Books Read in 2013

Books Read in 2013

Grand Total: 67

Not as good as 2012 with my 101 titles, but not *too* shabby considering the crazy year.

Some of these titles I read as a judge for the Whitney Award to decide finalists so I read them super fast!

So is your list similar to mine or completely different? And which books were some of your favorites this past year of 2013?? Please comment! 

Children's and Young Adult: 

1. Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

2. Evertaster by Adam Sidwell

3. Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes

4. The Kindling by Braden Bell

5. Rifts of Rime by Steven L. Peck

6. One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

7. Guardians of Elijah’s Fire by Frank L. Cole

8. Epic Tale of a Misfit Hero by Matt Peterson

9. 13th Reality by James Dashner

10. Janitors by Tyler Whitesides

11. Prince Tennyson by Jenni James

12. Hazzardous Universe by Julie Wright

13. Beyonders by Brandon Mull

14. Infinity Ring by James Dashner

15. Freakling by Lana Krumwiede

16. Protector of Central Park by JT Brewer

17. Case Files 13: Zombie Kid by J. Scott Savage

18. Farewell to Charms by Lindsey Levitt

19. The Secret Sister's Club by Monique Bucheger 

20. Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool

21. Clockwork Prince, Cassandra Claire

22. Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roarke Dwell

23. The Diviners by Libba Bray

24. Running out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

25. Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Claire

26. A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

27. Unremembered by Jessica Brody

28. The Center of Everything by Linda Urban

29. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

30, The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen

31. Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

32. Parched by Melanie Crowder

33. A Girl Called Problem by Katie Quirk

34. Doll Bones by Holly Black

35. Ten by Gretchen McNeil

36. Defy by Sara. B Larson

37. Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann

38. The Fifth Wave, Rick Yancy

39. Below by Meg McKinley

40. Fated by Alyson Noel

41. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
42. The Clockwork Scarab: A Stoker & Holmes Novel by Colleen Gleason 

43. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
44. The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy by Nikki Loftin
45. Nightingale's Nest by Nikki Loftin 

ADULT FICTION AND NON-FICTION:

Jordan: Past and Present: Petra, Jerash, Amman by E. Borgia
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeons Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander

Lady Almina and the Real Downtown Abbey by the Countess of Carnarvon

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

7. The Husband’s Secret by Laini Moriarity

KINDLE - A *New* Category for me! 

1. The Arrangement by H.M. Ward

The Arrangement #2 by H.M. Ward

Escaping Reality by Lisa Renee Jones

Infinite Possibilities by Lisa Renee Jones

5. 2,000 to 10,000 words a day, How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of what you want 
by Rachel Aaron

Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Haunting Season by Michelle Muto

Six Month Later by Natalie D. Richards

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Miller

10. The Naked Truth about Self-Publishing

4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

One Tiny Secret by Adam Kunz

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Make a Killing on Kindle by Michael Alvear

15. Amazon Kindle Secrets Exposed by Michael Thomas

And I've probably started another 5-8 novels on my Kindle that are partly read.

How to Make a Literary Life: CHARMING NOTES

One of my favorite writing books is MAKING A LITERARY LIFE by Carolyn See. She’s funny, irreverent, smart, and has a plan for carving out the literary life you crave that is concrete, effective—and most importantly, do-able. Yes, anybody can do this.

Are you sometimes secretly afraid that you're merely an ordinary Joe/Jane and all of your favorite authors who are up on that pedestal of perfect sentences just look coolly down their noses at all of us? Not so! You too can be a part of the literary scene and the book world—even if you’re just a beginner, have no credits to your name, and are still struggling with a cohesive plot, let alone able to master gorgeously crafted prose. 

That's what makes How To Make a Literary Life such a great book because Carolyn See will give you a realistic PLAN that shows you the path to becoming the writer you want to be and a true part of the literary world. 

