Find the Right Agent

 I know that one thing you should never, ever do on your blog is talk about your dream agent. After all, what happens if you query an agent other than her, who then reads your blog and realizes that you’d actually much rather have someone else? For that reason, I’m not going to talk about dream agents. I just want to talk about agents in general to get at the big question: what do you look for in an agent?

I know for unagented authors, sometimes it can seem like just getting any agent at all is a huge thing, so you don’t really care which one. Some days I feel like this: I just really want an agent. But on other days, when I’m being sensible, I realize that I’m young, and finding the right agent who’ll work with me for the rest of my career is going to be really important.

Here are a couple things that I really want in an agent:

- They should be hands-on. I want an editorial agent. I want them to care about helping me make my book as good as it can possibly be.

- They should share my values. This means that I don’t want an agent who reps erotica, or who mainly reps paranormal, or who wants me to amp up the sexual content in my stories. They don’t need to be Christian, but I want them to accept the religious views in my stories.

- I want to get to know their other clients. I want some of their other clients to be ones who I respect; I’ve read their stories and I’ll be proud to be connected to them through the agency.

- They should sell to big presses. Now, I don’t mean exclusively or anything, but it’s my dream to sell to one of the big six, so even if I don’t get there right away, I want that possibility.

Those are all of them that I can think of off the top of my head. Now, how do I find out whether an agent fits these criteria?

- Follow them on twitter. If an agent is hands-on, they’ll mention stuff about editing client manuscripts, or they might outright call themselves editorial in a twitter chat.

- Follow their blog. Their values will come out that way; I probably don’t want an agent who swears a lot. Also, someone who has a lot of sketchy book covers at the side of their page… nuh uh.

- Read the acknowledgements sections of my favourite books and see who their agents are. Look at the lists of authors on the website; if I don’t recognize any, I’ll normally forget about the agency.

- Go to their website and look at the list of books to see if I recognize any (I mainly read books from big presses). Check out their recent sales and look up the books to find a publisher.

These four suggestions are great ways to get to know agents to see if you really want them to represent you. There are lots of great agents out there who are amazing at what they do, but just not right for me. I’m not saying you should be too choosy, but it does pay to do your research.

Over to you, my readers. How is your Great Agent Hunt going? Any tips for finding agents to query? What do you look for in an agent? 

Cut the Boring

Recently, I entered the first 1250 words of my WIP, SIMULATE in a workshop on Adventures in Children’s Publishing. It’s a great opportunity; five writers submit pieces, then receive critiques from their fellow participants and two professional writers. The stories were first posted two Mondays ago, my first revision went up this Monday, and the second revision (which I have yet to write) will go up next Monday.

Probably the best thing I learned from this workshop so far is to not let my beginning be boring. That may sound obvious, but I ignored that crucial piece of advice. My first chapter has a crazy cliffhanger that has my friends clamouring for more months after I read it to them. However, the first 1250 words felt a little blah. Here’s what people had to say about it:

 I'd like more focus on the action, as well as perhaps a sense of urgency. Right now, it feels like just another routine job for your narrator, 

It has a happy-go-lucky feel that doesn't seem threatening yet.

So far, you’re explaining challenges that aren’t really challenges, because everything can just be redone. Rather than building interest or tension, you are making it sound like the worst they have to cope with is an untied shoe. That isn’t what you’re saying, but that is the feeling you are accidentally conveying. 

The first thing I thought when I read these comments was, ‘Yeah… this is a routine job for her. It is kinda happy-go-lucky; pretty much the worst thing that could happen is an untied shoe. That’s what’s going on.’

My second thought was, Why? Why do I need to begin the book with a routine job? Why do I begin with such a happy-go-lucky feel? Why do my readers want to read about someone whose worst problem is an untied shoe? Yes, the end of my chapter throws a huge wrench in everything, but there’s absolutely no reason why I need to wait until the end of my first chapter to hook readers. If I wait that long, I may never hook them at all.

In short, there’s absolutely no reason for my book to be boring. The excuse ‘Well, that’s how it’s supposed to be’ is no excuse at all. Yes, my book was supposed to begin with a routine job for my narrator. But why? Why start the book off with something boring? Instead, I should be building tension from the very first page up until the crazy cliffhanger.

There’s no reason for your book to be boring, either. Next time someone says it’s boring and you think ‘Yes, but that’s the way the story goes’ ask yourself Why? If there’s no reason for it to be boring other than the fact that you’ve always imagined it that way, then maybe it’s time to change your story. The tension should be stretched to the max at every point in your story. Don’t let any part be boring just because that’s the way you’ve always thought it should be.

If you want to see just how boring my original draft was, and how I fixed it, check out my story on Adventures in Children’s Publishing. Here’s the original draft, and here’s the revised version, which I would absolutely love comments on! 

Christian Posters

A friend of mine who's a really talented artist made up some cool Christian posters awhile ago. Now, I know this is a writing blog and these posters have absolutely nothing to do with writing, but I felt like these posters have a wider audience than just a few people on facebook. He gave me permission to put them on the blog, so I decided to show them to all of you.

I thought this one was need because it's a symbol we all see so often. Now, whenever I see the recycling symbol, this is what I think of. 

I'm assuming this is actually the Ford slogan (but I know nothing about cars, so I could be wrong.) If so, this is really clever. I know some people don't approve of this poster because they think it makes fun of God, but I think it really just shows how pathetic Ford is next to our Lord. 

Now, I hate UFC (I think it's stupid) so I think this poster is cool because whenever I hear about UFC, instead of thinking about two guys fighting each other, I think about God instead.

