Tag: Tamora Pierce

What Are You Reading – Mad Excitement Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn What Are You Reading?4 Comments

What Are You Reading - ExcitementThis is clearly the most exciting week of the year in reading.  Last week, Shadows by Robin McKinley and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce both came out.  My library already got me Shadows, and I’m #9 in line for Battle Magic–and the library system ordered ten copies, so I expect to receive it momentarily.

Next Tuesday, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente comes out.  That one I have pre-ordered from Amazon and I’m #1 on reserve at the library, so someone will get it to me quickly (not that I’m obsessive of anything…)

Just for fun, the new Neil Gaiman book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I’ve been waiting on the library hold list for since June, picked this weekend to finally reach me.  And the list was vastly shorter for his newer book, Fortunately the Milk, so I expect that at any time as well.

To top the whole thing off, I got the proof copy of my own novel, which I’m self-publishing in November (more on that here), so I’m reading through that for typos, weird formatting, and final-final-final edits.

So this week I find myself with a large stack of must-be-read-now books, all competing and clamoring for attention.  It’s such a good thing I don’t have many evening plans coming up… 🙂

Favorites Friday: Authors I’d Like to Meet

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday9 Comments

Book Expo America is going on this weekend, and lots of lucky, lucky bloggers (or ones who planned carefully and put effort in to make it happen…) are attending.  I’m not attending (maybe one of these years!) but reading everyone else’s updates has me thinking about which authors I’d most like to meet.

Oddly enough, they aren’t necessarily my top favorite authors.  Some, like Robin McKinley, would horribly intimidate me, and others, like Susan Kay, would just send me into spinning babbles about how much I love their book(s).  But here are a few I would love to meet, and imagine that I could live to tell the tale without too much embarrassment!

Geraldine McCaughrean tops the list, because I once wrote her a letter and got the most amazing, personal letter back.  She obviously read and valued my letter, and wrote a genunine response in reply–if any part of it was a form, I couldn’t tell.  So I almost feel as though we’ve already met.

Tamora Pierce probably would send me into babbles about how her books changed my life, but they were so very life-changing that I think it would be worth any resulting embarrassment.  Besides, I have a really good story to tell her.  I met one of my best friends because we were both reading Pierce’s books in a high school class, and that gave us the courage to start talking to each other.  I feel like gushing babbles are a bit more okay when you actually have something unique to say…

Neil Gaiman is never likely to top any favorite authors lists for me–I like his books quite a bit, but…we all have our favorites.  However, everything I hear, and as far as I can tell from his Twitter, is that he’s just the coolest of authors to meet.  Very nice, very friendly, graciously poses for pictures…  He is at BEA this year.  Ah well.

Gail Carson Levine writes a lovely blog with writing advice, and on the whole just seems so friendly and pleasant that I don’t think she’d scare me a bit in person (unlike some blogging authors!)   I consider her Ella Enchanted to be a literary ancestor to some of my own writing, and if I can get an accurate judge from her blog, I think she’d like hearing that.

Nicholas Meyer is the most random one here–but he directed Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, AND wrote The Canary Trainer, a Phantom of the Opera/Sherlock Holmes crossover.  What other author is going to hit on so many of my interests?  His Phantom retelling is the only one I’ve found that makes the Phantom less sympathetic than Leroux and, given the opportunity, I’d quite like to ask about the thought process behind that…

At the moment I don’t have any plans of meeting any of these authors, but I do keep my eye out for signings.  If it ever happens, you’ll hear about it!  In the meantime, what living authors would you like to meet?  We’ll get to the dead ones another week!

Favorites Friday: Anticipated Books of 2013

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations9 Comments

Something a little different today–books I really want to read but alas, am still waiting on their publishing dates!

Before I got into book blogging, I was almost never waiting for books, because I usually didn’t know anything was coming out until it was already out.  I still don’t have a huge list of books I’m anticipating, since I usually add books to my ToBeRead list when they’re being reviewed–and therefore already published.  But I have managed to latch on to several current authors and ongoing series recently, and am eagerly awaiting their upcoming releases…

1) The Girl Who Soared Above Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente – I am so in love with that title.  I mean…!!!  The first two books in the series (reviews here and here) were my favorite two reads of last year, with no serious competition.  I am eagerly anticipating another return to Fairyland.
Release Date: October 8, 2013

2) Shadows by Robin McKinley – I feel a rather personal attachment to this book.  I read McKinley’s blog, and have been following along through the trials and trevails of writing, revising and copy-editing this book for the last…it must be upwards of a year now, maybe two.  After all that, I feel invested.  And that’s even though I have almost no sense of what the book is actually about.  I don’t know–there’s magic, and it’s McKinley.  I don’t really need to know more than that.
Release Date: September 26, 2013

3) Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce – Back when I didn’t track anticipated books, the one author I did keep an eye on was Tamora Pierce.  This book would be more exciting if it was in her Tortall series rather than her (good but not as good) Circle of Magic series…but oh well.  It’s Tamora Pierce.  It still ranks #3.
Release Date: October 1, 2013

4) Something by L. A. Meyer – Neither Amazon nor Meyer’s website will tell me what’s next in the Jacky Faber series, but since he’s released a new book every fall for a good five years or so, I trust another will be arriving.  The most recent slipped a bit, but I remain hopeful, and I always enjoy the continuing adventures of the irrepressible Jacky.
Release Date: Who knows?

Those are the top four I’m very anxiously awaiting.  It’s going to be a busy fall.  Though of course, I don’t have any shortage of books to read in the meantime…  Do you have any books you’re particularly looking forward to being released?

Blog Hop: Five Books to Grab

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations14 Comments

I’m joining in with the Book Blogger Hop again today, when bloggers discuss bookish topics!

book blogger hop

This week’s question is: What are the top 5 books you would grab in an emergency?

I’m not entirely sure what this question means…I mean, the five books I would read during a personal crisis are not necessarily the same five books I would choose if I was only going to have access to five books for an extended period…  But let’s assume the point here is, which five books would you choose if you could only have five books.  Say, on an extended spaceflight to Mars.  I like that better than the idea of being stuck on a desert island, where I’d need books about survival on a desert island!

So if I was on a long spaceflight and could only bring five books…

1) The Bible, although that’s so obvious it almost feels like cheating.

2) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (unabridged), because I read so quickly, I’d need something that would last.  Which is an argument in favor of the Bible too, apart from spiritual inspiration.

3) Susan Kay’s Phantom because, I mean, it’s Susan Kay’s Phantom and I just madly love it.

4) The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie because it’s a wonderful, lovely, magical book.  Plus, even a spaceflight to Mars would probably have its alarming and homesick moments, and this would make a perfect comfort read.  George Davies, the boy who inspired David in the book, brought a copy with him to the trenches in World War I.

5) And finally, The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery, because I couldn’t possibly get by without any Montgomery, and this is my favorite of her novels.  Though I’d be tempted to bring Volume I of her journals instead.

And if, as I know I surely would, I decided to toss a pair of shoes out of my luggage and squeeze in two more books…

6) The Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce–there is an omnibus edition, so it could be counted as one.  Alanna is the most inspiring of heroines, and every so often, everyone needs to believe that they can do anything.

7) Something Terry Pratchett…possibly Night Watch.  Because of course I’d need something funny too.

And then I’d probably have to discard some more clothes so that I could bring something by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and also If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland, and a spaceflight to Mars really would be a good moment to read some favorite Star Trek books, and so we begin to see why I have three enormous bookcases in my small apartment!

So if you had to grab five books, for a spaceflight to Mars or maybe if you were on a desert island, what would you snatch up?

Saturday Snapshot: Knick-Knacks

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot22 Comments

I like everything I own to have a story.  That doesn’t extend to, say, my shampoo or silverware, but it does include my knick-knacks.

Shelf - Barrie Fairies

I saw these adorable fairies for sale in Covent Gardens.  Having just spent a week wandering around Kensington Gardens with fairies on my mind, I couldn’t resist.  Naturally I keep them in front of my J. M. Barrie collection.

Shelf - Fandom

Here you see the result of some of my fandoms…my shelf of Star Trek books also houses Trevor the Tribble, Kirk and Spock salt-and-pepper shakers, and a Data action figure that I bought at my first ever job, at KayBee Toys (for the record, I don’t recommend working in a toy store for the Christmas season).

On the next shelf, my Phantom collection, with a model of the Paris Opera House, and then my Pirate collection.  I bought the “solemn” Captain Jack action figure because the grinning one was terrifying (really), and I managed to get a Captain Jack Happy Meal toy without actually buying any food at McDonalds.

Shelf - Lucky Cat

A less obvious connection here…but I have a Lucky Cat figurine that I bought in Chinatown in San Francisco, and it’s on this shelf because Keladry, heroine of the Protector of the Small quartet, has a collection of Lucky Cat figures.

Those are my cleverest book-and-knick-knack combinations…but perhaps I’ll share other knick-knacks another day! 🙂  Do you have any with fun stories?

Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!