What I'm Reading (Scat and The Time Traveler's Wife)

I kind of like it that I'm pretty widely read. I love my trash, YA fiction, literary novels and the occasional thriller. These past two weeks haven't been an exception. So, here's what I've been reading:

Scat- Carl Hiaasen
Scat, Carl Hiaasen's latest YA novel, has the same scatterbrained and hilarious characters that freckle all of his adult crime novels. If you've never read a Carl Hiaasen novel, I highly recommend them. They're fun, engaging and always packed with a muckracking ecological message. Scat is no exception-- touching on issues like the War in the Middle East, terrifying teachers, troubled teens and endangered Florida Panthers you're soon lost in a rip-roaring plot. What Hiaasen does so well is portray real people who get caught up in truly wild adventures. This is a great end of summer read-- or a back to school essential!

The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
This book broke me. I can't remember the last time I read such a heart wrenching story. I picked up a copy because I started to see the movie adverts (oh yes, I am highly motivated by marketing). I'd been told how wonderful the book was for years-- but I'm not a big fan of love stories. Romances, sure, on occasion. But 'love stories' imply something deep and tragic and just don't interest me. However, The Time Traveler's Wife is something rare and beautiful. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Its a beautiful novel of hope, longing, and love. I wont be reading anymore 'love stories' for a while, but for the first time I can understand why people love to read these novels.

I'll update you on what I'm reading now in a few weeks! Have a wonderful weekend. If you've got any book suggestions please do leave me a comment-- I'm always looking for another good read.

Going Back, Going Forward

So, in order to reorder my creativity, I've decided to make a two-fold alteration this week in my usual process: I'm going to write one of the future scenes in my active-writing story (thank you for the suggestion, Mike!) and go back to do some editing in an old one.

I like the idea of changing things up. I think a week-long trial won't kill any of my hopes to keep things moving in my main story and I'll get a little more work in on one of my finished stories.

I am a little worried about going back to editing.

I remember this amazing glow when I finished this novel. It might be akin to the feeling you get when you've given birth. (I don't know as I've only recently done the first and never the second -- well, perhaps some day, just not yet.) You've spent months putting energy, focus, and emotion into building, creating this thing piece by piece, block by block, and once you've gotten there there's relief and pride and accomplishment. I did this. I made this. Wow.

The wonderful flush has worn off – and has been for some time now – and now I'm looking back at this thing I've made and every time I look at it, I realize I'm faced with a challenge more daunting than finishing my first novel length work. Editing my first novel length work. I've had a first read through. And a first run of edits. And I've had my moments of cringing and asking myself "how am I ever going to make this work?" Well, I feel better about it than I had when I went through my first run of edits, but as I look into it again, I know I've still got a long way to go.

I've kept a running list of positives (Relatively cohesive! Interesting mythos! Fun characters!) to go along with the negatives in hopes of keeping some perspective. And maybe to give me some things to remember for the future.

Yes. I admit it. I am enamored with the comma. It is (apparently) my foremost punctuation device. It's something I'm working correcting on now: I found a paragraph editing the first round with only two sentences in it. A paragraph that lasts half a page because each sentence goes on with Lyttonesque fervor. Beautiful images, though. I have no doubt that I will find more run on sentences as I go through it another time.

My plot line is a little muddled, and even after the first round of edits, I'm still trying to work that out. But, I have a few ideas after time being away from it, and I'm hoping to see what I can do to make that work.

Well, it'll be something of an experiment, but I'm hoping it goes well. If anyone else has any other suggestions about how I might be able to get my creativity going again, drop me a line.

Here's to this week.

Keeping My Head Above Water -- Or: Surviving the Doldrums

I have reached a point in my work right now that I'm just going to call the doldrums. It's an odd place: I'd been going along at a fine clip for a while and then, suddenly, it's like my sails deflated. My speed has dropped from 60 to what comparatively feels like almost zero. It's not that I don't have idea of where I'm going or even great scenes plotted out in my head. It's that I've just lost the energy. Creatively speaking.

Ginny had to remind me that these periods have to happen. That you have to slow down or burn out. And that you have to refresh your creative self. But, after nearly a year of nearly consistent production and very few fallow periods, it has been somewhat frightening. I keep asking myself if I've lost it. If some how I have completely burned out.

But, she's right. Everyone needs to take a little breather. And it's not like I've stopped altogether.

But, I'm really not sure: how can I work on refreshing my creative winds? Does anyone have any suggestions, because, I'm certainly open to them.