This one's just clever. :)

What do you guys think? Feel free to share. :)

A Day in the Life of a University Student: Of Midterms and Doctor Who

The title of this post may seem just a little ridiculous. After all, how are midterms and doctor who related? Does the doctor write midterms? Are there midterms based on doctor who? While both of those would be extremely epic, I’m afraid that they also don’t happen. Basically, the only reason why midterms and doctor who are co-existing in this post is that today I wrote midterms, and then I watched doctor who. ‘nouf said.

As for the midterms, I think I did fairly well. My psych one was hard, but I had studied so much that I knew most of the stuff. It’ll be awhile before I get the marks back, but I’m hoping for at least 90%. (NOTE: I ended up with a 95) Then my poetry one was actually a lot easier than I had been expecting. If I don’t get a hundred it’ll be high nineties (I got 104%, there was a bonus question). Afterwards I talked to a bunch of my classmates and they all said that they thought they did pretty well, too. All in all, my midterms went fairly well. Sorry if this seems like I'm bragging, but since my first essay didn't go near as well as I had hoped, it's nice to be getting these high marks in other subjects. I feel like I've redeemed myself.

Now comes the really cool part of the post, where I rant for ten minutes about how good looking David Tennant is…. no. While I probably could rant for a lot longer than ten minutes about David Tennant, what I really want to tell you about is my extremely strange way of watching movies with a friend while she happens to me back on PEI and I’m in Ontario (approximately 18 hours drive, in case you don’t know your Canadian geography.)

What basically happened is that we started using apple’s Facetime on my iPad. She sat in her living room with an iPod, while I pointed my iPad at my laptop screen. Then I played Doctor Who on my laptop. This meant that we could both watch it at the same time (though I doubt that her picture was exactly the best quality) and talk about it while we watched. Seriously, it felt almost as if we were really sitting on the couch together watching a movie.

Maybe this sounds a little stupid to you. It certainly isn’t something you hear of people doing regularly. But personally, I really enjoyed it. I like watching shows and movies on my own, but it’s even more fun when you have someone to discus it with. I’m the kind of person who likes to talk during movies, pointing out random trivia or just exclaiming “Oh my goodness, this is so sad!” (For anyone who knows their Doctor Who, we were watching the end of season two. Sadness extreme.) Because of this, it was a lot of fun to just sit and watch a movie with my friend, even if she was a thousand miles away.

In other related (happy) news, my last exam for this semester is December 15^th, which means that in seven weeks I should be home! Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but I can’t wait to see my family and my PEI friends again. 

A Day in the Life of a University Student: Famous Author Moment

This is section two in my miniseries, A Day In The Life Of Me. My bad bus luck story was the annoying part of my day. Now comes the extremely awesome part.

As you will know if you read the previous post (if you haven’t yet, go read it—or skim it—and then come back) I ended up getting to campus in plenty of time for my first exam, psych. My friend was already there when I arrived, sitting right by the front. Normally we sit second row, so I was a bit confused by this, but she said that she sat so close because she wanted the prof to know she wasn’t cheating. Paranoid much? (JK, she’s a lovely person. <3)

Next to me on the other side was a girl who looked a bit familiar, but I couldn’t quiet place her. I started talking to her, just a friendly, “Nervous about the test?” kinda thing, and she pointed out that we’re actually in the same English class. From then on, our conversation went something like this.

Me: So, are you an English major?

Her: Yep. I’m looking to go into publishing.

Me: Seriously? Me too!

Her: That’s awesome! See, I really like to write—

Me: You write? Me too! Like, YA?

Her: Yeah!

*We talk for awhile about books and queries and stuff like that*

Me: Have you heard about inkpop.com?

Her: Yep, I have an account.

Me: How long have you been on?

Her: About a year and a half.

Me: So, um… do you remember Because You Laughed?

Her: Yeah, the short story. Didn’t that make top five?

Me: *points to myself* Yep, it did.

Her: Hey, wait, did you write that?

Me: *nods*

Her: I’m gonna hug you now. J

*We hug*

*I feel like a famous author*

*The prof says it’s time to start the test*

So, that was my pretty exciting first famous author moment. Well, not really, but you get the idea. I think it’s pretty cool that this random person who I just started talking to on a whim had actually read my story. Also, it must have made enough of an impact on them so they still remembered it two years later. I know that Because You Laughed has over 550 comments and there’s obviously a lot of people who’ve read it and haven’t commented, but it’s still weird to actually meet one of those people.

Needless to say, this conversation made me pretty happy and totally made up for any grumpiness that my terrible bus luck could have caused. It was an awesome thing to happen right before the test. The only bad thing is, I have no idea what this girl’s name is. Hopefully I’ll see her in English class tomorrow so I can prove that she’s not just some illusion that my delirious brain made up… 

A Day in the Life of a University Student: Bad Bus Luck

Today was… how shall I put it… interesting. There were some very high points, some very low points and some just plain random points. Some of it has to do with being a writer, a lot with being a university student, some with being a Doctor Who fan, and everything with being me. Since there’s just so much to tell about today, I’ve decided to break this post up into three parts. Here is number one, Bad Bus Luck.

First of all, you should know that I had two midterms today. One was a psych midterm worth 20%, the other was a poetry test worth 15%. I studied like crazy for the psych midterm since I knew it was going to be hard. The poetry one, not so much. Anyways, I had been preparing for today for a long time, had gotten all my work done last night really early so that I was in bed by ten. I woke up feeling all refreshed and ready to write the tests.

