What I'm Reading
I finished THIS STAR WON'T GO OUT by Esther Grace Earl, and OH the emotions. I'm hoping to review this once I get some free time, but I loved it. I felt like I made a new friend, and then I was crushed when we lost her at the end (that's not a spoiler, it says it on the inside flap). Though she's not the direct inspiration for THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, I definitely saw similarities between her and Hazel's experiences. I can't wait to reread TFIOS now that I have a better understanding of what it's like to be a teenager with cancer. Everyone should read this book just to learn what Esther was like. <3
Also, still working through CHAMPION by Marie Lu and HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III.
What I'm Writing
I'm attempting to write and revise at the same time (such a bad idea) because I had about 2/3rds of a story workshopped in class last night (the last third isn't written yet...it's due in a week...oops). I'm currently doing a journal type freewrite as my narrator to figure out her inner issues because my professor said he isn't able to empathize with her yet. Must fix that!!!
What Inspires Me Right Now
I had some GREAT news yesterday. One of the short stories I wrote this semester is being published in Crack The Spine Literary Magazine in May! :) This is my first real journal publication and I'm SO EXCITED! I'll post a snippet from the story soon and will definitely link the website again once they publish the issue. It's so motivating...I'm actually doing something right with this grad school thing!
What Else Is New
I surprised one of my best friends at Susquehanna this weekend for our sorority's formal! She had no idea I was her date! I needed the weekend with my friends SO much, especially since things in Pittsburgh have been stressful lately. We danced, ate lots of pizza, watched Disney movies and saw a performance of Swan Lake at Bloomsburg. I miss the weekend so much already.
Thankfully I made it back to Pittsburgh safe, because yesterday I took my car to Pep Boys to have a few issues looked at, and the mechanic came back holding a piece of my car's coil spring in his hand. Essentially, Pittsburgh potholes have broken my car, and I'm not allowed to drive it until I spend a ton of money to get the coils on the struts fixed. So that's happening on Friday. The car problems are endless!
Before I knew how expensive my car was going to be, I surprised myself by ordering a Kindle! I've always been pro-print books, but I'm reading a lot of series right now that have eBook novellas that I can't get anywhere else. Plus I use a LOT of paper for school, printing PDFs out for class, when it would be so much easier to look at them on a tablet. So I invested in a Kindle Fire, which turned out to be a good decision...it kept me busy during my 4 hour wait at Pep Boys!Does anyone else have eReaders? I'm having trouble deciding which books to buy in eBook format and which to get hard copies of...any advice?
Hope everyone has a great rest of their week! :)
Congratulations on getting your story published! That's so awesome! I've been wanting to read THIS STAR WON'T GO OUT for a while now, but like with TFIOS, I know I have to be in the right mood for it. It'll make me cry too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim!
DeleteAnd yes, you definitely need to be in a certain mood to read TSWGO. If it makes you feel better, there are quite a few lighthearted, funny moments. Esther was such a witty writer! <3
Congrats on getting published! That's pretty fantastic. :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I find awesome about having a Kindle is that often times books will go on sale on Amazon for dirt cheap. It's hard to pass up a book that's on sale for $1.99. Authors will often mention on Twitter when their books are on sale, which is pretty great. I've gotten TONS of really good books this way. Have a great week, Kaitlin!
Thanks Jaime!
DeleteOoooh, thanks for the tip off on the Amazon sales! I'll have to watch for them. I've come across one or two books already that I thought looked oddly cheap...loving this Kindle world already! :)
Congratulations again on the literary magazine! I am beyond thrilled for you and can't wait to read the story! :)
ReplyDeleteMy general rule with print vs. ebooks is - if it's a book by one of my favorite authors, or a writer whose other books I already have, then I buy the hardcopy so I can have the whole collection that way. If it's someone new then I tend to opt for the ebook version. So far it's working out quite nicely!
Thanks again Shari! <3
DeleteI think that's the rule I'm going to go with. If it's an author I love (or a new author i'm confident I'll love), I'll probably stick with print, but ones I'm less sure about will be ebooks!