M.P. Attardo's Blog
October 29, 2013
#halloween
Hey everyone:
So, I'm not gonna lie. I completely suck at life when it comes to updating my blog. No promises that I am going to be any better when it comes to future updates here. But, I can promise to at least consider to try ... and that's something, right?
So, yeah. Halloween! Since Hurricane Sandy royally messed up Halloween last year, I'm hoping this year will be twice as good. Any other NYCers out there? My costume is, yes, a Taco-Bell hot sauce packet. You know the costume I'm talking about! I hope everyone has a great time Trick-or-Treating, or Liquor-Treating, as my case may be.
Anyhoo...
The Broke & The Bookish Top Ten Books To Read During Halloween
1. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
This book has got to be at the top of almost everyone's list, right? The first short story, Guts, is seriously effed up. But, you can't help but read and read and read some more. And there's another story in there about a test CPR dummy that still gives me chills every time. I think the scariest bits of life are the things that humans are capable of. And that's why Haunted is at the top of my list, and not some typical ghost story.
2. Curses, Inc.
I remember this book had a particularly disturbing short story about a boy who lives inside a giant's tooth...
3. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
These books were awesome!!! Also, they were the cause of many sleepless nights for a younger (and maybe not so younger) Mary.
4. Harry Potter
Who doesn't love an excuse to read about witches and wizards and magic, right? As if anyone actually needs an excuse to read HP though!
5. Lapham's Quarterly
I'm obsessed with this publication at the moment. Just finished Death and starting on Magic Shows.
6. Fifty Shades
Is anything scarier?
xoxo
MP
So, I'm not gonna lie. I completely suck at life when it comes to updating my blog. No promises that I am going to be any better when it comes to future updates here. But, I can promise to at least consider to try ... and that's something, right?
So, yeah. Halloween! Since Hurricane Sandy royally messed up Halloween last year, I'm hoping this year will be twice as good. Any other NYCers out there? My costume is, yes, a Taco-Bell hot sauce packet. You know the costume I'm talking about! I hope everyone has a great time Trick-or-Treating, or Liquor-Treating, as my case may be.
Anyhoo...
The Broke & The Bookish Top Ten Books To Read During Halloween
1. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
This book has got to be at the top of almost everyone's list, right? The first short story, Guts, is seriously effed up. But, you can't help but read and read and read some more. And there's another story in there about a test CPR dummy that still gives me chills every time. I think the scariest bits of life are the things that humans are capable of. And that's why Haunted is at the top of my list, and not some typical ghost story.
2. Curses, Inc.
I remember this book had a particularly disturbing short story about a boy who lives inside a giant's tooth...
3. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
These books were awesome!!! Also, they were the cause of many sleepless nights for a younger (and maybe not so younger) Mary.
4. Harry Potter
Who doesn't love an excuse to read about witches and wizards and magic, right? As if anyone actually needs an excuse to read HP though!
5. Lapham's Quarterly
I'm obsessed with this publication at the moment. Just finished Death and starting on Magic Shows.
6. Fifty Shades
Is anything scarier?
xoxo
MP
May 16, 2013
#late, me
I'm a little late on this, but it's Tuesday somewhere ... right? Right?
Broke & The Bookish Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects
1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
2. What Remains - Carole Radziwell
3. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
4. Go Ask Alice - Beatrice Sparks
Broke & The Bookish Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects
1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
2. What Remains - Carole Radziwell
3. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
4. Go Ask Alice - Beatrice Sparks
May 2, 2013
#pinkindle
Check out Angie's review of Intermix Nation on her blog, Pinkindle!
Thanks for the review, Ang!
But you weren't too fond of the cover, huh??
Blasphemy!!
xoxo
Thanks for the review, Ang!
But you weren't too fond of the cover, huh??
Blasphemy!!
xoxo
April 30, 2013
#toptentuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is an original/weekly meme created at The Broke & The Bookish.It's awesome ... I love shit like this.
top ten words/topics that will make me pick up or buy a book
1. india - Don't ask me why (or maybe do!), but I have an obsession with books set in India. Maybe it's the hyperintense colors, maybe it's the food, maybe it's Bollywood. I have never been there, and I am dyinggg (or living!) to go. Stop reading this right now and go read The Satanic Verses, Midnight's Children, Shantaram, Life of Pi instead ... the list never ends!
2. snark - obviously.
3. god - I have a thing for religion. Not exactly Christianity for Dummies or anything like that. More like, "inquisitive" religion and mythology. #americangods #ghostwritten #cloudatlas
4. dystopia - Hunger Games or Divergent anyone?
5. memoir - been reading a lot of these lately, and I cannot get enough! #heartbreakingwork #whatremains
6. sexy - because just plain sex is so #fiftyshades, right?
7. harry potter - where is Harry Potter 8? waaaah
8. prison - been reading a lot of these, too. But, then again, if you've read Intermix Nation, then you already know I have a thing for redemption. If you've read Shantaram and American Gods already, try Papillion.
9. big books - not a phrase per se, but whatever. I seem to buy them, but never seem to get around to finishing them. Maybe because they are so gosh darn big. #aSuitableboy #finneganswake #ulysses #atlasshrugged
10. (?) I'll keep this one a mystery, because it has to do with my next project. Sry, babes!
April 29, 2013
#dirtoffmy
Happy Monday!
It's cloudy here in NY, but was soo nice this weekend! For another bright burst of sunlight in my life, check out Krista's review of Intermix Nation! You may even get another little interview surprise as well.
