *throws virtual confetti*

This giveaway is international, as long as the Book Depository ships to you. There will be one prize pack up for grabs, which includes a book under $15 from The Book Depository as well as an Amazon ebook under $15 (if I can purchase it in my region). If you don't want the ebook for any reason, e.g. if you don't have a Kindle and don't like reading on your iPad/computer, a second winner will be drawn for the ebook. You can read more of the TOC in the Rafflecopter if you're interested :P. You must be over 13 or have a parent/guardian's permission to enter.

As always, may the odds be ever in your favour. You may or may not wish to count to sixty before touching that Rafflecopter form. You never know what might happen if you don't...;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On Old Reviews and Lifelong Writing

I have no reviews today- after the exams and assessments stuffed together last week, I haven't had time to read much.

That depresses me. Greatly. 

So, in pursuit of actually posting something somewhat enjoyable for you guys to read, I decided to dig out some of my older reviews in my other goodreads account.

Cue embarrassment.

Here's a review of House Rules by Jodi Picoult a little less than two years ago.

Ingrediants for a Jodi Picoult book.

1.Child with issue.

2.Neglected  and troubled child

3.Something to do with law.

4.1 random death per story

Then, you mix and match, and create a Jodi Picoult book!

Easy,isn't it? By the time I have gotten to this book, I am starting to tire of the same storyline.I really enjoyed My sister's keeper, handle with care was okay, and now I've figured the exact ingredients for a perfect Jodi Picoult book.On top of that, it's also VERY annoying to have her keep on switching perspectives, just when we've gotten into the story.However, the reason I come back for more, is that I love her characters and the way she makes them so realistic. The rest is all gibberish to me. I mean, it's really thought-provoking, but after hearing the same message so many time,WE GET IT!

I love you, Jodi, but please do something different for a change.

Nicole and I went through a 'let's love Jodi Picoult!' stage about two years ago, before submerging into 'OMG it's the same book!' stage a few months after that. My anger was shown here with my excess use of exclamation marks and CAPITAL LETTERS- though I still gave it three stars. I wasn't the harshest reviewer then... I gave Twilight three stars at first (oh the shame). I actually found the review of it, and it was written approximately the same time as House Rules.  Here you go:

One of the really cheesy cliche books.I would have liked it more if it was more original. However, note that I did actually give it 3 stars, and that is because I think that the story line is quite a good one, and with some re-writing and some more thought put in, could be a good book that I would find more pleasant to read.But absoulutely terrible,boring to read, and I think I lost many of my brain cells just reading it.

I swear I'm being completely contradictory here. 'The story line is actually a good one' and then a sentence later 'absolutely terrible, boring to read'... I think I was trying to be nice here in this review, and not really doing a good job of being diplomatic or truthful. I'm not sure what was going through my brain at that time. And yes, I do own a Twilight book, though I may have slightly... edited it. Yes, that's the word. Edited.

Bottom line is, aside from this being slightly funny and embarrassing material for you guys to indulge in the awkwardness that was me two years ago, I'd just like to say that writing is something your really need to just keep going at and improving on. I mean, two years ago, I thought my writing was amazing for someone my age. I was using 'cliche' and being all clever with my exclamation marks. I thought I was witty with my 'list of Jodi Picoult's novel checklist' (though I still think it is somewhat true). 

I might look back on this in a year or so and go- 'WHY HAYLEY WHY DO YOU WRITE LIKE ZIS?' but the fact is that'll have proved I've improved. To be honest, I'm a little proud of these reviews still (despite the bad taste), because it's a little reminder that I used to write like that. That I've improved at least a little in these few years- although at the same time, it does also remind me that I've got a long way to go if I want to be a good author. Ever.

Any thoughts on this?

Sunday Wrap-up {4}

Sunday Wrap-up is a meme where we showcase all the books we got last week and discuss random things.

Books mentioned in the video: Blood Red Road by Moira Young, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Where She Went by Gayle Forman, Saturday by Ian McEwan, Solar by Ian McEwan, Divergent by Veronica Roth and Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix.


