Bloggin' Tough

Hey All,

Am using my limited internet time today to pass on an important message about the dangers of using unauthorised pictures on our blogs.

Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning summarizes it perfectly in her post. Check it out HERE.

If some of my posts look funny in future and the graphics are all dodgy stick figures from MS paint, you'll know why.

Lan

We Interrupt This Program......

Hi Guys,

Have to make this quick because I'm blogging on borrowed time. The internet at home has gone completely haywire so I haven't been able to blog for over a week. Withdrawal symptoms are quite bad. Luckily I have the phone I can use to check your blogs.

Hopefully I will be back up and running soon. Think of me as I struggle through another phone call to my internet provider and assure them for the thousandth time that I have my modem plugged in and I have turned it off an on again.

If I come back crazy, you will know why.....

Blogspiration: Staying Motivated

Last night I had an epiphany. I spend way too much time moaning about blogging and writing when really, they are some of the most fulfilling things in my life. I was going to start up my own meme but why would I do that when the amazing ladies at Saz101 and GrowingUp YA have done it for me! Enter Blogspiration where I will vent some of my positive energy instead of the insecurities I'm constantly spread. I don't know if the rules say I'm allowed to write a massive post to go with the inspirational pic but I claim newbie ignorance this time!

I didn't particularly enjoy the movie Love Happens, but I did spend the whole time lusting over Jennifer Aniston's pretend career as a florist with the coolest shop imaginable.  I mean, she had old french display cases converted into flower coolers. That is beyond awesome.
       One day when I am super famous and totally rich, I am going to open a florist/cafe/library. It'll be a quaint little place that smells like fresh flowers and coffee and baked bread and cookies. Where people can browse and read for as long as they like. The store will be stocked with books I like to read, foods I like to eat, flowers I adore and best of all, in the down time, I can write till my heart is content. Come to think of it, these seems like very selfish inspirations. Oh well :) It's my blogspiration and I'll dream if I want to!

Have a great week guys!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: What Trolls Beneath

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     This week's topic is a very personal one for me so bear with me guys. I have a very bad habit of stressing about thing that haven't happened yet. This is one of those things.
     I worry that I won't be able to stop myself from reading bad reviews of my book and going into anxiety mode or worse, troll mode.
     I've trolled before (long long story and way before I started this blog) and however justified I felt when I did it, I just don't want to fall into that trap as a self published author.
     As a writer, I know how much of my heart and soul I've put into my story. I'm sure all writers have the intention of staying neutral and taking the moral high ground, but when you read a review that tears your book to shreds and then defaces on it's remains, I totally understand the urge to lash out at the reviewer on their blog/Goodreads/Amazon.
     As a book review blogger, I firmly believe that when writers, whether traditional or indie, decide to put their books out into the world, they should be ready for the reaction. Good or bad. It's fine to rant and rave about reviews in private but it's never okay to unleash on a reviewer no matter how unfair you feel the review is. Not only because everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but because one small comment always snowballs into a fiasco. As big as the blogosphere is, it can turn into a a very little pond, very quickly.
    If only theory and practice could meld together so well in real life. So, my insecurity this is month is that in a moment of weakness, I'll decide to leave a bit of feedback on a review. I'm wondering if anyone who is already published has ever thought about doing that or if I'm the only nut job around?
     Above all else, this is a plea to you guys who I spend my blogging days with, DO NOT let me shame spiral into a nutcase author. PLEASE!

Review: Muse by Rebecca Lim

THE STORY

An angel in exile, caught between lives ... and loves

Mercy is an angel, exiled from heaven, and when she wakes in the body of nineteen-year-old Irina, Mercy discovers that she′s one of the world′s most infamous supermodels on the verge of a very public breakdown. Against the glamorous background of Milan′s opulent fashion world, Mercy continues her increasingly desperate search for Ryan Daley, the mortal boy she remembers falling for in a past life. But this time, Mercy′s memories and powers are growing ever stronger - and she begins to doubt the pleas of her dream lover, Luc, as more of her mysterious past is revealed. Are Luc′s desires as selfless as her own or does he want her for a more terrifying purpose?

The grand scale celestial battle for Mercy′s soul builds to an incredible stormy crescendo as archangels and demons clash in a cataclysmic showdown that not all will survive ...

MY THOUGHTS

The Basics

I started reading Muse a couple of months ago and had to put it down for a rainy day. I knew I'd need it as a back up after a particularly terrible bout of YA books. Based on other reviews I've read, I know that some readers don't like Mercy as a character. I personally love her. She's cold and often uncaring and just the closest representation of how I think an angel would behave. 

      This installment sees Mercy sub planted into the host body of world famous supermodel Irina. I love how Mercy is unaffected for the most part by Irina's lifestyle and beauty. She neither covets nor shuns Irina's looks and astounding wealth. Though that doesn't extend to her appreciation of beauty in her male counterparts. A trait she freely admits to having. And who could blame her? If I rolled with a horde of gorgeous angels I'd be swooning over them too. Not that Mercy does this is the normal YA sense. In fact Mercy does nothing in the normal YA sense and I think that's why I love her so much.

     Mercy finally breaks free of the bonds which hold back her memories and we learn of the events leading up to her exile as an angelic body snatcher. I must admit I'd already figured out most of the reveals, but that didn't really phase me. It was obvious that the memories weren't meant to be difficult to work out, more that Mercy herself had so much trouble piecing them together because the angelic interference brought on my her constant body shifts. 

     It's clear how much research Lim has done for this series. Where other books just skim the surface of the world of angels, Muse in infused with  layer upon layer of it. I'm doing a lot of research into angels for my own story and I had a semi attack of excitement every time another angel I recognized appeared.

The Craft  

I'm going to take a moment to let myself be jealous of Rebecca Lim's incredible writing talent. Like the previous books in this series, I can only describe the writing style as a poetic symphony. The style fits particularly well with the heavenly plot, adding a sense of etherealness that I haven't seen before in any book except maybe Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lainy Taylor. 

The Literally Star Crossed Loves

I complained of a lack of Ryan in the last book. That complaint still stands. What's with Aussie writers and the ability to imprint a character so vividly on a reader without giving them much page time? Ryan is the kind of love interest I want to be able to write. He's sweet and easy going which is hard to pull off given the scale of the events in this book. Sure it's unbelievable that he keep uprooting himself to go in search of her but no less so than some of the other stuff that happens in other books. I'm in awe of how accepting he is of the stratosphere of crazy that gravitates towards Mercy. How vulnerable he is as a mere human in the face of the highest order of angels. I can't see a HEA for Mercy and Ryan but that won't stop me from hoping for it.

One Tiny Complaint

I've only just realised how large the print in this series is and wish that the books were longer so that more time could be devoted to flashing out a few things. Things like people's reactions to Mercy's true nature for one. I know if I found out there was an angel inhabiting the body of someone I knew my reaction would be a heck of a lot of screaming and not such easy acceptance.

THE RATING

4.5/5