Me, and America's Next Author Contest

Hey everyone! So, I entered a contest, and I need your help . . .

I entered my short story Falling in this online writing contest, and a part of the contest is based on public support. I would really appreciate it if you went and checked it out - you can find it here. You can write a review and leave a rating if you'd like.

I'm proud of my little story, and I hope you'll all enjoy it. :]

Thanks for your help!

Litterary Giggles and The Eyer Affair

If you're and English major, or read a lot of classic literature, then you need to read this series. Seriously, guys. My sister has these books and they've sat on our living room shelf for years and years. I discovered them over Thanksgiving break, and now, I'm tempted to name my future puppy Thursday Next.

 

Puppy says: Hello, I am cute.

Puppy came from here.

 

My mom says I am allowed to buy a puppy next fall, when my sister goes to grad school. But only if I can pay the extra dog fee, and pay for the food, AND still pay for college.

 

But this is beside the point.

 

 

 Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide. - Goodreads

 Let's get this straight upfront: you do not have to be a fan of Jane Eyre to be a fan of this book. I know this, because I am not a fan of Jane Eyre. I thought Rochester was old and creepy and I didn't like Jane, but mostly, I thought Rochester was old and creepy. (I read it in high school, so maybe I was just immature. Psh, who am I kidding? I'm still immature.) Despite the title, Jane Eyre isn't a huge part of the story, and I actually really loved how it was incorporated.

 

And Rochester?

 

Oh, Rochester . . . well, he's not creepy here. I actually kind of loved him. A lot.

 

Actually, I loved all the characters. Let's do a quick roll call:

 

Uncle Mycroft -  quirky and brilliant inventor. I would love to jump inside this book and snag a few of those inventions for myself.

 

Spike - deals with the capture of Supreme Evil Beings. He's the only agent assigned to his area because, well, it takes a special kind of person to go against the SEBs. I love the scene where he first meets Thursday - Muahaha. Funny, funny.

 

Acheron Hades - the bad guy. He's a lot of fun. He's very evil, too, and he requires his little minions to do wicked things every day, like drive over the speed limit - through a mall. There's also this things about Felix's face, which is just gross, so I won't go into that.

 

Jack Schitt - I laugh every time I see his name. "Schitt" sounds like . . . Okay, I know I'm immature. I'm sorry. Jack works for Goliath, this weapons corporation that has too much control and not enough limits. Jack Schitt is this annoying bad-guy who's technically not a bad guy, because Hades is the bad guy, but whatever. He so is.  

 

Pickwick - I have to mention Thursday's pet dodo, even if he's not in this book much. At first I was imagining the dodos from Ice Age, those really dumb birds who had three melons stockpiled for the ice age? Yeah. Pickwick has grown on me, though.

 

And there's many, many more. But you'll just have to read the book to meet them.

 

 

 





Winners Announced!

Hey everyone! I was fully intending to announce the winners sooner, but my brother was feeling generous and decided to share his cold with me. So I've been blowing my brains out through my nose that last few days . . . actually, you probably don't want to hear about it.

Anyway! Winners! Yay!

Sarah figured out my clues, so she won her pick of the books. (I named by basil plant Dorian because of the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The painter who creates the picture of Dorian is named Basil.)

 

Sarah chose The Forsaken!

Brianna won Untraceable. Her favorite book of the year (so far) is Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews.

 

Natasha won Starters. Her favorite is The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

Congrats! Brianna and Natasha, you have e-mails waiting for you. After I have you mailing addresses I'll send you prizes out to you!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

New Design!

I'm the kind of person who has to change the color of her nails each week - and if they're not painted? Gasp! How boring!

So it was high time for me to change up my blog design. I experimented some last night, but I think I like it better now. What do you guys think? Give me your feedback!

Also, there's a new tab at the top of my blog! ContemporaryMadness is my brother's etsy page. I put some samples of his pictures up with a link to his shop. Check it out sometime. I think he's pretty talented, but then again, I'm a little biased. :]

2 Things

1st thing: The Dudes of YA

My brother tells me all the time that I'm too feminist, because I only read books written by girls, and when was the last time I even read a book that was written by a guy? Because of course, no guys write YA. And apparently all I read is YA.

Ha! Just goes to show how little he knows.