Then, before I left, I sat down on my bed to pray and ask God for help on my midterms. However, I spent just a little longer on it than I had intended, so when I opened my eyes it was already 8:29, and my bus usually gets to its stop between 8:29 and 8:31. I kinda freaked out at this, so I dashed downstairs, threw my lunch in my bag, grabbed my coat, shoved my shoes on, exploded out the door and ran down to the path to the street… only to see the bus pulling away from the stop.

This is kind of a catastrophe. It’s now 8:30, and my exam starts at 9:30. It takes me approximately an hour and eight minutes to walk to King’s. If I ran I could probably make it, but there’s no way I want to show up at my exam panting from running for an hour. The other option is to sit around and see if there’s another bus I could catch. There’s two busses that go by my place, the one I usually take and another one that normally comes before it. I could wait around and see if the other bus is late, or I could start running.

At this point, I have a brilliant idea. My bus has to go through a whole subdivision before coming out again at the main road. If I run really fast, maybe I can make it to the intersection before the bus, and so I’ll catch it there. So I cross the street and start running with my laptop bag swinging around my waist and my coat billowing out.

Just then, the second bus pulls up to the stop just behind me. Great. If I had just waited a minute longer I could have gotten on that. But there’s absolutely no use waiting here now, so I just keep running, then slow down to a walk because I’m really out of shape. About five to ten minutes later I arrive at the intersection, only to see the second bus there at the other side. The light’s red, so I can’t cross over. As soon as the light changes, the bus pulls away.

It’s now 8:40. The next bus won’t get here for another half hour. If I wait for that, then I’ll miss my transfer at main campus and end up at King’s about five minutes late for the exam. Unless I start walking, there’s no way I’ll make it in time.

So I start walking. I speed-walk through another subdivision, glancing longingly at all the cars that pass, until I come up to another major road that’s serviced by about four or five different busses. I take a well deserved break, and five minutes later another bus shows up going east. I grab that, ride it for about two stops, then get off, dash across an intersection and take a north going bus up to campus. Once there, I wait for about ten minutes until a shuttle comes, which takes me to King’s. Arrival time, 9:18.

Despite missing my bus and ending up taking three different busses and walking way too far, I got to campus only about twenty minutes later than I usually do. In the end, it didn’t work out that badly. It just doesn't make sense; I nearly missed my exam because I was praying for help on the exam. How ironic is that?

Set Your Own Deadlines (and make them early!)

(BTW, this post was actually written about two weeks ago. Now I'm at the point where all the stuff I mention is coming due, and boy, am I glad that I listened to my own advice.)

Anyone who read the title of this blog post may think that I’m crazy. After all, university deadlines are always looming ominously on the horizon. Why would I want to move them closer?

The thing you have to remember is that some storms are bigger than others. Sometimes you’ll get just a little rain shower and other times it’ll be a huge thunderstorm. Still other times you’ll get a little rain shower and then a huge hurricane will blow in followed by an inch or two of snow, and then you’ll just be stuck.

(Before I continue, I’ll take a second to apologize to anyone who thinks I’ve greatly overused the rain analogy)

I hope you get my drift. Assignments tend to pile up. You’ll have assignments due in two different courses on the same day, or three tests within a week. I have that situation right now (which is why I’m writing this blog post). For the next two weeks I have absolutely nothing due, unless you count a one-paragraph outline of an essay that’s not due until February. If you just look at my next two weeks, I’m doing pretty good.

But then the week after that is nasty. I have a 1000 word book review on All Quiet on the Western Front, a 1000 word Sociology paper, a Psychology exam and a poetry exam, all within a week. Now, I know a lot of students can write a paper in one night, but can anyone write two papers and study for two tests all at the same time? If you want a decent mark, then the answer is no.

So I’ve decided that my Sociology paper will be done this weekend, a good two weeks before the deadline. And then next weekend I’ll write the book review, leaving next week (the one before the tests) virtually free for studying. To make sure I achieve these goals, I’m telling myself that my essays are due before they really are. If I allow myself to think ‘oh, it’s three weeks until this is due’ then I’ll put it on the back burner and spend these next two weeks watching Doctor Who.

Now, this doesn’t mean that my essays will be done done. They won’t be amazingly polished totally-ready-to-hand-in finished drafts. I can certainly do some polishing in the last week right before the deadline. Still, I’ll have a first draft, something to fall back on when it gets crazy.

For all you writers out there, this would be a useful skill to have. I’ve heard that a lot of published authors are publicizing their first book while editing their second book while writing their third book. That’s a lot of work! Working with self-imposed deadlines (I need to have ten blog posts written by Monday) and fixed deadlines (your editor wants the second draft in two weeks) can’t be easy, so it’s best to start practicing now.

Now, over to you, University/Highschool students, or general writer-people. Have you ever mentally moved a deadline forward to get something done? Or do you have other strategies? Since I’m just developing my study habits, I’d love to hear any ideas you have!

Life at University: Food

I know this is a book blog, so I really shouldn't be talking about food, but I've been doing a lot more cooking than writing recently. To my great surprise, this cooking has actually been pretty successful. I've never gone hungry and never had to eat anything gross (well, once the rice was kinda dry) and never burned anything (besides for toast, lol). Since my cooking is going so well, despite the fact that I did barely any cooking at home, I've decided to share a couple of my successes with you. 

This was the first pork chop I cooked. I bought a whole pork loin (pre-sliced) and then put each slice in an individual bag. Then when I want one, I just stick it in the frying pan, add a little salt, and voila! It only takes 5-10 minutes. The peas were done in the microwave and the rice was made in a rice cooker. 

This was my attempt at bruschetta. I put tomato sauce, cheese and a bit of hamburger on the bread and stuck it in the over. The soup is simply tomato soup from a can. 

