5.22.2013

What's Up Wednesday (2)

It's time for What's Up Wednesday!



"What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up." Jamie and Erin will have a link widget at the end of their What's Up Wednesday posts for those who want to join and link up.


WHAT I'M READING
I'm currently reading Melina Marchetta's FROI OF THE EXILES, Book 2 of her very excellent Lumatere Chronicles. I absolutely adored the first book, FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK. It's a great, sweeping fantasy with danger and romance and really complex themes. Here's my goodreads review if you're interested in hearing me gush some more: Finnikin review.

Before that though, I blasted through Rick Yancey's THE 5TH WAVE, which is pretty much lives up to the hype. It was thrilling and touching and had these lovely themes and literary motifs (I am a sucker for good themes and good use of literary devices). I cannot wait until the next one! I'll probably review Book 1 soon.


WHAT I'M WRITING
I'm still not writing much, but I did #twtpoem some more. (The current theme is lens, by the way, if any of you want to participate!) I'm also toying around with some ideas - mostly trying to figure out a plot. I suck at plot, guys. I like characters, themes, relationship stuff, personal arcs, and cool settings/world-building - so I think my brain just tends to focus on that stuff first? Not that I don't like cool plots; I'm just terrible at working them out first. :P

I've also been helping someone else toy with a Shiny New Idea, which is much easier for me. I just get to make ridiculous (and not so ridic) suggestions, and they decide what they want to go with.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW
The weather. It is all sunshine and blue skies and toasty summer-y heat. I thrive in this kind of daylight.



WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
Other than watching a ton of movies, the Sister and I (as well as my friends) have been super looking forward to the new season of Arrested Development. One of my fellow bridesmaids is throwing a themed party on the premiere date, but also exciting is the Arrested Development promo tour. Lucky us, the LA area tends to play host to these sorts of things, so we did some tour stop hopping.

Last Saturday, we found the Bluth Company (stair) Car at Hollywood & Highland!


You're gonna get hop-ons!



Then yesterday, we made a date with friends at the Bluth Frozen Banana Stand. Alas, we barely made it in time for pictures before closing, so they were all out of frozen bananas. The line was also HUGE, and it's possible threats were made about burning down the banana stand and "cornballing the heck" out of it if we didn't get pics...

There's always money in the banana stand!

Both of these visits resulted in a lot of swag too. Posters, notes (so you can always leave a note!), Mr. Manager stickers. You can call Sheepy, Mr. Manager.



Q4U: What are you up to this Wednesday? Are you excited for the return of Arrested Development?

13 comments:

Miss Cole said...

Oooh I've just started reading The 5th Wave and so far I'm really enjoying it! :D

Loooovely photo. Oh how I'd love to see a few more blue skies over here ^_^

Julie Dao said...

I have an ARC of Froi of the Exiles, but I need to read Finnikin first! Glad to hear it's a good read :D The weather has been beautiful lately!

Jaime Morrow said...

Hubby and I started watching Arrested Development some time back on Netflix, but got sidetracked. Loved it, though! We'll have to get caught up so we can enjoy the new season when it airs.

I loved FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK too! I went out and bought FROI the other day (as you know) and I hope to dive into it soon. :-)

Connie Keller said...

Actually, I haven't heard of either The Fifth Wave or the Finnikin book *hangs head in shame*. I'll have to check them out.

Right now I'm reading lit fic, What Happened to Sophie Wilder and really enjoying it.

Alison Miller said...

Everyone seems to be on a big Marchetta kick! I've only read JELLICOE ROAD (which I LOVED) so I need to read some of others.

Great pics! And yay for Arrested Development!

Colin Smith said...

Yet another glowing endorsement of THE 5TH WAVE. I might have to push it up the TBR list.

As for plotting, have you read Stephen King's ON WRITING? If not, you should. He's your kindred spirit when it comes to plots. He believes you should never plot out a novel beforehand because "life doesn't happen in plots." I don't know if I agree 100%, but I've recently discovered the joy of pantsing a novel, and it seemed to work out okay. :)

Katy Upperman said...

Yay for FROI! I can't wait to discuss the trilogy when you're done reading. I'm still sort of in awe of the whole thing. THE 5TH WAVE is up next for me... I've heard such awesome things about it. Can't wait to read!

KatOwens: Insect Collector said...

Nice to hear such good reviews of FotE and T5W. I love Melina Marchetta SO MUCH. She is amazing... I need to get on this series and go!
And YES can't wait for Arrested Development. We've been re-watching all the old episodes to get ready. So much good stuff. We just finished the Motherboy episode last night. I can't get enough of Buster.

Tracey Neithercott said...

Ah, the perks of living in LA. :) I'm so jealous you went to the Bluth frozen banana stand.

What with Katy's speed reeding of the FINNIKIN books, I'm now dying to get to my copy of FROI OF THE EXILES, which I have had on my TBR shelf for months and just haven't got to reading yet. I love FINNIKIN so I have high hopes for the next two books.

Erin L. Funk said...

I've been hearing amazing things about the Lumatere Chronicles. They're on my TBR list and my eager to get to them!

Jessica Spotswood said...

I've heard so many awesome things about Melina Marchetta but I still haven't read any of her books! *shameface*

I'm so glad you loved THE 5TH WAVE. My editor worked on it and I've heard so many rave reviews. She sent me a copy but I haven't read it yet either! Must find more reading time!

Raven M said...

I love Melina Marchetta's writing. Sadly, I've only read Jellicoe Road but I will get to her other books, staring with FINNIKIN since I do love fantasy and her writing is extremely GORGEOUS so I can only imagine how good it is.

And I'm with you on plots. For some reason, plots only come to me in bits and pieces. They're not always in order and sometimes I have to take to time to put them all together but I'd much rather focus on setting and characters and things like that. I just hope a plot magically appears. *crosses fingers*

And I'm super jealous of your weather. It was nice for a few days, then it got extremely hot and humid now it's just rainy and stormy and..ugh. I must be the only writer who doesn't find storms inspiring.

Stephanie Allen said...

I'm eagerly awaiting a copy of The 5th Wave from the library and the wait is driving me crazy! (But it's the end of the month, so I can't buy it. Boo.)

I LOVED Finnikin and Froi, and I'm reading Quintana right now. I need to buy the entire series, because I will most definitely be rereading them.