Amy C. Shaw

Leigh Bardugo Event!

November 13, 2014 • 16 Comments

I went to what felt like my first legit YA author event on November 9: Leigh Bardugo at Parnassus Books in Nashville! It’s about a 45 minute drive for me and it was completely worth it! (Not to mention that I got to pick up a slice of my absolute favorite cheesecake before I headed home… but anyhow…) Last year I saw Kat Zhang at a local Barnes & Noble when she was part of a local author signing, so I got her to sign the first two books of The Hybrid Chronicles, neither of which I had read yet at the time, and chatted with her briefly. This event was more like what I have seen other bloggers post about, and I was glad to finally have one of these experiences of my own, especially since I just came to love the Grisha trilogy so much this year!

Some bloggers take good notes during these events, but I didn’t, so here’s just a quick recap:

She shared about what her younger self thought via some of her old diary entries. I have to say that was brave; I can’t imagine sharing my old journals with a crowd of people like that! But then again, maybe I would share a snippet or two to make a point, just as she did. She used it as a segway to discuss…
She talked about why she’s proud to write genre fiction. One thing younger Leigh pleaded with older Leigh was to remember how important young people are, which I thought was so neat for someone who grew up to YA fiction. She talked about how while, yes, genre fiction may be escapist, really so is ALL FICTION. She talked about how readers of genre fiction are the ones who will always be waiting for that letter from Hogwart’s or looking for the door to lead to Narnia, and considering when I was younger I was always hoping to find that door to Narnia, that really resonated with me. Some people (probably not anyone reading this now though) might think that’s silly and childish, but it’s about imagination. Anyhow, I just really appreciated it.
She read a decent-length excerpt from Six of Crows. It was hard for me to pay attention to the whole thing just because I’m bad at listening to things being read in general, but the concept is definitely interesting (a heist in an underworld trade society within the Grisha universe) and I’m looking forward to it.
She answered questions about characters and writing. I don’t have anything specific to note here, except it’s always nice to hear authors share their struggles with writing.

When it was all over it was time for the signing part! So, if you follow Leigh on social media you know about the dice you could get if you bought one of her books from the hosting bookstore. So of course I wanted to get on that, so I bought another PB copy of Shadow and Bone as a present for a family member. Well, apparently everyone else who was buying their books did it beforehand (smart), but since I waited until after, I ended up the back of the signing line. BUT I did get the dice, which is important, and I still got to meet Leigh and get my stack of books signed plus other swag, also important! I had not really thought of what to say to her, but I decided at the last moment to mention my Grisha wedding inspiration post that I knew she had seen (thanks to tumblr), and she remembered it and said she loved it! I told her it made my day when I saw she liked the link, and she said it made her day when she saw the post! So that was a cool moment. (Then recently I tweeted her a link to the other posts because she said she wanted to see more and she tweeted me back saying she loved them all!)

And of course, pictures or it didn’t happen…

Leigh asked for my favorite character before she started writing book quotes inside. I said Sturmhond was my favorite, of course.

Books + swag, picture obviously not taken with my phone. So the band around the first two books was described to me as a bookmark/headband. 🙂

Have you ever gotten to meet one of your favorite authors? What’s your favorite memory from an author meeting?

Review: Interstellar

November 11, 2014 • 16 Comments

If you know me, you know how much I love Christopher Nolan. Inception has been my favorite movie probably since the day I first saw it in the theater, I loved what he did with Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy, and I loved the twisty-turny mind games of The Prestige. I am happy to report that Nolan is still at the top of his game with Interstellar. In one word, I would describe this movie as profound. In a few, I’d say it’s a deeply moving look at humanity. It both does and does not feel like a typical Nolan film; in many ways it looked and felt different, but the themes of love and tragedy and triumph and humanity that are present in all his films certainly resounded in Interstellar.

