Category Archives: Highly recommended

November 11, 2011

Scribbles Blog Hop

By Anne Michaud

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved good quality paper, and certainly a good journal. Thick but not heavy, long but not wide, a hard-cover without too much glitz. I can spend hours looking, touching, sniffing journals in a bookstore, and if I really want to treat myself, I make a detour to L’Essence du Papier

My journals through the years

There’s a certain excitement when I find a good journal: it’s the possibilities. Maybe my next book will be written on these pages * Maybe these pages will be inked with my next big project * Maybe this new story will change my life. And this goes through my head every time I start a new one…

The uncompromising list of characters for Wild Swan

I keep one by my bed – since most of my problems are solved at night, between the click of the light and the beginning of my dreams – one in the bathroom – because my best ideas come in the shower – one in my handbag – for flashes that begin from a conversation heard in a coffee shop, bookstore, ladies room. Oh, and there’s my main journal, the one I always have handy in my office, by the computer, for story development and outlining.

Misery of Me flashes, since published in Tattered Souls 2

It often starts with a scene between characters, a glimpse of a futuristic world, a dream that leaves a lasting impression. And anything can spark the flame: a melody heard on the radio, an art piece on a wall, the way the sun’s rays hit the color of my antique trunk…This is what I love about creating worlds and people: anything can happen.

 

Happy writing, and don’t forget to visit my fellow Scribbles Blog Hoppers:

Pocket-size & pretty ♥

**In honor of the first Scribbles Blog Hop, I’m giving away this small and practical dark blue/white journal to anyone who leaves a comment & subscribes to my blog. I’ll draw one lucky winner on Monday the 14th of November, noon-ish.**

23 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in All about me, myself and I, Highly recommended

November 1, 2011

Halloween Withdrawal: Coffin Hop Winners

By Anne Michaud

I had a blast hopping from one blog to the next, participating to great contests and making my own. And then, after the trick and treating, comes the post sugar-rush: picking winners.

You ALL did such a great job, I found myself having a *slight* panic attack as to choose 3 stories that chilled my bones, since they all did. You guys are utterly original, unique, talented writers, and I feel honored you participated to my contest.

1st PLACE: REN WAROM

Glue

I’m standing here. And the rain falls. Gathers in puddles huge enough to drown a house. Swallow it whole. My hair, my clothes, plastered down like they’re glued to me. There’s a hollow ring as the downpour clatters across the top of a corrugated roof. Sounds like gunfire. Like the end of the world.

Lights pierce the shroud of rainfall. They watch me, giant yellow eyes. I hear tyres on gravel, crunching loud as the shatter of bones, and we’re illuminated. The door flies open, Gina stumbles out, mouth wide as a puddle. She runs to me, falls to her knees, arms out. And I hear myself shouting.

‘I tried to make her look right. I tried to fix her. But she wouldn’t stick together.’

2nd PLACE: MILO JAMES FOWLER

Clowns Don’t Really Smile

We
Just
Unhinge
Our slack jaws
And wait for you to
Accidentally make eye contact…

3rd PLACE: LAURI MARTIN

There’s a house like any other house, except for the bear skull hanging above the front door, and the knocker resembling a giant skinned knuckle.

On Halloween we’d skip this house, but one year a pack of us ran to the door. Buck, bolstered by his Superman costume, rang the bell. It sounded like a hornet swarm. I froze. The others ran off.

She’s clever, Mrs. Shyer. Made a wreath out of me. Used paint and shoe polish so my bones look fake. I hang outside year-round now. Sometimes at Christmas she puts a red bell between my teeth.

***A SPECIAL MENTION to JANICE NEWTON and her creepy three entries***

10 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Highly recommended, Short Fiction

September 23, 2011

Tattered Souls volume 2 softcover GIVEAWAY!

By Anne Michaud

WIN a softcover copy!

It’s my first, I’m nervous…Tattered Souls Volume 2 anthology features my novelette Misery of Me. Beware: this lit horror collection of dark stories and even darker characters might not be suitable for impressionable youngsters.

