Sunday sketch, e-book Review and a Matt and Kim Video

I was planning on blogging more this week, but then my child gave me his back to school koodies cuz I now have a kid in kindergarten. Crazy, makes me feel old. At first it made me kinda sad cuz my baby was going to school, but he loves it, so I guess it's okay then and I still have another little dude at home with me for now. My Sunday Sketch below.

e-book Review!

My book review today is on a young adult novel called In the Image of Grace by Charlotte Ann Schlobohm. Charlotte is also the sixteen year old girl narrating the story, hmmm. The page before the first chapter says this: This story is sold as fiction, But it’s all true. It was supposed to be a memoir of sorts, But nobody would believe me, So fiction it is claimed to be. This was a good ass book. It amazes me the actual stuff that sells tons of copies and then this awesome story has to be given away for free. The story follows Charlotte, Isabelle and Clarissa Schlobohm after the suicide of their sister Elizabeth. After their sister’s death Charlotte has a dream where she hears Elizabeth tells her to find their mother. Now these girls live an odd life, most of it has been spent within in the confines of their home and were never able to speak of their mother. When the girl’s start digging for the truth to their lives they start to uncover some crazy stuff that has been concealed from them their whole lives. The main one being that they’re clones. I usually don’t summarize the book, but I had to for this one cuz I don’t really have any cons. The main con would be if you’re in a severely depressed mood, maybe wait to read this book. It starts with Charlotte kneeling next to her sister who had just killed herself. Now, what I like about this book is, it isn’t brain candy like so many young adult novels that are popular these days. The story is cool, crazy and unique and it almost makes you think that actually cloning human beings is quite near. And I found a story with female characters that didn’t annoy me. I also liked that it was technically a science fiction topic, but felt more like a regular old literary young adult novel (does that make sense?). Oh, I also think it would make a good movie. Was that too much of a gushy, wushy review? I liked it, okay.

I think I’m going to give my reviews their own day, maybe Mondays, where it’s just all about the book and not have my drawings hogging up the post. I’m also looking for cheap independent middle grade/young adult e-books to review. I put some info on the page at the top of my blog that says e-book reviews.

And now I leave you with a video. I love watching me some videos and video watching actually keeps me up too late sometimes. Here's a nice tune for you.

Did I squish enough into one post?

Sunday Sketch and e-book Review

Did you know that unicorns like to tell knock knock jokes.

This is my Sunday Sketch. I still have quite a bit before I finish it. Check out the rest of the sketches HERE. It's being hosted by Heather Stillufsen again this week.

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e-book Review: The Boyfriend Thief

The book I’m going to talk about today is a young adult novel called The Boyfriend Thief by Shana Norris (the cover lured me in, isn't it cute). This one was on the more expensive end the of the cheap indie e-book spectrum, it was $2.99, but I’m sure Shana Norris already has an audience and can charge that cuz she does have two books with an actual publisher and this one she released herself. For the actual description of the book go HERE! I’m just going to say what I liked and disliked about the book. I liked that the main character wasn’t pathetic; confused, anal retentive, kinda annoying, yes, but I did like that she was driven to be the class valedictorian, was in the math club and wanted to go to medical school. I also liked the character Zack, which was the boyfriend she was trying to steal. He was hyperactive, goofy and fun, which I liked. There were moments (quite a few) where Avery got kinda annoying and I wanted to throw a shoe at her head. She had reasons for the way she behaved, but sometimes I was like; enough already.

If abc Family (the cable channel) and a late nineties teen movie had a baby (that happened to be a book) it would be this book. I’m convinced Shana Norris watched 10 Things I Hate About You (which is a good cheesy late 90's teen movie and a TV show on abc Family) one too many times. But all in all it was a pretty cute story, plenty of teen angst and some teen cheese (especially the end). Bye!

Creative Tuesday: Moon

Sometimes Pete and I would sit under the moon and talk all night.

-Sharonda Crowley

Hello my friends this is my illustration for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday where the theme is moon. I'm going to incorporate this scene into my Crowley story cuz I'm quite happy with this illustration. 

I Know I keep talking about the e-book young adult novella I wrote called Actuality: A Teenage Vampire Novella, but I wanted to share something I put on my acknowledgement page:

Thanks to all my bloggy friends out there. I love you all and all the wonderful support and encouragement you give.

And it's true, I love you all.

 And if per chance you want to check out my young adult novella e-book that's only $0.99 you can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and soon a few other places. If you don't have an e-reader, most book sites have apps for your computer so you can read them on your pc/mac and on Smashwords you can buy a pdf.

Sunday Sketches, Pete, Good Reads for Boys?

Hello my friends, today Pete is joining us for Sunday Sketches. He's in the Crowley's basement here. Sometimes I ask myself, "Why Missy does one of the main characters you draw have to be unicorn?" It took me forever to try to get the perspective and legs to look halfway decent, horse/unicorns aren't the easiest for me to draw, so curse you Pete.

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You can now get my e-book young adult novella at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, will be coming eventually to a few other online stores. It's only $0.99. You can read it even if you don't have an e-reader because most bookstores now offer an app for your computer so you can just read it on there and at Smashwords you can buy a pdf, so cool yo.