I went into this movie virtually blind. Everything I knew was from the trailers, and there is a lot missing from the trailers, including some of the casting that ended up totally surprising me when they showed up on screen. And since I’ve mentioned the casting, it was incredibly perfect. I am not a Matthew McConaughey fan by nature. I blame it on the movie The Wedding Planner and the fact that he is just very hyped and if I don’t love someone who is hyped I sometimes end up disliking them. That’s terrible, I know, but anyways, he really delivered in this film, along with everyone else.

I want you to go into this movie mostly blind too, so I don’t want to give away too much. What I will say is that the future that Nolan created was scary, and not in some dystopia way, we’re talking in a the-Earth-is-dying way. There is this certain mysterious element going on, and to my surprise, I actually figured it out (the generalities, not the specifics) really early in the movie. However, it did not hinder my enjoyment of the film, and my husband did not figure it out. For those of you who have seen it, I will be curious to hear if you knew what was going on before the reveal. Despite having an idea of what was happening, the getting there and the how was still quite the ride.

I have heard a few murmurs about this film possibly getting Oscar nods, and I really, really hope it does. I don’t watch many Oscar contender movies, which I’m sure some people would say makes my taste in movies unrefined, but anyway, I could tell this movie was more of an Oscar-esque movie than most of the other movies I watch. There were several gratuitous space shots and other beautiful shots that really deserve recognition in addition to the great story and acting.

My biggest complaint against Nolan in the past has been his underdeveloped female protagonists, or at least me failing to connect with them. I did like Ariadne a good bit in Inception, and I thought Mal was a good character too, but otherwise, I have always been underwhelmed with the ladies in his movies. That is totally not the case with this movie. I LOVED Murphy, and I also liked Anne Hathway’s character Dr. Brand.

As I mentioned before, I had an idea of what generally might be happening, but before/during that reveal came some elements that, as my husband put it, were on the edge of going off the “deep end.” Yes, it’s science fiction, but it also seemed they were trying to make it pretty close to real science, and some of it started to feel like it might be a little hard to swallow. But thankfully I felt the “line” wasn’t crossed. I know that threshold is different for everyone, and heck, this whole paragraph might not even make sense to you, but I thought it was worth noting because it factors into my rating.

Lastly, I’ll vaguely mention the ending. The Prestige and Inception have the make-you-gasp, not-what-I-really-wanted-but-wow, open-ended sort of endings. The Dark Knight Rises ended so beautifully perfect (minus a certain someone in a cafe but I won’t go there now…). This is closer to a Prestige/Inception ending, but it plays out a little slower and doesn’t feel as shocking, if that makes sense. I didn’t dislike it, but it wasn’t his strongest ending.

This is a really fantastic story, and I am so pleased Nolan shared it with us. And of course, I am already eagerly anticipating what’s next from him. (Not Superman vs. Batman, which he is just producing, not writing/directing. Doesn’t count.) Not a perfect film, and not my favorite of his, but still very noteworthy. And it is definitely an experience in the theater, so go and watch it ASAP!

Have you seen Interstellar? What are your thoughts on it?

Top 10 Books I Want to Reread

November 4, 2014 • 29 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books I Want To Reread. Rereading seems like such a luxury. Like when will I ever have the time to put aside my ever-growing TBR pile and revisit an old book love? But, I want to get better at it in the next year. I doubt I will actually reread all these soon, but maybe in my lifetime. Here’s my list, in no particular order.

1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I think I am going to try to reread the trilogy before the second Mockingjay movie comes out next year. I hope it really pulls me into the story again as it did the first time.

2. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

I read this back in high school, and I’m really curious if I would like it as much now as I did then.

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

One of my all-time favorite stories that I really want to revisit via the book.

4. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

I like some of these books more than others, but I think I would like to reread all of them again sometime.

5. Rebecca by Daphene de Maurier

I really enjoyed this one in high school and really want to read it again.

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Another read from high school.

7. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

I wanted to reread this book right after I finished it. That’s pretty rare, especially for a book I gave 4.5 (not 5) stars to.