The rules are simple:

  1. You MUST follow me on Twitter
  2. You MUST subscribe to my blog
  3. You MUST leave a comment with a valid email address

The lucky winner will be drawn on Monday, October 3rd, at noon, Montreal time. This giveaway is open to international participants – I will pay for shipping and handling of the softcover – and I will check if all rules have been applied.

Good luck everyone:)

29 Comments   |  tags: | posted in All about me, myself and I, Good Book, Highly recommended

September 22, 2011

Chatting with Samantha Young

By Anne Michaud

Here is one hell of a YA fantasy writer who is not afraid of the dark…

AM: The world around the Soul Eaters is really unique, but what strikes me as even more original is your main character Eden: she’s a self-proclaimed bitch with no friends but one, and we still root for her and identify with her struggles against her family of psychopaths. Who or what inspired you to go against current of nice and sweet mcs?

Samantha Young: The world of Warriors of Ankh was actually built around Eden’s character. I wanted a real challenge when it came to writing my next mc. I wanted to create a character the reader still liked despite the darkness within her. I’m always fascinated by those kinds of characters in tv and books because they make you question your perspective and I guess, at first, I was experimenting to see if I could do that too. I’m so happy to see from the reviews so far that I’ve achieved that.

AM: Oh, you have, because despite this terrible fate awaiting her, we want her to win in the end. Tell me about the challenge of the world you’ve built – it’s freaking dark, which is my favorite atmosphere – how did you come up with it?

Samantha Young: The most challenging element of the world building was actually how dark I could make it for the genre it’s in. I wanted Eden’s home life to be disturbing, not only to highlight what she finds so beautiful about her friendship with Noah, but also to remind the reader that there is a part of Eden that hungers for that same darkness. There wasn’t any one particular book or movie that triggered ideas but over the last year or so I’ve read a number of YA books that pushed the boundaries a little and they definitely gave me the courage to up the creep factor.

AM: Oh Sam, I’m all about darkness, which is why I liked your book so much. For Rebel, The Hunger games highly influenced me, not only for a strong and intelligent MC, but to go to a dark extend in the premise. How about you, which books inspired you? I. Want. Titles.

Samantha Young: A series that really inspired me to push the boundaries was Holly Black’s The Modern Faerie Tales. The second book, Valiant, is one of my favourite novels ever and Black is so wonderfully unafraid to delve into darker subject matter. There is a sinister quality to these books I just LOVE. Also Kelly Creagh’s Nevermore and JL Bryan’s Jenny Pox. Bryan has a very ‘take no prisoners’ attitude with his writing that I so admire, he just says it how it is, and that really inspired me to attempt the same.

AM: So what’s next for you? You’re such a prolific author, I’m intrigued on how many projects you can handle at once!

Samantha Young: Well some of the projects I’ve released this year I had already written a good while back so that gave me a head start when it came to self-publishing. But I do have quite a few projects planned for the end of the year and next year so I’m intrigued to see how I handle it all too, lol. I’m releasing the first book in my new series Fire Spirits. Book One is titled Smokeless Fire and it’s a YA Paranormal Romance. This series is based on the real legends of the Jinn, twisted by a little creative license on my part. At present I plan to release four books for this series, a third and final instalment for Warriors of Ankh, a sequel to Slumber and a spin-off series to my Lunarmorte books from now until 2013. Uh… we’ll see how it goes…

Samantha Young blogs, where all her titles are available.

26 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended, YA

September 12, 2011

Meet Jory, survivor in the City of Hell

By Anne Michaud

Welcome to the City of Hell…

There is no god, no angels, no redemption. There is no hope, only suffering. The great Ant-headed Old-One has risen and brought hell to earth. The land is scorched and the human race decimated, eaten or tortured. Only three cities remain, a crumbled dying version of their former selves: London, Moscow and Hong Kong. The Old-One’s own City of Hell dominates most of North America. Its diabolical influence has turned ordinary citizens into torturers, debased slaves, lunatics and zealots.

