I'm Going to Scotland!

I’m going to Scotland.

Let me repeat that, with the proper emphasis.

I’M GOING TO SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!

It’s still seven months away, and it’s been a long process so it all feels a bit surreal now, but the fact remains: in September I will head off to St. Andrews and spend a year there.

Let me tell you how this happened…

The picturesque town of St. Andrews

I’ve always wanted to go to the UK. One of my dreams has been to go on a “literary pilgrimage” across the British Isles visiting all the places that my favourite authors have lived. I could see a play at the Globe, visit Milton’s house, have a drink at the pub where the Inklings met… my only problem was having enough time to do everything!

In early December an email arrived in my inbox advertising a scholarship opportunity for studying at St. Andrew’s for a year. Since I was just at the beginning of my Christmas break and had very little else to do, I was able to devote plenty of time to the lengthy application. I had to fill out 18 paragraph questions (detailing everything from my volunteer experience to my future career plans), send official transcripts, and write an essay about the famous golfer “Bobby” Jones (the scholarship was provided in his memory). In the beginning of January I got back in Ontario, dropped off my application, and waited.

Coat of Arms

A couple weeks later, I got an email informing me that I was selected for an interview. An interview? I had no idea an interview was involved. I was nervous, but also excited, and waaaaay overthinking it. Eventually January 28^th rolled around and I went in for my interview… and I think I can quite frankly say that, aside from the enormous stress, this was the most fun interview I’ve ever had. All six interviewers were pleasant and friendly, and I felt comfortable from the instant I walked into the room. As it turned out, several of them even liked Doctor Who, and chatting for a minute about David Tennant made for a lovely icebreaker. J

At the end of the interview I was informed that I would learn their decision by Wednesday at the latest, which was yet another shocker, as the website stated that decisions would be made my Mid-February. For the next twenty-four hours I obsessively checked my email until finally, on Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of class, I got the message: “Decision letters are available for pickup.”

Imagine the stress! I had to sit through the remaining twenty minutes of class (apologies to my professor for paying very little attention), before dashing out to catch the bus to the Exchange office. That half hour was quite possibly the tensest time of my life. I arrived at the office at the same time as another girl, and we both picked up our envelopes.

One of St. Andrew's lovely old buildings

I opened mine, and the first word I saw was ‘Congratulations!’ I could barely refrain from jumping, and I definitely couldn’t stop smiling. I just repeated “Oh my God, thank you!” over and over all the way back to King’s. Then I pestered everyone for the rest of the afternoon showing them my acceptance letter… J I’ve got to thank all my Facebook friends for being so supportive and excited for me; it really means a lot. I plan to keep blogging more often over the coming year as I learn more about the exchange. Sometime over the next week I’ll post again about what exactly St. Andrew’s will be like. 

The Big Picture: Why I Don't Like Post-Apocalyptic Novels

When I read a story, I don’t care about the small stuff. Personally, I don’t care if the hero and the heroine end up together or if they’re forever kept apart. I don’t care if a couple characters in an isolated situation live or die. What I want is the big picture: what is the government doing? What’s going on at a global level? If the conflict of a story affects less than, say, fifty people, I’m normally not that interested.

A lot of people feel exactly the opposite; they’d rather read about a couple characters struggling for happiness than a whole world on the brink of disaster. That’s great. I love how everyone has different tastes. But for myself, while I love well-crafted characters, what I want from a story is a mass conflict.

This is why I dislike post apocalyptic stories. Because they promise me a global plot (after all, a catastrophe has just occurred which could destroy the entire earth) and what they deliver is a usually the story of just a couple characters trying to survive.

Take Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts. It’s by far my favourite post apocalyptic novel because the characters are so well crafted, but the story was just about the four characters surviving. Same with The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which centers on a girl leaving her insular community and venturing into a world of zombies. Same with Life as We Knew It, which concentrates on a single family coping after the moon crashes into the earth. The Eleventh Plague is a little broader, but still stays within one community. Right now I’m reading Ashfall, and that’s just about one boy trying to find his family. Basically, all of these novels are about a single individual/family/community coping with a global catastrophe.

