merry sisters of fate

Friday Five: Five Authors I Stalk

/ Lisa Asanuma / 2 Comments

And by stalk, I mean that I follow them on their blogs, their twitter, their Goodreads page… pretty much anywhere I can find them online. Not half so creepy or crazy, right? Right? Well… ahem.

So, here we go, along with links so that you can follow them too, if you so choose:

1) Maggie Stiefvater, author of the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy and her faerie earlier duo, Lament and Ballad.

Website :: Blog :: Twitter :: Goodreads

Merry Sisters of Fate (where she takes turns writing stories with Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff, and guest authors)

I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Maggie, and that includes her rambliest of blog posts. She’s written some very helpful advice for writers, too, which has been enlightening. I find insights particularly interesting since she’s an artist and a musician, which gives her writing a lyricism and aesthetic that’s hard to find, especially in YA ficiton. I’ve branched into following her two CP’s also, and especially enjoy Tessa Gratton’s blog.

2) Shannon Hale, author of the Books of Bayern, Book of a Thousand Days, etc.

Website :: Blog :: Twitter :: Goodreads

I really try to keep up with Shannon Hale’s announcements and things, mainly because I just love, love, love her books. Some of her characters are absolute loves of mine, so I like to know what’s going on in her bookish world as soon as I can.

3) Jackson Pearce, author of Sisters Red, Sweetly, etc.

Website :: Blog :: Twitter :: Goodreads :: Tumblr :: Youtube

Okay, really her website is her blog again, and her blog is almost exclusively vlogs from her youtube channel, but I’ve linked all so you have options of where you want to follow what. I started watching Jackson’s youtube videos before I ever started reading her books. I stuck around, and actually picked up her novel Sisters Red because I found her to be so witty and fun on her vlogs. Be warned, though, she does have some very strong opinions on some things, and isn’t afraid to offend people with what she says. She errs on the side of snark a little much sometimes, I think, but most of the time she’s very fun to pay attention to, and if nothing else, a great example of how to maximize your use of social media.

4) Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe and A Million Suns

Website :: Blog :: Twitter :: Goodreads :: Tumblr

I also followed Beth Revis before reading her book (I’m reading Across the Universe now, if you remember). I found her on Twitter, then Tumblr, and finally really started reading her blog recently, and I’ve enjoyed them all immensely. I had wanted to read her book before I found her online—it was getting amazing reviews—but I enjoyed getting to know a bit about her personality online before diving in.

5) Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series.

Website :: Blog :: Twitter :: Goodreads

Okay, actually it’s difficult to get updates from Jasper… he’d rather be writing, and I’m A-OK with that. He is one of my absolute favorite authors, though, so I have to include his links. I can’t wait to read his newest novel which is for a youth audience and is about dragon tamers and rediscovering magic. I’m in love with it already.

Looking Ahead to 2011

/ Lisa Asanuma / 9 Comments

There are four days left of 2010, and I find that I’ll be missing the year a little. This year has been such a significant one for me, and next year is still wide open with possibilities, and a whole world of things that I can only half begin to imagine. Change is good, though. Change hopefully means improvement.

Actually, I’ve already started some big changes… I’ve finally gotten serious about branding my name on the internet as a writer, for example, thus this new blog which I have to say I like the design of very much.

This year is a new start for Tales From the Hollow Tree, as well.  Isabelle Santiago and I realized we were doing ourselves a disservice by using it mainly as a review blog—we want to highlight our own writing much more than we have been doing, so we’re taking a page from the Merry Sisters of Fate blog and we’re going to be doing an experiment in flash fiction, providing four short stories a month—two from each of us.  We’re hoping it will teach us a lot about writing and get us out of our comfort zones a bit.

As far as life goes, Christmas was a wonderful event.  My very first spent with my husband, and a deliciously sweet little thing.  I didn’t get out any Christmas cards this year, sadly, but I have a serious resolve to do things better next year.  Then again, isn’t that true for almost everyone, every year?

Still, goals for 2011:

1) Finish Jethro, Edit and Query.

2) Iron out the plot and hopefully finish Secret Project.

3) Write two short stories per month on Tales From the Hollow Tree.

4) Blog, blog, blog.

What are you going to be working on next year?