When to Fold....(Letting Go of a Novel)

Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions are, you have to just let a project go. Last year I wrote over 50k in a novel that showed promise. It made me feel as if this could be the project I finally finished. However, I put the novel on hold last November to work on a 'bright shiny new idea' during NaNoWriMo. When I returned to my novel all I could see was the plot holes, characters who were all over the place and all the mistakes I'd made. I set the document down again, this time determined not to return to it.

My novel didn't have that lustre it had pre-Nano, and if I'm honest, this particular project never had the same pull as my Nano novel. It was a hard lesson to learn, but for me this first novel was an exercise in getting a routine started. This novel had been all about possibilities. Was it possible for me to meet a goal each week (yes)? Was it possible for me to actually sustain a plot for more than 100 pages (yes)? Was it possible for me to create engaging characters with their own stories and agendas (yes)?

If all of these possibilities existed you are probably wondering why I let my story go-- and the answer is that it needed a major structural overhaul. I would have had to edit the early draft I'd created, look carefully at the book (it was trying to be both chick lit and literary fiction-- not a line that is easily straddled) and replot major sections. I was too close to the story, too close to what I'd written (and what I wished I'd written) to actually make the changes I'd need to salvage my first attempt.

In order to move forward, I had to let my beautiful story go. The decision felt a lot like giving up, but the more I thought about it the more I knew it was the right thing to do (for me). If I didn't let that story go for a while it would be a constant battle of rewrites, doubts and ultimately four of five drafts that were each different from my original concept.

Now, almost a year since I set the novel aside I am beginning to clearly see how to shape and edit my ideas. I am finally feeling that passion for the story and characters that kept me writing about them. I'm not quite ready yet to return to that particular novel, but I know that when I do it will be with a solid map (outline) and compass. Because, I still love this story-- and it would be shame to never do justice to a wonderful cast of characters who entertained me for months.

On Sharing Your Work With Others

I'm very careful about who I share my novel with. I've learned over the years that getting the wrong feedback at the wrong time can stop a writer's progress in its tracks--and even make some writers doubt whether they have any talent at all. It's crucial to share at the right time, with the right people--and the people closest to you may not be the right people to share your work with.

Your first few chapters and your first draft are a particularly tricky time to share your work. Your work is essentially still in flux before your first few editing passes, and it's your first time seeking an outside opinion on your novel. Here are a few tips for choosing those all-important first readers for your book.

Share with people who know your genre. Not everyone will get what you're trying to do--and the first draft, which is usually quite shaky even for books that become strong later, isn't the time to test your book's crossover appeal. The idea with your first critique is to share with someone who can give you technical feedback on how to make your draft better--and they'll be able to help you better if they know the conventions of your genre. In addition, if they have a subconscious dislike of your genre, you might get some critique that has to do more with your genre's conventions--which you should adhere to, in most cases--than with your writing. If you can, choose someone for your first pass who is familiar with your genre--or at least doesn't hate it.

Share with people who know writing. You're likely to get more out of your feedback if you share with other writers--at least at first. They'll be able to give you solid, constructive feedback on how you build your characters, your plot, your tension and so on. I've shared early drafts with non-writers before and sometimes gotten comments that were vague and unhelpful, but also unsettling--they didn't like certain things but didn't know why. That's not to say every non-writer will do that--but a writer is likely to have a better idea of how to critique and provide a different perspective on how to make things better.

Share with people who will give you honest feedback--in a positive way. Don't share with anyone who feels the need to mark their territory. Some readers might feel like they have to prove their own expertise by dragging you down--and these are not helpful readers for any stage of your writing or editing process. Choose people who are supportive, positive, and believe in your talent--but who will give it to you straight in a way you can take.

Don't share before you're really ready. I don't consider myself ready to share my novel until I've finished it and gone through the editing process at least twice--until I feel it's as good as I can make it on my own. Before then, any chapter could change significantly as I hone my draft. There is no way I will share opening chapters of my book before I've finished the whole thing--until I've done a read-through, I have no idea what I'll keep and what I'll wind up throwing out, and the beginning stages are when you're the most vulnerable to negative feedback.

Sharing with a close loved one? Be very careful. Sometimes I take negative feedback very personally from people very close to me--people like boyfriends and family members. Your critiquers have to keep emotion out of their feedback, but as the writer you should take emotion out of your response--and I find that to be very difficult with the people I'm closest to. I share with trusted friends, but never with boyfriends--and I wouldn't unless the guy I was dating was an outstanding writer with a thorough understanding of the critique process, an awareness of my sensitivity and a real love of the genre I was working in.

