Road Trip Wednesday: What Fable or Fairytale Would You Retell?

 

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

 

This Week's Topic is: In honor of this month's Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer's CINDER, name a fable or story you'd like to see a retelling of. If you're feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!

 

I've actually had an idea for a retelling of The Little Mermaid. However, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who would want to read it. haha! So I will spare you all and not go into detail.

 

But in general, I would really like to read a re-telling of The Little Mermaid.

YA Book Club Review: This is Not a Test

YA Book Club is the brainchild of writer/blogger Tracey Neithercott.
 

I'm so excited to participate for the first time!

The pick for August is: This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

 

 

From Goodreads:

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

I absolutely love Courtney Summers’ books, so even though I’m not really into zombies at all, I just had to read this book. I love how her main characters are flawed and unlikeable, and yet I still like them. Sloane was no exception. However, despite how unlikeable she was, I still found myself rooting for Sloane. Wishing that somehow, things would work out for her.

I enjoyed the suspense of the story, seeing how things unfolded. I really never knew what to expect.    

I still don’t really get where the zombies came from or why, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. It gave the characters a reason to be trapped in the school together and that’s what was important. Besides, since I’m really not into zombies anyway, I like that the story focused more on the six people and what was going on with them inside the school.

This was a great story, and I highly recommend the book. Plus check out her other books (in particular, Cracked Up to Be, which is just incredible) if you haven’t already!

Book Recommendation: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone

First of all, I have to apologize for taking so long to post this. I read this amazing book awhile ago, but I've had no time to write up a recommendation. I have a good reason, though! I started a new job. :) Things are going really well, although I'm still pretty overwhelmed by everything. I can't tell you where I'm working, but I will say I'm surrounded by neon and glitter, and I spend my day writing copy that's targeted toward teenage girls. I think that's a perfect fit for my love of YA books. :)

Now, onto the review.

I was the lucky winner of an ARC of AMELIA ANNE IS DEAD AND GONE by Kat Rosenfield. Thanks again to the awesome Katy Upperman!
From Goodreads:
An arresting un-coming-of-age story, from a breathtaking talent

Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death.

Ever since I was little, I always enjoyed reading mysteries. They were my favorite type of book growing up. I loved reading Christopher Pike books, even though they scared me. Once I started reading more YA, I stopped reading mysteries. It just seems like there aren't many good YA mysteries. (I am anxiously waiting for Gretchen McNeil's TEN!)

As soon as I read the description of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed. It's an intense, haunting book.

The writing is captivating. Her descriptions of setting are so beautiful, and the characters seemed so real. Especially Amelia. Kat Rosenfield writes in a way I never can.

I was immediately drawn to the character of Amelia. Amelia's story comes out slowly, with shorter chapters interspersed throughout the book, which just added to the suspense. Even though I knew Amelia was going to die (hence the title) I didn't want it to happen.

I kinda figured out the ending pretty early on, but I blame that on my Criminal Minds obsession.

Definitely read this book if you get a chance.

May I tell you something about someone else?

I recently had pretty much the worst job interview ever. The position was described as "marketing specialist." Turns out, it was selling knives at Sam's Club. For less money than I make now. (Which I didn't think was possible.) Obviously, the job was not for me. Not to mention, I failed every single question.

One of the questions he asked me was: "Who is your professional hero?" I answered Jodi Picoult, because she is a successful published author, with several books that have been made into movies/tv movies (and because I knew I didn't want the job and didn't have to pick some marketing guru or something). 

I wouldn't say Jodi Picoult is my most favorite author, but I do admire her a lot. Well it didn't matter anyway because the guy had no idea who she was.

By the way, then he asked me: "What book are you reading now?" Finally! A question I like to hear. :) I told him I was reading IN HONOR. Obviously he had never heard of that, either. Oh well!

Anyway, what is the point of all this? Well, it got me thinking... who really is my professional hero? I wouldn't say I really have any heroes in the advertising world. So I decided to stick with an author. 

The author whose career I admire the most is Sarah Mlynowski. I love that she has had success in multiple genres. The strange thing is, she is the author who got me hooked on chick lit, and then later when I started reading more YA, she came out with YA books. Crazy.