This was my supper last night. You know you're from PEI when you eat four whole potatoes... Simply cut the potatoes in wedges and put them in a bowl, then add some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder then bake in the oven for 45 minutes. They stuck to the pan a little,  but boy... they were good!  

This is my food cupboard. As you can see, I do have some snack food (the Lays are displayed rather prominently, aren't they?) as well as some healthy stuff, like the huge bags of pasta and rice on the bottom shelf. There's also pancake mix and cans of soup and pudding cups and hot chocolate mix and peanut butter and lots of tasty things.

So, this is my experience with food so far. Will I gain the 'Freshman 15?' We'll have to see.... If any of you would like some tips on cooking while in university then I'll be happy to write a couple quick posts. Otherwise, I'll try to write a bit more about the academic side of things. I just needed to write this so I could boast about my unexpected cooking success. :)

Life as a University Student: Public Transit

Hey everyone, sorry for not updating this blog more often. I’ve been crazy busy with my move so I've been relying on posts that I scheduled months ago. Now that those have run out, I’m going to have to make a better effort to keep this blog alive.

My new blog schedule is probably going to go something like this:

Tuesday: Writing Tip

Thursday: Book Review

Saturday: My Life

Since it’s Saturday, that means it’s going to be a My Life post. Basically, these are going to be quick posts about stuff that’s been happening to me with the move and university.

So far, I think my biggest learning curve has been using public transit. Back on PEI we’ve only had busses for about five years and they get so little use that having five people on a bus at a time is busy. I never rode the bus back home, so getting everywhere by bus is a huge change for me.

Busses are really practical for university students for a couple reasons. First of all, it’s already paid for as part of my student fees. If I had a car I’d have to pay for gas, insurance, maintenance, parking (which is $700 at king’s) and stuff like that. Taking the bus is saving me a ton of money, not to mention the whole ‘save the environment’ thing.

The biggest downside is simply how long it takes to get anywhere. This afternoon I’m heading to the mall to hang out with my cousins. It’s just 10 km away and according to google maps it should take me about 25 minutes to get there. Even if I biked it should take me just under an hour, but with a bus transfer and stopping everywhere it’s going to take me about an hour and a half to get there.

Now, since today’s Saturday and I have nothing to do, I don’t really care that I’m going to be spending nearly three hours on busses just to get to the mall. But in a couple weeks when I’m snowed under with homework I just won’t have that kind of time. Even getting to campus (25 minutes by bus) is going to be annoying. The slowness of city buses will limit me to the area right around my apartment. Since I’m used to having a car, this feels just a little claustrophobic.

Oh, well. I’ll get used to it. So far living away from home has been better than I thought it was going to be, and it’s my own fault that I’m heading to the mall tomorrow, so I shouldn’t complain. I just felt like griping a bit, since I actually don’t have anything to complain about.

What about all of you? How’s school so far? If you’re starting University, was it what you expected? Have any of you had any interesting experiences with public transit? 

School Suggestions: Some Final Tips

Here are a couple quick ideas to help you get the most out of your university experience.

1- Learn to use the library. Often the prof with leave a copy of the textbook on reserve at the library. This means that instead of dishing out $70 for a textbook that you’ll never use again, you can get it for free at the library. This may be inconvenient, but it’s a real money saver.

2- Use the online resources. Your university probably has online access to all sorts of online resources, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and databases of articles and journals. You can search through these quickly, and they’re great if you have to write a paper in a hurry and don’t have time to search through books at the library. I wrote several research papers citing approximately 30 sources, all of which I found in the online databases.

3- Use the help centers. UPEI had both a writing center and a math help center; I assume most other universities will have similar things. If you’re just having a little trouble something and you don’t want to bother the prof, these institutions can give you the help you need.

4- Make friends. This one may sound a little basic, but University is so much more fun when you have friends in your classes. I had good friends in Math and Science, but I had to try and make friends in all of my Arts courses. I ended up meeting some awesome people who I really enjoyed talking to and discussing essay ideas with. It’s nice to have at least one acquaintance in every class, someone you can talk to about assignments and study with whenever a test is coming up.

5- Work hard. This one is self-explanatory. University isn’t easy. Just remember that anything worth doing is worth working at.

And this wraps up my School Suggestions Saturday Series (don’t you love my alliteration?). I hope I’ve helped some upcoming university students and some of you highschool students who are still considering if University is for you. Over the next couple months I’ll be blogging about my university experiences in a little bit of a more personal way. Good luck to all you students out there!

First-Impression Friday: Hereafter

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Title: The title screams paranormal. Hereafter is a great title for this story, since it gives a good idea of what this book’s about: a dead girl.

Cover: I must say I absolutely love this cover. The blues and greens are so pretty, and even though you can’t really see it, I love the dress Amelia is wearing. Also, it’s just a little shiny, so it’s even prettier in real life.

Pitch:  For people who like paranormal romance, this pitch is sure to be intriguing. For someone like me, it’s a big turnoff. First of all, I don’t like paranormal romance, and having a dead protagonist just seems really weird. It seems like a well crafted story, but I’m not looking forward to it.

First Sentence: It was the same as always, but different from the first time.

A great first line. It makes me need to read on. What is this mysterious ‘it’? And how in the world can it be the same, and yet different? While this is a little vague, it is attention grabbing.

First Chapter: This chapter has some great points and some really bad parts. The writing is fairly good. It opens with the MC dreaming that she’s drowning, and it’s described so vividly I felt myself squirming. However, as soon as the dream ends, she starts thinking about what’s happened over the past years, telling us all sorts of backstory. One big writing rule is to not give any backstory in the first fifty pages unless absolutely necessary. Here’s it’s really not necessary. This scene would have been more powerful, especially the cliffhanger at the end, had it been written in straight narrative, not backstory.

