Road Trip Wednesday

I've been parked on the side of the Road Trip Wednesday for awhile, but today's topic caught my eye and I'm in! Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This week's topic: Share a line from your WIP.

I'm working on the sequel to Crow's Rest (which comes out in 9 months!!) and my favorite line from No Man's Land (at least so far) is too spoilery, so here's my first paragraph instead:



If I’d known this was going to be an intervention, I would have dressed better. Not that a polo shirt and khakis would have lessened the sting of my mom sticking a “Hello, I’m Promiscuous” label on me or anything, but my micro-miniskirt wasn’t helping my defense.


Avery's voice is so much fun to write--she comes up with some truly hilarious takes on things. :)

 

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Downed Wood and Boulders

I've been parked on the side of the Road Trip Wednesday for awhile, but today's topic caught my eye and I'm in! Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: Pictures that inspire your WIP

I have loads of pictures for Crow's Rest, but now that it's a finished book I suppose I'll have to feature some other work. I did a photo shoot a month ago for fall color, and there's one image that's really haunting me (click on it to see it larger).

Not fifty feet behind me was a road lined with cars and photographers, taking pictures of the aspens lining the roadway.

I followed a trickle of snow melt into this clearing of downed wood and boulders. So eerie and hushed, and lit like a stained glass window.

(If you've read The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater, think Cabeswater of the Sierras)

So although I don't have an actual WIP inspired by this photo yet, I can feel a little sprout of something starting.

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Riding Wildfire

Have I really not done a Road Trip Wednesday since January? Wow, that's a long time to be parked on the side of the road! Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What song would you love to see a book based on?

This was a total no-brainer for me--I thought of one song immediately.

A little background: I was completely horse crazy as a kid. Dog crazy too. I could recite and identify every breed of horse or dog, thanks to enablers in my family who kept me supplied with encyclopedias and picture books. Still have some of those books, except for the ones I lent to a friend for a school report and never got back before she moved (Lisa, I still want those back! --shakes fist--)

So with that backstory, you'll understand why I'd love to see this song made into a book. It's already pretty much a story, how hard could it be?


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And as a bonus, I'm including a song that is a fantastic companion to my book--in fact, I've approached her about using it for a book trailer.

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Across December

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What's the best book you read in December?


I did a lot of writing this month (finished my draft of Crow's Rest, yay!) so I didn't do much reading. I did find a few steamy romance ebooks for free that fell under a "guilty pleasures" heading, but I only read one YA book in December. We actually started it on audio in November on a real-life road trip but didn't get to finish it. Bought a hardcopy with my Amazon gift card so I could find out how it ends:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis has popped up on others' RTWs in the past, but I'm glad I waited to read it. The third book in the trilogy comes out this month, so I won't have a horribly long wait to see what happens! Of course, I need to find time to read the second one before the 15th.

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Best Book of November '12

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What's the best book you read in November?

I've been reading in fits and starts this month--we've had guys working on xeriscaping our yard, and after a few disasters while they were unsupervised I surrendered to the fact that I wasn't getting much writing done this month. But that meant I got to read, yay!

My pick for best book is

I actually won this in a giveaway but had been wanting to read it for some time, probably because I'd seen it on other RTWs. It has a thought-provoking concept: everyone in this world is born with two souls, and one will gradually dominate as the other withers away. Except for the main character, Eva, who is trapped with her other half, Addie, controlling their body while she waits for a chance to live again. I recommended it to my niece last weekend, and too bad she lives too far to borrow my copy!

I also wanted to mention that I signed up for alerts from Hundred Zeros, a blog listing free e-books. Along with their huge catalog, you can get a daily email with new additions--some of which are only free that day. There is the usual mixture of great books and "you get what you pay for" stinkers, but I wanted to mention one that I particularly enjoyed

There's some great banter between the MC and her ghostly companion, plus the promise of the rest of the trilogy being just as good. Only the first in the series is free (but the other two are reasonably priced) and I love it when authors do this so we can get a taste of the series. The majority of the time, I'm hooked and go on to read the other books. I'll be doing that with this one! My only pet peeve is that the MC is one of those beautiful girls who doesn't think she's beautiful--but there is some context here, as she doesn't fit in very well with the social circles she travels in as a medium.

