Random Ramblings: The Climax

As I am nearing the end of my novel.  Finally!  I've come to the climax.  And so I thought I'd do a post about it.  I once read, "That a beginning sells your book, but the climax sells your next book."  But what makes for a great climax?

I guess it's that final object standing in the MC's  way.  Right?  Where everything finally comes together, mystery is solved, and the good guy wins.  But how many great books have you read where the ending, where the climax specifically, was just kind of lack-luster.  It happens all the time.  There are books I absoluely loved and yet the climax was only so-so.  Usually by the end I've invested so much in the story that a so-so climax and ending won't distory a story for me...they usually just leave me wishing I could re-write it.  You get to the end and you think "that was it".  It happens to me constantly when watching movies. 

So, here's a list of books I thought only had so-so climaxes and endings:
BREAKING DAWN by Stephenie Meyer
AFTERLIFE by Claudia Gray
DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver
MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins
PERFECT CHEMISTRY by Simone Elkeles
Some of these were fantastic books, they just came up slightly short at the end.  Basically, they could have been a little better. 


Didn't you love the climax in the first Harry Potter book?



And some endings I loved:

Any HARRY POTTER novel
UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand
DIE FOR ME by Amy Plum
HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer

Perhaps the reason some endings come up short is because the author is saving the good stuff for book #2.  But I hate that.  I love when, like HUNGER GAMES, a novel can stand alone...without it's 2nd or 3rd part.  To me TWILIGHT was like that.  I almost wish I never read past TWILIGHT.  I didn't need the others.  It felt complete on its own.  But so many novels save the good stuff for later.  What if there is no later?  Some books I've read and loved in the past never had sequels.  I never got all my questions answered.  :(  Anyway, I'm just rambling now.  You guys have suggests on what makes for a great climax?

Random Ramblings: Mermaids

In every Young Adult genera there is one book that exceeds the rest for me.  One favorite that always stands above all others.  One perfect example.  Here are mine todate:

Vampires: TWILIGHT
Distopian: HUNGER GAMES
Fairies: WINGS
Contemporary: PERFECT CHEMISTRY

Werewolves: NIGHTSHADE

Paranormal: NEVERMORE
Angels: UNEARTHLY
Witches: HARRY POTTER
Mermaids: ???

Now, on to what this post is really about: the un-tapped subject of mermaids.  Now, you might say: No, way there are plenty of mermaid books.  I still say: no there aren't.  I have yet to find that one--THE ONE!--my all-time-favorite mermaid book. 

Okay, so I'll admit that I haven't really read that many.  Here's the one's I've read:

FORGIVE MY FINS by Tera Lynn Childs
Lily, 17, is a mermaid princess living on land and attending a high school where no one knows her real identity. She needs to find a mate before she turns 18 in order to inherit the throne. Her big crush on Brody is going nowhere until her obnoxious neighbor, Quince, intervenes. A surprise kiss from the wrong boy leads to a tidal wave of unexpected consequences. In this lighthearted and mostly enjoyable novel, Childs stretches the relationship drama out perhaps a little too long for impatient readers, but the end result is sweet and satisfying.

My Rating: 4.5/5
The Flaw: Cute, but too fluffy.  No real bad-guy.  I was so close to fully loving it, but not quite. 

SIREN by Tricia Rayburn
Vacationing in Winter Harbor, Maine, is a tradition for Vanessa and Justine Sands, and that means spending time with the Carmichael boys. This summer, Vanessa is determined to channel some of her older sister’s boldness, get over her fear of the ocean, and maybe turn her friendship with Simon Carmichael into something much more.  But when Justine goes cliff-diving after a big family argument, and her body washes ashore the next day, Vanessa is sure that it was more than an accident. She is more certain of this, when she discovers that her sister was keeping some big secrets and Caleb Carmichael’s gone missing. Suddenly, the entire oceanfront town is abuzz when a series of grim, water-related accidents occur, with the male victims washed ashore grinning from ear to ear.  Vanessa and Simon team up to figure out if these creepy deaths have anything to do with Justine and Caleb, but what Vanessa discovers might mean the end of her summer romance, and life as she knows it.