The best critique partners--particularly in the earliest stages--are close, trusted friends who are also writers and understand the type of writing you're trying to do. Be careful of those whose critique will affect you strongly on an emotional level--including significant others and people who are relentlessly negative. And take all critique with a grain of salt--don't let one negative review lead you to give up. Most important of all, don't share before you're ready--make your project as good as it can be before you let it out into the world.

My Editing Process

So you finished your novel, and...now what? I know that for me, even though I've been writing since elementary school, the finished novel is uncharted territory. But I can tell you one thing: the work isn't over when you write your closing scene. Oh no: it's just beginning.

I thought revisions would take a ridiculous amount of time, but I'm finding I'm screaming through them--revising is much less arduous than writing. Here's an overview of my process--and a few tips to help you along the way.

First: take some time off. My first tip for the editing process is don't edit. At least, not for a month. A funny thing happens when you're in the end stages of writing a novel. You become myopic. You can't tell what's good, what's bad, and what's not working. Your plot has veered way off course and putting it back together seems like an insurmountable job. The reason it seems so overwhelming is that you're too close to things: you're counting individual leaves, and you need a forest's-eye view.

I took a month's break between finishing my novel and starting to edit. It made a huge difference.

Second: print and read. There's something different about printing your novel and reading it in hardcopy. It's more solid and real somehow, and details tend to stick in your mind more easily. I printed out my novel at home and put it in a large binder--no stapler or clip would hold that baby.

Your first draft, if you've done things right, is likely to be a big, tangled mess by the time you get done. On your first pass, you're looking for plot inconsistencies, areas where you need more development, and scenes that need to go in the "outtakes" folder. Read it through once, pen in hand, and make notes in the margins. Read it through again and make more notes. Get a sense of where your plot loses focus and your pacing lags.

Third: Re-outline. Once you're done, you're going to need a game plan to improve your first draft. I'm starting with a new outline--one that takes all my prior notes into account. I'm going through my rough draft, reading and digesting my notes, and organizing it all into a new outline that includes scenes that work and what needs to be added and subtracted.

Fourth: Rewrite. Once your outline is done, you're going to have some more writing on your plate--all those scenes you need to make your plot work. Luckily, you'll probably be deleting a bunch of scenes too--I'll probably delete about a third of the novel in "outtake" scenes. But it will be worth it for a streamlined plot.

Fifth: Repeat. I'm expecting to revise my draft several times, each time with a different focus. The first time, I'm focusing on plot. The second time, I'll focus on building romantic tension and suspense--make sure my pacing is on track. The third time, I'll focus on language. You may not be able to do everything you want in your first editing pass--so expect to go through it more than once.

Sixth: Send to a friend. Once you're convinced you've made your book as good as it will be, send it to a trusted friend you can count on to give you good, knowledgeable and insightful advice WITHOUT either a). tearing you down or b). giving only praise. I'm lucky in that I have several good friends I can trust with first draft revisions. The ideal first-draft reviser is knowledgeable about writing and knows their way around the genre you're working in. Ideally, you have more than one to draw on.

Seventh: Send to a less experienced friend. Once you've made revisions based on your friends' feedback, you need to see how your book will play in Peoria. Meaning: you need to show it to people who aren't experienced writers, but who might have the same opinions an outside reader would. You don't need to be as careful on this pass--your goal is to find out what people beyond your carefully chosen writing circle, people who maybe didn't even know you were writing a book, think of it. Take this advice with a grain of salt; you've gotten too far to let a negative review discourage you. But you may learn some useful things as well.

So, that's my editing process. I'm currently on Step Three. What step are you on?

What I'm Reading - Thursday Next

I -- like many -- read as part of staying inspired in my writing. It is nearly as important to me as the sound tracks I write by. It refreshes me and nourishes me. It helps keep me in the mood; it helps me think about elements of the universe I'm creating by looking at what other people have done in their own.

Right now, I'm reading the first book in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series -- The Eyre Affair. And I'm loving it. I have always had a hard time with literary books -- they often take themselves too seriously. Meanwhile, the really playful books are often just fairy floss and popcorn -- fun, but not much in the way of substance. The thing I'm loving about this book is that somehow, it's both. There are tonnes of in-jokes and bad puns (really, the only kind of puns I love. Just ask my darling Other Half).