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

Winner & RTW: Spookiness

First, let's get to the winner of the signed copy of Behind the Bookcase by Mark Steensland:



Congratulations, Tricia C.! Thanks to all who entered!

And now on to today's Road Trip Wednesday post. Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: Halloween! What's your favorite scary book or movie?

My idea of a scary movie is probably laughable to a lot of people. Or at least to my husband, who still teases me about the time I ran out of the room during a "gotcha" moment in the movie The Changeling. Or to my childhood friend, who loved to torment me about Gremlins when we were in the POOL. A POOL FULL OF WATER.

But when it comes to books, my own brain knows how much I can handle so it fills in "monster" with something appropriately creepy or frightening, but not enough to give me too many nightmares.

So there are a couple of books that I like to read around Halloween, to help set the mood.

I haven't read any of her other books in ages, but The Witching Hour has the power to immediately transport me to another time and place. It's genuinely startling to look up from the pages of this book and not find myself caught in an intense storm in New Orleans.

Carrie Ryan's zombie series is another great Halloween read, for its dark ambiance and themes. There is one bit of creepiness that's almost unbearable (if you've read it, you'll probably agree which part that is) but so incredibly well-written.

What about you? What are your favorite Halloween reads or movies? Feel free to include the link to your RTW post in your comment if you're participating.

RTW: Flickering Flames in Fall

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: October!! It is SO fall! How does your writing (place, time, inspiration, etc) change with the seasons?

 

 I'll answer the place part of the prompt with a photo:

This is where I write longhand and edit year-round, but in the fall we light the pilot for the massive propane heat stove just out of frame. It makes the room so cozy, and during power outages it's our only source of heat. So on those evenings, we play board games by light of the oil lamp and the flickering flames

Sigh. This year we've had record highs for September, but it's finally supposed to drop below 90 tomorrow.

 

Oh, yeah, we're supposed to tie this back into writing, aren't we? Well, one of the things I've noticed about the change to cooler weather is that I incorporate comfort foods into my books more. In the summer, my characters end up in situations where they can eat ice cream and sip lemonade, but once I'm in my fleece writing uniform it's all about the stews, crusty bread, pies, and pasties.

And rainy days are absolutely writing days! Except when they're reading days, of course. What about you? Does your routine change with the seasons?

 

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Best Books of September 2012

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in September?

 I read a few books this month, but the winner is the sequel to my July pick, Girl of Fire and Thorns:

 Definitely one of those sequels that holds up to the first, if not taking it one better. (The other book I felt like that about was Demonglass, the sequel to Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins). Crown of Embers has just enough familiar fantasy elements to make it feel cozy, but it also has such wonderful worldbuilding and characters that it treads new ground.

And I wanted to give a shoutout to a few other books I enjoyed this month:

 I picked this up at a library booksale because it looked like it might be a good comp title for my first book. It is, but it's also just a great book, with eccentric characters and awkward situations abounding.

And the other one is by a local author, Keli Gwyn:

I have a little bit of bias, obviously, because it mentions so many of our local historical landmarks. But truthfully, I was mainly buying this in support and ended up loving it. There is some great banter between the main character and the love interest, and despite this being a "clean" romance, there is plenty of tension. This is one you can recommend as a fun, historical romance without worrying if your grandma will be shocked by the content. (Mine wouldn't have been. She got a red lace thong for her 75th birthday)

So that's what I've been reading!

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Humbaba's Curse

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: In honor of this month's Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer's CINDER, name a fable or story you'd like to see a retelling of. If you're feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!

Back in my early college days, I took a Children's Literature course that was divided up into Picture Books, Mythology, and Poetry. At the time, I was starting out as a professional storyteller, so the Mythology section held my interest the most. I must have read hundreds of myths, legends, and folktales that semester, between the class requirements and searching for material to include in my storytelling repertoire.

For our final, we had to retell a myth from an unusual perspective, and I chose the Forest Journey portion of The Epic of Gilgamesh--told from the point of view of Humbaba, the monster. I can still remember the first line:

I emerged into the world through a cleft in the Mountain, slick with the waters that ran there and bearing a caul of moss.

