Reader Rayna

Month: January 2017

  • January 2017 Wrap Up

    Oh hi guys!

    Well, this year is already chugging along, isn’t it? I’m sorry I haven’t been around much at all this month, but I needed some me time, and I have to say: it was very much needed, but I’m happy to be back. I hope you all had a safe and happy new year, and I hope that the first month of this new year was a good one for you!

    Books I’ve Read

    Click on the cover to be taken to its respective review!

    thesunisalsoastar

    • The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon – Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming! 4.5/5 stars

    Books I’ve Gotten

    Click on the cover to be taken to each respective Goodreads page!

    windwitch roseblood frostblood alchemistsofloom

    Other Blog Posts

    Writing Related

    Fun Things

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    So the first month for 2017 Flights of Fantasy reading challenge  kind of didn’t really exist for me. I haven’t really read anything this month, and what I have read has been contemporaries, so… yeah. Off to a great start! #sarcasm 0/30 fantasy books read so far

    btbhpcupsicons_hufflepuff

    Beat the Backlist, if you don’t already know, if a challenge that I’m participating in this year to read books that have been published prior to 2017. So far, I’ve been in the process of reading a couple, and I know I’m going to have a lot on this list, but for now, I have xx completed.

    Instagram

    So over on my Instagram I… really didn’t do much. Again: me time had pretty much nothing to do with bookish anything this month. It’s weird, honestly. I only have the five pictures that are remotely bookish this month and that’s it. Yup.

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     Around the Internet

    This is a feature I’ve seen in several other blogger’s wrap ups and I think it’s a fun way to show what else I’ve been reading/seeing around the internets!

    Life Updates

    • I enjoyed taking a hiatus from reading and the book community and stuff; I kind of needed it. But I’m also glad to be back and doing something that I enjoy.
    • My husband and I booked a trip to Disney World for the last week of August and I’m SO EXCITED! We haven’t been since our honeymoon in 2014, so it’s much overdo. I even have a countdown going and everything.

    Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

    How has your new year been treating you so far? Anything fun and exciting happen? What was your favorite read of the month? Tell me all the things!

  • Beautiful Books – 2017 Writing Goals

    beautifulbooks

    Hey peeps and welcome to Beautiful Books, hosted by the lovely Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up & Further In. What is Beautiful Books? It’s very similar to the monthly link up of Beautiful People, but this month it focuses on NaNoWriMo writing projects rather than specific characters in the novels. You obviously don’t have to be participating in NaNo in order to join; it can be any writing project. Click here or the picture to be taken back to the most recent Beautiful Books linkup page!

    Today’s post is focused on our writing goals for 2017. Now I already talked briefly about some of the goals I hope to achieve this year, but this one goes a little more in depth in a few places where I feel I didn’t touch upon. So here we go!

    1. What were your writing achievements last year?

    I think just writing the story that had been on my mind for so long was the biggest achievement I accomplished. I had wanted to write about these two characters, Nara and Mikail, for so long and finally doing it was such a release. I loved it!

    I also successfully outlined for the first time in years and I actually liked it? I’ve griped about outlining before and how pointless I found it but OH MY GOD I LOVED IT. I need to outline with every single story I do in the future. Seriously, it helped to keep my story focused on the goal I was trying to achieve with it, and even if I didn’t use every plot point that I had written, I was still hitting the major ones and it felt so incredible to be able to see that happen and how the story changed and morphed as I went as a result.

    2. What’s on your writerly “to-do list” for 2017?

    • Finish writing not only the draft from NaNo 2016, but also the draft from Camp NaNo 2015. I haven’t finished either story yet, but I’m getting so close to the end for both! (I have a problem writing endings, so that’s probably why I’ve avoided it for so long.)
    • Then edit said drafts. I might just focus on one story for this year even though I love both of them (and the draft from Camp NaNo is a hot mess… I have NO IDEA how I got to where I am in the story from the beginning of what I was writing…). So I think that I’ll just focus on the NaNo 2016 draft for now and edit that one.
    • But here’s my main “to-do list” when it comes to writing this year:
      • Finish drafts.
      • Edit them.
      • Find beta readers.
      • Edit some more.
      • Query some agents and hope to find a great agent.
      • Proceed with publication process. Hopefully.

