Mundie Moms

Monday, November 16, 2015

Read An Excerpt from Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare! / Mundane Monday #263



While we're all patiently waiting for next year's release of LADY MIDNIGHT, Cassandra Clare treated fans to an excerpt of it today. Here's what she said:

Since most of you can’t read Angels Twice Descending until tomorrow, and many of you won’t be able to read it until next year, here’s a thing to tide you over.
This is the chapter sampler of Lady Midnight that was given out at Comicon — it’s not the beginning of the book, but rather Chapter Four. (The “Shadowhunter history in a nutshell — oh, no, faeries” chapter.
Hope you’ll enjoy Emma, Jules, Mark, Ty and the rest, and I’m certainly looking forward to sharing all of LM with you in March!

Read a snippet of the excerpt below:
HIGHBORN KINSMEN
“Now, when were the first Accords signed?” asked Diana. “And what was their effect?”
It was a distractingly bright day. Sunlight poured in through the high windows, illuminating the board in front of which Diana paced, tapping the palm of her left hand with a stele. Her lesson plan was scrawled on the board in nearly illegible handwriting: Emma could make out the words AccordsCold Peace, and evolution of Law.

She looked sideways at Jules, but he had his head bent over some papers. They hadn’t really spoken so far today, aside from being polite to each other at breakfast. She had woken up with her stomach feeling hollow and her hands hurting from clenching the bedclothes.

Also Church had abandoned her sometime during the night. Stupid cat.
“They were signed in 1872,” said Cristina. “They were a series of agreements between the species of the Shadow World and Nephilim, meant to keep the peace among them and establishing common rules for all of them to follow.”

“They also protect Downworlders,” said Julian. “Before the Accords, if Downworlders harmed each other, Shadowhunters couldn’t and wouldn’t step in. The Accords gave Downworlders our protection.” He paused. “At least until the Cold Peace.” 

Emma remembered the first time she had heard of the Cold Peace. She and Julian had been in the Hall of Accords when it was proposed. The punishment of the Faeries for their part in Sebastian Morgenstern’s Dark War. She remembered the confusion of her feelings. Her parents had died because of that war, but how did Mark and Helen, who she loved, deserve to bear the brunt of that simply because of the faerie blood in their veins?

* * * * * * 

Read the entire excerpt HERE.

HELLO? By Liza Wiemer / Blog Tour: Book Review / Giveaway


Hello and welcome to today's blog tour stop for HELLO? by Liza Wiemer! I'm excited to share my thoughts on Liza's debut, as well as host a giveaway. Liza Wiemer has become a dear friend of mine, and I'm so thrilled that her message of YOU MATTER is out in the world! 

ABOUT HELLO?

By Liza Wiemer
Publication Date: October 27, 2015
Published By Spencer Hill Contemporary
Purchase From: Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | The Book Depository
Add It To Goodreads

Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma’s death.

Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.

Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.

Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.

Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.

Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens’ stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.

Sometimes there's just something about a book that resonates with you long after you read it. Liza's message of YOU MATTER did that very thing for me. Even though Hello? and I didn't share a continued connection through out the time I spent reading the book, the message really hit home for me. I realized that while maybe I didn't connect with any of the characters in the book, I wanted each of them to know that they did matter. They were cared about. Someone cared about them, and they matter to that person. Most importantly I wanted them to matter to themselves.

The teen years are not always easy. Okay, it's not easy at all. There's a lot of good, and a lot of the not so great. Sometimes there are days that just feel like being a teen is hell. Liza's characters deal with wide range of circumstances and that shape who they are. There's a why to the decisions they're making, and how they cope with what's going on. I liked that I got to see that. 


Sure, as a parent reading this, it was not always easy to read about what the characters were dealing with, and going through. It was hard at times reading about why they're making the decisions they are, and why they were choosing to do one thing, vs what they felt they should be doing. But at the same time, it was easy for me to jump back into my teen frame of mind, and wonder if I would had faired any better if I had been in their shoes. I would hope so, but I'm not in their shoes. 


While I may not have personally experienced what each of Liza's characters does when I was a teen, I've been there. Many of us has, and the rest of us will at some point, if you haven't already. The "there" I'm talking about is that point in life where you need someone to lift you up, and tell you, you matter. No matter how invisible you feel, no matter how ugly you feel inside, or how horrible you think you are, or how bad you have it, or how horrible your life is, or how many mistakes you've made, no matter what it is you're going through, YOU MATTER!!  You matter just the way you are. You're not alone. Someone, out there understands. They can relate. You matter!


Sometimes it's not the book I connect to, it's the message that the book contains. I loved that I was able to connect with the message of YOU MATTER. It's a message I wish every teen understood. In their own times, and in their own ways, each of Liza's characters comes to that understanding that they matter. While I may not have loved Hello?, I absolutely LOVED the message this book has. Because, YOU MATTER! 


There are a lot of topics that Liza tackles in this book. Some are sensitive and some not so sensitive. There's topic within this story that teens can relate to. These topics are not sugar coated, nor should they be. With that being said, this book may be a better fit for mature YA readers. 


*My review is based on my thoughts from reading the manuscript months ago, and some of the context of it has changed in the published book. 

Praise For HELLO?

During the 1960's, Carole King released an album entitled Tapestry--a masterful weaving of story and song. A half-century later, author Liza Wiemer has mirrored that blend by wonderfully stringing together several forms of narration, one specific to each of her characters. Hello? is a truly remarkable and memorable story communicated in a superbly envisioned way.
Paul Volponi, award-winning author of The Final Four, Game Seven, and Black and White.  

"Brave, beautiful, and wholly original, this story about tantalizing connections and heartbreaking relationships will haunt you, fill you with hope, and leave you smiling."
Martina Boone, author of Compulsion and the Heirs of Watson Island series

“Liza Wiemer’s Hello? is a poignant tale of friendship, love, loss, and resilience. Told from multiple points of view, the richly drawn characters offer a powerful example of how connected we all truly are. This book will compel readers to consider the existence of destiny. Hello? grabbed me from the first page and pulled me right through to the gorgeous ending.”
Kristina McBride, author of One Moment and The Tension of Opposites

"A triumph of writing and humanity...the characters stayed with me long after I read the book."
Huntley Fitzpatrick, author of The Boy Most Likely To, What I Thought Was True, and My Life Next Door


About Liza Wiemer

I am the author of two non-fiction adult books, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. A pre-school to high school educator now writing YA fiction full time, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! And I'm a diehard Green Bay Packers fan.

Unique "job" experiences: I spent a summer selling popcorn in a Koepsell's popcorn wagon while listening to awesome music on the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee. I also know my way around a fender and a quarter panel and under the hood of a car. I spent a few years driving to accident scenes, scrapyards, hospitals, auto repair shops as a claims adjuster for an insurance company. 

Links: Website | Twitter | Blog


ENTER TO WIN
$25 Amazon Gift Card (Int) and 3 annotated copies of HELLO? Go HERE to enter to win! *Sorry the code isn't showing up on my blog, but the link will take you to the correct form*

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