What did you guys get this week? Leave a link and we'll check it out!

Raising Awareness: World Autoimmune Arthritis Day

You'll have to bear with me as this post may or may not get very long :P

Fact or Fiction: An Introduction to Autoimmune Arthritis

1. Autoimmune arthritis is caused by laziness/inactivity

Wrong. It is caused by cells in the immune system attack itself or parts of the body. The result is inflammation (hot, swollen, painful joints) and stiffness.

2. It's just arthritis, right?

Wrong. Imagine a little kid, maybe three years old, lying on an operating table while doctors draw fluid from inflamed joints and inject them with steroids. This is the reality for many kids with autoimmune arthritis, as well as weekly shots, steroid eye drops, constant blood draws, and endless visits to the doctor.

3. It attacks old people exclusively.

Wrong. You can have it from birth; it's not due to ageing.

4. Autoimmune arthritis is triggered by an unhealthy diet.

Wrong. For some people, it's a vaccine reaction or a disease that occurs after an infection. There are many other environmental causes, and there is no research to suggest that autoimmune arthritis is caused by unhealthy eating.

5. You were limping in the morning and now you're better. You're faking.

Wrong. Stiffness gets better as the day goes on, but pain also gets worse for many during or after activity.

What Juvenile Arthritis is

1. A disease caused by a faulty immune system attacking the joints.

2. Although it's called 'arthritis', it's different to arthritis due to old age (osteoarthritis); it's a systemic disease that can also cause uveitis, the immune system attacking parts of the eye, causing blindness without treatment and extreme fatigue, among many other symptoms.

3. Treatment can include injections of a small dose of methotrexate, a chemo drug; steroids; joint injections; biologics that modify the way the immune system works by blocking certain cells; and if all fails, joint replacements. Some doctors are working on bone marrow transplants for kids with crippling JRA that can't be cured by normal treatments.

3. About 1 in 1,000 kids have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, a form of autoimmune arthritis. It's not uncommon at all. Let's raise awareness in 2012.

Yay Pictures!

What my toes look like normally when I'm not having a Raynaud's attack. There's some discolouration due to problems with the blood vessels going to my toes (Raynaud's phenomenon) that causes me to react dramatically to even slightly cool air. This was taken during summer in Sydney.

I don't really have that much swelling but there are some with swelling so bad the joint is impossible to move.

Here is a blog post written by the mother of two children with juvenile arthritis in case you want to read more.


Juvenile arthritis affects at least four times as many children as sickle cell anaemia or cystic fibrosis. Let 2012 be the year for awareness.

Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Goodreads | Amazon 

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

Note: This was written after a high dosage of movie editing and late nights, so some of the phrases may run on a little as I am both exhausted and somewhat rambly. I'm sorry, people but promise to make it up to you soon?

Blood Red Road is an adventure. Sure, it's set in a post apocalyptic world, but it's just an adventure. Nothing more, nothing less... and that's all it needs to be (and yes, I realize it sounds cheesy but bear with me here)

Set sometime in the future, it begins with Saba, the main character's twin brother getting captured. Immediately, Saba decides to go and save him, and from then on it's a huge quest. On the way, Saba meets love interest Jack, a gang of girls that are trying to change things and her little sister Emmi tags along too. There are no deep, dark secrets. It is simply an adventure, and an amazing one at that.

The adventure was something that I haven't seen in YA fiction for just a tad too long. Single minded? Yes. Crazy and exhilarating? Most definitely. It just goes to show that not all 'great' stories have to be based around huge anti-political uprisings and inequality. That not all stories have to be full of diabolical plans and evil, political leaders, and I loved it for that. There was a ton of action, with whole paragraphs dedicated to fight scenes and worm killing (no joke, they are scary) and the way Moira weaves it altogether is both gritty and beautiful.

