Tag Archives: serial

TBR Tuesday: Confessions of a 16-Year-Old Virgin Lips by Cindy M. Hogan

23 July 2013 Jordan

I recently got the chance to read“First Kiss”, (99¢) episode one of Confessions of a 16-Year-Old Virgin Lips, a new serial by Cindy M. Hogan. I enjoyed Watched (free!) by Cindy and was excited to read the first episode of Confessions.

Like the heroine of Watched, Brooklyn prides herself on being almost sweet 16 and never been kissed. But can she keep her badge of honor?

VL. Virgin Lips. You may not have heard of it, but where I live, it’s a thing with a card, even if it is a figurative card. I was Brooklyn Hill, certified virgin lips, and I planned on clinging to that figurative card with all I had—while dating as many of the hottest guys at school as I could.

Maybe that’s a bit strange. I mean, what teenage girl isn’t interested in kissing? Locking lips definitely interested me, but the drama that came with it didn’t. No kissing, no drama. Simple.

But on my sixteenth birthday, on my first real date even, the drama found me. His name was Luke Graham—cute, funny, and bad news for the whole female race.

This book has a very fun voice, and many of the things she experiences take me right back to my own high school years. I was most impressed with the main character, Brooklyn. In some ways, she’s very mature for 16. When I was in high school, like Brooklyn, I lived a different standard than many of my friends, and ironically, I felt like I had a much better handle on what was up (of course, my friends weren’t just kissing).

While this book is a fun, quick read, it also helps to remind us that we all know in our hearts what’s right and what’s wrong, and we know when we need to listen to our intuition. Brooklyn doesn’t follow her intuition, and she pays for it.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Publishing, Reading

Music singles are to novellas and shorts as albums are to . . . ?

22 July 2013 Jordan

Hint: NOT novels.

But first! On Friday, I guest posted at Janice Hardy’s blog on Five steps to better character arcs! I was a little busy with the blogfest Friday—we had eight great entries in our blogfest! I’m happy to award an Amazon gift card to a participant, chosen at random, and that winner is . . .

MARSHA WARD!

On its face, the popular analogy seems apt. In the last decade, although albums are still popular, music has largely broken free of the “form” of the album, with the single coming to dominate. It appears the same revolution is coming in fiction, with novellas, short stories and other short works—even the pertinently named “Kindle Singles” program&madsh;gaining popularity all the time.

And of course that means novels will probably become as obsolete as albums have. I mean, who buys CDs these days? (Hint: people still buy print books. Not sure on CDs…)

This is where the analogy breaks down. A novel (from most authors) is not like an album of music (from most artists). For most artists, an album is a compilation of songs which may mostly or all also be released as singles. Most of the time, the singles aren’t necessarily thematically, stylistically or otherwise related. In fact, I’m sure some artists strive for a lot of variety on an album.

What’s the equivalent of an album of music in fiction, then? A compilation, an anthology or a short story cycle. It’s a collection of shorter works, which might be related through the same characters or themes or settings, but they might not.

How is a novel different?

A novel is more than just a collection of shorter works. A novel (we hope!) develops the characters and plots to a more complex level. Novels can have more depth in characterization, themes, subplots, and exploring all these elements.

If we want to shoehorn this into the music analogy, I’d probably have to say that artists who construct an album as a cohesive whole, rather than writing individual songs as separate works. (Artists like Pink Floyd spring to mind, as well as The Who’s rock operas.)

What do you think? Music singles : Kindle singles :: albums : ??

Jordan McCollum