GOODREADS GIVEAWAY: Win a SIGNED copy of "TSUREKOMI."!

Heads up! I am currently running a giveaway through the rest of the year over on Goodreads! Up for grabs is a SIGNED paperback copy of "TSUREKOMI.", a paperback only story that also includes the shorts "NANPAKAI." and "CHINSEKI." Go start clicking!

BOOK REVIEW: "Hyrule Historia," by Shigeru Miyamoto

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia by Shigeru Miyamoto
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As a huge Legend of Zelda fan, I had to grab a copy of this for myself one day. Sooner rather than later, I found a copy at the local bookstore and treated myself!

Although I had seen many of the scans before, I must admit that they pale to having the real thing. The sheer size of this coffee table book is enough to strike undying admiration in even the most casual Zelda fan. There are pages upon pages of never before seen character and scenery sketches, as well as a full explanation and outline of the confounding timeline. Although I already knew everything about the timeline, it was still a great trip down Nostalgia Street. The biggest surprise for me was the Skyward Sword manga at the back by the notable Akira Himekawa. Somehow this had gone under my radar. LOVED it. As always Himekawa's art is top notch, and the story (which is a backstory to Skyward Sword) was everything a Zelda story should be: poignant, courageous, and hopeful.

I recommend this book to anyone who is even thinking about getting it. You won't regret it!

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"HATSUKOI." Giveaway Going on at Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

"Hatsukoi."

by Hildred Billings

Giveaway ends March 20, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Enter for your chance to win! One autographed copy will be going out at the end of March!

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY: Win a FREE SIGNED COPY of "Daisuki!"

Just what the subject line says! As of today "DAISUKI." is up for paperback giveaway grabs over at Goodreads. Opportunity closes on January 25th, and only a couple hours in there's already around 30 signups! Not that entering in earlier gives you any better chances of winning, but it probably doesn't hurt, either. ;)

Weekly Writing Check-In: NaNo Crawl, Plus Goodreads News

Hey all, just a real quick check-in for nano. Currently have my goal of writing at least 2k a day still going (that's how much I write on average anyway, except now I'm accountable, haha) of the first short coming out next month. I thought it would only be about 7k, but at this rate it'll be between 10-12k. Not complaining, just a little surprised!

In other news, "HATSUKOI." is now available to add to your "To Read" lists at Goodreads! Hooray!

Hope nano is going well for those of you partaking. Keep it up!

"DAISUKI." is now on Goodreads - Also, super fun times with vendors.

First off, I'm really excited to announce that "DAISUKI." can now be found on Goodreads for To-Read funtimes. This is kinda big for me because it makes me feel even MORE legitimate, damnit. Like a little writer grown up into a big author. (Yeah, just wait until I get my first scathing 1-Star review. Uh huh.)

In other news, for anybody who might be interested, "DAISUKI." is currently up for sale at a couple big vendors. I started early because I wasn't sure yet how long it would take for vendors to process and wanted to make sure stuff showed up on time. (The reason why I'm not sharing the links until Friday is that I'm kinda curious how many "strangers" buy the book first.) However, Kobo is taking forever (expected, I had read about that) and B&N? Wow. Just getting your account ACTIVATED is something else. I got an email from them today telling me to call their support center for...something. I have no idea what they actually did, or if it was even normal. So, I'm still waiting on that for another 48-72 hours. And then my book won't even be available until ANOTHER 48-72 hours after that. Great. So, basically, what I'm saying is that if you're looking to sell on B&N one day, get your account NOW so you can better your chances of getting your future books out on time. At this rate, I'll be pushed through Smashwords premium status faster than I'll be approved at B&N. Anyone have a similar experience with them?

In which I take a break from cleaning.

Those of you who may be wondering how the great desk/shelf clean is coming...it's going well. Slow, but well. I've got my desk completely organized how I want right now and it's making me happy. I've got most of the floor done and the shelf isn't going to get much better although it's still kind of a mess. Not much I can do about it though when I own an apartment's worth of THINGS and am storing them all in a tiny bedroom at the moment. (I own about 500 CDs and intend to display them all someday...lofty ambitions.)