I got an A on the project, but I would certainly do things differently now that I've got so many other skills in my writer's toolbox. But I had intended on picking up different parts of the epic and retelling them from different perspectives (like Gilgamesh's mother). And maybe I still will.

In the meantime, whenever I see books on the Gilgamesh epic, I always pick them up and check out the new translations and insights.

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

And by the way, I loved Cinder! Urged my niece to read it, but her dad won't let her buy books for her Kindle. I'll have to start giving her Kindle gift cards along with the paper books I give her for Christmas.

And nearly forgot this

RTW: Best Book(s) of July 2012

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in July?

I don't even fight the singular "book" any longer! I'm just going to post however many I want, since I don't do actual reviews and these posts serve as a way to rec (and find) new reads. Writing was a little lighter this month as I surged through my WIP. I've already mentioned one book, Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt, and that would otherwise top the list. So here are my other picks:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.
Did anyone else pick up a bunch of those $2.99 ebooks that Harper put on sale? I got about four, and this was one that sounded interesting but wasn't really on my radar. But I loved the worldbuilding, the theme of a girl finding her strengths, and the characters.

The next on is Hourglass by Myra McEntire

This one I knew about because the cover is so gorgeous, so I finally got around to reading it. Some sizzling romance, damaged characters, strange goings-on--what's not to love?

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Noooo--Not The Special Hell!

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: This Week's Topic, to prepare for our Bookmobile chat about INCARNATE with author Jodi Meadows next Tuesday, July 31:

If you could be reincarnated as any fictional character, which would it be?

I almost didn't answer this one, because my first (and short) thought was, "All the books I like have Very Bad Things happen to the characters--why would I sign up for that!"

And I definitely wouldn't want to come back as one of the characters in my books--I love to torture them. Not necessarily physically, but with all kinds of embarrassing situations.

And that got me thinking: do you think that's what Hell is like for writers? We're forced to live through all those plot twists we thought were so very clever when we wrote them? I hope not, because I'm really in for it otherwise . . .

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: I Need to Look at Something Besides This Blasted Monitor

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: When you need creative inspiration, where do you go?

I'm going to answer in a photo essay:

Are you noticing a pattern? Not the watermark on all the photos, but the water in them. Even the moon-in-tree photo is on the cliffs at Salt Point. The last one was taken in my garden, though, and it's always good for inspiration.


Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Book vs. Video

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What movie have you seen that actually (gasp!) improved on the book?

Some interesting picks for this one in the road trip--some I agree with, and others made me say, "Whaaat?" That's what I love about these road trips!

My pick is Girl with a Pearl Earring; the book by Tracy Chevalier in 2001, and the film came out in 2004.

For the most part I enjoyed the novel and the very specific time and place it portrayed, but the writing was fairly passive and left parts of the story to fall flat. In truth, by the time the movie came out I'd forgotten about the book.

And then I started hearing about a new Colin Firth movie--and I didn't really need to hear more than that before buying a ticket! But this movie turned out to be so much more than Colinporn. I use that term for all Colin Firth movies, but what's so impressive about this film is that the onscreen sexual tension between Vermeer (Firth) and Griet (Johansson) is absolutely sizzling.

Some of that is due to their stellar acting abilities, of course, but also the film maker's choices, including the choice not to include any explicitly sexual scenes. The hottest scene in the entire film is about hair, for pity's sake! But I distinctly remember holding my breath through that scene, and having it whoosh out of me when the story moved on.

The other place where the movie outshines the book is visually. Tracy Chevalier did a great job trying to describe colors and shadows, and other aspects of creating a painting. But those scenes in the film do an even better job conveying the sense of wonder and hyperfocus I get while I'm painting, or looking at a truly great piece of art.

In the special features on the disc I have, they talked about how many of the movie's scenes are deliberate re-creations, almost tableaus, of the Dutch Master style of painting. The lighting, the colors and hues, the quiet, homey moments captured instead of pageantry. So well done!

Okay, now I need to go watch it again!
  
Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Best Book of June 2012

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in June? 
  