Another thing I loved about the story was the characters. Saba is tough, hard-headed, somewhat cold at the beginning and not all that likable, but somehow, I found myself slowly warming up to her. I got her- why she acted the way she is, and I rooted for her as she learnt from her mistakes and learnt to be more compromising. She's not perfect, and she doesn't pretend to be. She didn't even try to be the hero in the novel- all she wanted was her brother, and that was something that I enjoyed seeing. The rest of the characters were fleshed out too- the love interest was not possessive or overly clingy, something good to see, and the love that developed between them was relatable- no insta-love! The rest of the characters like Emmi were also well thought out, and I never had the notion that any of them were flat or one dimensional.

Granted, for many people the writing will be an issue, but it flowed seamlessly for me. It's written quite strangely, with the language used and the grammar being intentionally incorrect at points, but it worked. It fit into the tone and setting of the book, and I liked it. Maybe it's because I've had previous experience with the Chaos Walking series, but there were no transitional issues for me this time round.

There are a few other issues that I had to problem with in the novel, and I guess the major disappointment for me was just the lack of world- building in this novel. While I understood that it wasn't the main point of the novel, I felt as if it could have been explained more- how did the world become what it was? There wasn't any explanation, and that was pretty much the only thing that kind of put me off the novel, which to me was disappointing.

Overall, Blood Red Road is a novel that is definitely exhilarating if you're looking for a fast paced novel with lots of action, and I enjoyed it a lot, though it wasn't one of those life changing novels for me. 4 stars.

★★★★

Four Stars- I enjoyed it

Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Type: Purchased for Kindle
Publisher: Puffin
Add to: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

I last read Looking for Alaska as a nine year-old. It was wildly inappropriate and now, I only recall snippets of the mildly mortifying experience, but I do remember, quite vividly, telling my mother that 'It's a good book! It's just that they swear a lot, Mummy.'

Looking back, I actually remember enjoying the story. I was into boarding schools back then, and my personal fascination reached into the roots of YA and adult literature--my first foray into those genres, and I still don't understand why my mum purchased a copy of this book for me. (Admittedly, I did choose it myself.) But I gave it away at some point, and now, a few years later, I decided to re-read the story since Maxine bought a Kindle e-copy.

Wow.

There were things I remember from my first read; the bufriedo, the descriptions of deep-fried Alabaman food (obviously, my foodie persona goes a long way back), and, most of all, Alaska. I remembered her as a girl who smoked a lot and did 'bad things', but ultimately, I loved her as a character. And I think that my nine year-old self identified what I think are the best things about this book and committed it to my subconscious memory: minus the food, what I enjoyed most were the characters and the great John Green Road Trip which identifies all his work. Miles falls a little limp for me in this one; I didn't fall in love with him the way I did with Q and Hazel, but he was still a great narrator.

Looking for Alaska is a book about love and loss. It's a coming-of-age novel; I think that is why John Green's books are so universally loved by teenagers, because they address what we struggle with most: finding an identity, and finding out who were are. Teenagers are caught in the veil between belonging to their parents and belonging to themselves, and it can be so hard to figure out who we really are while our vision is being obstructed by that filmy curtain. All of Green's characters, minus the dying ones, devote the book to figuring out what and who they are--Q, when he searches for Margo; Miles, when he moves from home to seek a Great Perhaps; and Colin, when he goes on the road trip to recover from his tragic breakup with K19.

We like characters that we can identify with, and in John Green's protagonists, we see faint, fuzzy mirror images of ourselves. We hope that we can grow up the way his characters can grow up: screw up, have fun along the way, but ultimately, turn out as an adult who still struggles with identity issues but finds a place in the world.

And for every teenager who succeeds in doing that, succeeds in pushing past the failure and emerging into this world as a young adult, a few fall along the way.

That's what Looking for Alaska is about. It's a beautiful novel. It's realistic, it's relatable, it was heartbreaking, but it was also truly uplifting.

He was gone, and I did not have time to tell him what I had just now realised: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless.

I cannot say anything more about this novel. Five stars.

★★★★

It was amazing