With an eruption at Yellowstone, the likes of which humanity had never seen before, The Old-One tore apart the land, and ascended to rule, aided by its faithful army of acolytes. From the core of the earth it crawled up on to the land, spreading disease and insanity to all corners of the globe. (written by Colin Barnes)

And yet, a 15 year old girl survives…

She lost her mother in a brundlefly attack 8 months ago, after her father never came home from a Hu’ meeting with the neighborhood survivors. Finding refuge with her brother in the London underground, she struggles through the soldier ant attacks, the violence and death surrounding them, without food and little shelter. Every day, the Bébittes take more lives, and when her brother is eaten by a hungry flock of centipedes, there’s nowhere left to run, no place to hide.

Meet Jory, 15 years old with a death wish to burn London in her wake.

The City of Hell Chronicles tell the tales of survival, death and debauchery. Coming out December 2011

12 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended, Short Fiction, YA

August 29, 2011

Project Clove

By Anne Michaud

Confession: I sometimes feel like a fraud. I write for young adults and I have not a clue as to who they are, what they want, their dreams and nightmares. These kids I write for are so different from me, they live in a world invaded by technology, where stardom is more important than being human and individualism rules over decency.

Who are these kids growing up with a distant war on terrorism? Are they changed by the way each season brings a new environmental catastrophe? Has the world changed so much since I was their age that their problems and angst aren’t the same as mine were?

I don’t know – or more accurately, I didn’t know the answers to these questions.

Things happen for a reason. I won a copy of the Project Clove, an anthology of 150 poems, letters and soul-baring stories written by Centennial Regional High School students. To say it moved me would be lying; it tore me to shreds.

Broken hearts, distant parents, coming out of the closet, bullying, awkwardness, not fitting in, sadness, anorexia, anger, questions with no answers, rape, incest—it’s all real, authentic to the core.

And then, there are also pure gems… Excerpt from Pigeons (don’t) fly, written by Joe, 14.

In this immense world,

With no clock to tell time,

With no existence of time,

He had been attempting with many tries

To spread wings like the pigeon.

Talent? That girl is 14 years old – a poet, someone who (hopefully) will grow up using words as an outlet for whatever’s going on in her life. I do hope she never gives up and continues to write, her poem is by far my favorite of the lot…and she’s only in secondary 2, for crying out loud!

And then Rahimi, 15, writes about cutting, an action that chills me, leaves me blank.

It’s like I’m addicted to the pain.

The feeling taking refuge in my veins

Leaving me feeling confused and alone

Wiping at the streaked tears that seem to be stained.

Burned into my skin forever

Becoming a part that I cannot escape

Sometimes I just want to hurt all over.

I read this, breathlessly, finally seeing the seducing factor of this terrible action: to forget. And I get this young girl, I understand what she means, because if I’m honest with myself, there are many things I want to forget, too, even though I am an adult.

So this connection, this understanding of young adults I seek so desperately, has always been within me. I’m not changed, I still feel the same as when I was 16, all confused and angry—I feel the same because back then, I was already me. I’m insecure at times, I do and say things I regret, and I’ll always be the shy girl from back then…and this is why I write, to express myself, to say what I need to say.

Things happen for a reason, like me reading the Project Clove and understanding kids, who have done so much for me without even knowing it. By reading the power in their terribly raw words, this anthology gave me hope. Writing does change the world, and through all this violence (the theme of this collection), there’s something quite beautiful and true.

The book is available through Centennial Regional High School. All you have to do is email: cynthia.elston@rsb.qc.ca. She is in charge of the compilation and distribution of the Project Clove.

*** The poems can be found on pages 89 and 98 of The Project Clove, 2011, Youth Fusion Quebec ***

31 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended, YA

August 15, 2011

Chatting with Rusty Fischer

By Anne Michaud

It’s impossible not to encounter @ruswriteszombie on Twitter or the blogiverse, and since zombies don’t write, I just had to ask him to speak in their name!

AM: I loved your novella Ushers, Inc -what inspired you to write such a funny/creepy story?

Rusty Fischer: It just seemed like such a fun “mashup” of genres. I was able to put my love of writing and reading YA together with the cheesy, late night, B-monster movies I love so much. I also got to add zombies, vampires AND werewolves in the mix and let these “geeky” kids use their movie knowledge to become a real strength when no one else – not the cops, the government, not even the Marines – can stop the monsters.

AM: The way you present yourself as a writer is quite astonishing: accessible, always helpful, and a huge zombie fan. What motivates you to have such a strong presence on the web?