I think I've missed the last few of these best book roundups, so I'd be tempted to post a bunch of titles. But I'll show some restraint and post one in each category.

First up, is middle grade, with a title that's not releasing until October:

I got a sneak peek at Behind the Bookcase for my birthday, and it was one of the best presents yet! This is exactly the kind of book I would have liked as a kid: secret passages (emphasis on the secrets), a mysterious cat, and spooky details. Enter to win your own ARC here through July 3.

And for young adult, I have to go with:

Lots of reveals in this one, so I don't want to say too much about it. In fact, picking it as a best book is enough, and I'll leave it at that!

And lastly, an adult title:

This latest title in the Parasol Protectorate series came out in March, but I didn't get around to reading it until May. I was a little wary that the series would start to go downhill (like so many have *coughSookiecough*) but I think that this title is one of the best-plotted for the series yet. Lots of fun dialogue and situations, and a great story arc.


So those are my picks this time around--what about you? Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

RTW: Photo Essay Question

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What images inspire/ represent your WIP or favorite book?

We did one of these for our RTW in July 2011, so I'll post different inspiring pics this time:









And that's enough inspiration for one post! Don't forget to go to the comments on the YA Highway RTW post to see everyone else's answers!

P.S. I'm still taking donations for the Pens for Paws Auction, so press that purple button in the sidebar to check it out. Thanks!

RTW: Best Book of March 2012

(Sorry about the lame post title--woke up extra early today and wasn't feeling terribly creative.)Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in March?

This is another month where my reading was pretty light (partly because I had LASIK at the beginning of March and I needed to wait for my eyes to settle down) and most of the books I read were actually for our YA book club. The book club started as an offshoot of our YA crit group, and so far we've covered a mixture of books on craft and some YA novels.

Our March pick was



Story Engineering by Larry Brooks has some great information on story structure--but first you have to wade through quite a lot of throat clearing. His system uses "Six Core Competencies" and he drove me crazy by spending the first few chapters talking about why they're important and why you should pay attention. Once I skipped ahead to the part we were focusing on for our group, I found a lot of "aha!" tips, so it is worth a read. And this is one of the books in the Amazon Prime lending library, so I read the ebook for free.

I also re-read Alexandra Sokoloff's Screenwriting Tricks for Authors (my pick for our February meeting, so I blogged about it here) in preparation for the Left Coast Crime Writer's Workshop with Alex tomorrow. Will need to get up way too early to make it to Sac on time, but I'm really looking forward to it!

But you might be thinking that neither of those reviews sounds enthusiastic enough to rate a Best Book pick--and that's because I was saving the best for last! It's our pick for April's book club:



The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is a great example of voice and has some truly funny lines for its smart, independent main character. The book description says it better than I could, so here it is:

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "bunny rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Landau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

Intrigued yet? Don't forget to go to the comments on the YA Highway RTW post to see everyone else's answers!

P.S. I made it into Cupid's Literary Connection's Surprise Agent Invasion with my query and first 250 words of Spirits from the Vasty Deep. You can read it here, but the rules are that only agents can comment on the actual post, so crits and support go here.

RTW: In the Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: A long-awaited kiss, a surprise ending, a character's sudden decision… these are the moments that make us smile, gasp, and LOVE a book for the rest of our lives.
What is your favorite literary moment?

All the specific examples I could think of for this were too spoilery (the squiggly red underline said spoilery is not a word, but I flashed it my literary license), so I had to think in more general terms.

What came to mind is Christopher Moore's mastery of absurd humor that turns expectations on their head. I love all his books, but the one that best demonstrates it is A Dirty Job. The MC is Charlie, who lost his wife just after she gave birth to their child. As if that wasn't dark enough, Charlie has just been recruited as a Death, one of many reapers that hold onto souls until they move on. Only he doesn't know about his new role right away, and his grief over his wife is interrupted and complicated by all the weird things happening to him now.

My favorite scene is when Charlie goes over to a home to assess some clothing for his thrift shop. An elderly man takes Charlie into his late wife's closet, where in his own grief the old man says he wants to die. Charlie can absolutely sympathize--he still misses his wife, who "still occupied that place in his heart, and when he turned in the kitchen to say something to her and she wasn't there, it took his breath."

