What Do I Want? (Transition Sucks)

Behold! The waiting place... Are you there yet? (Noah Fleming)

This is NOT going to be a depressing post, I promise. You’ve probably been wondering where the hell I disappeared off to, right? Well, let’s just say I’m in transition. Which kinda sucks.

Of course, transition doesn’t have to be a bad place. It just has the potential to suck. Like moving off to a new place where you don’t know anyone. It’s gonna suck a while, until you find your bearings.

In any case, my transition has sucked because I let it. But no more! Let’s backtrack a bit.

My To-Read List of Dystopian Books

So I went book crazy yesterday. I searched for every possible dystopian title I could find, and yes, it has something to do with The Hunger Games. After all, it turned out to be the best read in a long time, so why stop there? I read articles, forums, lists, and people’s reviews on Goodreads to compose my to-read list.

If you’ve read any of the following books, let me know what you thought. Meanwhile, I’m still working on my reviews for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (5 stars), Divergent by Veronica Roth (4 stars), and Wither by Lauren DeStefano (3 stars). So that’s coming soon.

The Guy I Was Crushing on in The Hunger Games

Remember Jess Witkins talking about her vivid dream of participating in The Hunger Games last Friday? Well, it was the last straw that made me read the series. Finally. (I’m almost finished!) But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the general and go onto the specific from there…

According to a good friend of mine, dystopian is the new vampire in Publishing trends, and she’s right of course. Right now, I am enjoying every dystopian book I can get my hands on, and even though I’d never admit I do it because it’s trendy, maybe that’s the thing I’ve always done. I like commercial music and I did bite for Twilight when it was living large.

TAGAWARDS: A Day of Fun and Appreciation

Oh yeah... we know how to party at the North Pole.

Happy Monday!

I have a good feeling about this week. I’m full of energy, I’m awake, and I’m living the dream: one tiny step at a time. To a Capricorn, that’s very much the point.

You think I’m demented, don’t you? I’m not published, currently in editing hell, and I’m barely out of college, soon to be homeless, so what’s so dreamy about that?

I’ll tell you what.

It's Me Against the Odds, Baby

(All Hail the Mighty Goat, Capricorn. ;)

Notice anything different at all?

Yes, I did. Now, I promise this will be the last surprise I spring on you guys but it had to be done. Why did I change the title? Because I wanted a more personalized name and URL, and also because Kristen Lamb was right when she advised that every author should put their name in the title of their blog. Yes I know that Lyn Midnight is not my name but it’s the alias I go by when I write.

If you have read The Dark Half by Stephen King, you’d know how the author’s alias (Stark) came to life and tried to overpower the MC. While Lyn is not going anywhere near my power source, she is also not going anywhere, period. I can never leave her behind  because of our history together.

It’s she who started to write, not me. 

The Curse of the 13th Chapter

I’ve mentioned a certain monster called Ed: http://bit.ly/kfgME3. While Ed looks like a decent monster-type, he’s not really that scary, is he? Ed’s more like those Monsters Inc. fellows who worry about not being scary enough, just like writers worry about not being eloquent enough, concise enough, wordy enough, or entertaining enough. Basically, fear is the reall big-ass monster that scares all the other monsters. It’s the fear of being afraid. You know, like when someone said it in Harry Potter. Moving on.

(Note to self: figure out why you like to use ‘big-ass’ so much. Childhood trauma much?)

This time I won’t name the monster. Instead, I’ll refer to it as TMTMNBN (The Monster That Must Not Be Named). I suppose it would have sounded better with a few vowels thrown in. Oh well.

Hook Those Bitches and Bastards

Yes, of course I mean the readers. I stopped by the local bookstore today (WHSmith), curious to see if there was anything new and interesting. Quckly, I realized that most of those books on the main shelves, on promotion, on the back shelves, and genre shelves all captured my attention in a different way. However, most did not capture it one bit.

How are we supposed to judge and pick out new books to read? Do we trust the reviews? I don’t. Do we judge by the blurb? I hope not, seeing as most blurbs are incredibly dull and predictable. Do we judge by the cover and/or title? I know I shouln’t do that but those are the first things I see, so why not? (Today the award for most creative title at the bookstore went to When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. Isn’t it wonderful?)

My brand is me.

(www.brandstyledesign.com)

I am a very confusing person, so if you follow this blog, you have been warned!

First of all, my birth name is Violeta Nedkova. I am Bulgarian. And when I started writing Harry Potter fanfiction back in the old days (about 6-7 years ago), I desperately wanted a fancy pseudonym. I'm not sure why, maybe it was trendy or I just thought it was. 

So I picked Lyn Midnight because of a dream. It was a nightmare, mind you, but this did not stop me from adopting the name of 'Amanda Midnight', later somewhat morphing into Lyn Midnight. I found a lot of great online friends back then. I was a real part of the fanfiction community and made good, lasting friendships with interesting and talented writers from all over the world. And they all called me Lyn, which has continued to date.