Thanks, K!
xoxo
It's cloudy here in NY, but was soo nice this weekend! For another bright burst of sunlight in my life, check out Krista's review of Intermix Nation! You may even get another little interview surprise as well.
Thanks, K!
xoxo
April 24, 2013
#freefallin
More freebie news! Check out my guest post on Kindred Dreamheart, and enter for a chance to win a free copy of Intermix Nation!! Wooo ... thanks Katrina!
xoxo
xoxo
April 23, 2013
#freebies
Hey all!
Check out Book Sniffers Anonymous for a chance to win a FREE copy of Intermix Nation! Who doesn't love free stuff? No one, that's who!
Enter now, or be a sore loser ;)
xoxo
"All over the world/so easy to see/people everywhere/just want to be free" - The Rascals
Check out Book Sniffers Anonymous for a chance to win a FREE copy of Intermix Nation! Who doesn't love free stuff? No one, that's who!
Enter now, or be a sore loser ;)
xoxo
"All over the world/so easy to see/people everywhere/just want to be free" - The Rascals
April 21, 2013
#tensionrising
Hey all!
I want to talk a little today about tenses, which is something I never really considered in great detail before. I have been getting a lot of questions about why I chose to write Intermix Nation in third-person present tense.
Let's get true-true for a moment.
I have gotten both flack and commentary on using third-person present throughout Intermix Nation. I had no idea until after I finished editing the entire manuscript that this was such an phenomenon throughout the literary community. In fact, it was only brought to my attention by a prospective editor that I was considering hiring, who questioned why I would ever choose to make such a strange choice.
At first, I was like "huh?"
But after perusing my bookshelf, I realized that not a single freaking book was written in third-person present! Not one! Everything, I guess, is written in either first-person present or third-person past. Why is this?!
I have read some comments online about how using third-person present is "unnatural" and "probably best avoided." There are forums upon forums dedicated to this! I don't understand why. I am clearly in the minority, but I truly like the immediacy that third-person present offers. The feeling like you are right there with the characters, instead of a casual observer listening about events that have already taken place some arbitrary time in the past. In fact, I started writing Intermix Nation in third-person past, and it just felt wrong, for lack of a better word ... so I quickly changed it.
Why are we so fixated on telling a story as if it has already happened? Is it truly that difficult to suspend disbelief that a narrator is telling a story now instead of later? Reading in general is an exercise in imagination. To me, the very first thing a reader does when they pick up a book is set their knowledge that this is not real aside, and then begin.
As a side note, the first sentence in my book is "Nazirah Nation is dead." "Nazirah Nation was dead," to me, just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Thoughts?
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/11/ask-editors-third-personpresent-tense.htmlhttp://avajae.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-use-present-tense.htmlhttp://www.ditchwalk.com/2010/07/05/scrutinizing-third-person-present-tense-pov/
xoxo
I want to talk a little today about tenses, which is something I never really considered in great detail before. I have been getting a lot of questions about why I chose to write Intermix Nation in third-person present tense.
Let's get true-true for a moment.
I have gotten both flack and commentary on using third-person present throughout Intermix Nation. I had no idea until after I finished editing the entire manuscript that this was such an phenomenon throughout the literary community. In fact, it was only brought to my attention by a prospective editor that I was considering hiring, who questioned why I would ever choose to make such a strange choice.
At first, I was like "huh?"
But after perusing my bookshelf, I realized that not a single freaking book was written in third-person present! Not one! Everything, I guess, is written in either first-person present or third-person past. Why is this?!
I have read some comments online about how using third-person present is "unnatural" and "probably best avoided." There are forums upon forums dedicated to this! I don't understand why. I am clearly in the minority, but I truly like the immediacy that third-person present offers. The feeling like you are right there with the characters, instead of a casual observer listening about events that have already taken place some arbitrary time in the past. In fact, I started writing Intermix Nation in third-person past, and it just felt wrong, for lack of a better word ... so I quickly changed it.
Why are we so fixated on telling a story as if it has already happened? Is it truly that difficult to suspend disbelief that a narrator is telling a story now instead of later? Reading in general is an exercise in imagination. To me, the very first thing a reader does when they pick up a book is set their knowledge that this is not real aside, and then begin.
As a side note, the first sentence in my book is "Nazirah Nation is dead." "Nazirah Nation was dead," to me, just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Thoughts?
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/11/ask-editors-third-personpresent-tense.htmlhttp://avajae.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-use-present-tense.htmlhttp://www.ditchwalk.com/2010/07/05/scrutinizing-third-person-present-tense-pov/
xoxo
April 8, 2013
#my first interview!
Hey all!
Check out my first author (still laughing) interview with Nevaeh, on her blog!
Say hi in the comments section or shoot her an email, for the chance to win a FREE COPY of Intermix Nation!!!
So exciting :)
xoxo
M.P.
Check out my first author (still laughing) interview with Nevaeh, on her blog!
Say hi in the comments section or shoot her an email, for the chance to win a FREE COPY of Intermix Nation!!!
So exciting :)
xoxo
M.P.
April 7, 2013
#im in heaven!
Hey all!
Check out Nevaeh Newadult's fabulous review of Intermix Nation!!!
I'm so happy, I feel like dancing in my room by myself.
K, I'm off to go do that now...
xoxo
M.P.
Check out Nevaeh Newadult's fabulous review of Intermix Nation!!!
I'm so happy, I feel like dancing in my room by myself.
K, I'm off to go do that now...
xoxo
M.P.
M.P. Attardo's Blog
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