Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic:

What do you hope to be writing in one year? Three? Five?

Wish I could foresee the future and tell you. I really wish.

You know, last week I heard a lot about the 5-year plan. The info I gathered is that small business usually write down 5-year plan statements to get started. I see a lot of self-pubbed authors talking about it.

Since then, I have been thinking about writing a 5-year plan for me.

However, it’s hard to figure out what you’ll be writing or doing in 1 or 3 or 5 years, if you can’t control when or if you’ll find an agent, what or if your manuscript will sell. I can determine though that while querying XX manuscript, I’ll be writing YY manuscript. I guess that’s why I see more self-pubbed authors with 5-year plans, because all they have to do is sit down, write, edit, send out to editors, format, and publish. That should be “easy” to put on a calendar or plan.

But I’m steering away from the question …

In one year, I hope to have written Destiny Gift #2 and #3, plus two other manuscripts (I do write fast). But it’s hard to say exactly what I’ll be writing cause I have too many ideas and I want to write them all. What I write actually depends of the mood I am in when I start writing the first page.

I hope though that in five years I have a dozen published—and successful—books under my belt =) Hey, dreams are free!

How about you? What do you hope to be writing in one, three and five years?

Cheers,

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic:

October!! It is SO fall! How does your writing (place, time, inspiration, etc) change with the seasons?

Short and sweet answer: It doesn’t.

My inspiration, time and place don’t change. Almost never.

The last time my writing place changed was when we moved from Brazil back to the US. And before that my writing space was the same for 3 years.

Here’s how it looks now:

This desk sits on a corner of my bedroom. I started using a bedroom as home office, but, for some reason, the central air doesn’t go to that room and it became impossible to write there in the summer, especially with the sun hitting the window right beside it all day.

So I moved my main desk to the bedroom. I wanted my own office room, but since hubby works away from home and now kid is in kindergarten, the bedroom is only mine during the day. *shrugs*

Anyway, I don’t do anything different for the seasons.

In the winter, I might throw a blanket over my chair, though. LOL

How about you? How does your writing place looks like? Does it change with the seasons?

Cheers,

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic:

What was the best book you read in September?

Couldn’t decide between two, even though I’m still reading one of them.

From Goodreads:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

From Goodreads:

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

What was the best book you read in September?

Cheers,

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic:

In honor of this month’s Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer’s CINDER, name a fable or story you’d like to see a retelling of. If you’re feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!

I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know that many fairy tales other than the ones Disney made into animated—and kid’s friendly—movies.

You guys probably studied some during High School, or were instigated to read some, but as I grew up in Brazil, we don’t tend to look much at fairy tales there.

Anyway, the one that comes into mind is Hansel and Gretel.

Why? Cause I love siblings stories (please, note that I HATE stories where the brothers love the same girl. *cough* The Vampire Diaries *cough*). I want to see more friends-slash-siblings stories out there.

And I just found out about the Hansel and Gretel movie coming out soon:

Huge change from the original tale!

I bet that after this, there’ll be lots of retellings of Hansel and Gretel in our future ;)

Update: I saw Colin’s post (I think I copied something from Colin’s post yesterday too!) and now I want to write a query for a novel I haven’t written—heck, I just came up with this idea two seconds go! So here it is (I wrote this in under 5 minutes, so please, be gentle!):

Abandoned in the foster system since toddlers, siblings Anna and Peter live with the sweet Auntie Dolores. The middle-aged woman is widely known for her kindness and easy smile. But only to outsiders. With Anna and Peter, she’s a mean old bitch. Her heavy hand lands on them every time she thinks they are out of line, and that’s every day.

One night, Dolores spanks Anna until the girl bleeds. Consumed by rage, Peter reacts and hits the old hag for the first time. But one punch isn’t enough. He can’t stop, until the woman is still under him.

Shocked with what he did, Peter runs away with Anna. They try to hide in a small town, lying to whoever comes near. When Anna makes new friends and starts falling for the boy next door, their lies become too fragile. If they want to keep out of trouble and out of the foster system—and away from the police—they have to run again. Feeling like she finally found a place she wants to be, Anna heart is ripped in two: she has to decide if she wants to keep running, or unravel the lies that hold her brother prisoner.

Anna and Peter is a young adult contemporary romance with a dark twist inspired by Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.

What about you? Which fable you would like to see a retelling?

Cheers,