books

You are currently browsing the archive for the books category.

a-to-z-survey-300x298

These are always fun and I haven’t done one in…ever? Saw it over at Poisoned Rationality where THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING was mentioned as one of her “Hidden Gem” books – THANK YOU! :)

AUTHOR YOU’VE READ THE MOST BOOKS FROM: Hmmm. Hard one right off the bat. As an adult I don’t read an “entire author’s collection” much, mostly just because I have so many books on my to read list it takes me a while to get around to reading multiples. I’ve read three or four from Neil Gaiman (plus all his middle grade stuff), I’ve read about half a dozen Anne Rice books, and I’ve read Suzanne Collins HUNGER GAMES trilogy at least twice. But if I look at my whole reading life it’s probably Christopher Pike. I devoured those puppies (dozens of them?) as a teenager – and many of them still hold up on adult re-reads FINAL FRIENDS TRILOGY forever, yo!

BEST SEQUEL EVER: Woo. Another tough one. Again, as an adult I don’t read series near as much, though as  an adult I’ve begun exploring more YA and as a result I’ve dipped my toe in more series/sequel books (I haven’t been that impressed with most of them quite frankly). I do think maybe Susanne Collins CATCHING FIRE was one of the best sequels I’ve read, if only because after re-reading HUNGER GAMES last year before the film came out I finished it and immediately had to pick up CATCHING FIRE and tore through it in a day. So yeah, I’ll go with CATCHING FIRE – Peeta forever, yo! (now I’m going to have to end all of these with yo!)

CURRENTLY READING: Always more than one. Re-reading Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN, finally started Larsson’s THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, and I also picked up Jo Nesbo’s NEMESIS yesterday. Really feeling the “detective fiction” thing these days. Speaking of detective stories, did you guys see PRISONERS?  SO GOOD.

DRINK OF CHOICE WHILE READING: In the cold months, coffee preferably with some French Vanilla creamer and a bit of sugar. In the brutal hot horrible miserable months, Vitamin Water Zero (Go-Go flavor) partially frozen from being in the freezer. It’s a whole THING, don’t ask.

E-READER OR PHYSICAL BOOK: I will never give up on physical books, I LOVE them. But I confess that the convenience of the e-reader, having a whole library at my fingertips is and the immediacy is getting more and more appealing. It’s especially awesome when it’s a huge heavy print book (i.e. wishing I had gotten both Susan Palwick’s giant SHELTER and Joe Hill’s giant NOS4A2 on Kindle instead of print…so heavy.)

FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL: 

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Image from THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING hardcover illustrated edition. Illustration by Stephanie Hans

So I already gave you guys some DC Drunk Solicits to help ring in the New Year (look for Marvel to show up on January 1st – it’s the way to start the year off right! Or at least help you nurse that hangover).

I also already gave you my comics Best and Worsts for 2012 over on She Has No Head!

And I promised to stop ignoring the blog…so what else is there to say?

Well, I’d love to give some love to all those people that have been so supportive of TGWWBK over the past months. First and foremost to those awesome folks that gave me awards. You people rock especially hard:

James Whatley over at WhatleyDude says THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING is one of the three best books he read this year. YES!

James and Brandon over at the awesome Comics! The Blog give THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Best Novel Our Friend Published”

And Seeley James gives THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Most Innovative Thriller for 2012”

All high praise indeed…even if I was possibly the only nominee in James and Brandon’s category! 😉

You can check out excerpts from all sorts of reviews on the updated TGWWBK website, including perhaps my favorite quote ever “… Lola is a hungry conqueror, claiming her title by force and seeking out further fortune like a would-be Ghengis Kahn in a catsuit.” (courtesy of January Hooper on Amazon).

I’ve also started up a TGWWBK Fan Art Page which already has some gorgeous submissions (submit directly to me at: 1979semifinalist[at]gmail[dot]com) to get yours up on the website. :)

Of course there’s also the store, where you can buy limited edition hardcovers, all sorts of swag, limited edition prints, and even the mysterious “blue envelope.”  If you prefer the ease of Amazon you can buy a digital version there, or a paperback edition there. You can also get the paperback version on Lulu (I actually think it’s a bit superior in quality to the Amazon version even though the thumbnail on Lulu is really blown out and saturated for some reason).

OH, and TGWWBK finally has a Facebook page. Please check it out and like/follow/whatever to keep up with all the news that’s fit to print…er…type.

What else?  I’m still writing for Lit Reactor, doing reviews for CBR, and of course doing She Has No Head! for CSBG. 3 Chicks is still ongoing of course (in fact, our big “end of the year” episode full of bests and worsts will go up on Monday).  I’ve also picked up another freelance gig doing comics reviews for Publishers Weekly, so I’m a busy busy girl. There has been some development on my first comic book mini-series (Heart In A Box) but nothing solid yet. Cross ’em if you got ’em!

