Stephanie Diaz

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2014

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I tried to write a witty introduction to this post. Maybe my brain is fried from the manuscript I just finished (literally five minutes ago) or maybe I used up all my wit in 2013. Perhaps it’s best if we just get to the point!

2014!

What is happening?

Drum roll please. Here is the Officially Unofficial List of THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2014. (In no particular order.) It’s a YA list. I know this doesn’t shock any of you.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

May 2014

Everyone who knows ANYTHING about me knows that I’m obsessed with Cassandra Clare. Coming up in 2014, we will finally find out WHICH MAIN CHARACTER WILL DIE. Thanks for that hint, Cassie. It’s given me an ulcer for a year and half now.

Erchomai, Sebastian had said.Ā 

I am coming.
Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Claryā€™s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him ā€” must they journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changedĀ in the sixth and last installment of the Mortal Instruments series!

Want my guesses? Magnus, no, Alec, no…Simon? For the love of glitter, let’s just kill Jocelyn. Luke can do better, anyway.

Divergent

The Movie, March 21, 2014

Holy muscles, Batman. Have you seen Theo James as Four? HOLY MUSCLES. (Wow. I think I just had a fangirl moment.) This book rocked my world when it came out. I might have been quoted saying, “This may be the best book I’ve ever read.”

Since then, I’ve had a bipolor relationship with Veronica Roth, the author. While I still love her for creating this beautifully tragic world, I still have sleepless night over Allegiant. This is one of those times that I hope the movie industry takes artistic license and changes the story line. I’ll keep it spoiler free, folks. Just for you.

Divergent is an emotional roller coaster that I can’t wait to experience in theaters!

Beatrice Prior, a teenager with a special mind, finds her life threatened when an authoritarian leader seeks to exterminate her kind in her effort to seize control of their divided society.

 

The Fault in Our Stars

The Movie, June 6, 2014

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort must’ve won the lottery to not only get to be in Divergent (as brother and sister) but also appear in The Fault in Our Stars as the tragically doomed Hazel and Augustus.

This book. Where do I even begin?

I reviewed it. (There are spoilers in that review, by the way.) Oh thank goodness I don’t have to go over it again. This book TORE me to SHREDS like I’LL NEVER EVER EVER EVER BE THE SAME.

Thanks, John Green. (I seriously love you. Call me.)

Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous given that Hazel’s other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they met and fell in love at a cancer support group.

The Maze Runner

The Movie, September 19, 2014

This is going to be awesome. This series is unique, from beginning to end. I can’t wait to see how they pull it off.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, young Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they’re all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow “runners” for a shot at escape.

 

Extraction by Stephanie Diaz

July 22, 2014

WAAHHHHH! The cover for this book hasn’t released yet. Suffice it to say that I’ve read some of Steph’s work and she is FANTASTIC. Look out YA, you don’t know what’s coming!

Clementine has spent her whole life preparing for her sixteenth birthday, when sheā€™ll be tested for Extraction in the hopes of being sent from the planet Kielā€™s toxic Surface to the much safer Core, where people live without fear or starvation. When she proves Promising enough to be ā€œExtracted,ā€ she must leave without Logan, the boy she loves. Torn apart from her only sense of family, Clem promises to come back and save him from brutal Surface life.

What she finds initially in the Core is a utopia compared to the Surfaceā€”itā€™s free of hard labor, gun-wielding officials, and the moon’s lethal acid. But life is anything but safe, and Clementine learns that the planet’s leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellersā€”and that means Logan, too.

Trapped by the steel walls of the underground and the lies that keep her safe, Clementine must find a way to escape and rescue Logan and the rest of the planet. But the planet leaders don’t want her runningā€”they want her subdued.

With urgent writing, fluid dialogue, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Extraction is a page-turning, gripping read, sure to entertain lovers of Hunger Games and Ender’s Game and leave them breathless for more.

Well, that’s it guys. The Completely Incomplete List of THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2014.

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WHAT? DECEMBER ALREADY?

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November has come and gone. Thereā€™s something about that month thatā€™s always crazy busy for me. Sure, it contains my birthday. Hello, twenty-seven, youā€™re looking lovely. This age is ironic to me. A long, long time ago (which to people my age means about ten years,) I made a pact with a then-friend that if we reached 27 and werenā€™t married, we would marry each other. Well, as you can see, I hurried and got myself married at 20 so I avoided that disaster. Said friend went on to things I donā€™t particularly agree with (can we say porn?). Friendship dissolved anyway. Canā€™t imagine what wouldā€™ve happened if weā€™d kept that pact.

So yes, I had a birthday that involved a birthday bash that ended eventfully in a way I hope to never experience again. I expect youā€™re already plotting out the lecture in your head. No, no, I donā€™t need a lecture. I wasnā€™t the eventful one. That award goes to a drunken friend.

November was Nano. I didnā€™t participate, couldnā€™t bring myself to devote the time and energy needed to get to 50,000. Knew I couldnā€™t. I clocked in at just fewer than 25,000 words, which is a respectable number for me to write in a month. Iā€™m more than satisfied. The first draft of Shade of the Poison Tree should be finished within the next month or two. Iā€™m at 54,000 dark and delicious words. Where Through the Reflection Pond was light, Shade of the Poison Tree is dark. Iā€™m having a lot of fun creating giant messes and killing characters. Taking chances, exploring things that used to be off-limits.

