June Reading Round-off - the lazily late edition

Well howdy there folks. As you might have guessed I had a bad blogger moment and disappeared from the interwebs for something like a week. My excuse? Pokemon... I had a little week-long binge on Soul Silver and it kind of distracted me from the readathon and everything else. So obviously I didn't finish anything during the YALC Readathon which continues my track record of being shit at readathons.

But anyways here is a brief-ish round-up of what I did finish during June. It was surprisingly quite a good month (if you ignore the Pokemon week)

June Reading
50. Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan (3/6/2014 PM)
51. Angelfall by Susan Ee (4/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
52. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (10/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
53. Captain Jack's Woman by Stephanie Laurens (10/6/2014 PM)
54. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (12/6/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
55. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (14/6/2014 PM)
56. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (15/6/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
57. Reasons for Marriage by Stephanie Laurens (17/6/2014 PM)
58. Louder than Words by Laura Jarratt (18/6/2014 PM)
59. The Name on your Wrist by Helen Hiorns (19/6/2014 PM)
60. Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope (20/6/2014 AM)
61. Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz (21/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
62. Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz (21/6/2014 PM)
63. Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz (22/6/2014 AM)
64. Revived by Cat Patrick (30/6/2014 PM)

It was quite an eclectic month with a mix of Fantasy and Contemporary fiction plus a bit of Alex Rider re-reading. I have had the last two books in the series sitting unread for a year or two so I thought I'd finally finish them and then I could cull the books. I have now donated almost all of my Anthony Horowitz books (including 4 of the Power of Five series) to my school's library since they're likely to get far more well read by the students than they are by me.

Book of the Month
My favourite book in June was a bit of a surprise. I saw it on a table display in Waterstones last month and since I was buying some books to read during the readathon *or not as was the case* I thought I'd give it a go since the blurb sounded fascinating and the cover was beautifully intense. Louder than Words by Laura Jarratt is a story told from the point of view of a girl who hasn't uttered a word to anyone since she was six. Rafi is a really intriguing character as it's not clear why she stopped talking and over the course of the story the mystery begins to unravel and we get to learn more about her relationship with her brother Silas and her artistically distant Mother. I really liked the development of Rafi's friendship with Josie and the inclusion of quotes that the two of them like scattered through the book was lovely. The whole book had lots of thought-provoking moments and I got really invested in the characters - so much so that there was a point near the end when I got vair concerned and was almost shouting "Don't you fucking dare!" at the book. But yea excellent UKYA Contemp novel and y'all should give it a look.

Honourable mention goes to Joanna Trollope's modern rewrite of Sense & Sensibility. I have read the Austen original at least once so I thought I'd give this new take on the classic story a go. It was written for the rather awesome Austen Project which is getting bestselling authors to rewrite Jane Austen's novels in a modern setting. So far there has been Sense & Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey has been re-done by Val McDermid. Pride & Prejudice and Emma are due to be announced soon.

So that's what I read last month. I've had a pretty good reading month so far in July (actually finished some of the YALC titles I meant to read in June) and since this Friday me and Jess are heading down to London for YALC!!! *flails* Lawd knows I'm insanely excited and struggling to process the fact that it's finally here and I'm mere days away from meeting a whole fuckton of really awesome authors that I'm going to have to try and speak to reasonably normally. O_o

So speak to y'all again soon.
Ray

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YALC Readathon - Day 4

Well oops. I kind of forgot to any reading for the last couple of days. No, that's a lie because I have knowingly not done any reading because I have been playing copious amounts of Pokemon like a bloody idjit. It was mainly a procrastination from my space OU work but it ended up distracting me very thoroughly from everything else as well. I have got a little bit of reading done but for someone who managed to binge read 4 Alex Rider books last weekend it's rather a pathetic amount.

What I'm Reading
Still going with Dead Romantic I'm now 110 pages in and shit is getting rather Franken-freaky which is in no way a bad thing. Camille and Zoe are getting stuck into their DIY Boyf shenanigans with aplomb and it sure as hell ain't for the faint-hearted!
I've also been reading some more of Revived by Cat Patrick. Now I know it's the wrong Cat for YALC but still it's been something to read! I had a really long spell of not reading this since I kind of just put it down halfway through but I may actually finish it this week. So yay for that.

Posts y'all should check out
Since I've been kinda MIA for the last few days there are a couple of posts from our Lovely Hostesses to share with you.
Jess has a Guest post from Holly Bourne (Author of Soulmates) about authors meeting other more famous authors. With YALC getting ever nearer it's got some excellent advice for meeting your fav writers.
Carly has had two posts. One from Lucy Saxon (Author of Take back the Skies) about some of her top Movie/Music/Book/Youtube picks. Also a fab Dream Cast of Dead Romantic from C.J. Skuse herself.
Michelle has a post from Bryony Pearce (author of Weight of Souls) talking about the book she wished she had wrote. And another post from Phil Earle (author of Bubble Wrap Boy) about finding inspiration to write.

