Prodigal and Riven Blog Tour: An Interview with Tyler H. Jolley and Sherry D. Ficklin

So a few weeks ago, I posted the trailer of Prodigal and Riven by Tyler H. Jolley and Sherry D. Ficklin and I got quite a few hits on it, so today there's an interview with the lovely authors as part of their blog tour! Don't know what the book is about? Read Prodigal and Riven's Goodreads pages so you're all up to speed! 

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Is there something you wish you could remember and why?

Sherry – I’m pretty much just happy when I can remember what day it is and if I’ve eaten.

Tyler – I wish I could remember where I stored all my original Star Wars action figures.  Do you know how hard it is to get something like that and never take it out of the box?  I’m pretty sure some vermin broke into my parents’ storage unit and is having a blast with them.

What time period would you like to time travel to?

Sherry – I think I’d go forward rather than back. One, I’m a big fan of indoor plumbing and deodorant, but I’m also really curious to see what’s in store for humanity as a collective.

Tyler – Hands down, the mid 1980’s.  Fashion was awesome, music was great, and I could eat 3 large pizza’s, a dozen doughnuts, washed it all down with a liter of coke and never gain a pound.  #Glorydays

What time period would you really not like to travel to?

Sherry – I feel like they’re called ‘the dark ages’ for a reason, you know?

Tyler – The future, I like it to be a surprise.

Where did the idea of this world you’ve created come from?

Sherry – It is always sort of the same, a little spark comes, in this case from a history channel special on the Romanovs, and then it just takes on a life of its own. I give Tyler full credit for bringing the steampunk elements into it. 

Tyler – Sherry’s correct, she saw the history channel documentary and thought, ‘I wonder if they were time travelers?’  When we started outlining it I didn’t even realize I had incorporated the steampunk elements until Sherry pointed it out.  It really felt natural and happened organically.

What is it like working with another author? How does it work practically?

Sherry – It’s really fun, or I think so. Tyler may feel different, lol. We share the workload and come together on all aspects of the plot and the characters, though we each have our favorites. We step on each other’s toes sometimes, but I think overall we work really well together. Ty is very patient with me.

Tyler – Agreed.  It’s really great to have a co-author, they keep you on track and help you work out some of the plot issues.  Normally when you bounce your ideas off your friends or family they look at you like your nuts.  It’s nice to have someone who knows the story as intimately as yourself.

Are you planning to work together after this series is over?

Sherry – I don’t know. We’ve pitched the idea around. I think we both have quite a bit going on, individually, at least right now. But I wouldn’t rule it out. 

Tyler – We’ve had so much fun with the series, and I have enjoyed co-authoring.  I have a few irons in the fire, but after that, who knows?  I wouldn’t say never.

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I want to thank Sherry and Tyler for their interesting answers - anything you agree or disagree with?

Top 5....Most Frustrating Characters

As you might be able to tell, I LOVE doing these top 5 posts! And since it's Wednesday, there's a new one - my top 5 most frustrating characters.

This one is quite open, because frustrating can mean a lot of things. I chose to pick characters that frustrated me because there was SO much potential for them and they just didn't live up to it.

1. America - The Selection series

My absolute number one, and easiest to pick, is America from The Selection series. Now don't get me wrong, I love these books (just like another one on this list) and thoroughly enjoyed reading the series, but America is just so annoying. She gets this amazing opportunity to marry a prince and really change a lot for the (pretty crap) world she's living in, yet she's so weak. She faints. She gets angry about the dumbest things. She worries about stupid stuff. She doesn't worry about things she should worry about. The list goes on and on. I just wanted her to be so much more than she was and I really expected more growth from her during the series.

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2. Lola - Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola is another character whom I had high expectations for, but just fell flat. I loved Anna and the French Kiss and I was so excited to start reading Lola and the Boy Next Door. Now I knew Lola wouldn't be another Anna (what would be the point of the book then? ), but Lola irked me the whole time. I didn't get her obsession with fashion. She wore wigs, weird dresses,... Basically anything and everything so she could just stand out from the crowd and not be like other girls. A memo to Lola: other girls are pretty okay too. I didn't like her, I didn't like her storyline and if I had to read one more description of one of her ugly outfits, I would have cried.