I saw Breaking Dawn Part 2. Judge me. Go ahead. I liked it. I was a little sad that itā€™s over. But there are bigger and better things around the corner!! City of Bones, for one. Did you all see the trailer? No? Here it is! Iā€™m unbelievably excited for this movie. Itā€™s like crack.

City of Bones Trailer

Thereā€™s a celebration in order for my friend, Stephanie Diaz, who not only got agented this year, but sold a three book deal to St. Martinā€™s. Congrats, Steph, you deserve it! Read all about her deal HERE.

Iā€™m elbows deep in winterguard. That explains where all my time has gone. I have 23 awesome kids on my high school team this year. Weā€™re all working really hard and some of us are losing sleep (read: me) over it. Things are running smoothly, for now. The show is coming along, we have uniforms and flags and rifles, and a mix of attitudes that sometimes gets in the way. But Iā€™ve put on my big girl panties that say COACH across the back and handled it all. Itā€™s epic season or bust around here.

Reflection Pond is still out to betas. Not too worried, got enough on my plate writing Poison Tree. Once thatā€™s done Iā€™ll probably start nagging them to send it back. Iā€™m starting to get behind on my timeline, but thatā€™s okay. Shit happens.

Sadly, because of work, I canā€™t go to writing group anymore. Seriously breaks my heart. Those people helped my writing SO MUCH and now I CANā€™T GO!! Ahhā€¦it kills me. Oh to be a fulltime writer and not conform to the constraints of society (hello, tattoos). One day, one day.

Last on the list of news is vacation. Yes, you read correctly, Iā€™m actually going on vacation. I have no idea what that word even means! Drum roll pleaseā€¦Las Vegas!! One month from today and the time canā€™t go fast enough. Iā€™m already ready for Christmas to be over! Iā€™m counting on some relaxation, writing, and visiting the Hoover Dam (Oh, so scared of this.). At least itā€™s not a cruise ship.

Well friends, thatā€™s all the updates I have.

All the best,

Kacey

LOOK!

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The amazing Stephanie Diaz tagged me in a game called Look. I figured, I’m not doing a darn thing, so why not share? Here’s the rules:

RULES:

 If you are tagged, do a search for the word “look” in your work in progress. Copy that paragraph, along with surrounding paragraphs, to your blog, to keep the game afloat. Don’t forget to tag others.

So, I checked out my two WIPs. The first, Through the Reflection Pond features ‘look’ in the second paragraph. I deemed that boring, so I headed to the sequel to Through the Reflection Pond, Shade of the Poison Tree, which also features ‘look’ in the second paragraph. Hm. Gave me a WTH moment. I decided on Poison Tree, even though it’s unedited, even though it’ll make no sense.

Here’s your tidbits!

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Even with my back turned to him, I felt Nateā€™s eyes on me, as if I was Santa Claus and it was Christmas morning, as if he couldnā€™t believe it was really me. Heā€™d cried. Actual tears, heavy with months of fear and grief, had fallen from the corners of his hollow eyes and trailed down his cheeks. Iā€™d done this to him. The dark smudges from lack of sleep? Those were my fault. Heā€™d lost weight, his cheeks were sunken, his body gaunt. My fault. My fault.

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  ā€œCallie?ā€

I lifted my head. Weā€™d stopped at a red light. Ahead of me, the dark road stretched for miles and miles, disappearing into the trees in the distance. It was the last traffic light in town. I glanced at his face and away, staring out the window, at a spot just beyond Nateā€™s head where the sun was trying to make an appearance, unable to bring myself to look at him. It was one thing to leaveā€”Iā€™d done that, quite successfully and completely by accident, it was another to come face to face with the person youā€™d left behind and realize that youā€™d destroyed their life in your absence. My stomach turned to ropes, thick and heavy, making me ache.

ā€œIā€™m sorry.ā€ The words were just the barest whisper. I coughed, trying to make my voice fit beside the guilt. He touched my face, the callused planes of his palm felt foreign even though itā€™d been mere months since Iā€™d seen him. The light turned green and reflected in his eyes. He was waiting me out, wearing me down with his infinite patience. I leaned out of his touch and pressed my back to the door. Hurt flashed across his face.

ā€œAre you hungry? Cold? Should I take you home?ā€

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Home. It was ironic, really, that word. Home.

 

Now I must tag some people.

1. Missy Biozarre (You are my dearest writer friend. Do it. Take a chance. Let it all hang…out…er…you know what I mean.)

2. RLL (Oh yes YOU!! You read that correctly.)

3. Chris Stocking (You won something off my blog, that means I stalk you now.)

4. Martha Allard (Because I CAN!! And I love your writing. Seriously. Love. It. And if anyone would EVER listen to me, I vote for the werewolf story.)

5. Melissa Keir (Does this really need an explanation? Yes? No? No…?)
Now, listen up all of yous. You don’t HAVE to participate, it’s not REQUIRED by LAW, but what else are you doing right now? Nada? Nothing? That’s what I thought. Share some writing. It’s amazing an you know it.
All the best,

Kacey