June Read-List and Watch-List

Read-list: 


1. Midnight Thief, by Livia Blackburne

O.M.G. How awesome does the plot sound. Gotta love characters with conflicting agenda, when the love interest is also the antagonist. Can't wait to read this!


2. The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco

Yay for horror that doesn't involve monsters and gore! A girl who hunts murderers meets a strange tattooed boy with a dark secret. Plus, creepy doll rituals and Japanese exorcisms. YUM.


3. Forget Me, by K.A. Harrington

"Psychological thriller with a romantic twist" is what it says on the Goodreads page. Reason enough to read it.


4. Of Metal and Wishes, by Sarah Fine

More horror. A unique setting. A girl who is drawn to the Ghost in a slaughterhouse where she assists her father in the medical clinic. The whole thing sounds very Phantom of the Opera-ish. And The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most haunting, beautiful books I've ever read.


5. We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart

This one has a very deliciously twisty plot.

And bonus reason to read the book: Maggie Stiefvater loves it.


6. Deep Blue, by Jennifer Donelly

I will never get tired of mermaid stories. This one's about mermaid heroines who gather their forces across the 6 seas to prevent a war between the Mer nations. Sign me on.


7. Trust Me, I'm Lying, by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Grifters, con artists, swanky high school and its dirty politics, missing fathers. What's not to love?


8. Inland, by Kat Rosenfield

This seems to contain elements of magical realism, and goodness knows I've been searching high and low for magical realism books. We need more of those, especially in YA! And you know what Toni Morrison said:

9. The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman

Speaking of magical realism, here's one of the masters of that genre. I'm still in love with the last Alice Hoffman book I read, The Story Sisters. This one, though, is set in a freak circus. You can't really go wrong with a setting like that. Remember Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby? So yes, I have high hopes for this one.

10. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare, by M.G. Buehrlen

A 17-year-old who has visions of the past is actually a Descender, someone who can travel back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is in fact one soul with fifty-six past lives. And each of them features this mysterious boy with "soulful blue eyes". SO reading this.


What's on your read-list? Any other recommendations?

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Watch-list: 


1. Dream High 2

Dream High was a pretty entertaining and compelling drama series, so hopefully the sequel won't disappoint!


2. Pretty Little Liars

Yes, I'm late to the game. But I've heard it's got a great twisty plot like Vampire Diaries, so I'm sold. There's the stigma attached to PLL - a lot of people probably dismiss it as some high school drama series - but I'm hoping it will, like TVD, change my mind and wow me right from the first episode.


3. God's Quiz 4 

One word: Donghae.

Also, this is the cutest thing you'll see today:

(The boy, I mean. Not the fangirls.)

Okay, okay. Something cute that's not for the fangirls:

I don't know, bananana sounds catchier to me.


Happy mid-week! :0)

vampire diaries season 5 catch-up - OMGOMGOMG and more OMG moments!

Okay, I'm waaaaay behind on this, I know. But I finally caught up with the recent episodes of Vampire Diaries season 5 and

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG 



OMG.



OMGOMGOMG.



O.M.G.

(OMG.)

That is all.


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Well, of course that's not all. Have I ever left you hanging on a blog post like that? No, this is just the beginning of a rave. Because damn, that was one good episode!

I'm talking about episode 11. (Hey, I said recent episodes, not the latest - so NO SPOILERS!)

KATHERINE PIERCE. Katherine "oh no she didn't" Pierce.





Yes, her.

She's one of those annoying villains you just love to hate. That sneaky little bitch is awesome! I LOOOOOVE what the writers did with her character, made us empathise with her (yes, I cried over her murderous, vindictive, manipulative, selfish lying ass) before having her pull a HUGE SHOCKING TWIST that is totally - TOTALLY - characteristic of her.

Indeed.

She's a survivor, and she has always been a teensy bit jealous of Elena (despite how annoyed she is by her - and I do agree because Elena can be incredibly self-righteous and whiny) because of Stefan's love for Elena - OF COURSE SHE WOULD DO WHAT SHE DID!!!

 

 

And SURVIVORS DO WHAT THEY HAVE TO IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. There, no spoilers! (Although I'm quite possibly the only person who has only just caught that episode.)

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I LOVE TVD.