Overall: For a fan of paranormal romance, this story has great packaging. There’s a perfect title combined with a gorgeous cover and an intriguing pitch. However, all of this convinces me that it’s really not the sort of story I’ll enjoy.       

School Suggestions: Come to Class

This week’s tip is going to sound pretty basic, especially to all you highschoolers, but it’s amazing how many people don’t do this simple thing. One big thing that many university students don’t do is come to class.  Attendance at university is ridiculously low. I’ve been in a class where the room was always half full, until when the midterm rolled around and we had to bring in extra chairs. There was another class that had a 120 people signed up, but there were only 50 there on any given day.

I understand why people skip class. Sometimes you’ll have a doctor’s appointment or something that absolutely can’t be skipped. Sometimes you just hate that particular class, or you think that the lecture is useless and you might as well just read the book. Other times you might be just too busy with coursework to come to class. When you hit university and you’re not forced to come to class, it’s far too easy to find excuses to skip.

Before you get into that habit, I suggest you think about all the good reasons for coming to class. First of all, lots of courses have participation marks. If you don’t show up, then you loose 10-15% of your mark. That’s a lot to loose because you didn’t put your butt in the chair for three hours a week. If your class has a participation mark, attending is a really good idea.

Even if you don’t get marks for coming, it’s still important. For instance, a lot of English classes don’t have a textbook. You might study the literature, but most of the material that will be covered on the exams comes from the lecture. When I took Shakespeare I read through the plays, but my prof also lectured on the theatre itself, as well as Shakespeare’s life. If I had missed the class I wouldn’t have known that for the exam. If your class doesn’t have a textbook, it’s pretty much mandatory to come to class. At very least, get someone’s notes and look them over.

Personally, I think the ‘I’m too busy to come to class’ excuse is just a load of you-know-what. If you’re so busy that you can’t take an hour or two out of your day to go to class, you probably need to cut back on work or partying or TV or whatever it is you do. Even if you’re skipping class to do work for another class, this still means you need better time managing skills.

The last reason to come to class is that profs don’t like it when students skip. My dad finds it so frustrating when students come to him for help, even though they’ve missed almost all the classes. It’s not fair to ask the prof to help you with something one-on-one if you don’t come to the classes. Also, it’s discouraging for a prof to teach to a half-empty classroom. It’s hard for them to be enthusiastic about a subject if their students couldn’t care enough to come.

In short, attending classes is one easy thing that can help you learn, up your marks, and improve your overall university experience. Coming from someone who’s never missed a class, I strongly recommend you try to skip as few classes as possible.

First-Impression Friday: Ruby Red

Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

Title: I don’t care for this title. Ruby Red does nothing at all for me. It doesn’t give me an idea of what the story is about and it almost sounds cliché, like Dorothy’s red slippers.

Cover: I can’t say I care for this cover either. It looks really old fashioned, with the picture of the girl at the top. I do like the designs, especially the watch at the bottom, but it all feels rather overwhelming.

Pitch: I have mixed feelings about this pitch. When I first heard there was time travel involved, I got excited. I love time travel. There are a couple elements that I don’t really care for here, though. First of all, Gwen seems happy that she can’t time travel. Seriously, who would prefer a normal life over time travel? And then the pitch decides to end by talking about an obnoxious (but really hot) guy. This book seems to be straying into really cliché territory.

First Sentence: As she fell to her knees and burst into tears, he looked all around the park.

I don’t like the structure of this sentence at all. It just feels really awkward to me. On the other hand, it has some interesting elements that I want answered. Why is she crying in a public place? Why does the guy not seem to care? This is hardly an attention-grabbing tagline, but it still does make me want to read on.

First Chapter (prologue): This chapter was simply the two people talking. It was intriguing, mentioning an elusive ‘she’ who I guess will be the MC in the story. I like how the prologue makes us sure that something will actually happen in the story. However, some of the dialogue sounded a little fake.

Overall: I’m not a huge fan of the packaging of this book. Since I love time travel I certainly intend to read it, but I’m a little worried about the hot guy. This book seems to have a lot of potential, but it could also be a disappointment.

School Suggestions: Don't Expect High Marks

This lesson is something I had to learn the hard way. No matter how high your marks were in highschool, no matter how hard you work, you can’t count on getting high marks from the get-go.

In all of my courses, the first midterm I got back was a lower mark than my final. Sometimes I improved by as much as 10%. My super genius friend got a 30% on her midterm, but ended up with a 98% average her first year of university. If you’re disappointed with the mark on your first essay/midterm, don’t worry. It’s quite possible that the next one will be better.

After all, isn’t the point of university to learn? If you get a 95% on your first essay, where can you go from there? Often times the bad mark can motivate you to study harder and you end up doing far better on the course than you would have if your first mark had been good.

One thing that a lot of profs do is offer a final exam that counts for 100% of your mark, if that would be higher than averaging it with the midterm. I had this once, and it upped my mark by 8%. Sometimes, if you have multiple quizzes, they’ll drop your lowest one. Thanks to these little safety nets, there’s no reason to be upset by a terrible mark.

If you’re confused by your mark, it’s perfectly acceptable to meet with the prof to discus it. For instance, if you don’t understand criticism on your essay, most profs would love to discuss it with you. Also, most universities require that profs keep a copy of all exams for a set time after the exam so that you can go and look at it. Just make sure that when you go to visit them you’re thinking about learning, not just upping your mark. Profs want to help you learn, not just improve your GPA.

