Tuesday, December 11, 2012

#BIR2012 - CINDER by Marissa Meyer


Welcome to day two of Best I've Read 2012!

Be sure to check out the Best I've Read Blog to see today's features: INSURGENT by Veronica Roth and PANDEMONIUM by Lauren Oliver.

CINDER is one of those books that surprised me in all the perfect ways. Once I picked it up I never wanted to put it down, but I also never wanted it to end. It was one of the easiest choices for me when I picked my top 5 this year. You can check out my review of CINDER on the Books Complete Me blog HERE.

***About CINDER***

Released: January 3, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

From Goodreads: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.


Find Marissa Meyer Online: Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook 

***Guest Post***

Marissa Meyer was kind of enough to provide a guest post for me today. I hope you enjoy reading it!



Some Things Never Change (Thank the Stars)
By Marissa Meyer

I am so honored that CINDER was chosen as one of Cindy’s “Best I’ve Read 2012” book selections. Cindy asked if, for this guest post, I could talk a bit about the book’s back story, which makes for a very timely post as I’m writing this on the tail-end of National Novel Writing Month, and, as so many novels do these days, CINDER first started life as a NaNo novel.

But as I started writing about my experience with NaNoWriMo, it led to some heavy reminiscing and a realization that even though I’m in a completely different place, career-wise, than I was back then—some things haven’t changed at all. And I’m so very happy about that.

I first drafted out CINDER during November of 2008. (It was an insane thirty days during which I wrote 150,011 words, which is kind of a long story, but if you’re curious you can read more about the writing adventure here: http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/23295074539/i-sold-my-nanowrimo-novel-a-q-a-with-marissa-meyer.)

That was four whole years ago now, and a lot has happened since then. It took me two years to revise, edit, query, and sell the series, another year before CINDER released, and here I am writing this blog post having lived with the official title of “published author” for almost another full year. I’m now a full-time writer, have been on three multi-city tours, visited a Hollywood studio, been on panels with some of my all-time favorite authors, and even got to go to a book fair in Italy earlier this year.

And yet, five days ago I finished National Novel Writing Month again, with a brand new YA fantasy novel, and it reminded me that some things never change.

Things like:

Writing is still fun. Sure, there are days when it’s a struggle and a headache, but for the most part I still find myself succumbing to daydreams and giddiness and that itchy-finger feeling when I’m enthralled by a new story. I still adore getting to meet characters for the first time. I still sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a shiny idea in my head, or have to pull off to the side of the road because a perfect bit of dialogue came to me while I was driving. I still yearn to jump back into a story when I’ve taken too long of a break from it.

You still have to make the time for it. Like many writers, I always imagined that when I became a full-time writer, the time would just… be there. It would be my job! I would be at home all the time! What else would I possibly have to do? Well, it turns out, there will always be other things vying for your attention. If it isn’t a day job, it’ll be chores, family obligations, promotion and marketing work, or an endlessly towering reading list. Making writing a priority is a decision that must be made time and time again.

It’s more important than ever to appreciate the small things. No matter where you are in your writing career, you’ll always be looking forward to whatever comes next. Finish a novel. Get an agent. Get a book deal. Earn a bigger advance. Hit a bestseller list. Get a movie deal. Have a theme park based off your series. (Why not? J.K. Rowling got one!) It is truly never ending, which is why I’m learning that sometimes the most rewarding things are those little victories and rewards we earn every day. Finishing a chapter. Figuring your way out of a tricky plot mess. Reading over your work with a glass of wine in the evening. Buying a fresh bouquet of flowers for your writing desk. These are the things that you can appreciate wherever you are in your career, and they often make me feel luckier than any number of awards or sales figures could. Because these are the things that make me feel like a “real writer.”

Wherever you are with your writing, I urge you to find one thing about your writing path to love and appreciate every day.

Thank you again, Cindy, for choosing CINDER for your Best I’ve Read event and inviting me on to your blog today! I’m wishing all your readers a lovely holiday season, and happy writing.