I hate to say it, but I found most of these novels somewhat boring. My mind automatically goes to the big picture. How can the world be saved? If thousands of people are dying, why should I care about one character? Why am I reading about someone nearly starving in a shed when I could be reading about the people trying to save millions?

In this way, post apocalyptic novels infuriate me. The point of the story is so small, basically on the individual level, when I personally feel like it should be so much bigger, on a global level. I can handle reading a romance novel occasionally because there’s no bigger conflict looming on the horizon; it’s all light reading. But when there’s a huge catastrophe, I want to be reading about the people solving that, not the individuals slogging around trying to find food.

I have to add: what I’ve said here is completely personal taste. Every single one of the books listed above has plenty of fantastic reviews on Goodreads. Obviously, some people like it when their books follow just a couple characters rather than looking at the big picture. However, that’s not for me. For now, I’m done with anything calling itself post apocalyptic that concentrates on a single character. It’s just not my thing.

Now… over to you! I’m curious, which sort of reader are you? Do you want the big picture, or would you rather focus on just a couple characters? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

SIMULATE News: Filming a Book Trailer

Instead of writing a post apologizing for not blogging in forever, I'm going to give you peoples a very quick overview of what's happening in my writing life (which, coincidentally, has very little to do with writing.)

My WIP, SIMULATE, is currently in its third draft. For me, this means that I'm taking last year's nearly completed, 83k manuscript, and re-working it. Adding a bigger plot, changing scenes, taking some elements out, adding others, changing characters... it's basically a new novel. And it's always changing. I thought I had it figured out a couple weeks ago, but then I got some cool new ideas so I have to fit those in, too.

But what I really want to talk about is an exciting new project I've started with some friends. We're filming a book trailer for SIMULATE! It so happens that one of my good friends loves filming (she's going into a film program at university) and a lot of my other friends are actors/actresses, so I have the perfect people to make a trailer.

The style of trailer we've chosen is similar to the trailer for Veronica Rossi's UNDER THE NEVER SKY, which has various shots done as if the book was a movie. However, instead of having dialogue in the shots, we're just having the narrator do a voice-over for the whole trailer. So, it's sort of a cross between a more traditional book trailer and a movie trailer. I've been disappointed with a lot of book trailers I've seen recently, so I wanted to create one that would draw me in to the story.

We've filmed two days now, a total of about seven hours, and probably have about half of the footage that we'll need for the trailer. Since one of my friends who plays a main character is leaving on Saturday to go perform across the country, we had to hurry and do his scenes today. Even though we had to work quickly and try to adapt (filming a futuristic book trailer in little ole PEI isn't easy), I think everyone involved had fun. For instance, two of my friends got to do some epic fight scenes, which I really enjoyed. It helped that one of them managed to cut his arm on a tree branch, so we had real blood to work with... (don't worry, it was more of a scratch than a cut!)

There was one awkward part, though, where two of my friends had to kiss. We had to have the scene, since it's really pivotal in the book, but since one of my friends is dating (someone else), and the other has never been kissed, we made it a stage kiss instead. Still, they had to do it about ten times, which easy could have been awkward, but they were great about it. Even though they didn't actually kiss it looked real, which is what counted. Plus, afterwards my female friend got to really slap my guy friend, which definitely made up for the kiss. :)

Basically, that's what's happening in the world of SIMULATE. I'll try and post more often about the writing process, since this type of editing is new to me, and as soon as the book trailer is up I'll let you know!

What My Star Ratings Really Mean

I’ve recently been thinking a lot about giving books star ratings and how this works on Goodreads. I know a lot of reviewers really dislike the star system and so choose to just not rate books at all. While I do think that rating books can be a little problematic, I personally like doing it because it gives people a really quick overview of what I thought of the book. For instance, I categorize my book reviews by star rating so that people can quickly see what I like and what I’m not such a fan of.

But ratings can mean different things to different people. On Goodreads, giving something three stars means that you liked it. For me, three stars normally means it was so-so, while books that I like get four stars. So, just so that you people know, I’m going to clarify what each of my ratings means.

1 Star- Disliked; Stay Far Away!

These are books I extremely disliked. Normally I only rate a book one star when I disliked it so much that I actually stopped reading (this has only happened to one book so far.) Normally this means both that the book is boring me and that it has a lot of content that I’m not comfortable with.