The old man is trying to speak through his own grief to tell Charlie about his wife, and finally gets out, "She was so phenomenally stupid."

They then have an exchange wherein it's revealed the old man's wife died of eating the silica gel packets (yes, the ones that say "do not eat" right on them) and the internal dialogue as Charlie processes this is hilarious. Even if I transcribed the entire scene here, it wouldn't have the same impact, so I guess you'll have to take my word for it or read the book yourself. I highly recommend it!

Don't forget to go to the comments on the YA Highway RTW post to see everyone else's answers!

RTW: Memories and Memoirs

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: NAME THIS LIFE: What would your memoir be called?

I was glad to see that other RTWers had a hard time with this one--I've never really thought about if I would ever write a memoir, let alone what it would be called. And I only had about ten minutes for this post before I was due to run out the door, so I kept coming up with stupid ones like "Teched By an Angel" or ripoffs of songs and song titles like "I Get Knocked Down But I Get Up Again" or "The Banana Boat Song".

So I think this space could be better used instead to bring attention to two obscure books:



In case you can't read that full title, it's Horseback Honeymoon: The Vanishing Old West of 1907 Through the Eyes of Two Young Artists in Love Isn't that a great title? Newlyweds Ella and Quincy Scott set out from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington on horseback during the waning days of horses as a main form of transportation. I believe it's out of print, but I would highly recommend checking your library for it.

The other book is still available through the University of Nebraska's Bison Books line:



I read this book in my 20s and was so blown away by the voice and events that I wanted to do a novelization of it (I don't even remember why I thought it needed changing, except that I was a professional storyteller at the time and was very practiced at reinterpreting stories). But in one of my first writing lessons, once I studied the book I discovered there was very little to improve on--it was best left to its natural state and in the author's own voice. This book is a great portrait of a young girl's experience of the Dust Bowl and wider events, and another must-read.

What about you? Have a title in mind for your memoir, or a good biography, diary, autobiography or memoir to recommend? Don't forget to go to the comments on the YA Highway RTW post to see everyone else's answers!

RTW: Best Book of February

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in February?

My task is made easier this time around by the puny number of books I read this month. For good reason, though--I was reading some books on writing craft and working on outlining my WIP, Crow's Rest. So the best book I read was the fourth in the Flavia De Luce series:




If you haven't read the series, how could you resist this description from the Flavia website:

"Flavia de Luce has a passion for poisons.

Picture an ancient country house somewhere in England. The year is 1950.

Picture a girl who lives there with her most eccentric family. Her name is Flavia de Luce--and she's almost eleven.

Picture a long-abandoned Victorian chemistry lab; no one ever goes there but Flavia.

Put them all together and you'll have a deliciously original approach to detective fiction."

How could that not be intriguing???

And here's a trailer for all four books:



Happy reading, and I'll see you all on the road!

RTW: Double Take

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What SNI (shiny new idea) were you psyched to work on, but discovered it was too close to something already done?

The instance that really made me worry was when someone on Absolute Write made a comment about how my Spirits from the Vasty Deep description sounded like the Bloody Jack series--I rushed over to Amazon and read the blurb, which only deepened my worry into panic. There were some major similarities in their maritime adventures . . . But once I got my hands on Bloody Jack, it was obvious that the two books were completely different in tone, scope, and language. Whew!

They share a 19th century setting and a clever, sometimes saucy main character, but that was about it. Not even really enough similarities to use it as a comp title (the two I use are The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and the Blossom Culp books), but I think readers that enjoy one might enjoy the other.

But my teenaged attempts at novels were definitely straddling the line between an homage and outright fan fiction, though I couldn't see it at the time. I think that's part of finding your voice, trying on other people's to see how they fit, and for a while I was Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Sheri Tepper, Tanith Lee, Robin McKinley, and so on. And all in one book, I might add. Ouch.

What about you, have you ever poured your heart and soul into a book, only to discover someone else beat you to it? Don't forget to go to the comments on the YA Highway RTW post to see everyone else's answers!