Gillian Flynn's Books

I just read Dark Places and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I liked both books but Dark Places took the win for me. It gripped me from the beginning and held me until the end. I definitely didn't predict the ending. Dark Places was dark but the love of the mother shone through in the end. It's horrible to think that your best intentions, no matter how flawed, could go so wrong. I think both books showed how desperate people can do desperate things. With Gone Girl, I had a hard time getting into the book due to the unreliable narrator. I didn't know what to believe until about half way through when the book really took off. I don't know how Gillian Flynn did it but she had me rooting for the cheating husband by the end of the book.

The Wall

It stands before you, daunting and insurmountable. You begin to attack it using the weapons at your disposal. Your hands ache from punching it. Your feet throb from kicking it. Your fingernails bleed from scratching at it. But it is to no avail. The wall still stands in front of you, unyielding. There are those who will lay down in defeat. But those who don't give up will see that as the sun rises, there is a ray of light that shines through the wall. You look closer and see the wall is not one solid, impenetrable thing. It is made up of individual bricks held together by mortar. You hold on to that ray of light like it is hope and you begin again. Attacking the wall brick by brick. And when you walk over the rubble, having beaten the wall, is when you know the feeling of victory.

Stars vs. Towns

I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns by John Green. I liked both of them however I thought Paper Towns was amazing. I felt like Stars dealt with death while Towns taught us how to live, even though there was a death in each novel. Paper Towns took me back to the nostalgia of my past. I would have loved to have read this book when I was a teen. It shows the importance of being who you want to be as opposed to who everyone else wants you to be. Being three dimensional as opposed to a "paper", one dimensional and easily torn down, person. The only criticism I have about Stars is that the vocabulary of the main characters reminded me of the cast of Dawson's Creek. I always assumed that they had to have a thesaurus in their back pocket to know what the words they were saying meant. But that aside, those were two of the best YA books I have read in a long time.

Poetry for the Soul

A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling frustrated and words came into my mind. I put them down on paper and found it extremely cathartic. It was as though by writing the feelings down and verbalizing them, I was purging them from inside. I have never really given poetry a try and while I'm not really sure this would be considered poetry, it sure made me feel better. So I encourage you to do the same. Let your feelings out and post it here. Resentment festers and grows Putrid and rotten Decaying from the inside out It breeds insecurity and hatred Changing the carrier Into an unrecognizable shell

What We Teach Our Children

I came to an interesting conclusion today. It never occurred to me that by trying to realize my dreams of becoming an author, I was redefining what my children thought was possible. My older daughter was running through the house with my younger daughter in tow. I stopped them and asked them what they were doing. She replied that they were going into their bunker to prepare for the vacuum apocalypse. My husband then started the vacuum and they ran to her room, barricading the door. After they came back down my daughter told me she was thinking about writing a book about children preparing for everyday household chores like they were preparing for an apocalypse to make it fun. I am currently working on a book based on an apocalyptic event and my daughter sometimes asks me what I am writing about. I realized that while I may never sell more than 2 books a month on Amazon, that by reaching for my dream, my children now believe that they can become authors even at this young age. Even more than that, they know it's okay to be creative and push the limits of what they think they can achieve.

Writing in Reality TV

I am a reality tv lover. I can't help it. I like to escape my life and watch others struggle for a while. But I especially enjoy watching shows like the Voice where people who have already made it help those who are trying to make it. I propose a reality tv show where writers are choosen by mentors like James Patterson and Stephen King, whose books have been made into movies. Each author comes with a book idea that can be adapted to the big screen. Then the audience gets to vote on key aspects of the stories like main characters and ending. At the end of the show, one author is left standing with their movie, in which all the major elements have been chosen by the audience, being produced. It's like those books we used to read as children where you decide where the story is going to go by choicing one decision or the other and it takes you on a totally different path. Could be interesting on Bravo or Lifetime!

The End?

I have been reading a lot of YA series lately and I've noticed in some of them there seems to be no end. The story just continues from one book to the next with no resolution to the big conflict. I know that smaller conflicts or plot lines are solved but sometimes the books don't seem like they could be stand alone novels. Even the first novels in the series end with me wanting more of an ending. Maybe I'm just one of those people who likes their books wrapped up with a pretty bow while still establishing strong characters who I would want to read about even if they do solve all their problems in the first book. A complex cast of characters will always find more problems to get into, right? Some great examples of compelling series that kept my interest are Divergent and Mortal Instruments. Am I alone in wishing that some books would say To Be Continued instead of The End when the story doesn't actually end?