The world of Thursday Next is an alternate to our own, where England and Russia have been fighting the Crimean War for over 100 years, where Wales is an independent nation, and some people have the ability to move through time and into the worlds of books. The story is set in 1985 and there are two main powers controlling the globe: the Special Operations Network (a la 1984) and the Goliath Corporation. The main character, Thursday E. Next, a lowly LiteraTec Detective, SO-27, has a voice that brings to mind old detective stories -- and some newer ones. And there are elements of the world he created that I'm frankly jealous about -- I would love the ability to walk into the worlds created by books. And I would love to see a Richard the III performance like the one described in the book. It sounds like a cross between the Rocky Horror Picture Show viewings and the midnight show Shenandoah Shakespeare Express put on every year at my university. It sounded like so much fun it made me giddy. And don't get me started on the bookworms, fed on prepositions and expelling clouds of apostrophes and hyphens.

I love this book the way I love Harry Dresden books and Alton Brown cooking shows. I can already tell that this is going to be one of those books I end up reading again and again (a list I'll discuss some other time).

As you might be able to tell, I'd give this book five happy bookworms out of five.

What are you reading?

Jumping in With Both Feet - A Writing and Editing Lifestyle

One of the things I've found in the last year and a half of working on my stories is that I can't just dip a toe in. It's all or nothing. And I can only have one major project running at a time.

The reason is that a story is a lot like a mud puddle. You have to jump in with both feet to see how deep the mud is. You have to get absolutely coated in it. And that's how you know how much of a story you have, when you've surrounded yourself in your world building, you've got your mounds of research, your plotlines and all. But, if you're jumping in with both feet into the one mud puddle, you are also only testing the mud in one place at one time. You can't physically be two places at once. And figuring out that I can't be in two metaphysical places at once has certainly taken a lot of learning.

I had, up until last year, had a few stories going all at once. It divided my time and allowed me an escape hatch if one story seemed to be having trouble. And that's great, except I wasn't finishing things. Some things would go on the side burner permanently. Others, I'd probably get a few paragraphs in at a time -- wonderfully written paragraphs, but that's all they were.

You're not really getting muddy if you have a toe here, a toe there, and fingers in two other different puddles.

So, now, I have one story that I'm writing at a time. One puddle, ankle-to-neck deep. (At least, I keep hoping I won't find that I'm in over my head... ::winks::)

But what does this mean for editing? As I've said in my profile, I'm writing one story and editing two others. And that's a lot of mud to sling.

Ginny and I were talking about the best way to approach edits and I told her, I still believe it's about jumping in with both feet. There really is no best angle to get into it from, and it's hard to see just what kind of mess you have until you're knee deep in it again: then, you'll be able to see how much needs to be changed.

Even though I'm standing knee deep in my new story, and am still working towards the goals of my new story, I'm still coated -- metaphorically-speaking -- in the mud of my last two projects. And they've had time to soak in. But, I still make sure that I work on only one of those story edits at a time.

So, for each story, I jumped in. I did a read through. I made those changes I knew I needed off the bat. I marked places that I was unsure about, then I sent it out and set it aside and let it percolate. Each one in their own turn.

They're not done, of course, and won't be until they're published, but I have those pockets of mud mapped. They're on my radar. I'm not losing them, and while more rain refreshes them, they're still mine. I've left my mark on them and they've left their mark on me.

And distance, whether it had just been put aside after the first edit or sent out to friends to read and respond to my own comments, really has helped to create some clarity in things that had been, at the time, as clear as mud.

But you can't know until you jump in.

At least, that's my take on it.

Finishing My Novel: How I Did It

I finished a novel this June.

This is a huge step for anyone, but particularly for me. I've been writing novels my whole life. Invariably, I'd get to around page 100, decide I hated it, and stop. Usually I'd delete the whole thing in a fit of book loathing. Sometimes I'd come back to it in a year and realize what I was writing wasn't so bad--and wonder why I stopped. But I never felt inspired to keep going; by then I was onto some other idea, which I would eventually abandon.

Not this time.

So if you want to write a novel, here's how you do it. Or, at least, how I did it.

Set small, achievable, regular goals. When I started with this new novel, I decided I would write 2500 words a week. 2500 words is an easy goal for me. It's 500 words a day, with weekends off. Or if I don't have a lot of time during the week, I could do it in one determined sitting. I could do a lot more--and later towards the end, I found myself sometimes writing 10,000 words per week or so. But in the beginning, it was very important to me to set small goals that I could live up to.