5 seasons on and it still has that power over me. Powerful storyline, powerful characters, powerful emotions! The writers never seem to run out of ideas, and each story thread is woven masterfully into the main narrative arc. HOW DO THEY DO IT?!? I've been studying it for years, and I still can't generate ideas like theirs to develop a story as compelling as that.

I know what the naysayers think about TVD. They think it's another Twilight, with a whiny protagonist and hot vampires.

illustration by antlergirl

That is where the similarity ends.

Yes, TVD might involve vampires and a love triangle - which, frankly, is starting to wear on me (still, STELENA IS END-GAME) - but it is NOTHING like Twilight.

TVD has a fantastic plot that keeps you on (sorry for the cliche) the edge of your seat; moments that take you by the shoulders and plant you in the characters' shoes so that their pain is your pain, their joy, their love, their anguish and hate are all yours too; moments that rock you in those very shoes and make you go OMG (as demonstrated amply above).



Plus, the writers go deep with each character, fleshing out each of their personalities, making you love them and love to hate them, even the seemingly irredeemable ones like Klaus (KLAUS! I'll get to him in a bit). In fact, so fully developed every character is that there's even a spinoff, (although I'm still crazier about TVD than The Originals).

Okay. Klaus. KLAUS! HE'S BACK! THE ORIGINALS ARE BACK! Finally! (And no, I don't care if I'm using too many exclamation marks!)

((Or parentheses, for that matter.))

Tyler WHO?! Oh, you mean the jerk who chose revenge over Caroline, the one who broke her heart?







I get where Tyler's coming from, but his relationship with Caroline never felt balanced, like Caroline was the one always giving her all and he's just there for the sex.

Klaus, though.



Klaus curbs his darker intentions for Caroline. I mean, yes he's not the healthiest person to be with, but his love for Caroline is purer than anything he's ever done.

I ship Klaroline as much as I ship Stelena. Although Elena has been deluded for so many seasons, being with Damon, I kind of just want Stefan to be happy without her already. I'm willing to root for Stefarine (that's Stefan and Katherine) if that's what it takes.





Stefan has been my favourite male character since the beginning. If you recall, I was hooked onto the show since episode 1 of season 1, mostly because of Stefan. His humanity, his gentleness with Elena, who was still grieving over the premature death of her parents, his comforting presence - everything about him spelled solace.

Stelena in 1x01:

It was the final scene in the episode. See why I was hooked?

And here's Stelena in 5x04:

Sigh. Stelena scenes are always so perfect. So pure and sweet.

Damon, on the other hand, is volatile and psychopathic and self-loathing. I'd absolutely hate him if he weren't so funny and hot.

And Delena scenes are just (I run the risk of getting severely flamed here) MEH. They're cute in real life (Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder used to date), but not so much in the show.

Still love Damon's character, though.

Funny how what started out as an excuse to ogle at Ian Somerhalder became a full-blown obsession with a TV show. At least I can justify that with the things about writing I've learned from it!

Any TVD fans out there? Or any TV shows to recommend that's as brilliant as TVD? :0)

k-dramas: the winning formula (plus, Monday mood-lifters!)

Despite my efforts to focus on writing Neverland, I finally decided to watch You Who Came from the Stars last week.

(Not that I'm validating my drama obsession, but I've found the more material I expose myself to - be it books or TV shows or music - the easier it is to coax the plot bunnies out, and the easier the words flow when I work on my stories. So I shall stick to this line of reasoning whenever I feel guilty about watching dramas when I could be writing. At least I'm not obsessively watching all the episodes in a day! Right? I totally pace myself - one episode a day - if only to make the show last longer.)

So it's no secret that ever since Secret Garden,

I've been properly sold over by Korean dramas. I don't watch a lot of them, though, just those that come highly recommended - and even then I don't always follow through *cough* 49 Days *cough cough* Lie To Me.

But Secret Garden was INCREDIBLE. Thanks, Felicia, for recommending it! I am forever grateful.

It had a great story line: an arrogant CEO who, due to an fateful misunderstanding - falls in love with a poor stunt-woman?

Toss in a narcissistic washed-out pop star:

A body switch (a plot device done to death, but so funny in the hands of scriptwriter Kim Eun Sook):

A traumatic repressed memory that links the two leads together dramatically and you get a recipe for an undeniably entertaining series.