Also do make sure to check out the YALC Readathon Twitter chat tonight at 7pm GMT! Remember to use the hashtag #YALCreadathon and enjoy all the bookish awesomeness.

Right I am going to get some of my science work done now so I can join in the chat later with no guilt :P
Keep Reading!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Day 1!

Afternoon my lovelies! Tis the start of the YALC Readathon!! Hope everyone has enjoyed diving into their stack of YALC books so far! Alas for those of us who have been working most of the day this evening may be when the real reading begins.

What I'm Reading
I've decided to start my readathon with the hilariously macabre Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse. During my lunch break earlier I managed to get 50 pages into it and so far I'm finding Camille's bizarre fascination with dead things and sudden girl crush on Zoe rather chucklesome. One of the librarians at work said she couldn't get more than 50 pgs into it because she thought it was a bit gruesome; clearly my brain is wired more along the lines of Camille because I find the resurrection of hamsters vair intriguing and I'm interested to see where this is going to lead. Some totes awesies Camille/Zoe Shenanigans in my future methinks :P.

Posts to check out
The four hosts of this readathon, Jess, Vicky, Carly & Michelle will be posting things from some of the fabulous authors due to attend YALC over the next week so keep an eye on their blogs for new posts. Today's posts:
Jess has a guest post from Katherine Woodfine - one of the organisers of YALC
Carly has a guest post from Beth Reekles - author of The Kissing Booth
Vicky has a guest post from Marcus Sedgwick - author of She is Not Invisible & various other books
Michelle has a post giving some recommendations of her favourite YALC authors.

Hopefully I'll have an update with whatever else I get read today later on but for now tis goodbye.

Happy Readathon!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Preparations

So later this month between the 23rd & 29th there is going to be a Readathon for anyone who fancies reading some of the books by authors who are going to be going to YALC in July. You don't have to be going to the Lit Con yourself but if you are it's an excellent opportunity to make sure you have read some of their works before you meet the authors.

The Readathon is being hosted by several awesome bloggers; Jess of JessHeartsBooks (Bestie Extraordinaire), Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea, Carly at Writing from the Tub, and Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies. For all the deets and to sign up with your own blog post click here to go to Jess's blog where there is a linky.

For my Readathon I've got a stack of books that I'm planning to try and get through. I won't be able to spend as much time reading as I would like *shakes fist at work* but I'm gonna try my best to work through these books in the week I've got. It's a pretty good-looking pile if I do say so myself. Only two new-to-me authors but most of these have been lingering on my TBR list for a while and this Readathon will be a great chance for me to finally read them.

On the Stack
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman
Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse
The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher
A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke
Trouble by Non Pratt
Say Her Name by James Dawson
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
More than This by Patrick Ness
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

A vair nice selection no? I have a good mix of Contemporary novels, of both the more light-hearted type and also the dramatic thriller type. Plus the dystopia entry from our Children's Laureate, Paranormal from Holly and the Horror/Supernatural entry from James Dawson.

There's no fantasy in this stack but I did read Amy McCulloch's debut book The Oathbreaker's Shadow the other week. And since the sequel to this is due out around the start of July I shall have to pick that up after the Readathon.

So that's what I'm planning to read for the YALC Readathon. Do you think I'm missing anything important? I have read several other books by the authors in the pile but I am aware that there are a lot of authors going to YALC that I've never heard of before. Although there is a limit to how much I can read in the readathon and what I can schlep to the Lit Con in the Trolley of Awesome (see Jess's Instagram for context).

But check back to ze blog on the 23rd for when the Readathon starts and keep an eye on Twitter for updates during that week.

Now to get on with last minute ironing,
Toodles chaps!
Ray

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Bloglovin' - I haz one!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

So I know that a lot of blogger folk these days have started using Bloglovin to allow people who may not want to go to the whole hassle of setting up a google account to follow via Friend Connect (do people still use that? Does it even work anymore? idk). From what I've just seen it has quite a similar feel to Pinterest in that nice endless scroll layout. So I thought why the hell not?

So if you fancy following le blog with Bloglovin, click the link at the top and hopefully it will take you somewhere where magical shit happens and you end up seeing my posts there. Such new fangled technology these days y'all!

Anyways have a good evenin' folks!
Ray

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Writing Ray - Mega Milestone

So a very short while ago I finished what is currently the last chapter of my book. And I finally passed 60,000 words. Y'heard right. SIXTY mutha-effing THOUSAND WORDS! :O

Dude I know *I'm* shocked as hell. When I started seriously writing this book back in January I had very little idea that I was going to end up here in June, well on my way to finishing writing my first book. I mean WUT? I have daydreamed ideas for years and excepting my Nanowrimo attempt of 2010, never really started writing any of the story ideas I had. I have several drawers full of notebooks with odd bits of scribblings about various ideas but nothing on the scale of tens of thousands of words.

