Saturday, July 15, 2017

The #VoicesofYA Tag


Hey everyone! As you know, I didn't post last week. It was crazy, and I had nothing prepared. But today, I am going to do a tag, which was created by Caitlin, that Jonathan tagged me for a long time ago and then Gray tagged me for it a couple weeks ago. I'm great at this game, aren't I? :P Thanks, guys! :D


The Rules

1. Thank the person who tagged you
2. Link to the original creator
3. Answer the ten questions
4. Tag at LEAST two other YA writers/blogger

Questions

What draws you to YA?

Are you still a young adult if you're 19?? I actually don't know the exact age range for this genre (if there is one). :P I know that I was initially drawn to the YA genre because I was a young adult myself, and I liked reading books with characters my age (and I'm still that way). I still really like the YA genre. It's one of my favorites and will probably always be.

Describe your writing process. Do you like outlines and structure, or seeing where the story takes you?

Um, both? Maybe? I don't know, I've tried to do like a whole outline many times, but it never actually happens. . . :P As long as I have a general idea of what the novel is going to be about, and where it's going, I just write. I do want to try doing an whole outline sometime though.

How long have you been writing? Where are you in your writing journey?

I've been writing since I was 15. (I feel like my answer to this question has changed a couple times, but it is 15.) Where am I in my writing journey? I think I'm right where God wants me to be. I mean, ever since I made the decision to take writing more seriously, I've learned a lot. And I feel like I've learned the most since I started blogging back in January. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me. :)

What do you need to write? Coffee? Music?

I actually don't think I need anything. Even though I almost always have coffee and music, I can write without them (this rarely happens though :P). I prefer to have my earbuds when I write because it helps to me focus. I'm easily distracted sometimes, and unnecessary noise bothers me. It's probably one of my pet peeves. And it doesn't help that I have good hearing. :P

If you could offer one piece of advice to another writer (OTHER THAN "don't give up"), what would it be?

Know why you're writing. Why do you write? Is it for God or yourself? Maybe it's something else.* But I think this is a really important question that every writer should ask themselves.

I'm planning on doing a post about this at some point. :)

What book still has you reeling from its plot twist? (*no spoilers please*)

I don't think there is a book. Plot twists will get me when they happen, and sometimes for a week after. But I guess I'll say The King's Scrolls by Jaye L. Knight. I'm not sure I can tell you about the plot twist without giving anything away so I just won't say anything. If you want to know what it is, you'll just have to read the series. :)

What books are you most anticipating for this year?

Well, I think most of the books that I'm looking forward to for this year have already released and I've read them: Martin Hospitality, The Reluctant Godfather, Dandelion Dust. But another that I'm really excited for is Exiles by Jaye L. Knight! I can't wait until that one comes out. :D (I'm pretty sure a lot of people have said that one :P)

In your opinion, which YA book/series has the most unique premise?

Oh man, that's a hard question. I guess, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the series, I'll go with the Divergent series. Other than that, I'd probably go with the Blades of Acktar also.

What is your all-time favorite quote from YA lit (I know, I'm cruel)?

This is cruel because I have many. But here's one of my favorites:

"My first choice would be to give you more god children, but that would be far too cruel to do - to them."
-The Reluctant Godfather

What book do you most hope will have a movie adaption?

The Blades of Acktar series by Tricia Mingerink. I think that would be super cool! (Please tell me I'm not the only one) But only if they follow the books as closely as they can, because if they change things, it just wouldn't be the same.

And that's it for this tag. The people I'm tagging are:


As always, if I tagged you, please don't feel like you have to do this tag. And if I didn't tag you but you'd like to do it, consider yourself tagged! :)


What about you? What draws you to the YA genre?
 

Saturday, July 1, 2017

June Just Happened

Hello from camp! Yes, I am at camp as I write this (the actual camp I told you about last week, not Camp NaNo).

This month has gone by soo fast, guys! Definitely the craziest month so far this year. For me, anyway. :P So this past week has been staff training week here at camp, and it feels so weird when I have free time because I'm so used to having a ton and a half things to do.


Writing

Yeah, I don't think I wrote anything this month, but I did manage to prepare for Camp NaNo some. Unfortunately, not as much as I would have liked. I think I have enough to make it through NaNo though.

All of June I've been getting bombarded with new ideas for Strangers. *evil smile* It is going to be so much better after this rewrite. And, I think I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. I am really excited to rewrite Strangers. :)

Reading

Half-Blood by Jaye L. Knight       The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo                

Yes, I know. I read soo much this month. :P No, I'm actually disappointed with how much reading I did in June. I tried to fit in more reading time, but it was really really hard. But I have started two other books: Samara's Peril and Rose of the Night. I'm almost finished with the latter.

Blogging

My posts in June:

Other bloggers posts that you definitely need to read:


Other

So, like I said, June was a crazy month. But a lot of fun stuff happened! As you may have seen, I participated in my first two blog tours ever. :) Those were really fun, and actually weren't as hard as I thought they'd be.

Staff training week here at camp was the last week of June. It's been great to reconnect with my friends that I really only get to see here. We've had a ton of fun doing things together and getting ready for our campers, who are coming today! :D For those of you who don't know, I'm going to be a bunk counselor for 9-ll year old girls. :) I'm also the basketball and ultimate frisbee counselor. I'm super excited for camp! :D

Camp NaNo starts today! :D I'm also really excited for that, because I'm actually in a cabin this time! They've all been very welcoming and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them in this next month. :) My goal is to write the first 3k of Strangers. I know, that's a low goal, but it's pretty much impossible to gauge how much writing time I'll have. Who knows, maybe I'll end up writing twice as much? That would be great. :)

The other thing that happened this month was Father's Day. For that, my family took a little trip. We hiked a mountain, which we actually haven't done in a while. Here are a couple short interchanges that took place on the hike.

(For this first one, there was a really rocky place, and the rocks were kinda big)

ME: *runs past dad up these rocks*
DAD: Show off!
ME: No, I think I'm just part mountain goat.

DAD: When you go back down a mountain, you always want a controlled decent.
LITTLE BROTHER: Hey Karyssa, you see that cliff over there? It will be a controlled decent if you hit that rock at the bottom.
ME: *laughs*

ME: *trips*
LITTLE BROTHER: Did you just trip?
ME: . . .yeah. Why?
LITTLE BROTHER: On what?! There's nothing there, the ground is flat!

After we finished the hike, I tried to figure out how many times I tripped. And, in two miles, I tripped about 20 times. I now refer to myself as "the clumsiest outdoorsy person you'll ever meet". :P

I also wrote a poem for Father's Day, and I was going to post it, but it would have been on a day that I don't normally post. I remember some of you saying that you wanted to see more poetry so I decided to share it now. Here it is:

This Man

There is this man
I really love.
He is always there
When I need him.
When I am excited
Or happy that
Something went right,
He smiles
And rejoices with me.
He holds me
When I cry,
When I am down,
Or if I just need
Someone
To lean on.
This man, is always there.
He has taught me a lot.
He is one of
The reasons
I am who I am
Today.
This man is
My role model,
Someone
I look up to.
And even though
He may have
A lot of nicknames
For me.
I will always know him
As Dad.

What about you? How was your June?