(Just kidding, Tommy boy. I love you.)

2nd Thing:

Get More: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Jamie Campbell Bower, Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

I was amazed that Cassandra Clare got a book deal after she plagiarized in 2001* (back when her name was Cassandra Claire, and she wrote Harry Potter fanfiction). This is why I've never read her books, and why I don't plan on ever reading them. Plagiarism just isn't acceptable, and I'm not going to support someone who's done it.

If this were just a movie I'd say it looks great, I can't wait to see it. But because this is based on Cassandra Care's book, I'm going to pass. Even if it does have Lilly Collins in it.

Does anyone else have any opinions on this?



*I'll link you to a post about this. If you search "Cassandra Clare Plagiarism" there is a lot of stuff out there. The original stories have all been removed, so it's hard to know what sources are reputable, but I think it's pretty universally acknowledged that Clare was kicked off the fanfiction site because she plagiarized.

Me, saying hello, folks. Oh, and a GIVEAWAY. There's that too.

Hello there, folks. I hope the fact that I'm breaking my radio silence and actually writing a post doesn't give you all a heart attack. That would be very unfortunate, and I don't have a defibrillator on hand. So hang in there.

I have a stack of YA books that don't fit on my shelf, and they're just screaming "Give us away!"

So . . . How about a contest?**

This is how we'll do this. I'll give you some clues, and the first person to e-mail me with the correct answer will win their choice of one of the following books:

 

 

Starters by Lisa Price

 

 



Untraceable by S.R. Johannes

 

The Clues:

 

1. I have a basil plant. His name is Dorian.

 

2. I am an English major, and literary references make me happy.

 

3. Dorian is just wild for the classics.

 

 

The Question: 

 

The first person to e-mail me (teddycavygal at yahoo dot com) and tell me why I named my basil plant Dorian will win one of the above books!

 

If no one comes up with the right answer by Wednesday, the 14th, I'll give you more clues.

 The clues have been solved. Comments giveaway is still open. - comment to win Starters or Untraceable. :]

 

 But wait, there's more!

 

After the winner chooses their book, I'll still have two left. I'll pick two winners from the comments for each of the remaining books.

 

So, there are two ways to win here. E-mail me with your answer and/or comment on this post, telling me what your favorite read of the year (so far) is.

 

As soon as someone guesses correctly, I'll update letting you know which book they chose. The comments giveaway of the other two books will stay open until Wednesday, the 21st.

 

 

 

 I hope this all makes sense. Feel free to e-mail or leave a comment with any questions.

 

Good luck! :]

**UPDATE: My clues have been solved. :] Our winner chose The Forsaken, but Starters and Untraceable are still up for grabs, so comment away.**

Halloween (with two 'l's)

Fun fact: I keep trying to spell Halloween with one 'l.' And 'habit' with two 'b's. And 'always' with two 'l's.

When I'm writing away from my computer, I use my phone as spell check. I'll type the word into a text message and see in my phone corrects the spelling or not. When I don't have my phone, like during chemistry lab, I try to scribble my letters enough that the word is mostly still legible, but you can't really tell how I spelled it. So if it's spelled wrong, no one will know.

Anyway, most of my professors have handwriting that is barely legible, so I figure I'm good.

Alright, enough chit-chat. Let's just get to it, shall we?

My Favorite Halloween Reads!

 

Roald Dahl

Specifically, The Best of Roald Dahl

Sure, you know him for Matilda and The Twitches, but he didn't just write children's books, you know. I absolutely love Roald Dahl's short stories. They're creepy and disturbing and just so fantastic. If you love Roald Dahl or short stories or creepy-ness, check them out. You'll thank me.

Before I Fall

Lauren Oliver

 So perhaps this isn't a Halloween read, per se. But it could be, if you let it. It's about a girl who dies in a car accident, and then relives that one day seven times.

 

And because we're talking about spelling, I'll admit that I first typed her name "Lauren Olive." I almost didn't catch it.

 Wildwood Dancing
Juliet Marillier
Okay, again, maybe not a Halloween read intrinsically. But it has magical creatures! And dancing in the forest! And frogs that talk! And it's set in Transylvania!
See? It totally sounds like a Halloween read now.


{: Happy Halloween! :}