Rusty Fischer: Two words: I’m shy! Like, painfully shy. But I’m also a former teacher and it’s very important for me to write YA and still try to foster reading in young adults. So promotion is very important to me, but can get difficult when I have to, you know, actually leave the house! But now I can do so much online, without standing around looking gawkish and uncomfortable. I can speak freely and share my opinions and blog about publishing advice and host giveaways or write guest posts and people can either respond or not. It’s great!

AM: That’s a great advantage to have been a teacher first, you know exactly what these kids go through – not that you’re old enough to not remember how it was when you were a kid, but times are changing so fast… Will you ever consider writing for adults and in other genres or will you stick to horror YA?

Rusty Fischer: I actually do write for adults. This year my first-ever adult contemporary romance comes out from Aspen Mountain Press. It’s a Christmas romance. So about half the year I spend writing YA supernatural horror-slash-romance and the other half it’s adult contemporary Christmas romance. So… try figuring that out.

Basically, after decades of chasing trends and trying to “fit” in here or there with this publisher or that, and getting rejected each and every time, I said, “You know what? No one’s reading this stuff anyway, so… why not write exactly what you want, have fun with it and maybe one day folks will read it?” So that’s what I did and, I like to think, that’s what I’m still doing.

Rusty blogs and give plenty of free goodies for authors, too!

12 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended

August 8, 2011

Chatting with Julie Campbell

By Anne Michaud

Another great author met through a writers forum…

AM: I really loved the premise of Senior Year Bites and how fresh it felt to 1)not have a love triangle 2)find real girls with real friendships 3)a pov on vampirism we rarely get. Where did you get your inspiration?

Julie Campbell: Well, to keep it short, a lot of the love triangles bug the crap out of me. Teaser: There is some relationship tension and betrayal, or perhaps just perceived betrayal, in the second novel. The real friendships I stole from a middle school and high school friendship I had with two other people. Obviously it is not completely the same, but I based it off of my experiences. The POV on vampirism was me reacting to something I was missing in novels. Most of the vampire novels are not from the vampire’s POV and I wanted some more. So I wrote one. Actually, I’ve written several, but this currently the only one getting published that is from a vampire’s POV.

The actual idea from the novel came from a dream I had about a girl who got changed into a vampire her senior year of high school. Mostly on a whim I decided to write a few pages (a friend also wrote a few pages with that prompt and we compared to see how different they would turn out. They were quite different). The few pages turned into a novel.

AM: I’m so glad you’re mentioning your sequel, because for most writers, going back to a story after publication for its second installement is rather tedious. How are you tackling it? Do you keep a SYB bible close by?

Julie Campbell: I actually love sequels. It gives me more chances to play with characters I love. I have a really good idea of where I’m going with the sequel to Senior Year Bites. Right now it is titled Summer Break Blues. I started writing before I created a SYB bible, but I have recently read SYB a million times for edits so I remember most of the details. I also have notes on characters, events, and all that and that is helping me keep things straight (so like a mini-bible). I have plans to create a true SYB bible now that I have a little time to think. Sequels are fun, but keeping track of everything can be tough.

AM: Great title, love how you keep the same vibe throughout. Does it mean you’ll treat us with a third book in this series? If so, do you know what it’ll be about and if not, what will you be working on next?

Julie Campbell: I have a third book planned, though I have no idea how I’m going to keep the title theme going. I’m sure something will come to me. If the third book goes well I do have some ideas for more books in the series as well, though it would likely focus on other characters. The main characters from the first three would end up being supporting characters at least some of the time. The book I’ll be working on next after Summer Break Blues will be the second Tales of the Travelers (Arabian Dreams) novel.

AM: Please tell me how you got inspired for Arabian Dreams – I already know, but want to share.

Julie Campbell: I was out trail riding on my Arabian horse, Sabaska, and I always have this feeling like I’m getting transported to other worlds when I ride with her. I thought it would be fun to write a novel about a girl who travels to other worlds on horseback and has fantastical adventures. The idea originally started out as a series of connected short stories, but in the way of things it turned into a novel instead.

Julie Campbell shares her thoughts and developing projects on her blog, too.

15 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended