HarperCollins needs to hear the voices of some writers, come through with some promises, and realize the train wreck they caused in closing inkpop–a site for writers where you could go to get critique, make friends, and possibly be reviewed by a professional.
My friend Jelsa wrote a great blog post with quotes from other inkies about what happened, the reviews HarperCollins owes them, and how much inkpop meant to us. Here’s an excerpt from this excellent blog post:
Before Inkpop shut down, everyone was promised their reviews. I received my December 2011 project’s review on April 6, 2012, which unfortunately did not come in time for a project I turned in on April 5, 2012 that I wanted the review for. … People were upset when Inkpop was shut down. However, Harper-Collins promised everyone their reviews if they hadn’t gotten them. They delivered on their promise to me. Surrender’s review arrived in my inbox, two months late. My review from the book that was in the top five of October 2010, Love at First Sight, came on December 1, 2010. Clearly, something happened between then and now. Harper-Collins is three months late on their February 2012 reviews. In fact, the authors are unsure if they will even get their reviews at this point.
Please read this article. Five authors are still waiting for their promised reviews to this day. Listen to their voices. Thanks to Jelsa for putting it together.
Be sure to vote for Tyler here. He’s amazingly talented and is awesome so he deserves to win!
Find the original blog post here.
Because GOD made us all in His image. It’s just that some of us are closer to being like him than others.
I honestly can’t understand people who make fun of or look down on people who are mentally challenged with down syndrome, or one of those other “disabilities.” I’ve had the privilege of actually knowing quite a few people who are “retarded” and i’m going to tell you all something. Every single one of them is bloody amazing. They are some of the most selfless and loving people I’ve ever seen, and I admire every one of them. And here’s why:
They don’t love you for your money, or talents, or anything like they. They aren’t nice to you just because they want something out of it. You won’t be treated better just because you’re smarter, or have more money than other people. How much they love you is only determined by how well you treat them. That’s literally it. And in my experience, if you talk to so with down syndrome, I mean actually talk to them, you’ll find that they don’t expect anything out of you at all, but instead sincerely like talking to you—like having a friend. They love you simply for who you are and how you treat them. You can see it in their faces; loving gives them so much joy and they do it so innocently. They love like children.
Most of us could take a lesson or two away from them in the area of loving. When it comes to loving others selflessly, they’re a lot closer to Jesus than any one of us will ever hope to be.
Just look at how they see the world. Do you honestly think they wake up worrying about college, money, or what their friends think of them? In some cases, maybe, but usually, from what I’ve seen, they’re just happy to be alive. The only thing they want in life is to love people, and be loved in return. They accept themselves and their life better than I’ve ever been to.
Like I said, I can’t understand how anyone could demean, look down on, make fun of, or hate on any one of those people. Because, honestly, I’m jealous of them in a lot of ways. I would give anything to be able to love like they do—to love so strongly and purely that it radiates off of me, and to accept myself and work for God, not for myself.
At least, that’s how I feel.
I’m starting to realize a truth about my writing that I hadn’t thought of before, but which now applies to every outline I make, each daydream about a story, planning ahead before I type, every single idea I have.
The cold truth is that no scene is fun to me when the time comes for me to write it.
While a scene is still in the distant future I can’t wait to get to it, because it’s a major twist in the story or because there’s a cute dialogue, or maybe it’s so intense it’ll make the wait worth it. However, once I’ve actually gotten to the point where I have to write the scene, that excitement is gone, replaced instead with anxiety: Will I be able to make it long enough, intense enough, cute enough? Will my writing do it justice?
This all leads to me throw my hands up in frustration and grumble about how I hope this won’t take too long, the scene had better be over soon, and that I want to move on already.
Is this just me?
Please comment and say if you ever feel this way too!
3/5 Stars
Other reviews for this book on GoodReads
I got this book for free in the mail. It is book two of a Young Adult vampire series called The Watchers. Being the escapist I am, I enjoyed reading this book and I’m glad I get to review it. Even though it’s not exactly my taste, it was a decent, quick read. Here are my thoughts:
I think a lot of my confusion regarding this book was due to the fact that I hadn’t read book 1 before picking it up. This took away from my reading experience, so I don’t want to be too harsh on the story itself, which I’ll add here, is a good one. For a vampire novel the characters were crafted pretty well and the settings believable.
As a book itself I liked it. My only critique is that in general it sounds a lot like every other vampire book that’s out there lately. They’re not bad stories, but I’d appreciate a bit of originality when it comes to the subject. I enjoyed reading Vampire’s Kiss but I’d have liked it better if I didn’t keep thinking about the Marked or Blue Bloods series. It’ll make my year if someone will suggest to me a vampire book that stands out, because even though this book was decent, it doesn’t exactly stand out in that variety of vamp books we have out there.
There were some passages I did enjoy and I’ll quote one of them on here. In general I liked this book but I’m not sure I’d read it again unless I was looking for a quick read. It wasn’t boring but it wasn’t that original either. I give it three out of five stars. And now, for the excerpt I enjoyed:
“But some of those other guys were monks once,” I whispered quickly, desperate now to convince him. The closer we got to Alcantara, the more distant my chances became. “How bad could they be?”
“We’re vampires,” Carden said under his breath. He met my eyes then, and his were bleak. “We’re all bad.” Page 261
My short story I posted three years ago, Stephanie’s Gravestone, was #1 and featured on the front page of TeenInk’s SciFi/Fantasy page for a day.
I missed it.
But here’s the email to prove it:
Made it to 54,000 words today. Kristia and I are crazy. I swear I wouldn’t write half much as I do without her! We skyped for 7 hours. This is a record. I swear she is my sister.
You wish you had my “I Like Facebook” wristband.
But my favorite thing I got today was my statue of O.L.O. Guadalupe.
Excited to try some new music, especially Jack Johnson.
And now I have a bracelet with a fairy charm on it. I’m just going to pretend that fairy is my muse and hope she helps me write.