Plus, it's got one of the most beautiful soundtracks I've ever heard for a k-drama - perhaps even THE most beautiful:

And a very watchable cast ... by which I mean:

Hyun Bin! ❤

And, okay, her too:

Ha Ji Won

And the dialogue is simply hysterical:

It was all SO ENTIRELY PERFECT that I wrote a script for EN3271 Advanced Playwriting influenced by the mood of Secret Garden, and a novel, Until Morning, that was - I hope! - as funny and bittersweet and dramatic and whimsical as the drama.

Don't you just love stories that inspire you to write your own stories?

Anyway, after Secret Garden and Heirs, I hadn't really found another drama that I HAD to follow, mostly because I'm picky when it comes to dramas (and wouldn't you be, if you were going to spend hours watching an entire series?): is the cast watchable, are the characters layered, is the story cliched, is the dialogue snappy or funny or insightful? I've tried watching a few since Heirs, including Bel Ami, starring Jang Geun Suk, but got bored after two episodes.

You Who Came From the Stars, though, is funnier and more gripping than I'd expected. I thought it was completely ridiculous at first. A 400-year-old alien (yes, really - think Clark Kent instead of E.T.) who is stuck on Earth and is finally about to go back to his own planet, but then he falls for this narcissistic actress who reminds him of his first love and things get complicated?

But with a murder subplot to keep things moving and raise the stakes, I haven't been able to extricate myself from the drama since episode 2!

Actual dialogue from the drama! The female character is a bit on the psychotic side.

I'm on episode 13 now, so no spoilers if you've watched the latest episodes already! I'll have to start looking for the next drama to get sucked into, though.

Find another, that's what!

Any other recommendations?

While we're on the topic of the success formula of k-dramas, here's another cogent breakdown.

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Also, I started reading Fathomless, by Jackson Pearce over the weekend.

And can I just say, I am SO in love with this book! I read her earlier novels, Sisters Red (Red Riding Hood retelling):

And Sweetly (Hansel and Gretel retelling):

They were enjoyable enough, but didn't really wow me in terms of plot or prose. Maybe because I have an obsession with mermaids - along with Peter Pan and the Little Prince and winged beasties - but Fathomless TOTALLY does it for me.

Plus, the prose is so much prettier this time, the setting painted more vividly. Jackson Pearce's niche is fairytale retellings, and even though Fathomless is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, it has a very original plot without veering too much from the original story.

Jackson Pearce, nailed it



So I raced down to the library yesterday and borrowed Cold Spell (The Snow Queen retelling) too:

Can't wait to delve into this too! Big yay for folks who write good books!

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A little random, but lately, there's this song that keeps buzzing in my head:

Gulliver, by Super Junior

I found this song COMPLETELY IRRITATING at first. But after hearing Donghae's rapping bit at 1:15, I can't get it out of my head. Dayyyum, that voice! (He's the one on the left with the pretty face and nice guns, in case you're wondering.)

Okay, okay. I'm done fangirling.

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I'm still not done reading Laini's old blog - there are just too many things to learn from her, too much to enjoy!

For today, this:

Laini on keeping the love for your story alive: 

... be willing to change anything and everything about the idea you thought you had. Nothing is set in stone. There's a natural impulse to grip onto whatever your initial idea for the story was, but don't. It may be that the reason you're stuck is that there wasn't enough there to begin with, or that it wasn't quite right. If it was, you wouldn't be stuck, right? 

You have be rigorous. You don't sit around waiting for the perfect idea to land on you like a butterfly. You go after it with a net. You climb out to the end of slender tree branches reaching for it.  

Basically: think think think. Think in writing. Think far past anything you've come up with so far. Be willing to discard any of your fixed "sacred" ideas. Be willing even to tear down the very foundation of your story and replace it with something new, if that's what you have to do. 

I don't know if she'll ever see this, but THANK YOU, Laini, for sharing all your writing wisdom with us, and all your encouragements. I ❤ you big time.

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And now for some pretty:

Tsaritsyno Park in Moscow, Russia

Umbrella lights!

And some happy:

Owl cookies!

And some funnies:

Miss The O.C.!

Have a great week, everyone! :0)