Perhaps most important and relevant for 2012 is that I got a new agent and I feel really lucky that I was able to leave an agent and also get a new one within the same year. My new agent is amazing and I’m working on revisions to my new book (unrelated to TGWWBK) now, so stay tuned for development there. I’m still out of work, but I feel like the universe is actually taking pretty good care of me right now…thanks in large part to all of you. SO THANK YOU.

So I’m off to eat a bunch of cheese and crackers and probably some fruit, and drink far too much Veuve as I ring in the New Year, so Happy New Year to you all and here’s to an even better 2013 – for all of us!

May all of our days in 2013 be filled with the three C’s. COMICS. CAKE. & CHAMPAGNE. Gods, wouldn’t that be AMAZING?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,

When you see this image, do you NEED to know more about Lola LeFever?  If so, head over to Amazon or Lulu to buy your digital copy of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING!

Lola LeFever by Stephanie Hans

Tags: ,

It’s Thursday…you know what that means…NEW chapters for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download the new chapters here: The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 23 & 24

Or just read below.

If you want to read ALL of Part 1: Break Away (over 90 pages), head over to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING page and download or read directly from the site.

A huge thanks to all of you for the massive success of the Kickstarter. I’m so in awe of your support and enthusiasm for this book. And of course thanks to all of you the book is not only being published but it will an amazing one of a kind hardcover illustrated edition – with gorgeous work by Stephanie Hans. Check out the Kickstarter and updates to see more of what’s to come.

Now onto those last pages…you guys know I ended this on a cliffhanger, right? I’M SORRY, OKAY!?!?!

I ride the rails trying to forget about Jasper.  About Rachael and Sharon.  My mother and father.  And I focus on the idea of starting over until it’s the only thing I can see.

It sounds clean.  It feels clean.

The idea of being someone else, maybe in a whole new city, with an entirely new name.  With those things can I also somehow have a new past?

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Tuesday…you know what that means…NEW chapters for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download the new chapters here: The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 21 & 22

Or just read below.

If you want the entire story thus far (over 88 pages!), head over to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING page and download or read directly from the site. Don’t forget to Donate to the KICKSTARTER – IT ENDS JULY 25th at 2:30pm US Eastern!

Also, just as a reminder to those of you who have been reading along and may have become invested…the last two chapters for “Part 1: Break Away” go up Thursday…so prepare yourselves!

It’s still early when I find myself standing outside his house, across the street, under the shade of a big tree.  He comes out eventually and starts walking, a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, not unlike my duffel bag and me.  The sight of him hits me like being doused with ice water.  He looks just like our father.  Tall and lanky with broad shoulders and dark, thick, almost unruly hair.  He has a strong handsome jaw line and skin much more olive than mine which is pale and pinkish.  I want to run up to him, embrace him, escape with him, and never have to talk about what has happened to us.  But I resist.  I’m not so confident he’s forgiven me for being the sole survivor of the accident.  I’ve long ago forgiven him for not coming to rescue me, but my sin seems much greater to me than his; it always has.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

It’s Thursday…you know what that means…NEW chapters for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download the new chapters here: The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 15 & 16

Or just read below.

If you want the entire story thus far (over 65 pages!), head over to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING page and download or read directly from the site.

I wake up tied to a chair with wire cutting into my wrists painfully.  They’re bleeding into my hands so much that they’re sticky and my vision’s blurry.  The room I’m in is bare, with only an alarming amount of my blood pooling into the tread of my shoes and spreading across the scuffed hardwood beneath me.  It’s night, but I have no idea how late and the room I’m in is a dark, empty black.  There’s a bare bulb overhead but the light is off.  Pulling on my wrists to see about freeing them is excruciating and so I stop doing it.  I can hear arguing in another room.

“I thought you just wanted to hurt her,” says a male voice.

“I tried – did you not see me stab her like five times in the back – not to mention once in the kidneys?!  The bitch is still alive.  I’m telling you – I’ve been telling you for like, months – there’s something wrong with her!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

It’s Tuesday…you know what that means…NEW chapters for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download the new Chapters here: TGWWBK Chapters 9 & 10

Or just read below.

If you want the entire story thus far, head over to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING page and download or read directly from the site.

Sharon is becoming a legitimate problem for me.

