Hey y’all!
For those of you who haven’t seen this feature before, I started A Day in the Life just to give y’all updates on what I’m reading, thinking, and what’s going on in the bookish world! I hope y’all enjoy! A LOT has been going on with me recently and I’m reading three books at once so I have a lot to say! Here goes:
The Books:
Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan – I’m reading this one at the moment and my feelings are kind of mixed. On one hand, I love the idea of the story and I ADORE stories that take place in New York City. But it’s taking forever to get really started with any kind of action and it’s just gotten kind of boring. Honestly, I want to be HOOKED. Hopefully, this improved. Andrea Cremer tends to use a lot of world-building and while that’s excellent in fast-paced books and extravagant books such as Nightshade, it doesn’t really work that well when combined with a slower plot. I’ll finish reading it this weekend and let y’all know what I thought!
The Life:
Chorus and friends are honestly taking over my life right now. My chorus teacher has this crazy idea that chorus should be the number one priority in our lives and I’ve had rehearsal so much. Last week, we had Madrigals, a Renaissance-style musical/concert that involved us dressing up as peasants. (See the Twitter picture if you don’t believe me.) Friends are being confusing but there’s not really that much I can do about that but try to be supportive while wishing that I could be curled up in the corner with a book. I also have a ton of writing things going on (see “The News” below). The problem is that I don’t really want to get that involved with my school because there’s a chance that I might leave it and at this point, I want to. I enjoy it enough but I really don’t like certain parts of it and Interlochen sounds like a fantastic opportunity for me.
The Posts:
I recently wrote a post Silver Linings: Writing that basically covered all of the writing things that are going on right now for me. It explains what I think about my writing, Interlochen, NaNoWriMo, and more.
Last Friday, I revealed the cover for Fanged Princess on the blog. Check out this gorgeous and gothic cover!
The News:
Today, I won my school’s Poetry Jam with my poem “Wallflowers”. It’s not quite the version that I uploaded on my blog a few weeks ago, but it’s close. This means that not only was I lugging around my 1st-place trophy all day, but I’m going to be my school’s representative in the District competition. Like I said above, I’m a little hesitant about getting too involved in my school now, and also, I don’t want to focus on poetry and whatnot. One of the strengths of Interlochen as opposed to just entering local writing contests is that I feel like that makes me more limited. I do want to focus on novel-writing but frankly, the arts programs down here aren’t amazing. They’re enough, but I feel like it’s just a much better community for me if I attempt to go to Interlochen.
The other news: I’m applying for an Interlochen scholarship. Interlochen is an incredible performing arts boarding school filled with passionate young artists. They’re currently running a scholarship contest (The Virginia B. Ball Scholarship Contest) and it’s one of the only chances that I have to actually get my parents to look at the school.
I don’t really know. Also, I want to also focus on editing and publishing instead of devoting ALL MY TIME to writing. While writing short stories and poetry is awesome, the publishing business for YA books and whatnot is what I want my life to be devoted to instead of that other writing scene. There’s a difference. I’m entering the Interlochen competition and if I’m a finalist, I’m going to figure out what to do from there so that I can get the best of both words.
I’ve also been editing a TON recently. There’s an amazing editing opportunity for me coming up in January (that I’m unsure whether I can disclose or not) so I’ve been critiquing a lot more than I usually do for practice. I definitely want to keep immersed in editing as well as blogging and writing. I love writing, but I want publishing and that world to take precedence over that.
I’m saving up to go to BookExpo America (because there may be an opportunity for me to take exams early and be able to go!), as well as normal camp and Interlochen camp. I want to go to all three, which is really expensive obviously. I think I’ll be able to because I really only have to pay for BEA, but I’m still basically not going to be buying much in the spring (ahh! book budget!).
Other:
Riffle is so unbelievably awesome. It’s like Wanelo, but with books! You can create lists of books, recommend books, be “interested” in books, or “finish” books. It’s like a mixture of Pinterest and Goodreads! Social media for book nerds – I think yes! I’m a beta user right now and I’m absolutely in love with it. You definitely know what I’ll be doing this weekend!
That’s it for A Day in the Life this week! Thanks so much for reading! I hope y’all enjoyed!
Grace