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Book Review

Okay, so I'm supposed to be doing e-book reviews right, well, boy am I having problems finding books that I would review positively cuz I'm trying to find books with female protaganists that I like or at least don't want hit in the head with a piece of rotten fruit, since I don't want to be all negative towards the author's who put forth their efforts to write these books, I shall wait till I find an awesome female before I make a review. Even in mainstream middle grade/young adult literature I can't find a lot of females protaganists I like. Maybe it's the type of stories I like, especially with YA fiction I like angst, trying to find yourslef, over come some sorta of problem type of stories, or maybe it's cuz i'm not a girly girl, I don't know, but in most of my favorite middle grade/young adult novels the main characters are all boys, here's some below. So, essentialy I made a list that looks more like a Good Reads for Boys list (well, they're good for girls too).

I know there are some cool female main characters out there, I haven't read The Hunger Games, but I do know Katniss is kick ass, or so I've heard and that's all I can think of. Anybody have suggestions of middle grade/ya novels (I'd say more young adult, I like middle grade, but tend to read more YA) with awesome female protaganists? Doesn't have to be an indie e-book one either cuz that's who I'm supposed to be reviewing, can be from any type of novel. Oh, Emily the Strange, she's cool, but that's more graphic novelish.

But I do really like and recomend the books I have pictured above and I could work for some sorta Hollywood company as a movie predictor cuz it seems that if I read it, they make it into a movie. Wimy Kid-Movie, Kind of a Funny Story-movie, Miss Peregrine-sold the rights so it can be made into a movie, Perks of Being a Wallflower-movie soon, Percy Jackson-movie, Youth in Revolt-movie and may I say I read these all before they were made into movies, I have a gift. The other three, The Catcher in the Rye; J. D. Salinger wouldn't let them make it into a movie, Entires From a Hot Pink Notebook; out of print, but you can still get it on Amazon, Kerosene, no movie, but good book.

Well, that's it for now, bye!

Actuality: A Teenage Vampire Novella -GO BUY MY eBOOK!

You can now buy my e-book novella Actuality: A Teenage Vampire Novella. A woot, woot, right now you can get it at Smashwords right HERE or you can buy it at Barnes and Noble right HERE. Now on the B&N site the cover is not coming up for some reason, but it does show up if you download it. It's only available as an e-book, but on Smashwords you can aslo download it as a pdf. Soon it will also be available on Amazon and a few other sites. Here is the description, what's it's all about:

Heather’s mother sets her up on a date with Wade, a kid from school everybody calls Creepazoid. She soon finds out that Wade is a vampire, but he’s not your stereotypical teenage vampire. He gets bullied at school, mainly by her brother Jason. He’s allergic to everything, constantly has some kind of rash, and is not in possession of the sunniest of personalities. He doesn’t even drink blood. Despite what everybody says about Wade, Heather starts to really like him. That’s if Wade lives long enough for her to develop a proper crush because somebody might be trying to kill him.

My e-book is only $0.99. It's a quick enjoyable read. (Pssst, I kinda like my own story.) So everybody buy one, or you can wait till it's on Amazon. You don't want me weeping into my pillow at night because nobody will buy my story, now do you?

Is the world ready for a vampire that isn't muscular and handsome. Will they accept the skinny, allergic, snarky Wade? We'll see. I've actually have really come to like my characters Heather and Wade. They won't leave my head! So I had to start drawing them, here's some sketchy doodles of Wade ideas. I'm going to draw Heather later. I think one day maybe I'll have to have a mash up of Heather and Wade with Sharonda, Pete and the Crowley family and of course Doris too!

Bye for now my friends, check out my book!

Sunday Sketches and My Teenage Vampire Novella

Here is a super duper quick sketchy doodle I made for Sunday Sketches.

Hi, I'm still here.

I say this was a super quick drawing cuz it was, I just squished it in. I've been sucked into a personal project I've been working on. I wrote a novella. At first I wasn't going to say anything and sell it under a pen name, but my sister convinced me to use my name. I think I felt a little unsure cuz soon I'll be contibuting to the cheesey teen genre of young adult paranormal romance, see, look below.

Coming Soon to Some Online Bookstore Near You (well more like near your computer, but I bet your computer is near you, so....)!

I was inspired by some of the gunk I've recently read, so I was like, "Well, why I don't I give writing one of these perfectly cheesey stories a try."

But, my teenage vampire story is a little different, first starting with the cover, doesn't really look like the cover of a vampire story. I then took the recipe for your regular old teen vampire novel and flipped it. My vampire isn't even a blood drinking one (did you know there's two types of vampires), he's not cool, he's not muscular and handsome. And the girl in my story isn't pathetic (at least I don't think she is). It's kinda flip flopped, my vampire kid is kinda wimpy. So, we'll see if teen girls actually want to read this, since it is so different, but doesn't hurt to try, right.

It's a quick read, as I said a novella, 20,00 words. I still have some editing to do, but I really liked my cover, so I thought I'd show ya.

I actually also started writing a full length novel, but got distracted cuz once I started writing my novella I couldn't stop. Now, I can refocus on my other stories, I got this outta my system. So, bye for now.