Online Literary Magazine: A Call for Submissions

Attention writers of all ages and locations!

The online literary magazine named Jenny is currently looking for submissions for short stories, nonfiction, and poetry. Jenny mag hails from Youngstown, Ohio and is a part of Youngstown State University. We need diverse and unique voices for our upcoming Spring issue. 

Please send us some of your best work! 

We could use some great YA lit or poetry you've been tinkering with. Go to the website for more information about submitting (it's SO simple!) or to read past issues. Check out my short YA story called "Idora" from last Spring while you are there. 

Any questions? Just leave a comment. 

Good luck to all who participate!

Top Ten Tuesday #3

This week was a freebie!

I went with Top Ten YA feminist friendly novels.

Disclaimer: These are only ones I have read and make my inner feminist squeal with delight, where as a lot of books makes my inner feminist squirm or yell obscenities. I have plenty more that are recommended to me by feminist friends and bloggers, but alas I have not read them therefore I cannot attest to their strength to be on this list.

My criteria was pretty simple. The female characters are the focus of the story. The MC is proactive in her life and decision making. She is full of action and established personality not in relation to male characters. Gender norms are broken or challenged. They are not Mary Sues.   

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
3. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
4. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
5. Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block
6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
7. The Book Theif by Makus Zusak
8. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan 
10. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

"When your only female character exists to be bartered and abused, that is lazy writing. When you raise the stakes by threatening a woman with rape, that is lazy writing. When you demonstrate the “seriousness” of a situation by describing a brutal rape, that is lazy writing. When you inject emotion into a flagging scene by making the man throw the woman against the wall, that is lazy writing. Not only is it lazy writing, but when rape is used lightly and cheaply as a convenient narrative device, it hurts people.
Try harder." - Monica Byrne

Book Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

From Goodreads.com: Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it. The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest. But there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

 My Review: I got this on my nook when it went on sale and I am so glad I did. Let's start with the cover shall we? It is a  vibrant, eye catching, INCREDIBLE cover! I'm actually kind of over the trend of zomg!poofy dresses on the covers of many books. This is one is flawless though. It really fits with the tone of the book which begins on page. The tone is mysterious and lush. Everything shimmers and sparkles with magic and silver imagery. The book is based off the Grimm's fairy tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses. Actually the original story is very glum and misogynistic. I am glad this book swayed away from that and took many liberties from the original tale. I also really enjoyed the love interest of the MC. He was adorable, I wish there was more of him within the book. The villain is creepy and well flushed out. Dancing, and skirts swishing, knights, and enchanted ballrooms oh my! I love retellings and recommend you check this book out of you do too.

My Reaction in GIF form:

Top Ten Tuesday #2

Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To Someone Who Doesn't Read Young Adult

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Duh. This is a no-brainer. I believe this has made a believer out of many.
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It truly is a cross-over book.
   
3. Graceling by Kristin Cashore. This breaks free of stereotypical associatations with teen books.
4. I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. Aaaahhh. This book is so good and timeless.
5. Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Original and suspense and amazing.
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Emotional and real no matter what age.
7. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book was a game changer for the genre. 
8. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. The writing. The characters. The setting. Perfect.
9. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb. No words. I can't.
10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Dark, disturbing, and daring.

A great young adult book makes the teenage reader feel like an adult, and the adult reader feel like a teenager again.

In My Mailbox #2

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

I only have one this week:

 Pirates! by Celia Rees

Call me crazy but if you want to but in order to know where young adult books are going, you have to know where they've been. I don't always feel the compulsion to read exactly what's been released this week. I know there are a whole heck of a lot of amazing books published before 2009. I'm going to save this read for the summer.

Book Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

From Goodreads.com: It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My Review: I ate this book up! It made me stay up all night and read. The writing is simple but it's suspenseful and has great tension from beginning to end. It's an E-book for only .99! It's literally the best thing I read all year (ha, it's the first book I finished completely). Let me just say I cannot wait for the second one to be released. I also love supporting independent authors and the digital book community. 


My Reaction in GIF form:

Writing on Writing

I've been thinking a while about making a blog dedicated to the craft. Well, here I am! Today Melissa and I went on a road trip to Hudson, Ohio. We stopped in a tiny independent bookshop called "The Learned Owl". It was so cute. We each bought respective Cinda Williams Chima signed novel. I bought The Demon King, having read the Warrior Heir before. And Melissa bought The Warrior Heir having read TDK. Ha.

Also, I have declared this month "Dystopian December"!! Epic. I know. HAHA. I will only be reading dystopias for this month. With my first semester of being a college senior behind me I didn't get much reading done. I sort of fell behind on the YA scene. So, this month I will catching up. First up is : Matched by Ally Condie.


Because I was shopping all day I didn't write anything in my WIP. My next thing I have to get, hopefully within the week, is a MAJOR event. I guess I'm kind of putting it off because it will be rather traumatic for my MC. So, I will need to be in the zone emotionally...fully committed to the scene. It will probably take a lot out of me. But it has to be done.

This is what I am listening to:





For all of the bad asses I'm writing about.