What's Up Wednesday and A-Z Challenge: Z!

It's the last day of A-Z. I can't believe I made it through the entire month. Note to self: if you ever try it again, pick a theme. My Z post for today is simply this:

Zut Alors! I'm done.

And now for What's Up Wednesday:
What I'm Reading
I finished The Unbound by Victoria Schwab which is the sequel to The Archived. I think I liked this book better (which is totally unusual for me to like a sequel better than the first book) but I'm also thinking I might have been in a bit of a book funk when I read The Archived. Now I'm reading Bunheads by Sophie Flack (nothing to do with that one-season TV show BTW) and I'm really enjoying it. I used to dance so reading about anything dance automatically grabs me.
What I'm Writing

I need to focus on my EPONINE query. Focus, Melanie, focus. I'm also going to start a revision on an ms I'm currently querying before I send it out one last time.

What Inspires Me Right Now
I've beta'd four manuscripts in the past month. The great thing about beta-ing is that I end up learning a ton. I probably get more out of it than I give. It's really inspiring to read other writers works and to be part of this small world of people trying to write the best book possible. Writing is lonely, people say it all the time, but sometimes it has a team feel where we're all cheering each other on and I love that.
What Else I've Been Up To
The A-Z challenge. Which I've finished! Hallelujah! I'm probably going to take a bit of a blog break for a bit, aside from WUW posts.

And as my final A-Z act, I give you my Z song:

Actually, I decided to cheat, because I had no Z song and I love this song like crazy.

All of Me by John Legend ft. Lindsey Stirling

*Actually, I did have a Z song- Zorba's dance by Mikis Theodorakis, but I like this one better :)

A-Z Challenge: Y is for YA

I started out writing fantasy short stories when I was twelve or so. Eventually, I graduated to fantasy novels, or rather one novel that I never did finish. It was adult fantasy, going to be a trilogy, and completely fantasy-cliched. Prophecy, long journey, normal girl realizing she's someone IMPORTANT. You get the (lame) idea.

Then one day I was listening to this song and suddenly I had a SHINY NEW IDEA:

You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. My Y song for the day

 

This idea wouldn't leave me, even though I tried to ignore it. I kept telling myself, I'm TRYING to write a fantasy novel. Why don't I finish that one first instead of starting something new and just failing again.

 

But this idea wouldn't SHUT UP so I gave in. And I wrote it in five months. Looking back, it was total and utter crap. But I did it. I wrote my first novel. I was on top of the world. Five years later, that novel has been queried, requested, R&R'd and finally shelved, but it still sings to me. One day I will dust that novel off and start fresh.

 

That manuscript was my first attempt at Young Adult and it taught me a lot. How hard writing is. How much I needed to learn and am still learning. All those stupid newbie writer mistakes that I had to stop making. And most importantly, I learned how much I LOVE YA.

 

I never even thought about writing YA until that day in the car when You Belong With Me came on the radio. Since then, I've become obsessed. YA is the best. I read it like crazy. There are so many possibilities. So much excitement and fun and newness that comes with reading and writing YA. So many feels. YA sings to me. I feel it in my bones and my fingertips and in the way it pours onto the computer screen.

 

I heart YA. And that's all there is to it.

A-Z Challenge: X is for X-Men and Other Superheroes

I didn't grow up reading superhero comics- I was more into novels. I remember watching Lois & Clark sporadically (my best friend had a crush on Dean Cain) and seeing Batman and Robin in the theatre (I had a crush on Chris O'Donnell). And then 2000 hit and suddenly it was the start of the age of superheroes. X-Men came out that year and even though I didn't know anything about them, I saw the movie in theatres and loved it. Then came Smallville. And the Spiderman movies. Iron Man. Fast forward more than ten years later and we've got the awesomeness that is Marvel, and DC trying to keep up with their upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie.

Superhero movies to me are the perfect blend of action, comedy, and romance. They're the kind of movies I want to spend the big bucks on so I can see them on the big screen. They're the movies that get me excited, get my blood tingling and my heart pumping and my legs jumping.

Isn't it awesome? I love how this has all become a THING. How it's okay to be excited and even obsessive about comic books and superheroes and everything that goes with it. How superhero fever has swept the world. I know I sound cheesy right now, and maybe it's my inner nerd coming out, but superheroes are the best! I just hope that Marvel and DC and everyone else making books and movies keep up the quality we've come to expect.

What do you think about superhero comics/movies? Fan or not so much?