    I’M GOING BIG OR GOING HOME THIS YEAR, GUYS. IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.

    3. Tell us about your top-priority writing projects this year!

    “The Thief and the Magician” is my top priority this year. I really loved what I was writing for this story, but I just have a few kinks to work out and obviously some major editing, but otherwise, this story is going to be my primary focus. I feel like it’ll be the story that I want to surface to the world.

    I also want to finish writing “Crossing Boundaries,” the story I was working on in 2015. I LOVE my two main characters, but as I’ve stated: it’s a hot mess. I don’t know if I’m going to let it see the light of day any time soon, but maybe one day in the future.

    Also, I feel like I have ideas brewing in my mind that I should probably write down. Maybe I’ll work on something new? Or maybe a sequel? Who knows? Not me, clearly.

    4. How do you hope to improve as a writer? Where do you see yourself at the end of 2017?

    I want to improve in all ways as a writer, honestly. I want to listen to people about what makes a problematic book and how to defeat that beast. I want to do more outlining and just work on editing. At the end of 2017, I want to be able to feel like I’ve accomplished something rather than just letting these projects sit and feeling sorry for myself that I’m not actually doing any writing.

    By the end of this year, I want to be able to follow my passions and dreams and write and create and be happy.

    5. Describe your general editing process.

    After my first NaNoWriMo that I actually wrote 50k words (which was 2014), what I had done was printed out my story (and used up all of my ink) and began to read through it with a critical eye, using a red pen (yes, the dreaded red pen) to mark changes, grammar fixes, etc. For me, personally, I feel like I need to write with pen on paper in order for changes to really stick out in my mind. I could do it all on the computer and save trees and ink and whatnot, but I’m old school and love the feel of writing out what I want to see changed in my story by hand.

    At this beginning stage, I already know a LOT of things that want changed because I think of them as I write the first draft, but I rarely go back to fix those things. But once I know I’ve successfully completed writing my first draft, that’s when I can move on and actually put those changes in. Like even now I know there are several things I want to add and change and remove from my draft of “The Thief and the Magician,” but I’m not ready to make those changes just yet.

    After that, I’ll go back in, apply those changes to my documents on my computer, and at that stage I’m thinking of letting my husband be my first reader. I want a second set of eyes from someone I trust (who’s also a fast reader) to give me feedback. I know if I tell him to be honest and not sugar coat it that he’ll let me know if things sounds weird, if the flow is wonky, whatever the case may be.

    After that, I’ll do another round of edits. I’ve never gotten past the first stage that I talked about, though, and even then I never finished my first round of edits, so this is going to be interesting for sure. But I’m going to take my time with it, doing small chunks at a time until I’ve completed it, then I’ll go from there.

    6. On a scale of 1-10, how do you think this draft turned out?

    Well, considering I’m not finished… With what I have actually written, I think that this draft is turning out around a 5 or a 6. I’m happy with parts of it for sure, like personalities, certain scenes I know I want to keep, certain emotions that I want to keep, but there’s a lot that needs to be fixed. So yeah. 5/10.

    7. What aspect of the draft needs the most work?

    If Nara’s supposed to be extremely afraid of Magicians, or just wary around them, WHY DID I NOT MAKE HER MORE AFRAID AND WARY AROUND MIKAIL? UGH. This is currently my biggest gripe of the whole draft and I need to add chapters or change some scenes around to fit this in. Just. UGHHHHHHH. I’m mad at myself, honestly, haha! And I knew I was doing it as I was writing, but I didn’t want to stop and fix it. It’s fine, EVERYTHING’S FINE.

    And then there are obviously kinks and stuff I need to elaborate more on, and there’s definitely one chapter that I KNOW was just a filler chapter and needs to be replaced, like, ten years ago, and… yeah. Okay. The draft in general just needs some work.