2 Stars: Not Worth the Time

These are books that I just really didn’t care for. For instance, Twilight would go in this category. They’re poorly writen, somewhat boring, and just really didn’t resonate with me at all. I will definitely not be buying these books, re-reading them, reading the sequels, or recommending these to anyone.

3 Stars: Not Bad, Give it a Try

These are books that I’m on the fence about. They had some good elements but also a lot of flaws. I probably wouldn’t read any sequels, or more from the same author, but I might recommend them to a friend who likes the genre. Still, I definitely wouldn’t buy these or re-read them.

4 Stars: Pretty Good, I Enjoyed It

A lot of books tend to fall into this category. These are mainly books that I was excited about reading and had heard a lot of good things about, but then just fell a bit short for me. Maybe some of the characters felt flat, or the writing was just okay, or it dragged, or there was a lot of questionable content. Whatever the reason was, these books were good but not absolutely phenomenal. I’ll read the sequels, try to win the books or get them as presents, and recommend them to book-loving friends, but I won’t re-read them over and over.

5 Stars: Highly Recommended

I loved these books! These books are nearly perfect; they might have some minor flaws, but overall everything is great. I’ll definitely be re-reading these books, talking about them to all my friends, and any sequel will automatically be shoved to the top of my TBR pile.

I hope that clarifies any questions you might have about my ratings. Now, over to you. If you run a book blog, or rate stories on Goodreads and Amazon, what criteria do you use for each star? 

A Star-Rating Ramble

(WARNING: This post contains a dangerously high amount of opinions and ramblings. Read at your own risk!)

I hate star-rating a book on Goodreads. First of all, I find the star rating to be a really shallow way of judging the book. Am I rating it according to how much I enjoyed it? Or should I rate it according to how good I thought it was? And what does ‘good’ mean? There’s so much that a star rating can’t tell you.

But now, my main problem with the star rating system on Goodreads is how it gives each star rating a description. For instance, three stars is ‘liked it’ while one star is ‘disliked it’ and five stars is ‘it was amazing.’ While this clears up exactly what each star rating really means, it does present me with a bit of a problem.

I haven’t found an amazing book in awhile. I know that sounds terrible (and let me get this straight, this says a LOT more about me than about the books I’ve been reading) but it’s true. The last book I read and thought ‘this is amazing’ was Divergent, and that was a year ago. Since then I’ve read a lot of ‘meh’ books and some fairly good books, but all of them fell short in some way.

Take SHATTER ME, for instance. (Since I’m reviewing this book for Divine Debutantes magazine I won’t be posting a review here, but you can read a shortened version on Goodreads.) I’d heard so many amazing things about this book, and the premise sounds fantastic. Seriously, a girl with a touch that can kill in a dystopian world? What could be better?

Think again. SHATTER ME was nothing like I expected. Instead of a strong heroine, I found Juliet to be almost a little wimpy. Instead of a fast-paced book, I found that very little happens. Instead of a dystopian, I got a romance. Yes, it was still a great story, but I disliked it because I had thought it was going to be the sort of story I would love, and then it turned out to be something else entirely.

Now, how in the world can I rate it? My feelings about this book are sort of meh, but on Goodreads that would be equivalent to just two stars, and I definitely feel like SHATTER ME deserves more than that. I’ve ended up giving it four stars (thanks to the fantastic premise) which on Goodreads means that I really liked it. Which, as you’ll know if you read the review, I really didn’t.

Alright. This post has been a lot of ramble, but my main points are these:

1- I don’t really like giving books a star rating

2- I don’t like the ‘tags’ with the Goodreads star ratings

3- I’m having trouble finding books that I really like

4- I think my trouble is because of unrealistically high expectations

This post was really supposed to be about numbers three and four, but it seems like I got sidetracked. I guess I’ll need to write another post sometime soon…

Over to you… does any of this feel familiar? What do you guys think about giving books star ratings? Do you like the Goodreads ‘tags’ for ratings? Why or why not? I’d love to hear other opinions on ratings. 

Book Review: Across the Universe

by Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Why I read it: Why wouldn’t I read this book? It’s got a space ship, a dystopian atmosphere, a murder mystery… This is totally the sort of book I love.