One last thing to remember is that marks are subjective. Especially in a subject like English, opinions can make a big difference. One prof might give you a 70% on an essay that another prof would mark an 85%. It’s impossible to predict, and there’s no real reason to. Just remember to keep your focus on learning, rather than the marks. 

First-Impression Friday: Delirium

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Title: I like the title Delirium. From the little I know about the story, apparently love is referred to as the delirium, so it fits nicely as well as being intriguing.

Cover: I know a lot of people really like this cover, but I can’t stand it. The idea of having the picture underneath is interesting, but it just ends up looking a little strange. I don’t like the picture of the girl by itself, and it’s really hard to see her through the letters. This was an interesting idea for a cover, but I don’t think it worked that well.

Pitch: This pitch is a little heavy on world building, but it really showcases the conflict of the book. Everyone thinks love is a disease which has to be cured. The MC agrees with them, until she falls in love herself. This is a great concept, and even though I don’t like romance, I can’t wait to read it.

First Sentence: It has been sixty-four years since the President and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure.

Like the pitch, this is chilling and intriguing. There’s the idea of love as a disease, and then the idea that scientists can somehow cure love. While this sentence is completely telling and doesn’t jump into the action, it’s still attention grabbing.

First Chapter: Like the first sentence, this chapter is almost exclusively telling. This annoyed me a bit, since it’s much better to get right to the action, but I must say it was all good backstory. I love how the MC has completely bought into the lies of her society. It’s always much more interesting when the MC believes that something is right, and then has to have her mind changed. That way the story centers around her inner struggle, rather than around a war.

Overall: Aside from the fact that I hate the cover, I’m really looking forward to this book. While it’ll probably be a romance, the dystopia aspect of it really intrigues me, and so far the writing is excellent. I can’t wait to start reading. 

Book Review: Ysabel

By Guy Gavriel Kay

Saint-Saveur Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence is an ancient structure of many secrets-a perfect monument to fill the lens of a celebrated photographer, and a perfect place for the photographer's son, Ned Marriner, to lose himself while his father works.

 But the cathedral isn't the empty edifice it appears to be. Its history is very much alive in the present day-and it's calling out to Ned.

Why I read it: I saw a friend reading this one day, so I decided to steal it. She told me that it was a really good book, but then upon a second read said it wasn’t as good as she remembered. I kind of share her opinion.

What I liked: The setting in this story is done very well. In the acknowledgements the author reveals that he spent quite awhile in Provence, France, while writing this book, and I certainly believe it. The locations are all well-described, and I believe they actually do exist. I’m a huge fan of books that are set in real places, and not just generic ones like NYC. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book set in this time period of France. The MC’s father is a famous photography, so that gave Kay a nice excuse for us to visit many exotic locations.

The backstory is also a strong part of this book. I won’t tell you any of it, because that would ruin it, but it weaves so legendary figures together with historical events. It leans a bit more toward the paranormal than I would have liked, but it’s more old Celtic legends (which I do enjoy.) I also loved how Kay uses real historical events that I learned about in University—such as the Roman general, Marius, defeating the Celtic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons.

What I disliked: The main thing that I didn’t care for was that I spent a fair bit of this book confused. Apparently it’s kind of a companion to some of Kay’s other works, so certain characters and paranormal abilities weren’t explained as much as they really should have been. Also, two of the ‘bad guys’ seem really scary in the beginning and are constantly talking about how they could kill Ned if they wanted, but even when he starts messing up their plans, they never do anything. In fact, they call to him for help several times.

Another thing was that Kay constantly refers to Ned as a ‘child.’ Maybe 15 is a child, but when you’re writing for a YA audience, calling the MC a ‘child’ feels like an insult.

The romance aspect was a little strange. Kate and Ned started to like each other really quickly, but when the real plot picked up they basically forgot all about each other. They were separated for virtually all the exciting part of the book, and then only got together again at the very end, when Kate accuses Ned of sleeping with a 25 year old woman. Jealous, much?

From a Christian Perspective: There was a little bit of swearing, which annoyed me because it was really unnecessary considering the setting. As for sexual content, there were one or two really quick kisses. Since the MC is a boy he does have some impure thoughts, and he jokes about waking the house up just so that Kate would walk around in a T-shirt so he could stare at her legs. Though Ned does spend a night alone with a woman and his brain automatically goes to sex, she’s ten years older than him so, thankfully, it goes absolutely nowhere.

To buy or not to buy: This wasn’t a bad read, and possibly some of my annoyances come from having read it too fast so I didn’t understand everything. I’d suggest reading some of Kay’s other work first, and then possibly picking up this book. 

School Suggestions: Useful Procrastination

I’m a world class procrastinator. This may surprise you, considering how much I’ve advocated starting things way ahead of time and finishing them early. I’m also nearly always busy; I don’t spend any time watching TV, and only a bit wasted on Facebook or Twitter. And yet, virtually all the time I have some sort of big project looming over me that I should be doing, but I’m not. In fact, right now I need to start working on an essay (due in a week) but, obviously, I’m not. I’m writing this blog post.

And that’s the key. While I’m procrastinating I’m not lying on my bed thinking ‘I don’t want to write this essay, I don’t want to write this essay…’ I’m writing this blogpost. I’m doing something useful. I spent all morning reading King Lear because I didn’t want to work on that essay. I haven’t done any work on the essay, but I’ve spent all day doing useful stuff, stuff that needed to be done.

So, technically, I’m procrastinating. But I am not wasting time. There’s a big difference. When you’ve got five courses, you’ll have a variety of assignments, from reading a couple pages to writing 3000 word research papers. The research paper takes a lot more work, but you also need to do the reading. There’s nothing wrong with doing the reading first and then working on your research paper. At any rate, it’s a whole lot better to be doing the reading, rather than sitting around thinking about murdering your prof so you won’t have to do the paper.