I ain't finished yet though. I have at least 25K more that I need to write and that includes the first few chapters after the prologue and some important plot development sections from the middle of the book. So no slacking off for me. If the writing gods are nice to me maybe I can get this first draft complete by the time the summer holidays start so I can spend those sunny days *crosses fingers* in my garden editing and planning rewrites, but more likely plotting for book 2.

So there's that. Also I have to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to my twinnie/bestie/Alpha Reader extraordinaire/Primary cheerleader Jess who has been such an awesome part of writing this book so far. Without her reading my scenes when I finish them, pestering me when I'm procrastinating and motivating when I am feeling wobbly, I do not honestly know if I would be at this milestone now. I love you to bits Jess and I can't express how much I appreciate everything you've done for me.

I do also owe thanks to my lovely, lovely boyfriend, Mark who has dealt most admirably with having a slightly crazy writer-girlfriend these past six months. He has given me the chance to write guilt-free on some evenings and then made sure I did my other work on others :P He has listened to me rant and ramble about my book even though he hasn't read all of what I've done (eventually once the first draft is done he will *have* to read the whole thing). He's given me hugs after I dissolved into a sobbing mess  when I wrote the DDS and he has kept me fantastically supplied with cups of tea. Sweetie, you possibly won't see this (unless you click the link on Twitter out of curiosity), but I love you and thank you for putting up with me through this. I will do my best to get my Spacey-Wacey work done as well as finish this book :P

Ok now I need to stop faffing about with gifs and do my ironing since I go back to work tomorrow for the start of my last term working as a TA at that school and I have *nothing* to wear. :S

Thank you again and here's to an exciting June of writing, reading and HOLY SHIT TFIOS!! *prepares all the tissues*
Laters
Ray

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May Reading Round-off - ALL THE RE-READS!

Afternoon my lovelies! As promised I come to you this Saturday afternoon with my May reading post. This was a much more reading-oriented month than April since I got very little writing done until this past week. So I have a much heftier list of books to mention although I do need to disclaimer now that I am failing massively at lowering my re-read count this year. SERIOUSLY GUYS IT'S A PROBLEM! Anyhow...

Books Read in May
30. To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han (3/5/2014 AM)
31. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (6/5/2014 AM)
32. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (8/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
33. The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens (9/5/2014 PM)
34. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (12/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
35. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (13/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
36. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder (13/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
37. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
38. Frostbite by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
39. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
40. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead (16/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
41. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (17/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
42. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead (17/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
43. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (19/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
44. Stealing Phoenix by Joss Stirling (21/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
45. Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling (22/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
46. The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch (26/5/2014 PM)
47. Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens (27/5/2014 AM)
48. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (30/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
49. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (31/5/2014 AM)

Have you realised the extent of my problem? Out of TWENTY books I read this month, only SIX were new reads!! That is a terrifying statistic for someone who also bought something like 20 books over the course of the month O_o I really need to get better at working through my TBR pile rather than re-reading books I've not read for a few years.

Not including my re-reads it's pretty easy to pick a Book of the Month - City of Heavenly Fire wins hands down. I was up til past 2am this morning reading it (downstairs in the lounge out of respect for Le Boyf so I didn't keep him awake with the light/crying). Since a lot of folk haven't had chance to read it yet because of shitty Amazon not despatching their copies etc. I am not gonna talk more about what I thought of it. I will only say that I am now wracked with Herondale feels and have a massive craving to Re-read the Infernal Devices trilogy *shakes fist*.

Honourable Mentions go to the fabulous Geography of You & Me by Jennifer E. Smith and also The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch. The latter of these two is rather pertinent to upcoming bookish shenanigans in the UK.

As you may know there is going to be the first Young Adult Literature Convention held within the London Comic and Film Con on the 12th & 13th of July. I am going to be there along with the fabulous bestie/twinnie that is Jess of JessHeartsBooks and ahead of YALC Jess and several other UK book bloggers including Carly from Writing from the Tub, Michelle from Fluttering Butterflies and Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea are hosting a Readathon for people to read books by authors who are going to be at the YA Lit Con. The Read-a-thon is going to be from the 23rd-29th of June and if you're interested in taking part you can sign up HERE.

I shall probably be doing a post soonish on what books I'll be wanting to read ahead of the Con so I can get things signed by ALL THE AUTHORS who I'm dying to meet. *bounces excitedly* Seriously guys I cannot tell you how flaily I am gonna be that weekend, if I get words out to speak to people it will be a miracle so advance apologies if I seem totes weird to you. (I promise I'm only like that some of the time :P)

Anyways I need to skip off (metaphorically) and get some writing done since I'm nearing a milestone on Le Novel front :D Post on that soon...

Toodles darlings
Ray

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