Oh, and an X song for the day which has nothing to do with comic book heroes, but comes from a superstar for sure:

XO by Beyonce

A-Z Challenge: Writing and Why I Love It

So I started this post a couple of days ago and I sat there tap-tapping on my computer desk and eating cadbury mini eggs and wondering why in heck do I love writing? And why don't I know why?

Now I'm back at it today- trying to figure out WHY I love to write. It could be that writing allows me to play God. I get to create my own world and my own characters who do whatever I tell them to. I can kill off anyone I like. I can make romance come true. I can laugh and cry, all from a few touches of the keyboard.

But is that really why I love writing? As egotistical or self-absorbed as I can be sometimes, I really don't think that's the answer. Mostly because I know that no matter how much I control my first draft, later drafts are never completely in my own hands. I go from playing God to being the peon- at the mercy of smarter and savvy readers who tell me (rightfully) that my characters and setting are crap and that I need to make them better.

So why do I love writing? Because it's a release in a way? A way to let those stories and characters in my head OUT so that I don't die from head-explosion? Sure. Or how about because writing helps me to actually accomplish something other than getting my bathrooms cleaned or my kids to school on time. Sure, that's great too.

But it's still not why I love to write. I think the biggest reason why I love it is because it MAKES ME HAPPY. I write and I smile. It puts me in a good mood. It gives me that whole on-top-of-the-world feeling. I write and I love it and that's that. Who really cares why. Just that I do.

Another thing I love? This song:

What I Wouldn't Do by Serena Ryder

A-Z Challenge: V is for Very Hot GIFs

Early on in the challenge, a couple of blogs I visited did Celebrity Crushes for letter C. I've totally stolen that idea, but for V since my C post was already done.

So here are five celebrity crushes, AKA: V for Very Hot Men, presented to you in GIF form. Because who doesn't love GIFs?

And I'm not gonna lie, finding GIFs for this post was the funnest time waster ever. ;)

Richard Armitage (Robin Hood and a photo shoot maybe)

 

Rupert Penry-Jones (Persuasion and Spooks)

 

Tom Hardy (This Means War)

 

Martin Johnson (lead singer Boys Like Girls)

 

Chris Evans (Captain America)

 

So if you could waste time searching out Very Hot GIFs, who would be your top five?

And I was so distacted by these GIFs that I almost forgot my V song for the day:



Viva La Vida by the Vitamin String Quartet

 

A-Z Challenge: U is for Uhhhhh...

A few days into April, I decided to get organized and plan my post subjects for the rest of the month and what songs I was going to feature. When I got to U, I easily found a song, but no topic.

And now? I still got nothing. Sure I could post about Underwear. Umbrellas. Uber-cool things (or anything with the word Uber in it). What about Ugly or Ugh or Unicorns? Undivided, Unimportant, Unbound (the book I'm reading right now)?

None of those really sing to me. So for today, all you get is a whole lot of Uhhhhhhh. Because that's pretty much how I feel at this point. This A-Z thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be!

What have you got for U? I'll be blog hopping to see what interesting things you guys have done for U (and most likely going, ah, I should've posted about THAT).

Meanwhile, enjoy my U song for the day, as well as the T song I didn't post yesterday:

Unchained Melody sung by Il Divo

(I know it's by The Righteous Brothers, but I really like this version)

Tattooed Heart by Ariana Grande, one of my all-time favorite songs!

What's Up Wednesday and A-Z Challenge: T is for TV

What I'm Reading
I finished Inheritance by Christopher Paolini which was okay. Then I read Perfect Lies by Kiersten White who is one of my fave authors. Her books are quick and enjoyable reads and I love that about them. Perfect Lies was an excellent sequel to Mind Games. Up next, The Unbound by Victoria Schwab.

What I'm Writing
Working on my query (see Saturday's post if you want to tell me how bad my query sucks right now! ;) ), and beta reading a great MS!

What Inspires Me Right Now
I just barely watched Marvel: Assembling the Universe, which was on my PVR for a few weeks. I'm totally amazed by how massively popular they've become, how it started with Iron Man- a supposedly B superhero, how they've managed to make ties between each of the movies, and how nerd culture is taking over pop culture. Love it!

What Else I've Been Up To
So here's my T post now for the A-Z Challenge. I haven't really been up to much, but as always there's a lot of TV on my roster. So T is for TV. Here are some of my favorite shows on TV right now:

As you can see, I kinda have a thing for the CW.

What have you been up to this week? What are you watching on TV right now?