Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!
So I’ve been quite the bad blogger lately. I still need to put up my list of Debuts I’m going to read this year for the Debut Author Challenge. I haven’t done any Road Trip Wednesday and I haven’t been responding to recent comments. Though I read them and love them and am very thankful for them! So what have I been doing? Well first work started again which means less time.
But really, I have been doing this *little* think called REVISING…waking up early on weekends to work on ONE TWO THREE, making my characters even more fleshed out, giving them more meaning and also more to struggle with. I think it’s going in the right direction even though I did have a moment last week where I wondered, where I doubt myself (but that’s for another post :-)). Right now, I am simply excited to get in the train this evening and turn on my laptop, to put my alarm clock early Saturday to revise before my husband gets up.
And I’m also very grateful for Dahlia. She really takes the time to help us, going far beyond to answer our questions and help us make our manuscripts shine for PitchWars. And I cannot wait to read my team’s manuscripts!
And when it comes to reading? This week I got lost into two wonderful books! Both YA contemporary. Both amazing. Both giving me all the feelings. I will review them properly closer to their publication date but just know they both made me SMILE 😀
IF YOU FIND ME, by Emily Murdoch
Publication date: March 26th, 2013
THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND …
A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the “normal” life of school, clothes and boys.
Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go … a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.
Publication date: June 7th 2013
“I dare you…”
If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….
So tell me what made you SMILE this week?
Elodie Nowodazkij 
Hello, Elodie! I’m glad you had plenty to make you smile this week, what with work starting back. I guess having your commute/writing time to look forward to every day helps. 🙂
As for me, I can’t say there was anything extraordinary to make me smile–just the usual things (e.g., family and life in general).
I’m happy to hear that revisions are going so well and that Dahlia’s really helping you guys out. What a great opportunity! Things that made me smile this week: having my husband home for a few days, finally piecing together how I want to fix the start of my WIP (thanks to a very productive phone call with my sister), and just general excitement about the SCBWI conference and NYC. 🙂
Boo for back to work 😦 but yay for it being the weekend now! (Well, for some people–I have to go to work still, yuck.) What made me smile: finishing THE DISENCHANTMENTS (I’m planning a whole post on how much I loved this book) and a random Thursday three course lunch with my bestie 🙂
Glad to hear revisions are going well! You definitely have a great story and characters that I LOVE so hang in there, even when it feels tough. And I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for those books when they’re released!
I get what your saying about revising. I just finished a huge revision myself. Thanks so much for talking me through adding the Google Reader button to my sidebar. I finally figured it out. Have a great weekend!
Oooh DARE YOU TO sounds really fun 🙂 And good luck on your revisions!
What made me smile this week: Downton Abbey season 3 premier, my husband coming home from a short business trip, and CHARLOTTE STREET by Danny Wallace.
Good luck with the revising! I’m so excited for you and the Pitch Wars teams 🙂
You’re so dedicated to get up early on Saturday morning and work on revisions! I tend to work late so the alarm stays off on Saturday. Both of those books descriptions hooked me in. Might have to check them out. As for things that made me smile this week: Talking to Jaime on the phone (always good for a smile and usually some hysterical laughter), reading to my son, some new music to listen to, and knowing that THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT is on its way through the mail to my house at this very moment. 🙂
I WANT YOUR REVISIONS!!!!! KTHANKSBYE.
ALSO, ❤
I’m so glad you enjoyed IF YOU FIND ME. That book’s writing and characters totally got inside me and have stuck around since. I thought it was a beautiful (though often heartbreaking) story. And I obviously have to read DARE YOU TO. I had some minor issues with PUSHING THE LIMITS, but overall, I liked that one a lot. And since you’re recommending its follow up, I’m all over it. 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. And good luck with your revisions. I’m in the same boat!
Hey, I’ve been a bad blogger, too! And a bad writer in terms of making time for it (but I’ll give myself a pass for that this week). I’m glad your revision is going well! I’m getting ready to dive into one, and feeling kind of excited about it.
I’ve been keeping up with your revisions on Twitter! Although I’m not writing or revising right now (I’m up to my ears in research in preparation for revision), you’ve certainly been motivating me!
I’m so proud of all the hard work you’ve been putting into your revisions! 😀
Both of these books sound really good. Looking forward to your reviews.
What made me smile was your post, and going on a FREE Disney Cruise with my fam:-)