Update on My Writing Life

So . . . I've been a little busy. In November, December, and January, I worked as an interim editor for a local magazine while their current editor went on maternity leave. It was nice to get back into the world of magazine production, and as a bonus, I had a crash course in the importance of digital content! I'm now taking on more content writing jobs, as well as working on one big health and fitness project, so the experience I'm getting is invaluable.

Here are a few of my recent blog posts:

About Writing and Publishing:

Book Review of Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon

Creating Visuals to Accompany Blog Posts (Like the one on the right!)

Spotlight: A Must-See Film for Writers

5 Apps for Writers

Out and About in Charlotte, NC:

5 Places to Work Out with Kids in Charlotte 

5 Places for a Fun Mom Night Out in Charlotte

5 Places to Bounce With Your Kids in Charlotte


*Coming up in the next week, I'll tackle the revisions on a YA novel (like a boss project manager) I wrote during NaNoWriMo ages ago. Stay tuned for updates!

Book Review: Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore

Some Kind of Wonderful. Sixteen Candles. Say Anything. When Harry Met Sally. Never Been Kissed. I’ve always been a huge fan of quirky romance movies, even if the character dynamics do usually find me screaming at my television set.

To Keith in Some Kind of Wonderful: “You idiot! How can you not see your female best friend has the major hots for you, especially after you ‘practiced’ kissing her in the auto body shop!”

To Ronald “Ronnie" Miller in Can’t Buy Me Love: "Stop getting distracted by all the popular girls falling all over you—the only girl you’ve ever really liked now likes you back and you can’t give her the time of day?”

That end scene at the Olympics in the movie Cutting Edge, where Doug tells Kate he’s in love with her right before they go on the ice, after they've been fighting the entire movie? Completely swoon worthy.

Speaking of swooning, when I first read the premise of Kelly Fiore’s YA romance, Just Like the Movies, I knew it was definitely one to add to my wish list. It did not disappoint—thanks to a rainy weekend, I was able to finish it in one day!

Synopsis:

Pretty, popular Marijke Monti and over-achieving nerd-girl Lily Spencer have little in common--except that neither feels successful when it comes to love. Marijke can’t get her boyfriend to say “I love you” and Lily can’t get a boyfriend at all. When the girls end up at a late night showing of Titanic, sniffling along with the sinking ship, they realize that their love lives could--and should--be better. Which sparks an idea: Why can’t life be like a movie? Why can't they create perfect romantic situations? Now they have a budding friendship and a plan--to act out grand gestures and get the guys of their dreams. It seems like fun at first, but reality turns out to be much more complicated, and they didn't take into account that finding true love usually requires finding yourself first.

Tommy’s parents are standing ten feet away from me. I swallow. They don’t look mad, exactly. But they don’t look happy either. How am I supposed to explain this to them? At least, how can I explain it in a way that doesn’t sound completely insane? I consider my options.

I want your son to love me, so I’m acting out movie scenes.

Say Anything is just the beginning. There are a dozen others I’m willing to try.

Haven’t you ever wished you could fall in love like they do on-screen?

I set down the speakers. This is something Lily and I didn’t plan for. It’s ten at night and I’m standing in front of my boyfriend’s parents. If this were a movie, the director would call “Cut!” But this is real life, not a movie set, and there isn’t a script to follow.

Review:

The chapters alternate between narrators--Marijke (pronounced MA-RAY-KUH) and Lily. Sometimes this type of format can get repetitive, but Fiore did a good job of weaving the two stories together. I found both characters refreshing, and completely relatable. Most teenage girls are guilty at some point of letting their lives revolve around a boyfriend, and this is the position Marijke finds herself in. Lily just wants her crush, Joe, to notice she’s alive. Because a lot of the movies in this book are more from when I was a teenager (I’m in my late 30s), I have a feeling younger readers will be inspired to have a movie marathon once they finish this book. Just Like the Movies would also make a great mother/daughter read—there’s nothing in the book that a 12-year-old girl or older couldn’t read. Both Tommy (Marijke’s boyfriend) and Joe are adorable and I have a feeling younger readers will fall in love with them, too. I went back and forth with being frustrated with Tommy but then he would redeem himself time and again. The concept of Just Like the Movies is fresh and fast-paced, and will leave you with plenty of ideas to add some spark in your own relationship, if you dare!

Note: Kelly Fiore is the author of Taste Test, which I also recently finished. It's another fun, fresh contemporary YA that takes place on the set of a reality cooking show for teens. I'll post a review of it soon!