It's key to set goals that are less than what you think you can do. That's because if you set a big goal for yourself and don't make it sometimes, you'll be setting yourself up for failure on a semi-regular basis. That gets discouraging, especially for perfectionist types. I can't count how many times I've decided I'd write an entire novel in two months and then quit after two weeks--because the goal was just too big. If I'd said I'd write a novel in a year, I might have actually gotten it done in a few months.

When you don't make your goals, don't sweat it. Okay, so this week aliens landed in your back yard, you gave birth to a litter of kittens and you had to have your toes amputated. Not the best time for writing 500 words a day, even if you get a break on weekends. Don't let it throw you off. Life happens. Just forget about it and keep moving forward next week. Don't try to write twice as much next week to make up--you can if you want, but don't try to force yourself and then freak out when you fail. It's just going to make it that much less likely you'll pick up your story again the week after. Keep the goals small. Keep them attainable.

Get some writing buddies. Writing friends are the reason I finished my story. They encouraged me when I was mired in self doubt, they told me my story was brilliant when I was sure it was a big steaming pile of monkey poo, and they made me accountable for my goals. If you're lucky enough to have someone in your life who can fill this role for you, you have much better chances of finishing.

Set inviolable rules. The one rule I couldn't break during the writing process was this one: NO going back. NO deleting. Whatever you write in the first draft stays in the first draft. I needed this rule; otherwise I'd go back and delete huge chunks and take my story in random directions. I needed to save the editing for the editing stage. Set whatever rules you need to set to make sure you finish, despite story loathing.

Don't rely on inspiration. I've heard those stories so many times, about writers who've had a compelling dream, woke up that morning, and written an entire novel in two days in a big spasm of inspiration. To which I say: GOOD LUCK. Inspiration is a funny thing. It's undependable. You never know when or where it will strike. That's great if all you want to do with your writing talent is write the occasional poem. But if you want to make a career out of this, you can't rely on inspiration.

Instead, have a plan. Sit down every day to make a certain word count. Follow an outline. Know where you're going. Don't wait for inspiration to strike before you'll sit down and write. You may find after you write a few hundred words that inspiration comes late to the party.

Writing a book is hard work. You need a plan, a schedule, and a few rules you can't break. You also need help--no writer really does it alone. But it's never too late to finish yours.

Going it (NOT) Alone

I've always had mad visions of writing alone in a garret apartment. Sipping a cup of tea, as I type on my computer or revise my latest masterpiece. The solitariness of this never seemed to bother me, in fact it sort of enthralled me. That is, until I had to put all this into practice.

See, my quiet desk, my solitude, my tea all rather lost their lustre when I realized the daunting task I was undertaking (alone). I'd written loads before I left University. Mostly literary short stories and poetry-- but I'd never written a novel before. So, for about four years I faffed about starting and half finishing at least as many novels or projects.

It wasn't until 2008 that I really began to understand why I was failing constantly. See, I'd learned a lot about the craft of writing (and yet-- there's still so much to learn!) but I hadn't learned how to structure my time. I didn't have a writing habit. I didn't understand what that was, really. When I had an idea I puzzled it over in my head, I jotted some notes, and then in two sittings I wrote out the whole mess. But writing a novel, that took time. That took some sort of game plan. That overwhelmed me.

So, I asked my friends how they got through the process of writing a novel. Jenny suggested her patented 2500 words a week method. Essentially, the idea is to set a small goal, say 2500 words a week, and then consistently hit this goal. The idea is that as you keep hitting your goals and as you go along you build a novel out of small targets and then increase these targets. Towards the end of my novel I was averaging 10,000 words a week. So, I gave this a whirl last April and was shocked as over the next few months my idea grew into a 50,000 word project. I eventually decided not to continue with this project over NANOWRIMO, but the progress I made reminded me that I could do anything-- if I just put the time and effort in.

Last year Jenny, Angel (my other writing buddies) and I took up the siren song of NANOWRIMO. I'd half-heartedly attempted it back in 2007-- but had only managed a paltry 10,000 words. This year, with the successes I'd had thanks to my 2500 words a week target I felt confident that I could actually hit 50,000 words in a month (crazy as it had taken me 3 months to hit that goal before). Nonetheless, we decided to set up a private blog to measure our successes, taunt each other into writing a little bit more, and post unedited snippets. The results were astounding. Jenny, Angel and I all crossed the NANO finish line for the first time.