Maybe you’re one of the people who likes to get the hard stuff done and over with right away. I’m not. If I have a bunch of things to do in one evening I write them all down and arrange them in a random order. I’ll start with something that requires a bit of brain power, like creating an outline for a short essay.  Then I’ll do something easy, like read for awhile. When my brain is sufficiently fuzzy I’ll make myself a cup of tea and take a break before coming back at it. At this point my brain is both sufficiently alive (from my previous work) and sufficiently rested (from the tea) that I can tackle the hardest work of writing/researching a paper. If this is going well, I’ll just keep doing it until my brain shuts down and I go to bed. If it isn’t, I’ll stop and tackle something a little easier.

It’s perfectly fine to procrastinate on a big project, at least for a little while. Last year there was one essay I kept trying to work on and it just wasn’t happening, so I finished everything else and left it to the end.  Having nothing else to do forced me to work on it, and I ended up with an A+!  In short, procrastination isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you don’t want to work on an essay just do something else useful, like writing a blog post on procrastination. 

First-Impression Friday: The Liar Society

Kate Lowry didn't think dead best friends could send e-mails. But when she gets an e-mail from Grace, she’s not so sure. 

To: KateLowry@pemberlybrown.edu 
Sent: Sun 9/14 11:59 PM 
From: GraceLee@pemberlybrown.edu 
Subject: (no subject) 

Kate, 
I'm here… 
sort of. 
Find Cameron. 
He knows. 
I shouldn't be writing. 
Don't tell. 
They'll hurt you. 

Now Kate has no choice but to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder...

Title: The first time I heard this title I was a little turned off. It sounded a bit much like Pretty Little Liars to me. When I figured out that it was a murder mystery I liked it a little better, but I’m still not a huge fan.

Cover: Normally I don’t like covers like this, but I happen to love this one. It’s fun and funky, even with the pink hair and the short skirt and the corny postboard with the title on it. The only thing that bugs me is that the pearls around her neck were obviously edited in later, rather than actually being worn by the model.

Pitch: Firstly, I really like the idea of the MC’s best friend supposedly being murdered, but then really being alive. The thing is, it seems like the friend actually is dead, and yet is sending an email anyways. This confuses me, and makes me wonder if there’s a paranormal aspect to this. If not, I’m eager to read this book. It sounds fun and spunky and different.

First Sentence: Her email didn’t move or disappear or do any of the creepy things I’d expected an email from a ghost to do.

This is great as an opening sentence. It makes you need to read on and find out why in the world the MC thinks the email is from a ghost. However, it also feels little weird. Why is the MC expecting an email from a ghost? It’s a good first line, just a little too tagline-ish for me.

First Chapter: I like how this throws us right into the story. The MC gets the email from the friend who is supposed to be dead, then immediately starts trying to figure out what’s going on. The only thing I don’t like is that it feels a little too sudden. We don’t have time to get used to the MC and feel for her loss before we’re thrown into the action.

Overall: This seems like the sort of book I’ll finish in a couple days and end up recommending to friends as a fun read. It doesn’t seem like a new favourite, but I am looking forward to it. 

School Suggestions: Visit the Profs

When I look over my marks for all my courses last year, I notice a bit of a trend. My lowest mark (a full twelve marks below my next-lowest mark) was with the prof who I didn’t really connect with, the only one that I didn’t spend much time talking to one-on-one. My top three marks were the courses I took with my favourite prof, the one I’ve visited so often I can’t even count the times I’ve been in her office. Now, I’m not suggesting that success in a course is directly proportional to the time spent talking to the prof, but this pattern is worth noting.

There are a couple good reasons to get to know your prof. Firstly, if you’re struggling in the course (or think you might struggle, like if you’re an English major taking a math course) the prof can’t help you if they don’t know. If you slave over an essay and the mark wasn’t what you had hoped for, then it’s perfectly reasonable to meet with the prof and ask them what you can do to improve. It’s always good to wait at least 24 hours before doing this, though, and make sure you’ve read through all their feedback carefully so you’re not wasting their time. Also, don’t do this if you just want a better mark, as that will just annoy the prof. Only ask for help if you’re serious about improving.

Even if you’re not struggling at all, getting to know the prof will make your experience that much better. Going to see them with a draft of an essay, for instance, shows that you’re serious about the assignment. The prof will work harder to help you, giving you good feedback, if they know that you’re trying hard. If you’re taking math, you might want to go ask for help with some sample problems. In English, sometimes it can really help to just talk over the various aspects of a work of literature. If you go to a big university then your profs may not have time for this, but at a smaller institution like UPEI all the profs were willing to spend time with any student who was interested in the subject.

Whether you’re struggling or not, getting to know the prof can enhance your university experience. You can get individual help, talk over any trouble spots and learn more one-on-one. Also, as unfair as this sounds, students that a prof expects to do well may get better marks just because of that. In short, it’s always a good idea, both for your marks and just your enjoyment of the course, to visit the prof at least once. 

Book Review: Bumped

By Megan McCafferty

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

Why I read it: As I’ve said so many times, I love dystopia. The premise of this one, ‘What if teens were encouraged to get pregnant?’ sounded like it could go very well or very poorly, so I was interested to see how McCafferty handled it.