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3. Bianca - The DUFF

Bianca from The Duff really had the opportunity to take a Frankie Landau-Banks sized stand against bad boys and for feminism, but she didn't take it. Bianca was called fat and ugly by a guy and she slept with him. She fell in love with him. SHE FORGAVE HIM FOR CALLING HER THAT. Sorry Bianca, we just can't hang. I get that she has low self-esteem, but again, she could have fixed that or worked on it during the book. Instead, her self-esteem depends on the guy who called her ugly and fat. Good luck with that relationship, Bianca.

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4. Nathan - Half Bad

Everyone raved about Half Bad, so I went in with really high expectations. And that's probably why Nathan is on this list. I didn't dislike him, but he was kinda nothing to me. He doesn't really do much, doesn't really think fast, doesn't really mean anything.... Like a lot happens to him and I felt really bad for him, but he doesn't redeem himself. However, it's the first book of the series, so I hope he becomes more active in the other books and takes charge of his future a bit more. 

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5. Aaron - Trouble

Now I have to say, I absolutely LOVE Trouble. It's an amazing read and I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters and even Aaron. So why is he on this list? I wish he had more personal growth and the fact that he didn't frustrated me so much. Aaron is confused and damaged at the beginning of the book and though he does make a journey, I wish it was more clear how he evolved and what his future looks like. I love Aaron and just wanted him to work through his issues a tad more so he could really be happy.

How to... read dystopian and fantasy novels

Let's talk about books you usually do not read. I've mentioned before that I was raised in a household of books. My parents are readers and I've grown up always reading some kind of book.

Interestingly enough, these books were never dystopian or fantasy until about a year ago. Yes, I've dabbled in Harry Potter as a teenager, but I never really loved it and that was the limit of my fantasy adventure.

Last year, I decided I wanted to read more fantasy and dystopian novels, since I felt like I was missing out on so many books that so many people in the book community were loving. However, to start reading these books is quite an overwhelming process. Where do you start? How do you pick books? To help others struggling with the same problem, I made a few points that helped me - or that I wish I knew when I started reading dystopian and fantasy books.

1. Find people who love the same books as you and also read fantasy and dystopian

Go socialise with all your book friends. Ask them if they read fantasy and if they do, pick those. Your book friends know your taste better than Goodreads and they know exactly what you'll like. Also, Goodreads (though one of my favourite sites) has some weird ratings on there. Books that aren't even published are 5 stars and other books are spammed with haters. Trust your friends and ask them what they think you'll like. 

2. Don't start with big series right away

So the thing about fantasy and dystopian is that there is a lot of world building, which means that there is usually more than one book in a series. I get the temptation of immediately jumping in with Games Of Thrones (really I do - I have had book one for months), but it's probably not the best idea. A series is a commitment and before committing, it might be smart to just dabble in the genre a bit. Pick a great standalone or a start series like The Hunger Games. 

3. Loved the movie? Read the book

Talking about The Hunger Games, if you love movies with dystopian or fantasy elements, try the books! So many Hollywood films nowadays are based on books, so you're bound to find one this way. Another bonus is that if you don't love the books, but still want to know how the story ends, you can just switch to the movies again. 

4. Find crossovers

This really helped me the most. Luckily for all of us, the book industry is big on crossovers right now. Nothing is really one genre anymore. There is YA and fantasy, romance and dystopian, adventure and fantasy and everything in between. Try and find a book, and here Goodreads is your saviour, that combines fantasy/ dystopian with a genre you know you love. This way there'll be enough familiar elements for you to enjoy the story.

5. Stick with it

The beginning was rough for me. I didn't get it. I like book without too much description and I really had to learn to not glance over the description in dystopian books. Unlike with books set in this world, you need the description in these books to help you understand the world. Once you get used to it, and after a few chapters I'm sure you will if you picked up a good book, you'll love the description and crave to find out more about this new excited world. 

These were just some general tips. If you want real recommendations, here's a short list of my favourite fantasy and dystopian novels. It's short, because I'm new at this myself so feel free to add more in the comments! (There are links to the Goodreads pages of the books or to my reviews if I've written about the books)

- Throne of Glass series (YA/ dystopian)

- The Selection (YA/ dystopian)

- The Queen of the Tearling (historical fiction/ dystopian - if that's even a thing)

- The Grave Mercy Series (historical fiction / fantasy)

- Half Bad (fantasy / adventure)

-  The Winner's Curse (fantasy/dystopian)

- Harry Potter (YA/ fantasy)

- The Night Circus (fantasy elements)

The DUFF - Kody Keplinger

RATING: ★★☆☆☆

There's one thing I absolutely love: books being turned into movies. It means that I can experience a story twice - once on paper and once on screen. So when I heard that The DUFF was being made into a movie, I wanted to read the book. It's a YA contemporary classic and I figured that if it is a movie, the story has to be good.

