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So, last week, I didn't really post. Mostly, because I was on vacation!

The Florida Keys were warm and sunny and very relaxing. All in all, lovely.

We went snorkeling.

But, I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in book reviewing. So, here we go.

But, before we go there, my 9 Picks for January are up at the Biblio File store. Check it out.

This weekend, I read (a lot) and got totally hooked on The Tudors. Hotcha, hotcha, I'm addicted. I also listened to the Juno Soundtrack NON-STOP. I highly recommend. (I'm still singing all the songs in my head. We won't stop until somebody calls the cops and even then, we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened...)

But, yeah, the books.

Harmless Dana Reinhardt

Everyone's told lies. Most lies aren't even that bad. They don't hurt anyone...they're just harmless.

Emma and Anna and Mariah are inseperable. Through short chapters alternating points of view, we see three girls starting to change. This is a story of changing friendships and growing up and the one big thing that gets in the way.

It was simple enough-- they would tell their parents they were going to a movie and instead go to this party thrown by some people at the public school. When they're caught, they tell a lie. Just a little lie. Emma was attacked by the river--that's why they were late, why they never made it to the movie. Their story would be vague enough that they wouldn't get caught.

Just a harmless lie.

Of course, it turns into something much bigger.

I liked the premise, and I liked the plot. I wasn't so sure on many of the sub-plots-- I couldn't place their reasoning in their overall narrative. Also, all three girls are very different characters, but their voices are not as different as they should be.

I thought Mariah was kinda flat as the bad girl. Yes, her backstory was interesting, but she was not.

But, the unraveling of the lie was amazing.

Losing Forever Gayle Friesen

Jes isn't coping well. Her mother's getting remarried, which she isn't totally happy about and then, BAM! Carl's perfect daughter, Angela shows up. Angela is everything that Jes isn't. Plus, a secret shoplifter.

Told over the summer, mainly in lake visits, Jes risks losing her family and friends as she tries to keep things from changing.

There's also a dead sister and an icky best-friend's boyfriend situation.

I liked it. I liked the characters and how real they seemed. I didn't really dig Jes that much, just as a personal thing-- many people will strongly identify with her, but not me.

The Adventures of Pink Elephant Vol. 1 Christine Amamiya

Mandy and Christie are just hanging out in the yard one day when something falls from outer space straight into their swimming pool. It seems to be some sort of egg that hatches... a pink elephant who is super smart, can fly, and extremely compassionate.

Pink Elephant goes on to deal with icky school projects and bullies.

We could all use a pink elephant in our lives.

Amamiya is 17 (or was when she wrote this). I'm going to state straight out that I'm harsh on child-writers (blame Paolini) and I might not have read her prose so critically had I not known her age before I cracked the book. She does have talent though. She doesn't over stretch and tells her tale simply and in a straight-forward manner.

While the book probably won't stay with me for long, she does tell a sweet story that kids are going to like. This is projected to be a ten volume series, and I will be very interested to see how Amamiya grows as a writer in the later volumes...

(Full disclosure: This book was provided by the author.)

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Writing and illustrating for kids is a tough, tough business, as anyone who's ever tried to get something into print anywhere other than a vanity press can tell you. To quote the immortal Somebody or Other I Once Heard Speak, It's a bunny eat bunny world-- a world of editors drowning in slush, many good books vying for a few open spots on publisher's lists, and celebrity books bumping good books by lesser known writers from bookstore shelves.

When we're just beginning, most of us harbor dreams of bypassing the whole mess-- making some magical connection with an agent or publisher who will pluck us from obscurity and into JK Rowling land in a few short months. Car ads sell on the image of intrepid SUV drivers pulling on to the shoulder and driving up the cliff, avoiding the rush hour jam. Like millions of SUV owners, we find that, once we start down publication road, we *do* have to deal with the tangled mess, regardless of what we're driving.

The process itself, whether we're creating stories or images, is the drive off the highway and up the cliff. We push our craft to its limits, and are rewarded with the view from the top, and the sense of fulfillment it brings.
We can sit there and admire the landscape for as long as we like. But if we want to get our books into anyone else's hands, at some point, we have to drive back down and merge into the line of stinky, tired, overworked creative types below.

Instead of vistas, we fall back into the landscape of orange rejection letter cones. Don't hang on to them too hard-- they may slow you down, but they're only there to point you in the right direction.

You and everyone else.

My favorite quote about rejection in the creative world comes from literary rock star Neil Gaiman. The story goes that early in his career, when he received a rejection letter, he sat back down, determined to write a story so good they couldn't possibly reject it.
Hence, my ram's motto, "Just try rejecting THIS!"

If you want to survive in this business, you can keep your insides soft and full of dreams.

That's good. That's where the stories live.

Just make sure your softness is carried along on fiery and determined little feet.

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