Archive for December, 2009

When I picked up my son’s meds yesterday, I picked up the first book in the Blue Bloods series. 

Summary for Melissa De La Cruz’s website:

Within New York City’s most elite families, there lurks a secret society of celebrated Americans whose ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. They are the powerful and the wealthy—and in fact, they are not human. They are the Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires.

Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne, her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapidated mansion. Schuyler is a loner—and happy that way.blue-bloods

But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. She has a mosaic of blue veins on her arms, and craves raw meat. The death of a popular girl from Duchesne is surrounded by a mystery that haunts her. And strangest off all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.

Schuyler wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

Honestly, I’m underwhelmed.  I wanted to love it and honestly, after I made it through the pages and pages of info dump, I did like it, but I’m just kind of luke warm on it as a whole.

I do want to read the rest because I’m intrigued enough with the plot line, but literally half of the book was:

She was wearing this…

This is…

He looked like…

She was…

It just dragged and dragged.  But once I drudged through that, I liked the story well enough. 

I still feel there wasn’t enough character development.  I don’t feel connected to any one character and I’m not really rooting for anyone in the romantic sense, even though that was a subplot throughout the novel.  But the novel does have redeeming qualities in that it leaves you wondering where the story is going to go, who the real villian is, etc.  I’m sure I will read the rest, but I’m not jumping out of my seat about it or anything.

Blue Bloods gets:

cane-1

cane-1

 

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2.5/5 Candy Canes (because Christmas is awesome)

my poor baby boy

December 11, 2009

Today, I was at work when I got a frantic call from my husband.  Our son slumped over while eating lunch and started seizing.  He had a febrile seizure in March, so I thought that might be it, but he’d just come off of antibiotics and hadn’t been warm the day before and my husband said he didn’t have a temp this morning.sick

I ran out of my classroom and told the teacher across the hall to take my students.  The daycare is only about two minutes from work, so I pulled up right behind my husband.  The feeling of pulling up and seeing emergency professionals and KNOWING its for your child is something that I can’t even really put into words.  It’s just awful.

To make a long story short, we took him to the ER and it turns out it was another febrile seizure.  His fever spiked to 103+, but was brought down with Tylenol.  He has pneumonia. :(

So basically…today sucked.  I really feel bad for my students, too, because we were about to do our final performance of a Reader’s Theater piece we had been working on and they were all standing around in their crowns and capes.  They were so excited to perform!  But I’ve got a great crew and they knew just how to behave.  I’ll make it up to them next week!

Here is a cell phone picture of my sad little man in the ER.  ————————>

 He’s currently laying on a mat in front of me watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

As a mother, you just wish you could make it all go away.

the seventh chapter itch

December 10, 2009

My writing has been a process.  I started out slow as Christmas, then I hit my writing stride and started pumping out words, ideas, etc.  Then – I stopped.

marilyn

Argh!  I’m in my seventh chapter itch or whatever!  It’s not that I want to stop writing and move onto something else, really (though I do have flashes of that), it’s just that I know where I want to go, but I can’t decide how to get there. 

I’m pleased with the bones that I’ve laid down in the previous chapters (it’s a first draft, so its all crap, but the ideas make me happy and I know pretty much what I need to change for my second draft).  The problem lies in what the heck to do next! 

I open up my word document and just stare at it.  I might write a paragraph or two and then it’s like a deer staring into the headlights. 

Der.  No clue what to write.  I’m stizuck.

I guess this is that whole writers block thing, huh?  It’s just frustrating because I know where I want to take it, but the middle of this story is giving me fits!  I’m beginning to get flashes of ideas, so hopefully I’ll start working my way out of it.

So seventh chapter itch or slump or whatever – I’m in it.

It would make me happier if I could make it cool like Marilyn.

what i want my story to do

December 5, 2009

So, I just finished the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series.  I loved the range of emotions that I felt throughout it: suspense, tension, fear, happiness, sadness, one of those “holy crap” moments, etc.

Now, is this series without flaw?  No, of course not, but those emotions that the writer leads you to feel make a story great, in my opinon.  I think it’s one of the magical keys to leaving a reader wanting more.

So it got me thinking.  Will my story do that?  I know I don’t want it to be a total rollercoaster where the reader feels drained at the end of it, but will it have those bumps at the right times to hit the reader hard?  I have some things laid out in my head, but I hope that they translate on paper.

So basically, I’m rambling, but it was a reminder of the emotional element I want my readers to feel. :-)

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