Needing to catch up...

Even though it's only the second week of Uni, I already have so so so much to catch up on, and then there's the 7 literary books I need to read. I'll be taking a week away from this blog to try and get a good cover on my subjects especially before my work starts back up next week or I will be duplicating the look of the picture above.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Birthday Blowout First Page Contest with Victoria Marini: Contest Entry

The  Birthday Blowout First Page Contest with Victoria Marini hosted by Shelley Watters starts today!!! Below you will find my 250 word entry. Hope you enjoy it and feel free to leave some comments.

Good luck to all the participants!

Title: Shadow Embraced
Genre: YA urban fantasy
Word count: 55,000

The pale girl knocks me back against the fleshy wall of the crowd with a couple of hard hits. I scramble away from a woman in a purple dress, my eyes on my opponent. Over the pulsing music, the crowd still keeps up their tribal chant.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

This is my first time at The Basement--innovative name for a club set up on a second-storey. The dim lights and smoky atmosphere make the graffiti on the walls blaze. Between the pinball machines, sagging lounges, and the close-pressed crowd, there isn't much room to manoeuvre.

“What are you waiting for?” the girl hisses. She could be Snow White with her porcelain skin and long, raven hair. “You started this. It was just between me and her.” She extends one long finger towards my best friend, Alex.

Alex watches from the sideline. I don’t know what she did to piss off this poisonous cow, but now I want blood.

“Come on, Scarlet,” Alex calls.

I take my focus off my opponent and glare at her. I hate it when she uses my name.

My opponent launches at me. I snap back to the fight just in time to shield my face from her punches. It all comes down to waiting for an opening. She’s fast, almost as fast as me. It’s difficult to maintain my balance enough to strike back.

I duck under a right hook and seize my chance. I throw an uppercut and knock her pale ass to the ground.

Check out this first page contest

The awesome Shelley Waters is holding a first page contest on the 25th-27th June.

This contest is only open to YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.

So here's how the contest will work:

1. Be sure your work fits into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
2. Sign up on the link below.
3. On June 25th, post your title, genre, word count and the first 250 words on your blog for critique.
4. From June 25th through June 26th, hop around to the other contestant's blogs and critique their first 250 words.
5. On June 27th, come back to my blog and post your final entry on my dedicated contest entry blog post. Be sure to include:
1. Your email address
2. Title, genre, wordcount
3. Your polished first page (250 words) Don't stop in the middle of a sentence.
4. Where you follow me
5. Where you spread the word

If the contest wasn't awesome enough. Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency is the judge. 

Now, who wouldn't want to enter that?

Review: Between Here and Forever

Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Abby accepted that she can’t measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby’s life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.

She's got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she’d never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could...

All Abby's life she has had to live under her sister's shadow. She has never been able to be as good as Tess. Abby thought that once Tess went off to college then everything would change and she would be able to live her own life away from the comparison. Then the car accident happened which put Tess in a comma. Now she is only seen as poor Tess's sister.

Abby devotes her life to Tess, spending most of her afternoons at the hospital. She thinks if Tess can wake up she will be able to get on with her life and live without the constant stigma of being Tess's sister. Then she meets the mysterious boy, Eli, who she believes will be able to wake Tess up. What she finds on her quest to wake her sister up is something about herself as well as her sister, something that she had never seen but has always been there.

Elizabeth Scott has created a believable story of family secrets and self-discovery. Abby is just an average teenager who lacks self-esteem who has always had to live with to comparison of her perfect sister. Anyone who's had to live in someone else's shadow can easily relate to her. Even when given a compliment, she doesn't know if people are feeling sorry for her or just seeing her as her sister.

Eli is another character that is full of mystery and problems himself. All the characters in the story have their own background and little quirks that makes them believable.

The mystery of who Tess was, drew me into the story as Abby tried to solve the big secret that Tess was keeping, one she had never paid close enough attention to. As Abby searches for the answers, she also has to learn that she can live her own life, free from the stigma of being Tess's sister.

