Matched

Not an image of my copy...or you'd see a tiny little nibble on the margin.

I only have a hundred pages left of Matched today and I don't want it to end! And yet I can't help but turn the pages. I should be studying, but since I'm ahead of schedule, I'm indulging myself. I read some reviews saying that there was too much focus on the Society, but what I love about that is that I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next. Two hundred and sixty pages in and I haven't figured out the ending, although I believe I have solved one of the tangles. I haven't been so engrossed in a book since Cynthia Hand's Unearthly, and it was a long time before that when I was so hooked on a book. 

I read Forest of Hands an Teeth in between and started on two galleys from Netgalley (but I'm easily distracted from both, only about three chapters in...). Nearing the ending of Forest of Hands and Teeth, I just wanted the main character to jump over the fence and be eaten by the zombies. Sheesh. But I did read the whole thing, so obviously there was something that kept up my curiosity. I'm not going to invest in the next books in the series though.

What is the last book that sucked you in so hard that you couldn't put it down?

Creative Writing

Okay, I know I said I was only going to blog once a week, but I'm just too lazy to do anything else this late evening. The weather has been unusually good in Iceland this summer, and there was another T-shirt weather today. That kind of heat always makes me a little drowsy. 

I'm extremely excited about starting school. I've changed my course selection three times already. I think I made the final change today. I decided that since I'm a mature woman now and know what I want, I wasn't going to follow the cookie-cut way of taking classes. I'm only taking two classes with the rest of the first year students, and then I'm taking English Syntax (an optional class for second or third years) and Creative Writing (!!), which is meant for students in the master's program!

I wrote to the teacher, explaining how much I already know about the subject, that I've written a full-length novel, that I've started the second one, that I've researched a lot about genre, styles, voice, rise and fall of tension, that I've read books on writing. I both emailed her and talked to her face-to-face (while buying course material from her for another course) and she sounded genuinely excited to have me join her class. For Creative Writing, we have; Holes, by Louis Sachar; On Writing, by Stephen King (I've heard so much about this one!); and Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein.

I decided to go my own way in course selections because the courses I've chosen will help me with my writing. It's something I would never in a million years consider doing if I was starting uni for the first time at age 18. I realized that if it's possible (and I'm so glad that it is!), I need to get the things I want out of this education, in the sequence that best fits me and my writing. Yay for being older and wiser!  

I'm sure that all the courses will help with my writing, in some ways or another, but English Syntax, Creative Writing, How Language Works I (need it to be able to take the useful part II next term), Foundation Course in English for Foreign Languages: Methods (again, part I of II for next term), and English for Practical Purposes (mostly learning to speak well in English - there are a number of presentations throughout various courses during the studies), are the courses I really need to take right now.

The first-year courses I'm saving for Fall 2011 are: The Talking Animal (No, it's not an MG kid-lit), British History and Culture, and Brit. Lit. I. All exciting, but all things that can wait :) 

The courses scheduled for Spring 2011 are very exciting. I'm trying to get into a master's class called "Fantasy". Yeah, that's right. We'll read popular fantasy books and discuss. Dreamy-creamy fantasy course *pats course*. But yeah, it's for master's level, so I'm not sure I can get it. I sent the teacher an email today to see if I can get an exception.

I got my delivery from Amazon yesterday. In it were three self-publish books (hey, I had a gift certificate from mileage points) Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual, Self-Publishing for Dummies, and Become a Real Self-Publisher, by Michael N. Marcus ,  The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, and The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. The problem is that I have so much to read before the classes start next week, and I need to revise the first five chapters of my manuscript. I have very little time to read my choice of books! I do like to read in bed, before going to sleep. I might do reviews on these once I've finished - you know, just for the fun of it ;)