Something Like Lydia

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

[brittanysbookrambles]

Signed ARC Giveaway of The Rose Society by Marie Lu. For details on how to enter visit my blog HERE.

[sshannonauthor]

GIVEAWAY

Hello, Tumblr!

I’m Samantha Shannon, author of the Bone Season series. It’s time I did a giveaway, because Tumblr is fabulous and so are you.

There are three prizes up for grabs, with one winner per prize.

The prizes

Hardback prize: 1 x signed and personalised US hardback of The Mime Order

Paperback prize: 1 x signed and personalised UK paperback of The Bone Season AND 1 x signed and personalised UK paperback of The Mime Order

Audio prize: 1 x MP3-CD audiobook of The Mime Order, 1 x signed postcard 

Terms and conditions and stuff

To enter, follow me (sshannonauthor) and reblog this post. 

This is an international giveaway.

The giveaway ends on 30 August 2015 at 8pm (GMT). Winners will be informed within a week.

To select the winners, I’ll be numbering the entries and then using a random number generator.

The winners must be happy to provide me with their postal address.

All prizes are in the English language.  

Prizes will be sent by UK second class or standard international post. Although I do my best to ensure that prizes reach participants in a good condition, I cannot be held responsible if they are lost or damaged in the post.

[somethinglikelydia-blog]

GIVEAWAY!!! As part of the blog tour for the release of the highly-anticipated sequel to the bestselling The Queen of the Tearling, the lovely people over at Transworld Books have given me THREE copies of The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, to give away! MORE INFO AND HOW TO ENTER

[the-beauty-of-words-blog]

[brighter-than-sunshine]

I am just thinking about how John Green must feel. He’s devoted so much of his career into his online presence, and in building a community of nerdfighters online, and creating a place where people can be inspired by his work and his vlogs. Obviously our generation is different in the way we communicate information; it’s more widespread and attainable online, and lots more authors are being more socially active on the Internet. But that also makes it more vulnerable and for authors to get like “tabloid” shit spread about them online… And while I try so hard to have faith in Tumblr’s people and people in general, how can anyone turn an eye to “this author is a YA writer and has voiced opinions in print and is problematic and writes about teenagers so he must be a sexual predator/abuser.” That is not ignorance. That is hate, and cruelty and idiocy, and just plain stupidity. It is also extremely offensive to those who are fans of John Green, and more importantly, to JOHN GREEN HIMSELF. A man, a writer, a human being. I don’t understand how it’s possible that so many people are reblogging that shitty post in its original form.

It seems like an attack on YA authors and non-teenage vloggers too. Because John Green is not the only writer of his age who has written books about teenage protagonists. He has not been for a long time, and he is not the only one doing it right now. It just makes me sad, because this is the kind of community John Green is trying to shed light on– the teenagers that are often overshadowed by adults, in terms of their intelligence and emotional capabilities. People were also disgusting enough to continuously tag John until he was forced to respond. This goes beyond critique and dislike of the books or writing style: this is pathetic and mean and hurtful towards someone who has done or said no more problematic things than every single person on this fucking website has.

[toronoh]

A friend of mine is in school right now for publishing. Her professor, a publisher at Random House Canada, give his class insight into the production of Grey, the Fifty Shades of Grey re-telling from the point of view of Christian Grey by E.L. James set to be released in a week from now.

Generally, when a manuscript of a book is turned into the publishing house, it on average takes nine to twelve months for editing and refinery. Grey was handed in to the publisher on June 1st, the day it was announced. Which means that, yes, its release is just over two weeks from its appearance, and, yes, it’s a collective decision to forego its editing because the fact of the matter is, people are going to buy it regardless of what its state is.

I know what you’re thinking: who cares? I care because, as a writer and a hopeful publisher one day, it troubles me to see how much respect for one book is foregone in the interest of profit, profit, profit. I make it a rule to not judge any work of fiction or the people who like it, but Fifty Shades is my only exception, for it glorifies all the right things for all the wrong reasons to a market of people too dense to look any further than the embarrassingly written prose in their hands. To know that this book exists and is traditionally published at the drop of a hat because it’s going to make money––while someone like me, a struggling writer who hasn’t even tried to crack into the world of publishing because I’m so scared by how much it dwarfs me––makes me upset. When I voiced this opinion to my manager, she shrugged and said, “who cares? It’s gonna make us so much money.”