Until recently she’s been a thorn in just about everyone’s side, but she’s provided an interesting opportunity for me to do good.  Returning thrown necklaces and other bits of stolen property, stopping fights before they begin, stupid little stuff.  Little stuff that makes people happy and lets me see my mother in my dreams.  The dreams, even if they are filled with confusion and violence and strange warnings that I don’t understand, are still time with my mother.  Until Sharon I’ve been used to people somehow intrinsically understanding to leave me alone, like animals in the wild that know to only hunt the weak or injured.  I think I give off something that keeps most people away from me.  Like potential adoptive parents.  It never mattered much to me because I was always waiting for Jasper to come and get me.  Of course when I was twelve, he was eighteen and he didn’t come for me, so I gave up quickly on the fantasy.  I really had tricked myself at first into believing he would come, but when he didn’t, I unpacked my bag again and went back to my regular life.  It was foolish to think he would come, considering I blamed myself for the car accident; it was likely he blamed me for it too.  But I guess I had hoped that he would come anyway.

When Rachael shows up at dinner with a broken wrist I know that Sharon has drawn an invisible line in the sand, and it’s up to me to step up to it.  I begin tailing Rachael everywhere she goes, becoming her self-appointed guardian.  I see her injury and chide myself for sitting idly by for too long; it’s time to stand up, if not for myself, then for someone else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

In honor of Bonnie and Lola and THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING we continue our 30 Days of Superheroines!

Our first DC Woman is up and she’s one of my absolute favorites. It’s no surprise I suppose that I found a TON of great stuff for her:

BIG BARDA!

By Ming Doyle

Via Ming Doyle

By Phil Noto

Man! If anyone can make that silly bikin armor work, it’s Phil Noto! via Phil Noto

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, kids! It’s Thursday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 7 & 8.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 8.

Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 7 & 8 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.

And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?!  :)

I hit the ground and go into a crouch, my hands and feet sinking slightly into the soft ground. The feeling of being alive doesn’t leave me. In fact, as the mud seeps into my shoes and through my fingers I feel somehow deeply connected to not just the earth, but to everything. The world feels big and I feel a part of it in some important unspoken way.  I stay there for a long while, just feeling.

When I finally move again I put everything back to how it was and sneak back in the kitchen door and lock it up.  Upstairs I take off all my clothes, careful to put both my mother’s bracelet and Jenny’s locket on the sink edge, and rinse the clothes and my shoes in the sink, so that they are only wet and not dirty.  I wash my busted up hands, wincing as the water runs into the tears where the bricks cut into my knuckles.  I clean off my body and then both my bracelet and Jenny’s locket.  Looking inside of Jenny’s locket I see what was more important to her than anything.  The locket has two pictures that are by some miracle barely damaged.  They look like they could be her parents.  I think of all the things I would do if only I could have a picture of my parents and Jasper.

I look up and catch a glimpse of myself in the dark mirror.  I’m always shocked by how much I look like my mother – the same long arms and legs, broad shoulders, red hair, pale skin, and smattering of freckles.  My eyes are dark blue like hers but my mouth is a little wider and if I grow any taller I think I’ll be taller too.  I guess if I can’t have a picture it’s nice to carry her around on my face.  I just wish there was some of my father in there too.

When I go back into the sleeping room I put my clothes under the bed, hoping they’ll dry a little before morning, and the last thing I do before I crawl into bed is place Jenny’s locket in her sleeping hand, cupped perfectly, as if waiting for it.  I think I won’t be able to sleep with all the excitement of the night and worry about having to hide my damaged hands from the staff, but my body takes over and I’m asleep almost instantly.

I dream of my mother.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, kids! It’s Tuesday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 5&6 here.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 6.

Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 5 & 6 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.

And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?!  :)

While visions of powerful superheroes dance around behind my eyes, and my imagination flies out of the room and around the whole world, yelling in the backyard interrupts my thoughts.

At first it sounds only like teenagers chatting but it ramps up suddenly and something about the tone sends a chill down my spine.  I roll off my bunk and lean against the open window nearby.  The only staff is far away, out of hearing distance, and a small cluster of girls are near the house, shouting.  At first their cluster is so tight I can’t tell who is who, or what’s happening, but then a dark haired girl named Jenny comes flying backwards out of the circle and lands on her back roughly.  The group gets eerily quiet and two girls go to her aid, but she brushes them off and stands up on her own.  Her defiance ignites a spark of admiration and respect in me.  She walks back to the group, and two of her other friends are still standing there, mouths open, stunned.

I think briefly of going down, but am intrigued and even impressed by Jenny’s backbone.  Sharon looks to be the one that pushed her.  She’s new and has been making trouble since day one, but I’m glad to see someone’s over it and not afraid to stand up to her.  Unfortunately Jenny is rewarded for her bravery with a slap.

The slap shocks even me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:

« Older entries