I’m going to focus on one of my favorite sections, Chapter Four: Charming Notes

What does Ms. See mean when she suggests/admonishes us to write one Charming Note five days a week for the rest of your life?

“Really? Daily charming notes? Is that true?” you may be asking.

She says, “Write one charming note to a novelist, an editor, a journalist, a poet, a sculptor, even an agent whose professional work or reputation you admire.”  And I would add: or write charming notes to the other writer friends you know or want to know, or the RAs of SCBWI or, or . . . the list is endless.

After you write the note, you put a stamp on it and mail it. YES! We're talking post office here. REAL letters. Pretend you’re still living in the 20^th century and email hasn’t been invented yet.

What do these Charming Notes accomplish? They salute the writer, editor, and agent and tell them that what they do is good and admirable. That not even these famous people are laboring over their writing and art in a vacuum. But the notes also say that YOU exist, too—in the same world as the people you admire and would probably drop to your knees and worship if you were ever to meet them. 

And remember - notes! NOT your entire life story. NOT your manuscript. NOT “can I take you to dinner next week when I’m in NYC?”

Be polite, be gracious. Ms. See says: “You’re entering into an emotional and spiritual courtship with the literary world that will last the rest of your life.” (I LOVE this!) 

Carolyn See has tons of very cool anecdotes about *her* charming notes, *other* writers charming notes as well as the “dos and don’ts” of how to write *your* own Charming Notes. 

My personal Charming Note story:

 

Last summer I was finishing up the copy edits for The Healing Spell, and discussing potential blurbs with my editor. Richard Peck is someone I have always wanted to tell “thank you” for the enormous affect he had on my life twenty years ago (before his Newbery’s and big book awards) at two small, very personal conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They were magical weekends and I knew that those conferences had affected Richard in a very personal way, too (why I know this is too long to go into and not that important to my story). But I had never written to him before  to say "thank you" - and now he was one of the biggest names in children's lit - and I am just a peon. 

I spent three weeks getting up my nerve. I finally wrote it, revised the letter for another two weeks, got his snail mail address from a mutual acquaintance – and finally mailed it. I was very nervous! Would he think I was a complete dope? 

Three days later, Richard Peck had received my letter and promptly telephoned my editor to say that he would love to read my manuscript. Scholastic immediately made a bound copy for him and personally messenger-ed it over to his apartment! 

Two weeks later he’d read it and sent a blurb for me. He and I exchanged colorful postcards over it all.  

I sent a simple thank you gift. Then I received this: 

 

I’m saving this note Richard Peck sent me in his utterly beautiful and charming handwriting. Oh, yes, I am.

Now go forth. Work on your novel every day. Write Charming Notes. 

And CREATE your very own literary life.

Update on the ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh post!

Last we left our heroine, she was weeping with excitement, jumping up and down around her bedroom "office" when she learned that the Demi-God Author of Children's Literature had asked her gorgeous editor to read her novel for potential endorsement . . . and editor immediately had said novel printed, bound and messengered to the DGA of Children's Lit.

Last week Gorgeous Editor gets a letter from Demi-God Author. He read the book! He loves the book! He's blurbing the book!!! It's true, it's REAL!!!!

Gorgeous Editor starts jumping up and down, calls heroine/writer at dinnertime who thinks it's an anonymous salesperson calling for $ or a survey and ignores the phone and continues stirring her spaghetti sauce and setting the table. Two hours later heroine listens to voice mail . . . and starts crying again. And bouncing off walls.

Gorgeous Editor says that she's been running around showing off the beautiful blurb to all her fellow editors who begin jumping up and down.

She shows it to the publicity dept who begins jumping up and down.

The blurb comes *in the nick of time* to be lovingly placed on the cover on its way out the door to becoming an ARC!!!!

Heroine's novel THE HEALING SPELL is blessed by the Demi-God and Demi-Goddess of Literature.

Heroine is off to make an offering of chocolate to the Gods . . .