Ah, now for a writing topic...no, I ain't got one. Other than I'm hanging out at Goodreads (MUST...NOT...COMMENT ABOUT...DISGUSTING DEBACLE...GOING ON THERE...) a lot right now and could always use more friends! I am so addicted to the trivia feature and it's been fun watching my ranking go up. I'm currently about to hit the 4000s. Booyeah~ It's so easy when half the questions are about Harry Potter anyway.

For reasons I won't talk about until tomorrow's check-in post, I'm at a lost of things to do at the moment. It's weird, and I'm not sure I like it. Oh well, I'll tell y'all about it tomorrow!

BOOK REVIEW: "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was first exposed to Amy Tan when I was a child and the movie "The Joy Luck Club" made its repeated runs on HBO. I found it fascinating from a cinematic point of view, and loved it so much to the point I asked for the DVD some Christmas. But even though I knew it was based off a book, I never got around to reading it until I needed to write a book report in high school and it was on the list of "acceptable materials". I've since bought my own copy and re-read it every couple of years.

"The Joy Luck Club" is both Amy Tan's debut work and her best. In it are seven narrators depicting the lives of eight people (one of the older women, Suyuan, is deceased at the time of the overarching story and her daughter June tells her story instead.) Four of them, Suyuan, An-Mei, Ying Ying, and Lindo, are immigrants from various parts of China, and the other four, June, Rose, Lena, and Waverly, (respectively) are their American born and raised daughters. Each tells their own story in first person (aside from Suyuan who is deceased) in a total of two chapters each across four parts.

While it's not the longest read, it's a heavy one. The "mothers" (collectively called so in this review) have each been through their own personal hells both in China and America, with varying triumphs mixed in (such as out-witting bad families, enduring abandonment and physical/emotional abuse, losing family members, for vague examples). Throughout their horrors, struggles, and eventual triumphs in a land not kind to the status of women and young girls, the mothers all agree that their daughters will have an easier life in America. But what they discover is that their daughters have become more American than Chinese, and they fear that they won't be able to convey their "hopes and dreams" to the daughters who have different ideas and sensibilities from their own.

Meanwhile, the daughters all tend to agree that their "overbearing" Chinese mothers have each made their lives/childhoods hell in some way shape or form, either from pushing them too hard, to seemingly not understanding what they want, to feeling that they constantly put them down. From the reader's perspective we're able to see things from both sides, but of course, the characters cannot.

Amy Tan paints a beautiful picture of the lives these women live, and the relationships between them. From the rivalry between Lindo and Suyuan that extends to their daughters Waverly and June, from the "ghosts" of Ying Ying and her daughter Lena, and to the leaps of faith between An-Mei and Rose, it's easy and clear to see why Amy Tan is lauded for her depictions of mother-daughter relationships. And as someone who has a loving and strong relationship with her own mother who has had her own hardships in the past, it's near impossible to read any of these relationships without self-reflection.

Of course, there are differences between the book and the movie, but they are mostly negligible. The movie largely cuts out Ying Ying's first chapter during her childhood and jumps right into the dirty business of young adulthood; the movie conveniently leaves out An-Mei's half-dozen other children and what happens with them. But for the most part it's true to the source and can be enjoyed on its own with a great cast backing great characters. (And the clothes are so hilariously 80s.)

I tend to use TJLC as a barometer for people I know - if you've read it and felt absolutely -nothing-, then odds are we are not going to get along. It's an amazing book that's going to be one of my personal classics probably for the rest of my life, and I can only aspire to write as honestly as Amy Tan does.

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Weekly Writing Check-In: ALMOST DONE, Camp, with a hearty distraction from Goodreads.

I am happy to report that not only am I almost done with the read through of CROSS//Rebirth (one more chapter then the epilogue!) but I'm also past the 20k mark on Camp Nano.Hooray! I'm managing to cram in 2k a day even with all the editing, blogging, and other BS. Thankfully as I end the draft of Rebirth the chapters are also getting shorter, allowing me to finish them faster. Small favors.

Otherwise, I'm on Goodreads now! Well, I've had an account for quite a few months now, but I've finally gotten it spruced up and most of my stuff sorted. Feel free to add me as a friend! You can find my profile here. I'll add an author page as I get closer to publication.

Anyway, that's it for today. It's 11pm and I need to write 1k more words for Camp. Gotta stay on target, otherwise what do I have? Haha.