Plot 

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. 

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

Cliché after cliché after cliché

Turns out that not only good books are being made into movies, but just popular uncreative books become movies too. The premise of The DUFF is great. Reading the Goodreads summary, there seems to be a lot of potential for feminism kick-assing. I wanted Bianca to take control of her nickname, to show people what's she worth. But as the last paragraph of that summary already shows, she falls in love. With a guy who called her ugly and fat. Who ALWAYS calls her Duffie. Who is an asshole to every single girl.

I get it. I was a teen too and yes, we've all been through our bad boy phase. And I don't mind reading about it, but what I do hate is authors that have the "omg he's such a bad boy! Oh no wait he's a good guy now because he just loves me soooo much". This can happen in life I guess, but it doesn't happen to every single girl. It won't happen to the majority of girls dating bad boys. Authors have no moral obligation to teach readers anything, but I'm getting sick and tired of reading this cliché romantic story. And by the way, Bianca and Wesley? They're a sinking ship.

Quick read

What I did like about this book is that it's a breeze to read. The writing is easy, flows and if you just ignore the clichés, is quite enjoyable actually. Kody Keplinger knows how teenagers read and makes sure that there is not a single point in the book where you'll be bored. The pacing is excellent and you'll be completely in this fiction world.

Rating

So this is a short review, because there really isn't much to discuss about this book. It is exactly what you think it will be - which can be a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for. For me, it fell flat and was completely ruined by all the clichés. I think Kody Keplinger has a good writing voice and I'm excited to read more of her books to see if they get more original as she gets more experienced as a writer. But this book has to be a two out of five.

March Classic: The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The 2015 Classics Challenge set up by Stacey over at The Pretty Books. The goal is to read one classic a month and to blog about the experience. I've always wanted to read more classics and since I'm in a monthly classics book group, I thought this would be a great way to combine the two! This month, I've read The Scarlett Letter and yes I've read it in March and yes, I'm slow with posting!

WHEN I DISCOVERED THIS CLASSIC + WHY I CHOSE TO READ IT

I've read this book because it was the pick of the month for my book club. Besides that, which is kinda a lame reason to read a book, I really have always wanted to read this book. I'm not sure when I first heard about it, but it seemed like one of those books that was always referenced in other books (even in The Duff, which I just finished) and I never understood the references. Another thing that annoyed me was that ALL my friends had read this book. I like to be a smartass and the only way to do that is to read the books everyone else has read so I can tell people they're completely wrong about them.

WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC

If I must guess what makes this book a classics, it's the historical context of the book. I've heard it's the first mass produced American novel and it was progressive for its age. Even now, I had to appreciate the feminist undertone of the novel, with the depiction of Hester, and the amount I've learned about colonial America. I've studied American History in uni but this book really shed a light on how people lived back then and I think this will forever draw readers to the book.

WHAT I THOUGHT OF THIS CLASSIC

Having said all that praise for why The Scarlett Letter is a classic, and I would never argue that it isn't, I personally could not enjoy this book at all. 

Where is the dialogue in this book? It was all tell - tell - tell and nothing was showed to the reader which made it an exhausting read for me. On top of that, there was a very strong moralistic undercurrent in the story and I felt like Hawthorne was just shouting at me "LOOK AT THE MORAL! LEARN YOUR LESSON". That in itself is annoying enough, but I also struggled with what the moral was. I spend two hours with my book group talking about what exactly Hawthorne is critiquing / praising and we just couldn't figure it out. If you want us to take a moral away from the story, and the writing makes clear that that was the plan, at least make it a clear moral.

WILL IT STAY A CLASSIC

How can it not? As long as America exists, people will read it to find out what America was like in the beginning. If America somehow magically ceases to exist, people will read it to find out what America used to be like. And as long as gender issues will exist in this world, which I unfortunately think is forever, this book will be used to discuss these issues. 

WHO I’D RECOMMEND IT TO

Americans. I think this book is so American and has so many references to that society, and really shows how the contemporary society was developed, that American readers will appreciate this book even more than any other readers. Or people obsessed with America so you can pretend you live there. 

