What’s Up Wednesday: Book of the Month for October, 2013 Edition

I’m a little late posting this week’s WUW (see below for an explanation). As you probably know, What’s Up Wednesday is a blog meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to keep up with blog writer friends. To participate, we all answer four questions that cover what’s going on in our lives at the moment. See Jaime’s blog for details on how you can join in.

What I’m Reading

I just finished ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth, and I’ve yet to select the next book to read. Possibly THE SHERLOCKIAN by Graham Moore, but I also have GIRL OF NIGHTMARES, THE DIVINERS, and a number of other books I could read. Choices choices! As to what I thought of ALLEGIANT… I’ll post a full review soon, either here or on Goodreads, but here are some brief thoughts. I was a little disappointed. I wondered about the dual perspective, though toward the end I understood better why she wrote it that way. But the voices of the two perspectives were too similar. When the only way you know who’s POV your reading is to check the chapter heading, something’s not right. Marie Lu scored points with me because even though she color-coded the two voices in LEGEND, I didn’t need the color coding to know who’s POV I was reading. Also, there was a bit too much knuckle-brushing/nose brushing-type romance in the first half of the book. Indeed, I thought the first 250 pages needed some serious editing. HOWEVER… the book got a lot better after that, and I gave Veronica big points for a very gutsy ending. I know people have complained about the ending, and though I haven’t read any of the complaints, I think I know why. And frankly, I thought it was bold, but totally true to character. Story-wise, I think it’s a good finale. Not the best-written of the three though; only four stars.

So, what’s my Book of the Month for October? Definitely… THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey. I gushed about it a few weeks ago, and wrote a review on Goodreads, so I won’t go on about it now, except to say you really need to read that book! And I have the sequel on pre-order already.

What I’m Writing

Not much at the moment. Editing has slowed to a snail’s pace. I’ll try to get more done as time permits, though I’m not sure how much time I’ll have over the next month.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Another Janet Reid contest, and another shout-out. I didn’t win, but I didn’t expect to–partly because of the competition (97 entries–and the winner sooo deserved to win), and partly because I wrote a poem, and poetry’s not my thing. So why write a poem? BECAUSE poetry’s not my thing. Yes, when it comes to writing, I guess I’m Dauntless (har har). Seriously, I like a challenge, and the harder I can make it for myself, the better. However, I’m inspired because 1) I wrote a poem; 2) it was a story; 3) it was horror-themed (and I don’t write horror); and 4) Janet gave it a shout-out–she enjoyed it. Cool! More evidence that perhaps I might not be too bad at this writing thing…

What Else I’ve Been Up To

My mum’s visiting from the UK for the next month or so. This means I’ll be spending time with her, which explains why this is late, why my writing has slowed to a crawl, and why I’ll probably not be as blog-active for a while. But it’s worth it. I haven’t seen her in over two years, so it’ll be good to spend time with her.

What’s going on in your life?