8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read this back in middle school! I wanted to reread it before the first of the movies came out, but didn’t. But maybe one day…

9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

And one last read from high school I feel I really ought to revisit.

10. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Because I can never get enough of Rudy.

What books do you want to reread?

The 777 Challenge

November 2, 2014 • 6 Comments

Annie did this challenge on her blog, and I was curious to see how it might look for me.

How it works: 7th page of current WIP, 7 lines down, 7 lines.

This didn’t work out in as neat of a spot as I hoped, so I bent the rules a little, but it’s close enough.

Also, I’m terrified of doing this.

There is nothing profound in these 7 lines. No extraordinary writing. And despite this, I also have the fear of someone stealing the words anyway.

But my first draft didn’t even contain all these lines. Some of this was written recently as I’m going trough revisions for my NaNoWriMo story Earthbound from last year. At least I’m not revealing a section of my story that I feel is super special. Yet at the same time, these lines do say something that moves the story froward.

I want to become more serious about putting myself out there as an aspiring author, which is why I decided to do this. So without further ado and without context of the story (I’ll tell you one thing: Noa is a girl), here’s my 777:

Dad sighs, and I turn around so I don’t have to see the disappointment on his face. “Noa,” he says steadily before I can walk away, and I look back to him and realize he doesn’t actually look disappointed, just sad.

“I’m sorry. Your mother is right. We never intended to stay up here so long without a visit to Earth. But ultimately, the decision is yours. OK?”

I nod before I turn back and head for my room to wait for Dr. Avett’s arrival and my final sentence.

10 YA Halloween Costumes You Might Want to Try

October 28, 2014 • 19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books/Movies To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit OR Top Ten Characters Who I Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween. I don’t usually dress up for Halloween, and when I do, I generally keep it super simple. But I thought it might be fun to compile a list of characters that others might want to try out for Halloween.

Prom/Formal Dress Reuse

America from The Selection

Dress source

If you have a blue, ruffled dress hanging in your closest, you can pretend you’re America participating in The Selection.

Kestrel from The Winner’s Curse

Dress source

Have a dress that resembles Kestrel’s? Then brush up on your Bite and Sting game and strategize for a fantastic Halloween.

Lilac from These Broken Stars

With an emerald or jade gown you pretend to be Lilac on board the Icarus, or if you’re not afraid to, you can rip and tatter the dress for her look once she’s stranded on the planet surface with Tarver.

DIY

Katniss from The Hunger Games, The Girl on Fire dress

Pattern/tutorial source

If you enjoy making your costume, you might enjoy this DIY tutorial for Katniss’ girl on fire dress!

From Your Closet (or Thrift Store)

Katniss in the Arena

Source

There’s a chance you’ve got several of these basics in your closet: boots, khaki or olive green cargo pants, a black top, and a black jacket. Cap it off with a braid and bow, and don’t forget the Mockingjay pin!

Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Costume Theatre Style

Source

Even though The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet isn’t really YA and I’m really pulling from the Youtube series for inspiration, who cares? You can dress in one of Lizzie’s more iconic looks or, for even more fun, sport one of the costume theater outfits!

Deryn (Dylan) Sharp, from Leviathan

Source 1 and 2

For something unique, you might want to try this alternative history/steampunk look of Deryn disguised as a boy airman.

Tris from Divergent

Source

With the simple outfit of pants, tank top, and boots, added with the flair of bird tattoos (though I would advise against permanent ink) you can achieve Tris’ Dauntless look.

Hermione from Harry Potter

If skirts and sweaters are a part of your wardrobe, find some Griffyndor colors and perhaps a robe to add, and suddenly you’re Hermione!

Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles

Source 1 and 2

There are several ways to approach a Cinder outfit, mechanic wear or ball wear or prisoner wear or fugitive wear, showing her cyborg parts through clothing like these leggings or through makeup, etc. And if you dress for the ball, don’t forget the iconic red heel from the cover!

Are you dressing as a YA character for Halloween? If not, which of these would you dress as?

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