It was then that I realized the one lesson I could never have been taught at University. A writer needs a group of friends, a group of people who understand the process, who can give you a good kick in the ass when you need it. In short, a writer needs some sort of community. Which is how we realized that it would be good fun to go 'public' with our ideas, and see if there were other people out there looking for a community-- a group of like minded 'lone wolves'.

So, here's my question-- what's your method? Do you have a set amount of hours or blocks of time you keep to each week? Do you have a word count you strive towards? Do you have some other method that works wonders? Because frankly, I'm always interested in learning new tricks.

Genn

Once upon a time, Genn had a really good idea. An idea so fun and silly that it seemed to consume her days....and then (during NANOWRIMO 2008) this really good idea went from a thought to a novel. She's always feared (fictional) alpha males and all things paranormal, so when she realized she was writing a dark horror/romance about 17th century witch finders and werewolves she rightly closed the document and went back to something far more sensible. With the constant support of her friends, she has been able to actually complete her first novel and is now deep in revisions.

Genn spends her days working for a publishing house and her nights supporting her friends in their endeavours to get their books written, revised and published. One day, she hopes to see her books in print....

Until then she flits back and forth between her dark romance and a new project she's way too excited about. She can be reached at: genn.stone@gmail.com

Angel

A Little About Angel:

While Angel has been writing for some time now, she's only just learned to finish what she starts. She has two books in the editing phase and one in the middle of being written -- and none of them has the same genre. The first one was a stand-alone murder mystery. The second, her first NANOWRIMO win, is the first book in what will be a modern fairytale trilogy. And the third can best be described as a spy novel set in space. As you might be able to tell, she's still looking for her niche.

She also looking for a Nom-de-Plume: her last name is about as long and complex as you can get without silent js and zs.

But, more on that some other time.

She is looking forward to supporting Ginny and Jennifer (and the rest of our writing clan) in their endeavors in their writing and share some of her own strengths and struggles. And, at some point in all of this, get published. She can be contacted at angle.a.dawn@gmail.com

Jennifer

Jennifer has always loved a good ghost story--and is coping with a lifelong addiction to fictional alpha males. Put those two qualities together, and you've got the industry's newest paranormal princess--at least she hopes so!

Jennifer is currently working as a freelance commercial copywriter and marketing consultant who blogs about freelance writing. During her workday, she always finds time to work in some novel writing. She's currently finished one book--a traditional Regency romance with a paranormal twist--and is hip-deep in the editing process.

Her goal on this blog is to share the strategies she used to get her first book finished--as well as editing and marketing expertise she learns along the way. She can be contacted at Jennifer@catalystwriters.com.

Books Read 2009

Every year I keep a log of all the books I manage to read (eclectic to say the least). So, here goes:

1. Sunshine- Robin McKinley
2. Bitten- Kelley Armstrong
3. Dead Until Dark- Charlaine Harris
4. The Reader- Bernhad Schlink
5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth- Carrie Ryan
6. The Sweet Scent of Blood- Suzanne McLeod
7. The 19th Wife- David Ebershoff
8. Blood Brothers- Nora Roberts
9. The Hollow- Nora Roberts
10. The Pagan Stone- Nora Roberts
11. Graceling- Kirstin Cashore
12. Marked- P.C. and Kristin Cast
13. The Neighbour- Lisa Gardner
14. Say Goodbye- Lisa Gardner
15. Single White Vampire- Lynsay Sands
16. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian- Rick Riordan
17. The Cold Kiss of Death- Suzanne McLeod
18. Living Dead in Dallas- Charlaine Harris
19. Club Dead- Charlaine Harris
20. Dead to the World- Charlaine Harris
21. Fire- Kirstin Cashore
22. Dead as a Doornail- Charlaine Harris
23. Definitely Dead- Charlaine Harris
24. All Together Dead- Charlaine Harris
25. From Dead to Worse- Charlaine Harris
26. Dead and Gone- Charlaine Harris
27. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
28. Faefever- Karen Marie Moning
29. Scat- Carl Hiaasen
30. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
31. Dreamfever- Kare Marie Moning
32. This is Where I Leave You- Jonathan Tropper
33. City of Bones- Cassandra Clare
34. City of Ashes- Cassandra Clare
35. City of Glass- Cassandra Clare