Source: Simon & Schuster Galley Grab

2011 YA Reading Challenge: #23 of 50

Been a bit distracted

So, I haven't been around a lot this week or have really done much reading or writing, something I really have to force myself to do before uni kicks off again. I'm one that probably hasn't been on a real holiday for over ten years. My holiday's usually consists of going to my country town home (where I end up cooking and cleaning for my father). Or taking a couple of days off and going to a theme park which I live 30 minutes from... so, that's a normal holiday for me.

This year is different. My brother and I decided we would be going over to Japan and when the airline we were going to book through had 50% off I couldn't resist and I started to make the bookings. We're not going till the end of November, but this week I've been planning all of our accommodation and finding up any other information that we need (apart from being our first major holiday, this is also our first international holiday and first time on a plane... hey, my parents were drivers and even drove 4 days to get across Australia for a holiday when we were young).

I know it's a while off, but at least I can relax knowing that we've got all the accommodation and airfares fixed. Now we just have to save up to be able to afford everything... plus a lot in spending money.

Now I'm going to tear my eyes away from Tokyo Disneyland (yep, I'm definitely making this a priority since I live NOWHERE near a Disney and just call me a big kid who wants to go there very badly) and get back to work.

So, what has everyone else been up to this past week?

Review: Mercy

Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Mercy ‘wakes’ on a school bus bound for Paradise, a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business… or thinks they do. But Mercy has a secret life. She is an angel, doomed to return repeatedly to Earth, taking on a new ‘persona’ each time she does, in an effort to resolve a cataclysmic rift between heavenly beings. The first of a brilliant new series sees Mercy meeting Ryan, an eighteen-year-old whose sister was kidnapped two years ago and is presumed dead. When another girl is also kidnapped, Mercy knows she has to act quickly and use extraordinary powers to rescue her, even if it means exposing her true identity. Ages 13+

Mercy is an angel who doesn't know what she's done to be living in this limbo called her life. She is doomed to return to earth repeatedly, sliding into someone else's life in order to fix a problem. Mercy doesn't remember much of the previous lives, all she knows is that the girl's she leaves have ended up in a better place.

When Mercy wakes up on a school bus bound for a small town called paradise where Carmen, the girl she's taking over is participating in a combined school choir she doesn't know what she's in for. The family taking her in while she's in the town has a sad past. Two years ago their daughter was kidnapped without any trace. Almost everyone has given up on finding her alive, except for her eighteen year old brother, Ryan. Mercy knows she has to do something, that this is the reason for her being placed in this life. But can Mercy find the missing girl without putting Carmen in danger or making her life worse for when she wakes up?

Rebecca Lim has created a very unique angel story. Mercy is very confused about who she is and why she has been placed in this life, but she is also a strong and believable character. And as Mercy fumbles to get a grip on this new charge and understand everything about Carmen, this allows the reader to get even closer to her as it really feels like she's experiencing everything for the first time.

There is enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning and heart racing as Mercy discovers more secrets and lies that the family and town has. This book not only has one mystery about the missing girl, but also the mystery surrounding Mercy's past. She is searching for her soulmate and answers as to why she's living these girls lives, and it's hinted throughout the novel, but as the first mystery is solved there are still those questions that makes me want to read the next in the series just to find out more.

Mercy is a perfect book for any angel or paranormal fan. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Source: NetGalley

2011 Aussie Reading Challenge: #2 of 12
2011 YA Reading Challenge: #22 of 50
 

When is it overdone?

I have this one character who is screaming to come out, even though I'm in the middle of writing another story. The one thing is that her story is actually a paranormal romance. There are just so many YA paranormal romances out now so the problem "is paranormal romance overdone?"

I have to admit that some that I've read follow an exact formula, but there are some that are very different. The one thing that they all do have is the love triangle. I don't think I've read one without two guys vying for the girl's attention.

I have to admit that I still love the paranormal romance, as long as the girl's a kick-but, take-no-crap-from-anyone type. So, this is when I ask you:

Is paranormal romance overdone? Or is there still some room for stories that add their own twist on the genre?