My Rating: 3/5
The Flaw:  A lot less fluffy, but I hated how it opened with her sister's death.  I never could get over with it.  And neither could any of the other characters.  It was pretty spooky and that I liked, but I needed more romance.

SEA CHANGE by Aimee Friedman
Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science. . .and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate.  There, Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew about boys, friendship. . .and reality.  Is Leo hiding something? Or is he something that she never could have imagined?

My Rating: 4/5
The Flaw:  It was so close to perfection for me and I really loved this novel, but it ended with so many questions.  You never know for sure if Leo is a merman.  It's this big unanswered question/possibility.  I loved this novel, I just needed a sequel to it...something the author isn't planning on writing.  :(

The ones I still need to read:

THE MERMAID'S MIRROR by L. K. Madigan
Lena has lived her whole life near the beach – walking for miles up and down the shore and breathing the salty air, swimming in the cold water, and watching the surfers rule the waves – the problem is, she’s spent her whole life just watching. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Lena vows she will no longer watch from the sand: she will learn to surf. But her father – a former surfer himself – refuses to allow her to take lessons. After a near drowning in his past, he can’t bear to let Lena take up the risky sport.  Yet something lures Lena to the water … an ancient, powerful magic. One morning Lena catches sight of this magic: a beautiful woman – with a silvery tail.  Nothing will keep Lena from seeking the mermaid, not even the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove.  And soon … what she sees in the mermaid’s mirror will change her life …

TEMPEST RISING by Tracy Deebs
Tempest Maguire wants nothing more than to surf the killer waves near her California home; continue her steady relationship with her boyfriend, Mark; and take care of her brothers and surfer dad. But Tempest is half mermaid, and as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she will have to decide whether to remain on land or give herself to the ocean like her mother. The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kai, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well. And when Tempest does finally give in to the water's temptation and enters a fantastical underwater world, she finds that a larger destiny awaits her-and that the entire ocean's future hangs in the balance.

BETWEEN THE SEA AND SKY by Jaclyn Dolamore
For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air.

LOST VOICES by Sara Porter
Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder?

MERMAID by Carolyn Turgeon
In Turgeon's surprisingly dark retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, two women pine for the affections of a prince: mermaid Lenia, who pulls Prince Christopher from the sea, and Margrethe, the princess of the rival kingdom, who witnesses the rescue from the convent where she hides from the war raging between their two kingdoms. Lenia, who falls instantly in love with the prince, sacrifices the sea, her voice, and her health to be with him on dry land. Meanwhile, Margrethe believes that marrying the prince would unite their kingdoms, but when she arrives to arrange it, she finds him already enraptured with Lenia. While he remains unaware that the girl he loves is also the mermaid who saved him, Margrethe recognizes her rival immediately and puts into motion a plan to send the ailing mermaid back to the sea and save her own ravaged kingdom. Turgeon has done a superb job of creating compelling characters and conflict from a story already familiar to readers.

SEA by Heidi R. Kling
Still haunted by nightmares of her mother's death, fifteen-year-old Sienna Jones reluctantly travels to Indonesia with her father's relief team to help tsunami orphans with their post traumatic stress disorder - something Sienna knows a lot about. Since her mother's plane went missing over the Indian Ocean three years before, Sienna doesn't do anything if it involves the ocean or planes, so this trip is a big step forward.But the last thing she expects is to fall for Deni, a brooding Indonesian boy who lives at the orphanage, and just so happens to be HOT. When Deni hears a rumor that his father may be alive, Sienna doesn't think twice about running away with him to the epicenter of the disaster. Unfortunately, what they find there could break both their hearts.