I got hooked on chick lit thanks to a friend who recommended SEE JANE DATE (by Melissa Senate, the best chick lit book ever) and MILKRUN (by Sarah Mlynowski). I decided I wanted to write my own chick lit book! This was after I graduated college and I was feeling very ambitious and like anything was possible. (Oh, to have those days back again.) Sarah even came out with a book on how to write a chick lit novel: SEE JANE WRITE.

Well, I never found my Mr. Right, never had my happy ending. So I decided chick lit was not for me after all. I switched to YA. And I was so excited to find that Sarah wrote YA books!

If you are not familiar with Sarah Mlynowski's books, I highly recommend checking them out!

I actually had a chance to meet her, and she was so incredibly nice and friendly. The book signing was so much fun. Look:

Susane Colasanti, Sarah Mlynowski and Maureen Johnson. Best book signing ever.

What author do you most admire? Or, who is your professional hero?

May I tell you something about myself?

Aside from reading and writing, another one of my hobbies is dancing. In particular, tap dancing.

During my senior year of college, I had one more class I needed to take for my last semester. I already had everything I needed for my major, so I decided to take something for fun: jazz dance. I had wanted to take dance classes for years, but never had the opportunity. Well, on the first day, I quickly realized this class was completely out of my league. We had to go around the class and introduce ourselves, including what kind of dance experience we had. My class was full of music theater students and a girl who was on poms. Then there was me. I took ballet when I was about five years old, and I took some kind of summer class in Scottish Highland dancing once. I was in poms in junior high. Aside from that, my dance experience was limited to a "Dance Funk Workout" VHS tape and episodes of MTV's "The Daily Burn," which my sister and I would do in our parents' living room.

I had to work harder than everyone else in the class just to keep up with them, but I absolutely loved it. I even got an A in the class! I like to think this means I must have some natural dance ability.

Unfortunately, after graduation, it was back to the VHS tapes.

Then, in 2004, I was out at a bar with some friends. One of my friends invited a friend of hers that I had never met. She left early, explaining that she had to go to her tap dance class. I had seen the movie "Chicago" and thought tap looked really cool, but I had no idea where to take classes. So I asked her and it turned out she went to this studio right by my house AND I knew the owner! I signed up for tap that summer and I've been dancing ever since. Over the years, I've also taken jazz, ballet and hip hop. Tap is my favorite though, and the only one I've stuck with over the years. Side note: I also do Zumba now, but I can't say I really love it. I like it. Some days it's really fun. Other days it kind of sucks. It doesn't help that our class is so packed you can barely move.

I'm currently taking classes through the park district. It's a great class and our instructor is so talented and fun. We had our recital last week. It was a blast. We performed twice, on Tuesday and Friday nights. Here's the costume we had to wear... (no, I am not posting a picture of ME wearing it!)

(We wore the black version, and added a silver sequin cummerbund.)

The recital was SO much fun and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Have you ever taken dance? Ever tried tap? What is one of your hobbies?

Monday: May I tell you something about writing?

I am a procrastinator. I'll admit I'm lazy. And I have four jobs. This is not a good combination. This is also why I never get any writing done.

But it's time to stop making excuses. This novel isn't going to write itself.

I set a deadline to be done with my first draft by my birthday. That was two weeks ago. Obviously that didn't happen.

So I've set a new deadline: Father's Day. It will be my gift to my dad. Don't worry, I also plan to take him out to breakfast. But finishing my novel would be the best Father's Day gift I could give my dad. He wants it almost as much as I do. Besides, he doesn't like actual gifts anyway.

There's really no reason why I can't finish by Father's Day. I have time. I believe in this story. I have the added motivation of it being a gift. And of course, since I've posted it on my blog, it's official now.

May 8 - May I ask something about you?

I keep hearing about these writing retreats and I love the idea. I mean, it's two of my favorite things: traveling and writing. What's not to like? So my question for you today is: 

 

Have you ever attended a writing retreat? If so, tell me about it! 

If not, what would be your ideal writing retreat?

I have never attended one, but I'd love to. My ideal retreat would be somewhere with a beach. Maybe San Diego, which is my favorite place. Ideally, it would rain one day so we would be forced to stay inside and not feel bad about it, and also to be sure we'd get some work done. Also, I'd like to keep the group around 4-5 people, because I think that is a good number.

So who wants to join me? ;)