What I liked: The scariest aspect of dystopia is that it’s supposed to present a chilling, but all too possible future. Bumped certainly does that. Having a virus make everyone over eighteen unfertile means that teens are now encouraged to get pregnant, which leads to all kinds of really bad things, like massSEX parties and girls ‘bumping’ (having sex) with specific guys to produce designer babies which they’ll sell to older couples for lots of money. While all this is just horrifying, I loved how it was such a realistic version of life. I can only hope that such a virus never happens…

I also enjoyed how this was told from two POVs, the twin sisters Melody and Harmony. McCafferty made a great choice in having these sisters so amazingly different but with some of the same characteristics. The choices they made felt realistic and their characters were well thought out. I enjoyed the character’s voices, as they really fit the book.

What I disliked: While I said earlier that I liked how McCafferty presents such a horrifying version of the world, I didn’t like how it didn’t really seem that bad. She seemed to be suggesting that it was wrong for teens to have sex just to have babies, but teens having sex just for fun was a great thing to do. There was also a lot of sexual content, more than was necessary. I would have loved to see more of the society, not just the teen pregnancy aspect. There were one or two little hints, but not much. All in all, this book seemed to be way too centered on sex and teen pregnancy, and I think it could have benefited from a side plot or two that was a little cleaner.

This is a smaller dislike, but I really don’t care for how the book starts. In the first chapter, Melody and Harmony have already met and are hanging out in the mall. This means that for the first hundred pages, McCafferty is constantly having to go back and explain how they met, why they met, what they felt while meeting, etc… There’s so much backstory in the first couple chapters that I think it would have made a lot more sense to start the book earlier, perhaps on the day they meet or even earlier.

From a Christian Perspective: As I said before, tons of sexual references, so I won’t list them all. Two of the characters have sex, though it isn’t described. There’s a bit of swearing. My biggest problem was that one of the MCs was extremely religious (it was basically a cult) so people are always misquoting the Bible or mocking her beliefs. I wasn’t sure what McCafferty was trying to say about religion, but it wasn’t completely flattering.

To buy or not to buy: I don’t think I’ll be buying this book. It was a thought-provoking read, but not something I want to read again. I think I’ll read the sequel, though. 

A Little Bit of News

First of all, I just wanted to explain why I posted a First Impression Friday post when it's actually a Tuesday. Basically, I forgot to post last Friday and Saturday, so now that I have internet on my laptop I'm going to schedule a whole bunch of posts. The School Suggestion post that should have been last Saturday will actually be posted on Thursday, I think.

The other bit of news is that, as far as I know, the Catch-Up-Readathon has been cancelled because we didn't get enough participants. I'm still up for reading as much as possible over those weeks, but I don't think it's fair to the authors to make them give away swag packs when we only have three participants.

I think that's all for now. I'm going to start scheduling some posts now so that you'll have something to read here, even when I'm away at camp.

First Impression Friday: Entwined

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Title: I’m not sure what I think of this title. I like one word titles, and Entwined is a pretty word which fits well with the cover, but it gives me no idea of what the book will be about.

Cover: This is such a gorgeous cover. Her dress is pretty, I love the castle in the background, and even the leaves that they added are gorgeous. This is one of my all time favourite covers. Unfortunately, the picture wasn’t taken specifically for the book, and my friend tells me that it doesn’t really fit the story.

Pitch: I like the pitch, how it makes it obvious that this is about the twelve dancing princesses, without saying it right out, but I find it’s a little vague. Apparently going out and dancing has a ‘cost,’ and this mysterious ‘keeper’ likes to keep things, but it doesn’t give me a good idea of what the story’s about.

First Sentence: An hour before Azalea’s first ball began, she paced the ballroom floor, tracing her toes in a waltz.

I like the feeling this sets up. While the sentence itself is a little awkwardly worded (commas!) it immediately gives us a good feel for Azalea’s character and the first scene coming up.

First Chapter: I liked this chapter but I didn’t love it. First off, the writing is just a little awkward. Also, I was having trouble placing the time period. There’s a random dancing tea set and a King and a ball, but then there’s mention of streetlamps and paved roads. It gives us a feel for the story, but it’s very introductory, rather than stepping right into the real story.

Overall: There’s a lot that I like about this book, but the only thing I absolutely love is the cover. The first sentence/chapter is just a bit rocky, so I’m worried about the rest of this book. The main thing that this book fails to do is really tell me what it’s going to be about. I’m still going to read it, but I’m a little unsure about it right now. 

July Review

Wow. I can't believe that July is over already. That's just crazy. It's exactly three weeks until I leave, meaning that I have just three weeks to hang out with my friends, to finish my novel and to pack up my entire life. I can't exactly say that I'm not a little scared, but I'm also super excited. I'll be sure to keep blogging about all the cool things I'm doing as I move out.

For now, it's time for a little July Review:

 Followers: 67 (up from 63... Com'on guys, you can do better than that! It's gonna be a long time until the 100 followers giveaway at this rate.)

 Pageviews: 2300 (Down from 2700, and I'm still getting a lot of google images searches)

 Day with the most pageviews: July 31st

 Most viewed page: How to get Published 3: Revisions (this is the second month in a row it's been popular. Anyone know why?)

Website that referred the most views: Google

Country with the most views: US with 600 (Canada was pretty close with 450)

Keywords people googled to get to my blog:
gulliver's travels
gullivers travels
books
mystery novel pov dead girl
(and many others, but these were the best I could find at the moment)

All in all, it was a fairly good month on the blog, since I finally managed to get back to posting regularly. While my number of followers didn't really go up, my views were still okay. Also, my twitter account has been really growing; it almost doubled in July!

So, thanks to all you lovely blog followers. It's wonderful to actually have people who are reading my writing. I hope you find my posts interesting or informative. Just remember that I always love getting comments, and even if I don't directly respond to them, you should know that they make my day. Thanks so much for reading, and supporting me in this transition time in my life.