Joanna Briscoe and Harriet Lane : Book event

On Wednesday, I went to Waterstone's Hampstead (which is a gorgeous shop by the way!) to listen to a talk about domestic thrillers by Joanna Briscoe, author of Sleep with Me and Touched and Harriet Lane, author of Her. It was an amazing talk, because a lot of it was about the writing process which was so inspiring to listen to. Below are some pictures and a little report. 

Joanna Briscoe

Joanna, who is my Faber & Faber writing teacher, talked about her book Touched. Instead of summarizing it, which Goodreads does pretty well, I'll just give some fun facts about what inspired her to write the book.

She said it was inspired by the house she grew up in until she was four. It's a pretty house in a pretty neighbourhood and that's where she got the creepiness from - she wanted to combine bright colours with something scary (which is very original in my opinion!). 

A little funny note is the fact that Joanna's book reminded someone of The Yellow Wallpaper. Turns out that Joanna has read the book but only after she finished her story and she said she was happy about that or else she would have changed the colour of her wallpaper. This just shows how stories interconnect, even without the authors being aware of it!

Harriet Lane

Harriet Lane also talked about her book Her, her writing inspiration and her writing progress.

She said that she just started writing one day - she begins at the beginning and ends at the ending. She basically looks around her and "shoves it in" the story she writes. (Don't you love how simple she makes it sound? So jealous!) 

For all her fans: she is working on book three but apparently it's still very early days!

Talk

Then there was a talk with both authors about the domestic thriller, genre and writing. I'll just write down some interesting snippets!

Both of the authors said they didn't really think in genres when writing. Harriet says she uses thriller conventions but likes to play tricks on the reader by using them in an usual way. She says a perfect reader will appreciate these things. Joanna said she always has the perfect book in her head, but what she writes is not perfect. Both agreed that all you could hope for was a perfect reader who understands your book.

What I also found very interesting, as a writer myself, was the talk about editing and point of view. Harriet always writes in first person because it's straight forward and "the way characters see things says everything about them". Joanna feels like every story lends itself to a first or third person and she experiments with it. (Harriet did try to move her third novel to the third person that morning, but I got the impression that trying third person did not make her happy at all!)

And then some fun facts:

Writing advice - both Harriet and Joanna suggested walking or napping

Favourite authors 

Joanna : Toni Morrison and Thomas Hardy

Harriet: Shirley Jackson and Daphne Du Maurier 

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Jokester Characters

Something new on the blog again! I know I used to do just review, but I figured that gets a bit old and boring. I'll still do reviews, but I'll try to mix it up with more fun and random posts - like the Top 5 Wednesday's posts that can be found in this Goodreads group.

So in honour of April 1st, here are my top 5 Jokester characters (which are honestly just the funniest characters I read, not the pranksters):

1. Astrid Krieger from Firecracker by David Iserson

Oh my gosh. At the time of writing this post, I've only read a few chapters of this book and already she is my number one. This narrator is hilarious in a total not trying to be hilarious way. She's funny and spunky and 

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2. Frankie Landeau-Banks from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

I mean, does anyone do pranks better than Frankie? Yeah I think not. Frankie is the ultimate prankster and does it with a feminist agenda as well - what is not to love?Some of my favourite moments in the book are the pool prank and of course the final prank - which is a massive spoiler so I'll stay hush - that really shows the whole school that you cannot mess with Frankie.

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3. The Weasley Twins from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

I think these are on everyone's list. They even opened a joke shop because they are known to be so funny. My favourite moment is when the twins finally decide to leave Hogwarts and literally go out with a bang. I thought (and hoped) poor little Umbridge would pee herself! 

Though this list is not made for prankster and joke-tellers, Fred and George Weasley are both normally funny and pranksters.

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4. Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson series by R.R. Riordan

I know. I can't make a single list without including Percy. He might not do pranks or really joke all that much, but he has sarcasm  down. Like perfectly down. He made me laugh several times while reading the series and I think it's one of the main reasons why so many people love the books.

My favourite moment? I don't have one. It's just every single thing he says. Especially when he tries to be romantic - and fails miserably at it.

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5. Levi from Fangirl

Oh Levi - you are such a cutie. Your sense of humour made Cat, and every Fangirl reader, fall in love with you. You might not be the funniest character ever, but your sense of humour combined with your amazing personality means you deserve a spot on this list.

So that's my list. Who did I forget? Who shouldn't have been on here? You can always let me know in the comments :)