***Giveaway***

Thanks to Feiwel & Friends, I have one copy of CINDER to giveaway. This is open to U.S. mailing addresses only. Please read all the Best I've Read giveaway rules for further information. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

24 comments:

  1. I was pleasantly suprised by Rosemary Clement Moore's Texas Gothic. It wasn't that I didn't think it would be good, I had purchased an autographed copy of it at the 2011 Texas Book Festival, but until the book festival was the first time I had heard of this author. I'm a transplanted Texan and so the setting of the story had great appeal for me. And I loved the story and characters. And no, I did 't read my signed copy. I got an e-copy from the library. I don't place my collectible books in ziplock bags, but I do try to take care of them.

    Beverly Aka Booklady

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  2. I don't know a lot of books pleasantly surprised me, Cinder was one of them. Also Croak by Gina Damico, The Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa, and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. :D

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  3. There are soo many. I'm sure I'll forget some. Awesome reads of 2012: Cinder, of course, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Insurgent, Under the Never Sky, A Song of Ice and Fire series. I bought Throne of Glass this week, and will be buying Shadow and Bone soon too. I've heard they're both amazing.

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  4. Thanks for the giveaway! A lot of books surprised me this year, Cinder, Insurgent, Pandemonium, and I ca't wait to be surprised in the new year!

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  5. I've loved reading Starters. And I read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children this year, even though it came out last year. It was not my usual type of read, but I loved it.

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  6. I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of contemporary romance books I read this year. I always was more into dystopian and paranormal stuff but Easy, Slammed, Beautiful Disaster, Pushing the Limits, My Life Next Door and a few others opened my eyes to a new genre. Thanks!

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  7. I think I was pleasantly surprised by Shadow and Bone and The Night Circus.

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  8. Christina K. in the rafflecopter

    Under the Never Sky, My Life Next Door, Something Like Normal.

    All the characters were real and I connected.

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  9. I try to to have expectations about books, so I'm always pleasantly surprised when they're good. Cinder was one such book, which is why I would LOVE to get my hands on my very own copy.

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  10. The first book that comes to mind with this is The Raven Boys. I am completely uncomfortable with the idea of psychics, so I was pretty hesitant when I read the synopsis. But it's by Maggie Stiefvater, so I just HAD to read it. It was an amazing book that I couldn't stop thinking about, despite being about psychics. I was definitely pleasantly surprised!

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  11. What a GREAT guest post! I'm not entering the giveaway as I already have my shiny copy of Cinder shelved, but wanted to comment and say CINDER was my favorite debut of the year and I CANNOT wait for more. Seriously. I may keel over soon.

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  12. I really liked The Charley Davidson series and Fever series all of which I really picked out on a whim. Thank you for the giveaway, I been aching to read Cinder!

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  13. I think my biggest surprise was Hyperion, which ends abruptly but is totally saved by it's sequel and ended up being one of my favorite reads of the year.

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  14. I was pleasantly suprised by THE RENT COLLECTOR!

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  15. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins pleasantly surprised me. It was my first experience reading about angels and demons, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Sweet Evil is now one of my favourites!

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  16. Biggest surprise for me this year was "The Mostrumologist" by Rick Yancy. I read a review about it (on a blog)and the reviewer said some amazing things about it including that she was not a that type of genre (YA horror) reader. It won a Prince award and with her review I picked it up. Couldn't be more glad that I did! That book sucked me in and I then picked up both sequels and am eagerly awaiting the final installment next year! Utterly fascinating and I would recommend them to anybody!

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  17. Surprised? Hmmm... SERAPHINA is the first one that comes to mind. I was put off by the cover, but I ADORED the book.

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  18. Edenbrooke. I love that genre, but it seems I am disappointed a lot by other authors whose writing, characters, and/or plot is lacking. Edenbrooke was pretty much perfect and I could read it over and over. :)

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  19. One of the books I've read that surprised me at how good it was is;Darkness Before Dawn (Darkness Before Dawn Series #1) by: J.A. London. I just fell instantly in love with the story and cannot wait for the next book!!

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  20. I was most surprised by Courtney Summer's This is not a Test and Sangu Mandanna's The Lost Girl. Both books I went into with low expectations, but ended up blowing me away.

    Lilian @ A Novel Toybox

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  21. I was surprised by how much I like Iced by Karen Marie Moning. I really want to read Cinder. I've read a lot of great reviews on it.

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  22. I haven't really been surprised by anything new this year, but the year isn't over yet.

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