One Reader's Ramblings

**DISCLAIMER**  I debated for quite awhile about whether to post this because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.  Finally I had my teenage daughter read it and she doesn't think it should upset the teens in the audience so with her blessing, here goes...

Do writers always have a story in their head?   Do they always have something they could write about? Even when they have writer’s block, is the story still there?   Under the surface?   Waiting to be written?   These are the questions that fill my head because I know I am “supposed” to write a blog post, but I have nothing to write about.   

This book is so hard to categorize.   I mean, yes, it goes under werewolves, but as far as good, bad, or meh…. That’s a whole other issue.   The writing was TERRIBLE!   If it hadn’t been free… AND I hadn’t been in a hurry to find something to read while sitting in a hospital waiting room there is NO way, after reading the sample, I would have clicked “buy.”     

Wow!   So last post I mentioned vampires would be my next book and, ironically, that’s what I read.   Why do I say ironically?   Because I already had the book on my Kindle, but I hadn’t paid any attention to what kind of book it was until I opened it and really didn’t realize it was about vampires until I was pretty well into it.   Even more ironic, when I went back to look at the book description (checking to see if it was a subconscious thing) from it I would have guessed werewolves but not vampires… turns out it’s both. 

There is only one way to start this post and it is to quote Ramona Quimby Age 8 :   “I can’t believe I read the whole thing!”

To "plagiarize" means to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own to use (another's production) without crediting the source to commit literary theft to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source¹ Maybe that’s a little harsh for the book I just finished… but it was what I was thinking most of the time I was reading.   It honestly wasn’t that the story was exactly the same, but the sentiments, dialog, and descriptive passages just felt SO familiar.

So a while back I started out this blog post {HERE} with the sentence “Finally I finished something worth writing home (or in this case: a blog post) about.”   Maybe it’s funny, but I wanted to start this post the same way (see how I got that in there without it being completely the same?).    

This morning I cut my finger open… the only good thing about this was getting to finish my book series at the doctor’s office while waiting to get stitches.   So… I tell you this so you understand that I am typing with 9 fingers because these books were so freakin’ awesome I can’t wait to write about them! (wow… I just used the word “freakin’” in my writing… maybe I can write my own story from a teenage girl’s POV someday, haha)

So I picked out this book because the Amazon reviews all said things like what Kristin of Better Read Than Dead said about it: "It's been a while since I have read a really good YA vampire book. They have become so cliché that I often avoid them. Imagine my surprise when I picked up Ignite and fell in love with it by page 17."   Or another review: "YES ITS DIFFERENT AND I THROUGHLY ENJOYED IT!! I'm a vampire lover and enjoy any tale that is certainly unlike any other and that grabs and piques my interest. Ignite certainly did this." -- K.M. Whittaker So imagine my surprise when the first quarter of the book was nothing more than a Twilight re-write?!

I’m kinda weird when it comes to bandwagons.   Either I’m one of the first people on board and begging others to join… like I was with Harry Potter and now with the Imdalind Series .   OR I see a huge bandwagon and it turns me off… like I was for years with Twilight .   Now anyone who has read my blog at all probably knows what a huge Twilight fan I am now, so as you can see – even though I can sometimes be a hard sell, once I’m sold there is no going back!

 Great book.   Couldn’t put it down, really.   But for some reason, I didn’t want to read the sequel (not saying I won’t eventually, but I haven’t at this point).

I know that I’ve already written an awful lot about Twilight … but please indulge me once more (it’s kind of my muse and when I don’t know what to write about I always return to it).   The reason I had to make the pun about “muse” is because the band “Muse” is what I want to write about tonight.

 So not too long ago I found what was once a fairly famous blog:   twilightguy.com.   It was awesome because each chapter that he read he would immediately blog about before reading another chapter.   I loved getting his take on each chapter afresh.   Watching as things dawned on him etc.   It was almost as good as reading the Twilight series for the first time again. The most recent books I’ve been reading have been the first since Twilight that I have really wanted to slow down my reading somewhat and truly savor them: The Imdalind Series .   I know that this is the only chance I have to experience them for the first time and I have a feeling they will be ones that I return to over and over.   As certain things have unraveled I have sort of wished that I could blog as I read, chapter by chapter like Twilight Guy.     

Ummm… WOW!   First books in a long time that really blew me away.   This “series” (for lack of a better word… not sure what to call it when it’s only 2 books) is awesome.   I completely love Wren and Ever.   Best fictional couple for me so far this year.

I think that some of the most brilliant writing I’ve ever read wasn’t really written at all… it was what was left unsaid.   It is those 4 nearly blank pages entitled… October … November … December … January .   Each time I get to those pages, even though I know they are coming, I cry.   They tear out my heart because I know that kind of pain.   The kind of pain that rips out pieces of your life and you know that no matter what, you will never be the same.   You lose not only time but parts of you.   It takes you from a “were” state, to an “are” state and those two never cross paths.   No matter how much you long to go back to the kind of person who doesn’t truly know what pain is, you can’t.   And somehow, those 4 blank pages scream out of that precise kind of pain.    

I just got through reading The Twilight Series for the tenth time.   ( Midnight Sun was only for the 5 th or so time.   I didn’t discover it until I was already a true Twihard though now it’s one of my favorites.  Again... please, Ms. Meyer, finish it!)   Obviously, I love the books.   I mean, who reads a series (especially one that long) 10x unless they really love it.   So don’t take my criticism wrong.   (If you’ve read my previous posts you should know that I will vehemently champion these books to anyone.)   

This may be my shortest post ever, but I need to know:   Is it normal to miss someone who doesn’t actually exist?   I mean not in an I-just-set-the-book-down-blues kind of way, but in a miss-your-best-friend-who’s-gone-away-for-the-year way.    See the problem is that I miss Edward and Bella.   Ok, so more Edward than Bella (I mean, who wouldn’t miss Edward more than Bella, he’s amazing? Right?) but still, it’s like I’m sad that I haven’t been with them in a couple months and I miss hanging out with them.   I call them my imaginary friends for a reason.   I really feel like they are people that I know and like.   So even though I’m making new friends (been reading a lot of other good books lately) there are still those friends who, no matter how long it’s been, you just long to talk to and catch up with and none of your great new friends are ever truly going to take that place in your heart. So my question to you:   Do I ne...

A few weeks ago I mentioned the first book in this series ( Tears of the Broken by A.M. Hudson).   I said that I had stopped reading it in the middle of the book because (and I quote myself):   “I decided halfway through that the true definition of insanity is reading the same book over and over but expecting (wanting) a different ending.”   I promised to explain that later and I believe that it is time.

Preface:   This ONLY deals with the books!   I don’t like the Twilight movies (especially Kristin Stewart) any more than any of you. Why must Harry Potter fans always make fun of Twilight ?   I get that they teach very different stories. “ Harry Potter is all about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity…” but I would have to say that Twilight is about much more than “…how important it is to have a boyfriend.”   (quote by Andrew Futral btw- not Stephen King)

I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been sick.   Like, can-barely-lift-my-head kind of sick.   What I could lift was - my kindle.   Yea!   Otherwise, I would have gone insane.   Two full weeks on the couch and I don’t, particularly like TV.   I did watch a couple of Christmas movies with my daughters, but other than that I read.   Morning to night, I read.   One day I figured out that I read a total of 12 hours between waking and going back to sleep (oddly enough that’s not my all-time record, but it still gives you a glimpse into my world for the last two weeks).