Have you found your perfect mermaid book yet?  Because I sure haven't!  Also, what are you thoughts on the one's that I haven't read yet?  I'm trying to find the perfect beach/ summer read here.  It's hard.  :(

(Also, my current novel is about a mermaid...and I'd love to hear what features you'd love to find in a mermaid book.  Anything will be helpful!  Thanks guys!)

Random Ramblings: Qualities of a BADA$$

So in the novel I'm currently writing my main guy character (the heroine's love interest) is your typical 'bad guy' aka 'badass'.  And it got me thinking.  What are the typically qualities of a literary badass?  Here goes....

Tall, dark, and handsome.  He's got to be hot.  That's a given.  Rule Number One!  He's got to look at you and smolder you with those dark eyes.  Make breathing difficult.  And make rational thought impossible.

Dark Past.  Maybe he's secretly a murderous vampire or maybe he's just had a history of violence.  It doesn't matter.  But there has be something haunting him from his past, spilling into the present, and threatening his sanity.

Attitude.  He ain't takin' no crap from no one!  That's for sure.  Maybe he's sarcastic and witty or even just plain mean, but somehow he covers that dark past with layers and layers of attitude. 

Dangerous.  This kind of goes along with the whole haunted past thing.  You can't be badass if you aren't a little bit dangerous or at least leaning on the possibilities of it.  Perhaps he gets in lots of fights at school, hangs out with the rough and rowdy crowd, or a...wait for it...vampire.  Who cares?  But all badasses are dangerous somehow. 

Drinking.  Drugs.  Tattoos.  Drives a Motorcycle.  Whatever, but he has to show you somehow that he's a badass.  The dark past and attitude alone won't do it.  He needs to prove it.  Hurt someone.  Maybe even hurt the herione of the story.  Drink someone's blood.  It doesn't matter.  A true badass does more than pretend he's bad; he's actually bad. 

But Also Wild and Fun.  He cares so little about what others think that often our badass can be quite the life of the party. 

And Charming. 

A Secret Soft Gooey Inside.  Under that hard, thick shell there's got to be something soft and sweet underneath.  Otherwise instead of actually wanting to date him, maybe he should just be thrown in jail. 

History of Women.  This one you can give or take. But often the badass has dated plenty of women in his past.  Maybe he's even a womanizer.  He cares so little for other people's feelings that getting emotionally involved with a woman is usually out of the question.  (Why I feel like even though Edward Cullen is a vampire and wants to drink Bella's blood, he's not a true badass.)

Breaking Point.  He eventually falls for the heroine.  You don't have a story if he couldn't even manage that.  His badboy ways don't go forgotten, but he's got to at least let one person in and that's our heroine. 

What qualities do you think a badass should embody? And who are your favorites?

Random Ramblings: Writing is a Balancing Act

I realized today why I'm struggling so much to finish my novel.  It's because writing is this giant balancing act and I'm not sure if I'm smart enough to pull it off. 

You see, everything about a story is like a circular web.  It's all interconnect and it all has to fit together just so.  All the lose end and the different sub plots and the questions must tie together in the end.  And making it all fit together--just so--is the most challenging part (I think) in the whole big, long process.  Not voice.  Not plot.  Not pace.  It's the whole, big picture that's most important.  It's what--in the end--makes or break the story.  Think big picture.  That's why J.K. Rowling is a super genius.  Her stories fit together so well.  Everything that happens, happens for a reason.  It makes perfect sense and adds to the story. 

So back to what I said about being smart enough to pull it off.  It's a balancing act.  You've got to keep everything in your mind (all the plot turns and twists and little details) so that by the end they're still consistent and ultimately solved.  And I constantly feel like my brain isn't big enough to hold it all in.  I think that's partly why I constantly am re-reading and re-reading what I've already written.  It posses a question:  Should I outline?  As a writer I don't.  I take the fly by the seat of my pants approach.  I just can't see that far in advance.  But ultimately, is that why I'm struggling so much now, at the end? 

I'm just sending these questions into the void.  I don't have answers.