I don't even know where to start. I hope this post doesn't become a jumbled mess of my thoughts. But there are so many things happening, I don't know how to keep track.
-The Moving Situation-
I move to Vegas in 15 days. It doesn't even feel real. I don't think it will officially hit me until the last week, when I am fully through with work, and my furniture begins disappearing. I have so much to take care of before I leave, it's a little overwhelming. I've never moved out of state before...and I did not prepare myself well.
-The Work Front-
I asked Children's place if they could seize scheduling me after the 3rd of August. That means I only have two shifts left there before I'm done for good. Ben & Jerry's had me scheduled all the way up to the day before I left. I have been privileged enough to find cover for my entire last week of shifts, therefore allowing me more time to spend with family/friends and prepare for my big move.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, I will be working for my best friend, Thien-nga Palmer and her entertainment company. As I understand I will eventually be taking on more responsibility as I am trained. I'm excited to help her out, I know she has worked very hard for this...but I am also happy to be able to work in an industry I love.
-Writing-
So much great news for Madalynne & Parker! I received my first round of paperback proofs. While they were not the size I wanted, and essentially will end up being throw away novellas, I'm happy with their outcome. Createspace was affordable, timely, and easy to use.
I am almost finished with the second round of beta testing for M&P. And it has been very enlightening. I made quite a few changes based off of feedback or suggestions the readers left me. And then I re-published M&P again with the new sizing and changes. I am waiting on five more proof copies before it can be for sale again.
But the general consensus was favorable. I received many great comments about the characters, the names, the ending, the writing, etc.
And then something incredible happened to me. I finally found an eBook in the YA genre on Amazon Kindle, called The Soundtrack of Summer by Taylor Nordike. I was ecstatic to see the authors writing mirror a style I felt reflected my own. It's difficult for me to even open any YA novels without cringing nowadays by the juvenile writing style, so I knew I had to buy the eBook and support the author.
At the time her novel was #150,000+ paid kindle store. M&P is somewhere near the 500,00's...so obviously Nordike is doing something right. I even wrote a review, but for some reason Amazon would not allow me to post it. So I am going to post the review here, in case anyone was interested:
Soundtrack of Summer
By Taylor Nordike
The book
description was originally what drew me in. Musicians, tour, a love triangle?
Yes please…And then I decided to take a look inside and was even more excited
when I was able to preview six chapters before even purchasing it. I was
already invested in the story at that point, I had to know who she would end up
with, how the tour would turn out; I wanted to know everything.
Now, let’s get to the character of
Ashton. To be quite honest, I hated her from the very beginning…which was a
very bittersweet feeling for me. From the book description, I found myself
relating to Ashton, and already dying to know what the outcome was without even
opening the book. However it didn’t take much time at all for me to feel like
Ashton was the most conceited girl in the world and that she felt like the
world revolved around her. Within the first ten chapters it was noted time and
time again how many guys fawned all over Ashton or were drooling over her body
or her hair, her voice. It was almost like she was too perfect. Can Ashton do anything wrong?
Jordan’s POV was bittersweet for me to
read. There would be sections where I liked him and sections where I couldn’t
stand his personality or dialogue. I loved the idea of her falling for the
asshole (Jordan) and somehow reforming him…but whenever he called her “kid” it
pulled me right out of the storyline cringing.
I loved Levi from the beginning. I
found myself secretly rooting for him to win. His character was likeable,
relatable, and his dialogue was interesting enough to keep my focus. But the
break up kind of came out of left field for me. Why didn’t Levi address any of
the problems with Ashton? He apparently loved her but he was so willing to give
her up without a fight? Hmm….
There were some smaller issues I noticed
in the novel. Minor editing issues, awkward transitions between sentences or
paragraphs; Inconsistencies with certain details in the story. And the awkward
POV switch to Ashton without a warning.
And lastly, HOLY SIMILES! There had to
have been at least one per page. Don’t get me wrong, the way Nordike wove some
of them together was magical…but her overuse of similes was actually more
detrimental for me. It pulled me right out of the story, every time wondering
if she was just trying to weave the best sounding sentences.
I found myself wishing for fewer
similes but maybe more like this one, which was brilliant by the way, “The
weight of the heavy silence that hung in the air like an executioner raising
his axe…” That has outstanding imagery!
All in all it was a quick, pleasurable
read I finished within a couple of hours and I would definitely recommend to
others! I give it 4 stars!
And then lastly, I took a step back from Reality Squared. And it's helped me a lot with the anxiousness that takes over. I am so close to finishing it fully, only three chapters remain. I'll probably work on it a bit today.
Here's a teaser, but I wont tell you who's POV it is in:
I never belonged there; the polls said I was a
‘futuristic Robin Hood’, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. What
was the harm in that? There were never more picketers than there were at my
trial. The Jury was unevenly stacked against me and I was detained; sentenced
to a decade behind bars. Riots poured out into the streets, angry with the
jury’s verdict.
I wish I had a clean way of ending blogs, but I don't. Most of the time after I get the information out that I needed, my brain shuts off like mush. So I'm going to go--Tata!
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