    8. What do you like most about your draft?

    I love my characters. I grow very attached to a lot of characters I write, particularly the main characters because, well, duh, and this story, “The Thief and the Magician,” is one I feel so passionate about that I’m so glad that I decided to give it another shot because I struggled HARD during Camp NaNo 2016 when I first started working on it. The chapters weren’t coming out right AT ALL. In fact, I rewrote several chapters during this time because they just didn’t work and they weren’t how my characters were supposed to be, and I was writing it in the wrong tense, so that was frustrating. But yeah. The characters are really what make my draft feel alive to me.

    9. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

    I kind of already glossed over it in a couple questions already, but here’s more:

    • Finish the draft, do a round of edits, let husband read it, do another round of edits.
    • Hopefully find two beta readers to give feedback, then do another round of edits.
    • THEN I’ll start querying. I want to go the traditional publishing route because that’s just what I personally want to do.
    • Then I’ll just go from there.

    10. What’s your top piece of advice for those just finished writing a first draft?

    Let it sit for a little while.

    I literally haven’t looked at my draft or thought about it or touched it since the end of NaNoWriMo 2016, and I haven’t even finished it yet. Writing over 50k words in 30 days really taxes the brain, and even if you didn’t do NaNo but you still have a completed first draft (or mostly completed): let it sit.

    Don’t think about it, don’t open the file, don’t let yourself worry about it for now. Obviously, don’t take too much time away from it or you might never go back to it until you’re filled with guilt, but give it a month or two. Or give it a week or two. Either way, just let it sit so your brain can recuperate from the hard work it just put in with you writing this first draft. You worked extremely hard on this draft, so now take a break, do something for yourself that isn’t writing, and then go back to your draft. You’ll have refreshed eyes and quite possibly a new outlook on what you want your draft to look like once you start edits. Taking that step back could be very beneficial to you.

    Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

    How are you doing on your writing project? What are your plans for this year? Is your novel ever going to see the light of day, or is it going to be buried under mounds of debris, never to be seen again? What do you like most about your draft? Tell me all the things!

  • The Sun is Also a Star Book Review

    thesunisalsoastarTitle: The Sun is Also a Star
    Author: Nicola Yoon
    Publisher: Delacorte Press
    Publication Date: November 1, 2016
    Genre: Young Adult – Contemporary
    Pages: 344
    Format: Received in November 2016 Uppercase Box

    Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

    Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

    The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

    This book was both parts heartbreaking and heartwarming and I don’t know which one I’m feeling more of right now.

    I thought that this book was very well written and that the sentences were strung together beautifully. I felt like the characters were real, that their problems, their universe, was real and that I was there with them experiencing everything that they were the whole time. They felt alive and so different but so connected, and I loved that. Plus there were situations that were going on in not just their lives, but in multiple people around them, and each felt real and genuine.

    I felt that the plot was fluid and that it went from one scene and thought to the next smoothly, and I loved how there were chapters in between with different characters and also just fun chapters on things like love, eyes, the universe, and stuff like that. I could tell that Nicola Yoon did a lot of research because even I could remember these facts I had read on some of the more scientific parts of the story that were true. It felt like I could connect not only to the characters, but to the whole story in general, which was a very exciting feeling.

    Natasha and Daniel’s chemistry together was one that melted my heart. I was afraid because of the insta-love feel of the story in the beginning, but it felt natural the way the circumstances occurred. Of course, I don’t know if this would actually happen in real life (maybe it has?), but I felt the plausibility of the situation and highly enjoyed it.

    I found it interesting how Natasha always looked to the facts of things and didn’t believe in things like true love, destiny, and other concepts. I actually found it kind of refreshing, in way, because oftentimes the main characters are dreamers (like Daniel) and I think that because she relied so much on facts and data was actually very cool. Though I was glad she was warming up to the idea of those concepts as the day went by. I thought that she handled herself well in many situations, and I loved how she tried so hard to hide her expressions and emotions, but they slowly came out with Daniel.

    And Daniel? Oh my God, he’s freakin’ hilarious! I found myself laughing out loud a lot while I was reading his point of view. He has a lot of jokes and a way with words, so no wonder he wants to be a poet. But otherwise I was glad to see him like his culture but still want to go for his own dreams. His family, though, made me very sad, much like Natasha’s, but in a different way. I understand family and culture and all of that, but still, I wish he could’ve had a better conversation with his father about what he wanted to do.