Review and Giveaway: Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away

There were two specific reasons I was excited to read Trisha Slay’s young adult novel, Not So LongAgo, Not So Far Away. First of all, my husband is a huge Star Wars fan. And like Slay, he admits that the original Star Wars is not his favorite in the franchise, but rather, The Empire Strikes Back holds that place in his heart. Second, I am a huge movie buff and like the main character in the book, Erika, I too worked in a movie theater in high school. Mine didn’t quite have the historical charm of The Bixby Theater, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless and one I will never forget. It’s a fantastic backdrop for a novel.

Synopsis:

When Erika’s best friend, teen beauty queen Cassandra Abbott, disappears during the early hours of Memorial Day 1977, Erika isn't exactly surprised. After all, they’ve been plotting and planning Cassie’s escape for months. But then Cassie’s departure unleashes a whirlwind of questions, suspicions and accusations that Erika never expected. She’s lying to the police. She’s being bullied by older students. Worst of all, she’s starting to doubt she ever REALLY knew Cassie Abbott at all. Under the weight of scrutiny and confusion, Erika struggles just to breathe...until a strange new movie transforms her summer with A New Hope. 

For Erika, Star Wars changes EVERYTHING. So she volunteers to do chores for a local theater owner to gain unlimited access to a galaxy far, far away from her current reality. At the Bixby Theater—a beautiful but crumbling movie palace from a more civilized era—Erika discovers new friendships, feels the crush of first love and starts an exciting new romance with Super 8 film making...but she can't hide in a darkened movie theater forever. As the summer wears on, tensions escalate over the unsolved mystery surrounding Cassie’s disappearance. Someone seems to think Erika knows too many of Cassie's secrets. Eventually, Erika must step out of the shadows and, armed only with her Super 8 camera and the lessons she's learned from Star Wars, fight to save herself and the theater that has become her second home. Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away is a quirky, contemporary, coming-of-age novel set during the earliest days of the Star Wars fan phenomenon.

Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed NSLA. The book is narrated by 15-year-old Erika Williams in the wake of her best friend Cassie’s escape from an abusive father and chief of the police. Hopeful that the beautiful and charismatic Cassie has made it safely to California, Erika also writes letters to her friend as she narrates a surprising turn of events in her small Ohio town during the summer of 1977.

The book showcases a colorful cast of characters, from Erika’s “Mother Monster” Anita to the corrupt members of the local sheriff’s office to the endearing yet tough motley crew at The Bixby. I especially loved the Bixby employees Sonny, also a student at Erika's high school, and Alex, the mysterious female theater projectionist and Vietnam vet. Throw in the enigmatic Cassie and a blockbuster summer movie that changed the lives of many fans all over the world, and you’ve got a recipe for a page turner. So many times the members of our workplace become like a surrogate family and this holds true in Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away. The pop culture references in this book added to the charm, from the bottles of Tab to the record players to the Super 8 video camera. I loved watching Erika transform from a scared young girl living miserably under her domineering mother’s roof to a blossoming filmmaker who stands up for the things she holds most sacred, including her self worth and the theatre that helped her reclaim her identity. 

About Trisha Slay:

Trisha Slay is a writer with a passion for storytelling. She has studied at the Institute of Children’s Literature as well as furthering her skills through online workshops. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and the Atlanta Writer’s Club. She enjoys participating in writing groups and spends a great deal of time improving her craft. Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away is her first novel.

Tricia hopes Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away would be compared to Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. She has said that "If those two books had a Star Wars-obsessed little sister, I'd like to think she would be my novel."

Tricia lives between the Atlanta metro area and the North Georgia Mountains, but hails originally from Ohio...by the way of the San Francisco Bay area. When she is not working on her next book (tentatively titled Sometimes We Strike Back), her interests include: 70s pop culture; unsolved mysteries; Star Wars (original trilogy); historic movie theaters; haunted history; reading (especially YA novels); nutrition/weight watchers/healthy vegetarian cuisine; hiking (exploring the National Forest trails with her guy); yoga/meditation; miscellaneous crafting projects (that rarely turn out as envisioned); and writing letters she never intends to mail.

Find out more about the author by visiting her online:

Trisha’s website: http://trishaslay.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrishaSlayAuthor

Twitter: @SlaytheWriter

Thanks to Trisha and Crystal over at WOW! Women on Writing, I have one copy of Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away to give away. You know you want to win a free book, so enter at the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!


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