What I liked: There’s so much I liked about this story, so I’ll just list a couple of the main things. First of all, the plot. The ideas are all fascinating, and Revis weaves them together into a story that fits perfectly at the end. I loved all the twists and turns. It felt like a murder mystery in that way, with a list of suspects that you can never quite trust. You never knew who to believe. There were a couple fantastic twists at the end that I didn’t see coming.

Also, Revis’s writing is quite good. The first chapter, where Amy and her parents are frozen for the trip, literally had me squirming, it was that intense. Her writing never comes across as overdone, yet it gave me a vivid picture of the ship and everyone on it. The characterization was well done and the alternating viewpoints between Amy and Elder worked better than I expected. There was only once or twice where I couldn’t immediately tell who it was (without looking at the chapter heading.)

What I disliked: The beginning was a little slow. While the first chapter was super intense, the next fifty pages were basically Amy sitting in her frozen chamber and Elder getting annoyed because Eldest wouldn’t tell him anything. While the pace picks up after Amy’s unfrozen, even then it takes a little while to get going. In fact, it wasn’t until the last hundred pages that this book became a real page-turner.

Though I really liked the ending and it all made sense, there were a couple little things that didn’t seem realistic. Maybe it was the fact that I was reading it at midnight, but still… It would have been nicer if there were a few more clues scattered throughout the book. And then there was one minor plot point introduced in the very first chapter that seemed vitally important, and yet it never surfaced again. Perhaps the author plans to bring it in to a later book, but if not it just seems like false set-up.

From a Christian Perspective: This book ranks a lot lower than I thought it was going to. While the swearing is all using the made-up word ‘Frex’ there’s a fair amount of sexual content. The first time Elder seems Amy, she’s naked and he can’t help fantasizing about her breasts. It’s mentioned several times that Amy had sex with a boyfriend back on earth. At one point Amy is nearly gang-raped. Also, the book takes place during ‘The Season’ on the ship, meaning that everyone is busy having sex in public. Though this disgusts Amy (who wears a cross necklace and claims to be Christian) I still felt it was a little unnecessary.

To buy or not to buy: I’m not sure if I’ll buy this book. I did quite enjoy it, but I’m not sure if I’d read it again. I think there is a sequel, though, which I’ll most certainly be reading. 

I'm Going to be Published!

Well... sort of. As I mentioned last week, I do have some big news for you. No, I don't have a book deal, or even an agent, but I have taken another step along the writing pathway. I am now a regular columnist for the Divine Debutantes magazine!

Let me tell you how it happened. I had never heard of Divine Debutantes (a Christian girls club) or their magazine, since the club exists mainly in the US. When I received an email on Tuesday from the magazine's editor, I very nearly deleted it thinking that it was either spam, or an author newsletter that I had signed up for but wasn't actually interested in reading. However, I did actually open the email, and I was shocked to find an offer to write for a Christian girl's magazine! Apparently the editor read my blog and liked how I wrote my book reviews from a Christian perspective.

Now, for each issue of the quarterly magazine, I'll write a book review on one recent YA novel. This won't be a huge time commitment, but I'll be seeing my work in print regularly. Also, I'll be reaching out to a whole new audience and helping them find good books to read. I've been doing this for a year on my blog, and now I'm excited to take it to a whole new level.

Perhaps what I love most about this new opportunity is the fact that it came to me; I didn't search it out. I've considered contacting magazines and asking to write for them, but in this case the magazine contacted me. This proves firstly that I do have an effective online presence. People can find my blog, and they're reading it. As a blogger, it's sometimes hard to know if I am reaching and engaging my audience; this offer proves that I am. As an author, it's wonderful to have an audience interested in my work.

Also, (to head off on a more philosophical/religious tangent) I've recently been going through a What-In-The-World-Am-I-Supposed-To-Do-With-My-Life phase. Frankly, I have so many open paths, and I'm not sure which one God wants me to be on. Then, last Tuesday, I get this opportunity in the world of books, and I got back my university marks (which were mostly better than I expected). It's never a good idea to read too much into these things, but I'll take these successes as a sign that I am where God wants me to be.