    Overall I found this book to be very well done. The character I was most frustrated with was Natasha’s father because wow, how could someone regret having a family like that? I don’t know how to explain it cohesively, just the way he regretted meeting his wife and having his children irked me. And I’m obviously not one to endorse cheating, though I did kind of root for the lawyer and his secretary? It’s weird.

    I found the struggle of deportation to be real, the need and want to be seen and heard and loved to be real, and I loved reading from the perspectives of a Jamaican young woman and a Korean young man.

    I rated this book 4.5/5 stars and highly recommend it!

  • Uppercase Box January 2017 Unboxing

    Hey peeps, I’m here with another Uppercase Box unboxing for you! If you don’t know what Uppercase is, as it says on the website, it’s “a young adult book-of-the-month subscription box. Simply put: You sign up and receive a recently published YA book and awesome book-related items every month! Plus you’ll access exclusive book content and a one-of-a-kind reading experience to dive deeper into each story.”

    This month’s box was cute and simple, which I like, and it also has interesting items that made me wonder how they relate to the book that was given. Here’s what was inside:

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    So we have:

    • Frostblood by Elly Blake – SIGNED
    • Frostblood magnet
    • Alice in Wonderland scarf (Uppercase exclusive)
    • Book seed paper (herb mix) from Bloomin

    I hadn’t really heard of Frostblood until a week or so before I received this box, but from reading the synopsis it sounds really cool (haha, get it?) and I’m very interested in reading it. It’s about a girl named Ruby who’s looking for vengeance for her mother’s death after she was killed protecting her because Ruby is a Fireblood (which seems to be someone who can use fire?), and then it turns into her becoming part of the king’s tournaments against the Frostbloods. It sounds fun, regardless, so I’m interested in reading it.

    Also, the seed paper sounds really cool! Like, I can grow my own small garden? Neat! They also make wedding invitations and cards and such.

    Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

    Have you read the book? What are your thoughts? What about the seed paper? Would you order one and plant your own garden?

  • Taking Breaks in Reading

    Oh hi guys! How’s it going? I haven’t been around the last two weeks, did you notice? I usually try to post once or twice a week, but I just haven’t been in the mood to read or do anything bookish lately.

    Scandalous, I know.

    But these past two weeks have been relaxing in a way that I didn’t know I thought I’d experience, but it’s also been weird not reading anything or not keeping up with anything book related. I’m so used to going on Twitter and talking with a bunch of people about books, or going on Instagram and posting a crap ton of bookish photos, or just plain reading. I don’t read daily much anymore because I have a long drive to a from work five days a week, and I’m usually tired by the time I get home, but when I do read I try to read for long spans of time.

    But let me tell you: taking this mini-hiatus was definitely needed.

    There’s been a lot of discussion going on in the book community surrounding diversity – which is great! – I’ve just been feeling very overwhelmed being around it and unsure of what to say, if I should say anything, and all of that. Which leads me to wondering what books I should read next and if I’m reading them because I want to, or if it’s because everyone will approve of it. And honestly, no one should have to worry about that sort of thing.

    So I took a break from reading for two weeks. Of course it was during a readathon (and I was enjoying the book I first started reading for it, too), but I think that I just needed to take that step back from social media and books and just do other things that I enjoy: painting, drawing, playing video games, watching movies, planning a Disney vacation, stuff like that. Of course I still feel a little guilt inside for not reading or being around, but honestly? It’s fine.

    I think that taking that step back when you’re feeling overwhelmed is healthy. Why surround yourself in so much negativity and anger that you feel drowned? Even if you’re a reader, a blogger, booktuber, whatever, take the step back that you need to take and just do other things. Your blog will be fine, that book you were reading will still be there, and those people that you enjoy chatting with will be there to chat again soon.

    Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

    Do you sometimes take impromptu little hiatuses from reading or blogging sometimes? Do you sometimes feel guilty when you do so? Tell me all of your thoughts!