[yasminereads]

Yes, all of this. That’s pretty messed up. They’re basically treating it as a self published book when it isn’t, although yes the original was self published from its very start (aka Master of the Universe, aka fanfic).

Anyways, my point is that it isn’t self published now and if you have the means and the resources to provide your buyers with higher quality work and you choose not to so you can make a bigger profit, that’s both lazy and insulting to every single one of your readers and customers.

No, 50sog is not a masterpiece of literature. But also, NO its readers are not sacks of money with no brains so please stop perpetuating the idea that this type of work and this type of reader does not deserve the same amount of attention and thought you put into everything else. That’s insulting to the readers, customers and ultimately harms everyone, including the publisher and the author.

[theboywhocriedbooks]

me when I find someone who has read a really obscure book I love:

[omg-padfoot-deactivated20231007]

Teddy Lupin arrives at Hogwarts with a mop of untidy black hair and bright brown eyes. When he’s sorted into Hufflepuff and the hat is plucked from his head the Great Hall gasps collectively because his hair has turned canary yellow in recognition of his house colours. He keeps it this way for a week before it returns to messy black for the remainder of the year.

In second year he favours hair that is the exact same shade of pale blonde as Victoire Weasley. Only Minerva McGonagall notices that the first moment his hair involuntarily takes shade is when the hat atop Victoire’s head calls Gryffindor.

Third year is the year of bubblegum pink hair. This brings a sad smile to some of the older professors who remember that shade of pink sported frequently by vivacious young girl many years ago.

Fourth year and he resumes the Weasley shade of red because it’s shy little Molly Weasley’s first year and there’s a distinct lack of red heads around.

Fifth year is when Dominique is sorted into Ravenclaw, and his little adoptive family is spread over three Hogwarts houses now, so he spends the first few months with varying colours of scarlet, royal blue and bright, sunshine yellow. Sometimes it’s a multi-hued mix of all three but then he develops an annoying habit of changing his hair to the vibrant house colour of whoever he’s talking to and forest green makes it into the mix.

In sixth year there’s an incident that leaves him unconscious in the hospital wing and his altered features slowly fade to reveal what he would look like without the ability to change his appearance. McGonagall stops dead in the doorway when she finds the spitting image of a young Remus Lupin laying passed out in the bed. Teddy cries when she tells him this, unable to consciously stop any alterations to see for himself. She promises to take a picture if it happens again and Teddy spends the rest of the year with sandy brown hair and amber eyes borrowed from the creased photo he keeps by his bedside.

Seventh year he settles on a particular shade of turquoise blue. It’s vivid and different and entirely of his own design for no other reason than he thinks it suits his personality. Victoire agrees that it does and it stays that way for the entire year, marking the first time he keeps a colour that he hasn’t borrowed from family, friends, houses or old photos for more than a week.

[ledgerwritingpodcast]

You’re never too old to sit down on the floor of a bookstore and read a chapter or two.

[thetinhouse-deactivated20180604]

Every time you write, ask yourself: Could this scene take place in a hot-air balloon? If the answer is yes, then it probably should.

Haruki Murakami (via thetinhouse)

Sent from my hot-air balloon

(via harperperennial)

Ha.

(via gwendabond)

[vinterskald]

I knew I could trust you, Google.

[penguinteenaus]

If you’re coming to #Sydney #SupaNova, make sure you visit the Penguin Random House stand. 

We’re bringing our PenguinTeenAus Insta-Frame and YA speech bubbles for you all to play with! 

[thebookhangover-blog]

readaroundtherosie get ready !

[battywitch]

I’m getting into a book funk :(

I have fantasy’d myself out apparently. I just can not stay focused on things and it’s driving me bonkers.

Help me out by sending recs? I think I need something totally different from my usual reads (ya, ya fantasy, general fantasy, classic lit, dystopian) so…

What’s the weirdest/most unique/most fucked up book you’ve read?

[frommybookbook]

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle is definitely one of the weirdest books I’ve read in a long time but it’s really good too.

[readthebloodybook-deactivated20]

John dies at the end by David Wong.

[somethinglikelydia-blog]

S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst. Unlike any book i’ve ever read. 

[booktubes]

@sashaalsberg: a bibliophiles more stressful situation like…ever

[bookmad-deactivated20151003]

just rub the heel of your palm on it for like 30+ seconds and it should always come off clean!

[somethinglikelydia-blog]

series: *male and female character make eye contact and smile*

me: oh no. oh god no please

[jilliro]

Natural habitat

[behindbookshelf8-deactivated202]